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Manual repair tasks in the industry of maintenance, repair, and overhaul require experience and object-specific information. Today, many of these repair tasks are still performed and documented with inefficient paper documents. Cognitive assistance systems have the potential to reduce costs, errors, and mental workload by providing all required information digitally. In this case study, we present an assistance system for object-specific repair tasks for turbine blades. The assistance system provides digital work instructions and uses augmented reality to display spatial information. In a user study with ten experienced metalworkers performing a familiar repair task, we compare time to task completion, subjective workload, and system usability of the new assistance system to their established paper-based workflow. All participants stated that they preferred the assistance system over the paper documents. The results of the study show that the manual repair task can be completed 21% faster and with a 26% lower perceived workload using the assistance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a particular case study of the formal verification of state-of-the-art, real software, we discuss the specification and verification of a corrected version of the implementation of a linked list as provided by the Java Collection Framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the behaviour of salt solutions during the drying process in porous stone and the extraction of salts by paper pulp poultices (PPP). The investigations were carried out at a 300 year old boundary wall of the Worcester College in Oxford, UK, as well as under laboratory conditions. The laboratory blocks of porous, bioclastic limestone (Aflenzer stone, Austria) were cut into stone cubes and prisms (5 × 5 × 5 and 5 × 5 × 20 cm) and soaked first with ultrapure HO and second with different concentrations (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mol l) of a saline solution of NaCl and NaSO to determine their behaviour during the dehydration process under different conditions. After determining the capillary absorption coefficient and the capillary rise behaviour of the stone cubes, we sampled material by PPP and by drilling. The samples were immersed in ultrapure water and the salt ion content was measured via conductivity and ion chromatography (IC). The main aim of the laboratory analysis was to investigate the effectivity of the PPP in extracting salts from the stone and to derive a semi-quantitative calibration (PPP results vs. original salt content). The field work at the college boundary wall comprised sampling (PPP and stone surface material) at surfaces of different weathering features. Finally, the field work results were compared to the laboratory work. The lab experiment results show that approximately 24% of the salts within a 100% saturated stone cube moved into the poultice within the 1 h of application. At 75% and lower saturation degrees, only 14-11% of the salts moved into the respective poultices. For the field setting, the amount of anions extracted by PPP is 6-63% (mean 20.7%) of the amount found in the stone samples. The spatial distribution of salt ion concentrations, collected by poultices, corresponds with the 'hot spots' of weathering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of long-term post-retraction citation to falsified clinical trial data (Matsuyama et al. in Chest 128(6):3817–3827, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.128.6.3817), demonstrating problems with how the current digital library environment communicates retraction status. Eleven years after its retraction, the paper continues to be cited positively and uncritically to support a medical nutrition intervention, without mention of its 2008 retraction for falsifying data. To date no high quality clinical trials reporting on the efficacy of omega-3 fatty acids on reducing inflammatory markers have been published. Our paper uses network analysis, citation context analysis, and retraction status visibility analysis to illustrate the potential for extended propagation of misinformation over a citation network, updating and extending a case study of the first 6 years of post-retraction citation (Fulton et al. in Publications 3(1):7–26, 2015. https://doi.org/10.3390/publications3010017). The current study covers 148 direct citations from 2006 through 2019 and their 2542 second-generation citations and assesses retraction status visibility of the case study paper and its retraction notice on 12 digital platforms as of 2020. The retraction is not mentioned in 96% (107/112) of direct post-retraction citations for which we were able to conduct citation context analysis. Over 41% (44/107) of direct post-retraction citations that do not mention the retraction describe the case study paper in detail, giving a risk of diffusing misinformation from the case paper. We analyze 152 second-generation citations to the most recent 35 direct citations (2010–2019) that do not mention the retraction but do mention methods or results of the case paper, finding 23 possible diffusions of misinformation from these non-direct citations to the case paper. Link resolving errors from databases show a significant challenge in a reader reaching the retraction notice via a database search. Only 1/8 databases (and 1/9 database records) consistently resolved the retraction notice to its full-text correctly in our tests. Although limited to evaluation of a single case (N = 1), this work demonstrates how retracted research can continue to spread and how the current information environment contributes to this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to design the optimal structure of an innovation intermediary organization and its open innovation platform to facilitate the process of commercialization of inventions as well as establish effective communications between industrialists and researchers and inventors. Even though the issue of creating an open innovation platform and its design was raised in other research, the optimal structure that was extracted from the experience of working in the field of commercialization of inventions in a long-term period has not been done. Using the case study research methodology for seven years (from 2012 to 2018) in seven phases, we studied the obstacles in the way of, and strategies for, the development of the innovation intermediary organization in Iran, and proposed a model for the open innovation platform belonging to this innovation intermediary organization at the end of the 7th phase. The tool for gathering information is the review of open innovation organization documents and semi-structured interviews with 15 experts and managers of this open innovation organization. By categorizing the obtained codes, the intended themes were extracted. Then, Cohen's Kappa coefficient was used to measure the reliability of the obtained codes, the value of which was equal to 0.85, indicating the high reliability of this research. Also, to strengthen the credibility of this qualitative research, environmental observations and analyzed data were used to provide respondents with their opinions. The obtained findings indicate an appropriate structure for the innovation intermediary organization and its open innovation platform to accelerate the identification of the needs of industries, creating solutions for these needs, as well as supporting patents and entrepreneurial plans. In this structure, various components of the innovation ecosystem interact with each other, including universities, research centers, experts, start-ups, investors, entrepreneurs, science and technology parks, and accelerators. The results of the study show that by collaborating with this platform, universities can provide job opportunities for students in various fields. By joining this platform, industries will be able to meet some of their technological needs. Furthermore, entrepreneurs can use this platform to finance their entrepreneurial projects using investors and acquire their required experts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After over 30 years of fast economic development and massive construction of infrastructures, China now owns the largest total length of tunnels in the world. However, many tunnels are overloaded with a large traffic volume and vulnerable to fire accidents in operation. Once a fire occurs in the tunnel, the occupants face a dangerous and confined environment and need to evacuate before reaching untenable conditions. Failure in fire evacuation will cause severe injuries and casualties under high-temperature and toxic fire smoke, and many past fire accidents have taught us lessons. Driven by the need for tunnel fire safety in China, many new researches are conducted related to fire evacuation in tunnel environments including full-scale experiments, and new evacuation strategies are carried out with sophisticated tunnel designs and regulations. Hence, this work aims to review these latest developments and studies in China towards better and safer evacuation in tunnel fires. In specific, the paper summarized the evacuation issues in tunnel fires generally and pointed out the unique issues in China. Aiming these issues, the paper then introduced recent evacuation strategies and evacuation research in China respectively. Typical tunnel fire accidents and full-scale tunnel fire evacuation tests in China were discussed in detail as case studies. Detailed evacuation strategies and the exposed issues were analyzed in those tunnel fire accidents emphatically, while evacuation findings of human behavior such as evacuation choices and trajectories were presented according to several field tunnel fire evacuations conducted by the authors. Finally, we highlight the research advances and challenges of fire evacuation in tunnels, as well as the need and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of data-driven innovation (DDI) on firm performance, based on an exploratory case study of a manufacturing firm in China's textile and apparel industry. It explores the influence of various contextual variables on the firm's DDI and suggests ways to enhance DDI and thereby firm performance. Extending the literature on DDI, the paper proposes and validates a theoretical framework that incorporates the influence of various contextual factors on firms' DDI. The findings show that (1) individual context is associated with DDI; (2) organizational context is associated with DDI; and (3) DDI is associated with firm performance. This paper extends our understanding of how firm performance can be improved through DDI and shows that DDI should match a firm's contextual environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The catastrophic events of September 11, 2001, stand out as a major motivation for research on improving the understanding of structural behaviour in fire. These events included the first complete collapse of a tall steel framed structure solely due to fire. World Trade Center 7 (WTC7) was a 47-storey office building within the WTC complex that collapsed due to a fire initiated by debris from the collapse of WTC1. In the following years, detailed investigations were carried out by expert teams to pinpoint the cause of the progressive failure of WTC7. Each of the expert teams analysed the fire and structure and made varying conclusions with regards to the mechanisms responsible for initiating and propagating the collapse of the building. This paper revisits the collapse of WTC7 and its investigation, and then explores the hypothesis that a potential hydrocarbon fire may have compromised the large transfer structure within the mechanical space of the building. This is done via two OpenSees finite element models. The first model explores the thermomechanical response of the mechanical floors to a potential diesel fire, and the second investigates the response of the structure to a failure caused by that fire. The outcome of the analyses shows that it is feasible that a mechanical room fire could lead to a failure in the transfer structure, which would then result in the loss of support to at least two columns within the building core. The failure of these columns may unbrace the eastern-most core columns and precipitate in the failure of the structure as observed on 9/11. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As more and more companies adopt artificial intelligence to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their products and services, they expose themselves to ethical crises and potentially damaging public controversy associated with its use. Despite the prevalence of AI ethical problems, most companies are strategically unprepared to respond effectively to the public. This paper aims to advance our empirical understanding of company responses to AI ethical crises by focusing on the rise and fall of facial recognition technology. Specifically, through a comparative case study of how four big technology companies responded to public outcry over their facial recognition programs, we not only demonstrated the unfolding and consequences of public controversies over this new technology, but also identified and described four major types of company responses—Deflection, Improvement, Validation, and Pre-emption. These findings pave the way for future research on the management of controversial technology and the ethics of AI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the performance-based fire safety analysis of steel structures of padel-center built in Nokia, Finland. The analyses are conducted using advanced calculation models (fire simulations using Fire Dynamics Simulator, FDS, and finite element method, FEM, based analyses of the steel frames in elevated temperatures using SAFIR software, including joint analysis) in support with less sophisticated models (critical temperatures of steel members). The following localized fire scenarios are studied: lounge area furniture fire (4 sofas), sporting equipment fire (10 sporting bags filled with flammable clothing), fire during maintenance (scissor lift fire with miscellaneous temporary fire load) and a fire on HVAC balcony near the trusses. The aim of the paper is showcase recent developments in design processes and methods that are in practical use today in performance-based fire design (PBD), to demonstrate that relatively extensive performance-based studies can be (commercially) viable also in relatively small and mundane steel buildings, and to present a fairly robust framework for PBD of similar steel structures. As a result of the performance-based design, most of the steel structures in the case building could be constructed without fire protection, but some critical structures were identified and protected to class R30. The proposed design was approved by the local municipal authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sprinkler system can be very reliable and effective way to reduce fire risks in buildings if maintained properly. When the sprinkler system operates as designed, the temperatures affecting the load-bearing structures are often relatively low and the structural resistance is typically not compromised. Holistic Structural Fire Engineering (SFE) provides an opportunity to take active systems, like sprinklers, into account in the design. However, it is important to ensure that if the sprinkler system does not operate as designed, the consequences are still tolerable. Even though there are options to account sprinkler system in SFE, there is a lack of consistent guideline (at least in Finland). This can lead to totally different structural fire design and safety in similar buildings, depending on the interpretation and assumptions made. This paper presents a framework to take the effect of the sprinkler system consistently into account in SFE. The framework is based on Finland's fire regulations and on experience of multiple projects. Two case-examples, where this framework has been applied are presented in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the importance that participatory approaches may play in shaping the innovation policy in the context of the EU research framework programme. The paper reports case study research on the role of "TP Organics", a European Technology Platform (ETP) that supports research and innovation in organic farming in the EU. The case study is based on data concerning the relevance of resources pertaining to organic farming in the EU's most recent framework programmes for research and development (FP7 and Horizon 2020). We use process tracing to analyse the causal effects of the participatory approach used by TP Organics in defining policies and promoting funding for the organic sector. Data concerning textual content analysis on research calls and budget disaggregation for EU research funding are used to test the hypothesis that the engagement of stakeholders provides substantial effects in terms of the number of research projects explicitly oriented to organic farming and the amount of research funding made available. Results refer to the outcomes of a structured testing sequence for the key hypotheses supporting the causal model. They show that the impact of TP Organics relies on its successful multi-stakeholder participatory processes, which have improved the relevance of research themes related to organic farming and have ultimately yielded an increase in financed research projects and financial contributions to research on organic farming in the EU. Conclusions provide some theoretical generalisations on the importance of stakeholder engagement in successfully lobbying for research policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the effects of state ownership on decisions of port development companies, through a case study of Port of Rotterdam (PoR). This issue is relevant, given the economic impact of port development and the important role of ports in the transition towards a more sustainable economy. The insights from this case study thus can be useful for shaping port (governance) reform. The paper reviews the rationale for state ownership of the port development company, and describes the case of PoR, focused on the public interests that the public shareholders aim to promote through ownership, and mechanisms through which the consideration of the public interests is incorporated in PoR's decisions. The following conclusions are drawn. First, the two public shareholders of PoR (the city of Rotterdam and the Dutch state) have made an explicit choice to 'permanently' use state ownership to achieve public interests. Second, PoR's shareholders have identified specific public interests and have developed specific mechanisms to secure that PoR takes these public interests into account in decision-making. Third, there are clear indications that PoR's decisions indeed have advanced the public interests as identified by the shareholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the fragmented discourses in the Indian digital public sphere in a post-truth world. The normative concept of the public sphere by Jürgen Habermas has been brought under critical scrutiny in the era of emotional communication online. The digital world opened democratic and inclusive spaces that are desirable for a picture-perfect public sphere as imagined by Habermas. The low entry barriers and inclusivity of the digital public sphere changed the patterns of political communication worldwide. However, such a change is not an isolated event and must be located within the historical context of a changing political environment. Contemporary society has entered the post-truth era where opinionated, emotional outbursts downplay objective reality. The paper explores explicitly the public comments recorded under an infotainment video on the YouTube platform of a private channel in Kerala, the southernmost state of India. A case study method was adopted to analyze the theme, subtext, and visible structure of the discourse in the digital public sphere, which is a subset of the larger public sphere. Disconcertingly, the findings revealed fragmented discourses in a public sphere, characterized by unidimensional historical narratives, fallacious arguments, political apathy, and emotional or romanticized appeals, all of which are classic symptoms of a post-truth era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, cerebellar contribution to language is well established via clinical and neuroimaging studies. However, the particular functional role of the cerebellum in language remains to be clarified. In this study, we present the first systematic review of the diverse language symptoms in spoken language after cerebellar lesion that were reported in case studies for the last 30 years (18 clinical cases from 13 papers), and meta-analysis using cluster analysis with bootstrap and symptom co-occurrence analysis. Seven clusters of patients with similar language symptoms after cerebellar lesions were found. Co-occurrence analysis revealed pairs of symptoms that tend to be comorbid. Our results imply that the "linguistic cerebellum" has a multiform contribution to language function. The most possible mechanism of such contribution is the cerebellar reciprocal connectivity with supratentorial brain regions, where the cerebellar level of the language network has a general modulation function and the supratentorial level is more functionally specified. Based on cerebellar connectivity with supratentorial components of the language network, the "linguistic cerebellum" might be further functionally segregated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has increased our understanding of individual digital transformation (DT) activities, roles, responsibilities, and related dilemmas, yet a comprehensive insight is missing with respect to the organizational forms that are most appropriate for developing the capabilities needed for successful DT. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main organizational characteristics and organizational forms for a successful DT and to identify influential factors that impact decisions about suitable organizational forms. Drawing on two case studies, we look at how companies can develop digital capabilities through different configurations of organizational forms. Findings show that decisions on organizational forms have to be influenced by digital culture, IT department's role, and the goals of DT. Moreover, top management leadership is more important than a formal digital strategy, and DT projects must be executed by coordinated interdisciplinary teams. The presented research offers a comprehensive insight on how companies can develop digital capabilities that enable a successful DT by developing their organizational forms, i.e., by combining the different DT actions, actors, their roles and responsibilities, their interplay, implementing DT strategies, and combining the design of digital software solutions with the design of organizational routines and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of alignment between, on the one hand, what schools seek to teach and, on the other, the students' interests and learning objectives is leading to increasing numbers of students who are unable to derive meaning from school activities. Personalized learning strategies represent one of the most powerful ways to help students attribute meaning and personal value to their learning. This paper has two interrelated objectives. The first is to present a guide to the analysis of educational practices that work with and from students' interests. This tool makes it possible to identify the potential of practices to reinforce and promote the meaning and personal value that students attach to their school learning. The guide is structured around three large blocks (personalization strategies, conceptions of interests, and design and development of practices), which describe the dimensions, subdimensions, questions, and levels for the analysis. The second objective is to illustrate use of the guide by analyzing two practices designed and implemented in primary school classrooms, characterized by a focus on students' learning interests. The paper concludes by highlighting the main contributions of the guide presented, identifying some limitations, and pointing to future lines of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agriculture is a promising avenue for food system change; however, projects often struggle with a lack of volunteers—limiting both their immediate goals and the broader movement-building to which many alternative food initiatives (AFIs) aspire. In this paper, I adopt a case study approach focusing on Farm X, an urban farm with a strong volunteer culture located in Tāmaki-Makaurau Auckland, New Zealand's largest city. Drawing on a significant period of researcher participation and 11 in-depth interviews with volunteers and project coordinators, I first contextualise and explore the history of Farm X, then offer themes to describe key factors which help or hinder their volunteer engagement. Engagement is helped by strong leadership, learning by doing, socialising around plants, and contributing to a movement. Conversely, engagement is hindered by time scarcity, economic hurdles, and struggles over direction. Drawing on McClintock's (Local Environ 19(2): 147–171, 2014, 10.1080/13549839.2012.752797) insights into the hybrid and contradictory nature of urban agriculture as a tool for social change, the paper continues with a discussion of two important trade-offs involved in both farm management and the movement building promoted by Farm X: focused leadership verses volunteer agency; and asking more verses less of volunteers. Finally, I suggest several avenues that may be useful for other urban agriculture projects interested in movement building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation in mobility is proceeding at fast pace, the future disrupting technologies ranging from automation and connectivity to micro-mobility and electric propulsion. This research effort is justified by the impressive array of challenges that urban centres will face in the following decades, such as ageing population, urbanization and pollution. It is therefore understandable why the concept of Smart City is being researched and the major cities around the world are already carrying out trials for Smart Mobility Solutions. Still this trend, as many others, is not evenly spread but follows the urban/rural divide characterizing many of the current socio-economical phenomena. This paper, following the principles of responsible innovation, tries to build the case for a renewed research effort about smart mobility in low density areas. This is accomplished by presenting the results of a wide surveying effort across Estonian municipalities, focusing on the outputs from rural and small suburban centres. The results report what are the main mobility challenges across the region and what hindering factors are preventing envisioned solutions. Finally, the paper ties the identified mobility challenges to available Smart Mobility Solutions that arose from the surveying activity and from literature, assessing both feasibility and transferability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking complex dynamic systems theory as a theoretical stance, this paper explores how motivational dynamics co-evolve with academic affordances for male English majors in higher educational institutions. The study adopts a sequential mixed-methods design with both questionnaires and interviews being used for data collection. The participant sample included twelve male English major students from a university in a Chinese coastal city. By mapping four participants' lived experiences in their programs, the study further depicts changes, stability, and variability in students' motivation trajectories. The findings of the study suggest that male students' motivation is complex, dynamic, and non-linear. Various initial conditions closely interact with affordances and move towards attractor states dominated by career planning and glocal (global and local) policies. This includes social affordances (glocal policies, curricula, and program lecturers or mentors, who may sustain the motivation trajectory of students) and individual affordances (individual language proficiency, academic performance, and agency which may inform changes during the motivation trajectory). Joining the existing literature, this study advocates moving studies on motivation towards a complex, non-linear theoretical stance. The study also offers insights for language lecturers and universities more generally to make English major programs more inclusive and ensure equality of opportunity for male students to enter and participate in English programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is two-fold: firstly, to provide an overview of emerging digital practices that support collaborative learning, competency development, and digital literacy for student-centered learning environments in higher education during the rapid digital transition caused by pandemic-related lockdowns across the world, and secondly, to analyze and discuss how systematic reviews of generalized themes and trends can be combined with contextualized experiences and the lessons learned from the Covid-19 crisis to inform the digital transformation of higher education, with a particular focus on bridging the gap between campus-based teaching and online learning and on the identification of the digital competencies that teachers and students must acquire during the continuing shift into a 'new normal' for post-pandemic educational practices. This study was motivated by questions and findings emerging from an early reactive case study conducted by three of this paper's co-authors (Lyngdorf et al., 2021a). By reviewing the full texts of 18 articles, this study provides a systematic literature review which maps the general landscape of the online, hybrid, and blended digital practices applied in existing student-centered learning environments in higher education since the onset of the pandemic. Furthermore, this mapping is used to revisit data and findings from the earlier reactive study of emerging digital practices in a specific problem- and project-based learning (PBL) environment. This study's findings highlight critical factors and barriers related to emerging practices which support students' interactions with teachers, content, and each other, as well as the emerging competencies that these practices will require. The paper concludes with a discussion of the main findings and their implications for further research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) is a widely discussed topic. There are numerous initiatives that aim to develop the principles and guidance to ensure that the development, deployment and use of AI are ethically acceptable. What is generally unclear is how organisations that make use of AI understand and address these ethical issues in practice. While there is an abundance of conceptual work on AI ethics, empirical insights are rare and often anecdotal. This paper fills the gap in our current understanding of how organisations deal with AI ethics by presenting empirical findings collected using a set of ten case studies and providing an account of the cross-case analysis. The paper reviews the discussion of ethical issues of AI as well as mitigation strategies that have been proposed in the literature. Using this background, the cross-case analysis categorises the organisational responses that were observed in practice. The discussion shows that organisations are highly aware of the AI ethics debate and keen to engage with ethical issues proactively. However, they make use of only a relatively small subsection of the mitigation strategies proposed in the literature. These insights are of importance to organisations deploying or using AI, to the academic AI ethics debate, but maybe most valuable to policymakers involved in the current debate about suitable policy developments to address the ethical issues raised by AI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation: Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of HMD: Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents a case study of Robeson County's challenges in addressing the double-barrel disasters of Hurricane Matthew in 2016 (Category 5) and Hurricane Florence in 2018 (Category 4) in conjunction with the economic disaster resulting from the loss of over 10,000 jobs in the county following the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It is well known that climate disasters, including major hurricanes, droughts, and forest fires, worsen existing economic and social conditions. The significant challenges to recovery created by these combined disasters are salient. Both the patterns of the global economy and public and private disaster systems create a "disaster diaspora" within low-income impacted communities and poor rural communities impacted by major economic and climate change. Both economic and climate disruption have led to massive displacement within impacted communities leading to economic and social instability. Robeson County and all of Eastern North Carolina provide a case study for "disaster diaspora", including its systemic patterns, causes, and indicators as well as potential solutions. This paper identifies, recognizes, and details this challenge, asserting that both existing patterns of economic and social disparity must be addressed along with and at the same time, as climate disaster recovery. The disproportionate and ongoing impact of NAFTA on Robeson County, Eastern NC, and all of rural America has not been effectively mitigated or significantly redressed. This paper offers a theoretical connection between climate disaster and economic dislocation and the necessary challenge of addressing and reconstructing both at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing need for humanitarian assistance has inspired an increasing amount of academic publications in the field of humanitarian logistics. Over the past two decades, the humanitarian logistics literature has developed a powerful toolbox of standardized problem formulations to address problems ranging from distribution to scheduling or locations planning. At the same time, the humanitarian field is quickly evolving, and problem formulations heavily rely on the context, leading to calls for more evidence-based research. While mixed methods research designs provide a promising avenue to embed research in the reality of the field, there is a lack of rigorous mixed methods research designs tailored to translating field findings into relevant HL optimization models. In this paper, we set out to address this gap by providing a systematic mixed methods research design for HL problem in disasters response. The methodology includes eight steps taking into account specifics of humanitarian disasters. We illustrate our methodology by applying it to the 2015 Nepal earthquake response, resulting in two evidence-based HL optimization models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite COVID-19, the world economy still contributes to the growth of production and consumption worldwide. Waste disposal, recycling management and energy generation are challenges for many companies in developing economies, including Poland. This article aims to assess the operation of a municipal waste treatment plant (MWTP) from the perspective of green business process management (BMP) solutions. The processes implemented in the MWTP were discussed, with specific consideration of the mechanical waste processing (sorting) process, including the reuse and recycling of materials, composting, energy production (anaerobic process), landfill storage and efficiency parameters of the sorting line. A sustainable waste management system was identified; the cost as well as social and environmental perspectives were analyzed. Also, strategic goals and key performance indicators were considered. The performed analysis included costs, environmental criteria and key environmental indicators. This paper has shown the successful implementation of green BPM, with potential cost and material savings results. The findings of this case study are expected to inspire other waste management companies to adopt green BPM. The presented case study might help raise awareness and promote the implementation of green BPM in municipal plants in Eastern and Southern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sheltered employment centres, staff planning and scheduling activities are critical for operations managers. A generic framework is not easy to set up not only because legal issues are diverse and differ among these service organization types, but one worker may not fit in anywhere at any time. This complexity is greater when workers with specific needs perform work activities in many labour enclaves and different sectors. In this paper, a mixed-integer linear model to solve workers' shift assignments to other workplaces and various activities to form teams is proposed. The novelty of the proposed model lies in considering specific features, such as the skills matrix and the affinity matrix, between the different actors in a labour enclave. The model is validated using real instances from a case study, and several objectives are tested and discussed. The decision support system that sustains the model is introduced and managerial issues are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines staff's enactment and perceptions of a continuous independent school self-evaluation (SSE) process implemented at a semi-private school network for the past decade. In light of research arguing SSE was perceived and used primarily as a self-inspection or self-regulation tool emphasizing accountability goals; this case suggests the promise of engaging in SSE that the staff perceives as positive and aimed towards their school's improvement. Findings reported in this work are based on analyzing Concept Structuring Analysis Task (ConSAT) interviews in which participants created their own concept maps, and participant observation of a two-year-long SSE process. This paper identifies three organizational mechanisms that facilitated a sustainable improvement-oriented SSE: the role of the evaluator, pooling resources through network structure, and the way the network uses evaluation data. These findings yield implications for (a) research on the enactment of sustainable SSE and (b) implementation of SSE that balances accountability and improvement goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to find a new lean methodology to improve the process of procurement management, this paper takes the warehouse in the manufacturing enterprise as a case to study. During lean consulting service provision, the firsthand material which the research work needs through the spot inspection was collected. To analysis the whole procurement process, the procurement value stream map based on the data collected was plot. Then the whole procurement process can be seen in the procurement value stream map, including making procurement plans, audit, procurement, transportation, inspection, storage, classifying and receiving materials. According to the procurement value stream map, wastes and non-value activities in the procurement process can be easily found and the improvement methods can be prompted. The contribution of this paper main reflects in two aspects: (1) the procurement value stream mapping (P-VSM) enriches improvement methodology of procurement management; (2) the P-VSM methodology enlarges the application scope of lean tools on one side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, more than 5.5 million new devices will be connected to the Internet of things every day. The discovery and access of IoT sensors are difficult to adapt to the growth rate of machines. Especially for non-smart IoT sensors, due to their inability to actively match and lack of self-description, the existing IoT technology is challenging to find and access. This paper provides a two-layers service middleware for non-smart IoT sensors accessing. An edge-side middleware service is proposed to model and discover the non-smart IoT. A server-side IoT middleware service is proposed to encapsulate non-smart IoT sensors into standard web services for downstream applications. Then, the data from non-smart devices are then integrated into a knowledge graph-based database with unified web service APIs to solve the heterogeneity problem. The proposed method is applied to the two industrial projects of "rural sewage treatment automatic station service" and "material digital production line service" to solve the discovery and access of many non-smart IoT devices. This paper provides a novel and feasible technical way to discover and access non-smart IoT devices in two aspects of theoretical research and industrial practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National policies on school digitalisation take shape in their local contexts. Consequently, to understand the outcome of national policy, the local translations must be set within a contextual perspective. This article explores how four contextually different municipalities in Sweden translate national school digitalisation policy. It draws on a comparative cross-case study with data gathered from interviews, and over 150 local documents dating from 2018 to 2020. The results show how contextual aspects affects responses to national policy, and that municipalities approach school digitalisation in two distinct ways. The first, general approach, emphasises competitiveness and the creation of an enabling environment for the teachers. This is manifested in the development of special support organisations, and generous access to digital technology. The second, specific approach, emphasises local consensus in policy translations along with unity in policy adherence. Here, critique of national policy is explicit. The two approaches exemplify how translational power may be distributed differently, the former prioritising individual translational precedency for teachers over a unifying policy translation controlled through local governance. The paper suggests that contextual factors matters in the choice of approaches, one in which size matters. The paper concludes that policy makers need to acknowledge contextual dimensions within governance by weighing translational power in relation to translational coherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, when undertaking requirements elicitation, engineers attend to the needs and wants of the user groups considered relevant for the software system. However, answers to some relevant questions (e.g., how to improve adoption of the intended system) cannot always be addressed through direct need and want elicitation. Using an example of energy demand-response systems, this paper demonstrates that use of grounded theory analysis can help address such questions. The theories emerging from such analysis produce a set of additional requirements which cannot be directly elicited from individuals/groups, and would otherwise be missed. Thus, we demonstrate that the theories generated through grounded theory analysis can serve as additional valuable sources of requirements for software and its wider system. This paper extends our previous work by demonstrating how several theories can be constructed and utilised for a single system analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is to review the qualitative case methods that have been used in technology transfer research over the last 20 years from 1996 to 2015. Case methods allow for more in-depth analyses and provide the opportunity to place research into a certain context due to the selection of e.g. specific sectors, institutions, countries, etc. Using a systematic literature review of five of the top journals in the field of technology transfer research, namely Journal of Technology Transfer, Research Policy, Science and Public Policy, R&D Management and Technovation, it yielded 107 articles using the search terms: 'Technology Transfer' AND ('Case Study' OR 'Case Method' OR 'Qualitative'). Our findings indicate a clustering of themes using qualitative case methods around technology transfer mechanisms and TTOs, academic entrepreneurship, university-industry collaboration, commercialization as well as R&D and firm knowledge transfer. We also identify trends in case method technology transfer research with respect to authorship, location of papers, sectoral contexts, data collection, numbers of cases and data analysis software. We conclude our paper discussing the implications of trends and themes and suggest that researchers need to reflect on used terminology and their utilization and postulate a need for more plurality of data collection methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Online learning platforms take over a new role in education, especially in times of the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper will discuss pre-service teachers' reflections on attitudes towards online learning platforms and the respective changes due to an online training of using this digital tool in mathematics classes. The special training took place in a bachelor seminar with fourteen participants on the use of digital media in mathematics education at the University of Siegen. Based on the 'Tripartite Model of Attitude Structure' which defines the psychological concept of attitude, data material about the pre-service teachers' attitudes is gathered by pre- and post-reflection-questionnaires. A qualitative content analysis led to the formation of a system of six main categories and approximately 51 descriptors for pre-service teachers' attitudes towards online learning platforms and especially their changes due to the online training of using these platforms. The descriptors can be a basis for further research studies on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analytical methods in engineering design use simplifying assumptions to reduce the number of variables considered for a given problem. In rock engineering design, this reduction in complexity increases practical applicability but often must be applied with a degree of conservatism, as relevant mechanisms may remain unaccounted for in a given analytical solution. To date, the voussoir beam analog has seen relatively limited application to complex roof stability problems. Previous research by the authors has used numerical modeling to expand the voussoir beam analog by developing analytical solution adjustments to account for important factors such as horizontal bedding and passive bolts. This paper presents the application of the adjusted voussoir beam analytical solution in a case study of the historic Bondi Pumping Chamber. Discrete element method numerical models are also presented to elucidate the mechanisms governing stability and deflection of the supported roof beam. The results of this study provide a novel real-world validation of the adjusted voussoir beam analog and insight into its practical applicability and limitations. Highlights: Successful field application of a voussoir beam analytical solution that accounts for supported flat-roof excavations in discontinuous rockmasses Effects of roof support installation timing and variations in discontinuity strength and stiffness identified through numerical models Self-supporting capacity of flat-roof excavations explored through comparison of numerical and analytical results [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports a typical case history of deep braced excavation for constructing the main bridge cushion cap of the Yangwan River Bridge to explore the excavation performance under embankment surcharge load. Three-dimensional finite difference analysis, simulating the whole construction process of this case history, was performed to capture the effects of the embankment–excavation distance, revel level, and excavation bottom sealing on the responses of the earth retaining structure and the ground. It was found that both the ground surface settlement and the retaining structure deformation are larger on the near-embankment side than the far-embankment side. The responses on the near-embankment side are more sensitive to the embankment–excavation distance and the river level. However, the effects of these parameters diminish greatly when the embankment–excavation distance exceeds 1.5 times the excavation depth. The excavation bottom sealing measures can reduce the retaining structure deformation, and effectively restrain basal heave. This restraint weakens as the excavation bottom sealing thickness exceeds 1 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has historically been frequent among geotechnical practitioners, that the stability analysis of the slopes of an open pit is performed using a two dimensional section representing the highest and steepest walls within a certain geological setting. However, the literature shows that to predict rupture events in an open pit, a three-dimensional analysis would better represent the actual conditions, as the spatial distribution of the lithology and the structural features play an important role when defining the stability of the slopes. This paper presents the case study of an open pit located in Brazil, which experienced instabilities between the years 2001 and 2019. An evaluation of the behavior of the open pit was performed by calibrating the strength parameters to represent the best documented rupture events. The three-dimensional model was made using the finite difference method. The results show that there is a good correlation between the results of the model and the reports of past instabilities. Finally, recommendations are presented for the inter-ramp angles for each lithology based on the calibrated stability analysis performed. This work seeks to contribute to the knowledge in evaluation techniques for the three-dimensional behavior of open pits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In engineering education laboratories serve as experiential learning aimed at engaging students. The past decades saw an increased use of online laboratories, including virtual and remote labs. Remote labs, providing online interfaces to physical labs, allow students to conduct experiments with real-world equipment anywhere and at any time. However, this advantage challenges active student engagement. Little evidence is available on effective pedagogies for student engagement in remote labs. This paper aims to identify how a remote lab assignment based on active learning pedagogy in higher engineering education supports student engagement, with the overarching aim to promote students' transfer skills from theory to practice. Our research question, "What impact does an active learning pedagogy have on students' engagement with a remote lab?", was answered with a case study of two courses on systems and control in higher engineering education. Data included digital traces, course evaluations, interviews, and observations. Students reported how remote labs, to be used anywhere at any time, require self-regulation and scheduling of experiments. However, accompanying open-ended lab assignments encouraged students to engage with the lab and the theoretical content of the course by creating a 'need-to-know.' Our results furthermore suggest the need for a structured arrangement of open-ended lab assignment, lab preparation, teamwork supporting peer learning and discussion, progress meetings focused on feedback and formative assessment, and reports focused on reflection. Engagement can be strengthened by support for students before and during the experiments, clear signposting about the experiment and lab set-up, and pre-structuring of lab activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability issues surrounding conventional agriculture motivate the need for exploring new sustainable methods of farming, critical for global sustainable development. Vertical farming is a potentially underexplored component of sustainable food production portfolio. This paper offers the first quantitative model in the environmental economics and policy literature that evaluates the economic prospect of vertical farming systems in a competitive market setting. Our framework identifies the principal factors to assess the economic and risk aversion potential of vertical farming and utilize a decision model quantify the trade-off between the two alternative farming practices. The model is utilized to evaluate the competitive economic prospect of vertical farming in seven locations with heterogeneous climate and economic conditions within the USA. The results quantify the value proposition of vertical farming in various conditions. Consequently, we leverage these results to evaluate the current and future prospect of the vertical farming industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Configuration management (CM) is an effective method for data modeling and change management in product development, but the study of how it can be adapted for complex product maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) has thus far been superficial. Research propositions are put forward on the basis of a literature review and verified by a case of a high-speed train MRO company. The findings show that CM can be used in MRO data management with adjustments in its functions. First, MRO-CM planning considers both multistage service and single-stage service to keep data consistent and continuous. Second, MRO data integration with the design/production phase should be considered during configuration identification. Third, baselines and change rules are developed for change control. Finally, status accounting and auditing can be repeatedly used in MRO data management. A systematic MRO-CM framework is generated to assist MRO practitioners in understanding the relationships among different MRO-CM functions. This paper contributes to expanding the theory of CM in MRO for complex products and provides an effective method for managing MRO data from systematic engineering insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To increase the usage of assistive robots into daily life it is important to include end-users in early development stages. This paper propose an iterative co-creative method to refine the design of an assistive robot called ASTRO. Three co-creation sessions were organized involving a total of 102 individuals. This paper presents the feedback collected and provides the results from an evaluation of the final prototype. The results underline that the robot's design was perceived in a positive way (attractiveness and stimulation domains). Even though the co-creation results show that the function of the robot are also valued, the survey provides a more nuanced view on these aspects of robot design by showing a neutral evaluation of perspicuity, efficiency and dependability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether universities performance management systems (PMS), consider intellectual capital (IC) management as a criterion for evaluating their managers. The issue has been addressed investigating the case study of the University of Calabria. The evaluation systems for managers of the University of Calabria were analyzed with a longitudinal approach, investigating two different systems (2012–2014 and 2015–2017). Two qualitative tools were employed: document analysis and semi-structured interviews. From a formal analysis of the evaluation systems for managers of the University of Calabria, it emerges that the reference to IC and its subcomponents is easier to identify within the individual performance component, which reduces its weight switching from the 2012–2014 to 2015–2017 evaluation system. From the analysis of semi-structured interviews, it emerges that the University of Calabria is far from considering IC substantially as a key criterion to evaluate its managers. Focusing on IC will require the development of an IC specific project addressed to make sense of this new object and of the consequent new managerial practices to give sense to IC measurements and diffuse them within the organization. The originality of the paper lies in the novelty of its aim, linking together the evaluation of universities managers, too often clouded by respect for the academicians in managerial roles, and the role of IC management as an evaluation criteria to assess their performance. The paper offers both theoretical contributions to different streams of the literature, namely the IC and PMS and public sector literature and practical contributions, filling the void between the evaluation systems of university managers as provided by theory and the application of these models in practice, a gap especially significant for public organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Europe has seen the importance of Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) grow in recent years. This is hardly surprising given that their main mission is to harness science and technology to foster innovation that can improve the quality of life and boost economic competitiveness. In the current economic context, it is key to demonstrate the positive impact of their activities on the economy and society, i.e. spin-offs, considering that they receive public subsidies. Accordingly, the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO) published a report in March 2018 that details the economic footprint of 9 of its members, which includes the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). This French organisation, whose budget represents 60% of the total budget from all 9 RTOs, was the subject of a separate calculation in the framework of the research carried out for the paper: data was provided by the CEA and simulation was performed on the basis of the model provided by IDEA Consult. This article deals with the provision of empirical results about the CEA and makes a comparison with the results obtained for the 9 RTOs using the same methodology. This case study highlights information that can be used to provide a more accurate assessment of the CEA's economic impact based on its specificities compared with its European counterparts. In addition to estimating the economic spin-offs of technology transfers, it is equally important to take into account value creation associated with the procurement of high technology—the impact of "big science"—which is substantial in the CEA's defence sector and undervalued in the economic model used by IDEA Consult. Thanks to a literature review summarising the advantages and limitations of the different impact assessment approaches and thanks to interviews at CEA management level—that helped us to better understand the impact-generating mechanisms—the paper opens new avenues of research to improve the methodology for measuring the impact of research organisations that are very diverse in their duties. The new methodology proposed takes into account the spillovers of their activities, as well as offering useful approaches for governments and the European Commission. More specifically, it proposes to apply the same methodology—in the opposite direction—to measure the spin-offs of the contract research activities (with a multiplier as in the methodology used by IDEA Consult) and to estimate the science market characterised by very specific calls for tender that generate innovation. Using the same model, we therefore propose to couple an estimate of the footprint of jobs and standard purchases, with an estimate of the spin-offs linked to both technology transfers (RTO to industry) and to high-tech purchases (industry to RTO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a mixed methods quantitative and qualitative approach to capture fully the measurable and less tangible social impacts of transport projects on local people and communities. The approach was used to assess the potential social impacts of a strategic road by-pass project case study in a deprived region of Wales in the UK. The project specifically aimed to stimulate local economic growth and regeneration in the local areas it serves. In a 'before and after' case study, we combined fine-grained, GIS-based spatial analysis of secondary datasets with qualitative participative exercises with the local residents of the five communities living adjacent to the road, and interviews with professional local stakeholders. This mixed methods approach significantly enhanced understanding of both the social benefits and disbenefits of the road project. It helped to reveal local concerns that would not otherwise have been apparent from secondary dataset analysis alone. The qualitative studies were also successful in bringing to the table new 'hard to reach' voices that had not been heard through the formal consultation and public engagement process. The study revealed that the social benefits accruing to local people from the project could have been significantly enhanced, whilst a number of its locally occurring negative social impacts could have been avoided had social assessment been employed earlier in the decision processes concerning its routing and design. Recommendations to improve the practice and uptake of social assessments at the option appraisal, project design mitigation and post evaluation stages of transport projects are included in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sheds further light on the role of quantification in corporate environmental disclosures. Quantification is an inherently social practice, which has attracted a fair amount of academic interest in recent years. At the same time, in the field of social and environmental accounting there is a paucity of research on quantification or the role it plays for organisations, for organisational communication and in societies more broadly. Accordingly, in this paper, we will draw on a qualitative case study to discuss the potential implications that might arise from the use of quantified information in corporate environmental disclosures. Our case study illustrates the diverse effects of quantification suggested in the prior literature by placing them in the context of corporate environmental disclosures. We discuss how quantification implies fake precisionism and promotes commensuration of incomparables, thereby limiting the discussion to themes and questions preferred by company management. We maintain that quantification, while appearing to produce neutral and value-free information, has a substantive ethical dimension through how it implicates accountability relationships as well as the respective power relations between diverse stakeholders in societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Reducing the environmental impacts of food systems has become a growing concern for public authorities. This study aims to adapt the territorial LCA framework (T-LCA) to local food system assessment to identify territorial hotspots of a food system in relation to its land use functions. To achieve this goal, the T-LCA must be enhanced by overcoming previously exposed limitations. Methods: Deriving from the T-LCA framework, the methodology used in this paper assesses all territorial food-producing, processing, and consuming activities. The methodological developments suggest addressing its three principal methodological limitations by (i) using agricultural statistics to estimate the local consumption and thus account for intra-territorial flows, (ii) proposing novel agri-food land use functions related to a local food system, and (iii) developing a simplified framework for sensitivity analysis (SA) through detection of the most uncertain and influential data followed by a once-at-a-time (OAT) approach to improve the uncertainty related to the substantial number of data involved in meso-level LCAs. The methodology is applied to a case study in France using the Environmental Footprint (EF) 3.0 method. Results and discussion: The results indicate that intra-territorial flow analysis effectively distinguishes between local and imported flows, identifying their primary environmental hotspots. Despite the significant impact of imported flows, export-oriented livestock production emerges as the principal hotspot of the studied food system. Integrating agri-food land use functions into LCA is crucial for linking the activities with higher environmental impact contributions and their territorial functions. This is the case of animal husbandry which is the main environmental hotspot and one of the principal local economic activities. Finally, the sensitivity analysis reveals a low sensitivity of the overall results to the most influential and uncertain parameters. Conclusions: These findings confirm the interest in further developing territorial LCA methodologies and adapting them to various contexts to determine the principal environmental burdens of local systems and improve territorial land planning. This study also proposes various research perspectives to confirm and enhance the robustness of T-LCA frameworks, including the development of regional life cycle inventories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of knowledge from Big Data is increasingly drawing the attention of scholars and practitioners in management research. Valuable knowledge first requires identifying the Big Data features connected to knowledge insights creation and the mechanism beyond this creation. This paper examines Big Data dimensions and insights creations at a fine-grained level by adopting the knowledge creation lens. Specifically, what is the mechanism of creating knowledge from Big Data? How to transform raw Big Data into knowledge? We adopted a qualitative case study to explore the large-scale multinational pilot launched in three European cities. The pilot amalgamated a large amount of data feeds from different sensors and open data and created various insights to inform cities' strategies. By employing an inductive content analysis with abductive procedures and coupling it with participatory observations, we were able to ground findings on the multi-level empirical and theoretical base and build a framework that embraces all discovered complexities and fine-grained features of Big Data dimensions and guides knowledge creation from Big Data. Our research offers a more in-depth understanding of the mechanism of knowledge creation in the BD context. First, we opened up BD's black box by disentangling the knowledge creation mechanism while transforming raw BD into BD insights. Second, our study offered empirical evidence of the growth mechanism working on Volume and Variety dimensions. The uniqueness of this study lies in the fine-grained perspective of BD characteristics and the underlying mechanism of insights creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service-dominant logic (SDL) has become an important thinking, in which service fuels growth of the firm. However, existing evidence offers little explanation of how service emerges as dominant logic. This paper investigates how a firm evolves to become an SDL enterprise. Drawing on theoretical notions of SDL and actor engagement, a case study of Homekoo is performed. The findings show that "service mindset" is the key that drives a firm to embrace SDL, and that technology can act as a "boundary spanner" to coordinate value co-creation practices across different levels, which enhances existing knowledge of actor-to-actor (A2A) interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]