High Level Of Attention Research Articles

The Jordanian Population's Knowledge, Attitudes, and Willingness to Help People with Autism: A Cross-Sectional Study.

To assess the knowledge and attitudes of the general public in Jordan towards autism. In addition, we aimed to assess their awareness of various treatment options for autism, and their attentiveness and willingness to assist. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Jordan for the period between April and May 2022 using an online questionnaire developed based on a literature review. A total of 833 individuals in Amman city completed the questionnaires assessing participant demographics, knowledge of and attitude towards ADS, awareness of management options, perception, and ability to help. Using logistic regression, the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for those who are more likely to be informed about autism were determined. The participants' overall understanding of autism spectrum disorder was poor, with a mean score of 6.2 (SD: 3.1) out of 17, or 36.5%. The participants showed a moderately positive attitude towards autism, with an average agreement of 60.9% for government support for ADS children. The items about management options auditory integration training therapy had the highest level (50.1%). Additionally, the participants showed a moderate to high level of attention and ability to help people with autism. The majority confirmed that they see the need to implement changes in public facilities to meet the needs of autistic patients (71.8%). When compared to others, females, aged below 30, single, with family income less than 500 JD, holding a bachelor's degree, and working outside the healthcare field had a higher likelihood of knowing more about the autism spectrum condition (p ≤ 0.05). Our research illustrates the lack of awareness and knowledge among the Jordanian population regarding autism. To fill this gap, educational awareness programs should be conducted to promote Jordanian knowledge regarding autism and find ways in which communities, organisations, and governments can support so as to allow for early diagnoses and an appropriate treatment plan and therapy for autistic children.

US democracy promotion in the Maghreb: much ventured, little gained

ABSTRACT The United States has invested billions of dollars in promoting democracy in the Maghreb. In the decade following the Arab Spring, some of that investment appeared to be bearing fruit, particularly in the case of Tunisia. Today, however, the Maghreb has joined the global trend of authoritarian backsliding. This article will examine US democracy promotion efforts in the Maghreb over the past 20 years to assess what role US support has had in helping as well as hindering democratisation in the region. The article will look critically at the tools and policy approaches employed by the United States beginning with President George W. Bush’s Freedom Agenda and establishment of the Middle East Partnership Initiative, examining the Obama administration’s approach towards the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings, and ending with President Biden’s renewed focus on democracy. The piece will attempt to answer the question of why, despite significant and high-level attention on democracy promotion, US efforts have failed to produce their desired results.

Real-time monitoring of middle ear prosthesis coupling

IntroductionIn reconstructive middle ear surgery, acoustic quality has received a high level of attention in recent years. Careful intraoperative selection and positioning of passive middle ear prostheses during tympanoplasty with ossiculoplasty is essential to ensure satisfactory sound transmission and postoperative hearing outcome. The reconstruction quality of the ossicular chain (OC) can be evaluated intraoperatively using a surgical assistance system which is based on a real-time monitoring system (RTM system) that acquires the transmission (middle ear transfer function (METF)) with electromagnetic excitation of the OC. In this experimental study, the METF with electromagnetic excitation of the (reconstructed) OC was compared to usual acoustic excitation and the benefit of the RTM system was investigated for the implantation of partial (PORP) and total (TORP) prostheses. MethodsLaser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) was used to measure the middle ear transfer function (METF) in 18 human temporal bones (TB). The RTM system uses electromagnetic excitation of the OC with a magnet placed on the umbo. Comparatively, measurements with the usual acoustical excitation, using an earphone in the external auditory canal, were performed. The measurements began with the intact OC, followed by real-time monitoring guided OC reconstruction with PORP and TORP. In addition, during the simulation of an intraoperative setting, the influence of the influence of opening (tympanomeatal flap lifted and pushed anteriorly) and closing (tympanomeatal flap folded back) the tympanic membrane on the measurements with the RTM system was determined. ResultsElectromagnetic and acoustic excitation of the intact and the reconstructed OC provided comparable METF. The application of the RTM system significantly improved the quality of the OC reconstruction. The METF increased by up to 10 dB over the entire frequency range during implantation of the PORP with positioning control by the RTM system. When using the TORP, the METF could be improved by up to 15 dB. The opening of the tympanomeatal flap did not affect the measurements with the RTM system at the reconstructed OC. ConclusionIn this TB study, we demonstrated that the quality of OC reconstruction (improved METF as a benchmark for improved transmission) could be significantly increased by means of a RTM system. Intraoperative studies should now be conducted to investigate to which quantitative extent the intraoperative reconstruction quality can be improved and whether or not this improvement also manifests in an increased (long-term) hearing outcome. This will enable conclusions to be drawn about the contribution of the intraoperative reconstruction quality to the (long-term) hearing outcome in the context of the conglomerate of various factors influencing the postoperative hearing outcome.

Deciding on justice: environmental justice in city council agenda-setting

ABSTRACT Environmental Justice (EJ) is a major concern for low-income communities across the US, but government responses to these injustices remain inconsistent, often because EJ issues are overlooked or ignored in government decision-making. Despite this issue, little research examines the procedural elements influencing whether EJ is considered in government activities or the factors influencing whether EJ concerns are included on local government policy agendas. We use Qualitative Comparative Analysis with embedded comparative case studies to systematically examine 1784 city council meeting minutes from the 13 largest Texas cities between 2018 and 2020 to identify key social and government characteristics driving whether EJ issues are addressed on government agendas. Our findings reveal several key characteristics that are associated with high levels of EJ attention at the local government level including liberal politics, high levels of racial representation in government, and racial and gender diversity. Even within liberal cities, local governments that are not racially diverse, supported by female leadership, or highly representative of the populations they serve are unlikely to devote substantial attention to critical EJ issues on their policy agendas. The results demonstrate the critical role that procedural justice in the agenda-setting process has on social equity. Key policy highlights Local government composition drives whether EJ issues are considered on policy agendas. Liberal politics are a necessary condition for high EJ attention in government. Government representation, racial diversity, and female leadership are associated with higher EJ attention on policy agendas. Racial diversity and female leadership compensate for each other when determining EJ inclusion in issue setting.

Does Mindfulness Mediate the Relation between Impulsiveness and Job Stressfulness Perception of Professional Drivers?

(1) Background: Professional driving is a stressful occupation that requires high levels of attention and decision-making, often leading to job stress. Impulsiveness, a personality trait characterized by a tendency to act without forethought, has been associated with negative outcomes such as anxiety, stress, and risky behaviors. Mindfulness has been proposed as a potential strategy for reducing job stress in various occupational settings. However, little is known about the relationship between these variables. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of mindfulness in the relationship between impulsiveness and job stressfulness perception among professional drivers. (2) Methods: A total of 258 professional drivers from Poland, Lithuania, and Slovakia, have completed self-report questionnaires: Impulsiveness-Venturesomeness-Empathy; Subjective Assessment of Work; Five Facet Mindfulness. (3) Results: Results indicated a positive correlation between impulsiveness and job stressfulness perception, and a negative correlation with mindfulness. Mindfulness partially mediated the relationship between impulsiveness and job stressfulness perception. Additionally, variations were identified in the perceived work environment factors and mindfulness among drivers based on their country of origin. (4) Conclusions: The findings suggest that mindfulness could be a useful approach for reducing job stressfulness perception among professional drivers with high levels of impulsiveness. Given the implications of job stressfulness for professional drivers' health and safety, developing mindfulness interventions tailored to their specific needs could be a promising direction for future research and intervention development.

‘Openness in Action’ Early Steps in Cosmic Phenomenology

‘Openness in Action’ Early Steps in Cosmic Phenomenology

Ecological damage claim program and environmental violations: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Whether the ecological damage claim program can resolve negative institutional and intergenerational externalities for pollution matters for sustainable development. We employ a difference-in-differences model and data on a panel of listed firms in heavily polluting industries from 2012 to 2017 to examine the effects of China's ecological damage claim pilot policy on corporate environmental violations. Our results show that the policy significantly decreased environmental violations by firms in the pilot cities compared to those in non-pilot cities. We examined whether environmental enforcement and compliance rates influenced violations and mitigated negative institutional and intergenerational externalities. We found that the policy also produced a deterrent effect on other firms. In addition, we found that the ecological claim policy performed better in areas with high levels of enforcement and environmental attention. We found also that more independent firms and firms with a larger environmental performance gap were more proactive.

Unlocking the connection between education, entrepreneurial mindset, and social values in entrepreneurial activity development

The Entrepreneurial University constitutes a phenomenon that highlights the prominent roles played by academic organizations as aggregators of capabilities, enabling the establishing of bridges between innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. This research therefore sets out to analyze the relationship between the Total Early Stage Entrepreneurial Activities of individual graduates and their entrepreneurial attitudes and social values towards entrepreneurship. This applies data sourced from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report on innovation-driven countries. The main research findings stem from the regression models (Study 1) and fsQCA analysis (Study 2) returning evidence that the likelihood of adult graduates setting up firms or owning young companies rises whenever such individuals deem they hold the knowledge/skills required to start a business. The results also stress the importance of devoting high levels of media attention to entrepreneurship and fostering entrepreneurial cultures capable of fostering economic growth and prosperity. This research makes substantial theoretical contributions to the literature. Firstly, the findings reinforce the applicability and suitability of fsQCA analysis of Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data. Secondly, this study strengthens the credibility of the Institutional Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior theoretical frameworks, correspondingly lending support to the importance of institutional or organizational factors as determinants of entrepreneurship and the need to focus on the linkage between entrepreneurial attitudes, entrepreneurial intentions, and entrepreneurial behaviors.

Are State-Owned Enterprises Equally Reliable Information Suppliers? An Examination of the Impacts of State Ownership on Earnings Management Strategies of Chinese Enterprises

Earnings management refers to a company’s use of either accounting techniques (accrual-based earnings management) or real economic activities (real earnings management) to manipulate reported earnings and mislead users of financial information. It often indicates serious ethical issues in a company’s management, which will affect the reliability and sustainability of a firm’s services in the supply chain. Using A-share listed Chinese firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, we investigated the impacts of state ownership on management’s decision to select real or accrual-based earnings management strategies. We found that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) tend to favor real earnings management over accrual-based earnings management more than non-SOEs. Furthermore, those SOEs that are controlled by the central government engage in real earnings management more often than those controlled by local governments. We also examined whether media attention and litigation interact with state ownership to affect earnings management. We found that SOEs, especially central SOEs, with a high level of media attention or an incidence of litigation, are more likely to use real earnings management. Our research can assist firms in making better decisions in selecting business partners and service suppliers in an emerging market through the assessment of management integrity.

Relations Between Executive Functioning and Internalizing Symptoms Vary as a Function of Frontoparietal-amygdala Resting State Connectivity.

The prefrontal cortex and the frontoparietal network are associated with a variety of regulatory behaviors. Functional connections between these brain regions and the amygdala are implicated in risk for anxiety disorders. The prefrontal cortex and frontoparietal network are also linked to executive functioning, or behaviors that help orient action towards higher order goals. Where much research has been focused on deleterious effects of under-controlled behavior, a body of work suggests that over-controlled behavior may also pose a risk for internalizing problems. Indeed, while work suggests that high levels of attention shifting may still be protective against internalizing problems, there is evidence that high levels of inhibitory control may be a risk factor for socioemotional difficulties. In the ABCD sample, which offers large sample sizes as well as sociodemographic diversity, we test the interaction between frontoparietal network-amygdala resting state functional connectivity and executive functioning behaviors on longitudinal changes in internalizing symptoms from approximately 10 to 12years of age. We found that higher proficiency in attention shifting indeed predicts fewer internalizing behaviors over time. In addition, higher proficiency in inhibitory control predicts fewer internalizing symptoms over time, but only for children showing resting state connectivity moderately above the sample average between the frontoparietal network and amygdala. This finding supports the idea that top-down control may not be adaptive for all children, and relations between executive functioning and anxiety risk may vary as a function of trait-level regulation.

A promising technology: solar-driven interfacial evaporation with facilitation strategies, multifunctional applications and perspectives.

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation (SDIE) technology has evolved rapidly in the last decade and is an exciting scientific topic. With this high level of attention, it is necessary to continuously summarize previous research to develop SDIE technology well. Therefore, we have prepared this review article to summarize the latest progress in this field. First, photothermal conversion materials are introduced, which play an essential role in SDIE, including plasma metal nanoparticles, semiconductors, and carbon-based and polymer-based materials, and their photothermal mechanisms are explained. Second, strategies to improve SDIE performances, such as enhanced light absorption, water transmission channel design, and thermal management, are discussed, which can well modulate the evaporator performance and improve energy utilization efficiency. Subsequently, the applications of SDIE in various aspects including desalination, sterilization, sewage treatment, and simultaneous generation of water and electricity are presented in detail. At the end, we summarize some of the current bottlenecks encountered by SDIE, offer some insights into the ideal SDIE evaporator, and provide an outlook on the future development of SDIE technology. The potential of SDIE is being demonstrated in a variety of applications and it promises to be a green, economical solution to energy and water shortage problems in the future. This review aims to promote the research and practical application of SDIE and contribute to its development.

"I won't be a guinea pig": Rethinking public health communication and vaccine hesitancy in the context of COVID-19.

At the beginning of 2021, when Canada started distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the unprecedented scope and severity of the pandemic led to very high levels of public awareness and attention, with Canadians actively seeking information. We argue that while there was continuous public health communication about COVID-19 and the newly available vaccines, these messages did not address the specific anxieties elicited by the novel vaccines, even as vaccination guidelines changed. Instead, public health messages about COVID-19 vaccines resembled those aimed at reducing vaccine hesitancy for routine immunization and did not sufficiently address the constant changes to COVID-19 vaccine recommendations. In a context of heightened public concern and significant public attention, it is crucial for communicators to acknowledge that hesitancy is vaccine-specific, and that novel diseases and new vaccines produce specific concerns. Long-term strategies should address the novelty of the technology and of the risk, thoroughly explain the reasons for shifting vaccination guidelines, and leverage trusted sources, such as community leaders. Further, as COVID-19 vaccines become less effective against some of the more recent variants of the virus, vaccine messaging needs to be tailored to evolve with shifting realities to not lose productive gains in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign to date.

Impacto da realização de lives sobre o retorno das ações no mercado brasileiro

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to investigate whether voluntary financial disclosure through live streaming can determine changes in shareholder returns in the Brazilian market. Corporate disclosure through social media is a new phenomenon, driven by the impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and its effects are investigated from the perspective that high levels of investor attention are associated with company engagement with audiences. The findings contribute to the literature on investor and firm behavior with respect to disclosure in non-traditional settings. The work is also relevant because it uses web scraping to process unstructured texts. The study provides elements for the development of voluntary disclosure theory, free of intermediaries and closer to retail investors. The traditional event study technique was used, based on live streaming data obtained through web scraping and text mining. The multivariate regression model was used for additional tests. It was found that live streaming have a positive impact on stock prices, although these effects are volatile and tend to return to previous averages within 5 days. Additional analyses also revealed that the greater the number of subscribers to the channel, if the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) participates, if the topic involves the discussion of results, and if the company is not listed in the Bovespa index (Ibovespa), the greater the chances of the content of the live streaming having an abnormal impact.

The Cognitive Load of Financing Constraints: Evidence from Large-Scale Wage Surveys

In this paper, we take advantage of the implicit cognitive exercise available in standard Labor Force Surveys to propose a new indicator of financing constraints which is based on the cognitive load they generate (Mullainathan and Shafir, 2013). Survey respondents are requested to report their monthly wages, which we compare to their administrative, fiscal counterparts. We propose a well-defined index of worker-level uncertainty, which filters out their potential rounding behavior and reporting biases. We estimate it using unsupervised ML/EM techniques and find that workers tend to perceive their own wages with a degree of uncertainty of around 10%. Through the lens of a simple rational signal extraction model, this amounts to estimates of workers' attention ranging from 30% to 84% depending on their wage, education, tenure and gender. Most importantly, we show that the attention of the lowest paid 30% of workers is cyclical and increases steadily by 17 percentage points in the ten days preceding payday, before immediately dropping on that day, which, through the lens of a simple model, is indicative of end-of-month financing liquidity constraints. Furthermore, this pattern reveals that the cognitive cost induced by these financing constraints arises from the not too concave (or convex) costs of achieving high levels of attention, and the convex costs of maintaining it over time.

Cyberbullying Victimisation and Psychological Well-being: A Cross-sectional Study among Medical Students in Western India

Introduction: Cyberbullying is the voluntary and repetitious abuse that is inflicted through computers/mobile phones/other electronic devices, using language that can defame, threaten, harass, bully, exclude, discriminate, demean, humiliate, stalk, disclose personal information or contain offensive, vulgar comments. Within the last decade, cyber bullying has received a high level of attention from researchers worldwide. The reason is the continuous advancements of technological tools and their link with mental health issues. Aim: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of cyber bullying victimisation and its effect on the psychological wellbeing of medical students. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 502 medical students studying at Medical College Baroda, Gujarat in western India from January 2022 to June 2022. Medical students were assessed for cyberbullying victimisation using Cyber-Victimisation Scale (CYBVICS). The impact of cyberbullying on psychological well-being was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) for screening of depression and anxiety, respectively. Data were analysed with epi info. Qualitative variables like socio-demographics and clinical parameters were summarised in frequency and percentages. The Chi-square test was applied to evaluate the association between categorical variables. The p-values less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results: Among 502 medical students, 71 (14.14%) were victims of mild cyberbullying, whereas 90 (17.93%) and 103 (20.52%) had experienced moderate and severe cyberbullying victimisation, respectively. Among all participants, 20 (4%) (Chisquare=39.329, p=<0.0001) and 16 (3.19%) (Chi-square=21.686, p=<0.0001) screened positive for depression and anxiety, respectively. Conclusion: The cyberbullying victimisation was much more prevalent among medical students and is having a strong negative impact on the psychological well-being of students, causing significant depressive and anxiety symptoms. The severity of impact was increasing with the increasing severity of cyberbullying victimisation. Such studies will help healthcare professionals and institutional interventions to protect those likely to fall victim of cyberbullying.

Scenario of Wind Energy in India - A Review

The energy that's generated by the moving wind is named as "wind energy." It's abundantly available within nature. In India, grid-connected wind power generation has now gained a high level of attention and acceptability as compared to other renewable technologies available in the country. Many developed and developing countries are now captivated by wind energy to fulfil many important aspects such as irrigation and electricity generation in remote areas. It's a clean source of energy, which has upmost importance within the growing rate of industrialization, agricultural development, etc. India has the fifth-largest installed alternative energy capacity. India has about 7% alternative energy installations, and about 2–3% of the whole energy generation is from wind. This paper will describe India's wind generation potential as well as the global status of wind energy. The objective of this study is to look at the present developments that have been made in India in the field of renewable energy and to analyze the future of our country in this world.

Motor networks, but also non-motor networks predict motor signs in Parkinson’s disease

ObjectiveInvestigate the brain functional networks associated with motor impairment in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). BackgroundPD is primarily characterized by motor dysfunction. Resting-state functional connectivity (RsFC) offers a unique opportunity to non-invasively characterize brain function. In this study, we hypothesized that the motor dysfunction observed in people with PD involves atypical connectivity not only in motor but also in higher-level attention networks. Understanding the interaction between motor and non-motor RsFC that are related to the motor signs could provide insights into PD pathophysiology. MethodsWe used data from 88 people with PD (mean age: 68.2(SD:10), 55 M/33F) coming from 2 cohorts. Motor severity was assessed in practical OFF-medication state, using MDS‐UPDRS Part‐III motor scores (mean: 49 (SD:10)). RsFC was characterized using an atlas of 384 regions that were grouped into 13 functional networks. Associations between RsFC and motor severity were assessed independently for each RsFC using predictive modeling. ResultsThe top 5 % models that predicted the MDS-UPDRS-III motor scores with effect size >0.5 were the connectivity between (1) the somatomotor and Subcortical-Basal-ganglia, (2) somatomotor and Visual and (3) CinguloOpercular (CiO) and language/Ventral attention (Lan/VeA) network pairs. DiscussionOur findings suggest that, along with motor networks, visual- and attention-related cortical networks are also associated with the motor symptoms of PD. Non-motor networks may be involved indirectly in motor-coordination. When people with PD have deficits in motor networks, more attention may be needed to carry out formerly automatic motor functions, consistent with compensatory mechanisms in parkinsonian movement disorders.

MuTrans: Multiple Transformers for Fusing Feature Pyramid on 2D and 3D Object Detection.

One of the major components of the neural network, the feature pyramid plays a vital part in perception tasks, like object detection in autonomous driving. But it is a challenge to fuse multi-level and multi-sensor feature pyramids for object detection. This paper proposes a simple yet effective framework named MuTrans (Multiple Transformers) to fuse feature pyramid in single-stream 2D detector or two-stream 3D detector. The MuTrans based on encoder-decoder focuses on the significant features via multiple Transformers. MuTrans encoder uses three innovative self-attention mechanisms: Spatial-wise BoxAlign attention (SB) for low-level spatial locations, Context-wise Affinity attention (CA) for high-level context information, and high-level attention for multi-level features. Then MuTrans decoder processes these significant proposals including the RoI and context affinity. Besides, the Low and High-level Fusion (LHF) in the encoder reduces the number of computational parameters. And the Pre-LN [1] is utilized to accelerate the training convergence. LHF and Pre-LN are proven to reduce self-attention's computational complexity and slow training convergence. Our result demonstrates the higher detection accuracy of MuTrans than that of the baseline method, particularly in small object detection. MuTrans demonstrates a 2.1 higher detection accuracy on APS index in small object detection on MS-COCO 2017 with ResNeXt-101 backbone, a 2.18 higher 3D detection accuracy (moderate difficulty) for small object-pedestrian on KITTI, and 6.85 higher RC index (Town05 Long) on CARLA urban driving simulator platform.

Comparison of Mental Health Visits at a Military Treatment Facility Emergency Department Pre- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic.

There is a paucity of quantitative research regarding the effect of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) on Emergency Department (ED) visits in the United States, and specifically mental health-related ED visits. The small existing body of research describes an overall decline in ED visits worldwide; however, there are anecdotal reports that psychiatric complaints to the ED have increased during the pandemic. The primary objective of this study was to describe the volume of mental health ED visits at a single ED during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to previous years. This was a single-center, retrospective chart review of adult patients evaluated in the ED at an academic military medical facility from March to December of 2017-2020 for mental health. The electronic medical record was queried for mental health International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision diagnosis codes. Demographic data including age, gender, disposition, diagnosis, and beneficiary status were collected, and Pearson Chi-Square was used to assess for statistical significance between years. There was a total of 1,486 mental health ED visits from March to December 2020, compared to an average of 1,668 visits from March to December 2017-2019. Statistically significant (P < 0.05) differences, between 2020 and the prior 3 years combined, were identified in the categories of age, disposition, beneficiary status, and diagnosis. In 2020, there was a lower proportion of visits for patients aged ≥60 (1.2%) than in 2017-2019 (2.5%). Active-duty patients comprised a higher proportion of mental health visits in 2020 (82.4%) versus 2017-2019 (77%). Proportionately fewer patients were admitted in 2020 (25.2%) versus 2017-2019 (29.2%). Adjustment disorders made up 19.0% of visits in 2020 versus 23.2% in 2017-2019, and suicidal ideation and intentional self-inflicted injury comprised 43.3% in 2020 compared with 40.4% in 2017-2019. There was a significant decline in ED visits for patients over the age of 60 but a significant increase in visits for active-duty patients. Fewer patients were admitted compared to previous years. There was a significant increase in patients diagnosed with suicidal ideation and intentional self-inflicted injury in 2020 compared to previous years. Alarmingly, this study shows increased rates of self-harm and suicidal ideation. Further study is needed to determine why these effects were seen and if there is a higher risk for suicide attempt or completion in these populations. These results indicate that military leadership and the military health system is failing to adequately support and protect service members and their families during these uniquely stressful times. High-level attention to this issue by military leadership is required; the readiness and safety of the nation's fighting force is at stake.

An Exploratory Study on Communication Complexity in Mega Construction Projects

Complexity is the property of a project that makes it difficult to understand, foresee and control its behaviour due to interrelatedness between various project attributes such as tasks, parties, disciplines, and interfaces. Project complexity is an inherent part of mega construction projects due to their large scale, long period, the multiplicity of disciplines, the high number of stakeholders, multi-nationality, and high level of public attention, as well as political interest. This paper depicts findings of a research project that aims to identify characteristics of and factors that contribute to project complexity by referring to the experiences of professionals involved in mega construction projects. For this purpose, data has been collected by interviewing 18 participants from 11 mega construction projects. Communication complexity, which reflects the amount of distributed communication channels between various stakeholders, has been identified as one of the major drivers of project complexity in megaprojects. Based on literature and semi-structured interview findings, a causal structure to represent communication complexity comprising of three components, which are; project, stakeholders, and communication management, was developed. The causal map, which represents the opinions of a limited number of experts, cannot be generalised; however, it can provide useful insights about drivers of communication complexity that can be used to develop strategies to manage complexity.