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The authors argue that hitherto separate methodological conversations about abduction and comparison can be fruitfully brought together to generate novel, well-founded insights and retheorize an object of study in multiple-case qualitative inquiry. The authors call this abductive cross-case comparison and illustrate it by way of a collective study of how professional boundary work is changing under transnational conditions. In this study, the authors faced a common challenge in qualitative-comparative research: what to do when initial observations generate "surprises" that seem to confound the theoretical frameworks undergirding the comparison? To discuss how abductive inferences supported the authors' response to this challenge, they explicate the acts of discovery and (re)conceptualization involved through various steps in a team-based research process. Building on the existing qualitative comparison literature, the authors suggest that such procedures fill a methodological gap and may hold great promise for overcoming obstacles in designing and implementing comparative research. Overall, the authors explicate and illustrate the method of abductive cross-case comparison, including their work as a research team. The aim of this article is thus to help sociologists implement better qualitative research that leverages a fuller potential of comparative designs to push beyond established knowledge and frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionAccording to China’s Food Safety Law of 2015, the filing of food safety enterprise standards is a policy innovation led by p9rovincial governments in China. However, there are significant differences in the development of the “Food Safety Enterprise Standard Filing Policy” between provincial governments across the country. This study aims to explore the internal mechanisms driving autonomous innovation by provincial governments in the absence of administrative pressure from the central government, to better understand the policy innovation mechanism in the Chinese context.MethodsCrispy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA) method is used to identify the innovation mechanism.ResultsThis study found that provinces with good provincial economic resources and strong government capabilities are prone to policy innovation, and the influence of internal factors of provincial governments is stronger than that of external factors.DiscussionWhen provincial economic resources and capacity are weak, endogenous factors in the province also help achieve proactive policy innovation by provincial governments. The research results reveal how provincial governments construct local policies in the absence of administrative pressure from the central government.

Ageing Europeans are today healthier than previous generations and often manage to live independently up to a high age. The proportion of people 80 years of age and older has increased significantly, and with high age the risk of multi-illness and dementia increases. Strong urbanisation processes have changed the demographic structure in rural areas, and young women and men have migrated towards the urban areas to study and work, while older persons have remained behind. This demographic challenge of increasing numbers of persons older than 80 years with care needs living in remote rural areas has become a major European social problem. In tackling this dilemma, many European countries have high expectations for eHealth, digitalisation and welfare technology. In this comparative study of policy debates in Italy, Finland and Sweden, we analyse how – between 2009 and 2019 – the issues of eHealth have been articulated in national and regional policies of the three countries with deep differences in terms of digitalisation and health systems, but with similar ageing populations. We identify in the documents three core topics – the role of technology, the rural issue and responsibility for care. These topics are treated in the documents with differences and similarities between the three countries. Beyond the differences and similarities, the documents reveal both a certain techno-enthusiasm about the role of eHealth in the life of the older adults as well as a limited understanding of the complexity (relationally as well as spatially) of the digital landscape of caring for older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background While dementia is a common problem in Japan and the US, primary care physicians' practices and perspectives about diagnosing dementia in these different healthcare systems are unknown. Methods Qualitative research was conducted in an ethnographic tradition using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis in primary care settings across Japan and in the Midwest State of Michigan, US. Participants were a total of 48 primary care physicians, 24 each from Japan and the US participated. Both groups contained a mixture of geographic areas (rural/urban), gender, age, and years of experience as primary care physicians. Results Participants in Japan and the US voiced similar practices for making the diagnosis of dementia and held similar views about the desired benefits of diagnosing dementia. Differences were found in attitudes about the appropriate timing of formally diagnosing dementia. Japanese physicians tended to make a formal diagnosis when problems that would benefit from long-term care services emerged for family members. US physicians were more proactive in diagnosing dementia in the early stages by screening for dementia in health check-ups and promoting advance directives when the patients were still capable of decision-making. Views about appropriate timing of diagnostic testing for dementia in the two systems reflect what medical or nursing care services physicians can use to support dementia patients and caregivers. Conclusions Benefits of making the diagnosis included the need to activate the long-term care services in Japan and for early intervention and authoring advance directives in the US. Testing to establish an early diagnosis of dementia by primary care physicians only partly relates to testing and treatment options available. Benefits of making the diagnosis included the need to activate the long-term care services in Japan and for early intervention and authoring advance directives in the US.

Purpose: Youth and young adults are particularly vulnerable to the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). The purpose of this study was to explore barriers to school and employment for youth with and without a disability during the pandemic. Methods: This qualitative comparison study involved in-depth interviews with 35 youth and young adults (18 with a disability; 17 without), aged 16–29 (mean age 23). An interpretive, thematic analysis of the transcripts was conducted. Results: Our findings revealed several similarities and some differences between youth and young adults with and without disabilities regarding barriers to school and employment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Key themes related to these barriers involved: (1) difficult transition to online school and working from home (i.e., the expense of setting up a home office, technical challenges, impact on mental health), (2) uncertainty about employment (i.e., under-employment, difficult working conditions, difficulty finding work, disability-related challenges) and (3) missed career development opportunities (i.e., canceled or reduced internships or placements, lack of volunteer opportunities, uncertainties about career pathway, the longer-term impact of the pandemic). Conclusion: Our findings highlight that youth and young adults with disabilities may need further support in engaging in meaningful and accessible vocational activities that align with their career pathway.

In comparative philosophy, there arises the problem of ground for comparison. Qualitative comparison is based on a certain qualitative ground for comparison, e.g., weight. Quantitative comparison brings more clarity into the qualitative comparison, introducing discrete and homogeneous units: how much does it weigh? How much does it cost? Both qualitative and quantitative comparison start from a ground that is already given and clear; they simply apply it to the case at hand (Is this one heavier than the other? If so, by how much?). In other—and more interesting—cases, the common ground is obscure: we have the feeling that A and B can be compared, but how exactly? The inability to immediately proceed to application creates a tension, and this opens the intensive dimension of comparison. The intensity has two sides: obscure and clear. The obscure side has its articulations, but they interpenetrate each other. Our task is to unfold, unravel, unpack. Then we will bring something to clarity where the elements do not interpenetrate so much but are juxtaposed (in different qualities and quantities). This will give rise to new tensions and new unfolding. The obscure articulations do not resemble the clear ones, and their unfolding is a creative process.

The validation of a computational fluid dynamics model for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is normally conducted by the experimental I–V performance curve. However, it seems this method is not solid enough. In the meantime, it's difficult to conduct the item-to-item quantitative comparisons between the internal distributions acquired from numerical and testing results. Therefore, in this paper, as the first attempt, qualitative comparisons between the modeling and experimental results are conducted based on the three important parameters of an air-cooled PEMFC (air stoichiometric ratio, air relative humidity, cathode flow field design) to explore the trends of the related fuel cell I–V performance curves and internal resistances. The internal resistances are tested using the EIS technique and differentiated by an equivalent circuit model. Conclusions show that the qualitative comparisons between the numerical and testing results support each other well and new results are found based on the comparisons. Finally, discussions on the sensitivity based on the experimental EIS results are conducted to explore the response degree of the total resistance to the air stoichiometric ratio, the air relative humidity and the cathode flow field design. • Qualitative comparisons between modeling and testing results support each other. • Proton transport is the dominant factor affecting the reaction rate and resistance. • Sensitivity is defined to compare different parametric series. • Air relative humidity could lead to "Strong" sensitivity in the case of dry air. • Air stoichiometric ratio has the strongest effect most of the time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While dementia is a common problem in Japan and the US, primary care physicians' practices and perspectives about diagnosing dementia in these different healthcare systems are unknown.Methods: Qualitative research was conducted in an ethnographic tradition using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis in primary care settings across Japan and in the Midwest State of Michigan, US. Participants were a total of 48 primary care physicians, 24 each from Japan and the US participated. Both groups contained a mixture of geographic areas (rural/urban), gender, age, and years of experience as primary care physicians.Results: Participants in Japan and the US voiced similar practices for making the diagnosis of dementia and held similar views about the desired benefits of diagnosing dementia. Differences were found in attitudes about the appropriate timing of formally diagnosing dementia. Japanese physicians tended to make a formal diagnosis when problems that would benefit from long-term care services emerged for family members. US physicians were more proactive in diagnosing dementia in the early stages by screening for dementia in health check-ups and promoting advance directives when the patients were still capable of decision-making. Views about appropriate timing of diagnostic testing for dementia in the two systems reflect what medical or nursing care services physicians can use to support dementia patients and caregivers.Conclusions: Benefits of making the diagnosis included the need to activate the long-term care services in Japan and for early intervention and authoring advance directives in the US. Testing to establish an early diagnosis of dementia by primary care physicians only partly relates to testing and treatment options available. Benefits of making the diagnosis included the need to activate the long-term care services in Japan and for early intervention and authoring advance directives in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Denmark and Sweden are rather similar in most societal dimensions, but differ markedly with regard to the employment rate among older workers, which in 2015 was 65 per cent in Denmark and 75 per cent in Sweden. Using a qualitative (or case-oriented) comparative approach, this article seeks to identify configurations or combinations of conditions that have produced these differences in older workers' work patterns. From an inter-disciplinary perspective, the article draws on the conceptual framework of push (e.g. involuntary retirement due to poor health), pull (e.g. voluntary retirement because of generous welfare benefits), jump (e.g. exit due to a search for life conditions that are more fulfilling than paid work), stay (e.g. older workers remain voluntarily in the labour market because work is fulfilling and well paid) and stuck (e.g. older workers remain involuntarily in the labour market because they cannot afford to retire). Findings are that low employment rates in Denmark are an outcome of a relatively strong combination of push–pull–jump factors, while Sweden, with its high employment rate, exhibits a combination of stay–stuck conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Root cause analysis (RCA) is a sequentially structured process that can be used for identifying the potential root causes for a particular accident, failure of which can lead to the recurrence of a similar event. Several techniques have emerged over the years as generic standards for identifying the root causes; each RCA tool and methodology has its pros and cons in its application. However, there has been no objective comparison between these various techniques for their applicability apart from the stated qualitative differences; this research gap forms as the base motivation for this research work. This study has identified five RCA tools based on popularity, the complexity of use, industrial application, and structure with the ultimate aim of providing extensive comparative results based on fundamental characteristics, flexibility and robustness, and finally, the scoring sheet. To provide objective results, the comparative study was focused on the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The results from the reality charting and fault tree analysis proved to be more derivative and explanatory in isolating the root causes; however, it was also found to be complicated in comparison with the other tools. On the other hand, fishbone provided results that were easier to infer but not entirely satisfactory for scenarios involving a complex interaction of multiple contributory factors. Selecting the right causal analysis tool is vital for obtaining relevant results with no excessive time consumption and less distractive factors in both proactive and reactive studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Top-down and bottom-up processes are important for transformative policy change. • Timing of knowledge generation and sharing in transformations should be considered. • Information in transformative policy change is transmitted by a diversity of actors. Co-management is often put forward as a way to foster sustainability and improve the adaptive capacity of small-scale fisheries. Transformations towards co-management are enabled by processes that support social change, such as nurturing leadership, collective action and learning, as well as political processes that change legislative frameworks from centralized to decentralized decision-making. However, major policy changes can be difficult and change-actors often fail to overcome barriers created by institutional friction, dominant policy discourses or powerful interests supporting the status quo. In the literature, special attention has been paid to social processes that foster cooperation, the role of bridging-actors on the path towards co-management, or conditions that influence its effective implementation. In this paper we shift the attention to political decision-making and changes in policy discourse as an integral part of fisheries' transformations. We use the well-studied cases of co-management transformations in small-scale fisheries to identify how interactions among political actors and stakeholders, as well as social-ecological interactions, shaped the policy discourse and influenced policy change during the transformation process. By comparing how policy change emerged across four fishery transformation cases, we illustrate the importance of (cross-scale and cross-type) coordination and collaboration among diverse political actors in creating conditions for adoption of legislation, as well as its timing during the policy process. The paper contributes to the literature on sustainability transformations by explaining how policy changes supporting such transformations may emerge, in addition to providing insight on political conditions and processes that could be fostered in order to support policy change towards decentralization in fisheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a paradigm that facilitates the proliferation of different devices such as sensors and Radio Frequency Identification (RFIDs) for real-time applications such as healthcare and sustainable cities. The growing popularity of IoT opens up new possibilities, and one of the most notable applications is related to the evolving sustainable city paradigm. A sustainable city is normally designed in such a way to consider the environmental impact and a social, economic, and resilient habitat for existing populations without compromising the ability of future generations to experience the same, while the process of managing project requirements is known as requirements management. To design a high-quality project, effective requirements management is imperative. A number of techniques are already available to perform the requirement gathering process, and software developers apply them to collect the requirements. Nevertheless, they are facing many issues in gathering requirements due to a lack of literature on the selection of appropriate methods, which affects the quality of the software. The software design quality can be improved by using requirements capture and management techniques. Some tools are used to comprehend the system accurately. In this paper, a qualitative comparison of requirements-gathering tools using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and requirements-management tools is presented for sustainable cities. With all the tools and techniques available for capturing and managing requirements, it has been proven that software developers have a wide range of alternatives for selecting the best tool that fits their needs, such as chosen by the AI agent. This effort will aid in the development of requirements for IoT-enabled sustainable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]