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The impact of e-commerce on Chinese suppliers' upgrading in global value chains in a digitalized era
Get PDFThis study investigates the challenges faced by Chinese manufacturing suppliers in Global Value Chains (GVCs) and how they respond to the challenges through GVC upgrading, facilitated by e-commerce. A multiple case study approach on nine case companies of three company size categories in the Chinese nonwoven fabric product industry was employed. The findings reveal four categories of internal challenges (i.e. a product development challenge, a human resource challenge, a financial resource challenge and an intellectual resource challenge) and two categories of external challenges (i.e. a market challenge and a macroeconomic challenge) faced by the Chinese suppliers in the e-commerce context. Furthermore, strategic responses undertaken by Chinese manufacturers are identified and are further related to various types of economic, environmental and social upgrading by applying the GVC framework. Unlike most extant research on the phenomenon of sourcing from China that approaches it from the viewpoint of global buyers, this study examines the phenomenon from the perspective of Chinese suppliers. Through the theoretical lens of GVC analysis and its core concept of upgrading, this study contributes to GVC research by shedding light on the impact of e-commerce on suppliers’ GVC upgrading practices
Coupling of cryptocurrency trading with the sustainable environmental goals: is it on the cards?
Get PDFFollowing the systematic review and bibliometric analysis of current literature, this paper attempts to investigate whether the wealth generated through cryptocurrency trading can assist in attaining United Nation's (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, affordable and clean energy and UN SDG 13 related to climate action. The critical analysis of literature indicates a growing interest in cryptocurrency, the UN's SDGs and the negative effect of crypto mining on the use of enormous energy. However, there is a clear gap in the literature focusing on the possibility of using the wealth generated through cryptocurrency trading in financing environmentally friendly projects and attaining the UN's SDG 7 and SDG 13. The findings and the future research direction of this study aim to expand the academic literature related to SDG 7 and SDG 13 and the relationship between cryptocurrency and sustainability even during the uncertain period. This study provides evidence about the theoretical models that can be applied in the discussion of the complex relationship between cryptocurrency, clean energy and climate action. Our findings will provide policymakers in identifying ways to convert the cryptocurrency generated wealth in attaining sustainable socio-economic goals in the future
Contexts and context-awareness revisited from an intelligent environments perspective
Get PDFContext is a useful concept somehow unconsciously used by humans in daily life problem-solving. Recently several subareas of computer science have been increasingly trying to rely on this concept to design systems with practical use in certain predefined circumstances. The perception is that imbuing in the system certain context-awareness qualities can support intelligent decision-making in specific practical situations.
Despite a significant number of implemented systems which aim at providing context-awareness there is a lack of commonly accepted and used methodologies and tools. At the root of this, is the lack of agreement on a set of good principles or standards which can act as a guide to the scientific community and the developers interested in this class of systems. There have been some extensive surveys on the use of context, still there is no theoretical corpus emerging which we can use to discuss the essential concepts making up the fabric of contexts and its use by system developers.
Here we attempted such enterprise at a level which is more formal than popular surveys, in a way that is not implementation dependent and in a way that highlights key concepts of relevance to developers. We reassessed first the basic concepts identifying the need to more prominently consider system beneficiaries’ satisfaction. We then transfer explicitly these values to a more formal outline of the basic components and the operations which emerge as relevant. We identify and highlight the tasks of context activation, comparison, influence, construction, and interaction. We hint at how these may work in practice and explained these through examples. We show how the theory is flexible enough by generalizing it to multiusers so that optimization of global preferences and expectations is used to drive system development and system behaviour
Forward guidance and corporate lending
Get PDFWe suggest that forward guidance, via publicly committing the central bank to future actions and creating associated expectations, fundamentally affects bank lending decisions independently of other forms of monetary policy. To test this hypothesis, we build a forward guidance measure based on the language used in the Federal Open Market Committee meetings and match this measure with syndicated loans. Our results show that expansionary forward guidance decreases corporate loan spreads and that this effect is stronger for well-capitalized banks lending to riskier firms. Forward guidance also affects nonprice lending terms, such as covenants, performance pricing provisions, and the loan syndicate structure. Additionally, banks tend to initiate new lending relationships with lower spreads after forward guidance issuance
Understanding patient health-seeking behaviour to optimise the uptake of cataract surgery in rural Kenya, Zambia and Uganda: findings from a multisite qualitative study
Get PDFBackground
Cataract is a major cause of visual impairment globally, affecting 15.2 million people who are blind, and another 78.8 million who have moderate or severe visual impairment. This study was designed to explore factors that influence the uptake of surgery offered to patients with operable cataract in a free-of-charge, community-based eye health programme.
Methods Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were conducted with patients and healthcare providers in rural Zambia, Kenya and Uganda during 2018–2019. We identified participants using purposive sampling. Thematic analysis was conducted using a combination of an inductive and deductive team-based approach.
Results
Participants consisted of 131 healthcare providers and 294 patients. Two-thirds of patients had been operated on for cataract. Two major themes emerged: (1) surgery enablers, including a desire to regain control of their lives, the positive testimonies of others, family support, as well as free surgery, medication and food; and (2) barriers to surgery, including cultural and social factors, as well as the inadequacies of the healthcare delivery system.
Conclusions
Cultural, social and health system realities impact decisions made by patients about cataract surgery uptake. This study highlights the importance of demand segmentation and improving the quality of services, based on patients’ expectations and needs, as strategies for increasing cataract surgery uptake
Signal denoising of viral particle in wide-field photon scattering parametric images using deep learning
Get PDFPolarization parametric indirect microscopic imaging (PIMI) can obtain anisotropic nanoscale structural information of the sample by utilizing a polarization modulated illumination scheme and fitting the far-field variation of polarization states of the scattered photons. The rich scattering information of PIMI images can be exploited for identification of viral particles, aiming for early infection screening of viruses. Accurate processing and analysis of PIMI results is an important part of obtaining structural feature information of virus. Under noisy conditions, however, manually identifying viral particles in PIMI images is a very time-consuming process with a high error rate. The systematic noise degrading the image resolution and contrast are mainly due to the mechanical or electrical disturbance from the modulation of the illumination when taking raw images. To achieve efficient noise suppressing and accurate virus identification in PIMI images, we developed a neural network-based framework of algorithms. Firstly, a fairly effective denoising method particularly for PIMI imaging was proposed based on a generative network. Both the numerical and experimental results show that the developed method has the best capability of noise removal for PIMI images compared with the traditional denoising algorithms. Secondly, we use a convolutional neural network to detect and recognize viral particles in PIMI images. The experimental results show that viral particles can be identified in PIMI images with high accuracy
Sentencing multiple- versus single-offence cases: does more crime mean less punishment?
Get PDFThe “totality principle” in law aims to show mercy to offenders in multiple-offence cases and retain ordinal proportionality in punishing those who commit different categories of offence. The effect of this principle in practice, however, is largely unknown. The present study involved an analysis of data released by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales to estimate the prevalence of multiple-offence cases and compare the penalties they received against comparable single-offence cases. Multiple-offence cases represented approximately half of the cases in the sample which included violent, property, drugs and driving offences. Offence-specific regression analyses revealed that multiple/single-offence case status was not a significant predictor of receiving a custodial sentence or of custody length. Thus, by applying the totality principle, sentencers may be letting multiple-offence offenders ‘off lightly.’ Potential explanations for this unintentional effect on decision-making lies in how the totality principle is defined and interpreted, and recommendations are made for revising the guideline on application of the totality principle
Student motivations for studying criminology: a narrative inquiry
Get PDFThe number of students studying criminology at university has significantly increased. Yet, criminology students have been all but ignored in research, despite being key stakeholders and ambassadors in the criminological enterprise. Drawing on the analysis of twelve in-depth interviews, we explore why students are motivated to study criminology and how these motivations are linked to their past experiences and future aspirations. Using a narrative inquiry, three types of stories emerged through our analysis: stories about (1) building on existing interests; (2) understanding the 'self'; and (3) securing 'justice' and ‘helping’ others. The stories students tell about their exposure to ‘crime’ help motivate their decision to study criminology, while their engagement with the discipline, enables them to make sense of these previous experiences and of themselves
Secure smart contracts for cloud-based manufacturing using Ethereum blockchain
No full textPast international trade practices have been associated with opaque information flows that have hindered traceability and created hurdles in hassle‐free trade. Blockchain and allied technologies have been investigated as a panacea for the problems faced by the Cloud‐Based Manufacturing industry. However, previous literature has focused on limited aspects of a typical Cloud‐Based Manufacturing chain, such as monitoring assets and securing traceability, which is widely neglecting data integrity and data access. To overcome such drawbacks, the current paper proposes secure smart contracts based on the ERC20 interface in a permissioned blockchain with relevant processes and functions to obtain a holistic framework for securing Cloud‐Based Manufacturing operations. The efficacy of the proposed framework was demonstrated on the case study. It was found that critical loopholes in a current supply chain can be overcome using the proposed framework. Additionally, several outlines for future research are outlined
Nuremberg and the drafting of the Genocide Convention
No full textThe Nuremberg trial preceded the adoption of the Genocide Convention by two years. There are direct connections between the two. The impetus for a genocide convention emerged out of dissatisfaction with the interpretation of crimes against humanity adopted by the International Military Tribunal in its final judgmen