Global Platform Research Articles

Promised-delivery-time-driven reselling facing global platform's private label competition: Game analysis and data validation

In e-commerce operations, many brands participate with global platforms such as JD.com under the reselling mode because of platforms’ high-quality logistics service and consumers’ preference for products sold in JD.com's retail channel. However, a brand's reselling through platform participation may be challenged by the competition from platforms’ private label products. We therefore conduct a multi-methodological study to examine a brand's reselling decision using both game-theoretical analysis and big data validation based on JD.com's transaction-level data. We first validate the value of platform reselling through the batch gradient descent algorithm, and then develop a game-theoretical model to formulate the impact of the platform's private label competition. We find that echoing the data analysis results, the platform's significant channel advantage and the high logistics service level encourage a brand to adopt the reselling mode rather than the direct-selling mode through its self-channel. Interestingly, the impact of competitiveness of the platform's private label product is non-monotonic. The brand may prefer reselling through the platform only when the platform's private label competitiveness is moderate, as the brand's profit will be hurt by a small sales quantity /a low profit margin when the platform's private label competitiveness is low/high. We further identify a win-win situation between the brand and the platform when the brand chooses the reselling mode. This study uncovers the sophisticated interactions among channel advantage, logistics service level, and platform's private label competitiveness, as well as its impact on brands’ sales strategies.

Knowledge sharing in global governance: a path in public goods delivery

ABSTRACT The exchange of knowledge in development cooperation can help overcome common challenges while providing collective solutions. Country, regional and global platforms play a crucial role to facilitate development cooperation at both national and international level, but there is a lack of knowledge on their structure and operationalisation. The aim of this paper is to fill this knowledge gap to assess how global platforms can contribute to bridge the establishment of national priorities with the provision of global public goods. By way of a documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews, the study examines the case of the South-South Galaxy, a platform created by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation to promote the exchange of solutions among all Southern knowledge sharing platforms. The main results find that each node of knowledge sharing works to build a shared understanding of good practices on the SDGs and make this knowledge universally accessible.

From flatmates to realestate? Platform capitalism and the transformation of share housing

The rise of platform capitalism has been instrumental in facilitating capital accumulation at scale through the commodification of previously untradable services and spaces. Digital real estate technology-based platforms or ‘PropTech’ (Property Technology) have transformed how housing is produced, traded, and managed, augmenting existing and creating new housing markets in ways that are still evolving. While ‘home-sharing’ platform Airbnb has become synonymous with ‘peers’ offering residential accommodation online, more traditional forms of house sharing between ‘flat mates’ have also been digitised by global platforms. In this paper we trace the evolution of Australian share housing platform ‘Flatmates.com.au’ from the online equivalent of a campus noticeboard advertising share houses to a sophisticated real estate platform owned by global, PropTech giant Real Estate Advertising ‘REA Group’. In doing so we examine how ‘platform logic’ i.e., converting user-inputted data to information to asset; exponential growth through network expansion and connectivity – has integrated the social practices and relationships defining share households within the global real estate market. The paper contributes to critical literature on the inter-relationships between platform capitalism and housing, focusing specifically on the share housing sector in Australian cities.

Managing Competition Between Legacy Television Services and Video Streaming Platforms in Hungary in the Early 2020s – a Case Study

ABSTRACT The year 2022 was a turbulent one for the audiovisual industry worldwide. In Hungary, two global streaming platforms, HBO Max and Disney+, launched their services, joining Netflix and some less popular streamers already on the scene. The content offered by these global streaming platforms has a lot in common compared to legacy television’s supply in large markets. However, few studies have focused on small markets or “digital peripheries” where the inevitable global reach of new technologies and service providers mixes with more complicated local market realities. Our study aims to extend this body of knowledge to another small, “odd market,” namely Hungary. It investigates how professionals perceive the television market in the wake of the advent of streaming in their current practice and from a strategic perspective on a small and specific national market such as Hungary. Using in-depth interviews (n = 9) with managers across organizations in the Hungarian audiovisual industry complemented by an analysis of publicly available secondary sources, our findings reveal three main clash areas in the market: established market presence, power within the supply chain, and content offering adding a potential framework for competitive analysis to studies of small media markets and the dynamics between legacy and streaming players.

RCoV19: A One-stop Hub for SARS-CoV-2 Genome Data Integration, Variant Monitoring, and Risk Pre-warning

The Resource for Coronavirus 2019 (RCoV19) is an open-access information resource dedicated to providing valuable data on the genomes, mutations, and variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In this updated implementation of RCoV19, we have made significant improvements and advancements over the previous version. Firstly, we have implemented a highly refined genome data curation model. This model now features an automated integration pipeline and optimized curation rules, enabling efficient daily updates of data in RCoV19. Secondly, we have developed a global and regional lineage evolution monitoring platform, alongside an outbreak risk pre-warning system. These additions provide a comprehensive understanding of SARS-CoV-2 evolution and transmission patterns, enabling better preparedness and response strategies. Thirdly, we have developed a powerful interactive mutation spectrum comparison module. This module allows users to compare and analyze mutation patterns, assisting in the detection of potential new lineages. Furthermore, we have incorporated a comprehensive knowledgebase on mutation effects. This knowledgebase serves as a valuable resource for retrieving information on the functional implications of specific mutations. In summary, RCoV19 serves as a vital scientific resource, providing access to valuable data, relevant information, and technical support in the global fight against COVID-19. The complete contents of RCoV19 are available to the public at https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/ncov/.

Digital Diversification to Expand the Indonesian Radio Industry: A Case Study of PRFM, Delta, and Dahlia Stations

Digitization has made radio stations the business of news portals, global aggregator platforms, programmed journalism or algorithm journalism. How does the radio broadcasting business retain an audience and grow listeners across borders via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, WhatsApp and Website? How does the radio broadcasting business disseminate information and promotions more intimately, personally and widely? How the radio broadcasting business is accessible to audiences, fun and mobile: pocketable, openable on mobile phones, computers, iPads and more? How do listeners interact and communicate anytime and anywhere? The answer is digitalization that has changed radio technology, social culture, economy and generations. These changes affect the management, production, distribution, and reception of radio broadcast listeners. The governance of the radio broadcasting business has been mandated, commissioned, and inspired by a unique public service. This research uses a "Case Study", and Single Multi-Level Case Analysis, to confirm the theoretical proposition, of digitalization technology, in practice communication technology, which is used to develop radio broadcasting governance. How is the digitization of radio broadcasting governance used as an information technology tool, as a tool for developing marketing, and as a tool for information business diversification? Qualitative data were coded from observations, open interviews, Focus Group Discussions, and detailed documents to assess the views and experience of digitizing radio broadcast managers in managerial and business development. Keywords: Digitization, digitalization, diversification, business, radio broadcast.

Platformization of the Korean Wave: a critical perspective

ABSTRACT By employing the platformization of cultural production from a critical political economy approach, this article analyzes the transition of the Korean cultural industries to the platform-driven phase of Hallyu. By discussing the highly transnationalized and platformized Korean Wave in the shifting global media environment, it examines how Netflix platformizes and appropriates the Korean broadcasting industry through various strategies, such as investing in original content creation, licensing Korean content, and subcontractualization of Korean production. These strategies reveal that Korean cultural industry firms have become subordinated to, and rely on, global OTT platforms. In light of the growing influences of Netflix and other global platforms, the article explores the implications of the platformization of cultural production for the transnational cultural flows of Hallyu.

Evolving shared value, sustainability and the leadership challenge: Grootbos Private Nature Reserve

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes of this study are to assess the shared value model and elaborate on new multi-stakeholder approaches to business, where the stakeholders include the founders, investors, partners, employees, clients and the surrounding community; to consider the synergies between community development, environmental stewardship, sustainable business practices and the long-term health of organisations and communities, considering these as the new fundamentals of business; to examine the interconnectedness of vision, strategy, purpose and leadership in creating and evolving the shared value model; to explore the relationship between shared value practices and collective well-being, and a specific reference to nurturing transformative experiences through nature, personal development and community upliftment is made; and to assess Grootbos’ ability to translate their purpose and value proposition into a strategy and sustainable vision with a possibility of Grootbos achieving global impact through its evolving model, beyond the founder. Case overview/synopsis This case study explores the evolution of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and Foundation, a luxury hospitality lodge and award-winning ecotourism destination, from humble beginnings in the Western Cape of South Africa to a global example of conservation, community, commerce sustainability and transformative experiences. The establishing of Grootbos and its growth and widespread recognition can be attributed to the vision and inspirational leadership of its founder, Michael Lutzeyer. Although much success has been achieved in conservation, community upliftment and individual development of community members within their region, Lutzeyer’s and ultimately, Grootbos’ vision extended well beyond South Africa and aspired to elevate their floral kingdom and model of development and conservation to a global platform of awareness. Although a shared value vision and strategy had transformed the business, placing Grootbos as a leader in transforming their industry and sparking an evolution in the shared value model itself through the interjection of transformative experiences, the larger question remained: How can Grootbos extend the impact, towards people and planetary well-being, beyond the scope of their individual place-based business and their industry? And in terms of the dilemma Lutzeyer and the management team at Grootbos faced: How will this vision and global ambition continue through succession, beyond Luzeyer’s personal drive at the helm? Complexity academic level Experienced leaders within a graduate degree program, executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) or executive education in the areas of leadership development, strategy, shared value and international business. Supplementary material Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS4: Environmental management.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing Customer Experience: A Case Study of Global E-commerce Platforms

This study explores the pivotal role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enhancing customer experience on global e-commerce platforms. Through an extensive literature review, we examine how AI-driven technologies, such as personalized recommendations, chatbots, and predictive analytics, are transforming customer interactions and satisfaction. The findings suggest that AI not only streamlines operations but also provides significant value by tailoring experiences to individual customer preferences. Moreover, the study highlights the challenges and ethical considerations in implementing AI, particularly in maintaining data privacy and transparency. The implications of AI adoption in e-commerce are profound, influencing both consumer behavior and business strategies globally. This paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on digital transformation, offering insights for practitioners and researchers alike. Ultimately, the study underscores the importance of balancing technological innovation with ethical responsibility to achieve sustainable growth in the e-commerce sector.

Generalized fuzzy hypergraph for link prediction and identification of influencers in dynamic social media networks

Despite the importance of link prediction and identification of influencers in dynamic social media systems, the existing methodical theories are not capable of analyzing complex multilayer relations in social media networks which contain uncertainty. In fact, there is no theoretical exploration concurrently focused on multidimensional and interrelated entities in a fuzzy-based social media environment. To cover this gap, a neoteric generalized fuzzy hypergraph (GFH) methodology is designed using developed n-ary fuzzy relation technique that is the extension of convolutional binary fuzzy relation. Characterizing reflexive, symmetric, transitive, composition, t-cut and support techniques is carried out for multidimensional uncertain-based space. Also, a graphical approach is created in the generalized fuzzy hypergraph to assist the derivation of foundational implications and concepts. The GFH framework can be applied for the intelligent management of complex systems for sole or mass users of local and global social media platforms by adopting specific membership degree for each individual. To predict the linkages between elements, a fuzzy-based indicator FLP (fuzzy link prediction) is promoted, along with the indicator of SIR (score of interaction rate) to identify the influencers (strongest communicators) in an uncertain space. Through the FLP evaluation, the extracted data are analyzed as per the highest value of 1 for single, 3 for binary, 3.8 for triplet, and 0.9 for quaternary spaces for their probable links. Through the analysis of SIR data on the individuals’ membership degrees for the usage of social media platforms, the highest interaction value of 0.99 is correlated to a single member, while 5.42 magnitude addresses an influential person. The performance results show that the presented theoretical and structural approach, that is superior to the classical graph theories, is promising to configure intelligent expert systems, predict the likelihood of connections, detect communities, and specify the influencers in real social media platforms that contain uncertainty.

Assessing diverse evidence to improve conservation decision‐making

AbstractMeeting the urgent need to protect and restore ecosystems requires effective decision‐making through wisely considering a range of evidence. However, weighing and assessing evidence to make complex decisions is challenging, particularly when evidence is of diverse types, subjects, and sources, and varies greatly in its quality and relevance. To tackle these challenges, we present the Balance Evidence Assessment Method (BEAM), an intuitive way to weigh and assess the evidence relating to the core assumptions underpinning the planning and implementation of conservation projects, strategies, and actions. Our method directly tackles the question of how to bring together diverse evidence whilst assessing its relevance, reliability, and strength of support for a given assumption, which can be mapped, for example to a Theory of Change. We consider how simple principles and safeguards in applying this method could help to respectfully, and equitably, include more local forms of knowledge when assessing assumptions, such as by ensuring diverse groups of individuals contribute and assess evidence. The method can be flexibly applied within existing decision‐making tools, platforms, and frameworks whenever assumptions (i.e., claims and hypotheses) are made. This method could greatly facilitate and improve the weighing of diverse evidence to make decisions in a range of situations, from local projects to global policy platforms.

Technological Innovation in the Financial Services Industry

With the rapid development of global network platforms and science and technology, some emerging financial technologies (Fintech) have been applied to commercial activities and promoted the development and evolution of business models to a certain extent. However, the problems exposed at the same time have not received full attention. Based on the application examples of financial technology (e.g., online payment, peer-to-peer lending, robo-advisor, and blockchain) collected this year and the comments of some authoritative persons, this paper will objectively analyze financial technology from the aspects of current situation, development potential, risks and limitations. The study found that although the lack of financial technology has significant advantages in business activities, its risks and limitations are also a major challenge to the future development of financial technology in a period of rapid development. Relevant technical personnel are needed, and the cooperation between enterprises and the government is the healthy and sound development of financial technology.

Perseverance, partnerships and passion: ingredients for successful local government policy to promote healthy and sustainable diets

BackgroundLocal government authorities are well-placed to invest in evidence-based food policies that promote a population-wide shift to healthy and sustainable diets. This study describes the contextual factors that facilitated or impeded policy-making related to healthy and sustainable diets within a ‘best-performing’ local government in Victoria, Australia.MethodsGuided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), data from semi-structured interviews with individuals involved in developing the City of Greater Bendigo’s Food System Strategy were analysed using the seven-stage Framework Method.ResultsSemi-structured interviews (n = 24) were conducted with City of Greater Bendigo employees (n = 15) and key stakeholders working for local organisations (n = 6) or at a state or national level (n = 3). Interviewees mostly held positions of leadership (n = 20) and represented diverse areas of focus from health (n = 7), food systems (n = 4) and planning and public policy (n = 3). Data analysis revealed 12 cross-cutting themes; eight facilitating factors and four impeding factors. Facilitating factors included perseverance, community engagement, supportive state policy, effective leadership, a global platform and networks, partnerships, workforce capacity and passion, and the use of scientific evidence. Impeding factors included access to secure, ongoing financial resources, prohibitive state and federal policy, COVID-related disruptions to community engagement and competing stakeholder interests. Overall, this study suggests that the City of Greater Bendigo’s success in developing an evidence-based local food system policy is built upon (i) a holistic worldview that embraces systems-thinking and credible frameworks, (ii) a sustained commitment and investment throughout the inner-setting over time, and (iii) the ability to establish and nurture meaningful partnerships with community groups, neighbouring local government areas and state-level stakeholders, built upon values of reciprocity and respect.ConclusionsDespite insufficient resourcing and prohibitive policy at higher levels of government, this ‘best performing’ local government in Victoria, Australia developed an evidence-based food system policy by employing highly skilled and passionate employees, embracing a holistic worldview towards planetary health and harnessing global networks. Local government authorities aspiring to develop integrated food policy should nurture a workforce culture of taking bold evidence-informed policy action, invest in mechanisms to enable long-standing partnerships with community stakeholders and be prepared to endure a ‘slow-burn’ approach.

Unearthing the Past for a Sustainable Future: Extracting and transforming data in the Biodiversity Heritage Library for climate action

As the urgency to address the climate crisis intensifies, the availability of accurate and comprehensive biodiversity data has become crucial for informing climate change studies, tracking key environmental indicators, and building global biodiversity monitoring platforms. The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) plays a vital role in the core biodiversity infrastructure, housing over 60 million pages of digitized literature about life on Earth. Recognizing the value of over 500 years of data in BHL, a global network of BHL staff is working to establish a scalable data pipeline to provide actionable occurrence data from BHL’s vast and diverse collections. However, transforming textual content into FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data poses challenges due to missing descriptive metadata and error-ridden unstructured outputs from commercial text engines. (Fig. 1) Despite the wealth of knowledge in BHL now available to global audiences, the underutilization of biodiversity and climate data contained in BHL's textual corpus hinders scientific research, hampers informed decision-making for conservation efforts, and limits our understanding of biodiversity patterns crucial for addressing the climate crisis. By leveraging recent advancements in text recognition engines, along with cutting-edge AI (Artificial Intelligence) models like OpenAI’s CLIP (Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training) and nascent features in transcription platforms, BHL staff are beginning to process vast amounts of textual and image data and transform centuries worth of data from BHL collections into computationally usable formats. Recent technological breakthroughs now offer a transformative opportunity to empower the global biodiversity community with prescient insights from our shared past and facilitate the integration of historical knowledge into climate action initiatives. To bridge gaps in the historical record and unlock the potential of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), a multi-pronged effort utilizing innovative cross-disciplinary approaches is being piloted. These technical approaches were selected for their efficiency and ability to generate rapid results that could be applied across the diverse range of materials in BHL. (Fig. 2) Piloting a data pipeline that is scalable to 60 million pages requires considerable investigation, experimentation, and resources but will have an appreciable impact on global conservation efforts by informing and establishing historic baselines deeper into time. This presentation will focus on the identification, extraction, and transformation of OCR into structured data outputs in BHL. Approaches include: Upgrading legacy OCR text using Tesseract OCR engine to improve data quality by 20% and openly publish 40 GBs of textual data as FAIR data; Evaluating handwritten text recognition (HTR) engines (Microsoft Azure Computer Vision, Google Cloud Vision API (Application Programming Interface), and Amazon Textract) to improve scientific name-finding in BHL’s handwritten archival materials using algorithms developed by Global Names Architecture; Extracting data from collecting events using HTR coordinate outputs with Python library Pandas DataFrame to create structured data; Classifying BHL page-level images with OpenAI's CLIP, a neural network model to accurately identify the handwritten sub-corpus of primary source materials in BHL; Running an A/B test to evaluate the efficiency and accuracy of human-keyed transcription data extraction to provide high-quality, human-vetted datasets that can be deposited with data aggregators. Upgrading legacy OCR text using Tesseract OCR engine to improve data quality by 20% and openly publish 40 GBs of textual data as FAIR data; Evaluating handwritten text recognition (HTR) engines (Microsoft Azure Computer Vision, Google Cloud Vision API (Application Programming Interface), and Amazon Textract) to improve scientific name-finding in BHL’s handwritten archival materials using algorithms developed by Global Names Architecture; Extracting data from collecting events using HTR coordinate outputs with Python library Pandas DataFrame to create structured data; Classifying BHL page-level images with OpenAI's CLIP, a neural network model to accurately identify the handwritten sub-corpus of primary source materials in BHL; Running an A/B test to evaluate the efficiency and accuracy of human-keyed transcription data extraction to provide high-quality, human-vetted datasets that can be deposited with data aggregators. The ongoing development of a scalable data pipeline of BHL’s relevant biodiversity and climate-related datasets requires sustained support and partnership with the biodiversity community. Initial results demonstrate that liberating data from archival and handwritten field notes is arduous but feasible. Extending these methodologies to the broader scientific literature presents new research opportunities. Extracting and normalizing data from unstructured textual sources can significantly advance biodiversity research and inform environmental policy. The Biodiversity Heritage Library staff are committed to building multiple scalable data pipelines with the ultimate goal of erecting a global biodiversity knowledge graph, rich in interconnected data and semantic meaning, enabling informed decisions for the preservation and sustainable management of Earth's biodiversity.

The Burden and Characteristics of Post-COVID-19 Conditions Among Laboratory-Confirmed Delta and Omicron COVID-19 Cases: A Preliminary Study From Maharashtra, India.

Post-COVID-19 conditions (PCC) have emerged as a significant global health concern due to their potential impact on patients' quality of life and healthcare resources. The present study aims to understand the burden and characteristics of PCC in Maharashtra, India, and compares its prevalence among cases infected with Delta and Omicron variants. A retrospective observational study included 617 laboratory-confirmed Delta and Omicron variant cases. These cases were telephonically followed up to document persistent COVID-19 symptoms using a questionnaire based on the Post-COVID-19 Clinical Form from the Global COVID-19 Clinical Platform of the World Health Organization (WHO), and the results were analyzed. Out of 617 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, 82.97% and 17.03% were Omicron and Delta cases, respectively. The mean follow-up period for Delta and Omicron cases was 78.05 and 21.56 weeks, respectively. A total of 40 (6.48%) cases reported persistent symptoms at follow-up, with a higher prevalence among those infected with the Delta variant (12.38%) compared to the Omicron variant (5.27%). The most common long COVID symptoms reported were malaise (25%), dyspnea (20%), post-exertional fatigue (17.5%), joint pain (15%), and frequent episodes of cough and cold (15%). Additionally, 1.94% of participants developed a new medical condition following COVID-19 infection, most commonly hypertension (25%), lung fibrosis (16.67%), and asthma (8.33%). Factorssuch as more than five acute symptoms, amoderate to severe disease, the need for hospitalization, and hospitalization for more than five days were significantly associated with PCC. Long COVID results in extended disability and illness. The varying impacts of different COVID-19 variants highlight the complex nature of post-COVID-19 complications. Our findings highlight the need for strategic planning of healthcare resources to ensure optimal response and preparedness to manage the burden of PCC.

Platformed solidarity: Examining the performative politics of Twitter hashflags

This paper conceptualises platformed solidarity, describing how platforms change their affordances to support particular social justice causes, sometimes temporarily, and often in response to current events. Such actions allow platforms to perform their support of different interests in response to issues such as racial and gender equality or pro-democratic aims, among other examples. In each case, a specific feature of the platform is modified to visibly promote support, altering how their users experience these spaces. In doing so, these interventions highlight how major platforms demonstrate their politics, raising questions about the differences between the politics that they publicly portray and policies they enact. This paper explores platformed solidarity through an extended examination of Twitter hashflags, typically temporary visuals attached to hashtags of particular commercial, social, and political interests and offering affective emphasis to selected content. While the bulk of hashflags are commercial products, created in partnership with brands to encourage engagement and promotion of a campaign or product, there have been a number of hashflags for major events and causes, from elections to selected social justice campaigns. We suggest that examples of platformed solidarity can elucidate what global platforms see as their role and influence in public communication. However, this raises important questions about what causes, events, and groups are deemed worthy of platformed solidarity? What values do they represent and how – if at all – are these supported by platforms’ policy decisions regarding the same issues? We suggest that, whether cynical or well-intentioned, these surface-level interventions do not always necessarily align with higher-order corporate priorities and decision-making. As such, we suggest that platformed solidarity is a corporate tactic that can have overlap with considerations of ‘woke capitalism’, where visible gestures towards causes and issues are made but underpinned by platforms’ missions to maintain high user numbers, grow engagement, and profit.

Platformization and the Metaverse: Opportunities and Challenges for Urban Sustainability and Economic Development

In simpler terms, our day-to-day life, from various urban sectors to all deep corners of city life, is becoming hugely influenced by digital platforms' data systems, economic tactics, and ways of management. This is a trend that we call "platformization." It's taken us to a point where we now live in what's often described as a "platform society" because these platforms now largely control urban civilizations. What's fascinating is that this platformization trend has created something pretty striking: the Metaverse. The Metaverse is an impressive global platform project launched by Meta, the company we used to know as Facebook. This project brings to life a potential "virtual world" that mirrors our reality. The idea is that the Metaverse can serve as a virtual version of the future cities – not too different from what we think of as smart cities. Thanks to cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), and Digital Twins, we now have enough resources and understanding of human behavior to make a project like the Metaverse possible. The promise is that the Metaverse can revolutionize how we design cities and deliver public services, making cities more efficient, accountable, and with a higher quality performance. But of course, the arrival of the Metaverse isn't without its worries. There are many questions over the ethical, human, social, and cultural implications the Metaverse may have. Particularly, there are concerns about the kind of impact it may have on the quality of human social relationships and how it may reshape urban life. To unpack all of these, this research work aims to thoroughly examine available literature on this topic. The paper further looks into the new products and services coming into being because of the Metaverse, examining how they might help smart cities, especially those aiming for better environment, economy, and social sustainability. The insights gathered here could help city leaders understand the Metaverse's potential for technology-driven urban practices and future city plans. It also takes a critical stance, challenging whether the Metaverse might significantly change how reality is constructed in our increasingly platform-driven urban world. This discussion, hopefully, can fuel future research and critical conversation on this hot topic.

A generalized framework for designing open-source natural hazard parametric insurance

Parametric insurance schemes allow for payouts to be triggered by real-time hydro-/meteorological parameters instead of waiting for damage assessments, which means they can be settled swiftly, giving people access to funds right after the event. In this work we propose a framework to design parametric insurance schemes and systematically quantify the basis risk: the difference between the parameter-based payout and the actual damage. We implement the framework in the open-source global risk assessment platform CLIMADA and illustrate it with two stylized parametric insurance case studies, targeting tropical cyclones in Mozambique and winter storms in France. The data used and the provided code base are globally-consistent, open-source, and readily available. The presented methods are therefore applicable in data-scarce areas and accessible to stakeholders from the public and private sector. Moreover, our approach can easily be adapted to other hazards and exposures worldwide. This improves the accessibility and transparency of such innovative insurance schemes.

ASSESSMENT OF THE LAND DEGRADATION NEUTRALITY IN THE SAMARA REGION BY GLOBAL AND REGIONAL INDICATORS

The assessment of land degradation neutrality (LDN) is used to characterize the achievement of the UN Sustain-able Development Goal 15 (SDG), Target 15.3 — «to combat desertification, restore degraded lands and soils» by individual countries and regions. The article presents the calculation of land degradation neutrality for agricultural territories of the Samara region using global indicators (dynamics of land productivity, dynamics of land cover, dynamics of soil organic carbon) and regional ones, such as yield, erosion, content of mobile forms of potassium and phosphorus in the soil. The Trends.Earth tool presented on the Quantum GIS was used to calculate the first two global indicators platform. The evaluation of the remaining indicators was carried out using stock data and data from the agrochemical service. According to the results land degradation neutrality was not achieved in the agricultural territories of the Samara region. The indicator of SDG 15.3.1 («the proportion of land that is degraded over total land area») is 78,61%, and the LDN index is –57,22%. The main process leading to a negative LDN index is water erosion, which leads to a decrease in the levels of indicators such as land productivity and humus content.

Translation of Traditional Chinese Crafts Culture in the New Media Environment: A Case Study of Subtitle Translation in Li Ziqi's YouTube Short Videos

Nowadays, the subjects of external communication are increasingly diversified, and China's new media forms of external communication are rich and varied. In contrast to the authoritative narrative style and tone of official media, short videos have emerged as an important medium for international communication in the new era. With characteristics such as fragmented content, entertainment value, popularity, and colloquial language, they have achieved significant dissemination effects on global social media platforms like YouTube. Therefore, more and more unofficial self-media figures are attempting to share unique Chinese stories and culture through short videos on YouTube, and Li Ziqi is one of them. Li Ziqi has amassed 17.6 million subscribers on YouTube, with a total of 128 videos published and over 2.9 billion views at the time of data collection (2023.07.02). Her short videos showcase her leisurely daily life in natural landscapes, diverse culinary culture, and traditional Chinese crafts culture, among other aspects of traditional culture. At present, Li Ziqi's "Traditional Crafts" series has become one of the important platforms for the external dissemination of Chinese traditional craft culture. This study takes the translation of the subtitles in four short videos from Li Ziqi's "Traditional Crafts" series on the YouTube platform as the research object. From the perspective of the new media environment, it analyzes the external communication of traditional Chinese craft culture in the new era and provides a summary of reflections.