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Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) CO2 capture technology can be used to recover energy from municipal solid waste (MSW). In this study, techno-economic analysis of CLC of waste paper, PVC and their blends for electricity and heat generation was carried out. The process includes the chemical looping combustion section, carbon capture section and lastly, electricity generation section, and this was simulated using Chemcad software. Four scenarios were evaluated; IG-CLC (In-situ Gasification Chemical Looping Combustion) with electricity production only, and with combined heat and power (CHP), Chemical Looping Oxygen Uncoupling (CLOU) with electricity production and with combined heat and power (CHP). Based on a net capacity of 150 MW, the effect of waste paper, PVC and its blends on its net efficiency and LCOE was investigated for all four scenarios.

The pulping industry generates vast amounts of bark residues and wastewater treatment sludges, which are combined and stored for varying periods in stacks, often in the open air, prior to utilization for energy via combustion. In order to optimize the storage strategy, the effects of incorporating sludge into bark on heating value and storage-related environmental impacts were investigated in laboratory and outdoor studies. Biological degradation activity was found to be higher in treatments containing 25% sludge (B75S25) and 50% sludge (B50S50) on a fresh mass basis, in comparison with pure bark (B100). Mean monthly dry mass loss was 2.1% (B100), 3.3% (B75S25), and 3.7% (B50S50) in the laboratory and 2.7%, 4.2%, and 4.8%, respectively, outdoors. Sludge addition was found to maintain degradation activity at low temperatures (+ 3°C). Co-storage of sludge and bark led to loss of energy, mainly due to increased loss of biomass and increased moisture content. Overall, biomass moisture content governed the heating value. Cumulative methane emissions over the storage period were higher from the sludge-containing treatments than from pure bark, but emissions of nitrogen-containing gases (N2O and NH3) were negligible throughout. Sludge addition roughly halved the cumulative chemical oxygen demand (COD) of leachate and minimized its concentration of phosphate-P. However, larger amounts of inorganic elements were released to the percolating water from the sludge-containing treatments. Overall, these results indicate that finding alternative uses for the sludge fraction would be beneficial.

The present paper was prepared and submitted as part of the European Commission's public consultation to give stakeholders the opportunity to express their views on the questions raised and policy options proposed in the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence.

Purpose Electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the most essential tools for detecting heart problems. Till today most of the ECG records are available in paper form. It can be challenging and time-consuming to manually assess the ECG paper records. Hence, automated diagnosis and analysis are possible if we digitize such paper ECG records. Methods The proposed work aims to convert ECG paper records into a 1-D signal and generate an accurate diagnosis of heart-related problems using deep learning. Camera-captured ECG images or scanned ECG paper records are used for the proposed work. Effective pre-processing techniques are used for the removal of shadow from the images. A deep learning model is used to get a threshold value that separates ECG signal from its background and after applying various image processing techniques threshold ECG image gets converted into digital ECG. These digitized 1-D ECG signals are then passed to another deep learning model for the automated diagnosis of heart diseases into different classes such as ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), Left Bundle Branch Block (LBBB), Right Bundle Branch Block (RBBB), and T-wave abnormality. Results The accuracy of deep learning-based binarization is 97%. Further deep learning-based diagnosis approach of such digitized paper ECG records was having an accuracy of 94.4%. Conclusions The digitized ECG signals can be useful to various research organizations because the trends in heart problems can be determined and diagnosed from preserved paper ECG records. This approach can be easily implemented in areas where such expertise is not available. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40846-021-00632-0.

In February 2020 the EU published its white paper on ‘Artificial Intelligence: A European approach to excellence and trust’. This is likely to form the core of future policy and legislation within the EU and as such will have global impact on standards and norms. In this comment piece we survey the five sections of the white paper and then critically examine three themes, namely, i. regulatory signalling, ii. the risk-based approach, and, iii. the auditing styles. The key takeaway is that the white paper, and the EU’s strategy at large, is ambiguous and lacks vision, which, if unchecked, is likely to have a negative impact on EU competitiveness in the development of AI solutions and services.

Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) are the futuristic microfluidic paper-based analytical diagnostic devices that are utilized to perform the laboratory-based test (ex: water, blood, urine, etc..,) at the user location. Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) are known as a robust analytical platform that can fulfil the stipulations. This analysis aims to offer a detailed assessment of the μPADs that are advanced for the estimation of vital water pH values. The significant challenge for users with the μPAD based diagnostic is that, the user is unable to evaluate the precise outcome of the diagnostic result. Here, the water pH diagnostic test is considered on the μPADs, since water pollutant is a severe environmental hassle that affect thousands of humans and as a result it increases the demand for common water first-class monitoring. The necessity for analytical systems that merge extreme sensibleness, selectivity and accuracy with low cost, portability and consumer friendliness remains as a prominent part. This research work proposes a technique to detect the pH value of the water by acquiring the images of the tested μPADs, extract the shape of the test zone area and perform colourimetric analysis to determine the pH value of the test zone area on scale 0-13. The main advantages of the μPADs are comparatively low cost and accessible abundance, reduce the overall cost of testing, and reduce the number of visits to the research laboratory.

The EU White Paper on AI mentions healthcare as one of the sectors where AI applications might pose high risks. These comments provide the vision on the regulatory framework for high-risk healthcare AI applications. The key takeaways concern transparency, preventing bias, safety and quality of AI applications used for medical purposes. I suggest that the transparency of AI shall not be equated to its explainability. To increase transparency and ensure the safety of AI healthcare applications, cooperation between manufacturers and users of AI (healthcare providers) shall be improved. I highlight that biased AI decisions alert on the inaccuracy of algorithms. While discrimination and stigmatization are difficult to identify and prove, especially for AI and especially for healthcare, controlling of AI’s accuracy is an efficient tool to prevent and mitigate biases in AI systems. Finally, I briefly compare the two regulations that might apply to AI tools in healthcare - the Medical Devices Regulation (EU) 2017/745 (MDR) and the In-vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation (EU) 2017/746 (IVDR). I conclude that the IVDR is more tailored to AI characteristics while it is more detailed and more focused on data quality and relevance. Thus, the IVDR rules can be a good starting point for clarifying and implementing a regulatory framework for high-risk AI healthcare applications.

This short position paper was presented at the Meeting of the OECD Network of Experts on Artificial Intelligence (ONE AI) held in Paris on 26-27 February 2020. It argues that public and collective governance, including through collective bargaining, is urgently needed to prevent the most invasive uses of Artificial Intelligence and algorithmic management and surveillance over workers. Tools such as GPS-based wearable devices that monitor workers' position at the workplace and collect data on particularly private information, including workers' heartbeats and emotional status call for immediate action from regulators and social partners. Surveillance practices should be limited to indispensable cases and transparency of data collection and processes should be safeguarded, also to rule out the many possible discriminatory consequences of management-by-algorithm.

The National Performance Benchmarking Project undertaken by Not-for-profits UWA personnel produced three annual sustainability reports analyzing service providers working in the Australian Disability Services Sector, each published in 2016, 2017 and 2019. This work also contributed to the National Disability Services Annual State of the Sector Reports.3 The data collected, and which continues to be collected, does not assist analysists in identifying prospective causes of service breakdown. However, the findings in these reports highlighted a number of areas which can be indicators of vulnerability in the context of the roll out of the NDIS — this document discusses these indicators and we have referred to them as “Proxies for Risk”. We consider them to be the first line of defense in the context of avoiding a breakdown in sustainability of service delivery as the NDIS rolls out and experimentation leads to learnings. The purpose of this Green Paper is to examine the proxies for risk identified out of the project and to provide a short-form analysis of the extent to which these proxies suggest that potential risks are being faced by service users in the NDIS. We also suggest that these proxies should be reviewed bi-annually or annually.

Our research objective is making quantum computing real with Qiskit for USAF-Pentagon JADC2 (Joint All Domain Command & Control) thus contributing to USAF-DoD core missions. JADC2 is the US Air Force led and Joint Staff coordinated key effort central to Joint Services C4I-ISR and C2 (Command & Control) integration enabling the new Joint Warfighting Concept for All-Domain Operations. The resulting ‘New American Way of War’ is anticipated to yield “significant advantage over everybody in the world for a long time” according to the Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General John Hyten.

In April 2019, the U.K. released a white paper about Online Harms. The White Paper proposes to take Internet censorship to a new height, essentially unmatched by any other Western democracy. It’s a sign of how comprehensive censorship has moved beyond repressive regimes to become trendy even in leading republican democracies. To redress a wide range of anti-social online activity, the White Paper seeks to tightly circumscribe user-generated content — so tightly that only a small number Internet giants will be able to profitably publish user-generated content. Other Internet publishers will be pushed towards licensing professional content and cover those costs by charging subscriber fees to consumers. Thus, the White Paper will produce a reconfigured Internet 3.0 that will resemble the cable TV industry, not the current Internet we know and love. This essay addresses three main points. It first deconstructs the some of the “facts” the White Paper uses to justify its censorious ideas. Then it highlights some of the proposals’ worst policy aspects. The essay concludes by explaining how the White Paper will reshape the Internet and kill off most user-generated content.

We examine voluntary disclosures made by issuers of initial coin offerings (ICOs) in their “white papers” and use them to rate the blockchain technology being developed by the ICO issuers. First, we find that most ICOs receive a low rating. In fact, over 80% of the ICOs do not need to use a blockchain. Second, ICO projects with a higher rating raised more funds than their counterparts, after controlling for other project-, issuer-, and token-related features. Third, ICOs with a high rating are more likely to have their digital coins/tokens listed on a cryptocurrency exchange within 180 days after their ICO end dates. Finally, results indicate that providing technical details in the white paper can be an effective way to signal the quality of an ICO project. Overall, these results are consistent with ICO token buyers/investors taking into consideration the underlying blockchain technology of the ICO projects when making their purchasing/investing decisions. Since the white paper is the main source of ICO information, our findings imply that the credibility of this information is important to protect the interests of ICO buyers/investors and to ensure the long-term viability of the ICO as a capital-raising tool for blockchain-based ventures.

This White Paper provides a summary of the insights gathered at the Oxford Impact Roundtables (OIR) in 2018 and 2019 and proposes a structured frame for the evaluation of the most popular sustainability accounting, reporting and valuation approaches and their relation to one another. Through this we hope to identify synergies and complementarities of different frameworks and enable a better understanding of these by internal and external audiences. Specifically, this paper considers the following frameworks: Sustainability Reporting, Triple Bottom Line, Integrated Reporting, Impact Valuation, Integrated Profit and Loss accounting (Integrated P+L) and the Mutual Profit and Loss statement (Mutual P+L). Recognizing that a multitude of frameworks exist and are in use, we have focused our analysis on those that are most frequently used and relevant for the context of the OIR participants.

This document seeks to respond to the questions raised by the Australian Human Rights Commission and World Economic Forum in their ‘Artificial Intelligence: governance and leadership’ White Paper consultation. It draws upon some of the research conducted at the Allens Hub to make suggestions about if and how systems involving some component of artificial intelligence or automation should be regulated. It also seeks to create further clarity regarding the potential structure and functions of the proposed Responsible Innovation Organisation. We note that our research does not relate to all the questions asked in the White Paper consultation, and so we only set out answers in relation to those matters where our research may be relevant. We are otherwise grateful for the opportunity to present our views and hope this submission will help the Australian Human Rights Commission and World Economic Forum in their consideration.

The purpose of this submission is to address the list of questions posed by the Australian Human Rights Commissioner on the White Paper Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Leadership (2019). It is an interim submission, and a final submission will be made later. Some main points of the interim submission, stated in summary, are: 1) The main goals of government regulation in the area of artificial intelligence include: a. ‘Regulation’ must not be confused with economic enablement and stimulation. Both may be legitimate in relation to AI, but the same organisation must not be given responsibility for both, as they involve an inherent potential for conflict of interests. b. Attempts to ‘pick winners’ or to encourage governments to do so should be avoided. Focus on principles, not products. c. Encourage Australian input into the global development of standards for, ethics of, and treaties concerning, AI development and use. d. Legislate where necessary to prevent the most harmful uses of AI. e. It should be assumed that some regulation (possibly including co-regulation) will be necessary. f. The general objectives of the regulation of AI are primarily the protection of human rights and the protecting of competition. 2) There is no Australian policy-oriented organisation with a permanent high level of expertise in AI-related technologies, and certainly no such organisation which does not have potentially conflicting industry development objectives. 3) There would be value in Australia creating such a new policy-oriented organisation, with a limited life-span, but ‘Responsible Innovation Organisation’ (RIO) is a completely inappropriate title, as it suggests that the body has a role in promoting innovation (ie industry development), either by itself or as part of some larger economically-oriented organisation, which will inevitably dominate and distort its views. We should consider approaches taken by other national governments. 4) Many Australian organisations would find it valuable to have an Australian policy-oriented organisation recommending international standards for Australian adoption, or assisting in the developing of Australian standards. 5) Strictly econometric measures of the ‘business case’ for such policy-oriented organisations are not possible or desirable. 6) The desirable goals for such an organisation are set out in (i) above. a. It should primarily encourage and assist other Australian organisations to provide inputs into development of standards and ethics (internationally and in Australia), including by funding assistance where necessary. It should have the capacity to make such inputs itself, when needed. b. A board of part-time Commissioners, with one full-time Commissioner, is desirable. It should be a stand-alone organisation, as it would not fit comfortably within other organisations c. Public funding is more desirable, as the costs will be modest. Joint funding by industry prevents very grave risks of regulatory capture. d. It should provide an annual report to Parliament, and communicate its work between reports via a variety of Internet channels.

The Internet of Things (IoT) based remote monitoring of the environment gained tremendous attention from researchers. Wireless monitoring is offered through the IoT-enabled technologies under applications like Intelligent Transport System (ITS), healthcare, home automation, precision agriculture, etc. The working of IoT applications has been the basis on different kinds regards sensor nodes that were deployed for field data sensing & transmitting through a base station (BS). The Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)- assisted IoT networks to suffer from two challenges like energy-efficiency & various security threats such as sinkhole, black hole, Daniel of Service attacks, etc. This survey paper, studying the recent security measures to protect communications from such attackers. A systematic review conducted on lightweight security solutions like trust-based & probe route-based mechanisms under this research. Comparative analysis of such methods presented in terms of security technique, attacks, performance metrics, etc. The outputs of this paper have been critics of research observed through the comparative analysis of reviewed methods.

Augmented Reality (AR) systems have seen a rapid adaptation in both training and in virtual assembly instructions. AR systems assist the operator by enhancing user perception of reality, reducing the defects, and lead-time. However, there is a significant lack in the existing literature to compare AR systems and conventional work instructions. The aim of this research is to provide an empirical evidence of comparing task completion time, number of errors, workload index and system usability of AR and conventional paper-based work instructions. For this purpose, we designed an experiment where participants use paper based instructions and AR instructions to assemble a planetary gearbox. The task was assessed using NASA-TLX and System Usability Scale (SUS) tests, which allowed further analysis using descriptive statistics. Moreover, the qualitative interview at the end of the experiment gave more insights about participant’s overall experience.

This study explored the impact of firm and entrepreneurship characteristics such as age, size, manager’s education, business plan, the form of business and gender, on influencing SMEs' access to funding. There are different researchers through their study, evidence that some SMEs may still face difficulties in accessing bank finance. This paper reports an in-depth study into demand issues relating to access to bank finance by Kosovo SMEs and whether there is still a market failure. This paper discusses the ability of SMEs to access debt finance from the commercial banks in Kosovo obtained through questionnaires with 500 SMEs , it reports findings that SMEs had reported having difficulty raising finance and secondary data obtained from magazines, books, and the Internet to review literature. The results show that there is a mutual correlation between firms' ages, business plans, and size and access to credit in Kosovo banks. These characteristics of firms are very important and influential factors in the banks' decision to approve loans required by SMEs. This paper provides some important conclusions for the Kosovo financial system and policymakers to implement SME support and policies.

This policy paper assesses the financial and operational effectiveness of the government's efforts to reduce the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business and strengthen the social protection of the poor during this period, and puts forth proposals for relevant government agencies. The research for the preparation of this document studied the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in foreign countries, especially those rich in natural resources, and the best practices of developed countries. The paper ends with a section on conclusions and proposals.

Paper Series IV is the centrepiece of this Paper Series that evaluate the new Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 and its innovations and the implications they have for corporate finance and securities transactions, given that it considers company’s securities, which are the financial instruments traded or exchanged or hedged in virtually all finance and securities transactions. Company’s securities are the basis or the foundation of every company with shares. Securities include shares, debentures, debenture stock, bonds, notes (other than promissory notes) and units under a unit trust scheme. This Paper Series IV(A) discusses Company’s Securities, particularly in respect of shares, share capital, disclosure of person with significant control and shares transactions.

In China, HSS master students are becoming the main target of Chinese-language predatory journals. Existing research has not paid attention to why the HSS master students publish papers in Chinese-language predatory journals. This research interviewed 13 HSS (Humanities and Social Sciences) master students with different majors using the semi-structured interview method, then used GT to analyze the data and found that research discrimination, research context, self-awareness and individual demand are the main reasons why HSS master students publish papers in Chinese-language predatory journals. This research suggests that universities, colleges, and research institutions establish mechanisms for evaluating the quality of researcher’s papers, and no longer value the number of papers.

All forty-four states with corporate income taxes must consider how to respond to changes that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made to the federal corporate tax treatment of multinational corporations. In particular, the states must consider how to respond to two new anti-base erosion provisions at the federal level: GILTI and the BEAT. Here are a few of the options: 1) The states can choose not to conform to these provisions. 2) The states can choose to piggy-back on these provisions with little change. 3) The states can choose to piggy-back on these provisions, but do so strategically. That is, a state could choose to institute superior versions of these taxes. There is a lot of room for improvement. 4) The states can also choose to go back to the future and require mandatory worldwide combined reporting. This White Paper presents several reasons for why now is the time to consider mandatory worldwide combination and proposes specific helpful reforms.

The tension between the protection of Traditional Knowledge and IP frameworks is being exacerbated by digital technologies that have made the creation, dissemination, appropriation and remixing of knowledge and cultural artifacts easier than ever before. Indigenous communities’ preservation efforts and control over traditional knowledge sometimes also seem to conflict with the ‘open’ ecosystem, which consists of organizations, communities, and individuals supporting open and free culture, open licensing and access to knowledge. This is because traditional knowledge is often perceived as being part of the public domain by default, when it is not. In particular, the sharing of cultural works related to indigenous communities through open licenses needs to be better understood. Traditional knowledge does not always fit into open licensing structures. It also seems to conflict with the ‘open’ ecosystem. This potential conflict raises questions about the best ways to share and disseminate Traditional Knowledge using open licenses. This paper focuses on the divide between Creative Commons policies and tools and traditional knowledge to which copyright may be applicable. Part I will provide an overview of the contestations between traditional knowledge and conventional IP systems. Part II will explore the tensions between openness and traditional knowledge. It will attempt to reconcile the two by highlighting examples where various strategies were applied to assuage the concerns of Indigenous communities and where open licenses might find a place.

Hyperlinks are a powerful tool for journalists and their readers. Diving deep into the context of an article is just a click away. But hyperlinks are a double-edged sword; for all of the internet’s boundlessness, what’s found on the web can also be modified, moved, or entirely disappeared. This often-irreversible decay of web content is commonly known as linkrot. It comes with a similar problem of content drift, or the often-unannounced changes––retractions, additions, replacement––to the content at a particular URL. Our team of researchers at Harvard Law School has undertaken a project to gain insight into the extent and characteristics of journalistic linkrot and content drift. We examined hyperlinks in New York Times articles starting with the launch of the Times website in 1996 up through mid-2019, developed on the basis of a dataset provided to us by the Times. We focus on the Times not because it is an influential publication whose archives are often used to help form a historical record. Rather, the substantial linkrot and content drift we find here across the New York Times corpus accurately reflects the inherent difficulties of long-term linking to pieces of a volatile web. Results show a near linear increase of linkrot over time, with interesting patterns emerging within certain sections of the paper or across top level domains. Over half of articles containing at least one URL also contained a dead link. Additionally, of the ostensibly “healthy” links existing in articles, a hand review revealed additional erosion to citations via content drift.

As part of its corporate financing strategy, a company may raise capital through debt securities and these could be by mortgage of real property or chattels, debenture, bond, promissory notes, and bill of exchange made or accepted on behalf of the company by an authorized person etc. For purposes of this Paper Series IV(B), emphasis is placed on Company’s Debt Securities, particularly on debentures, debenture trust deed and realization of security.

Some brand-new and innovative provisions in the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 (‘the Act’) with enormous implications for a company's corporate financing strategy are those on the substantial property or asset transactions involving directors, controlling members etc. The Act also provides the procedure for major asset transactions; and situations where the protection of the interest of minority members affected by such transactions will become paramount. Paper Series V examines the provisions of the Act on major property transactions by directors and controlling members. Further, it discusses the procedure for major asset transactions and the protection of the interest of minority affected by these transactions or the way the affairs of the company is managed.

This study was entitled Catalyst and Transparency; An analysis of the Campus Paper Function as a Watchdog. The study reveals that the publication is inconsistently complying with all standards of journalism because of some major problems like the fear of being personal attacks, lack of funds, and beginner in the field of campus journalism. However, this reveals the improvement of the publication in excelling from the various competitions and also in the releases. Campus publication is realized as citizens’ journalism outside, this plays a vital role in shaping the discipline and awareness need of the students. Ethics and standards of journalism should be part of the training and learning of every students’ journalist. This research study was conducted to analyze the efficiency of the CLSU Collegian in terms of practicing the standards of journalism. This also reviewed the status of the publication in the present situation and the continuation of listing the important accounts of the publication from the year 2011-2015. It also examines the engagement of the staffers of the CLSU Collegian in the elements of journalism, knows the workings of the press. The problems they encountered and solutions they made in practicing the elements of journalism. Key informant interview, focus group discussion, archival research, and library research are the major methods that the researcher do, to validate the data that are being collected the study adapted the triangulation process.

To determine “what works, for whom, and under what conditions,” interventions need to be studied in diverse and heterogeneous samples. At an international scope, this degree of heterogeneity is unlikely in a single study and instead requires conducting multiple studies of the same intervention across the globe. In this paper, we provide an overview of the infrastructure required to coordinate such a series of studies, including the methodological and measurement developments that would be needed. We also discuss implications of this shared focus for the design of individual studies and the analyses of outcomes across studies. Throughout, we situate these needs in the context of developing a teacher mindset intervention that is intended to be implemented broadly in classrooms around the world.

On November 5, 2020, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance in the Department of Labor issued new rules codifying the procedures it will use to resolve equal employment issues. First, this paper summarizes the new rules focusing on how the agency will use and evaluate statistical evidence in its monitoring of government contractors’ compliance with equal employment laws. After noting the diminished role of statistical evidence in the new rules, the likely effect of them on the use of statistical data and analyses in equal employment proceedings are explored. The logical and statistical reasoning underlying several aspects of the new rules are also questioned. Because the new rules refer to a report of the Chamber of Commerce that, in part, criticized the agency from bringing a case against a firm, data from the case are re-analyzed. The statistical analysis provides support for the position of OFCCP

This White Paper summarises currently available empirical data about attitudes and opinions of citizens and state actors regarding cybersecurity. The data emerges from reports of EU projects, Eurobarometer surveys, policy documents of state actors and additional scientific papers. It describes what these stakeholders generally think, what they feel, and what they do about cyber threats and security (counter)measures. For citizens’ perspectives, three social spheres of particular interest are examined: 1) health, 2) business, 3) police and national security.

This White Paper summarizes the current state of discussion regarding the main technological challenges in cybersecurity and impact of those, including ways and approaches to addressing them, on key fundamental values. It provides an overview on current cybersecurity threads and countermeasures and focuses on ethical dilemmas that emerge when counteracting those threads. It also points to the fact that the cybersecurity community relies much more on interpersonal relations when sharing intelligence and data than in explicit national or supranational regulations. Furthermore, the White Paper presents advanced cryptographic techniques and data anonymization techniques that may help to solve or minimize some of the ethical dilemmas.

In August 2017, the Supreme Court of India’s landmark judgment in Puttaswamy v. Union of India affirmed that the right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution. In Puttaswamy v. Union of India, the various opinions have observed that informational privacy is an important aspect of such privacy in this day and age. As arguments were made in this case, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), Government of India also set up a Committee of Experts to identify key data protection issues in India and recommend methods of addressing them. MEITY and the Committee of Experts have now issued a white paper which recognises the need for comprehensive data protection regulations that incorporate established data protection principles. Public comments and consultations have been called for on the basis of this paper, as we gear up to build on the fundamental right to privacy and put in place strong data protection laws to protect personal data. In this paper we analyse the only existing ‘comprehensive’ data protection rules in India, i.e. the Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011 (“Rules”), issued under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”). The paper examines the provisions of the IT Act and the Rules that provide for the protection of personal data, the kind of personal data that they apply to, as well as some of the criticisms of these provisions and their enforcement.

This White Paper outlines how the ethical discourse on cybersecurity has developed in the scientific literature, which ethical issues gained interest, which value conflicts are discussed, and where the “blind spots” in the current ethical discourse on cybersecurity are located. The White Paper is based on an extensive literature with a focus on three reference domains with unique types of value conflicts: health, business/finance and national security. For each domain, a systematic literature search has been performed and the identified papers have been analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods. An important observation is that the ethics of cybersecurity not an established subject. In all domains, cybersecurity is recognized as being an instrumental value, not an end in itself, which opens up the possibility of trade-offs with different values in different spheres. The most prominent common theme is the existence of trade-offs and even conflicts between reasonable goals, for example between usability and security, accessibility and security, privacy and convenience. Other prominent common themes are the importance of cybersecurity to sustain trust (in institutions), and the harmful effect of any loss of control over data.

Background: The capital of Croatia was hit by several earthquakes during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, simultaneously introducing two sources of stressors to the same cohort. This study aimed to determine the individual and joint effects on children’s mental health. Methods: The study comprised a web-based survey for parents (N = 22,202), deployed in February 2021. Exposure to COVID-19 and earthquake related stressors were assessed using scales constructed for this study and symptoms of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTS) and anxiety/depression were assessed using the CATS-C and RCADS-25-P. Demographic data were used to assess the effects of gender and age. Regression analyses were conducted to identify and evaluate predictors of PTS and anxiety/depression and test for possible interactions between pandemic-related and earthquake-related factors. Findings: Results indicate that impaired mental health is more likely among girls, children who were affected by earthquake and suffered more home damage, and those who are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 or have a family member at risk. Further, anxiety/depression symptoms were higher among children whose family member was self-isolated and whose homes were more damaged. Interpretation: Our findings link earthquake exposure and pandemic related stressors to symptoms of PTS, anxiety, and depression. It demonstrated limited interactions of both stressors on children’s mental health. The risk was higher for girls and no age differences were found. Future studies should expand the aspects of both resilience and risk factors, allowing for development of effective intervention strategies. Funding: The study was self-funded by the authors. Declaration of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Ethical Approval: The study design was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Zagreb Child and Youth Protection Centre, Ministry of Education and Croatian Education and Teacher Training Agency

Valuation risk of a security—uncertainty about its fair value—is a subject of considerable concern in the mutual fund industry. If funds report different values for identical securities, investors cannot easily compare performance. Yet it is not unusual to see identical illiquid stocks, small-cap stocks, stocks with high analyst dispersion, stocks with less analyst coverage, and newly listed stocks valued differently across mutual funds. An equity fund that has positive price dispersion in its portfolio holdings, that performs poorly, that belongs to a fund family with an inclination for aggressive reporting, that holds more stocks subject to stale prices, that holds more pre-IPO firms, or that experiences net outflows will tend to show positive price dispersion again in the next quarter. This behavior is significant in a volatile market. Aggressive reporting helps funds gain in the mutual fund tournament.

Although there are many theories and discussion of leadership, the essential of having a new leadership paradigm was emphasized. Of the leadership paradigms, servant leadership was introduced recently and is in line with the environmental changes of the organization. The aim of this review is to understanding the relationship between servant leadership and firms’ performance, its antecedents, its concepts (definitions), how contexts of servant leadership was empirically investigated and strain to determine the relationship between servant leadership and firm’s performance, and find out moderators, and mediators. The author reviewed studies published between 2004 and 2018/19, out of which 27 published articles were drawn from 23 peer-reviewed journals. It is argued that there was no study which tries to examine the direct relationship between servant leadership and firms’ performance. A large number of studies use mediators and some few used moderators to contend with the relationship. Finally, conclusion has been done by presenting a solid research framework for future research to bring the field forward encompassing both theoretical and empirical advancement.

This document sets out guidance on the re-design of courses from face-to-face teaching to online asynchronous and synchronous1 learning in response to circumstances of COVID-19. We created these guidelines to help us in our thinking before we began to re-develop the courses we lead. In our case, these courses were hosted on the Moodle VLE. We had to keep our redesign do-able. We knew it would involve significant amounts of work, but by focusing effort on the points below prior to undertaking the redesign, we were able to redevelop existing courses effectively, putting students and their learning at the heart of the process. We read, talked to those with expertise in online learning, reflected on our own understandings of effective online learning and the nature of what it was we wanted our students to learn. From this, we created a set of guiding principles (Section 1) and some associated practical considerations (Section 2). We then deepened this by identifying some key messages from published evidence about online learning which we summarised in a table (Section 3). In redesigning our courses, the summary points in the table have been central.

[enter This study aims to explore the challenges facing the perception of women entrepreneurs in Bule Hora town administration. Related to the challenges facing in the perception, attitude, and belief of women entrepreneur in-action and the potential women are segregated. The researchers used a qualitative research design related to the interpretative approach was developed. The researchers used eight interviewees who were involved in the study. The purposive sampling techniques were used to get data from the sample respondent, an interview was used. The qualitative data analysis method thematic data analysis is used. The major finding of the study shows that challenges facing the perception of women entrepreneurs in the study area are a lack of finance, working place, and training, social-cultural factors. The implication of the study will help the government to revise his policy to give a solution personal and organizational –related, legal/administration, economic, social/cultural and other factors that affect the perception of women entrepreneurs in entrepreneurial activity

National security concerns often arise between the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and routinely involve cutting-edge technology. These include the race to fifth-generation (5G) wireless mobile technology, cybersecurity, and IP theft; but traditionally they have not extended to patent policy writ large. As national security depends largely on innovative technologies, and patent policy fosters or hinders such innovation, the U.S. should modify its patent policies to recognize state-sponsored entities that can use U.S. patents to drain resources from domestic investment into new technologies. For instance, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) currently has no mandatory recordation requirement to identify the attributable owners of patent applications. The USPTO receives and publishes only patent ownership information that the applicant or patent owner voluntarily submits, among myriad other concerns. Given that neither the Patent Act nor USPTO regulations require any recordation of assignee information, USPTO records provide poor notice regarding current ownership of patents. Thus, the U.S. government itself does not know how many U.S. patents international companies own, license, control, or could assert in U.S. federal court. While international agreements rightfully prohibit the USPTO from discriminating against foreign applicants, the U.S. cannot be blind to the fact that patents are already serving as a strategic tool for international competitors to harass or to leverage against American companies in court, draining their financial resources by extracting royalty fees and settlements that then flow into overseas coffers. And because the U.S. government has no effective means to record, or even internally track, the number or identity of patents international companies own, license, or could assert in even sensitive technologies, the extent and potentially negative ramifications of this problem are not well understood. We analyze the serious gaps in U.S. patent recordation law and propose basic recordation solutions that U.S. government, and the USPTO in particular, could implement to address, mitigate, or, at a minimum, better understand the magnitude of this issue.

In our response, ‘More Teeth Needed for Corporate Governance Reforms’, to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Green Paper on Corporate Governance Reform we propose an eight point reform agenda which aims in the direction of giving the existing and/or reformed corporate governance system more teeth.

The assessment of the student will be done by conducting of the examination in different levels. Setting of the question paper is the challenging task for the teacher in educational institutions. Question papers setting must follow certain standard methods. Each question will be specified with cognitive level of the course outcome defined by the expert teacher in an institute. A qualified question paper setting will sound the standardization of the educational institute. This will lead to judge the student performance in a qualitative way. Tools are required to design for atomicity of qualitative question papers generation. Most of the researchers are suggested to considered different parameters like cognitive levels, descriptions, duration etc. Atomicity of question paper generation is based on specified scheduled time along with security, authentication & control of the authorities. The proposed system is the smart question paper generation system based on schedule and authenticity. It will generate the question paper in a pdf format based on authenticated scheduling time. Examination paper automaticity is based on cognitive levels specified in the question bank that will store in data repository. Authentication is achieved by giving permissions through keys to generate & decrypt the unique exam paper by the authorized personnel in a given schedule time. Exam paper generation authenticity certificates are produced by the system based on schedule time of generation.

This paper reviews the state of field of nanotechnology in concrete technology field. The outstanding chemical any physical property of nanomaterials helps in structural reinforcement and redemption of environmental pollution, and also in producing self cleaning materials. Concrete is one of the most used materials in structural applications, where strength, costing, durability of playing a key role in high attribute of concrete. In this paper we tried to review the application of nanotechnology in concrete production. The paper first presents general information and definitions of nanotechnology. Then, it focuses on the most effective nano- additives that can increase the rheological and hardened properties of concrete.

This article examines the research methods and techniques applied on academic papers related to terrorism. This is done through an extensive review and analysis of one thousand five hundred (1,500) papers that were published in twenty different journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Policy Modeling, Economic Modeling, Journal of Economic Literature, Quality and Quantity, Journal of Global History, Journal of Social History, Quarterly Journal of Political Sciences, Journal of Politics, The Sociological Review, Critical Studies on Terrorism, Foreign Affairs, Global Crime, Intelligence and National Security, Politics, Religion & Ideology, Terrorism and Political Violence, Terrorism and Political Violence Security Studies, Journal of Military Ethics, Journal of Conflict Resolution within a 30-years period (1990–2020). It was observed that at different period in time, all these one thousand five hundred (1,500) academic papers always keep a constant transformation of its research methods and techniques that invoked the uses of different and new quantitative and qualitative frameworks of analysis to facilitate the explanation of the complex and dynamic behavior of terrorism. Finally, this research proposes a new research field entitled Terrorismology.

The realm of this paper is to elucidate the result from former literatures in Initial Public Offering (IPO) market and its acquaintance with Institutional investors. IPO floating activity involves many stages influencing the performance of a company’s share. The performance of the IPO market is notably affected by the presence of Institutional investor’s megabucks investments. They book profit due to information asymmetry created for various reasons. This tempts them to invest in the IPO market. The review provides encapsulation of research articles starting from the seminal paper of 1986 till 2019. It’s an initial effort in reviewing the IPO literature from an Institutional Perspective. The viewpoint of literature is that the share allocation done in IPO is influenced by the presence of institutional investors. In some countries the institutional participation boosts the flipping activity whereas in others they control it. The process of book building differs in various countries giving in way to information asymmetry due to several reasons. In addition, the study summarizes the major findings and the gaps in previous studies which need to be considered for future research.

The paper is examining the U.S Foreign policy toward the Middle East, in particular toward Iran and Saudi Arabia, in the light of the Iranian attack on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in September 2019. The paper is providing a historical evaluation for the bilateral relationship between the United States and Iran and between the United States and Saudi. Then, the paper is analyzing the tremendous shift in U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East and U.S. allies, explaining the possible reasons behind the alteration. Besides, the paper analyzes from the political theory standpoint the different approaches used by U.S. administrations to contain Iran nuclear program. The paper used the comparative-analysis methodology to build a conclusion on the transformation in the foreign policy of Washington, D.C, toward the Middle East, mainly toward Saudi Arabia.

The financial crisis of 2008-2009 demonstrated the need for a comprehensive approach to risk management of financial institutions and financial area as a whole. Since then, a large number of macroprudential policy studies are published each year. In this paper we provide an overview of the main findings of 19 research papers in 2019. This allows us to draw conclusions about the main directions of current studies and to outline directions for future research.

This paper analyzes asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP), which played a central role in the subprime mortgage financial crisis. We document that the market size of the Euro-issued ABCP increased from 150 billion USD to 272 billion USD in early 2007. By using our novel hand-collected data set that contains both general information about ABCP conduits and their specific amounts of collateral assets, we find that movements of securitized collateral assets changed drastically during our period of observation, from 2001 to 2013. Mortgage-related and securitization assets increased prior to the 2007 crisis and drastically decreased afterward, while other assets increased after the crisis. We also exploit our new measure, the "skin in the game" ratio, to capture the sponsor-administration activities of the conduits. We find that sponsor banks that issued ABCP conduits, if their capital is constrained, also act as administrators due to obtaining informational advantages related to regulatory arbitrage. We also test whether regulatory arbitrage affected bank performance, and find that the sponsor banks' various performances, not only ROE and ROA but also net interest margin, are significantly related to ABCP exposure and securitized collateral assets.

In this paper, we provide qualitative data on the class actions regime and commercial litigation funding in Australia, based on interviews with experienced legal practitioners from the Federal Court Class Action Users’ Committee and the Law Council Class Actions Sub-Committee. Participants discussed their views on the current operation of the class actions regime; the way in which commercial litigation funding is working; transaction costs and delays associated with class actions; the merits of claims and defences; and ethical issues arising out of the conduct of plaintiff and defence firms, funders and counsel. Practitioners identified various problems associated with class actions and litigation funding and outlined their thoughts on possible solutions to those problems.