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The Thai video game domain has witnessed substantial growth in recent years. However, many games enjoyed by Thai players are in foreign languages, with only a handful of titles translated/localized into the Thai locale. Some Thai video game enthusiasts have taken on the role of unofficial translators/localizers, contributing to a localization domain that accommodates both official and unofficial translation/localization efforts. This general review paper aims to outline the author's experiences in collecting data within the domain of video game translation/localization in Thailand.

Using a descriptive approach, this general review paper employs the netnography method. It sheds light on the complexities of video game translation/localization in Thailand and incorporates semi-structured interviews with a snowball sampling technique for the selection of participants and in-game data collection methods.

The netnography method has proved instrumental in navigating the intricacies of this evolving landscape. Adopting the netnography method for data collection in this research contributes to establishing more robust connections with the research sites. “Inside” professionals and individuals play a significant role in data gathering by recommending additional sources of information for the research.

While netnography is conventionally applied in the market and consumer research, this paper demonstrates its efficacy in unraveling the dynamics of video game translation/localization in Thailand.

This study examines the interactive effects of work values and organisational commitment on localisation.

This study draws on human capital theory, and reports on a survey of 200 expatriate managers working in Qatar.

We find that localisation is negatively associated with work values and positively associated with organisational commitment. Furthermore, work values appear to influence organisational commitment.

Despite a surfeit of literature on localisation of human resources, few studies previously have explored its relationship with work values and organisational commitment. This chapter presents empirical research on the issue from Qatar, a country in a region which remains under-researched in the literature.

Achieving localisation (the transfer of control to local actors) has proven extremely challenging in the development sector, and the humanitarian sector appears to be facing equal challenges. This chapter seeks to engage with that struggle and examine why this lesson has been so difficult to learn. Drawing on conference workshops and 10 key informant interviews, this paper examines the obstacles and opportunities for localisation, seeking to understand what makes it so hard for those who hold disproportionate power in humanitarian encounters to hand over power. The authors found a clear sense of localisation being a process rather than an outcome; optimism that momentum is slowly gathering towards this process, and a clear sense of the steps required to fully achieve it. Examining practitioners’ perspectives in this way adds an important voice to discussions of humanitarian practice.

In structural health monitoring, localization of multiple slight damage without baseline data is significant and difficult. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these issues.

Damage in the structure causes singularities of displacement modes, which in turn reveals damage. Methods based on the displacement modes may fail to accurately locate the slight damage because the slight damage in engineering structure results in a relatively small variation of the displacement modes. In comparison with the displacement modes, the strain modes are more sensitive to the slight damage because the strain is the derivative of the displacement. As a result, the slight variation in displacement data will be magnified by the derivative, leading to a significant variation of the strain modes. A novel method based on strain modes is proposed for the purpose of accurately locating the multiple slight damage.

In the two bay beam and steel fixed-fixed beams, the numerical simulations and the experimental cases, respectively, illustrate that the proposed method can achieve more accurate localization in comparison with the one based on the displacement modes.

The paper offers a practical approach for more accurate localization of multiple slight damage without baseline data. And the robustness to measurement noise of the proposed method is evaluated for increasing levels of artificially added white Gaussian noise until its limit is reached, defining its range of practical applicability.

Free Open Source Softwares (FOSS) witnessed the development of many very good alternatives to proprietary softwares. These free softwares can be localized in several local languages. This paper aims to illustrate a very interesting empirical investigation on FOSS. Several significant benefits of localization are described in introduction and subsequent sections.

Although the localization process is standard and well documented for most of the FOSS, it is a more complex task as it involves coordination among developers, linguists and domain experts. Hence, a very few open source softwares are successfully localized in Indian languages. In this paper, the authors present an approach that they have used for GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) software Marathikaran (localization in Marathi language) project of by Rajya Marathi Vikas Sanstha of Maharashtra Government (RMVS), India.

This localization project has been described by RMVS as a pilot project that would guide such similar localizations in many other Indian languages for other popular open source softwares.

The localization work overcomes the general misconception that regional languages are good only for communication (Boli Bhasha) but cannot be used for dissemination of knowledge (Gyan Bhasha). This work is notably contributing to language preservation, language revitalization and Digital India Initiative.

This work is the pioneering work in this domain for Marathi language with respect to GIMP. The authors presented systematic steps used to localize the GIMP software in Marathi language (from 2% to 100%).

This paper aims to explore the key risk factors affecting the Personnel Localization Management of international construction projects under the major public emergencies represented by the novel coronavirus pneumonia pandemic (hereinafter COVID-19) and how the public emergency affected the Personnel Localization Management from three levels: staff turnover rate, the number of different personnel, the salary and performance of workers. The paper also helps to enhance the construction enterprises' response capacity of major public emergencies and provides a comprehensive framework of optimization strategies for the Personnel Localization Management of international construction projects (hereinafter projects).

The main research method of this paper is the case study, and ten representative international construction projects are selected for case study in China construction enterprises (hereinafter CCE). And this study used the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) and comparative analysis to find out all potential risk factors under the COVID-19 and analyze how the epidemic affects the Personnel Localization Management of projects which based on the primary data from 10 projects obtained through in-depth interviews and the secondary data from China First Metallurgical Group and Central South Construction Group's Overseas Enterprise.

The findings show that the outbreak of the major public emergencies not only greatly increased eight risk factors but also directly led to an increase in staff turnover rate. Meanwhile, the numbers of Chinese and local managers and workers are all affected, and an increase in the number and the salary performance of local workers can be reduced, to a certain extent, to the cost-to-output ratio of the projects. The findings would help construction enterprises better cope with Personnel Localization Management and enhance the response capacity of major public emergencies.

This study will broaden researchers' horizons regarding “Personnel Localization Management under major public emergencies” and “risk factors of Personnel Localization Management in an international context.” Furthermore, construction enterprises looking for a better mechanism of Personnel Localization Management can benefit from research findings and lessons learned from the authors' case study during or before an outbreak of major public emergency. Lastly, the framework of optimization strategies for Personnel Localization Management can be used both for research purposes and practice issues in international construction projects.

The findings from the authors' case study offer the direction for international construction enterprises in China and other countries to formulate effective measures, strengthen overseas business and establish a crisis management mechanism for Personnel Localization Management under major public emergencies, and the findings provide emergency plans for projects to improve the public crisis handling capacity and respond to major public emergencies such as the COVID-19.

This study analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 on the Personnel Localization Management of international construction projects from the perspective of personnel. This study provides a theoretical reference for the international construction industry to actively respond to major public emergencies. Besides, the research is conducive to improving the emergency response mechanism in the construction industry, and further promoting the high-quality and globalized development of international construction.

This study provides other researchers with a comprehensive understanding of the risk factors affecting the Personnel Localization Management of projects under the COVID-19 and insight for further research on localization management, risk management, and project management.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to understand Emirati nationals’ perceptions of the role of workforce localisation policies in their professional aspirations and growth and, second, to determine the role of higher education and job attributes in the achievement of their goals. The study uses a hierarchy-based model/road map to improve localisation efforts by attempting to aid understanding of the relationships and barriers hindering these processes.

The study follows a two-stage process. In the first stage, a questionnaire-based survey was administered to 207 Emirati postgraduate students from public and private universities based in two major Emirates: Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The sample data were analysed by basic descriptive statistics in the form of cross-relationships and rank correlation tests. In the second stage, an interpretive structural modelling approach was used to develop a hierarchy-based structural model of the barriers to localisation.

Emiratis younger than 30 years old consider localisation as an enabling factor in their professional success in contrast to those older than 30 years old. The results also indicate that working female Emiratis have significantly more positive attitudes regarding the contribution of localisation towards their professional success than that of their male counterparts. However, both genders see a mismatch in efforts being made to better equip themselves for the workplace. The hierarchy-based model delineates variables that could contribute to making localisation a successful employment programme in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The findings of this study relate to the UAE. However, there are similar localisation programmes that have been implemented in other Gulf Cooperation Council states. Hence, while the results of this study are relevant to the UAE, they may not be generalisable to the entire Gulf region.

It is proposed that the research findings and the structural model of relationships may help policy makers develop suitable strategies to strengthen the Emirati localisation programme.

This study makes a contribution to the literature and can serve as a guide to policy makers for localisation programmes. This is achieved by analysing the attitude of UAE nationals studying at higher education institutions. Furthermore, the study presents a hierarchy-based model of the barriers to localisation that explains the root causes of the problem.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a Biblical basis for localization as against globalization. This paper argues that the normative direction of Biblical thought is toward the localization of socio‐economic activity. A case study is made for the developing world today relevant to localization.

An evaluation is made of normative Biblical teaching that might have bearing on the localization of socio‐economic activity. How this teaching could apply to the contemporary developing world is assessed.

Normative Biblical teaching is oriented toward localization. This emphasis is capable of being applied in the developing world.

The case that normative Biblical teaching is in favour of localization rather then dispersal (and thereby globalization) has not been made previously. For those who believe that normative Biblical teaching has relevance today, the localization bias challenges the widespread acceptance of globalization.

Wireless network localization technology is very popular in recent years and has attracted worldwide attention. The purpose of this paper is to improve the localization accuracy of ultra-wideband (UWB) with lower localization error taking into consideration the special real environment with the closed long and narrow space.

The principle of multidimensional scaling (MDS), particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Taylor series expansion algorithm (Taylor-D) were introduced. A novel positioning algorithm, MDS-PSO-Taylor was proposed to minimize the localization error. MDS-PSO algorithm provided a more accurate preliminary coordinate by applying the PSO algorithm so that the Taylor-D was used for further enhancing the localization accuracy.

Experimental results manifested that the proposed algorithm, providing small localization error value and higher positioning accuracy, can effectively reduce errors and achieve better performance in terms of the considerable improvement of localization accuracy.

The presented study with the real environment test attempts to demonstrate the proposed algorithm is hopeful to be applied to the underground environment for in the future.

To meet the rising global needs, the humanitarian community has signed off on making a strategic change toward more localisation, which commonly refers to the empowerment of national and local actors in humanitarian assistance. However, to this date, actual initiatives for localisation are rare. To enhance understanding of the phenomenon, the authors explore localisation of logistics preparedness capacities and obstacles to its implementation. The authors particularly take the perspective of the international humanitarian organisation (IHO) community as they are expected to implement the localisation strategy.

A phenomenon-driven, exploratory and qualitative study was conducted. Data collection included in-depth interviews with 28 experienced humanitarian professionals.

The findings showed the ambiguity inherent in the localisation strategy with largely different views on four important dimensions. Particularly, the interviewees differ about strengthening external actors or internal national/local offices. The resulting framework visualises the gap between strategy formulation and implementation, which forms major obstacles to the localisation aims.

Further research is required to support the advancement of localisation of logistics preparedness capacities. Important aspects for future research include triangulation of results, other stakeholder perspectives and the influence of context.

The authors add to the important debate surrounding localisation by offering remedies to overcoming obstacles to strategy implementation. Further, the authors’ proposed framework offers a language to precisely describe the ways in which IHOs (should) view localisation of logistics preparedness capacities and its operationalisation.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first academic article on localisation within the humanitarian logistics context.