6,752 research outputs found

    Deliberation in the public policies planning process

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    Over the last decades much has been written about the role of deliberation in public life, and much is still being written. This does not mean that the idea of deliberation is no longer a flickering mirage, and the deliberative recommendations and the results of practices can be fully satisfied. In the literature on deliberation, as well as in the sphere of deliberative practices, there are examples more and less valuable. (...) When we started working on the book, we tried to compose a work at a good academic level, which would not lack bolder theoretical interpretations, and at the same time it would be as free as possible from reproducing empty words. We leave the readers to judge the extent to which we have managed to do so. And we do so (as we hope) without self-righteousness, but also without anxiety, because we managed to gather a precisely selected group of authors which in our opinion guarantees academic reliability as well as practical awareness.The study consists of ten texts. The first three chapters focus on theoretical issues and the remaining seven take a more practical and functional approach

    The Effect of Interprofessional Conflict Resolution on Interprofessional Collaborative Practice among Health Care Provider Teams in Hospitals

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    Client needs and their complexities have increased, challenging multiple professionals to work together within health systems to reach better patient outcomes. Addressing this challenge requires interprofessional collaboration, which, while essential, may also breed conflict given that individuals from various health care disciplines each bring their unique perspectives into teamwork. While some degree of disagreement is expected, team members must be able to resolve conflicts to ensure effective patient care. However, limited information was available that described and clearly defined interprofessional conflict resolution as a concept. The aim of this study was threefold. This study began with a concept analysis of interprofessional conflict resolution (IPCR) as a means to identify its attributes to generate instrument items. This study then carried out development and testing of the psychometric properties of an instrument designed to measure IPCR among health care teams, followed by development and evaluation of the effect of an interventional education program to resolve interprofessional conflicts in teams. Finally, the testing of a theoretically derived model linking the relationship between health care providers’ personal factors (general self-efficacy and team psychological safety) and interpersonal communication competence on interprofessional collaborative practice, and explored if these relationships were moderated by interprofessional conflict resolution. The Interprofessional Conflict Resolution Scale was found to be valid and reliable. The findings indicated that participants’ perceived learning effectiveness based on their learning outcome ratings represented 93.3% learning effectiveness from the training program. This study identified five emerging themes from participants’ reflections and open- ended answers from the feedback form supporting the transfer of learning into the practice. The theoretically derived model tested in this research study was supported by the data collected, with the exception of one hypothesis (H4)

    Respecting the Voices of Individuals from Marginalised Communities in Research

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    This book considers the development of "respectful research" through an emphasis on partnership between researchers and those who are the subjects of research. It presents examples from a range of international contexts or projects that have worked to ensure that the voices of marginalised individuals and communities are accessed in a manner that respects their individuality and culture

    Global perspectives on educational innovations for emergency situations

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    Microfinance for better lives?: learning experiences of women beneficiaries of the Inhlanyelo Fund in Manzini Region, Eswatini.

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    Doctoral Degrees. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Empowering women is a critical issue in developing countries such as Eswatini. Women's poverty is exacerbated by discrimination in the economic, social, and political spheres (Salia, Hussain, Tingbani, & Kolade, 2018), thus limiting their inner potential. Poverty in emerging economies is a major impediment for meeting the countries’ Sustainable Development Goals. There is evidence that interventions, such as microfinance schemes, can improve the lives of women, particularly rural women (Banerjee, 2017; Mayoux, 2002). Women's participation in informal sectors in developing countries could lead to economic growth and well-being. As key players in household welfare, microfinance supports self-employment, and alleviates poverty. Understanding women's microfinance experiences could improve microfinance interventions. The study explores how women beneficiaries of Eswatini’s Inhlanyelo Fund bettered their lives and gained learning experiences. There is limited information available on this topic. This investigation analyses what kind of microfinance intervention is most suitable for improving the lives of women and their families. The study is positioned within the interpretive paradigm, and adopts a qualitative design. The investigation was conducted with ten women in the Manzini regions of Eswatini. Data collection methods include semi-structured interviews, which make use of life histories and photovoice. The data were transcribed and analysed manually using pattern coding where themes emerged. The findings reveal that loan income from the Inhlanyelo Fund was used primarily for consumables, with little remaining for investment in the business. Using the theoretical lenses of Jarvis’ model of experiential learning and the African perspective of ubuntu, this study examines how the women’s learning evolved through access to the fund and led to their empowerment and “buen vivir”. The findings reveal that women learned in social networks through interaction with others, and this helped to transform their behaviour and changed their lives. The study concludes that the ubuntu theme of humanness and participation in the collective were contributory factors in the learning processes of the beneficiaries of Eswatini’s Inhlanyelo Fund. The study recommends that future training should take account of the importance of experiential learning and social networking in empowering women through microfinance schemes

    Depicting Vocational Education and Training System in Computable General Equilibrium Models

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    Allgemeine Gleichgewichtsmodelle (Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models) werden oft genutzt, um Erkenntnisse ĂŒber die gesamtwirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen bildungspolitischer Maßnahmen zu gewinnen. Eine Literaturrecherche zur Integration des Bildungs- und Ausbildungssystems in CGE-Modellen zeigt klare Limitationen bisheriger Studien bezĂŒglich der Darstellung des Bildungs- und Ausbildungssystems und identifiziert damit eine wichtige ForschungslĂŒcke, der sich diese Dissertation widmet. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist das Hauptziel dieser Dissertation die Entwicklung eines neuartigen Ansatzes zur Einbeziehung der anerkannten Bildungs- und Berufsbildungssysteme in CGE-Modellen, einschließlich aller potenziellen Verbindungen zwischen diesen beiden Systemen. Das entwickelte Modell ermöglicht die Akkumulation von ArbeitskrĂ€ften entsprechend der VerĂ€nderungen der Anzahl der Absolventen und Schulabbrecher eines integrierten Bildungs- und Ausbildungssystems. Es handelt sich um ein rekursiv-dynamisches Ein-Land-CGE-Modell (STAGE-Edu), das die mittel- bis langfristigen gesamtwirtschaftlichen Effekte verschiedener Bildungs- und Ausbildungspolitiken abbildet. Der Sudan gehört zu den LĂ€ndern der unteren mittleren Einkommensklasse, die bezĂŒglich der Förderung der menschlichen Entwicklung vor zahlreichen Herausforderungen stehen. Aus diesem Grund werden in der vorliegenden Dissertation verschiedene bildungspolitische Maßnahmen analysiert und deren Auswirkungen auf das Wirtschaftswachstum und die Humankapitalbildung im Sudan bewertet. Der entwickelte Modellierungsrahmen leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag zur gesamtwirtschaftlichen Darstellung der durch Bildung und Ausbildung bewirkten menschlichen Entwicklung sowie der drauf abzielenden politischen Maßnahmen. STAGE-Edu bietet politischen EntscheidungstrĂ€gern ex-ante Erkenntnisse bezĂŒglich der potenziellen Auswirkungen von Maßnahmen zur Verbesserung der Arbeitsqualifikation und letztlich zur Erhöhung des Lebensstandards der Bevölkerung.Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models have been widely used to generate insights into the economy-wide implications of education policy measures. A literature review on incorporating the education and training system in CGE models reveals explicit limitations of previous studies depicting vocational education and training system, hence, identifying a significant research gap, which shall be addressed in this dissertation. Against this background, the main objective of this dissertation is to develop a novel approach to incorporate the acknowledged education and vocational training systems in CGE models, including all potential exiting bridges between these two systems. The developed model enables labor force accumulation according to changes in the number of graduates and dropouts from an integrated education and training system. It is a recursive-dynamic single-country CGE model (STAGE-Edu), which depicts the medium- to long-run economy-wide effects of various education and training policies. The Sudan is one of the lower-middle-income countries that face numerous challenges in accelerating human development. For this reason, in the dissertation at hand different education and training policy measures are analyzed and their implications on economic growth and human capital accumulation in the Sudan are assessed. The developed modeling framework contributes to the field of economy-wide depiction of human development triggered by education and training as well as related policy measures. STAGE-Edu provides policymakers with ex-ante insights on potential impacts of measures for enhancing labor skills and ultimately for improving the livelihood of the population

    Data-Driven Framework for Understanding & Modeling Ride-Sourcing Transportation Systems

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    Ride-sourcing transportation services offered by transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft are disrupting the transportation landscape. The growing demand on these services, along with their potential short and long-term impacts on the environment, society, and infrastructure emphasize the need to further understand the ride-sourcing system. There were no sufficient data to fully understand the system and integrate it within regional multimodal transportation frameworks. This can be attributed to commercial and competition reasons, given the technology-enabled and innovative nature of the system. Recently, in 2019, the City of Chicago the released an extensive and complete ride-sourcing trip-level data for all trips made within the city since November 1, 2018. The data comprises the trip ends (pick-up and drop-off locations), trip timestamps, trip length and duration, fare including tipping amounts, and whether the trip was authorized to be shared (pooled) with another passenger or not. Therefore, the main goal of this dissertation is to develop a comprehensive data-driven framework to understand and model the system using this data from Chicago, in a reproducible and transferable fashion. Using data fusion approach, sociodemographic, economic, parking supply, transit availability and accessibility, built environment and crime data are collected from open sources to develop this framework. The framework is predicated on three pillars of analytics: (1) explorative and descriptive analytics, (2) diagnostic analytics, and (3) predictive analytics. The dissertation research framework also provides a guide on the key spatial and behavioral explanatory variables shaping the utility of the mode, driving the demand, and governing the interdependencies between the demand’s willingness to share and surge price. Thus, the key findings can be readily challenged, verified, and utilized in different geographies. In the explorative and descriptive analytics, the ride-sourcing system’s spatial and temporal dimensions of the system are analyzed to achieve two objectives: (1) explore, reveal, and assess the significance of spatial effects, i.e., spatial dependence and heterogeneity, in the system behavior, and (2) develop a behavioral market segmentation and trend mining of the willingness to share. This is linked to the diagnostic analytics layer, as the revealed spatial effects motivates the adoption of spatial econometric models to analytically identify the ride-sourcing system determinants. Multiple linear regression (MLR) is used as a benchmark model against spatial error model (SEM), spatially lagged X (SLX) model, and geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. Two innovative modeling constructs are introduced deal with the ride-sourcing system’s spatial effects and multicollinearity: (1) Calibrated Spatially Lagged X Ridge Model (CSLXR) and Calibrated Geographically Weighted Ridge Regression (CGWRR) in the diagnostic analytics layer. The identified determinants in the diagnostic analytics layer are then fed into the predictive analytics one to develop an interpretable machine learning (ML) modeling framework. The system’s annual average weekday origin-destination (AAWD OD) flow is modeled using the following state-of-the-art ML models: (1) Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) Regression, (2) Support Vector Machines Regression (SVR), and (3) Tree-based ensemble learning methods, i.e., Random Forest Regression (RFR) and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost). The innovative modeling construct of CGWRR developed in the diagnostic analytics is then validated in a predictive context and is found to outperform the state-of-the-art ML models in terms of testing score of 0.914, in comparison to 0.906 for XGBoost, 0.84 for RFR, 0.89 for SVR, and 0.86 for MLP. The CGWRR exhibits outperformance as well in terms of the root mean squared error (RMSE) and mean average error (MAE). The findings of this dissertation partially bridge the gap between the practice and the research on ride-sourcing transportation systems understanding and integration. The empirical findings made in the descriptive and explorative analytics can be further utilized by regional agencies to fill practice and policymaking gaps on regulating ride-sourcing services using corridor or cordon toll, optimally allocating standing areas to minimize deadheading, especially during off-peak periods, and promoting the ride-share willingness in disadvantage communities. The CGWRR provides a reliable modeling and simulation tool to researchers and practitioners to integrate the ride-sourcing system in multimodal transportation modeling frameworks, simulation testbed for testing long-range impacts of policies on ride-sourcing, like improved transit supply, congestions pricing, or increased parking rates, and to plan ahead for similar futuristic transportation modes, like the shared autonomous vehicles
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