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Although the new J-ISIS software from UNESCO, based on Berkeley DB and Lucene technology, complies with some of the technical requirements as seen necessary for digital library applications, an easy way of building collections so far was not available. The purpose of this paper is to give a report on some necessary DL technological requirements, such as the capability to deal with any metadata structure and alphabets and full-text indexing of documents of any length, and how J-ISIS can deal with these, as well as on the production of the DL interface for digital library applications based on Tika technology.

A brief comparison is made with a well-established DL software, i.e. Greenstone Digital Library, regarding the concepts and performance.

While using a quite different architecture and approach, the test shows that J-ISIS can process the documents faster and with more economical storage efficiency, inviting UNESCO to invest more into it in order to allow incorporation of some more advanced features like Greenstone's capability to process intra-document segments and images, but also to allow for new exciting features for digital libraries such as interactivity.

The research is based on the J-ISIS prototype implementation of digital library technology and could only be tested on a limited set of documents.

Librarians interested in building digital library collections, esp. when doing this integrated with their library systems and catalogs, have a viable new option now within the FOSS-market.

This is the first description on J-ISIS for digital libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to study the development of one country two systems of Hong Kong over two decades and examine its challenges and prospect. One country two systems is pragmatic and compromise principle and social arrangement for Hong Kong under China sovereignty. It has served to resolve some issues related to the future of Hong Kong after the end of British Colonial rule since July 1, 1997. There are lessons to be learnt as the merits and flaws of the system have been identified in the study as perceived from the perspective of social development.

The paper is based on quantitative methodology. Data of public opinion polls conducted by various local universities on the development of one country two systems of Hong Kong have been employed in the study. Based on the data obtained from the relevant survey, different aspects of social development of Hong Kong under one country two systems has been examined and explored. Data are current and up-to-date to reflect the social mood of Hong Kong people toward one country two systems over the years.

The challenges and prospect of one country two systems of Hong Kong over two decades since the change of sovereignty have been identified in this paper. Hong Kong has remained the moist free market and the third financial center in the world. However, the high degree of self-autonomy as stipulated in the Basic Law has been fading way. There is social discontent of Hong Kong people on social and political grounds and there are high sense of mistrust to both Hong Kong SAR (HKSAR) government and the Central government in Beijing. This will provide a guideline to the government for improving the situation.

The study is based on data obtained from various public opinion conducted by several local university on the development of one country two systems and how Hong Kong people feel about it. The data are current and up-to-date. However, there will be variation of findings as social mood and perception of Hong Kong people toward one country two systems may change due to the changes of social and political events. With these limitations, one needs to be careful while drawing the conclusion. Yet, the over trend of social development of Hong Kong can be seen.

The study will provide an overall view and assessment of one country two systems of Hong Kong over two decades after the change of sovereignty since July 1, 1997. The findings and discussion of social mobility, quality of life, income disparity, social and political movement and ethnic identity and its changes in recent years of people in Hong Kong are rather revealing. It will provide a reality check and yardstick for people who are concerned about Hong Kong society and its people under China sovereignty.

The study and its findings will provide a useful guideline for people who are concerned about how Hong Kong people live under China sovereignty. Hong Kong to most of Hong Kong people is on longer a borrow place living under the borrowed time. The former British Colonial rule has been replaced by HKSAR government rule under China sovereignty. There is a high degree of mistrust toward both HKSAR government and the Central government in Beijing. People in Hong Kong keep fighting for democracy and high degree of self-autonomy. Hence, Hong Kong is still a free and open society under China sovereignty.

The paper contributes an original study on the development of one country two systems of Hong Kong under China sovereignty as perceived from the perspective of social development. There are important findings on social mobility, income disparity and issues of ethnic identity of Hong Kong people. The lessons of Hong Kong will provide an interesting case for people who care concerned about how people living in a former British colony has transformed the society into a thriving civil society under China sovereignty.

This study aims to investigate the impact of board independence on the cash dividend payments of family firms listed on the Borsa Istanbul (BIST) in balancing controlling families’ power to mitigate agency problems between family and minority shareholders in the post-2012 period. The authors focus on this period because Turkish authorities implemented mandatory regulations on the employment of independent directors on boards from fiscal year 2012.

The research model uses a panel dataset of 153 BIST-listed family firms over the period 2012–2017, employs alternative dependent variables and regression techniques and is applied to various sub-groups to improve robustness.

The empirical results show a strong positive effect of board independence on dividend decisions. The authors further detect that family directorship exhibits a negative effect, whereas both board size and audit committees have positive influences but chief executive officer (CEO)/duality has had no significant impact on the dividend policies of Turkish family firms since the new compulsory legal requirements in the Turkish market.

The findings suggest that independent directorship and dividend policy are complementary governance mechanisms to reduce agency conflicts between families and minority shareholders in Turkey, which is a civil law-based emerging country characterized by high family ownership concentration.

The authors present evidence that Turkish family firms’ corporate boards have evolved, to some extent, from being managerial rubber stamps to more independent boards that raise opposing voices in family decision-making. However, independent directors’ preference for dividend-induced capital market monitoring implies that their direct monitoring is less effective than it is supposed to be. This suggests a need to revise the Turkish Corporate Governance Principles to enhance independent directors’ monitoring and supervisory power.

This is thought to be the first study to provide insights on how board independence influences dividend policy in controlling agency problems in Turkish family firms since Turkish authorities introduced compulsory rules on the employment of independent directors on boards.

A revised Combined Code on corporate governance was introduced in the UK in 2003 which set out a number of new provisions relating to the composition of the company's Board of Directors and its main Committees. The Code gives greater prominence to the role of non‐executive directors in a company's corporate governance structures and decision‐making processes. This paper examines the main provisions of the Code relating to non‐executive directors and the emphasis it places on the importance of non‐executives being “independent”.

The paper discusses the main issues concerning the effectiveness of non‐executive directors, drawing in part of the evidence provided by a sample of large UK companies.

Most companies “comply” with the Code's requirements relating to non‐executive directors and endorse the positive contribution they make to Board and Committee work.

Considers the pros and cons of the role of non‐executives and the issue of what constitutes “ independency”.

This is one of the first papers to examine the provisions of the new Code relating to non‐executive directors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which a sample of large UK companies comply with the main provisions of the revised 2003 Combined Code on corporate governance. The new Code incorporates a number of key principles of compliance with regard to the roles of a company's chairperson and chief executive, the composition of its Board of Directors and the composition of the Board's three main committees – the Nominations, Remuneration and Audit Committees. Companies are expected to fully comply with the provisions of the Code or proffer an “acceptable” explanation as to why they have not done so under the Code's “comply or explain” philosophy. The Code gives greater prominence to the role of non‐executive directors in a company's corporate governance structures and decision‐making processes and emphasizes the importance of non‐executive directors being “independent”.

The paper looks at the extent of compliance in respect of the governance provisions referred to above presenting a survey of 50 large UK companies reporting in 2005 drawn (at random) from the FTSE‐250 listing.

A total of 17 companies fully complied throughout their reporting year. Twenty‐two companies took action to comply or proffered “acceptable” explanations as to why not during their reporting year. Eleven companies, however, remained in breach of the Code on one or more counts.

The paper discusses some of the issues which have arisen concerning the effectiveness of non‐executive directors and addresses the controversial matter of what constitutes “independency”.

This is one of the first papers to present an empirical study of the initial impact of the new Code.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the extent to which sustainability reporting by banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is affected by the attributes of audit committees.

The research is positivist and quantitative, based on a cross-sectional and time series analysis of 59 banks from 2013 to 2017. A multivariate model is used to investigate the impact of selected audit committee attributes (financial expertise, size, members’ independence and meeting frequency) on sustainability reporting. The model is built on agency, legitimacy, resources and stakeholders theories.

In contrast to the hypothesis, the authors report a negative association between financial expertise and sustainability reporting. Members’ independence and meeting frequency play a positive role in determining the extent of disclosure. The control variables (bank size, age and auditor type) are positively associated with corporate sustainability reporting.

The main limitations of this study are related to the chosen attributes of audit committee and do not consider the board’s attributes. However, the authors believe these limitations do not affect the findings. Future research that includes more attributes when they became available will offer more insights into the role of audit committees on sustainability disclosure of financial institutions. Overcoming these limitations may make the results more generalizable.

The results of this study have important implications for regulators, bank management, investors and creditors. For regulators, in the countries of the GCC and in countries like them, the findings reveal the importance of disclosure requirements. The development of disclosure requirements is likely to improve corporate sustainability reporting and reduce variations in the extent of disclosure among banks. Banks could use these results to improve their reporting to outsiders. For creditors and investors, the study improves their awareness of the importance of corporate social responsibility, corporate governance and environmental information on credit and investment decisions and encourages banks to improve their disclosures of non-financial information.

This research makes a contribution to the scarce literature on sustainability reporting by banks, especially in an environment where capital markets lack active institutional investors, where regulators play the dominant role in determining the extent of disclosure and where banks are the main source of external finance for the corporate sector.

Enterprises often face a wide variety of adverse events. Adverse events can have negative effects on organizations like failures of resources. In case resources fail, they are not available and cannot perform the assigned work. Enterprises are therefore especially interested in how resilient processes and workflows are in case adverse events occur and resources may fail. For this purpose, process resilience measurement approaches are needed.

To measure the resilience of processes and workflows, a life cycle and five quantitative metrics have been developed. The metrics have been validated using five real-world production and logistics cases to show their applicability on process models and paths. Furthermore, workshops have been conducted with professionals to get additional feedback on the contributions.

Based on the results obtained from applying the metrics to five real-world cases, view-based resilience improvements can be derived. Overall, only one of the five real-world cases can be considered as completely resilient. Furthermore, the metrics and life cycle have been especially valued by professionals with respect to transparency, independency, comparability as well as the ability to determine critical process paths.

Several authors have dealt with different aspects related to the measurement of business processes, resilience or a combination thereof. However, a life cycle or metrics to quantitatively measure the resilience of processes by considering resources has not been found yet. The life cycle and metrics are therefore novel. As a future research direction, they can be applied in different domains for further validation purposes.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of liver disease worldwide. The purpose of this study is to assess the possible association between habitual intake of allium vegetables and NAFLD risk.

In this study, 196 cases of NAFLD and 803 age-matched controls were enrolled from the same clinic. Dietary intakes were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Consumption of allium vegetables, including raw garlic and onions, were calculated and considered as grams/day in all participants.

Participants in the highest tertile of allium vegetable intake had 64% lower risk of NAFLD compared with those in the lowest tertile of the allium vegetables intake (odds ratio [OR]: 0.35; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.23-0.51; p < 0.001). After controlling for potential confounders, there was no significant change in this inverse association (OR: 0.36; 95% CI: 0.22-0.56; p < 0.001).

This study for the first time showed that higher consumption of allium vegetables was associated with lower risk of NAFLD. The results did not change when the authors adjusted the analysis for the known risk factors of the disease, which indicate the independency of the association.

Slovenia is the youngest country in Central Europe, established in 1991 by the proclamation of independency and by breaking the connections with former Yugoslavia, to which it was attached as a constituent republic (1). It is a small country, half the size of Switzerland with three times lower number of inhabitants. (see picture 1: Slovenian Identity Card.) In the past it is used to be a tourism transit country for European tourist stream towards the Adriatic. According to the relative index value of foreign tourist nights per inhabitant 1.8, Slovenian tourism in 1990 stayed behind European standards (2). Slowenia's income from international tourism in the same year was only $ 420 per inhabitant (in Switzerland $1,033 and in Austria $1,550 per inhabitant) (3).

This paper seeks to incorporate theories from commodity studies, functional studies, institutional studies, and transaction cost economics, to integrate product and process approaches and simultaneously examine the effects of product and process on consumer preferences for online and offline channels.

The study took a systemic approach. It reviewed the existing literature, proposed a theoretical framework, designed and administrated a measurement instrument, analyzed survey results, and provided implications and conclusions.

In addition to the type of product, the type of transaction process has a significant impact on consumer preferences for online and offline channels.

The sample representation was limited to college students. The analysis also assumed the independency of repeated measures on the subjects.

This paper will facilitate managers in designing and choosing transaction channels based on product type and process function type.

This is the first study which examines the impact of both factors – transaction product and transaction process – on channel preference. The transaction process is systemically defined into four sub‐functions and measured accordingly. An instrument is developed and administer to measure consumer preferences for online and offline channels in response to different types of products and different types of process functions. It is the first instrument of this kind.