Ultra wide band (UWB)-based real-time location systems (RTLSs) have been widely adopted in the manufacturing industry for tracking tools, materials, and ensuring safety. Researchers in the construction domain have investigated similar uses for UWB-based RTLSs on construction jobsites. However, most of these investigations comprised small-scale experiments using average accuracy only to demonstrate use cases for the technology. Furthermore, they did not consider alternative deployment scenarios for practically feasible deployment of the technology. To overcome these limitations, a series of experiments were performed to study the feasibility of a commercially available RTLS on the construction jobsites. The focus of the work was on feasibility in terms of accuracy analysis of the system for a large experimental site, the level of effort requirements for deployment, and the impact of deployment alternatives on the accuracy of the system. The results found that average accuracy was found to be a misleading indicator of the perceived system performance . Moreover, accuracy is significantly affected by the deployment alternatives. Collectively, the results arising from the study could help construction/safety managers in decision making related to the deployment of UWB-based RTLSs for their construction sites. Technology-enabled jobsites have the potential to fundamentally alter the business processes on construction jobsites. Data sensing and analysis techniques can enable decision makers to make informed decisions in support of the management of day-to-day construction operations. Recent research works have identified construction safety and productivity as two main knowledge areas where data sensing and analysis can have a large impact . InformaManual onsite data collection is time consuming, prone to errors, and a tiresome activity. Real-time location systems (RTLSs) have been used to collect accurate location data in real-time . Real-tiDiverse location sensing technologies have been reported in the literature and their limitations have been discussed a number of reviews . The tecA more recent review by Zhang et al.  examinedThe use of ultra wide band (UWB)-based real time location system (RTLS) has been frequently reported in the manufacturing domain. Large manufacturing and operating concerns have used these systems for diverse purposes including automatic tool adjustment on assembly lines, theft prevention systems, emergency evacuation planning and management, warehouse management, and management of buses in real time in a yard ,38,39. RAlthough some construction operations (such as prefabrication) utilize similar manufacturing-oriented processes, in general, the construction industry environment is quite different from the static industrial settings. Construction sites present additional challenges owing to the dynamic environment that requires a constant response to changes. With the ongoing construction progress, the beneficial use of RTLS in these settings would require frequent alterations and re-calibrations that can potentially have an impact on the performance and accuracy of the system. Prior to identifying the related knowledge gap in The RTLS uses time difference of arrival (TDOA) and angle of arrival (AOA) techniques to localize a target. Although the system can localize the target using AOA data only, TDOA enhances the accuracy and credibility of the location data collected by the system. Sometimes TDOA is not utilized because it requires additional wiring to transmit the data, which is undesirable on complex and dynamic locations such as construction sites. However, most research work mentioned in this section relied on using both TDOA and AOA information to maximize the accuracy of the system.Mok et al.  reports In a separate study, untethered UWB-based RTLS was tested in which wireless connection for time difference of arrival (TDOA) data transmission was established in place of wired connections . The expIn another study, UWB-based RTLS was tested in an outdoor construction environment, where different update rates were used for mobile and static asset tracking . The resSimilarly, a study conducted dynamic and static experiments to examine the performance of a UWB-based RTLS in an experimental setup . A robotMaalek and Sadeghpour  performeStudies from the construction domain show that the use of RTLS may be extended to other domain functions such as safety, material tracking, and productivity analysis. The UWB-based RTLS may be used in conjunction with other sensing techniques to improve safety . Recent In a study, using UWB-based RTLS, the movement of workers was observed to avoid obstacles and to generate a safe path on a construction site . Convex In another study, a safety system was developed to ensure real-time collision free paths for crane movements using UWB-based RTLS . RapidlyRTLS has also been used for tracking worker activities on tasks such as painting and welding that cannot be tracked easily using existing progress tracking systems . The datIn an interesting study, RTLS information was combined with a commercially available physiological status monitoring (PSM) system to integrate the physiological status of a construction worker and location data on a job site . This inOther innovative approaches on data fusion have also been reported in the literature, including an intelligent concrete consolidation tracking system for vibration tool, which could visualize the location, time, and depth of the vibration done . This heExisting research sparingly discusses deployment protocols or practical accuracy requirements for location systems for adequate support of knowledge domain functions. Significant improvements can be achieved for material tracking even with lower levels of accuracy; however, feasible deployment of safety alert systems requires a higher level of accuracy of the underlying location system. Researchers in the construction domain have used average accuracy during small-scale experiments as an indicator of the performance of commercially available ultra wide band (UWB) systems . Average2) to demonstrate the feasibility of the use of a UWB-based RTLS on construction jobsites. Unlike manufacturing domains, where a system is deployed once, calibrated, and then used for extended periods, the authors envision that practical field deployments of UWB systems on actual construction jobsites would entail frequent repetitive deployment of sensing systems a number of times. A series of experiments were carried out on an open jobsite for multiple scenarios to replicate the conditions on the jobsites. The scenarios were designed considering the shortcomings mentioned in the literature. These scenarios included investigating accuracy for a single tag versus multiple tags, different possibilities of location placements of the sensors, and static and dynamic experiments. Accuracy (2D and 3D) parameters were compared with a baseline deployment, which was done as per manufacturer guidelines. The average accuracy and 95th percentile were chosen as accuracy parameters. Finally, the results were analyzed by merging accuracy heat maps and field of view (FOV) images, leading to the conclusions of the research work. Accordingly, this paper proceeds as follows. To fulfill this knowledge gap, this study used a higher threshold of accuracy performance (95th precentile) in a large experimental setting  on construction jobsites. For each site, some minor steps may also be included, which will differ as per deployment of the system under different conditions.This step involves deployment of the system’s hardware on the construction site. Firstly, the location of sensors has to be decided based on the coverage required for the site, access/availability of the locations on the site, site’s work environment, and other factors . The existing structures and infrastructure on the site will dictate whether the sensors can be deployed on fixed surfaces or whether temporary deployment apparatus (such as tripods) are to be used. Fixed surfaces such as walls are preferred over tripod stands because walls are firm and stable and are less prone to vibrations and winds on the construction sites. Furthermore, walls are usually safer than tripod stands as cranes and other mobile equipment may hit the tripod stands because their location is transient and may not be known to them. Tripod stands may fall, causing damage to the costly sensors. For the actual physical installation of the sensors, wall mountings are to be installed on fixed surfaces or the sensors can be fixed to the stem of the tripod using “U” shaped hooks.Wired connections are necessary between the different sensors for utilization of the RTLS using the TDOA method. Wires are needed to be run among the sensors and from a master sensor to the computer running the software platform. A master sensor is that sensor that has been designated as a reference for time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements. Power can either be provided to the sensors through DC supply or by power over ethernet (POE). POE was used in this study. Time and cost requirements will vary from site to site depending upon the area to be covered and distinctive site characteristics for each construction site .The accuracy of the system depends on the accurate survey of the sensor positions and reference points after the cabling and layout have been done. The coverage of the UWB-sensor used in our setup had a field of view of 120° in the horizontal plane and 100° in the vertical plane. The effective sensing range of the sensor also varies considerably based on the site characteristics. After the orientation adjustment, the survey needs to be done in order to know the location of the sensors. This can be done using various available surveying equipment like a total station or laser scanner. The man-minutes effort required depends on the number of sensors, site characteristics, and the efficiency of the surveying equipment. Additional man-minutes may be consumed if a higher level of accuracy is desired in this process.There are various methods of calibration that can be adopted as recommended by the RTLS manufacturer. The calibration technique used in our setup involved placing a tag in a fixed central known position. Individual sensors are then calibrated with the designated master sensor to determine the pitch, yaw, roll, and cable offset for all the sensors. The accuracy provided by the system is heavily dependent on this calibration process. For construction sites, it is advisable to calibrate the system using multiple test points. Consistent resultant outputs of these calibrations indicate a good system setup.For static tests, tags were deployed at the station points for one minute; location data readings were noted and, finally, they were removed. For some of the experiments, a single tag was deployed one by one at all station points and, for the others, all of the station points were occupied by the tags simultaneously. Three setups were arranged for the knowledge gaps discussed earlier using various configurations, namely, full site access, offsite setup, and partial site access. These three setups are elaborated in the sections below. In addition to the things discussed above, the filled arcs initiating from the sensors show the coverage provided by each of the sensors. For ease, the range of each of the sensors was considered to be 35 m, which may differ from the actual range of the sensors. It is important to note that better coverage is available where a place is covered by multiple sensors. The dark color in the center as compared with the sides of the site illustrates the same concept .The first scenario was termed as full site access, in which the system was installed as per the manufacturer’s specification. This setup was considered as a baseline for comparison between other setups. This cell configuration is considered for site conditions where full access to the site is available. Four sensors were spread in the corners. This fulfills the requirements for optimum accuracy at the construction site. This configuration and FOV are shown in This cell configuration is considered for the cases where the access to the construction site is either not feasible or not granted. The sensors were placed outside or at the one boundary of the construction site. This led to the scenario where real-time location data were collected offsite. The setup is shown in This cell configuration is considered for the cases where the full access for the site is not available. The sensors were deployed on the partial site. The setup is shown in Distance root mean square (DRMS) was used to assess the accuracy for 2D experiments, whereas mean radial spherical error (MRSE) was used to assess accuracy for 3D experiments. Both metrics, average accuracy and 95th percentile, were computed. MRSE and DRMS allow to combine precision and offset in one single value to represent accuracy .i, yi, and zi are location coordinates for the ith reading provided by the sensors. xactual, yactual, and zactual are actual coordinates of that particular point already available using the laser scanner survey of the site.Mathematically,A single tag deployed at different station points versus all tags deployed at once, as the number of tags being tracked has an impact on the accuracy;All tags deployed at once with AOA only versus with both AOA and TDOA, that is, wireless setup versus wired setup, respectively.Two variations for static experiments were performed:For dynamic experiments, a zigzag path was chosen to test the system for dynamic movements, as shown in It was important to measure the man-minutes consumed for the various steps involved in the deployment and setup of the RTLS to quantify the level of effort required in the deployment of the system. This section depicts a graphical representation of the accuracy results projected over the site area. It must be mentioned that different resolutions are used  to highlight the relevant features and differences in each comparison set. Visual comparisons across the presented sets are not meaningful. The quantitative data used to plot graphical representations are available in 1. Wired versus wireless setupIn order to investigate how accuracy in terms of DRMS and MRSE varies when both TDOA and AOA readings are used for localization and when only AOA readings are used, experiments were performed in the full site access configuration using a single tag deployed at different locations. 2. Comparison between three deployment alternativesDynamic experiments were performed on the full site, off-site, and partial site access configurations. For full site access, the results showed an average accuracy of 77 cm based on DRMS. Visual representation of the experiment is shown in Similarly, the experiment was repeated for the offsite setup and average accuracy was calculated to be 146 cm. For partial site access, the average accuracy was calculated to be 117 cm for the 2D data. This accuracy was better than offsite setup, while it was less accurate than full site access. A series of experiments were conducted to study the behavior of the RTLS on a life-size scale site. The results of the tests show the variation in accuracy for the different experimental setups. For additional analysis and understanding of these experiments, heat maps were merged and overlaid with field of view (FOV) maps, as discussed in the following sections.The results indicate that average accuracy varied from a mean value of 0.18 m , it can be observed that the best average accuracy was obtained using full site access configuration, followed by partial access configuration . It is iSimilarly, for partial site access, much better accuracy is observed in the central region than other parts of the site. Sub-meter accuracy for the full site access configuration and around 1 m accuracy for the partial site access configuration demonstrate good results for real-time tracking of the construction resources. In contrast, the offsite setup showed decreased average accuracy of around 1.5 m. Importantly, for the offsite setup, a problem can be seen that the system did not display the location data for the line segment from station points 5 to 7 and 6 to ST-3 . GraphicWhen the tag carrier moved from station point 8 to 6, the tag was visible to the sensors. However, when he moved from station point 6 to 3, the tag was not visible to the sensors as the signals were blocked by the worker carrying the tag as the tag was being carried in the hand. The case was similar when the carrier moved from station point 5 to 7. This phenomenon of signal interference is also pointed out by many researchers ,20,27,44On the basis of the accuracy parameters obtained, man-minutes requirement, and hands-on experience on the RTLS, the authors conclude that deployment of UWB-based RTLS may not be feasible for all construction jobsites. Safety implications resulting from cables and the safety of the RTLS system itself can outweigh the benefits that the system may bring to the jobsite. However, the system is highly recommended for critical project activities, for example, critical crane lifts, girder launching of a flyover, concrete pouring of a critical slab, erection of important steel structures, fabrication yards, and offsite fabrication. For such deployment, the following recommendations are made to enable a successful setup with increased accuracy: (1) deploy the sensors outside the boundary of the area to be monitored by 5 m approximately, in order to ensure robust monitoring even around the boundary of the area; (2) fix the sensors on firm supports such as walls to improve accuracy, as vibrations and wind may affect the sensors installed on the tripods; (3) keep the sensors as high as possible (preferably more than 2 m); (4) if enhanced accuracy is required, use the wired sensors setup and provide site coverage using multiple sensors; (5) if the wired setup is not possible, accuracy for the wireless setup can be enhanced by increasing the number of the sensors; (6) keep on changing the setup (in term of location and position of the sensors), as the characteristics of the construction site change during the lifecycle of the project; (7) tags should be attached to the top of the resources such that sensors may have direct line of sight; and (8) tag the wires according to the deployment needs, as this will help in repeated deployment of the system.UWB-based RTLS has been successfully used in the manufacturing industry, where the system is deployed permanently, calibrated once, and then re-calibrated only when needed, and where wiring can be managed with the fixed infrastructure of the setup. However, construction sites are dynamic and do not allow for a permanent deployment of these systems. The experiments recorded the man-minutes required for each set up as an indicator of the level of effort necessary to get beneficial use of this system on construction jobsites. The actual effort on a particular site will be influenced further by the existing jobsite conditions and access requirements.Multiple experiments were setup to explore and investigate the feasibility of UWB-based RTLS for construction. The results reveal that using 2D tracking instead of 3D, tracking a lesser number of tags, using a wired setup instead of a wireless setup, and providing site coverage from multiple directions enhances the accuracy of tracking. Furthermore, ideal deployment conditions provide fair enough coverage of the construction site, but seem to be difficult to achieve on actual jobsites. Additionally, settings such as the offsite setup may help by location tracking of the construction assets without the deployment of the RTLS infrastructure on construction jobsite, but will provide only a limited coverage area. Full site access and adding additional sensors will enhance the coverage and accuracy of the RTLS, but at the cost of more cabling on traditionally dynamic construction environment, which might increase safety hazards. Importantly, the study has highlighted that the accuracy of UWB-based RTLS varies greatly based on the definition  and based on the RTLS infrastructure . Consequently, such information is useful to know the requirements for the desired accuracy for the RTLS.While this study has added to the body of knowledge related to the use of UWB-based RTLS for construction sites, there are a few limitations of this study too, which further studies should investigate. For example, this study should be repeated on an actual construction site throughout the duration of the project. Secondly, future studies should also explore how UWB-based RTLS could be used along with other safety prevention methods to make construction sites even safer. For instance, risk-taking behavior of construction is common and is a cause of construction accidents ,46. Stud


This study examines the factors that facilitated the international diffusion of Uber, one of the fastest growing global companies in the sharing economy. We particularly focus on the legal and institutional conditions under which this ride-sharing platform could spread to customers online. Using a unique cross-national, longitudinal dataset, we employ event history models to investigate the effect of institutional environment on the diffusion of Uber. The results suggest that the establishment of the rule of law has a positive impact on the spread of Uber, even after controlling for economic and political characteristics. In addition, the overall quality of governmental regulations on markets is positively related to the diffusion of this ride-sharing platform. Our study contributes to the emerging literature on the sharing economy by identifying critical institutional factors that enable the transformation of business models worldwide. Since the rise of the information and communications technology (ICT), software intermediaries such as digital platforms and applications have been developed as an emergent industry to facilitate hyper-connectivity among individuals. In this so called network society , the “shWhile previous studies on the sharing economy have mostly paid attention to the development of digital technology and the internal governance of sharing economy organizations, scholars have just started to illuminate the external factors that facilitate the dynamics of sharing economy . RegardiTo fill this gap in the nascent literature of sharing economy, we investigate how institutional conditions shape the diffusion of sharing economy platforms on a global scale. We particularly zoom in the case of Uber Tech. Inc., one of the most popular and fastest-growing sharing platform companies. To study the conditions that enabled the successful spread of this startup company, we employ event history modeling to analyze a unique cross-national, longitudinal dataset we collected on 142 countries over the period between 2010 and 2017. The results suggest that institutional factors such as the established rule of law and the quality of governmental regulations on markets play a critical role in facilitating the diffusion of Uber, even after controlling for other economic and political characteristics. Implications of our findings to the sharing economy industry and its scholarship are discussed in conclusion.The rise of information technology in the late 20th century paved the way for the spread of integrating personal computers, mobile communication and ubiquitous computing, globally integrated financial market, virtual-reality convergence culture, and other unprecedented phenomenon. Castells  identifiIn this highly-connected society, digital platforms have emerged as a mediator for person-to-person sharing transactions and interactions. There is no commonly shared understanding about the notion of the sharing economy. Scholars admit that those are hard to be established due to its multifaceted aspects . HoweverIt is hard to deny that societies have always shared goods and services . What diTo fully capture the dynamics revolving around sharing economy, it is crucial to understand both the internal/technological logic within platform operations and the external/institutional logic embedding platforms . CompareThe nascent literature on sharing economy has started to illuminate the external factors affecting the institutionalization of sharing economy. Bardhi and Eckhardt , for exaBuilding upon these literature on the external environment surrounding sharing economy, we focus on the importance of formal rules and regulations or the institutional factors that are critical to the rise of the market economy . Since tAmong various sharing platforms, Uber stands out as one of the most critical cases to study sharing economy. As a mobility sharing platform, Uber linked drivers and riders with lower prices, quicker matching, and a more convenient payment system compared to the conventional taxi industry . Uber waAs a pioneering sharing platform company, Uber has successfully stretched out to the global market . Thus, UIn our effort to account for the expansion of Uber, we incorporate market uncertainty as the key concept in formulating our theoretical expectation. In the literature of organization studies, uncertainty is known to be a critical environmental factor in making strategic decisions –36. UnceTherefore, we expect that the legal and institutional environments will be critical in facilitating the diffusion of the sharing platform. Among legal-institutional environments, we particularly focus on two interrelated dimensions: (1) the establishment of the rule of law and (2) the quality of market regulation by the government. In states with a strong rule of law, Uber can minimize market uncertainty when it opens a platform and seeks for a stable legal status afterwards. Also, Uber can avoid inappropriate regulation by the government, sponsored by incumbent market players, if the nation-state does not arbitrarily regulate new entrepreneurial actors. Thus, we hypothesize as follows:Hypothesis 1: Uber is more likely to launch its service in states with an established rule of law compared to states without rule of law.Hypothesis 2: Uber is more likely to launch its service in states with a high quality of governmental regulations on markets compared to states with a low regulation quality.To test our hypothesis, we collected a unique cross-national dataset over the period from 2010 to 2017. Our data is based on Uber’s website where the company publicly posts the list of cities and countries where its platforms are in operation. As Uber does not disclose the exact launching dates for each city and country, however, we additionally collect the Uber launching dates for the first city of the corresponding countries by using related press releases and other news articles and by cross cross-checking the information with Uber’s website. The sources used for verification are shown in our deposited data file.Our complete data consists of the first launching dates for the first expanded city in each country from 2010 to 2017. We measured those dates based on the exact timing when Uber made a decision to launch its platform to a given country. According to our data, there are 85 out of 187 countries where Uber service was expanded. The data is right-censored as of 2017 –the year when the diffusion curve has been flattened . WGI data composits a series of variables that capture multifaceted dimensions of governance of 215 countries betwen 1998 and 2018 . The varFor a rigor test of our hypotheses, we control for a number of domestic factors. First of all, we incorporate the influence of the level of economic development and the basic demographical factors in our models. Using the Penn World Table 9.1 , we inclSecondly, to control for the general political environment, we include the level of democracy and state fragility variables derived from the Polity IV dataset . The levLastly, we control for the industrial characteristics of countries, including the size of trade and the size of tourism, using data from the WDI. We also include unemployment rate and service sector employment in our dataset; information on employment is derived from the International Labor Organization Statistics (ILOSTAT) .Our final dataset is collected from five data sources: Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) , World DTo analyze our longitudinal dataset, we employ event history analysis. As our observation of Uber expansion ends in 2017, years after 2017 are right-censored in the models. Event history analysis is appropriate when the focus of study is on the occurrence of a particular event over time. We particularly employ the Cox proportional hazards model, a semi-paramatric event history analysis model.Cox regression is able to incorportate time varying multicovariates in a large sample analysis. In our models, we included multiple independent and control variables such as legal and institutional environments, economic and socio-demographical factors, political environments, and industrial characteristics. The total number of countries in the models is 142, with 77 countries experiencing the event of launching Uber service.t denotes the duration time of survival which is the case of expansion of Uber in our analysis, and h(t) indicates the baseline hazard function. h0(t) represents the hazard rate at the time of t when all independent variables are set to zero. The coefficient estimates in this model show the incremental change of hazard, exp(βi), for a unit change of independent variables, xi. The general form of h(t) is further denoted in Unlike parametric models such as Weibull or Gompertz model, the Cox models do not assume any particular distribution for the duration time, leaving the baseline hazard rate nonparameterized . It doesRegarding multicollinearity problem, the correlation coefficient between the two main covariates, the rule of law and the quality of governmental regulation, is very high (0.928). To avoid any possibility of multicollinearity in our estimation, we test the effects of these institutional factors in separate models; model 1, 2, and 3, and model 4, 5, and 6. To provide additional information, we generated the correlation matrix of coefficients of Cox model. All analyses and computations used in our study were performed using Stata 16.0 MP.How do the legal and institutional environments influence the international diffusion of Uber, the byword for sharing economy? We present our findings on the relationship between legal-institutional conditions and the establishment of Uber in To begin with, Models 1, 2, and 3 estimate the influence of an established rule of law on the international diffusion of Uber platforms. Results in Model 1 suggest that an established rule of law is positively and significantly associated with the hazard rate of launching an Uber platform by 1.956 times , even after controlling for economic and demographic characteristics such as real GDP, the level of human capital, and the size of total and urban population. In Model 2, we additionally control for political environmental factors including the level of democracy, state fragility, and governmental expenditure, and the results show that a single unit increase in the rule of law variable is still positively associated with a 2.149 times increase (= exp[0.765]) in the hazard rate of opening the sharing service. In Model 3, which is the most saturated model with various industrial factors such as size of trade and tourism as well as unemployment rate and service sector employment controlled, our analysis still suggests that a stable and establiehd rule of law increases the rate of launching an Uber platform by 1.859 times . The results from Models 1 to 3 clearly support hypothesis 1 on the critical role of legal institutions in facilitating the expansion of sharing economy platforms.Among control variables, there were only two domestic factors that turn out to be significantly related to the opening of Uber services, which are real GDP and the size of tourism. Specifically, in the saturated model, one unit increase in the logged GDP score is positively and sigficantly associated with the rate of establishing an Uber service by 2.266 times . In addition, the size of tourism in a given country is related to 6.9% increase  in the rate of opening the service. The results implies that both higher economic output and larger size of tourism in an economy provide ample opportunities for this nascent mobility service to start its business. Other than these two control variables, other economic, political, and industrial factors do not have a statistically significant influence on the diffusion of Uber.In Models 4, 5 and 6, we test the effect of regulation quality on the expansion of Uber platforms. The results suggest that the quality of governmental regulation is positively and significantly associated with the hazard rate of launching the sharing services by 2.743 times  in Model 4, 3.518 times  in Model 5, and 2.737 times  in Model 6. These results provide empirical support for our expectation in hypothesis 2 that institutional environment matters for Uber’s expansion. When the government is capable of imposing clear and predictable policies and regulations in a given country, sharing econmy platforms are more likely to seek opportunities to strive. In addition, Models 4 to 6 show that Uber expands to countries with high level of GDP. As to the size of tourism in Model 6, however, the effect size decreases to the extent that the variable loses its statistical significance.In Figs Figs All in all, the results provide empirical evidence for our expectation that legal and institutional conditions matter for the spread of sharing economy. Our models support hypotheses 1 and 2 by showing that an established rule of law and a high quality of governmental regulation stand out, among any other factors, as the most important conditions for the sharing economy platform to expand.While our statistical analyses show the general trend where legal-institutional quality is a main factor for the diffusion of Uber, as shown in As a rising industry in the network society, sharing economy has the potential to provide an alternative to, and even a substitute for, the traditional economic transaction. Among sharing platforms, we focused on the case of Uber, one of the online platforms that has successfully diffused internationally. Analyzing a longitudinal, cross-national dataset, we suggest that Uber is more likely to spread to nation-states under a stable legal-institutional environment. Taking the risk of launching its service prior to obtaining legal status, the sharing company aims to decrease its market uncertainty by expanding to states with an established rule of law or with predictable governmental regulations.Our study has important contributions to the scholarship of sharing economy and entrepreneurship. First of all, our research identifies the main external environment under which sharing economy can flourish. To fulfill the potential of sharing platforms in facilitating peer-to-peer economic transactions and maximizing the use of products and assets, legal institutions such as the rule of law and the quality of governmental regulation turn out to be critical. States with a stable legal environment will be able to lead the sharing economy and to adopt alternative business models between suppliers and customers. In other words, sharing economy can strive under a certain quality of institutional design and regulatory regime. It is in line with the theoretical perspective that the sharing economy is not a mere emergent industry but rather a whole set of social relationships wherein people put the ethics of sharing into practice , 24–26. Secondly, and relatedly, our findings provide implication for the study of entrepreneurialship. Innovative startup firms such as Uber are destined to compete with conventional enterprises or incumbent industries in their effort to expand their services. Our study emphasizes the importance of legal-institutional environment in lowing the level of market uncertainty. We argue that, everything being equal, entrepreneurial firms which are embedded in a stable and predictable legal institutions will be more likely to develop and flourish compared to firms under an uncertain and unstable external environment.Finally, our research suggests policy implications for encouraging entrepreneurship in national economies. Incumbent industrial actors are often hostile to disruptive innovators, and the existing regulatory frameworks are usually favorable to preexisting actors , 45. If As with any research, our study has certain limitations. While we focus on the initial stage of diffusion when Uber expanded its mobility platforms since 2010, future studies are necessary to examine the consequence of Uber’s aggressive strategy to launch its service before receiving legal permission. With its disruptive market strategy, it is no wonder that Uber platform has been challenged by traditional actors after its launching in some countries . In partIn addition, future studies are needed to explore the diffusion of sharing economy platforms beyond the case of Uber. Although Uber is one of the most important cases to study the international diffusion of sharing platforms, scholars of sharing economy may find different dynamics, either political or legal-institutional, in their study of other sharing services such as Airbnb, Lime, Lyft, Wikipedia, and others. Despite these limitation of our study, we expect that our study can open up future avenues for research on the relationship between legal-institutional environment and the rise of sharing economy.


Land Cover monitoring is an essential task for a better understanding of the ecosystem’s dynamicity and complexity. The availability of Remote Sensing data improved the Land Use Land Cover mapping as it is routine work in ecosystem management. The complexity of the Mediterranean ecosystems involves a complexity of the surrounding environmental factors. An attempt to quantitatively investigate the interdependencies between land covers and affected environmental factors was conducted in Nisos Elafonisos to represent diverse and fragile coastal Mediterranean ecosystems. Sentinel-2 (MSI) sensor and ASTER Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data were used to classify the LULC as well as to draw different vegetation conditions over the designated study area. DEM derivatives were conducted and incorporated. The developed methodology is intended to assess the land use land cover for different practices under the present environmental condition of Nisos Elafonisos. Supervised classification resulted in six different land cover clusters and was tested against three different environmental clusters. The findings of the current research pointed out that the environmental variables are independent and there is a vertical distribution of the vegetation according to altitude. Studying and understanding the vegetation and land use pattern is of great importance for the understanding of many ecological processes and the functioning of complicated systems such as landscape. Verburg et al.  found thThe LULC composition and changes are important factors that affect the ecosystem’s condition and its functionality. These factors are frequently used to generate landscape-based metrics and to assess landscape conditions and monitor status and trends over a specified time interval . The useOne important method of understanding ecological dynamics, such as natural and human disturbances, ecological succession, and recovery from previous disturbances, is the analysis of changing landscape patterns ,13. SateSimple measurements of patterns, such as the number, size, and shape of patches, can indicate more about the functionality of a land cover type than the total area of cover alone ,17. WhenVegetation indices are optical remote sensing offshoots to assess and to monitor the vegetation vigorously on a regional scale. There are over 20 vegetation indexes developed to estimate the vegetation conditions from different aspects and for different purposes . OpticalQuantitative analysis is used to delineate the relationships between environmental factors and Land Use Land Cover units. They are clearly displayed in matrices which contain the description of objects, at the same time or at different times by variables that might have been measured in different scales and clusters. This level of classification detail presents opportunities for analyzing landscape change patterns at a structural scale ,30. ClusThe use of geoformation tools to envisage the interpretation of spatial relationships between environmental parameters as independent variables and Land Use Land Cover units as dependent variables were developed under the Geographical Information System (GIS) environment. Geostatistical, density, and buffer analysts were the most exercised tools in environmental management issues when natural resources were specifically considered ,36.The landscape of Nisos Elafonisos is of a high aesthetic and great natural ecosystem. The various ecotopes coexist and complete each other creating a diverse entity. Human intervention is obvious all over the surrounding area. The tourist development started three decades ago. Some projects are referring to the parts of the area or the whole of it but none of them studies the area from a landscape point of view, as an entity of the four dominant landscapes . TherefoThe study area, Nisos Elafonisos, is located in Southwest of Crete and covers an area of about 4317.21 ha; as is enclosed by the red box illustrated in The process of evaluating the land clusters is adopted from the FAO framework developed by Verheye, Koohafkan . The metd is the absolute distance between to the two events i,q.Cluster analysis aims to place objects into groups or clusters suggested by the dataset, not defined a priori. Consequently, the objects in each cluster tend to be similar, and objects in different clusters tend to be dissimilar. For the purpose of this study, a hierarchical cluster procedure which attempts to identify relatively homogeneous groups of cases based on selected variables, more specifically, Ward’s method, based on the sum of the squared differences between the values for the items, is applied to classify the designated study area. The results of the classification are then displayed in the form of maps that show the spatial distribution of the Operational Geographic Unit (OGU) classes. According to Murtagh and Legendre , Ward’s g is the kernel function gamma term for all kernel types except linearr is the kernel function bias term for the polynomial and sigmoid kernels.T is the kernel Trick .The temporal data set was downloaded from the European Space Agency (ESA) data hub. The first dataset was acquired in March 2014 and the second dataset was acquired in March 2019. The remote sensing data were radiometrically and atmospherically corrected according to ,42. SuppB7 = 783 nm (15 nm),B6 = 740 nm (15 nm),B5 = 705 nm (15 nm),B4 = 665 nm (30 nm).To assess the vegetation cover of the study area temporally, Sentinel-2 Red-Edge Position Index algorithm was applied according to Frampton et al., as follows:r, is the number of rows in the error matrixiix, is the number of observations in row i and column i i+x, is the total observations of row i+Ix, is the total observations of column iN, is the total of observations in the matrixClassification accuracy assessment was carried out according to Congalton and Mead  as folloThe land qualities to be used in this evaluation thus include several land characteristics layers, for this study area soil-geology, slope, precipitation, temperature, and S2REP change detection layer from the temporal satellite images in addition to the DEM layer . Each laIn order to create the dependence matrix of Land Use Land Cover dataset, almost the same procedure was repeated by cross tabulating land cover with land units and taking, as a result, a matrix with land cover types in one side and the land units in the other side and then they were standardized in percentage (%) as shown in By joining all the reclassified maps with the land cover types, the matrix which includes dependent and independent variables was ready, and every land unit was given this information. The geographic units were classified twice; depending on the land cover types (6 groups) and depending on environmental parameters (3 groups) as listed in Finally, the two matrices were tabulated to draw some conclusions. To make the analysis clear, one tabulation step takes place between the groups, and another one between the variables themselves was done. The number of clusters of the land cover is expanded because they are too heterogeneous, so six clusters are created for the land cover which is described by 15 land cover/land use types. Now, these six clusters must be characterized according to the environmental variables.GIS environment was used to reclassify the grouped landscape units to see the spatial relationship between these clusters for both data sets and they were cross-tabulated to see the overlap (Common area). The variables of six clusters are grouped depending on environmental variables. Two maps were created which were classified into three classes for the environmental clusters and in six classes for land cover variables.The fuzzy set represents the membership of an object to a specific cluster, which leads to differentiate the clusters according to the objects falling in each of them. This membership defined by the distance between an object from the centers of the clusters. Using the similarity matrices of dependent and independent variables, the variability of the dependent variables based on the independent variables can be described. The geographic units in the matrix of the independent variables were rearranged according to the clusters of the land cover matrix. The structure of the matrix of similarity based on environmental variables according to Land Use Land Cover is illustrated in Matching to the maps in Distances are computed among the considered objects, based on the standardized values of all the parameters, the standardization method removes the effects of the scale and the measure of the data. After performing the join between the created database, containing the cluster’s membership scores, and the communes map, the range of solutions, are visualized under GIS environment, and regarding the previous knowledge from data correlation and other analysis, the solution of 6 clusters is chosen:First cluster:grassland vegetation distributed in the regions with the following environmental conditions:Mainly in SE-SW and NE-NW aspects,High elevation; greater than 1000 m,Steep slope about 33°, andIncrease in S2REP values.The first land cover cluster overlaps with the first cluster of environmental variables by 91.70%. Thus, a strong relationship exists between this land cove type and environmental variables. It can be noticed that this land cover group consists mainly of shrubs and Second cluster:broad leaves and mixed forest located in the following environmental conditions:SE_SW aspects,High elevation (greater than 1000 m) with a considerable percent about 91%,Wide range slope starting with flat areas to steep ones, andIncrease in S2REP values.Of the second land covers cluster, 98.7% overlap with the first cluster of environmental variables while the remaining 1.3% is located in the second one. According to the tables in the appendix, this group mainly consists of Third cluster:industrial, heterogeneous agriculture, and shrubs areas with an overlap of about 23.87% and 76.13% with the first and the second environmental clusters, respectively. This area is valuable with an environmental perspective because of the following properties:Low elevation,Low slope from 0 to 10°, andA decrease in S2REP values.The third cluster consists of Fourth cluster:broad-leaved forest and partially by shrublands with the following environmental parameters:SE-SW aspects,Medium elevation,Moderate climatic conditions, andModerate slope.The fourth land cover cluster is not strongly correlated with any environmental cluster. However, it is distributed in the first, second, and third environmental clusters with 12.65%, 29.82%, and 57.53%, respectively. It occupied mainly by Fifth cluster:arable land and it strongly overlaps with the second environmental cluster with 63.24%. The following environmental conditions can be noticedA low slope or nearly flat areas,Low elevation, andA decrease in S2REP values.This cluster is mainly occupied by Sixth cluster:In this cluster, the wetland area with very little vegetation can be found, and it strongly correlated to the second environmental clusters. The elevation in this area is considered low.Mapping the environmental factors in accordance with the Land Use Land Cover dynamicity is a mandate to sustain the fragile ecosystem of Nisos Elafonisos. Such balance will be generally based on the vast unpredictability of the primary elements of the designated ecological system ,46. The Understanding Land Use Land Cover change requires an integrated investigation of human and ecological driving processes and responses to change. Patterns of land-use/cover change result from the interactions between human and natural factors and imprint their legacies on the landscape in patterns that are distinctive and detectable. According to Blaschke , human lClustering proceeds by pairing nearest objects, which are the most similar, to build up a group of objects until all have been grouped into clusters Classical clustering approaches generate partitions such that each object is assigned to exactly one cluster. Often, however, objects cannot adequately be assigned to strictly one cluster (because they are located “between” clusters). In these cases, fuzzy clustering methods provide a more adequate tool for representing data structures .In the numerical and spatial analyses of land mosaic, two types of information are processed: The patch attributes such as size, shape, and spatial arrangements and the landscape attributes ; and theChamapira, and Taghavi  suggesteEnvironmental variables were used as the independent variables because they determine mainly the vegetation distribution and land use of the area, which can further be changed by human intervention. The environmental variables are independent because they are stable for long periods and are not sensitive to human interference. These variables were grouped into three classes according to their similarity. The land cover was the dependent variable, the one that we were trying to analyze through some other independent variables known as the Environmental variables. The land cover was better discriminated in six clusters. By using the summarized information for each class, we can draw the following conclusion: There is a vertical distribution of the vegetation according to altitude. From these analyses, we can conclude that the areas that are covered by forests are small, compared to the whole area. The forests are mainly found in the first three clusters located in high altitudes, far from human interference. It can be noticed that stands of coniferous forest cover only a very small percentage of the area. Moving from high elevation to low elevation there is a clear change in land cover. In high elevation most of the area is occupied by shrubs and forest, with some open spaces. The human interference is low in high elevation due to the environmental limitation, only in the case of the open spaces: This probably comes as a result of clear-cutting of forests. The physical limitations of the environment confine somehow the human interference as a result of high altitudes, a long distance from the urban areas, high slopes and a decrease in S2REP values which make these areas unsuitable for human activities such as cultivation or industry. But moving from upper to lower elevation, it starts to appear the human interference, the arable land appears in the second cluster but belonging to this cluster in a very small percentage and anyway in low elevation. The vegetation cover is reduced with altitude; in lower elevations, the mixed forest disappears, while it starts to be more frequent on the arable land. This is explained by favorable environmental conditions: Low slopes, and low elevation, which makes easy the cultivation of such areas.


The starter for this Research Topic in Frontiers in Public Health and Public Health Policy was the recent experience of members of the editorial team in West-Africa. Women's health, especially maternal health, in most regions of the global south is part of the unfinished agenda as stated in the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals Report 2015, missing the set targets for Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health. As of 2015, some of the highest maternal mortality ratios were recorded in West Africa, e.g., as 1,360 per 100,000 live births in Sierra Leone or 814 in Nigeria (1) whereas Western countries usually stay between 5 and 10. Thus, it is legitimate to ask whether now the chances to reach SDG-3 in 2030 are better. We analyzed that, taking as an example Liberia—a small Anglophone coastal country in West-Africa. According to trends calculated on the basis of national survey data recorded in 2007 and 2013, Liberia is in delay by more than 10 years for maternal mortality and as well for neonatal mortality, in other words unlikely to achieve the SDG-3 target in time. However, the quality of data is a problem as WHO for example paints a less unfavorable picture based on estimates. A more encouraging example has been described and analyzed in the contribution from Ghana—one of the most advanced African countries. The study concludes that in a male dominated society the involvement of males into pregnancy and delivery—contrary to the inherited culture—makes a positive difference, especially in the selection of the place of delivery. Less in Ghana, more so in Liberia the most relevant upstream determinants of poor maternal health in the developing world are unreliable transport on roads, insufficient electricity, and lack of connectivity for online communication. On site, it includes lack of qualified and motivated, often underpaid health staff and regulated continuing professional training. Similarly technical equipment, its maintenance, and regularly controlled stocks of essential drugs are rarely satisfying, at least in the remote settlements where large parts of the population lives.In Europe, we are confronted with other burdening problem sets. Two papers deal with the quite large Roma populations in South Eastern Europe. In the Republic of Srpska—in spite of health insurance and universal health access are legally guaranteed—we find Roma women that had less education, were unemployed, divorced or widowed, have unmet health needs and lack adequate medical supervision of a chronic condition. A second study compares desirable exclusive breastfeeding in the Roma and non-Roma Serbian population. Habits differ considerably but most striking is the observation that not a single Roma woman attended a childbirth preparation program. In summary the statement seems to be justified that also in Europe we can observe female populations disadvantaged by origin. Even more disturbing that one third of women worldwide experience at some moment in their lives physical violence even from their intimate partners. In North Macedonia Violence against women is the most common form of human rights violation against women and it has a negative impact on health, causing injuries, death, as well as psychological trauma. Again, minority groups, especially the Roma population are exposed the most.How can that be solved, to realize the guarantied rights to all genders instead of careful analyses leading to inefficient declarations. Two papers from Albania and from Greece call for women leadership. The Albanian study shows progress in female leadership qualification during the last decade however leaving behind elderly women. The Greek paper calls Gender inequalities an important derailment factor for health workforce and health system sustainability. It identifies a gap in the evidence based research on women leaders' own perceptions of barriers, especially work/life balance, lack of equal career advancement, and lack of confidence, in total 26 marked barriers, a rich array for further research.It is the hope of the editorial group that this collection initiates more exploration of the concrete obstacles hindering females in low-resourced countries to contribute their—in many ways lost—potential to improve the world's well-being: for example, given the importance of the issue, by organizing midwifery in their own professional chambers, not the case even in all advanced countries. The editors received publishable contributions from two regions, West-Africa and South Eastern Europe, but there are restrictions and even iron barriers for full female participation also in advanced social environments. The high maternal and newborn mortality in the global South and the expected failure to reach the SDG3 targets in 2030 could be enhanced considerably by strengthening an equally footed female contribution. There is an abundance of actors, statistics, and financial support systems but there is still lack of confidence that women can take their fate into own hands. The contributions in this issue, however, demonstrate that women are on the march!The editorial has been written by UL and approved by the co-editors.The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


Our study confirms that many patients face the last few months of life with comorbidities or extreme frailty. This study contributes to increasing the general knowledge on palliative care needs in a high-income country.In order to plan the right palliative care for patients and their families, it is essential to have detailed information about patients’ needs. To gain insight into these needs, we analyzed five Italian local palliative care networks and assessed the clinical care conditions of patients facing the complexities of advanced and chronic disease. A longitudinal, observational, noninterventional study was carried out in five Italian regions from May 2017 to November 2018. Patients who accessed the palliative care networks were monitored for 12 months. Sociodemographic, clinical, and symptom information was collected with several tools, including the Necesidades Paliativas CCOMS-ICO (NECPAL) tool, the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS), and interRAI Palliative Care (interRAI-PC). There were 1013 patients in the study. The majority (51.7%) were recruited at home palliative care units. Cancer was the most frequent diagnosis (85.4%), and most patients had at least one comorbidity (58.8%). Cancer patients reported emotional stress with severe symptoms (38.7% vs. 24.3% in noncancer patients;  It is well known that in high-income countries there has been a continuous increase in the life expectancy of the general population, and for many people, the last period of life is characterized by complex chronic conditions or frailty . It has According to the definition of the World Health Organization (WHO), palliative care means “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual” . About tIn Italy, a growing interest in palliative care has been observed since the late 1990s. In 2001, palliative care assistance was introduced into the National Health Plan and subsequently into the Essential Levels of Assistance . A furthThe need to improve these networks is evident if we consider that approximately one-third of patients dying of cancer in Italy die in a hospital ward for acute patients, following an average hospital stay of about 12 days . One of In a theoretical model, palliative care networks take care of the needs of patients and their families in different settings: home, hospice, and hospital. However, there are no up-to-date, reliable, and complete data to describe the actual current activity. The mandatory data required by the Italian Ministry of Health are in fact often incomplete and, in any case, poorly detailed .Based on these premises, we aimed to analyze the situation of palliative care in five Italian regions. This is the first work on the data collected by the DEMETRA 1 study. This work summarizes the primary objective of the research, which is to assess the clinical care conditions of patients with complex and advanced chronic conditions who access the local palliative care networks.The DEMETRA 1 study was conceived as a longitudinal, observational, noninterventional study aimed at assessing the clinical care conditions of patients facing the complexities of advanced and chronic disease who access the local palliative care networks. Five local palliative care networks  located in five Italian regions  were involved.New patients accessing the palliative care network during the recruitment period;Age 18 or over;Presence of a chronic disease with a progressive course of any nature requiring palliative intervention;Written consent for personal data processing and informed consent for participation in the study.Patients were recruited from three palliative care settings: home care ; inpatient service ; and hospice . The inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined in advance. To be eligible, patients had to have the following characteristics:Impossibility of ensuring regular follow-up ;Already being in the care of a palliative care network at the start of recruitment;Transfer to a facility not included in the monitoring or external to the palliative care network .The exclusion criteria were as follows:Patients who met the inclusion criteria were entered into the study until the sample size established for each research network was reached. They were monitored for 12 months.The study had an overall duration of 18 months, from May 2017 to November 2018. From May 2017 to November 2017, active patient recruitment was carried out, and patients were monitored until November 2018. Then, all data were processed and submitted to quality control for evaluating the completeness and consistency of the recorded data.Data from forms completed for each patient were inserted into an electronic data collection tool (e-CRF). All data were anonymized and could not be tracked to the individuals participating in the study. Only one researcher of each unit had the key linking the anonymous code and the patient’s personal details.The data were collected by health professionals  at the patient’s intake by the palliative care network, which coincided with the patient’s entry into the study (day 0). Clinical data were also collected after one week (day 7) and, if the patient was still alive, every three months (day 90). If the patient died during the monitoring period, the date and place of death were also recorded.For the collection of data, depending on the type of information required, some standardized international tools were used. The interRAI Palliative Care (interRAI-PC) assessment instrument, initially created in Canada and then spread all over the world, provides a standardized, comprehensive means to identify person-specific needs and supports clinicians in addressing important factors such as aspects of function, health, and social support . The PerThe Necesidades Paliativas CCOMS-ICO (NECPAL) tool is a Spanish tool, developed in 2013 by the working group of the Catalan Institute of Oncology . It is aSpecific scales were filled in at 0, 7, and 90 days to collect information on the patient’s clinical status and psychological condition. The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS), developed by E. Bruera almost 30 years ago , has beeThe psychosocial conditions of the patients and their caregivers were investigated through a brief questionnaire with seven items requiring a single answer (positive or negative) regarding the presence or absence of various conditions of psychosocial difficulty related to illness and assistance. Additional data collected are shown in When a patient entered the care of the palliative care network, a medical doctor or assistant informed them and their caregivers about the study, asking for their availability to join the study and their authorization to collect personal data. Written informed consent was obtained for all recruited patients. For patients without the capacity to consent, the designated consultee provided assent by signing a declaration form.The study received the approval of the Ethics Committee of ASST Lecco  on 1 December 2016. Subsequently, all other ethics committees of the centers that joined the study provided approval of the study.n = 837) that could be considered representative of the entire reference population. This sample size was conservatively increased by 10% according to the potential loss to follow-up, and thus a minimum sample size of 921 patients was required.The overall number of new cases enrolled per year in all study settings was taken as our reference population (3707 new cases per year). Considering a maximum error of 4% (95% confidence) as tolerable, we first calculated a sample size for each operating unit and then an overall sample size  [Qualitative variables were summarized with absolute and relative (percentage) frequencies; for quantitative variables, means (± standard deviations) or medians (with interquartile ranges) were calculated depending on their parametric distribution. Statistical comparison for qualitative and quantitative variables was performed with the χAustria) .Of the 1013 patients included in the study and monitored, 531 were women and 482 were men, with a mean age of 75 years . The majThis study summarizes the characteristics of patients with palliative care needs in a sample population that could be considered representative of the Italian general population. The primary aim of the study was to define the clinical profile of these patients from the moment they access the palliative care network, through the analysis of clinical aspects, both objective and subjective. This aim was conceived to effectively anticipate patients’ needs and plan palliative care services based on an understanding of how prevalent palliative-care-related problems are across diagnostic groups and healthcare settings.Our estimates can be of paramount importance for the provision of palliative care in a rapidly changing healthcare context as seen in Italy and other high-income countries. It is well known that in such countries there is a continuous increase in the life expectancy of the population , and theThe results of our study confirm these findings and suggest that about 60% of patients at the end of life are affected by comorbidities and severe emotional stress, whereas about 18% experience extreme or severe clinical frailty. Palliative care, as defined by the WHO, can offer patients a comprehensive response to suffering through an approach focused on the control of pain and other symptoms, with specific attention to quality of life. This is particularly important if we take into account that in our experience about two out of three patients reported pain at the first visit, and this was significantly more frequent in patients who were recruited in a home palliative care setting.However, we found that the general clinical presentation was usually highly complex due to the presence of other significant symptoms such as malaise or asthenia, which affected about 80% and 90% of our patients, respectively, regardless of the healthcare setting in which they were recruited. Moreover, as reported by other authors, these symptoms start to deteriorate earliest and are most frequent in cancer patients , who madCurrent trends  suggest While for decades palliative care seemed to be the prerogative of cancer patients, it is now generally recognized that patients with all chronic progressive diseases and conditions can benefit from it. To date, however, noncancer patients have been underrepresented in palliative care centers . It shouPatients with cancer seem to be more vulnerable mentally, and, as observed in other studies ,22,23,24Finally, our study confirms that the different settings where the palliative care networks operate  take care of patients with different, very distinct problems and palliative care needs. Moreover, the management of the most appropriate palliative care network can contribute to lowering hospitalization costs for end-of-life patients and reducing their probability of dying in hospitals .This preliminary analysis of the DEMETRA 1 data may have some limitations. In particular, some missing responses in the ESAS questionnaires and a number of patients who were lost to follow-up may have introduced a potential selection bias. Moreover, despite the large sample size, we cannot be sure that the five Italian centers are fully representative of the Italian palliative care scenario, and the use of a convenience sample could affect representativeness with respect to the Italian population with palliative care needs. Last but not least, we do not have information about pharmacotherapy that, according to Abernethy et al. , could iIn spite of the possible limitations, this analysis contributes to the general knowledge on palliative care networks in a high-income country such as Italy where data to describe the actual activity carried out are often poor and not up to date. The complexity of palliative care patients strongly encourages us to increase the attention paid to the assessment of their preferences and desires. It should be noted that their closest contacts, whose burden in human and monetary terms (direct and indirect costs) remains to be clarified, also require attention, particularly in the assessment of their degree of satisfaction with the path taken by the assisted patient.


M= 14.91; SD= 5.56). The Controlling Coach Behaviors Scale, the Psychological Need Thwarting Scale, and the Athlete Burnout Questionnaire were used to evaluate the variables under study. The analyses revealed significant relationships between a controlling interpersonal style, psychological need thwarting and burnout. Furthermore, the proposed structural equations model, using the partial least squares (PLS) method, showed that a controlling style is a positive predictor of basic psychological need thwarting and that the latter is a predictor of burnout, as well as revealing an indirect relationship between a controlling style and burnout. This indirect effect of the controlling style variable on burnout can be enhanced (or attenuated) by the basic psychological need thwarting variable, which acts as a modulator.The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationships between a controlling interpersonal style, psychological need thwarting and burnout in adolescent soccer players and to test a structural equation model to analyze whether (a) a controlling interpersonal style is a predictor of psychological need thwarting and whether (b) psychological need thwarting is a predictor of burnout. A total of 103 male soccer players between the ages of 12 and 17 participated in the research ( Social context has a very important impact on the development of athletes’ motivation and well-being ,2,3. AgeAmong the theoretical frameworks available to evaluate this issue, one of the most currently influential approaches that has been used to study motivation in sport is Self-Determination Theory ,10. ThisStudies have shown that the satisfaction of basic psychological needs contributes to an increase in intrinsic motivation, greater enjoyment of the physical activity by athletes and a higher degree of adherence to the activity ,15. It iVarious studies have indicated that coach behavior is decisive for the satisfaction of basic psychological needs ,17,18. ATherefore, when coaches exhibit a controlling style of interaction, it can have negative effects on athletes, as several studies have shown, giving rise to basic psychological need thwarting, physical and psychological distress and a less satisfactory sports experience ,17. HoweThese processes can have more or less serious consequences for the athlete. Among the most negative, one of the constructs related to ill-being in sport that has attracted the most interest from researchers is burnout ,26. AccoSeveral studies have related the motivational climates generated by coaches to burnout in athletes ,32,33,34In view of their importance in the processes of sports adherence and player well-being, the aim of this study was to explore the relationships between a controlling interpersonal style, psychological need thwarting and burnout in adolescent male soccer players. In addition, a structural equation model was tested to determine whether (a) a controlling interpersonal style is a predictor of psychological need thwarting and whether (b) psychological need thwarting is a predictor of burnout. This model has previously been tested in a study with an under-14 sample  and lateM = 14.91; SD = 5.56). All of them carried out three training sessions per week with a duration of 90 minutes per session and had a minimum of four years’ experience of sports practice. The sampling was not probabilistic; it was chosen for convenience. Participants had spent at least two years on the same team and at least one year with the same coach.A total of 103 male soccer players participated in the study. They belonged to the Alhaurín de la Torre C.F club . All the participants were federated soccer players and competed in local and regional leagues. Their ages were from 12 to 17 years  methodology, which works with blocks of variables and estimates the parameters of the model by maximizing the explained variance of all the dependent variables . The sigIn order to determine whether the results obtained could be generalized, generalizability analyses were performed . For thiFirstly, the scores obtained by the study participants are presented. Secondly, correlation analyses were performed to determine the associations between the study variables. The correlation analyses carried out  indicateThirdly, having observed the existence of relationships between the variables, we proposed a structural equation model to examine the study hypotheses: (a) a controlling interpersonal style is a predictor of psychological need thwarting and (b) psychological need thwarting is a predictor of burnout. These variables are made up of various indicators. The controlling style variable comprises four factors: negative conditional support, excessive personal control, intimidation and controlled use of rewards. The basic psychological needs thwarting variable is composed of three indicators: autonomy, competence and relatedness need thwarting. Finally, the burnout variable is also made up of three indicators: devaluation of sports practice, reduced sense of accomplishment and physical and emotional exhaustion. As this is a training model, the measures do not need to be correlated, assuming that they are free of error, so the traditional assessment of validity and reliability is considered not to be applicable .First, the collinearity between the indicators and the relevance and significance of the external weights were evaluated, showing that the collinearity indicators of the model were all values lower than 3.3 (1.03–2.21), as suggested by Diamantopoulos and Siguaw .Since the path coefficients were estimated on the basis of ordinal least squares (OLS) regressions, we needed to avoid the presence of multicollinearity. The results obtained do not show problems of collinearity, since the values of VIF are less than 5 .Another aspect to evaluate in this section is the algebraic sign, magnitude and significance of the path coefficients (standardized regression coefficients) that show the estimates of the structural model relationships. As shown in The assessment of the determination coefficient (R2) indicates the amount of variance of a construct that is explained by the predictor variables of that construct in the model. The results show moderate power , according to Chin .Finally, in the structural model assessment, the effect size (f2) is evaluated , with coThe purpose of this research was to analyze the relationships between a controlling interpersonal style, psychological need thwarting and burnout in adolescent soccer players. In addition, a structural equation model was used to check whether (a) a controlling interpersonal style was a predictor of psychological need thwarting and whether (b) psychological need thwarting was a predictor of burnout. The results show relationships between the constructs studied and confirm the study hypotheses, supporting previous studies that have highlighted these associations. Specifically, the predictive capacity of a controlling interpersonal style for psychological need thwarting and of psychological need thwarting for burnout has been determined through the structural equation model.The results obtained support the first hypothesis, since the perception of a controlling style acted as a positive predictor of basic psychological need thwarting. These results are related to those obtained in a longitudinal study with young soccer players by Balaguer et al. , where iThe second hypothesis is confirmed by the results obtained in the study, which show that a perception of basic psychological need thwarting acts as a positive predictor of burnout. These results coincide with those of Bartholomew et al. ; in theiThe results have shown that the most contributory indicators in the model are negative conditional support in controlling style, autonomy and competence needs in basic psychological need thwarting and a reduced sense of accomplishment in burnout. The data obtained in the correlation analysis and the structural equation analysis confirm the objectives set out and satisfy the claims of this study, confirming the conclusions reported by other authors who have highlighted these associations in other contexts ,34, sincWe found that within the controlling style variable, the indicator with the most weight was negative conditional support, which could be defined as the withholding of attention and affection when the desired behaviors are not shown by the players . As for This study complements others that address the need to analyze coaching style in greater depth to gain a better understanding of which coaching behaviors cause athletes to be unable to enjoy their sports experience . The resFor athletes to perform their activity in an increasingly self-determined manner, coaches must develop an autonomy-supportive style that conveys the meaning of the activities they perform, supports freedom, promotes autonomy and involves athletes in decision-making processes . FurtherThis study has a series of limitations. First, other variables such as parental behavior, relationships with friends outside the sports context or self-perception of motor competence could affect the results. Second, the coaching time (at least one season) may be insufficient in some cases to establish a strong perception of interaction style. Although we considered it long enough for our purposes, other studies have used samples of athletes with a more long-standing relationship with their coaches of two or three years. It would therefore be interesting, in future studies, to analyze this question in order to determine what period of coexistence is necessary to adequately assess these parameters and what intrapersonal variables could determine it. As our results have shown, a controlling style is a positive predictor of basic psychological need thwarting and the latter is a predictor of burnout, and this information can be very useful for professionals who work with grassroots soccer players so that this relationship can be taken into account in the processes of training these athletes.The results found in this study indicate that a controlling coaching style predicts basic psychological need thwarting in adolescent soccer players. In addition, the latter variable has been shown to be a predictor of burnout. As well as these direct effects, the results reveal an indirect relationship between controlling style and burnout.