An Exploratory Study about the Effect of COVID-19 on the Intention to Adopt Virtual Reality in the Tourism Sector

During the health crisis caused by COVID-19, virtual reality (VR) proved to be useful for the tourism industry, allowing this industry to continue working despite the restrictions imposed. However, it remains to be seen if the impact of this sanitary crisis in the tourism industry influenced managers' intention to adopt this technology in the post-pandemic period. To fill this gap, a qualitative methodological approach was adopted, using the MAXQDA20 software and interviews with managers of tourism enterprises. The results show that the willingness to invest in technology, the perception of VR as a business strategy, and the perception of the impact of the pandemic are factors that regulate the intention of companies to adopt VR. In addition, prior experience with VR and the perception of technical support are also important for its adoption. Thus, it was concluded that VR can be a valuable sustainable strategy for tourism companies to address the challenges imposed by the pandemic. However, adopting the technology depends on factors such as financial availability, business strategy, and previous experience with VR. Furthermore, tourism companies must also receive adequate technical support to ensure its correct implementation.

An Exploration of Journals Requested by Health Sciences Libraries through DOCLINE Interlibrary Loan During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 challenged information exchange globally, including interlibrary loan (ILL). This project explored DOCLINE ILL borrowing data from 15 academic, hospital, and association health sciences libraries before and during the pandemic to understand gaps in ILL coverage. We reviewed aggregate filled and unfilled borrowing data from March to August in 2019 and 2020. We compared these time periods to each other and to system-wide fill rates. We normalized journal titles, added journal price and language, calculated descriptive statistics and odds ratios, and conducted 2-proportion z-tests of differences. In our sample of 14,891 requests, the odds of requests being unfilled were 2.7 times higher in 2020 than in 2019. While the proportion of non-English language content requested did not change, a significantly higher proportion went unfilled in 2020. The rate of unfilled requests for older items also rose significantly between 2019 and 2020. Our findings support the conclusion that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly influenced ILL article request fulfillment in health sciences libraries. Libraries should consider collection development strategies to increase the accessibility of articles held only in print, and those with specialized print collections may want to prioritize digitization of older materials. Future research on the availability, utility, and expense of the materials more likely to remain unfilled should inform publisher backfile prioritization as well as consortial and individual library collection development practices. © 2023, Association of College and Research Libraries. All rights reserved.

Social Work Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Challenges and Future Developments to Enhance Students' Wellbeing

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, educational systems were forced to adapt to the new reality of online learning, causing practical academic specializations, such as social work (SW), to be severely affected. To highlight the perspectives of SW students during the pandemic, we used a mixed sociological approach that combined exploratory qualitative research (using the focus-group technique) with cross-sectional quantitative research. Participants who had both on-site and online SW studies before and after the COVID-19 outbreak were included in the study. The study was conducted during a period when almost all educational activities were held online. We aimed to investigate students' perceptions of the educational process during the pandemic, how their wellbeing was affected, and their perspectives on educational and professional development. Students identified advantages of online learning, such as discovering online learning tools, and disadvantages, mainly marked by concerns about their career path once practical activities were heavily limited by institutional measures and policies. Our conclusions suggest that in a post-pandemic context, universities should provide continuous feedback, integrate students' opinions into policies, offer material and technical support, facilitate access to high-quality resources, enrich the SW curricula with resilience programs, and organize peer-to-peer mentoring activities.

Future Proofing Streaming Video Acquisitions: A Medium Sized Academic Library Adapts

The pedagogical appeal of using film in higher education, while not new, has undeniably grown since the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated remote teaching for health and safety reasons. This dramatic rise in streaming video requests is challenging for academic libraries of all sizes. Yet, smaller- and medium-sized institutions have personnel who already juggle multiple roles and responsibilities, resulting in chaos and the need for new workflows. This article will reflect on the past 24 months of managing streaming video at the University of San Diego's Copley Library, comparing the remote instruction period to the hybrid teaching that followed.

Automatic Detection of Sports Injuries Based on Multimedia Intelligent 3D Images

With the concept of quality education put forward, students' sports activities have received extensive attention from society. As a result, sports injuries among students during sports have also aroused widespread concern, so it is an irreversible trend to detect sports injuries. The development of multimedia intelligent 3D image technology also provides technical support for sports injury detection, which makes it possible to automatically detect sports injuries. In this paper, an automatic detection system for sports injuries was designed based on multimedia intelligent three-dimensional image technology, and the related content was evaluated. In the investigation of the parts of students' sports injuries, it was concluded that the injury rate of the students' ankle joints was the highest;in the investigation of the types of sports injuries among students, it was concluded that students were more likely to suffer from joint sprains;in the project investigation of students' sports injuries, it was concluded that students were more prone to sports injuries in ball games with a large amount of exercise;in the investigation of the causes of students' sports injuries, it was concluded that the main reasons for students' sports injuries were physical insufficiency and a bad venue environment;in terms of the performance evaluation of the sports injury detection system, it was concluded that the accuracy, effectiveness, authenticity, and efficiency of the sports injury automatic detection system based on multimedia intelligent three-dimensional image processing technology had been improved to different degrees compared with the traditional sports injury detection methods. Therefore, the detection efficiency of the sports injury automatic detection system proposed in this paper was improved by 5.7% compared with the traditional sports injury detection method.

The Value of Centralized IT in Building Resilience During Crises: Evidence from U.S. Higher Education's Transition to Emergency Remote Teaching

The COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations, including higher education institutions, to rapidly adjust their operations. In the face of the pandemic, most higher education institutions shut down their campuses and transitioned to emergency remote teaching mode. This study examines digital resilience in higher education institutions through the conceptual lens of disaster response management, by assessing the role played by the centralized governance of information technology (IT) investments. We posit that centralized IT helps organizations maintain customer satisfaction with services during a crisis (e.g., student satisfaction with classes during COVID-19) by facilitating the organization-wide transition to an emergency operational mode and supporting its service operations. Consolidating data on IT investment, governance, and course evaluations from 463 U.S. higher education institutions from 2017-2020, we show that centralized IT helped organizations adapt better to the pandemic in terms of maintaining student satisfaction. Moreover, we found that centralized IT investments geared toward facilitating organizational coordination and providing instructional and technical support played a pivotal role in enabling ERT and improving student ratings during the crisis. These results are corroborated by interviews with CIOs of U.S. higher education institutions. Additional analyses also suggest that the effectiveness of centralized IT governance is contingent upon organizational size, dissimilarity of local units, and the strategic role of the CIO. We also discuss theoretical extensions toward digital resilience as well as practical implications.

Book Review: Virtual Technical Services: A Handbook

If you are looking for a book that practically promotes and elegantly advocates for library technical services employees undertaking remote or hybrid work into the future, look no further. Reading Mary Beth Weber and Melissa De Fino's Virtual Technical Services: A Handbook brings up a lot of memories and emotions from working as a technical services librarian employed throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and at the epicenter of the 2020 uprisings. However, the scope of the book is much broader than that, touching on past crises (e.g., Hurricane Sandy, 9/11) and preparing for future crises.

Editorial

The Italian Association for Stress Analysis (AIAS) was founded in 1971 by researchers from academia, research centers, and industry. AIAS was intended as a community where to discuss, share, and develop scientific knowledge related to all technical aspects of stress analysis. In the years, from an initial focus on experimental techniques, AIAS contributed considerably to the development of modern numerical methods and computational techniques for mechanical engineering design. In 2015, AIAS turned in the Italian Scientific Society of Mechanical Engineering Design.Today, AIAS is an institutional partner that supports the instances from academia in the subject area of mechanical engineering design. Every year, AIAS organizes a technical conference offering the possibility to present research updates, share new ideas, and foster collaborations. The AIAS conference has become a fundamental event for all those interested in current developments in mechanical engineering design and stress analysis, where to meet researchers, testing equipment, and software developers.The 51st AIAS Conference edition was held in Padova, Italy again in presence after two years of online-only events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The response of researchers and students has been outstanding: over 200 oral contributions have been presented during the three days of the conference, with four parallel sessions. In addition to the thematic sessions on AIAS traditional subjects, special sessions on additive manufacturing, energy methods for structural analysis, circular design in mechanical engineering, and mechanical behavior under extreme conditions, have been successfully organized with the contribution of the AIAS technical committees.Among all contributions presented at the conference, 48 have been selected to be published after peer review, in this volume. This was made possible thanks to the active participation of all AIAS members, to the work of the AIAS Scientific Committee and Conference Papers Review panel (Profs Giovanni Meneghetti, AIAS Scientific Coordinator, Luciano Afferrante, Francesco Bucchi, Filippo Cianetti, Enrico Armentani, Marco Sasso). Their outstanding contribution is gratefully acknowledged.DisclaimerAIAS2022 Conference was held in presence on Sept. 7-10, 2022. Presentations were arranged in four parallel sessions with a time slot of 15 min assigned to each presenter. Approximately 250 participants attended the conference during the three days event. All sessions have been continuously monitored by the organizers to provide technical support. The conference ran smoothly, and the participants' feedback was very positive.

The Integration Mechanism of Music Intangible Cultural Heritage and Tourism Industry in the Internet of Things Environment

This work aims to optimize and innovate the protection, inheritance, and dissemination of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Based on the Internet of Things (IoT), this work designs the music ICH development path under the cultural concept by integrating music ICH with the tourism industry in the smart city environment. Specifically, it innovatively proposes the integration mechanism of immersive scene design of music ICH with smart city’s tourism industry in the Internet of Things (IoT) context. Consequently, the music ICH brand equity evaluation model is built. This model can evaluate the importance of cultural and asset value of music ICH. The comprehensive evaluation index system of music ICH mainly includes four primary indexes (with eight secondary indexes): the live performance, historical value, music audience, and the tourism industry integration. In addition, at the beginning of the model iteration, the pattern recognition accuracy of the traditional model is only 67.5%. Then, the recognition accuracy of the traditional model can reach 72.5% at the 500th iteration. In contrast, the average recognition accuracy of the improved model can reach 80%, and the highest can reach 82.5%. This work can provide technical support and guarantee for formulating and optimizing music ICH protection strategies.

Data Mining and Spatial Analysis of Social Media Text Based on the BERT-CNN Model to Achieve Situational Awareness: a Case Study of COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19, social media big data has played an important role in epidemic warning, tracking the source of infection, and public opinion monitoring, providing strong technical support for China’s epidemic prevention and control work. The paper used Sina Weibo posts related to COVID-19 hashtags as the data source, and built a BERT-CNN deep learning model to perform fine-grained and high-precision topic classificationon massive social media posts. Taking Shenzhen as a region of interest, we mined the “epidemic data bulletin” and “daily life impact” posts during the epidemic for spatial analysis. The results show that the confirmed communities and designated hospitals in Shenzhen as a whole present the characteristics of “sparse east and dense west”, and there is a strong positive spatial correlation between the number of confirmed cases and social media response. Specifically, Nanshan District, Futian District and Luohu District have more confirmed cases due to large population movements and dense transportation networks, and social media has responded more violently, and people’s lives have been greatly affected. However, Yantian District, Pingshan District and Dapeng New District showed opposite characteristics. The case study results further show that using deep learning methods to mine text information in social media is scientifically feasible for improving situational awareness and decision support during the COVID-19.

Design of Intelligent Management Platform for Industry–Education Cooperation of Vocational Education by Data Mining

Data are playing an increasingly important role in the development of industry–education cooperation strategies in vocational education and training. The objective of this study was to promote the comprehensive progress of an industry–education cooperation system and improve the effect of the application of big data technology in this system. First, we designed of a big data technology application in an intelligent management platform system for industry–education cooperation. Second, we analyzed the synthetical design of the system. Finally, we optimized and designed a support vector machine (SVM) data mining (DM) algorithm model based on big data, and evaluated the model. The results revealed that the designed algorithm model provides outstanding advantages compared with similar algorithm models. In general, the highest average computation time of the designed SVM algorithm model is about 95 ms. The overall average calculation time linearly decreases around 200 iterations and tends to be stable, and the lowest overall average computation time is about 20 ms. In the DM process, the highest accuracy rate of the model is about 97%, and the lowest is about 92%. The DM accuracy rate is always stable as the number of iterations of the model continues to increase. The designed model slowly increases the occupancy rate of the system in the process of increasing computing time. At about 60 min, the system occupancy rate of the model tends to be stable, and the highest is maintained at about 23%. This study not only provides technical support for the optimization of DM algorithms with big data technology, but also contributes to the integrated development of industry–education cooperation systems.

Technical Services and COVID-19: An Investigation into the Lasting Impact of a Modern Pandemic on Library Technical Units

Already facing declining staffing numbers and departmental erosion, library technical services units were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas many library services could easily pivot to an online environment, technical services departments were forced to transition traditionally in-person, physical collection work to a remote environment. Seeking to better understand the lasting impact of the coronavirus pandemic on library technical services units, a survey distributed from October 2021 to January 2022 collected 829 responses to investigate the challenges faced by technical services departments and the lasting impacts of COVID-19 on these specific units.

Detection and monitoring of the asymptotic COVID-19 patients using IoT devices and sensors

Purpose>Many investigations are going on in monitoring, contact tracing, predicting and diagnosing the COVID-19 disease and many virologists are urgently seeking to create a vaccine as early as possible. Even though there is no specific treatment for the pandemic disease, the world is now struggling to control the spread by implementing the lockdown worldwide and giving awareness to the people to wear masks and use sanitizers. The new technologies, including the Internet of things (IoT), are gaining global attention towards the increasing technical support in health-care systems, particularly in predicting, detecting, preventing and monitoring of most of the infectious diseases. Similarly, it also helps in fighting against COVID-19 by monitoring, contract tracing and detecting the COVID-19 pandemic by connection with the IoT-based smart solutions. IoT is the interconnected Web of smart devices, sensors, actuators and data, which are collected in the raw form and transmitted through the internet. The purpose of this paper is to propose the concept to detect and monitor the asymptotic patients using IoT-based sensors.Design/methodology/approach>In recent days, the surge of the COVID-19 contagion has infected all over the world and it has ruined our day-to-day life. The extraordinary eruption of this pandemic virus placed the World Health Organization (WHO) in a hazardous position. The impact of this contagious virus and scarcity among the people has forced the world to get into complete lockdown, as the number of laboratory-confirmed cases is increasing in millions all over the world as per the records of the government.Findings>COVID-19 patients are either symptomatic or asymptotic. Symptomatic patients have symptoms such as fever, cough and difficulty in breathing. But patients are also asymptotic, which is very difficult to detect and monitor by isolating them.Originality/value>Asymptotic patients are very hazardous because without knowing that they are infected, they might spread the infection to others, also asymptotic patients might be having very serious lung damage. So, earlier prediction and monitoring of asymptotic patients are mandatory to save their life and prevent them from spreading.

20 MINUTES WITH...Johan Luycx

An interview with Johan Luycx, product technical support specialist for Chevron is presented. Luycx said that after my military service in the Belgian Army, stationed in Germany, I started to look for a job and was recruited by Texaco in October 1988. I obtained a bachelor of science degree in industrial chemistry at Hogeschool Gent in Belgium, where petrochemistry was part of the lesson package. Some of my schoolmates were already working at the Texaco Research Centre in Ghent, and I was invited in early October 1988 for a job interview. There are still many jobs available in the lubricants industry, but I only can speak about how I came into this industry. It does not really matter what degree you obtained--the real learning process starts when you are in the job. Preferably, you should start working in the laboratory to understand all aspects of the specification tests, then move on to product development or a technical support function.

Mohawk Hudson Folklife Festival

On the other end of the spectrum, events and social gatherings were back in force: event vendors, including tents and chair rental, sound and technical services, and food trucks were difficult to confirm. Both The Daily Gazette and the Times Union-the Capital Region's leading newspapers-picked up the story of our festival and shared features before the event. [...]people did choose to attend our event-some found us as they walked in the park, but many came to the park specifically to attend the festival.

Untethered: Cataloging In the Mobile Age

In the rapidly changing work climate, it is vital that catalogers team to contribute their skills in novel ways that expand beyond the traditional boundaries. Working a 9-5 schedule in an office area is no longer a sustainable, or even desirable model. This article will look at the infrastructure, the technology, the tools, the expertise, and the logistics needed to perform cataloging and maintenance in the field or from a remote location, away from the library or the cataloging department. Additionally, the authors will explore some of the challenges and opportunities associated with cataloging remotely during a pandemic and beyond.

A Novel Multi-Factor Three-Step Feature Selection and Deep Learning Framework for Regional GDP Prediction: Evidence from China

Gross domestic product (GDP) is an important index reflecting the economic development of a region. Accurate GDP prediction of developing regions can provide technical support for sustainable urban development and economic policy formulation. In this paper, a novel multi-factor three-step feature selection and deep learning framework are proposed for regional GDP prediction. The core modeling process is mainly composed of the following three steps: In Step I, the feature crossing algorithm is used to deeply excavate hidden feature information of original datasets and fully extract key information. In Step II, BorutaRF and Q-learning algorithms analyze the deep correlation between extracted features and targets from two different perspectives and determine the features with the highest quality. In Step III, selected features are used as the input of TCN (Temporal convolutional network) to build a GDP prediction model and obtain final prediction results. Based on the experimental analysis of three datasets, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) The proposed three-stage feature selection method effectively improves the prediction accuracy of TCN by more than 10%. (2) The proposed GDP prediction framework proposed in the paper has achieved better forecasting performance than 14 benchmark models. In addition, the MAPE values of the models are lower than 5% in all cases.

Technical Services and COVID-19: Review of the Literature

The COVID-19 pandemic had a near-immediate impact on libraries worldwide. The majority of the world’s libraries shifted their work to online environments, and while this pivot was difficult for all libraries, technical services units were disproportionately impacted given the inherent physical nature of the tasks undertaken by these library units. Research on the impact of COVID-19 and libraries is still developing, but already, technical services units and tasks are being left behind. This literature review explores the early days of COVID-19 guidance for technical services units, tasks, and workers, as well as the lasting impact of COVID-19 on technical work.

Normalizing the political economy of improving health

Probleme Les facteurs liés a l'économie politique jouent un rôle crucial dans l'adoption et la mise en Å“uvre de mesures sanitaires. Pourtant, ces facteurs sont souvent négligés lors de l'élaboration de politiques susceptibles d'avoir un impact sur la santé. Approche Analyser l'économie politique représente un moyen de tenir compte des réalités politiques et sociales au niveau communautaire, infranational, national, régional ou international. Nous voulons démontrer l'importance de l'analyse de l'économie politique et promouvoir son usage dans les programmes techniques de travail. Environnement local Nous donnons des exemples issus d'une série de domaines traités par l'Organisation mondiale de la Santé, parmi lesquels la gouvernance participative, le financement de la santé, les taxes sanitaires, la prévention et la lutte contre la malaria, le renforcement des capacités et l'appui direct aux pays. Changements significatifs Les exemples portant sur l'intégration de l'analyse de l'économie politique dans l'appui technique illustrent la variabilité de cette approche analytique, mais aussi sa potentielle contribution aux progres politiques. Appliquer une analyse de l'économie politique a des programmes de travail spécifiques a permis de fournir un soutien technique adapté au contexte, augmentant ainsi les chances d'avancement des pays vers la réalisation des objectifs en matiere de santé. Leçons tirées Incorporer l'économie politique dans le travail technique comporte de nombreux avantages: amélioration de la représentation et de la participation dans le cadre des mesures sanitaires;meilleures possibilités d'adoption et de mise en Å“uvre de politiques solides sur le plan technique;et enfin, renforcement des capacités afin de comprendre et d'inclure les facteurs politiques qui ont une influence sur les priorités relatives a la santé.Alternate :Проблема Факторы политической экономии играют важную роль в определении принятия и осуществления политики в области охраны и укрепления здоровья. Однако эти факторы часто упускаются из виду при разработке политики, которая способна повлиять на охрану здоровья. Подход Политэкономический анализ позволяет учитывать политические и социальные реалии как на уровне сообщества, так и на субнациональном, национальном, региональном или глобальном уровне. Авторы ставят перед собой цель продемонстрировать ценность политэкономического анализа и способствовать его более широкому использованию в технических программах работы. Местные условия Ð’ статье приводятся примеры из различных областей деятельности Всемирной организации здравоохранения, включая управление на основе широкого участия, финансирование здравоохранения, налоги на здравоохранение, профилактику малярии и борьбу с ней, наращивание потенциала и прямую поддержку стран. Осуществленные перемены Существующие примеры того, как политэкономический анализ может быть включен в техническую поддержку, свидетельствуют об изменчивости этого аналитического подхода, а также о его потенциале для поддержки прогресса ² политике. Применение политэкономического анализа в рамках указанных программ работы позволило получить техническую поддержку, более соответствующую контексту, для повышения вероятности достижения странами целей, связанных со здравоохранением. Выводы Внедрение политэкономии в техническую работу имеет ряд преимуществ, в том числе повышение роли и участия в политике здравоохранения, поддержка принятия и реализации технически обоснованной политики, наращивание потенциала для учета и понимания политических факторов, оказывающих влияние на приоритеты в области здравоохранения.Alternate :Situación Los factores de economía política son importantes para determinar la adopción y aplicación de las políticas sanitarias. Sin embargo, se suelen ignorar estos factores cuando se elaboran políticas que pueden influir en la salud. Enfoque El análisis de economía política permite tener en cuenta las realidades políticas y sociales, ya sea a nivel local, subnacional, nacional, regional o mundial. El objetivo de este proyecto es demostrar el valor del análisis de la economía política y promover su uso generalizado en los programas técnicos de trabajo. Marco regional Se ofrecen ejemplos de diversas áreas de trabajo de la Organización Mundial de la Salud, como la gobernanza participativa, la financiación sanitaria, los impuestos sanitarios, la prevención y la contención del paludismo, la creación de capacidades y el apoyo directo a los países. Cambios importantes Los ejemplos existentes de cómo se puede incorporar el análisis de economía política al apoyo técnico demuestran la variabilidad de este enfoque analítico, así como su potencial para apoyar el progreso de las políticas. La aplicación del análisis de la economía política en los programas de trabajo especificados ha permitido que el apoyo técnico sea más pertinente según el contexto para aumentar la probabilidad de avanzar en los objetivossanitarios de los países. Lecciones aprendidas Integrar la economía política en el trabajo técnico tiene muchos beneficios, entre los que se incluyen: potenciar las opiniones y la participación en las políticas sanitarias;apoyar la adopción y la viabilidad de la aplicación de políticas técnicamente sólidas;y crear capacidad para incorporar y comprender los factores políticos que influyen en las prioridades sanitarias.Alternate :Problem Political economy factors are important in determining the adoption and implementation of health policies. Yet these factors are often overlooked in the development of policies that have the potential to influence health. Approach Political economy analysis provides a way to take into consideration political and social realities, whether at the community, subnational, national, regional or global levels. We aim to demonstrate the value of political economy analysis and to promote its wider use in technical programmes of work. Local setting We provide examples from across a range of World Health Organization areas of work, including participatory governance, health financing, health taxes, malaria prevention and control, capacity-building and direct country support. Relevant changes Existing examples of how political economy analysis can be incorporated into technical support demonstrate the variability of this analytical approach, as well as its potential to support policy progress. Applying political economy analysis within the specified programmes of work has enabled more contextually relevant technical support to enhance the likelihood of advancing countrie ' health-related objectives. Lessons learnt Embedding political economy into technical work has many benefits, including: enhancing voice and participation in health policies;supporting the adoption and implementation feasibility of technically sound policies;and building capacity to incorporate and understand political factors that influence health-related priorities.

Impact of Covid-19 on the cost of technical services in European ports

Despite efforts to maintain supply chains unaltered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, statistics published after the second quarter (Q2) of 2020 have confirmed a drop in maritime traffic in European ports. Furthermore, the evolution of the pandemic indicates that stabilisation of traffic at levels prior to the Q1 of 2020 may take years. Port authorities in Europe, in an overall context of landlord port governance, are already being challenged, due to the need to ensure the provision of port technical services (mooring, pilotage and towage). In addition, the cost adaptability of these services to the current situation could be confronted by the European legal framework that demands transparency and proportionality in port rates in order to provide an effective cost of services. This paper analyses the impacts of Covid-19 on European ports, first by quantifying traffic drop after Q2 of 2020 and then calculating its effects on the cost of port technical services, in a general context of lack of flexibility in the cost structures of private providers. Due to this ongoing situation, a rise in rates, allowed by the port authorities, could mean that the prices of port services are not aligned with effective costs, along with loss of competitiveness.