Journals
2026 EN
Arthur Kingsley Kofi · Asongu Simplice · Darko Peter
+3 more
ABSTRACT This study provides an extensive review of modern slavery practises within the global supply chain, highlighting it as a significant human rights violation that affects both the well‐being of victims and the overall supply chain performance of organisations. Using secondary data from the Scopus database, we identify critical gaps and propose practical and theoretical approaches to mitigate modern slavery. The findings indicate that globalisation and neo‐trade liberalism exacerbate modern slavery across various forms, including forced labour, child labour, labour exploitation, human trafficking, underpaid wages, coercion and debt bondage, particularly within sectors such as agriculture, fishing, construction, apparel and fashion, mining and transportation. Furthermore, we examine the effectiveness of regional and national laws, including the UN Principles on Human Right and Business, UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015, Australia's Modern Slavery Act of 2018, the California Transparency in Supply Chain Act of 2010, the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act 2021, and Franch Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law of 2017, and find that while these legislative frameworks are effective at downstream levels of supply chains in developed nations, their impact is limited upstream, particularly in developing countries hindered by weak legal systems and prevailing socioeconomic challenges such as poverty, unemployemnt, food insecurity and gender dispartities which, continue to perpetuate social injustices. Additionally, we observe a troubling trend of inadequate financial investment in anti‐slavery initiatives, coupled with poor collaboration between scholars in the global south and north, which undermines efforts to combat modern slavery, particularly in less developed regions. To address these theoretical gaps, we propose a Modern Slavery Diffusion Model, alongside practical and policy‐level implications aimed at effectively tackling modern slavery issues in global supply chain.
Journals
2026 EN
Lin Yongjian · Song Zhicheng
ABSTRACT Biodiversity risk profoundly affects business organizations. From the perspective of supply chain management, this paper empirically examines the impact of biodiversity risk on customer concentration and its channel mechanism using data from Chinese A‐share listed companies from 2011 to 2023. It has been found that biodiversity risk can significantly reduce corporate customer concentration. This finding holds after a series of endogeneity and robustness tests. The mechanism test revealed that biodiversity risk reduces corporate dependence on large customers by decreasing customer relationship stability and promoting diversification strategies. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the weakening effect of biodiversity risk on corporate customer concentration is more prominent among firms that are non–state‐owned, have executives with overseas backgrounds, are not in heavily polluting industries, and are from the east‐central region of China. Additionally, the negative correlation between biodiversity risk and customer concentration can be enhanced by governments establishing a market‐oriented, law‐based, and internationalized business environment. This study contributes to characterizing the association between biodiversity risk and customer concentration and provides insights to better prevent and resolve supply chain disruptions due to biodiversity risk.
Journals
2026 EN
Adekunle Ibrahim Ayoade · Adamolekun Gbenga · Jones Edward
+1 more
ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of CEO duality on the likelihood of corporate participation in an emissions trading scheme. The results indicate that firms led by dual‐role executives are less likely to participate in emissions trading schemes. However, we document that the core relationship is moderated by board composition, including board tenure, board size, the nationality mix of board members, and the proportion of independent directors. Firms' continent of operation and law of origin also affect the probability of joining emission trading schemes. Financing frictions such as bankruptcy risk, degree of financial constraint, and firm growth opportunities are also important considerations.
Journals
2026 EN
Kaur Rawinder · Kwabi Frank · Hu Wansu
+2 more
ABSTRACT This study examines the impact of firm‐level climate risk on stock price informativeness (SPI) through the integrated lens of stakeholder–shareholder theory. Using a global unbalanced panel of 73,770 firm‐year observations across 38 countries (2000–2020), we find that higher carbon emissions significantly reduce SPI, reflecting increased information asymmetry. Governance mechanisms, specifically board size, independence, tenure and nationality mix, consistently moderate this effect by enhancing disclosure and mitigating opacity. The negative relationship between emissions and SPI is strongest in common law countries and those with high institutional quality, where stricter enforcement and disclosure regimes heighten investor sensitivity to environmental risks. Additionally, we document that transparency in emission disclosure, financial risks and environmental liabilities is identified as a key channel through which firm‐level climate risk affects market informativeness. Furthermore, higher SPI is associated with lower cost of capital, more efficient capital allocation and reduced crash risk. This study contributes novel insights to the climate finance literature by integrating firm‐level governance factors with cross‐jurisdictional analysis. Robustness checks, including placebo tests, alternative SPI measures and system GMM estimation, confirm the validity of our results and underscore the importance of institutional context in pricing environmental risk.
Journals
2026 EN
Zhu Tong · Löschel Andreas
ABSTRACT This paper investigates how manufacturing firms respond to a real‐time pollution monitoring programme, with a focus on the implication for employment. Contrary to the conventional expectation that environmental regulations negatively impact business, the findings reveal that enhanced pollution monitoring has a significant and robust positive impact on the employment of monitored firms. On average, firms subject to the pollution monitoring programme experience a 5% rise in employment, equivalent to approximately 102 additional workers. Further analyses indicate that this positive employment effect is primarily driven by increased capital investment and the subsequent output expansion, with innovation contributing a statistically significant but economically smaller role. This study also examines sectoral heterogeneity, ownership structure and the interactions between the monitoring programme and other environmental policies implemented during the same period. The findings offer valuable insights into the benefits of technological advancements for improving law enforcement.
Journals
2026 EN
Yang Caixia · Zhang Qingping · Fan Dan
ABSTRACT Traditional high‐school genetics education often struggles with students' fragmented understanding of probability concepts and limited experimental sample sizes. This study developed a Python‐based simulation tool for analyzing trait segregation, addressing these challenges. Additionally, it designed an interdisciplinary STEM teaching module to explore the collaborative cultivation path of probabilistic thinking and computational thinking. A mixed‐methods analysis comparing an experimental group (programming simulations) with a control group (traditional hands‐on experiments using physical models) revealed the following: (1) Conceptual mastery: The experimental group demonstrated a significantly superior understanding of the statistical implications behind the “ 3:1 phenotypic ratio ” and the Law of Large Numbers in post‐tests; (2) Empirical precision: Under the same number of experiments, the simulation data of the experimental group had better accuracy and stability; (3) Dynamic visualization: Real‐time graphical modules illustrated how increasing trial repetitions from 100 to 10,000 reduced fluctuations in the dominant phenotype frequency from [65%,85%] to [74%,76%], empirically validating the Law of Large Numbers ; (4) Cognitive transfer: Qualitative analysis revealed that 84% of the students successfully explored noncanonical inheritance scenarios by modifying code parameters, demonstrating advanced skills in problem abstraction and algorithmic iteration. This study confirms that using low‐threshold technological tools as a medium to integrate mathematical probability, biological experimentation, and information technology practice can effectively overcome the cognitive barriers to understanding randomness inherent in traditional instruction, offering an innovative paradigm for STEM education characterized by maintaining disciplinary rigor while achieving cognitive synergy.
Journals
2026 EN
Rocha André · Ferreira João · Oliveira Paulo
+2 more
ABSTRACT This study examines whether Parameter‐Efficient Fine‐Tuning (PEFT) of lightweight, free, and open‐licensed Large Language Models (LLMs) can yield tutoring assistants for introductory circuit analysis methods, while fitting the students' needs. We analyzed 260 Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) exam responses to classify and quantify frequent students' mistakes when applying the Loop Current Method (LCM). Only 28.5% solved the target problem without error, and most difficulties were conceptual (e.g., miscounting the number of independent Kirchhoff's Voltage Law (KVL) equations). Driven by this taxonomy, we assembled official course materials and curated a bilingual (Portuguese–English) pedagogical dataset. Using GTP‐4o for distillation, we generated question‐answer (QA) pairs for fine‐tuning smaller models (Meta Llama 3.2 1B and 3.1 8B), via Quantized Low‐Rank Adaptation (QLoRA) on a single commodity GPU, with an end‐to‐end pipeline completing in under 7 min. A blind study involving 77 first‐year ECE students evaluated responses to (never seen) questions from both our tuned models and GPT‐4.5, rating correctness, clarity, educational value, task coverage, and style. The 8B model scored within one point (5‐point Likert) of GPT‐4.5 model and both 1B and 8B were consistently preferred over untuned baseline versions for clarity and task coverage. As a complementary cross‐check, 12 higher education senior professors independently evaluated model responses, largely corroborating the student‐based rankings. These results provide evidence that carefully curated documents introducing electrical circuit theory, combined with smaller models optimized with PEFT, namely QLoRA, can be used in the construction of a always‐available tutoring application. The proposed system features modest cost, runs on consumer‐grade hardware, and paves the way for deployable front‐end applications that do not involve possibly expensive, resource‐hungry, remote machines.
Journals
2026 UN
Kentucky law requires sexual extortion awareness on campus NCAA settles lawsuit with volunteer coaches Class‐action lawsuit filed over tennis prize money
Journals
2026 UN
CSC launches anonymous tipline for reporting violations Washington law strengthens trauma‐informed training requirements NCAA study uncovers rates of harassment by bettors
Journals
2026 EN
Lyerly Eric
The American Bar Association promulgates model ethics rules that require attorneys to adhere to certain professional standards in the practice of law. The ABA recently published an advisory ethics opinion addressing the ethical implications of lawyers’ use of artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI. While framed around the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the opinion offers principles that are instructive well beyond the legal profession, especially for compliance in the realm of disability services.