The Role of Ethnic Directors in Corporate Social Responsibility: Does Culture matter? The Cultural Trait Theory Perspectives

This paper investigates the effect of cultural differences between ethnic directors on corporate social responsibility (CSR) of Public Liability Companies (PLCs) in Nigeria. Using the cultural trait theory, the study focuses on how the ethnic directors are influenced when making decisions concerning CSR. Adopting multiple regression analysis of data, the study investigates the three major ethnic groups (Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa) and finds cultural differences between the ethnic directors affect the adoption of CSR. Empirical results indicate that ethnic directors (Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa) were positively and significantly related to CSR. The paper contributes to the corporate governance and CSR debate concerning how ethnic directors’ decisions impact on CSR activities, particularly on the directors who are individualistic and collectivists towards CSR

Relationship between rural built environment and household vehicle ownership:an empirical analysis in rural Sichuan, China

\u3cp\u3eWith the rapid rural urbanization and new rural construction in China, tremendous changes are occurring in rural built environments and rural household vehicle ownership. However, few studies have examined the relationship between rural built environments and rural household vehicle ownership. In this study, a questionnaire survey of 374 rural households was conducted and the built environment data of seven typical villages in rural Sichuan were collected using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and on-site measurement. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the rural built environment and rural household vehicle ownership in China through a multinomial logit (MNL) model. Results show that household structure attributes have the most significant relationship with vehicle ownership, followed by rural built environment attributes and the respondents' driving skills. In the process of urbanization, with increases in building density, road density, and destination accessibility, an increase in high-carbon vehicle ownership is an inevitable trend among rural households. However, low-carbon-oriented rural planning can effectively control the increase in high-carbon vehicle ownership. For example, the distance between rural households and important destinations, such as hospitals, schools, and markets, should be shortened and rural residents should be encouraged to learn to ride bicycles. Moreover, rural residents riding motorcycles can effectively reduce household car ownership.\u3c/p\u3

The impacts of the micro built environment on pedestrian route choice:a stated preference experiment

This paper reports the results of a stated preference experiment that was administered to estimate the impact of the micro built environment on pedestrian route choice from/to metro station and their final destination. The micro built environment was varied in terms of 8 attributes, which are street length, average number of building floors on sides of the street, shops in the front line of streets, street crossing facilities, width of sidewalks, greenery, the density of street lamps and crowdedness of pedestrians. In total, 803 respondents were recruited in Tianjin, China to complete face to face interviews. A multinomial logit model was applied to estimate preference functions. Results indicate that pedestrians are more likely to choose street segment with either trees or green hedge. In addition, preferences significantly vary with age and motivation to walk as a transport mode. People who are 10 to 22 years old have a lower probabilities to choose street segment with 50% shops than people in other age. People who are 23 to 45 years old are more likely not choose the street segment with sidewalk wider than 3.5 meters, and also likely not choose street segment with either trees or hedge than people in other age. People who are more motivated to walk are more likely to choose street segments with both trees and hedge, and with sidewalk wider than 3.5 meters, than people who are less motivated

Analysis of the impact of street-scale built environment design near metro stations on pedestrian and cyclist road segment choice:a stated choice experiment

\u3cp\u3eThe mismatch between the design of the micro-scale built environment around metro stations and pedestrian/cyclist preferences causes inconvenience and dissatisfaction. How to design streets near metro stations to provide a walking/biking friendly built environment is still a key question in promoting the use of metro systems. To identify which general attributes of the street-scale built environment are relevant for pedestrians/cyclists and increase walkability/cycle-ability, this paper reports the results of a stated choice experiment in which eight built environment attributes were systematically varied: street segment length, average number of building floors on both sides of the street, retail shops in frontage of streets, street crossing facilities for pedestrians/cyclists, width of sidewalks/bicycle paths, greenery, density of street lamps and crowdedness of pedestrian/cyclists to understand their influence on a road segment choice and preferences. A total of 803 respondents were recruited from Tianjin, China to complete the stated choice experiment through on-street face-to-face interviews. A multinomial logit model was estimated to unravel pedestrian/cyclist preferences using the stated choice data. The results indicate that pedestrians and cyclists have similar preferences for road segments with building lower than 6 floors, 50% retail shops in frontage, more greenery, lamps between 15 m and 30 m, more crossing facilities, wider sidewalk/bike lane and not crowded. These significant built environment attributes can be used in urban design projects with a walking/biking friendly built environment around a metro station.\u3c/p\u3

Genomic alterations in gastric cancers discovered via whole-exome sequencing

Abstract Background Gastric cancer (GC) ranks the second in mortality rate among all cancers. Metastases account for most of the deaths in GC patients. Yet our understanding of GC and its metastasis mechanism is still very limited. Methods We performed 20 whole-exome sequencing (WES) on 5 typical metastatic gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) patients with lymph node metastasis. We compared both the primary tumors to their metastatic lymph nodes, and a specific analysis pipeline was used to detect single nucleotide variants (SNVs), small insertions/deletions (indels) and copy number variants (CNVs). Results (1) We confirmed 30 candidate mutations in both primary and lymph nodes tissues, and other 7 only in primary tumors. (2) Copy number gains were observed in a large section of 17q12–21, as well as copy number losses in regions containing CDKN2A and CDKN2B in both primary and lymph nodes tissues. Conclusions Our results provide preliminary insights in the molecular mechanisms of GC initiation, development, and metastatic progression. These results need to be validated through large-scale studies