Search results

The purpose of this study is to survey the landscape of online collections of digital games.

First, the study identifies existing sites hosting collections and criteria that make a collection valuable for research, then it reports on sites that fit the criteria and analyzes trends.

Most sites provide simple binary downloads, but some choose encapsulation. Common metadata terms consistently include genre, year of release and publisher. Most sites claim the right to provide their collections as “abandonware,” but remove games if they are asked to.

This study was conducted using a very limited subcategory of digital games, which could be expanded in other studies. Future research may require a multilingual team to account for collections based in non–English-speaking countries. Direct communication with sites’ management may be valuable in the future as well, but was not conducted in this study.

The study identifies practices that have developed organically in this field without any guiding standards. Understanding these may aid in Humanities research into digital games, as well as potential collection development in the future.

Digital games are increasingly important as cultural artifacts, and there is a growing effort to preserve them for the future, but there are no standards for collecting and providing them. Understanding how this is currently done can help in providing access into the future for both casual and analytical use.

While game preservation is a growing and active field of research, no study has been published in recent years on this particular subject. It will be valuable for the development of future collections and for research using current ones.

This study assesses tourism development dilemmas about the Big Tree Nature Reserve (BNTR) with its neighboring tourism entities in Musina Municipality, Limpopo, South Africa.

Data were obtained by interviews, questionnaires, focus group discussions and physical observation. Tacitly pertinent literature review propped and augmented the adopted approach.

The examination exposed many hurdles correlated with tourism efforts around the BNTR and its adjoining tourism entities. The gains of tourism were not drawn into by the local communities within and around the study area. The determinants adding to the poor state of tourism professions got portrayed by the conclusions of the study. Therefore, there was an inherent necessity for a turnaround efficient tourism management to promote tourism initiatives to bolster local communities in the region.

Musina Municipality constitutes a remote region in the north of Limpopo province, South Africa. Poor rural livelihoods are analogous to many rural districts within the continent. Despite all these, it substantially incorporates an essentially tourism-based area within the Vhembe district of Limpopo province.

Prior literature has widely established that the design of storage locations impacts order picking task performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance impact of unit loads, e.g. pallets or rolling cages, utilized by pickers to pack products after picking them from storage locations.

An empirical analysis of archival data on a manual order picking system for deep-freeze products was performed in cooperation with a German brick-and-mortar retailer. The dataset comprises N = 343,259 storage location visits from 17 order pickers. The analysis was also supported by the development and the results of a batch assignment model that takes unit load selection into account.

The analysis reveals that unit load selection affects order picking task performance. Standardized rolling cages can decrease processing time by up to 8.42% compared to standardized isolated rolling boxes used in cold retail supply chains. Potential cost savings originating from optimal batch assignment range from 1.03% to 39.29%, depending on batch characteristics.

This study contributes to the literature on factors impacting order picking task performance, considering the characteristics of unit loads where products are packed on after they have been picked from the storage locations. In addition, it provides potential task performance improvements in cold retail supply chains.

This research investigates how to optimize storage location assignment to decrease the order picking time and the waiting time of orders in the staging area of low-temperature logistics centers, with the goal of reducing food loss caused by temperature abuse.

The authors applied ABC clustering to the products in a simulated database of historical orders modeled after the actual order pattern of a large cold logistics company; then, the authors mined the association rules and calculated the sales volume correlation indices of the ordered products. Finally, the authors generated three different simulated order databases to compare order picking time and waiting time of orders in the staging area under eight different storage location assignment strategies.

All the eight proposed storage location assignment strategies significantly improve the order picking time (by up to 8%) and the waiting time of orders in the staging area (by up to 22%) compared with random placement.

The results of this research are based on a case study and simulated data, which implies that, if the best performing strategies are applied to different environments, the extent of the improvements may vary. Additionally, the authors only considered specific settings in terms of order picker routing, zoning and batching: other settings may lead to different results.

A storage location assignment strategy that adopts dispersion and takes into consideration ABC clustering and shipping frequency provides the best performance in minimizing order picker's travel distance, order picking time, and waiting time of orders in the staging area. Other strategies may be a better fit if the company's objectives differ.

Previous research on optimal storage location assignment rarely considered item association rules based on sales volume correlation. This study combines such rules with several storage planning strategies, ABC clustering, and two warehouse layouts; then, it evaluates their performance compared to the random placement, to find which one minimizes the order picking time and the order waiting time in the staging area, with a 30-min time limit to preserve the integrity of the cold chain. Order picking under these conditions was rarely studied before, because they may be irrelevant when dealing with temperature-insensitive items but become critical in cold warehouses to prevent temperature abuse.

Increasing personnel costs and labour shortages have pushed retailers to give increasing attention to their intralogistics operations. We study hybrid order picking systems, in which humans and robots share work time, workspace and objectives and are in permanent contact. This necessitates a collaboration of humans and their mechanical coworkers (cobots).

Through a longitudinal case study on individual-level technology adaption, we accompanied a pilot testing of an industrial truck that automatically follows order pickers in their travel direction. Grounded on empirical field research and a unique large-scale data set comprising N = 2,086,260 storage location visits, where N = 57,239 storage location visits were performed in a hybrid setting and N = 2,029,021 in a manual setting, we applied a multilevel model to estimate the impact of this cobot settings on task performance.

We show that cobot settings can reduce the time required for picking tasks by as much as 33.57%. Furthermore, practical factors such as product weight, pick density and travel distance mitigate this effect, suggesting that cobots are especially beneficial for short-distance orders.

Given that the literature on hybrid order picking systems has primarily applied simulation approaches, the study is among the first to provide empirical evidence from a real-world setting. The results are discussed from the perspective of Industry 5.0 and can prevent managers from making investment decisions into ineffective robotic technology.

This study aims to explore the experiences of living through the COVID-19 pandemic for people who faced homelessness and dealt with mental health and/or substance use challenges.

This qualitative study was comprised of 26 1:1 interviews (16 men and 10 women), conducted between February and May 2021 with people who experienced homelessness in North East England during the COVID-19 pandemic. An inductive reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken, with input from individuals with lived experience who were involved throughout the study.

Four themes were developed. The first theme, lack of support and exacerbation of mental health and substance use difficulties, highlighted how the lack of in-person support and increased isolation and loneliness led to relapses or new challenges for many people’s mental health and substance use. The second theme, uncertainty and fear during the pandemic, explored how the “surreal” experience of the pandemic led to many people feeling uncertain about the future and when things would return to normal. The third theme, isolation and impacts on social networks, discussed how isolation and changes to relationships also played a role in mental health and substance use. Finally, opportunity for reflection and self-improvement for mental health and substance use, explored how some people used the isolated time to re-evaluate their recovery journey and focus on self-improvement.

The experiences shared within this study have important implications for planning the future delivery and commissioning of health and social care services for people facing homelessness, such as sharing information accessibly through clear, consistent and simple language.

As one of the few papers to involve people with lived experience as part of the research, the findings reflect the unique narratives of this population with a focus on improving services.

A literature review or review article is an integral part of a scientific body of research which synthesizes prior knowledge and provides a holistic overview of a subject domain. While several studies emphasize the significance of literature reviews and include the guidelines for conducting a review, limited studies demonstrated different types of literature review methodologies in a comprehensive way. Accordingly, this chapter presents various types of review methodologies which includes narrative, descriptive, systematic, meta-analysis, hybrid, umbrella, scoping, theoretical, and critical reviews. In addition, the authors' skills including logical reasoning, content analysis, literature mapping, critical writing, and ethical consideration are presented. Further, quality aspects of the literature review are discussed such as the rigor and relevance of the selected studies. Overall, this chapter provides implications for researchers in understanding types of literature review methodologies along with their objectives, strengths, and weaknesses which can assist them in selecting a suitable methodology while conducting a review.

This paper aims to identify why warehouses do or do not succeed in putting to use digital technologies for order picking.

Building on structuration theory, the authors investigate the situated use of one such a digital technology, more particularly the head-worn display (HWD). Based on a most-similar comparative case study of two Belgian warehouses pioneering HWDs, the authors focus on whether and how order pickers and their manager interact to modify the properties, functionalities, and the context in which the HWD is used.

In one warehouse, using the HWD was discontinued after implementation. In the other, order pickers and the order pickers' manager succeeded in implementing the HWD into their work. The authors find that the prime explanation for these opposite findings lies in the extent to which order pickers were given room to improve the properties and functionalities of the HWD as well as the conditions that unfold in the HWD's use context. In the latter warehouse, pressing issues were overcome and improvement suggestions were implemented, both regarding the HWD itself as well as regarding the job-related and person-related conditions.

Theoretically, the authors contribute to the situated use of technology stating that (1) giving room to alter the use of digital technologies, and (2) fostering continuous employee participation regarding conditions stemming from the use context are necessary to realize the promising and unexploited potential of digital technology in practice. Empirically, this paper exposes distinct types of interactions that explain whether and how digital technologies, in particular HWDs, are put to use for order picking practices.

The chapter aims to evaluate the efficacy of stakeholder participation in the solid waste management system of Mauritius in view of providing a possible mechanism to attain the goals of a sustainable waste management framework.

The study employs qualitative indicators, namely, User Inclusivity and Producer Inclusivity of the Wasteaware Benchmark Indicators. Secondary data are used to conduct a critical and comprehensive analysis of the sub-indicators falling under each of the two main indicators to determine the overall compliance level with respect to stakeholder engagement of the waste management sector of Mauritius.

The results of the study show a LOW/MEDIUM compliance level for both User Inclusivity and Provider Inclusivity indicators, which indicates that improvement is required in the stakeholder engagement mechanism in Mauritius. The main weaknesses identified comprise of lack of an adequate legal framework with clear definition of waste types with regards to segregation, especially for non-hazardous wastes, low efficiency of sustainable waste management awareness campaigns and lack of inclusion of the informal sector. The main strengths identified consist of a proper bidding mechanism in place and a good level of equity in the provision of waste management services with respect to comingled waste collection. Suggested improvement areas include a revamping of the existing legal framework related to waste management to cater for higher inclusivity of all stakeholders together with including sustainable waste management topics in the formal education curriculum.

The User Inclusivity and Producer Inclusivity indicators were previously applied only to cities to measure the level of stakeholder participation, but this study has demonstrated that these indicators can also be adopted on a nation-wide level to evaluate stakeholder engagement. The use of these indicators together with secondary data presents a less time-consuming method to assess stakeholder participation in the waste sector, which can be particularly useful for Small Island Developing States.