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Tom Bartridge, a change management consultant and previously team leader on the GASCO 21 merger project, shows how GASCO actively involved its employees in all stages of a major change process, resulting in an established brand, engaged employees and a successful, long‐term merger.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new constrained optimization algorithm based on a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm approach.

This paper introduces a hybrid approach based on a modified ring neighborhood with two new perturbation operators designed to keep diversity. A constraint handling technique based on feasibility and sum of constraints violation is adopted. Also, a special technique to handle equality constraints is proposed.

The paper shows that it is possible to improve PSO and keeping the advantages of its social interaction through a simple idea: perturbing the PSO memory.

The proposed algorithm shows a competitive performance against the state‐of‐the‐art constrained optimization algorithms.

The proposed algorithm can be used to solve single objective problems with linear or non‐linear functions, and subject to both equality and inequality constraints which can be linear and non‐linear. In this paper, it is applied to various engineering design problems, and for the solution of state‐of‐the‐art benchmark problems.

A new neighborhood structure for PSO algorithm is presented. Two perturbation operators to improve PSO algorithm are proposed. A special technique to handle equality constraints is proposed.

Menger disagreed with this view for various reasons. Also, the subjective expectation is infinite. There are many cases where man's behaviour fails to conform to mathematical expectations: games in which a player can win only one very large amount with a very small probability or games offering a single moderate amount with a very high probability. Furthermore, we can always find a sequence of payoffs x1, x2, x3,…, which yield infinite expected value, and then propose, say, that u(xn)=2ⁿ, so that expected utility is also infinite. Menger therefore proposed that utility must also be bounded above for paradoxes of this type to be resolved.

Prior research on the structure‐performance relationship has not investigated all of the relevant relationships among market structure, profits, prices, and explicitly calculated measures of firm efficiency. This paper replicates the four approaches in the literature, adds several innovations, and applies the analysis to banking data. We find more support for the structure‐conduct‐performance hypothesis than for the relative‐market‐power and efficient‐structure hypotheses, although the data are not fully consistent with any of these theories. We also find support for Hick's quiet‐life hypothesis, which implies that firms with market power adhere less rigorously to efficiency maximization. J.E.L. Classification Numbers G21, G28, L41, L89 The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Board of Governors or its staff. The authors thank Dean Amel, Jim Berkovec, Myron Kwast, Nellie Liang, LenNakamura, Steve Rhoades, and participants in the meeting of the Federal Reserve System Committee on Financial Structure and Regulation for helpful comments, and Ken Cavalluzzo, Jalal Akhavein, John Leusner, and Seth Bonime for outstanding research assistance.

Competence in written communication has been described as a fundamental underpinning of contemporary undergraduate education by both educational advisors and agencies. This article focuses on students’ perceptions of their own writing styles and skills. These opinions have been considered in the context of the desires and expectations of practitioners in public relations for high standards of grammar, variety in copywriting style and a high degree of accuracy in writing. Students’ perceptions of the learning environment for this vocational academic discipline also suggest a receptiveness to the integration of alternative pedagogues in the form of information technology.

This study addresses how algorithmic recommendations and their affordances shape everyday information practices among young people.

Thematic interviews were conducted with 20 Finnish young people aged 15–16 years. The material was analysed using qualitative content analysis, with a focus on everyday information practices involving online platforms.

The key finding of the study is that the current affordances of algorithmic recommendations enable users to engage in more passive practices instead of active search and evaluation practices. Two major themes emerged from the analysis: enabling not searching, inviting high trust, which highlights the how the affordances of algorithmic recommendations enable the delegation of search to a recommender system and, at the same time, invite trust in the system, and constraining finding, discouraging diversity, which focuses on the constraining degree of affordances and breakdowns associated with algorithmic recommendations.

This study contributes new knowledge regarding the ways in which algorithmic recommendations shape the information practices in young people's everyday lives specifically addressing the constraining nature of affordances.

The purpose of this paper is to discover and enumerate the elements of the digital library and measure how much an individual library was equipped with the characteristics of the digital library accordingly.

For this purpose several steps were taken. First, research on the characteristics and the representative services of the digital library were comprehensively reviewed. Second, examples of the library services that were being considered for the next generation digital library were investigated to compare with the conventional library services. Third, the elements of the conventional and the digital libraries initially extracted were examined by ten experts. These experts were composed of researchers and professors specializing in digital libraries, and career librarians who had worked in the digital library field for at least ten years. The elements were verified through discussions with them. Fourth, 19 university libraries, 16 public libraries, and 17 special libraries were selected in accordance with the verified elements of the conventional and the digital libraries to measure the digitization level of the libraries.

The following is a summary of the evaluation of the first eight evaluation items, which are covered in Part 1 of this study. The remaining five items will be covered in Part 2. First, the digitization level of the acquisition element and classification and cataloguing was significantly high. Second, book collections excluding “digital video,” reference service, library program service, and space service showed significantly conventional characteristics. Third, in the element of circulation services, the item of lending books offline and returning the books scored 92.64 and the item of lending-returning with use of smart devices and social media obtained significantly low scores. Also, the average in using the book return desk for the circulation service was 81.39, much higher than using the automatic book return machine, which scored 18.61, by a wide margin. Fourth, in the element of user services, the digital item of providing support for mobile services related to the library resources demonstrated higher scores than the conventional item, but other items showed more conventional characteristics. In particular, the item of duplication services for material scored 94.99, but other items such as support for publication/bookbinding services using digital publication tools and devices obtained significantly low scores.

This study is first study in the world to measure the level of digitization of the library. Therefore, hereafter, each library will be able to measure and determine its digital position based on these elements. Up to now, some research was performed in pursuit of extracting the elements of a library but it has relied solely on literature review. Comprehensive research had never been performed as in this study.

To investigate the effects of regulations, macroeconomic changes, and political events on the efficiency of the Turkish banks during the period 1997-2013, when crucial changes were experienced. To analyze the effects of an extensive set of bank-specific and environmental factors on the efficiency, since the diversions could not only be related to new regulations.

A two-stage procedure is employed. First, the productivity changes of each bank and of the whole sector are measured by a DEA-based Malmquist Productivity Index (DEA-MPI). Second, the effects of selected internal and external factors on productivity are analyzed with regression analysis. The sector is especially handled before and after 2001, when one of the most catastrophic crises is observed and moment after which a series of new regulations are implemented.

During the period 1997-2001, the efficiency deteriorated due to the 2001 crisis; after the crisis, an improvement was observed. All models indicate the source of improvements as efficiency instead of technological changes. Rather than external, internal factors seem to be more effective on productivity. Therefore, the importance of regulations for the soundness of banks, management quality and monitoring may be more crucial than what is thought. In general, a new macroeconomic environment, particularly new regulations, have positive effects on productivity. Tighter regulations, monitoring, restrictions, strong supervision, more capital, and new reforms have a positive impact on efficiency.

The study spans a wide period to analyze the sector using three different perspectives. It analyzes the effect of the 2001 financial crisis and subsequent regulations. It handles an extensive set of internal and external factors; and it tests each factor with nine different DEA-MPI models for consistency. Turkey's unique environmental factors, such as the unstable macroeconomic conditions, high inflation and a subsequent disinflation period, high interest rates, new regulations and crisis experience, among others, also make the study distinctive.

This study examined how economic freedom and its related components, such as open markets, regulatory efficiency, rule of law and the size of government, affect bank risk behavior, focusing on the Japanese context.

The study employs a two-step GMM framework on the annual data of Japanese banks ranging from 2005 to 2020 to empirically test the hypotheses. Furthermore, we also use the ordinary least square method to ensure the robustness of our mainline findings.

The finding suggests that economic freedom increases the banks' risk-taking, thus making them fragile. The results also highlight that out of the four main subcomponents of economic freedom, regulatory efficiency and government size increase bank risk-taking, while the rule of law and open markets decrease banks' risk-taking. Additionally, we examine how the banks' specific characteristics affect the results by creating a subsample based on capitalization and liquidity ratios. Overall, the results are consistent with the baseline findings. Moreover, the results are robust to alternative proxy measures of risk.

The study's findings have several implications for regulators and policymakers. The results suggest that regulators and policymakers should reconsider their strategies for economic freedom to ensure that they promote stability in the banking system and reduce banks' risk-taking inclinations.

Although previous studies have examined the impact of economic freedom on bank stability and risk-taking, this study is the first to do so in the Japanese context, contributing to the literature by providing new insights and empirical evidence.