High Reputation Research Articles

A Truthful and Reliable Incentive Mechanism for Federated Learning Based on Reputation Mechanism and Reverse Auction

As a distributed machine learning paradigm, federated learning (FL) enables participating clients to share only model gradients instead of local data and achieves the secure sharing of private data. However, the lack of clients’ willingness to participate in FL and the malicious influence of unreliable clients both seriously degrade the performance of FL. The current research on the incentive mechanism of FL lacks the accurate assessment of clients’ truthfulness and reliability, and the incentive mechanism based on untruthful and unreliable clients is unreliable and inefficient. To solve this problem, we propose an incentive mechanism based on the reputation mechanism and reverse auction to achieve a more truthful, more reliable, and more efficient FL. First, we introduce the reputation mechanism to measure clients’ truthfulness and reliability through multiple reputation evaluations and design a reliable client selection scheme. Then the reverse auction is introduced to select the optimal clients that maximize the social surplus while satisfying individual rationality, incentive compatibility, and weak budget balance. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that this incentive mechanism can motivate more clients with high-quality data and high reputations to participate in FL with less cost, which increases the FL tasks’ economic benefit by 31% and improves the accuracy from 0.9356 to 0.9813, and then promote the efficient and stable development of the FL service trading market.

Participation of the Subjects of the Habsburg Empire in the Flour Industry of the Right-Bank Ukraine (19th — Early 20th Centuries)

The article analyzes the participation of the subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the milling industry of the Right-Bank Ukraine in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was revealed that during the researched period, citizens of the Habsburg monarchy played a prominent role in the flour industry of the Right-Bank Ukraine. It was found that they gave a powerful impetus to the development of the flour industry and the formation of the qualified workforce of mill workers, which in turn became an important factor in accelerating the economic development of the region. It is noted that this was facilitated by the close economic, social and political ties between the two empires and the relevant legislation in the field of trade and industrial entrepreneurship. It is shown that the active participation of Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs and other representatives of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the flour milling industry of the Right-Bank Ukraine ensured their positive influence on the development of milling. It was revealed that the Austrian immigrants expanded advanced technologies, European entrepreneurial and management culture, invested capital in the flour industry. It was found that high professionalism and good reputation of the citizens of Austria-Hungary contributed to their recruitment to the positions of employees, mill workers, therefore, on the Right-Bank of Ukraine specialists from European countries were highly valued and recruited to the most important positions: managing directors, assistant managers, machinists, mechanics. It is shown that many Austro-Hungarian industrial and trading companies had their representative offices on the Right-Bank of Ukraine, through which they sold goods of Austrian and Hungarian production. Steam engines and mill mechanisms manufactured by the Royal Hungarian Engineering Works in Budapest proved very popular in the region’s steam mills. It is proven that with the beginning of the First World War, the entrepreneurship of Austrian subjects began to curtail as a result of a series of laws, according to which German and Austro-Hungarian subjects were obliged to forcibly sell real estate (land, enterprises, firms) that they owned.

Genetic relationship of Pleione based on the chloroplast genome

Pleione (Orchidaceae) is a very famous horticultural plant with a high international reputation for its unique flower shape and abundant color. The small difference in morphological characteristics among Pleione species caused by weak reproductive isolation and easy hybridization makes the taxonomic status of individual species very confusing. Chloroplast (cp) genome information is of great significance for the study of plant phylogeny and taxonomy. In this study, the cp genomes of Pleione were sequenced and the complete cp structure and sequence characteristics of 19 species were compared and analyzed. The cp genome of Pleione species exhibited a conserved tetrad structure and each species encoded 135 protein-coding genes, 38 tRNA and 8 RNA genes. The cp genome sizes of 19 Pleione were 157964–159269 bp and the length of LSC, SSC and IR were 85953–87172 bp, 18499–18712 bp, 26459–26756 bp, respectively. Palindromic and forward repeats accounted for a high proportion and the SSRs were mainly mononucleotide repeats in Pleione. Analysis of chloroplast sequence differences indicated that the differences in coding regions were smaller than those in non-coding regions, and the variation in LSC and SSC regions was greater than that in IR regions. Phylogenetic analysis showed that all Pleione species inferred from the cp genome were clustered together and received high support. However, the genetic relationship of Pleione plants is different from the current update system of this genus. Therefore, the demarcation of Pleione interspecific relationships still needs further investigation due to the lack of sufficient evidence. The cp genome serves as valuable information for the identification of Pleione species and the study of phylogenetic relationships.

Comprehensive analysis of complete chloroplast genome sequence of Plantago asiatica L. (Plantaginaceae)

ABSTRACT Plantago asiatica L. is a representative individual species of Plantaginaceae, whose high reputation is owed to its edible and medicinal values. However, the phylogeny and genes of the P. asiatica chloroplast have not yet been well described. Here we report the findings of a comprehensive analysis of the P. asiatica chloroplast genome. The P. asiatica chloroplast genome is 164,992 bp, circular, and has a GC content of 37.98%. The circular genome contains 141 genes, including 8 rRNAs, 38 tRNAs, and 95 protein-coding genes. Seventy-two simple sequence repeats are detected. Comparative chloroplast genome analysis of six related species suggests that a higher similarity exists in the coding region than the non-coding region, and differences in the degree of preservation is smaller between P. asiatica and Plantago depressa than among others. Our phylogenetic analysis illustrates P. asiatica has a relatively close relationship with P. depressa, which was also divided into different clades with Plantago ovata and Plantago lagopus in the genus Plantago. This analysis of the P. asiatica chloroplast genome contributes to an improved deeply understanding of the evolutionary relationships among Plantaginaceae.

The art of Nizhny Tagil in the second half of the 20th century. The Exposition in the Exhibition Halls of Russian Academy of Arts (September 21 – October 16, 2022)

The exposition “Objective/Non-objective” in the halls of Russian Academy of Arts introduced the half-century history of Nizhny Tagil art to its visitors. It all started in 1942, when several soviet artists were evacuated to Nizhny Tagil where they initiated the opening of the Artist Union of Russian Federation branch in the city, and then the art museum. In the 1970s a whole galaxy of bright artists appeared in Nizhny Tagil. The formation of the active creative environment became a sign of a new center of modern art appeared in the Urals. Since then Nizhny Tagil, the renowned neo-avant-garde flagship, retains its high reputation.

ПОЛІТИЧНІ РЕФОРМИ ІСПАНСЬКОГО УРЯДУ АДОЛЬФО СУАРЕСА (ЛИПЕНЬ 1976 р. – ЧЕРВЕНЬ 1977 р.)

The purpose of this article is to explore the political reforms of the government of Adolfo Suarez from July 1976, after his appointment by King Juan Carlos, to June 1977, when the democratic elections for the General Cortes were held by the government. The main prerequisite for the appointment of Adolfo Suarez as Prime Minister was the personality factor. He belonged to a new generation of politicians that was formed in the conditions of economic liberalization during the last 15 years of Francisco Franco’s rule. This contributed to his awareness of the obsolescence of existing institutions, and his readiness to implement real, not declarative, changes. Belonging to the ruling party, high reputation among representatives of the conservative part of the political community, made his candidacy for the position of the head of the government worthy of trust. In addition, the impossibility of taking a hard course against the democratic opposition played a role, which could end with unpredictable consequences for Spain. From July 1976 to June 1977, significant political transformations took place in Spain. Appointed by King Juan Carlos to the position of President of the Government (Prime Minister), Adolfo Suarez initiated the liquidation of political institutions that existed under the authoritarian regime of Francisco Franco. During Suarez’s tenure, the Spanish Cortes (legislative assembly under Franco) adopted the “Political Reform”. It became a legal instrument that allowed the government to legally change the previous state structures and appoint democratic elections. Thus, the way to the creation of a democratic state was paved. During Suarez’s rule, the social and political climate in Spain was liberalized. This was facilitated by the government’s dialogue with representatives of the democratic opposition, amnesty and the legalization of parties, in particular the communist party. In the first democratic elections after decades of dictatorship, a party system of “imperfect bipartisanship” was formed, on which subsequent Spanish governments relied.

Financial Innovation and Its Effects on Bank Financial Performance: Evidence from Ethiopian Commercial Banks

The objective of this study is to evaluate financial innovations and their impact on the financial performance of commercial banks. To this end, descriptive and diagnostic research designs with a qualitative approach were used. To collect primary data, the researcher used a questionnaire. The questionnaires were prepared in Likert-scale format. The study examined the validity of the data collection instruments by testing content, convergent, and discriminant validity. Content validity was ensured by reviewing the relevant literature and conducting pilot tests with the data collection instruments. By testing the value of factor loadings, Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and average variance extracted (AVE), convergent validity was established. The Fornell-Larcker criterion, heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT), and cross loadings were used to test discriminant validity. The study used purposive sampling techniques to select 18 commercial banks that have a high reputation and have invested heavily in financial innovation. On the other hand, convenience sampling was used to select 1,249 branches of commercial banks. Pearson correlation, analysis of variance, and multiple regression analysis were performed to determine both the nature and strength of the relationship between financial innovation and financial performance. Findings indicate that mobile banking, online banking, and agency banking have positive and statistically significant effects on the financial performance of commercial banks. This implies that financial innovations have positive and significant effects on the financial performance of commercial banks.

Improved PBFT Consensus Algorithm Based on Node Role Division

The PBFT (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance, PBFT) consensus algorithm, which addressed the issue of malicious nodes sending error messages to disrupt the system operation in distributed systems, was challenging to support massive network nodes, the common participation over all nodes in the consensus mechanism would lead to increased communication complexity, and the arbitrary selection of master nodes would also lead to inefficient consensus. This paper offered a PBFT consensus method (Role Division-based Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance, RD-PBFT) to address the above problems based on node role division. First, the nodes in the system voted with each other to divide the high reputation group and low reputation group, and determined the starting reputation value of the nodes. Then, the mobile node in the group was divided into roles according to the high reputation value, and a total of three roles were divided into consensus node, backup node, and supervisory node to reduce the number of nodes involved in the consensus process and reduced the complexity of communication. In addition, an adaptive method was used to select the master nodes in the consensus process, and an integer value was introduced to ensure the unpredictability and equality of the master node selection. Experimentally, it was verified that the algorithm has lower communication complexity and better decentralization characteristics compared with the PBFT consensus algorithm, which improved the efficiency of consensus.

“Платформа перемен” (Часть первая)

The article presents the members of a renewed team formed by the academician Alexander Dynkin who headed IMEMO at the end of 2006. First of all, it is referred to his Deputies who supervised certain areas of research conducted at the Institute. Each of them was assigned with a specific area of work. Some Deputies simultaneously headed research centers or departments. The Director and his Deputies made up the Directorate of IMEMO, which also included the Scientific Secretary of the Institute and the heads of the main departments. At regular meetings of the Directorate, issues of the Institute’s current activities were discussed, finished works were approved for publication, the topics of scientific reports were outlined at the Academic Council, and plans for the proceedings of IMEMO were drawn up. The academician Natalya Ivanova and Ivan Korolev, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, were responsible for economic issues at the IMEMO Directorate. In 2013, I. Korolev was substituted as Deputy Director by Alexei Kuznetsov, a corresponding member of RAS, who simultaneously headed the Center for European Studies. Along with the academician A. Dynkin, the academician N. Ivanova as the first Deputy Director was responsible for the general state of affairs at the Institute. Usually it was her who substituted the Director during his absence – vacation or foreign business trip. The issue of international political research was under the charge of another Deputy Director – Vladimir Baranovsky, a corresponding member of RAS (since 2011 – an academician). Vasily Mikheev, a corresponding member of RAS (since 2016 – an academician) succeded Gennady Chufrin (who became an Advisor to the Russian Academy of Sciences) and became another Deputy Director for scientific work. V. Mikheev was responsible for managing the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, supervising the Center for Modern Japan Studies and the Center for Development and Modernization. The IMEMO Directorate has successfully united political researchers and economists representing three generations – older, middle and young. Alexander Dynkin himself defined this team as a “platform” on which he intended to carry out the transformations he had conceived. The article traces the biographies of these researchers and organizers of science, shows the process of their professional growth, scientific achievements and their contribution to the development of IMEMO. Each of them is a prominent researcher in his field, having a high reputation in the international scientific and expert community. It was fundamentally important that they all acted together as a team of like-minded people, which in many respects ensured the high efficiency of work in IMEMO, the most influential think tank in Russia in the area of the modern world development.

PRICE MODERATION ON UNIVERSITIES’ REPUTATIONS AFFECTS STUDENTS’ INTENTION TO CHOOSE THE UNIVERSITIES

The research that compared the impact of brand equity and service quality on universities’ reputations of State Islamic University (SIU) and International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), which affected Indonesian students’ intention to choose the universities, was conducted last year. This research aims to measure the moderation of price (study expense) on the effect of reputation on the intention to choose these two universities. The research samples were 128 Indonesian students from SIU and 128 from IIUM. The statistical tool used was Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed support for the hypotheses. Students’ intention to choose IIUM was higher than SIU due to IIUM’s higher reputation. The results showed that brand equity and service quality, as last year’s result affected reputation, and reputation still strongly affects the intention of students to choose the universities. Since the reputation of IIUM is higher than that of SIU, the intention to choose IIUM is also higher. Learning costs moderate the impact of reputation on intent. This research is the first one that compares students’ intentions to study in Indonesia or Malaysia based on their university reputation, where brand equity and service quality affect reputation. Most studies on this issue measured students’ satisfaction or loyalty. The limitation of this study is that it was online. The findings are expected to be useful for both universities in determining their strategies to enhance the reputation and intention of Indonesian students to study there. Keywords: Brand Equity, Price, Service Quality, Students’ Intention, University’s Reputation DOI： https://doi.org/10.35741/issn.0258-2724.58.1.8

ОСОБАЯ РОЛЬ ПЕРЕСТРАХОВАНИЯ В СИСТЕМЕ ФИНАНСОВЫХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ СТРАХОВЩИКА

The article analyzes the role of the reinsurance instrument in the insurer's activity and its influence on strengthening the risk management system, ensuring solvency and economic stability, as well as increasing the overall competitiveness of the insurer in various markets. It is noted that cooperation with reinsurers gives not only direct protection of insurer's business and its balance sheet indicators, but also provides growth of client base and opportunities to develop those standards of corporate governance, which contribute to the formation of stable and high business reputation of the insurer.

Circuit-Free General-Purpose Multi-Party Computation via Co-Utile Unlinkable Outsourcing

Multiparty computation (MPC) consists in several parties engaging in joint computation in such a way that each party's input and output remain private to that party. Whereas MPC protocols for specific computations have existed since the 1980s, only recently general-purpose compilers have been developed to allow MPC on arbitrary functions. Yet, using today's MPC compilers requires substantial programming effort and skill on the user's side, among other things because nearly all compilers translate the code of the computation into a Boolean or arithmetic circuit. In particular, the circuit representation requires unrolling loops and recursive calls, which forces programmers to (often manually) define loop bounds and hardly use recursion. We present an approach allowing MPC on an arbitrary computation expressed as ordinary code with all functionalities that does not need to be translated into a circuit. Our notion of input and output privacy is predicated on unlinkability. Our method leverages co-utile computation outsourcing using anonymous channels via decentralized reputation, makes a minimalistic use of cryptography and does not require participants to be honest-but-curious: it works as long as participants are rational (self-interested), which may include rationally malicious peers (who become attackers if this is advantageous to them). We present example applications, including e-voting. Our empirical work shows that reputation captures well the behavior of peers and ensures that parties with high reputation obtain correct results.

Методи оцінки конкурентоспроможності підприємств ресторанної галузі

The restaurant business is one of the most competitive industries, where many businesses struggle for the attention and loyalty of customers. Over the past few years, competition in the restaurant industry has increased significantly, due to the growth in the number of restaurants and cafes, as well as because of changes in the taste preferences of customers. In this regard, increasing the competitiveness of a restaurant enterprise is becoming an increasingly important task for restaurant owners and managers. Increasing competitiveness can help attract new customers, increase turnover, profits, and customer loyalty, maintain a high reputation of the restaurant among customers and competitors. In addition, increasing competitiveness is an important condition for the stable development of the restaurant business in the face of growing competition. Successful restaurants are constantly looking for new ways to improve the quality of service, develop menus and innovative services, which gives them an advantage in the market and helps maintain their market position. So, the chosen topic is very relevant and important for restaurateurs, managers and restaurant owners who seek to preserve and strengthen their business. The subject of research in the article are methods for assessing the competitiveness of enterprises. The aim is to study methods for assessing the competitiveness of enterprises in the restaurant industry and identifying their practical value. The objective is to explore methods for assessing the competitiveness of restaurant industry enterprises. General scientific methods that are used: evaluation method and descriptive method to highlight the mechanisms of competitiveness of enterprises in the restaurant industry. The following results were obtained: the key factors influencing the competitiveness of restaurant enterprises are identified, in particular: the quality of food and drinks; pricing strategy; customer service; marketing strategy; reputation and innovativeness. The following conclusions are drawn: effective methods for assessing competitiveness can help restaurant enterprises identify their strengths and weaknesses, as well as make informed decisions towards improving their competitiveness. It is revealed that the key factors of competitiveness of restaurant enterprises are the creation of a unique and recognizable brand, ensuring high quality of products and services, effective use of marketing strategies, and ensuring customer satisfaction.

A Study of English Translation under Newmark's Theory of Text Categories: The Case of Lin Yutang's Translation of the Peach Blossoms

As a masterpiece of ancient Chinese prose, The Peach Blossoms enjoys a high reputation in China. In recent years, with China’s economic and social development as well as its international status, more and more attention has been paid to cultural propaganda. Based on Newmark’s text-categories translation theory, this article analyzes the version translated by Lin Yutang and outlines the difficulties when translating this expressive text of literary works.

Positioning of clothing brands in Colombia

The positioning of the brand has prominence today in the marketing world thanks to the corporate benefits that are reflected in the market, in Colombia clothing brands year after year have been growing economically, throwing large sales figures and injecting development in the national economy. The objective of this study is to know how is the positioning of clothing brands in Colombia. It is a descriptive study, from a descriptive review with referential sources on the studies that have been carried out regarding the positioning of clothing brands in the Colombian territory. The results indicate that Arturo Calle is the best positioned brand in the market thanks to its high reputation and consumer preference.

Lexico-stylistic and structural features of Volodymyr Zelensky’s political address to Congress

The defiant russia’s aggression upon Ukraine changed the world order and made countries choose between good and evil, stand aside or act, focus peoples’ attention on human rights and values important for everyone. All these inevitably encourage linguists and researchers of related disciplines to transfer their investigations into the arena of political communication, where of statesmen play a primary role in influencing the minds of the masses. In this regard, the address of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Congress as a material for analysis is definitely relevant.
 The purpose of the study is to consider the structure of the political speech itself and the linguistic means of the speaker’s communicative intent realization which lies in providing comprehensive assistance to Ukraine, defending the basic human values. The use of structural-semantic analysis made it possible to distinguish three blocks in Volodymyr Zelensky’s address: introductory, informative, and conclusion, as well as to reveal their characteristic features. An appeal to the mass addressee, taking into account such factors as position, gender and nationality as official forms of address and nonofficial Friends!, contribute to setting up a warm atmosphere. The informative block is presented by five subtopics, each of which serves as an independent element of the political address. An expression of gratitude to Joe Biden and American people for their strong support for Ukraine, reinforced by the demonstration of a video with episodes of the war, is found in the conclusion, which is an effective method of influencing the audience.
 The elements of discourse analysis made it possible to highlight positive images of America as a defender, Ukraine as a fighter, and negative russia as an aggressor and analyze the linguistic means that form them. An effective means of influencing is reference to important historical events for the USA and the words of Martin Luther King, which mark the common aspirations of American and Ukrainian people. Russia’s trampling upon basic human rights and values, such as democracy, independence, freedom, peace are key points in Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech. Joe Biden is considered the leader of the nation, the leader of the world and the leader of peace, that mark President of high reputation.
 The successful implementation of the communicative intent by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is evidenced not only by the greeting of his speech with loud applause, but also the USA’s strong support and real assistance to Ukraine in the war against russia.

Confucianism and the altruistic behaviour in the succession of family firms: evidence from asset write-downs

ABSTRACT This paper explores how Confucianism influences the altruistic behaviour during family firm successions. Using a sample of Chinese listed family firms which have transferred the power to family successors during 2005-2018, we find that family firms deeply influenced by Confucianism intend to take a big bath via asset write-downs in the year before the succession. Confucianism has stronger influence on altruism when the successor have closer blood relationship with the founder, when the successor is less educated, when the family have weaker control over the firm or when the firm is in a lower market position. When the board of directors is more independent or the auditor has higher reputation, the influence of Confucianism is weaker. Family firms with more asset write-downs have better short-term performance after the succession, but lower business reform and R&D inputs. These findings enrich the research on Confucianism and corporate governance of family firms.

Repairing Integrity-Based Trust Violations in Ascription Disputes for Potential E-Commerce Customers

Trust violations of online sellers are widely reported in customer reviews and are often ascribed to the sellers’ lack of integrity. These reported violations reduce potential customers’ trust in the accused sellers, given the critical role of seller integrity in e-commerce. However, accused sellers and buyers often dispute the ascriptions of trust violations (e.g., sellers may argue that a violation is due to their lack of competence instead of their integrity). The trust repair literature has inadequately focused on effective strategies to repair reported integrity-based trust violations in ascription disputes. Drawing upon attribution theory and individuals’ cognitive sensemaking process regarding trust violations, we propose an account-based approach through re-ascription and stability attributions, enabling accused sellers to repair potential customers’ trust in them in the event of such disputes. We theorize the effectiveness of this approach by considering the contingent role of the accused seller’s reputation. The results of our laboratory experiments confirm the effectiveness of our approach in repairing potential customers’ trust for sellers with a high reputation but not for sellers with a low reputation. We further investigate the effectiveness of disclosing substantive amends (i.e., financial compensation) made by the accused seller to the victim as an alternative approach to repairing potential customers’ trust in sellers with a low reputation. The results reveal the significant effects of disclosing substantive amends on repairing potential customers’ trust in the seller, regardless of the seller’s reputation.

Symbolic capital of the region in the context of the construction of an ethno-cultural brand (case of the Republic of Mordovia)

The purpose of the article is to identify the cultural and symbolic attributes that form the symbolic capital of the Republic of Mordovia. As part of the study, a representative survey of 384 residents was conducted in accordance with quotas by sex, age, place of residence, as well as a complete survey of the target group — employees of cultural institutions of the Republic of Mordovia (763 people) using an interactive questionnaire on the Google Forms platform. The study of cultural and symbolic attributes and the main components of the ethno-cultural image is due to the search for competitive advantages of the territory to determine and form the image of the region, taking into account the potential of national cultures. The results of the study made it possible to determine a set of authentic and original meanings and images that ensure fame and cause a stable positive association with Mordovia. It was revealed that natural-geographical, ethno-cultural and socio-economic components give the republic its uniqueness and recognition. The natural and geographical advantage of the territory is unique natural and recreational resources, favorable geographical position, proximity to the federal center and the presence of a network of high-quality roads of federal and republican significance. The national and cultural identity of the region acts as a resource for generating its positive reputation. The organization of interesting and non-trivial cultural events that attract local and external audiences increases the attractiveness of the republic. The socio-economic advantage of Mordovia is determined by the production of industrial products and food products that have a high reputation among consumers. For the inhabitants of the region, the places of concentration, preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage of the region, located in the regional centers, become important. The authors confirmed that the Republic of Mordovia has rich intangible assets that make it possible to construct its own unique ethno-cultural brand of the territory.

Punishment and reputation based partners-switching promotes cooperation in social networks

To investigate the cooperation dynamics caused by coevolution of game strategy and social contacts, we propose a behavioral punishment and reputation based partners-switching mechanism, in which individuals are allowed to sever unwanted partnerships and establish new ones with next-nearest neighbors having high reputations. Simulation results show that cooperation is significantly promoted under the proposed mechanism. Under greater temptation to defect or in denser networks, social partners changing needs to be adequately frequent to support the spread of cooperative behavior. For a given average degree or temptation to defect b, a critical value for time scale ratio W can be observed, above which cooperators occupy the whole population. Our results show that the structural dynamics facilitates the emergence of an underlying heterogeneous network, which provides a favorable network topology for cooperation to prevail under strategy dynamics.