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Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) CO2 capture technology can be used to recover energy from municipal solid waste (MSW). In this study, techno-economic analysis of CLC of waste paper, PVC and their blends for electricity and heat generation was carried out. The process includes the chemical looping combustion section, carbon capture section and lastly, electricity generation section, and this was simulated using Chemcad software. Four scenarios were evaluated; IG-CLC (In-situ Gasification Chemical Looping Combustion) with electricity production only, and with combined heat and power (CHP), Chemical Looping Oxygen Uncoupling (CLOU) with electricity production and with combined heat and power (CHP). Based on a net capacity of 150 MW, the effect of waste paper, PVC and its blends on its net efficiency and LCOE was investigated for all four scenarios.

The present paper was prepared and submitted as part of the European Commission's public consultation to give stakeholders the opportunity to express their views on the questions raised and policy options proposed in the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence.

Using new transaction-level data for non-financial commercial paper (CP) in the U.S., we show that companies systematically reduce their outstanding short-term debt on quarterly and annual disclosure dates. Constraints on CP lending supply cannot explain this pattern. Instead, firms prefer repaying short-term debt over disclosing high cash holdings to signal that their cash is readily available and not trapped in foreign subsidiaries. Consistent with this interpretation, we show that firms with higher cash holdings, more sales in regions with tight capital controls, or with higher debt-equity ratios compared to industry peers reduce their short-term debt more aggressively at disclosure dates.

The pulping industry generates vast amounts of bark residues and wastewater treatment sludges, which are combined and stored for varying periods in stacks, often in the open air, prior to utilization for energy via combustion. In order to optimize the storage strategy, the effects of incorporating sludge into bark on heating value and storage-related environmental impacts were investigated in laboratory and outdoor studies. Biological degradation activity was found to be higher in treatments containing 25% sludge (B75S25) and 50% sludge (B50S50) on a fresh mass basis, in comparison with pure bark (B100). Mean monthly dry mass loss was 2.1% (B100), 3.3% (B75S25), and 3.7% (B50S50) in the laboratory and 2.7%, 4.2%, and 4.8%, respectively, outdoors. Sludge addition was found to maintain degradation activity at low temperatures (+ 3°C). Co-storage of sludge and bark led to loss of energy, mainly due to increased loss of biomass and increased moisture content. Overall, biomass moisture content governed the heating value. Cumulative methane emissions over the storage period were higher from the sludge-containing treatments than from pure bark, but emissions of nitrogen-containing gases (N2O and NH3) were negligible throughout. Sludge addition roughly halved the cumulative chemical oxygen demand (COD) of leachate and minimized its concentration of phosphate-P. However, larger amounts of inorganic elements were released to the percolating water from the sludge-containing treatments. Overall, these results indicate that finding alternative uses for the sludge fraction would be beneficial.

This paper is intended to be a very brief snapshot describing the discussion surrounding demand and supply and the NDIS. We contend that the use of descriptions of activities that are normally used to describe market activities represents a threat to outcomes of the Scheme because it misrepresents the relationship between consumers, suppliers and the NDIS. This situation in turn drives funding rationing policy suggesting that suppliers will respond to economic signals in the interest of consumers while suggesting that those consumers have economic power that they do not have—when the NDIA actually sets the decision framework. It is clear that the NDIA funds suppliers to provide supports and services to consumers who need those supports in order to live their lives and that the usual factors considered in markets economics, such as demand, supply and preference, do not apply. Additionally, in circumstances where the expectation is that they will apply, there is great risk that consumers will bear the brunt of negative outcomes, including that of not receiving services and supports.

Purpose Electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the most essential tools for detecting heart problems. Till today most of the ECG records are available in paper form. It can be challenging and time-consuming to manually assess the ECG paper records. Hence, automated diagnosis and analysis are possible if we digitize such paper ECG records. Methods The proposed work aims to convert ECG paper records into a 1-D signal and generate an accurate diagnosis of heart-related problems using deep learning. Camera-captured ECG images or scanned ECG paper records are used for the proposed work. Effective pre-processing techniques are used for the removal of shadow from the images. A deep learning model is used to get a threshold value that separates ECG signal from its background and after applying various image processing techniques threshold ECG image gets converted into digital ECG. These digitized 1-D ECG signals are then passed to another deep learning model for the automated diagnosis of heart diseases into different classes such as ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), Left Bundle Branch Block (LBBB), Right Bundle Branch Block (RBBB), and T-wave abnormality. Results The accuracy of deep learning-based binarization is 97%. Further deep learning-based diagnosis approach of such digitized paper ECG records was having an accuracy of 94.4%. Conclusions The digitized ECG signals can be useful to various research organizations because the trends in heart problems can be determined and diagnosed from preserved paper ECG records. This approach can be easily implemented in areas where such expertise is not available. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40846-021-00632-0.

On 15th December 2020 the Westminster Government published its long-awaited Green Paper on public procurement law, “Transforming Public Procurement”, setting out its vision for the UK’s post-Brexit regime. In a number of Working Papers and articles the author has set out her own vision for a post-Brexit regime, which proposed that new legislation should regulate not mainly to ensure open markets, as with the current EU-based rules, but also to secure other objectives, such as value for money and integrity; and set out seven (related) principles which it was suggested should underpin the reforms, namely: an open contracting approach; a single and uniform regime; significant legislative simplification involving a shift from hard to soft law; use of familiar concepts, rules and terminology where appropriate; a rebalancing of interests away from open market objectives towards value for money, sustainability and reduced procedural costs, and a related shift in regulatory strategy to increase flexibility; more effective and balanced enforcement; and a common framework across UK jurisdictions. The present Working Paper provides an assessment of the Green Paper from the perspective of the key themes and recommendations of these proposals. It is explained that the Green Paper proposals follows the above approach to a very large extent. It proposes bold reforms to make the system more flexible, more streamlined and more transparent, including proposals for refocusing objectives, open contracting, a single and uniform regime, significant simplification, enhanced flexibility, including free access to negotiation and substantial improvements to enforcement. However, this positive view does come with some reservations. In particular, there is inadequate treatment of the important issue of mechanisms for recurring purchase in the form of framework agreements, dynamic purchasing systems and qualification systems. Here the proposals have potential for significantly reducing, rather than increasing, flexibility, contrary to a key aim of the reform, but are not sufficiently clear or justified to provide a basis for meaningful consultation. A second reservation is in the area of remedies. While valuable reforms are proposed to speed up court cases and improve pre-contractual remedies, it seems unlikely that these proposals alone will ensure access to justice for smaller companies; and while the prospect of removing some cases from the courts is raised for the longer term, such a future reform is by no means guaranteed. Finally, it is disappointing that the vision of a single and uniform regime has not been extended beyond the four sets of procurement Regulations that derive from EU law, as there are no convincing reasons not to do this.

This position paper of the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition provides comments on the amendments proposed by the German Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection in its discussion draft of January 2020 on the modernization and simplification of the German Patent Act. While the Institute generally welcomes the initiative, the paper offers some suggestions aimed at increasing precision in the areas of first, the concept and the implementation of the proportionality test for granting injunctive relief, and, second, the need for enhanced protection of trade secrets in patent disputes. With regard to the proportionality assessment, the Institute suggests that, rather than reducing it to an application of the principle of good faith, the concept of proportionality should be interpreted and applied in light of the ratio legis of patent protection with a view to preventing dysfunctional effects potentially resulting from the exercise of the exclusive right and the associated claim to an injunction. Scenarios involving complex products, non-practicing entities and standard-essential patents are used to illustrate the approach. As regards the weighing and balancing of interests when assessing proportionality, the position paper argues that it is neither desirable nor appropriate to prioritize the interests of the patentee over those of the infringer as a matter of principle. In addition, it is not only the interests of parties to the dispute, but also those of third parties, in particular the public interest, that should be taken into account. With regard to the protection of trade secrets in patent disputes, the position paper refers to certain procedural insufficiencies of the Trade Secrets Act to adequately protect the defendant’s secrecy interests. It also points out a potential loophole in relation to the ‘Dusseldorf proceedings’ that may facilitate ‘fishing expeditions’.

This white paper utilises the observations and comments of a wide range of stakeholders and research about the implementation of the NDIS and its impact on the Australian Disability Services System. It is also informed by international experience and academic literature focused on economic models and policy frameworks that are similar to the NDIS. It has been six years since the commencement of the NDIS and it is now timely to step back and objectively assess what has and has not been achieved, including in terms of the 63 reports published that are relevant to the NDIS. In this context, this white paper is focused on describing a policy and practice framework necessary to realising the objectives of the Australian community in funding the Australian Disability Services System. Among other things, many policy leaders, stakeholders, even service users have taken for granted that market solutions will result in better services and outcomes for people with disability, while also improving the efficiency of supply and value for money for taxpayers.

In February 2020 the EU published its white paper on ‘Artificial Intelligence: A European approach to excellence and trust’. This is likely to form the core of future policy and legislation within the EU and as such will have global impact on standards and norms. In this comment piece we survey the five sections of the white paper and then critically examine three themes, namely, i. regulatory signalling, ii. the risk-based approach, and, iii. the auditing styles. The key takeaway is that the white paper, and the EU’s strategy at large, is ambiguous and lacks vision, which, if unchecked, is likely to have a negative impact on EU competitiveness in the development of AI solutions and services.

Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) are the futuristic microfluidic paper-based analytical diagnostic devices that are utilized to perform the laboratory-based test (ex: water, blood, urine, etc..,) at the user location. Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (μPADs) are known as a robust analytical platform that can fulfil the stipulations. This analysis aims to offer a detailed assessment of the μPADs that are advanced for the estimation of vital water pH values. The significant challenge for users with the μPAD based diagnostic is that, the user is unable to evaluate the precise outcome of the diagnostic result. Here, the water pH diagnostic test is considered on the μPADs, since water pollutant is a severe environmental hassle that affect thousands of humans and as a result it increases the demand for common water first-class monitoring. The necessity for analytical systems that merge extreme sensibleness, selectivity and accuracy with low cost, portability and consumer friendliness remains as a prominent part. This research work proposes a technique to detect the pH value of the water by acquiring the images of the tested μPADs, extract the shape of the test zone area and perform colourimetric analysis to determine the pH value of the test zone area on scale 0-13. The main advantages of the μPADs are comparatively low cost and accessible abundance, reduce the overall cost of testing, and reduce the number of visits to the research laboratory.

Due to the size and complexity of the NDIS reform, there has been a wealth of commentary and analysis developed by the government, academia and industry groups; sometimes in collaboration. In this document we identify and summarise 84 reports representing grey literature developed up to 2020 and relating to the NDIS, its management and the economic, social and policy milieu in which it operates.

The EU White Paper on AI mentions healthcare as one of the sectors where AI applications might pose high risks. These comments provide the vision on the regulatory framework for high-risk healthcare AI applications. The key takeaways concern transparency, preventing bias, safety and quality of AI applications used for medical purposes. I suggest that the transparency of AI shall not be equated to its explainability. To increase transparency and ensure the safety of AI healthcare applications, cooperation between manufacturers and users of AI (healthcare providers) shall be improved. I highlight that biased AI decisions alert on the inaccuracy of algorithms. While discrimination and stigmatization are difficult to identify and prove, especially for AI and especially for healthcare, controlling of AI’s accuracy is an efficient tool to prevent and mitigate biases in AI systems. Finally, I briefly compare the two regulations that might apply to AI tools in healthcare - the Medical Devices Regulation (EU) 2017/745 (MDR) and the In-vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation (EU) 2017/746 (IVDR). I conclude that the IVDR is more tailored to AI characteristics while it is more detailed and more focused on data quality and relevance. Thus, the IVDR rules can be a good starting point for clarifying and implementing a regulatory framework for high-risk AI healthcare applications.

This short position paper was presented at the Meeting of the OECD Network of Experts on Artificial Intelligence (ONE AI) held in Paris on 26-27 February 2020. It argues that public and collective governance, including through collective bargaining, is urgently needed to prevent the most invasive uses of Artificial Intelligence and algorithmic management and surveillance over workers. Tools such as GPS-based wearable devices that monitor workers' position at the workplace and collect data on particularly private information, including workers' heartbeats and emotional status call for immediate action from regulators and social partners. Surveillance practices should be limited to indispensable cases and transparency of data collection and processes should be safeguarded, also to rule out the many possible discriminatory consequences of management-by-algorithm.

The National Performance Benchmarking Project undertaken by Not-for-profits UWA personnel produced three annual sustainability reports analyzing service providers working in the Australian Disability Services Sector, each published in 2016, 2017 and 2019. This work also contributed to the National Disability Services Annual State of the Sector Reports.3 The data collected, and which continues to be collected, does not assist analysists in identifying prospective causes of service breakdown. However, the findings in these reports highlighted a number of areas which can be indicators of vulnerability in the context of the roll out of the NDIS — this document discusses these indicators and we have referred to them as “Proxies for Risk”. We consider them to be the first line of defense in the context of avoiding a breakdown in sustainability of service delivery as the NDIS rolls out and experimentation leads to learnings. The purpose of this Green Paper is to examine the proxies for risk identified out of the project and to provide a short-form analysis of the extent to which these proxies suggest that potential risks are being faced by service users in the NDIS. We also suggest that these proxies should be reviewed bi-annually or annually.

Our research objective is making quantum computing real with Qiskit for USAF-Pentagon JADC2 (Joint All Domain Command & Control) thus contributing to USAF-DoD core missions. JADC2 is the US Air Force led and Joint Staff coordinated key effort central to Joint Services C4I-ISR and C2 (Command & Control) integration enabling the new Joint Warfighting Concept for All-Domain Operations. The resulting ‘New American Way of War’ is anticipated to yield “significant advantage over everybody in the world for a long time” according to the Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General John Hyten.

In April 2019, the U.K. released a white paper about Online Harms. The White Paper proposes to take Internet censorship to a new height, essentially unmatched by any other Western democracy. It’s a sign of how comprehensive censorship has moved beyond repressive regimes to become trendy even in leading republican democracies. To redress a wide range of anti-social online activity, the White Paper seeks to tightly circumscribe user-generated content — so tightly that only a small number Internet giants will be able to profitably publish user-generated content. Other Internet publishers will be pushed towards licensing professional content and cover those costs by charging subscriber fees to consumers. Thus, the White Paper will produce a reconfigured Internet 3.0 that will resemble the cable TV industry, not the current Internet we know and love. This essay addresses three main points. It first deconstructs the some of the “facts” the White Paper uses to justify its censorious ideas. Then it highlights some of the proposals’ worst policy aspects. The essay concludes by explaining how the White Paper will reshape the Internet and kill off most user-generated content.

We examine voluntary disclosures made by issuers of initial coin offerings (ICOs) in their “white papers” and use them to rate the blockchain technology being developed by the ICO issuers. First, we find that most ICOs receive a low rating. In fact, over 80% of the ICOs do not need to use a blockchain. Second, ICO projects with a higher rating raised more funds than their counterparts, after controlling for other project-, issuer-, and token-related features. Third, ICOs with a high rating are more likely to have their digital coins/tokens listed on a cryptocurrency exchange within 180 days after their ICO end dates. Finally, results indicate that providing technical details in the white paper can be an effective way to signal the quality of an ICO project. Overall, these results are consistent with ICO token buyers/investors taking into consideration the underlying blockchain technology of the ICO projects when making their purchasing/investing decisions. Since the white paper is the main source of ICO information, our findings imply that the credibility of this information is important to protect the interests of ICO buyers/investors and to ensure the long-term viability of the ICO as a capital-raising tool for blockchain-based ventures.

This White Paper provides a summary of the insights gathered at the Oxford Impact Roundtables (OIR) in 2018 and 2019 and proposes a structured frame for the evaluation of the most popular sustainability accounting, reporting and valuation approaches and their relation to one another. Through this we hope to identify synergies and complementarities of different frameworks and enable a better understanding of these by internal and external audiences. Specifically, this paper considers the following frameworks: Sustainability Reporting, Triple Bottom Line, Integrated Reporting, Impact Valuation, Integrated Profit and Loss accounting (Integrated P+L) and the Mutual Profit and Loss statement (Mutual P+L). Recognizing that a multitude of frameworks exist and are in use, we have focused our analysis on those that are most frequently used and relevant for the context of the OIR participants.

This document seeks to respond to the questions raised by the Australian Human Rights Commission and World Economic Forum in their ‘Artificial Intelligence: governance and leadership’ White Paper consultation. It draws upon some of the research conducted at the Allens Hub to make suggestions about if and how systems involving some component of artificial intelligence or automation should be regulated. It also seeks to create further clarity regarding the potential structure and functions of the proposed Responsible Innovation Organisation. We note that our research does not relate to all the questions asked in the White Paper consultation, and so we only set out answers in relation to those matters where our research may be relevant. We are otherwise grateful for the opportunity to present our views and hope this submission will help the Australian Human Rights Commission and World Economic Forum in their consideration.

This White Paper analyzes the proposed “No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2019” (NOPEC). This legislation, which has been introduced in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, addresses the antitrust issues involved in allowing the Department of Justice to sue the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), their member states, their state owned oil companies (SOEs), nonmember states and their SOEs, and private companies for their participation in an international cartel that has long been involved in regulating the production and distribution of oil and other petroleum products. The White Paper begins with a background discussion of the participants in the oil cartel. The paper then describes in detail the proposed legislation. The paper discusses how prior suits against OPEC have failed as courts have applied several substantive law doctrines — comity, Act of State, and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act — as well as rules on service of process under the Federal Rules of Civil procedure, to turn away the four private cases that have been filed. The paper then addresses how NOPEC is directed at removing the substantive defenses that have blocked the private party litigation and that might block litigation filed by the Justice Department. The bill removes the substantive law blocks, although an issue might remain if the Department brings a criminal prosecution, but NOPEC does not address the procedural issue of service of process. The White Paper concludes that NOPEC is an important part of a worldwide effort to stop international cartels that harm consumers and reduce economic welfare.

The purpose of this submission is to address the list of questions posed by the Australian Human Rights Commissioner on the White Paper Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Leadership (2019). It is an interim submission, and a final submission will be made later. Some main points of the interim submission, stated in summary, are: 1) The main goals of government regulation in the area of artificial intelligence include: a. ‘Regulation’ must not be confused with economic enablement and stimulation. Both may be legitimate in relation to AI, but the same organisation must not be given responsibility for both, as they involve an inherent potential for conflict of interests. b. Attempts to ‘pick winners’ or to encourage governments to do so should be avoided. Focus on principles, not products. c. Encourage Australian input into the global development of standards for, ethics of, and treaties concerning, AI development and use. d. Legislate where necessary to prevent the most harmful uses of AI. e. It should be assumed that some regulation (possibly including co-regulation) will be necessary. f. The general objectives of the regulation of AI are primarily the protection of human rights and the protecting of competition. 2) There is no Australian policy-oriented organisation with a permanent high level of expertise in AI-related technologies, and certainly no such organisation which does not have potentially conflicting industry development objectives. 3) There would be value in Australia creating such a new policy-oriented organisation, with a limited life-span, but ‘Responsible Innovation Organisation’ (RIO) is a completely inappropriate title, as it suggests that the body has a role in promoting innovation (ie industry development), either by itself or as part of some larger economically-oriented organisation, which will inevitably dominate and distort its views. We should consider approaches taken by other national governments. 4) Many Australian organisations would find it valuable to have an Australian policy-oriented organisation recommending international standards for Australian adoption, or assisting in the developing of Australian standards. 5) Strictly econometric measures of the ‘business case’ for such policy-oriented organisations are not possible or desirable. 6) The desirable goals for such an organisation are set out in (i) above. a. It should primarily encourage and assist other Australian organisations to provide inputs into development of standards and ethics (internationally and in Australia), including by funding assistance where necessary. It should have the capacity to make such inputs itself, when needed. b. A board of part-time Commissioners, with one full-time Commissioner, is desirable. It should be a stand-alone organisation, as it would not fit comfortably within other organisations c. Public funding is more desirable, as the costs will be modest. Joint funding by industry prevents very grave risks of regulatory capture. d. It should provide an annual report to Parliament, and communicate its work between reports via a variety of Internet channels.

The Cross Border Benefits Alliance-Europe (www.CBBA-Europe.eu) believes that the manner in which the Dutch government transposed article 12 paragraph 3 of the Directive (EU) 2016/2341, better known as the “IORP 2” Directive, to be inconsistent with EU law. Article 12(3) IORP 2, refers to cross border transfers of pension schemes, provides for prior approval of a majority of members and beneficiaries, and allows member states to define such a majority “in accordance with national law”. The Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs, however, is currently requiring a majority of 2/3 of both the members and beneficiaries for such approval. Such a “super-majority” requirement not only creates a significant obstacle to cross-border transfers of Dutch based pension schemes, which is the apparent purpose of new IORP 2; but it also violates the EU principle of non-discrimination based on nationality of the pension scheme1 , which is a pillar of EU law, because it would generate an unequal treatment between domestic transfers of pension schemes in the Netherlands, and cross border transfers to pension schemes in other parts of the European Economic Area. CBBA-Europe believes that the most reasonable interpretation of the sentence “in accordance with national law” should be in the sense that the same majorities of members and beneficiaries requested to approve transfers of domestic transfers provided by national laws, should be equally applicable to cross border transfers. Unequal treatments between national and European situations might be legally acceptable only if justified. One possible argument would be the aim of protecting members and beneficiaries in case of cross border transfers due to unclarity and/or shortcomings of the Directive. However, in the view of CBBA-Europe, the provisions of the IORP 2 Directive sufficiently protect members and beneficiaries in these situations. Therefore, majority requirements unreasonably strict, or in any way higher than the national rules on transfers are not justified.

This submission is to the Committee of Experts on a Data Protection Framework for India on its White Paper, structured around the ‘Provisional Views’ set out by the Committee in each Chapter of the White Paper. A few of the main points made in the Submission are as follows. The White Paper mistakenly assumes ‘that there are two distinct models in the field of data protection’, an EU model, and a US model, whereas in fact over 120 countries have enacted data privacy laws, and the current global standard of data privacy laws even outside Europe, is closer to the EU Directive than the OECD Guidelines. There is one global standard – and then there is the US, increasingly isolated. As a result of the Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy decision, India’s position is, in general, the same as the EU’s position: privacy is a fundamental inalienable right, with the ability of governments to derogate from it requiring considerable justification. There are many other reasons why India should adopt a global ‘gold standard’ data privacy law, but Puttaswamy also adds an element of necessity. In addition, a new data protection law for India, coupled with Puttaswamy’s implications, will create a completely new opportunity to obtain a positive ‘adequacy’ finding from the EU. More specific submissions concerning the White Paper’s approach include the following: • The White Paper is deficient in not sufficiently recognizing the role of privacy by design and default. • Indian governments need to allocate sufficient resources to fund data protection authorities (DPAs) with ‘sufficient capacity’ to effectively administer data protection at both national and state levels. • India should assert jurisdiction where goods and services are offered remotely to those in India, or where there is a business with an establishment in India, and consider including processing which involves monitoring activities of persons in India, from outside India. • Some limited exemptions from the law, in both the public and private sectors, should apply but should have to meet the tests set out in Puttaswamy. • The standard international definition of ‘personal data’, based on identifiability, needs to be extended somewhat to provide protection against technologies which include information enabling interactions with the person on the basis of their personal characteristics, even without identifiability. • Extra protection for categories of ‘sensitive information’ should apply to biometic data, and any identifiers of general application (including Aadhaar). • India should deal with data export limitations in a way similar to the EU’s ‘adequacy’ approach, with its DPA having the ability to determine which countries meet such criteria. An Indian DPA could also decide to trust the decisions concerning adequacy that are made by one or more other international data protection authorities (e.g., under EU or Council of Europe instruments). • Data minimisation (‘the practice of limiting the collection of personal information to that which is necessary to accomplish a specified purpose’) has not been made irrelevant by technological developments, and should be re-asserted. • If a ‘reasonable expectations’ test is used as means of determining what are compatible / incompatible proposed additional uses of data, it is important these do not include ‘expectations’ that are formed because of what data controllers say they intend to do with data, irrespective of whether data subjects wish such uses to be made. • Both (i) automatic deletion or de-identification, and (ii) deletion on request are now recognised as normal rights of data subjects, and should be part of India’s law. • Data portability is a necessary new right, with social networks, and with any other online systems where individuals have invested a considerable amount of time in curating information produced by themselves (UGC, user-generated content). • The White Paper is mistaken in its support for co-regulatory models, which have had little successful take-up anywhere in the world. ‘Flexibility’ can be achieved by other means. • Adjudication officers (AOs) under the IT Act do not have the necessary independence to investigate government, and the existing system has been a complete failure in relation to privacy issues. • It is reasonable to require data subjects to complain first to data controllers only when those data subjects have an easily identifiable Data Protection Officer (DPO) or grievance redressal officer. Otherwise, data subjects should have the option to approach the DPA directly. • Data subjects should always have the right to appeal to a court/tribunal against the actions of a DPA, even when the DPA has not made a formal ‘decision’. • Where the DPA takes suo moto (on its own motion) action it is essential that the DPA can exercise all of the same remedial actions it can take when it receives a complaint. • The Indian government needs to give sufficient resources and independence not only to its DPA, but also to the body that hears appeals from the DPA. The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appeals Tribunal (TDSAT) is a dubious choice. • Both civil penalties and compensation are now part of most modern data privacy laws. • There is no reason why the DPA itself cannot award compensation, with a right of appeal to a court or tribunal. It will not help India to develop good data protection policies, and consistent remedies, if initial investigation of some complaints is done by the DPA, and others by the NCDRC. • The preferable approach to civil penalties (fines) is that the DPA set fines subject to an upper limit linked to a variable parameter such as a percentage of the annual turnover of the defaulting data controller.

This position paper recommends the stand that representatives from civil society from Africa should take on the fight against Illicit Financial Flows (IFF). It is envisaged that tackling IFF from Africa requires reform of international corporate taxation. This tax system has many loopholes, and Transnational Corporations (TNCs) have exploited them. Profit shifting, and transfer pricing remain the primary drivers of corporate tax practices that facilitate IFF. Yet, these practices have not been adequately dealt with at both the international and regional fora. Estimates from the African Development Bank reveal that IFF have resulted in corporate tax losses in excess of a trillion dollars from Africa since 1980. The Tax Justice Network (TJN) and the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department estimate these losses at $500bn and $200bn respectively per annum. In 2015, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) published its High Level Panel Report on Illicit Financial Flows (HLP Report) in which it reported that Africa is losing more than $50 billion annually in IFFs. The Report asserted that this estimate may well fall short of reality because accurate data does not exist for all African countries, and these estimates often exclude some forms of IFFs that by nature are secret and cannot be properly estimated, such as proceeds of bribery and trafficking of drugs, people and firearms as well as corruption. In July 2018, at the High Level Policy Dialogue on Development Planning in Africa the Head of Development Planning and Statistics at the Economic Commission for Africa reported that $100 billion a year is illegally earned, transferred, or used due to mis-invoicing. These Tax losses resulting from IFF have become too serious to neglect anymore.

All forty-four states with corporate income taxes must consider how to respond to changes that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made to the federal corporate tax treatment of multinational corporations. In particular, the states must consider how to respond to two new anti-base erosion provisions at the federal level: GILTI and the BEAT. Here are a few of the options: 1) The states can choose not to conform to these provisions. 2) The states can choose to piggy-back on these provisions with little change. 3) The states can choose to piggy-back on these provisions, but do so strategically. That is, a state could choose to institute superior versions of these taxes. There is a lot of room for improvement. 4) The states can also choose to go back to the future and require mandatory worldwide combined reporting. This White Paper presents several reasons for why now is the time to consider mandatory worldwide combination and proposes specific helpful reforms.

The tension between the protection of Traditional Knowledge and IP frameworks is being exacerbated by digital technologies that have made the creation, dissemination, appropriation and remixing of knowledge and cultural artifacts easier than ever before. Indigenous communities’ preservation efforts and control over traditional knowledge sometimes also seem to conflict with the ‘open’ ecosystem, which consists of organizations, communities, and individuals supporting open and free culture, open licensing and access to knowledge. This is because traditional knowledge is often perceived as being part of the public domain by default, when it is not. In particular, the sharing of cultural works related to indigenous communities through open licenses needs to be better understood. Traditional knowledge does not always fit into open licensing structures. It also seems to conflict with the ‘open’ ecosystem. This potential conflict raises questions about the best ways to share and disseminate Traditional Knowledge using open licenses. This paper focuses on the divide between Creative Commons policies and tools and traditional knowledge to which copyright may be applicable. Part I will provide an overview of the contestations between traditional knowledge and conventional IP systems. Part II will explore the tensions between openness and traditional knowledge. It will attempt to reconcile the two by highlighting examples where various strategies were applied to assuage the concerns of Indigenous communities and where open licenses might find a place.

The Internet of Things (IoT) based remote monitoring of the environment gained tremendous attention from researchers. Wireless monitoring is offered through the IoT-enabled technologies under applications like Intelligent Transport System (ITS), healthcare, home automation, precision agriculture, etc. The working of IoT applications has been the basis on different kinds regards sensor nodes that were deployed for field data sensing & transmitting through a base station (BS). The Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)- assisted IoT networks to suffer from two challenges like energy-efficiency & various security threats such as sinkhole, black hole, Daniel of Service attacks, etc. This survey paper, studying the recent security measures to protect communications from such attackers. A systematic review conducted on lightweight security solutions like trust-based & probe route-based mechanisms under this research. Comparative analysis of such methods presented in terms of security technique, attacks, performance metrics, etc. The outputs of this paper have been critics of research observed through the comparative analysis of reviewed methods.

Augmented Reality (AR) systems have seen a rapid adaptation in both training and in virtual assembly instructions. AR systems assist the operator by enhancing user perception of reality, reducing the defects, and lead-time. However, there is a significant lack in the existing literature to compare AR systems and conventional work instructions. The aim of this research is to provide an empirical evidence of comparing task completion time, number of errors, workload index and system usability of AR and conventional paper-based work instructions. For this purpose, we designed an experiment where participants use paper based instructions and AR instructions to assemble a planetary gearbox. The task was assessed using NASA-TLX and System Usability Scale (SUS) tests, which allowed further analysis using descriptive statistics. Moreover, the qualitative interview at the end of the experiment gave more insights about participant’s overall experience.

Academic reading, a form of active reading, often involves interaction with the text. Highlighting and annotating are some of the most common strategies of interacting with academic texts, yet we have limited understanding of exactly how such interaction affects reading comprehension in digital versus analog reading environments. In this paper, we compare how university students (N=50) interact with a digital and a physical text, focusing on highlights and annotations. We compare reading speed, interaction with, and subsequent memory of the texts. We make nine observations about reading speed, highlighting frequency and memory scores between paper and laptop. We find indications that highlighting and annotating when reading a digital text has a higher impact on memory than when reading a paper text, and suggest that the main challenge for designers of digital reading support tools appears to be better designs for active annotation.

Paper Series VII discusses Arrangement or compromise between two or more companies, the provisions applicable to schemes or contract involving the transfer of shares in a company, the provisions applicable to dissenting shareholders. Further, the Paper Series considers Arrangement on sale of company’s property during members’ voluntary winding-up, power to compromise with creditors and members and then the moratorium on creditors voluntary winding-up in a scheme of arrangement.

This study explored the impact of firm and entrepreneurship characteristics such as age, size, manager’s education, business plan, the form of business and gender, on influencing SMEs' access to funding. There are different researchers through their study, evidence that some SMEs may still face difficulties in accessing bank finance. This paper reports an in-depth study into demand issues relating to access to bank finance by Kosovo SMEs and whether there is still a market failure. This paper discusses the ability of SMEs to access debt finance from the commercial banks in Kosovo obtained through questionnaires with 500 SMEs , it reports findings that SMEs had reported having difficulty raising finance and secondary data obtained from magazines, books, and the Internet to review literature. The results show that there is a mutual correlation between firms' ages, business plans, and size and access to credit in Kosovo banks. These characteristics of firms are very important and influential factors in the banks' decision to approve loans required by SMEs. This paper provides some important conclusions for the Kosovo financial system and policymakers to implement SME support and policies.

This policy paper assesses the financial and operational effectiveness of the government's efforts to reduce the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business and strengthen the social protection of the poor during this period, and puts forth proposals for relevant government agencies. The research for the preparation of this document studied the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in foreign countries, especially those rich in natural resources, and the best practices of developed countries. The paper ends with a section on conclusions and proposals.

Paper Series IV is the centrepiece of this Paper Series that evaluate the new Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020 and its innovations and the implications they have for corporate finance and securities transactions, given that it considers company’s securities, which are the financial instruments traded or exchanged or hedged in virtually all finance and securities transactions. Company’s securities are the basis or the foundation of every company with shares. Securities include shares, debentures, debenture stock, bonds, notes (other than promissory notes) and units under a unit trust scheme. This Paper Series IV(A) discusses Company’s Securities, particularly in respect of shares, share capital, disclosure of person with significant control and shares transactions.

In China, HSS master students are becoming the main target of Chinese-language predatory journals. Existing research has not paid attention to why the HSS master students publish papers in Chinese-language predatory journals. This research interviewed 13 HSS (Humanities and Social Sciences) master students with different majors using the semi-structured interview method, then used GT to analyze the data and found that research discrimination, research context, self-awareness and individual demand are the main reasons why HSS master students publish papers in Chinese-language predatory journals. This research suggests that universities, colleges, and research institutions establish mechanisms for evaluating the quality of researcher’s papers, and no longer value the number of papers.

This White Paper summarises currently available empirical data about attitudes and opinions of citizens and state actors regarding cybersecurity. The data emerges from reports of EU projects, Eurobarometer surveys, policy documents of state actors and additional scientific papers. It describes what these stakeholders generally think, what they feel, and what they do about cyber threats and security (counter)measures. For citizens’ perspectives, three social spheres of particular interest are examined: 1) health, 2) business, 3) police and national security.

This White Paper summarizes the current state of discussion regarding the main technological challenges in cybersecurity and impact of those, including ways and approaches to addressing them, on key fundamental values. It provides an overview on current cybersecurity threads and countermeasures and focuses on ethical dilemmas that emerge when counteracting those threads. It also points to the fact that the cybersecurity community relies much more on interpersonal relations when sharing intelligence and data than in explicit national or supranational regulations. Furthermore, the White Paper presents advanced cryptographic techniques and data anonymization techniques that may help to solve or minimize some of the ethical dilemmas.

In August 2017, the Supreme Court of India’s landmark judgment in Puttaswamy v. Union of India affirmed that the right to privacy is a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution. In Puttaswamy v. Union of India, the various opinions have observed that informational privacy is an important aspect of such privacy in this day and age. As arguments were made in this case, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), Government of India also set up a Committee of Experts to identify key data protection issues in India and recommend methods of addressing them. MEITY and the Committee of Experts have now issued a white paper which recognises the need for comprehensive data protection regulations that incorporate established data protection principles. Public comments and consultations have been called for on the basis of this paper, as we gear up to build on the fundamental right to privacy and put in place strong data protection laws to protect personal data. In this paper we analyse the only existing ‘comprehensive’ data protection rules in India, i.e. the Information Technology (Reasonable security practices and procedures and sensitive personal data or information) Rules, 2011 (“Rules”), issued under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”). The paper examines the provisions of the IT Act and the Rules that provide for the protection of personal data, the kind of personal data that they apply to, as well as some of the criticisms of these provisions and their enforcement.

This White Paper outlines how the ethical discourse on cybersecurity has developed in the scientific literature, which ethical issues gained interest, which value conflicts are discussed, and where the “blind spots” in the current ethical discourse on cybersecurity are located. The White Paper is based on an extensive literature with a focus on three reference domains with unique types of value conflicts: health, business/finance and national security. For each domain, a systematic literature search has been performed and the identified papers have been analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods. An important observation is that the ethics of cybersecurity not an established subject. In all domains, cybersecurity is recognized as being an instrumental value, not an end in itself, which opens up the possibility of trade-offs with different values in different spheres. The most prominent common theme is the existence of trade-offs and even conflicts between reasonable goals, for example between usability and security, accessibility and security, privacy and convenience. Other prominent common themes are the importance of cybersecurity to sustain trust (in institutions), and the harmful effect of any loss of control over data.

In our response, ‘More Teeth Needed for Corporate Governance Reforms’, to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Green Paper on Corporate Governance Reform we propose an eight point reform agenda which aims in the direction of giving the existing and/or reformed corporate governance system more teeth.

Hyperlinks are a powerful tool for journalists and their readers. Diving deep into the context of an article is just a click away. But hyperlinks are a double-edged sword; for all of the internet’s boundlessness, what’s found on the web can also be modified, moved, or entirely disappeared. This often-irreversible decay of web content is commonly known as linkrot. It comes with a similar problem of content drift, or the often-unannounced changes––retractions, additions, replacement––to the content at a particular URL. Our team of researchers at Harvard Law School has undertaken a project to gain insight into the extent and characteristics of journalistic linkrot and content drift. We examined hyperlinks in New York Times articles starting with the launch of the Times website in 1996 up through mid-2019, developed on the basis of a dataset provided to us by the Times. We focus on the Times not because it is an influential publication whose archives are often used to help form a historical record. Rather, the substantial linkrot and content drift we find here across the New York Times corpus accurately reflects the inherent difficulties of long-term linking to pieces of a volatile web. Results show a near linear increase of linkrot over time, with interesting patterns emerging within certain sections of the paper or across top level domains. Over half of articles containing at least one URL also contained a dead link. Additionally, of the ostensibly “healthy” links existing in articles, a hand review revealed additional erosion to citations via content drift.

As part of its corporate financing strategy, a company may raise capital through debt securities and these could be by mortgage of real property or chattels, debenture, bond, promissory notes, and bill of exchange made or accepted on behalf of the company by an authorized person etc. For purposes of this Paper Series IV(B), emphasis is placed on Company’s Debt Securities, particularly on debentures, debenture trust deed and realization of security.

This paper describes the role that data portability and interoperability measures can play in promoting competition both within and among digital platforms. In particular, these measures can address consumer lock-in, promote unbundling, and enable multi-homing. However, they will not be effective in every market, and in some cases may unintentionally hamper competition. The implementation of portability and interoperability measures with regards to digital platforms is still limited in some cases, and at its early stages in others. However, these limited experiences point to some lessons learned. In particular, the objective of portability and interoperability measures matters. When implemented with objectives other than competition (such as data protection), these measures may not have procompetitive impacts unless designed with market dynamics in mind. Further, these measures may have unintended consequences if they create new entry barriers or entrench incumbent technologies. In addition, implementation mechanisms will be determinative of the effectiveness of these measures; for example, competition authority or independent third party oversight may be needed to set interoperability standards and adjudicate disputes. Looking forward, the competition concerns motivating data portability and interoperability may be observed in a growing array of sectors, ranging from automobiles to finance. Promoting competition in the design of these measures, or proposing their implementation in order to encourage competition, may therefore be of increasing importance for the competition policy community.

Some brand-new and innovative provisions in the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020 (‘the Act’) with enormous implications for a company's corporate financing strategy are those on the substantial property or asset transactions involving directors, controlling members etc. The Act also provides the procedure for major asset transactions; and situations where the protection of the interest of minority members affected by such transactions will become paramount. Paper Series V examines the provisions of the Act on major property transactions by directors and controlling members. Further, it discusses the procedure for major asset transactions and the protection of the interest of minority affected by these transactions or the way the affairs of the company is managed.

This study was entitled Catalyst and Transparency; An analysis of the Campus Paper Function as a Watchdog. The study reveals that the publication is inconsistently complying with all standards of journalism because of some major problems like the fear of being personal attacks, lack of funds, and beginner in the field of campus journalism. However, this reveals the improvement of the publication in excelling from the various competitions and also in the releases. Campus publication is realized as citizens’ journalism outside, this plays a vital role in shaping the discipline and awareness need of the students. Ethics and standards of journalism should be part of the training and learning of every students’ journalist. This research study was conducted to analyze the efficiency of the CLSU Collegian in terms of practicing the standards of journalism. This also reviewed the status of the publication in the present situation and the continuation of listing the important accounts of the publication from the year 2011-2015. It also examines the engagement of the staffers of the CLSU Collegian in the elements of journalism, knows the workings of the press. The problems they encountered and solutions they made in practicing the elements of journalism. Key informant interview, focus group discussion, archival research, and library research are the major methods that the researcher do, to validate the data that are being collected the study adapted the triangulation process.

To determine “what works, for whom, and under what conditions,” interventions need to be studied in diverse and heterogeneous samples. At an international scope, this degree of heterogeneity is unlikely in a single study and instead requires conducting multiple studies of the same intervention across the globe. In this paper, we provide an overview of the infrastructure required to coordinate such a series of studies, including the methodological and measurement developments that would be needed. We also discuss implications of this shared focus for the design of individual studies and the analyses of outcomes across studies. Throughout, we situate these needs in the context of developing a teacher mindset intervention that is intended to be implemented broadly in classrooms around the world.

Development outcomes in the digital era are closely tied to the ability of countries to harness the data value chain and ensure fair and just digital economies. However, as things stand, the digital economy is anything but equitable. IT for Change’s two-year regional project, Unskewing the Data Value Chain: A Policy Research Project for Equitable Platform Economies aims to assess current policy gaps and explore new policy directions on data value chains that can promote equitable and inclusive economic development. As part of the call for researchers to build the project's global research network, IT for Change published a background paper that lays the ground for researchers to investigate policy frameworks and evolve scholarly reflections on future directions for the governance of data value chains.

On November 5, 2020, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance in the Department of Labor issued new rules codifying the procedures it will use to resolve equal employment issues. First, this paper summarizes the new rules focusing on how the agency will use and evaluate statistical evidence in its monitoring of government contractors’ compliance with equal employment laws. After noting the diminished role of statistical evidence in the new rules, the likely effect of them on the use of statistical data and analyses in equal employment proceedings are explored. The logical and statistical reasoning underlying several aspects of the new rules are also questioned. Because the new rules refer to a report of the Chamber of Commerce that, in part, criticized the agency from bringing a case against a firm, data from the case are re-analyzed. The statistical analysis provides support for the position of OFCCP