Corporate governance commands the ultimate way any corporation acts. Corporations are now more involved in accounting fraud. This is however no longer an uncommon crime in today’s world but when this fraud is committed by top leadership management it can go down in history as some of the greatest corporate scandals. Over the years after the millennium, the increase of high-profile accounting scandals has emerged within our eyes. The impact of reporting inaccurate financials cannot be over emphasized. There are series of consequences that arise from an inappropriate financial reporting from any corporation. A case study on major culprits to this crime will show how deep this premeditated offense can go and how well-orchestrated the fraudulent activity is achieved. These are such huge wrongdoing that it involves more than one person. The idea of having the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and top Directors in the corporation participate is alarming. In some cases, the auditors play an essential role in the coverup of this misconduct. The price to pay is so costly as convicted persons face prison sentences not to talk all their assets and money disappeared. Standards have now been raised in terms of auditing. Financial servicing organisation had modified their audit approach and procedure to enable the firms detect fraudulent activities. This has enabled stakeholders and shareholders to rely more on audited financial statements in making strategic decisions. Also, the vetting and appointment of board of directors have been strengthen to assure the right person is appointed. Getting the right person cannot just be enough, effective internal controls need to be put in place to mitigate audit and fraud risk. Many corporations now have internal auditing teams to avoid these occurrences. This study further ends with the recommendations on resolutions of these crimes as the repercussions are stiff and detrimental.

Abstract Global Navigation Satellite Systems-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) technique is used to explore the Earth environment by using the Earth surface reflected GNSS signal. The Earth surface reflected GNSS signal can be used to retrieve the Earth surface parameters. The space based GNSS-R, which set receiver on the satellite in space to receive the Earth reflected GNSS signal, is developed from the early 21st century. Triton, a Taiwan designed and manufactured experimental micro-satellite, is one of the satellites for GNSS-R mission and was launched in October 9th, 2023. The mission payload of Triton is Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) self-developed GNSS-R receiver and used to process ocean surface reflected Global Positioning System (GPS) signal. The product of mission payload is delay-Doppler map (DDM) for ocean surface wind speed retrieving. The GNSS-R retrieval system of Triton is developed in Taiwan R/RO process system (TROPS) to retrieve ocean surface wind speed by using DDM. In the retrieval process, the first step is DDM calibration, which is used to remove the influence of payload hardware in the signal strength. Then the calibrated DDM is used to calculate supporting data, such like normalized bistatic radar cross section (NBRCS). After that, the calibrated DDM and supporting data can be used to retrieve ocean surface wind speed. Before retrieving ocean surface wind speed by using GNSS-R function in TROPS, the geophysical model function (GMF) needs to be developed. The ocean surface wind speed product of Triton has been released freely in Taiwan Analysis Center for COSMIC (TACC). In this paper, the detail of retrieval process is introduced. The retrieval ocean surface wind speed is compared with those obtained from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Reanalysis v5 (EAR5) for validation. Furthermore, some supporting data is also be demonstrated.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a fascinating concept of science fiction for decades, but many researchers think AI is getting closer to reality. AI perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. The term "artificial intelligence" is applied when a machine mimics "cognitive" functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as "learning" and "problem solving". Artificial intelligence was founded as an academic discipline in 1956. In the late 1990s and early 21st century, AI began to be used for logistics, data mining, medical diagnosis and other areas. 2015 was a landmark year for artificial intelligence. In the year 2017,capabilities generally classified under AI were understanding human speech, competing at the highest level in strategic game systems (such as chess and Go), autonomous cars, intelligent routing in content delivery network and military simulations. This study makes an attempt to know fields in which AI is currently applied. It also talks about the future of AI and what it will/ should mean to humanity.

ABSTRACT Cities throughout the U.S. South created local planning institutions and engaged with urban planning professionals beginning in the early 1900s to address longstanding problems of unregulated development and blighted urban conditions. Central to the planning process was an effort to codify spatial segregation of black residences and businesses through implementation of racial zoning. The unconstitutionality of racial zoning shifted the strategy to embedding racial data in local planning processes to provide guidance to public investment and planning initiatives to sustain residential segregation. The increasing role of federal investments in military spending, urban renewal, highway development, and public housing from the 1930s through the 1960s accelerated transformation of center city neighborhoods while sustaining the segregation system. Concurrently, these planned interventions contributed to expansion of the city footprint and transformation of the South by the early 21st century to the region in the US whose urban social spatial structure was dominated by sprawl. Within this new urban pattern, however, southern center cities retained residential segregation of their black population. While no longer sanctioned by law, racial residential segregation remained a defining facet of southern urban life and largely attributable to the region's planning legacy.

Brazilian society actively engages with two concepts laden with memories of a shared past that shape its present: favela and comunidade. These two concepts embody the dark and light side of Brazilian slums, which were formed on the ruins of the slave system and have preserved many of its specific traits. Using memory studies tolls, specifically, the theory of collective memory by the German cultural scientist Jan Assmann and the concept of memory sites by the French historian Pierre Nora, this article examines the favela as a unit of collective memory, where all the most painful experiences of Brazilian society are «encrypted»: the 1897 Canudos uprising defeat, the 1888 Golden Law and the creation of a domestic worker army in favelas, for whom a wealthy neighborhood’s kitchen became a new senzala. These are memories of hunger, drug trafficking, and criminal wars. The Favelas symbolize an eternal threat to the civilized «city of asphalt». However, the economic successes of the early 21st century sparked a growing demand in society for a new narrative. Many politicians and intellectuals viewed integrating slum dwellers into consumer culture as a sufficient condition for social integration, which allowed them to «abolish» the favelas excluding them from the Brazilian Institute of official terminology. Public discourse replaced it with comunidade, a concept designed to protect vulnerable groups from verbal stigmatization and highlight the vibrant, exotic, and distinctive aspects of the folksy, syncretic culture that emerged from the favelas as a form of existence. This article explores the conflict between these narratives surrounding Brazilian slums and its impact on public discourse at various levels, from the terminology of social surveys and academic research to blog discussions and traditional media.

The Yalu River Estuary (YRE) coastal wetland, as a vital part of the Yellow Sea Large Marine Ecosystem, provides habitats for hundreds of thousands of wintering waterfowl and millions of migratory shorebirds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Given the accelerated rate of wetland loss during the 20th and early 21st centuries worldwide, effectively monitoring the dynamic changes of the wetlands is critical for adaptive wetland management. This study utilized Landsat TM/OLI images in 1990, 2000, 2011, and 2021 as data sources, employing an object-oriented random forest model classification approach to analyze the dynamic changes of each wetland type in the YRE coastal wetland over the past 31 years. The results showed that: 1) the object-oriented random forest model achieved high accuracy in classifying wetland types in the study area, with an overall classification accuracy exceeding 88%; 2) shallow marine waters, tidal wetlands, aquaculture ponds, and paddy fields are the predominant wetland types over the years, distributed in bands successively along the coastline, from the sea to the land; 3) compared with 1990, natural wetlands in YRE were degraded by 2021 with a decrease of 1,880.93 hm 2 ; 4) the total area of natural and artificial wetlands remained relatively stable, due to the conversion of natural wetlands to artificial wetlands related to the development of agricultural, forestry, and fishery industries. The study indicates the reliability and efficiency of the application of the object-oriented random forest model classification approach on wetland monitoring. The trend of wetland change underscores the effectiveness of the reserve’s establishment.

ObjectivesAlthough Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the United States, their recent mortality trends have not been sufficiently studied. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of years of life lost (YLL) from age 25 to 84 among six largest Asian ethnic groups, comparing them to non-Hispanic Whites.MethodsWe analyzed data from the CDC Multiple Cause of Death database and the American Community Survey (2000–2022) using a cause of death decomposition method.ResultsAmong college-educated individuals, all Asian ethnic groups experienced either a smaller decrease or an increase in YLL compared to Whites in 2000–2022. These disparities were not primarily driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, though Filipinos and Indians were disproportionately affected compared to Whites. Instead, the divergence in YLL trends predates 2020. Indians showed the most unfavorable trend, with YLL worsening even before the pandemic, followed by Koreans. At least 75% of the smaller YLL reductions among Asians were due to slower improvements in mortality from circulatory diseases, cancer, and diabetes. These findings indicate a less favorable mortality trend for Asian Americans compared to White Americans, particularly the college-educated, in the early 21st century. They also suggest that, over time, Asians may be deriving diminishing health returns from higher education compared to Whites.DiscussionWe discuss differential trends between Whites and Asians, as well as variation within Asian ethnic and educational groups, in the context of socioeconomic conditions, labor market dynamics, racialization in the United States, and stages of nutrition transition in countries of origin.

The concept of "Kazakhstani text" in modern humanities is gradually emerging as an independent analytical category, reflecting the totality of artistic, cultural, and historical-memorial representations of Kazakhstan in the literature of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In the context of globalization, transnational mobility, and post-Soviet transformations, Kazakhstani literature is becoming a space for complex dialogue between national tradition and a multilingual, multicultural context, which highlights the need for a theoretical understanding of the specifics of this textual formation. The aim of this article is to identify the structural, semantic, and poetic characteristics of the Kazakhstani text as a special type of culturally marked hypertext. The study establishes that the Kazakhstani text is not reducible to a geographical or ethnographic description of a territory, but rather represents a complex model of the artistic exploration of space, in which national history, traumatic experience, and the memory of nomadic culture and the Soviet past are reinterpreted within the coordinates of modernity. It is concluded that the Kazakhstani text functions as a crucial mechanism for cultural self-identification and the transmission of national experience in a global literary context.

Impacts of Saltwater Intrusion on Soils along the Northern Nile Delta Margins (Between Rosetta to Burullus Promontories, early 21st Century)

The influence of globalization, waves of migration, and the use of English as a global language for communication are indisputable. The present research aims to illustrate how these processes reflect on the contemporary Bulgarian anthroponymicon and to comment on the changes observed within the name pool.

Occupational asthma (OA) is an increasingly relevant respiratory disease in modern workplaces. Epidemiological evidence highlights its considerable prevalence among the global working population, with recent increases following an initial decline in the early 21st century. To critically review the pathophysiological mechanisms, risk factors, clinical presentations, and emerging challenges associated with OA, focusing on novel exposures, biomarker development, and translation of scientific findings into preventive and clinical practice. A literature review was conducted through a bibliographic search in PubMed (MEDLINE) and Web of Science. Articles were selected and analyzed using the Rayyan collaborative platform. Empirical studies on prevalence, risk factors, diagnosis, and management of OA were included. OA is primarily categorized as sensitizer- or irritant-induced, each exhibiting unique molecular pathways and clinical courses. Transcriptomic research has identified specific microRNA profiles as innovative biomarkers with significant diagnostic capacity. Studies document risks in traditionally non-high-risk sectors, such as offices and educational environments. Factors such as work chronobiology (night shifts), sex, and socioeconomic status influence the development and prognosis of OA, potentially leading to loss of productivity and employment. OA is a significant challenge in occupational health, with complex epidemiological patterns. While advances in molecular characterization and identification of emerging risk factors have improved our understanding of the condition, diagnostic and management challenges persist. Future research should focus on developing specific biomarkers and accessible diagnostic tools for primary care, along with evidence-based preventive strategies for emerging labor sectors.

Optical clocks, as the next-generation time and frequency standards, achieve ultra-low systematic uncertainty and frequency instability by precisely referencing the local oscillator frequency to the optical atomic transition frequency. Since the successful development of the first all-optical <sup>199</sup>Hg<sup>+</sup> optical clock in the early 21st century, optical atomic clocks have made remarkable progress over the past two decades. Currently, state-of-the-art optical clocks have achieved systematic uncertainties and frequency stabilities at the 10<sup>-19</sup> level, surpassing traditional microwave atomic clocks by more than two orders of magnitude. This breakthrough has opened up new research dimensions in fundamental physics and precision measurement.<br>This paper begins by reviewing landmark developments in ion optical clocks and optical lattice clocks. Corresponding tables are provided to summarize the best performance metrics achieved by all known research groups, along with the specific optical clock types developed by each.<br>The main focus of the paper is a review of precision measurement applications based on optical clocks, covering four key areas.<br>First, the method and typical setup for steering International Atomic Time (TAI) using optical clocks are introduced. The principles underlying optical frequency measurement data submission are summarized, followed by an overview of progress in TAI steering with optical clocks.<br>Second, the principles for constraining variations in fundamental physical constants through optical clock comparisons are briefly outlined. Recent results on the fine-structure constant and the proton-to-electron mass ratio are presented to illustrate the capability of optical clocks in probing such variations.<br>Third, tests of Einstein’s equivalence principle are discussed, including principles and recent advances in examining local position invariance and local Lorentz invariance with optical clocks. Local position invariance is tested by measuring gravitational frequency shifts between clocks at different geopotential heights or within distinct regions of a vertical optical lattice. Local Lorentz invariance is probed by comparing optical clocks with different quantization axes; recent advances have pushed the upper limit on Lorentz-violation coefficients for electron-photon systems to the order of 10<sup>-21</sup>.<br>Finally, chronometric leveling based on optical clock comparisons is presented. A comparison with traditional geodetic methods is provided, highlighting the advantages of the chronometric approach. The paper also details recent experimental progress in chronometric leveling.<br>In the outlook section, the paper analyzes potential research directions for further enhancing the performance of optical clocks. It also explores the possible advancements in precision measurement applications, such as constraining the variation rates of fundamental physical constants, as the performance of optical clocks continues to improve.

Key competencies have become central to international education policy, driving curriculum reform since the early 21st century. This trend continues through initiatives such as STEAM and policy guidance from the OECD, which promote the development of competency-based, high- quality education systems. This study explores the ideological and pedagogical framework of Spain´s Primary Education system through a case study conducted within a naturalistic-interpretative paradigm in the Region of Murcia, one of the first autonomous communities to implement competency-based education. Data were collected through document analysis and semi-structured interviews with teachers in various roles and educational inspectors. The research process included collaborative report development and expert triangulation to ensure validity and rigor. Findings reveal persistent epistemological ambiguities in defining key competences, as well as tensions between behaviorist-economic and constructivist-humanistic approaches to implementation. The study concludes that successfully enacting competency-based education in Spain requires not only curricular alignment but also greater epistemological and pedagogical coherence.

FAMILY PLANNING AND MATERNAL MORTALITY.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the literary strategies of Colombian writer J.G. Vásquez aimed at the representation of traumatic memory in the novel "The Sound of Things Falling" (2011). The research is driven by a focus on the problem of memory, including the study of traumatic memory in literary works from the second half of the 20th to the early 21st centuries. The study of J.G. Vásquez's novel is motivated by the author's intention to examine the mechanisms of memory, which he states in an interview with "Gulf Coast" magazine. The aim of the research is to identify the artistic techniques through which the writer contemplates the themes of individual, collective, and traumatic memory in the context of Colombian history at the end of the 20th century. The tasks of the work include analyzing the narrative and compositional techniques used by the author to convey the traumatic experience of his characters. The analysis of the artistic work utilizes cultural-historical, comparative-typological methods, as well as the biographical method. Key strategies of J.G. Vásquez explored in this work include parody of the "sicario" genre, constructing a fictional story in a real historical context, nonlinear and polyphonic narration, the unreliable narrator technique, intertextual connections, and the leitmotif use of the national locus in the work. Each of the mentioned strategies serves as a tool for understanding traumatic memory in the novel. The application of cultural-historical and structural methods has revealed the peculiarities of J.G. Vásquez's poetics in the context of the era of Colombian narcoterrorism. The study found that the author uses the motif of memory as a key mechanism for reconstructing traumatic experience—both individual and collective. This research can serve as a basis for further study of J.G. Vásquez's work, as well as for comparative analysis with the works of other authors addressing the theme of memory in their writings.

ABSTRACT Glaciers serve as sensitive indicators of climate change, with their dynamics significantly impacting regional water resources and global sea level rise. This study investigates the spatiotemporal evolution of glacier snow line altitude (SLA) and flow velocity in the Qilian Mountains during the early 21st century using remote sensing data. Results indicate a rising trend in SLA across both the western and central Qilian Mountains, with the central region exhibiting a higher rate of increase (11.2 m yr−1) compared to the western region (5.99 m yr−1). Concurrently, glacier flow velocities decelerated in both regions at similar rates (0.04 m yr−1 and 0.03 m yr−1, respectively). Glacier thinning observed since 2000, coupled with rising SLAs and decreasing velocities, collectively reflect a negative mass balance. Regional climate analysis reveals pronounced temperature increases (0.26–0.45°C per decade) and modest precipitation gains, aligning spatially with glacier retreat patterns. Overall, the observed changes in glacier behavior reflect the strong influence of ongoing climate change in the Qilian Mountain region.

In the recent years the theme of migration has received significant attention worldwide becoming a global process. Migration can be categorized as temporary or permanent. This particular study encompasses both modalities that are in intrinsic relationship with social and economic factors. Furthermore, an analysis of migration through the prism of culture, tradition and identity provides ground for investigating transformation of cultural models and their characteristics. The present research is specifically focused on the Macedonian population. To facilitate a more competent insight and comparative analysis two distinct periods, which were characterized by substantial migratory movements, have been observed: the mid -20th century (1930s-1940s) and the early 21st century (2010s-2020s), The selected periods have consequently determined the choice of geographical areas, specifically countries that were "desired" primary destinations during each respective period. To enhance understanding, the analysis was further constricted and focused on two urban centers that hosted or currently host large and significant Macedonian diasporic communities: Belgrade and Sydney. The most significant processes and effects, resulting from the undertaking of Macedonians in these researched environments, have been established through the actions and activities of migrants and the diaspora community. The intangible culture serves as a pivotal category with a specific emphasis on dance. The body, a fundamental vehicle and embodiment of cultural characteristics, is adopted as an analytical unit in this analysis. The investigation of the dancing body is justified by identification of the inextricable link between identity and culture. Based on the obtained findings, the research defines models that reflect all characteristics of the studied groups, their distinguishing forms, as well as their ultimate functions. This approach provides an expanded understanding of Macedonian culture and identity transmission processes within the countries of immigration.

Nowadays, in the creation of historical narratives, fiction texts are gaining increasing importance alongside historical research. It is attested by the topical trends in the early 21st century Latvian literary process manifested in the interpretation of historical topics. This article aims to highlight the significance of literature in the process of forming cultural memory and constructing historical perceptions, thereby soothing the existing friction between history and memory in historical research. The article focuses on the interpretation of the events of the Second World War in contemporary Latvian women’s poetry. As source texts the article uses poems by Andra Manfelde, Daina Sirmā and Gunta Šnipke. In the selected poetry examples, the trend of reviving historical memory and the application of a mnemohistorical perspective have been analysed. The theoretical and methodological base of the article comprises studies of mnemonic history and microhistory, research on postmemory and the ethics of memory, as well as cultural memory and trauma studies. The examples of poetry texts by Manfelde, Sirmā and Šnipke analysed in the article reflect life writing tendencies and are highly auto/biographical. The biographical approach provides an artistic platform for the infusion of personal microhistory into the collective/nation’s historical narrative. Literature thus offers a more comprehensive view of past events and their later impact and significance in a contemporary context. The poetic transformation of the wartime memories of the postmemory generation into poetry outlines the mnemohistorical perspective, bringing to the forefront the relevance of current political events.

The purpose of this article is to comprehensively analyse the dynamics of digital initiatives in US academic libraries in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Research methodology. The article uses historical and chronological analysis (to identify the stages of development of digital initiatives), as well as content analysis of scientific publications, reports of professional associations (e.g., Digital Library Federation, ASIS&T) and job advertisements. The latter method enables the tracking of demand dynamics for new professional competencies and changes in the professional profile of librarians. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the study lies in its being one of the first in Ukrainian academic discourse to specifically and systematically investigate the dynamics of digital initiatives in US academic libraries, rather than focusing on individual aspects of their digitisation. Conclusions. It has been proven that at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, academic libraries in the United States underwent a significant transformation that changed their paradigm and identity: from curators of physical artefacts, they became active participants in the digital environment and hubs of technological services. This dynamic was accompanied by the differentiation of professional roles (digital initiatives librarian, digital curator, digital research librarian, etc.) and institutional consolidation through the creation of professional communities. The article traces the transformation from isolated technological projects (electronic catalogues, digitisation) to integrated programmes covering institutional repositories, data management, digital humanities and open access. Despite significant successes, the industry continues to face key challenges, including the need to bridge the gap between the technological requirements of practice and library education, as well as ensuring the long-term preservation of digital content and the sustainability of digital projects. The experience of the United States is critical to the development of strategies for academic libraries in the context of global digital transformation.

In this article, the historical development, current problems and future prospects of vocational labor training for children with intellectual disabilities are examined. The experience of auxiliary schools is analyzed, as well as the particularities in the organization of labor education across different historical periods, and the role of leading defectology pedagogues is explored. The main stages of the development of the vocational labor training system are outlined, and the issues associated with the transition to inclusive education without taking into account the corrective component are identified. The conducted study allows for a number of conclusions regarding the organization of vocational and labor training for children with intellectual disabilities within special and inclusive education settings. Vocational and labor training is an integral part of the educational system for children with intellectual disabilities and holds critical importance for developing their life skills, socialization, and readiness for independent living and work. Since this category of students requires specialized pedagogical approaches, vocational education must be adapted to their cognitive capacities, psychophysical characteristics, and individual development. From the late 19th to the early 21st century, special education has made significant progress by establishing vocational training as a key condition for the development and socialization of children with intellectual disabilities. The theoretical frameworks of E. Seguin, J. Demol, and their successors demonstrated the importance of labor as a means of correction, life skills formation, and professional preparation. These accumulated contributions have become the foundation for contemporary approaches that integrate developmental, corrective, and practical aspects of education. Special and inclusive education demonstrate different approaches to organizing the learning process for children with intellectual disabilities, each with its advantages and limitations. Special education ensures the integrity of the educational process, as well as systematic and sequential development of labor skills. Inclusive education fosters social interaction and a tolerant environment but does not always guarantee an adequate level of professional preparation. Therefore, an optimal approach is to combine elements of both systems, creating a flexible model of vocational and labor training tailored to the individual abilities and needs of students.