26199 research outputs found
Sort by
Understanding challenges of conventional remote auditing and AI-enabled remote IT auditing: audit professionals’ perspectives from an emerging economy
No full textPurpose: The aim of the current study is two-fold. First, to investigate perceptions of audit professionals regarding the challenges of implementing conventional remote auditing, with a comparison between Big4 and non-Big4 audit firms. Second, to explore the relevant challenges of utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) in remote IT auditing.
Methodology and Design: A questionnaire survey was conducted with 208 external audit professionals to examine the challenges associated with traditional remote auditing. Given that AI-based remote IT auditing is an emerging practice, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 IT audit professionals to explore potential relevant challenges in its implementation.
Findings: Survey findings showed that creation a heavier workload for auditors and weak IT infrastructure is most challenging issues for conventional remote auditing related to audit firms. Serious challenges pertain to audit clients are un-cooperation and resistance, and lack of expertise and IT infrastructure. These challenges were more pronounced for non-big4 in comparison to big4 counterparts. The identified challenges of using AI in remote IT auditing include lack of suitable AI infrastructure and compatibility with client systems, data quality and accessibility. Impediments also encompass talent gaps, resistance to change, and communication barriers. Privacy and cybersecurity concerns, along with the readiness of clients, are the common environmental challenges.
Originality: This study contributes originality by examining barriers to remote auditing in an underexplored emerging market, comparing Big4 and non-Big4 firms. It also pioneers a
qualitative investigation into challenges of adopting AI in remote IT auditing, addressing a critical gap identified in prior research.
Implications: The findings enhance the ongoing discussion regarding digital transformation in auditing, especially for smaller audit firms in emerging economies, where limited resources frequently impede technological progress. Audit firms and audit clients can be informed regarding the relevant common hurdles of different forms of remote auditing, and thus they can initiate organizational change by implementing practical strategies to overcome them
Biology North West Schools' Quiz, June 2025.
No full textThe article focuses on the 26 annual Schools' Quiz at the University of Central Lancashire, where A-level students participated in hands-on observational biology challenges and were awarded prizes for their performance
TRANSGENDER PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: AN EXPLORATION IN THE ASIAN CONTEXT
Get PDFIn many walks of life, the transgender people faces marginalization and humiliation. Transgender individuals have found it challenging to fit-in with the mainstream society due to social rejection. Following the enforcement of the Transgender Protection Act of 2018, transgender individuals in Pakistan have experienced a significant surge in support from civil society. In result, the transgender people in small numbers have laid the foundation for the employment or self-employment. So that they can also prove themselves as useful citizen of this country and participating positively in the ongoing economic progress of Pakistan. Many of the transgender people has chosen entrepreneurship as career and started their own business. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the entrepreneurial motivators that transgender entrepreneur experience, prior to launching their business or get self-employed. The fifteen transgender entrepreneur interviewee are included in the study, who had quit dancing, acting, begging and commercial sex work and founded a business or self-employment. The major findings of the grounded theory revealed six significant drivers, cognitive drivers including: personal fulfilment and autonomy, passion for the chosen industry, and desire to make a positive impact. On the other hand, the environmental drivers consisting of financial independence and stability, family background and support, and societal recognition and acceptance. This article expand our understanding of transgender entrepreneurship and also magnify the core forces that make transgender individuals as a useful citizen of this country. The findings of this study will also suggest the role of policymakers, advocacy/support groups, and none governmental organizations (NGOs) in promoting entrepreneurship among the transgender community of Pakistan. Finally, the study’s limitations and future direction for potential research were also covered
Trunk kinematics and motor unit behavior during different loads and speeds in individuals with and without aberrant movement patterns during active forward bending: A cross-sectional study
Get PDFBackground: Instability catch (IC) during active forward bending is an aberrant movement pattern observed in patients with low back pain. Increasing load and speed may show different responses in kinematics and motor unit behavior including peak amplitudes (pAMP) and mean firing rates (mFR).
Objectives: This study aimed to compare kinematic patterns under different loads and speeds and explored the motor unit behavior in individuals with and without IC.
Methods: 17 participants were classified as having IC and 10 participants were classified as having no IC from clinical observations. Inertial measurement units were used to quantify kinematic parameters, and decomposition electromyography (dEMG) was used to investigate motor unit behavior. Participants performed 2 sets of 1-minute forward bending under low load and low speed (LL), high load and low speed (HL), and low load and high speed (LH) conditions.
Results: Significant between-group differences (P<0.05) were found in kinematic parameters. Significant within-group changes (P<0.05) were found between the LL and HL conditions for all kinematic parameters in individuals with IC. Individuals without IC demonstrated significant within-group changes (P<0.05) between LL and LH in mFR, while individuals without IC showed changes in both pAMP and mFR.
Conclusion: These kinematic parameters may represent IC. Changes in motor unit behavior suggest that individuals with and without IC used different strategies to perform this task. Clinicians may consider varying the speed of movement to challenge the trunk neuromuscular control system and design interventions to address motor unit firing rate
''You just gotta be careful with your banter'': The functions, risks and boundaries of humour on prison wings in England and Ireland
No full textHumour is evident in many accounts of prison life and research, however little dedicated attention has been given to its functions, or the challenges it presents within this environment. Drawing on research with men imprisoned in England and the Republic of Ireland, where humour was a theme in participants’ discussions of community in prison, this article explores the roles of humour in prison on an individual, relational and collective level. It is argued that humour not only serves as a resource for adaptation, navigating relationships and cultivating community, but can also have significant consequences, with the power disparities of imprisonment making humour risky and potentially damaging for those involved in, or the subject of, humorous exchanges
The Eco-System of Extremist Violence (ES-EV): Exploration of radicalisation in forensic psychiatric populations
Get PDFWhile risk assessment tools for extremist violence have shown initial validation in community settings, little guidance exists for forensic psychiatric settings due to limited empirical evidence on mental health's role in radicalisation and overlaps between extremist and general individual violence. This research comprises three linked studies to explore factors relevant to radicalisation in forensic mental health patients. This is summarised in a conceptual model to aid the formulation of risk assessments where clinical guidance is currently lacking. First, a Delphi study with 19 experts established consensus on factors applicable to forensic mental health settings. Second, interviews with five radicalised adult male forensic patients in a UK high security hospital provided lived experiences. Third, clinical notes on 32 patients with radicalisation indicators, extreme views, or organised crime involvement were compared with 42 individually violent offenders. The first study established most consensus related to environmental and contextual factors linked to
radicalisation. In study two, discourse analysis revealed key themes in interviews, including membership as survival, natural determination, innocence, and support for these ideologies importance. Although no significant differences emerged between influences on extremist versus general violence in study three, Smallest Space Analysis identified distinct factor compositions for violence types. For extremist violence, three clusters emerged: (1) Injustice Collector, (2) Social Offender, and (3) Dominance Seeker. Notably, ideology was absent across cases. The study introduces a preliminary Eco-System of Extremist Violence model to assist risk management and clinical formulations. It also reintroduces the term 'group-based violence' to destigmatise and better reflect risk factor overlaps across violence types linked to group membership
Relational practice, a critical component for successful social work
Get PDFRelational practice describes the value and development of relationships or connections with others and is a key concept across the different systems of health, education, criminal justice, and social work. Lamph et al. (2023) undertook a scoping review of the literature to support a shared understanding of ‘relational practice’ in organisational and systemic contexts, noting impacts and benefits reported. They identified that relational practice may be beneficial to both the service users and the workforce across different sectors. The review authors also found that variations exist in the terminology used for ‘relational practice.’ This commentary describes the importance of relational practice for social work, building on the review by Lamph et al. (2023) and the implications of the findings for social work practice and research. Relational practice is pivotal to social work and is vital for meaningful intervention, yet there is a need for more scientific effectiveness studies, if relational practice is to receive the recognition it deserves, and for it to become fully embedded within different sectors
AI and International Business
No full textThis chapter explores artificial intelligence (AI) and international business, and considers five perspectives in their interplay: intelligence, interconnectedness, complexity, mindset and foresight. It begins with an exploration of human and machine intelligence, as foundations in learning and adapting to complex business environments. The discussion then centres around the interconnectedness of the networked world, reflecting on the interplay between globalization, AI advancement and multinational companies creating a dynamic cycle of growth. By distinguishing between complicated and complex through different analogies, the intricacy of the networked company is highlighted. It then analyses the mindset for complicated and complex problems – inductive reasoning for the former and abductive logic for the latter – and the machine learning and deep-learning tools relevant to each. Finally, the ‘race condition’ is discussed, presenting foresight into the prospects of AI and international business, and concludes by highlighting the key insights of the chapter along with some directions for future research
A Generative Adversarial Network-Based System for Food Appearance Enhancement and Automatic Grading
Get PDFThe study presents an automated system based on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for food appearance refinement and defect classification. A modified StyleGAN model was trained to generate 20,000 high-resolution food images, thereby expanding the dataset and improving the classification accuracy of rare defect categories by 22%. Using this extended dataset, a two-stage inspection framework was developed. YOLOv8 is applied to detect candidate defect regions, followed by EfficientNet—integrated with an attention mechanism—for classifying defect types with improved sensitivity, particularly for subtle and small-scale flaws. Experiments conducted on a public food image dataset demonstrated that the proposed method achieved a classification accuracy of 94.3%, which is 15.8% higher than conventional CNN-based models. The system also maintained a processing speed of 40 frames per second (FPS), supporting real-time industrial applications. Compared with existing approaches, the method provides more reliable data augmentation, improved model integration, and better adaptability to diverse inspection scenarios, indicating its potential for practical deployment in automated food quality assessment