Local Service Providers Research Articles

COVID-19 During the Opioid Epidemic - Exacerbation of Stigma and Vulnerabilities.

COVID-19 During the Opioid Epidemic - Exacerbation of Stigma and Vulnerabilities.

Evaluation of CO2 Emission at Airports from Aircraft Operations within the Landing and Take-Off Cycle

The importance of airport emission inventory is more specific in the local context as it directly affects the local air quality. The specific gap addressed by this research is evaluating the CO2 emission from aircrafts within the landing and take-off (LTO) cycle. Using currently available methodologies for assessing emission within the LTO cycle in the Sri Lankan context has significant limitations, such as unavailability of relevant operational data and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)-specified “time-in-mode”(TIM) (e.g., take-off, climb-out, idle, and approach) estimates at different phases of the LTO cycle being inconsistent with local conditions. Such industry-wide standards have been found to over or underestimate actual volumes specific to local conditions. In this research, data collected from online flight-tracking services and daily aircraft movement record (DAMR) data maintained by the local air traffic service provider were used to estimate TIM values according to site-specific conditions. Existing literature to some extent addresses the assessment of CO2 emission levels under different phases of flight separately. In this research, a methodology was developed with available data sources to estimate CO2 emission levels under different phases of flight separately within the LTO cycle. The methodology was applied to Bandaranaike International Airport, Sri Lanka. This approach can be applied to similar scenarios in which operational data limitations exist as elaborated in the study.

Mixed methods study of clinicians’ perspectives on barriers to implementation of treat to target in psoriatic arthritis

ObjectivesIn treat to target (T2T), the patient is treated to reach and maintain specified and sequentially measured goals, such as remission or low disease activity. T2T in psoriatic arthritis (PsA)...

Urban utilities and opportunities for the private sector in local energy services in Switzerland

The delivery of local services is one of Swiss local governments’ main tasks and has a long tradition of public provision. In the last few decades, a shift from in-house production to the corporatization of utilities has emerged in Switzerland, but the public sector is still seen as predominant in the provision of local services. This research explores the current situation of urban utilities in Switzerland and which factors influence the opportunities for the private sector in the provision of energy services at the local level. Results show that opportunities for the private sector and disruptive actors in energy services might rely on partnerships with public institutions and on innovative services.

Optimizing interconception care: Rationale for the IMPLICIT model

Despite traditional prenatal interventions, the incidence of low birth weight and prematurity in the United States have not significantly decreased. Interconception care for women between pregnancies has been proposed as a method of improving various perinatal outcomes. Although broadly advocated by national groups, interconception care (ICC) has not been widely implemented. We describe best practices for an ICC model based on screening mothers for tobacco use, depression, folic acid intake, and inter-pregnancy interval at well child visits. Because of the model's flexibility, sites can readily customize implementation by incorporating the questions directly into existing workflows and using local service providers already working in maternal-child health. This model has demonstrated promising results and ease of implementation thus far, and offers great potential for improved perinatal outcomes and promotion of health equity.

Tourists, local food and the intention-behaviour gap

Food tourism is a growing phenomenon with a particular emphasis on experiencing authentic and traditional local foods, which provides a vehicle for local producers and service providers to develop regional identities, enhance environmental awareness, and conserve traditional ways of life. However, past research indicates that whilst many tourists are interested in local food and drink, a number do not consume any whilst visiting a destination. This study explores why this intention behaviour gap may occur. Five hypotheses are tested using data collected from a sample of 546 respondents recruited via an online panel of visitors to South East Queensland, Australia. Regression analysis explores differences in attitudes, behaviours, barriers and drivers, and concludes an intention-behaviour (purchase) gap is evident. Whilst future visitors had high intentions to purchase local food, past visitors purchased less than might be anticipated. This is possibly due to past visitors holding less favourable attitudes and beliefs than future visitors due to expectations not being met. Key perceived barriers associated with lack of marketing and distribution, inconvenience, price and quality issues, and lack of trust the product is actually local may compound the issue. Practical suggestions are offered to producers, service providers and management on how they may close the intention/behaviour gap through a variety of marketing, distribution and communication strategies. This study provides new insight into why what visitors say they will do may not translate into actual behaviour, an area that has not been explored previously in this context, through studying the drivers/barriers to purchase/consumption.

Balancing Democracy with Service Delivery: Power Relations, Politics and Accountability in Cooperatives Supporting Emergent Livestock Farmers in South Africa

In South Africa, cooperatives are the primary institutions through which delivery of governmental agricultural support programmes for rural communities is realised. Although these cooperatives are governed by clear national guidelines that encourage transparency and accountability to their membership, in reality their ability to realise this may be compromised by an imperative to achieve service delivery in an environment of limited governmental support. Drawing on empirical research undertaken at five agricultural cooperatives in the Elliot area of Eastern Cape Province, we examine the extent to which they are able to balance democratic function with effective programme delivery. We show that the limited capacity of local government to reach out to rural areas promotes heavy competition between cooperatives for government programmes, resulting in a highly skewed distribution of benefits determined primarily by how effectively each can ‘reach up’ to local service providers to secure them. This encourages cooperatives to elect powerful actors to represent them because they are perceived to have the greater political ‘connectedness’ required to access these benefits. However, these powerful actors are often less accountable to membership and therefore more likely to disburse benefits to suit their own vested interests. We suggest that, under current conditions, the process of creating effective and legitimate cooperatives must balance strong leadership with a high degree of accountability and transparency to ensure that benefits are disbursed as widely and appropriately as possible to members. Separating executive, judicial and legislative power structures associated with the securing and disbursement of resources to ensure processes are transparent, might be the most practical way of achieving this. Ultimately, if the capacity of the state is strengthened to enable them to ‘reach down’ to cooperatives more effectively, the need to vest leadership in powerful actors and risk compromising accountability and egalitarian service delivery, might be reduced.

A community-driven and evidence-based approach to developing mental wellness strategies in First Nations: a program protocol

BackgroundMental health, substance use/addiction and violence (MSV) are important issues affecting the well-being of Indigenous People in Canada. This paper outlines the protocol for a research-to-action program called the Mental Wellness Program (MWP). The MWP aims to increase community capacity, promote relationship-building among communities, and close gaps in services through processes that place value on and supports Indigenous communities’ rights to self-determination and control. The MWP involves collecting and using local data to develop and implement community-specific mental wellness strategies in five First Nations in Ontario.MethodsThe MWP has four key phases. Phase 1 (data collection) includes a community-wide survey to understand MSV issues, service needs and community strengths; in-depth interviews with individuals with lived experiences with MSV issues to understand, health system strengths, service gaps and challenges, as well as individual and community resilience factors; and focus groups with service providers to improve understanding of system weaknesses and strengths in addressing MSV. Phase 2 (review and synthesis) involves analysis of results from these local data sources and knowledge-sharing events to identify a priority area for strategic development based on local strengths and need. Phase 3 (participatory action research approach) involves community members, including persons with lived experience, working with the community and local service providers to develop, implement, and evaluate the MWP to address the selected priority area. Phase 4 (share) is focused on developing and implementing effective knowledge-sharing initiatives. Guidelines and models for building the MWP are shared regionally and provincially through forums, webinars, and social media, as well as cross-community mentoring.DiscussionMWP uses local community data to address MSV challenges by building on community supports and resilience factors. Drawing on local data and each community's system of formal and informal supports, the program includes sharing exemplary knowledge-to-action models and wellness strategies developed by and for First Nations people that can be used by other First Nations to identify shared wellness priorities in each community, and determine and execute next steps in addressing areas of main concern.

Local fiscal policies and their impact on the number and spatial distribution of new firms

We examine the effect of local business taxation and local public good and service (PIGS) provision on the number and spatial distribution of new firms. Testing ground is Germany and we rely on the universe of firm foundations between 1998 and 2006. Methodologically, we estimate fixed effects poisson models coupled with a control function approach. The results suggest that a 1%-decrease in the business tax rate (the PIGS capital stock) raises (lowers) the number of new firms in the policy-changing jurisdiction by 4.6% (0.8%). Business tax reductions, moreover, strongly reduce the number of firm foundations in neighboring municipalities, implying that the aggregate number of new firms remains unchanged; while PIGS provision, on average, does not impact the number of firms in adjacent jurisdictions, negative effects emerge for subsets of PIGS and firms.

The written and unwritten rules of internet exclusion: inequality, institutions and network disadvantage in cities of the Global South

ABSTRACT Studies about the link between income and Internet access tend to focus exclusively on the demand side, or, when considering the supply side, to neglect any possible role of local and informal institutions. This research pays attention to the relationship between income distribution and Internet access within metropolitan areas of the Global South, with a special emphasis on local and informal institutions that could shape the ways by which this relationship works. Using a mixed-methods approach, two Latin American metropolitan areas are analysed: Santiago (Chile) and Medellín (Colombia). Although income is clearly linked to household Internet access in both cases, there are supply-side differences that can influence the income-connectivity nexus. The author proposes to introduce the concept of ‘institutionally generated network disadvantage’. Examples of formal and informal institutional factors are redlining, informal housing, socio-spatial segregation, tax exemptions and local public provision of services. The urban poor seem to be the most affected by institutionally generated digital exclusion.

Population Growth and the Local Provision of Services: The Role of Primary Schools in Portugal

The shrinking population in many European regions has led to a debate on the relation between the local provision of services of general interest and the demographic growth of different territories. Primary schools have been a frequent focus of this debate, given the significant number of school closures in recent years, as well as their social, economic and symbolic importance for local communities. However, the relationship between primary schools and population growth at the local scale has not been clearly established and is a challenging subject given the potential circular causality between them. This paper analyses this relationship for the mainland municipalities in Portugal between 1999 and 2016, considering three variables—total fertility rates, net migration rates and the number of primary schools—in a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model, where all variables are simultaneously considered endogenous and exogenous. Through this approach, it was possible to conclude that, although there is a mutual influence between these variables, the impact of school closures on the growth prospect of a municipality is limited. The main goal of policy decisions regarding the provision of primary schools should, therefore, be the quality of life of local communities, and not so much their role in countering depopulation.

Is child weight status correctly reported to parents? Cross-sectional analysis of National Child Measurement Programme data using ethnic-specific BMI adjustments.

BackgroundBMI underestimates and overestimates body fat in children from South Asian and Black ethnic groups, respectively.MethodsWe used cross-sectional NCMP data (2015–17) for 38 270 children in three inner-London local authorities: City & Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets (41% South Asian, 18.8% Black): 20 439 4–5 year-olds (48.9% girls) and 17 831 10–11 year-olds (49.1% girls). We estimated the proportion of parents who would have received different information about their child’s weight status, and the area-level prevalence of obesity—defined as ≥98th centile—had ethnic-specific BMI adjustments been employed in the English National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP).ResultsHad ethnic-specific adjustment been employed, 19.7% (3112/15 830) of parents of children from South Asian backgrounds would have been informed that their child was in a heavier weight category, and 19.1% (1381/7217) of parents of children from Black backgrounds would have been informed that their child was in a lighter weight category. Ethnic-specific adjustment increased obesity prevalence from 7.9% (95% CI: 7.6, 8.3) to 9.1% (8.7, 9.5) amongst 4–5 year-olds and from 17.5% (16.9, 18.1) to 18.8% (18.2, 19.4) amongst 10–11 year-olds.ConclusionsEthnic-specific adjustment in the NCMP would ensure equitable categorization of weight status, provide correct information to parents and support local service provision for families.

Decentralization for improving the provision of public services in developing countries: A critical review

Decentralisation, which sends power and resources from the Central to local governments, comes with several theoretical promises. One such promise is the improvement in local service provision. How...

Enhancement of the diversion airport selection methodology

The paper deals with the airlines diversion management as this entails a complex decision-making process that comes into action during the adverse events, preventing the execution of the regular flight operations. Diverting from the intended route can be caused by several reasons both when the safety of the flight or the wellbeing of the passengers is concerned. The most frequent reasons to divert a flight are the repugnant weather, medical emergency or the technical fault. A flight diversion can severely disrupt the passenger’s comfort, jeopardize the fleet or the crew planning and is generally accompanied with the significant expenses. The intention of every airline in a case of a diversion is to assure the fastest turnaround time and/or provide the passengers with the highest level of services to mitigate the negative effects. A wrong selection of an alternate airport, that is not having enough capacity, personnel or material resources to handle a flight diversion in a timely manner can negatively influence the airline in several ways. Both strategic and tactical diversion management process is a collaborative decision-making procedure, heavily dependent on the base of the information available, where the main actors are not only flight crew and the airline Operational Control Centre but also the Air Traffic Controller, airport operators and the local service providers. Airline strategic diversion planning shall comprehend a well-defined data set and its data quality procedures shall ensure the information accuracy in the pre-tactical phase. The consequent real time data processing can enhance the decision-making process in a tactical phase of the flight diversion. The data and information required comprise of available airport capacities and other relevant ground resources needed to handle a diverted flight. As stated, such data and information are mostly tactically critical, therefore continuous monitoring and updating shall be ensured. The paper suggests that the overall data management is managed via a local Airport Operations Center, which will assure provision of actual airport diversion capabilities (incl. weather situation) needed for accommodation of an affected flight.

Provision of custom hiring service of mini-combine harvester for paddy harvesting: an experimental evidence from Bangladesh

This research work was carried out to determine economic parameter of mini-combine harvester for paddy harvesting operation as custom hiring services (CHS) in Bangladesh. For determining economic parameter, four study areas were selected and several experiments were conducted during harvesting of Aman-2016, Boro-2017, Aman-2017 and Boro-2018 paddy at Khulna, Barisal, Noakhali and Patuakhali districts of Bangladesh using a mini-combine harvester. The BCR for the mini-combine harvester is 1.52 which indicates the high profit of this hiring service. The payback period of mini-combine harvester was determined as 2.41 year. The break-even point of mini combine harvester is 9.24 ha. The mini-combine harvester will run on fully profit basis if it can be used after that minimum ha. There is a great opportunity to use a mini-combine harvester through CHS by a local service provider (LSP) and custom-hire entrepreneur to avoid initial investment.

Reactive power provision using distribution grid resources: flexibility hub use case

With the energy transition at sight and the EU renewable energy source integration ambition, the EU-SysFlex project aims at defining a set of advancements in the electric system that drives us towards that direction. With the increasing decentralisation and granularity of the generation facilities, local generation will gain a determinant role in the provision of future local and global systems services. This study presents an overview of a framework for a local market for reactive power control that will be implemented and demonstrated under a real scenario in a Portuguese demo site. The demonstration includes a set of capacitor banks of the distribution system operator (DSO) and two wind farms of a wind power generation operator. This local reactive power market consists of a close to real-time continuous intraday local market managed by the DSO, with 15 min delivery time to increase temporal granularity, and with 7 h delivery horizons with complex bids to allow more flexible assets operation. Market agents can also correct future previously scheduled positions by participating themselves as sellers or buyers of capacitive or inductive reactive power, providing a more flexible framework.

ЕВОЛЮЦІЯ ТЕОРІЙ ДОБРОБУТУ У ПОСТУЛАТАХ ЕКОНОМІЧНИХ ШКІЛ ТА КОНЦЕПЦІЙ

The article presents the evolution of wellbeing theories in the postulates of economic schools and concepts. It has been established that the first period of development of economic wellbeing theories was marked by polarized tendencies of market or state domination, which led to the consideration of social wellbeing by economists-theorists in the macroeconomic aspect. It has also been found out that forming the foundation of future scientific research their representatives laid the foundations for methodological understanding and development of many economic theories. The second direction of development of wellbeing theories is based on the imperatives of economic growth (location theories, neoclassical theories, theories of cumulative growth, institutional theories and new theories of regional development). It has been found that the rethinking of approaches to local and regional development at the present stage is associated with the actualization of the theory of endogenous development and the concept of local economic development (place-based theory). It has been found out that along with theories of well-being based on the economic concept, theories that determine the social status of people from the standpoint of their high standard of living and human development are widespread in international research. The third direction of wellbeing theories, related to the search for measures of human development that go beyond GDP, is now formed from an alternative flow of scientific thought in the established scientific direction. The end of the last century was marked by a significant interest in social indicators, outlined in various doctrinal forms: social progress, human development, quality of life, wellbeing in a new sense, as well as increasing attention to the individual and their original organizational groups (family, households, communities), and the definition of their weight in the relationship «state-market». Common expression of these concepts is a person whose view transformed from a purely materialist understanding of their wellbeing to a broader point of view – a person who professes values and is in collective interaction. The present study of the evolution of wellbeing theory indicates the need for the formation and implementation of public policy in the direction of intensifying local development and provision of high quality public services based on the principle of subsidiarity. Keywords: wellbeing, state, market, territorial community, economic growth, local economic development, human development, quality of life, subjective well-being

A Comparison between Finnish and Japanese Reforms of the Local Government System and Social Service Provision after the 2000s

A Comparison between Finnish and Japanese Reforms of the Local Government System and Social Service Provision after the 2000s

An Intelligent m-Healthcare System for Improving the Service Quality in Domestic Care Industry

Abstract Due to declining fertility rate and increasing life expectancy, population aging has become a growing problem in Hong Kong. Domestic elderly service providers and public health institutions have been suffering from a shortage of experienced staff for elderly healthcare, which has led to a drop in both the quality and efficiency of the local elderly service. With the rising popularity of mobile applications and the betterment of machine vision technology, this paper describes the design of an Intelligent m-Healthcare System (ImHS) for relieving the manpower pressure on local elderly service providers by lowering the technical threshold and simplifying staff training process. Face recognition technology is applied to identify the elderly by searching and tracing the elderly medical record through the FaceAPI service. In addition, the proposed ImHS provides the immediate insight into healthcare knowledge for users, which lowers the occurrence of Adverse Drug Event (ADE) and shortens the duration of pill distribution process. By conducting a case study in a local elderly home, the proposed system allowed the nursing staff to better allocate healthcare resources and to improve the operation effectiveness and efficiency.

Организационные основы социального предпринимательства: особенности договорных конструкций

The article is devoted to the research of the Institute of social entrepreneurship. The authors identify the features of the organization of contractual relations in relations mediating the provision of social services. Attention is drawn to the fact that the legislation does not have a unified approach to understanding social services, as well as an exhaustive list of services related to social services. Based on the analysis of current legislation on social entrepreneurship, the article identifies problems related to determining the legal nature of the state (municipal) social order. The authors consider various theoretical approaches to defining the concept of state order. In the doctrine, the state order is considered as a managerial administrative act, as a set of administrative and legal acts, as a task or assignment of the state, and even as a public law institution for implementing the Constitution, laws, and functions of the Russian state in the form of an administrative regime of relations between the state and private law subjects. As a key category that links together all other components of the procurement process, the state order has not found conceptual certainty either in legislation or in legal science. It is proved that a social order by its nature is a private legal act, and the placement of such an order should be considered as a unilateral transaction to provide the authorized body with the right to meet the needs of citizens in social services. At the same time, such a transaction is aimed at organizing relations between state authorities, local self-government bodies and service providers. It is concluded that actions for placing a state (municipal) social order aimed at creating preliminary relations for the provision of social services are a one-sided organizing transaction.