scholarly journals Installed Base as a Facilitator for User-Driven Innovation: How Can User Innovation Challenge Existing Institutional Barriers?

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Synnøve Thomassen Andersen ◽  
Arild Jansen

The paper addresses an ICT-based, user-driven innovation process in the health sector in rural areas in Norway. The empirical base is the introduction of a new model for psychiatric health provision. This model is supported by a technical solution based on mobile phones that is aimed to help the communication between professional health personnel and patients. This innovation was made possible through the use of standard mobile technology rather than more sophisticated systems. The users were heavily involved in the development work. Our analysis shows that by thinking simple and small-scale solutions, including to take the user’s needs and premises as a point of departure rather than focusing on advanced technology, the implementation process was made possible. We show that by combining theory on information infrastructures, user-oriented system development, and innovation in a three-layered analytical framework, we can explain the interrelationship between technical, organizational, and health professional factors that made this innovation a success.

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1and2) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Tejmani Singh ◽  
Chinglen Pukhrabam Singh

Indias Look East policy was envisioned by the Narasimha Rao government in 1991 as a focused foreign policy approach towards South East Asia in particular and East Asia in general. In the present day circumstance, tourism covers rural areas, the health sector, and the environment. There are about 305 communities and over 200 tribes inhabited in Indias northeast region. Each community has its distinct customs, cultural legacy and tradition and as such, the region has ample projection to promote modern day tourism. However, policy makers face certain challenges in the North East towards best possible implementation of the Look East policy (hereinafter Act East Policy). This paper throws light on these challenges like lack of infrastructure, crisis of insurgency, the disjuncture between the elites and the social base in the North East regarding the Look East policy, and the states in capacities during the implementation process of this policy. There are ample possibilities for Tribals in North-East India to reap benefits from Indias thriving relations with South East Asia as the process of globalization provides the countries with the opportunities to grapple with cross-market convenience and enabling them lessen their poverty and economic backwardness.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2189
Author(s):  
Cesare Caputo ◽  
Ondřej Mašek

Energy access and waste management are two of the most pressing developmental and environmental issues on a global level to help mitigate the accelerating impacts of climate change. They are particularly relevant in Sub–Saharan Africa where electrification rates are significantly below global averages and rural areas are lacking a formal waste management sector. This paper explores the potential of integrating solar energy into a biomass pyrolysis unit as a potentially synergetic solution to both issues. The full design of a slow pyrolysis batch reactor targeted at biochar production, following a strict cost minimization approach, is presented in light of the relevant considerations. SPEAR is powered using a Cassegrain optics parabolic dish system, integrated into the reactor via a manual tracking system and optically optimized with a Monte-Carlo ray tracing methodology. The design approach employed has led to the development an overall cost efficient system, with the potential to achieve optical efficiencies up 72% under a 1.5° tracking error. The outputs of the system are biochar and electricity, to be used for soil amendment and energy access purposes, respectively. There is potential to pyrolyze a number of agricultural waste streams for the region, producing at least 5 kg of biochar per unit per day depending on the feedstock employed. Financial assessment of SPEAR yields a positive Net Present Value (NPV) in nearly all scenarios evaluated and a reasonable competitiveness with small scale solar for electrification objectives. Finally, SPEAR presents important positive social and environmental externalities and should be feasibly implementable in the region in the near term.


2011 ◽  
Vol 368-373 ◽  
pp. 3602-3606
Author(s):  
Ze Xin Li ◽  
Min Chen

Underdeveloped rural areas have good but very vulnerable ecological environment, so the environment protection should be given priority in new rural construction. Based on the problems that rural areas have faced in ecological environment, some thoughts are given in this paper on ecological and environmental: ①To solve the conflicts between the development of rural economy and ecological environment protection, the development of eco-industry can be a key solution. ② For the point that people of underdeveloped areas live in scattered and small scale groups, which leads to difficulty in facility arrangements, some proposals are put forward on the construction of living environment in underdeveloped new rural areas.


Erdkunde ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-60
Author(s):  
Birgit Glorius ◽  
Miriam Bürer ◽  
Hanne Schneider

Research on integration processes of migrants has until recently remained on geographical levels of observation which are not apt to reveal and explain the variety of local integration trajectories. Furthermore, most research has focused on the role of migrants within these processes, while the attitudes and behaviours of the receiving society have been rarely addressed. This research gap concerns in particular rural areas since those areas have been widely left out of migration research. This article addresses those research gaps and develops a concept for the empirical research of local receptivity processes.


Water SA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (3 July) ◽  
Author(s):  
DC Sambo ◽  
A Senzanje ◽  
K Dhavu

Some parts of the rural areas of South Africa are receiving water services below the legislative standards stipulated in the Water Services Act (1997) of South Africa. This is because small-scale water infrastructures (SWI), including standpipes, handpumps and windmills, are failing to supply adequate water in rural communities for various activities that enhance their livelihoods. This is due to technical, community, institutional, and environmental factors. Literature indicates that these factors are complex in nature. However, research on their complex interactions has been limited. Therefore, the complex interactions of the factors causing SWI failure were investigated and analysed in this study. A qualitative research approach was employed to investigate the factors that cause failure of SWI. The network approach combined with graph theory and the community structure method were used to generate a theme and domain network that allowed for a systematic analysis and interpretation of the causes of SWI failure in the study area. The major causes of failure identified include: (i) the use of a top-down approach to implement water projects in rural communities without consultation, (ii) sharing of SWI in high numbers due to the limited number of SWI available/functional, resulting in overloading and increased breakdowns, and (iii) drying up of water sources due to poor siting leading to vandalism of SWI. Overall, the causes of SWI failure are as a result of the complex interactions of different categories of factors. The theme and domain network is a powerful tool that can be used represent and analyse the complex interactions. It is therefore imperative for interventions aiming to improve rural water supply to analyse the complex interactions of the causes of SWI failure to understand the underlying problems at a level of a system, in order to propose suitable solutions.


Author(s):  
Michael Leue ◽  
Carlo Luzzi

The San Pedro Bay Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles continue to provide vital rail connections to the rest of the country. The Rail Enhancement Program sets forth the rail improvements necessary to maintain performance as cargo volumes grow through the year 2035. Implementation of the Rail Enhancement Program has faced hurdles including environmental permitting, funding and competing stakeholder concerns. Cargo growth eased in the years approaching 2010, but the timing of proposed improvements to the rail infrastructure remains critical and challenging. The Rail Enhancement Program is the result of work over the past ten years. Conditions affecting the program have continued to change since the original Rail Master Planning Study of 2000. Updates to the Master Plan have been performed in 2005 and 2010. These documents provide analyses and recommendations for rail improvements to maintain adequate rail service on the Alameda Corridor and through the Port to its rail yards. In developing the Rail Enhancement Program, simulation is used to understand the impacts of increasing cargo volumes on the rail system and to investigate infrastructure and operating improvements required to address deficiencies and to determine improvements to efficiently handle projected traffic. This paper describes the development process with a summary of the analysis methods, resulting proposed rail projects, implementation process and current status of implementation. The steps of the rail system development process include the following: • Evaluation of existing and proposed rail operations; • Conceptual design of over forty potential rail improvement projects; • Analysis of the capacity of existing and proposed facilities; • Scheduling of project development to meet demand; • Estimation of environmental, community and regional impacts and benefits; • Determination of schedule including environmental permit requirements; • Development of project funding plans; and • Preparation of engineering designs and construction documents. The paper will conclude with a summary of the status of key projects from the Rail Enhancement Program. Implementation of the Rail Enhancement Program has included permitting, funding and design efforts on individual projects. The projects currently under development total $1B out of the overall $2B program. The Rail Enhancement Program provides significant benefits to operating efficiencies, environmental impacts and economic impacts. Implementation has been a challenging effort and illustrates the myriad obstacles facing public infrastructure development.


Africa ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 614-652 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Waters

AbstractThere are two general approaches to assessing what is known as ‘development’. First, there are classical accounts focusing on Europe's development during the industrial revolution. They describe how urban areas expanded at the expense of the social and economic resources of the rural areas, disrupting an independent subsistence peasantry. A major consequence is that today all Europeans are dependent socially, politically, and economically on the modern capitalist system. The second (more common) approach to development focuses on the modern Third World. This approach assumes that, as with Europe, the entire Third World is dependent on the modern capitalist system. Development studies focus on the assessment of how Third World countries can most effectively engage world capitalism. Discussion is typically reduced to comparisons between world systems theory and neoclassical economics. The Tanzanian government has used standard policies grounded in neoclassical and world‐system assumptions since independence. But both policies failed to produce the predicted economic growth. This article argues that both policies failed because the Tanzanian peasantry, like the early modern European peasantry, is not dependent on the operation of world capitalism for basic subsistence. In fact, as studies have shown, rural Tanzania is only weakly incorporated into the capitalist world system, and in consequence has not been an easy target for what world‐system theorists call ‘peripheral integration’. What makes Tanzania different is the fact that the rural peasantry do not use market mechanisms in the distribution of the ‘means of production’, especially arable land for swidden agriculture, or, for that matter, labour or cattle.


2012 ◽  
Vol 229-231 ◽  
pp. 1944-1949
Author(s):  
Zhen Tao Qi ◽  
Xue Jun Zhang ◽  
Dong Han

Simulation is an effective means for system development. A simulation system of the General aviation (GA) avionics using HLA is designed in this paper. The design and implementation process of federates is also described, taking the Cockpit Display federate as an example. The system has good interoperability, reusability and scalability, which meet the requirements of avionics simulation. The system can be widely used in GA avionics design and the training of pilots.


2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (12) ◽  
pp. 181-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Hidaka ◽  
H. Yamada ◽  
M. Kawamura ◽  
H. Tsuno

In this study, an intermittent aeration type activated sludge process that is fed continuously is evaluated for nitrogen and organic carbon for facilities in rural areas, which are characterized by small scale, low loading rate and automatic operation. Anoxic and aerobic conditions can be regulated alternatively by intermittent aeration for biological nitrogen removal. It is proved that an intermittent aeration cycle of 90 min, with aeration/anoxic mixing periods of 25~30 min/65~60 min in Tank 1, and 30~45 min/60~45 min in Tank 2, and a DO control set at 0.6~1 mg/L during the aeration period are required for satisfactory treatment performance. Under these conditions, a stable effluent water quality with BOD ≤ 5 mg/L, CODMn ≤ 8 mg/L, Nitrogen ≤ 3 mgN/L, SS ≤ 5 mg/L and transparency ≥ 80 cm can be achieved. The solids retention time in aerobic condition was 10~25 d, which is sufficient for nitrification.


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