Search results

This study aims to introduce a predictive homogenization model incorporating electrical percolation considerations to forecast the electrical characteristics of unidirectional carbon-epoxy laminate composites.

This study presents a method for calculating the electrical conductivity tensor for various ply arrangement patterns to elucidate phenomena occurring around the interfaces between plies. These interface models are then integrated into a three-dimensional (3D) magneto-thermal model using the finite element method. A comparative study is conducted between different approaches, emphasizing the advantages of the new model through experimental measurements.

This research facilitates the innovative integration of electrical percolation considerations, resulting in substantial improvement in the prediction of electrical properties of composites. The validity of this improvement is established through comprehensive validation against existing approaches and experimentation.

The study primarily focuses on unidirectional carbon-epoxy laminate composites. Further research is needed to extend the model's applicability to other composite materials and configurations.

The proposed model offers a significant improvement in predicting the electrical properties of composite materials by incorporating electrical percolation considerations at inter-ply interfaces, which have not been addressed in previous studies. This research provides valuable information to improve the accuracy of predictions of the electrical properties of composites and offers a methodology for accounting for these properties in 3D magneto-thermal simulations.

Individuals with schizophrenia experience uncertainty due to the unpredictable symptoms, the course of the illness and poor knowledge about the disease, treatment and prognosis. Uncertainty in illness is linked with poor treatment outcomes, coping strategies, check-up decisions and psychological distress. This study aims to explore the uncertainty in illness among individuals with schizophrenia.

Eight individuals with schizophrenia living in the community were interviewed regarding their illness. The phenomenology approach was used to collect and analyze the data.

Three themes emerged from the findings of the study; the unpredictable course of the illness, compliance amid uncertainty and uncertainty of information about their illness. This study provides an essential overview of how patients with schizophrenia live in uncertain conditions.

It should be considered by various parties, particularly the community mental health nurses working with individuals with schizophrenia. Considering the uncertainty of illness while looking after or interacting with patients and their family is significant in improving adequate mental health-care delivery.

Despite the role of non‐governmental organisations (NGOs) as actors in development, the issue of local NGOs' sustainability remains a major concern in many developing countries such as Ghana. This study seeks to determine key factors that can influence local NGOs based on a Ghanaian case study.

The research used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research approaches.

The study identifies that the availability of funds, quality material resources, supportive leadership, development of needs‐based and demand‐driven programmes, and effective management can have a significant influence on the sustainability of local NGOs. Significantly, leadership emerged as the most important factor to organisational sustainability of local NGOs. Equally, the availability and quality of material resources for work were least critical to local NGO sustainability, although they were all very important.

The case study suggests that local NGOs can adopt several measures to ensure their sustainability. These include the writing of good needs‐based and demand‐driven project proposals, ensuring transparency and accountability, leadership training and lobbying for resources including funds, especially, from local sources.

Although the findings are based on Ghanaian local NGO sustainability scenario, the lessons can be useful to NGOs within similar contexts.

No one acquainted with the facts that gave rise to the packing‐house scandals of the year 1906 believed that the belated promises of reform then made by certain American meat packers were to be relied upon. Many of these people were threatened with a serious loss of trade, and it was evidently their best policy at the time not too strongly to oppose legislation that was apparently devised to permanently better the conditions in the slaughtering establishments and packing‐houses.

This study examines key adaptations that occurred in the Zimbabwean Results-Based Financing (RBF) programme between 2010 and 2017, locating the endogenous and exogenous factors that required adaptive response and the processes from which changes were made.

The study is based on a desk review and thematic analysis of 64 policy and academic literatures supplemented with 28 multi-stakeholder interviews.

The programme experienced substantive adaption between 2010 and 2017, demonstrating a significant level of responsiveness towards increasing efficiency as well as to respond to unforeseen factors that undermined RBF mechanisms. The programme was adaptive due to its phased design, which allowed revision competencies and responsive adaptation, which provide useful insights for other low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) settings where graduated scale-up might better meet contextualised needs. However, exogenous factors were often not systematically examined or reported in RBF evaluations, demonstrating that adaptation could have been better anticipated, planned, reported and communicated, especially if RBF is to be a more effective health system reform tool.

RBF is an increasingly popular health system reform tool in LMICs. However, there are questions about how exogenous factors affect RBF performance and acknowledgement that unforeseen endogenous programme design and implementation factors also greatly affect the performance of RBF. As a result, a better understanding of how RBF operates and adapts to programme level (endogenous) and exogenous (external) factors in LMICs is necessary.

This study aims to dispense a concrete and coherent picture on the role of digitalization of accounting information (DOAI) among the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through a statistically reliable and parsimonious paradigm for procuring the impact of DOAI on sustainable innovation ecosystem (SIE) and public value (PV) generation. With this cue, the geographical scope of this tentative manuscript was framed in SMEs of developing countries.

A three-pronged methodology was disposed in this research, namely, literature review, expert interviews and self-administered survey. Qualitative data was procured from a series of semi-structured in-depth interviews. The quantitative data was drawn on a self-administered survey in which the closed-ended questionnaires were conveniently circulated to a cross-sectional sample of 583 respondents. The data captured from quantitative approach was processed and analyzed via covariance-based structural equation modeling with AMOS 26.0.

The outcomes analysis highlighted that there were significant positive associations between the hypothesized constructs regarding significance and effect size. These interlinks were also partially mediated through the mediation of quality of information on financial reports and SIE.

This research was bounded by geographical provenance emphasis on one country and relative smallness of the data set procured through anonymous survey-based approach drawn from a convenient sample of digitally savvy respondents working in one sub-sector resulted in the reduction in the robustness and generalizability of the observations. Nevertheless, these above-mentioned limitations could thus offer the starting points for novel avenues creation for the future research.

The practitioners would definitely have valuable benefits from in-depth insights on the obtained findings. Concretely, as lifting the degree of understandings on the magnitude of long-term cooperation and superior coordination within the SIE would enable practitioners to enlarge their business viewpoints to better cope with the challenges of complicated business settings, facilitating them to co-create PV for all their key stakeholders through giving priority to implementing DOAI.

Society could benefit from this study if policymakers and the influencers of government focus on innovative features and assure the possible environment for innovation deployment through embarking on introducing policies that would facilitate the digitalization as well as stimulate and incentivize establishing the SIE for PV generation. It would be good for both the SMEs and society when SMEs could thrive in community settings as well as this togetherness.

Unpacking the potential of DOAI has been considered as the promising research avenues that are outlined not only to redress the shortfall in the research stream in relation to the digitalization among SMEs but also provide the right directions for sustainable development among SMEs.

Improving the resilience of the construction sector helps countries recover quicker from crises and can assist with improving community resilience and recovery. This study aims to explore ways in which the construction sector might improve its resilience.

This paper examined past disasters and the role construction plays to understand what and how better construction resilience can be built, and the impact this will have on recovery and reconstruction.

The findings showed that after a crisis, the construction sector is called upon to manage building and infrastructure recovery and reconstruction. Construction organisations are needed by the community, as they provide physical resources, people, materials, logistics, management and technical expertise and rebuilding. To ensure that recovery and reconstruction programs are successfully implemented, it is necessary for the construction sector to be resilient. To achieve improved resilience in the construction industry, disaster resilience management needs to become mainstreamed into construction processes.

Although larger organisations have some preparation to respond to crises, including having emergency or disaster plans, smaller companies struggle to achieve a reasonable level of resilience. It appears that senior management and key people in construction organisations are familiar with the procedures but that the majority of staff in organisations lack knowledge and skills.

Understanding the role the construction sector plays in disasters and providing directions for improving construction sector resilience will ultimately improve recovery and reconstruction outcomes.

This paper discusses how communities rely on services provided by construction organisations to enable them to recover from emergencies and crises. Pre-disaster construction company resilience impacts on the ability of construction companies to function post-disaster.

This paper focuses on a number of cases and shows where and how the construction sector has worked in disasters and provides a new analysis of the role the industry plays, and the various disaster stages where the industry has maximum impact.