Decentralising Personal Credit Score

The current process of securing a loan involves a cumbersome know-your-customer (KYC) process. The process also raises a question about the ownership of credit scores. In this chapter, the authors propose a solution based on a combination of decentralized identifier (DID) W3C blockchain and cryptographic wallet to make it possible to make credit scores possible. A decentralized identifier to enable a loan applicant to assert who he/she is without relying on a centralized identity issuer is key to enabling loan applicants to own his/her own credit score. The use of blockchain is to enable loan applicants to have his/her identity recorded immutably on a store that is trusted by all parties. Finally, the use of a cryptographic wallet is to enable loan applicants to assert identities on demand and prove his/her assertion.

Increasing sustainability through reverse logistics a study on expired and waste medicines in Pakistani pharma industry

Increasing sustainability is the objective in all manufacturing and service sectors. For the increasing sustainability via circular economy, the research at hand reviews reverse logistics within the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan. It proposes a recommendation to improve the current process of recycling medicines. The methodology is a qualitative method comprising unstructured interviews with an esteemed organization and observations to understand the dynamics of recycling and reverse logistics in drugs. The study helps develop and illustrates a framework divided into three stages (Distributor/Hospitals in 1st Tier, Whole sellers in 2nd Tier, Retailers and Customer in 3rd Tier) to target the customers and bring them into reverse logistics. The paper recommends policy implications to help improve the situation and initiate a sustainable practice for the environment and cost-efficient, including steps wise phases to gauge consumers for recycling medicines.

The (ir)resistible acceleration of digital education. The emergence of the blended school form in a state of education emergency

This article focuses on the recent acceleration of digital education triggered by the Covid19 pandemic. Protective measures, particularly the social distancing, translated into an institutional shock for the standard form of schooling. By drawing on a summary of current investigations on the topic (Brehm, Unterhalter & Oketch, 2021; Grek & Landri, 2021), the article describes how swift digitalization has reinforced the entanglement of public education into private owned and commercial platforms and paved the way to the emergence of the blended school form. The instabilities of the current process of institutional repair are underlined together with the risk of increasing unbalanced private and public partnership in the education system, and/or returning to the standard form of schooling in the future post-pandemic scenario.

Socio-Organizational Impact of Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy in Neurosurgery and Neuropathology: Results from a Process Analysis and Expert Survey

During brain tumor resection surgery, it is essential to determine the tumor borders as the extent of resection is important for post-operative patient survival. The current process of removing a tissue sample for frozen section analysis has several shortcomings that might be overcome by confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE). CLE is a promising new technology enabling the digital in vivo visualization of tissue structures in near real-time. Research on the socio-organizational impact of introducing this new methodology to routine care in neurosurgery and neuropathology is scarce. We analyzed a potential clinical workflow employing CLE by comparing it to the current process. Additionally, a small expert survey was conducted to collect data on the opinion of clinical staff working with CLE. While CLE can contribute to a workload reduction for neuropathologists and enable a shorter process and a more efficient use of resources, the effort for neurosurgeons and surgery assistants might increase. Experts agree that CLE offers huge potential for better diagnosis and therapy but also see challenges, especially due to the current state of experimental use, including a risk for misinterpretations and the need for special training. Future studies will show whether CLE can become part of routine care.

Diagnosis and Optimization of Gold Ore Flotation Circuit via Linear Circuit Analysis and Mass Balance Simulation

The aim of this study is to diagnose and optimize a closed multistage gold ore flotation circuit in an operational industrial plant. Linear circuit analysis (LCA), a partition-based model, and a mass balance model using flotation first-order kinetics are employed to diagnose the current process. The result shows that the current circuit operates with high recovery but the gold grade of the final concentrate is low owing to the low buoyancy ratio. Hence, several alternative circuits with different streamlines and cell arrangements are proposed and simulated using LCA and a mass balance model. The result suggests that if the current process is changed to an alternative circuit in which the floated product stream of the rougher bank is changed, then the gold grade of the concentrate can be improved by 128%. Finally, the current circuit is optimized by changing it to an alternative circuit. This study provides a methodology for adapting the simulation of optimization for the flotation circuit of an industrial plant via LCA and mass balance simulation.

Growing Out before Out Growing - Flexible Housing for New Zealand

<p><b>Housing in New Zealand often makes its way into the headlines, with issues such as demand, shortfall and affordability dominating the news. There is, however, one issue that is prevalent but is barely addressed. This is the issue of suitability. Many New Zealanders are living in houses that are inappropriate for their needs. This problem exists along a spectrum and affects everyone. The truth is, at some stage in our lives, we may find ourselves living in a house that is either too big or too small.</b></p> <p>The purpose of this research is to investigate whether flexible housing is a feasible solution to address the problem of suitability. This is achieved through the design of a modular prefabricated construction system and the design of a connection which facilitates this flexibility. This system consists of a prefabricated modular panel system and a designed connection, which allows the physical fabric of the house to be altered, so it can increase or decrease in size to suit its occupants’.</p> <p>The feasibility of this system has been evaluated through the construction of a full-scale prototype and the design of a house to test its flexible abilities. Fundamentally, this research should hopefully change the way we think about constructing homes in New Zealand. An inversion of the current process and will see home construction suited to the occupant at the very beginning, middle and end of their lifespan instead of just a potentially small period. This solution could also bring about change in the way we finance our homes allowing for incremental change and incremental investment over the lifetime of the building.</p>

Growing Out before Out Growing - Flexible Housing for New Zealand

<p><b>Housing in New Zealand often makes its way into the headlines, with issues such as demand, shortfall and affordability dominating the news. There is, however, one issue that is prevalent but is barely addressed. This is the issue of suitability. Many New Zealanders are living in houses that are inappropriate for their needs. This problem exists along a spectrum and affects everyone. The truth is, at some stage in our lives, we may find ourselves living in a house that is either too big or too small.</b></p> <p>The purpose of this research is to investigate whether flexible housing is a feasible solution to address the problem of suitability. This is achieved through the design of a modular prefabricated construction system and the design of a connection which facilitates this flexibility. This system consists of a prefabricated modular panel system and a designed connection, which allows the physical fabric of the house to be altered, so it can increase or decrease in size to suit its occupants’.</p> <p>The feasibility of this system has been evaluated through the construction of a full-scale prototype and the design of a house to test its flexible abilities. Fundamentally, this research should hopefully change the way we think about constructing homes in New Zealand. An inversion of the current process and will see home construction suited to the occupant at the very beginning, middle and end of their lifespan instead of just a potentially small period. This solution could also bring about change in the way we finance our homes allowing for incremental change and incremental investment over the lifetime of the building.</p>

Mechanistic-Empirical Faulting Prediction Model for Unbonded Concrete Overlays of Concrete

Transverse joint faulting is a distress that develops in unbonded concrete overlays (UBOL). Historically, faulting models used for predicting the performance of a UBOL have not accounted for the effects of the interlayer between the overlay and the existing pavement on the development of faulting. This is a significant limitation since characteristics of the interlayer play a primary role in the rate at which faulting develops in UBOLs. To develop a more robust faulting prediction model for UBOLs, enhancements were made to the current process to address this limitation. This includes the use of a structural response model that can account for the effects of the interlayer properties on the response of the UBOL. Additional enhancements include the use of a deflection basin of the overlay (in lieu of corner deflections of an equivalent slab system for accumulating differential energy [DE]), the incorporation of an erosion model that can account for the erodibility of the interlayer material, the adjustment of the incremental faulting equations to accommodate small slab sizes that are common in UBOLs, and a national calibration using faulting data from in-service UBOLs. This enhanced faulting model has been implemented in the mechanistic-empirical design tool Pitt UBOL-ME.

Recommendations

Chapter 9 lays out proposals for change. They range from simple and uncontroversial ones, like requiring the government to collect reliable statistics about the number of jobs lost through mergers and outsourcing, to controversial proposals, like adding labor representation to the corporate boards of directors. Although some antitrust scholars have recently proposed changing merger review to include consideration of the effects on labor, the chapter argues that changing the current process is not feasible. Instead, the chapter proposes the creation of a new government panel to review proposed mergers and outsourcing. The board would assess the expected displacement of labor in comparison with a realistic appraisal of the expected gains to consumers. The chapter argues that the proposed reforms cannot be achieved until the influence of business on Congress is limited. The chapter also deals with political effects, by pointing out that the harm to workers has aggregated over the years, culminating in popular support for both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election. There is a dark side to this growing populist movement, however, because disgruntled labor has played a role in nationalistic and fascistic movements during the twentieth century.