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This study aims to explore the experiences of using competitive dialogue (CD) as a procurement procedure and the freedom it provides to the contracting parties in Norway.

This study opted for qualitative research design. Data were collected from four case projects through document reviews and in-depth interviews with procurement experts and key contract partners of the projects.

Results indicate that CD has some room for maneuver that is worth trying. Furthermore, the research identified several measures that can be implemented to use the procedure effectively. Contracting parties that have used the procedure have had various positive experiences.

The findings have implications in improving project outputs, building better trust and cooperation between the contracting parties and better use of public money on projects that have lasting outcomes for the society.

The authors studied four actual projects that used CD as a procurement procedure and aimed to provide first-hand information on the degree of freedom that it offered to the contracting parties.

Early contractor involvement (ECI) faces many barriers because it differs from traditional business practices. Public owners, especially, face a major challenge because they must comply with international and national legislation. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework that illustrates the various approaches that public project owners can take to implement ECI.

In addition to a literature review, three groups of case studies were carried out. The case studies were based on 54 semi-structured in-depth interviews with key personnel from 21 Norwegian public projects and document study.

In all, 25 approaches to ECI were identified during the research. Twelve of these were used in the cases studied.

There are several approaches to ECI that are suitable for public owners. However, the contractor’s contribution depends on which approach is implemented and how it is implemented.

As original contribution, this study presents a novel framework that defines options for implementing ECI in public projects. Furthermore, this paper provides insights on how ECI can be implemented in public projects based on Norwegian experiences. Although the empirical data of the study is limited to Norwegian public projects, this study contributes to knowledge about how to implement ECI internationally.

Early contractor involvement (ECI) faces many barriers when it is implemented in public procurement, given that it is different from traditional business practices. Primarily, public owners face a major challenge, as they should treat all bidders equally. The purpose of this paper is to explore suitable ECI approaches that public owners could use.

In addition to a literature and document study, 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with key personnel from 11 cases selected from Norwegian public bridge projects were carried out.

In all, 23 unique approaches of ECI were identified during this research (16 from literature and 7 new from case projects). The findings provide a new direction to ECI through introducing new approaches of ECI from the case projects.

This paper for the first time presents several alternatives of ECI approaches for public owners with the intention of illustrating ECI is actually possible in the public project procurement. Furthermore, it presents for the first time success factors of ECI with the intention of increasing the understanding of ECI concept from a public procurement perspective.

There is a general assumption that the early involvement of the contractor contributes to value in construction projects. While early contractor involvement (ECI) may improve the value, some studies identify challenges with ECI. This paper aims to identify the main parameters that can be used to determine the optimal time for contractor involvement and examine how these parameters can be used by clients to develop a systematic method for finding the optimal timing for involvement.

Literature studies, interviews, workshops and focus-group meetings identified six main parameters essential for developing a method to determine the ideal timing for ECI.

The six identified parameters are activity, complexity, criticality, technical competencies, relational competencies and uncertainty. These parameters can be used to identify the gap between the available competency in the project team and the needed competency to perform an activity.

Although clients have ways to identify the optimal time for contractor involvement, these ways are mainly subjective and based on in-house practice. By evaluating these six parameters, a more systematic and objective method for early involvement can be developed.

In spite of the vulnerability of prisoners to depression and their increased number, the issue has not been thoroughly investigated in Ethiopia. In particular, the determining factors of depression have not been exhaustively identified. Thus, the purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence of depression and associated factors among prisoners in Mizan prison institute, southwest Ethiopia.

An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 6–27, 2020. A total of 340 randomly selected prisoners were included. Depression was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-nine and participants were considered to be in a state of depression if they scored five and above. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the association between the outcome variable (depression) and the independent variables (factors). The odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to measure the strength of association. The final significance was decided using a p-value < 0.05.

The prevalence of depression was 29.9% (95% CI: 25%, 34.8%). Prisoners whowere not participating in the duty work of the prison had 55% (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.22, 0.93) less odds of depression compared to those who were participating in the duty work. Similarly, physically active respondents had 81% (AOR = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.10, 0.35) less odds of depression than physically inactive respondents. Moreover, undernourished participants had two times (AOR = 2.03; 95% CI: 1.08, 3.82) higher odds of depression than normal participants.

Considering their risk of exposure compared to the general population and the limitations of cross-sectional study design, special care should be provided to the prisoners’ mental health. Moreover, priority attention should be given to the undernourished, physically inactive and those who are participating in duty work in the prison.

This study demonstrated important and modifiable factors associated with prisoners’ depression. It also evaluated the contribution of new variables (such as participation in the duty work, nutritional status and physical activity) that were not considered in previous local studies.

The purpose of this study is to introduce new tools to develop a more precise and focused bibliometric analysis on the field of digitalization in healthcare management. Furthermore, this study aims to provide an overview of the existing resources in healthcare management and education and other developing interdisciplinary fields.

This work uses bibliometric analysis to conduct a comprehensive review to map the use of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) research models in healthcare academic studies. Bibliometric studies are considered an important tool to evaluate research studies and to gain a comprehensive view of the state of the art.

Although UTAUT dates to 2003, our bibliometric analysis reveals that only since 2016 has the model, together with UTAUT2 (2012), had relevant application in the literature. Nonetheless, studies have shown that UTAUT and UTAUT2 are particularly suitable for understanding the reasons that underlie the adoption and non-adoption choices of eHealth services. Further, this study highlights the lack of a multidisciplinary approach in the implementation of eHealth services. Equally significant is the fact that many studies have focused on the acceptance and the adoption of eHealth services by end users, whereas very few have focused on the level of acceptance of healthcare professionals.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to conduct a bibliometric analysis of technology acceptance and adoption by using advanced tools that were conceived specifically for this purpose. In addition, the examination was not limited to a certain era and aimed to give a worldwide overview of eHealth service acceptance and adoption.