Governance Issues Research Articles

Preservation of water bodies in Tamilnadu

To understand the need for preservation of water bodies in Tamilnadu, to study the challenges faced in preservation of water bodies, to know the level of implementation and governance issues

Why do we argue about risk? The invisibility of worldviews in marine decision-making

The paper asks “why are we always arguing about risk?” It explores what drives risk perception in decision-making processes in Aotearoa New Zealand’s marine environment. The research’s holistic framing shows that the prevailing concern with risk and uncertainty (RU) issues in government and managerial settings deflects attention from and hides the background influences of worldviews. After introducing the invisibilities around RU and outlining worldview-based perceptions of risk, the paper turns to an empirical investigation focusing on deep-seabed mining investment in the context of Aotearoa’s Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf Act (Environmental Effects) 2012. Enacted as part of neoliberal reforms, the Act seeks to reduce environmental degradation in tandem with economic growth. A situated methodology examines a consenting process within this Act as a strategic site to establish expressions of RU and shaping invisibilities. Three key influences are revealed: the positionality of decision-makers, their disciplinary training, and the largely unknown filtering of environmental and economic options that come from 3 worldviews held in Aotearoa (dominant social paradigm, new environmental paradigm, Te Ao Māori). We contend hidden worldviews impact on economy–environment relations and ensuing economic and environmental practices and outcomes. This arises because they underpin and fuel debates around what RU are acceptable and how benefits should be distributed (public vs. private benefits investment decisions, and economy vs. environment). Unless we recognize and understand these hidden influences, we simply cannot work with them. This insight has major implications for how RU ideas might be framed and navigated in emerging policy settings.

Co-resident grandparent and maternal employment. A Northern Ireland cross-sectional administrative data analysis

The trade-off between the costs of childcare provision and the benefits of having an increased proportion of women, particularly women with dependent children, in employment is one of the most taxing social issues for Western governments. In countries like Northern Ireland, the limited subsidised childcare provision for preschool and primary school children has been partially offset by a rise in informal childcare though this has been considerably hard to assess both in terms of magnitude and effect. Using the entire 2011 Census cohort of mothers with children aged 1 to 16 years of age, we argue that co-resident grandparents have a substantial positive impact on maternal labour force participation in Northern Ireland. The presence of a co-resident grandparent was associated with an increase of 3.7 percentage points in employment for single-parent mothers and 2 percentage points for mothers in two-parent households. Mothers with co-resident grandparents report an increase of 2.7 percentage points for a single mother and of 3.7 percentage points for a mother in a two-parent household being in full-time employment than mothers without. Overall, the presence of a co-resident grandparent was associated with at least a 3.2 percentage point increase in labour force participation among mothers with primary-school-age children.

Challenges and opportunities in the mental health landscape of the Maldives.

This article outlines the history of mental health service delivery with contemporary challenges and opportunities in the Maldives. Mental health has been traditionally the domain of faith healers in the Maldives. This changed gradually with the availability of treatments as well as increased public awareness, and mental health is now recognized as an emerging health issue. The current challenges for the mental health system include governance issues, access to services, human resource limitations, poor prevention efforts, and lack of research. These challenges may be overcome by focussing on opportunities through strengthened governance, intersectoral collaboration, mainstream integration of mental health, and local research.

Adverse Possession Laws: A Comparison Between Taxation Law and Property Law

This paper explores the intricate relationship between taxation and adverse possession, focusing on the implications for government revenue. Adverse possession allows individuals to claim legal title to property after continuous, open, and hostile occupation for a statutory period, while taxation ensures that property owners contribute to government finances through property taxes. The interaction of these legal frameworks presents challenges, particularly regarding unpaid taxes during the possession period and the responsibility of tax compliance. The potential for tax arrears, tax liens, and property sales to recover lost revenue are critical issues for governments seeking to maintain revenue stability. Additionally, the ambiguity surrounding taxpayer responsibility during adverse possession can lead to gaps in tax collection. This paper analyzes these challenges and highlights potential solutions, including legislative reforms requiring tax payments by adverse possessors and improved tax collection mechanisms to safeguard public revenue. By examining the overlap between adverse possession and taxation law, this paper aims to provide insights into preserving government revenue while addressing the complexities of land ownership transitions.

Looking Backward, Looking Forward

This essay discusses three themes of my scholarly life from my student days up to today. They involve technological change, environmental accounting, and energy-climate-economic analysis. These themes have common analytical roots in the economic theory of public goods and encounter thorny issues of governance because of the Westphalian roots of international law and practice. Many of the issues, such as devising measures of natural capital and the need for strengthened international institutions, are just as pressing today as they were during my student days in the 1960s. In writing this, the enduring insight is that hindsight is the best foresight.

The Future of Healthcare Data Governance AI-Enabled ETL Testing Frameworks on Data Warehousing Testing automation using ML, AI and NLP

The healthcare sector enhances the integration of artificial intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning in data governance for developing automation procedures. Data management offered AI-powered ETL testing with the adoption of an automation framework for resolving data governance issues . This insight promotes operational efficiency with assurance of data quality that empowers data security by ML, AI and NLP frameworks. The framework allows healthcare institutions to arrange unstructured data in effective insights into patient care and treatment procedures. Advanced analytics leads to the development of predictions on patient outcomes in treatment procedures. The automated process of ETL improves efficient information collection by NPL with the creation of predictive models in monitoring data management by ML

Data governance for soundscape studies

Soundscape research involves a complex array of data types, as soundscapes are defined by how acoustic environments are perceived and experienced by individuals within specific contexts. These studies typically incorporate a variety of data, including acoustic measurements, psychometric evaluations (both qualitative and quantitative), such as assessments of loudness and sharpness, as well as visual data (images and videos), assessments of crowd density (evaluating both the number of individuals and their activities), and geospatial and temporal data (detailing location specifics, environmental conditions like temperature and humidity, and various times of day). The collection, analysis, and presentation of this data are crucial steps in the research process. This paper aims to describe the critical data governance issues and propose solutions for managing data in soundscape studies.

A novel lanthanum-modified polytitanium chloride coagulant: Efficient algae removal and enhanced photocatalytic ability of recycled algal sludge

The removal of harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HCBs) and reuse of the resulting algal sludge are pressing issues in current environmental governance and ecological conservation. Aiming at tackling the above-mentioned challenges, titanium (Ti)-based coagulants are promising candidates. However, most of them suffer from poor stability and weak actual algal removal ability, and recycling of the algal sludge usually produces titanium dioxide (TiO2) with low photocatalytic ability. In this work, a lanthanum (La)-modified polytitanium chloride (La-PTC) coagulant is reported. La in the La-PTC coagulant serves a "kill two birds with one stone" strategy in algae removal and algae sludge reuse. Owing to the introduction of La ions, the La-PTC coagulant exhibits ultra-high stability and excellent algae removal capability with an efficiency of 98.71%, which is 7.25% higher than that of PTC coagulant. Moreover, recycling algae sludge can prepare high catalytic (2.45 times the commercial P25 TiO2) La/C-TiO2, where the presence of La enhances its visible light response range and inhibits electron hole recombination. The strategy of this La modified coagulant can not only achieve efficient removal of HCBs, but also transform the recovered algal sludge into photocatalysts with higher catalytic capacity.

Are material ESG issues making their way into key audit matters? An analysis of Colombian innovative companies

This study examines whether auditors are innovating in their audit reports by incorporating material environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues from companies' sustainability reports into the Key Audit Matters (KAMs) section. Additionally, it assesses whether ESG performance influences this inclusion. Content analysis was conducted on the materiality matrices of sustainability reports and KAMs disclosures for 20 Colombian companies listed on the COLCAP index during the period 2019–2021. Using logistic regression analysis, we examined relationships between ESG scores and KAMs disclosure of material ESG issues. The results obtained show that auditors strongly emphasise governance but tend to overlook social and environmental issues within their KAMs. Furthermore, higher governance scores increase the likelihood of ESG consideration in the KAMs, while lower profitability and leverage also lead to greater ESG inclusion in the KAMs. This pioneering study offers an initial analysis of whether material ESG issues arising from sustainability reports also appear in KAMs disclosures, thus addressing a significant literature gap. The study findings suggest that auditors need appropriate guidance and enhanced competencies to perform holistic ESG risk evaluation, as the acceptance of integrated sustainability reporting is gaining momentum globally.

Balancing Progress and Protection: The Precautionary Principle in Global Environmental Governance

The precautionary principle is based on the premise that the lack of scientific proof does not justify ignoring potential environmental harm. It advocates for taking precautions to avoid damage rather than dealing with the consequences. Therefore, the precautionary principle is a useful guide when governments need to create policy and regulations in the face of scientific uncertainty. This is especially important with regards to sustainable development as it provides legislators with a framework to enact environmental protections even in the absence of scientific certainty regarding the harm caused by specific industrial activities. Regulators across the world need to strike a balance between the economic benefits of some industrial activity and its social and environmental costs. Imprecise knowledge of health risks, inadequate data, lack of definitive proof, unclear priorities, and public debate all complicate the assessment and regulation of these costs. This article draws attention to the ongoing discussion around particulate matter, specifically around the nature of the exposure-response relationship for different health endpoints, the underlying causal mechanisms of the health impacts caused by different types of particles, and the effects of these impacts on diverse populations. It could lead to different reactions from the judiciary. Due to this uncertainty, those in charge of making decisions about regulations and adjudications about health, well-being, and the environment face governance issues.

The Urgent Call for Academic Action: Rebooting SDGs to Reset Our Future

This manuscript, presented at GEEF2024, emphasizes the critical role of academia in revitalizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to address current global challenges. The SDGs, adopted in 2015, aim to eradicate poverty and promote sustainable development by 2030. However, progress has stalled due to financial constraints, governance issues, the COVID-19 pandemic, and geopolitical crises such as the Russian–Ukraine war. The COVID-19 pandemic has had multifaceted impacts, reversing poverty reduction trends and disrupting education and energy investments. It has also exacerbated social inequalities, leading to the conceptualization of COVID-19 as a syndemic, an ecodemic, and an econodemic. These terms highlight the pandemic's complex interplay with preexisting health issues, environmental degradation, and economic disparities. Geopolitical crises have further hindered SDG progress by disrupting food and energy supplies and diverting resources from sustainable development initiatives. Climate change, marked by unprecedented heatwaves and natural disasters, poses additional threats to achieving the SDGs. The need for carbon neutrality and effective international cooperation is more urgent than ever before. In this context, universities play a crucial role in advancing the SDGs through research, innovation, and community engagement. Engaged universities align their research agendas with the SDGs, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and developing solutions to global challenges. Yonsei University's Institute for Global Engagement and Empowerment (IGEE) exemplifies this approach with its Yonsei SDGs Initiative. By analyzing research outputs via natural language processing, the initiative aligns academic activities with SDGs, particularly in health and well-being. The GEEF2024 conference underscored the importance of innovative strategies and international cooperation in achieving the SDGs. Discussions highlighted the need to address mental health crises, low birth rates, and the care economy's undervaluation. The conference also emphasized the necessity of inclusive development strategies that reflect the perspectives and priorities of Africa and Asia.In conclusion, universities must integrate social engagement into their core missions to remain relevant and impactful. By prioritizing research, teaching, and services that contribute to sustainable development, academia can play a pivotal role in overcoming global challenges and achieving the SDGs.

ESG관점의 세라믹 폐자재 설계 재활용 전략에 관한 연구

The issue of ceramic waste materials is not merely a matter of waste disposal and emissions but also involves significant concerns regarding energy wastage and resource extraction consumption. Through the framework of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance), this study explores effective forms and designs for the reutilization of existing ceramic waste materials. It analyzes the associated environmental, social, and governance issues and proposes a series of design strategies for the reutilization of ceramic waste materials based on ESG principles. This paper aims to provide new insights and methodologies for the sustainable development of the ceramic industry.

TECHNOLOGY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE'S IMPACT ON ESG REPORTING QUALITY

When it comes to communicating a company's performance in terms of sustainability, ESG reporting, which is an acronym that stands for environmental, social, and governance reporting, is a key component. On the other hand, there are still issues with standards, data quality, and consistency requirements. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ways in which digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to enhance environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting by resolving these issues. For the purpose of streamlining data collecting, improving quality, and simplifying communication, digital technology and artificial intelligence employ a broad variety of complex approaches. Some examples of these methods include blockchain technology, data analytics, machine learning, and natural language processing. Using regression analysis and data collected from A-share listed companies between the years 2012 and 2021, this study investigates the relationship between digital transformation and the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of businesses. The study has an emphasis on the repercussions that are associated with artificial intelligence, digital technology, and ESG reporting (environmental, social, and governance). A number of different aspects, including corporate governance, risk assessment, shareholder value, and corporate responsibility, are all affected by these ramifications. For any business that aspires to grow, develop, become more efficient, and maintain a competitive advantage over its rivals, digital technology and artificial intelligence are indispensable tools. The reporting of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues contributes to the advancement of sustainable development and has a beneficial impact on the risk profile, reputation, performance, and total value of entities. As a result of a comprehensive study, methodological inquiry, and analysis, this research provides useful insights and ideas for enhancing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting via the use of digital technology and artificial intelligence. It is discovered that the application of digital technology and artificial intelligence results in ESG reporting that is more comprehensive and has a better degree of confidence.

Gaskeuniversiteete (Mid Sweden University) to Host 2024 Polar Law Symposium

In September 2024, Gaskeuniversiteete (Mid Sweden University) will host the Polar Law Symposium. It will be the first time a Swedish university hosts the symposium. This symposium, which began in 2008 during the fourth International Polar Year, serves as a venue for scholars and practitioners to address emerging issues in international law and policy pertaining to the polar regions. This year’s event is scheduled for September 23–25 in Staare (Östersund), Sweden, located in the southern part of Saepmie. The symposium will focus on two primary themes: Implementation of International Minority and Indigenous Law at National Levels, and Governance, Resources, Security, and Jurisdictional Issues in the Circumpolar Area. Mid Sweden University’s role as the host underscores its high-quality multidisciplinary research profile, and growing commitment to Saami studies and research, furthering its mission to enhance collaboration with the Saami community.

Exploring ESG Disclosure: What? And Why? A Study of Leading European Public Hospitals

Abstract The purpose of the article. This article aims to examine the sustainability disclosure practices of public hospitals within the European Union. It aims to identify the scope and trends in environmental, social and governance (ESG) information reported by these hospitals on their official websites and analyze the influence of national frameworks on these practices. Methodology. The study employs a manual content analysis of the official websites of 50 public hospitals from EU Member States, selected from Newsweek’s The World’s Best Hospitals 2024 list. An ESG Disclosure Index (ESG DI) was developed to evaluate the extent of sustainability information disclosed. The index includes 36 items across various sustainability dimensions. Results of the research. The results show that the surveyed hospitals disclosed an average of 48% of the ESG metrics. Governance issues were disclosed the most (59%), followed by social (52%) and environmental (47%) dimensions. Scandinavian hospitals had a higher level of disclosure than their Southern European counterparts. The study highlights the fragmented nature of sustainability disclosure, which tends to report better performing indicators while selectively omitting others.

Perceived tourism implicit conflict among community residents and its spatial variation

This study explores tourism implicit conflict and its spatial dynamics in rural China. It proposes that residents in different spatial structures within tourism communities perceive implicit conflicts differently. Data were collected through public participatory geographic information system (PPGIS) mapping and semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that conflict perceptions vary by residential structures. Residents in core and peripheral areas experienced heightened economic and cultural conflicts. In contrast, those in expanded areas were more concerned with issues of tourism governance. The study also highlights two key spatial aspects of perceived conflict: internality, the overlap within their residential areas, and significant externality, which spreads across the entire ancient town. From a combined spatial and psychological perspective, this study proposes the concept of spatial relative deprivation to explain resident’s perceived tourism implicit conflict. This study affirms that qualitative-spatial analysis sheds light on socio-cultural phenomena, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the underlying conflict mechanisms in a spatially explicit manner. The findings suggest that tourism planning should consider the intrinsic and micro-values of communities.

Face Recognition Technology Ethical Governance Issues

Face Recognition Technology Ethical Governance Issues

Sustainability Reporting and Financial Performance: Examine the Correlation between Sustainability Disclosures Financial Performance in Publicly Traded Companies

Sustainability reporting has increasingly gained prominence in academia and practice over the past few decades. With growing stakeholder expectations for companies to report on environmental, social, and governance issues, sustainability reporting allows companies to communicate non-financial impacts. While sustainability reporting aims to enhance accountability and transparency, questions remain regarding its influence on corporate financial performance. Some studies have found a positive correlation between sustainability reporting and financial metrics like profitability and share price, arguing reporting leads to more efficient resource management and risk mitigation. However, other research has found no significant relationship or negative impact, noting that reporting requirements incur costs that may outweigh benefits. This comprehensive review aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the existing literature on the correlation between sustainability disclosures and the financial performance of publicly traded companies. Relevant studies from various regions and sectors published between 1990 and 2023 will be reviewed. The methodologies applied, measurement variables, sample sizes, and time frames considered will be evaluated to understand the scope and limitations of each study. Key findings related to the direction and strength of the reported relationship between the two parameters will be summarized and compared. Moderating factors such as company size, industry, cultural context, and disclosure type will also be examined to determine their influence on research outcomes. The review will conclude by outlining existing knowledge gaps, inconsistencies in current empirical evidence, and areas that require further research.

Unlocking Creativity: Utilizing The 5 Whys Methodology to Illuminate Core Issues in Student Supreme Government

Student engagement programs served as catalysts for student development, community building, and active participation in campus life. This research explored the state of student engagement programs within the Supreme Student Government (SSG), focusing on their effectiveness and levels of student participation. Utilizing the 5 Whys methodology, the study identified and analyzed critical challenges and opportunities related to student motivation, program structure, and alignment with student interests. The findings revealed that internal communication breakdowns and budget constraints were significant factors impeding the effectiveness of SSG programs. Student participation was only moderate due to conflicting schedules with classes and insufficient program marketing. The rigid structure of SSG programs and a lengthy approval process further limited their ability to meet student needs. A disconnect between program content and student interests hindered engagement. The research concluded that the root causes of these problems lay in the need for more structured communication channels, a complex approval process, and misalignment with student interests. By addressing these underlying motives, recommendations included enhancing internal communication, allocating funds as efficiently as possible, and creating an inclusive learning environment. These strategies aimed to develop more effective and appealing student engagement programs, ultimately fostering a more active and engaged student body.