Core Research Questions Research Articles

The Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Policies in the Building Sector: A Regional Analysis Based on the Stochastic Frontier Approach and on the Energy Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and Policy Implications

The promotion of the Energy Efficiency is one of the priorities of EU energy policy to fight the Climate Change and make Europe climate neutral by 2050 (EC 2020). The civil sector offers high potential for energy efficiency improvement and the buildings are responsible for about 40% of the EU's energy consumption, and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions (EC 2020). In Italy the civil sector (residential and tertiary together), are responsible for approximately 45% of final energy consumption and 17.5% of Italy's CO2 emissions, has a potential in reducing energy consumption of approximately 5,7 Mtoe compared to the base scenario in 2030. The core research question is: “Are national and local energy efficiency policies effective in reducing aggregate energy consumption at regional level in the civil sector?” From the policy maker’s point of view, it is important to understand the effectiveness of the policy instruments introduced to promote energy efficiency. The research framework is based on the frontier analysis and its main objective is to econometrically estimate for the period 2010 to 2017 the energy efficiency level for the civil sector in the Italy regions. The estimates confirm the effectiveness of policy instruments, represented by tax deductions and economic incentives, in creating high potential for energy savings from reduced inefficiency in the civil sector.

To move or stay? A cellular automata model to predict urban growth in coastal regions amidst rising sea levels

ABSTRACT Low-lying coastal cities are widely acknowledged as the most densely populated places of urban settlement; they are also more vulnerable to risks resulting from intensive land use and land cover change, human activities, global climate change, and the rising sea levels. This study aims to predict how urban growth is affected by sea level rise (SLR) in the Australian context. We develop an urban cellular automata model incorporating urban planning policies as potential drivers or constraints of urban growth under different SLR scenarios and adaption strategies. Drawing on data capturing the socioeconomic and environmental factors in South East Queensland, Australia, our model is positioned to address one core research question: how does SLR affect future urban growth and human resettlement? Results show that urban growth in coastal regions varies depending on the extent to which the sea level rises and is affected by a combination of factors relating to urban planning and human adaptation strategies. Our study demonstrates the complexity of urban growth in coastal regions and the nuanced outcomes under different adaptation strategies in the context of rising sea levels.

A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF UNEMPLOYED GRADUATES IN BHUTAN

Over the past few decades, Bhutan has made remarkable progress in socio-economic development, and the kingdom has been identified by the UN as one of the early achievers of the Sustainable Development Goals in 2018. Yet, Bhutan continues to confront a raft of development challenges. One of the most pressing challenges is in the area of youth unemployment, particularly among school and university leavers. Just as school participation has increased in recent years within the kingdom, so too has the number of unemployed graduates. Remarkably, the high levels of unemployed graduates exist alongside a large number of job openings, mostly in the fields of science and engineering, teaching, business administration and commercial management. These positions are usually filled instead by foreign, tertiary-educated workers. Thus, this research thesis intends to study this labour market paradox of graduate unemployment by mapping the lived experiences of unemployed graduates in Bhutan. It relies on primary data collected through a combination of unstructured face-to-face and semi-structured interviews with three unemployed graduates aged between 19-25 years old. The thesis poses two core research questions: firstly, to what degree is there a systemic skill mismatch and jobs, from the perspective of unemployed graduates, and secondly, what is the role of Bhutan Civil Service Examination (BCSE) in the job search strategy and labour market readiness of graduates. The results of the analysis are presented in a narrative form. The findings of this research study reveal that graduate unemployment issues in Bhutan are shaped by a range of issues including the role of the BCSE, a mismatch in wage expectations, the lack of entrenched labour market institutions, and the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of graduates.

Examining developmental plasticity in the skeletal system through a sensitive developmental windows framework.

Developmental plasticity facilitates energetically costly but potentially fitness-enhancing adjustments to phenotypic trajectories in response to environmental stressors, and thus may significantly impact patterns of growth, morbidity, and mortality over the life course. Ongoing research into epigenetics and developmental biology indicate that the timing of stress exposures is a key factor when assessing their impact on developmental processes. Specifically, stress experienced within sensitive developmental windows (SDWs), discrete developmental periods characterized by heightened energy requirements and rapid growth, may alter the pace and tempo of growth in ways that significantly influence phenotypic development over both the short and long term. In human skeletal biology, efforts to assess how developmental environments shape health outcomes over the life course could be enhanced by incorporating the SDW concept into existing methodological approaches. The goal of this article is to outline an interpretive framework for identifying and interpreting evidence of developmental stress in the skeletal system using the SDW concept. This framework provides guidance for the identification of elements most likely to capture evidence of stress most relevant to a study's core research questions, the interpretation of developmental stress exhibited by those elements, and the relationship of skeletal indicators of stress to the demographic patterning of morbidity and mortality. Use of the SDW concept in skeletal biology has the potential to enrich traditional approaches to addressing developmental origins of health and disease hypotheses, by targeting periods in which individuals are most susceptible to stress and thus most likely to exhibit plasticity in response.

Examining Spillover of Sustainable Behaviour: an Intervention Study from the Perspective of Maltese Public Officers

It has long been acknowledged that the various burgeoning problems inflicting the world are deeply rooted in human behaviour. Governance often entails policy formulation and strategies that initiate behavioural change to alleviate such problems and foster sustainability. However, this often appears as a strenuous endeavour, especially at the macro level. For this reason, implementing the behavioural spillover mechanism is deemed befitting. Few studies have directed their attention towards the relationship of individuals’ sustainable behaviour across different settings, and such a perspective could indicate the way forward required within various future policy frameworks. Hence, the following intervention study attempts to examine behavioural spillover, which entails the transfer of attitudes from one domain to another, in this case, from a work-home perspective. This chapter builds upon such notion through a case study from the Maltese islands, the smallest EU member state, by providing insights from public officers. Such sampling population was selected as these individuals work closely within governmental structures and should act as agents of change in this regard. The methodological framework employs a positivist paradigm, based on a quasi-experimental design through an identical pretest and posttest Likert-scale questionnaire distributed to 14 public officers who undertook an educational module about sustainability at the University of Malta. These tests aimed to examine whether spillover of sustainable behaviour occurs within a spatio-temporal context – across the two different domains and during the entire intervention adopted. Quantitative findings are utilized to address two core research questions, from which various trends have been identified. Results show that positive spillover occurs for those behaviours which involve the least time, cost, and effort. It transpires that respondents are not willing to adopt drastic lifestyle changes. Such findings lay the foundation for the recommendations delineated in the current study, which might be helpful to other practitioners in public policy, management, and sustainable development.

Bronze Age Woollen Textile Production in England: A Consideration of Evidence and Potentials

Responding to recent advances in knowledge about the first arrival of woollen sheep in Europe and linked investigations of textile remains on the Continent, this paper argues that our insight into the role of wool in the English Bronze Age needs rethinking. We argue that the relevant questions are: when did the procurement of and working with wool become a routine aspect of settlement life, and did the change from plant fibres to wool affect communities differently? The paper outlines some of the core research questions we need to consider and points to the necessity of triangulating between the evidence provided by textiles, faunal remains, and textile working tools to reach more comprehensive insights. The paper ends by indicating a further research question – namely whether the apparent differences in the ‘wool economy’ in different parts of Bronze Age Europe may suggest differences in ‘body politics’.

Using the Resource-Based View in Multinational Enterprise Research

The resource-based view (RBV) has evolved into a preeminent theory of strategic management. It is widely used by international business (IB) scholars since there is considerable synergy in core research questions pursued by IB and strategy researchers. However, in research on multinational enterprise (MNE) behavior, the use of RBV remains limited relative to other influential perspectives, such as the eclectic paradigm, the Uppsala model, and institutional theory. This is not surprising since the RBV was developed to explain performance differentials between country-centric firms with dominant product businesses rather than large MNEs with an expansive product-geographic scope. We describe how these limitations arise from the wider range of outcomes and explanatory variables, multiple levels of analysis, and the spatial, economic, and institutional barriers that are relevant to MNEs. We discuss the application of RBV to MNE research by the first author and other IB scholars. We then provide directions on how future research could use RBV more fruitfully to examine MNE performance and sources of competitive advantage in several areas. These include diversified corporations, subsidiary agglomeration, emerging market MNE internationalization, subsidiary autonomy, international joint ventures and alliances, and corporate social responsibility. Drawing upon teaching case examples from the first author’s work, we also point to the effectiveness of RBV in teaching with business cases, given its focus on firm performance (strategy).

Coup de la Glotte and Voix Blanche

This exposition explores aspects of the vocal techniques promoted by the Garcia School, in particular Manuel Garcia the younger (1805–1906). Despite his aim to improve the male opera voice, Garcia and his successors had their greatest success with female singers. I believe that, to the extent that they may be considered as significant factors in why the Garcia School was extraordinary successful with female singers, especially high sopranos and coloratura sopranos, some parts of Garcia’s vanished techniques may benefit female voices today. Garcia’s controversial term Coup de la glotte, his definition of breathing support, and his term for a high larynx position, voix blanche, provide the main focus for the exposition. My core research questions are: 1. How do Garcia’s techniques coup de la glotte (hard tone onset) and voix blanche (high larynx position) affect female opera voice progression? 2. Do these techniques have any relevance today? I have conducted experiments with seven sopranos, three of them professionals and four opera students at the Bern University of Arts. All participants sang the same Garcia exercises and the same aria, a part of Lucia’s mad-scene from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. All these experiments were filmed, with the camera focused on the singer’s glottis while they sang using Garcia’s techniques. I am now evaluating the experiments and comparing them with early recordings. I have found that some of Garcia’s techniques, especially the higher breathing support together with the higher larynx positions are really useful to some high sopranos, especially in certain bel canto repertoire. Garcia was already old-fashioned during his own lifetime and singers from the Garcia/Marchesi school clung to older techniques longer than other singers from the same period. For this reason, I suggest that the Garcia School may be used as a historical window to singers wishing to sing in historical ways - even having relevance for pre-nineteenth century repertoire.

Effects of Integrating Literary Texts in Enhancing the Quality of Academic Writing of University Students in Bahrain

The research explored the effects of integrating literary texts on the writing performance of selected university students. It also documented the attitudes of the university students on the integration of literary texts in their regular writing course and their perceptions on the difficulties they encounter in the writing process. These research objectives were rationalized by the need to address the writing difficulties by applying theoretical assumptions and addressing the empirical gaps of previous studies on the effectiveness of literature as a rich resource in developing language competence. The research participants were composed of first year business students who were enrolled in an ESP course in one of the universities in Bahrain. Each group was composed of 35 students with an equal distribution of male and female participants. A mixed method approach was used to address the core research questions with the primary application of an experimental design. The results revealed that literary text integration is effective in improving the academic writing performance of the university student-participants as indicated by the statistical test, wherein the experimental group (m = 3.35) had a higher level of improvement than the control group (m = 2.93) in terms of their overall writing performance after the intervention. The student-respondents had a positive attitude towards the integration of literary text in their regular writing course. Writing difficulties included the process of writing the introduction, body, conclusions of their academic writing tasks, use of relevant vocabulary communicative achievement, organization, and language use. It was recommended that language teachers should incorporate literary texts that are related to the writing lessons. Educational administrators and leaders may revisit the curriculum and use the empirical results in developing a more relevant language curriculum especially in the area of writing instruction where literary texts could be integrated.

How does thinking relate to tool making?

How the boundaries of the mind should be drawn with respect to action and the material world is a core research question that cognitive archaeology shares with contemporary cognitive sciences. The study of hominin technical thinking, as in the case of stone tool making, is a good way to bring that question to the fore. This article argues that archaeologists who study lithic artefacts and their transformations over the course of human evolution are uniquely well positioned to contribute to the ongoing debate about the marks of the mental. Adopting the material engagement approach, I propose to replace the internalist vision of mentality, that is, the vision of a brain-bound mind that is using the body to execute and externalise preconceived mental plan through the stone, with an ecological-enactive vision of participatory mentality where bodily acts and materials act together to generate rather than merely execute thought processes. I argue that the latter participatory view changes the geography of the cognitive and offers a better description for the continuity of mind and matter that we see in the lithic record.

Social values and public procurement in health: can ‘smart’ procurement enhance justice in health?

Abstract Governments spend 29% of total expenditure on procurement while the second largest area is health. However, the important question is what the impact of these expenditures on health is. Can one buy health justice through procurement? In order to answer this issue, the study firstly analyses theory of global health governance to substantiate whether procurement is a health governance tool whose efficiency and effectiveness determines health outcomes. Secondly, health as a social aspect is scrutinised because its governance and procurement have to be driven by a normative value. Within the study, health justice is justified to be such a value as it is a significant public health factor in practice. Following this normative claim, the study uses analysis of legislation, case law and examples from procurement practice to show whether procurement law can enhance health justice. In terms of methodology, the study establishes a normative framework of governance in health, health justice and procurement. On that basis, it distinguishes procurement categories (procurement of health, and procurement for health) and concludes what it is in procurement that health justice is transformed into. In order to answer the core research question, the study analyses harmonised transnational EU legislation, policy, case law of the CJEU, and examples from practice through stages of supply framework - at input, output and outcome. The study leads to a conclusion that procurement serves as a tool of governance in health. In order to reach effectiveness and efficiency of procurement in health, it is submitted that procurement needs to reflect on the argument of ethics and economics of health. Health inequalities are an operationalized factor to reach this. The EU procurement law enables to consider health justice. However, it is restricted by the requirement of proportionality. Therefore, health justice is perceived as distortion, rather than a goal of competition to be enhanced. Key messages In order to reach effectiveness and efficiency of procurement in health, it is submitted that procurement needs to reflect on argument of ethics and economics of health. The EU procurement law enables to consider health justice. However, it is rather perceived as distortion, than a goal of competition to be enhanced.

The Academic Viewpoint on Patient Data Ownership in the Context of Big Data: Scoping Review.

BackgroundThe ownership of patient information in the context of big data is a relatively new problem, which is not yet fully recognized by the medical academic community. The problem is interdisciplinary, incorporating legal, ethical, medical, and aspects of information and communication technologies, requiring a sophisticated analysis. However, no previous scoping review has mapped existing studies on the subject.ObjectiveThis study aims to map and assess published studies on patient data ownership in the context of big data as viewed by the academic community.MethodsA scoping review was conducted based on the 5-stage framework outlined by Arksey and O’Malley and further developed by Levac, Colquhoun, and O’Brien. The organization and reporting of results of the scoping review were conducted according to PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and its extensions for Scoping Reviews). A systematic and comprehensive search of 4 scientific information databases, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Springer, was performed for studies published between January 2000 and October 2019. Two authors independently assessed the eligibility of the studies and the extracted data.ResultsThe review included 32 eligible articles authored by academicians that correspond to 3 focus areas: problem (ownership), area (health care), and context (big data). Five major aspects were studied: the scientific area of publications, aspects and academicians’ perception of ownership in the context of big data, proposed solutions, and practical applications for data ownership issues in the context of big data. The aspects in which publications consider ownership of medical data are not clearly distinguished but can be summarized as ethical, legal, political, and managerial. The ownership of patient data is perceived primarily as a challenge fundamental to conducting medical research, including data sales and sharing, and to a lesser degree as a means of control, problem, threat, and opportunity also in view of medical research. Although numerous solutions falling into 3 categories, technology, law, and policy, were proposed, only 3 real applications were discussed.ConclusionsThe issue of ownership of patient information in the context of big data is poorly researched; it is not addressed consistently and in its integrity, and there is no consensus on policy decisions and the necessary legal regulations. Future research should investigate the issue of ownership as a core research question and not as a minor fragment among other topics. More research is needed to increase the body of knowledge regarding the development of adequate policies and relevant legal frameworks in compliance with ethical standards. The combined efforts of multidisciplinary academic teams are needed to overcome existing gaps in the perception of ownership, the aspects of ownership, and the possible solutions to patient data ownership issues in the reality of big data.

Non-monetary poverty and deprivation: A capability approach

Given the continuing interest in multi-dimensional approaches to poverty, the article considers ways in which Senian capability indicators can be used to assess and understand poverty and deprivation. More specifically, we develop novel capability data on 29 dimensions for adults from the US, UK and Italy to explore three core research questions. First, we show that when poverty is seen as capability deprivation, different individuals are identified as poor compared with approaches based on low income or subjective wellbeing. However, we also observe that what the poor report being able to do or otherwise is, nonetheless, it is relatively robust to the use of these three different approaches. Second, we employ latent class analysis to identify poverty and deprivation profiles for groups within society and suggest that such profiles help to identify groups who are deprived or socially excluded with respect to some but not all areas of life. Third, and finally, we examine the association between individual capability deprivation and local area deprivation in the UK. We find that individual capabilities are associated with local area deprivation in some cases but that the connections vary significantly depending on the dimension under consideration. We discuss the results and conclude by suggesting that capability indicators can provide insights into poverty which do not emerge from a more traditional approach focusing on income alone.

Beyond descriptions and good practices: empirical effects on students’ learning outcomes of active learning environments in political science curricula

The introduction of the symposium sets out a possible research agenda on producing systematic empirical evidence of the effect of active learning tools to the discipline of political science, inspired by and drawing from educational research. It discusses the core research questions of such an agenda. Do active learning environments enhance political science students’ learning outcomes? Does the introduction of active learning in political science curricula make a difference for cognitive, affective, and/or regulative learning outcomes? In addition, it draws attention upon which conditions make active learning tools more or less effective? What are the inhibiting and stimulating factors? Are there differential effects according to specific student attributes such as gender, prior knowledge, prior education, or prior results? In short, it discusses the dependent variables (effects on what learning outcomes exactly), the independent variables (such as student dispositions), the intervening variable (types of active learning environments), methods and data, and the teaching context (such as level of education and intra- and extra-curricular contexts). Finally, we introduce the papers of the symposium, which are illustrations of how this agenda can be implemented in the field, covering a variety of effects, learning environments, methods, data, and contexts.

Quantitative Analysis of How China’s Six Major Scientific & Technological Program to Include Environment Protection based on Data 1982-2015

Environment protection has been a trans-disciplinary public policy issue on the global government agenda, including China. However, research on how PRC China’s six major S&T program to include environment protection remains a research vacuum. The core research question is how environment protection has been included in China’s major S&T programs in a quantitative way. The conclusion is: a) the impact of environment protection is growing bigger; b) the attention level to environment protection is getting higher and c) the fiscal allocation to environment protection by the 6 S&T programs is getting more. Further, this paper estimates the budget sum and ratio of “Three Major S&T Programs” to environment protection and its five-year ratio from 2001-2013 for the first time.

Studying the impact of CI on pull request delivery time in open source projects-a conceptual replication.

Nowadays, continuous integration (CI) is indispensable in the software development process. A central promise of adopting CI is that new features or bug fixes can be delivered more quickly. A recent repository mining study by Bernardo, da Costa & Kulesza (2018) found that only about half of the investigated open source projects actually deliver pull requests (PR) faster after adopting CI, with small effect sizes. However, there are some concerns regarding the methodology used by Bernardo et al., which may potentially limit the trustworthiness of this finding. Particularly, they do not explicitly control for normal changes in the pull request delivery time during a project’s lifetime (independently of CI introduction). Hence, in our work, we conduct a conceptual replication of this study. In a first step, we replicate their study results using the same subjects and methodology. In a second step, we address the same core research question using an adapted methodology. We use a different statistical method (regression discontinuity design, RDD) that is more robust towards the confounding factor of projects potentially getting faster in delivering PRs over time naturally, and we introduce a control group of comparable projects that never applied CI. Finally, we also evaluate the generalizability of the original findings on a set of new open source projects sampled using the same methodology. We find that the results of the study by Bernardo et al. largely hold in our replication. Using RDD, we do not find robust evidence of projects getting faster at delivering PRs without CI, and we similarly do not see a speed-up in our control group that never introduced CI. Further, results obtained from a newly mined set of projects are comparable to the original findings. In conclusion, we consider the replication successful.

Education 4.0 Technologies, Industry 4.0 Skills and the Teaching of English in Malaysian Tertiary Education

Unprecedented changes are happening in the way the world works; traditional jobs are being replaced by new ones that need critical skills for workers of the future. Enter the era of ‘Industry 4.0’. In this era, knowledge and skills are paramount for one to stay relevant and remain competitive in the job market. Terms like ‘reskilling’ and ‘upskilling’ reflect the kind of changes that are happening. Thus, it is only natural that the realm of education follows suit, with the construct of ‘Education 4.0’. This research article takes a broadly neutral view of Industry 4.0 and Education 4.0, although both constructs are criticized by certain quarters. In truth, the increasing automation of manual labor and remarkable growth in and expansion of technological developments, all point to an uncertain future for the next generation of future workers. Strategies must be drafted, and initiatives be taken, to ensure young people are not disadvantaged in the near future. This article examines the struggles of a small group of English educators at Malaysian public universities, who are frantically trying to apply Education 4.0 learning technologies to teach this international language to Malaysian students, based on three core research questions. Handicapped with little to no budget, limited technical expertise and no institutional assistance, and facing resistance from traditional educators, the ‘thick’ qualitative descriptions and stories shared by these educators cum learning technologists provide a glimpse into the realities of English teaching and learning at a time of ‘disruptions’ linked to Industry 4.0 and Education 4.0.

Corporations and Sustainability

This chapter introduces the Handbook, providing an overview of its aims and structure, as well as the core research questions that the contributions to it collectively address. It discusses sustainability-related problems associated with the legal form of the corporation, and provides background on state-of-the-art research in natural sciences and other relevant fields that inform our understanding of sustainability. It concludes with specific research questions and a presentation of the Handbook’s structure.

How are distributed bugs diagnosed and fixed through system logs?

Abstract Context Distributed systems are the backbone of today’s computing ecosystems. Debugging distributed bugs is crucial and challenging. There are still many unknowns about debugging real-world distributed bugs, especially through system logs. Objective This paper aims to provide a comprehensive study of how system logs can help diagnose and fix distributed bugs in practice. Method The study was carried out with three core research questions (RQs): How to identify failures in distributed bugs through logs? How to find and utilize bug-related log entries to figure out the root causes? How are distributed bugs fixed and how are logs and patches related? To answer these questions, we studied 106 real-world distributed bugs randomly sampled from five widely used distributed systems, and manually checked the bug report, the log, the patch, the source code and other related information for each of these bugs. Results Seven findings are observed and the main findings include: (1) For only about half of the distributed bugs, the failures are indicated by FATAL or ERROR log entries. FATAL are not always fatal, and INFO could be fatal. (2) For more than half of the studied bugs, root-cause diagnosis relies on log entries that are not part of the failure symptoms. (3) One third of the studied bugs are fixed by eliminating end symptoms instead of root causes. Finally, a distributed bug dataset with the in-depth analysis has been released to the research community. Conclusion The findings in our study reveal the characteristics of distributed bugs, the differences from debugging single-machine system bugs, and the usages and limitations of existing logs. Our study also provides guidance and opportunities for future research on distributed bug diagnosis, fixing, and log analysis and enhancement.

Making Design Education (Even More) Complex: Exploring Complexity for an Amplified Mindset of Design

AbstractAn Amplified Mindset of Design (AMD) has emerged from recent research on emerging design practices, as designers are once again re‐inventing their identity to include an adaptability to uncertainty and paradox. However, this is not yet visible in what design education offers. As designers intervene in complex contexts and embrace participatory, collaborative and interdisciplinary practices informed by strong ethical and sustainability concerns, design education must adjust and expand its scope to include, for example, collaboration, cross‐cultural and interdisciplinary skills, and a way of being in the world through design. In this article, I argue for the formal introduction and exploration of social complexity in design education to assist the development of an AMD in design students. Boundaries, dependence on context, edge of chaos, emergence and organisation were identified as key qualities of complex systems to introduce to students. Embodiment and visualisation techniques were used as the most appropriate vehicles for such an endeavour. In this article, I discuss the results of a qualitative research informed by action research in which I explore ways of teaching complexity to design students. The inquiry was driven by the following core research question: How can complexity can be taught in design education using visual and embodiment methods to encourage the development of an Amplified Mindset of Design?