17628 research outputs found
Sort by
Project-focused literature on public-private partnership (PPP) in developing countries: a critical review
Get PDFSet within the context of developing countries, we conduct a state of the art systematic review of project-focused, public-private partnership literature published between 1997 and 2021. The outcome of this review provides critical insight into trends in publication volume over time, types of projects addressed, chosen research methods, major research themes identified and their variances, but also identifies the critical challenges facing PPP projects in developing countries. More specifically, we find that for PPP projects in developing countries, the three most commonly reported challenges were 'Appropriate risk allocation and risk-sharing', 'Political support', and 'The private sector's financial strength'. We also find that in developing countries, factors such as ‘Compatibility and complementary skills among key parties', 'Competitive procurement process', 'Democracy', 'Efficient approval processes', 'Favourable legal framework', and 'Transparent and efficient procurement' are contingent problems associated with the use of PPP in construction project delivery. The main contribution of this study resides in the detailed identification, evaluation and classification of the literature. This taxonomy provides a detailed overview and evaluation of existing literature; providing for more comprehensive appreciation of PPP
Holocaust heritage digilantism on Instagram
Get PDFDiscursive, netnographic and visual methods have been applied in the past to critique self-images, providing insight into the behaviours of tourists. However, such studies have ignored reactions to self-image posts on social media, and particularly to those that are captured within sites of atrocity. Based on an analysis of Instagram, and drawing on Scheurich’s grid of social regularities, this article critiques the practice of digilantism, coding the identity variables that shape punitive attitudes towards perceived morally transgressive behaviour at Holocaust tourism sites. We propose that the presence and richness of visitor interpretation shapes the extent to which self-images are consciously organised, and where respectful consumption is deemed important, behavioural expectations should be communicated to visitors. We suggest there is a need for greater recognition that visitor behaviours are challenging to enforce, particularly in the backdrop of a public culture that embraces self-images, and the practice of sharing on social media
A model of occupational stress to assess impact of COVID-19 on critical care and redeployed nurses: a mixed-methods study
Get PDFObjective: To use the job demands−resources model of occupational stress to quantify and explain the impact of working in critical care during the COVID-19 pandemic on nurses and their employing organisation.Design: Two-phase mixed methods: a cross-sectional survey (January 2021–March 2022), with comparator baseline data from April to October 2018 (critical care nurses only), and semistructured interviews.Participants: Critical care nurses (n = 461) and nurses redeployed to critical care (n = 200) who worked in the United Kingdom National Health Service (primarily Scotland) between January 2021 and March 2022. The 2018 survey was completed by 557 critical care nurses (Scotland only). Survey response rate in Scotland was 32% but could not be determined outside Scotland. Forty-four nurses were interviewed (critical care = 28, redeployed = 16).Methods: A survey measured job demands, job resources, health impairment, work engagement and organisational outcomes. Data were compared to 2018 data. Regression analyses identified predictors of health impairment, work engagement and organisational outcomes. Semistructured interviews were conducted remotely, audio-recorded and transcribed. Data were analysed deductively using framework analysis.Findings: Three-quarters of nurses reached threshold for psychological distress, approximately 50% reached threshold for burnout emotional exhaustion and a third clinically concerning post-traumatic stress symptoms. Compared to 2018, critical care nurses were at elevated risk of probable psychological distress, odds ratio 6.03 (95% CI 4.75 to 7.95); burnout emotional exhaustion, odds ratio 4.02 (3.07 to 5.26); burnout depersonalisation, odds ratio 3.18 (1.99 to 5.07); burnout accomplishment, odds ratio 1.53 (1.18 to 1.97). There were no differences between critical care and redeployed nurses on health impairment outcomes, suggesting elevated risk would apply to redeployed nurses. Job demands increased and resources decreased during the pandemic. Higher job demands predicted greater psychological distress. Job resources reduced the negative impact of job demands on psychological distress, but this moderating effect was not observed at higher levels of demand. All organisational outcomes worsened. Lack of resources predicted worse organisational outcomes. In interviews, staff described the pace and amount, complexity, physical and emotional effort of their work as the most difficult job demands. The sustained high-demand environment impacted physical and psychological well-being, with most interviewees experiencing emotional and physical exhaustion, burnout, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Camaraderie and support from colleagues and supervisors were core job resources. The combination of sustained demands and their impact on staff well-being incurred negative organisational consequences, with increasing numbers considering leaving their specialty or nursing altogether. Dissemination events with a range of stakeholders, including study participants, identified staffing issues and lack of learning and development opportunities as problematic. Critical care nurses are concerned about the future delivery of high-quality critical care services. Positive aspects were identified, for example, reduced bureaucratic systems, increased local autonomy and decision-making, recognition of the critical care nurse skill set.Conclusions: The National Health Service needs to recognise the impact of COVID-19 on this staff group, prioritise the welfare of critical care nurses, implement workplace change/planning, and support them to recover from the pandemic. The National Health Service is struggling to retain critical care nurses and, unless staff welfare is improved, quality of care and patient safety will likely decline.Funding: This synopsis presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research as award number NIHR132068.A plain language summary of this research article is available on the NIHR Journals Library Website https://doi.org/10.3310/PWRT8714
Resource-Efficient Model-Free Adaptive Platooning Control for Vehicles With Encrypted Information
No full textThis paper addresses the challenge of resource-efficient control in vehicle platooning systems, particularly focusing on communication requirements that involve network encryption. First, we construct a virtual output function to establish a virtual dynamic linearization model for these systems. Then, we design an encoding-decoding mechanism based on a logarithmical quantizer to facilitate digitized encryption communication. Furthermore, we investigate a dead-zone-based event-triggered communication strategy, enabling users to balance costs and performances. Subsequently, we formulate an event-triggered model-free adaptive platooning control method relying solely on input and output data from the vehicle platooning systems. Finally, the convergence of the proposed method is rigorously proved, and simulation study results demonstrate the proposed method’s effectiveness
A recursive dynamic CGE approach to investigate environmental Kuznets curve
No full textThe inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation is known as environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and has been tested in many empirical studies since more than 3 decades. Technological change is one of the tools that can be used to examine the existence of EKC in CGE models. The objective is to extract EKC for G7 countries using a multi-regional CGE model and investigate the effects of some key factors affecting EKC using historical data for the period of 1861–2021. First, we have considered the effects of energy efficiency, on CO2 emissions, on carbon intensity and on economic growth. Then, EKC was extracted based on the obtained results. In addition, the effects of factors such as carbon tax, revenue recycling schemes and various types of substitution elasticities are evaluated on EKC. Our results show that, with a 3% improvement in productivity, by 2050, GDP will increase by nearly 12% and carbon emissions will decrease by 4.4%. The combination of such two effects has led to an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions. Among the elasticity of substitutions, the elasticity of substitution of capital and energy, as well as the substitution elasticity of energy inputs has the greatest effect on EKC. The slope of EKC becomes negative if a carbon tax is imposed. The EKC moves downwards if carbon tax income is transferred to the production tax-cut in renewable sectors. The results suggest that carbon tax and its allocation to renewable sectors will improve environmental effects
Event-Triggered Automatic Parking Control for Unmanned Vehicles Against DoS Attacks
No full textThis paper investigates an event-triggered model-free adaptive automatic parking (ET-MFAAP) control strategy for unmanned four-wheeled mobile vehicles, particularly addressing the challenge posed by dual-channel denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. The automatic parking control issue is first reformulated as a vehicle body angle tracking problem. A model-free adaptive automatic parking (MFAAP) method is then designed, utilizing only the front wheel steering angle and the vehicle's orientation angle without needing the vehicle's dynamics information. Furthermore, the MFAAP method is extended to an ET-MFAAP method, incorporating an event-triggering communication mechanism to reduce data transmission frequency and input and output compensation strategies to mitigate the impact of DoS attacks on both forward and feedback channels. Finally, the convergence of the control error is theoretically proven, and the effectiveness of the proposed approaches is validated through simulation studies
Právo EU pro praxi: aplikační a výkladová úskalí v kontextu případových studií.
No full textEuropean Union law has been an important part of the Czech legal system for 20 years, which is evident from the numerous references to EU law in national laws. This book, written on the basis of the author's wide range of experience in practice in the legal profession, in public administration, in European institutions and in the private sector, deals with practical issues related to EU law, its interpretation and application.The book provides useful information on how to navigate the complex environment of EU law, with practical examples and studies, including visually comprehensible guides to help readers apply EU law more effectively in different legal areas. The author's belief is that understanding and correctly applying the principles of EU law can improve legal practice and help reduce misunderstandings between national and EU law. It aims to facilitate the work with EU law and to make it more familiar not only to law students, but mainly to professionals in practice, whether they encounter EU law in their daily activities or sporadically
The delta concept does not effectively normalise exercise responses to exhaustive interval training
Get PDFObjectives This study was designed to quantify inter- and intra-individual variability in performance, physiological, and perceptual responses to high-intensity interval training (HIIT) prescribed using the percentage of delta (%Δ) method, in which the gas exchange threshold and maximal oxygen uptake (V̇O2max) are taken into account to normalise relative exercise intensity.Design Repeated-measures, within-subjects design with mixed-effects modelling.Method Eighteen male and four female cyclists (age: 36 ± 12 years, height: 178 ± 10 cm, body mass: 75.2 ± 13.7 kg, V̇O2max: 51.6 ± 5.3 ml·kg-1·min-1) undertook an incremental test to exhaustion to determine the gas exchange threshold and V̇O2max as prescription benchmarks. On separate occasions, participants then completed four HIIT sessions of identical intensity (70%Δ) and format (4-min on, 2- min off); all performed to exhaustion. Acute HIIT responses were modelled with participant as a random effect to provide estimates of inter- and intra-individual variability.Results Greater variability was generally observed at the between- compared with the within-individual level, ranging from 50% to 89% and from 11% to 50% of the total variability, respectively. For the group mean time to exhaustion of 20.3 min, inter- and intra-individual standard deviations reached 9.3 min (CV = 46%) and 4.5 min (CV = 22%), respectively.Conclusions Due to the high variability observed, the %Δ method does not effectively normalise the relative intensity of exhaustive HIIT across individuals. The generally larger inter- versus intraindividual variability suggests that day-to-day biological fluctuations and/or measurement errors cannot explain the identified shortcoming of the method
SAR Ship Instance Segmentation With Dynamic Key Points Information Enhancement
Get PDFThere are several unresolved issues in the field of ship instance segmentation in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. First, in inshore dense ship area, the problems of missed detections and mask overlap frequently occur. Second, in inshore scenes, false alarms occur due to strong clutter interference. In order to address these issues, we propose a novel ship instance segmentation network based on dynamic key points information enhancement. In the detection branch of the network, a dynamic key points module is designed to incorporate the target's geometric information into the parameters of the dynamic mask head using an implicit encoding technique. In addition, we introduce a dynamic key points encoding branch, which encodes the target's strong scattering regions as dynamic key points. It strengthens the network's ability to learn the correspondence between local regions with strong scattering and overall ship targets, effectively mitigating mask overlap issues. Moreover, it enhances the discriminative ability of network between ship targets and clutter interference, leading to a reduction in false alarm rates. To further enhance the dynamic key points information, an instancewise attention map module is designed, which decodes the key points during the mask prediction period, generating instancewise attention maps based on 2-D Gaussian distribution. This module further enhances the sensibility of network to specific instances. Simulation experiments conducted on the Polygon Segmentation SAR Ship Detection Dataset and High-Resolution SAR Images Dataset demonstrate the superiority of our proposed method over other state-of-the-art methods in inshore and offshore scenes
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Repository@Napier? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!