bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Does a healthy diet travel? Motivations, satisfaction and loyalty with plant-based food dining at destinations
Authors: Chang Janet , Morrison Alastair M. , Chen Ya-Ling , Chang Te-Yi , Chen Daniela Zih-Yu
Published: May 2021

Purpose

The research objectives were to: (1) examine the relationship among motivations, satisfaction and loyalty with plant-based food dining at destinations; (2) determine if and how the attractiveness of eating plant-based foods moderates satisfaction and loyalty; and (3) investigate potential differences in visitor background information and consumption characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was conducted at tourist attractions in southern Taiwan and 274 valid questionnaires were obtained. The relationships among motivations, satisfaction and loyalty were investigated when eating plant-based foods during travel. The moderating effects of food attractiveness on motivations and satisfaction/loyalty were measured.

Findings

The results indicated a positive relationship between motivations and satisfaction/loyalty in plant-based food dining. Motivations for plant-based food dining were comprised of four domains (physical, cultural, interpersonal and prestige) and satisfaction and loyalty had three (overall satisfaction, intention to revisit and intention to recommend).

Research limitations/implications

The major implications were that motivations had a significant effect on satisfaction and loyalty; food attractiveness did not moderate the effect of motivations on satisfaction/loyalty; and background characteristics influenced satisfaction and loyalty.

Practical implications

Marketers and strategic planners for plant-based restaurants or those with plant-based meal options must make a greater effort to understand the distinctive demographic and dietary characteristics of the people who comprise the core of this market.

Originality/value

This research adds to the very limited literature on plant-based and vegetarian dining in tourism destinations. Furthermore, it tests, partially validates and expands a model by Kim et al. (2009) for consuming local food while traveling. The findings also complement the considerable evidence linking motivations to satisfaction and loyalty when dining.
Grape residue flour as an antioxidant and fiber source in beef meatballs
Authors: Tuffi Larissa Christine , Longhi Daniel Angelo , Hernandes Jéssica Carvalho , Gregório Paulo Cézar , Rocha Garcia Carlos Eduardo
Published: May 2021

Purpose

This study aimed at the addition of grape residue flours in beef meatballs to evaluate their behavior on physic-chemical and sensory properties. Furthermore, it is intended to discuss the importance of the substitution of synthetic additives with natural ones, the enhancement of consumers' diets and the prevention of inappropriate waste disposal.

Design/methodology/approach

The grapes' residues were collected from wine production and transformed into flour. Their proximal chemical composition and antioxidant activities were analyzed. Then, meatballs were formulated with 0 (control), 3.5 and 7% grape flours. Lipid oxidation analyzes were performed on raw and thermally processed meatballs. Triangle and ranking sensory tests were performed to assess the consumer's perception of product appearance and flavor and the consumer's preference, respectively.

Findings

Bordeaux and Trebbiano grape flours were rich in dietary fibers, composed of 44.2 and 55.6% fibers, respectively. They showed a high antioxidant activity, in which Trebbiano was high than Bordeaux. The addition of grape flours reduced the lipid oxidation of meatballs by close to 50% than the control sample. Differences in the appearance and flavor of some meatballs were identified by the panelists; however, the flavor's change did not displease them.

Originality/value

The grape residue is rich in phenolic compounds, natural dyes and dietary fibers. Its addition as a functional ingredient in meatballs reduces the addition of synthetic additives, adds fiber to the consumer's diet and prevents inappropriate waste disposal.
Induction machine stator short-circuit fault detection using support vector machine
Authors: Bensaoucha Saddam , Brik Youcef , Moreau Sandrine , Bessedik Sid Ahmed , Ameur Aissa
Published: May 2021

Purpose

This paper provides an effective study to detect and locate the inter-turn short-circuit faults (ITSC) in a three-phase induction motor (IM) using the support vector machine (SVM). The characteristics extracted from the analysis of the phase shifts between the stator currents and their corresponding voltages are used as inputs to train the SVM. The latter automatically decides on the IM state, either a healthy motor or a short-circuit fault on one of its three phases.

Design/methodology/approach

To evaluate the performance of the SVM, three supervised algorithms of machine learning, namely, multi-layer perceptron neural networks (MLPNNs), radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs) and extreme learning machine (ELM) are used along with the SVM in this study. Thus, all classifiers (SVM, MLPNN, RBFNN and ELM) are tested and the results are compared with the same data set.

Findings

The obtained results showed that the SVM outperforms MLPNN, RBFNNs and ELM to diagnose the health status of the IM. Especially, this technique (SVM) provides an excellent performance because it is able to detect a fault of two short-circuited turns (early detection) when the IM is operating under a low load.

Originality/value

The original of this work is to use the SVM algorithm based on the phase shift between the stator currents and their voltages as inputs to detect and locate the ITSC fault.
Estimation of structural response using convolutional neural network: application to the Suramadu bridge
Authors: Pamuncak Arya Panji , Salami Mohammad Reza , Adha Augusta , Budiono Bambang , Laory Irwanda
Published: May 2021

Purpose

Structural health monitoring (SHM) has gained significant attention due to its capability in providing support for efficient and optimal bridge maintenance activities. However, despite the promising potential, the effectiveness of SHM system might be hindered by unprecedented factors that impact the continuity of data collection. This research presents a framework utilising convolutional neural network (CNN) for estimating structural response using environmental variations.

Design/methodology/approach

The CNN framework is validated using monitoring data from the Suramadu bridge monitoring system. Pre-processing is performed to transform the data into data frames, each containing a sequence of data. The data frames are divided into training, validation and testing sets. Both the training and validation sets are employed to train the CNN models while the testing set is utilised for evaluation by calculating error metrics such as mean absolute error (MAE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and root mean square error (RMSE). Comparison with other machine learning approaches is performed to investigate the effectiveness of the CNN framework.

Findings

The CNN models are able to learn the trend of cable force sensor measurements with the ranges of MAE between 10.23 kN and 19.82 kN, MAPE between 0.434% and 0.536% and RMSE between 13.38 kN and 25.32 kN. In addition, the investigation discovers that the CNN-based model manages to outperform other machine learning models.

Originality/value

This work investigates, for the first time, how cable stress can be estimated using temperature variations. The study presents the first application of 1-D CNN regressor on data collected from a full-scale bridge. This work also evaluates the comparison between CNN regressor and other techniques, such as artificial neutral network (ANN) and linear regression, in estimating bridge cable stress, which has not been performed previously.
Identifying an unknown potential term in the fourth-order Boussinesq–Love equation from mass measurement
Authors: Huntul M.J. , Tamsir Mohammad
Published: May 2021

Purpose

The inverse problem of identifying the time-dependent potential coefficient along with the temperature in the fourth-order Boussinesq–Love equation (BLE) with initial and boundary conditions supplemented by mass measurement is, for the first time, numerically investigated. From the literature, the authors already know that this inverse problem has a unique solution. However, the problem is still ill-posed by being unstable to noise in the input data.

Design/methodology/approach

For the numerical discretization, the authors apply the Crank–Nicolson finite difference method along with the Tikhonov regularization for finding a stable and accurate approximate solution. The resulting nonlinear minimization problem is solved using the MATLAB routine lsqnonlin. Both exact and numerically simulated noisy input data are inverted.

Findings

The present computational results demonstrate that obtained solutions are stable and accurate.

Originality/value

The inverse problem presented in this paper was already showed to be locally uniquely solvable, but no numerical identification has been studied yet. Therefore, the main aim of the present work is to undertake the numerical realization. The von Neumann stability analysis is also discussed.
On the relation between the crude oil market and pandemic Covid-19
Authors: Shaikh Imlak
Published: May 2021

Purpose

The crude oil market has experienced an unprecedented overreaction in the first half of the pandemic year 2020. This study aims to show the performance of the global crude oil market amid Covid-19 and spillover relations with other asset classes.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors employ various pandemic outbreak indicators to show the overreaction of the crude oil market due to Covid-19 infection. The analysis also presents market connectedness and spillover relations between the crude oil market and other asset classes.

Findings

One of the essential findings the authors report is that the crude oil market remains more responsive to pandemic fake news. The shock of the global pandemic panic index and pandemic sentiment index appears to be more promising. It has also been noticed that the energy trader's sentiment (OVX and OIV) was measured at a too high level within the Covid-19 outbreak. Volatility spillover analysis shows that crude oil and other market are closely connected, and the total connectedness index directs on average 35% contribution from spillover. During the initial growth of the infection, other macroeconomic and political events remained to favor the market. The second phase amidst the pandemic outbreak harms the global crude oil market. The authors find that infectious diseases increase investor panic and anxiety.

Practical implications

The crude oil investors' sentiment index OVX indicates fear and panic due to infectious diseases and lack of hedge funds to protect energy investments. The unparalleled overreaction of the investors gauged in OVX indicates market participants have paid an excessive put option (protection) premium over the contagious outbreak of the infectious disease.

Originality/value

The empirical model and result reported amid Covid-19 are novel in terms of employing a news-based index of the pandemic, which are based on the content analysis and text search using natural processing language with the aid of computer algorithms.
The firm growth-cash flow sensitivity: do financial constraints matter?
Authors: Rashid Abdul , Hersi Mahir Ahmed
Published: May 2021

Purpose

The paper examines the differential effect of liquidity constraints on corporate growth using unbalanced panel data for 457 Pakistani firms over the period 2010–2017.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses the probability of a financial unconstrained index constructed by estimating the endogenous regression model. This approach provides a time-varying measure of financial position for all firm-year observations and takes into account the different degrees of liquidity constraints that a company faces in attaining funds from external markets. It is derived from a multivariate selection equation that simultaneously accounts for all-important features of the underlying company identified in the literature. The cash flow variable has then interacted with various groups of dummy variables for financial constraint, which allows the coefficient of cash flow to vary across firm-year observations in the different liquidity constraint categories. The two-step system-GMM estimator is applied to estimate the main empirical model.

Findings

The results of the study provide evidence of the heterogeneity in firms' growth sensitivity to internal funds, depending on the degree of liquidity constraints. Financing growth through internal funds is found to be essential for both liquidity unconstrained and constrained corporates. However, it is observed that the coefficient of cash flow is greater for firms that do not have access to external financing and it eventually decreases with reductions in the magnitude of liquidity constraints, making the least constrained corporates' growth less responsive to internal funds. The results further indicate that smaller and younger firms show higher responsiveness of growth to internal funds. This finding is mainly attributed to financial market imperfections that make external funding difficult for them.

Practical implications

The results suggest that financially constrained firms should expand their corporate size more than the magnitude of positive income shocks they encounter. The study also suggests important policy implications for liquidity-constrained firms to carefully concentrate on their financing strategies to enhance their growth. By improving the corporate's capacity for production, corporates can achieve a faster effect of a potential positive income shock on their growth.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature by constructing a financial constraint index by running the endogenous regression model. It also contributes by investigating the differential impact of credit constraints on firms' growth in Pakistan and how corporate size and age affect firm growth when financial constraints and investment opportunities are controlled.
Credit risk in dual banking systems: does competition matter? Empirical evidence
Authors: Ali Mohsin , Khattak Mudeer Ahmed , Alam Nafis
Published: May 2021

Purpose

The study of credit risk has been of the utmost importance when it comes to measuring the soundness and stability of the banking system. Due to the growing importance of Islamic banking system, a fierce competition between Islamic and conventional banks have started to emerge which in turn is impacting credit riskiness of both banking system.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the system GMM technique on 283 conventional banks and 60 Islamic banks for the period of 2006–2017, this paper explores the important impact of size and competition on the credit risk in 15 dual banking economies.

Findings

The authors found that as bank competition increases credit risk seems to be reduced. On the size effect, the authors found that big Islamic banks are less risky than big conventional banks whereas small Islamic banks are riskier than small conventional banks. The results are robust for different panel data estimation models and sub-samples of different size groups. The findings of this paper provide important insights into the competition-credit risk nexus in the dual banking system.

Originality/value

The paper is specifically focused on credit risk in dual banking environment and tries to fill the gap in the literature by studying (1) do the Islamic and conventional banks exhibit a different level of credit risk; (2) does competition in the banking system impact the credit risk of Islamic and conventional banks and finally (3) do the big and small banks exhibit similar levels of credit risk.
How does ownership by corporate managers affect R&D in the UK? The moderating impact of institutional investors
Authors: Hassanein Ahmed , Marzouk Mahmoud , Azzam Mohsen Ebied A.Y.
Published: May 2021

Purpose

This paper tests for a positive, a negative and a nonlinear relationship between the share of ownership controlled by firm managers and the management decision to invest in research and development (R&D). Likewise, it examines whether or not institutional investors induce corporate managers with ownership stakes to spend on R&D.

Design/methodology/approach

It examines a sample of the United Kingdom (UK) Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) all-shares firms over a longitudinal period from 2009 to 2018. The R&D is measured by the natural logarithm of a firm's R&D spending and a firm's R&D expenditure scaled by its total assets at the end of the year. The results are estimated using the year/industry fixed effects as well as the firm fixed effects.

Findings

The results show a positive effect on R&D spending at a lower level of managerial ownership, and a negative impact at a higher managerial ownership level. The findings jointly suggest an inverse U-shaped nonlinear relationship between ownership by firm managers and management decisions on R&D spending. The results also demonstrate that the effect of institutional investors' ownership on R&D spending decisions is observable only at a lower level of managerial ownership and disappears at a higher level.

Practical implications

The results shed the light on the role of managerial ownership in promoting firm innovation. They suggest an optimal level of equity ownership by corporate managers that maximizes R&D spending, implying that firms can effectively manage their R&D spending by restructuring their managerial ownership to maintain an appropriate level of managerial ownership to align managerial interests with shareholder interests by either increasing it to the optimal level or decreasing it when it becomes above this level. The findings also support the limited degree of monitoring and the long-term perspective offered by institutional investors in the UK

Originality/value

The study provides new evidence on the non-monotonic effect of the share of ownership controlled by firm managers on R&D spending decisions. It also expands the growing body of literature and contributes to the debate on the effectiveness of institutional investors in the UK.
Combinatorial analysis of eco-innovation drivers in slaughterhouses
Authors: Pacheco Dias Marcelo Fernandes , Souza Braga Juliany
Published: May 2021

Purpose

Literature on eco-innovation brings insights that help to understand which factors trigger innovation focused on sustainability in companies. However, when analyzing the studies that comprise such drivers, it appears that most of them were focused only on describing them in isolation. Therefore, this study aims to understand which are the combinations of drivers that favor the adoption of eco-innovation in slaughterhouses located in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Design/methodology/approach

This study has used the crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (csQCA) as the data analysis technique, in addition to the previous application of Most Similar Different Outcome/Most Different Same Outcome (MSDO/MDSO).

Findings

This study identified eight internal and external drivers that explain the differences in performance of eco-innovative and non-innovative slaughterhouses. These drivers generate 13 combinations of factors capable of favoring the adoption of five types of eco-innovation.

Research limitations/implications

A limitation identified was the difficulty to obtain information held by companies on environmental issues. In addition, in each company the authors only approached one respondent.

Practical implications

The use of combinations is identified by companies and governmental and non-governmental organizations to promote eco-innovation in slaughterhouses.

Originality/value

This study may be considered original for its contribution to the improvement of eco-innovation literature by describing how the drivers identified combine to favor the adoption of certain types of eco-innovation. In addition, the authors also made an original use of csQCA, linked with MSDO/MDSO, in the field of eco-innovation.
Audit committee disclosure tone and earnings management
Authors: Al-Shaer Habiba , Zaman Mahbub
Published: May 2021

Purpose

This paper examines the effect of audit committee (AC) reporting, measured by the tone of audit committee disclosures, in improving financial reporting quality as proxied by earnings management.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors focus on the textual properties of AC reports, particularly the tone of AC disclosure, and their impact on financial reporting quality proxied using real and accruals-based earnings management. For additional analysis, the authors use a financial reporting index and matched sample. The analysis is based on a sample of UK FTSE 350 firms.

Findings

The analysis suggests that AC reports are not boilerplate but varied in language. The authors find AC reporting is negatively associated with both real and accruals-based earnings management. In our additional tests, the authors find a positive association between financial reporting quality index and reporting tone.

Research limitations/implications

Overall, this paper provides baseline evidence for future research and policy making and reveals that ACs reporting what they have done increases transparency and impacts on reporting quality.

Practical implications

Overall, this paper suggests that the tone of AC reports seems to convey information that affects the communication function of AC reporting and thereby helps to improve reporting quality.

Originality/value

Though the importance of AC disclosures in improving reporting quality is well recognised in policy guidelines and governance recommendations, no study has employed computer-based textual analysis of AC reports and investigated the effect of AC disclosure tone and the role it can play in achieving higher reporting quality.
A systematic review of construction workers’ health and safety research in India
Authors: Chellappa Vigneshkumar , Srivastava Vasundhara , Salve Urmi Ravindra
Published: May 2021

Purpose

Construction workers’ health and safety (CWHS) research in India has not gained much attention among researchers. This study aims to review articles related to CWHS research in India using a science mapping approach.

Design/methodology/approach

A total number of 64 journal articles published between 2004 and 2019 were extracted from the Scopus database using keywords including “construction safety,” “occupational health,” “ergonomics in construction,” etc. VOSviewer software was used to examine the influential keywords, documents, sources and authors in the field of CWHS.

Findings

The study found that most of the current work focuses on safety management, safety climate, safety performance, musculoskeletal disorders and behavior-based safety. The result indicates no theoretical basis for the theories and learning methods for the existing studies.

Practical implications

The findings open up a research gap that researchers explore to enhance workers’ health and safety within the Indian construction environment.

Originality/value

The paper is the first article to provide a better understanding of current research in the field of CWHS in India by analyzing its growth through the science mapping approach.
Production pressures in the building sector of the construction industry: a systematic review of literature
Authors: Neale Jack , Gurmu Argaw
Published: May 2021

Purpose

The building sector of the construction industry incorporates a precipitous and volatile nature with poor safety conditions being prevalent, owing to its inability to determine an appropriate trade-off between productivity and safety. This disproportionate trade-off produces production pressures, which contribute poorly to construction performance, by encouraging workers to prioritise their working productivity ahead of safety. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of production pressures in the building sector and propose mitigation strategies accordingly.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic review of literature was conducted, and secondary data were extracted from peer-reviewed journal papers. The data was then analysed to achieve the objectives of this study.

Findings

The main causes of production pressures are tight construction schedules, ineffective management and construction rework. Furthermore, the negative effects of production pressures are increased levels of stress in employees, reduced craftsmanship, encouraging accident-prone environments and decreasing employee’s safety behaviour. Effective mitigation strategies in relation to scheduling, leadership, communication and motivation were proposed. Finally, a causal loop diagram of production pressures in the building sector was developed.

Originality/value

This research will assist in creating a safer working environment within the building sector, by providing useful information regarding the severity of production pressures and suggesting mitigation strategies that can be implemented in the construction projects.
Demographic changes and savings behavior: the experience of a developing country
Authors: Rezaei Ebrahim
Published: May 2021

Purpose

This paper aims to disclose the savings behavior of Iran's economy in the context of demographic transition.

Design/methodology/approach

Employing a version of Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans growth model, this paper benefits from a broad range of data and variables which are mainly taken from the Central Bank of Iran's database. The study uses actual and calculated data to produce analogous simulated data. The data cover the 1970–2015 period. This long period provides an opportunity to simulate more valid time series. It is worth noting that due to the severe economic sanctions imposed on the Iran's economy, particularly after 2017, some most recent data have been obliterated from the sample.

Findings

The results, stemming from the simulated model, hint that; firstly, the population variable is a notable determinant of the savings rate. Secondly, the effects of a slump in the population growth rate would attenuate the savings level significantly. Thirdly, other pragmatic steps could be taken to redress the fallout of the demographic changes.

Research limitations/implications

There are some limitations in providing broad data related to economic sectors in Iran. The savings data, for instance, are available as an aggregated time series, and if the authors had wide data of household level, they would have been able to build more detail-based model. Similar to this issue of lack of households’ income-based data, some measures such as high or low levels as well as detailed demographic data could be helpful in sophisticated household level resulting. In addition, the complex relationship between the government and social security (pension) funds, in terms of financing part of government's budget deficit by these funds, thwarts a typical researcher in using comprehensive and transparent government expenditure data in their research. In other words, the possible positive or negative role of the funds, as a related issue to the demographic changes, cannot simply be determined in the model. It might be possible after necessary corrections are carried out in the mentioned relations.

Originality/value

In fact, the problem statement in this paper is to discern how the population aging can impact the saving rates on the one hand, and to what extent its repercussion can be modified by the other theoretical-based determinants on the other. In fact, the underlying argument of the present research arises from the stylized facts concerning prognosticates of the future evolutions of the world's population. To that end, the study will use Iran's economic and demographic data.
Imported feminism: problematizing the Westernized image of the feminist in Arab social media
Authors: Magdy Ramy , Mikhael Maries , G. Hussein Yassmine
Published: May 2021

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze the discourse of Arab feminism social media pages as a form of real-time new media. This is to be conducted culturally to understand the Westernized character these pages tend to propagate and the politico-cultural significations of such a propagation.

Design/methodology/approach

Using visual and content analysis the paper analyzes both the written and visual contents of two popular Arab feminist Facebook pages, “Thory” and “Feminist doodles” to explore its culture relevance/Westernization via the categories of “re-employing the binary second wave feminism, the historical relevance and the Westernized tone of both pages.

Findings

The pages showed a tendency toward second wave, Westernized, anti-orient feminism. Such importation of feminism made the pages’ message not only a bit irrelevant but also conceptually violent to a large extent. Starting from alien contexts, the two pages dislocate the Arab women experiences of their situation for the sake of comprehending and adapting to heavily Westernized images.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the ongoing debate over the gender issue in the Arab context after 2011, what it originally offers is discussing the cultural relevance of popular feminist Facebook pages claiming to represent the everyday struggles of the Arab women. In addition, it shows the impact of real-time media on identity formulation.
Valuing change: differential measurement of workplace culture shift
Authors: Coutts Daniel Stewart
Published: May 2021

Purpose

Measuring the efficacy of workplace culture-shift efforts presented a substantial challenge in the author's research exploring how culture shifts during deliberate change initiatives. In response to this challenge this conceptual article proposes that the relative value participants attribute to desired culture outcomes can function as a proxy for measuring culture shift over time, providing applied researchers and practitioners with a simple way to measure efficacy of change initiatives.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual article reviews the difficulties of defining and measuring workplace culture using widely known, contemporary models and instruments. It then builds an argument for using differential measurement of the relative value attributed to culture shift outcomes (valuing) as a proxy for workplace culture shift, followed by discussion of how to conduct measurement.

Findings

This article deductively demonstrates that parsimonious measurement of culture shift is not only simple and feasible, but that practitioners and researchers alike can use a valuing approach to determine the efficacy of efforts to shift workplace culture.

Originality/value

Used to complement existing methods and instruments, or on its own, this approach to measurement can build deeper insights into what is going on during deliberate change initiatives, while answering the reflexive questions “are we doing the right things,” and “are we doing those things the right way?”
College-level mathematical modelling with mobile devices
Authors: Sakibayev Spartak
Published: May 2021

Purpose

This work is devoted to increasing the effectiveness of a mathematical modelling lesson with the help of mobile devices. It verifies the authors' hypothesis which states that enabling students to solve mathematical models on mobile devices improves their academic results in the discipline.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper describes an experiment conducted among 38 college students in an extracurricular mathematical club where they solved mathematical models with the help of their own smartphones. The authors describe the mathematical models assigned to students, analyse their academic performance and gather their opinions.

Findings

The usage of mobile devices in the mathematical modelling class positively affects students' scores and interest in the subject. The percentage of positive grades among students working on mobile devices is higher than among students working on desktop computers.

Originality/value

The authors discover that in the context of the college-level mathematical modelling course, mobile devices can be successfully used as an alternative replacement for traditional desktop computers.
The cleaner production technology innovation effect of environmental regulation policy: evidence from China
Authors: Pan Xianyou , Cao Yang , Pan Xiongfeng , Uddin Md. Kamal
Published: May 2021

Purpose

Environmental regulation policy and cleaner production technology innovation are the key links to achieve sustainable economic development. This paper tests the impact of Two Control Zone (TCZ) environmental regulation policy on cleaner production technology innovation and explains the heterogeneity effect between them from the perspective of regional pollution intensity and R&D investment scale.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper takes TCZ policy as an environmental regulation policy and collects the patent data related to coal desulfurization cleaner production technology innovation in prefecture-level cities from 1994 to 2002 in China. This paper also tests the relationship between TCZ environmental regulation policy and cleaner production technology innovation based on difference in difference (DID) model. Take regional R&D investment scale and pollution intensity as category variables and analyze the heterogeneity effect of TCZ environmental regulation policy on cleaner production technology innovation based on difference-in-difference-in-difference (DDD) model.

Findings

TCZ environmental regulation policy effectively promotes China's cleaner production technology innovation, but it is more conducive to cleaner production technology innovation in heavy pollution areas. With the increasing of R&D investment scale, the positive effect of TCZ environmental regulation policy on cleaner production technology innovation is stronger.

Research limitations/implications

On the basis of this study, the authors should further explore the regulatory factors of the relationship between TCZ environmental regulation policy and cleaner production technology innovation and further expand the research object, so as to make the research conclusions more practical and instructive.

Originality/value

This paper tests the impact of TCZ environmental regulation policy on cleaner production technology innovation based on the prefecture city level data and DID model, and it handles the endogenous problem caused by the missing variables and provides the accurate conclusions. Moreover, this paper examines the heterogeneity effect of TCZ environmental regulation policy on cleaner production innovation from regional R&D investment scale and pollution intensity two hands and expands the existing theoretical research.
Correlation between business innovation environment (BIE) and entrepreneurial orientation dimension (EOD) on financial performance of manufacturing SMEs in Ghana
Authors: Deku Wisdom Apedo , Wang Jiuhe , Danquah Edmund , Narain Das
Published: May 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to provide comprehensive overview, and exposure of the correlation between entrepreneurial orientation dimension (EOD) and business innovation environment (BIE) on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) financial performance in the Ghanaian manufacturing SMEs sector that enhances knowledge and contextualization in marketing and entrepreneurship literature.

Design/methodology/approach

Anchored on resource-based view theory, 520 manufacturing SMEs companies were conveniently drawn from Association of Ghana Industry, through National Board for Small Scale Industries, using structural equation modelling techniques to analyse the hypotheses.

Findings

This study revealed that three entrepreneurial orientation dimensions EOD: risk-taking, innovations and pro-activeness have positive significant impact on financial performance manufacturing of SMEs. BIE also has positive impact on financial performance of manufacturing of SMEs and BIE moderates SMEs financial performance.

Research limitations/implications

This is a country-specific manufacturing SMEs sector, which means that the findings cannot be used to justify other SMEs in Ghana and SMEs in different country. However, the study was limited to only three EODs: risk-taking, innovations, pro-activeness and Ghanaian manufacturing BIE of SMEs. More countries and other SMEs are needed to expand the field of research in EODs and BIE.

Practical implications

It provides an insight into BIE which is important for marketers, entrepreneurs, regulatory bodies, SMEs owners-managers, directors, government and NGO to strengthening and reshaping their BIE in manufacturing SMEs sector policies, conducts and laws.

Originality/value

This paper fills knowledge and contextual gap in entrepreneurship and marketing literature by presenting comprehensive overview of BIE and EOD research that enhances the on-going discussion in the marketing and entrepreneurship manufacturing SMEs context and proposing priorities for future research streams within an emerging economy.
Sequential joint inversion of gravity and magnetic data via the cross‐gradient constraint
Authors: Tavakoli Mojtaba , Nejati Kalateh Ali , Rezaie Mohammad , Gross Lutz , Fedi Maurizio
Published: May 2021

Different geophysical methods use different model parameterizations and inversion algorithms. Thus, combining these different inversion systems and yet adding the nonlinear cross‐gradient constraint in a joint inversion framework might be a big challenge, for instance, as explained further by Moorkamp et al. in 2011, there is a complex interaction between the data misfit terms, regularization and cross‐gradient terms and an imperfect fit to the data is expected. In this paper, we use a sequential algorithm for a two‐dimensional joint inversion of gravity and magnetic data, which tries to avoid these issues by decoupling the gravity inversion, the magnetic inversion and the cross‐gradient minimization processes. The efficiency of the algorithm and developed code is demonstrated by the joint inversion of noisy synthetic data. The results show a significant improvement in the respective models obtained by introducing the cross‐gradient joint inversion over the models obtained by separate inversions for synthetic data and then for field data targeting potash ore source in the AjiChai salt deposit in north‐western Iran.

In this application case, the lower density of salt minerals such as potash, compared to its surrounding sedimentary sequences, motivates a gravity study. Furthermore, the relative lower susceptibility of these salt minerals, alongside their diamagnetic effect, makes them a suitable target for magnetic surveys. Separate gravity and magnetic studies had been performed over the deposit; however, a constitutive relationship between density and magnetization within the area of interest supporting a joint inversion had not been established. In this paper, we apply the sequential cross‐gradient approach to perform the first full joint inversion for the AjiChai salt deposit. The magnetic inversion here is performed to recover the magnetization amplitudes rather than the magnetization vector. In fact, we assume there is no remanent magnetization and, therefore, that the magnetization vector is constant and parallel to the geomagnetic field direction. The constructed density and magnetization models are of high concordance with available geological information and previous studies including drilling results. In addition, unlike previous separate inversion models, the models are structurally and geometrically similar.
Financial inclusion and entrepreneurship willingness of youth: Evidence from Mali
Authors: Koloma Yaya
Published: May 2021

This study examines the determinants of youth financial inclusion and its impacts on their willingness to become entrepreneurs in Mali. The World Bank's Global Findex database is used to perform Logit estimations and propensity score matching. We find that the financial inclusion of youth seems to be more determined by the attainment of a high level of education, employment status, living in a wealthy family, and having at least one family member with a bank account. Three factors appear as barriers to better financial inclusion of youth: the cost of financial services, the lack of money, and the perception that financial services, savings in particular, are not a necessity. The study also shows that savings and loans have a statistically significant impact on the willingness to engage in entrepreneurial activity, even in the agricultural sector. Particularly for young people, providing them with loan services seems to have more impact than other financial services on the desire to undertake agri‐entrepreneurial activity. The study recommends the strengthening of public policies aimed at expanding credit to youth because of its high impact on their willingness to engage in entrepreneurship in general and in agri‐preneurship in particular in Mali.
Alternative Finance after Natural Disasters
Authors: Baltas Konstantinos , Fiordelisi Franco , Mare Davide S.
Published: May 2021

In this paper, we show that alternative finance (e.g. private equity, crowdfunding and venture capital) is a key source of funding for firms that are affected by natural disasters. Using data on a large sample of US companies from 2010 to 2019, we provide robust empirical evidence that private funding increases within 3 months after the occurrence of a natural disaster. Panel data analysis at state level shows that extreme events cause at least an average increase of funding from alternative finance by 47% relative to firms in non‐affected states. We also find that size, reliance on physical assets and age improve access to alternative finance after adverse natural events. Our empirical evidence highlights the key role of private lenders in providing financial resources to affected firms after extreme exogenous events.
TheFantasticschool: Catherine Malabou and an ontological basis in defence of the school
Authors: Oral Sevket Benhur
Published: May 2021

In their defence of the school Jan Masschelein and Maarten Simons define it as a source of ‘free time.’ Drawing on Catherine Malabou's compelling reading of Heidegger in her The Heidegger Change, I aim to provide a strong ontological justification for the claims made on behalf of the school concerning free time, common goods, and renewing (changing) the world: the school provides free time; it transforms knowledge and skills into common goods; and it has the potential to give everyone the time and space to renew the world. The paper enquires into what ‘free time as non-productive time,’ ‘common goods,’ and ‘changing the world’ mean on an ontological register, and why therefore the school is so precious and warrants our utmost care in the face of its conservative and progressive critics alike. I discern a single underlying notion, the notion of essence as mutability, constituting the link connecting free time, common goods, and renewal of the world.
10‐year evaluation of the use of medical abortion through telemedicine: a retrospective cohort study
Authors: Nortén Hanna , Ilozumba Onaedo , Wilkinson J , Gemzell‐Danielsson K , Gomperts R
Published: May 2021

Objective

To provide a descriptive overview and evaluate changes in the use and outcome of abortions provided worldwide by telemedicine in the past 10 years.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Multi‐country.

Population/Sample

30 344 women who completed the follow‐up survey of the telemedical abortion service Women on Web from January 2009 till January 2020.

Methods

Analyses of follow‐up surveys, binary logistic regressions to test the association between year and outcomes.

Main outcome measures

Rate of complete abortions, surgical interventions, ongoing pregnancies, blood transfusions per year, socio‐economic situation, knowledge on medical abortion, acceptability of receiving service, appropriateness of method and the likelihood of recommending the service to a friend.

Results

Medical abortions were provided to 81 683 women, of whom 30 344 (37.2%) completed the follow‐up survey. In total, 26 076 women reported doing the medical abortion, of whom 1.5% reported an ongoing pregnancy, 10.2% a surgical intervention and 0.6% a blood transfusion. Acceptability of the service was 99%, and 59.2% of the users reported previous knowledge of medical abortion. We found a significant increase in complete abortions in 2019 (odds ratio 1.92; 95% CI 1.59–2.31) and decrease in surgical interventions (odds ratio 0.49; 95% CI 0.40–0.60) compared with 2009.

Conclusion

Low follow‐up rates present a limitation in analysing trends in telemedical abortion usage. However, our findings suggest that it is a highly acceptable method around the world and that there has been an increase in complete abortions by telemedical abortions and a decrease in surgical interventions in the last 10 years.

Tweetable abstract

In the last 10 years, there has been an increase in complete abortions and decrease in surgical interventions of telemedical abortion.
Two dehydroecdysone reductases act as fat body‐specific 20E catalyzers in Bombyx mori
Authors: You Lang , Li Zhiqian , Zhang Zhongjie , Hu Bo , Yu Ye , Yang Fangying , Tan Anjiang
Published: May 2021

Periodic post‐embryonic changes in insects, including growth, development and metamorphosis, are strictly controlled by many compounds, including steroid hormones. The biosynthesis and clearance of 20‐hydroxyecdysone (20E), the major active form of the insect steroid hormone ecdysone, result in titer fluctuations that help control insect development. The inactivation of 20E in the silkworm Bombyx mori is highly tissue‐specific, with CYP18A1 and ecdysone oxidase controlling 20E inactivation specifically in the mid‐silk gland and midgut, respectively. Here, we characterized silkworm 3‐dehydroecdysone 3α reductase (Bm3DE3α) and 3‐dehydroecdysone 3β reductase (Bm3DE3β), two enzymes involved predominantly in the C‐3‐mediated catalysis of 20E in fat bodies. The ubiquitous and silk gland‐specific overexpression of Bm3DE3α decreased the 20E titer, resulting in larval lethality and larval–pupal transition failure, respectively. In contrast, the ubiquitous and mid‐silk gland‐specific overexpression of Bm3DE3β increased the 20E titer, resulting in larval growth delays and lethality at the mid‐fifth larval stage, respectively. Thus, Bm3DE3α and Bm3DE3β mediate fat body‐specific steroid hormone metabolism in B. mori, indicating that highly diversified 20E metabolism‐related mechanisms exist in different insect species.
K in an Urban World: New Contexts for Hydraulic Conductivity
Authors: Shuster W.D. , Schifman Laura , Kelleher Christa , Golden Heather E. , Bhaskar Aditi S. , Parolari Anthony J. , Stewart Ryan D. , Herrmann Dustin L.
Published: May 2021

Hydraulic conductivity (K) is a key hydrologic parameter widely recognized to be difficult to estimate and constrain, with little consistent assessment in disturbed, urbanized soils. To estimate K, it is either measured, or simulated by pedotransfer functions, which relate K to easily measured soil properties. We measured K in urbanized soils by double‐ring infiltrometer (Kdring), near‐saturated tension infiltrometry (Kminidisk), and constant head borehole permeametry (Kborehole), along with other soil properties across the major soil orders in 12 United States cities. We compared measured K with that predicted from the pedotransfer function, ROSETTA. We found that regardless of soil texture, Kdring was consistently larger than Kminidisk; with the latter having slightly less sample variance. Kborehole was dependent upon specific subsurface conditions, and contrary to common expectations, did not always decrease with depth. Based on either soil textural class, or percent textural separates (sand, silt clay), ROSETTA did not accurately predict measured K for surface nor subsurface soils. We go on to discuss how K varies in urban landscapes, the role of measurement methods and artifacts in the perception of this metric, and implications for hydrologic modeling. Overall, we aim to inspire consistency and coherence when addressing K‐related challenges in sustainable urban water management.