Can Domestic Food Production Provide Future Urban Populations with Food and Nutrition Security?—Insights from Bangladesh, Kenya and Uganda

Population growth and urbanization increasingly put pressure on our planet's availability of areas needed for food production. The dependencies on domestically produced food are increasingly judged favourable, following the consequences of the Ukrainian war, with escalating fuel and grain prices and less accessibilities to low-income groups. It is, however, unclear whether land is domestically available. Applying a food system approach, the main aim of this article is to investigate spatial foodsheds and theoretical self-sufficiency for food production needed to supply increasing future populations in a selection of cities, including estimates for Dhaka in Bangladesh, Nairobi in Kenya and Kampala in Uganda. The projected foodshed scenario areas for the years 2020 and 2050 are estimated for the production of three core products currently extensively produced and consumed in the three countries. They show that it is not possible to feed an ever-increasing urban population based on domestic production alone. International trade, new technological developments and new consumer demands for less area-intensive food production systems may give solutions to the immense challenge of feeding the world's population with nutritious food in 2050. However, to ensure fair and inclusive transition pathways for low-income groups: (1) affordability and accessibility of trade opportunities, technologies and products, (2) a common vision aiming for the SDGs, including SDG2: Zero hunger and SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities as well as (3) best practices in co-creation and cooperation with the most vulnerable urban and rural populations, are highly needed.

Next normal for business post pandemics: COVID-19

The world's supply chains are changing as both expected and unexpected environmental pandemics occur. Even though some may be expected, the full extent and ramifications a pandemic will have is an estimate at best. Thus, both flexibility and resiliency are becoming crucial to efficient supply chain systems. This study analyses the recent COVID-19 phenomenon and uses it to gauge reactions, best practices, resilience-based issues and operational performance metrics in order to assist with potential future pandemics. Education, as seen, plays a pivotal role in effectively offering options to combat uncertainty and fluid situations. Such dynamic environments have historically posed a serious problem to operations;however, with proper preparation and care taken options are available today that help marginalize harm of future pandemics.

Pandemic-induced changes in working practices within a global medical communications agency

Objective: To evaluate whether the COVID19 pandemic continues to affect working practices/patterns in staff working in a global medical communications agency, and establish what impact these have on various factors relevant to their work. Research design and methods: Staff were asked to detail changes in working practices (pre- vs post-pandemic), via an online survey conducted in September 2022. Those with changes in working patterns were asked to assess the resulting impact on key work-related aspects. Categories were: communication, creativity, effectiveness, resolving queries, briefing, career progression/development opportunities, professional relationships and work/life balance;ratings were: very positive, positive, neutral and negative. Result(s): Of 36 respondents, most (n=32, 89%) reported changes in working patterns post-pandemic: 31 (86%) from predominantly office-based to predominantly remote, and 1 (3%) from predominantly remote to predominantly office-based. Four (11%) reported no change. Seventeen (53%) considered the overall impact on their daily work as neutral, 14 (44%) as positive and one (3%) as negative. Most staff reported a very positive/positive impact on effectiveness (69%) and work/life balance (63%). Categories with majority neutral responses were communication with delivery team (63%), creativity (47%), query resolution (50%), providing/receiving briefs (78%), and career progression/- development opportunities (63%). Overall, 56% of staff felt that their new working pattern negatively impacted their ability to form working relationships with peers. Conclusion(s): Most staff work in a hybrid manner post-pandemic. Although hybrid working has minimal impact on key workrelated aspects, it is important to have balance between office and remote working where possible, to develop and maintain working relationships (and thus foster a sense of community), whilst enabling individual flexibility.

Manufacturing Materials for Clinical Trials

CDMOs need to gauge their internal capacity of temperature storage units, form strategic partnerships with logistics companies, and potentially offer validated temperature storage of clinical trial material. Through the use of secure document sharing platforms, remote viewing systems, and virtual site tours, clients can be assured they will be able to perform a thorough review of facilities and quality systems and have connections with the subject matter experts and remote access to live action activities to meet their programme requirements and quality standards. To ensure projects continue to run to time, it is vital that upper management and business development have the ability to check in constantly. Hoerner (Purisys): Modelling and simulation tools have been extremely valuable to reduce the amount of work required for scale-up;for example, engineering technologies such as Scale-up Systems' Dynochem can model solvent swaps, drying, distillation, off-gassing, and many other fundamental elements of synthetic and chemical processes.

Driving Consistency in Validation Management

FDA also explained that system designs and controls should allow for detecting errors, omissions, and unusual results-outcomes that cannot be easily identified with paper-based processes. Because the guidance requirements for record retention and review don't differ between paper or electronic, this update supports the shift to a digital model. Using paper to check and mark things off is a normal practice in life sciences, even if it is not a very good process for error detection, data collection, or metrics, says Bryony Borneo, quality assurance director at global contract research organization (CRO) Emmes. Building a solid data foundation and gaining more experience with remote ways of working are driving positive change and making it easier for quality teams to remain compliant with regulations. According to Sanjeev Kumar, senior director, data integrity and technology at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, there is greater awareness of data standardization to identify developing trends and insights from information.

Vaccination in pregnancy.

The evidence indicates that pregnancy is associated with increased severity of some infectious diseases. Given the high maternal morbidity associated with influenza in pregnancy and the high neonatal morbidity and mortality associated with pertussis, the traditionally two recommended vaccines during pregnancy were those against influenza and Tdap (tetanus toxoid, reduced diphtheria toxoid and acellular pertussis) vaccines. The recent COVID-19 pandemic introduced a third vaccine that after much debate is now recommended for all pregnant women. Other vaccines can be offered based for high-risk pregnant women, and only when the benefits of receiving them outweigh the risks. The soon expected vaccines against group B streptococcus infection and respiratory syncytial virus infection will be a breakthrough in reducing perinatal mortality. In this paper, the recommendations for administration of each vaccine during pregnancy are discussed.

Eco-Efficiency and Its Evolutionary Change under Regulatory Constraints: A Case Study of Chinese Transportation Industry

The transportation industry is characterized as a capital-intensive industry that plays a crucial role in economic and social development, and the rapid expansion of this industry has led to serious environmental problems, which makes the eco-efficiency analysis of the transportation industry an important issue. Previous research paid little attention to the regulatory scenarios and suffered from the incomparability problem, hence this paper aims to reasonably estimate the eco-efficiency and identify its evolutionary characteristics. We measure the eco-efficiency and the corresponding global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index using a modified model of the data envelopment analysis framework, in which different regulatory constraints are incorporated. Based on the empirical study on the transportation industry of thirty provinces in China, we find that the eco-efficiency of Chinese transportation industry experienced a slight increase during 2015–2016, a sharp decline during 2016–2017, and a continuous rise since year 2017. The Middle Yangtze River area was the best performer among the eight regions in terms of eco-efficiency, while the Southwest area was placed last. The global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index showed an earlier increase and later decrease trend, which was quite consistent with the reality of the variation of inputs and outputs and the emergence of COVID-19. Moreover, the best practice gap change was found to be the main driven force of productivity. The empirical results verify the practicability of our measurement models and the conclusions can be adopted in guiding the formulation of corresponding policies and regulations.

Would compensation be necessary? The importance of service recovery strategy in e-retail delivery problems

PurposeThis study examines the different effects of service recovery strategies on customers' future intentions when online shoppers were experiencing delivery failures. Two types of problem severity are evaluated: wrong-product delivery (issues with the product quality or quantity) and late delivery. This study also investigates the impact of service criticality on the relationship between service recovery strategies and customers' future intentions.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs experimental research with 123 online shoppers as participants. Following the results, a subsequent test is conducted to examine the effect of participants' demographics on future intentions. Finally, the current study elaborates the findings using qualitative research, interviewing both sides impacted by the service failures: online shoppers and e-retail managers.FindingsThe findings show that complementing product replacement with monetary compensation is the most effective strategy to improve repurchase intention after a dissatisfaction moment. This effect is indifferent to service criticality and severity. Age influences the participants' repurchase intentions, in which younger people are less tolerant of service failures. In contrast, gender and education level do not provide any differences. To prevent delivery failures, managers participating in this study suggest several best practices regarding systems and infrastructure, people and coordination and collaboration with logistics partners.Research limitations/implicationsThe study mainly examines a limited type of service and service failures. Further studies are encouraged to expand the variables and scenarios, as well as to employ more distinctive methods, to enrich the findings related to recovery strategy in the e-commerce industry.Practical implicationsGiven proper compensation, service failure could create momentum for online retailers to boost customer loyalty. This study suggests that managers design the most effective service recovery to win customers back to the business.Originality/valueThis paper enriches the literature related to a service recovery strategy, particularly within the online shopping context.

The use of zakat in the pandemic response: the case of Islamic Relief and BAZNAS in Indonesia

This article compares two Islamic organisations, a non-governmental and a national one, in their methods of collecting and distributing zakat, and analyses how they addressed the COVID-19 crisis with these funds in the period 2020–2021. The study examines Islamic Relief as a Muslim non-governmental organisation involved in humanitarian response, and the National Board of the Zakat Republic of Indonesia (BAZNAS) as a centralised national institution. Both of them are working to improve zakat management, due to the awareness of its untapped potential, but the measure of impacts and allocation of resources diverge in strategies and efforts. Considering their different structures, a comparison based on parallel analysis of collecting methods, distributing channels and programmes financed shows the limits, potentials and best practices of these two institutions committed to zakat management and its improvement.

Best Practices for Mentoring in Online Programs

The COVID-19 pandemic brought an exponential increase in predominately and fully online degree programs at institutions across the country. While peer mentoring has been present in higher education for some time now, as online programs have steadily increased in past decades, institutions should explore more ways to engage and connect their online student population to success through peer mentoring. [...]the book discusses career-oriented mentoring of students by non-faculty and faculty mentors.

Leading Edge Use of Technology for Teacher Professional Development in Indian Schools

This paper presents a case study of a decade-long technology-enabled teacher professional development (TPD) initiative for government-run school teachers in India. The TPD aimed at capacitating teachers in integrating project-based or constructivist learning with technology in curriculum and pedagogy. Teachers are central to the teaching–learning processes, and hence capacitating them to leverage digital technologies confidently is essential to improve the quality of education imparted to learners. This paper focuses on the use of innovative technologies leading to the education of teachers. A decade of TPD is divided into three phases providing an analytical framework for the evolving technologies and pedagogies across the phases. Documents, resources and tools used for the TPD activities, researchers' first-hand experiences and documented research studies supported the comparative analysis of the three phases of TPD. This comparison highlighted leading-edge technologies influencing changes in TPD delivery mode, learning support, pedagogy, scale, etc., across the phases. The paper also maps the interrelationship between technologies and pedagogies of TPD, suggesting various features of innovations such as continuous, practice-based, collaborative, scalable, shareable, transferable, and adaptable.

REGULATING THE HEALTH SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY DURING THE SPREAD OF COVID 19: LEARNING FROM OTHER JURISDICTIONS

Consumers during this spread of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to believe in the concept of "˜prevention is better than cure'. However, the preventive measure adopted varies from the traditional method where the latter resort to consuming healthy food in its original form and the earlier consumes so called healthy supplementary products that has intervention of new technology. Consumers lose clarity in understanding the method, composition, and components of health supplement items as the supplements sector expands with new inventions and advances in technology. This is made worse by deceiving marketing strategies adopted by the producer. The bold act of the producer in claiming that their product may cure serious diseases is not only unethical, but it is also a crime. Government of different jurisdictions adopts various monitoring measure to protect the rights of the consumer. In addressing this issue, this study aims at analysing the legal framework in selected jurisdictions that includes Singapore, Australia and United States of America with a view of identifying the best practices and proposing an effective legal framework. The study uses qualitative methods incorporating critical analysis on the legal framework of the selected jurisdiction. The area that is analysed consist of the accepted definition (to date this has become the main issue in regulating supplementary products), the registration process, the governing authority, and the post-registration monitoring. The analysis of data gathered through qualitative methods entails content analysis, which is supplemented by semi-structured interviews with respondents who were purposefully chosen. The findings to the study disclose the strength and weaknesses of the Malaysian legal framework that can be remedied by learning from the selected jurisdiction method. The output of this study may assist the government, policymaker, industry players and the consumer in reforming the protection of consumers to the supplementary products.

Pedagogical Implications and Methodological Possibilities of Digital Transformation in Digital Education after the COVID-19 Epidemic

In the context of digital pedagogy, internet communication platforms, digital media interfaces, applications, and info-communication tools, best practices are stepping up in the educational process and forming a methodology. The focus areas targeted by the questionnaire presented in this study are digital transformation;the smart use of digital tools;characteristics of the learning environment;classroom activities, learning organization, and methodology;content;and curriculum sharing. During the research, the authors asked what were the online communication channels and digital platforms that teachers have effectively used in terms of learning efficiency in distance learning ordered as a result of the COVID-19 emergency in Hungary. The empirical research goal was to explore the conditions among Hungarian teachers with the help of a questionnaire and a semi-structured online interview. Seven thousand teachers were contacted through email, and a return rate of 10.7% was achieved. The questionnaire was filled in online by n = 751 primary teachers. According to the respondents, the most effective tools in the transformation of education are self-made tutorial videos and real-time written and video-based chat.

Open Streets for Whom?

The COVID-19 pandemic has created opportunities for cities to close streets to automobile traffic in the name of public health. Although these interventions promise numerous benefits, neighborhood activists and scholars of color suggest they can perpetuate structurally racist inequities. In this Viewpoint, we implore planners and other city builders to think critically about the impact of these interventions by employing an environmental justice framework. Applying this framework in the open streets context exposes several potential paradoxes that arise. We conclude with a set of best practices that can help city builders transcend these paradoxes and extend this livability revolution to all.

An approach based on process mining to assess the quarantine strategies' effect in reducing the COVID-19 spread

PurposeThe feasibility of process mining combined with simulation techniques in estimating the effectiveness of COVID-19 prevention strategies on infection and mortality trends to determine best practices is assessed in this study. The quarantine event log is built from the CUSP (the COVID-19 US State Policy) database, where the dates of implemented social policies in the USA to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic are documented.Design/methodology/approachCOVID-19 is a highly infectious disease leading to a very high death toll worldwide. In most countries, the governments have resorted to a series of drastic strategies to prevent the outbreak by restricting the activities and movement among their population for a predefined time. Heretofore, different approaches have been published to estimate quarantine strategies and the majority signify the positive effect on managing this pandemic. Notably, the process perspective of COVID-19 datasets is of less concern among researchers. The purpose of this paper is to exploit the process mining techniques to model and analyze the quarantine implementation processes.FindingsThe discovered process model has 51 process variants for 51 cases (states), which indicate the quarantine activities were executed in different orders and periods during the pandemic. The time interval analysis between activities reveals the states with the most extended quarantine periods. These primary process mining insights are applied to define scenarios and variables of an agent-based model. The simulation findings indicate a meaningful relation between enforcing quarantine strategies and a declining trend of infection by 90% in the case of following strict quarantine and mask mandates. It is observed that in the post-quarantine period, the disease repeats its ascending trend unless implementation of different intervention strategies likes vaccination.Originality/valueThis study is the first in introducing process mining techniques in analyzing the COVID-19 quarantine strategies impact. The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers to proper control strategies and the process mining research community in expanding more process-related analysis on this pandemic. Also, the results have broad implications for research in other fields like information science to estimate the impact of quarantine strategies on process patterns in library systems.

Research and evidence-based standards paving the way for a digital and sustainable transformation of the built environment

PurposeResearchers and standardisation bodies are key to accelerating societal transition and contributing to society's demands for sustainability, resilience and digitalisation. Standards are the agreed-upon best practices published by national or international bodies and are key enablers of transformation. Scholars have not yet identified a relationship between standards and facilities management (FM) research. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of formal standards in FM research.Design/methodology/approachA literature review was conducted to identify journal articles addressing standards and FM. A total of 198 journal articles published from 2010 to 2021 were identified. After screening these articles, 27 journal articles were considered the most relevant for data analysis.FindingsThe findings show that the role of standards in research can be analysed thematically, categorically, textually, methodologically and directionally. Standards are relevant to research by defining terms, creating backgrounds, guiding research, supporting the development of new standards and encouraging more collaboration between research and standardisation. Some studies have shown how standards influence research, but only a few have explored how research influences standards.Research limitations/implicationsThis research provides examples that inspire stronger collaboration between people and processes in research and standardisation.Originality/valueThe articles collected and analysed in this study comprise original research. A limited preliminary study of ten core articles was presented at the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction World Congress 2022. This presentation of this work provides an expanded framework for analysing the roles of standards in research. This framework includes (1) categorical analysis of research and standardisation streams;(2) thematic analysis of the topic of interest;(3) textual analysis of the use of the term "standard”;(4) methodological analysis of the influence of standards on the research method;and (5) directional analysis of the intended audience.

Community Engagement Forum: Sharing best practices in community-engaged research

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The Community Engagement Forum (CEF), a quarterly series hosted by the Colorado Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CCTSI) and the ACCORDS Education program, provides seminars from leading academic and community research partners. Our goal is to share the process and outcomes so others may implement a similar forum in their institution. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: In 2019, CCTSI and the ACCORDS Education Program partnered to offer a forum to exchange best practices for investigators and study teams conducting community-engaged research. Each forum features presenters from community and academic partnerships. Initially this series was offered in-person;during the COVID-19 Pandemic the Forum moved online. At registration we collect data on current position, school/department or organization, and how they heard about the forum. Post session evaluations are also collected. Various topics have been covered including: community engagement foundations, creating advisory boards, responding appropriately to community needs in a pandemic, data equity, and community dissemination. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Between October 2019 and October 2022, we hosted twelve Community Engagement Forums. A total of 442 people have attended the forums, with the School of Medicine having the highest representation. Among attendees, university research staff are the highest represented position in attendance, with 115 attendees over the 12 forums. 133 people have completed evaluation questions since the start of the forum series. High percentages of agreement were seen from the question, will you use this information to make adjustments/improvements or continue the conversation . Additionally, most respondents agreed that the presentations were useful to their current or future work. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The CEF series has filled a gap for desired resources related to best practices for community-engaged research. CCTSI CE&HC and ACCORDS Education have created a learning community for investigators and study teams to share lessons learned and provide opportunities for trouble-shooting research ideas as they arise.

Global Big Data Maturity Model and its Corresponding Assessment Framework Results

Nowadays, we live in the era of Big Data. Companies have realized by now that transitioning to a datadriven business is strategic for their growth and competitiveness. To achieve that, companies should get the most value out of their data through Big Data technologies. In the previous work, we showed how maturity models are essential to assess the ability of companies to start Big Data projects and prevent eventual failures. We also explored literature and editors' offerings in this field and proposed an exhaustive maturity model that includes Methodology, a maturity domain of high importance and impact. In the present work, we aim to provide a detailed picture of the proposed global Maturity Model design by exploring the temporal domains and explaining how they evolve through time. In addition, we aim to introduce the assessment framework, a tool we made available for North African companies to be able to evaluate their Big Data maturity. Unlike the currently available models, which are usually detailed and complex, the global assessment tool is quick and easy. We enriched the assessment questionnaire with best practices, and more importantly, the assessment tool suggests a list of shortcomings that companies should avoid in order to succeed in their Big Data adoption journey. Moreover, we present the technologies used to implement the global assessment tool. We also show an example of a company's assessment results via visualizations. Furthermore, we demonstrate the importance of the methodology domain through assessment results;and we analyze which sector has mature companies and which maturity domains are more mature by industry sector. Finally, we conclude with an opening on using Multiple Criteria Decision-Making techniques to calculate companies' maturity accurate scores.