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The purpose of this paper is to minimize on‐chip inductance effect for modern very large‐scale integration (VLSI), ultra large‐scale integration (ULSI) systems.

As operating frequency increases, parasitic inductance has become a major concern for electronic design on both delay and coupling noises. The impacts of on‐chip inductance are strongly associated with higher frequency operation, denser interconnect geometry, reductions of resistance, and capacitance of interconnects. The paper presents a novel layout technique – opposing inter‐digitating routing, to generate magnetic fields in opposing directions; consequently, effective magnetic field is minimized, or inductance effect is reduced. To prove the effectiveness of these approaches, 3D field solver FastHenry is used to extract inductance data and verify the results.

Verification shows that this proposed method gives more than ten times reduction in self‐inductance while mutual inductance reduces even faster, without incurring any area and resource penalty.

The proposed technique can be used effectively to minimize inductance effects in the design of modern interconnect structures. This technique is shown to be highly effective for inductance reduction in wide signal buses which are used frequently in global buses, critical data path or clock distribution networks of VLSI and ULSI systems.

Compliant mechanism has been receiving a great interest in precision engineering. However, analytical methods involving their behavior analysis is still a challenge because there are unclear kinematic behaviors. Especially, design optimization for compliant mechanisms becomes an important task when the problem is more and more complex. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to design a new hybrid computational method. The hybridized method is an integration of statistics, numerical method, computational intelligence and optimization.

A tensural bistable compliant mechanism is used to clarify the efficiency of the developed method. A pseudo model of the mechanism is designed and simulations are planned to retrieve the data sets. Main contributions of design variables are analyzed by analysis of variance to initialize several new populations. Next, objective functions are transformed into the desirability, which are inputs of the fuzzy inference system (FIS). The FIS modeling is aimed to initialize a single-combined objective function (SCOF). Subsequently, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system is developed to modeling a relation of the main geometrical parameters and the SCOF. Finally, the SCOF is maximized by lightning attachment procedure optimization algorithm to yield a global optimality.

The results prove that the present method is better than a combination of fuzzy logic and Taguchi. The present method is also superior to other algorithms by conducting non-parameter tests. The proposed computational method is a usefully systematic method that can be applied to compliant mechanisms with complex structures and multiple-constrained optimization problems.

The novelty of this work is to make a new approach by combining statistical techniques, numerical method, computational intelligence and metaheuristic algorithm. The feasibility of the method is capable of solving a multi-objective optimization problem for compliant mechanisms with nonlinear complexity.

This study aims to examine the effect of real activities manipulation (RAM) on auditors’ decision of issuing going concern (GC) opinions for distressed companies.

This study estimates and examines three types of RAM: reduction of discretionary expenses, sales manipulation and overproduction. It investigates the effect of RAM on auditor reporting conservatism by including the three measures of RAM methods in logistic regressions that explain the issuance of going concern opinions. The authors perform the analysis specifically on distressed firms for 2004-2013 period.

This study finds a significant and positive association between RAM and the likelihood of receiving going concern opinion in the financial distressed firm sample, suggesting that client’s abnormal business activity affects the auditor reporting conservatism.

This study provides evidence that auditors make going concern reporting decisions in consideration of the client’s abnormal operating decisions and management’s opportunism.

Recent literature argues that auditors have little recourse other than to resign if a client uses RAM to impact earnings or the financial statements, and hence the enhanced audit quality in the post-SOX period is due to the shift from using accruals management to RAM (Cohen et al., 2008; Chi et al., 2011; Kim and Park, 2014). The evidence provided in this study indicates that auditors report more conservatively (rather than simply resign) in response to the aggressive RAM.

Today, business model innovations leverage digital technologies to gain a competitive advantage and transform business processes. Blockchain is still gaining attention in specific fields and bringing value to business models. There is a dearth of research on how blockchain decentralized autonomous organizations impact organization business model innovations. This study attempts to contribute the body of knowledge based on a review of decentralized autonomous organizations and the business model innovation literature using the integrative and generative approach.

The paper offers an analysis of decentralized autonomous organizations based on digital business models built on the well-established work by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010). The practical multilayered decentralized autonomous organizations architectural implementation model design is achieved using practical archetypes depicted in the proposed decentralized autonomous organizations business model. The paper evaluates a marketplace comprising 13 decentralized autonomous organizations led platforms with core functionalities.

The paper delivers decentralized autonomous organizations led digital business model canvas elements to explain decentralized autonomous organization business model innovations. It presents the underlying multilayered decentralized autonomous organizations architectural implementation model required to conceptualize a practical business model with an enterprise-ready target operating model.

The paper contributes directly to the practical decentralized autonomous organizations business model canvas, exemplifying the nine elements of decentralized autonomous organizations’ characteristics for any organizational transformation. The tools and accelerators (business model, layered architecture, target operating model and product mapping) developed in the paper address the managerial challenges of redesigning the decentralized business models.

The proposed decentralized autonomous organizations smart contract powered business model provide a digital platform to adhere to rules, follow policies, preserve principles and develop consensus without human interventions. The paper shapes the first of its kind decentralized autonomous organizations marketplace evaluation while mapping it to decentralized autonomous organizations layered architecture product requirement considering business model dimension to adopt actionable target operating model.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test a more comprehensive model of economic growth using a sample of 28 lower middle-income developing countries.

The authors modify the conventional neoclassical growth model to account for the impact of the increase in the number of people working relative to the total population and that of the increase in the value added per worker over time. The authors then extend this model by incorporating the role of trade, government consumption, and human capital in output growth.

Regression results show that over three quarters of cross-lower middle-income country variations in per capita GDP growth rate can be explained by per capita growth in the share of public expenditures on education in the GDP, per capita growth in the share of government consumption in the GDP, per capita growth in the share of imports in the GDP, per capita growth in the share of manufactured exports in the GDP (not of that of total exports in the GDP), and the growth of the working population relative to the total population.

Statistical results of such empirical examination will assist governments in these countries identify policy fundamentals that are essential for economic growth.

To address the simultaneity bias, the authors develop a simultaneous equations model and are able to show that such model is more robust and helps explains cross-country variations in per capita GDP growth over the 2000-2014 period.

This chapter provides information on the development of Vietnamese education under the influence of global forces based on the analysis of relevant education research and policies using Wolhuter’s frameworks. In the process of coming up with ways to develop education in the face of different influences of globalization, besides having reactions with patterns commonly found in countries around the world, Vietnam also has responses that reflect its own political, sociocultural and economic characteristics. The state still plays a controlling role in education at all levels and many culture-related features that have existed throughout the country’s history have hardly changed, namely aspects related to teachers, learners and teaching and learning methods. To sustain its education in the globalized era, Vietnam must make more efforts in various aspects such as the link between education and employment, the logic of education objectives, the feasibility and appropriateness of curricula, quality of education, especially of higher education and equality in education for underprivileged groups.

To explain the recent determination by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with respect to so-called “token sales” or “initial coin offerings” (ICOs) that some tokens may be securities under federal securities laws and to address other recent actions by the SEC with respect to ICOs.

Reviews the SEC’s determination that some tokens issued in an ICO may be securities under federal securities laws as outlined by the SEC’s Division of Enforcement in a “Report of Investigation Pursuant to Section 21(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934: The DAO.” Provides overview of SEC Investor Alert, Investor Bulletin, and recent comments and actions of the Staff regarding investment in ICOs and provides guidance to those interested in participating in an ICO as an investor or issuer.

These actions by the SEC make it clear that the SEC is closely monitoring the market for ICOs, and that it wants potential investors and issuers to be aware that it is watching and may take action if it believes the securities laws have been violated.

Practical overview of recent developments and guidance from experienced securities and financial services lawyers.

Cryptoassets have recently attracted the attention of national and international financial regulators. Since the mid-2010s blockchains have increasingly been adapted to automate and replace many aspects of financial intermediation, and by 2015 Ethereum had created the smart contract language that underpins the digitization of real assets as asset-backed tokens (ABTs). Those were initially issued by FinTech companies, but more recently banks active on international capital and financial markets, and even central banks, for example, the Bank of Thailand, have developed their own digital platforms and blockchains. A wide variety of real and financial assets underpins ABTs, viz., real-estate, art, corporate and sovereign bonds, and equity. Consequently, owing to the significant market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) published two consultative papers delineating its approach on cryptoasset regulation. In this study, the authors analyze the mechanics of ABTs and their potential risks, relying on case studies of recent issuance of tokens in equity, real-estate, and debt markets, to highlight their main characteristics. The authors also investigate the consequences of the increasingly oligopolistic structure of blockchain mining pools and Bitcoin exchanges for the integrity and security of unregulated distributed ledgers. Finally, the authors analyze the BCBS’ regulatory proposals, and discuss the reaction of international financial institutions and cryptocurrency interest groups. The main findings are, firstly, that most ABTs are akin to asset-backed securities. Secondly, nearly all ABTs are “off-chain/on-chain,” that is, the underlying is a traditional asset that exists off-chain and is subsequently digitized. The main exception is the World Bank’s bond-i that is genuinely native to the blockchain created by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and has no existence outside it. Thirdly, all ABTs are issued on permissioned blockchains, where anti-money laundering/anti-terrorist funding and know-your-customer regulations are enforced. From a prudential regulatory perspective, ABTs do not appear to pose serious systemic risks to international financial markets. This may account for the often negative reactions of banks, banking associations, and cryptocurrency interest groups to the BCBS’ 2021 proposals for risk-weighted capital provisions for cryptoassets, which are viewed as excessive. Finally, we found that issuance of ABTS and other smart contracts on permissionless blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum could potentially generate financial instability. A precedent involving Ethereum and The DAO in 2016 shows that (i) there is a significant accountability gap in permissionless blockchains, and (ii) the core developers of blockchains and smart contract technology, and Bitcoin mining pools, exercise an unexpectedly high- and completely unregulated-amount of power in what is supposedly a decentralized network.

In 2001, the US moved to regulate internal control reporting by management and auditors. While some jurisdictions have followed the lead of the US, many others have not. An important question, therefore, is the relevance of internal control to stakeholders. The more specific issue of the benefits of US-style regulation of internal control reporting is also topical. We review studies on the determinants of internal control quality and its economic consequences for stakeholders including investors, creditors, managers, auditors and financial analysts. We extend previous reviews by focusing on US studies published since 2013 as well as all non-US studies investigating IC quality including countries regulating IC disclosure as well as unregulated settings and both developed and developing economies. In doing so, we identify research questions where evidence remains mixed and new directions in which there are research opportunities.

Three main insights arise from our analysis. First, evidence on the economic consequences of internal control quality suggests that the quality of internal control can have a significant effect on decision making by users of financial information. Second, the results of research on the empirical association between ownership structure, certain board characteristics and internal control quality is generally mixed. Empirical evidence concerning the association between audit committee characteristics and internal control quality generally supports a positive and significant association. Finally, while studies in non-US jurisdictions are increasing, opportunities remain to explore the determinants and consequences of internal control in other jurisdictions. Our review provides evidence for policy makers of whether there are benefits from requiring management and auditors to report on internal control over financial reporting.