Responsible Entities Research Articles

Hybrid multi-core shell magnetic nanoparticles for wet peroxide oxidation of paracetamol: Application in synthetic and real matrices

Clean water availability is becoming a matter of global concern in the last decades. The responsible entities for wastewater treatment do not have the proper facilities to deal with a wide range of pollutants. Special attention should be given to emerging contaminants, whose presence in water bodies may cause adverse effects on the aquatic ecosystem and human health. Most studies in the literature do not consider the development of their solution in real matrices, which can hinder the applicability of the explored alternative in the real scenario. Therefore, in this work, we demonstrate the applicability of hybrid magnetic nanoparticles for removing paracetamol (PCM) from simulated and real matrices by catalytic wet peroxide oxidation (CWPO). To achieve carbon coating, the nanoparticles were prepared via the traditional route (resorcinol/formaldehyde, CoFe@CRF). A new methodology was also considered for synthesizing thin-layered carbon-coated magnetic nanoparticles (phloroglucinol/glyoxalic acid, CoFe@CPG). TEM images revealed a multi-core shell structure formation, with an average carbon layer size of 7.8 ± 0.5 and 3.2 ± 0.3 nm for resorcinol/formaldehyde and phloroglucinol/glyoxalic acid methodology, respectively. Screening the materials’ activity for PCM oxidation by CWPO revealed that the nanoparticle prepared by phloroglucinol/glyoxalic acid methodology has higher performance for the degradation of PCM, achieving 63.5% mineralization after 24 h of reaction, with similar results for more complex matrices. Iron leaching measured at the end of all reactions has proven that the carbon layer protects the core against leaching.

Changing consumer attitudes to make the Corporate Social Responsibility investment in sustainable fish production, a worthwhile investment to corporates

AbstractThe need for environmental protection, especially of depleting natural resources such as fish stocks, remains a global challenge. Global population growth increases food consumption. Some socially responsible corporate entities in the fish sector are producing and selling sustainable fish products, but beyond meeting their altruistic motives, they need consumers to respond favorably to these CSR initiatives to make the investments worthwhile and to encourage more organizations to invest in CSR for sustainable development. This paper reports the findings of research on the factors which influence consumers in the emerging market of South Africa, to respond favorably to sustainable fish product CSR initiatives. A causal research design and quantitative method was employed with a sample of consumers who were part of the South African LinkedIn community and who eat fish, whether concerned or not about sustainability. An online questionnaire was developed using an extension of the Theory of Planned Behavior. Univariate, regression and mediation analyses were carried out. Attitude towards sustainable fish products was found to be the only significant predictor of intention to purchase sustainable fish but it was also found to mediate the impact of health consciousness and environment concern. This paper thus focuses specifically on the role of attitudes in sustainable fish consumption in South Africa. Recommendations are provided for improving these consumer responses so as to make these CSR investments worthwhile to corporates and thus also positively impact fish sustainability.

DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY IN NIGERIAN NEWSPAPER REPORTS ON PIPELINE VANDALISM

Scholarly works on pipeline vandalism have paid extensive attention to empirical questions of causes and consequences. But there remains a dearth of studies on the representation of the acts of vandalism in newspapers, which is necessary for evaluating what message about the problem is being disseminated to the citizens and how that could contribute to resolving the problem or sustaining it. This paper examines the identity construction for critical social actors in Nigerian newspaper reports on pipeline vandalism. Sixteen –news samples were purposively selected from three newspapers: The Tide, New Waves, and The Guardian published between 2015 and 2019. Theoretically, the study is anchored on a combination of Fina’s (2011) identity process and van Dijk’s (1995, 2006a, 2006b) in-group/out-group description. The analysis involved accounting for the deployment of group self-schemata (van Dijk, 1995, 2005) and ideological strategies (van Dijk, 2006) in realising the three identity processes of indexing, positioning, and local occasioning established by Fina (2011). The study finds that through a combination of media identity ascription and social actors’ positive-self description in the news reports, each of the major stakeholders in the conflict assumes an identity of innocence and responsible entity while shifting the blame to others. It concludes therefore that this could be responsible for the difficulty in ending the conflict.

Buy green only: Interplay between green marketing, corporate social responsibility and green purchase intention; the mediating role of green brand image

AbstractConsumers around the globe are concerned about the environment and want to purchase from businesses that are more concerned about society and the environment. Therefore, businesses need to develop their image as socially responsible entities and build their green image through green marketing tactics to enhance the green purchase intentions of their consumers. The study is quantitative, and a convenience sampling technique is used to collect primary data through a self‐administered questionnaire comprised of the demographic profile of the respondents and adopted scales of all the constructs of the study. The population of the study is students of different universities in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Statistical tests are performed with the help of SPSS_v.20 and PLS_v.4 (variance based) on 782 useable responses. Green marketing (GM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are the independent variables, while green brand image (GBI) is mediating, and green purchase intention (GPI) is the dependent variable of the study. The results indicate that GM and CSR improved the GBI and built GPI. This study contributes to the social and environmental literature. It may help managers to formulate strategies to enhance the Green Purchase Intentions of customers by building a Green Brand Image.

AAAI 23 Spring Symposium Report on “Socially Responsible AI for Well‐Bing”

The AAAI 2023 spring symposium on “Socially Responsible AI for Well-Being” was held at Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, California, from March 27th to 29th. AI has great potential for human well-being but also carries the risk of unintended harm. For our well-being, AI needs to fulfill social responsibilities such as fairness, accountability, transparency, trust, privacy, safety, and security, not just productivity such as exponential growth and economic and financial supremacy. For example, AI diagnostic systems must not only provide reliable results (for example, highly accurate diagnostic results and easy-to-understand explanations) but also their results must be socially acceptable (for example, data for AI [machine learning] must not be biased (the amount of data for training must not be biased by race or location (for example, the amount of data for learning must be equal across races and locations). As in this example, AI decisions affect our well-being, suggesting the importance of discussing “what is socially responsible” in several potential well-being situations in the coming AI era. The first perspective is “(Individual) Responsible AI” and aims to identify what mechanisms and issues should be considered to design responsible AI for well-being. One of the goals of responsible AI for well-being is to provide accountable outcomes for our ever-changing health conditions. Since our environment often drives these changes in health, Responsible AI for Well-Being is expected to offer responsible outcomes by understanding how our digital experiences affect our emotions and quality of life. The second perspective is “Socially Responsible AI,” which aims to identify what mechanisms and issues should be considered to realize the social aspects of responsible AI for well-being. One aspect of social responsibility is fairness, that is, that the results of AI should be equally helpful to all. The problem of “bias” in AI (and humans) needs to be addressed to achieve fairness. Another aspect of social responsibility is the applicability of knowledge among people. For example, health-related knowledge found by an AI for one person (for example, tips for a good night's sleep) may not be helpful to another person, meaning that such knowledge is not socially responsible. To address these problems, we must understand how fair is fair and find ways to ensure that machines do not absorb human bias by providing socially responsible results. Our symposium included 18 technical presentations over 2-and-a-half days. Presentation topics included (1) socially responsible AI, (2) communication and evidence for well-being, (3) face expression and impression for well-being, (4) odor for well-being, (5) ethical AI, (6) robot Interaction for social well-being, (7) communication and sleep for social well-being, (8) well-being studies, (9) information and sleep for social well-being For example, Takashi Kido, Advanced Comprehensive Research Organization of Teikyo University in Japan, presented the challenges of socially responsible AI for well-being. Oliver Bendel, School of Business FHGW in Switzerland, presented the increasing well-being through robotic hugs. Martin D. Aleksandrov, Freie Universitat Berlin in Germany, presented the limiting inequalities in the fair division with additive value preferences for indivisible social items. Melanie Swan, University College London in the United Kingdom, presented Quantum intelligence, responsible human machine entities. Dragutin Petkovic, San Francisco State University in Unites States, presented on San Francisco State University Graduate Certificate in Ethical AI. Our symposium provides participants unique opportunities where researchers with diverse backgrounds can develop new ideas through innovative and constructive discussions. This symposium will present significant interdisciplinary challenges for guiding future advances in the AI community. Takashi Kido and Keiki Takadama served as co-chairs of this symposium. The papers of the symposium will be published online at CEUR-WS.org. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Takashi Kido is a professor at Teikyo University in Japan. He had been a visiting researcher at Stanford University. Keiki Takadama is a professor at the University of Electro-Communications in Japan.

Implementation of Human Rights

Human rights are understood as rights that belong to every individual as a consequence of being human, regardless of legal acts. By affirming the existence of human rights, we say that every human being, by the very fact that he or she is such, is entitled to something. The modern concept of human rights is rooted in experiences of "legal illegality" when crimes were committed under the authority of the law and when some human beings were denied such status. These rights are defined as those rights that are inherent in our nature and without which we cannot live as human beings. Basic human rights and freedoms give us the opportunity to fully develop and use our human qualities, our intelligence, our consciousness, and fulfill our demands. The issue of human rights has received a great deal of attention. Today, the violation of human rights is taken seriously by international bodies and most countries have their own legislation to guarantee the protection and implementation of human rights. Human rights are closely related to the state's obligation to protect and promote them. Putting the state in their focus refers to the governing model, the state is the main actor, the responsible and responsible entity for the promotion of human rights and freedoms. In fact, the obligation and role of the state does not consist only in a passive position to promote them, but at the same time, it also has as a duty and as a primary obligation the undertaking of actions to guarantee and protect human rights and freedoms through policies active. The issue of human rights has attracted the attention of many people. As a legal category, human rights are presented in the creation of the first legal rules, where these give us the opportunity to develop and fully use our qualities and fulfill our requirements. The most effective protection of human rights is through state public institutions, where the state has the most powerful monopoly of force through which it can realize political goals and ideas, The aspiration to protect human dignity represents the essence of the concept of human rights. This aspiration puts the human being at the center of interest, where it is based on the common universal system of values committed to the right to life, as an inviolable right, and provides a framework for building the system of human rights. to man.
 
 Received: 05 May 2022 / Accepted: 17 May 2023 / Published: 20 May 2023

Downlink Performance of CF Massive MIMO Under Wireless-Based Fronthaul Network

This paper investigates the downlink (DL) performance of cell-free (CF) massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) systems under a wireless mMIMO-based fronthaul network operation. Particularly, we consider multiple edge-cloud processors (ECP)s serving access points (AP)s using one of three possible fronthaul network operations, namely, microwave, millimeter wave (mmWave), or hybrid microwave/mmWave. Under each fronthaul network operation, we analyze the achievable DL data rates for two different microwave-based operations of the access link (APs-users), namely, distributed and centralized operations, while assuming APs with/without decoding capabilities. In the distributed operation, APs are responsible for performing both channel estimation and DL data precoding tasks, whereas ECPs are the responsible entities for carrying out such tasks in the centralized counterpart. Our results show that the integration between the centralized access link operation and the hybrid-based fronthaul network provides the highest DL data rates when APs are empowered with decoding capabilities. However, integrating the distributed access link operation with the microwave-based fronthaul network achieves ultimate performance when APs are not supported with decoding capabilities. Interestingly, we reveal that APs with low fronthaul capacities dominantly control the preferred network configuration in-terms of the densities and the number of deployed antennas for both APs and ECPs.

The Challenge of Digital Transition in Engineering. A Solution Made from a European Collaborative Network of Remote Laboratories Based on Renewable Energies Technology

Society currently faces two crucial challenges: digital transition and energy transition. Educative innovation plays a key role in this challenging scenario, particularly engineering careers, where laboratory practices are as important as theoretical classes. This paper presents a standardized training platform supported by five European universities which include a remote laboratory experience. Each university is responsible for developing a training module under the guidance provided by the responsible entity (University of Huelva, Spain). For this purpose, the University of Huelva has implemented a remote laboratory based on a supercapacitor power bank. The rest of the universities have selected any other renewable source and have replicated the information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure. The result is a European network materialized on a homogenized platform where teachers and students can find all the teaching materials (theory and practice) to train and to be trained in renewable energy matters in the new digital era.

Western Balkan societies' awareness of air pollution. Estimations using natural language processing techniques

Air pollution remains a severe concern in European countries, especially in Western Balkan, where the air monitoring data point to harmful ambient pollution. The public concern with this issue becomes particularly critical during the fall and winter months, when the contamination is more visible, provoking a series of reactions directed principally to the government authorities as the responsible entities for regulating air pollution levels. Since citizen-contributed data are generally considered valuable additional information for assessing the impacts of air pollution, the public contribution could act as a tool for increasing awareness and response about air pollution. Consequently, this study's objective focuses on researching public awareness of air pollution in Western Balkan. The study assumes that citizens' reactions will grow more intensely during the months with an increase in air pollution levels, principally due to winter heating. Therefore, Twitter activity and news articles related to air pollution have been investigated for the case of Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, from November 2021 to March 2022. Natural Language Processing techniques such as sentiment analysis, topic modelling, and cross-correlations statistical analysis were employed to determine the relationship between Twitter discussions and news with actual PM10 levels measured by official air monitoring stations. The aim was to observe whether tweets and news teasers reflect the realistic air pollution situation. The results affirm that social media discussions, mainly with a negative connotation, can serve as a measure of public awareness of temporal changes in the PM10 concentration in the air and the negative consequences. The content of the resources reveals several topics of concern, contributing to better identification of public opinion and possibilities for tracking news trends. Nevertheless, attention should be paid to news interpretation, provided that sometimes they might offer a more neutral understanding of the situation, failing, in this way, to present the actual air conditions and possibly impacting society in forming an unrealistic opinion. Additionally, the public might not be able to obtain sufficient or accurate information about the primary sources of air pollution, emphasizing the need for more transparent communication and greater education regarding air pollution monitoring. Finally, the study provides deeper insights into the content of the data and helps detect the reasons for skepticism towards pro-environmental behavior occurring in social media discussions. Explicitly, personal disappointment with the air quality should be taken as an inflection point by responsible parties to intervene in improving citizens' quality of life.

Subjects of delict obligations

An independent subject of responsibility for the damage caused is only a natural person or a legal entity capable of delict. A person is recognized as capable when has reached the age of 14 (except for the cases specified in Part 2 of Article 1179 of the Civil Code of Ukraine) and is not recognized as incapable. A creditor is a person who has been injured (victim) and has the right to claim. The debtor (obligation bearer) is the person who is responsible for the damage. As a rule, it is the person causing of damage. In the cases stipulated by the law, the debtor is not the person who caused the damage, but the person responsible for the behaviour of the person who caused the damage. In the event of the victim's death, the creditors in the delict liability are disabled persons who were dependent on him or had the right to receive maintenance from him on the day of his death, as well as the child of the victim born after his death. Legal entities are liable in cases where damage is caused by the activities of its bodies or in other cases provided for by law.
 In the obligations for causing damage, there is a plurality of persons in the obligation. Active plurality, that is, the presence of several creditors and one debtor, is not very common. Even if several victims are harmed by the actions of one person, it is considered that there are several obligations existing between the responsible person and each of the victims. Exceptions to this rule are cases of damage resulting from the death of a person. Passive plurality or the presence of several debtors occurs more often in delict liability. The nature of the liability of several debtors depends on what their actions are that led to the damage.
 The special subject of responsibility is the state. The state is the responsible entity for the liquidation of property consequences of illegal actions of judicial and law enforcement agencies. That is why it is obliged to fulfil its subjective duty to restore the violated property sphere of the victim.
 The person who compensated for the damage caused by his actions, has the right regress, that is, the right to apply for the return of the payment to the debtor, whose fault the damage was caused.

빅테크의 온라인 플랫폼을 통한 보험상품 거래행위의 법적 쟁점

Business of Big Tech companies in financial area is recently accelerated by such methods as sales and brokerage services of insurance products through online platforms, etc. Digital platform phenomenon next to Pin Tech is expected to play positive functions to enhance competitiveness of financial business by increasing efficiency and capacity of finance, reducing consumers’ searching costs, and expanding options. However, on the other hand, such a phenomenon may cause problems in consumer protection because financial stability is reduced and identification of responsible entities due to complex digital transactions. Especially, as financial business gives large influence to national economy and launch and operation of financial business is strictly regulated in the aspect of public character of financial business, if Big Tech companies launch their business in financial business through cooperation with general financial companies, they may avoid regulation and supervision of financial business and reverse discrimination of existing financial companies may be caused. Therefore, it is required to provide a frame of regulation for transactions of insurance products of Big Tech platform companies.
 A solution to such issues is rational regulation with establishment of the standard on application of Insurance Business Act in relation to operation of insurance business of Big Tech companies.
 Whether an action of a Big Tech company belongs to advertisement of products only or belongs to brokerage or sale of insurance products should be individually and concretely judged and, furthermore, should be judged based on recognition levels of consumers. If advertisement by a Big Tech company is not limited to simple advertisement but actively participates in brokerage including comparison of insurance products and, if consumers trust the Big Tech company and consider such action as brokerage or sale of insurance products, responsibility under Insurance Business Act may be imposed on such company. Also, although it is asserted that the commissions received by a Big Tech company are simple advertisement costs, if brokerage is done through participation of Big Tech at certain level, such action may be considered as brokerage and application of Insurance Business Act is possible. That is, regulations on mediation, brokerage, agency of insurance products under Insurance Business Act should be applied to advertisement of insurance by Big Tech companies depending on level of participation.

Runtime software patching: Taxonomy, survey and future directions

Runtime software patching aims to minimize or eliminate service downtime, user interruptions and potential data losses while deploying a patch. Due to modern software systems’ high variance and heterogeneity, no universal solutions are available or proposed to deploy and execute patches at runtime. Existing runtime software patching solutions focus on specific cases, scenarios, programming languages and operating systems. This paper aims to identify, investigate and synthesize state-of-the-art runtime software patching approaches and gives an overview of currently unsolved challenges. It further provides insights into multiple aspects of runtime patching approaches such as patch scales, general strategies and responsibilities. This study identifies seven levels of granularity, two key strategies providing a conceptual model of three responsible entities and four capabilities of runtime patching solutions. Through the analysis of the existing literature, this research also reveals open issues hindering more comprehensive adoption of runtime patching in practice. Finally, it proposes several crucial future directions that require further attention from both researchers and practitioners.

Farmer’s Perceptions of Agroforestry Practices, Contributions to Rural Household Farm Income, and Their Determinants in Sodo Zuria District, Southern Ethiopia

Agroforestry has been widely used in developing countries as a solution to mitigate the effects of climate variability. However, its significance to the well-being of farmers in rural communities has not been thoroughly investigated. The purpose of this study was to analyze the contribution of agroforestry practices (AFPs) to the farm income of rural families, the perceptions of farmers, and factors that affect AFPs’ contribution to household income in the Sodo Zuria district. The optimal sample size of 173 households from the three study sites was selected through a stratified random sampling procedure. Data were collected using structured interviews, focus group discussion, observation, and key informant interviews. According to the findings, most farmers in the research area had a good perception of the benefits of agroforestry methods. The yearly mean gross income from various agroforestry approaches was 15,990.90 ETB·ha−1·yr−1 for nonadopters and 32,471.24 ETB·ha−1·yr−1 for adopters, respectively. Tree and fruit tree integration with crops, animals, or pastures has the potential to significantly increase food production and farmer economic situations. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that the size of the farm, the number of livestock, the experience of agroforestry, and the extension service affect the adoption of agroforestry practices to house farm income positively, while the size of the family negatively affects it. Agroforestry plays a critical role in reducing food poverty and enhancing farmer livelihood resilience (reducing farmers’ vulnerability to climate variability). However, determining the extent to which this is true is challenging because both farmer groups often have low levels of assets such as land and income, which limits tree planting to reaping maximum benefits from agroforestry. As a result, the government and other responsible entities should pay special attention to assisting smallholder farmers in using agroforestry practices for the sustainability of their livelihoods that have been hampered by agricultural land scarcity.

Phlebotomine in urban foci of Visceral and American Cutaneous Leishmaniases in a municipality in the Brazilian Northeast

Introduction: The Visceral and American Cutaneous Leishmaniases are a public health problem in the Americas, in the municipality of Altos, state of Piauí, are considered endemic. Aim: To carry out a faunal survey of the phlebotomine species in the areas of transmission of visceral and cutaneous, both human and canine, leishmaniases, in the municipality of Altos, Piauí. Outlining: It was carried out through entomological survey, it encompassed capture, separation, identification, and analysis of phlebotomine species in determined regions in the municipality of Altos, Piauí, between August 2017 and July 2019. Results: The most found species was Lutzomyia longipalpis, with 1,399 sandflies captured, 1,299 males and 140 females. Some other species were also found, such as Nyssomyia whitmani, Lutzomyia dispar, Evandromyia evandroi. Implications: The research helps to provide data that can contribute to the formulation of surveillance and control actions for these vectors, enabling responsible entities to develop public policies to control leishmaniasis.

Service innovation roadmaps as benchmarks for organizational learning

The purpose of this paper is to better understand how responsible entities like people, organizations, regional governments can approach their learning and development strategies [15]. Despite all the heterogeneity in the respective “run-transform-innovate” contexts of the different responsible entities, they all have in common that they have to become “better future versions of themselves” to overcome their challenges [40]. Using the example of organizations, the concept of Service Innovation Roadmaps (SIR’s) is introduced to broaden a discussion in this area that has so far been very technology-focused [15, 28, 40]. In order to identify and take into account new dimensions and to give greater consideration to other nontechnological aspects as well, the research design of “theory adaptation” is chosen [16].

Paid Plasma versus Voluntary Nonremunerated Plasma Collection for Plasma-Derived Medicine

Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization (IBTO) established in 1975 has been the sole responsible entity for blood adequacy and safety in Iran. It has been the same in case of providing recovered plasma. At the same time, the first commercial plasma center was authorized by IBTO to operate in the capital Tehran to contribute to the main purpose that was the investment of the private sector in fulfilling fractionation purposes and the construction of a fractionation plant. The goal that unfortunately did not materialize. To make remedies based on a well-calculated plasma document, in 2015, a plasma program developed in Iran by IBTO by which new donor centers were opened or already blood center were equipped to allow for the collection of voluntary nonremunerated source plasma. It had in it capacities of plasma collection for IBTO recovered, commercial source, and IBTO voluntary source. The latter third was a gradually growing program that lasted just 3 years and showed progress but the managerial changes and invalid arbitrary and sudden decisions brought it to the end. Whilst the paid private centers grew and ruined the voluntary nonremunerated sense that IBTO always pursued and was against the Ministry of Health requirements for what the commercial private sectors should have abided by. Safe voluntary nonremunerated source plasma collection that almost all countries pursue to grow along with existing recovered plasma share was terminated with consequences that are detailed in the present article.

Attitude towards tele rehabilitation-based therapy services and its associated factors among health professional working in specialized teaching hospitals in Amhara region, Northwest Ethiopia

BackgroundTele-rehabilitation is part of Tele-health (TH) which provides a rehabilitation service at a distance through using telecommunication technology. The lack of skilled staff, accessibility concerns, high transportation costs, lengthy waiting times, and mobility issues make face-to-face rehabilitation treatment difficult. Therefore, this study aimed to assess attitudes and its associated factors of health professionals towards TR services. MethodAn institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 408 health professionals from March to April 2021. A simple random sampling technique was applied to select study participants. Epi-data 3.1 versions software was used for data entry, and SPSS version 20 was used for the analysis. A bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with the attitude of health professionals towards tele-rehabilitation. ResultA total of 408 participants enrolled in the study, with a response rate of 95.5%. The majority 285(69.9%) of health professionals had good attitude towards tele rehabilitation-based treatment services. Good knowledge of tele rehabilitation [AOR = 1.76, 95%, CI: 1.078, 2.879], digitally literate [AOR = 1.74, 95%, CI: 1.028, 2.954], perception on security and privacy [AOR = 0.56, 95%,CI: 0.333, 0.944], and owns smart mobile phone [AOR = 1.9,95%,CI: 1.007, 3.781] were significantly associated with attitude towards tele rehabilitation service. ConclusionIn this study the majority of the respondents had a good attitude towards tele rehabilitation services. Having own mobile, knowledge towards tele rehabilitation, digital literacy, perception on security and privacy to rehabilitation were found to be factors associated with attitude towards tele rehabilitation service. Therefore, the government and other responsible entities should consider enacting systems and strategies to encourage the use of mobile technologies for the management of disability, chronic diseases and for rural patients.

Chinese institutions should be more proactive and transparent in promoting research integrity: A perspective.

China has significantly endeavored to promote research integrity. Institutions, which have been identified as the primarily responsible entity, face challenges and concerns of compliance, quality, and low efficiency. In this perspective, the problems and root causes of these challenging concerns are clarified from the Chinese viewpoint. In conclusion, the opinion that institutions should be more proactive and transparent in promoting research integrity is discussed. A practical suggestion is proposed, including team building, policy innovation, capacity building, researcher empowerment, and experience sharing.

Earnings Management Cosmetics and Tricks: An Exploratory Study

This study aims to explore some new causes, motivational factors behind manipulation of earnings management and its controlling measures through qualitative research methods in Pakistani context. Traditionally, many studies have been carried out in this field by using quantitative version. To break the saturation and to explore and identify more versions related to earnings management, qualitative approach has been followed in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews from auditors, credit analysts, investors and academicians of accounting and analyzed using NVivo 10, software. Many quantitative studies have been conducted regarding the causes of earnings management; however, this novel study provides in-depth motivation behind earnings management, responsible entities for such manipulations and remedial actions in practical life by conducting interviews with most relevant bodies dealing with accounting statements. This study, in addition to traditional factors, has singled out the role of government and auditors, the attitude of managers and owners as the new entities responsible for earnings management. Reporting quality can be improved by having proper check and balance from government level, from the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and from auditors. Government and SECP can check whether the rules and regulations set for the companies are being implemented properly, and auditors can check whether companies are presenting their true picture to the outsiders. Additionally, the involvement of managers on the board should be reduced. Small sample size, time consuming semi-structured interviews, limited number of interviewees’ groups, non-availability of the experienced respondents and financial constraints in a qualitative study are a few leading limitations. The limitations may include the extent of the researchers’ bias, lack of comfort level for some respondents with the audio recording, but the authors have tried to maintain these limitations at the minimum possible level. Empirical studies can be conducted to scientifically investigate the extent of the relationship between these new entities and earnings management with more recommendations for stakeholders in the corporate sector in Pakistan and the economies with similar characteristics.

How to Promote Low-Carbon Cities with Blockchain Technology? A Blockchain-Based Low-Carbon Development Model for Chinese Cities

Cities are the important spaces, responsible entities and action units for achieving low-carbon and high-quality economy. Blockchain technology provides a new solution for low-carbon development in cities. Based on low-carbon information sharing, low-carbon incentives, low-carbon regulations with blockchain technology, this paper endeavors to propose a low-carbon development model for Chinese cities. The results indicate that: (1) blockchain-based governments, enterprises, city dwellers, and third-party service agencies are important stakeholders in promoting urban low-carbon development; (2) the effectiveness of the blockchain platform needs the coordination between the production and consumption systems, the equal emphasis on systemicity and long-term effectiveness, and the deep integration of government regulations and market mechanism; (3) blockchain-based information sharing instruments, incentive instruments, and regulation instruments should be applied to low-carbon development in cities; (4) blockchain technology promotes low-carbon development for cities in both direct ways and indirect ways. This study can provide a reference for the urban sustainable development in China and other countries.