Accountability on Sustainability in Central and Eastern Europe: An Empirical Assessment of Sustainability-Related Assurance

The paper explores how companies from Central and Eastern Europe adopt assurance practices to provide accountability for sustainability. Drawing on modified coding rules from prior research, a conventional content analysis of 36 assurance statements companies from nine countries was conducted. The results imply differences in the content of reports, processes, and implementation of the standards. Exclusively large and multinational enterprises from the energy sectors domiciled in Poland and Hungary are a typical portrait of a company from the study’s sample, striving to issue and assure sustainability reporting. Of the nine countries represented in the study, sustainability assurance statements of companies from Poland, Hungary, and Romania tend to excel in terms of quality. The vast majority of assurance providers belong to the Big Four, who use ISAE3000 as opposed to AA1100AS. Yet, irrespective of the assurance provider type, stakeholders are neglected. It is argued that just transferring the experience of financial auditing to the field of sustainability, which, by and large, has taken place, is not an option. Authors state that following this route, we are heading in the wrong direction, and in technical terms, the wider proliferation of AA1100AS and its principles, with greater emphasis on reasonable assurance as opposed to the limited and enhanced role of stakeholders, are vital to get back on track. The paper contributes to the emerging literature on accountability standards and stresses the need to enhance sustainability-related assurance.

The MID5 Dataset, 2011–2014: Procedures, coding rules, and description

This article introduces the latest iteration of the most widely used dataset on interstate conflicts, the Militarized Interstate Dispute (MID) 5 dataset. We begin by outlining the data collection process used in the MID5 project. Next, we discuss some of the most challenging cases that we coded and some updates to the coding manual that resulted. Finally, we provide descriptive statistics for the new years of the MID data.

A Latent Measure of Political Protest

In recent years, scholars have developed a number of new databases with which to measure protest. Although these databases have distinct coding rules, all attempt to capture incidents of social conflict. We argue, however, that due to a variety of sources of measurement error, subjective coding decisions, and operational specifications, no single indicator of protest adequately measures how much protest exists in a given place at a given time. As a result, empirical studies that employ these measures yield inferences with limited generalizability. To increase the generalizability of the empirical findings, we suggest using an Item Response Theory (IRT) approach to estimate a latent dimension of protest using nine different protest measures that vary in their operational specifications as well as their temporal and spatial coverage. The estimates of the IRT models are used in two ways. First, to demonstrate how existing measures differ, the IRT’s item estimates are used to compare the nine measures of protest based on their degree of difficulty (the quantity of latent protest required to observe a ‘1’ in the data) and their ability to discriminate (the speed with which changes in the latent quantity of protest affect the probability of observing a ‘1’ in the data). Second, the estimated quantity of protest is applied to both monthly and yearly models of authoritarian breakdown. The results demonstrate that the latent protest variable increases the out-of-sample classification of authoritarian breakdown events; and improves in-sample prediction relative to existing global protest variables. Our study illustrates the potential value of modeling a latent dimension of protest rather than solely relying on observed indicators.

Ketidaktepatan Kode Sebab Dasar Kematian menjadi Penyebab Kerugian 600 Juta Dana di Unit ICCU RSUD dr Moh Saleh Probolinggo

The coding of the diagnosis is important for patient care, hospital management and research. However, coding accuracy is a major problem in the diagnosis process and has impact on hospital income levels. This study is about the inaccuracy of the underlying cause of death coding toward the level of hospital income. The Methods employed is the Analysis of the accuracy of the diagnosis according to the mortality coding rules compiled in the Instruction Coding Manual of the World Health Organization (WHO). Afterwards, the percentage of losses is calculated using the system of INAcbg’s, in the Diagnosis Based on Indonesian Case system. The result shows that, out of 176 files were studied, 114 files or 65% of the diagnosis codes of the cause of death were incorrect, 57 files or 32% were correct and 5 files or 3% of files were not coded. Further, the study found out that 65% of these inaccuracies contributed to hospital losses which includes 40-75 % loss with the total loss received by the hospital as much as IDR 597,849,006 or nearly 600 million rupiah. The research concludes that the absence of a diagnosis of death increases hospital losses by more than 40% to 75%. Keywords: Accuracy, Code of Basic Cause of Death, ICD 10

The Importance of Correct Measurement: A Response to Palmer, et al

Palmer, D’Orazio, Kenwick, and McManus (PDKM) review a minority of changes we made to the CoW MID data, agree with most of those changes, but then argue that no scientific findings will be influenced by these or the thousands of changed values they ignore. We respond in two ways. First, we point out that principles of good science dictate that we discard dispute cases that either cannot be substantiated by the historical record or that do not meet dataset coding rules; we also discuss the ten-thousand-plus changed values PDKM still have not examined. Second, contrary to PDKM, we demonstrate how data differences greatly affect previous studies by returning again to the replications. There were substantial errors in both of PDKM’s replications, and these errors led them to incorrect inferences.

MEDICAL STATISTICS: ARE WE RIGHT IN EVALUATING THE MORTALITY RATES OF ONCOLOGIC DISEASES?

The issues of medical statistics on mortality from cancer, especially the correctness of such indicators, attract general interest. In a comparative aspect, mortality rates in different countries are given and the possible influence of various factors on the distortion of these indicators is described. The death rates in the Russian Federation, the Republic of Bashkortostan and Ufa are considered in detail. Comparison of the number of doctors and oncologists in the republics of Bashkortostan and Dagestan revealed some differences in the territories by the availability of doctors, especially oncologists. At the same time, the ratio of morbidity and mortality in these territories are in similar and correct parameters. A detailed analysis of the letters of the Ministry of Health of Russia with recommendations relating to the principles of coding for cancer in combination with another pathology. The statistical incident was the change in the coding rules for a post-mortem diagnosis in 2011 and the peculiarities of the translation of the text from ICD-10. According to the results of the analysis, proposals were developed aimed at the objectification of mortality rates and 5-year survival of cancer patients.