Overall Body Of Knowledge Research Articles

Research Priorities for Childhood Apraxia of Speech: A Long View.

This article introduces the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research Special Issue: Selected Papers From the 2022 Apraxia Kids Research Symposium. The field of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) has developed significantly in the past 15 years, with key improvements in understanding of basic biology including genetics, neuroscience, and computational modelling; development of diagnostic tools and methods; diversity of evidence-based interventions with increasingly rigorous experimental designs; and understanding of impacts beyond impairment-level measures. Papers in this special issue not only review and synthesize the some of the substantial progress to date but also present novel findings addressing critical research gaps and adding to the overall body of knowledge. A second aim of this prologue is to report the current research needs in CAS, which arose from symposium discussions involving researchers, clinicians, and Apraxia Kids community members (including parents of children with CAS). Four primary areas of need emerged from discussions at the symposium. These were: (a) What questions should we ask? (b) Who should be in the research? (c) How do we conduct the research? and (d) How do we move from research to practice? Across themes, symposium attendees emphasized the need for CAS research to better account for the diversity of people with CAS and improve the timeliness of implementation of high-level evidence-based practice across the lifespan. It is our goal that the articles and prologue discussion in this special issue provide an appreciation of advancements in CAS research and an updated view of the most pressing needs for future research.

Developing a Data Quality Evaluation Framework for Sewer Inspection Data

The increasing amount of data and the growing use of them in the information era have raised questions about the quality of data and its impact on the decision-making process. Currently, the importance of high-quality data is widely recognized by researchers and decision-makers. Sewer inspection data have been collected for over three decades, but the reliability of the data was questionable. It was estimated that between 25% and 50% of sewer inspection data is not usable due to data quality problems. In order to address reliability problems, a data quality evaluation framework is developed. Data quality evaluation is a multi-dimensional concept that includes both subjective perceptions and objective measurements. Five data quality metrics were defined to assess different quality dimensions of the sewer inspection data, including Accuracy, Consistency, Completeness, Uniqueness, and Validity. These data quality metrics were calculated for the collected sewer inspection data, and it was found that consistency and uniqueness are the major problems based on the current practices with sewer pipeline inspection. This paper contributes to the overall body of knowledge by providing a robust data quality evaluation framework for sewer system data for the first time, which will result in quality data for sewer asset management.

Sensitivity Study on Loss of Productivity Quantification Methods

It is a difficult and challenging task to quantify lost labor productivity in construction claims, especially in the context of the Daubert standard (or Daubert challenge). The Daubert standard has influenced the presentation of expert opinions and testimony in construction cases, including disputes over loss of productivity. One of the factors be considered by triers of fact bounded by the Daubert standard in order to determine whether proffered evidence is reliable is the known or potential rate of error. Sensitivity analysis is the study of how uncertainty in the output of a method or model can be traced to sources of uncertainty in the input; sensitivity analysis can help test the robustness of results calculated using a model in the presence of uncertainty or errors. In this study, sensitivity analyses for common methods of quantifying loss of productivity are presented, and the robustness of the results produced by those methods is assessed. The impact of uncertainties in various sources of data on loss of productivity quantification is also examined. The study’s primary contribution to the overall body of knowledge is to provide insights into the robustness of various loss of productivity quantification methods, especially in the context of the Daubert challenge.

Do Wine Flaws Really Matter to Wine Consumers’ Intention to Purchase Wine—An Online Study

Purpose: Exploring antecedents of flawed wine purchase intention, this study attempts to assess consumer acceptance leading to the purchase or consumption of a flawed wine product as well as build a profile of flawed wine consumers. Design/Methodology/Approach: A survey, from Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk) with 260 valid survey responses collected. ANOVA with post hoc testing was used to analyze the data. Findings: Results reflect that attitude, subjective knowledge, perceived behavioral control, perceived risk, and sensory appeal all significantly influence intent to purchase a flawed wine product. Additionally, environmental attitude significantly influences their intent to purchase wines with flaws and their attitude toward flawed wine. Originality: To date, no research has explored consumer acceptance of flawed wines. This study attempted to fill a gap in the literature and add to the overall body of knowledge regarding flawed wines and consumer understanding/acceptance of flawed wines, as well as generating a profile of potential flawed wine consumers. Research Limitations/Implications: Consumer panel data is not as rich as an experimental study design; however, this work starts an academic conversation on flawed wine and provides a foundation for future research. Practical Implications: The results of this study offer practical opportunities, from educating consumers toward a richer understanding of wine flaws; promotional opportunities for wine producers with a product to be disposed of, enhancing revenue generation; and how sensory appeal and environmental concern are beneficial to furthering the understanding and predictability of consumer intentions to purchase flawed wines.

Experimental analysis of the fixed flat-plate solar collector with Sn-Al2O3 selective absorber and gravity water flow

To improve solar collector efficiency, a variety of designs and materials have been introduced into production practice. Studies describing solar collector specifics, therefore, are particularly valuable to the scientific community as they contribute to the overall body of knowledge and constant improvement the in the scientific field. In that regard, the study presented in this paper analyses the thermal performance of the fixed flat-plate collector with an Sn-Al2O3 selective absorber. The fixed flat-plate collector design utilizes gravity water flow in an open loop system. A two-month study was conducted to perform the analysis. The experiment was based on measurements of water flow in the fixed flat-plate col-lector, the water temperature at the fixed flat-plate collector inlet and outlet, and solar radiation intensity on a horizontal surface. Results for three randomly selected measurement days have shown that fixed flat-plate collector can achieve relatively satisfactory values for average daily specific heat power, thermal efficiency, and inlet-outlet water temperature gradient, respectively: June 29 (381.78 W/m2, 60.67%, and 9.06?C), June 30 (364.33 W/m2, 59.43%, and 7.46?C), and July 15 (373.06 W/m2, 59.85%, and 8.69?C). Apart from the relatively good measurement results, this type of solar collector does not require circulating pumps for operation, which brings a double advantage: energy saving and energy production.

Waiting for cataract intervention for people with curable blindness: Lived experiences

Background: People living with curable blindness (PWCB) in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape province wait for long periods of time to access cataract surgical interventions. They wait for periods exceeding eight months, while they are unable to take proper care of themselves. Family caregivers must adapt their lives and accommodate the needs of the incapacitated person.Aim: To explore and describe the experiences of PWCB awaiting surgical intervention and their family caregivers in the Oliver Reginald (OR) Tambo District of the Eastern Cape province, South Africa.Setting: The study was conducted in the OR Tambo District communities in the Eastern Cape.Methods: The study followed a descriptive phenomenological design to study the experiences of PWCB and their family caregivers. A purposive sampling approach was used to select the district, referral hospital, households and participants. Data were collected using in-depth interviews. Tesch’s thematic method of analysis was used to code data into themes and subthemes.Results: Findings of the in-depth interviews revealed two main themes and nine subthemes. The main themes were dependence on others and carrying the burden related to care for the afflicted individual. Theme 1 had six subthemes: (1.1) personal care and household chores, (1.2) attending to health, (1.3) accessing public transport, (1. 4) lack of dignity, (1.5) taking care of own finances and (1.6) attending to spiritual needs. Theme 2 had three subthemes: (2.1) inconvenience, (2.2) impatience and (2.3) pity.Conclusion: People waiting for excessively long periods of time for surgical interventions cannot function independently, resulting in them becoming a burden to others in their family units.Contribution: The untold difficulties and stories of people living in deep rural areas, as brought to light in this study, represent a positive contribution to the overall body of knowledge.

Modelling the Significance of Global Mind-Set and Halal Brand Trust to Determine the Performance of Halal SMEs

This study investigated the impact of global mind-set (GM) and halal brand trust (HBT) on halal entrepreneurial performance (HEP). This study extends the entrepreneurship literature by adopting the dynamic capability theory (DCT) to assess HEP. Data were collected from 311 SMEs established in Indonesia using the simple random sampling method, whereas the variance-based partial least-square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was used for test the proposed conceptual model. This study revealed the significant effect of GM and HBT upon HEP. Additionally, entrepreneurial competency (EC) and effectual logic (EL) displayed partially mediating effects. This study found that online food delivery (OFD) had strengthened the relationship between EC and HEP. Nevertheless, EC had no statistical impact on EL, while OFD negatively affected the GM-HEP link. Due to the limited scope of this study, the cross-sectional approach adopted in this study is viewed as a limitation. Besides, constriction in time had led this study to be conducted within a specified time-frame. As such, future studies may adopt the longitudinal approach over a period of three to five years in order to overcome the listed limitations. This study assessed the effect of GM and HBT on HEP as fresh insight to better comprehend the determinants of HEP in uncertain condition. This study has extended the theory of Teece et al. (1997) DCT within the context of HEP. Upon determining the effect of two new constructs (GM and HBT) through the lens of DCT and validating the proposed model, this study offers theoretical and contextual contributions to the overall body of knowledge with PLS-SEM.

Work from anywhere and employee psychological well-being: moderating role of HR leadership support

PurposeThis study examines the relationship between the flexibility of working from anywhere and employees' psychological well-being (PWB) and safety. This study also investigates the moderating role of human resource (HR) leadership teams on HR policy (HRP), firm infrastructure (FRI) and remote work flexibility.Design/methodology/approachWith the help of the literature review and flexible firm theory (FFT) and dynamic capability view (DCV) theory, a model has been developed conceptually. Later, the conceptual model is validated using partial least squares – structural equation modelling technique considering 471 useable respondents from different Asian and European firms to understand cross-country implications. This research study uses convenience and purposeful sampling techniques.FindingsThis study shows that there is a significant and positive moderating role of HR leadership support (HLS) towards developing flexible HRP and appropriate FRI to enable employees to work from anywhere. The results also indicate that there is a significant and positive impact of work from anywhere flexibility (WAF) and employee PWB and psychological safety (PSS), which in turn positively and significantly impact employee satisfaction (EMS) resulting in better firm performance (FP).Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides valuable input to HR management teams for developing effective HR policies to enable a work from anywhere option. The study also provides food for thought to practitioners, researchers and academicians regarding the need for more research on the relationship between work flexibility, PWB and FP. Finally, this study develops a unique model which could be used by any firm towards framing an effective HRP enabling WAF.Originality/valueThis research adds value to the overall body of knowledge of HR management. There is no study which investigated the impact of WAF on employee PWB and PSS. Thus, this study is considered a unique study. Moreover, the proposed model in this research study is also a unique model with explanative power of 71%.

An analysis of foreign residents’ perceptions and behaviors regarding digital government portal services in the Republic of South Korea

Governments have made significant investments to deliver information and services to governmental institutions, citizens, and businesses through e-services. The re-adoption of such governmental services has been focused on in various studies. However, this study focuses on the post-adoption of digital government services and information system quality. Therefore, evaluating the digital government portal services from the user's perspective is important. This study proposes an expanded conceptual framework that includes confirmation of expectation and perceived functional benefits as mediating variables based on continuance literature and information systems’ performance. Online and offline surveys were conducted to get the responses of emigrants in the Republic of Korea to assess the proposed relationship among the variables. Overall, 371 samples were collected and analyzed. The regression and mediation analyses were performed using the Macro PROCESS model. The results indicate that confirmation of expectation and perceived functional benefits significantly predict the foreigners’ continuance intention as Korean digital government websites users. The study also confirms the direct and indirect impacts of digital government services quality factors on continuance intention through perceived functional benefits. However, it does not find evidence for the influence of confirmation of expectation as a mediator. The research concludes with positive implications for academicians, governmental policymakers, and the overall body of knowledge. Points for practitioners The results of this study indicate that government officials should concentrate on technical features and psychological characteristics to understand people's intention for e-service continuance. The relation of digital government facilities with perceived functional benefits enables lawmakers to establish responsive and quick service portal systems. Besides, the government can help users by providing 24-hour customer support, electronic assistance desks, and users’ manuals to increase the consistent use and efficiency of government systems.

Factors Influencing Fire Safety on Building Construction Sites: A Fire Officer’s Perspective

Fire safety on building construction sites as an important part of on-site safety management has rarely been studied for construction sites. To fill the knowledge gap, this research was conducted to identify important influencing factors on fire safety on construction sites, as well as their relationships, through a questionnaire administered to 1,492 fire officers in South Korea. The authors divided the questions into three factors (building, fire, and human) to distinguish factors affecting construction site fire safety. For the majority of the factors, there was high agreement on the importance level of factors affecting fire safety during construction between administrative and field firefighters. However, perception disparity did exist. The authors identified the interrelationships between factors through path analysis and structural equation modeling. The paths of factors showed the highest direct relation between building and fire factors, and the human factor played a mediator role between human and fire factors. The study contributes to the overall body of knowledge by providing officers’ insights into the factors contributing to fire safety on construction sites, as well as the quantification of the interrelationship among the factors, which will serve as the basis to develop effective safety measures, such as policies and regulations at both the project level and industry level, to address fire safety on construction sites. The SEM model developed in this study can also be used as a base model for future related studies.

Understanding Sustainability Reporting in Non-Governmental Organisations: A Systematic Review of Reporting Practices, Drivers, Barriers and Paths for Future Research

NGOs are expected by their social mission not only to assess but to report on sustainability issues in response to the growing public awareness of the sustainability agendas. Since NGOs are globally renowned as watchdogs for advancing socio-economic development and sustainable societies, research on their efforts in this regard will help develop recommendations on how they can be better positioned as the watchdog. The purpose of this article is to review and assess the understanding of sustainability (reporting) in NGO literature as well as the barriers and drivers. The study investigates various practices of sustainability and identifies the drivers and barriers in sustainability reporting (SR). The authors reviewed 61 articles published between 2010 and 2020 on sustainability and assessed the strengths and weaknesses in the understanding of sustainability in literature as well as the reporting phenomenon in NGOs. The misconceptions in the definition of SR tend to weaken its relevance and applicability, and the reporting process is often focused on demonstrating the legitimacy of NGOs rather than improving their performance. As such, it provides more evidence in support of the need for a more holistic and all-inclusive definition that will aid regulation and enforcement. We also found that, although it is often assumed all NGOs share similar objectives, it is not always the case as there are as diverse objectives as there are numbers of NGOs and their reporting pattern varies in accordance with this diversity. The review makes a case for a more comprehensive definition of SR suitable for NGOs using four elements as well as providing suggestions for where research in this area might focus to enhance the overall body of knowledge. The study contributes to theory and practice by introducing new elements guiding the definition of SR in NGOs which supports accountability and proper functioning of a circular economy and promotes sustainable development.

Comparative Assessment of Rework on Buildings in Akure Municipal, Ondo State, Nigeria

Rework is the repetition of work that constitutes waste in construction and reflects poor performance due to the failure of building components to satisfy the client’s requirement and contract documentation’s provision, which further results in cost and time overrun. In lieu of the nature of the subject matter, this study comparatively assessed rework occurrence on buildings in Akure municipal, Ondo state, Nigeria to ensure the building works proneto rework are carried out with utmost care and control to drastically reduce rework cost. A total of eighty-three (83) well-structured closed-ended questionnaires were distributed and the retrieved seventy (70) questionnaires formed 84% response rate. Primary data were obtained from 10 construction firms and 60 end-user clients using purposive and snowball sampling. Data collected from the retrieved questionnaires were on the defects in building components due to non-conformance to specification and client requirement and perception on the frequency of occurrence and cost of rework on buildings. The data were analysed using frequency, percentage, Relative Importance Index (RII), Mean Item Score, Mann-Whitney U Test and Spearman’s Rank Correlation Coefficient. A descriptive analysis of the defects on building components from the end-user clients and construction professionals’ perception revealed plumbing and sanitary system and electrical services as the most defective, respectively. Further analysis of theparameters shows a significant difference between the opinions of the end-user clients and professionals on the defects in the electrical appliances and installation; corrosion and discolouration of components; doors and accessories and ceiling and accessories. However, no significant difference exists between the overall opinions of the end-user clients and the construction professionals on building component defects. The result of the conducted analysis further showed that an increase in the frequency ofrework on finishes and mechanical installations could speed up rework cost. This study, therefore, affirms the stakeholders’ need to avoid rework occurrence on services components (mechanical and electrical), concrete works and finishes to experience a rapid decline in the cost of rework. The study contributed to the overall body of knowledge by establishing building components with high rework occurrence and their corresponding effect on cost from the perception of the end-user clients and built environment professionals.

Value co-creation and social media at bottom of pyramid (BOP)

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the value co-creation at bottom of the pyramid (BOP) using social media and to investigate how it is impacted by age, gender and peer influence. Design/methodology/approach A BOP approach provides sustainable profits by involving low-income producers and consumers by way of co-creating values. The focus of the BOP approach in the business environment in this study is to establish co-creation among the different stakeholders at the BOP level. With the help of a literature review and related theories, a conceptual model has been developed. The model has been tested statistically for validation using a survey by considering 314 usable respondents. Findings This study has focused on the impact of different issues such as age, gender and peer influence concerning the consumers at BOP segments involving in co-creation activities. The study finds that people at BOP segments emphasize more social media usage compared to the influence of peers in the context of co-creating values. Research limitations/implications Co-creation at BOP is a new approach. This study is unique research where it identifies the impact of gender, age and peer influence at the BOP level consumers for co-creation activities. The study also highlights the influence of social media on BOP consumers for co-creating values. The model so developed along with the findings of this study contribute to the overall body of knowledge in this area which has a wider theoretical and social implication. Practical implications The proposed model in this study can help organizations to understand the impact of age, gender, peer influence on value co-creation activities at BOP using social media. This study can help managers of the organizations involved in co-creation at BOP to formulate an appropriate strategy to get engaged with the customers at BOP. Finally, this study can motivate customers to value co-creating and engaging with organizations. Originality/value This study has primarily identified the impact of age, gender and peer influence for the consumers at BOP segments and is involved in different co-creation activities. The study has been mainly conducted in India, an emerging economy. None of such studies has been conducted in the emerging markets. Thus, this study claims to have possessed its uniqueness.

Social Entrepreneurship: A Bibliometric-Based Research Trend

Social entrepreneurship is a relatively novel topic and popular area of research and practice. It is recognised as a key instrument for addressing social issues and promoting sustainable development.The evolution of the social entrepreneurship concept has been discussed in the entrepreneurship domain last fifteen years.Therefore, a comprehensive inquiry of the overall body of knowledge relating tosocial entrepreneurship research in the entrepreneurship domain is vital for stimulating social entrepreneurship ecosystems. The research aims to support further study based on the current research trend through graphical visualization and bibliographic analysis. This study also maps the expansion of scientific and academic researchto explain the most recent stage in developing the phenomenon. It presents a general structure of the field and details of the main topics studied in this discipline. One thousand seven hundred sixty-three (1763) research papers published in the Scopus database from 1996 to 2019 were reviewed using bibliometric statistics covering 23 years. Thus, the study, therefore, serves to map trends in the development of the research in this field. The results showed some useful insights, such as the pattern of annual publications, top citation-based authors, organizations, nations, and publishers worldwide. This paper will also provide a primary reference source for the researcher to establish a theoretical framework in this area.

Open government research over a decade: A systematic review

Academic studies of open government have flourished in the last decade. Nevertheless, comprehensive reviews of open government have been limited. This research gap not only impedes our understanding of the overall body of knowledge on open government but also hinders the advancement of existing practices. To address this gap, this article systematically reviews 189 studies published from 2008 to 2019. Guiding this review are the central research questions: (1) How has the concept of open government been defined and conceptualized in the literature? (2) How is open government being used and implemented? (3) What outcomes or impacts are attributed to open government initiatives? This research found that open government is generally conceptualized as a new governing structure emphasizing both transparency (vision) and public participation (voice). However, it also identifies a “transparency-driven focus” for both the case selection of academic studies and practical implementation, which represents a gap between open government theory and practice. This research also reveals the lack of empirical evidence regarding the effects of open government and highlights methodological concerns of prior studies. The article concludes with a discussion on future research.

Classifying cracks at sub-class level in closed circuit television sewer inspection videos

This paper presents a novel computer vision based system to support automated PACP (Pipeline Assessment Certification Program) coding for cracks. The proposed system comprises five major steps: 1) identifying forward facing view (FFV) with pipeline viewpoint detector, 2) obtaining stable edge information using structure edge detector, 3) acquiring crack segments and inner circle area of the pipeline with image binarization, 4) generating a 2D angular-diameter histogram for each frame, and 5) training a crack category classifier with support vector machine (SVM). The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed system can not only detect the cracks and categorize the crack type per PACP standard effectively but can also run about 10 frames per second (fps) in real world CCTV videos with 320 × 240 resolutions. In terms of accuracy in detecting cracks, the proposed method reaches about 91%, 88% and 90% recall for longitudinal cracks (CL), circumferential cracks (CC) and multiple cracks (CM), respectively. This paper contributes to the overall body of knowledge by providing an innovative framework that supports real-time crack identification and coding per PACP standards, which will lay a strong foundation for the development of a fully automated PACP sewer pipeline inspection system.

Total factor productivity growth and its contribution: lessons from the Chinese construction industry pre- and post-2008 financial crisis

PurposeIn response to the 2008 financial crisis, the performance of the Chinese construction industry seems to be more successful, especially in total factor productivity growth (TFPG) and its contribution (TFPGC). Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate and reveal the potential successful lessons in this regard.Design/methodology/approachThis study is conducted innovatively based on a special comparative analysis of TFPG and TFPGC between pre- and post-2008 financial crisis. Solow Residual Approach is used to measure TFPG and TFPGC for the period 2002–2016. Given that the crisis hit China at the end of 2008, the pre-2008 financial crisis period is from 2002 to 2008, and the post-2008 financial crisis period is limited to 2009–2016.FindingsThe results indicate that the industry indeed has better performance in promoting TFPG and TFPGC, TFP thus achieved significant accumulative growth before and after the crisis. However, from an evolutionary perspective, both TFPG and TFPGC presented an overall downward trend from before the crisis to after the crisis. Further, the game between the centrally planned economy and the market-oriented economy was identified and revealed as the essential reason behind the evolution of TFPG and TFPGC.Practical implicationsSome valuable lessons for policies and practices in promoting TFPG and TFPGC were summarized and learned from the Chinese experience, such as reducing administrative intervention and making the construction market play a decisive role.Originality/valueThis study provides some new empirical evidence to enrich the overall body of knowledge on growth theory, especially in promoting TFPG and TFPGC.

THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY: SOME EVIDENCES FROM ITALY AND SERBIA

Knowledge, over time, has assumed a central role in society. Today, in fact, it represents one of the main resources that can determine the competitive success of companies, facilitating the identification of a lasting "competitive advantage" (Calabi et al. 2015). First of all, it is necessary to make some clarifications, specifying what is meant by knowledge and then to understand what reality is. Knowledge and reality are linked and therefore cannot be separated. In fact, in order to know what reality is, we must know it and, therefore, know what knowledge is; moreover, individuals only want to know what is real (Lundvall, 2016). Consumer knowledge is and has been studied in a wide range of areas, in fact providing a synthetic definition of knowledge is not at all simple. The importance of knowledge in modern economies has found expression in the term "Knowledge Economy" (Tronti, 2015). The definition of Knowledge has taken on various interpretations. According to Davenport, knowledge "is a fluid combination of experience, values, contextual information and specialist expertise that provides a framework for the evaluation and assimilation of new experience and information. It originates and is applied through the connoisseurs. In organisations, knowledge is linked not only to documents, but also to organisational procedures and processes, practices and standards" (Davenport, Prusak, 2000, pp. 6-7). Knowledge is born from the interaction of more information between them and from the comparison with knowledge already acquired. Therefore, they are data organized and presented within a context. Depending on the degree of accessibility, knowledge can be divided into: Tacit and Explicit Knowledge (Fontana, Lorenzoni, 2004). The first typology can be explicit, defined as tacit because of the lack of incentives, while the second cannot be explicit, because it is tacit by nature (Cowan et al. 2000). Specifically, 'tacit knowledge' means all the knowledge that the human mind possesses and uses to guide actions and behaviours, but that it is not able to express, or can express with great effort, on particular occasions, and in any case in a nebulous and partial way (Marradi, 2003). It develops within the minds of individuals, in fact it is personal and as such is difficult to formalize and communicate. Explicit Knowledge, on the other hand, is objective and rational, in the sense that it is "codified", and can be expressed through a systematic language. The most important study on this difference was conducted by Polanyi, according to whom individuals know much more than they can relate and articulate. Knowledge, which can be expressed in words and numbers, represents only "the tip of the iceberg of the overall body of knowledge" (Polanyi, 1979). So if the tip of the iceberg is explicit knowledge, the body of the iceberg is tacit knowledge.

Evaluating the sustainability of health programmes: A literature review

Background: Evidence shows that fewer than 1% of all international development projects worldwide, including those in Nigeria, were evaluated at least 2 years after completion to learn what genuinely changed. With over 787 million US Dollars in official development assistance to Nigeria’s health sector in 2017, this seeming disinterest in assessing sustainability – particularly in light of the international commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals – is concerning. Objectives: We aim to assess the overall body of knowledge on the evaluation of sustainability of health programmes in Nigeria. Methods: We conducted a broad literature search, which included grey literature such as development project reports to identify all relevant studies reporting on our study objective. Articles were selected for inclusion using predefined criteria and data were extracted onto a purposely designed data extraction form. Results: Four articles met our search criteria. The review identified financial, technical, social and environmental barriers to sustainability. Recommendations encompassed all stages of the project cycle: funding, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Conclusion: This review explored the overall body of knowledge on the evaluation of sustainability for health programmes in Nigeria. A clear understanding of operational indicators for sustainability, embedding sustainability early in the project cycle, community ownership, capacity building, effective collaboration, leadership and quality post evaluation are key for sustainable development in Nigeria. A limitation of this review is the small number of studies included and the assessment of sustainability at a single point in time. Much more empirical and rigorous research is needed to explore sustainability of health programmes in Nigeria. Research should also seek to understand the views of key stakeholders such as donors, implementing partners and the government.

The notary’s responsibility toward the authenticity of credit bank guarantees in Indonesia

This paper provides an overview of the law and a statute regarding the notary’s responsibility toward the authenticity of credit bank guarantee in Indonesia, and compares them with those of other nations, including the United States of America and Germany. This study uses a combination of primary and secondary sources to assess the current state of the notary responsibility situation regarding banks and the financial lending world in general and employs a normative or doctrinal approach that views laws as a system of norms. The functions of notaries in Indonesia are different from those performed by notaries in some other countries, the notaries play different roles and participate in many formalities: a) a function in credit banking bind guarantees that not only allow people to feel comfortable with their transactions, but also increase public trust in the whole banking system; b) personal and material guarantees. In transacting any deeds, including credit bank guarantees, the notary is responsible for the authenticity of the physical, formal and material aspects of the deed; c) the binding of collateral objects; d) a function in binding banking credit guarantees. Also, notaries have the risk of illegal jurisdiction of a banking credit guarantee deed. Notaries in Indonesia have different roles compared to other countries, including the United States of America and Germany. Notaries play an important role in increasing economic growth, especially through their responsibility for the authenticity of credit bank guarantees activity and they add to the overall body of knowledge.