Search results for: hierarchical Bayesian framework

Authors: Schröde C., Rodriguez D., Sánchez A., Abdul Malak, Churchill J., Boksmati T., Alharbi, Alsulmi H., Maghrabi S., Mowalad, Mutwalli R., Abualnaja Y.

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Formulating a strategy for sustainable development of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s coastal and marine environment is at the core of the “Marine and Coastal Protection Assessment Study for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Coastline (MCEP)”; that was set up in the context of the Vision 2030 by the Saudi Arabian government and aimed at providing a first comprehensive ‘Status Quo Assessment’ of the Kingdom’s marine environment to inform a sustainable development strategy and serve as a baseline assessment for future monitoring activities. This baseline assessment relied on scientific evidence of the drivers, pressures and their impact on the environments of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. A key element of the assessment was the cumulative pressure hotspot analysis developed for both national waters of the Kingdom following the principles of the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework and using the cumulative pressure and impact assessment methodology. The ultimate goals of the analysis were to map and assess the main hotspots of environmental pressures, and identify priority areas for further field surveillance and for urgent management actions. The study identified maritime transport, fisheries, aquaculture, oil, gas, energy, coastal industry, coastal and maritime tourism, and urban development as the main drivers of pollution in the Saudi Arabian marine waters. For each of these drivers, pressure indicators were defined to spatially assess the potential influence of the drivers on the coastal and marine environment. A list of hotspots of 90 locations could be identified based on the assessment. Spatially grouped the list could be reduced to come up with of 10 hotspot areas, two in the Arabian Gulf, 8 in the Red Sea. The hotspot mapping revealed clear spatial patterns of drivers, pressures and hotspots within the marine environment of waters under KSA’s maritime jurisdiction in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf. The cascading assessment approach based on the DPSIR framework ensured that the root causes of the hotspot patterns, i.e. the human activities and other drivers, can be identified. The adapted CPIA methodology allowed for the combination of the available data to spatially assess the cumulative pressure in a consistent manner, and to identify the most critical hotspots by determining the overlap of cumulative pressure with areas of sensitive biodiversity. Further improvements are expected by enhancing the data sources of drivers and pressure indicators, fine-tuning the decay factors and distances of the pressure indicators, as well as including trans-boundary pressures across the regional seas.

Keywords: Arabian Gulf, DPSIR, hotspot, red sea

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Authors: Lydia Tan, Philippe Lemey, Lieselot Houspie, Marco Viveen, Darren Martin, Frank Coenjaerts

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Introduction: Human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) is the leading cause of severe respiratory tract infections in infants under the age of two. Genomic substitutions and related evolutionary dynamics of hRSV are of great influence on virus transmission behavior. The evolutionary patterns formed are due to a precarious interplay between the host immune response and RSV, thereby selecting the most viable and less immunogenic strains. Studying genomic profiles can teach us which genes and consequent proteins play an important role in RSV survival and transmission dynamics. Study design: In this study, genetic diversity and evolutionary rate analysis were conducted on 36 RSV subgroup B whole genome sequences and 37 subgroup A genome sequences. Clinical RSV isolates were obtained from nasopharyngeal aspirates and swabs of children between 2 weeks and 5 years old of age. These strains, collected during epidemic seasons from 2001 to 2011 in the Netherlands and Belgium by either conventional or 454-sequencing. Sequences were analyzed for genetic diversity, recombination events, synonymous/non-synonymous substitution ratios, epistasis, and translational consequences of mutations were mapped to known 3D protein structures. We used Bayesian statistical inference to estimate the rate of RSV genome evolution and the rate of variability across the genome. Results: The A and B profiles were described in detail and compared to each other. Overall, the majority of the whole RSV genome is highly conserved among all strains. The attachment protein G was the most variable protein and its gene had, similar to the non-coding regions in RSV, more elevated (two-fold) substitution rates than other genes. In addition, the G gene has been identified as the major target for diversifying selection. Overall, less gene and protein variability was found within RSV-B compared to RSV-A and most protein variation between the subgroups was found in the F, G, SH and M2-2 proteins. For the F protein mutations and correlated amino acid changes are largely located in the F2 ligand-binding domain. The small hydrophobic phosphoprotein and nucleoprotein are the most conserved proteins. The evolutionary rates were similar in both subgroups (A: 6.47E-04, B: 7.76E-04 substitution/site/yr), but estimates of the time to the most recent common ancestor were much lower for RSV-B (B: 19, A: 46.8 yrs), indicating that there is more turnover in this subgroup. Conclusion: This study provides a detailed description of whole RSV genome mutations, the effect on translation products and the first estimate of the RSV genome evolution tempo. The immunogenic G protein seems to require high substitution rates in order to select less immunogenic strains and other conserved proteins are most likely essential to preserve RSV viability. The resulting G gene variability makes its protein a less interesting target for RSV intervention methods. The more conserved RSV F protein with less antigenic epitope shedding is, therefore, more suitable for developing therapeutic strategies or vaccines.

Keywords: drug target selection, epidemiology, respiratory syncytial virus, RSV

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Authors: Sharjeel Aslam, Vassil Vassilev, Karim Ouazzane

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Ontologies and various semantic repositories became a convenient approach for implementing model-driven architectures of distributed systems on the Web. SPARQL is the standard query language for querying such. However, although SPARQL is well-established standard for querying semantic repositories in RDF and OWL format and there are commonly used APIs which supports it, like Jena for Java, its parallel option is not incorporated in them. This article presents a complete framework consisting of an object algebra for parallel RDF and an index-based implementation of the parallel query engine capable of dealing with the distributed RDF ontologies which share common vocabulary. It has been implemented in Java, and for validation of the algorithms has been applied to the problem of organizing virtual exhibitions on the Web.

Keywords: distributed ontologies, parallel querying, semantic indexing, shared vocabulary, SPARQL

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Authors: Kalayanee Senasu

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Research on happiness has been growing in recent decades. In the early stages, scholars were primarily concerned with establishing the validity of happiness measures and with exploring socio-economic correlates of happiness. More recent studies have focused on outcomes of happiness as well as the identification of happiness policies. This research investigates the happiness levels and influences of quality of life in terms of mental health satisfaction, family satisfaction, community satisfaction, and work satisfaction as determinants of happiness in Thailand during 2009-2014. The data collected by the National Statistic Office of Thailand in the project of Socio-economic Survey inclusion of Mental Health Survey in 2009, 2010, and 2012; and in the project of Labor Force Survey inclusion of Mental Health Survey in August 2014 were employed. There was a total of 59,430, 64,720, 54,736, and 9,997 respondents who were at least 15 years old in the survey during 2009-2014. Statistical analyses include both descriptive and inferential statistics. All research hypotheses were tested by means of hierarchical regression analysis. The analysis results reveal that happiness means during the studied period are quite at high levels (in the range of 7.42 to 7.60 from the scale 0-10). And the results indicate that all model variables (i.e., mental health satisfaction, family satisfaction, community satisfaction, and work satisfaction), have positive effects on happiness in Thailand. Additionally, the mental health satisfaction plays the most important role in predicting happiness. Further, our results indicate significant positive relationship between education, and income/expense and happiness, while other socio-economic variables reveal variety relationships during the studied period. Our results not only validate research findings in other countries but also verify the importance of quality of life (in terms of mental health satisfaction, family satisfaction, community satisfaction, and work satisfaction) as important factors of happiness for public policy makers. One conclusion stands firm in our study: happiness can be advanced in many ways. At the society level, greater happiness for people can be achieved by policies that aim to promote good health, an engaged family relationship, a high community as well as work qualities. A contented population is advantaged in many ways over one that is not. Government or policy makers should understand and realize that happiness is a valuable and tangible aspect of the population for which they are responsible. Therefore, they should include happiness issues in their political agenda.

Keywords: community satisfaction, family satisfaction, mental health satisfaction, work satisfaction, happiness, Thailand

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Authors: Liam Martin, Martha Watson

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Patients with learning disabilities (LD) are at increased risk of physical and mental illness due to health inequality. To address this, NICE recommends that people from the age of 14 with a learning disability should have an annual LD health check. This consultation should include a holistic review of the patient’s physical, mental and social health needs with a view of creating an action plan to support the patient’s care. The expected standard set by the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is that each general practice should review at least 75% of their LD patients annually. During COVID-19, there have been barriers to primary care, including health anxiety, the shift to online general practice and the increase in GP workloads. A surgery in North London wanted to assess whether they were falling short of the expected standard for LD patient annual reviews in order to optimize care post Covid-19. A baseline audit was completed to assess how many LD patients were receiving their annual reviews over the period of 29th September 2020 to 29th September 2021. This information was accessed using EMIS Web Health Care System (EMIS). Patients included were aged 14 and over as per QOF standards. Doctors were not notified of this audit taking place. Following the results of this audit, the creation of learning disability clinics was recommended. These clinics were recommended to be on the ground floor and should be a dedicated time for LD reviews. A re-audit was performed via the same process 6 months later in March 2022. At the time of the baseline audit, there were 71 patients aged 14 and over that were on the LD register. 54% of these LD patients were found to have documentation of an annual LD review within the last 12 months. None of the LD patients between the ages of 14-18 years old had received their annual review. The results were discussed with the practice, and dedicated clinics were set up to review their LD patients. A second pass of the audit was completed 6 months later. This showed an improvement, with 84% of the LD patients registered at the surgery now having a documented annual review within the last 12 months. 78% of the patients between the ages of 14-18 years old had now been reviewed. The baseline audit revealed that the practice was not meeting the expected standard for LD patient’s annual health checks as outlined by QOF, with the most neglected patients being between the ages of 14-18. Identification and awareness of this vulnerable cohort is important to ensure measures can be put into place to support their physical, mental and social wellbeing. Other practices could consider an audit of their annual LD health checks to make sure they are practicing within QOF standards, and if there is a shortfall, they could consider implementing similar actions as used here; dedicated clinics for LD patient reviews.

Keywords: COVID-19, learning disability, learning disability health review, quality and outcomes framework

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Authors: Zolani Metu

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The death of more than 140 psychiatric patients who were unethically deinstitutionalized from the Life Esidimeni hospital Johannesburg, in 2016, shined a light on South Africa’s failing public mental healthcare system. Compounded by insufficient research evidence on African deinstitutionalization, this necessitates inquiries into deinstitutionalized mental healthcare, reintegration and community-based mental healthcare within the South African context. This study employed a quantitative research approach which utilized a cross-sectional research design, to investigate experiences with the reintegration of institutionalized forensic mental health service users into communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. A convenience sample of 100 mental health care workers from different occupational and organizational backgrounds in the Western Cape was purposively selected using the Western Cape Health Directorate as a sampling frame. A self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) was used as the data collection instrument. The results of the study indicate that criminogenic factors such as substance use, history of violent behaviour, criminal history and disruptive social behaviour complicate the reintegration of forensic mental health service users into communities. The current extent of reintegration of forensic mental health service users was found to be 'poor' (46%; n= 46); and financial difficulties, criminogenic factors and limited Community-Based Care (CBC) facilities were identified as key barriers to the reintegration process. 56% of all job applications for forensic mental health service users were unsuccessful, and 53% of all applications for their admission into CBC facilities were declined. Although social support (informal) was found to be essential for successful reintegration, institutional support (formal) through assertive community treatment (35%; n= 35) and CBC facilities (21%) and the disability grant (DG=50%) was found to be more important for family coping and reintegration. Moreover, 72% of respondents had positive perceptions about the process of reintegration; no statistically significant relationship was found between years of experience and perceptions about reintegration (P-value = 0.062); and perceptions were not found to be a barrier to reintegration. No statistically significant relationship was found between years of working experience and understanding the legislative framework of deinstitutionalization (P-Value =.0.061). However, using a Chi-square test, a significant relationship (P-value = 0.021) was found between sex and understanding the legal framework involved in the process of reintegration. The study recommends a post-2020 deinstitutionalization agenda that factors-in criminogenic realities associated with forensic mental health service users, and affirms the strengthening of PHC and community based care systems as precedents of successful deinstitutionalization and reintegration of mental health service users.

Keywords: forensic mental health, deinstitutionalization, reintegration, mental health service users

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Authors: Magdalena Jablonska, Andrzej Falkowski

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The negativity effect is one of the most intriguing and well-studied psychological phenomena that can be observed in many areas of human life. The aim of the following study is to investigate how valence framing and positive and negative information about political candidates affect judgments about similarity to an ideal and bad politician. Based on the theoretical framework of features of similarity, it is hypothesized that negative features have a stronger effect on similarity judgments than positive features of comparable value. Furthermore, the mediating role of affect is tested. Method: One hundred sixty-one people took part in an experimental study. Participants were divided into 6 research conditions that differed in the reference point (positive vs negative framing) and the number of favourable and unfavourable information items about political candidates (a positive, neutral and negative candidate profile). In positive framing condition, the concept of an ideal politician was primed; in the negative condition, participants were to think about a bad politician. The effect of independent variables on similarity judgments, affective evaluation, and voting intention was tested. Results: In the positive condition, the analysis showed that the negative effect of additional unfavourable features was greater than the positive effect of additional favourable features in judgements about similarity to the ideal candidate. In negative framing condition, ANOVA was insignificant, showing that neither the addition of positive features nor additional negative information had a significant impact on the similarity to a bad political candidate. To explain this asymmetry, two mediational analyses were conducted that tested the mediating role of affect in the relationship between similarity judgments and voting intention. In both situations the mediating effect was significant, but the comparison of two models showed that the mediation was stronger for a negative framing. Discussion: The research supports the negativity effect and attempts to explain the psychological mechanism behind the positive-negative asymmetry. The results of mediation analyses point to a stronger mediating role of affect in the relationship between cognitive evaluation and voting intention. Such a result suggests that negative comparisons, leading to the activation of negative features, give rise to stronger emotions than positive features of comparable strength. The findings are in line with positive-negative asymmetry, however, by adopting Tversky’s framework of features of similarity, the study integrates the cognitive mechanism of the negativity effect delineated in the contrast model of similarity with its emotional component resulting from the asymmetrical effect of positive and negative emotions on decision-making.

Keywords: affect, framing, negativity effect, positive-negative asymmetry, similarity judgements

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Authors: Mengjun Yang, Zhulin Zong, Jie Gao

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In this paper, a new and robust algorithm is proposed to achieve high resolution for inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging in the compressive sensing (CS) framework. Traditional CS based methods have to assume that unknown scatters exactly lie on the pre-divided grids; otherwise, their reconstruction performance dropped significantly. In this processing algorithm, several basis shifts are utilized to achieve the same effect as grid refinement does. The detailed implementation of the basis shift algorithm is presented in this paper. From the simulation we can see that using the basis shift algorithm, imaging precision can be improved. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method are investigated by the simulation results.

Keywords: ISAR imaging, sparse reconstruction, off-grid, basis shift

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Authors: Busra Gulnihan Dascıoglu, Ozalp Vayvay, Zeynep Tugce Kalender

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Humanitarian supply chain management has gain popularity in recent years in research fields. The aim of this paper is to review the literature on humanitarian operations and crisis/disaster management from 2010 to latest researches in order to identify the current research and to provide direction for future research in this growing field. Researches are classified considering the research publication year, research fields. Articles from humanitarian supply chain management were reviewed, keywords were identified within a disaster management lifecycle framework. Research gaps are identified for future research areas.

Keywords: crisis, disaster, humanitarian supply chain management, relief operations

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Authors: Karin Johansson, Ola Johansson

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Recycling is an important aspect of a sustainable society and depends to a large extent on consumers’ willingness to provide the voluntary work needed to take the first critical step in many return logistics systems. Based on a systematic review of articles on recycling behavior, this paper presents and discusses the findings in relation to Fogg’s Behavioral Model (FBM). Through the analysis of a corpus of 72 articles, the most important research contributions on recycling behavior are summarized and discussed. The choice of using FBM as a framework provides a new way of viewing previous research findings, and aids in identifying knowledge gaps. Based on the review, this work identifies and discusses four areas of potential interest for future research.

Keywords: recycling, reverse logistics, solid waste management, sustainability

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Authors: Ho Yuan-Hong, Huang Chiung-Ju

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This study conducts simulation analyses to find the optimal debt ceiling of Taiwan, while factoring in welfare maximization under a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium framework. The simulation is based on Taiwan's 2001 to 2011 economic data and shows that welfare is maximized at a "debt"⁄"GDP" ratio of 0.2, increases in the "debt"⁄"GDP " ratio leads to increases in both tax and interest rates and decreases in the consumption ratio and working hours. The study results indicate that the optimal debt ceiling of Taiwan is 20% of GDP, where if the "debt"⁄"GDP" ratio is greater than 40%, the welfare will be negative and result in welfare loss.

Keywords: debt sustainability, optimal debt ceiling, dynamic stochastic general equilibrium, welfare maximization

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Authors: Dev Pratap Singh, Harshika Hasija, Ashwini S.

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The project aims to provide a touchless, intuitive interface for human-computer interaction, enabling users to control their computers using hand gestures and voice commands. The system leverages advanced computer vision techniques using the Media Pipe framework and OpenCV to detect and interpret real-time hand gestures, transforming them into mouse actions such as clicking, dragging, and scrolling. Additionally, the integration of a voice assistant powered by the speech recognition library allows for seamless execution of tasks like web searches, location navigation, and gesture control in the system through voice commands.

Keywords: gesture recognition, hand tracking, machine learning, convolutional neural networks, natural language processing, voice assistant

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Authors: Ben G. Weber, Michael Mateas

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We present a case-based reasoning technique for selecting build orders in a real-time strategy game. The case retrieval process generalizes features of the game state and selects cases using domain-specific recall methods, which perform exact matching on a subset of the case features. We demonstrate the performance of the technique by implementing it as a component of the integrated agent framework of McCoy and Mateas. Our results demonstrate that the technique outperforms nearest-neighbor retrieval when imperfect information is enforced in a real-time strategy game.

Keywords: case based reasoning, real time strategy systems, requirements elicitation, requirement analyst, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Sudikshya Bhandari, Jonathan K. London

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Barpak in northern Nepal represents a unique identity expressed through the local rituals, values, lifeways and the styles of vernacular architecture. The traditional residential buildings and construction practices adopted by the dominant ethnic groups: Ghales and Gurungs, reflect environmental, social, cultural and economic concerns. However, most of these buildings did not survive the Gorkha earthquake in 2015 that made many residents skeptical about their strength to resist future disasters. This led Barpak residents to prefer modern housing designs primarily for the strength but additionally for convenience and access to earthquake relief funds. Post-earthquake reconstruction has transformed the cohesive community, developed over hundreds of years into a haphazard settlement with the imposition of externally-driven building models. Housing guidelines provided for the community reconstruction and earthquake resilience have been used as a singular template, similar to other communities on different geographical locations. The design and construction of these buildings do not take into account the local, historical, environmental, social, cultural and economic context of Barpak. In addition to the physical transformation of houses and the settlement, the consequences continue to develop challenges to sustainability. This paper identifies the major challenges for environmental sustainability with the construction of new houses in post-earthquake Barpak. Mixed methods such as interviews, focus groups, site observation, and documentation, and analysis of housing and neighborhood design have been used for data collection. The discernible changing situation of this settlement due to the new housing has included reduced climatic adaptation and thermal comfort, increased consumption of agricultural land and water, minimized use of local building materials, and an increase in energy demand. The research has identified that reconstruction housing practices happening in Barpak, while responding to crucial needs for disaster recovery and resilience, are also leading this community towards an unsustainable future. This study has also integrated environmental, social, cultural and economic parameters into an assessment framework that could be used to develop place-based design guidelines in the context of other post-earthquake reconstruction efforts. This framework seeks to minimize the unintended repercussions of unsustainable reconstruction interventions, support the vitality of vernacular architecture and traditional lifeways and respond to context-based needs in coordination with residents.

Keywords: earthquake, environment, reconstruction, sustainability

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Authors: Jian Zheng, Yoshiyasu Takahashi, Yuichi Kobayashi, Tatsuhiro Sato

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In the study, we present a conceptual framework for developing a scheduling system that can generate self-explanatory and easy-understanding schedules. To this end, a user interface is conceived to help planners record factors that are considered crucial in scheduling, as well as internal and external sources relating to such factors. A hybrid approach combining machine learning and constraint programming is developed to generate schedules and the corresponding factors, and accordingly display them on the user interface. Effects of the proposed system on scheduling are discussed, and it is expected that scheduling efficiency and system understandability will be improved, compared with previous scheduling systems.

Keywords: constraint programming, factors considered in scheduling, machine learning, scheduling system

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Authors: Lin Cheng, Zijiang Yang

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Program synthesis is the task to automatically generate programs based on user specification. In this paper, we present a framework that synthesizes programs from flow charts that serve as accurate and intuitive specification. In order doing so, we propose a deep neural network called GRCNN that recognizes graph structure from its image. GRCNN is trained end-to-end, which can predict edge and node information of the flow chart simultaneously. Experiments show that the accuracy rate to synthesize a program is 66.4%, and the accuracy rates to recognize edge and node are 94.1% and 67.9%, respectively. On average, it takes about 60 milliseconds to synthesize a program.

Keywords: program synthesis, flow chart, specification, graph recognition, CNN

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Authors: Shadan Dwairi

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Defining proper requirements is one of the key factors for a successful construction projects. Although there have been many attempts put forward in assist in identifying requirements, but still this area is under developed. In Buildings Information Modelling (BIM) projects. The Employer Information Requirements (EIR) is the fundamental requirements document and a necessary ingredient in achieving a successful BIM project. The provision on full and clear EIR is essential to achieving BIM Level-2. As Defined by PAS 1192-2, EIR is a “pre-tender document that sets out the information to be delivered and the standards and processes to be adopted by the supplier as part of the project delivery process”. It also notes that “EIR should be incorporated into tender documentation to enable suppliers to produce an initial BIM Execution Plan (BEP)”. The importance of effective definition of EIR lies in its contribution to a better productivity during the construction process in terms of cost and time, in addition to improving the quality of the built asset. Proper and clear information is a key aspect of the EIR, in terms of the information it contains and more importantly the information the client receives at the end of the project that will enable the effective management and operation of the asset, where typically about 60%-80% of the cost is spent. This paper reports on the research done in developing the Ontology-based tool for Employer Information Requirements (OntEIR). OntEIR has proven the ability to produce a full and complete set of EIRs, which ensures that the clients’ information needs for the final model delivered by BIM is clearly defined from the beginning of the process. It also reports on the work being done into transforming OntEIR into a smart tool for Defining Employer Information Requirements (smartEIR). smartEIR transforms the OntEIR tool into enabling it to develop custom EIR- tailored for the: Project Type, Project Requirements, and the Client Capabilities. The initial idea behind smartEIR is moving away from the notion “One EIR fits All”. smartEIR utilizes the links made in OntEIR and creating a 3D matrix that transforms it into a smart tool. The OntEIR tool is based on the OntEIR framework that utilizes both Ontology and the Decomposition of Goals to elicit and extract the complete set of requirements needed for a full and comprehensive EIR. A new ctaegorisation system for requirements is also introduced in the framework and tool, which facilitates the understanding and enhances the clarification of the requirements especially for novice clients. Findings of the evaluation of the tool that was done with experts in the industry, showed that the OntEIR tool contributes towards effective and efficient development of EIRs that provide a better understanding of the information requirements as requested by BIM, and support the production of a complete BIM Execution Plan (BEP) and a Master Information Delivery Plan (MIDP).

Keywords: building information modelling, employer information requirements, ontology, web-based, tool

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Authors: Muhammad Abdul Basit Memon

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The importance of organizational knowledge sharing and knowledge management has been documented in numerous research studies in available literature, since knowledge sharing has been recognized as a founding pillar for superior organizational performance and a source of gaining competitive advantage. Built on this, most of the successful organizations perceive knowledge management and knowledge sharing as a concern of high strategic importance and spend huge amounts on the effective management and sharing of organizational knowledge. However, despite some very serious endeavors, many firms fail to capitalize on the benefits of knowledge sharing because of being unaware of the individual characteristics, interpersonal, organizational and contextual factors that influence knowledge sharing; simply the antecedent to knowledge sharing. The extant literature on antecedents to knowledge sharing, offers a range of antecedents mentioned in a number of research articles and research studies. Some of the previous studies about antecedents to knowledge sharing, studied antecedents to knowledge sharing regarding inter-organizational knowledge transfer; others focused on inter and intra organizational knowledge sharing and still others investigated organizational factors. Some of the organizational antecedents to KS can relate to the characteristics and underlying aspects of knowledge being shared e.g., specificity and complexity of the underlying knowledge to be transferred; others relate to specific organizational characteristics e.g., age and size of the organization, decentralization and absorptive capacity of the firm and still others relate to the social relations and networks of organizations such as social ties, trusting relationships, and value systems. In the same way some researchers have highlighted on only one aspect like organizational commitment, transformational leadership, knowledge-centred culture, learning and performance orientation and social network-based relationships in the organizations. A bulk of the existing research articles on antecedents to knowledge sharing has mainly discussed organizational or environmental factors affecting knowledge sharing. However, the focus, later on, shifted towards the analysis of individuals or personal determinants as antecedents for the individual’s engagement in knowledge sharing activities, like personality traits, attitude and self efficacy etc. For example, employees’ goal orientations (i.e. learning orientation or performance orientation is an important individual antecedent of knowledge sharing behaviour. While being consistent with the existing literature therefore, the antecedents to knowledge sharing can be classified as being individual and organizational. This paper is an endeavor to discuss a conceptual framework of the individual and organizational antecedents to knowledge sharing in the light of the available literature and empirical evidence. This model not only can help in getting familiarity and comprehension on the subject matter by presenting a holistic view of the antecedents to knowledge sharing as discussed in the literature, but can also help the business managers and especially human resource managers to find insights about the salient features of organizational knowledge sharing. Moreover, this paper can help provide a ground for research students and academicians to conduct both qualitative as well and quantitative research and design an instrument for conducting survey on the topic of individual and organizational antecedents to knowledge sharing.

Keywords: antecedents to knowledge sharing, knowledge management, individual and organizational, organizational knowledge sharing

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Authors: Ariyan S. Araghi, Guy C. Jackson, Stephen J. Bonsor

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Materials & Methods: A systematic literature search was undertaken using pre-determined inclusion and exclusion criteria. This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systemic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement. Several databases were used to search for randomised control trials and longitudinal cohort studies, which were published less than thirty years ago. A total of 54 studies met the predefined inclusion criteria. Four studies reviewed the success, survival, and failure characteristics of zirconia framework resin retained bridges, whilst two reviewed non-precious metal resin retained bridges. Results: The analysis of the studies revealed an overall survival rate of 95.9% for zirconia-based restorations compared to 90.7% for non-precious metal frameworks. Non-precious metal resin retained bridges displayed a higher overall failure rate of 11.9% compared to 4.6% for zirconia-based restorations in the analysed papers. The most frequent complications were wing debonding for the non-precious metal wing group, whereas substructure fracture and veneering ceramic fracture were more prevalent for the zirconia arm of the study. Conclusion: Both types of resin retained bridges provide effective medium to long-term survival. Zirconia-based frameworks will provide marginally increased success and survival and greatly improved aesthetics. However, catastrophic failure is more likely with zirconia-based restorations. Non-precious metal is time tested but performs worse than its zirconia counterpart with regards to longevity; it does not exhibit the same framework fractures as zirconia. Cement choice and attention to the adhesive bonding systems used appear to be paramount to restoration longevity with both restoration subtypes. Furthermore, improved longevity can be seen when air particle abrasion is incorporated into the adhesive protocol. Within the limitations of this study, it has been determined that zirconia-based resin retained bridges can be effectively used in anterior cantilever bridges. Clinical Significance: Zirconia-based resin retained bridges have been demonstrating promising results in terms of improved success and survival characteristics, together with improved aesthetics when compared to non-precious metal winged resin retained bridges. Their popularity is increasing in the age of digital dentistry as many restorations are manufactured using such technology. It is essential that clinicians understand the limitations of each material type and principles of adhesion to ensure restoration longevity.

Keywords: resin retained bridge, fixed partial denture, zirconia bridge, adhesive bridge

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Authors: Masud Ibrahim

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in Ghana. The sample of the study comprised 450 bank customers from universal banks operating in Ghana. A conceptual framework was framed from a revised TAM model. A total of nine hypotheses were developed and tested using Structural Equation Modeling Technique. Findings from this study revealed that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are influenced positively by design and perceived security. Also, perceived ease of use, social influence and perceived security risk were found to have a strong influence on mobile banking app adoption intention. This study provides significant insights and implications for banking organizations on how to ensure the adoption and usage of their mobile banking apps.

Keywords: mobile banking app, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, technology acceptance model

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Authors: Nawab Yousuf Ali, S. Golam, A. Ameer, Ashok Toru Roy

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This paper develops new morphological rules suitable for Bangla repetition words to be incorporated into an inter lingua representation called Universal Networking Language (UNL). The proposed rules are to be used to combine verb roots and their inflexions to produce words which are then combined with other similar types of words to generate repetition words. This paper outlines the format of morphological rules for different types of repetition words that come from verb roots based on the framework of UNL provided by the UNL centre of the Universal Networking Digital Language (UNDL) foundation.

Keywords: Universal Networking Language (UNL), universal word (UW), head word (HW), Bangla-UNL Dictionary, morphological rule, enconverter (EnCo)

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Authors: Nonso Ochinanwata, Patrick Oseloka Ezepue

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This paper explores the process of creating and capturing born-global firm opportunities. It reviews the key constructs that underpin the establishment of born-global firms in sub-Saharan Africa. These include entrepreneurial orientation, resources and capabilities, collaboration, and contextual influences. The paper discusses how individuals and entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa can establish home-based born-global firms that seek early international markets from inception. The paper suggests that sub-Saharan African governments should make a favourable microeconomics policy that will enable entrepreneurs and firms to acquire some certain minimal resources and capabilities, in order to develop global products and services.

Keywords: born global-firms, collaboration, internationalisation, dynamic capabilities, entrepreneurship, sub-Saharan Africa

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Authors: Joan Casas-Roma

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Technology has become one of the main channels through which people engage in most of their everyday activities; from working to learning, or even when socializing, technology often acts as both an enabler and a mediator of such activities. Moreover, the affordances and interactions created by those technological tools determine the way in which the users interact with one another, as well as how they relate to the relevant environment, thus favoring certain kinds of actions and behaviors while discouraging others. In this regard, virtue ethics theories place a strong focus on a person's daily practice (understood as their decisions, actions, and behaviors) as the means to develop and enhance their habits and ethical competences --such as their awareness and sensitivity towards certain ethically-desirable principles. Under this understanding of ethics, this set of technologically-enabled affordances and interactions can be seen as the possibility space where the daily practice of their users takes place in a wide plethora of contexts and situations. At this point, the following question pops into mind: could these affordances and interactions be shaped in a way that would promote behaviors and habits basedonethically-desirable principles into their users? In the field of game design, the MDA framework (which stands for Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics) explores how the interactions enabled within the possibility space of a game can lead to creating certain experiences and provoking specific reactions to the players. In this sense, these interactions can be shaped in ways thatcreate experiences to raise the players' awareness and sensitivity towards certain topics or principles. This research brings together the notions of technological affordances, the notions of practice and practical wisdom from virtue ethics, and the MDA framework from game design in order to explore how the possibility space created by technological interactions can be shaped in ways that enable and promote actions and behaviors supporting certain ethically-desirable principles. When shaped accordingly, interactions supporting certain ethically-desirable principlescould allow their users to carry out the kind of practice that, according to virtue ethics theories, provides the grounds to develop and enhance their awareness, sensitivity, and ethical reasoning capabilities. Moreover, and because ethical practice can happen collaterally in almost every context, decision, and action, this additional layer could potentially be applied in a wide variety of technological tools, contexts, and functionalities. This work explores the theoretical background, as well as the initial considerations and steps that would be needed in order to harness the potential ethically-desirable benefits that technology can bring, once it is understood as the space where most of their users' daily practice takes place.

Keywords: ethics, design methodology, human-computer interaction, philosophy of technology

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Authors: M. De Iuliis, O. Kammouh, G. P. Cimellaro, S. Tesfamariam

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Community Resilience has gained a significant attention due to the recent unexpected natural and man-made disasters. Resilience is the process of maintaining livable conditions in the event of interruptions in normally available services. Estimating the resilience of systems, ranging from individuals to communities, is a formidable task due to the complexity involved in the process. The most challenging parameter involved in the resilience assessment is the 'downtime'. Downtime is the time needed for a system to recover its services following a disaster event. Estimating the exact downtime of a system requires a lot of inputs and resources that are not always obtainable. The uncertainties in the downtime estimation are usually handled using probabilistic methods, which necessitates acquiring large historical data. The estimation process also involves ignorance, imprecision, vagueness, and subjective judgment. In this paper, a fuzzy-based approach to estimate the downtime of building structures following earthquake events is proposed. Fuzzy logic can integrate descriptive (linguistic) knowledge and numerical data into the fuzzy system. This ability allows the use of walk down surveys, which collect data in a linguistic or a numerical form. The use of fuzzy logic permits a fast and economical estimation of parameters that involve uncertainties. The first step of the method is to determine the building’s vulnerability. A rapid visual screening is designed to acquire information about the analyzed building (e.g. year of construction, structural system, site seismicity, etc.). Then, a fuzzy logic is implemented using a hierarchical scheme to determine the building damageability, which is the main ingredient to estimate the downtime. Generally, the downtime can be divided into three main components: downtime due to the actual damage (DT1); downtime caused by rational and irrational delays (DT2); and downtime due to utilities disruption (DT3). In this work, DT1 is computed by relating the building damageability results obtained from the visual screening to some already-defined components repair times available in the literature. DT2 and DT3 are estimated using the REDITM Guidelines. The Downtime of the building is finally obtained by combining the three components. The proposed method also allows identifying the downtime corresponding to each of the three recovery states: re-occupancy; functional recovery; and full recovery. Future work is aimed at improving the current methodology to pass from the downtime to the resilience of buildings. This will provide a simple tool that can be used by the authorities for decision making.

Keywords: resilience, restoration, downtime, community resilience, fuzzy logic, recovery, damage, built environment

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Authors: Tina Wu, Andrew Martin

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The expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) brings a new level of threat. Attacks on IoT are already being used by criminals to form botnets, launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and distribute malware. This opens a whole new digital forensic arena to develop forensic methodologies in order to have the capability to investigate IoT related crimes. However, existing proposed IoT forensic models are still premature requiring further improvement and validation, many lack details on the acquisition and analysis phase. This paper proposes an enhanced theoretical IoT digital forensic model focused on identifying and acquiring the main sources of evidence in a methodical way. In addition, this paper presents a theoretical acquisition framework of the different stages required in order to be capable of acquiring evidence from IoT devices.

Keywords: acquisition, Internet of Things, model, zoning

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Authors: Lin Zhang

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Neighborhood redevelopment is vital to improve residents’ living environment, and there has been a national neighborhood micro-redevelopment initiative in China since 2020, which is largely different from the previous large-scale demolition and reconstruction projects. Yet, few studies systematically examine the new interactions of multiple actors in this initiative. China’s neighborhood (micro-) redevelopment is a kind of governance network, and the complexity perspective could reflect the dynamic nature of multiple actors and their relationships in governance networks. In order to better understand the fundamental shifts of governance networks in China’s neighborhood micro-redevelopment, this paper adopted a theoretical framework of complexity in governance networks and analyzed the new governance networks of neighborhood micro-redevelopment projects in Haikou accordingly.

Keywords: neighborhood redevelopment, governance, networks, Haikou

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Authors: Jean-Philippe Amat, Timothée Vergne, Aymeric Hans, Bénédicte Ferry, Pascal Hendrikx, Jackie Tapprest, Barbara Dufour, Agnès Leblond

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The surveillance of infectious diseases is necessary to describe their occurrence and help the planning, implementation and evaluation of risk mitigation activities. However, the exact number of detected cases may remain unknown whether surveillance is based on serological tests because identifying seroconversion may be difficult. Moreover, incomplete detection of cases or outbreaks is a recurrent issue in the field of disease surveillance. This study addresses these two issues. Using a viral animal disease as an example (equine viral arteritis), the goals were to establish suitable rules for identifying seroconversion in order to estimate the number of cases and outbreaks detected by a surveillance system in France between 2006 and 2013, and to assess the sensitivity of this system by estimating the total number of outbreaks that occurred during this period (including unreported outbreaks) using a capture-recapture model. Data from horses which exhibited at least one positive result in serology using viral neutralization test between 2006 and 2013 were used for analysis (n=1,645). Data consisted of the annual antibody titers and the location of the subjects (towns). A consensus among multidisciplinary experts (specialists in the disease and its laboratory diagnosis, epidemiologists) was reached to consider seroconversion as a change in antibody titer from negative to at least 32 or as a three-fold or greater increase. The number of seroconversions was counted for each town and modeled using a unilist zero-truncated binomial (ZTB) capture-recapture model with R software. The binomial denominator was the number of horses tested in each infected town. Using the defined rules, 239 cases located in 177 towns (outbreaks) were identified from 2006 to 2013. Subsequently, the sensitivity of the surveillance system was estimated as the ratio of the number of detected outbreaks to the total number of outbreaks that occurred (including unreported outbreaks) estimated using the ZTB model. The total number of outbreaks was estimated at 215 (95% credible interval CrI95%: 195-249) and the surveillance sensitivity at 82% (CrI95%: 71-91). The rules proposed for identifying seroconversion may serve future research. Such rules, adjusted to the local environment, could conceivably be applied in other countries with surveillance programs dedicated to this disease. More generally, defining ad hoc algorithms for interpreting the antibody titer could be useful regarding other human and animal diseases and zoonosis when there is a lack of accurate information in the literature about the serological response in naturally infected subjects. This study shows how capture-recapture methods may help to estimate the sensitivity of an imperfect surveillance system and to valorize surveillance data. The sensitivity of the surveillance system of equine viral arteritis is relatively high and supports its relevance to prevent the disease spreading.

Keywords: Bayesian inference, capture-recapture, epidemiology, equine viral arteritis, infectious disease, seroconversion, surveillance

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Authors: Agostinho Antunes

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The completion of the human genome sequencing in 2003 opened a new perspective into the importance of whole genome sequencing projects, and currently multiple species are having their genomes completed sequenced, from simple organisms, such as bacteria, to more complex taxa, such as mammals. This voluminous sequencing data generated across multiple organisms provides also the framework to better understand the genetic makeup of such species and related ones, allowing to explore the genetic changes underlining the evolution of diverse phenotypic traits. Here, recent results from our group retrieved from comparative evolutionary genomic analyses of selected marine animal species will be considered to exemplify how gene novelty and gene enhancement by positive selection might have been determinant in the success of adaptive radiations into diverse habitats and lifestyles.

Keywords: marine genomics, evolutionary bioinformatics, human genome sequencing, genomic analyses

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Authors: Sanchayan Banerjee, Peter John

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Nudge plus is a modification of the toolkit of behavioural public policy. It incorporates an element of reflection¾the plus¾into the delivery of a nudge, either blended in or made proximate. Nudge plus builds on recent work combining heuristics and deliberation. It may be used to design pro-social interventions that help preserve the autonomy of the agent. The argument turns on seminal work on dual systems, which presents a subtler relationship between fast and slow thinking than commonly assumed in the classic literature in behavioural public policy. We review classic and recent work on dual processes to show that a hybrid is more plausible than the default interventionist or parallel competitive framework. We define nudge plus, set out what reflection could entail, provide examples, outline causal mechanisms, and draw testable implications.

Keywords: nudge, nudge plus, think, dual process theory

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Authors: Jean-Marie Vilaire, Ricardo Abreu-Blaya, Juan Bory-Reyes

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The classical Beltrami system of elliptic equations generalizes the Cauchy Riemann equation in the complex plane and offers the possibility to consider homogeneous system with no terms of zero order. The theory of Douglis-valued functions, called Hyper-analytic functions, is special case of the above situation. In this note, we prove an analogue of the N. Davydov theorem in the framework of the theory of hyperanalytic functions. The used methodology contemplates characteristic methods of the hypercomplex analysis as well as the singular integral operators and elliptic systems of the partial differential equations theories.

Keywords: Beltrami equation, Douglis algebra-valued function, Hypercomplex Cauchy type integral, Sokhotski-Plemelj formulae

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