PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the Rwandan Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) practice and identify the possible constraints faced by EIA practitioners in Rwanda. The results presented here will help to highlight strengths and weakness of the Rwandan EIA practice.Design/methodology/approachThe EIA practice was evaluated by a self-administered questionnaire survey for respondents including approved EIA experts in Rwanda, government agencies involved in EIA process and corporate which have received environmental clearance. The aspects of practices and challenges were evaluated and include the suitability of institutional arrangements, the scientific methodological bases of EIA, the conduct of EIA, the effectiveness of EIA with respect to influence decision making, overall results and EIA as a learning process. These aspects were rated on different scales by the respondents to identify where the Rwandan EIA practice stands now in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and constraints.FindingsThe institutional arrangements of EIA were judged to be good overall by the respondents with main strengths being seen in the policy and legal base, and the scope of application. Only the marginal weaknesses are seen in the monitoring. The scientific and empirical basis for assessment was judged to stand moderately strengthened during the last five years. The performance of key activities is more than satisfactory. A majority of Rwandan EIA stages are good and excellent to some extent.Originality/valueThis paper identifies some of the constraints and challenges faced by the Rwandan EIA practitioners. It will contribute to an understanding of EIA practice and robust practices across the globe.

AbstractFoundational RBV work suggests that firms possess capabilities that represent strengths and others that represent weaknesses. In contrast, contemporary research has examined capability strengths while largely ignoring weaknesses. Addressing this oversight, we examine the direct and integrated effects of sets of capability strengths and capability weaknesses on competitive advantage and its empirical correlate—relative performance. Additionally, we explore how environmental and firm‐specific factors influence change in these drivers of competitive advantage over time. Results suggest that weakness sets have a negative effect on relative performance, while strength sets have an increasingly positive effect. The integrative effects of strength and weakness sets affect relative performance in a complex manner. For example, while high strength/low weakness firms perform at high levels, firms integrating high strength with high weakness perform well, but experience considerably more variance in their realized outcomes. Lastly, we find that the strength and weakness sets change significantly over time in markets where competition is more intense, thereby undermining the durability of competitive advantage. Our theory and results indicate that achieving temporary advantage is more difficult than previously thought and that the erosion of advantage occurs routinely as a result of dynamic and interactive rivalry. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Devising player-specific strategies in cricket necessitates a meticulous understanding of each player's unique strengths and weaknesses. Nevertheless, the absence of a definitive computational approach to extract such insights from cricket players poses a significant challenge. This paper seeks to address this gap by establishing computational models designed to extract the rules governing player strengths and weaknesses, thereby facilitating the development of tailored strategies for individual players. The complexity of this endeavor lies in several key areas: the selection of a suitable dataset, the precise definition of strength and weakness rules, the identification of an appropriate learning algorithm, and the validation of the derived rules. To tackle these challenges, we propose the utilization of unstructured data, specifically cricket text commentary, as a valuable resource for constructing comprehensive strength and weakness rules for cricket players. We also introduce computationally feasible definitions for the construction of these rules, and present a dimensionality reduction technique for the rule-building process. In order to showcase the practicality of this approach, we conduct an in-depth analysis of cricket player strengths and weaknesses using a vast corpus of more than one million text commentaries. Furthermore, we validate the constructed rules through two distinct methodologies: intrinsic and extrinsic. The outcomes of this research are made openly accessible, including the collected data, source code, and results for over 250 cricket players, which can be accessed at https://bit.ly/2PKuzx8.

The present paper aims to review the strengths and weakness of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM; Fiske et al., 2002). Thus, a context sensitive perspective was provided to overcome the shortcomings of SCM. In the first section, contributions of SCM are discussed. Secondly, a special focus is devoted to the competence and warmth dimensions to identify several difficulties of the model. Finally, a context sensitive perspective is suggested to overcome these difficulties. In this perspective, three contextual factors suggested: the kinds of competition, legitimacy of status, and constraints of social re ality. Finally, limitations and suggestions for future studies are presented.

As education continues to evolve in response to technological advancements, the concept of Education 5.0 has gained prominence. However, it is crucial to critically analyze the limitations and challenges of this model. This article presents a comprehensive examination of Education 5.0, identifies its drawbacks, and proposes a vision for Education 6.0. Through insightful case studies, and discussions, this article aims to provide a nuanced perspective on the future of education.

Pluralism theory is well-known as a theoretical tradition used to analyse political actions in modern democratic states. This theory is mainly based upon a perspective that citizens are involved in political arenas through different interest groups, and that political power should be dispersed to secure its own legitimate interests and none of these groups will dominate the system (Miller, 1983: 735). This article will examine both the strengths and weakness of pluralism theory.

Introduction: SWOT analysis is one of the strategic tools for corresponding internal strengths and weaknesses to external opportunities and threats. According to this model, an appropriate strategy maximizes strengths and opportunities and minimizes weaknesses and threats. Materials and Methods: The present study attempts to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the Iranian pistachio industry. Results: A group strategies have been extracted by analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, and threats in the Iranian pistachio industry and reviewing the strategies and policies of the base models. The strategies that have been extracted include: developing management and planning, developing advertisement and marketing systems, promoting knowledge and technology in the Iranian pistachio industry, attracting national and international support and sponsorship, increasing productivity, developing an efficient monitoring, evaluation and control system. Conclusion: The evaluation of SWOT matrix indicated the weakness of internal factors and the large volume of health threats in Iranian pistachios. Moreover, the matrix has also reported that the optimal strategies should be defensive. In such conditions, a strategy is required to be adopted that, depending on the weaknesses, reduces or eliminates the damage caused by the threats ahead. To increase consumer awareness and health, a corrective approach is required to be adopted in the structure of the current health status of Iranian pistachios (especially for smallholders).

Despite prior research indicating that parents and adolescents perceive conversations about the adolescent’s strengths and weaknesses to be important, information about these conversations and how they are related to other facets of the parent-adolescent relationship is limited. In a sample of 171 parent-adolescent dyads (adolescents were 14-17 years old), we conducted an initial exploratory study on the frequencies of parent-adolescent discussions about strengths and weaknesses. Within-dyad reports were correlated; however, parents reported higher frequencies of strengths-based communication and lower frequencies of weakness-based communication than adolescents. We also found differences in frequencies of weakness-based communication by socio-demographic variables. Spearman’s rank correlations and mixed-effects regression models suggested that the frequency of communication about strengths, but not the frequency of weaknesses, was associated with parent-adolescent general communication, adolescent disclosure, and relationship quality. These results help shed much needed light on an understudied topic of importance to adolescents and parents.

Everyone gets affected by the challenges of aging, but personal strengths and weaknesses of elderly people influence their well-being the most. The current study is designed to measure the impact of personal strengths (intergenerational social support and self-esteem) and weakness (loneliness) on Subjective Well-Being (SWB) of Malaysian institutionalized elders. A cross-sectional survey design is employed to arrive at the random sample (n = 192). The respondents belong to government operated old-age homes from the four states of Malaysia. There are four measurement instruments are used to assess the relationship among the variables. The hypothesis testing is dealt with SPSS (23.0) and analytical plan comprised of multiple regression analysis and t-Test. The results indicated that personal strengths (intergenerational social support and self-esteem) have significant positive impact on subjective well-being (4.329**, 12.440**) and the loneliness contains non-significant negative impact on subjective well-being (-1.78) of Malaysian elders. The gender differences indicated that intergenerational social support is higher in male respondents as compared to female cohort. Further, females are experiencing more loneliness than the male elders. Similarly, self-esteem and subjective well-being remained higher in females as compared to male elders. The suggestions and limitations of the study are also cordoned off.

ABSTRACTObjectiveTo evaluate the feasibility and value of creating an extensible framework for psychiatric phenotyping that indexes both strengths and weaknesses of behavioral dimensions. The Extended Strengths and Weaknesses Assessment of Normal Behavior (E-SWAN) reconceptualizes each diagnostic criterion for selected DSM-5 disorders as a behavior, which can range from high (strengths) to low (weaknesses). Initial efforts have focused on Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety, Major Depression, and Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder.MethodsData were collected from 523 participants (ages: 5-21 years old) in the Child Mind Institute Healthy Brain Network − an ongoing community-referred study. Parents completed each of the four E-SWAN scales and traditional unidirectional scales addressing the same disorders. Distributional properties, Item Response Theory Analysis (IRT) and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves (for diagnostic prediction) were used to assess and compare the performance of E-SWAN and traditional scales.ResultsIn contrast to the traditional scales, which exhibited truncated distributions, all four E-SWAN scales were found to have near-normal distributions. IRT analyses indicate the E-SWAN subscales provided reliable information about respondents throughout the population distribution; in contrast, traditional scales only provided reliable information about respondents at the high end of the distribution. Predictive value for DSM-5 diagnoses was comparable to prior scales.ConclusionE-SWAN bidirectional scales can capture the full spectrum of the population distribution for DSM disorders. The additional information provided can better inform examination of inter-individual variation in population studies, as well as facilitate the identification of factors related to resiliency in clinical samples.