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R F Vollans writes:Nothing pleases me more than to see honours bestowed on those who are worthy of them, particularly if they are my close friends and personal colleagues. It was, therefore, with some delight that I read of the LA'S new awards—the McColvin and Besterman Medals.

This chapter, together with those that follow, builds upon the ideas presented in the previous volume in this series (Maginn, Thompson, & Tonts, 2008). There we outlined our vision for a ‘pragmatic renaissance’ in contemporary qualitative research in urban studies. We argued that to survive as an effective and frequently used tool for policy development, a more systematic approach is needed in the way that qualitative-informed applied urban research is conceptualised and undertaken. In opening this volume we build on these initial ideas using housing as a meta-case study to progress the case for a systematic approach to qualitative research methods. We do this to both stimulate broad debate about the ways, in which qualitative research in urban/housing scholarship might be of greater use to policymakers and practitioners, as well as to suggest a way forward in realising the ‘pragmatic renaissance’.

This paper aims to identify the current research trends in sustainability through an extensive literature review and propose future research agenda under the ambit of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Specifically, the present study aims to uncover the current state of the literature and thereby develop an understanding of how the pandemic has impacted the dimensions of sustainability.

To achieve the objective, the authors adopted a five-step literature review process, combined with bibliometric and network analysis. The authors also considered news articles and reports of international organizations to comprehensively achieve the research objective.

The study results show how the pandemic has impacted the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability. The results also highlight the list of authors, countries and institutions that have proactively worked towards eliminating the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study provides an in-depth understanding of the scholarly contributions to the field of sustainability since the COVID-19 outbreak. The study is useful for policymakers and businesses interested in understanding how the pandemic has impacted the dimensions of sustainability and possible mitigation strategies. Furthermore, the study also provides future research directions in the intersection of pandemic and sustainability dimensions. Specific research questions (RQs) are also proposed to help future research.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is a pioneer attempt to provide a comprehensive understanding of the existing and rapidly growing literature on COVID-19 and its relationship with the various dimensions of sustainability.

To remain sustainable, open source software (OSS) projects must attract new members—or newcomers—who make contributions. In this paper, the authors develop a set of hypotheses based on the knowledge barriers framework that examines how OSS communities can encourage contributions from newcomers.

Employing longitudinal data from the source code repositories of 232 OSS projects over a two-year period, the authors employ a Poisson-based mixed model to test how community characteristics, such as the main drivers of knowledge-based costs, relate to newcomers' contributions.

The results indicate that community characteristics, such as programming language choice, documentation effort and code structure instability, are the main drivers of knowledge-based contribution costs. The findings also suggest that managing these costs can result in more inclusive OSS communities, as evidenced by the number of contributing newcomers; the authors highlight the importance of maintaining documentation efforts for OSS communities.

This paper assumes that motivational factors are a necessary but insufficient condition for newcomer participation in OSS projects and that the cost to participation should be considered. Using the knowledge barriers framework, this paper identifies the main knowledge-based costs that hinder newcomer participation. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study that does not limit data collection to a single hosting platform (e.g., SourceForge), which improves the generalizability of the findings.

This paper aims to study the antecedents of Internet of Things (IoT) adoption among farmers and determine how trust in the technology influences its adoption when mediated by perceived value and risk. Through the conceptualization of trust and perceived risk, the authors factor in farmers’ perceptions of agricultural technology providers and discuss different forms of perceived value, spanning economic, green and epistemic value.

This paper develops a distinctive research design, drawing on elements of the value-based adoption and technology acceptance models. By linking different elements of perceived value with IoT technology, the authors also apply the service-dominant logic to this study. They study how trust affects perceived value and risk and then determine how perceived value and risk, in turn, affect IoT adoption. The authors test the hypotheses by developing a structural equation model to analyze the results of a survey, wherein 492 farmers from Iowa, the USA, participated.

The results show a positive relationship between trust and perceived value and a negative relationship between trust and perceived risk. Perceived value had a positive impact on IoT adoption, whereas perceived risk had a negative impact on IoT adoption.

The research findings on trust and perceived value and risk are timely and relevant for business-to-business (B2B) marketing practitioners and agricultural stakeholders, especially in an era where farmers are expressing growing concerns about data handling risk posed by IoT technology adoption.

The research findings signal a transition in focus from the goods-dominant logic to the service-dominant logic in agriculture, whereby farmers are drawn to IoT technology because of perceived economic, green and epistemic value and as a result, can differentiate themselves on how well they deploy operant resources. This paper not only provides a unique conceptualization of perceived value but also pave the way for a richer conceptualization of IoT core functions that enable farmers to fulfill green and epistemic goals. This is the first B2B marketing paper discussing the antecedents of IoT adoption in agriculture, such as farmers’ perceptions of both monetary and non-monetary forms of value and perceived data handling risk.

Casinos offer a variety of dining experiences to appeal to the tastes of different customers. The aim of this paper is to investigate the indirect impact of dining by restaurant type on gaming by worth segment.

Data from two hotel‐casinos were analyzed using time series regression analysis. Variables representing restaurant covers at steakhouse, buffet and casual dining venues were used to predict slot coin‐in for five customer worth segments.

Steakhouse dining was a significant predictor of slot coin‐in for high worth players, buffet and casual dining were related to low‐worth gaming volume, whereas medium‐worth players were impacted by a range of dining options.

Regression analysis does not imply causality, and the results may not hold for other casino properties or sample time periods.

The findings have implications for the optimal restaurant mix at casinos and the types of offers that are given to different customer worth segments. This study also helps casino operators evaluate the profitability of each type of restaurant they operate.

The research fills a gap in the casino literature by segmenting customers using the same metric as casino operators, namely gaming worth. It provides new insight into indirect dining‐gaming relationships by investigating different restaurant types.

IT IS EASY to make glib generalisations about the student situation in this country, and its associated problems, but a recondite analysis of student mores is much more difficult. Commentators tend to be extreme, varying from those who declaim ‘All for youth and the world well lost’ to those crying ‘Stop their grants, make them do a day's work’, and more in similar vein. An understanding of student attitudes to work and society is one thing, the cause and effect of their attitudes is quite another. What is certain is that there has been a radical change, and the full effects of this change are yet to be felt. Behind each new generation rise those ever ready to decry the follies of youth, but today there is a widespread and differing view held that youth is king, and can do no wrong. Both of these points of view are extreme, and both, in totality, are unjustified.

This paper aims to determine the regression rate using wax fuels for three different grain configurations and find a suitable grain port design for hybrid rocket application.

The design methodology of this work includes different grain port designs and subsequent selection of solid fuels for a suitable hybrid rocket application. A square, a cylindrical and a five-point star grained were designed and prepared using paraffin and beeswax fuels. They were tested in a laboratory-scale rocket with gaseous oxygen to study the effectiveness of solid fuels on these grain structures. The regression rate by static fire testing of these wax fuels was analyzed.

Beeswax performance is better than that of paraffin wax fuel for all three designs, and the five-slotted star fuel port grain attained the best performance. Beeswax fuel attained an average regression rate ≈of 1.35 mm/s as a function of oxidizer mass flux Gox ≈ 111.8 kg/m² s and for paraffin wax 1.199 mm/s at Gox ≈ 121 kg/m² s with gaseous oxygen. The local regression rates of fuels increased in the range of 0.93–1.194 mm/s at oxidizer mass flux range of 98–131 kg/m² s for cylindrical grain, 0.99–1.21 mm/s at oxidizer mass flux range of 96–129 kg/m2s for square grain and 1.12–1.35 mm/s at oxidizer mass flux range of 91–126 kg/m² s for a star grain. A complete set of the regression rate formulas is obtained for all three-grain designs as a function of oxidizer flux rate.

The experiment has been performed for a lower chamber pressure up to 10 bar.

Different grain configurations were designed according to the required dimension of the combustion chamber, injector and exhaust nozzle of the design of a lab-scale hybrid rocket, and input parameters were selected and analyzed.