Search Results (155)

Public–private partnership (PPP) logistics infrastructure projects have become increasingly prevalent globally. Consequently, the effective management of these projects as their concession periods expire presents a crucial challenge for governments, vital for the sustainable management of PPP logistics infrastructure. This study addresses this challenge by focusing on the pivotal post-concession decision: whether the government should self-operate the mature logistics infrastructure or re-delegate its management to a private entity. Our theoretical model, built on a principal–agent framework, first establishes a social welfare baseline under government self-operation and then analyzes delegated operation under symmetric information, identifying efficiency frontiers. Under symmetric information, we find that government self-operation is more advantageous when its own operational efficiency is sufficiently high, irrespective of the private enterprise’s efficiency; conversely, delegating to an efficient private enterprise is optimal only when government operational efficiency is low. We also demonstrate that if the government can directly specify the demand quantity and service level and delegates operation via a fixed fee, the enterprise can be incentivized to align with the social optimum. However, under asymmetric information, potential welfare gains from delegation are inevitably offset by informational rent and output distortion. We further uncover non-monotonic impacts of parameters like the proportion of low-cost firms on social welfare loss and demonstrate how information asymmetry can indirectly compromise the long-term resilience of the infrastructure. Ultimately, our work asserts that delegation is only superior if its potential efficiency gains sufficiently offset the inherent losses stemming from information asymmetry. Full article

Procedural physician-scientists have made significant contributions to medicine and science, with twelve proceduralists receiving a Nobel Prize. Unfortunately, several systemic challenges have jeopardized the existence, let alone the flourishing, of procedural physician-scientists: the widening gap in the National Institutes of Health salary cap, decreasing funding from nonfederal public and private agencies, and shifting priorities among U.S. hospitals, payers, and policymakers toward relative value unit productivity-based compensation and fee-for-service models. Additional pressures include prolonged training pathways and the need to maintain clinical continuity. Adopting a team science approach may offer a powerful strategy to mitigate these competing demands, support rigorous scientific inquiry, and address the growing complexity of biomedical research. Concerted efforts by the federal government, policymakers, corporations, institutions, and procedural departments will also be crucial to restoring the vitality of this diminishing workforce. Full article

Questionnaire data plays a key role in social research, especially when evaluating public attitudes using Likert-type scales. Yet, traditional analyses often merge some ordinal categories and exclude responses such as Don’t Know, No Answer, or Refused—risking the loss of valuable information. This study introduces BS-TOSIE (Belief Structure-Based TOPSIS for Survey Item Evaluation), a novel method that preserves and integrates all response types, including ambiguous ones. By combining the Belief Structure framework with the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method, BS-TOSIE offers a structured approach to ranking and evaluating individual survey items measured on an ordinal scale, even in the presence of missing or incomplete data. Response distributions are transformed into a belief structure vector, enabling comparison against ideal and anti-ideal benchmarks. We demonstrate this approach using data from the Quality of Life in European Cities survey to assess perceptions of local governance in European cities. This study analyzes changes in citizen satisfaction with local public administration across five key dimensions—timeliness, procedural clarity, fairness of fees, digital accessibility, and perceived corruption—in 83 European cities between 2019 and 2023. The findings reveal persistent regional disparities, with Northern and Western European cities consistently outperforming those in Southern and Eastern Europe, although some cities in Central Europe show signs of improvement. Zurich consistently received high satisfaction scores, while other cities, such as Rome and Palermo, showed lower scores. Unlike traditional methods, our approach preserves the full spectrum of responses, yielding more nuanced and interpretable insights. The results show that BS-TOSIE enhances both the clarity and depth of survey analysis, making a methodological contribution to the evaluation of ordinal data and offering empirical insights into public perceptions of local city administration. Full article

The public–private partnerships (PPP) mode is very popular in public infrastructure projects. The PPP model for sponge city construction (SCC) provides an effective way to curb and manage the increasingly serious ecological water problems in China. The quantitative evaluation of value for money (VFM) is an evaluation method that obtains quantitative values through a certain calculation process. However, the current studies lack a dynamic quantitative evaluation of VFM for the entire life cycle of SCC PPP projects, and cannot observe the impact of key factors on the VFM value. By constructing a system dynamics (SD) model for the VFM quantitative evaluation of SCC PPP projects from the perspective of the whole life cycle, this study can intuitively and transparently observe the impact of key factors (such as discount rate and profit margin) on the evaluation results and feasibility of adopting a PPP model in the project, offering policymakers a tool to mitigate the risks of “Pseudo-PPP” projects. After collecting cases in Anhui province from the China PPP Center, this study constructed a life cycle VFM quantitative evaluation system dynamics model suitable for SCC PPP projects that consist of the public sector comparison (PSC) value and PPP value. The results indicate that the system dynamics model can be effectively applied to the dynamic quantitative evaluation of SCC PPP projects and clarify the influence degree on and sensitivity of various factors to the VFM value. Specifically, when the discount rate increases, the decrease in the PPP value is greater than that in the PSC value, leading to an increase in the VFM value. Moreover, a reasonable profit margin is more sensitive to the VFM value and decreases as the reasonable profit margin increases. In addition, choosing different availability service fee calculation methods will result in varying the adjustment range to a reasonable profit margin that drives the adoption of VFM quantitative evaluation. These research findings have provided a viable dynamic research methodology for the quantitative VFM evaluation of SCC PPP projects. This methodology enables the dynamic visualization and easy determination of the acceptable ranges for relevant factors, offers rational policy recommendations for the quantitative evaluation of key factor values, and thereby effectively prevents PPP project violations, promoting fair and reasonable cooperation between governments and private enterprises. Full article

Climate change-induced floods and droughts pose significant threats to rice farm development in Indonesia, particularly in regions reliant on pump-based irrigation systems. The urgency of this study lies in the increasing vulnerability of rice production to extreme weather events, necessitating institutional adaptations to enhance irrigation sustainability and financial risk sharing. This study examines the role of irrigation institutions in supporting sustainable rice farming in Wajo District, Indonesia. Using a case study approach, qualitative data were collected from four irrigation service provider (ISP) units across three subdistricts through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The analysis focuses on institutional mechanisms, including irrigation payment structures, input credit systems, and cost-sharing arrangements. The findings reveal that institutional frameworks are crucial in mitigating financial risks by promoting adaptive payment schemes and equitable cost-sharing mechanisms. Farmers’ access to critical agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides, is enhanced through collaborative financing models, ensuring resilience against climate-induced production risks. However, variations in institutional support led to disparities in irrigation fees, credit access, and financial sustainability across study sites. This study underscores the need for risk-based irrigation pricing models and public–private partnerships to invest in climate-resilient infrastructure, such as water storage facilities and sustainable irrigation systems. In conclusion, it is important to remember that each of us, including agricultural policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders, plays a crucial role in implementing these solutions. By strengthening institutional governance, promoting flexible financial mechanisms, and integrating climate-adaptive pricing models, we can all contribute to enhancing the long-term sustainability of rice farming in Indonesia. Full article

Effective municipal solid waste (MSW) management is crucial for urban sustainability, especially in fast-growing cities, like Hangzhou, China. This study examines residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the following five key MSW measures: differentiated waste charging, smart recycling points, on-site organic waste recovery, volunteer-based waste sorting supervision, and a community self-governance fund. Based on a survey of 521 residents across 13 districts, we use logistic and interval regression models to identify factors influencing WTP and payment amounts. Key findings include the following: Higher-income and more educated residents prefer cost-efficient, technology-driven solutions, like smart recycling and differentiated charging. Newcomers (≤5 years of residence) show higher WTP and greater sensitivity to environmental information, highlighting the need for targeted outreach. Providing explicit environmental benefits (e.g., waste reduction, increased recycling) significantly boosts WTP rates and payment levels. Community characteristics matter—residents in high-density areas favor waste charging, while those in older neighborhoods support volunteer programs and self-governance funds. Policy implications center on targeted outreach, transparent fee structures, and incentive programs to foster public trust and enhance participation. Although MSW management in Hangzhou remains predominantly government-led, select collaboration with private enterprises (e.g., in specialized recycling services) may offer additional efficiency gains. By aligning these measures with localized preferences and demographic patterns, Hangzhou—and other quickly urbanizing regions—can develop robust and inclusive MSW systems that contribute to broader sustainable development objectives. Full article

The effectiveness of early warning systems can help people take action to mitigate the impact of extreme weather events once warnings are issued. The early warning systems developed by public agencies usually issue standard messages that, in many situations, may not affect all the people who receive the messages. In the long run, this can lead to behaviors in people who may not respond to relevant warnings, resulting in inefficiency. Users demand faster and more customized information that matches their needs, such as “How does this affect me right now?” or “What can I do to mitigate the impact?” This study proposes a decentralized framework at the community level that includes custom Internet of Things (IoT) sensors for timely information monitoring and large language models (LLMs) for the generation of user-defined warning messages. The sensors have the advantages of easy installation, low cost, and affordable maintenance fees. The trained LLMs expedite information processing given specific prompts and generate customized response messages to the users. In addition, the framework is established within a serverless environment, enabling rapid deployment and scalability. This integration of IoT sensors and LLMs demonstrates how the system performs once sensors detect flooding and how LLMs can deliver real-time, efficient, and localized action-ready information in different scenarios. This combination significantly enhances the responsiveness during flood events. Full article

Producers and distributors of meal kits promote their products by emphasising customisation and a health-conscious approach to eating. Consumers of these services expect that, for an appropriate fee, they will receive a nutritious and flavourful meal, tailored to their individual needs and conveniently delivered to their homes. This raises the question of whether meal kit companies meet these expectations and whether their products are prepared with the level of care claimed in their advertisements. This scoping review aims to present available evidence that offers insight into the nutritional content, safety, and acceptability of meal kit delivery services. In this context, we have identified 15 publications. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first scoping review to focus specifically on meal kits. The findings highlight the significant potential of meal kits and may contribute to efforts to enhance their quality. Available research on meal kit delivery services was conducted using calculation methods. Nutritional value studies involving analytical methods and intervention studies are necessary in order to expand the understanding of the potential of meal kits role in whole-food nutrition. Full article

This study explores electric vehicle (EV) adoption in Jordan, focusing on key transitional factors. It examines government policies, market dynamics, technological advancements, and infrastructure development through semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, including government officials, industry experts, and consumers. The study provides insights into the economic prospects, infrastructure requirements, and regulatory measures necessary for widespread EV adoption. Government incentives, such as tax exemptions and reduced registration fees, are crucial, but challenges like insufficient charging infrastructure, high initial costs, and limited public awareness persist. Collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors are essential to develop resilient infrastructure, enhance consumer education, and foster technological innovation. The findings underscore the importance of government incentives and coordinated efforts to develop charging infrastructure and raise public awareness. Future research should focus on quantitative methods to validate these findings and explore additional strategies to overcome identified barriers. Full article

This paper studies households’ expenditure on the education of children in China’s cities to assess how internal migrant families’ investment in the human capital of their offspring differs from that of local urban families. The private education-related expenditure reflects both households’ willingness to invest in human capital and institutional constraints, as China’s household registration (hukou) system prevents children without a local city hukou from enrolling in urban public schools. In-school fees (consisting of statutory tuition and institutional tuition fees) are commonly topped-up with substantial private tutoring expenditure. We apply multiple regression to the 2008 “Rural–Urban Migration Survey in China” data to analyze the average expenditure differences between temporary migrants, permanent migrants and locals. The findings are, after controlling for social and economic characteristics, that: (1) the overall spending on education of migrant households overwhelmingly exceeds that of locals, which is expected since migrants must finance privately all education-related expenses their children incur; (2) migrant households spend more on institutional tuition fees compared to households with a local city hukou, reflecting the varying severity of administrative hurdles faced by families; and (3) temporary migrants spend more on institutional tuition fees than permanent migrant households, but less in private tutoring. Full article

When migrating smart contracts from one blockchain platform to another, there are potential security risks. This is because different blockchain platforms have different environments and characteristics for executing smart contracts. The focus of this paper is to study the security risks associated with the migration of smart contracts from Ethereum to Arbitrum. We collected relevant data and analyzed smart contract migration cases to explore the differences between Ethereum and Arbitrum in areas such as Arbitrum cross-chain messaging, block properties, contract address alias, and gas fees. From the 36 types of smart contract migration cases we identified, we selected four typical types of cases and summarized their security risks. The research shows that smart contracts deployed on Ethereum may face certain potential security risks during migration to Arbitrum, mainly due to issues inherent in public blockchain characteristics, such as outdated off-chain data obtained by the inactive sequencer, logic errors based on time, failed permission checks, and denial of service (DOS) attacks. To mitigate these security risks, we proposed avoidance methods and provided considerations for users and developers to ensure a secure migration process. It is worth noting that this study is the first to conduct an in-depth analysis of the secure migration of smart contracts from Ethereum to Arbitrum. Full article

Healthcare is a huge business sector in many countries, focusing on the social function of delivering quality health when people develop illness. The system is essentially financed by public funds based on the solidarity principle. With a large financial outlay, the sector must use economic evaluation methods to achieve better efficiency. The objective of our study was to evaluate and to understand how health economics is used today, taking Belgium as an example of a high-income country. The evaluation started with a historical view of healthcare development and ended with potential projections for its future. A literature review focused on country-specific evaluation reports to identify the health economic methods used, with a search for potential gaps. The first results indicated that Belgium in 2021 devoted 11% of its GDP, 17% of its total tax revenue, and 30% of the national Social Security Fund to health-related activities, totalizing EUR 55.5 billion spending. The main health economic method used was a cost-effectiveness analysis linked to budget impact, assigning reimbursable monetary values to new products becoming available. However, these evaluation methods only impacted at most 20% of the money circulating in healthcare. The remaining 80% was subject to financial regulations (70%) and budgeting (10%), which could use many other techniques of an economic analysis. The evaluation indicated two potentially important changes in health economic use in Belgium. One was an increased focus on budgeting with plans, time frames, and quantified treatment objectives on specific disease problems. Economic models with simulations are very supportive in those settings. The other was the application of constrained optimization methods, which may become the new standard of practice when switching from fee-for-service to pay-per-performance as promoted by value-based healthcare and value-based health management. This economic refocusing to a more constrained approach may help to keep the healthcare system sustainable and affordable in the face of the many future challenges including ageing, climate change, migration, pandemics, logistical limitations, and financial instability. Full article

To quantify the travel time and cost characteristics of mixed traffic involving electric vehicles (EVs) and fuel-powered vehicles on roads, in this paper, we comprehensively consider three factors affecting road impedance: queue length, waiting time, and service rate. Initially, a time characteristic function and a cost characteristic function for mixed traffic impedance are constructed. From the perspective of travel time, we consider the impact of EV penetration on the actual road capacity and introduce a capacity coefficient to modify the BPR (Bureau of Public Roads) road impedance function. Given that different types of vehicles might need to wait at charging stations, we employ queuing theory to calculate the queuing time at these stations and construct an impedance model that considers travel time. From the perspective of travel costs, we account for the energy consumption costs and road usage fees for different types of vehicles. The energy consumption cost for travel mileage is obtained by multiplying the unit mileage energy consumption cost of mixed traffic by the travel mileage. For road usage fees, we adopt the conventional method of multiplying the per-kilometer rate for each vehicle type by the travel mileage, thus constructing an impedance model that incorporates travel costs. Finally, in the numerical analysis section, based on the vehicle travel mileage, we categorize travel into short-, medium-, and long-distance trips for analysis. With the constructed mixed traffic impedance model, we conduct a detailed analysis of the travel time and cost characteristics of mixed traffic over different travel distances. We explore the specific impacts of the electric vehicle penetration rate, traffic flow volume, and travel mileage on road impedance. The results indicate that as the penetration rate of electric vehicles increases, the total energy consumption of the transportation system significantly decreases. Moreover, at high electric vehicle penetration rates, although an increase in traffic flow leads to higher traffic impedance and longer travel times, the overall travel costs are reduced. This demonstrates that increasing the penetration rate of electric vehicles positively contributes to reducing the energy consumption and costs of transportation systems. Full article

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) are poised to revolutionize mobility. The relocation feature of CAVs enhances parking convenience for the public. Users can instruct CAVs to arrive at their work destination, drop them off, and then assign CAVs to a cost-effective parking facility through an optimized itinerary. However, realizing the benefits of CAVs depends on user acceptance, and the impact of relocation features on CAV acceptance remains an area that is yet to be explored. This study introduces a novel acceptance model to mainly investigate the effects of relocation-related factors on CAV acceptance through 717 valid responses. The results indicate that the perceived convenience of relocation (PCOR) indirectly increases human acceptance through three determinants, initial trust, perceived usefulness (PU), and perceived ease of use (PEOU), while initial trust, PU, and PEOU directly increase human acceptance. The public expectations of saving on parking fees (EOSPF) can enhance PCOR. Additionally, a multigroup analysis revealed that PCOR exerts a more positive impact on PU or PEOU in subgroups including males, pre-Generation-Z individuals, experienced drivers, and those with autopilot riding experience. The findings on mediators are also discussed. This study provides valuable insights for further research and the practical adoption of emerging CAVs. Full article

In this study, a tripartite decision-making parking pricing model was developed based on Game Theory to comprehensively reflect the impact of parking pricing on private car travelers, parking lot operators, and traffic managers. Utility theory is introduced to analyze the behavioral characteristics of the tripartite participants in parking pricing. A parking behavior model for private car travelers, an operating profit model for parking lot operators, and a social negative utility model for traffic managers are established. This article presents an analysis of the mutual influence between them based on a game theory perspective and introduces parking saturation and road saturation as new factors influencing parking pricing to address the interactive relationship among the tripartite participants. A parking pricing model based on tripartite games is established, and a solution algorithm is designed. The results indicate that when the parking fee rates for the two public parking lots in the scenario are 8.5 CNY/h and 9 CNY/h, respectively, the parking demand is 300, and the sum of the total travel costs of private car travelers and the total operating profits are CNY 20,589 and 2187.9, respectively. The parking saturation of the public parking lot and the difference between the expected value is minimized to 0.25, and the road saturation and the difference between the expected value are minimized to 1.48, which is the parking pricing plan that minimizes the conflicts of interest among the tripartite stakeholders in the tripartite game. The parking pricing model of a public parking lot provides a reference for formulating parking fee strategies that comprehensively reflect the needs of the three parties involved in the public parking lot. Full article