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Retrospection of healthcare procurement on the COVID-19 pandemic Preparedness for future disruptions
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic exposed critical vulnerabilities in healthcare systems, particularly in procurement and preparedness for supply chain disruptions. Hospitals were crucial in responding to these disruptions, and purchasing experts were at the core of the turmoil. This study addresses the main barriers and best practices for developing hospital preparedness plans. A case study research was conducted, including 15 interviews with purchasing experts in German hospitals. This paper provides a roadmap based on best practices designed to support hospitals in strengthening their preparedness plans. We attempt to raise awareness of the lack of preparedness plans in hospitals from a procurement perspective
Cities near volcanoes are increasingly threatened by volcanic hazards
No full textUrban populations are increasingly moving into hazardous areas, which leads to widespread and frequent impacts from hazard events. Although these exposure trends have been quantified for other hazards, global exposure analyses for volcanic hazards remain limited. Here we quantify global and regional changes in city exposure to volcanic hazards through time. With GHS-UCDB and GHS-POP datasets, we use spatio-temporal metrics to track urban expansion within 100 km of volcanoes active in the Holocene from 1975 to 2020 and project trends to 2030. The number of cities within 100 km of volcanoes is projected to more than double and the population living within these cities to increase by 155% between 1975 and 2030. The proportion of people within 100 km of volcanoes who live in cities, compared to outside of cities, increases from 44% (~ 186 million) in 1975 to 50% (~ 430 million) in 2020 and 52% in 2030 (~ 473 million). Globally, exposed city populations concentrate within 20–30 km from volcanoes, and average city population density generally decreases towards volcanoes. Exposure growth is highest in Southeast Asia and East Africa. Among the cities spanning less than 10 to more than 30 km from a volcano, 58% grow proportionally faster towards volcanoes, within 10 km, with the majority in Southeast Asia. Across all regions, most cities expand and densify over time. For key cities, we compare patterns of urban expansion with the directionality of volcanic hazards. These analyses reveal that Jakarta has had the world’s largest population living within 100 km of volcanoes since 2005, and major cities, including Jakarta, Manila, San Salvador, Naples, and Quito, are spreading into areas likely to be affected by volcanic flows or tephra fall. In some cases cities are extending along roads. These trends indicate that urban expansion is amplifying volcanic risk and highlight the need to integrate hazard data into urban planning
Knowledge Graph Representation of Open-Source Homicide Information
No full textHomicide information is openly disseminated across various sources such as government websites, news portals, blogs, social media sites through which intelligence can be derived. However, conducting homicide investigations relying on open-source intelligence poses various challenges, including complexity and epistemic uncertainty. Both ontology and knowledge graph have demonstrated some potential in mitigating complexity and uncertainty across various domains. However, their application in context to open-source intelligence and homicide investigations with respect to uncertainty representation is lacking. This study addresses the underlying research gaps and thus presents two different approaches to represent open-source information and the epistemic uncertainty associated with it using knowledge graphs to support homicide investigations. The dataset used in the study consists of details on nine homicide cases in the Netherlands. The first approach used web ontology language, whereas the second approach used graph-based modelling using the networkX library for ontological modelling. Similarly, probabilistic approach and visualisation attributes such as node distance, edge width and node colour were used to address the epistemic uncertainty associated with open-source homicide information in the first and second approach, respectively. The two knowledge graphs were visualised using an example of a homicide case and then evaluated on the basis of visual clarity. Both approaches demonstrated low visual clarity when visualising an entire homicide case. However, the knowledge graph developed using the second approach demonstrated better visual clarity. Overall, the findings signify the potential of knowledge graphs to support investigators in addressing the epistemic uncertainty associated with open sources for conducting effective homicide investigations
Gendered practices of rulership at the court of Württemberg, 1568–1634:by Regine Maritz, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2025, ix + 249 pp., £99.00 (Hardback), ISBN 978-0-19-895739-3
No full textWhen Technology Becomes an Ideological Battleground:How Data Ideology affects Affordance Actualization in People Analytics
No full textDatafication technologies increasingly impact today’s workplaces, as employees’ behavioral data are collected and analyzed for organizational purposes. While datafication technologies can increase organizational efficiency, they come with the risk of employee surveillance and discrimination. As a result, their implementation is surrounded by controversy. Understanding the different perceptions and assumptions about these technologies from individuals with diverse functional roles is crucial to successfully implementing datafication technologies. Based on 43 interviews, we first investigated how individuals with different functional roles evaluate people analytics, as a manifestation of datafication technologies, using the well-known lens of affordances. Inconclusive results led us to explore further and investigate whether and how perceptions of datafication technologies, as well as affordance actualization, can be explained by data ideologies. Our findings from a critical realist analysis offer novel theoretical and empirical insights into the concept of data ideologies. Data ideologies offer a useful extension to the affordance theory and help explain the relationship between varied stakeholders and datafication technologies along three mechanisms: moderation, confirmation, and modulation. The theorized mechanisms have implications for deploying datafication technologies in practice
Impartial spectator or guilty bystander:The role of the transport planning professional in the improvement of community wellbeing
No full textIn transport planning, the classical 'predict and provide' paradigm is increasingly accompanied, or even substituted, by more wellbeing-oriented paradigms. This shift has the consequence that planners need to formulate visions and policy objectives that are multidimensional across different life domains. Using the rough-cut subdivision by Van Wee (health, safety, living environment and accessibility), it becomes clear that policies will have to trade off gains and losses across these domains in order to establish a (sufficientarian) equilibrium that complies to the core values of a society.Apart from the political debates concerning those values, professionals in the field also have explicit and implicit standards that can help to further define how these trade-offs work and how they use this in practice. Using the survey results from a Dutch inquiry into sufficient accessibility and wellbeing objectives, we have analysed the dimensions of wellbeing that apply to the field of transport planning. This gives an insight in the relative importance of the four 'larger' dimensions (pair wise), as well as the type of objectives that professionals find important within each dimension.The pairwise comparison shows that professionals value safety, health and the living environment structurally higher than accessibility. Reversely, safety is consiered slightly more important than the other dimensions. The analysis within the objectives shows that health is mainly connected to the promotion of active mobility, that the living environment consists of a heterogeneous set of objectives, and that safety is mainly connected to reducing the risk of traffic fatalities. For accessibility, professionals mainly point to a sufficientarian account of this dimension: providing enough accessibility to activities that people have reason to value.Assuming that transport planning professionals can be considered to be well-informed 'impartial observers' within a sufficientarianist view, these insights can help to depoliticise the debates that often are associated with transport planning activitie
Situatie rond Vitesse maakt duidelijk dat de KNVB haar licentiereglement tegen het licht moet houden.
No full textHet licentiereglement van de KNVB schiet tekort wanneer clubs uit het profvoetbal moeten verdwijnen. Het treft de clubsupporters dan te zwaar en het schaadt het maatschappelijke belang. Een nog dwingender reden voor verandering is dat het reglement strijdig is met de mededingingswet. Met nieuwe regels kan een doorstartclub van een gevallen profclub binnen een redelijke termijn weer profvoetbal spelen
A Bibliometric Review of the INCOSE's Model‐Based Systems Engineering Roadmap
No full textOver the past decade, model-based systems engineering (MBSE) has gained attention as an approach for managing system complexity, offering a shift from a document-based to a model-based approach. The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) sparked increasing interest when it introduced MBSE and its roadmap as part of its systems engineering vision for 2020. The MBSE roadmap spans 15 years and is the principal stimulus behind this study. This paper's main objective is to assess the current progress in the MBSE literature from 2007 to 2025 compared to the INCOSE MBSE roadmap and to identify areas needing further research attention. The paper uses bibliometric analysis techniques to identify past, present, and emerging themes within the MBSE research domain. The findings are compared to the INCOSE roadmap. The comparison shows that MBSE is increasingly applied for systems architecting. However, INCOSE's envisioned state has not been achieved. Key areas requiring further research attention are MBSE theories, standardized MBSE methodologies, MBSE standards, MBSE metrics, integration with hardware and software models, and tool interoperability. In addition, future research should focus on advancing and formalizing MBSE's role in digitalization, expanding model-based safety analysis (MBSA) methods, exploring how MBSE can support sustainable system design, and formulating adoption strategies. Continued research efforts are essential for MBSE to achieve INCOSE's vision for widespread adoption and application
Situated imagination
Get PDFImagination is often considered the pinnacle of representational cognition. Looking at the concrete details of imagining in context, this paper aims to contribute to the emerging literature that is challenging this representational view by offering a relational and radically situated alternative. On the basis of observing architects in the process of making an architectural art installation, we show how to consider imagination not as de-contextualized achievement by an individual but as an opening up to larger-scale “affordances,” i.e. the unfolding possibilities for action. We show how the architects coordinate the enactment of multiple affordances across different timescales, from small-scale affordances of picking up a mobile phone to the large-scale affordance of making the installation that takes months to unfold. These affordances get co-determined as they are jointly enacted. It is within this determining process that imagination too finds its place. On our view it is the indeterminacy of multiple affordances unfolding in action simultaneously that can be experienced as imaginative. The indeterminate character of this coordinative process allows activities to widen and open up, letting new possibilities for action enter into them.</p
The urge to search:cognitive and affective drivers of citizen searches in missing person cases
Get PDFIn missing persons cases, police often face citizen initiated searches. Though possibly beneficial (e.g., capacity), citizen involvement also carries risks (e.g., destroying evidence). It is important to manage searches, but often the police have no formal basis for cooperation and no legal means to impose restrictions. The police can only manage searches by exerting their influence at the behavioral level. Before behavioral interventions can be developed, it is necessary to understand the psychological drivers underlying citizen searches. Through a questionnaire (N = 627) based on Community Engagement Theory, Theory of Planned Behavior, and affective measures, we investigated what factors influence citizens’ intent to search. Intention related positively to affect, and beliefs about efficacy and usefulness. The only negative relationship found was for perceived authority. The results suggest that affect is a strong predictor of citizen involvement, and that strengthening perceived police authority offers opportunities to limit or redirect citizen searches where necessary.</p