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This paper aims to examine whether there are morally defensible reasons for using or operating websites (called ‘booters’) that offer distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on a specified target to users for a price. Booters have been linked to some of the most powerful DDoS attacks in recent years.

The authors identify the various parties associated with booter websites and the means through which booters operate. Then, the authors present and evaluate the two arguments that they claim may be used to justify operating and using booters: that they are a useful tool for testing the ability of networks and servers to handle heavy traffic, and that they may be used to perform DDoS attacks as a form of civil disobedience on the internet.

The authors argue that the characteristics of existing booters disqualify them from being morally justified as network stress testing tools or as a means of performing civil disobedience. The use of botnets that include systems without the permission of their owners undermines the legitimacy of both justifications. While a booter that does not use any third-party systems without permission might in principle be justified under certain conditions, the authors argue that it is unlikely that any existing booters meet these requirements.

Law enforcement agencies may use the arguments presented here to justify shutting down the operation of booters, and so reduce the number of DDoS attacks on the internet.

The value of this work is in critically examining the potential justifications for using and operating booter websites and in further exploring the ethical aspects of using DDoS attacks as a form of civil disobedience.

This paper aims to examine the relationships between socioeconomic development, renewable energy and the innovative process by providing: a descriptive analysis; a co-occurrence analysis of terms, thematic mapping and conceptual structure; and the typology of the textual corpus.

To analyze the relationship between “renewable energies, socioeconomic development and the innovative process,” it is necessary to build a theoretical foundation that contains the relevant scientific studies and reflects the current state of the art on the subject. For this, this study developed a systematic literature review (SLR) using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses research protocol to answer the relationship on the theme.

Research shows a global understanding of the need to invest in developing studies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and improve economic growth. The main contributions lie in providing a typology of the state of the art, identifying the joint relationships between themes, insights into the key themes and indicating themes that must be developed. This study may also support future empirical studies as it provides a theoretical foundation for formulating hypotheses, which can be tested through qualitative and quantitative approaches.

The innovative character consists of addressing a shortage of SLRs on this theme. Thus, this paper fills this gap by providing a theoretical foundation for future scientific and academic knowledge generation. Furthermore, regarding the interdisciplinary aspects of this research as contributions, this paper presented different approaches and theoretical perspectives.

The relationship between the role played by corporate governance (CG) mechanisms and shareholder wealth is an important and mature topic in some countries and regions. However, despite the considerable number of studies, the results are still inconclusive. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate around the theme in Latin America through a meta-analysis.

The study used meta-analytic procedures to review 42 articles produced by researchers from Latin American countries, whose samples were composed of Latin American firms.

The results suggest that CG best practices are associated with better Latin American firm performance. The evidence also suggests that results are moderated by the characteristics of boards of directors, the ownership, and control structure and various simultaneous CG mechanisms, through broad indices and special CG trading segments.

The relationship between GC and firm performance possesses certain peculiarities in the case of Latin American countries and the literature on the region is certainly not as abundant and mature. As most of the articles reviewed were written in Portuguese and Spanish and published in local journals, the consolidation produced should also be useful for researchers throughout the world by enabling them to access their ideas.

A relação entre o papel desempenhado pelos mecanismos de governança corporativa (GC) e a riqueza dos acionistas é um tópico importante e maduro em alguns países e regiões. No entanto, os resultados ainda se apresentam ambíguos, apesar do grande número de estudos. Este ensaio pretende contribuir para o debate do tema na região através de uma meta análise.

O trabalho fez uso de procedimentos meta-analíticos para revisar 42 artigos produzidos por pesquisadores da região e de outras localidades, cujas amostras são compostas por empresas de países da América Latina.

Os resultados sugerem que de forma geral melhores práticas de GC são associadas a um melhor desempenho das empresas latino-americanas. Este trabalho sugere também que os resultados encontrados são moderados pelas características dos conselhos de administração, da estrutura de propriedade e controle e de diversos mecanismos simultâneos de GC, como índices amplos e segmentos especiais de GC.

Esta relação possui peculiaridades quando se tratam de países latino-americanos e a literatura sobre a região certamente não se apresenta tão abundante e madura. Acredita-se que a consolidação produzida será útil para pesquisadores ao redor do mundo, uma vez que a maioria dos artigos revisados foi escrita em português ou espanhol e publicada em periódicos locais, o que não a torna acessível a todos.

Strategic goal achievement in every sector of a company relies fundamentally on the firm's employees. This study aims to disclose the factors that spur employees of major Information Technology (IT) companies in the United States (US).

In this paper, 15,000 reviews from the top 15 United States IT companies were collected from the social media platform Glassdoor to uncover the factors that satisfy IT employees. To learn the most meaningful features that influence the scores, positive and negative remarks, as well as advice to the management team, were analyzed through a support vector machine.

Results highlight a positive attitude of coworkers, contributing to a positive environment and job satisfaction. However, unsatisfied IT employees reveal that work exhaustion is the main reason for their job dissatisfaction.

IT human resource departments can use these valuable insights to align their strategies in accordance with their employees' desires and expectations in order to thrive.

The study highlights the relevance of IT companies to understand the reasons behind their employees' satisfaction. Up until now, little is known concerning the variants of job satisfaction among IT employees, enriching the understanding in this particular professional area.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationships between process modeling and Industry 4.0, the strategic themes and the most used process modeling language in smart factories. The study also presents the growth of the field of study worldwide, the perspectives, main challenges, trends and suggestions for future works.

To do this, a science mapping was performed using the software SciMAT, supported by VOS viewer.

The results show that the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), Unified Modelling Language (UML) and Petri Net are the most relevant languages to smart manufacturing. The authors also highlighted the need to develop new languages or extensions capable of representing the dynamism, interoperability and multiple technologies of smart factories.

It was possible to identify the most used process modeling languages in smart environments and understand how these languages assist control and manage smart processes. Besides, the authors highlighted challenges, new perspectives and the need for future works in the field.

The purpose of this paper was to use the barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite reared in the laboratory to investigate the effects of juveniles on corrosion behaviour of three stainless steels (SS): UNS S31600, N08904 and UNS S32760.

Barnacle larvae were maintained in a laboratory until they reached the cypris larval stage. A total of 100 cyprids were added to four individual containers; each SS coupon (70 × 50 × 2 mm3) was immersed into the containers. After the cyprids attached to the coupons, juveniles were reared for 21 days with the microalgae Skeletonema costatum (Greville) Cleve. Values of open circuit potential (OCP), breakdown potential (Eb) and polarisation resistance (Rp) were evaluated, along with surface examinations.

OCP differences between barnacles and control coupons were not apparent. However, the lowest values of Eb and Rp were observed in the presence of juvenile barnacles, demonstrating the SS corrosion caused by these organisms. Crevice corrosion around the base of the barnacles was detected during visual inspections, despite the small size of the barnacles and the short duration of the experiments.

The A. amphitrite assays were useful as a tool for testing corrosion behaviour of the SS under laboratory conditions. This was the first study to test the use of this common protocol in anti-fouling research as a method to study marine biocorrosion.

The purpose of this study is to characterize and compare the results of the inspection mark of handmade and industrially processed Minas frescal cheese. It is one of the most commonly made and consumed cheeses in Brazil, and its production processes range from handmade cheeses produced in small household production sites to cheeses manufactured in large dairy factories subject to federal inspection.

The samples were stored for 10 days at 4°C in a biochemical oxygen demand chamber. Cheeses were analyzed using physicochemical analyzes, yield and syneresis indices and microbiological analyses.

The cheese A met the criterion of regulatory classification for very high humidity (65.32 g/100 g), while cheese B did not meet the criterion (54.38 g/100 g). Cheeses A (19.01 g/100 g) and B (24 g/100 g) showed average fat contents that did not comply with current legislation. The most probable number per g of thermotolerant coliforms was outside the acceptable range (>24 × 102 MPN/g), and Salmonella spp. were present in the tested samples. The highest yield was observed for handmade cheese (an average of 5.35 L of milk to produce 1 kg of cheese), which had the highest syneresis during the storage period (p = 0.004), reaching 14.26% on the 10th day of storage.

Municipal and state inspection certificates do not ensure the microbiological quality of Minas frescal cheese, indicating flaws in the good manufacturing practices and/or in the milk pasteurisation stage.

Background: Educational institutions are strategic tools in disseminating knowledge on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since education is an effective developmental tool. All the 17 SDGs are tied in one way or the other to education, that is, the ability of people to learn and apply. This study applies unorthodox theories which include convergence models, neo-functionalism, intergovernmentalism, neorealism and the Hofstede model to explain how educational institutions are an essential enabling environment which accelerates the attainment of SDGs.

Methods: These factors are analysed in the context of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Empirically, some university case studies were highlighted in addition to unclear modus operandi, small, fragmented and heterogeneous markets and economies, political stability, deficient political will, and lack of standardisation of products and procedures among other factors. These dynamics affect both the quality of educational institutions and the quality of education thereby directly or indirectly affecting the attainment of the 17 SDGs and are compounded with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic.

Results: The study reveals that acceleration of the 17 SDGs will require a holistic approach as opposed to silos (scientific, economic, political, academic) which usually emerge when pursuing overarching goals of this magnitude.

Conclusions: It concludes that accelerating progress towards the attainment of SDGs will not only require dynamic and visionary leadership but also well-functioning institutions which are based on economic feasibility as opposed to political alliances. Priorities should be placed on addressing poverty, inequality and quality education. Moreover, partnerships will be key in achieving sustainability especially given that the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded existing challenges.

The São Lourenço River (SLR) is used to supply potable waters for the cities of São Lourenço da Serra and Juquitiba, but receives the residues from the water treatment plants (WTPs) and sewage treatment plants (STPs), respectively. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impacts of the discharges of Juquitiba’s WTP and STP on the quality of the SLR, by using an integrated approach based on different lines of evidence.

Six sampling sites were established along the river and comprised areas situated upstream and downstream of the discharges. Five sampling surveys were performed between 2004 and 2006 for collecting water and sediment samples for ecotoxicological assays. In two of these campaigns, benthic community structure and geochemistry (metals, nutrients and sediment texture) were also assessed.

Concentrations of P, Fe and Al in waters exceeded the national standards, but sediments were not considered to be contaminated by metals or nutrients. Water and sediments tended to exhibit marginal toxicities, excluding the sediments from JQT007 and JQT008 that were frequently toxic. Combination of geochemistry, toxicity and ecological indices indicated that some sites are not degraded, but in some stations the benthic alteration may be due to non-measured contaminants, especially in JQT007 and JQT008.

As the use of waters from SLR for public supply has increased, these results show that action should be taken in order to reverse the environmental degradation of SRL.

This research combined sediment and water quality assessments in order to provide a more suitable and reliable diagnostic of the environmental quality of the SLR.

The performance of the state machine has been the subject of research and innovative practices, which seek to explore its sources of knowledge and improve its internal processes. Business governance and business process management (BPM) occupy a prominent position in these studies. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the full implementation of the Unified BPM Cycle in operational activities to recover federal public credit, from the implementation of the corporate governance structure to the audit of the processes implemented.

The case was developed in a federal public advocacy body and used a predominantly qualitative multi-method approach. The phases were organized using the research project matrix, and the predominant research procedure was action research. The information was obtained through questionnaires, observation and focus groups.

A corporate governance structure was designed for the activities surveyed. Papers and responsibilities were defined. Processes were prioritized, improved and documented, and as a result of the implemented control, personal and organizational results gained greater visibility.

Because this is a single case study, it would be advisable to apply the method used in similar organizations to enrich the analysis presented in this study and compare the results.

This paper contributes to the consolidation of the knowledge about the practical application of the researched subjects and foments the applied research to the public management.

This paper describes an empirical case study about the integrated application of activity governance and the Unified BPM Cycle in operational activities and studies all phases of implementation, providing a broader perspective of their impact on these activities. The road map used can serve as a reference for future research in the area of public credit recovery.