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This study focused on establishing the mediating role of opportunistic behavior in the relationship between institutional pressures and procurement cycle time (PCT) in Uganda’s central government (CG) procuring and disposing entities (PDEs). The study also sought to establish the relationship between institutional pressures and PCT, between institutional pressures and opportunity behavior and between opportunistic behavior and PCT. This study was carried out because most PDEs had failed to perform well in terms of PCT, and beneficiaries had often complained of the lengthy PCT.

The unit of analysis was 126 CG PDEs within Uganda while the unit of inquiry was three employees per PDE, namely, giving a total of 378 respondents. Using a quantitative cross-sectional survey, the study realized a response rate of 88% for the unit of analysis and 71.7% for unit of inquiry. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS 4 with focus on ascertaining regression and mediation results.

The findings show that institutional pressures negatively and significantly predict both institutional pressures and PCT (ß = –0.569**; ß = –0.688**, respectively). Also, institutional pressures and opportunistic behavior are significant predictors of PCT, predicting 60.6% change in PCT. Furthermore, opportunity behavior partially moderates the relationship between institutional pressures and PCT.

For Uganda’s CG PDEs to reduce procurement delays and to procure within PCT, they should put more emphasis on institutional pressures and curtailing opportunistic behavior. The study recommends further amendment of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) Act 2003 to reduce delays.

There is need for further amendment of the PPDA Act 2003 to reduce delays, especially those attributed to approvals by contracts committee and the minimum bidding period for competitive bidding.

The study explores PCT and its antecedents whose understanding is critical in exploring avenues of reducing PCT and boosting service delivery to the beneficiaries.

The PPDA Act (2003) was amended in 2014, but still the time spent in the procurement processes has remained long, hence delaying or denying citizens service delivery. This is a matter of concern to the country at large and may spill into political unrests, and yet, there is scant literature exploring PCT and its antecedents. This makes the present study one of the pioneer empirical studies on PCT, with emphasis on Uganda. This study provides a framework for examining PCT in a context where scholarly explanation of PCT is still limited.

This paper seeks to develop, propose and validate, through a series of presentable examples, a comprehensive high‐precision and ultra‐fast computing concept for solving stiff ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and partial differential equations (PDEs) with cellular neural networks (CNN).

The core of the concept developed in this paper is a straight‐forward scheme that we call “nonlinear adaptive optimization (NAOP)”, which is used for a precise template calculation for solving any (stiff) nonlinear ODEs through CNN processors.

One of the key contributions of this work (this is a real breakthrough) is to demonstrate the possibility of mapping/transforming different types of nonlinearities displayed by various classical and well‐known oscillators (e.g. van der Pol‐, Rayleigh‐, Duffing‐, Rössler‐, Lorenz‐, and Jerk‐ oscillators, just to name a few) unto first‐order CNN elementary cells, and thereby enabling the easy derivation of corresponding CNN‐templates. Furthermore, in case of PDEs solving, the same concept also allows a mapping unto first‐order CNN cells while considering one or even more nonlinear terms of the Taylor's series expansion generally used in the transformation of a PDEs in a set of coupled nonlinear ODEs. Therefore, the concept of this paper does significantly contribute to the consolidation of CNN as a universal and ultra‐fast solver of stiff differential equations (both ODEs and PDEs). This clearly enables a CNN‐based, real‐time, ultra‐precise, and low‐cost Computational Engineering. As proof of concept a well‐known prototype of stiff equations (van der Pol) has been considered; the corresponding precise CNN‐templates are derived to obtain precise solutions of this equation.

This paper contributes to the enrichment of the literature as the relevant state‐of‐the‐art does not provide a systematic and robust method to solve nonlinear ODEs and/or nonlinear PDEs using the CNN‐paradigm. Further, the “NAOP” concept developed in this paper has been proven to perform accurate and robust calculations. This concept is not based on trial‐and‐error processes as it is the case for various classes of optimization methods/tools (e.g. genetic algorithm, particle swarm, neural networks, etc.). The “NAOP” concept developed in this frame does significantly contribute to the consolidation of CNN as a universal and ultra‐fast solver of nonlinear differential equations (both ODEs and PDEs). An implantation of the concept developed is possible even on embedded digital platforms (e.g. field‐programmable gate array (FPGA), digital signal processing (DSP), graphics processing unit (GPU), etc.); this opens a broad range of applications. On‐going works (as outlook) are using NAOP for deriving precise templates for a selected set of practically interesting PDE models such as Navier Stokes, Schrödinger, Maxwell, etc.

This study aims to investigate the whistle-blowing behaviour in Ugandan public procurement by using whistle-blowing supporting institutions, procuring and disposing entity (PDE) ethical climate and whistle-blowing expectancy.

A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted using a sample of 118 drawn from a population of 179 central government (PDEs). Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires, resulting in 222 usable questionnaires from 70 PDEs, representing a response rate of 62.71 per cent.

The results reveal that the whistle-blowing supporting institutions and PDE ethical climate are significant predictors of whistle-blowing intentions and behaviour, accounting for 30.2 per cent of the variance. The authors therefore recommend that whistle-blowing supporting institutions, like the Whistle Blowers Protection Act, should be reviewed and strengthened to promote whistle-blowing intentions and behaviour. This could be done through reviewing the Act to make it enforceable, giving power to the whistle-blowers, strengthening policies, developing safeguards against retaliation by making every chief executive officer in the public sector accountable, increasing whistle-blowing incentives and providing whistle-blowing hotlines for anonymous whistle-blowers. PDEs should also create conducive ethical climates that encourage people to voice their concerns internally or externally, and ethical committees should be established within PDEs and other bodies such as the Inspector General of Government for ensuring that whistle-blowing systems are in place and promoted. There is a need to increase whistle-blowing expectancy through the effective handling of reported cases to their conclusion and the use of role models.

Procurement records are critical for the effective execution of the procurement process and have been applied as tools to measure compliance and performance of Public Procuring and Disposing Entities (PDEs) by the regulating authority in Uganda – the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA). However, the state of records in various Ugandan PDEs depicts poor records management. This situation has adversely affected the effective creation, usage and storage of public procurement records. This compromises the value and importance of records within the procurement process, with most documents being unavailable and unreliable. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between procurement records compliance, effective risk management and records management performance in Ugandan PDEs.

The study adopted a quantitative research design and used a cross-sectional survey. The researchers developed a questionnaire on the study constructs of procurement records compliance, effective risk management and records management performance using measurement scales derived from previous empirical studies which were modified to suit the current study.

The results indicate quantitative evidence of significant positive relationships between procurement records compliance, effective risk management and records management performance. Findings also reveal that procurement records compliance and effective risk management are significant predictors of record management performance. The results also suggest that effective risk management has a stronger influence on records management performance than that on procurement records compliance.

The study context is sub-Saharan Africa, and the findings are, therefore, limited to that context; they reflect existing knowledge in other contexts. The use of a standard questionnaire limited the ability to collect views about information outside the questions asked. The study was only cross-sectional, and the study variables could not be analyzed over a long time. Common methods bias remains a potential threat; future studies should use different source data.

Custodians of procurement records, that is, procurement officers, records officers and accounting officers for Ugandan PDEs need to pay special attention to prevailing records laws and policies to minimize risks associated with the poor management of records, as well as improve performance in the management of records creation, storage, retrieval, access and the preservation of vital records.

The study contributes to an important area which has not been given attention in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, especially Uganda where there is a difficulty of linking the value of records management to business processes due to a lack of quantitative evidence.

This study sought to examine the extent to which outsourced contracts, buyer-supplier trust and supplier opportunistic behavior explain supplier performance in Ugandan Public Procuring and Disposing Entities (PDEs). This study was prompted by reports of long lead times, failure to match specifications, late deliveries, poor quality of services delivered, contract violations, and increased supplier cheating. Cross sectional data from 116 central government PDEs concerning outsourced contracts was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Hierarchical regression was used to indicate what happens to a model that was developed as part of this research as different predictor variables are introduced. The findings revealed that outsourced contracts, buyer-supplier trust, and supplier opportunistic behavior are significant predictors of supplier performance. The study has both managerial and policy implications which are discussed in this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to study the applications of Lie symmetry method on the boundary value problem (BVP) for nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) in fluid mechanics.

The authors solved a BVP for nonlinear PDEs in fluid mechanics based on the effective combination of the symmetry, homotopy perturbation and Runge–Kutta methods.

First, the multi-parameter symmetry of the given BVP for nonlinear PDEs is determined based on differential characteristic set algorithm. Second, BVP for nonlinear PDEs is reduced to an initial value problem of the original differential equation by using the symmetry method. Finally, the approximate and numerical solutions of the initial value problem of the original differential equations are obtained using the homotopy perturbation and Runge–Kutta methods, respectively. By comparing the numerical solutions with the approximate solutions, the study verified that the approximate solutions converge to the numerical solutions.

The application of the Lie symmetry method in the BVP for nonlinear PDEs in fluid mechanics is an excellent and new topic for further research. In this paper, the authors solved BVP for nonlinear PDEs by using the Lie symmetry method. The study considered that the boundary conditions are the arbitrary functions Bi(x)(i = 1,2,3,4), which are determined according to the invariance of the boundary conditions under a multi-parameter Lie group of transformations. It is different from others’ research. In addition, this investigation will also effectively popularize the range of application and advance the efficiency of the Lie symmetry method.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the meshless local exponential basis functions (MLEBF) method to the case of nonlinear and linear, variable coefficient partial differential equations (PDEs).

The original version of MLEBF method is limited to linear, constant coefficient PDEs. The reason is that exponential bases which satisfy the homogeneous operator can only be determined for this class of problems. To extend this method to the general case of linear PDEs, the variable coefficients along with all involved derivatives are first expanded. This expanded form is evaluated at the center of each cloud, and is assumed to be constant over the entire cloud. The solution procedure is followed as in the former version. Nonlinear problems are first converted to a succession of linear, variable coefficient PDEs using the Newton-Kantorovich scheme and are subsequently solved using the aforementioned approach until convergence is achieved.

The results obtained show good performance of the method as solution to a wide range of problems. The results are compared with the well-known methods in the literature such as the finite element method, high-order finite difference method or variants of the boundary element method.

The MLEBF method is a simple yet effective tool for analyzing various kinds of problems. It is easy to implement with high parallelization potential. The proposed method addresses the biggest limitation of the method, and extends it to linear, variable coefficient PDEs as well as nonlinear ones.

The purpose of the study is to develop and test an integrated compliance model using constructs derived from the legitimacy, deterrence, institutional and stewardship theories. A Cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data from a sample of 97 out of the population of 129 Procuring and Disposing Entities which are regulated by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority Act (PPDA). Measurement items were derived from a critical review of literature and found to be both valid and reliable with Cronbach Alpha coefficient of 0.7. The findings reveal that legitimacy and stewardship behavior are significant predictors of compliance to the PPDA Act, Rules and Regulations. We therefore recommend that Procuring and Disposing Entities should continue legitimizing the procurement law through involvement of all stakeholders and promote stewardship behaviors among public employees.

This study aims to purpose the idea of a new hybrid approach to examine the approximate solution of the fourth-order partial differential equations (PDEs) with time fractional derivative that governs the behaviour of a vibrating beam. The authors have also demonstrated the physical representations of the problem in different fractional order.

Mohand transform is a new technique that the authors use to reduce the order of fractional problems, and then the homotopy perturbation method can be used to handle the further series solution in the form of convergence. The formulation of Mohand transform and the homotopy perturbation method is known as Mohand homotopy perturbation transform (MHPT). The fractional order in this paper is considered in the Caputo sense.

The results are formulated in the shape of iterative series and predict the solution close to the exact solution. This successive iteration demonstrates the authenticity and reliability of this scheme.

This paper presents the significance of MHPT such that, firstly, Mohand transform is coupled with homotopy perturbation method and, secondly, the fractional order a is used to show the physical behaviour of the graphical solution.

This study presents the consistency and authenticity of the graphical solution with the exact solutions.

This study demonstrates that Mohand transform is capable to handle the fractional order problem without any constraints and assumptions.

A new integral transform has been introduced without any restriction of variables that produces the results in a series form and confirms the validity of the proposed algorithm by graphical illustrations.

This paper aims to compare designers’ cognitive behaviors in geometry-based modeling environments (GMEs) and parametric design environments (PDEs).

This study used Rhinoceros as the geometric and Grasshopper as the parametric design tool in an experimental setting. Designers’ cognitive behaviors were investigated by using the retrospective protocol analysis method with a content-oriented approach.

The results indicated that the participants performed more cognitive actions per minute in the PDE because of the extra algorithmic space that such environments include. On the other hand, the students viewed their designs more and focused more on product–user relation in the geometric modeling environment. While the students followed a top-down process and produced less number of topologically different design alternatives with the parametric design tool, they had more goal setting activities and higher number of alternative designs in the geometric modeling environment.

This study indicates that cognitive behaviors of designers in GMEs and PDEs differ significantly and these differences entail further attention from researchers and educators.