Critical Levers Research Articles

National Identity Development Among Minority Youth: Longitudinal Relations with National Fit Perceptions and School Belonging.

Across Western Europe, immigrant-origin minority youth often struggle to belong socially and to develop national self-identification. Yet, almost no research to-date has asked how these youth perceive the cultural contents of the national identity in their residence country-or rather, to what extent they perceive youth like them to (mis)fit the national identity. The present study addressed this research gap by centering schools as developmental contexts of evolving belonging and national self-identification and newly inquiring into minority youth's perceptions of national (mis)fit as critical levers of their national identity development. Drawing on data from two annual waves of the Leuven-Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (Leuven-CILS), a sample of 942 Moroccan- and Turkish-origin youth (Mage-T1 = 14.98, SD = 1.22; 52% female) in 62 Belgian schools was used. Cross-lagged analysis combined repeated measures of school belonging and national self-identification with vignette measures of the perceived national fit of (imagined) culturally different peers. While school belonging and national self-identification were unrelated over time, earlier perceived national fit uniquely enabled more national self-identification one year later, over and above evolving school belonging. These findings suggest that experiencing belonging in school does not suffice for minority youth to develop national self-identification. Schools may, however, promote national identity development through redefining national identities to include cultural diversity-thereby signaling to minority youth that they can fit the national identity.

Effective multi-sectoral approach for rapid reduction in maternal and neonatal mortality: the exceptional case of Bangladesh

BackgroundBangladesh experienced impressive reductions in maternal and neonatal mortality over the past several decades with annual rates of decline surpassing 4% since 2000. We comprehensively assessed health system and non-health...

Japan’s agricultural policy towards food security improvement. Key strategies, initiatives and outcomes

Food security in Japan has been under observation of analytics in both Japan and abroad as it is one of the key national security issues. Leading academic researchers of this issue in Japan include Suzuki N., Takeya T., Yamamoto R. and Oguchi H. However, the main focus of their analysis is the social aspect. The English language literature provides more materials on food security problem, but the situation is changing faster than information flows across the border. It means that the most up-to-date resources for analysis of the topic are the documents of the Japanese official institutions. Based on the Global Food Security Index (which takes into account the issues of food affordability, availability, quality and natural resources resilience), Japan is considered to be 6th most self-sufficient country in the world. However, the Japanese government still sees the national food security issue as problematic for the country’s stability due to heavy dependency on agricultural import. To overcome the trend, Japan utilizes multiple mechanisms to eventually improve agricultural self-sufficiency. The main focus is kept on the following 4 critical levers – i) productivity improvement, ii) agricultural employment improvement, iii) demand shift towards traditional dietary and new markets opening and iv) SDG agenda. The research also provides a case study of technologies implemented in the agricultural field in Japan in order to improve the self-sufficiency level. Moreover, emphasis is made on the government policies to develop the local market and to build the new markets abroad for the domestic farmers’ production expansion.

Competition between wild and honey bees: Floral resources as a common good providing multiple ecosystem services

It is increasingly acknowledged that bees are declining, notably as a result of global changes such as climate and land-use changes that affect the abundance and diversity of floral resources (i.e. pollen and nectar). Recently, a new concern has gained traction: the negative impact of honeybees on wild bees due to competition over floral resources. Some studies also suggest that there might be intraspecific competition among honeybees themselves. While these issues have mainly been considered by ecological scientists so far, this study aims to address their social dimensions as well. We suggest that viewing floral resources as common-pool resources could pave the way to new governance mechanisms for their management, based on collective action involving the multiple actors that use and modify these floral resources and the associated ecosystem services. Combining conceptual insights on common-pool resources, collective action and ecosystem services, we develop a conceptual model of human–bee–flower social-ecological systems. This model was applied in a case study in the Cévennes National Park, to analyse beekeepers’ representations, practices, rules-in-use and social interactions, allowing us to identify critical levers and obstacles for collective governance of floral resources. Our analysis reveals that although there are diverse and controversial perceptions of floral resources and competition among bees, the idea of viewing floral resources as a common-pool resource underlies a range of practices and rules-in-use. In addition, we show that beekeepers’ perceptions are changing due to the increasing vulnerability of floral resources. All in all, considering floral resources as a common-pool resource appears a relevant way to study the social interdependencies involved in their management. It is now crucial to develop new forms of governance of floral resources that will reconcile beekeeping and the conservation of wild bees, in coordination with farmers and other land managers.

Teacher and headteacher assessment, feedback, and continuing professional development: the Mexican case

ABSTRACT Teacher and headteacher assessments and professional development are deemed critical levers for improving quality education in an increasing number of countries and contexts. However, prioritising improvement is not always evident, given that sometimes those subjected to assessments are not effectively informed about their performance (e.g. from national teacher examinations) or how to improve their work via feedback. This paper explores the bridging role of feedback concerning teacher and headteacher assessments and continuing professional development in the Mexican context, where scarce research exists. This mixed-methods research contributes evaluation evidence of Mexico’s 2013–2018 education reform, including high-stakes staff assessments and individual feedback reports. Survey data from 122 primary school teachers and headteachers and thirteen interviews with teachers, headteachers and policymakers indicate the feedback report made it difficult to distinguish between poor and proficient performance and identify strengths and weaknesses. Challenges regarding suitable continuing professional development following assessment feedback are put forward.

Evaluating the influence of nature connection and values on conservation attitudes at a tropical deforestation frontier.

Inner phenomena, such as personal motivations for pursuing sustainability, may be critical levers for improving conservation outcomes. Most conservation research and policies, however, focus on external phenomena (e.g., ecological change or economic processes). We explored the factors shaping 9 conservation attitudes toward forest and wildlife protection among colonist farmers around an Amazonian deforestation frontier. Our data comprised 241 face-to-face quantitative surveys, complemented with qualitative insights from open-ended questionnaire responses and opportunistic semistructured interviews. To account for the full spectrum of possible inner motivations, we employed measures of nature connection (indicating biospheric motivation) and personal values organized around the traditionalism (traditionalist through to high openness to change) and universalism dimensions (egoistic through to altruistic motivations). We used averaged beta-binomial generalized linear models to assess the role of external factors (socioeconomic, sociodemographic, and environmental) and personal (inner) motivations on the variation in attitudes. Each attitude was modeled separately. The relative importance of each predictor was judged by the proportion of models where it appeared as significant. Proconservation views were expressed by the majority (at least 65%) of the respondents in 7 out of the 9 attitude models. The most consistent predictors were emotional nature connection and personal values (significant in 4-6 out of 9 models), rather than external phenomena (significant in 0-5 models). However, the poorest farmers had lower scores on the agreement with prioritizing nature over development (𝛽=-0.52, 95% CI: -0.96 to -0.07). Qualitative data also indicated that economic barriers hinder forest conservation on farms. These results suggest that biospheric, traditionalistic, and altruistic motivations promote people's proconservation attitudes, but nurturing these latent motivations is unlikely to improve conservation outcomes if material poverty remains unaddressed. Integrating the inner-outer perspective into conservation thinking and practical interventions could foster environmental stewardship and increase human well-being.

Incentive structures and their impact on the economic viability of academic and research institutions: a case-based methodological investigation

In the rapidly globalizing world characterized by increasing competitiveness in the academic and research sectors, the influence of incentive structures on the economic viability of institutions has gained prominence. This article proposes a comprehensive case-based methodological investigation to examine how various incentive mechanisms affect the economic standing of academic and research institutions in Kazakhstan. Drawing from the interdisciplinary fields of economics, management science, and sociology, we aim to delineate the causal linkages between incentive structures and institutional economics. The economic viability of academic and research institutions is increasingly subjected to scrutiny in contemporary discussions surrounding higher education and research funding paradigms. In a symbiotic relationship, incentive structures act as critical levers that can either augment or constrain the economic viability of these institutions. This interdisciplinary research article embarks on an empirical journey to explore the interconnections between incentive structures and economic outcomes within the academic and research institutions in Kazakhstan. The study employs a case-based methodological framework, focusing on both quantitative and qualitative data gathered from a representative sampling of institutions. Grounded in Institutional Economics, Transaction Cost Economics, and Social Capital Theory, the investigation seeks to dissect the underlying mechanisms that condition the efficacy of various types of incentives - monetary, social, and reputational - on the financial stability, operational efficiency, and overall economic performance of these institutions. The article aims to contribute to the extant literature by filling the current empirical void and providing actionable insights for policymakers, institutional administrators, and the academic community at large. The findings have far-reaching implications not only for Kazakhstan but also for similar emerging economies grappling with the challenges of fostering economically viable and globally competitive academic and research institutions.

Two-Stage Stochastic Matching and Pricing with Applications to Ride Hailing

Two-Stage Matching and Pricing in Ride-Hailing Platforms Matching and pricing are two critical levers in two-sided marketplaces to connect demand and supply. The platform can produce more efficient matching and pricing decisions by batching the demand requests. We initiate the study of the two-stage stochastic matching problem with or without pricing to enable the platform to make improved decisions in a batch with an eye toward the imminent future demand requests. This problem is motivated in part by applications in online marketplaces, such as ride-hailing platforms. We design online competitive algorithms for vertex-weighted (or unweighted) two-stage stochastic matching for maximizing supply efficiency and two-stage joint matching and pricing for maximizing market efficiency. Using various techniques, such as introducing convex programming–based matching and graph decompositions, submodular maximization, and factor-revealing linear programs, we obtain either optimal competitive or improved approximation algorithms compared with naïve solutions. We enrich our theoretical study by data-driven numerical simulations using DiDi’s ride-sharing data sets.

RWD122 Strengthening the Patient Voice in Health Outcome Measurement in Real-World Data in Europe – The Health Outcomes Observatory

To ensure sustainability, healthcare systems need to consider patient outcomes when evaluating reimbursement. Critical levers for accelerating this are patient engagement and a more comprehensive, standardized collection of patient outcomes. However, real-world outcomes data including Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) on a population level are currently lacking in many European countries. Such data could be the basis for outcomes-based reimbursement, allowing for better resource allocation and faster access to therapeutic innovation. A focus on outcomes that matter most to patients furthermore could enable improved patient-clinician communication, all of which lead to better patient care.

Paving the way for industry 4.0 maturity of construction enterprises: a state of the art review

PurposeIndustry 4.0 is characterised by the exponential pace of technological innovations compelling organisations to transform or be displaced. Industry 4.0 transformation of construction enterprises lacks systematic guidance and notable earlier studies have utilised maturity models to map transformation of enterprises. This paper proposes a conceptual maturity model for construction enterprises for business scenarios leading to Industry 4.0.Design/methodology/approachThe requirements for designing maturity models, including comparison with existing models and scientifically documenting the design process, make Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR) appropriate. Two systematic literature reviews (SLRs) are conducted to shortlist a total of 95 papers, which are subjected to subsequent content analysis.FindingsThe first SLR identifies the following process categories as critical levers of industry 4.0 maturity; data management, people and culture, leadership and strategy, collaboration and communication, automation, innovation and change management. The second SLR ascertains that the existing maturity models in construction literature do not adequately correspond to Industry 4.0 business scenarios with limited emphasis on data management, automation, change management and innovation. The findings are assimilated to propose a conceptual Smart Modern Construction Enterprise Maturity Model (SMCeMM).Originality/valueThe paper systematises the transformation of construction enterprises in Industry 4.0 and leads to state-of-the-art development of Industry 4.0 and maturity model research in construction. The proposed conceptual model addressed both the demands of the construction industry as well as what is required to navigate Industry 4.0 better.

Strategies to improve building environmental and economic performance: an exploratory study on 37 residential building scenarios

PurposeWith a contribution of 39% to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reducing the environmental impacts of buildings plays an undisputed role in achieving climate goals. Therefore, the development of projects with a low carbon footprint is of crucial importance. Although several active and passive solutions as well as design strategies have been developed, identifying critical levers to minimise GHG emissions and the cost of future building projects is still a problem faced every day by designers.MethodsMotivated by this knowledge gap in this study, we conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of a residential building situated in Austria. To identify the critical levers for reducing impacts and cost, 37 scenarios with three different advanced energetic standards are created. The scenarios with the various standards are developed through the combination of different construction materials, insulation materials and technical building equipment. In the eco-efficiency assessment (LCA and LCCA), a reference study period of 50 years is assumed. The life cycle of the building scenarios was analysed according to the European standard EN-15978.ResultsResults show that improving the energetic standard does not yield an overall cost savings potential. The additional construction cost (23%) for energy efficiency measures, including thermal insulation and change of technical building equipment, is higher than the reduction potential in operating cost over 50 years. On the other hand, the improvement of energetic standards allows a reduction of the environmental impacts by 25%.ConclusionsTo ensure a cost-optimal environmental improvement of buildings, it is crucial to conduct an eco-efficiency assessment during the design process of energy-efficient buildings. This study shows how improving the energetic standard of buildings can reduce environmental impacts with slightly increased life cycle cost.

White Skin and the Black Mask™

White Skin and the Black Mask™

Achieving Diesel Powertrain Ownership Parity in Battery Electric Heavy Duty Commercial Vehicles Using a Rapid Recurrent Recharging Architecture

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Battery electric vehicles (BEV) in heavy duty (HD) commercial freight transport face challenging technoeconomic barriers to adoption. Specifically, beyond safety and compliance, fleet and operational logistics require both high up-time and parity with diesel system productivity/Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to enable strong adoption of electrified powertrains. At present, relatively high energy storage prices coupled with the increased weight of BEV systems limit the practicality of HD commercial freight transport to shorter range applications, where smaller batteries will suffice for the mission energy requirements (single operational shift). This paper presents an approach to extend the feasibility of BEV HD trucking for a broad range of applications. The concept is based on the leveraging rapid and recurrent recharging of a BEV HD truck that may either already make frequent stops due to shipment drop-offs/reloading or be required to make frequent stops along with longer missions for recharging. While the challenges of the latter are well appreciated, the concept proposed explores making minimal impact to overall mission time by targeting high C-rate charging while optimizing the frequency (miles) through which these events must occur. The concept optimizes battery size and chemistry, such that the expected life (years and total energy throughput) is balanced with the depth of discharge between recharging events, thus making complete use of the energy available through the life of the battery system. The solution is constrained to minimize the impact on payload capacity. The paper analyzes critical levers in achieving diesel price parity (based on a simplified vehicle TCO), achieved through different purchase options (including lease versus buy) and operational models (half-life swap out). Finally, the paper identifies the application design domain where these solutions are viable with limited impact on fleet operations.</div></div>

The Inclusive Professional Framework for Societies: Changing Mental Models to Promote Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive STEM Systems Change.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional societies (ProSs) are uniquely positioned to foster national-level diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) reform. ProSs serve broad memberships, define disciplinary norms and culture, and inform accrediting bodies and thus provide critical levers for systems change. STEM ProSs could be instrumental in achieving the DEI system reform necessary to optimize engagement of all STEM talent, leveraging disciplinary excellence resulting from diverse teams. Inclusive STEM system reform requires that underlying “mental models” be examined. The Inclusive Professional Framework for Societies (IPF: Societies) is an interrelated set of strategies that can help ProSs change leaders (i.e., “boundary spanners”) and organizations identify and address mental models hindering DEI reform. The IPF: Societies uses four “I's”—Identity awareness and Intercultural mindfulness (i.e., equity mindset) upon which inclusive relationships and Influential DEI actions are scaffolded. We discuss how the IPF: Societies complements existing DEI tools (e.g., Women in Engineering ProActive Network's Framework for Promoting Gender Equity within Organization; Amplifying the Alliance to Catalyze Change for Equity in STEM Success' Equity Environmental Scan Tool). We explain how the IPF: Societies can be applied to existing ProS policy and practice associated with common ProS functions (e.g., leadership, membership, conferences, awards, and professional development). The next steps are to pilot the IPF: Societies with a cohort of STEM ProSs. Ultimately, the IPF: Societies has potential to promote more efficient, effective, and lasting DEI organizational transformation and contribute to inclusive STEM disciplinary excellence.

The California Equity Coalition: Advocating for Racial Equity in California's Public School Leadership

The purpose of this narrative paper is to provide a reflective description of the formation, structure, and work of a diverse coalition dedicated to collaboratively informing educational policy advocacy in California. Specifically, this article offers an example of how community members from across settings mobilized into collective action to improve the racial diversity pipeline of school leaders in California’s public schools. The California Equity Coalition (CEC) is a powerful network of organizations that see school administrators’ racial diversity and cultural competence as critical levers in creating successful school environments that yield positive student outcomes. Using auto-narrative and testimonio methodology, the work of the CEC is documented in this paper, and rooted in the literature examining the role of Proposition 209 and other barriers that led to the decline of Black and Latinx educators in California. The article also provides a current review of educator pipeline data and research that served as a catalyst for the formation of the CEC. Finally, the article highlights the history, aims, actions, and strategy in building and sustaining this diverse coalition anchored in racial equity.

Optimism, Resilience, and Other Health-Protective Factors Among Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) suffer disproportionately from coronavirus-related illness, death, and financial loss. The aim of this retrospective, qualitative study was to better understand the experiences of BIPOC students at a Bronx-based public university during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected from a reflective final exam in a health sciences course in May 2020. Responses (n = 28) were coded and analyzed using the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) framework. Several themes were identified in structural and intermediary determinant areas, including occupation, education, social cohesion, and psychosocial factors. Participants demonstrated optimism, resilience, and perseverance—protective factors against exposure to adverse SDH. Findings indicate that COVID-19 negatively impacted BIPOC students in multiple SDH areas which may have a compounding effect, hindering equity and justice. Providers of social and academic support are critical levers in addressing SDH barriers and helping students strengthen protective factors to reduce adverse impacts of health-damaging determinants.

Role of education in the concept of the “New Society” of the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines (1972-1982)

Russian historiography pays considerable attention to the economic and political modernization of the life of the Philippine archipelago, starting from the time of Spaniards, then, American colonization and ending with the era of independence. However, the educational policy on which, on the one hand, the successes of the political and socio-economic modernization of the Philippines have been based throughout the country’s history, and on the other, which by the beginning of the 21st century has become a serious obstacle to economic independence and the establishment of national self-identity, are undeservedly ignored by domestic researchers. The author of this article in previous works has already made attempts to identify the features of the educational policy of Spaniards and Americans in the Philippines, as well as of the independent Philippine governments in the first decades after the end of World War II. But no less interesting is the era of the authoritarian regime of the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos (1972-1982). Analyzing a wide range of foreign literature and relying on presidential decrees and testimonies of contemporaries as sources, the author comes to the conclusion that the educational policy of the Marcos era is ambiguous: on the one hand, it has become an effective tool to combat country’s main social - economic problems in the 1970s - the problem of unemployment. On the other hand, in the early 1980s it led to its aggravation and marked the beginning of the mass labor migration of Filipinos, which continues to this day. Political decisions made on issues such as the language of instruction, the introduction of a national entrance exam in colleges and universities, and the publication of new textbooks have become critical levers in the deployment of education in support of the labor export strategy in the Marcos era.

Two-stage Matching and Pricing with Applications to Ride Hailing

Matching and pricing are two critical levers in two-sided marketplaces to connect demand and supply. The platform can produce more efficient matching and pricing decisions by batching the demand requests. We initiate the study of the two-stage stochastic matching problem, with or without pricing, to enable the platform to make improved decisions in a batch with an eye toward the imminent future demand requests. This problem is motivated in part by applications in online marketplaces such as ride hailing platforms. We design online competitive algorithms for vertex-weighted (or unweighted) two-stage stochastic matching for maximizing supply efficiency, and two-stage joint matching and pricing for maximizing market efficiency. In the former problem, using a randomized primal-dual algorithm applied to a family of balancing convex programs, we obtain the optimal 3/4 competitive ratio against the optimum offline benchmark. Using a factor revealing program and connections to submodular optimization, we improve this ratio against the optimum online benchmark to (1−1/e+1/e^2) ≈ 0.767 for the unweighted and 0.761 for the weighted case. In the latter problem, we design optimal 1/2-competitive joint pricing and matching algorithm by borrowing ideas from the ex-ante prophet inequality literature. We also show an improved (1−1/e)-competitive algorithm for the special case of demand efficiency objective using the correlation gap of submodular functions. Finally, we complement our theoretical study by using DiDi’s ride-sharing dataset for Chengdu city and numerically evaluating the performance of our proposed algorithms in practical instances of this problem.

How Social and Emotional Competencies Inform Special Educators’ Social Networks

Research shows that successful collaborations among educators can reduce job-related stress and improve student outcomes. This is important for special educators (SPEDs) working in self-contained settings, as these settings often employ co-teaching models. Teachers’ social and emotional competencies (SEC) may contribute to their capacity to form and engage in these effective collaborative relationships. This study explores the structure of SPEDs’ school-based social networks and how these networks might be influenced by SPEDs’ SECs. The research employed a sequential, equal-status (quantitative + qualitative) design. SPEDs from five schools within one private school system completed surveys about their formal and informal collaborations, co-teaching team quality, and their SECs. In-depth interviews were also conducted to triangulate and expand upon quantitative findings. Results indicate that school network structure may be unique across educational contexts and that SPEDs identify several SECs as critical levers for forming and maintaining school-based collaborations. Implications for fostering SPEDs’ SECs and improving teacher collaborations in schools are discussed.

MODEL PEMBENTUKAN BRAND LOYALTY MELALUI REBRANDING DAN RATIONAL APPEALS

In the competitive telecomunication industry, brand loyalty has become an important issue. Strong brand and marketing activity are becoming one of the critical levers for company’s differentiation and successed. The aim of this study is to find the impact of rebranding and rational appeals on brand loyalty development while using brand image as mediator in Indosat Ooredoo. The sample consist of 100 respondent as Indosat Ooredoo consumer who live in Semarang. Through a structured questionnaire data were collected and with the help of SPSS, analysis was made. The results reveal that rational appeals and rebranding has significant effects on brand image. Rebranding has no impact on brand loyalty, while Indosat Ooredoo’s rational appeals and brand image has significant effect on building consumer’s brand loyalty. In the other side, rational appeals has directly impact on brand loyalty, while rebranding has undirect impact on loyalty throuh brand image as mediator.Keywords: rebranding, rational appeals, brand image, brand loyalty