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The purpose of this paper is to study the extraction of scattering parameters (SPs) from simple structures on a printed circuit board (PCB) by the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method with the aid of a surface impedance boundary condition (SIBC).

The incorporation of SIBC into the FDTD method is described for the general case. The excitation of a field problem by a field pattern and the transition from the field solution to a circuit representation by SPs is discussed.

SPs obtained by FDTD with SIBC are validated with semi‐analytic solutions and compared with results obtained by different numerical methods. Results of a microstrip with a discontinuity considering losses are presented demonstrating the capability of the present method.

The comparison of numerical results obtained by different methods demonstrates the capability of the present method to extract SPs from PCBs very efficiently.

The utilisation of products with recycled content (PwRC) in construction projects has been identified as a targeted way to achieve sustainable management of construction and demolition waste resources. However, sustainable applications of these resources are subject to a wide array of factors that demand a thorough investigation. This study, therefore, explores the motivations, barriers and strategies for optimal PwRC uptake using a multiple-case study approach.

This study adopted an interpretive multiple-case study approach. The case studies were selected from recently completed construction projects including two infrastructure projects, one commercial project and one residential project. A series of semi-structured interviews were carried out to collect the data. For each case study, four participants were interviewed; these participants represented design, client, supply and building teams.

The study revealed the main barriers, motivations and opportunities for adoption of PwRC resources in four construction projects. These factors are believed to influence the utilisation of PwRC to varying extents and/or in diverse ways. The findings also suggest that there is a significant opportunity for stakeholders to adopt more sustainable waste management practices, and the use of institutional drivers can help achieve this goal.

The primary research contribution of the study lies in proposing three key research directions: investigating regulatory constraints impacting the use of PwRC, addressing supply chain challenges and enhancing quality assurance.

The research has a practical contribution to the industry through a suite of actionable strategies to increase the uptake of PwRC. The strategies are mostly focussed on stakeholders' education, the regulation that supports PwRC and project management planning. The two major motivations – referring to two of the three pillars of sustainability (economy and environment) – provide a basis for organisational changes to ensure achieving sustainability in construction activities.

Transaction costs on the housing market are, arguably, inevitable. They are also diverse. While fees and taxes are easily identified and observed, transaction costs can arise from the functioning of the market and its regulatory framework. For instance, there are costs related to obtaining information. Lack of information creates uncertainty, which increases risk, which increases transaction costs. Thus, market transparency affects the level of transaction costs. For the regulatory framework to be effective, rules must be effectively enforceable; accordingly, the judicial and administrative institutions must function properly. Thus, there is a clear, albeit complex, relation between transaction costs on the one hand and market transparency, government efficiency, regulatory quality, and property rights protection on the other.

The aim of this chapter is to discuss transaction processes and transaction costs in real estate conveyances for both the seller and the buyer with respect to taxes, fees, and obtaining information. To that end, we compare the transaction processes and costs involved in Croatia and Sweden, respectively.

Neither Croatia nor Sweden displays prohibitive costs, yet Croatian transaction costs are significantly higher than those in Sweden. This is hardly surprising given that the Croatian transaction process features at least one additional party to be remunerated compared to the Swedish process. Thus, it would seem that the Swedish regulatory regime – where the estate is charged with handling the legal aspects of the transaction – render lower transaction costs.

There is also the issue of how and to whom fees are paid. For instance, there are more bank fees in Croatia, whereas in Sweden more of the fees are paid to the state. On the other hand, Croatia is one of the few countries where no capital gains tax is levied on real estate conveyances, whereas Sweden has a capital gains tax of 22 per cent – a tax that may hamper movement from one region to another with differences in property prices. Overall, however, with the exception of the capital gains tax for the seller, it is clear that the Swedish transaction process carries lower and more predicable costs than its Croatian counterpart.

Transaction costs, responsive housing supply, rent controls, tenant protection, and access to credit affect residential mobility – these different parts of housing policy are included in what has been defined as housing regimes, which embrace regulations, laws, norms, and ideology as well as economic factors. In this chapter, we investigate how these regimes change by using institutional theories of path dependence. We use Sweden as an example and study three Swedish housing market reforms during the past decades that may have affected residential mobility, each related to one of the main institutional pillars of housing provision: tenure legislation, taxation, and finance. More precisely, we study the development of the rental regulation since the late 1960s, the tax reform in 1991, and the new reforms on mortgages since 2010. What caused these reforms? What were the main mechanisms behind them, and why did they occur at the time they did? We argue, besides affecting residential mobility, these reforms have the common feature of including interesting elements of path dependence and forming critical junctures that have led the development on to a new path. Institutions of tenure legislation, housing finance, and taxation are often claimed to have effects on residential mobility. Although they are seldom designed with the explicit aim of supporting (or counteracting) residential mobility, they may sometimes do so as more or less unintended consequences.

The chapter aims to explore the size and evolution of spatial inequality in Croatia and Serbia with emphasis on labour market developments. The analysis focuses on municipalities (LAU 2 level) in both countries to explore patterns of change in the labour market. We estimate spatial inequality based on the distribution of population, employment, unemployment rates, and wages. We find that regions with major cities in both countries are leading in the recovery from the recent recession, while rural areas are lagging behind. Further, there is a durable trend of both population and job concentration in the capital city area, or in urban areas generally.

Recognizing the importance of sustainable development, environmental economic practices have gained significant attention globally as effective measures to mitigate environmental degradation and promote resource conservation. Therefore this study identifies and evaluates the barriers hindering the implementation of environmental economic practices in the Nigerian construction industry.

A quantitative research approach, utilizing a well-structured questionnaire, was employed to collect data from construction professionals. The Shapiro-Wilk normality test was utilized to assess the normality of the data, while the Kruskal-Wallis H-test was employed to investigate potential significant differences in opinions among various categories of respondents. Subsequently, exploratory factor analysis was conducted to identify underlying patterns and relationships within the collected data.

The top five barriers were: prioritization of short-term financial gain over long-term benefits, inefficient and unreliable energy supply systems, inadequate disposal and management of waste, insufficient funding and investment and high costs associated with sustainable construction practices. Furthermore, four critical clusters of barriers were revealed, which are regulatory-related, financial and economic-related, technical and logistical-related and knowledge-related.

These clusters can guide policymakers, industry professionals and educators in developing tailored strategies to overcome barriers within each specific category, fostering a more holistic and effective approach toward sustainable practices in the construction sector.

The findings of this study were compared with results from similar cases in Iran, China and New Zealand to provide a cross-cultural perspective on challenges faced by different regions. This comparative analysis aims to identify both commonalities and unique factors, contributing to a much deeper understanding of sustainable construction practices on a global scale.

The purpose of this paper is propose a citation method for referring to the audio‐visual documents required for television programmes in scientific works.

The existing document typology is checked against television databases available on the internet, and the different units of processing, conservation and diffusion are analysed. The document is structured according to three parameters: whether it has been broadcast; whether it has not been broadcast; and other formats – in order to describe with examples the different citation possibilities of such documents.

This structure tries to be a formal and conceptual response to the ISO 690:1987 Standards. The achieved outcome put forward an effective method to describe these documents in a scope where there is a big gap both for the referenced description and for the research.

This work serves as a base for the production and citation of AV and television works in the media and communication sciences as well as in information science, sociology, history and similar areas.

The socialist approach to housing in Croatia was to give tenants strong, and to some extent rigid, rights. During this paradigm, market renting was also discouraged. The policy privileged tenants and gave them subsidized rent, but it also limited their spatial mobility if they did not want to lose that privileged status. After independence, two vital processes on the housing market were undertaken: the privatization of socially owned housing stock and denationalization. Consequently, the stock of apartments previously owned by the companies and the state was sold to the ‘tenancy right’ holders for just a small part of its market value, resulting in more than 80 per cent of apartment users becoming legal owners. That is a positive outcome from a social policy perspective, but it could endanger the mobility of the Croatian labour force. Price developments and turnover dynamics are still bounded by underdeveloped and outdated cadastre as well as strong regional differences.

This study uses a meta-analysis approach to analyse the impact of applying corporate green accounting practices as vital sustainable development tools on firm performance. This study aims to examine the moderating effects of country-specific variables and characteristics on the association between corporate green accounting and firm performance.

Three databases were used for a meta-analysis of 68 independent studies involving 19,625 subjects conducted over 25 years from 1996 to 2020.

The results show that corporate green accounting positively affects firm performance, but country-specific variables do not moderate this association. The positive association between corporate green accounting and firm performance was enhanced when it was measured in terms of environmental costs. Subgroup analyses revealed that study characteristics are significant source of heterogeneity in the corporate green accounting indicators-firm performance association.

The findings suggest that firms should strategise to integrate environmental costs into their respective financial accounting frameworks, which would help managers justify the contribution of their firms towards environmental protection.

Accessing accurate and timely information on corporate environmental functioning can assist national policymakers in framing appropriate legislation on environmental protection and sustainable development.

Although meta-analysis has been used previously in accounting research (Guthrie and Murthy, 2009; Alcouffe et al., 2019), to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to use a meta-analytical technique to examine the impact of corporate green accounting on firm performance.