19683 research outputs found
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Supply Chain Resilience: A Common Weights Efficiency Analysis with Non-discretionary and Non-controllable Inputs
No full textAbstract: Supply chain resilience (SCRes) as the supply chain network's (SCN) capacity is essential to recover from disruptions. The economic, environmental, and geopolitical regional characteristics of the Pacific region present many challenges and opportunities for building supply chain resilience. This study aims to measure the resilience of supply chains (SCs) considering the characteristics of the network under which they operate. In this study, we proposed a new common set of weights (CSW) model in data envelopment analysis to evaluate the resilience of SCNs. Many external variables beyond decision-makers’ direct control impact SC operations and their resilience. Therefore, the proposed CSW model formulates the non-discretionary and non-controllable inputs in measuring the resilience of SCNs and provides a complete ranking with a higher discrimination power. To improve SCRes, SC managers are recommended to enhance the clustering coefficient and node degree of their SCN by establishing more connections with other SCNs in order to pinpoint the essential capabilities that companies should prioritise in order to develop a stronger and more adaptable SC in the post-COVID-19 pandemic.</p
Community connection is associated with lower psychological distress for sexual minority women who view community connection positively
No full textWe examined factors associated with sexual minority women’s evaluations of belonging to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community in Australia, and assessed whether a positive view of community participation impacted levels of psychological distress. 2424 cisgender sexual minority women participated in a national, online, cross-sectional survey of LGBTIQ adult Australians’ health and well-being. Multivariable regression analyses were conducted to investigate sociodemographic factors associated with sexual minority women’s belonging to the LGBTQ community, feelings towards community connection, and associations between community connection and recent psychological distress. Most sexual minority women (58.9%) reported feeling that they are part of the LGBTQ community, and a majority of the participants felt positive about being connected to this community (68.5%). Participants who were bisexual, non-university educated, and who resided in an outer-suburban location were least likely to evaluate participation in the LGBTQ community positively. Feeling positive about community connection was associated with lower levels of psychological distress. Feeling a part of LGBTQ community was associated with lower psychological distress, but this link appears contingent upon positive feelings about community participation. Sexual minority women’s’ relationships to the LGBTQ community are often complex, and community connection and participation in and of itself is not a panacea for the negative outcomes associated with sexual minority stressors
Risk of Primary Incident Hepatitis C Infection Following Bacterial Sexually Transmissible Infections Among Gay and Bisexual Men in Australia From 2016 to 2020
No full textBackground. In Australia, the incidence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has declined among gay and bisexual men (GBM) with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) since 2015 and is low among GBM using HIV preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). However, ongoing HCV testing and treatment remains necessary to sustain this. To assess the potential utility of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) to inform HCV testing among GBM with HIV and GBM using PrEP, we examined the association between bacterial STI diagnoses and subsequent primary HCV infection. Methods. Data were from a national network of 46 clinics participating in the Australian Collaboration for Coordinated Enhanced Sentinel Surveillance. GBM included had ≥1 HCV antibody negative test result and ≥1 subsequent HCV antibody and/or RNA test. Discrete time survival analysis was used to estimate the association between a positive syphilis, rectal chlamydia, and rectal gonorrhea diagnosis in the previous 2 years and a primary HCV diagnosis, defined as a positive HCV antibody or RNA test result. Results. Among 6529 GBM with HIV, 92 (1.4%) had an incident HCV infection. A prior positive syphilis diagnosis was associated with an incident HCV diagnosis (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.99 [95% confidence interval, 1.11–3.58]). Among 13 061 GBM prescribed PrEP, 48 (0.4%) had an incident HCV diagnosis. Prior rectal chlamydia (adjusted hazard ratio, 2.75 [95% confidence interval, 1.42–5.32]) and rectal gonorrhea (2.54 [1.28–5.05]) diagnoses were associated with incident HCV. Conclusions. Diagnoses of bacterial STIs in the past 2 years was associated with HCV incidence. These findings suggest that STIs might be useful for informing HCV testing decisions and guidelines for GBM with HIV and GBM using PrEP
Democratizing accounting technologies: A case of a performance evaluation system for academics
No full textThis paper explores how a country's constitutionally imposed democracy in an academic performance evaluation system was designed and practiced. Building upon agonistic democracy and deliberative democracy perspectives, a qualitative inductive case study in a Vietnamese public university involved 52 interviews, direct observations, and the analysis of archival documents. The findings revealed three dimensions of democracy in the university's performance evaluation system, namely, democratic context, democratic discourse, and democratic outcomes. The university enforced democracy in its performance evaluation system for academics in line with the country's constitutional obligation. In such an explicit democratic context, there happened democratic discourse (debating academics’ performance in public forums) and implicit discourse (informal social interactions). The outcome of this democracy at the practice level resulted from temporary consensus supported by shared cultural values within the country's socio-political context with an understanding that it will change as with any change in the macro or micro contexts. These findings contribute to the literature by providing insights into how individuals pursue democracy in an accounting tool legally built to promote democracy through their multiple voices and collective wisdom. Thus, democratizing accounting technologies and processes, such as an academic performance evaluation system, can effectively promote democracy in multi-cultural workplaces across the globe
An object-oriented analysis of social apps, syringes and ARTs within gay Taiwanese men’s chemsex practices
No full textCritical drug studies explore the discursive and material dimensions of sexualised drug use to overcome individualised and often pathologising notions such as risk, safety, responsibility and pleasure. This article uses an object-oriented approach—following the use and flow of social apps, syringes and antiretroviral therapy (ART)—to analyse gay and bisexual Taiwanese men’s drug practices. Interview data from fourteen men are used to articulate how objects were brought into gay and bisexual men’s chemsex repertoire in ways that shaped individuals’ safe-sex communication, intimacy maintenance and stigma negotiation. An object-oriented approach scrutinises risk, pleasure and identities in assemblages of the human and nonhuman, and can help identify new opportunities for implementing health promotion interventions and policies
Australia's circular economy metrics and indicators
No full textThis article presents a comprehensive economy-wide material flow analysis of the Australian economy in 2019, examining the domestic extraction, trade, end-of-life flows, and recycling for all materials. The results highlight Australia's role as a natural resource supplier, with metals and fossil fuels being primary contributors. Through material flow analysis, we found that in 2019 Australia extracted 2587 Mt of natural resources, exported a substantial fraction (1459 Mt), and used 917 Mt to fulfill domestic needs. The recycling flows and circularity metrics are also explored, with an end-of-life recycling rate of 51.1% and an overall circularity rate of 5.1%. An additional assessment of Australia's consumption-based material footprint highlights mobility and housing as the dominant material-using sectors. These results contribute to understanding Australia's material consumption patterns, indicating significant reliance on foreign semifinished and finished products, and provide insights into the potential for enhancing economic circularity
What about young adults’ photo manipulation activity? The predictive role of body shame and the mediating effect of body esteem
No full textIn recent years, the centrality of photos on Social Networking Sites (SNSs) dramatically increased among young adults. The particular attention addressed to visual self-presentation might lead to body shame, influencing individuals’ body esteem and, likely, promoting photo manipulation (PM). Indeed, manipulating photos to alter how the body appears might be driven by the need to improve self-esteem and reduce body shame, albeit by digitally modified body image. Consequently, two studies were conducted. Study1 psychometrically evaluated the PM scale in a sample of Italian young adults (N = 922). Study2 verified the direct and indirect effect of body shame on PM, testing the mediating effect of body esteem and the moderating effect of gender (N = 595). The PM scale for young adults showed good psychometric properties. The tested mediation model revealed that body shame was both directly and indirectly associated with PM, via body esteem appearance in both male and female participants and via body esteem attribution among young men (R2 = 0.204; p </p
Mean landscape‐scale incidence of species in discrete habitats is patch size dependent
No full textAim: A pervasive negative relationship between the species richness of an assemblage and the mean global range size of the species it contains has recently been identified. Here, we test for an effect of habitat patch size on the mean landscape-scale incidence (estimating local range size) of constituent species independent of variation in richness. Location: Global. Time Period: Contemporary. Major Taxa Studied: Various. Methods: We devised a new standardized patch-scale metric, Mean Species Landscape-scale Incidences per Patch (MSLIP). Positive values indicate a patch contains more widespread (high-incidence) species than expected relative to their frequency in the landscape; negative values indicate the presence of more narrow-range (low-incidence) species. For 202 metacommunity datasets (archipelagos, habitat islands and fragments) we regressed MSLIP on patch size, testing four hypotheses: (i) no effect (zero slope), (ii) more widespread species in smaller patches (negative slope), (iii) more narrow-range species in smaller patches (positive slope), (iv) a composite effect (curvilinear/unimodal). Results: There was a generally negative curvilinear relationship between MSLIP and patch size, consistent with smaller and larger patches respectively containing more high- and low-incidence species than expected. At intermediate patch sizes, mean species incidence approximates that of the overall landscape. Relative richness mediated this relationship; species-rich sites of any size increasingly favoured low-incidence species, species-poor sites high-incidence species. Results were consistent for taxonomic groups, and metacommunity types, except aquatic habitat islands. Main Conclusions: The dependence of mean species incidence on both patch size and relative richness has implications for biodiversity and community assembly theory, or when seeking to understand ecological processes sensitive to species composition (e.g., ecosystem functioning, trophic web structures). We propose the ‘patch size where the MSLIP regression intersects zero’ as a benchmark distinguishing smaller from larger patches, with the expectation small patches preferentially support more high-incidence and large patches more low-incidence species
Single-stage object detector with attention mechanism for squamous cell carcinoma feature detection using histopathological images
No full textSquamous cell carcinoma is the most common type of cancer that occurs in squamous cells of epithelial tissue. Histopathological evaluation of tissue samples is the gold standard approach used for carcinoma diagnosis. SCC detection based on various histopathological features often employs traditional machine learning approaches or pixel-based deep CNN models. This study aims to detect keratin pearl, the most prominent SCC feature, by implementing RetinaNet one-stage object detector. Further, we enhance the model performance by incorporating an attention module. The proposed method is more efficient in detection of small keratin pearls. This is the first work detecting keratin pearl resorting to the object detection technique to the extent of our knowledge. We conducted a comprehensive assessment of the model both quantitatively and qualitatively. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach enhanced the mAP by about 4% compared to default RetinaNet model
Patterns of equipment use for autistic children in multi-sensory environments: Time spent with sensory equipment varies by sensory profile and intellectual ability
No full textMulti-sensory environments are widely used with autistic children. However, there are no data on how autistic children choose to spend time in the room and how this relates to their sensory, behavioural and intellectual profiles. We observed the frequency and duration of visits to multi-sensory environment equipment of 41 autistic children during 5 min of free play. At a group level, the bubble tube and touch, sound and light board were both highly popular, with the fibre optics and tactile board receiving less attention. Sensory seeking behaviours were more commonly observed in the multi-sensory environment than sensory-defensive behaviours. We found that observed sensory seeking behaviours, along with parent-reported sensory behaviours and non-verbal intelligence quotient, were associated with specific patterns of multi-sensory environment equipment use, but broader autistic behaviours were not. These data suggest that the multi-sensory environment equipment preferences of autistic children are related to individual differences in sensory behaviour and non-verbal intelligence quotient. This information has the potential to inform the development of best-practice multi-sensory environment guidelines that focus on individual needs. </p