E-Learning Readiness Assessment Using Machine Learning Methods

Assessing e-learning readiness is crucial for educational institutions to identify areas in their e-learning systems needing improvement and to develop strategies to enhance students' readiness. This paper presents an effective approach for assessing e-learning readiness by combining the ADKAR model and machine learning-based feature importance identification methods. The motivation behind using machine learning approaches lies in their ability to capture nonlinearity in data and flexibility as data-driven models. This study surveyed faculty members and students in the Economics faculty at Tlemcen University, Algeria, to gather data based on the ADKAR model's five dimensions: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement. Correlation analysis revealed a significant relationship between all dimensions. Specifically, the pairwise correlation coefficients between readiness and awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement are 0.5233, 0.5983, 0.6374, 0.6645, and 0.3693, respectively. Two machine learning algorithms, random forest (RF) and decision tree (DT), were used to identify the most important ADKAR factors influencing e-learning readiness. In the results, ability and knowledge were consistently identified as the most significant factors, with scores of ability (0.565, 0.514) and knowledge (0.170, 0.251) using RF and DT algorithms, respectively. Additionally, SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values were used to explore further the impact of each variable on the final prediction, highlighting ability as the most influential factor. These findings suggest that universities should focus on enhancing students' abilities and providing them with the necessary knowledge to increase their readiness for e-learning. This study provides valuable insights into the factors influencing university students' e-learning readiness.

Cartooning COVID-19 on facebook

Mike Asukwo's brightly textured cartoons captured the colorless realities of the Covid pandemic in Nigeria and circulated along with global pandemic discourses as local visual archives of Nigeria's postcolonial disenchantment. Social media is particularly central to the aesthetic value of Asukwo's political cartoons in producing and constraining the expression of civic agency among Nigerians. His cartoons demonstrate how everyday media practices such as the decoding and reproduction of popular culture texts online can challenge hierarchical systems of control. This chapter examines the conditions under which cultural netizens like Asukwo and his online audience make sense of the state's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting how Nigeria's crisis of infrastructure manifests in cartoons to accentuate the messiness of political leadership. The chapter concludes on the ambivalent valences of the social web and the digital public sphere it fosters, underscoring how social media documents the pandemic perspectives of members of the digital class in Nigeria. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved.

Dynamic Safety Assessment and Enhancement of Port Operational Infrastructure Systems during the COVID-19 Era

Seaports function as lifeline systems in maritime transportation, facilitating critical processes like shipping, distribution, and allied cargo handling. These diverse subsystems constitute the Port Infrastructure System (PIS) and have intricate functional interdependencies. The PIS is vulnerable to several external disruptions, and the impact of COVID-19 is severe and unprecedented in this domain. Therefore, this study proposes a novel general port safety framework to cope with recurring hazards and crisis events like COVID-19 and to augment PIS safety through a multi-state failure system. The PIS is divided into three critical subsystems: shipping, terminal, and distribution infrastructure, thereby capturing its functional interdependency and intricacy. A dynamic input-output model is employed, incorporating the spatial variability and average delay of the disruption, to determine the PIS resilience capacity under the stated disruptions. This study simulates three disruption scenarios and determines the functional failure capacity of the system by generating a functional change curve in Simulink. This study offers viable solutions to port managers, terminal operators, and concerned authorities in the efficient running of intricate interdependent processes and in devising efficient risk control measures to enhance overall PIS resilience and reliability. As part of future studies, given the difficulty in obtaining relevant data and the relatively limited validation of the current model, we aim to improve the accuracy and reliability of our model and enhance its practical applicability to real-world situations with data collected from a real-world case study of a PIS system.

Smart Healthcare: Future Applications & Challenges

After the outbreak of corona virus, all counties are paying special attention to their healthcare infrastructure. During second phase of covid-19, entire world has seen health care crisis. Large number of people died globally. Entire world was affected mentally or physically. There is a great need to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure, to vaccinate the population against covid virus infection and to take proper precaution to avoid spread of the virus, so that the world will not see such deadly days again. This paper discusses how technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Drones etc can help in remote monitoring of patients, judicious hospital admission, conscious distribution of lifesaving drugs etc. Investment in technology with not only help in the reduction of spread of the virus but will also help in fighting with all other future pandemics. All the countries must have to invest more on latest technologies in their healthcare to make themselves ready for such future pandemics. When the things will improve, the new normal will be very much different from the life that was before pandemic. IoT, AI and other technologies will become the non-separatable part of our life. © 2023 Bharati Vidyapeeth, New Delhi.

COVlD-19 vaccine Distribution: Preparing for the Unexpected

In December 2020, two shipments of the vaccine experienced temperature excursions in which product was actually kept at overly cold temperatures (3). Urgent need to protect data One problem that vaccine developers and regulatory agencies need to address is the urgent need to protect data, says Nigel Thorpe, technology director with Secure Age, which specializes in enterprise data encryption using a public key infrastructure platform. For operators on the plant floor, the efforts required are fraught with potential error, especially during shift changes, says Jim Evans, director of Verista, Inc.'s vision, connectivity, and automation division. Raw materials The speed with which vaccines have been developed and are being distributed pose important questions centred around variability. If we're having a raw materials shortage when the vaccines haven't even been scaled up, what will happen when they get full approval?" he asks.

Africa's Air Transport Infrastructure: Challenges, Complexities and Opportunities

African aviation has witnessed steady growth pre-COVID and as result of increased demand for air travel, there is an urgent need to improve the air transport infrastructure. This chapter examines the underlining complexities and challenges that are undermining the African region's propensity to exploit its growth trajectory. The chapter explores multiple differences in regional airport infrastructure. Infrastructure is considered a key component of the investment climate, reducing costs of doing business and enabling people to access markets. In general, Africa, by every measure of infrastructure coverage, lags behind their peers in other parts of the developing world. Poor infrastructure of most African airports is seen as a principal reason why the region continues to struggle to fulfil its undoubtedly economic potential. These infrastructure problems can hardly be solved due to limited financial resources and will therefore consequently lead to retaining infrastructure problems. The chapter proposes a series of blueprint measures in order to galvanize Africa's growth potential within air transport development. This calls for speeding up privatization and allowing more private equity investments to support air infrastructure improvements. The most desired option to finance airport infrastructure would be the Public–Private Partnership (PP). However, on the local level, banks have relative weak capital coffers, which also limit access to infrastructure capital loans. Investors see some underlining risks in financing airport projects in Africa, namely uncertainty related to forecasts of passenger growth numbers. Other risks are embedded in currency markets, whereby most domestic airport infrastructure with project revenues is generated in local currencies, but servicing foreign debt and equity involves payment in foreign currency. The chapter finally examines the impact of COVID-19 on airport operations. From 2019 to 2021, airports were severely affected by the global pandemic causing massive loss of revenues for both airport operators and airlines. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Adaptive reuse of closed malls for dementia programs and services: Community focus group feedback

The double societal hit of dementia and infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19 have raised a convergence of concerns for the future of care settings for people living with dementia. Images of institutionalized older adults who are quarantined in closed settings have led developers, government agencies, and care administrators to search for innovative options to create more autonomy and quality of life in care settings while protecting the health of residents. This chapter describes the qualitative work being conducted by a Midwestern university research team, laying the groundwork for the conceptual adaptive reuse of an 800,000 square-foot closed mall site for centralized dementia programs, services, housing, and an on-site quarantine and medical center. Focus group outcomes from architects and developers highlighted five principle themes relating to the barriers and benefits of adaptive reuse for this model which include: mixed-use precedents, linking the old with the new, economic factors, development partnerships, and sustainable building practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Lead the African way!

PurposeCountries in Africa have undergone an unprecedented transformation that has shaped the continent as they move ahead from the clutches of colonialism. The evolution of leadership and how organisations function optimally has given rise to the review of leadership approaches and practices, revolutionising its position in the global markets. With the recent spate of global suffering from the pandemic, the formal and traditional work structures are becoming transient. At the same time, the economic consequences of the Russo-Ukrainian crisis have catastrophic effects globally.Design/methodology/approachThe research was conducted via a systematic review of scientific sources from various academic websites. Eligibility criteria were defined with the agreement of pertinent themes and concepts.FindingsBy evaluating and analysing characteristics and success indicators from the blend of leadership competencies ascertained from Afrocentric principles in response to African associated problems, Africa can cement its leadership concepts without following the global north principles. These philosophies are resilient enough to contend with a range of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) complexities, including the impact of the recent global pandemic of immeasurable proportions and the prospect of war as the Russo-Ukrainian conflict intensifies.Originality/valueWithin the African environment, there is a greater focus on the human element in shared values, holistic well-being, cooperation and experience. The global community band together to deal with these complexities. This is a typical example of global connectedness with positive and negative connotations.

Managing systemic risk in emergency management, organizational resilience and climate change adaptation

PurposeThis paper applies the theory of cascading, interconnected and compound risk to the practice of preparing for, managing, and responding to threats and hazards. Our goal is to propose a consistent approach for managing major risk in urban systems by bringing together emergency management, organisational resilience, and climate change adaptation.Design/methodology/approachWe develop a theory-building process using an example from the work of the Greater London Authority in the United Kingdom. First, we explore how emergency management approaches systemic risk, including examples from of exercises, contingency plans and responses to complex incidents. Secondly, we analyse how systemic risk is integrated into strategies and practices of climate change adaptation. Thirdly, we consider organisational resilience as a cross cutting element between the approaches.FindingsLondon has long been a champion of resilience strategies for dealing with systemic risk. However, this paper highlights a potential for integrating better the understanding of common points of failure in society and organisations, especially where they relate to interconnected domains and where they are driven by climate change.Originality/valueThe paper suggests shifting toward the concept of operational continuity to address systemic risk and gaps between Emergency Management, Organizational Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation.

Environmental Sustainability and Territorial Competitiveness: A Comparison between Italian Provinces

The emergence of globalisation and the removal of obstacles between markets have heightened rivalry between territorial areas. To have a competitive advantage, the regions have to be unique. As one of the tactics used to boost their reputation on a territorial level, territories are progressively adopting environmental policies for sustainable and shared prosperity. Indeed, effective management of urban growth depends heavily on sustainable development. In this regard, the literature occasionally refers to the "green branding” of cities, a strategy that makes use of environmental aspects to boost the allure of metropolitan environments. There is currently little consensus in the literature on the measuring of environmental performance, and no statistical study has been done to confirm the efficacy of these measures in terms of territorial competitiveness. Therefore, it is important to determine whether there is a relationship between a territory's level of sustainability and competitiveness in Italy. According to the statistical analysis of the Italian provinces, the Northeast, Northwest, Centre, and Islands are the four geographical regions with the highest average scores. This unquestionably indicates a basic comprehension and supports the notion that there is a relationship between the two variables. However, it also serves as a warning about how geographical disparities in Italy represent a major issue affecting the most diverse sectors. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic problem has drastically altered consumer demands and goals, leading consumers to seek out more sustainable travel and cities that are designed with citizens' requirements in mind. It will therefore become more and more important to research how public and private administrators, as well as policy makers, react to these changes.

The Evolution of the Normative Regulation in Hospital Safety and Security

The aim of the law is to ensure personal, material and organisational conditions for safe work without endangering human health, to prevent work accidents and occupational diseases by defining the rights and obligations of the state, employers and employees. Since 2003, the concept of occupational safety and health commissioning has been included in the law, which plays a prominent role in the commissioning of dangerous technology or work equipment in health care. [...]of the epidemic, not only the so-called back office area, but also in patient care, the concept of remote work appeared in the field of telemedicine, and some other areas, such as in the case of finding analysis. According to the legislation, the employer must register and Investigate all accidents at work. [...]of this, a wave of insourcing started and in several health institutions they started to employ their own doormen again, wh ich raises further problems.

Mapping the riskscape of using privately-owned short-term lets for specialist family violence crisis accommodation

COVID-19 has generated many problems and some opportunities in the housing market. The potential role of privately-owned short-term lets meeting specialist family violence crisis accommodation demand is one such opportunity. This paper engages with an important and increasing practice in the Australian context, of the utilisation of private housing stock as a component part of a public housing crisis response system, in this case explored in relation to domestic and family violence. In seeking to gain insights into the feasibility of this practice, this article will first frame mixed public/private accommodation provision as potentially overlapping relations between a thin territory of insufficient crisis infrastructure and a thick territory of commodified short-term let infrastructure. Second, this paper situates the potential of this intersection of mixed private/public responses in terms of riskscapes by unpacking how risk is perceived within these contested territories. The findings highlight tensions between both real and perceived understandings of safety, housing, wellbeing, economic and political risks. While there was some support for utilising short-term lets for crisis accommodation, barriers were revealed to adding thickness to the crisis accommodation space. Given increasing homelessness in Australia, diversifying crisis models could offer increased violence-prevention infrastructure to support women.

Modular Processes and Facilities Enable Flexible Vaccine Manufacturing

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for modular designs to rapidly expand vaccine production capacity. Speed to market An established benefit of modular facilities is that they are constructed off-site and then delivered to the site where they will be put into use. CRB's SlateXpace was introduced in September 2020 as a "suitebased" modular facility design for cell and gene therapy. Modular systems enable the manufacturer to produce regionally on the required scale and thus to react flexibly to the current situation and local requirements," says Kappeler.

'Brexit put us in the Fridge, Covid in the Freezer': The Impact of Covid-19 and Brexit on UK Freelance Dance Artists

This article investigates how Covid-19 and Brexit have impacted the practices, finances and wellbeing of UK dance professionals, drawing on first-hand data collected in early 2021 from interviews, questionnaires and a panel discussion. The testimonies of freelance practitioners from different backgrounds, as well as key stakeholders from national institutions and organisations employing or otherwise interacting with freelancers, present bottom-up insights from the scene. Our research project more specifically explored the ramifications of the pandemic and Brexit, and the impact of these crises on the diversity of the UK dance scene (broadly construed). The voices and findings presented are framed by a discussion of the economic and political infrastructure of the so-called 'creative industries' in the country, with particular attention to the freelance creative labour model, risk and precarity. The article concludes by proposing a politics of small resistive steps which might help to mitigate these challenges, working from within the dance ecosystem. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Dance Research is the property of Edinburgh University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Cross-cultural collaboration through virtual teaming in higher education

Scholars from three universities in three different parts of the world - North America, Africa, and Eurasia - across different cultures, disciplines, and contexts, collaborated with the objective of advancing transversal skills and intercultural competences through immersing their students in international virtual teamwork. Students and lecturers represented the Appalachian State University (United States of America), University of the Free State (South Africa), and Novgorod State University (Russia). In this article, we share our lessons learned from the challenges we faced in the hopes of deepening understanding in higher education concerning what can be accomplished through remote learning across continents and cultures. This work allowed us to be ahead of the collapse of traditional teaching on campuses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as we had prior experience of online pedagogies reaching across international borders, cultures, time zones, and languages. Even during hard lockdown, when travelling abroad was impossible, our students experienced internationalised curricula, interacted with international scholars and staff, and were able to continue with the programme as planned. We began this work more than five years prior to the pandemic;therefore, these efforts led to successfully switching to online learning in other courses. We began with engaging staff members as well as students in ongoing, project-based collaboration across cultures from these institutions. This required the use of synchronous and asynchronous digital platforms, which would enable staff members and students to work collaboratively for six to eight weeks to create realistic projects. Staff members began to compile the collaborative co-creating courses that would be taught together, thus combining and adapting various pedagogical approaches. We then shared the responsibility for co-facilitating each course, despite different philosophies of teaching and learning. The result was a balanced blend of pedagogies, allowing students to collaborate successfully with students from the other universities. Students overcame a number of challenges: (a) cultural differences;(b) infrastructure for technology platforms;(c) time zones;(d) languages;(e) age and generational differences;(f) unfamiliarity with various pedagogies;(g) interaction with other cultures and settings;and (h) stereotypes fuelled by popular media. We share our journey and the strategies that addressed these challenges, including the use of technology and results from this continued collaboration.

CLINICAL TRIAL INSIGHTS

With support from large databases, informatics, technologies, and advanced analytics we're able to target highly stratified patient subpopulations-eventually at the individual patient level- resulting in smaller and faster clinical trials, fewer adverse outcomes, greater likelihood of a treatment response, higher probability of approval, and lower overall development costs. Ultimately this second movement ensures that we are measuring outcomes that are the most clinically meaningful and relevant as defined by the community living with a given disease;and promises to deliver more feasible, faster clinical trials with better enrollment and retention rates, proportional representation according to disease prevalence by race and ethnicity and other individual characteristics, fewer unplanned and unbudgeted protocol amendments, higher approval rates, and accelerated commercialization. Research conducted by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development and by others indicates that drug development failure rates are the highest they have ever been;the average overall duration of a development program and of a clinical trial by phase is not getting faster-they are taking longer and the durations are less predictable;recruitment and retention rates are at their lowest in history-particularly in oncology and rare diseases (two dominant segments of the R&D pipeline);the perennial 4% to 6% increase in overall R&D spending shows no sign of slowing;and we are observing higher levels of inefficiency and performance volatility.

TRACKING CHANGE IN THE GLOBAL INVESTIGATIVE SITE LANDSCAPE

New benchmarks uncover a maturing and globally-shifting market During the COVID-19 pandemic, some have observed that principal investigators with minimal experience, limited infrastructure, and low study grant income have divested from clinical trial activity. The most active principal investigator segments have been growing at a much faster rate: the segment comprised of those who filed between four and six form 1572s each year has grown 5.2% annually since 2010;those who filed seven or more form 1572s have grown 8.6% annually during that same period. The principal investigator segment in North America is scaling as site selection practices dictate engaging study conduct providers with more experience, infrastructure, and patient diversity.

Exploring CBD Retail Performance, Recovery and Resilience of a Smart City Following COVID-19

The city of Christchurch, New Zealand, incurred significant damage due to a series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. The city had, by the late 2010s, regained economic and social normalcy after a sustained period of rebuilding and economic recovery. Through the concerted rebuilding effort, a modern central business district (CBD) with redesigned infrastructure and amenities was developed. The Christchurch rebuild was underpinned by a commitment of urban planners to an open and connected city, including the use of innovative technologies to gather, use and share data. As was the case elsewhere, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant disruptions to social and economic life in Christchurch. Border closures, lockdowns, trading limitations and other restrictions on movement led to changes in traditional consumer behaviors and affected the retail sector's resilience. In this study, we used CBD pedestrian traffic data gathered from various locations to predict changes in retail spending and identify recovery implications through the lens of retail resilience. We found that the COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdowns have driven a substantive change in the behavioral patterns of city users. The implications for resilient retail, sustainable policy and further research are explored. © 2023 by the authors.

Wellington City: A Case Study Approach to Climate Resilience

The majority of people living in Wellington City, New Zealand, appreciate what the city has to offer. It has a positive reputation and clean air, and it is a compact, walkable city, which means that greenhouse gas emissions are the lowest per capita when compared with other centers in New Zealand. However, the city has experienced a number of setbacks in recent years. A very large earthquake in the South Island in 2016 badly affected buildings in central Wellington, some of which had to be demolished, with many others requiring significant repairs. Housing stock is therefore in high demand and costly, which is leading to homelessness and expensive rentals. Already under pressure to deal with the cost of repairs to key civic buildings in the city center and with reduced income from the loss of tourism due to Covid, the city has also been hit with major leaks to its aging three waters infrastructure, which has been underfunded for too many years. Although the Wellington City Council declared a climate and ecological emergency in 2019, this has not noticeably changed behaviors. Water is commonly used to excess (it is free);the volume of municipal waste is among the highest in the OECD;there is a high proportion of car ownership;and public transport is diesel powered and underfunded. The council has developed some excellent programs of work, but multiple crises, combined with tight funding, appear to be hindering Wellington's progress toward becoming a world-leading climate-resilient city. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.

Antecedents of digital supply chains for a circular economy: a sustainability perspective

PurposeA digital supply chain (DSC) positively enhances circular economy (CE) practices. However, what factors and conditions lead to the implementation of DSC for transitioning toward CE is not yet clear. Therefore, this study aims at identifying and subsequently analyzing the antecedents of DSC for CE.Design/methodology/approachThe study identifies major antecedents of DSC for CE to achieve sustainability objectives through literature review and expert opinions. In this study, 19 potential antecedents of DSCs for CE are established from the literature and suggestions from industry professionals. A trapezoidal fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach is applied quantitatively to investigate the antecedents identified.FindingsConducted in the context of Indian automobile manufacturing industry, the findings of the study reflect that advanced information sharing arrangement, effective government policies for DSC and CE implementation and digitalizing the supply chains are the top three potential antecedents of DSC for a CE.Originality/valueIn the existing literature, few studies are specific to investigating the DSC and CE paradigm. The present study will help organizations develop a practical and integrated strategic approach that will foster DSC through improved knowledge of CE.