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To operate with high efficiency and minimise the risks of power failures, power systems require careful monitoring. The availability of real-time data is crucial for assessing the performance of the grid and assisting operators in gauging the present security of the grid. Traditional supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)-based systems actually employed provides steady-state measurement values which are the calculation premise of State Estimation. More often, however, the power grid operates under dynamic state and SCADA measurements can lead to erroneous and inaccurate calculation results. The introduction of the phasor measurement unit (PMU) which provides real-time synchronised voltage and current phasors with very high accuracy is universally recognised as an important aspect of delivering a secure and sustainable power system. PMUs are a relatively new technology and because of their high procurement and installation costs, it is imperative to develop appropriate methodologies to determine the minimum number of PMUs as well as their strategic placements to guarantee full observability of a power system. Thus, the problem of the optimal PMU placement (OPP) is formulated as an optimisation problem subject to various constraints to minimise the number of PMUs while ensuring complete observability of the grid. In this chapter, integer linear programming (ILP), genetic algorithm (GA) and non-linear programming (NLP) constrained models of the OPP problem are presented. A new methodology is proposed to incorporate several constraints using the NLP. The optimisation methods have been written in Matlab software and verified on the standard Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 14-bus test system to authenticate their effectiveness. This chapter targets United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7.

This chapter aims to evaluate the relationship between the representation of women on corporate boards of directors and its impact on firm financial performance.

This study utilized both a systematic review and a meta-analysis, using a sample of 40 published studies, which gleaned financial indicator and observation data from 28 different countries.

As indicated in previous studies, while positive, there was no significant correlation found between the number of women serving on the boards of directors and firm financial performance.

The heterogeneity between the various studies analyzed may present difficulties in making general conclusions. The chapter could also be subject to publication bias, as the selection criteria included may indicate a need for further peer review. Future meta-analyses should include data associated with other financial indicators.

This study shows how composition ratios of men/women serving on corporate boards should be addressed in terms of proving for a greater diversity of leadership perspectives.

Previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses have analyzed country environments as moderators for the relationship between the representation of women on corporate boards and firm financial performance. The present study evaluates possible differences between the impact of the number of women serving on the board of directors on a variety of financial indicators (ROA, ROE, and Tobin’s Q).

Dynamic predictions of financial distress of the firms have received less attention in finance literature rather than static prediction, specifically in Malaysia. This study, therefore, investigates dynamic symptoms of the financial distress event a few years before it happened to the firms by using neural network method. Cox Proportional Hazard regression models are used to estimate the survival probabilities of Malaysian PN17 and GN3 listed firms. Forecast accuracy is evaluated using receiver operating characteristics curve. From the findings, it shown that the independent directors’ ownership has negative association with the financial distress likelihood. In addition, this study modeled a mix of corporate financial distress predictors for Malaysian firms. The combination of financial and non-financial ratios which pressure-sensitive institutional ownership, independent director ownership, and Earnings Before Interest and Taxes to Total Asset shown a negative relationship with financial distress likelihood specifically one year before the firms being listed in PN 17 and GN 3 status. However, Retained Earnings to Total Asset, Interest Coverage, and Market Value of Debt have positive relationship with firm financial distress likelihood. These research findings also contribute to the policy implications to the Securities Commission and specifically to Bursa Malaysia. Furthermore, one of the initial goals in introducing the PN17 and GN3 status is to alleviate the information asymmetry between distressed firms, the regulators, and investors. Therefore, the regulator would be able to monitor effectively distressed firms, and investors can protect from imprudent investment.

A decade after 2008 crisis, scholars in mainstream field of finance are yet to proffer lasting solutions to the menace that target the root cause of the crisis. Islamic finance offers a simple message for the whole episode and others similar to it: introduction of God consciousness, removal of interest from the system, and its replacement with profit and loss sharing together with establishment of an ethic base corporate governance structure. Absence of ethical considerations is the main factor for financial crisis in the past hundred years. Models utilized by Islamic finance industry for financing and sharing of risk are musharakah and mudarabah. This chapter provides an overview of risk management and governance in both Islamic and conventional finance in the process outlining similarities and differences between the systems. It dissected through developments in the two fields and highlighted recent controversial topics affecting the field of finance in the modern world.

We define diffusion as the spread of something within a social system. Diffusion is the most general and abstract term, and it embraces such processes as contagion, mimicry, social learning, organized dissemination, etc. (Strang & Soule, 1998). While the home territory of diffusion is innovation (see Rogers, 2003 for an authoritative review), more recent macro-diffusion research has developed, based on social movement and institutionalization arguments (Ansari, Fiss, & Zajac, 2010; Wejnert, 2002).

Over recent decades both Europe and the United States have experienced an increase in the share of service-related jobs in total employment. Although narrowing in all European countries, a significant gap in the share of service jobs relative to the United States still persists. The aim of the chapter is to identify the main drivers of the service sector employment share in the EU-15 as well as its gap relative to the United States. The analysis is carried out for the aggregate service sector, 4 sub-sectors and 12 service sector branches over the period 1970–2003. We find some evidence to support the hypothesis that a number of labour market regulations – such as union density and the degree of centralisation of wage bargaining – together with the mismatch between workers' skills and job vacancies, have affected Europe's ability to adjust efficiently to the reallocation of labour from manufacturing into services. Furthermore, we find significant heterogeneity in the relative weight of the various determinants of the employment share across sub-sectors and branches.

This paper describes the different ways in which people in the highlands of Papua New Guinea are talking about climate change. It demonstrates that people locate themselves in this process of change in terms of food production and exchange, and that some of the changes being witnessed are also related to the impacts of a growing cash economy on social relations.

This ethnography involved 12 months fieldwork including participant observation and interviews.

This is a qualitative study that recognises the perspective of local people for understanding culturally mediated experiences of climate change. However, data regarding rainfall and temperatures over time would be a useful addition for thinking about the extent to which the climate has in fact changed in recent years.

The implications of this paper are that the predictions made in 1990 about increases in production as a result of climate change are apparently coming true, with benefits for some food and coffee producers. But that there are complex social processes occurring at the same time as climate change that mean people’s ability to adapt is dependent on other social conditions. Maintaining ecologically sustainable methods of production and local cultural practices may enable more resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The experiences of people living in the Eastern Highlands and the ways in which people use the discourse of climate change are yet to be acknowledged in policy circles or socio-cultural anthropology literature. This paper presents a partial account of how people in Papua New Guinea are experiencing and talking about change.