Competitive System Research Articles

저출산 시대 모성에 대한 고찰

Today, Korean society is facing a crisis of low birth rate. Conflict between men and women caused by an intense competitive system and conservative familism is cited as a major cause of the low birth rate problem, which has emerged as a national issue. Radical feminism, which is considered an ideological background that influenced the conflict between men and women, emerged as a backlash against the government's reproductive policy that instrumentalizes motherhood, but its argument for liberation from motherhood is becoming a cause of social conflict. At a time like this, discovering a new positive view of motherhood and its value has important implications. Even within feminism, there is not only a perspective that views motherhood as a control mechanism for women and advocates liberation from motherhood. Since the 1980s, efforts have been made to understand motherhood more diversely within feminism, and there is a movement to present motherhood as a social value by discovering the value of care within motherhood. This perspective is believed to have a positive meaning by presenting the area of care as a common area for men and women and highlighting the ‘right to care’ of the vulnerable in a fiercely competitive society. However, in order for care to become an important value for both men and women, it is necessary to properly understand the value of care within motherhood. The personalist perspective, which understands motherhood as an outstanding attribute of women and shows a complementary relationship between men and women, will help men participate more actively in the area of care by learning about fatherhood through motherhood.

Construction and Practical Research on the Evaluation System of Vocational Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition

In the education and teaching of vocational colleges, innovation and entrepreneurship competitions are of utmost importance. They can reflect students’ innovation and entrepreneurship abilities and the evaluation results can also help to continuously improve and perfect innovation and entrepreneurship education in vocational colleges. Therefore, it is necessary to vigorously build a comprehensive evaluation system for innovation and entrepreneurship competitions in order to improve the level and effectiveness of vocational talent cultivation. Therefore, in the paper, an in-depth exploration was conducted on the construction and practice of the evaluation system for innovation and entrepreneurship competitions in vocational colleges and corresponding improvement suggestions were proposed to strengthen the effectiveness of the evaluation system construction for innovation and entrepreneurship competitions in vocational colleges.

The Effect of Leadership Style, Compensation and Competence on Optimizing Organizational Performance

The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of leadership style, compensation, and competence on the optimization of organizational performance at the Brackishwater Aquaculture Fisheries Research Institute and Fisheries Extension (BRPBAPPP) Maros. The research design is quantitative, with data analysis techniques including classical assumption tests and multiple linear regression. The results of this study demonstrate that the leadership style implemented at BRPBAPPP Maros has a significant impact on organizational performance. Effective, transparent, and communicative leadership can enhance employee motivation and productivity, ultimately leading to a positive impact on the overall performance of the organization. Additionally, a fair and competitive compensation system significantly influences organizational performance, as does employee competence. Collectively, leadership style, compensation, and competence jointly contribute significantly to the optimization of organizational performance at BRPBAPPP Maros. Enhancing leadership style, improving compensation, and developing employee competence can increase the operational effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.

Group lending as a mechanism for self-insuring default risk

AbstractWe show that banks can provide loans at low costs to high-risk borrowers in the form of a group lending contract in which all members are jointly liable for their loans. By providing such contracts borrowers self-insure against some of the default risk the bank faces. We determine the optimal group size in a competitive banking system and find that it is reasonably small and borrowers internalize an increasing fraction of the risk the higher their risks are.

Spreading speeds and forced waves of a three species competition system with nonlocal dispersal in shifting habitats

Spreading speeds and forced waves of a three species competition system with nonlocal dispersal in shifting habitats

Highly Adsorptive Organic Xerogels for Efficient Removal of Metformin from Aqueous Solutions: Experimental and Theoretical Approach

Metformin, widely prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes for its effectiveness and low cost, has raised concerns about its presence in aqueous effluents and its potential environmental and public health impacts. To address this issue, xerogels were synthesized from resorcinol and formaldehyde, with molar ratios ranging from 0.05 to 0.40. These xerogels were thoroughly characterized using FT-IR, SEM, TGA, and TEM analyses. Batch adsorption experiments were performed with standard metformin solutions at concentrations of 50 and 500 mg/L, varying pH, and temperature to determine the adsorption isotherms of the synthesized xerogels. The adsorption data revealed a maximum adsorption capacity of 325 mg/g at pH 11 and 25 °C. Quantum chemical calculations revealed that electrostatic interactions govern metformin adsorption onto xerogels. The xerogels’ adsorption capacity was evaluated in competitive systems with CaCl2, NaCl, MgCl2, and synthetic urines. Reuse cycles demonstrated that xerogels could be reused for up to three cycles without any loss in adsorptive efficiency. The adsorption mechanisms of metformin in the adsorption process highlight the strong electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonds between the adsorbate and the adsorbent material. Xerogels synthesized show promise as efficient adsorbents to remove metformin from aqueous solutions, helping to mitigate its environmental impact.

Assessing the reactions of tourist markets to reinstated travel restrictions in the destination during the post-COVID-19 phase

This study, leveraging search engine data, investigates the dynamics of China's domestic tourism markets in response to the August 2022 epidemic outbreak in Xinjiang. It focuses on understanding the reaction mechanisms of tourist-origin markets during destination crises in the post-pandemic phase. Notably, the research identifies a continuous rise in the potential tourism demand from tourist origin cities, despite the challenges posed by the epidemic. Further analysis uncovers a regional disparity in the growth of tourism demand, primarily influenced by the economic stratification of origin markets. Additionally, the study examines key tourism attractions such as Duku Road, highlighting its resilient competitive system, which consists of distinctive tourism experiences, economically robust tourist origins, diverse tourist markets, and spatial pattern stability driven by economic factors in source cities, illustrating an adaptive response to external challenges such as crises. The findings provide new insights into the dynamics of tourism demand, offering a foundation for developing strategies to bolster destination resilience and competitiveness in times of health crises.

Synergistic structure engineering and electrochemical activation modulating vanadium oxide cathode toward superior zinc-ion storage

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have emerged as competitive systems for grid-scale energy storage due to their high safety and low cost. However, the lack of suitable high-performance cathode composites limits the practical progress of ZIBs. Herein, a novel cathode material, ammonium cation-inserted and oxygen vacancy co-modulated VO2 (named NVE), was firstly synthesized through the ethylene glycol (EG) sacrificial solvent-assisted structure transformation with the ammonium vanadate (named NV) as the precursor. The sacrificial solvent promotes the structural transformation of ammonium vanadate to NH4+-intercalated vanadium oxide and enhances the number of oxygen vacancies in the resulting material. Moreover, the electrochemical activation process was performed for in-situ construction of NH4+-inserted hydrated vanadium oxide (V2O5·nH2O) material. The electrochemical activation process with high anodic voltage enables multiple electron reactions, increasing the utilization of vanadium elements and achieving high capacity. Additionally, the formed hydrogen bonds between the V-O host and inserted NH4+ ions can enhance the structural integrity, while the oxygen vacancies decrease the interaction between the V-O host and inserted Zn2+ ions to boost ion diffusion. Consequently, the resulting activated cathode demonstrates higher capacity (441 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g), superior cycling durability (85.6 % retention over 4000 cycles), and exceptional rate capability (205 mAh/g at 20 A/g). Besides, the fabricated devices based on the activated NVE cathode show decent capacity and excellent flexible stability. Furthermore, the reversible electrochemical Zn2+ storage mechanism upon battery cycling was evaluated by several kinetic measurements and in/ex-situ characterizations. This work provides novel perspectives for the fabrication of advanced cathode materials for superior aqueous ZIBs.

Construction and application of a core competitiveness evaluation index system for public health personnel training based on the CIPP model

BACKGROUND: With the change of human disease spectrum and the increase of public emergencies, the public’s demand for health services and health is gradually increasing and higher expectations are placed on public health personnel. OBJECTIVE: Research needs to establish a comprehensive system of evaluation indices for accurate assessment of the core competencies of public health personnel, to enhance their core competitiveness, and introduce novel approaches to evaluate talent development in the field of public health. METHODS: The study is based on the CIPP (Context Input Process Product) model and uses literature analysis, semi-structured interviews, and Delphi methods to construct an evaluation index system for the core competitiveness of public health talent cultivation. The entropy method is used to determine the weight of the model evaluation index. Finally, the improved Artistic Be Colony algorithm (ABC) is used to optimize the BP network, and apply it to evaluate the core competitiveness of public health talent cultivation. RESULTS: The improved BP network achieved the target accuracy within 11 iterations, with the optimal value observed after 16 iterations, producing an MSE (Mean Square Error) value of 10–13. The evaluation of the index system reported a 97% accuracy, and upon application to the university’s public health training programme, nearly 50% of students and teachers achieved core competitiveness quality scores above 90. CONCLUSIONS: The aforementioned method suggests that it can proficiently assess the fundamental competitiveness of training for public health personnel and offer guidance for future development in the domain of public health.

Optimization of solar heating systems for office buildings in solar enriched areas with Time-zoned heating strategy

Time-zoned heating combined with solar heating system can improve building energy conservation, but the combined system design method is significantly different from conventional systems. Therefore, this study proposes a general overall optimization design method for solar heating system with Time-zoned heating mode from the overall consideration of system operational performance and building heating effectiveness. In addition, a Dual-objective optimization model that balances economic and heating performance has been proposed. Take an administrative office building with Time-zoned heating mode in Lhasa as an example, this study provides a suggested range of design parameters based on the analysis of the effects of different ratio of heat storage tanks volume to solar collector area (Vt/Ac). The optimization of solar collector area, heat storage tank volume, auxiliary heat source power, are achieved by employing levelized cost of heat (LCOH) and non-guaranteed heating hours as the optimization objectives. The study results indicate that the optimal Vt/Ac ratios are 0.02–0.04 m3/m2 for better system operational performance and 0.02–0.08 m3/m2 for better building heating effectiveness. Non-guaranteed heating hours occur mostly during the initial 1–2 h of heating start-up on weekdays. Meanwhile, when the non-heating guarantee hours are limited to 3500–4000 h, the solar heating system design scheme obtained from the optimized model has a certain degree of economic viability. Reducing the cost of solar collectors and heat storage tanks can help obtain more competitive solar heating system design solutions. The research results can provide new method and reference for designing solar heating system with Time-zoned heating mode.

Truly Modular and Open System Design is Difficult

AbstractIn the United States, major defense acquisition programs must implement a modular open systems approach (MOSA) as required by U.S. law. (Defense Standardization Program, 2016). Some in the defense community have focused on MOSA as a checklist compliance activity. However, designing economically and operationally competitive system platforms that are truly modular is extremely challenging. Many such modular system platform efforts fail to meet early expectations for convenience, cost, and community uptake. Open standards are challenging as well. If a highly successful, stable, well‐documented, appropriate open standard is available for an interface, then leveraging such a standard can be fairly straightforward. However, often there is no obvious or adequate open standard available and the system platform owners have to organize a community to bring such a standard into existence.This paper will review three concrete examples of such MOSA efforts. The three cases cover both commercial and defense applications as well as covering both hardware and software. The two systems that focused on hardware modularity did eventually go into production but did not completely fulfill early expectations for their programs. The software system used an out‐of‐the‐box approach and achieved a best‐in‐class result in terms of economic effectiveness, time to market, and stakeholder satisfaction. This paper will discuss underlying challenges that seem to be common to all such efforts, review the results of the three cases, and offer some simple guidelines for increasing the probability of success for such a program.

Sustainable carbon-negative mineral extraction from desalination brine

Effective brine management requires an economical and sustainable methodology to treat multiple pollutants in a single reaction and recover valuable resources like fresh water and minerals. Herein, we propose a novel one-pot solution that employs electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)-generated hydroxide (OH-) to recover valuable minerals from seawater reverse osmosis brine and capture CO2. The process efficiently extracts and recovers magnesium (Mg2+) and calcium (Ca2+) ions in the form of marketable compounds such as CaCO3, Mg(OH)2, or MgCO3, using commercially available catalysts. Our results indicate that the proposed system achieves efficient mineral recovery, reaching up to 27.7 % for Mg2+ and 63.7 % for Ca2+ at a cell current of 60 mA within 8 h. Notably, approximately 40 % of the obtained minerals exist in carbonate form, highlighting the successful mineralization and carbonization of the waste stream into valuable compounds. Moreover, it reduced energy consumption by up to 30 % compared to traditional methods. Initial technology economic analysis confirms that the proposed novel process is carbon-negative and profitable. This cutting-edge and economically competitive ORR-based system technology combines minerals recovery, carbon abatement, and wastewater stream treatment, advancing decarbonization efforts and delivering global environmental benefits, providing an alternative approach for sustainable carbon-negative mineral extraction.

Taekwondo competition marketization development strategy based on SWOT-AHP model

China middle school students Taekwondo League, as the highest level of taekwondo events for middle school students, is an important part of middle school sports events. The development of the league can not only enrich sports activities, mobilize the enthusiasm of middle school students for sports, but also conducive to the improvement of students' will quality and psychological quality as well as training reserve talents. With the rapid development of taekwondo League for middle school students, problems such as imperfect market organization and operation system, unreasonable competition system and imperfect management system of sports teams have been exposed, which affect the sustainable development of the competition to a certain extent. This paper mainly uses the SWOT AHP research method to explore the market commercialization status quo, existing problems and development strategies of Chinese middle school students Taekwondo League, so as to provide theoretical basis for other related studies.

Can Nationwide Central Appointment Systems Reduce Waiting Times in Turkish Public Hospitals?

Health service delivery is an important component of a well-functioning health system. To achieve a competitive healthcare system, healthcare should be provided on time to avoid delays that could harm the patient. In this respect, patient wait time is an important indicator of health services delivery performance. Countries develop national or regional booking systems to manage patient wait times and healthcare delivery resources more efficiently. In this study; the effect of a national booking system on outpatient wait times in Turkish public healthcare settings was investigated. This study was conducted using anonymized national outpatient data sets for the year 2016 with permission from the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health. The data was analyzed after pre-processing and transformation. As a result of the study, patient wait times were calculated, analyzed and evaluated according to province and facility care levels (secondary or tertiary). Results showed that in 2016, only 30.69% of outpatient visits had appointments and that the average waiting time for patients with appointments was 11.18% shorter than for patients without appointments. The results of this study fill a gap in the literature as almost no studies have investigated this issue due to a lack of administrative and clinical data and will provide important evidence for the improvement of health service delivery systems.

ADMINISTRATIVE-LEGAL STATUS OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN: STATE AND ISSUES

Abstract. This article explores theoretical and practical aspects of administrative-legal regulation of the status of political parties in the Republic of Kazakhstan in the contemporary era. It notes that the norms of the Constitution, which establish general principles of relations between the state and societal institutions and citizens' right to freedom of association, participation in political life, and governance, serve as a guideline for regulating the status of political parties in the current legislation of the country. Based on a critical analysis of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Political Parties" and other laws regulating the activities of parties and their relationships with state bodies, as well as the practice of their implementation, inconsistencies of certain provisions are identified in terms of compliance with the Constitution and norms of international law, along with other shortcomings. The authors examine the experience of legal regulation of the functioning of political parties in developed democratic states and through a comparative analysis with Kazakhstan's legislation, identify its main positive aspects. The article formulates recommendations for improving the national Law of the Republic "On Political Parties." Suggestions include increasing funding for parties that have not received parliamentary mandates in Majilis Parliament elections and maslikhats, transitioning from a permission-based system of state party registration to a notification-based system, and others.The main conclusion of the study is the necessity for a fundamental liberalization of administrative-legal regulation of the formation, functioning, and activities of political parties to shape a democratic, pluralistic, competitive political system, ensuring constitutional freedom of citizens' associations, including political parties.

Investigation of the adsorption performance and mechanism of multi-source mineral composite calcination materials on heavy metal ions

To address the challenges of plume generation and the release of heavy metal ions caused by deep-sea mining operations, this study utilized multi-source minerals, including steel slag (SS), oceanic manganese nodules (OMN), attapulgite (AT), and sawdust (SD), to fabricate a multi-source mineral composite calcination material (MMCCM) through a sintering process, and then the preliminary heavy metal ion adsorption experiment was carried out. The results indicated that both Langmuir and Freundlich models can describe the adsorption behavior of Cu2+ in a single system, while the Freundlich model was more applicable in competitive systems. The adsorption of Co2+ and Ni2+ consistently aligned with the Langmuir model across all systems. The adsorptive behavior conformed to pseudo-second-order kinetics, indicating that chemisorption played a leading role. The intraparticle diffusion was the principal rate-limiting step, and the adsorption process was spontaneous. BET, TG-DTG, SEM-EDS, XRD, FT-IR and XPS elucidated that surface physical adsorption, ion exchange, complexation with functional groups, electrostatic attraction, and co-precipitation, which were the predominant adsorption mechanisms for MMCCM. Evaluations of regenerability, economy, security, and suitability demonstrated that MMCCM is an eco-friendly adsorbent, which provides materials and data support for future heavy metal marine sewage treatment, especially for immobilizing heavy metal in deep-sea sediments.

Partially ordered set evaluation of logistics competitiveness of coastal port cites considering carbon emissions

Aiming at the problem of logistics competitiveness of coastal cities, a logistics competitiveness evaluation method based on weighted and partially ordered set combinations is proposed. Carbon emissions and inhalable pollutant concentrations are included in the evaluation scope, and an evaluation index system for the logistics competitiveness of 17 coastal port cities is constructed. The results show that: (1) the competitiveness of the logistics industry in 17 coastal port cities in China has been continuously improved, and the catch-up effect of logistics industry development in coastal port cities such as Shenzhen, Ningbo and Qingdao is obvious. The competitiveness level of the logistics industry shows an obvious spatial imbalance. (2) The competitiveness of the logistics industry in Yingkou, Beibu Gulf and other coastal port cities is low, and the difference in competitiveness of the logistics industry in coastal port cities is the main reason for the overall imbalance. (3) The technological innovation, openness and economic development level of the city and the hinterland have a positive impact on the competitiveness of the logistics industry, and the level of economic development has the greatest contribution to the variance of the competitiveness of the logistics industry. The logistics competitiveness of 17 cities is ranked and classified. The leading cities have core diffusion effects and promote the development of the competitiveness of each city. Suggestions on improving the competitiveness of cities are conducive to the high-quality development of China’s logistics industry.

Quorum Sensing in Emulsion Droplet Swarms Driven by a Surfactant Competition System.

Quorum sensing enables unicellular organisms to probe their population density and perform behavior that exclusively occurs above a critical density. Quorum sensing is established in emulsion droplet swarms that float at a water surface and cluster above a critical density. The design involves competition between 1) a surface tension gradient that is generated upon release of a surfactant from the oil droplets, and thereby drives their mutual repulsion, and 2) the release of a surfactant precursor from the droplets, that forms a strong imine surfactant which suppresses the surface tension gradient and thereby causes droplet clustering upon capillary (Cheerios) attraction. The production of the imine-surfactant depends on the population density of the droplets releasing the precursor so that the clustering only occurs above a critical population density. The pH-dependence of the imine-surfactant formation is exploited to trigger quorum sensing upon a base stimulus: dynamic droplet swarms are generated that cluster and spread upon spatiotemporally varying acid and base conditions. Next, the clustering of two droplet subpopulations is coupled to a chemical reaction that generates a fluorescent signal. It is foreseen that quorum sensing enables control mechanisms in droplet-based systems that display collective responses in contexts of, e.g., sensing, optics, or dynamically controlled droplet-reactors.

The effects of commuting subsidies in a competitive two-city system

This paper develops a spatial equilibrium model for a competitive two-city system consisting of a high-income and a low-income city. Using this model, we investigate the effects of intracity and intercity commuting subsidies on such urban performances as spatial structures, residents’ utility, and social welfare of cities and the system. The three unilateral subsidy scenarios and two subsidy competition scenarios are investigated individually. Results show that intercity commuting subsidy gives residents incentives to reside in the low-income city and intercity commuting to the high-income city, while intracity commuting subsidies lead to the inflow of population. Subsidy competitions increase residents’ utility and mitigate the impacts of unilateral subsidies on the social welfare of the system. A numerical example and case study based on city pairs of Jing-Jin-Ji Urban Agglomeration in China are conducted to examine the proposed model.

Estimation of spreading speeds and travelling waves for the lattice pioneer-climax competition system

ABSTRACT This paper concerns the invasion dynamics of the lattice pioneer-climax competition model with parameter regions in which the system is non-monotone. We estimate the spreading speeds and establish appropriate conditions under which the spreading speeds are linearly selected. Moreover, the existence of travelling waves is determined by constructing suitable upper and lower solutions. It shows that the spreading speed coincides with the minimum wave speed of travelling waves if the diffusion rate of the invasive species is larger or equal to that of the native species. Our results are new to estimate the spreading speed of non-monotone lattice pioneer-climax systems, and the techniques developed in this work can be used to study the invasion dynamics of the pioneer-climax system with interaction delays, which could extend the results in the literature. The analysis replies on the construction of auxiliary systems, upper and lower solutions, and the monotone dynamical system approach.