bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Analysing the effect of multicultural workforce/teams on construction productivity
Authors: Kuoribo Ewald , Amoah Peter , Kissi Ernest , Edwards David John , Gyampo Jacob Anim , Thwala Wellington Didibhuku 
Published: April 2024

Purpose
Prodigious teamwork is the basis for augmenting the level of productivity on construction projects. Globalisation of the construction market has meant that many practitioners work outside of their geographical spectrum; however, the multicultural dissimilarities of construction workforces within the project management team (and how these may impact upon project productivity performance) have been given scant academic attention. To bridge this knowledge gap, this paper aims to analyse the effects of a multicultural workforce on construction productivity.

Design/methodology/approach
The epistemological positioning of the research adopted mixed philosophies (consisting of both interpretivism and postpositivism) to undertake a deductive and cross-sectional survey to collate primary quantitative data collected via a closed-ended structured questionnaire. Census sampling and convenience sampling techniques were adopted to target Ghana’s construction workforce and their opinions of the phenomenon under investigation. Out of 96 questionnaires administered, 61 were retrieved. The data obtained were analysed by using mean score ranking, relative important index, one sample t-test and multiple regression. The reliability of the scale was checked by using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.

Findings
From the t-test analysis, 11 variables sourced from extant literature, and the null hypothesis for the study was not rejected and all factors (except high cost of training and improper gender diversity management) were affirmed as negative effects of the multicultural workforce on construction productivity. Using multiple regression analysis, six of the independent variables were shown to impact upon productivity. The goodness of fit was verified by collinearity and residual analysis. The model’s validation revealed a relatively high predictive accuracy (R2 = 0. 589), implying that the results could be generalized. In culmination, these findings suggest that the predictors can be used to accurately predict the effects of multicultural workforce on construction productivity performance.

Practical implications
The findings indicate that multicultural workforce/teams have a substantial effect on overall construction productivity in the construction sector; consequently, stakeholders must address this issue to enhance productivity across the sector.

Originality/value
The current study significantly contributes to our understanding of how multicultural workers/teams affect construction productivity in the construction business perspective and how to respond to the negative menace.
Islamic banks' contribution to Indonesia districts' economic growth and poverty alleviation
Authors: Junaidi Junaidi 
Published: April 2024

PurposeThis research investigates the Islamic banks’ intermediation role (e.g. branches and deposits) in financing. It also examines how financing contributes to the regions' economic growth and poverty alleviation as a predictor and mediator variable.Design/methodology/approachA total of 297 observations were extracted from 33 Indonesian districts and 14 Islamic banks during the period 2012–2020. Fixed-effect regression analysis was used to examine variable’s interactions.FindingsThe empirical results indicate that Islamic banks have adopted a channelling role towards redistributing capital from lender to borrower. Besides, there are crucial roles in developing economies and reducing poverty at the district level. This study also reinforces the critical role of financing in mediating the relationship between branches and deposits as predictor variables and GDP and poverty as outcome variables.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study was limited to Indonesian Islamic banks and the district’s perspective. Future research needs to cover sub-districts and other poverty measurements (e.g. human education and development perspectives), including conventional and Islamic banks. It can help practitioners, regulators and researchers observe the dynamic behaviour of the banking sector to understand its role in the economic and social fields.Practical implicationsBank managers and regulators should promote branches, deposits and financing. It also enlightens people about the essential role of Islamic banks and their fundamental operations in business and economics.Originality/valueThis study contributes to economic literature, bank managers and local governments' decision-making processes by developing and testing an economic growth and poverty model.
Generativity's manifestation in young adults: a grounded theory study
Authors: Sellon Addison , Hastings Lindsay 
Published: April 2024

PurposeApplying traditional grounded theory techniques, the present research reanalyzed secondary data from four previously conducted studies to explore how generativity is manifested in young adults.Design/methodology/approachA new conceptual model of generativity was developed to depict how generativity manifests among this age group.FindingsThis study's findings provide leadership educators with a refined approach to interacting with this construct while simultaneously increasing young adults’ potential ability to experience the benefits available to them through generativity at an earlier stage in their lives.Originality/valueThis study advances the field of leadership education by establishing foundational insight into the uniqueness of generativity’s development in young adulthood.
NewGen Surgical: reimagining health for people and planet
Authors: Lee Sarah , Saboorideilami Vafa , Zhang Xiaotian , Lee Yung-Jae 
Published: April 2024

Research methodology
The case study draws on structured interviews with Rob Chase, Founder and CEO of NewGen Surgical, as well as secondary data sources to analyze the effectiveness of these solutions in mitigating the risks and enhancing the company’s competitive advantage.

Case overview/synopsis
This case study examines how NewGen Surgical, a small- to medium-sized medical equipment manufacturer based in the USA, navigates a supply chain crisis caused by post-pandemic (COVID-19) supply and demand distress, trade restrictions, and the US–China trade war in 2022. It outlines the journey of CEO and Founder, Robert Chase, as he started, grew and is maintaining the company and its various challenges. The case study reviews the risks and vulnerabilities of the company, which heavily relies on Chinese suppliers for most of its operations. To address the supply chain challenges, the case study explores alternative solutions such as insourcing, reshoring, diversifying the supplier base, changing safety stock and implementing new technologies. The case can be designed to teach business courses such as global business, supply chain and entrepreneurship.

Complexity academic level
This case study is intended for undergraduate and graduate students in courses such as global business, supply chain and entrepreneurship. In addition, this case study may be incorporated with modules on learning organizations, knowledge management and entrepreneurship to aid students in comprehending the principles of global sourcing, offshoring and supply chain management.
Towards comprehensive urban sustainability: navigating predominant urban challenges and assessing their severity differential in Bangladeshi city corporations
Authors: Hossen Md. Shamim , Haque AKM Mahmudul , Hossain Imran , Haque Md. Nuruzzaman , Hossain Md. Kamal 
Published: April 2024

Purpose
Despite city authorities in Bangladesh being concerned about urban sustainability, they often face difficulties in addressing predominant urban challenges threatening urban sustainability, due to limited relevant literature. To reduce this gap, this study aims to address the predominant urban challenges and assess their severity levels in four city corporations of Bangladesh, e.g. Rajshahi, Sylhet, Barishal, and Gazipur.

Design/methodology/approach
Using a mixed-method approach, this study rigorously analyzed field-level data obtained from 1,200 residents across selected cities using diverse statistical techniques. The quantitative analysis included descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and chi-square tests, whereas qualitative insights were derived through thematic analysis.

Findings
The study uncovered nine predominant urban challenges under two crucial factors “Feeble Urban Management” and “Illicit Activities” that collectively explain 62.20% variance. “Feeble Urban Management” explains 44.17% variance, whereas “Illicit Activities” accounts for 18.13%. Within these challenges, uncontrolled urban sprawl, inadequate disaster management, congested roads, and shabby drainage and waste management pose significant threats to urban sustainability. Illicit activities, manifested by encroachment on water sources, grabbing roadside, destruction of natural properties, and activities undermining social security, compound the urban sustainability issue. Severity analysis reveals Sylhet (54.5%), Rajshahi (46.4%), and Barishal (31.2%) as highly impacted, whereas Gazipur exhibits moderate severity (66.7%).

Originality/value
The findings of this study reveal intrinsic insights into urban challenges in Bangladesh that will provide valuable guidance to city authorities, equipping them to implement integrated and effective initiatives and programs that overcome these predominant urban challenges, with a specific focus on Rajshahi, Sylhet, and Barishal city corporations.
Animal‐pollinated crops and cultivars—A quantitative assessment of pollinator dependence values and evaluation of methodological approaches
Authors: Siopa Catarina , Carvalheiro Luísa G. , Castro Helena , Loureiro João , Castro Sílvia 
Published: April 2024

Abstract

Crop pollinator dependence (PD) values are key when assessing a pollinator's contribution to agriculture, guiding management plans and policies for sustainable crop production. However, the available global compilations of crops PD are outdated and neglect variability between related crops and accessions (variety/cultivar), as well as pollen limitation (PL), that is the production lost due to inadequate pollen receipt.

Here, we obtained quantitative PD values for animal‐pollinated crops and their accessions, using data from available pollination experiments worldwide. We also tested pollination methodologies to assess their impact on PD values and to define suitable methodological guidelines for future pollination studies.

We provide a list of continuous PD values for 141 crops, including 317 accessions and 37 crops not listed in previous assessments. We found that, globally, 74% of animal‐pollinated crops are highly dependent on pollinators, and more than 40% of their production is associated with animal pollination. Pollen limitation was detected in 51% of the dataset entries, indicating that estimates calculated with open pollination studies underestimate crop pollinator dependence and, therefore, do not represent the true contribution of pollinators to food production.

Synthesis and applications: Commonly applied methods for assessing PD values can lead to underestimations. Future studies evaluating pollinator dependence levels of crops and their accessions (i.e. potential pollinator contribution) should consider the possibility of pollen limitation in the study site, incorporating hand pollen supplementation (to open flower), open pollination, and pollinator exclusion treatments, preferably using the whole plant or branch as the unit of assessment. The PD values provided here, from studies that allow the incorporation of the concept of pollen limitation, enable more accurate quantifications of pollinator contribution to crop production. These PD values are an invaluable baseline and a requirement for future accurate evaluations of the value of pollinators for food security, supporting pollinator‐friendly practices in agroecosystems.
Topographical gradient of the structure and diversity of a woody plant community in a seasonally dry tropical forest in northwestern Madagascar
Authors: Fujimoto Yutaro , Kaneko Takayuki , Sato Hiroki , Rakotomamonjy Ando Harilalao , Razafiarison Zo Lalaina , Kitajima Kaoru 
Published: April 2024

AbstractFew studies have evaluated the structure and dynamics of forests in Madagascar with high levels of endemism. Ankarafantsika National Park holds the largest of the remaining primary dry forests in northwestern Madagascar, where most of the forests have been lost or degraded by fire and other human activities. In this primary forest, we established a 15‐ha forest dynamics monitoring plot and mapped and identified all woody stems with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥5 cm. The forest stand was characterized by small‐sized individuals (75% of stems with DBH <10 cm, with 99% of trees with height <15 m), encompassing 35,758 tree and 513 liana individuals belonging to 160 species in 53 families (including 20 species of lianas accounting for 1.4% of the stems). Most species‐rich families were Rubiaceae, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, and Malvaceae, which together encompassed 43 tree species and 23% of all tree individuals. The plot was located on a hill consisting of white sand at elevations from 150 to 200 m, with a gentle slope down from southwest to northeast. Over this elevation gradient, stem density and species diversity increased with elevation, while tree height and diameter decreased. The most abundant two species, Drypetes perrieri (Putranjivaceae) and Noronhia alleizettei (Oleaceae) are evergreen, suggesting the importance of a nutrient conservation strategy. These results provide the foundational knowledge necessary for the conservation and restoration of natural semi‐deciduous dry forests that used to cover large areas in northwestern Madagascar until recently.
Love burnout: young women, mobile phones, and delayed marriage in Yaoundé, Cameroon
Authors: Majczak Ewa 
Published: April 2024

AbstractThis article examines how work towards the promise of love marriage comes to be exhausted. It focuses on young urban women living in Yaoundé, Cameroon, trying to ‘catch’ a husband using digital technologies in which photographs figure prominently. Focusing on the visual production of dating profiles, I show how mobile phones place young women at the centre of their own husband‐catching pursuits. Through digital actions, these young women produce the promise of love marriage, but at the same time their actions require increased volumes of emotional work. As phones constantly compel young women to intensify their husband‐catching efforts and amplify the promise of love marriage, they rarely bring the desired results. Thus, young women, burdened by the emotional work necessary to sustain this promise, experience a form of love burnout, suspend their actions, and delay marriage. In highlighting the emotional laboriousness of intimate relations in technologically mediated worlds, this article draws out the limitations of the way in which the promise of love marriage is circulated and points to how neoliberal economies of affect may be temporarily suspended.
Feral ecologies of the human deep past: multispecies archaeology and palaeo‐synanthropy
Authors: Hussain Shumon T. 
Published: April 2024

AbstractThis article articulates recent advances in palaeo‐ecology with the goals and ambitions of multispecies archaeology. It centres the synanthropic nexus as a key context for the study of early human‐animal relationships and argues that its evolution yields important yet currently overlooked dynamics shaping the structure of the archaeological record. I first show how the dominant heuristic of wild versus domesticated nonhuman animals obfuscates the inherent variability and creativity of past animal agency. I then illustrate how such agency is caught up with human behaviour and ecosystem impacts from relatively early on in human history, navigating historically shifting configurations of autonomy and control. Drawing on deep‐historical examples of synanthropic niches co‐assembled by human foragers and nonhuman animals, I argue that such interspecies configurations require careful attention to concepts of liminality and ferality and challenge species‐level approaches. I finally highlight potential human behavioural, material, and cosmological consequences of the synanthropic nexus, including integrative foraging patterns and notions of the giving animal, which play an important role in many Indigenous and ethnographic forager societies and illustrate the value of attending to this nexus as a focus of comparative multispecies research.
A descriptive study of domestic and family violence presentations to an emergency department in the Northern Territory
Authors: Owen Lucy , Hare Breidahl Sibella , Mussared Maud , Brownlea Sandra , Kault David 
Published: April 2024

AbstractObjectiveExamine the nature of domestic and family violence (DFV) presentations to an ED in the Northern Territory and identify potential gaps in service delivery.MethodsProspective descriptive study of DFV presentations in November 2021.ResultsA total of 70 presentations were identified, representing 1.2% of all presentations aged 16 years and older. Disproportionately impacted were First Nations people (90%), women (77.1%) and those aged less than 40 years (67.1%). Most (81.4%) arrived outside of business hours and only 37.1% were assessed by the social worker. Case complexity was increased by high rates of homelessness (30%), concurrent alcohol consumption (44.3%) and pregnancy (11.1% of females). More than a third (37.1%) had attended on one to four occasions in the previous 6 months with a DFV‐related injury. Compared to non‐DFV attendances, the median ED length of stay was approximately twice as long (456 vs 210 min), admissions rates to the ED short stay unit five times higher (25.7% vs 5.7%; P < 0.01, odds ratio [OR] = 5.7 and 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.3–9.8) and rates of self‐discharge prior to completion of care 9 times higher (12.9% vs 1.5%; P < 0.01, OR = 9.5 and 95% CI = 4.6–19.7).ConclusionThe data highlights the need for a 24 h trauma‐informed, culturally safe and integrated service to support people experiencing DFV. This could be achieved by a specialist unit designed and staffed by First Nations health practitioners.
Employment rates for working‐age patients receiving hemodialysis increasing: Changing economic environment
Authors: Sugisawa Hidehiro , Shimizu Yumiko , Kumagai Tamaki , Shishido Kanji , Koda Yutaka , Shinoda Toshio 
Published: April 2024

AbstractIntroductionThis study explored employment trends among working‐age patients undergoing hemodialysis using 5‐year surveys from 1996 to 2021. Policy changes affecting individuals with disabilities, the economic environment, and employment status among the general population in Japan were considered. Differences in trends by gender and health status were examined.MethodsEmployment status was categorized into employment and nonemployment; and regular, nonregular, and self. Analytical data with similar characteristics were generated over the six surveys using the propensity score method.ResultsThe employment rate, especially among women, increased from 1996 to 2021. However, the employment rate ratio to the general population was approximately 80% for men and 50% for women, even in 2021. The employment rate increased with an expansion in nonregular employment. Women's employment trends could be explained by changes in real gross domestic product and employment quotas for individuals with disabilities.ConclusionEmployment trends differ by gender and by regular versus nonregular employment.
The Healthy Ageing/Vulnerable Environment (HAVEN) Index: Measuring neighbourhood age‐friendliness
Authors: Taylor Danielle , Theou Olga , Barrie Helen , Lange Jarrod , Edwards Suzanne , Wilson David , Visvanathan Renuka 
Published: April 2024

AbstractThis study describes the development and testing of the Healthy Ageing/Vulnerable Environment (HAVEN) Index, a prototype composite spatial index for South Australia that reflects an area’s age‐friendliness. The index incorporates over 40 indicator variables across six variable themes: income and employment; education; health and housing; social connectedness; geographic access; and physical environment. Based on the deficit accumulation approach, the modelling uses area‐level rather than individual‐level data and is compiled through quantitative geospatial methods. Analysis using the HAVEN Index of state‐wide mortality data and hospital emergency department (ED) presentations for Central Adelaide found that vulnerable areas were associated with a higher risk of mortality and ED presentation. Comparisons between the HAVEN Index and a widely used national area‐level measure of socio‐economic differences found that the HAVEN Index compares favourably and provides additional information about local areas, which can inform needs‐based approaches to support the reduction of spatial inequalities and the development of age‐friendly neighbourhoods.
Navigating the dilemmas of mutual aid: International student organising in Sydney during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Authors: Iveson Kurt , Riboldi Mark 
Published: April 2024

AbstractIn 2020, thousands of international students found themselves stranded in Sydney, Australia, with the suspension of international travel and closure of borders. While many lost their livelihoods due to lockdowns, the Australian government excluded international students and other temporary visa holders from all forms of income support and disaster relief—resulting in food and housing insecurity and social isolation. This article describes and analyses the forms of mutual aid and support that international students organised to address their situation. In providing an account of their efforts, we consider them as forms of care infrastructure and draw particular attention to the institutional relationships that were involved: interfaces with faith, community and labour organising; confrontations with state agencies and the higher education sector; and institutionalisation into a formalised and state‐funded community organising initiative—the Oz International Student Hub. We examine the evolution of these relationships as responses to a series of strategic dilemmas, as students sought simultaneously to care for one another and to confront the forces that produced their precarity and isolation. And we draw out a series of lessons we can learn from their efforts about how mutual aid can avoid the pitfalls of charity and state welfare, while institutionalising more durable political spaces that do not have to be invented anew with each fresh crisis.