Credit Certification Research Articles

Emission Factors for Biochar Production from Various Biomass Types in Flame Curtain Kilns

Simple and low-cost flame curtain (“Kon-Tiki”) kilns are currently the preferred biochar technology for smallholder farmers in the tropics. While gas and aerosol emissions have been documented for woody feedstocks (twigs and leaves) with varying moisture contents, there is a lack of data on emissions from other types of feedstocks. This study aims to document the gas and aerosol emissions for common non-woody feedstocks and to compare emissions from finely grained, high-lignin feedstock (coffee husk) with those from coarser, low-lignin feedstocks (maize cobs, grass, sesame stems). Throughout each pyrolysis cycle, all carbon-containing gases and NOx were monitored using hand-held sensitive instruments equipped with internal pumps. Carbon balances were used to establish emission factors in grams per kilogram of biochar. The resulting methane emissions were nearly zero (<5.5 g/kg biochar) for the pyrolysis of three dry (~10% moisture) maize cobs, grass, and a 1:1 mixture of grass and woody twigs. For sesame stems, methane was detected in only two distinct spikes during the pyrolysis cycle. Carbon monoxide (CO) and aerosol (Total Suspended Particles, TSP) emissions were recorded at levels similar to earlier data for dry twigs, while nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions were negligible. In contrast, the pyrolysis of finely grained coffee husks generated significant methane and aerosol emissions, indicating that technologies other than flame curtain kilns are more suitable for finely grained feedstocks. The emission results from this study suggest that certification of biochar made from dry maize, sesame, and grass biomass using low-tech pyrolysis should be encouraged. Meanwhile, more advanced systems with syngas combustion are needed to sufficiently reduce CO, CH4, and aerosol emissions for the pyrolysis of finely grained biomasses such as rice, coffee, and nut husks. The reported data should aid overarching life-cycle analyses of the integration of biochar practice in climate-smart agriculture and facilitate carbon credit certification for tropical smallholders.

A Review on International Carbon Credit Certification Methodologies for Biochar as a Soil Amendment

A Review on International Carbon Credit Certification Methodologies for Biochar as a Soil Amendment

Research on the Construction of Core System of Credit Bank in Vocational Education

Lifelong education and lifelong learning are increasingly implemented all over the world. The reform and development of education system and training mode are facing new opportunities and challenges. Based on the concept of lifelong education, we must establish the core system of credit bank as soon as possible so as to achieve the orderly operation of the credit certification, conversion, accumulation and exchange process of vocational education. Only in this way can we gradually establish an effective credit bank for vocational education, and achieve the vocational education goal of attracting social members to the lifelong learning system.

Supporting small firms through recessions and recoveries

We use variation in the access to a government credit certification program to estimate the financial and real effects of supporting small firms. This program was first implemented during the global financial crisis, but has remained active ever since, allowing us to analyze its effects both during recessions and recoveries. Eligible firms have access to government loan guarantees and a credit quality certification. We estimate real effects using a multidimensional regression discontinuity design. We find that eligible firms borrow more and at lower rates than non-eligible firms, allowing them to increase investment and employment during crises. Industry-level analysis shows reduced productivity heterogeneity in more exposed industries, which is consistent with improved credit allocation. However, when the economy is recovering the effects of the program are less pronounced and centered on the certification component. The cost-per-job in the recovery period is half of the one estimated for the crisis period (5784€ and 11,788€, respectively).

Certificated exclusion: forest carbon sequestration project in Southwest China

ABSTRACT This research presents a case study of a high-profile carbon forest sequestration project in Southwest China, which claims to achieve ‘triple-win’ outcomes for livelihoods, biodiversity and climate change. However, over the last 15 years, each household that participated in the project has only received 10–20 USD (about 0.67–1.33 USD annually), despite the requirement for farmers to convert their agricultural land into tree plantations. We argue that contemporary capitalism engaged in climate change mitigation efforts has effectively recast the rural governance of land from a territorial arrangement to multiple actors exerting control over carbon credit certification, which creates a new form of climate injustice and social exclusion in agrarian change.

Reflections on Bank Credit Certification for Vocational Education Credits

In 2019, the State Council issued the Implementation Plan for National Vocational Education Reform, which pointed out that the construction of national “credit bank” for vocational education should be accelerated. Starting from 2019, individual learning accounts for vocational education should be explored to realize the traceability, query and conversion of learning results. By analyzing the current development status of credit banks, this paper probes into the identification of credit banks for vocational education from the aspects of the construction of qualification framework, the establishment of expert banks, the establishment of sub-centers, the opening of credit bank accounts for students in vocational colleges and the transformation of learning results.

Pollution Credit Certificates Theory: An Analysis on the Quality of Solid Waste Management in Brazil

Purpose: This paper aims to introduce an economic instrument called Theory of Pollution Credit Certificates in the management of municipal solid waste in Brazil, in order to create opportunities to achieve the goal established in the above mentioned policy at lowest possible social costs. Methodology/Approach: The methodology adopted has as a starting point the “constructo” of a scenario in which a city comprised of five brazilian districts produces its urban solid waste made up of 50% organic material. In the proposed scenario, similar to what happens in practice, a fee for collection and treatment of organic material would be charged for two different situations. Findings: The result showed that the use of Pollution Credit Certificates Theory has a better cost-effectiveness for solid waste management because it allows reaching the environmental goal at a lower cost to society. Research Limitation/Implication: Subjectivity of the analysis, due to the “constructo” proposition in the studies. Originality/Value of paper: From the results obtained, we inferred that the use of the Pollution Certificates Theory for the management of brazilian municipal solid waste benefits from economies of scale as it allows in the scenario determined, that districts sell their spaces at the landfill and parallel to this, to promote the practice of composting organic waste in the municipality.

The sensitivity of SME’s investment and employment to the cost of debt financing

We use variation in the access to a government credit certification program in Portugal to estimate the sensitivity of SMEs investment and employment to the cost of debt financing. Targeted firms have access to a credit certification and loan guarantees. We use a multidimensional regression discontinuity design to estimate real effects. Eligible firms increase borrowing and obtain bank loans at lower rates than non- eligible firms, allowing them to increase investment and employment during crises. Eligible firms also exhibit increased return on assets and default less. Industry-level analysis shows reduced heterogeneity in access to credit in more exposed industries.

Green Accounting Standards and Taxability of Carbon Credit Certificate

In Green Accounting, unlike developed countries, Indian companies are lagging behind in booking of costs on envirnoment under appropriate heads in in absence of Accounting Standards. Moreover, there is insufficient Disclosures on Envirnoment in Annual Accounts. Except few elite companies, Indian corporates are shying away from disclosures on reduction of carbon emission. On the contrary, in USA and in EU including U.K. have sufficient Accounting Standards under GAAP and IFRS coupled with Disclosure Norms of SEC and EU Securities Market Regulation. Carbon Credits is a financial offer in form of a certificate to an emission prone company for reduction of the emission of Green House Gases and also carbon dioxide. This certificate is known as Certified Emission Reduction (CER) certificate. This certificate is tradable in MCX in India and European Climate Exchange, Chicago Climate Exchange, NASDAQ OMX etc. The aspects of Taxation of Carbon Credit under GST and Income Tax have been debated here.

Adverse Selection and Credit Certificates: Evidence from a P2P Platform

Certificates are widely used as a signaling mechanism to mitigate adverse selection when information is asymmetric. To reduce information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers, Chinese peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms encourage borrowers to obtain various kinds of credit certificates. As P2P markets continue to develop, it is plausible that certification may play a pivotal role in ensuring investment efficiency. We perform the first empirical investigation of this issue, using unique data from Renrendai, one of the People’s Republic of China’s largest P2P lending platforms. We find that surprisingly, loans with more credit certificates experience a higher rate of delinquency and default. However, lenders remain attracted by higher certificates despite lower loan performance ex post, which results in distorted capital allocation and reduced investment inefficiency. Overall, we document a setting where credit certificates fail to serve as an accurate signal due to their costless nature, where poor-quality borrowers use more certificates to boost their credit profiles and improve their funding success. Possible explanations for this phenomenon include differences in marginal benefit of certificates for different borrower types, bounded rationality, cognitive simplification, and borrower myopia.

Adverse Selection and Credit Certificates: Evidence from a P2P Platform

Peer-to-Peer lending platforms encourage borrowers to obtain various credit certificates for information disclosure. Using unique data from one of China’s largest Peer-to-Peer platforms, we show that borrowers of lower credit quality obtain more certificates to boost their credit profiles, while higher-quality ones do not. Uninformed credulous lenders take these nearly costless certificates as a positive signal to guide their investments. Consequently, loans applied by borrowers with more credit certificates have higher funding success but worse repayment performance. Overall, we document credit certificates fail to accurately signal borrowers’ qualities due to adverse selection, resulting in distorted credit allocation and investment inefficiency

Design, implementation and evaluation of MOOCs and DBL‐based cross‐registration

AbstractTo overcome geographical restrictions of the cross‐registration, this study uses MOOCs and DBL as the learning approach to presents an implementation process of cross‐registration in the course of Machinery Design. Cross‐registration contains three steps: Pre‐Registration, Learning Process, and Credit Certification. According to the characteristics of cross‐registration, Learning process was realized through the mode which consists of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) learning, traditional classroom and Design Based Learning (DBL). Project progression of DBL was elaborated, demonstrated and had been applied in cross‐registration. This work aims at analyzing and reporting whether this MOOCs and DBL‐based cross‐registration has effects on a case study in Machinery Design Course. Students’ performance and learning behaviors are analyzed in this article. The results indicate that the MOOCs‐based cross‐registration is practicable, Learning Process has positive influence on students' performance. Recommendations for future work and implications for practice will also be discussed.

Being-towards-death and Taxes: Heidegger, Disability and the Ontological Difference

Phenomenological disability studies seek to bridge the gap between the personal experience and cultural production of disability. This paper illustrates the manner in which the everyday experience of disability is shaped into a coherent object within the Canadian federal income tax regime. The Canada Revenue Agency's T2201 Disability Tax Credit Certificate is an essential component in this regard, allowing successful applicants access to tax credits and other programs aimed at offsetting the costs of impairment faced by disabled Canadians. This paper employs Martin Heidegger's notion of the ontological difference—the distinction between beings as merely present objects and Being as human experience—to highlight some of the difficulties faced translating human experience into bureaucratic categories. The argument proceeds as follows. First, the paper reviews the existing phenomenological disability studies literature and reviews the relevant work of Martin Heidegger. Next, the T2201 form is introduced and discussed in light of the ontological difference. By viewing disability as a merely present being, and not a way of Being, a great deal of experience is left out—especially that of exclusion. The paper concludes by highlighting the dividends of the second section, both in terms of future tax forms, and the future of disability studies.

Land Use Influences Carbon Fluxes in Northern Kazakhstan

A mobile, closed-chamber system (CC) was used to measure carbon and water fluxes on four land-use types common in the Kazakh steppe ecoregion. Land uses represented crop (wheat or barley, WB), abandoned land (AL), crested wheatgrass (CW), and virgin land (VL). Measurements were conducted during the growing season of 2002 in northern Kazakhstan at three locations (blocks) 15–20 km apart. The CC allowed the measurement of the carbon flux components of net ecosystem exchange (NEE), ecosystem respiration (RE) and soil respiration (RS), together with evapotranspiration (ET). Nonlinear regression analyse sw ere used to model gross primary production (GPP) and ET as a function of photosynthetically active radiation (Q); RE and RS were modeled based on air (Tair) and soil (Ts) temperature, respectively. GPP, RE, RS, and ET were estimated for the entire year with the use of continuous 20-min means of Q, Tair, and Ts. Annual NEE indicated that AL gained 536 g CO2 ? m 22 , WB lost 2 191 g CO2 ? m 22 , CW was near equilibrium (2 14 g CO2 ? m 22 ), and VL exhibited considerable carbon accumulation (153 g CO2 ? m 22 ). The lower GPP values of the land-use types dominated by native species (CW and VL) compared to WB and AL were compensated by positive NEE values that were maintained during a longer growing season. As expected, VL and CW allocated a larger proportion of their carbon assimilates belowground. Non–growing-season RE accounted for about 19% of annual RE in all land-use types. The results of this landscape-level study suggest that carbon lost by cultivation of VLs is partially being restored when fields are left uncultivated, and that VLs are net sinks of carbon. Estimations of carbon balances have important management implications, such as estimation of ecosystem productivity and carbon credit certification. Resumen

Is It Ethical to Claim Full Credit for an On-Site Continuing Education Course that the Presenter Shortens Significantly?

I have been to many continuing education (CE) courses, especially ones given on Fridays, at which practically the first words out of the speaker's mouth were something to the effect of, “Don't worry, we're not going to be here till the official concluding time of the course.” Recently, I attended a course slated for two CE hours that lasted no more than half an hour. Almost all the course participants enthusiastically ran to pick up their two-hour credit certificates, giving the impression that they would have no ethical problem submitting this truncated course for full CE credit hours.

Environmental Science Education Programs: Opportunities for Geographers

Environmental agencies in most states have an environmental education Web page that can point geography teachers to a variety of opportunities and resources to enhance their teaching. Most states provide linkages to local and national programs such as Project WET and Project WILD, and access to lesson plans and other teaching materials. A number of state agencies have environmental resource centers, teacher workshops, and grant programs for field trips and class projects. A few states have workshops that provide graduate academic credit and special certification. Much of the content of these programs contributes to fundamental geographic education themes as specified in the 1983 Guidelines in Geographic Education K–12 and Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994.

Housing subsidies and tax expenditures: The case of mortgage credit certificates

In many developed countries, the most significant housing subsidy programs are funded by tax expenditures rather than direct appropriations. Beyond the subsidy to homeownership under the personal income tax, the U.S. tax code provides additional subsidies to specific groups of homeowners. For example, the Mortgage Revenue Bond program (MRB) permits lower levels of government to issue tax-exempt debt, using the proceeds to supply mortgages at below-market interest rates to deserving households. States are also permitted to issue and distribute Mortgage Credit Certificates (MCCs) which entitle recipient homeowners to claim a tax credit for some portion of the mortgage interest paid rather than the tax deduction claimed by other homeowners. This paper documents the wide variations in reliance upon MCCs and MRBs across U.S. states and the emergence of Mortgage Credit Certificates as the largest housing program administered by California, the largest U.S. state. The paper also provides an economic analysis of the MCC program using micro data on more than 12 thousand program recipients in California. We estimate the extent and distribution of MCC subsidies across income and demographic groups, measuring the dollar amount of federal subsidies and their effects upon the user cost of residential capital and the demand price of housing. We estimate Poisson models of the geographic incidence of MCC subsidies across neighborhoods of varying socio-demographic composition and deprivation. Finally, we note differences in the administrative and programmatic costs of MCCs and MRBs, suggesting that there are clear reasons to favor Mortgage Credit Certificates as a means of subsidizing deserving households.

A Comparison of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health to the Disability Tax Credit

The Disability Tax Credit (DTC) Certification is an assessment tool used to provide Canadians with disability tax relief The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a universal framework for defining disability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the DTC and familiarize occupational therapists with the process of mapping measures to the ICF classification system. Concepts within the DTC were identified and mapped to appropriate ICF codes (Cieza et al., 2005). The DTC was linked to 45 unique ICF codes (16 Body Functions, 19 Activities and Participation, and 8 Environmental Factors). The DTC encompasses various domains of the ICF; however, there is no consideration of Personal Factors, Body Structures, and key aspects of Activities and Participation. Refining the DTC to address these aspects will provide an opportunity for fair and just determinations for those who experience disability.

A Comparison of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health to the Disability Tax Credit

Background. The Disability Tax Credit (DTC) Certification is an assessment tool used to provide Canadians with disability tax relief. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a universal framework for defining disability. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the DTC and familiarize occupational therapists with the process of mapping measures to the ICF classification system. Method. Concepts within the DTC were identified and mapped to appropriate ICF codes (Cieza et al., 2005). Results. The DTC was linked to 45 unique ICF codes (16 Body Functions, 19 Activities and Participation, and 8 Environmental Factors). Implications: The DTC encompasses various domains of the ICF; however, there is no consideration of Personal Factors, Body Structures, and key aspects of Activities and Participation. Refining the DTC to address these aspects will provide an opportunity for fair and just determinations for those who experience disability.

An exploration of the ‘value‐added’ of higher education for the health and social care workforce: the lecturers’ perspectives

As part of a larger case study, this co‐operative inquiry explores the lecturers’ perspectives of the added value of the higher education experience of mixed ability groups of experienced care workers undertaking a 60 credit Certificate in Empowering Practice programme. Following consistent positive programme evaluations the success of the course is reflected upon by two lecturers and two researchers to understand the lessons learned. Using a thematic analysis, findings provide an understanding of the principles involved in producing consistent enthusiasm from these students and their service managers. A key to their success appears to lie in the meaningful organisation of the curriculum and the creative use of learning and teaching strategies. As co‐inquirers, we have learned about the importance of promoting effective student support and creating successful links between their teaching and assessment strategies and the world of work. Although not generalisable, the findings of this co‐operative inquiry identify some of the lessons learned and the principles that can be used in larger groups of pre‐qualifying students to enhance their value in the workplace.