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Designing efficient XML schemas is essential for XML applications which manage semi‐structured data. On generating XML schemas, there are two opposite goals: to avoid redundancy and to provide connected structures in order to achieve good performance on queries. In general, highly connected XML structures allow data redundancy, and redundancy‐free schemas generate disconnected XML structures. The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate by experiments an approach which balances such trade‐off through a workload analysis. Additionally, it aims to identify the most accessed data based on the workload and suggest indexes to improve access performance.

The paper applies and evaluates a workload‐aware methodology to provide indexing and highly connected structures for data which are intensively accessed through paths traversed by the workload.

The paper presents benchmarking results on a set of design approaches for XML schemas and demonstrates that the XML schemas generated by the approach provide high query performance and low cost of data redundancy on balancing the trade‐off on XML schema design.

Although an XML benchmark is applied in these experiments, further experiments are expected in a real‐world application.

The approach proposed may be applied in a real‐world process for designing new XML databases as well as in reverse engineering process to improve XML schemas from legacy databases.

Unlike related work, the reported approach integrates the two opposite goal in the XML schema design, and generates suitable schemas according to a workload. An experimental evaluation shows that the proposed methodology is promising.

NoSQL databases do not require a default schema associated with the data. Even that, they are categorized by data models. A model associated with the data can promote better strategies for persistence and manipulation of data in the target database. Based on this motivation, the purpose of this paper is to present an approach for logical design of NoSQL document databases that consists a process that converts a conceptual modeling into efficient logical representations for a NoSQL document database. The authors also evaluate their approach and demonstrate that the generated NoSQL logical structures reduce the amount of data items accessed by queries.

This paper presents an approach for logical design of NoSQL document database schemas based on a conceptual schema. The authors generate compact and redundancy-free schemas and define appropriate representations in a NoSQL document logical model. The estimated volume of data and workload information can be considered to generate optimized NoSQL document structures.

This approach was evaluated through a case study with an experimental evaluation in the e-commerce application domain. The results demonstrate that the authors’ workload-based conversion process improves query performance on NoSQL documents by reducing the number of database accesses.

Unlike related work, the reported approach covers all typical conceptual constructs, details a conversion process between conceptual schemas and logical representations for NoSQL document database category and, additionally, considers the estimated database workload to perform optimizations in the logical structure. An experimental evaluation shows that the proposed approach is promising.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

This research paper focuses on employee experience quality in university spin-off companies in Portugal. Specifically, it explores seven dimensions of employment quality identified by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) framework: physical health, mental health and human rights; income and benefits from employment; hours flexibility and work-life balance; employment security and social protection; social dialogue; skills development and training; and workplace relationships and motivation. The findings show that similar challenges face start-ups and university spin-offs, such as retaining talent while paying them lower wages, and motivating people to absorb high work pressure and expectations for sustained periods.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This study attempts to investigate reading behavior in the digital environment by analyzing how people's reading behavior has changed over the past ten years.

Survey and analysis methods are employed.

With an increasing amount of time spent reading electronic documents, a screen‐based reading behavior is emerging. The screen‐based reading behavior is characterized by more time spent on browsing and scanning, keyword spotting, one‐time reading, non‐linear reading, and reading more selectively, while less time is spent on in‐depth reading, and concentrated reading. Decreasing sustained attention is also noted. Annotating and highlighting while reading is a common activity in the printed environment. However, this “traditional” pattern has not yet migrated to the digital environment when people read electronic documents.

Implications for the changes in reading behavior are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.

This study aims to validate whether enhancing interorganizational task interdependence among tier 2 suppliers can act as an effective approach for the tier 1 supplier to enhance collaborations among these suppliers in the buyer-tier 1 supplier-tier 2 supplier triadic new product development (NPD) project when buyer's requirements are unstable.

Based on social interdependence theory, a model linking interorganizational task interdependence to interorganizational collaboration and NPD product performance is built. The authors conducted a survey study to collect data from 169 automotive tier 1 suppliers and performed regression analysis to empirically test the hypotheses.

The test results suggest that interorganizational task interdependence among tier 2 suppliers can promote interorganizational promotion-oriented information sharing and interorganizational joint decision making among these suppliers. These improvements can ultimately improve supplier’s NPD product performance. However, the buyer’s requirements uncertainty can reduce the positive effects of such an interdependence arrangement.

This study provides new insights into the role of a tier 1 supplier to enhance the collaboration among tier 2 suppliers in the limited condition of this relationship while providing an alternative explanation regarding contradictory ideas about task interdependence among suppliers.

The aging of a population poses significant challenges to healthcare, housing, social security and elderly care services. Active aging is promoted by the Hong Kong government but is compromised by a shortage of nurses, doctors and professional aides. This study aims to review the history of nursing education in Hong Kong, evaluate Hong Kong's nursing manpower policy with a macro–micro analysis based on sociological imagination and provide sound recommendations.

This article analyzes the nursing shortage in Hong Kong. A comprehensive literature review was conducted, concerning the Hong Kong healthcare workforce and covering relevant government reports, consultation papers and articles from academic journals from 1943 to the present.

The nursing shortage in Hong Kong can be understood from both absolute and relative terms. The total number of practicing nurses and fresh graduates registering through the four aforementioned pathways increased from 17,034 in 1996 to 61,295 in 2020 (growth rate of 74.4%), but it is predicted that there will be a shortage of 455, 1,383 and 1,669 nurses in 2020, 2025 and 2030, respectively. Moreover, Hong Kong had 8.2 nurses per 1,000 people in 2020. Although this rate exceeds those of China, South Korea and Singapore, it lags behind those of the USA and Australia as well as the international recommendation of nine nurses per 1,000 people. The nurse shortage has been further aggravated by an interaction between macro factors, including aging population, a lack of coherent and long-term nursing manpower policy (an analysis is based on a health policy triangle), numerous obstacles imposed on nurses from abroad and micro factors emanating from an interplay of push–pull factors among nurses.

The proportion of the Hong Kong population aged 65 years or older was 18% in 2019. The availability of healthcare workers is essential for attaining optimal health outcomes for older adults. The high turnover rate of nurses in public hospitals negatively affects the provision of timely high-quality medical services in the dual-track medical system. Therefore, workforce projections should be made every three years. Such policy should rely primarily on local nurses trained both by University Grant Committee-funded institutions and by self-financed tertiary institutions. Foreign nurses should be a supplementary resource. The budget allocated to the public healthcare sector should be increased to improve remuneration, provide abundant training opportunities and improve working environment to retain nurses in public hospitals.

Given that deep-seated problems surrounding the quantity and quality of nurses, the avenues for pursuing nursing degree education and the turnover rate of nurses in public hospitals remain unsolved, it is imperative to investigate how to alleviate the healthcare workforce shortage in Hong Kong.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of health promotion interventions in Queensland, Australia. During the research period, the workers’ employing organization, a large contracting organization, was engaged in a competitive tender to renew their service contract. The research therefore provided an opportunity to examine the impact of health promotion interventions in project-based work environments under conditions of job insecurity.

The sample comprised of workers contracted to provide facility maintenance and management services for a power station. Data were collected using a longitudinal survey of workers’ health, weekly logs recording health behaviour, and a post-intervention evaluation workshop. Health interventions implemented sought to encourage workers to eat more fruit and participate in a physical exercise programme.

Findings revealed that workers’ health was generally lower than the Queensland male population when measured using a standardized norm-based tool. The log data revealed that health behaviour fluctuated over time but did not show significant or sustained improvement with the introduction of the health interventions. The evaluation workshop revealed that workers’ concerns about their job security during the research period impacted their health behaviours.

The need to address the structural and organizational factors that influence the health of project-based workers is highlighted. In particular, concerns about continuity of work may otherwise reduce the beneficial effect of health promotion programmes.

This paper proposes an integrated knowledge visualization and digital twin system for supporting strategic management decisions. The concepts and applications of strategic architecture have been illustrated with a concrete real-world case study and decision rules of using the strategic digital twin management decision system (SDMDS) as a more visualized, adaptive and effective model for decision-making.

This paper integrates the concepts of mental and computer models and examines a real case's business operations by applying system dynamics modelling and digital technologies. The enterprise digital twin system with displaying real-world data and simulations for future scenarios demonstrates an improved process of strategic decision-making in the digital age.

The findings reveal that data analytics and the visualized enterprise digital twin system offer better practices for strategic management decisions in the dynamic and constantly changing business world by providing a constant and frequent adjustment on every decision that affects how the business performs over both operational and strategic timescales.

In the digital age and dynamic business environment, the proposed strategic architecture and managerial digital twin system converts the existing conceptual models into an advanced operational model. It can facilitate the development of knowledge visualization and become a more adaptive and effective model for supporting real-time management decision-making by dealing with the complicated dependence of constant flow of data input, output and the feedback loop across business units and boundaries.