Key Pillars Research Articles

Utilizing Smart Systems to Enhance the Sustainability of Egyptian Administrative Buildings

Smart buildings have grabbed the attention of researchers since the 1980s. Until now, there has been no specific definition for smart buildings, which came from modern technologies and applications that rely on smart systems, significantly affecting the construction industry. Based on the importance of the administrative building sector in Egypt, this study proposed a general framework enumerating smart systems that positively impact this sector at the environmental, social, and economic levels (the three key pillars of sustainability). Various methods were used, including induction, descriptive, analysis, survey, and deduction. It enumerated and analyzed the Egyptian context through three case studies to reveal the gap between their current situation and the one hoped for in its three categories, Smart Security and Safety Systems, Smart Auxiliary Systems, and Smart Entertainment Systems. The findings of this study for the first category showed an average of 47% for security systems and 67% for safety systems. The category of smart auxiliary systems was divided into five sub-categories, showing 39% in climatic control systems, 60% in energy management systems, 100% in HVAC control systems, 50% in lighting control systems, and 56% in water management systems. Finally, the smart entertainment systems category was divided into three sub-categories, showing 42% in Wi-Fi and Internet systems, 44% in video surveillance systems, and 67% in sound and video intercom systems. Therefore, these quantitative findings represent promising results that motivate the Egyptian context to move forward in this direction by using smart systems to improve the sustainability of Egyptian administrative buildings.

ROLE OF KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY IN ECONOMIC GROWTH: “AN EMPIRICAL STUDY” ON SELECTED ARAB COUNTRIES

Despite the mounting importance of the knowledge economy in diversifying Arab economies, the knowledge transition in these countries is still in its early stages, with a long road ahead. The study’s main aim is to examine the role of the knowledge economy in economic growth and to recognize the most influential knowledge pillar for a sample of 11 Arab countries during the period 2000–2020, namely: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. The panel generalized least squares model, with its two methods (fixed-effects model and random-effects model), was performed using an extended version of Chen and Dehlman’s (2004) empirical framework. The fixed regression findings confirmed the positive and significant role of knowledge in stimulating economic growth. The estimated results of the random regression revealed that knowledge pillars like innovation, information and communication technology, economic and institutional regimes, and the socio-economic sustainability index have a positive and significant impact on Arab economic growth, whereas education has a significant negative relationship with GDP. This can be attributed to poor quality, unequal access, and infrastructure, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a negative impact on education. The results also showed that, in comparison to the other four pillars, the socio-economic sustainability index, which was added to the benchmark Knowledge Economy Index, was the most notable pillar that participated in the examined relationship. As a result of these findings, this study contributes to broadening the scope of Arab countries through investing in key knowledge pillars that promote economic growth and where policies should place a greater emphasis on developing education. Furthermore, because of their critical and significant role in exploring the knowledge-growth relationship, sustainability dimensions must be explicitly included in the knowledge framework.

Accessible Tourism and Formal Planning: Current State of Istria County in Croatia

When the number of older people and the number of families with young children (babies and toddlers) are counted in the total share of persons with disability it is clear that a significant share of people in the world’s tourist market face various obstacles to achieving their fundamental human rights in accessing tourist destinations and related infrastructure. These segments of the market encounter various challenges when they do travel, while many refrain from travelling at all. The theoretical framework examines the concept of accessible tourism and provides a review of the necessary preconditions for forming such a tourist offer available to everyone. Contrary to common belief, accessible tourism surpasses the issues of mobility, as it also includes people with mental, mood, vision, speech, hearing, stroke and other conditions. Examples of good practice are also provided as an incentive for the design and implementation of future inclusive projects, representing the aim of this paper. Research featuring various categories of the tourism offer available to everyone on the case study of Istria County is also presented. The analysis compares major towns in Istria County and the degree of their adaptation to the needs of this market segment, where many practical implications have emerged. The concept of accessibility lies on three key pillars: physical, informative and service based. Thus, removing physical barriers, incorporating the principles of universal design into every new building’s design, as well as educated staff for formulating and implementing strategies and other plans, are key factors in creating additional tourist value. It is fundamental to include people with disabilities in tourism and in society.

The EU Taxonomy’s (Potential) Effects on the Banking Sector and Bank Lending to Firms

Abstract One of the key pillars of the European Green Deal is a renewed sustainable finance strategy to finance sustainable growth and to channel private investments towards projects that support the transition to a climate-neutral economy. The aim of this policy is to make the private sector take into account sustainability-related non-financial factors when making financing and investment decisions. Within this framework, the EU Taxonomy provides a uniform definition and classification system of environmentally sustainable economic activities. In addition, the EU Taxonomy itself provides the basis for further legislation and regulation. Banks as the main financiers of firms in Europe and therefore important players in directing capital flows towards sustainable projects are thus targeted with several requirements based on the Taxonomy. The question then is how banks’ lending to firms is affected by these regulatory changes and whether an impact on the greening of firms’ economic activities can be achieved. The existing literature provides evidence that firms’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks, profiles and performance influence their loan conditions, but it is unclear whether better funding conditions lead to reduced carbon emissions or “greener” activities at the firm level.

Correlations of ESG Ratings: A Signed Weighted Network Analysis

ESG ratings are data-driven indices, focused on three key pillars (Environmental, Social, and Governance), which are used by investors in order to evaluate companies and countries, in terms of Sustainability. A reasonable question which arises is how these ratings are associated to each other. The research purpose of this work is to provide the first analysis of correlation networks, constructed from ESG ratings of selected economies. The networks are constructed based on Pearson correlation and analyzed in terms of some well-known tools from Network Science, namely: degree centrality of the nodes, degree centralization of the network, network density and network balance. We found that the Prevalence of Overweight and Life Expectancy are the most central ESG ratings, while unexpectedly, two of the most commonly used economic indicators, namely the GDP growth and Unemployment, are at the bottom of the list. China’s ESG network has remarkably high positive and high negative centralization, which has strong implications on network’s vulnerability and targeted controllability. Interestingly, if the sign of correlations is omitted, the above result cannot be captured. This is a clear example of why signed network analysis is needed. The most striking result of our analysis is that the ESG networks are extremely balanced, i.e. they are split into two anti-correlated groups of ESG ratings (nodes). It is impressive that USA’s network achieves 97.9% balance, i.e. almost perfect structural split into two anti-correlated groups of nodes. This split of network structure may have strong implications on hedging risk, if we see ESG ratings as underlying assets for portfolio selection. Investing into anti-correlated assets, called as "hedge assets", can be useful to offset potential losses. Our future direction is to apply and extend the proposed signed network analysis to ESG ratings of corporate organizations, aiming to design optimal portfolios with desired balance between risk and return.

Challenges and Adjustments of Healthcare and Labor Policies in Greece during the COVID-19 era: A Critical Assessment of the Key Social Policy Responses

The welfare state in Greece even before the outbreak of the global pandemic experienced multiple challenges and problems mainly as a result of its chronic structural, administrative, and financial problems which were further deteriorated by austerity measures. The pandemic that followed the ten-year economic crisis led to a new multifaceted crisis, adding further pressure on the National Health System as well as on the labor market, and precipitating the uptake of targeted measures and policies to support both the NHS with equipment, staff, and employment due to the imposition of national and local lockdowns. Confronted with such weaknesses, the establishment of a new welfare state would need to bear a higher degree of flexibility, inclusivity, and efficiency in order to live up to the increasing societal, health, and economic demands. In this sense, the aim of this paper is to explore the variations in health and labor policies (two key pillars of the welfare state) during the COVID-19 pandemic and assess whether there is a need for further interventions with regard to the social security and prosperity of citizens.

Genuine Fascist Theory or Non-Systematic Conceptualisations of the New Authoritarian Order?

Abstract This article analyses legal texts written by Nikolaos Koumaros that were foundational to the 4th of August regime in Greece. It demonstrates the regime possessed an ideology that did not differ substantially from other authoritarian regimes of the period. In particular, the choice of Koumaros as the central legal theorist of the regime can be explained by his familiarity with anti-liberal theories of the time. His engagement with these theories was linked with his studies in France and Italy during the interwar period, exposing him to fascist ideals. A detailed examination of the conceptual transfers that informed the main legal texts of the regime demonstrated their reasoning followed closely the theoretical developments of the time. Mussolini’s doctrine of fascism and a specific reading of Rousseau functioned as the basis for the legitimisation of a new, anti-liberal political order. These ideas became key analytical pillars of the legal texts that gave shape to the regime’s normative and political foundation, demonstrating that explicit fascist theories informed the political physiognomy of the regime.

Exploring pillars of supply chain competitiveness: insights from leading global supply chains

This paper aims to explore key pillars of supply chain competitiveness (SCC) and understand how top supply chains remain competitive in the long term. The research design is divided into two phases. First, an extensive review of the scholarly SCC literature is conducted to identify the core pillars that help achieve SCC. Second, the literature published in practitioner outlets on the five selected companies of Gartner’s Supply Chain Top 25 is scrutinized to understand how top supply chains apply the core pillars of SCC in practice. A total of 193 scientific and practitioner articles were analyzed to develop the key pillars of SCC. This study identified six key pillars of SCC in the literature: innovation, sustainability, collaboration, information technology, agility, and flexibility. It has been found that a combination of these pillars, if not all, will be required to remain competitive in the post-COVID-19 era.

Trust during COVID-19: Which factors matter most?

ABSTRACT The objective of this experiment was to offer a preliminary exploration into the key factors underlying trust in healthcare systems around the world, in light of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Participants were recruited across ten countries and were asked to complete a two-part questionnaire, in which they rated their country’s healthcare system on a scale from 1–5, according to ten trust-related factors, translated specifically to pertain to healthcare, and 4 key pillars of trust: benevolence, reliability, competence and predictability. Correlation analyses between these two separate measures revealed that honesty, consistency, and reasonableness were the most impactful factors underlying trust across the entire population. All other findings are detailed in the main text. This study allowed us to arrive at a preliminary determination of the most impactful factors underlying trust, both at a global and national level.

The Three Key Pillars That Support the Adult Learning Process

This reflective essay was written within the context of tertiary study and scholarly practice, reflecting on the similarities noticed between what supports and encourages an adult’s capacity for learning, and the prerequisites, circumstances, and environments which facilitate individual therapeutic healing. In this essay the author reflects on three key pillars which have most supported her own learning process through an undergraduate subject studied at Ikon Institute, while also making connections to how these pillars served as foundational to the author’s capacity to be with her own growth and therapeutic healing process – a process which is hypothesised to be is deeply intertwined with the adult individual’s capacity to learn. The essay synthesises several key concepts and related themes (nervous system regulation, metacognition, and deep listening) within mental health fields and therapeutic practice and presents a coherent exploration of how these concepts intertwine to best support the learning process.

Financial Restructuring and Commercial Banks Performance Nexus in Zimbabwe

Corporate restructuring has gained considerable salience in strategic management in recent years. Effective corporate restructuring has permitted strategic managers of ailing organizations to regain their competitive advantage. Specifically, financial restructuring is one of the key pillars of corporate restructuring. Prior research on the nexus between financial restructuring and performance of commercial banking institutions in developed and developing nations has yielded inconclusive empirical evidence. Therefore, the focus of this study is to examine the nexus between financial restructuring and performance of commercial banks in Zimbabwe. This study employs the random effects model (REM) by making use of 2011-2016 panel data from 10 commercial banks. Empirical evidence establishes that financial restructuring has a positive influence on performance of commercial banks. The study, therefore, recommends that the management of commercial banks should embrace a conservative approach by increasing equity financing so as to avoid bank failures.

Connecting Repositories to one Integrated Domain

Connecting Repositories to one Integrated Domain

Validating the relationship between service quality, patient sensitivity and experience towards medical applications using SERVQUAL

BackgroundThe quality of the patient experience has become one of the key pillars of service in the healthcare industry. Positive word-of-mouth, higher retention, and loyalty to healthcare providers are all influenced by a good and positive patient experience. This study was proposed to examine the relationship between service quality of medical apps, patient sensitivity, and patient experience. MethodsData were gathered from a sample of 387 respondents utilising medical applications to access various services. A few standardised questionnaires, including SERVQUAL, were used to collect the data. Python programming was used to perform the collected data's structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis. ResultsThe findings show that there is a significant impact of service quality of medical apps on patient sensitivity and patient experience and also patient experience has a strong and positive relationship with patient sensitivity. ConclusionThe research results indicate that patients prioritised service quality factors like reliability, tangibility, empathy, responsiveness and assurance when selecting services from medical applications.

Template-Based Category-Agnostic Instance Detection for Robotic Manipulation

An intelligent robotic system is one of the key pillars of a smart factory that requires flexibility to handle a variety of tasks. Perception is a key enabling technology for robots. Most existing object detection studies have mainly focused on category-specific objects and have achieved impressive performance. However, robotic systems, particularly in industrial scenarios, typically interact with many category-agnostic objects, which the robot must detect instantly without pre-training. Therefore, in this study, we proposed a template-based detection and segmentation approach, which incorporated a multi-level correlation model and a similarity-refine module, for handling the category-agnostic instance. The proposed approach was then validated and demonstrated in an interactive and adaptive robotic application scenario designed for the typical pick-and-place task. Among them, the picking scan path and location were instructed through human guidance with hand tracking. The neural rendering technology was also introduced to render novel views of the template. The proposed approach was evaluated using a benchmark and verified through a real demonstration.

Governance and human rights implications of ASEAN's Smart Cities Network: a knowledge commons analysis

AbstractLaunched in April 2018, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' Smart Cities Network (ASCN) initiative raises important issues regarding the tensions between achieving smart city objectives on the one hand and protection of human rights on the other. The aim of this paper is to explore these tensions using a Knowledge Commons Framework analysis. I first analyse the three key pillars of the ASCN pilot city knowledge commons – knowledge resources, community attributes and governance ‘rules in use’ – using human rights criteria. I the apply the lessons of this analysis to two fundamental aspects of human experience in smart city contexts – mobility through transport systems and access to essential services through energy supply.

A new face of food security: A global perspective of the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 has impacted the world economy and food system in many aspects. We conducted a comprehensive examination of global food security during the COVID-19 pandemic by considering the food security index and its four key pillars (affordability, availability, quality and safety, and natural resources and resilience) for 102 countries. In addition to the fixed effect panel data estimator, the Method of Moments Quantile regression is useful for disaggregating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to inflation, economic growth, urbanization, and agricultural land on global food security among countries with different levels of food security. We found that COVID-19 has negatively affected food security globally, especially in countries with a low food security level. The effect of income per capita and urbanization rate on the food security index is positive and statistically significant across all quantiles. Inflation rate and agricultural land, however, adversely affect food security, and this effect is stronger for countries with lower levels of food security. The results of affordability, availability, quality, and safety, and natural resources and resilience models provide meaningful implications for governments and policymakers to build resilience in food systems and to be better prepared for future crises and disruptions in the food supply.

Increasing Latinx representation in the US medical schools: A top-ranked medical school's experience.

Despite the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of the general US population, many, if not most, medical schools fall short of matriculating students reflective of this change in diversity. The Latinx community constitutes nearly 20% of the US population and is expected to rise substantially in the coming decades. Over the past 20 years, the number of Latinx students applying to and being admitted to medical school has grown but remains below 4% of the total medical student body composition. Several factors contribute to the under-representation of Latinx students in medical schools that include access to secondary education, finances, lack of mentorship or advice, and a multitude of other structural inequities and system-level biases. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are often named as key pillars of workforce development across the US medical schools and academic institutions. Despite significant efforts, medical schools continue to have low Latinx representation within their student body, and recruitment efforts often lack sustainability. In this manuscript, we share our experience of increasing Latinx student representation within a top-ranked medical school in the US southeast region. We have discussed the barriers we faced in enrolling and attracting Latinx students' amidst similar under-representation of Latinx faculty, staff, and leadership and the challenges of financial support for applicants and financial aid packages for admitted students. The strategies we implemented to achieve an increased representation of Latinx students in the School of Medicine (SOM) included revitalizing the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA), ensuring Latinx student representation within the SOM admission committee that included Latinx faculty as active participants in recruitment and retention efforts, redesigning the medical Spanish course, and creating dedicated outreach plans during second look weekend for interested Latinx students and active outreach to applicants and accepted students by current students. In combination, these efforts led to a significant increase in Latinx representation in the SOM student body from 2.6% in 2009 to 12.2% in 2021. We will conclude by discussing our ongoing challenges and our approach to sustain and improve Latinx representation in our medical school.

The transition towards a circular economy. A framework for SMEs

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) contribute significantly to the European GDP and play a pivotal role in the ecological transition from a linear to a circular economy (CE). According to transition management theory, which emphasizes the active role of firms as accelerators of global transition processes, and based on qualitative content analysis of the literature, we found key pillars of CE (governance, relations with stakeholders and innovation) that SMEs should manage in an integrated way to increase the speed of the transition towards circularity. The result of this study is a conceptual framework that explains the development of the identified pillars in the context of the transition towards CE. This study addresses a gap in the literature concerning SMEs’ transition towards circularity, emphasizing the importance of a dynamic vision and the integrated management of a variety of key dimensions. The study also provides pragmatic advice to facilitate self-assessments by SMEs with respect to their path of transition and to maximize the effectiveness of policy-makers’ interventions to support SMEs. Finally, the study has societal implications: promoting the transition of SMEs towards CE can accelerate the global green transition due to the proximity of SMEs to the local environment and work force.

Health and wellbeing (SDG3) in urban design and spatial planning – a retrospective roadmap towards the collective impact model

ABSTRACT The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) lay the foundations for supporting global health yet the rate of meeting the SDGs is slow and complex. In order to meet these transactional and multidisciplinary challenges a paradigm shift from operating in silos is needed, to include a more interdisciplinary approach (top down as well as bottom up approaches). This paper reports top down and bottom up approaches that were used to address health and wellbeing in a middle-eastern multi-cultural city. In this retrospective roadmap, we highlight the key pillars that appear to have assisted in progress in achieving SDG3, Good Health and Well-being. The roadmap includes the development of the key pillars: 1) a common agenda, 2) shared measurement system, 3) mutually reinforcing activities, 4) continuous communication and 5) backbone support. Highlighting condition 4, continuous communication, of the model, we discuss the creation, use and importance of a “communication tool” used for Healthy Urban Planning. This tool developed cooperatively with relevant municipality departments, national government, and multidisciplinary community shareholders, led to organizational changes and the creation of the Sustainability Department of the municipality. This retrospective roadmap appears to reflect the collective impact framework appropriate for solving complex challenges such as achieving SDGs.

Effects of earthquake on damage evolution and failure mechanism of key rock pillars in underground engineering

Effects of earthquake on damage evolution and failure mechanism of key rock pillars in underground engineering