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Water policy decisions are sensitive in countries like Egypt suffering from water shortage, such decisions directly affect the development in all sectors. The problem of not linking water policy decisions to trade priorities and water security is negatively affecting the efficient water use of the country. In this regard, this paper’s objective is to study and evaluate water resources utilization in Egypt as case study using the footprint process compared to available water resources performing detailed analysis of the effect of considering water footprint approach in developing water policies and water strategies. Egypt’s water footprint was calculated in novel methodology merging different international and national data, then compared to water footprint of different water uses. The results showed that the average Egyptian national water footprint for the years (2012–2016) was 111.05 billion m3, while the average available water resources was 75.66 billion m3, and the average water deficit was 47% of the available water resources and 32% of the total national water footprint. These findings necessitate the need to integrate water resources management policies, agricultural and trade policies to feed in a comprehensive country water accounting system.

Recent studies in nuclear deterrence show that nuclear punishment is infeasible in most cases due to the opponent’s second-strike capability, tactical redundancy, and the logic of self-deterrence. However, if the challenge against nuclear deterrence is expected to go unpunished, the deterrent policy is not credible and will likely fail. Can the defender violently punish the challenger possessing nuclear weapons? If it can, under what conditions? Thanks to President Kennedy’s tape recordings, the Cuban Missile Crisis provides researchers an exceptional laboratory for testing various theories on the defender’s policy choices after deterrence failure. This article derives a research hypothesis and its competing counterpart and examines their respective explanatory power via a process-tracing analysis of key members within the Executive Committee during the crisis. The study finds that the challenger’s feasibility of retaliating with atomic weapons is a crucial predictor for the defender’s policy choices.

Leseprobe ----- Zusammenfassung Gegenstand der vorliegenden Untersuchung sind diskursive Verhandlungen von Krisen in digitalen Raumen im Kontext der pandemiebedingten Schulschliesungen. Die Analyse ausgewahlter Kommunikationsbeitrage des virtuellen Lehrerzimmers innerhalb der Plattform ‚Twitter‘ mithilfe der Dokumentarischen Methode zeigt, dass das schriftsprachliche Handeln von Akteur*innen im virtuellen Raum auf eine Form von Solidarisierungsbewegung verweist. Diese kann fur das interagierende Subjekt in Anbetracht fehlender Handlungsroutinen im Zusammenhang mit den Schulschliesungen bei der Bearbeitung von Ungewissheit relevant sein. Der zugrundeliegende Orientierungsrahmen deutet zumindest auf ein kollektives Bewusstsein der Beitragenden fur die Krisenhaftigkeit des padagogisch-schulischen Geschehens. Dabei ist die Suche nach geteilten Einschatzungen, etwa im Umgang mit Elternkritik, auffallig. Ob dadurch allerdings eine reflexive Berufskrisenbearbeitung stattfindet oder sich lediglich ein Klagen der Akteure gegenuber bildungspolitischen Entscheidungen ausdruckt, musste weitergehend untersucht werden. Schlagworter: Corona-Krise, Netzwerkgesellschaften, Kontingenz, virtuelle Kommunikation, Dokumentarische Methode ----- Contingency management in the crisis. A documentary reconstruction of communication contributions in the #twitterlehrerzimmer at the time of the pandemicrelated school closures Abstract The subject of this study is the discursive negotiation of crises in digital spaces in the context of pandemic-related school closures. The analysis of selected communication posts of the virtual teachers’ room within the platform ‚Twitter‘ using the documentary method shows that the written language actions of actors in virtual space refer to a form of solidarity movement. This can be relevant for the interacting subject in the context of dealing with uncertainty in the absence of action routines in the context of school closures. At the very least, the underlying frame of orientation points to a collective awareness on the part of the contributors of the crisis nature of the pedagogicalschool event. In this context, the search for shared assessments, for example in dealing with parental criticism, is striking. However, it would have to be investigated further whether this leads to a reflexive handling of the professional crisis or whether the actors are merely complaining about educational policy decisions. Keywords: corona crisis, network societies, contingency, virtual communication, documentary method ----- Bibliographie: Hovels, Barbara/Herzmann, Petra: Kontingenzbearbeitung in der Krise. Eine dokumentarische Rekonstruktion von Kommunikationsbeitragen im #twitterlehrerzimmer zu Zeiten der pandemiebedingten Schulschliesungen, ZQF – Zeitschrift fur Qualitative Forschung, 1-2021, S. 139-158. https://doi.org/10.3224/zqf.v22i1.11

This study aims to see the density of patient visits at the Raden Mattaher Regional Hospital by using the National Emergency Department Overcrowded Scale (Nedocs). The method used in this study is an analytical survey to assess the role and function of an emergency room management and to analyze the management of patients in the emergency room at the Raden Mattaher Regional General Hospital (RSUD), Jambi Province. The results of this study indicate the average overcrowded rating in the ER at Raden Mattaher Hospital Jambi, which is in the range of 61-100 with the assessment category Very busy but not too full (extremely busy but not overcrowded). According to the Ministry of Health, the calculation of the need for human resources for nurses, the number of nurses in the ER at Raden Mattaher Hospital is short of 4 people, and not all of them are emergency certified. Based on the research results, it can be concluded that the policy decision making has been implemented but it has not been implemented properly. Furthermore, regarding the density in the emergency room during patient visits, the Raden Mattaher Regional Hospital provides a step solution to hospital management.

Many policy decisions take input from collections of scientific models. Such decisions face significant and often poorly understood uncertainty. We rework the so-called confidence approach to tackle decision-making under severe uncertainty with multiple models, and we illustrate the approach with a case study: insurance pricing using hurricane models. The confidence approach has important consequences for this case and offers a powerful framework for a wide class of problems. We end by discussing different ways in which model ensembles can feed information into the approach, appropriate to different collections of models.

Vietnam is a key player in India's Act East Policy and is distressed due to China's overarching position in the South China Sea. China's expanding infrastructural investments in India's periphery have led to a regional security dilemma in Indian Ocean Region. India is steered to pursue opportunities to counter China in the latter's periphery, to which Vietnam fits as an apt ally. Hence, this paper examines the heightened need for realigning India's Vietnam policy in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and explains how bilateral cooperation through sustainable trade, renewable energy production, and green investments can offer a "counter" to Chinese expansion in Indo-Pacific and its Belt and Road Initiative. This paper uses the theoretical framework of Balance of Power to enumerate how geostrategic policy decisions in India-Vietnam bilateral relations can create a "counterbalance" to the Chinese investments in India's neighborhood, especially in Pakistan.

Do children suffer from discriminatory structures in society and how can issues of social injustice against children be conceptualised and studied? The conceptual frame of childism is examined through everyday expressions in the aftermath of policies affecting children in Sweden, the UK and Ireland to develop knowledge of age-based and intersectional discrimination against children. While experiences in Sweden seem to indicate that young children rarely suffer severe symptoms from covid-19, or constitute a driving force in spreading the virus, policy decisions in the UK and Ireland to close down schools have had detrimental effects on children in terms of child hunger and violence against children. Policy decisions that have prioritised adults at the cost of children have unveiled a structural injustice against children, which is mirrored by individual examples of everyday societal prejudice.

A mixed method approach was designed to investigate the impact of quality of work life on life satisfaction for seafarers. For the quantitative phase, data were collected from 521 seafarers who were sailing and also those who were vacationing. The study continued in the second phase by following up with seven selected participants to investigate the results from the quantitative phase. The data were analyzed using statistical techniques like exploratory factor analysis, correlation, regression and ANOVA. The quality of work life of seafarers was found to be closely connected to life satisfaction in varied ways through recognition from the organizations, work life balance and recreational facilities. Ranks of the participants were influencers for satisfaction, whereas marital status results were indifferent for satisfaction. The findings of the study have implications for policy decisions, training and practice for shipping companies.

Background As healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk for infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), they have priority for receipt of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine. The inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine has been used in Indonesia to induce an antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 infection in HCWs. However, information regarding the kinetics of antibodies induced by this vaccine remains scarce. Objective To investigate the magnitude and durability of antibodies against the spike (S) protein (anti-S) in fully-vaccinated HCWs using an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Results Seroconversion of anti-S antibodies was observed among 159 (99.4%) of 160 HCWs without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection 14 days after full-dose vaccination. The level of anti-S antibodies decreased significantly by day 42 post-vaccination compared with day 14 post-vaccination, but persisted for up to 98 days post-vaccination. In contrast, vaccinated HCWs with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection had significantly higher, stable levels of anti-S antibodies compared with vaccinated HCWs without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conclusion The remarkable decline and lower level of anti-S antibodies among HCWs without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection may indicate the need for an additional booster dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for protection against COVID-19. This study of antibody responses induced by the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine among HCWs may contribute to future policy decisions regarding vaccination.

Background-The global burden of cancer continues to increase largely because of the aging and growth of the world population alongside an increasing adoption of cancer causing behaviors, particularly smoking in economically developing countries and life style changes. India exhibits heterogeneity in cancer. Since two decade changes in the pattern of cancer has been observed in various studies. So this retrospective study was done to observe the changing pattern in female cancer in our institution during last 10 years. Aims and object-To observe the changes in female malignancies during last 10 years in terms of age shifting and site of presentation. Result/observation-Ca cervix is on decreasing trend while ca breast is on increasing pattern.Ca gallbladder, ca esophagus, colorectal cancer and ca ovary are on gradually increasing trend while hematological malignancy is showing a sharp rise in trend. Conclusion- Evidence-based policy decision on steps for cancer prevention and cancer control should be formulated. More emphasis should be given on the cancer which are showing an increasing trend so that proper and effective screening and cancer control program can be implicated.

Applications of machine learning (ML) to high-stakes policy settings -- such as education, criminal justice, healthcare, and social service delivery -- have grown rapidly in recent years, sparking important conversations about how to ensure fair outcomes from these systems. The machine learning research community has responded to this challenge with a wide array of proposed fairness-enhancing strategies for ML models, but despite the large number of methods that have been developed, little empirical work exists evaluating these methods in real-world settings. Here, we seek to fill this research gap by investigating the performance of several methods that operate at different points in the ML pipeline across four real-world public policy and social good problems. Across these problems, we find a wide degree of variability and inconsistency in the ability of many of these methods to improve model fairness, but post-processing by choosing group-specific score thresholds consistently removes disparities, with important implications for both the ML research community and practitioners deploying machine learning to inform consequential policy decisions., 17 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

The current research examines the effects of external and internal factors on the decisions related to the compensation policy subsequently influence turnover intentions of Telecom sector employees of Pakistan. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the factors effecting the compensation policy decision are generated through an extensive review of literature. This exhaustive list was tested through a rigorous process of a number of iterations of finding the most valued and considered factors in Pakistani telecom sector. This process was done with the top tier management including the human resource practitioners, as these are the people who significantly contribute in developing and finalizing decisions on the policy relating to compensation. For meeting with the objectives of current study, second phase consisted on identification of the impact of such decisions was tested on employee’s turnover intentions. The results were significant giving an understanding that the organizations who consider the most critical internal and external factors effecting decisions related with compensation policy, will ultimately craft such a policy, which is having a positive influence on the motivation of employee to continue working with the organization. So, this will solve the major organizational problem of retaining the productive employees and hence getting a sustainable organizational performance.

This paper focuses on the salience, engagement and influence of selected stakeholders in two key sport policy initiatives in Taiwan during the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper identifies three principa...

Facing challenges of dealing with complex social and technical issues, Chinese government has sought to enhance social credibility of policy decisions by soliciting expert advice. One institutional...

This study analyses the impact of female political empowerment on European countries’ welfare policies. Following a spatial econometric approach, the results reveal the presence of a spatial depend...

The aim of this article is to determine whether there is opportunistic behavior in local government decisions related to contracting out, public-private partnership (PPP) and/or public externalizat...

El estudio de la calidad de vida en la UE ha cobrado un especial interés en la segunda mitad de los años ochenta y en la década de los noventa ante la necesidad por parte de los políticos de disponer de una información de calidad que resulte útil en la toma de decisiones políticas y en su valoración.El objetivo de este artículo es analizar la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos de la Unión Europea reflexionado sobre si existen diferencias entre este concepto al emplear o no información de tipo subjetivo subjetiva. A la hora de medir y cuantificar la calidad de vida se han empleado diversas metodologías y aproximaciones, pero quizás la más importante y generalizada es la de los indicadores sociales. En este enfoque, el concepto a investigar es descompuesto en diversas dimensiones, que así mismo están integradas por indicadores sociales, de forma que la calidad de vida se obtiene como una combinación de la información de estos indicadores. En general, los métodos para construir indicadores sintéticos son particularmente interesantes en este campo de investigación, especialmente en el contexto de la UE, en concreto en este artículo proponemos utilizar la medida de distancia DP2.

To examine the contribution that field efficacy studies made to the assessment of marketing authorisation (MA) applications, a retrospective analysis was conducted for 100 veterinary vaccines that had been evaluated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) between 1996 and 2017. For 52 veterinary vaccines, scrutiny of the European Public Assessment Report (EPAR) and/or the summary of product characteristics (SPC) identified objective evidence that field efficacy studies made an important or substantial impact on the efficacy claims and/or benefit-risk evaluation. For 24 applications, the contribution of field efficacy studies was classified as either supportive or was not detectable from the publicly available documents on which the analysis was based. For a further 24 applications, data exemptions were applied and the MAs were granted in the absence of field studies. The difficulty in achieving challenge in the field was highlighted by the observation that natural exposure was reported in less than half of the applications where field efficacy studies were conducted (34 out of 76). This analysis may help to inform policy decisions on the role, conduct and contribution that field efficacy studies make to the assessment of efficacy for veterinary vaccines.

The difficulty for startups to secure financing is an important issue in relation to the economic progress of developing countries. As the main financing channel for startups, informal financing is a popular topic in theoretical and practical circles. Using data on 113,656 loans to startups in Wenzhou, China, from 2016 to 2018, this paper measures the uncertainty of financing rates. The results show that from the perspective of fund suppliers, micro-loan company lending is more uncertain than direct social lending. From the perspective of financing methods, the uncertainty of contract loans is greater than the uncertainty of credit loans and is rising year on year. From the perspective of the financing period, great uncertainties occur in short-term loans of one month and long-term loans of one year or more. These results provide empirical support for policy decisions to regulate micro-loan companies, establish the spirit of contract, and increase capital liquidity.

This paper briefly reviews different debates about approaches for paths out of poverty, considering several views, from the analysis of specific policies to more general or systemic considerations. The contribution of this paper is to present a broad outline of those debates and to serve as an illustration of the complexity of analyzing paths out of poverty. It discusses in sequence, the more microeconomic approach of evaluation of individual policies for poverty alleviation; then it moves to broader issues of growth and development strategies, and macroeconomic policies, and their links to the persistence or reduction of poverty; and finally discusses the topic of institutions, related to how policy decisions are made and enforced in societies at the previous three levels. Finally, the concluding section argues that a successful program to eliminate poverty must integrate all levels of individual policies, macroeconomic programs, development strategies and good institutions. This paper hopes to contribute to that crucial work.

It is common to find multiple network interfaces connected to different Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in devices such as smartphones. Multipath TCP (MPTCP) enables TCP connections to use all these network interfaces in a single TCP connection in an application transparent manner. MPTCP schedules traffic of one TCP connection over subflows created over these network interfaces. It is evident that this requires some scheduling policy. There have been some attempts to allow applications to decide on the scheduling policy. However, this violates the application transparency of MPTCP, and applications do not have all the information required to decide on such a policy. In addition, this allows the applications to monopolize the network connection thus posing a security threat as well. We argue that only the owner of the device (the user) has the right to make that policy decision and only the user can make an informed decision on the scheduling policy. For example, the user has the information on the monetary cost of the connections through different interfaces. In this paper we present a mechanism that allows the user to provide hints to the TCP scheduler to alter its scheduling policy. While this is not a mechanism to implement generic scheduling policies, it demonstrates how a user can guide the scheduling policies. As a proof of the concept, we demonstrate how MPTCP scheduler can be influenced to select a less stable and lossy path over a stable path based on a user preference.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine trials provide valuable insight into the safety and efficacy of vaccines, with individually randomized, placebo-controlled trials being the gold standard in trial design. However, a myriad of variables must be considered as clinical trial data are interpreted and used to guide policy decisions. These variables include factors such as the characteristics of the study population and circulating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) strains, the force of infection, the definition and ascertainment of endpoints, the timing of vaccine efficacy assessment, and the potential for performance bias. In this Viewpoints article, we discuss critical variables to consider when comparing efficacy measurements across current and future COVID-19 vaccine trials.

In 1932, with the help of the League of Nations, the Chinese government sent an educational mission consisting of five scholars to Europe, in order to investigate education in different countries a...

Background Below-normal availability of water for a considerable period of time induces occurrence of drought. This paper investigates the Spatio-temporal characteristics of meteorological drought under changing climate. The climate change was analyzed using delta based statistical downscaling approach of RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 in R software packages. The meteorological drought was assessed using the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI). Results The result of climate change projections showed that the average annual minimum temperature will be increased by about 0.8–2.9 °C. The mean annual maximum temperature will be also increased by 0.9–3.75 °C. The rainfall projection generally showed an increasing trend, it exhibited an average annual increase of 3.5–13.4 % over the study area. The projected drought events reached its maximum severity indicated extreme drought in the years 2043, 2044, 2073, and 2074. The RDI value shows drought will occurred after 1–6 and 2–7 years under RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 emission scenarios respectively over the study area. Almost more than 72 % of the current and future spatial coverage of drought in the study area will be affected by extreme drought, 22.3 % severely and 5.57 % also moderate drought. Conclusions Therefore, the study helps to provide useful information for policy decision makers to implement different adaptation and mitigation measures of drought in the region.

Data availability and accessibility often present challenges to resolving regional water management issues. One primary input essential to models and other tools used to inform policy decisions is daily precipitation. Since observed datasets are not always present or accessible, data from the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) have become a potential alternative. A comparison of CFSR precipitation data to available observed data from stations in the East African countries Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania showed notable differences between the two datasets, particularly with respect to precipitation totals and number of days receiving rainfall. A sliding window bias correction approach evaluated using 3 methods with 8 different window length and timestep variations showed that empirical quantile mapping with a 30-day sliding window length and 1-day timestep achieved the best performance. A comparison of bias corrected CFSR precipitation data against observed data showed marked improvement in the similarity of the number of wet days and maximum daily rainfall between the two datasets. For precipitation totals, bias correction reduced underprediction errors by 32% and overprediction errors by 81%. Results indicate that bias-corrected CFSR precipitation data provides an improved basis for water resources applications in the study region. Methodologies and approaches are extendable to other data-scarce regions or areas where complete and consistent data are not easily accessible.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) mortality surveillance studies in several low- and middle-income countries to address the striking gap in community mortality burden data from these geographies. The compelling findings generated from these studies reveal a high unmeasured burden of community RSV mortality, particularly among infants aged

Objectives: Commentaries have suggested that initial emphasis on the higher susceptibility and mortality rates of older adults to COVID-19 has instigated ageism within the public discourse and policy decisions. Using the health belief model, the current study examined ageism in interaction with other factors influencing intention to social distance. Methods: Threat of contracting COVID-19, benefits and barriers to social distancing, benevolent and hostile ageism, and intention to social distance were examined in 960 adults ( M = 37.81 years, SD = 11.65). Results: Benevolent and hostile ageism were significant moderators for both perceived threat and barriers on intent to social distance; hostile ageism also moderated benefits on intent to social distance. Discussion: The current study demonstrates how ageism influences behavior during a pandemic. With initial reports of COVID-19 presenting older adults as a homogenous group, ageism negatively interacted with intention to social distance and may place older adults at greater risk.

The prediction of hospital emergency room visits (ERV) for respiratory diseases after the outbreak of PM2.5 is of great importance in terms of public health, medical resource allocation, and policy decision support. Recently, the machine learning methods bring promising solutions for ERV prediction in view of their powerful ability of short-term forecasting, while their performances still exist unknown. Therefore, we aim to check the feasibility of machine learning methods for ERV prediction of respiratory diseases. Three different machine learning models, including autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), multilayer perceptron (MLP), and long short-term memory (LSTM), are introduced to predict daily ERV in urban areas of Beijing, and their performances are evaluated in terms of the mean absolute error (MAE), root mean squared error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and coefficient of determination (R2). The results show that the performance of ARIMA is the worst, with a maximum R2 of 0.70 and minimum MAE, RMSE, and MAPE of 99, 124, and 26.56, respectively, while MLP and LSTM perform better, with a maximum R2 of 0.80 (0.78) and corresponding MAE, RMSE, and MAPE of 49 (33), 62 (42), and 14.14 (9.86). In addition, it demonstrates that MLP cannot detect the time lag effect properly, while LSTM does well in the description and prediction of exposure-response relationship between PM2.5 pollution and infecting respiratory disease.

Background Previous studies report a majority of the general public support euthanasia/assisted dying (EAD), while a majority of doctors are opposed. In considering policy decisions about EAD, some may discount the views of doctors because they take them to be based on personal values or tradition, rather than reasons that the general public might share. One way to explore this notion is to examine whether medical students’ views change during their medical education. The objective of this study was to learn how New Zealand medical students view EAD and whether students at different year levels have different views. Methods An on-line survey of undergraduate medical students was conducted asking whether they supported a law change to allow EAD. Quantitative data was analysed using unadjusted and multiple logistic regression. Thematic analysis was conducted with the qualitative data. Results A total of 326 students replied to the survey. The overall response rate was 28%. 65% of 2nd year students were supportive of EAD, compared to 39% in 5th year. The odds of 5th year students supporting a law change compared to 2nd year was 0.30 (95% CI: 0.15–0.60). The predominant themes found in the qualitative results indicate that medical students support or oppose EAD for reasons similar to those found in the wider debate, and that their views are influenced by a range of factors. However, several at all year levels cited an aspect of medical school as having influenced their views. This was mentioned by participants who were supportive of, opposed to, or unsure about EAD, but it was the type of influence most often mentioned by those who were opposed. Conclusions The quantitative findings show students at the end of 5th year were less likely to support EAD than students at the end of 2nd year. We suggest that this difference is most likely due to their time in medical education. This suggests that the lower support found among doctors is in part related to medical education and medical work rather than age, personality, or social context. The qualitative findings indicate that this is not related to a particular educational experience at Otago Medical School but a range.

This study aims at assessing the extent to which the Ethiopian policies are based on rational policy analysis. Explanatory analysis methods are used to analyze primary and secondary qualitative data. The finding shows that in the policy making process only one policy option was investigated and crafted; the criteria used to evaluate the proposal are not clear; sophisticated solution methods haven’t been used. Though there were many consultations with stakeholders, they couldn’t be sources of many policy options due to their objective, timing and poor citizen’s political culture. Moreover, the study found out that there is lack of technical capacity and advice at the center of the government, the parliament and line ministries. Thus, government needs to do the following; establish advisory institutions, consultations should be done before crafting a draft, policy criteria should be identified, and solution methods should be used in selecting the best policy. Key words: Public policy, public policy making, public policy analysis, policy advice, policy formulation.

Living with a companion animal (CA or “pet”) often has a positive impact on quality of life and well-being. Research also highlights potential benefits of CA relationships for populations accessing...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to fill the research and cognitive gap by comparative analyzing of the cluster supply chain (CSC) and supply chains not belonging to the clusters to examine the relational embeddedness as the differentiator of supply chains operating in the clusters. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual model was tested with data collected from 475 industrial companies cooperating with their partners within supply chains, including 135 CSC. To identify the livraisons between different indicators, the correspondence analysis was applied. Findings The division of enterprises participating in this study into groups allows for the determination of relatively clear boundaries between enterprises belonging to the cluster and those that do not declare such affiliation. The obtained results confirmed that the relational embeddedness is the differentiator of the CSC collaboration. Research limitations/implications The main limitations are referred to as the static character of the data. Practical implications The paper contains implications for cluster facilitators, as well as for cluster policy decision makers, to better design support for cluster organizations. Originality/value This research is a contribution to the literature on inter-organizational structures, such as clusters and supply chains, and in particular, contributes to the creation of the scientific ground of SCS theory. The research allowed to better understand the nature of collaboration taking into consideration the fact of the relational embeddedness of the companies operating within supply chains located in clusters. It proves the existence of a new type of inter-organizational form that is CSC.

Improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) is at the core of the Global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but achieving this goal depends on the extent to which policy decision...

Taylor's eponymous ‘rule’ models how central banks set policy rates in response to inflation and output. We estimate a Taylor rule for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), modifying it to make it more realistic, while retaining its simplicity. The model implies that if the Bank responds to recent forecasts as it has on average since 1995, the cash rate could have briefly gone negative in 2020. But the RBA is wary of negative cash rates. There are grounds for caution; the economic outlook is particularly uncertain and the economy's response to negative rates is uncharted territory.

A comparison of face-to-face and online teaching and learning has been undertaken to ascertain the focal point that would justify the best-preferred option as far as teaching and learning in DE is concerned. This study is particularly important because as higher education institutions are faced with the challenge of huge number of prospective students seeking higher education in the midst of inadequate infrastructures, it becomes very necessary to look at DE as an option with a combination of different modes of delivering instruction. At the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), some faculties and departments, especially the distance education department, have adopted the face-to-face and online modes of delivering instruction. The pursuit of which would require a critical overview of the two modes to ascertain the strengths, weaknesses and how the two can complement each other for effective delivery of instruction to cater to a large number of students. The review suggested that academics or lecturers should endeavour to adopt the blended or hybrid mode in their teaching and learning. Policy decision makers can also use this study as it provides information on better practices as far as the blended mode of teaching and learning in higher education institutions is concerned.

Purpose This research letter outlines the “AFAANZ shark pitch 2020” research journey and reflects on the application of the pitch template to the authors’ research topic on innovation, future profitability and stock returns. Design/methodology/approach This study begins by outlining how the research started, followed by the choice of authors’ replication study. This study then outlines the authors’ interactions with the corresponding author of the original study and the journal editor. The authors also detail their personal journey of using the pitch template. Findings The pitch template facilitated the identification of a replication study that has significant impact in informing Australian policy decisions. It allowed the authors to succinctly articulate and refine their research ideas. Originality/value This research letter highlights authors’ mistakes in using the pitch template and what they learned from interacting with the original authors and journal editor.

PurposeGiven the profound impact of social media on civic activism, as demonstrated by the #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo movements, the current study aimed to examine the factors that influence the public to engage in civic activism on social media platforms.Design/methodology/approachThis study used the responses from 4,316 social media users who participated in the 2018 American Trends Survey (Wave 35) conducted by Pew Research Center. The dataset was analyzed using hierarchical regression.FindingsThe results suggest that respondents who were younger, female, White and liberal were more likely to participate in activism-related behaviors, such as using hashtags, changing profile pictures and participating in groups with shared interests in political and social issues. Respondents' engagement in online civic activism increased particularly when they had a strong motive for expressing and sharing their opinions. In contrast, external online political efficacy – the belief that social media influences policymaking and decision makers – was not significantly associated with activism engagement on social media.Originality/valueThis study identified key demographic characteristics of social media users who participate in online civic activism. In addition, the findings extend previous lines of inquiry by examining and assessing the impact of external online political efficacy and opinion expression motive. We conclude that individuals engage in civic activism on social media mainly because they find it important to express views on political and social issues and to find others who share these views, as opposed to thinking that social media can be used to exert influence on policy decisions.

Important educational policy decisions, like whether to shorten or extend the school year, often require accurate estimates of how much students learn during the year. Yet, related research relies ...

In Summer 2020 when the UK government announced that it would be stopping the provision of free school meals in England over the summer holidays the announcement was met with public outcry. When the UK government then u-turned on that policy decision this outcome was attributed to a successful online campaign led by footballer Marcus Rashford. In the background human rights lawyers had issued a judicial review pre-action protocol to the Secretary of State for Education. When the UK government reversed the decision on free school meals the legal proceedings were halted and, as a result, potentially significant legal precedent was lost. This comment sets out the legal grounds against the UK government in respect of not providing free school meals in England that may be of renewed and wider relevance in the future.

Ex post review is a common feature of policy-making institutions. We consider an environment in which an expert agent makes a policy recommendation, which can then be accepted or rejected by an ove...

What drives the reaction of financial markets to central bank communication on the days of policy decisions? We highlight the role of two factors that we identify from high-frequency monetary surprises: news on future macroeconomic conditions (Delphic shocks) and news on future monetary policy shocks (Odyssean shocks). These two shocks move the yield curve in the same direction but have opposite effects on financial conditions and macroeconomic expectations. They also have a different impact on macroeconomic outcomes so that central bankers cannot infer the degree of stimulus they provide by looking at the mere reaction of the yield curve.

Examining the household’s dependence on non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and analyzing their determinants has significance for policy decisions. Therefore, this study examines the contribution of...

The aim of this study was to examine how institutional barriers arising from policy decisions influence the level of participation of third-party countries in European Framework Programs (EU-FPs). To achieve this, we contrasted the effect of EU funding restrictions following Switzerland’s 2014 reclassification as a “third country” in Horizon 2020, and the political uncertainties resulting from the 2016 Brexit vote in the United Kingdom (UK). We compared the participation patterns of Swiss and UK higher education institutions (HEIs) with control groups of similar European HEIs over time and, complementarily, analyzed changes in the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Our results showed that the Brexit-induced uncertainty had stronger negative effects than the Swiss reclassification, which was, however, characterized by effective EU funding restrictions. In both cases, the negative impact of institutional barriers was stronger for the more central HEIs in EU-FP networks. These results suggest that the effect of institutional barriers is closely linked to consortium building mechanisms, where research collaboration requires stability and projection over the long term. Regarding individual grants, the impact was stronger for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions than for European Research Council grants, suggesting that a researcher’s mobility is affected by political uncertainties. Finally, in the UK case, we observed a steep decrease in the participation of SMEs. Based on these results, we suggest that a stable framework of participation and a clear ruling on relationships with the EU for what concerns people’s mobility and economic relationships are key to fostering the participation of third-party countries.

Proponents of thepublic goods argument(‘PGA’) seek to ground the authority of the state on its putative indispensability as a means of providing public goods. But many of the things we take to be public goods – including many of the goods commonly invoked in support of the PGA – are actually what we might termpublicized goods. A publicized good is any whose ‘public’ character results only from a policy decision to make some (otherwise private) good freely and universally available. This fact poses complications for the PGA, insofar as the set of possible publicized goods is quite extensive indeed.