No Humans Here

Many research communities routinely conduct activities that fall outside the bounds of traditional human subjects research, yet still frequently rely on the determinations of institutional review boards (IRBs) or similar regulatory bodies to scope ethical decision-making. Presented as a U.S. university-based fictional memo describing a post-hoc IRB review of a research study about social media and public health, this design fiction draws inspiration from current debates and uncertainties in the HCI and social computing communities around issues such as the use of public data, privacy, open science, and unintended consequences, in order to highlight the limitations of regulatory bodies as arbiters of ethics and the importance of forward-thinking ethical considerations from researchers and research communities.

Quantifying the hedge and safe-haven properties of bond markets for cryptocurrency indices

PurposeThis study quantified the hedge and safe haven features of bond markets for multiple cryptocurrency indices from June 2014 to April 2021 to highlight whether bond markets offer hedging facilities to uncertainty indices of cryptocurrencies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed the methodology of Baur and McDermott (2010) and AGDCC-GARCH model to measure the hedge and safe-haven characteristics of three bond markets (BBGT, SPGB and SKUK) for three uncertainty indexes of cryptocurrencies (UCRPR, UCRPO and ICEA).FindingsThe authors find that bond markets are neither hedge nor safe havens except for SKUK which is a safe haven investment for cryptocurrency indices and offers substantial diversification during the periods of economic fragility. In addition, the hedge effectiveness of SPGB outperforms other bonds during crisis periods and provides sufficient diversification potential for cryptocurrency indices.Practical implicationsThe findings are important for policymakers, regulatory bodies, financial firms and investors in assessing hedge and safe haven characteristics of bond markets against cryptocurrency indices.Originality/valueEmploying the novel methodology of AGDCC-GARCH with three different bond markets and three uncertainty indices of cryptocurrencies, the current study adds to the existing strand of literature in terms of quantifying hedge and safe-haven attributes of bond markets for cryptocurrency uncertainty indexes.

Delaying Intraoral Radiographs during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Conundrum

Background. The COVID-19 pandemic has made dentists very assiduous about cross-infection during dental treatment, thereby delaying dental radiographs for treatment. However, patients needing dental emergency treatment in the ongoing pandemic require relevant intra/extraoral dental radiography for adequate diagnosis and treatment planning. Methods. This article is aimed at adding to the hot debate: Is delay for intraoral radiographs justified or a possible proxy? As a narrative review, it provides an insight into the reasons for delaying intra-oral dental radiographs during in the pandemic and options of the nontraditional radiographic techniques available until the pandemic subsides. Discussion and Conclusion. Cross-contamination concerns through respiratory droplets grow while using intraoral film holders that stimulate gag reflex, coughing, saliva secretion, and if proper disinfection protocols are not applied. Since the patients’ acquiring emergency dental treatment cannot be neglected, the return-to-work guidelines by the health regulatory bodies urge to prioritize extraoral radiographic imaging techniques to curb the infection, offering the best diagnostic efficacy. The dental professionals can consider cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans and sectional dental panoramic radiographs (SDPRs), followed by a risk assessment for COVID-19, a safer modality in reducing cross-contamination and assuring an innocuous environment for both patient and coworkers.

Investigating e-Retailers’ Intentions to Adopt Cryptocurrency Considering the Mediation of Technostress and Technology Involvement

Cryptocurrencies have transgressed ever-changing economic trends in the global economy, owing to their conveyance, security, trust, and the ability to make transactions without the aid of formal institutions and governing bodies. However, the adoption of cryptocurrency remains low among stakeholders, including e-retailers. Thus, the current work explores the intentions of e-retailers in the Asia and Pacific region to adopt cryptocurrencies. This study considers the TAM-based SOR, with a combination of non-cognitive attributes (compatibility and convenience) proposed as stimuli for e-retailers to adopt the examined cryptocurrencies. The findings indicate that the proposed non-cognitive attributes are critical in determining e-retailers’ technostress (emotional state). Moreover, it was found that technostress among e-retailers profoundly impacts their intentions to adopt cryptocurrency in business settings. Meanwhile, regulatory support communication can be used to help regulatory bodies and governing institutions control the future economy worldwide. The proposed study offers significant theoretical and practical contributions through its investigation of e-retailers’ intentions to adopt cryptocurrency for the first time in the particular context of technostress and regulatory support.

Females on board and sustainability performance in a developing country: Evidence from Egypt

This study aims at filling the existing research gap by scrutinizing the influence of females on management boards on sustainability performance in a developing country using cross-sectional data from the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) of non-financial companies over the period 2012–2019. To the best of our knowledge, the analysis is considered one of the earliest empirical studies that tests the relationship of females on management board and sustainability performance in Egypt. Our results indicate that female representation on board has a positive impact on sustainability performance, which demonstrates that companies that have females on their boards have a better sustainability performance. Moreover, board size and independence enhance sustainability performance. Thus, this study has imperative repercussions on users and companies’ boards in Egypt, which recommend that current Egyptian regulatory bodies would take further steps that may significantly impact the environmental, social and corporate governance imminent in Egypt

Perceived Trust and Confidence for Cryptocurrency Adoption

This chapter seeks to examine the influence of public perceptions of trust in people and confidence in institutions on cryptocurrency adoption, taking into account the individual-level demographic factors and the regional-level contextual factors. Data is obtained from three large-scale international surveys and national databases and analyzed using R software. The multivariate results demonstrate that individuals' public perceptions of trust and confidence significantly contribute to cryptocurrency adoption. Lower perceived trust in people and higher perceived confidence in civil service and international regulatory bodies increase cryptocurrency adoption, while perceived confidence in political and financial institutions discourages cryptocurrency adoption. Additionally, the univariate results find significant comparisons of gender and perceived trust differences on the predictors of cryptocurrency adoption. This chapter discusses and provides insights on the social impact and future of cryptocurrency adoption, particularly among the upper- and lower-middle-income countries.

Exploring Non-Financial Information Research

The disclosure of non-financial information by companies in their annual reports is becoming increasingly important due to its interest for stakeholders' decision-making. This chapter aims to map research articles that have addressed the study of non-financial information in the last 20 years and have been published in journals indexed in the Web of Science (JCR) and Scopus (SJR) databases. The analyses carried out are described from a triple perspective: meta-perspective, content-based perspective, and methodological perspective. The main results obtained show the growing interest in research on non-financial information in terms of both quantity and quality of the publications. This study may be of interest to researchers, regulatory bodies, and other economic and social agents.

Herbal Drug Interactions

Use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) for preventive and therapeutic purposes has increased tremendously in the last two decades internationally. The manufacturers of these products are not required to submit proof of safety or efficacy to the Food and Drug Administration. As a result, the adverse effects and drug interactions associated with them are largely unknown. In this chapter, the author presents interactions of herbal medicines with other medicines (herbal or non-herbal). A large number of herbal drugs, including from single drug to a variety of mixtures have been used to treat kidney disorders. Herb-herb or herb drug interaction has been reported intensively during last decade, therefore it becomes important to keep an eye on the use of combination herbal therapy in order to avoid serious results because of interactions with each other. Due to the growing awareness about the interactions and side effects of herbal drugs/supplements over the past few years, regulatory bodies are working on these issues and pharmacopoeias are being developed for reference.

Impact of Human Mobility Trends on the Outbreak of COVID-19 Across Different States of India

The explosion of coronavirus has posed challenges to public health infrastructure in India. This pandemic can be contained with social distancing and isolation. The analysis of human mobility trends plays a decisive role in the spread of the pandemic. These movement patterns are extracted from Google COVID-19 Community Mobile Reports. These reports help to analyze the human mobility trends to various frequently visited places across different states of India. This work focuses on analyzing mobility trends in India and their effect on the spread of pandemic in terms of number of active cases and death rate. The mobility patterns, number of tests conducted, population density across different states in India are explored to understand their effect on the severity of epidemic. These features are correlated using statistical methods. This study lays the foundation in building a framework to contain the contributors for the spread of pandemics and provide insights to the regulatory bodies to strategize enforcing or revoking lockdown restrictions across regions in the country.

Functioning of Parliamentary Committees in Pakistan: An Analysis

Parliamentary committees are a tremendous way to ensure predictability and transparency in the work of ministries, regulatory bodies and public sector enterprises via effectual function of oversight. A major challenge for democracies is to ensure good governance especially in changing the way the private sector and the government engages. This research provides a concise and analytical study of the functioning of the system of committees in democratic systems and in Pakistan. The research analyzed the effectiveness of the parliamentary committees which will form the basis for this work for further progress. The research work is analytical as well as descriptive in nature. Data related to this study has been collected by secondary sources such as books, journal articles, encyclopedias and research reports.