Two-tier Analysis Research Articles

Navigating Digital Challenges for SMEs: A Two-Tier Approach to Risks Mitigation and Sustainability

The global significance of SMEs has traditionally been recognized as a key driver of economic growth and sustainability. The emergence of digital technologies and Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) holds significant potential to further enhance this impact. However, SMEs in developing countries have faced challenges in adopting sustainable, resource-intensive digital systems. Factors such as limited skills, financial constraints, and the alignment of suitable solutions hinder this adoption. To address these challenges and promote sustainable digital transformation, this study proposes a two-tier approach. The first prong employs Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, including Word2Vec, for global analysis and digital systems identification. The second prong involves a country-specific analysis of SMEs’ digital requirements. This two-tier analysis aims to uncover the actual digital needs of SMEs while shedding light on high-intensity global SME activities that, if integrated through ICT4D, could effectively address the risks and challenges SMEs face in adopting, implementing, and maintaining digital systems. In addition, the study develops systems required by SMEs to optimize their business processes and production, thereby promoting their growth and sustainability in the digital era. The results of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of these proposed methods in addressing digital challenges for SMEs and fostering sustainable development.

Is an EU Member State a weaker party in the context of the rules of jurisdiction in direct actions against insurers? Comments on the request for a preliminary ruling in the case Mutua Madrileña Automovilista, C-536/23

The request for a preliminary ruling in the case Mutua Madrileña Automovilista, C-536/23, puts to the ultimate test the concept of “weaker party” that underpins the …U rules of special jurisdiction in direct actions against insurers. The referring court asks whether an …U Member State, acting as a statutory subrogee to the rights of its employee injured in a road traffic accident, can rely on the rule of special jurisdiction established by Articles 11(1)(b) and 13(2) of the Brussels I bis Regulation for the benefit of injured parties. Against this background, first, the preliminary question is based on a premise that the …U Member State may sue the insurer “before the courts for the place where the official […] is domiciled”. This premise seems misguided. In fact, a successor in title of a directly injured party may bring the direct action before the court of their own domicile Second, it is immaterial that an …U Member State is a subject of public international law. Unless the state acts iure imperii [arg. ex Art 1(1) of the Regulation], it can rely on the rules of jurisdiction provided for in the Regulation, including the rules of special jurisdiction in matters of insurance. Third, since the rules of special jurisdiction in direct actions against insurers are established for the benefit of weaker parties, they cannot be relied on by the “professionals in the insurance sector”. To verify whether a claimant qualifies as such a professional in the insurance sector, a two-tier analysis is proposed. In the first step, an abstract and generalising assessment is carried out in order to verify whether the claimant belongs to the insurance sector or has close ties with that sector as the result of dealing (litigating or settling) regularly with the insurance claims as the inherent aspect of the commercial activity model they adopted or public mission they were entrusted with. In the second step, an additional check has to be made in order to ascertain whether the direct action brought against the insurer fits within such a general and abstract profile of the claimant or not. If the direct action does not originate in such a commercial activity or public mission, the claimant cannot be considered as a “professional in the insurance sector” in the context of the specific proceedings. In the light of the above, the contention is that an EU Member State, which, in its capacity of an employer continued to pay the remuneration to its official who became unfit for work as a result of a road traffic accident and which subrogated to the official’s rights vis-à-vis the insurer that provides the civil liability insurance for the vehicle involved in that accident, may rely on the rule of special jurisdiction set forth in Articles 11(1)(b) and 13(2) of the Brussels I bis Regulation.

What Do We Know About Plastic Pollution in Coastal/Marine Tourism? Documenting Its Present Research Status from 1999 to 2022

This study aims to present a comprehensive knowledge mapping of plastic pollution on coastal/marine tourism research. To achieve this objective, the present study employed a two-tier analysis, including a systematic review of literature and bibliometric analysis of 164 scholarly articles spanning 1999 to 2022. The results underline the multidisciplinary nature of this research domain, characterized by a significant upswing in publications. The dominant countries in this field are identified as Brazil, Australia, and the USA. A noteworthy collaboration dynamic between the Chinese Academy of Sciences, East China Normal University, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences has emerged, signaling opportunities for enhanced cross-border cooperation. Jambeck, who provided data support for this research field, is found as the most cited author. Marine Pollution Bulletin, Environmental Pollution, and Science of the Total Environment are the most prolific journals discussing such topics. The primary research clusters in this field include seasonal comparison, Qinghai Lake, and small plastic debris. Additionally, scholars have recently focused on new topics such as seasonal comparison, case study, spatial pattern, and the Southern Baltic Sea in the last 3 years. This research also reports 10 articles with the highest citations and 10 highly cited papers. Not only this, the present study presents the inaugural bibliometric analysis on plastic pollution in coastal and marine tourism. To the authors’ knowledge, it stands as a pioneering investigation of its nature, offering a comprehensive view on the research domain by evaluating a time span exceeding two decades, with a specific emphasis on the literature pertaining to marine tourism.

Distributed Monitoring for Energy Infrastructures: A Two-Tier Analysis over Wireless Networks

Wireless networks (e.g., 5G networks) enable distributed energy infrastructures to be connected even when they are geometrically isolated. Intelligent monitoring from remote sites therefore becomes possible, allowing decision makers to examine the status of distributed energy infrastructures from a central location. The major challenge is when local devices cannot perform the monitoring independently; transmitting every signal back to the central server triggers enormous amounts of wireless communication. To address this, we propose a two-tier AI system by offloading computations to multiple devices. Specifically, we build lightweight AI models for deployment on edge clients (i.e., edge sensors) and a large-scale AI model for the central server. These two types of AI models are trained with different criteria: the models on the edges act as the filtering tools to detect abnormal events and maximally avoid making false negative predictions, whereas the server model is supposed to be an expert for accurate predictions. By validating on a power theft dataset, we show that such a cascading methodology could filter out sufficient negative examples on the edge side while still being able to provide precise predictions on the second-round analysis.

Classification of the Real Roots of the Quartic Equation and their Pythagorean Tunes

Presented is a very detailed two-tier analysis of the location of the real roots of the general quartic equation x^4 + a x^3 + b x^2 + c x + d = 0 with real coefficients and the classification of the roots in terms of a, b, c, and d, without using any numerical approximations. Associated with the general quartic, there is a number of subsidiary quadratic equations (resolvent quadratic equations) whose roots allow this systematization as well as the determination of the bounds of the individual roots of the quartic. In many cases the root isolation intervals are found. The second tier of the analysis uses two subsidiary cubic equations (auxiliary cubic equations) and solving these, together with some of the resolvent quadratic equations, allows the full classification of the roots of the general quartic and also the determination of the isolation interval of each root. These isolation intervals involve the stationary points of the quartic (among others) and, by solving some of the resolvent quadratic equations, the isolation intervals of the stationary points of the quartic are also determined. The presented classification of the roots of the quartic equation is particularly useful in situations in which the equation stems from a model the coefficients of which are (functions of) the model parameters and solving cubic equations, let alone using the explicit quartic formulæ , is a daunting task. The only benefit in such cases would be to gain insight into the location of the roots and the proposed method provides this. Each possible case has been carefully studied and illustrated with a detailed figure containing a description of its specific characteristics, analysis based on solving cubic equations and analysis based on solving quadratic equations only. As the analysis of the roots of the quartic equation is done by studying the intersection points of the “sub-quartic” x^4 + ax^3 + bx^2 with a set of suitable parallel lines, a beautiful Pythagorean analogy can be found between these intersection points and the set of parallel lines on one hand and the musical notes and the staves representing different musical pitches on the other: each particular case of the quartic equation has its own short tune.

Market Structure, International Competitiveness, and Price Formation of Hainan’s Fruit Exports

Through a constant market share (CMS) model and a price index model, current research aims to analyze the impetus of the growth of Hainan, China’s fruit exports and the adverse impact of rising production costs. This paper considered the changes in the international competitiveness of Hainan’s fruit exports and analyzed the reasons for these changes. Additionally, this manuscript analyzed the effects of Hainan’s price-bargaining power on fruit exports under the condition of asymmetric information by applying a two-tier stochastic frontier analysis model. The results show that the rising costs of labor led to the gradual loss of price advantage, and the contribution of competitiveness to the growth of Hainan’s fruit exports has rapidly declined. The results also indicate that the degree of information held by both importers and Hainan has an important influence on the final exporting price, whereas the importers hold more information and have stronger price-bargaining power than Hainan. Policy suggestions based on the results are proposed.

Criminal-legal ensuring of freedom of religion in modern conditions: a comparative analysis

The article conducts a comparative criminal law investigation to ensure freedom of religion in Ukraine and some countries. The subject of the study is a person's right to freedom of religion guaranteed by the Ukrainian Constitution. In conducting this research, a comparative legal method was widely used, which allowed a two-tier analysis (empirical and theoretical) of the legal systems of Ukraine and some foreign countries in terms of ensuring freedom of religion under criminal law, to identify the originals and specific manifestations of such support, to determine the patterns of development of each country's criminal law. As a result of the investigation, some gaps and advantages of Ukrainian law were identified in terms of criminal law guaranteeing the right to freedom of religion. Itstates that Ukraine's modern criminal law generally complies with international standards for the protection of citizens' constitutional right to freedom of religion, but there are some shortcomings in terms of unequivocal understanding of the elements of crimes that violate freedom of religion, which are worth discussing.

Shifting borders, shifting center: hedging-out uncertainty in west Jerusalem’s urban core

ABSTRACTThis article argues that contested cities are inherently characterized by uncertainty and uses the interconnections between conflict, uncertainty and urban planning as a new analytical framework for investigating conflict cities. In the contested city of Jerusalem, geopolitical uncertainty stems from the Israeli occupation over East Jerusalem. Focusing on recent urban regeneration plans for West Jerusalem’s city center, the article explores how the municipality locates, plans and imagines the city center when the city’s external and internal boundaries are contested and unfixed. A two-tier analysis is employed. First, a historical analysis shows that the “city center”, as defined by authorities, is an unfixed locale that shifts in concurrence with shifts in the city’s boundaries. Then, a geopolitical analysis shows that by shifting the city center’s boundaries, the Israeli authorities decouple the city’s economic development (in the west) from Israel’s continuing ethno-national policies (in the east).

The Higher Education Dimension in East Asian Regionalism: A Two-tier Analysis of International Co-authorship Patterns in the ASEAN Plus Three

The AUN and ASEAN+3 UNet have both sought to promote the development of a distinct higher education research community within Southeast Asia and East Asia, respectively. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. Firstly, it aims to assess the success of these organisations in delivering against this aim, reviewed against inter-regional comparators. Secondly, the paper undertakes an assessment of which countries (if any) might be predominant in driving this agenda forward, at the intra-regional level. In both levels of the investigation, a statistical analysis of changes in international co-authorship patterns across time is utilised as the means of assessing the question at hand. In accordance with the paper’s core hypotheses, the findings indicate broad fulfilment of the AUN and ASEAN+3 UNet’s objectives, although it seems that efforts directed at building an East Asian research community have been comparatively more successful than those directed specifically at Southeast Asia. It is also found that, in a relative sense, South Korea is acting as a principal locus for higher educational regionalisation. The paper concludes by considering the implications of the analysis for East Asian higher education regionalism, with the contention being that the establishment of the aforementioned research communities provides a robust basis for the development of more formal integrative measures.

Dysphagia research in India: A status report

In India, the field of dysphagia is still in its infancy. This study attempted to make a baseline assessment of the status of dysphagia research reported from India in the global scenario. A search in the most popular search engines and databases for research originated in India was conducted. Among the 2436 reports retrieved, 64 reports were included in this study. A two-tier analysis revealed the various characteristics of Indian research, and researchers involved in this science. Initiated less than two decades ago, dysphagia research in India has been on a steady increase. Unfortunately, 23.44% of them remain unpublished and unavailable for other researchers. Although there is a growing interest, dysphagia is still unexplored and has a long way to grow in India. The numerous gaps identified in this study provide a new direction for researchers in dysphagia and also enlighten the Indian researchers about their contribution to the global scenario.

Daily precipitation grids for Austria since 1961—development and evaluation of a spatial dataset for hydroclimatic monitoring and modelling

Spatial precipitation datasets that are long-term consistent, highly resolved and extend over several decades are an increasingly popular basis for modelling and monitoring environmental processes and planning tasks in hydrology, agriculture, energy resources management, etc. Here, we present a grid dataset of daily precipitation for Austria meant to promote such applications. It has a grid spacing of 1 km, extends back till 1961 and is continuously updated. It is constructed with the classical two-tier analysis, involving separate interpolations for mean monthly precipitation and daily relative anomalies. The former was accomplished by kriging with topographic predictors as external drift utilising 1249 stations. The latter is based on angular distance weighting and uses 523 stations. The input station network was kept largely stationary over time to avoid artefacts on long-term consistency. Example cases suggest that the new analysis is at least as plausible as previously existing datasets. Cross-validation and comparison against experimental high-resolution observations (WegenerNet) suggest that the accuracy of the dataset depends on interpretation. Users interpreting grid point values as point estimates must expect systematic overestimates for light and underestimates for heavy precipitation as well as substantial random errors. Grid point estimates are typically within a factor of 1.5 from in situ observations. Interpreting grid point values as area mean values, conditional biases are reduced and the magnitude of random errors is considerably smaller. Together with a similar dataset of temperature, the new dataset (SPARTACUS) is an interesting basis for modelling environmental processes, studying climate change impacts and monitoring the climate of Austria.

A novel and realistic hybrid downlink-uplink coupled/decoupled access scheme for 5G HetNets

Cell association in present day heterogeneous networks (HetNets) is still based on the technique used by homogeneous cellular networks despite power and coverage area disparities of network nodes. In ongoing policy, both uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) associations are coupled based on DL characteristics, which introduces UL-DL asymmetry and cell load imbalances. Recently, decoupled cell association, also known as downlink-uplink decoupling (DUDe), has been introduced in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 12 to improve uplink performance, load balancing, and cell capacity. In DUDe, characteristics of both DL and UL channels can be considered. By using this concept, various theoretical UL or DL analytical decoupled access models have been proposed without giving their practical realization. In these frameworks, all network users are assumed to use DL-UL decoupled access without considering its practical utility. Existing solutions also ignore noise, which may lead to practical inaccuracies. This paper proposes a novel and realistic hybrid scheme in which coupled or decoupled cell associations can be selected depending upon user location and its advantages. Building upon this innovative approach, it has been established that decoupled access is chosen by few users and accordingly a two-tier analysis framework for these devices has been formulated. Simple closed-form solutions for user performance metrics without ignoring noise have been precisely derived, which relate user performance with HetNet densities. Devised distributions are employed to compare the performance of the decoupled case with the ongoing procedure of coupled access. A practical network design has been proposed, which requires minimum changes to the existing network. Results show that decoupling is viable in the 5G HetNet to achieve fairness, cell load balancing, and performance improvements.

Multidisciplinary nephrogenetic outpatient clinic combined with diagnostic exome sequencing for improved diagnostics and treatment

Single gene disorders are estimated to account for ~30% of children and ~10% of adult patients attending renal outpatient services. For mutation detection by exome sequencing, deep phenotyping, reverse phenotyping and family history information are important. A multidisciplinary nephrogenetic outpatient clinic for children and adult patients with (genetic) kidney diseases has been established by a team of (pediatric) nephrologists and a clinical geneticist in the Radboudumc. Clinical exome sequencing for a broad spectrum of isolated- and syndromic renal (ciliary) disorders has been developed. The approach consists of a two-tier analysis in which the first step is to screen for pathogenic variants in genes that are known to be mutated in renal diseases (170 genes) or (renal) ciliopathies (125 genes). If causative mutations are not identified in the first step, the complete exome data set can be analysed with informed consent. The first results with the renal disease gene panel in 35 unrelated patients with undiagnosed renal disease led to pathogenic mutations in the CC2D2A, CLCN5, NPHP1 and UMOD gene, detected in four cases and in six other cases likely pathogenic variants needed follow-up studies. Further analysis of the complete exome data set in 13 patients, revealed possible pathogenic mutations in two cases. While variant and copy number variation analysis in the rest of exome is expected to further increase diagnostic yield, we can already conclude that the combination of the multidisciplinary outpatient clinic with diagnostic exome sequencing provides a powerful tool for detecting causative mutations of renal disease.

Digitalising sex commerce and sex work: a comparative analysis of French, Greek and Slovenian websites

The aim of this article is to explore the complexity of the online sex trade and work by analysing sexuality-related commercial websites, with reference to three European states, France, Greece and Slovenia. The article compares websites in each specific sociocultural context, in order to provide insights into the various types of networks and services that emerge, and to explore how they operate, how they communicate and how sex is being merchandised. We have conducted a two-tier analysis: The first part discusses results of a quantitative macro-analysis exploring 149 websites, while the second part is a micro-analysis analysing the visualisation of egocentric network of three selected websites. The focus is on understanding how gender relations develop in digital environment and how within cyberspace sectorial and national divides are dealt with. While there is evidence to suggest that in some sectors the Internet has opened avenues for sex workers to work independently of the control networks, there are also many forms of exploitation that arise from new media. We observe that sex commerce online is not particularly attentive to the agency of sex workers but is, to the contrary, oriented to provide opportunities and a forum for businessmen and clients.

Second generation analysis of antinuclear antibody (ANA) by combination of screening and confirmatory testing.

For the serological diagnosis of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases, a two-tier approach starting with sensitive antinuclear antibody (ANA) detection by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) on HEp-2 cells followed by characterization of positive findings with different immunoassays is recommended. To overcome drawbacks of this approach, we developed a novel technique allowing the combination of screening and simultaneous confirmatory testing. For the first time, this creates the basis for second generation ANA testing. ANA and autoantibodies (autoAbs) to double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), CENP-B, SS-A/Ro52, SS-A/Ro60, SS-B/La, RNP-Sm, Sm, and Scl-70 were determined by IIF and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively, and compared to simultaneous analysis thereof by second generation ANA analysis in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (n=174), systemic sclerosis (n=103), Sjögren's syndrome (n=46), rheumatoid arthritis (n=36), mixed and undetermined connective tissue diseases (n=13), myositis (n=21), infectious disease (n=21), autoimmune liver disease (n=93), inflammatory bowel disease (n=78), paraproteinemia (n=11), and blood donors (n=101). There was very good agreement of second generation ANA testing with classical one by IIF and ELISA regarding testing for ANA and autoAbs to dsDNA, CENP-B, SS-B, RNP-Sm, Scl-70, SS-A/Ro52, and SS-A/Ro60 (Cohen's κ>0.8). The agreement for anti-Sm autoAb was good (κ=0.77). The differences of both approaches were not significant for autoAbs to SS-B/La, RNP-Sm, Scl-70, SS-A/Ro60, and SS-A/Ro52 (McNemar's test, p>0.05, respectively). Second generation ANA testing can replace the two-tier analysis by combining IIF screening with multiplex confirmative testing. This addresses shortcomings of classical ANA analysis like false-negative ANA findings and lack of laboratory efficiency and standardization.

The Effects of Trade, Domestic Final Demand and Technology on Energy Consumption of China

The rapid growth of China’s economy consumed a lot of energy, but excessive energy consumption may constraint the sustainable development of China. This paper constructs a two-tier structural decomposition analysis model to decompose the change of energy use during 1987 and 2010 into 11 factors, and analyze the results of sub-periods. The results show that the scale and products’ structure of domestic final demand, the scale of exports, imports substitution, the structure and the input technology of material promoted the energy in the whole period. However, the intensity of energy, the products structure of exports , the structure and technology change of energy input reduced the energy consumption.

Rhetorical Variation across Research Article Abstracts in Environmental Science and Applied Linguistics

is of a pivotal genre in scientific communication, assisting not only highly selective readers with judgment of the pertinent articles but also researchers in disseminating new knowledge and intellectual discoveries. Difficult yet challenging, however, is the task of writing effective abstracts particularly among non-English speaking scholars. This study reports on the identification of moves and co-existing linguistic features commonly used in environmental science and applied linguistics research article abstracts. 200 research article abstracts published during the years of 2010-2013 were analyzed with reference to Hyland’s analytical framework. The two-tier analysis reveals a typical rhetorical structure including a cluster of linguistic features associated with certain pieces of information presented in each particular move, elucidating how research article abstracts in both fields are conventionally constructed. With the presence of all five moves, the structures of I-P-M-Pr-C and P-M-Pr-C were most prevalent among the corpus of environmental science and applied linguistics, respectively. All of the moves, except for Introduction move, were conventional across the two disciplines. Pedagogical implications of the findings are useful particularly for academic reading and writing instruction, enabling language teachers to empower their learners with strategies that contribute to the enhancement of success for publishing in scholarly leading publication.

Market triumphalism in water governance: a study of the Indonesian West Tarum Canal water allocation

Governing, which is defined as the totality of interaction of actors aiming to solve societal problems, is never as ideal as its definition. A two-tier analysis of governance – one that considers individual actors and institutions – proves that dominance is always at play among these multiple interactions. The two-tier analysis shows that when water is managed by a public agency, it does not necessarily mean that water is managed by a state institution. The study of water allocation at West Tarum Canal shows that the adoption of market institutions by the Government of Indonesia has resulted in a societal problem of the marginalisation of farmers. The hegemony of the market is achieved through the successful attempt by multilateral agencies to make the Indonesian Government and its apparatus adopt market institutions. Fiscal decentralisation is another determining factor accelerating the adoption of market institutions in the allocation of water at West Tarum Canal.

Undergraduate pre-service chemistry teachers’ conceptions about inorganic qualitative analysis

The research was a baseline study to determine the perceptions and alternative concepts that pre-service teachers’ have which hinder them from making correct inferences during practical inorganic chemistry experiments. A two-tier qualitative analysis diagnostic instrument (QADI) was developed and used to diagnose and treat the participants’ alternative concepts in inorganic chemistry qualitative analysis. The diagnostic instrument was administered to 78 pre-service teachers in the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana. The study revealed that students’ inabilities to make correct inferences or write and balance equations for suspected reactions correctly were the main hindrances to successful qualitative analytical activities. They often resorted to guess work. The most prevalent conceptions were their inability to predict and distinguish between chalky and gel precipitates especially when aqueous ammonia and sodium hydroxide were used on test samples. They were also unable to distinguish insoluble salts from true precipitates. A post administration of the QADI after the treatment period showed that the intervention worked positively to increase pre-service teachers’ content knowledge in inorganic chemistry and their understanding of inorganic qualitative analytical work. Keywords: alternative concepts, content knowledge, inorganic chemistry, pre-service teachers, qualitative analysis

How to analyse powder nuclear quadrupole interaction data with non-axial symmetry for interdependent electric field gradient tensor components

The measurement of nuclear quadrupole interactions from powder (random) samples yields two parameters, namely Vzz and the asymmetry parameter η. Usually, these two parameters are plotted separately versus an external variable. This parametrization is perfectly suited to hide correlations between electric field gradient tensor components, even linear dependences. A new parametrization is proposed that, in the case of linear dependences, consists of a constant scale factor, the ‘asymptotic’ asymmetry parameter, also a constant, and a control parameter that is the only function of an external variable. This parametrization reduces the number of freely adjustable parameters in data fitting by nearly a factor of two. All solid-state effects are contained in a single control parameter. In the case of linear dependences, a two-tiered data analysis is proposed that is compulsory. An extension of the analysis to nonlinear dependences is given as well. The proposed two-tier analysis in the Czjzek plot reveals the structure of the electric field gradient (EFG) tensor. Several examples will be given.