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Ensuring Access to Safe and Nutritious Food for All Through the Transformation of Food Systems
Corporate Social Responsibility: the institutionalization of ESG
Understanding the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on firm performance as it relates to industries reliant on technological innovation is a complex and perpetually evolving challenge. To thoroughly investigate this topic, this dissertation will adopt an economics-based structure to address three primary hypotheses. This structure allows for each hypothesis to essentially be a standalone empirical paper, unified by an overall analysis of the nature of impact that ESG has on firm performance. The first hypothesis explores the evolution of CSR to the modern quantified iteration of ESG has led to the institutionalization and standardization of the CSR concept. The second hypothesis fills gaps in existing literature testing the relationship between firm performance and ESG by finding that the relationship is significantly positive in long-term, strategic metrics (ROA and ROIC) and that there is no correlation in short-term metrics (ROE and ROS). Finally, the third hypothesis states that if a firm has a long-term strategic ESG plan, as proxied by the publication of CSR reports, then it is more resilience to damage from controversies. This is supported by the finding that pro-ESG firms consistently fared better than their counterparts in both financial and ESG performance, even in the event of a controversy. However, firms with consistent reporting are also held to a higher standard than their nonreporting peers, suggesting a higher risk and higher reward dynamic. These findings support the theory of good management, in that long-term strategic planning is both immediately economically beneficial and serves as a means of risk management and social impact mitigation. Overall, this contributes to the literature by fillings gaps in the nature of impact that ESG has on firm performance, particularly from a management perspective
Minimum income support systems as elements of crisis resilience in Europe: Final Report
Mindestsicherungssysteme dienen in den meisten entwickelten Wohlfahrtsstaaten als Sicherheitsnetz letzter Instanz. Dementsprechend spielen sie gerade in wirtschaftlichen Krisenzeiten eine besondere Rolle. Inwieweit Mindestsicherungssysteme in Zeiten der Krise beansprucht werden, hängt auch von der Ausprägung vorgelagerter Sozialschutzsysteme ab. Diese Studie untersucht die Bedeutung von Systemen der Mindestsicherung sowie vorgelagerter Systeme wie Arbeitslosenversicherung, Kurzarbeit und arbeitsrechtlichem Bestandsschutz für die Krisenfestigkeit in Europa. Im Kontext der Finanzkrise von 2008/2009 und der Corona-Krise wird die Fähigkeit sozialpolitischer Maßnahmen untersucht, Armut und Einkommensverluste einzudämmen und gesellschaftliche Ausgrenzung zu vermeiden. Die Studie setzt dabei auf quantitative und qualitative Methoden, etwa multivariate Analysen, Mikrosimulationsmethoden sowie eingehende Fallstudien der Länder Dänemark, Frankreich, Irland, Polen und Spanien, die für unterschiedliche Typen von Wohlfahrtsstaaten stehen.The aim of this study is to analyse the role of social policies in different European welfare states regarding minimum income protection and active inclusion. The core focus lies on crisis resilience, i.e. the capacity of social policy arrangements to contain poverty and inequality and avoid exclusion before, during and after periods of economic shocks. To achieve this goal, the study expands its analytical focus to include other tiers of social protection, in particular upstream systems such as unemployment insurance, job retention and employment protection, as they play an additional and potentially prominent role in providing income and job protection in situations of crisis. A mixed-method approach is used that combines quantitative and qualitative research, such as descriptive and multivariate quantitative analyses, microsimulation methods and in-depth case studies. The study finds consistent differences in terms of crisis resilience across countries and welfare state types. In general, Nordic and Continental European welfare states with strong upstream systems and minimum income support (MIS) show better outcomes in core socio-economic outcomes such as poverty and exclusion risks. However, labour market integration shows some dualisms in Continental Europe. The study shows that MIS holds particular importance if there are gaps in upstream systems or cases of severe and lasting crises
People make Places
For centuries Glasgow, as a bucolic fishing village and ecclesiastical centre on the banks of the River Clyde, held little of strategic significance. When success and later threats came to the city, it was as a consequence of explosive growth during the industrial era that left a significant civic presence accompanied by social and environmental challenges. Wartime damage to the fabric of the city and the subsequent implementation of modernist planning left Glasgow with a series of existential threats to the lives and the health of its people that have taken time to understand and come to terms with.
In a few remarkable decades of late 20th century regeneration, Glasgow began to be put back together. The trauma of the second half of the 20th century is fading but not yet a distant memory. Existential threats from the climate emergency can provoke the reaction “what, again?” However, the resilience built over the last 50 years has instilled a belief that a constructive, pro-active and creative approach to face this challenge along with the recognition that such action can be transformational for safeguarding and improving people’s lives and the quality of their places. A process described as a just transition that has become central to Glasgow’s approach.
Of Scotland’s four big cities, three are surrounded by landscape and sea only Glasgow is surrounded by itself. Even with a small territory, Glasgow is still the largest of Scotland’s big cities and by some margin. When the wider metropolitan area is considered, Glasgow is – like Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool – no mean city.
People make Places begins with a review of the concept and complexities of place, discusses why these matter and reviews the growing body of evidence that place quality can deliver economic, social and environmental value. The following chapters focus on the history and evolution of modern Glasgow in four eras of 19th and early 20th century industrialisation, de- industrialisation and modernism in mid 20th century, late 20th century regeneration and a 21st century recovery towards transition and renaissance, and document the process, synthesis and the results of a major engagement programme and to explore systematic approaches to place and consensus building around the principal issues.
The second half of the work reflects on a stocktaking of place in contemporary Glasgow, looking at the city through the lenses of an international, metropolitan and everyday city, concluding with a review of the places of Glasgow and what may be learned from them revealing some valuable insights presented in a series of Place Stories included.
The concluding chapter sets out the findings of the investigation and analysis reviewing place goals, challenges and opportunities for Glasgow over the decades to 2030 and 2040 and ends with some recommendations about what Glasgow might do better to combine place thinking and climate awareness and setting out practical steps to mobilise Glasgow’s ‘place ecosystem’
Boosting the Cycle Counting Power of Graph Neural Networks with I-GNNs
Message Passing Neural Networks (MPNNs) are a widely used class of Graph
Neural Networks (GNNs). The limited representational power of MPNNs inspires
the study of provably powerful GNN architectures. However, knowing one model is
more powerful than another gives little insight about what functions they can
or cannot express. It is still unclear whether these models are able to
approximate specific functions such as counting certain graph substructures,
which is essential for applications in biology, chemistry and social network
analysis. Motivated by this, we propose to study the counting power of Subgraph
MPNNs, a recent and popular class of powerful GNN models that extract rooted
subgraphs for each node, assign the root node a unique identifier and encode
the root node's representation within its rooted subgraph. Specifically, we
prove that Subgraph MPNNs fail to count more-than-4-cycles at node level,
implying that node representations cannot correctly encode the surrounding
substructures like ring systems with more than four atoms. To overcome this
limitation, we propose I-GNNs to extend Subgraph MPNNs by assigning
different identifiers for the root node and its neighbors in each subgraph.
I-GNNs' discriminative power is shown to be strictly stronger than Subgraph
MPNNs and partially stronger than the 3-WL test. More importantly, I-GNNs
are proven capable of counting all 3, 4, 5 and 6-cycles, covering common
substructures like benzene rings in organic chemistry, while still keeping
linear complexity. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first linear-time
GNN model that can count 6-cycles with theoretical guarantees. We validate its
counting power in cycle counting tasks and demonstrate its competitive
performance in molecular prediction benchmarks
A Survey on Biomedical Text Summarization with Pre-trained Language Model
The exponential growth of biomedical texts such as biomedical literature and
electronic health records (EHRs), provides a big challenge for clinicians and
researchers to access clinical information efficiently. To address the problem,
biomedical text summarization has been proposed to support clinical information
retrieval and management, aiming at generating concise summaries that distill
key information from single or multiple biomedical documents. In recent years,
pre-trained language models (PLMs) have been the de facto standard of various
natural language processing tasks in the general domain. Most recently, PLMs
have been further investigated in the biomedical field and brought new insights
into the biomedical text summarization task. In this paper, we systematically
summarize recent advances that explore PLMs for biomedical text summarization,
to help understand recent progress, challenges, and future directions. We
categorize PLMs-based approaches according to how they utilize PLMs and what
PLMs they use. We then review available datasets, recent approaches and
evaluation metrics of the task. We finally discuss existing challenges and
promising future directions. To facilitate the research community, we line up
open resources including available datasets, recent approaches, codes,
evaluation metrics, and the leaderboard in a public project:
https://github.com/KenZLuo/Biomedical-Text-Summarization-Survey/tree/master.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, TKDE under revie
A Decision Support System for Economic Viability and Environmental Impact Assessment of Vertical Farms
Vertical farming (VF) is the practice of growing crops or animals using the vertical dimension via multi-tier racks or vertically inclined surfaces. In this thesis, I focus on the emerging industry of plant-specific VF. Vertical plant farming (VPF) is a promising and relatively novel practice that can be conducted in buildings with environmental control and artificial lighting. However, the nascent sector has experienced challenges in economic viability, standardisation, and environmental sustainability. Practitioners and academics call for a comprehensive financial analysis of VPF, but efforts are stifled by a lack of valid and available data.
A review of economic estimation and horticultural software identifies a need for a decision support system (DSS) that facilitates risk-empowered business planning for vertical farmers. This thesis proposes an open-source DSS framework to evaluate business sustainability through financial risk and environmental impact assessments. Data from the literature, alongside lessons learned from industry practitioners, would be centralised in the proposed DSS using imprecise data techniques. These techniques have been applied in engineering but are seldom used in financial forecasting. This could benefit complex sectors which only have scarce data to predict business viability.
To begin the execution of the DSS framework, VPF practitioners were interviewed using a mixed-methods approach. Learnings from over 19 shuttered and operational VPF projects provide insights into the barriers inhibiting scalability and identifying risks to form a risk taxonomy. Labour was the most commonly reported top challenge. Therefore, research was conducted to explore lean principles to improve productivity.
A probabilistic model representing a spectrum of variables and their associated uncertainty was built according to the DSS framework to evaluate the financial risk for VF projects. This enabled flexible computation without precise production or financial data to improve economic estimation accuracy. The model assessed two VPF cases (one in the UK and another in Japan), demonstrating the first risk and uncertainty quantification of VPF business models in the literature. The results highlighted measures to improve economic viability and the viability of the UK and Japan case.
The environmental impact assessment model was developed, allowing VPF operators to evaluate their carbon footprint compared to traditional agriculture using life-cycle assessment. I explore strategies for net-zero carbon production through sensitivity analysis. Renewable energies, especially solar, geothermal, and tidal power, show promise for reducing the carbon emissions of indoor VPF. Results show that renewably-powered VPF can reduce carbon emissions compared to field-based agriculture when considering the land-use change.
The drivers for DSS adoption have been researched, showing a pathway of compliance and design thinking to overcome the ‘problem of implementation’ and enable commercialisation. Further work is suggested to standardise VF equipment, collect benchmarking data, and characterise risks. This work will reduce risk and uncertainty and accelerate the sector’s emergence
On the Mechanism of Building Core Competencies: a Study of Chinese Multinational Port Enterprises
This study aims to explore how Chinese multinational port enterprises (MNPEs) build
their core competencies. Core competencies are firms’special capabilities and sources
to gain sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in marketplace, and the concept led
to extensive research and debates. However, few studies include inquiries about the
mechanisms of building core competencies in the context of Chinese MNPEs.
Accordingly, answers were sought to three research questions:
1. What are the core competencies of the Chinese MNPEs?
2. What are the mechanisms that the Chinese MNPEs use to build their core
competencies?
3. What are the paths that the Chinese MNPEs pursue to build their resources bases?
The study adopted a multiple-case study design, focusing on building mechanism of
core competencies with RBV. It selected purposively five Chinese leading MNPEs
and three industry associations as Case Companies.
The study revealed three main findings. First, it identified three generic core
competencies possessed by Case Companies, i.e., innovation in business models and
operations, utilisation of technologies, and acquisition of strategic resources. Second,
it developed the conceptual framework of the Mechanism of Building Core
Competencies (MBCC), which is a process of change of collective learning in
effective and efficient utilization of resources of a firm in response to critical events.
Third, it proposed three paths to build core competencies, i.e., enhancing collective
learning, selecting sustainable processes, and building resource base.
The study contributes to the knowledge of core competencies and RBV in three ways:
(1) presenting three generic core competencies of the Chinese MNPEs, (2) proposing
a new conceptual framework to explain how Chinese MNPEs build their core
competencies, (3) suggesting a solid anchor point (MBCC) to explain the links among
resources, core competencies, and SCA. The findings set benchmarks for Chinese
logistics industry and provide guidelines to build core competencies
Rastreabilidade de matérias primas e produtos, e a sua integração com o ERP da empresa
No campo da rastreabilidade industrial têm surgido sistemas tecnológicos, nomeadamente, sistemas automáticos de rastreabilidade que ajudam as empresas na sua organização, na forma de encarar os problemas e sobretudo ajudam a melhorar ou a manter a sua competitividade, agilizando os fluxos de informação. As empresas que adotem sistemas manuais de rastreabilidade estão sujeitas a uma elevada ocorrência de erros e a uma redução de velocidade de atualização dos dados. Estes problemas são de todo dispensáveis, daí a necessidade de integração ou implementação de novas tecnologias nos sistemas de rastreabilidade - sistemas Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC). Com estes sistemas consegue-se obter economia de tempo, garantia de qualidade, controlo da distribuição interna e externa da empresa e controlo in-time da produção. Com a aparição da Indústria 4.0 e a consequente integração com vários conceitos dela intrínsecos, como a Internet of Things, estes sistemas automáticos de rastreabilidade tornaram-se ainda mais relevantes e automatizados onde é possível criar objetos inteligentes, com a capacidade de comunicar com várias plataformas através da Internet. Para desenvolver estes sistemas é necessário utilizar várias tecnologias, onde se destaca a tecnologia Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID). Esta é das tecnologias com mais aplicações e potencialidades devido à sua capacidade de identificação de objetos sem contacto, alta velocidade e precisão na transmissão de dados. Neste contexto, uma parte do processo produtivo da Vista Alegre, foi utilizado como exemplo de um chão de fábrica no qual se aplica o sistema de rastreabilidade desenvolvido durante este projeto. O sistema concebido faz uso de um microcontrolador de baixo custo, neste caso o ESP-12E, utilizado como unidade de processamento responsável por processar as as mensagens trocadas com o leitor RFID. Estes dois componentes formam um dispositivo móvel oferecendo a capacidade de leitura e escrita do sistema RFID, em qualquer parte do chão de fábrica que tenha cobertura Wi-Fi da empresa, isto porque o ESP-12E tem um módulo Wi-Fi utilizado na comunicação com um servidor local que processa e envia os dados para uma base de dados MySQL. Foi desenvolvida uma interface gráfica baseada em linguagens web, onde existe a possibilidade de interação com o utilizador com o intuito de serem registados vários dados considerados importantes para a empresa. São também apresentadas várias informações do processo produtivo, como o histórico de produção. Este sistema vem confirmar a viabilidade e as potencialidades dos microcontroladores de baixo custo e ferramentas open source no desenvolvimento de sistemas de rastreabilidade industrial.In the field of industrial traceability, technological systems have emerged, namely, automatic traceability systems that help companies in their organization, in their form of facing problems and, above all, they help to improve or maintain their competitiveness, streamlining information flows. Companies that adopt manual traceability systems are subject to a high occurrence of errors and reduced data update speed. These issues are absolutely unnecessary, hence the need to integrate or implement new technologies in the traceability systems - Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) systems. With these systems it is possible to obtain time savings, quality assurance, control of the company’s internal and external distribution and in-time control of production. With the appearance of Industry 4.0 and the consequent integration with several intrinsic concepts, such as Internet of Things, these automatic traceability systems have become even more relevant and automated, in the way that it is possible to create intelligent objects, with the ability to communicate with multiple platforms over the Internet. To develop these systems it is necessary to use several technologies, where Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology stands out. This is one of the technologies with the most applications and potential due to its ability to identify objects without needing contact and high speed and precision in data transmission. In this context, part of Vista Alegre’s production process was used as an example of a factory floor to which the traceability system developed during this project was applied. The designed system makes use of a low cost microcontroller, in this case the ESP-12E, used as a processing unit responsible for processing the messages exchanged with the RFID reader. These two components form a mobile device offering the ability to read and write of the RFID system, anywhere on the factory floor that has the company’s Wi-Fi coverage, because the ESP-12E has a Wi-Fi module used in communication with a local server that processes and sends the data to a MySQL database. A graphical interface based on web languages was developed, where there is the possibility of interaction with the user in order to record data considered important for the company. Various information about the production process is also presented, such as the production history. This system confirms the viability and potential of low cost microcontrollers and open source tools in the development of industrial traceability systems.Mestrado em Engenharia Mecânic
The determinants of value addition: a crtitical analysis of global software engineering industry in Sri Lanka
It was evident through the literature that the perceived value delivery of the global software
engineering industry is low due to various facts. Therefore, this research concerns global
software product companies in Sri Lanka to explore the software engineering methods and
practices in increasing the value addition. The overall aim of the study is to identify the key
determinants for value addition in the global software engineering industry and critically
evaluate the impact of them for the software product companies to help maximise the value
addition to ultimately assure the sustainability of the industry.
An exploratory research approach was used initially since findings would emerge while the
study unfolds. Mixed method was employed as the literature itself was inadequate to
investigate the problem effectively to formulate the research framework. Twenty-three face-to-face online interviews were conducted with the subject matter experts covering all the
disciplines from the targeted organisations which was combined with the literature findings as
well as the outcomes of the market research outcomes conducted by both government and nongovernment institutes. Data from the interviews were analysed using NVivo 12. The findings
of the existing literature were verified through the exploratory study and the outcomes were
used to formulate the questionnaire for the public survey. 371 responses were considered after
cleansing the total responses received for the data analysis through SPSS 21 with alpha level
0.05. Internal consistency test was done before the descriptive analysis. After assuring the
reliability of the dataset, the correlation test, multiple regression test and analysis of variance
(ANOVA) test were carried out to fulfil the requirements of meeting the research objectives.
Five determinants for value addition were identified along with the key themes for each area.
They are staffing, delivery process, use of tools, governance, and technology infrastructure.
The cross-functional and self-organised teams built around the value streams, employing a
properly interconnected software delivery process with the right governance in the delivery
pipelines, selection of tools and providing the right infrastructure increases the value delivery.
Moreover, the constraints for value addition are poor interconnection in the internal processes,
rigid functional hierarchies, inaccurate selections and uses of tools, inflexible team
arrangements and inadequate focus for the technology infrastructure. The findings add to the
existing body of knowledge on increasing the value addition by employing effective processes,
practices and tools and the impacts of inaccurate applications the same in the global software
engineering industry
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