Conclusions In Paper Research Articles

A discussion of “Water sorptivity of unsaturated fractured sandstone: Fractal modeling and neutron radiography experiment”

In August 2019, this journal published the paper “Water sorptivity of unsaturated fractured sandstone: Fractal modeling and neutron radiography experiment”, which reports on the experimental monitoring and analytical calculation of capillary moisture absorption in fractured sandstone. This discussion, considered a post-publication review, raises a number of concerns in relation to this paper. These concern the observed deviation between the visual and numeric results of the moisture front penetrations, the suboptimal character of the power-law equation for the temporal evolutions of the moisture penetrations, and the doubtful physical foundation for the pore fractal dimension and pore size ratio applied. These concerns threaten the validity of the disputed paper's findings and conclusions, and this discussion therefore invites its authors to refute these in their reply.

How does the fiscal pressure of local governments affect China's PM2.5 emissions?

Affected by the epidemic and other factors, the global economy is in a downturn, and countries around the world are under unprecedented debt pressure. How will this affect environmental protection? Taking China as an example, this paper empirically studies the impact of changes in local government behavior on urban air quality under fiscal pressure. This paper uses the generalized method of moments (GMM) to find that fiscal pressure has significantly reduced PM2.5 emissions, with a unit increase in fiscal pressure will increase PM2.5 by about 2%. The mechanism verification shows that three channels affect PM2.5 emissions: (1) fiscal pressure has prompted local governments to relax the supervision of existing pollution-intensive enterprises. (2) Local governments reduce environmental regulations for attracting more pollution-intensive enterprises. (3) Local governments tend to reduce environmental protection investment to save fiscal expenses. The paper's conclusions provide new policy ideas for promoting environmental protection in China, as well as served as a case for analyzing current changes in environmental protection in other countries.

Analysis of Advantages and Disadvantages of China's Online Trade Development - A Case Study of Pinduoduo

With the continuous development of Internet technology, the e-commerce industry has become more critical in the context of the information age. People are increasingly aware of the comfort and convenience brought by online shopping in their daily lives. From this, various business platforms have also contended, striving to compete for their world in the fierce market. When the e-commerce industry is in full swing, Pinduoduo stands out among many e-commerce platforms as a dark horse, quickly occupying a place in the e-commerce market in a short time. Such success is not accidental. It was after the Pinduoduo team comprehensively inspected the current e-commerce market situation in China and accurately judged various opportunities based on their advantages. This article thoroughly analyzes the basis of Pinduoduo's development, business strategy, the multiple options and challenges it seizes after entering the market, institutional innovation, and model innovation. In addition, taking the other two robust e-commerce platforms, Taobao and JD, as an example, the advantages of traditional e-commerce platforms and bottlenecks in the development period are analyzed. The rise of Pinduoduo has expanded the market size and space of e-commerce, highlighted the development potential of novel business models, and inspired other companies to break through the limitations of their mindset and strive for market-oriented innovation and transformation. In this context, this article takes Pinduoduo as the research object. By analyzing Pinduoduo, a successful case in the Internet enterprise market, we focus on how latecomers can innovate through business models and then come to the top in the fierce market competition. This paper's research conclusions and suggestions have specific practical guiding significance for the future development of e-commerce in China.

Antarctic conservation policies and practices: Towards a more inclusive and sustainable future

AbstractContemporary archaeology brings a unique perspective from which to critically think about Antarctic Treaty System conservation policies and practices concerning material things. The paper begins by highlighting how they have relied on several underlying assumptions, which we summarise as the ‘wilderness’ and ‘heritage’ principles. It then discusses how these policies and practices have often led to non‐sustainable or non‐inclusive outcomes. In particular, the application of the wilderness and heritage principles to environmental conservation has, on the one hand, reinforced the dominant images and narratives of Antarctica, selectively neglecting and erasing diverse human and non‐human stories, and on the other hand, led to human–thing entanglements that are currently difficult to overcome. The paper's conclusions encourage readers to envision more inclusive and sustainable conservation models by challenging the assumptions underlying current policies and practices.

The rise of minilateralism, the Indo-Pacific context, and the Arab Gulf states

ABSTRACT This paper examines the potential of minilateralism in the context of the Arab Gulf states, given changes in the global geopolitical environment. As major powers such as the United States and China vie for security and economic opportunities, the Gulf will play a crucial role. Unlike the Cold War's simple bipolar order, the 2020s are likely to involve less formal and more dynamic arrangements, termed ‘minilateralism’. This paper details the sources, nature, and scope of minilateralism, comparing it to multilateralism, and considering its strengths and weaknesses. It then examines why minilateralism is potentially appealing to Gulf leaderships and looks at possible cases and modes of minilateralism that may emerge in and around the Gulf, including India's proposed Arabian-Mediterranean Corridor and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue. The paper's conclusions are tentative, but there is evidence that the Gulf states are revisiting their foreign policies and beginning to adopt minilateral arrangements.

Kvantifikacija finansijskog uticaja COVID-19 na najveće svetske kompanije u hotelskoj industriji

COVID-19 has affected every business worldwide, with the hotel industry being among the hardest hit. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of the pandemic on the liquidity and profitability of the world's five largest hotel companies. The research is conducted through financial ratio analysis and comparative analysis based on available financial data from 2017 to 2022, covering the period before, during and ―after‖ (the recovery period) the crisis. Research results imply that hotels have prioritized liquidity over profitability during the pandemic, with some indicators pointing to its devastating effects that generated a long and difficult recovery. The paper's conclusions can be useful for the examined hotel companies to control their costs and produce positive financial outcomes in the future. They can also be helpful to policymakers as a respectable delivery system which will guarantee that the support eventually gets to the businesses that need it most.

Uloga internih revizora u sprečavanju nastanka finansijskih prevara u Republici Srbiji

Financial fraud poses a significant threat to the stability and integrity of financial systems around the world. The Republic of Serbia, as an economy in dynamic development, is no exception to this challenge. This research paper investigates the key role of the profession of internal auditors in the fight against financial fraud in the Republic of Serbia. By exploring the practices and challenges faced by internal auditors, this paper aims to provide valuable insights and recommendations to strengthen the effectiveness of internal audit functions in detecting and preventing financial fraud. The importance of internal audit as a vital component of corporate governance and risk management was emphasized through a review of relevant literature and consideration of various activities of internal auditors and their role in preventing financial fraud. Internal auditors play a key role in assessing and monitoring internal controls, identifying vulnerabilities and making recommendations to mitigate fraud risk. Examining the legal and regulatory framework that regulates internal audits in the Republic of Serbia, the importance of implementing a strong control environment and effective monitoring mechanisms in preventing financial fraud is highlighted. The paper's conclusions highlight the specific challenges internal auditors face in the Republic of Serbia in preventing financial fraud, such as resource limitations, limited independence and insufficient awareness of fraud. The findings and recommendations presented in the paper can serve as a valuable resource for policymakers, regulatory bodies and organizations seeking to strengthen their financial fraud defense mechanisms and their internal audit function.

Simulation study on ventilation design for controlling gaseous pollutants in urban sentry boxes with opening window

In cities, sentry boxes with various service functions can be seen everywhere, such as mobile security booths, toll booths, etc., which play an important role in public social services of their compactness and convenience. To realize the office function, the sentry boxes located by the road often need to open the work window continuously or frequently. With the flow of natural wind, various pollutants easily intrude into the sentry box from the open window, resulting in the deterioration of the indoor air quality and a threat to employees' health. In this paper, two attached ventilation modes are used as the carrier, and NO2 is selected as the outdoor gaseous pollutant to discuss the ventilation scheme design to improve air quality in the sentry box with an opening. The barrier performance of the air curtain formed at the window to outdoor pollutants was studied in the vertical wall-attached ventilation (VAV) mode. The conclusion is that although there is an entrainment phenomenon, as long as the supply air velocity is sufficient to generate a covering air curtain (Us > 1 m/s) at the window, the intrusion of pollutants can be effectively blocked. The horizontal wall-attached ventilation (HAV) mode represents the scheme that the supply air jet's mainstream area is far from the opening. The analysis shows that the reasons for improving indoor air quality are the dilution of fresh supply air and the suppression of positive pressure. This paper's conclusions can guide the ventilation design of sentry boxes with openings.

Research & Development Premium in the Indian Equity Market: An Empirical Study

This article aims to investigate the research and development (R&D) premium and explore the three most prominent asset pricing models: capital asset pricing and the three-and five-factor models (Fama & French, 1993; 2015). The results show that India's annualized average R&D premium is significantly higher than the existing value, market, profitability, size and investment premiums, implying that the R&D premium is a more significant concern for Indian investors, particularly for high R&D firms. It was also observed that by applying the GRS test and the Fama and MacBeth (1973) two-pass procedure, the R&D risk factor augmented the CAPM, FF3F and FF5F models outperforming the existing CAPM, FF3F and FF5F models, respectively. We can also report that R&D is, unquestionably, a priced ingredient and a critical factor in developing pricing models for developing markets such as India. The paper's conclusions add to the current literature in R&D and asset pricing and assist investment professionals in developing better investment and trading strategies.

Exchange rate predictability with nine alternative models for BRICS countries

This paper seeks to add to the literature on short-run exchange rate predictability by focusing on BRICS exchange rates. We utilize both time-varying and constant parameter models, and account for a variety of macro fundamentals, including those suggested by Taylor rules. For the sample of countries, a Taylor rule model with homogeneous coefficients without interest rate smoothing as well as PPP- and UIRP-based models offers a better exchange rate predictability than the random walk model. For this sample of countries, constant parameter models appear to predict exchange rates better than time varying approaches for monthly data but not quarterly. We provide a range of sensitivity analysis, which on some occasions influence the paper's conclusions. We rationalize these results as being partly due to relatively stable relationship among variables (fixed over time-varying) and sample size (monthly over quarterly).

Temporal evolution of small-scale internetwork magnetic fields in the solar photosphere (Corrigendum)

We correct a typographical error in the original paper. Figures 10, 12, 14, 15, and 16 contain a table in the top right panel with four columns and four rows of values. The line of sight velocity, vLOS, values for scheme 1 inversions (in the fourth row, first column and second column) are inserted the wrong way around. The values themselves are correct, but printed in the wrong column. All other values in the tables remain unaffected, and none of the paper's discussions or conclusions are impacted. We provide corrected versions of Figs. 10, 12, 14, 15, and 16 in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively.

The dynamics of social deprivation in Mexico

This paper aims to model the dynamics of social deprivation in Mexico using a Markovian approach. First, we establish a scenario where a list of items characterizing social deprivation evolves as a first-order Markov chain under the sample period (2002-2012). Then, we estimate latent states and ergodic vectors of a hidden-Markov model to verify the strength of the conclusions drawn from such a scenario. After collecting results from both kinds of analyses, we find a similar pattern of impoverishment. The paper's conclusions state that the evolution of Mexico's deprivation profile may slightly worsen soon.

Emotional boundaries of public involvement in city improvement

This paper examines the relationship between citizens' city perception and their involvement in city improvement. The viewpoint is based on the statistically significant relationship between the distribution of the daily places perceptions and proposals of city improvement on the online map. It was found that such proposals are more closely related to citizens' emotions than to their daily mobility. Furthermore, the positive emotions are correlated with proposals to keep places intact and negative emotions are correlated with proposals to improve the places. However, the emotions, as well as public proposals, are scarcely distributed in the space. This deficit is a major boundary for public participation in urban planning, as the initial questions on what to do with places, that are a void in public mindset, remain unsolved. The paper's conclusions can be generalized to other countries that have adopted participatory planning approaches in urban planning and specifically to the cities with developed location-based social networks.

Komparativna analiza uticaja veličine bilansne sume na poslovanje banaka u Republici Srbiji u periodu pre i tokom pandemije Covid-19

This paper aims to analyze the impact of the size of banks operating in the Republic of Serbia on the main indicators of their business activity and assess whether the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the nature and intensity of this impact. The research was conducted on a representative sample of twenty-three domestic banks. The paper's conclusions are based on the results of applying static panel regression models and cover the period from the second quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2021. From the study results, it can be concluded that larger banks reduced lending activities and increased liquidity during the pandemic compared to smaller banks. This had no impact on their profitability, meaning that banks achieved higher returns on capital compared to smaller banks, as in the prepandemic period. In addition, the study found that larger banks reduced the ratio of capital to total assets during the pandemic compared to smaller banks, but not to the extent that threatened the banking sector's stability.

The profitability-growth nexus in the Mexican manufacturing industry

Abstract This paper examines the Mexican manufacturing industry's profitability-growth relationship at the sectoral level, considering three theories: business growth causes profitability (classical), profitability explains business growth (evolutionary), or negative link as a rule (the managerialism view). Using a vector error correction model alongside quadratic and piecewise regression equations produced results estimating bidirectional causality. However, the impact of profitability on business growth, measured from employment, was positive and stronger than the impact of business growth on profitability. Meanwhile, using net sales as a growth factor indicated a negative impact. Thus, the findings confirmed the predictions of both evolutionary and managerialism theories. Although not specifically targeted at the firm level, this research does provide insight into the efficiency and profitability conditions that prevail within Mexican entrepreneurship. The paper's conclusions highlight a strong profitability-growth link in sectors shaped by smaller firms, suggesting suitable conditions for investment, competition, economic growth, and quality improvement.

The logistics of the short food supply chain: A literature review

The sustainability of food chains is an issue consumers, policy makers, researchers, food producers and suppliers are increasingly interested in. This interest is also confirmed by the considerable development of short food supply chain (SFSC) initiatives as an alternative to the globalised food chains typical of the contemporary food industry. However, while SFSCs have grown over the recent years, their logistics is still a challenging issue affecting their performance. Previous SFSC-focused literature reviews have neglected this particular aspect, concentrating primarily on the different forms of supply chains and the benefits and limitations associated with SFSC. The goal of this paper, instead, is to increase researchers’ and practitioners’ knowledge of the role and potential of logistics in improving the effectiveness and sustainability of SFSCs. This work, in fact, focuses on this specific and relevant aspect of SFSC and highlights its possible impact on SFSC development. From a logistics perspective, it identifies a series of actions to be implemented to effectively improve SFSC: to make environmental sustainable choices during all the phases of food distribution, to optimise the location of supply chain nodes, to improve the distribution route and restructure the supply chain. In addition to these actions, farmers are required to adopt an open approach to innovative distribution systems, vertical and horizontal collaboration as well as to cooperation with researchers. The paper's conclusions provide suggestions for future research development and underline the necessity to adopt a holistic and integrated approach and abandon a retrospective evaluation analysis in favour of a more dynamic and future-orientated attitude.

Discussion on radioactive iodine treatment of hyperthyroidism and the risk of induced cancer

Iodine-131 (131I, radioiodine) has been used for over eight decades for the treatment of Graves’ disease, either as initial therapy or following failure of thionamides, as well as for the treatment of autonomous thyroid nodules. 131I treatment is simple to administer, effective, and relatively inexpensive. Recently, there has been some turmoil after a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine reported an increased risk of cancer from 131I treatment. The impact was of short duration however, as the paper received severe criticisms from many nuclear medicine physicians as well as from endocrinologists. Here we explain why that paper's conclusions are doubtful. We also review the major data on the topic of 131I therapy of hyperthyroidism and the risk of cancer.

Ludwig Binswanger: Between the Metaphysics of Simon L. Frank and Martin Heidegger's Analytics of Dasein

The paper focuses on ontology and epistemology of the founder of Da-sein analysis Ludwig Binswanger. There are two conceptions which contributed immensely to the Binswanger's analysis: Heidegger's understanding of human being as disclosedness of being; and the philosophy of dialogue, as far as it is orientated to consider the true being, not as a self-closed and self-isolated the Self (Ego), but the transcendentally-immanent being of “We”, to which Simon Frank's ontology also belongs. It is analyzed how Binswanger transforms Heideggerian set on Da-sein as “always mine” to acknowledge the dual being of We or love as the basic anthropological phenomenon. Concerning Frank, the comparative analysis finds its foundation in Binswanger's own multiple admissions of his solidarity with Frank that have been uttered by him in his memories, correspondence, and the book “Basic Forms and the Knowledge of Human Presence”. It is examined the common positions of Binswanger's and Frank's ontology that come from the common set on “ontologism”, which conditions the possibility of notional (conceptual) knowledge with the immediate knowledge of absolute being, founded on belonging of the subject to this being. It is analyzed specifics of Binswangerian ontologism, expressed in his understanding of the being of We or love as a coincidence of being and knowledge. The paper analyses the motives of love as absolute being, mystical images and concepts, used by Binswanger. All these images and concepts he borrows directly from Neo-Platonism, German mystics, and Frank's works. The paper also traces a number of parallels between Binswanger's and Frank's theories of knowledge. By this, we mean two orders of knowledge: the notional knowledge and the knowledge of Da-sein as the metalogical foundation of the former. The paper's conclusions deal with the analyis of antinomies in Binswanger's conception. The conception, on the one hand, tends to narrow of differences between the being We with Absolute being, knowledge of Da-sein as love with mystical knowledge of the Absolute, as on the other hand, it is an effort to think about being of We as a merely human being.

The effect of air pollution on children's migration with parents: evidence from China.

Population migration and air pollution are inevitable problems in the process of urbanisation. With the continuous advancement of urbanisation, the trends in family migration have become more prominent, and children's migration with parents has become an important indicator reflecting the speed, structure, and quality of urbanisation. Our analysis relies on data from China Migrants Dynamic Survey to estimate the effect of air pollution on children's migration with parents. After using the instrumental variables to correct the possible endogeneity, we found that air pollution has a significant negative effect on children's migration with parents. Through further analysis, air pollution mainly affects migrant children by reducing the settlement intention of the migrants, the house purchase tendency in the influx city, and the income level. After replacing the independent variables, using narrow samples, and considering heterogeneity differences, this paper's conclusions remain robust. Therefore, in the process of urbanisation development, it is important to coordinate the relationship between the environment and the population, and it has an important significance to delay the demographic dividend recession and promote sustainable economic development in developing countries.

Model of a community‐based care environmental system for “aging in place” – A case study from a historical port town in Japan

AbstractOne of the major factors causing elderly people to move from their own homes is the frailty associated with aging. Japan has been developing its social welfare system since 1989 and introduced “the Integrated Community Care System” in 2013. A unique feature of the system is the desire to promote “local welfare” that provides support based on public care and informal support. Our previous study clarified the actual condition of a reciprocal complementary division of roles between welfare facilities and informal support services for the elderly. This paper clarifies the changes in the local living support environment caused by the aging of previously independent persons and proposes an enhanced local living support model. A survey and on‐site observations were performed to record the behaviors and support provided for 3 people. The paper's conclusions are as follows: (1) Environmental transitions while 4 years were observed for previously independent persons, such as institutionalization and a shift of facilities. (2) Because of these transitions, the roles of informal supporting organizations were observed to decrease. (3) There are 2 types of elements that indicate a turning point in environmental transitions, which are private elements, such as hospitalization, and environmental elements, such as the limitations of self‐help caregivers and local informal supporters. (4) For promoting the effective use of independent and spontaneous local informal support, care managers (formal caregivers) are needed to seamlessly connect this local informal support and formal care and to network them into the lives of individual elderly human beings. The result of this integration would be that formal care and local informal support would be synchronized and would complement each other. (5) However, there is a limitation to local informal support, and from a mid‐long‐term point of view, it is necessary to help these local informal supporters. (6) To not break the continuity of the local living environment during the elderly individual's environmental transition time, appropriate communication regarding the turning points is important.