Case Study Research Articles

Research on urban agglomeration spatial network structure in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River based on real-time traffic accessibility scenario analysis

ABSTRACT Investigating the spatial network structure of urban agglomerations based on traffic accessibility has an important practical significance in accelerating the process of regional integration. Taking urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR) as the case study, this study aims to examine the characteristics associated with the spatial network structure based on traffic accessibility and its changes under scenarios of different traffic accessibilities by adopting real-time traffic data, modified gravity model, and social network analysis (SNA). The main conclusions are as follows. Wuhan, Changsha, and Nanchang are the central cities in the spatial network; the spatial network structure of UAMRYR is imbalanced and in the agglomeration stage of regional economic development. With the development of traffic accessibility, resources first gather in the individual center cities and then spread to other cities, and the network tends toward equilibrium.

A comparative slope stability analyses of heavily jointed open-pit slopes using 3D limit equilibrium and finite element methods: a case study from Bingöl, Türkiye

ABSTRACT This study investigates the slope stability of Bingöl open-pit iron mine slopes using 3D limit equilibrium and finite element methods. The pit benches are 3 m wide and 6 m high, with an overall slope angle of 38°. The geological composition comprises slightly to moderately weathered and heavily jointed phyllite, micaschist, and gneiss. Shear strength parameters were determined through back analyses of already failed sections using the Hoek-Brown failure criterion and Geological Strength Index (GSI). Factor of safety values for static and dynamic conditions were calculated using 3D limit equilibrium and 2D finite element analyses. Results show good agreement between the two methods, with benches in the northern section exhibiting a significant decrease in safety factor under dynamic conditions, indicating near-limit equilibrium slopes.

From crisis to opportunity through innovation

Purpose This study aims to explore the strategic decisions at innovation level implemented by firms to thrive and transform themselves during crises. This study also aims to provide insights to answer the question: Why do some firms decide to implement certain types of innovation during a crisis? Design/methodology/approach This research was carried out through a multiple case study involving 22 firms. The methods were implemented in three steps to increase rigor and the replication of the study: identification and selection of cases, data collection through interviews triangulated with online information and analysis based on aggregating themes and finding patterns. Findings In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the companies analyzed focused their activities mainly on developing new features or functionalities for their products or services. Most of the firms implemented innovations across nearly all ten categories outlined by Keeley et al. (2013). Many of the implemented innovations involved personalized and superior service enhancements, process efficiency optimizations, channel diversification initiatives and new ways to collaborate to generate value. In general, the main drivers that led firms to decide to implement these innovations include reducing costs, enhancing operational efficiency, generating new revenue streams, augmenting sales and enhancing client relationships. Practical implications This research significantly advances the convergence of innovation, strategy and crisis in three impactful ways. First, it constructs a pragmatic and evidence-based framework, consolidating the primary catalysts, innovation categories and strategies adopted by firms in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. Second, it offers insights for guiding decision-making processes related to innovation, presenting actionable recommendations derived from the study’s findings. Thirdly, this study highlights critical perspectives that can guide governmental intervention, facilitating the formulation of more tailored and effective policies to assist companies during crisis periods. Originality/value This study centers on developing countries, specifically examining Colombian firms, considering their unique characteristics and priorities. Surprisingly, there is a scarcity of studies delving into the innovation and transformation of firms during the COVID-19 crisis in nations sharing cultural, economic and political similarities with Colombia.

Eyes of empowerment: A case study on the impact of custom ocular prosthesis in restoring quality of life

Ocular prostheses serve as invaluable tools in restoring both visual symmetry and psychological well-being for individuals who have experienced ocular defects. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the fabrication and placement of custom acrylic ocular prosthesis in a 39-year-old male patient who suffered left eye loss following a traumatic accident. The patient's history underscores the profound impact of ocular trauma on self-image and quality of life, highlighting the importance of prosthetic rehabilitation. Meticulous attention was paid to every step of the fabrication process, including impression taking, color matching, and fitting, to ensure optimal aesthetic outcome and functionality. The successful placement of the prosthesis resulted in significant improvements in the patient's confidence and overall well-being. This case report emphasizes the approach required for successful ocular prosthetic rehabilitation and underscores the transformative impact of custom ocular prostheses in restoring quality of life for individuals with ocular defects.

Validation of satellite-derived solar irradiance datasets: a case study in Saudi Arabia

A robust dataset of Surface Solar Irradiance is essential for secure competitive financing for solar energy projects. Rating agencies and lenders alike require verification of the solar-resource dataset for utilizing each solar energy project, as this can be translated directly into expected electrical energy and revenues. The accuracy of the dataset and the variability of solar radiation, as recorded by historical solar data, play a significant role in estimating the future performance of the project and its budget. The historical observed solar irradiance datasets by local stations are the best and most reliable for a specific site, but they are not always available for long and continuous periods in any location, especially in arid areas. So, the importance of historical solar radiation datasets derived from satellite-based models arises here. This paper validates the historical modeled datasets of the three most famous satellite-based commercial prediction models (SolarGIS, SUNY, and Solcast) against the observed dataset by six ground stations in Saudi Arabia under different climatic zones. The validation method has been implemented using the standard error metrics: Maximum Absolute Error (MAE) and relative Maximum Bias Error (rMBE). The validation process showed that, in the case of GHI, the discrepancy between observed and predicted values is narrow, while in the case of DNI, the discrepancy is wide. Also, the predicted GHI values are more accurate than predicted DNI values, and -in general- the values predicted by the SUNY model are less accurate than those predicted by SolarGIS and Solcast models for both GHI and DNI. The resultant of this validation process could be accepted not for the six locations under study only but, also for deserts and arid areas across Saudi Arabia and might be extended to similar arid areas around the world.

Review and Case Study on Control of Induction Motor Using High-Level Converter

Review and Case Study on Control of Induction Motor Using High-Level Converter

Hydraulic Analysis study and redesign of the water distribution system simulation using GIS- EPANET, case study: Laylan sub-district, Kirkuk city, Iraq

Hydraulic Analysis study and redesign of the water distribution system simulation using GIS- EPANET, case study: Laylan sub-district, Kirkuk city, Iraq

V4RIN: visual analysis of regional industry network with domain knowledge.

The regional industry network (RIN) is a type of financial network derived from industry networks that possess the capability to describe the connections between specific industries within a particular region. For most investors and financial analysts lacking extensive experience, the decision-support information provided by industry networks may be too vague. Conversely, RINs express more detailed and specific industry connections both within and outside the region. As RIN analysis is domain-specific and current financial network analysis tools are designed for generalized analytical tasks and cannot be directly applied to RINs, new visual analysis approaches are needed to enhance information exploration efficiency. In this study, we collaborated with domain experts and proposed V4RIN, an interactive visualization analysis system that integrates predefined domain knowledge and data processing methods to support users in uploading custom data. Through multiple views in the system panel, users can comprehensively explore the structure, geographical distribution, and spatiotemporal variations of the RIN. Two case studies were conducted and a set of expert interviews with five domain experts to validate the usability and reliability of our system.

Comparative analysis of electrochemical behaviors of lithium-ion batteries using the dual potential MSMD battery models: case studies on various thermal conditions

Comparative analysis of electrochemical behaviors of lithium-ion batteries using the dual potential MSMD battery models: case studies on various thermal conditions

Diabetic acidosis with severe fetal hypoxia in pregnancy: Narrative review and case study.

Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in pregnancy could be a disastrous event with increased maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. DKA can occur with a normal blood glucose level, known as euglycemic DKA. It particularly affects pregnant women with type I diabetes. Here, we report the case of a 28 year-old primigravid patient, with a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes for 8 years. This patient consulted our department at 29 weeks of gestation with a previous history of headaches, vomiting and diarrhea for 9 h. Blood glucose level was 8.8 mmol/L with a ketone test positive (>15 mg/dL). Blood test showed high anion gap (17.9 mmol/L) with low serum bicarbonate rate (21 mmol/L). Systemic examination and fetal heart rate (FHR) was reassuring. The patient was subsequently discharged. She returned to the clinic 19 h later with further symptoms of nausea, polyuria-polydipsia, asthenia and a weight loss of 4 kg since the day before. Blood sugar was 14.3 mmol/L and a ketone test was strongly positive. Cardiotocography showed fetal tachycardia and repeated late decelerations. A diagnosis of DKA was made and emergency cesarean was performed for fetal distress. At delivery, pH was acidosis (pH: 7.02, lactates: 6.2). The patient was successfully treated with intravenous hydration and insulin. Neonatal evolution was favorable. Pregnant women with type I diabetes can develop euglycemic DKA. Early recognition and prompt treatment could help prevent severe maternal and fetal adverse outcomes. DKA in pregnant women can induce fetal acidosis with abnormal FHR. In this situation, a cesarean can be performed to improve neonatal outcome even inducing a premature delivery. Prolonged pregnancy can lead to irreversible neonatal brain abnormalities.

Mentoring and protégé: Chinese study shows positive effect of mentoring and also moderating effect of mentor advice-seeking behavior

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings A Chinese study revealed that mentoring had a significant positive impact on protégé career satisfaction. Additionally, the role clarity and positive affect of protégés played dual-mediating effects between mentoring and protégé career satisfaction. A particularly innovative aspect of the research was including the moderating effect of mentor advice-seeking behavior, which strengthened the positive impact of the mentoring. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Study on the distribution of average wind speeds at a mountainous bridge site for structural durability design

Conventional wind speed distribution methods (e.g., Rayleigh distribution and Weibull distribution) may not adequately capture complex characteristics of wind fields in mountainous areas. To address this problem, this study proposes a semi-parametric mix method for modeling the distribution of average wind speeds based on the combination of nonparametric Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) and Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD). In the proposed method, KDE focuses on capturing the distribution in the main part of average wind speeds, while GPD aims at performing the distribution in terms of those in the extreme part. The segment point (i.e., the threshold) between KDE and GPD distributions is determined based on the combination of conditional mean excesses criterion and empirical rule. Meanwhile, the selection of modeling parameters should ensure that the mix distribution model is continuous and differentiable at the identified threshold point. Then, the commonly-used conditional probability model is further introduced to describe the wind direction distribution. Finally, a case study based on the measured 10-min average wind speeds at a mountainous bridge site is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The results indicate that: (1) the distribution of omnidirectional average wind speeds in the mountainous bridge site exhibits an obviously single-peak characteristic, while those considering wind directionality present a certain bimodal characteristic; (2) the proposed method can effectively describe wind speed distributions with different statistical characteristics, and the fitting accuracy outperforms the frequently-employed Weibull distribution model.

An Empirical Exploration of Factors Contributing to Malaysian Men Becoming Involved in a Feminine Career: A Case Study of Male Nurse and Pak Andam

An Empirical Exploration of Factors Contributing to Malaysian Men Becoming Involved in a Feminine Career: A Case Study of Male Nurse and Pak Andam

Determining the Factors accounting for Reaction Selectivity A Relative Energy Gradient - Interacting Quantum Atoms and Natural Bonding Orbitals Study.

Identifying the main physicochemical properties accounting for the course of a reaction is of utmost importance to rationalize chemical syntheses. To this aim, the relative energy gradient (REG) method is an appealing approach because it is an unbiased and automatic process to extract the most relevant pieces of energy information. Initially formulated within the interacting quantum atoms (IQA) framework for a single reaction, here we extend the REG method to natural bond orbitals (NBO) analysis and to the case of two competitive processes. This development enables the determination of the driving forces of any chemical selectivity. We illustrate the extended REG method on the case study of ring opening in cyclobutenes, which is an important instance of the so-called torquoselectivity.

리빙랩에서의 집단학습과 매개 활동에 대한 사례연구

Objectives A group of various stakeholders itself cannot automatically guarantee learning for co-creation. For the creation of collective knowledge, intermediary activities that can interconnect and integrate several subjects with different interests, backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge are essential. Living Lab is a place of collective learning based on the horizontal cooperative relationship between private, public, industry, and academia, and is a representative form of co-creation. However, in the case of Living Lab in Korea, research from the perspective of collective learning through co-creation has hardly been conducted. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the collective learning of Living Lab and derive implications, focusing on intermediary activities. Methods A qualitative case study was conducted on the ‘Smart Farm Planning Living Lab for Revitalizing the Old Urban Community’ held in Innovation District, Incheon. In order to structure interactions for collective learning, ac-tivities and tasks for each stage of the Living Lab were organized around the process and results of collective learn-ing, and then classified and analyzed as detailed intermediary activities of facilitating, configuring, brokering ac-cording to the definition of Hakkarainen & Hyysalo(2016). Results In all three stages of Living Lab, the proportion of facilitating was the highest, and brokering were common. This can be interpreted as a result showing that intermediary activities that facilitate actors' activities and broker connections between actors are essential in the process of co-creation to solve social problems. Next, through the three stages of Living Lab, all detailed intermediary activities of the facilitating, configuring, brokering appeared, and it was confirmed that the proportion of detailed intermediary activities was different for each stage of progress. This shows that it is necessary to pay attention to the importance and multifacetedness of interme-diary activities that are overlooked in co-creation through Living Lab. Conclusions This study supports the results of previous studies that the intermediary activities that contribute to collecitve learning and co-creation of Living Lab need to be extended and understood into three types: configuring and brokering as well as facilitating. In addition, the diversity of intermediary activities has important implications for the practical guidelines for Living Lab operation, which are characterized by a spiral development structure that changes according to the results of interaction and learning. Finally, the recognition of the intermediary's unique interactional expertise and the need for research on practical curriculum development and field operation guide-lines based on it were proposed.

TEENA: an integrated web server for transposable element enrichment analysis in various model and non-model organisms.

Transposable elements (TEs) are abundant in the genomes of various eukaryote organisms. Increasing evidence suggests that TEs can play crucial regulatory roles-usually by creating cis-elements (e.g. enhancers and promoters) bound by distinct transcription factors (TFs). TE-derived cis-elements have gained unprecedented attentions recently, and one key step toward their understanding is to identify the enriched TEs in distinct genomic intervals (e.g. a set of enhancers or TF binding sites) as candidates for further study. Nevertheless, such analysis remains challenging for researchers unfamiliar with TEs or lack strong bioinformatic skills. Here, we present TEENA (Transposable Element ENrichment Analyzer) to streamline TE enrichment analysis in various organisms. It implements an optimized pipeline, hosts the genome/gene/TE annotations of almost one hundred species, and provides multiple parameters to enable its flexibility. Taking genomic interval data as the only user-supplied file, it can automatically retrieve the corresponding annotations and finish a routine analysis in a couple minutes. Multiple case studies demonstrate that it can produce highly reliable results matching previous knowledge. TEENA can be freely accessed at: https://sun-lab.yzu.edu.cn/TEENA. Due to its easy-to-use design, we expect it to facilitate the studies of the regulatory function of TEs in various model and non-model organisms.

Evaluation of the Ecological Environment of the Fuhe River Based on the Diversity of Fish

This article takes the Fuhe River, which has water flowing into Baiyangdian all year round, as the research object. Through actual investigation and measurement of planktonic flora and fauna, benthic organisms, fish, and large vascular plants in the river, and based on fish diversity, the comprehensive evaluation index method is used to scientifically evaluate the ecological environment quality of the Fuhe River. The results showed that a total of 28 species of phytoplankton, 30 species of zooplankton, 11 species of benthic animals, 8 species of submerged plants, and 11 species of fish were detected in the survey area; From a diversity perspective, the diversity of the upstream and downstream river sections is higher than that of the downstream. Overall, the ecological environment quality of the Fuhe River in Baoding City ranges from medium to good, with good water quality in the upstream section and moderate water quality in the middle and downstream sections. This study provides a case study for the scientific evaluation of the ecological environment quality of the upper reaches of Baiyangdian.

A fast scene geometric modeling approach for digital twins combining neural rendering and model retrieval

ABSTRACT Digital twin technology is a crucial driving technology for the realization of Industry 4.0, which enables simulation, analysis, and prediction by constructing geometric scenes that correspond to physical scenes. Current automation in scene modeling is limited, relying heavily on costly and inefficient manual operations. This hinders digital twin technology progress. This paper proposes a framework for a fast scene geometric modeling method that combines neural rendering and model retrieval for digital twins. Neural rendering techniques first train the collected image data, and the point cloud data of physical entities are rendered. Then based on the semantic mapping algorithm between the point cloud data of physical entities and the multi-view image data of 3D CAD models proposed in this study, the corresponding geometric models are retrieved from the geometric asset library by inputting the point cloud data, and all the retrieved geometric models are embedded in the geometric scene to complete the scene geometric modeling. Finally, in a case study of the digital twin-based scene construction for decommissioned lithium battery dismantling, the effectiveness of this method is demonstrated, which can improve the speed and reduce the cost of scene geometric modeling.

Exploring student interpreters’ engagement with different sources of feedback on note-taking

ABSTRACT Note-taking is a critical part of interpreting teaching and learning. During note-taking training, feedback is crucial to help student interpreters hone relevant skills, and the effectiveness of feedback hinges on students’ engagement. This case study investigates students’ affective, cognitive, and behavioural engagement with feedback on notes from two major sources: peer and teacher. Eight student interpreters were recruited and divided into two groups. The feedback texts, interpreting notes, study journals, and interview transcriptions were coded and analysed. While the two groups both had positive and negative feelings, they preferred teacher feedback. Students’ cognitive engagement showed differences in meta-cognitive operations. Some students’ behavioural engagement was inconsistent with the other two dimensions. The results suggest that students should utilise different sources of feedback to achieve their learning goals, and the study provides some insights for teachers to improve feedback activities.

An attempt to open up a new path of rural development? rural transformational development under the characteristic town strategy in China

ABSTRACT The global decline in rural areas has made rural transformational development a subject of significant interest. The Characteristic Town (CT) strategy, a prominent aspect of China’s recent urbanization efforts, focuses on innovative development methods to promote coordinated urban-rural growth and enhance capacity and quality. However, the mechanisms through which this strategy facilitates potential rural transformational development have not yet been investigated. This study addresses this gap by employing a case study approach, using desk research, participatory observation, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires. The findings indicate that environmental transformation, achieved through targeted planning, design, and construction, is a prerequisite for the CT strategy to stimulate rural transformational development. Subsequently, economic transformation is a crucial step, which includes establishing a sustainable and systematic economic industrial system, local marketing and promotion, and facilitating private sector participation. The strategy also generates social effects, such as a modest improvement in living standards, a lack of public participation, changes in residents’ self-identity, and potential social estrangement between residents and newcomers. The rural transformational development driven by the CT strategy represents a process of creative destruction that progresses quickly, necessitating the consideration of various countermeasures.