Empirical Examination Research Articles

Decentralized Planning and Service Delivery in the Education Sector in Pakwach District Local Government: An Analysis of Primary Schools in Pakwach Sub-county

In Uganda, the Second Schedule of the Local Government Act (1997) decentralized service delivery including education sector, but the education service delivery in local governments is still wanting in most of the country side. The paper analyzes the effects of decentralized planning on education service delivery in Pakwach district by making an empirical scrutiny of four major indicators of decentralized planning, namely: goal setting, identification of priorities, public participation in program implementation, and monitoring in primary education sector of the district. A cross-sectional study design was considered, with both qualitative and quantitative approaches; and a total of 102 respondents were sampled using the table recommended by Krejcie & Morgan (1970). The findings show that three decentralized planning (Adjusted R2 = 0.320) would account for about 0. 320 variation in education service delivery in Packwach district from which identification of priorities appears a significant predictor of education service delivery (p value=0.002, β = 0.476); goal setting does negatively and significantly predict education service delivery (β = -0.474, p value=0.002); and monitoring negatively and significantly predict education service delivery (β = -0.262, p value = 0.02). But Implementation (p value=0.852, β = -0.031) appears to be having no significance in predicting education service delivery. The study concludes that the identification of priorities enhances better service delivery in the education sector but goal setting, monitoring and implementation are not good at enhancing. The study recommends that the actual implementation of programs be supported through timely and full funding of the planned priorities.

The structure of ability beliefs in EFL classrooms: A cross-theoretical analysis bridging self-efficacy and perceived competence needs satisfaction

Theoretical parsimony represents one avenue forward for the study of positive psychology in language education. This study examined two well-recognized but interconnected concepts in the context of second language classrooms: academic self-efficacy rooted in Social Cognitive Theory and competence need satisfaction derived from Self Determination Theory. The investigation sought to show the distinctions and intersections in these constructs, underscoring the necessity for empirical scrutiny to establish their coherent definitions. We aim to present both concepts within a unified framework in order to facilitate a meaningful connection between the two theories. A sample comprising 181 students attending a private junior-high school in urban Japan participated in this study by completing widely used scales measuring self-efficacy and perceived competence. The research employed conventional independent cluster confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), bifactor-CFA, bifactor-ESEM, and the S-1 model for comparative analysis. Among these, the S-1 model emerged as the most theoretically sound model with a good fit and absence of anomalies. Furthermore, the factor representing global perceived competence needs satisfaction exhibited a strong association with students’ later academic achievements. These results indicate the potential cross-theoretical nature of competence beliefs and carry implications for both theory and practice in the psychology of language learning.

Investigating place solidarity and consumer boycotting in threatening times: A study on the Ukraine-Russia conflict

Solidarity with a suffering country has emerged as an important topic of discussion and influence in society. Using the Ukraine–Russia conflict as the research setting, this research explores the broader conceptual nature of place solidarity and its impact on consumer behavior. Our findings reveal that place solidarity significantly influences consumer boycotting behaviors and drives key behavioral intentions, such as willingness to buy and recommend. Moreover, the study finds that perceived threats to humanity are key motivators of place solidarity. By providing a comprehensive understanding and empirical examination of place solidarity, this research offers valuable insights for managers, as well as local and international policymakers.

Evaluating the synergistic effects of the digital economy and carbon emission trade exchange on enterprise high-quality development

Digital economy and carbon reduction are the keys to sustainable development. However, whether these two policy tools synergistically affect enterprise remains inconclusive. The implementation of the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone and the Carbon Emission Trading Pilot Policy in China provides a unique opportunity for empirical examination. Building on a panel dataset of A-share-listed manufacturing enterprises from 2010 to 2021 in China, this study investigates the synergistic effects of the two pilot policies on enterprise high-quality development (HQD). The empirical results indicate the following: 1. The implementation of the two pilot policies has positive effects on enterprise HQD. 2. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the two pilot policies exhibit stronger effects on non-state-owned enterprises, high-tech enterprises, heavy-polluting enterprises, and enterprises registered in the core cities. 3. Carbon reduction can synergize with the digital economy to effectively promote enterprise HQD. 4. The synergistic effects can be further strengthened by the digital development environment, the level of data utilization, and resource allocation efficiency. These findings provide both theoretical and practical implications for shaping policy frameworks to consolidate sustainable development.

Interpersonal relationships, PNI, and health: Seeds in the 1980s, fruiting trees today

In this contribution to the Special Issue, I highlight how Janice Kiecolt-Glaser's research in the 1980s planted the seeds for two areas of social relationships and health research: loneliness and intimate/marital relationships. I review the foundational “seed” studies from the mid-to late-1980s, the research “saplings” that sprouted and grew during the subsequent twenty years, and the “mature trees” that have gone on to fruit and grow their respective areas of inquiry over the past twenty years. In addition to highlighting the mature trees that have borne rich empirical fruit, my other goal for this contribution is to draw attention to ideas and concepts from Kiecolt-Glaser's work and writing that merit further conceptual and empirical examination in the next generation of research on social relationships, psychoneuroendocrinology, psychoneuroimmunology, and health.

A case study and empirical examination of creating a new premium new energy vehicle brand by NIO

A case study and empirical examination of creating a new premium new energy vehicle brand by NIO

Procurement practices and value for money in State Corporations in Kenya.

Public procurement related expenditure is approximately fifty to seventy percent of the national budget of developing countries and accounts for almost a third of the gross domestic product. Cognizant of the significant funds committed in public procurement, the quest for value for money is critical. This study sought to determine the effect of procurement practices on value for money in State Corporations in Kenya. Specifically, the study investigated the effect of procurement planning, supplier sourcing, supplies management and E-procurement on value for money. Data collected from 87 State Corporations in Kenya was used in this study. The results of the study indicated that procurement planning, supplier sourcing, supplies management and e-procurement positively and significantly affect the value for money in state corporations in Kenya. The study concluded that proper procurement practices positively and significantly affect the value for money in state corporations in Kenya. The findings of this study contributes to literature by providing an empirical examination on the impact of procurement practices and value for money from a developing country perspective.

Activity mix in urban Sweden 1997–2017

ABSTRACT Contemporary urban planning is permeated by the general goal of increasing the mix of activities in urban areas and subareas. This paper argues that there are several steps between plans for increased mix and the final urban improvements expected from such plans, and that a mix of activities (reside, work, visit) is a necessity for this line of thought to make sense. However, the main aim is to present a follow-up on these planning goals in a Swedish context. An empirical examination based on register data indicates that activities are most mixed in small-town centres and immediately outside the most central areas of larger cities. During the studied period of 1997–2017, most of the urban subareas have become more mixed. Nonetheless, most towns and cities in their entireties became less mixed, due to the simultaneous net redistribution of activities to monofunctional areas. As a consequence, the final objectives of the mixed-use planning are not achieved, regardless of whether mixed-use planning is connected to activity mix. Visiting activities (e.g. out-of-town retail developments) are the primary contributor to this counter-intentional redistribution, but work activities also contribute to some extent.

Organizational structure, agility, and public value-driven innovation performance in the UAE public services

Existing public sector management literature requires an empirical examination of the relationship between change readiness, organizational agility, and public value-driven innovation performance. Moreover, how organizational structure moderates these relationships in the public sector context is still being determined. This study aims to address this gap by collecting data from 421 top management respondents working in public services in the United Arab Emirates. The hypotheses are tested using a structural equation model. The study's findings confirm that change readiness positively influences organizational agility and reveals the positive effects of organizational agility on public value-driven innovation performance in public service organizations. Additionally, this study highlights that change readiness directly affects public value-driven innovation performance. Simultaneously, organizational structure (formalization and centralization) affects the relationships between change readiness and public value-driven innovation performance, and organizational agility and public value-driven innovation performance. Finally, this study shows that organizational structure (centralized and formalized) impacts the relationship between change readiness and organizational agility. This study contributes substantially to the existing knowledge on the relationships between change readiness, organizational agility, organizational structure, and public value-driven innovation performance.

Impermanent identifiers: Enhanced source code comprehension and refactoring

In response to the prevailing challenges in contemporary software development, this article introduces an innovative approach to code augmentation centered around Impermanent Identifiers. The primary goal is to enhance the software development experience by introducing dynamic identifiers that adapt to changing contexts, facilitating more efficient interactions between developers and source code, ultimately advancing comprehension, maintenance, and collaboration in software development. Additionally, this study rigorously evaluates the adoption and acceptance of Impermanent Identifiers within the software development landscape. Through a comprehensive empirical examination, we investigate how developers perceive and integrate this approach into their daily programming practices, exploring perceived benefits, potential barriers, and factors influencing its adoption. In summary, this article charts a new course for code augmentation, proposing Impermanent Identifiers as its cornerstone while assessing their feasibility and acceptance among developers. This interdisciplinary research seeks to contribute to the continuous improvement of software development practices and the progress of code augmentation technology.

What drives user churn in serious games? An empirical examination of the TAM, SOR theory, and game quality in Chinese cultural heritage games

User churn in serious games related to Chinese cultural heritage is severe due to various game quality issues, leading to a lack of long-term user feedback necessary for optimizing design, which further hampers the development of such games. Through user interviews and literature review, this study identified two dimensions of quality of cultural heritage serious games: factors related to online gaming and those intrinsic to serious games. Within the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theoretical framework of, this study integrates these quality factors within the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to construct a user churn model. This model explores the relationship between quality factors and user churn. Utilizing 534 valid responses gathered from online platforms, this study employs statistical analyses and structural equation modeling to uncover that learning objectives, entertainment experience, system quality, and game design profoundly influence both perceived usefulness and ease of use, which in turn indirectly impacts user churn. Service quality’s influence on user churn is mediated by perceived usefulness, while brand image affects churn through perceived ease of use. Notably, learning objectives and entertainment experience emerge as critical determinants. The insights gained offer valuable guidance for game designers in addressing user needs, enhancing game quality, and reducing churn. Building on previous research, this study uses a mixed-methods approach and identifies factors affecting user churn in the context of cultural heritage serious games and validated the model’s rationality and effectiveness, enriching the foundational theoretical research on serious games.

Perceptions of Adulthood and Mental Health.

In contrast to conventional definitions, the contemporary conceptualization of adulthood emphasizes psychological characteristics over sociodemographic milestones. At the same time, an increasing number of theorists propose that the way individuals view adulthood may have a significant impact on the mental health of both adolescents and adults. However, empirical examination of this hypothesis has been notably limited to date. The aim of this study is to explore the association between individuals' perceptions of adulthood and multiple dimensions of mental health. This study applied some adulthood markers and multiple mental health indexes (including well-being, optimism, Alexithymia, satisfaction with life, Goldberg's index of mental health, the dark triad, and dimensional personality disorders) to a community sample comprising 1772 individuals in Spain, spanning ages from 16 to 93 years. The findings support the overarching hypothesis, as perceptions of adulthood display strong correlations with nearly every assessed index of mental health, particularly those that comprise a dimension of negative emotions. These associations persist even after accounting for age and socio-economic status, and in alignment with the psychological paradigm of adulthood, they show a notable consistency across various age groups. This study establishes that such perceptions of adulthood represent a modifiable factor contributing to positive mental health. The implications of these findings for the formulation of public policies aimed at promoting mental health in the context of adulthood, as well as a number of future studies, are deliberated.

Does Military Experience Really Matter? An Empirical Examination of Decision Framing and Deterrence Decision-Making

Abstract While it is widely understood that risk tolerance shapes conflict behavior, research in cognitive psychology has long demonstrated that reframing otherwise identical objective conditions can significantly alter people’s risk perception. Nonetheless, the potential impact of reframing during immediate deterrence has received little empirical scrutiny. In this study, we focus our attention on a comparison of the lay public and experienced military officials who, due to their expertise and training, are presumed to be less vulnerable to cognitive biases when making judgments about military affairs. To test this proposition, we deployed a unique set of deterrence decision experiments that, for the first time, directly compare the impact of reframing on a representative sample of the public and on a large (n = 479) sample of experienced active-duty US military officers (ranked Major through General) across three conflict domains (conventional, cyber, and nuclear). We find that, despite their greater expertise with military operations, officers are not less vulnerable to reframing than the lay public. Our results both conditionally challenge the common refrain that military officers serve as “adults in the room” during a crisis and establish that reframing within a crisis constitutes an underexplored mechanism that can both stabilize and destabilize deterrence dynamics.

Low-carbon city pilot policy and enterprise low-carbon innovation–A quasi-natural experiment from China

This study investigates whether the implementation of this policy fosters low-carbon innovation amongst enterprises and identifies the mechanisms underpinning its effects. Utilising low-carbon patent authorisation data from A-share listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets between 2008 and 2019, this study employs a difference-in-differences model to conduct a multi-dimensional empirical examination of these questions. The findings indicate that the low-carbon city pilot policy can stimulate low-carbon innovation at the enterprise level to a certain extent, and this conclusion remains robust after a series of rigorous tests. The impact of low-carbon innovation is more pronounced in the authorisation of invention patents, with the pilot policy exerting a more significant influence on state-owned enterprises and enterprises with strong political affiliations. Further analysis reveals that government subsidies constitute the primary mechanism through which the pilot policy takes effect, effectively promoting low-carbon innovation in enterprises. This paper offers theoretical and empirical support for evaluating the low-carbon city pilot policy at the enterprise level and advances policy implications in three areas: further policy development, enterprise characteristics, and the application of various policy instruments.

Free trade zone policies and green development: an empirical examination based on China’s free trade zone cities

Free trade zone policies and green development: an empirical examination based on China’s free trade zone cities

Data analysis and estimation of the conversion efficiency of bidirectional EV chargers using home energy management systems data

This study elucidates the authentic utilization of Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) system, a bi-directional DC charger for residential use and appraises power conversion losses incurred during V2H charging and discharging, utilizing data from commercial Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS). This approach offers the advantage of ascertaining operational efficiency within practical scenarios at a reduced cost relative to empirical data acquisition.The empirical examination of results revealed that V2H households exhibited more frequent connections to the charger and engaged in more substantial charging activities compared to Charging-only households.When estimating the power conversion efficiency in the context of V2H charging and discharging, a partial load efficiency curve was constructed for the input power of the V2H charger, thereby confirming that the peak efficiency closely approximated the nominal rated efficiency. These identified characteristics hold value for V2H system simulations. Furthermore, it was confirmed that a substantial standby power, ranging from 92 to 142 kWh per year, was generated when the V2H charger remained inactive in the sampled households. Additionally, the lack of reverse power flow to the external grid from the V2H system led to an observed increase in V2H partial load operation, resulting in a situation characterized by diminished conversion efficiency.

More Electoral Competition Without More Voter Participation: Quasi-Experimental Test of a Term Limit Reform in Ecuador

Term limits are theoretically expected to boost voter participation which has been confirmed by multiple empirical examinations. This study uses a robust causal assessment within the difference-in-differences framework to evaluate this hypothesis. It leverages an exogenous 2018 term limit reform in Ecuador which prohibited some, but not all, incumbent mayors from running in elections. Contrary to expectations, the results indicate null findings: the adoption of term limits has neither increased turnout, nor depressed the casting of blank and spoiled ballots (alternative indicators of voter engagement under compulsory voting). This is puzzling given that the reform impacted the electoral competition by significantly increasing the number of mayoral candidates in the newly open-seat contests. Two possible solutions to the puzzle of the null findings are presented with implications for understanding the scope conditions for the effect of term limits on voter participation.

Higher-Order Convolutional Neural Networks for Essential Climate Variables Forecasting

Earth observation imaging technologies, particularly multispectral sensors, produce extensive high-dimensional data over time, thus offering a wealth of information on global dynamics. These data encapsulate crucial information in essential climate variables, such as varying levels of soil moisture and temperature. However, current cutting-edge machine learning models, including deep learning ones, often overlook the treasure trove of multidimensional data, thus analyzing each variable in isolation and losing critical interconnected information. In our study, we enhance conventional convolutional neural network models, specifically those based on the embedded temporal convolutional network framework, thus transforming them into models that inherently understand and interpret multidimensional correlations and dependencies. This transformation involves recasting the existing problem as a generalized case of N-dimensional observation analysis, which is followed by deriving essential forward and backward pass equations through tensor decompositions and compounded convolutions. Consequently, we adapt integral components of established embedded temporal convolutional network models, like encoder and decoder networks, thus enabling them to process 4D spatial time series data that encompass all essential climate variables concurrently. Through the rigorous exploration of diverse model architectures and an extensive evaluation of their forecasting prowess against top-tier methods, we utilize two new, long-term essential climate variables datasets with monthly intervals extending over four decades. Our empirical scrutiny, particularly focusing on soil temperature data, unveils that the innovative high-dimensional embedded temporal convolutional network model-centric approaches markedly excel in forecasting, thus surpassing their low-dimensional counterparts, even under the most challenging conditions characterized by a notable paucity of training data.

What should we call mental ill health? Historical shifts in the popularity of generic terms

Substantial attention has been paid to the language of mental ill health, but the generic terms used to refer to it–“mental illness”, “psychiatric condition”, “mental health problem” and so forth–have largely escaped empirical scrutiny. We examined changes in the prevalence of alternative terms in two large English language text corpora from 1940 to 2019. Twenty-four terms were studied, compounds of four adjectival expressions (“mental”, “mental health”, “psychiatric”, “psychological”) and six nouns (“condition”, “disease”, “disorder”, “disturbance”, “illness”, “problem”). Terms incorporating “condition”, “disease” and “disturbance” became less popular over time, whereas those involving “psychiatric”, “mental health” and “illness” became more popular. Although there were some trends away from terms with medical connotations and towards more normalizing expressions, “mental illness” consolidated its position as the dominant term over the study period.

An empirical examination on firm innovativeness and supply chain resilience: The role of information sharing from a dynamic capabilities view

AbstractSupply chain disruptions present an existential threat to firms in today's highly competitive global economy. To appropriately thwart and mitigate this threat, firms must innovate capabilities that enhance and properly balance investments in their supply chain resilience posture. This study investigates the importance of information sharing and its interactive influence on firm innovativeness and resilience. This study uses a survey and partial least squares multigroup analysis to empirically test a theoretical model grounded in dynamic capabilities theory. Contributions from this study highlight that regardless of firm size, firm innovativeness is a significant antecedent to supply chain resilience. Key findings show that small firms use information sharing, whereas large firms do not, with their suppliers to accelerate innovation efforts in developing supply chain resilience capabilities. This study extends knowledge in the field by providing insights enabling large firms to improve their information sharing efforts to enhance innovation activities.