Constructed wetland is a technically feasible, economically viable and environmentally sustainable natural technology that contributes at reducing greenhouse gases in the wastewater treatment. In this context, a pilot-scale subsurface horizontal-flow constructed wetland (HF-CW) was evaluated by using Thalia geniculata as native vegetation. The reactor operated with an average flow rate of 204 ± 66 L/ day of wastewater, with gravel support medium diameter of 2.8 ± 0.8 cm, porosity of n = 56.3 ± 3.5 and density of 1,666.7 ± 119.3 kg/m3, with 4.2 days as a hydraulic retention time. The HF-CW weighs approximately 2,600 kg, considering 1,108 kg of gravel, 850 kg of water and the weight of the container (carbon steel). The kinetic behavior was observed to be first order with k = −0.43 days−1, favoring the efficiency of biological oxygen demand removal up to 90%. During the experiments, it was shown that the bacterial biomass attached to the support material decreased its concentration from influent to effluent (33,000 to 2,000 mg/kg, mg of fixed biomass attached to each kg of gravel). For the electrical con- ductivity, color and turbidity, values were found to decrease in the order of 7.2 ± 4.8%, 86.7 ± 6.8% and 90.3 ± 5.8%, respectively. From the current experimental results, it was demonstrated that constructed wetlands, involving native species as vegetation, are highly efficient for the removal of basic pollutants.

The process of ecosystem fragmentation causes three types of changes in the ecosystem: changes of abiotic, direct biotic and indirect biotic nature. Among these changes, some of them are the microclimatic alterations, edge effect, decrease of the gene flow and losses of biodiversity, among others. In this way, the present study aimed to evaluate the environmental quality of forest remnants in a highly urbanized area through environmental indicators and landscape metrics, such as total area, circularity index, shape of forest fragments, nuclear area, connectivity between them, use and occupation around and distance from the nearest neighbor. The indicators were evaluated according to the methodologies established in the literature and grouped into an index to determine the environmental quality of each forest remnant. The index consisted of the sum of the weighted values for each indicator, according to its classification. The results indicate that most forest remnants evaluated in the study area present medium environmental quality, which demonstrates the degree of edge effect to which they are submitted, and this emphasizes the need for appropriate management actions in these areas, in order to soften such external pressures and ensure long-term sustainability. In addition, it was also identified that the metrics related to the area are essentially important for the determination of the environmental quality of forest remnants.

This study aimed to examine the firm-specific and macro- economic variables which can affect the liquidity position of private commercial banks in Ethiopia. For the current study, secondary data were extracted from audited annual financial reports of eight purposefully selected private commercial banks covering the period of 2011-2017. The panel data was analyzed by adopting the balanced panel fixed effect regression model. The study revealed that firm (bank) specific factors namely the size of banks, loan growth and deposit are found to be significant determinants of the banks' liquidity. Moreover, macroeconomic determinants consisting of interest rate margin, national bank bills purchase, GDP and annual inflation have a significant influence on the liquidity of private commercial banks of Ethiopia. This study recommends that private commercial banks in Ethiopia should be more concerned with the macroeconomic environment in addition to the internal environment in formulating strategies to enhance their liquidity position. Despite its limitations, this study contributes to the scarce knowledge of firm-specific and macro-economic determinants of banks liquidity by giving equal attention to the long aged banks and banks that were emerged on later periods.

Enterprises have been becoming internationalized in tandem with the rapid transformation in the world trade in recent years. It has now become mandatory to develop a common language in the field of accounting and auditing for the reason that many enterprises are now operating in different countries. At the end of this process, a worldwide uniformity has been implemented through “International Accounting Standards" and "International auditing standards". The relevant changes in independent auditing for SMEs under certain criteria were made in order to adapt conformity with the new Turkish commercial code in our country. While these developments proceed, it is essential to understand the factors affecting the perspectives of Turkish SMEs regarding independent auditing and to manage the process in light of this information. The main objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the approach being made by SMEs towards independent audit.

This objective of this study is to examine the impact of audit quality on accounting conservatism in Turkey. Using three different measures of accounting conservatism, we report that audit quality, in terms of brand name auditor and industry specialist auditor, is positively related to conservatism. Our results hold after controlling for operating cash flow, leverage, firm age and sales growth. Overall, the evidence is consistent that accounting conservatism complements firms in the Turkish business environment that engage with high quality auditors to mitigate agency costs.

This research aimed to test the influence of leverage, density of fixed assets, and independent commissioners on Effective Tax Rate in manufacturing companies listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange year 2011-2015. Purposive sampling technique was utilized to select the study’s sample and 42 companies were taken for a total 210 data observation. Multiple linear regression analysis is employed to test the hypotheses within this research. The results of this study indicated that leverage, density of fixed assets, and independent commissioners simultaneously influence ETR. Partially, the result showed that leverage and independent commissioners do not affect ETR. Meanwhile, density of fixed assets had a negative effect on ETR.

This study is conducted with the purpose of analyzing the opportunities and challenges of electronic banking system in commercial bank of Ethiopia founds at Gurage zone. It was conducted based on data mainly collected from staff and customers of the bank through questionnaires and focused group discussion. The study identified benefits of electronic banking that a customer gets as a result of using e-banking services as well as the benefits the bank gets as a result of providing e-banking services. It also investigated the major challenges for the electronic banking services in commercial bank of Ethiopia as of infrastructural, legal and regulatory, socio-cultural, and illiteracy related challenges. To address various challenges identified on the study, the study suggests a series of measures which could be taken by government as well as commercial bank of Ethiopia.

Purpose: This study is aimed to identify the leading factors for the tourism industry sustainable development in a less developed country.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Sustainable development can be defined as a process of economic and social changes as well as an agreed and coordinated process of natural resource exploitation, direction of investment, scientific and technological development, personal development and institutional change enhance the present and future potential of human needs. In this paper, we have tried to show the factors contributing to the development of the tourism industry. These recommendations make it possible to promote the sustainable development and rapid resuscitation of the tourism industry. In many ways it is about ensuring the quality of life of people. The design of the article includes theoretical explanations regarding sustainable development with emphasis in the tourism industry.

Findings: There are proposed more effective policies promoting the industry in addition to specific projects improving the infrastructure and the social feelings about tourism

Practical Implications: It was defined a set of measures that can have a positive impact, able to influence the industry in a positive way regarding its direct and indirect effects in the state, regional and local economies of tourism destinations.

Originality/Value: This is an important contribution describing and identifying issues related to the Georgian tourism sector. It is a valuable piece of information for policy-makers to adopt the studies proposals for the further sustainable development of the industry.

This paper summarizes the critical importance of the Cerrado savannah biome in Brazil and examines key ways in which large-scale agriculture, in particular large-scale soy farming, threatens water security and increases socio-ecological stress. It connects agribusiness expansion to the globalized meat industry by defining how complex economic relationships result in deforestation on a massive scale. It describes how this radical change in land cover has led to changes in rainfall patterns that are associated with extended drought periods and analyzes how these critical water shortages jeopardize socio-economic health beyond the immediate region. Further, it explicates how intensified transgenic soy farming and other pesticide-heavy crop production contributes to rising public health crises associated with carcinogen-contaminated water and food sources. Lastly, it identifies emerging trends that suggest how agribusiness corporations and governments may be legally ascribed moral responsibilities for maintaining socio-ecological health of the biome. The paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the human dimensions of environmental issues and their impacts and reframe conservation social science discourse in regard to protection of land and water resources in the region.

In contemporary business environment, in which learning and knowledge are considered as the only sustainable competitive advantage of modern organizations, and there is a trend of growing reliance on project type of teams’ and organizations’ functioning, competencies of project team members are becoming more important than ever. By integrating competencies of fundamental managerial functions and competencies of project management’s knowledge areas, this paper investigates the nature of competency profile of project team members, as well as its main effects on project. Established competency profile of project team members is analyzed in relation to project team dynamics and project success. The mediating role of project team dynamics in the effect of competency profile of project team members on project success also investigated in the paper. Cross-sectoral empirical research was conducted during the spring of 2018, through which data from 83 project team members was collected via questionnaire. Collected data was enrolled and processed in SPSS 23.0, with addition of Hayes’ (2018) PROCESS Macro for SPSS - v3.2. Results obtained through descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses led to very interesting insights and inferences, especially when considering the cluster analysis’ and mediation effects’ results related to the interplay of project team members’ competency profile, project team dynamics and project success.

The aim of this paper is to determine resources and competitive factors of sport tourism suitable to tourism business circumstances. For this paper and according to accessible and processed sources, had not been found research that determine and treats concept of sport comprehensively, by the sub-areas of sport. Sport tourism in theory represents a selective form of tourism and should be based, in accordance with contemporary trends, on comparative competitiveness and sustainable development. Sustainable development includes a wide range of relevant platforms. These platforms influence the sustainable planning of sport tourism supply. The question is what are the resources and factors that are important for the planning of sport-tourism supply and fit into comparative competitiveness and sustainable development? The practical and theoretical purpose of this paper are the determination of resources and factors important for the planning and development of sport tourism in those destinations that want to develop this form of selective tourism. In these destinations such created supply of sports and recreational amenities and facilities should resulted with increase in consumption. Previously defined resources and factors should be the basis for the planning of the overall development of a particular destination and, consequently, for decision-making process on potential investment engagements. Such structural changes should also reflected on the structure of the supply and potentially define changes in the guests structure/profile and their demand or consumption. Thus, in this paper determined resources and factors, if applied, should affect directly or indirectly the planning and decisions development in each particular destination.

Since its introduction in the late seventies of the last century, mobile wireless communication has undergone significant stages of development, from analogue voice calls to nowadays latest state-of- the-art digital technology. The intense development of mobile communications networks, the increasing number of new types of mobile devices resulted in a large number of new applications being used and will increasingly be used in mobile connectivity and the expected growth of network traffic. The emerging and most promising one, the 5G technology, will probably not appear in the market until 2020 as a full scale commercial platform. 5G platform is expected to significantly improve customer service quality in the context of increased data volume in mobile networks and the growth of wireless devices with different services. In the near future, some of the main goals or requirements to be addressed by the 5G network are increased capacity, improved data transfer rates, reduced latency, and improved service quality. As per technological innovation theory taxonomy and strategic innovative positioning 5G technology is considered as game changer and disruptor. This paper displays how the global level key players, are preparing to introduce and boost the 5G network operability by using an inductive method, where broader EU arena with specific Croatian environment are used as a practitioners show cases.

This paper considers and presents a model of the use of an exhaustive search algorithm in solving problems of a salesman on the example of the transportation network optimization of Primorsko Goranska County. By identifying the suboptimal solutions of transportation network, that enable insight into more transportation routes and can be significantly influenced by the reduction of transportation costs and creating increased opportunities for the carrier in the context of flexible designing the structure of the commodity flows, greater utilization of transport capacity, and thus achieve greater profit. In the analyzed example, transportation network of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County (PGC) is divided into two sets (segment): 1) a set of cities (nodes) that are located (placed) on the same traffic direction (transportation route) that represents the optimal transportation route, and 2) a set of cities (nodes) that connect through a variety of transport relationships and that are included in the calculation by using the exhaustive search algorithm. In the example are also defined nodes that are common to both the two sets and that are connecting by the virtual transportation route in the spreadsheet optimization model.

This paper aims to provide the empirical evidence of the interaction mechanism in the open innovation system with particular attention to aesthetic and rational innovation in an Italian creative sector. Factors including rapid technological development, the advent of innovative openness processes involving sub-sectors belonging to diversified supply chains, shorter product life cycles, more diversified and customized, demande and fierce marketing competition, make today’s business model increasingly unpredictable and risky. Building on relational based view, resource-based view and network analysis the purpose of this paper is to empirically explore the relationships among supply chain integration (SCI) and inter-company performance in global diversified supply chain. This is an exploratory study and the qualitative research method has been employed. This research has founded its context in the Italian knitwear sector which is part of the creative industries of the Italian fashion system. The data were collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with workers belonging to various areas of activity and with external actors such as yarn suppliers, buyers, institutional and non-institutional lenders. The purpose of this research is also to promote research methodological approaches to analyse different uncertainty scenarios for the future.

The idea of this paper is to align the business decision-making process with detected product competitiveness characteristics of the domestic company on the domestic market. For this paper was designed "proposal of the operational steps of a simple market and product research methodology", for the existing product in the existing market. These operational steps should be a small contribution for the development of rules and procedures for managing marketing functions in business activities. According to literature, for this paper available and explored, there is a room to research the impact of such procedures and rules in order to increase the selling efficiency of products in terms of detected market circumstances and comparative advantages. Therefore, an indicative question was set down for this paper: "How much domestic product is competitive on the domestic market?" Through an example of geotextile, the competitiveness of domestic products was investigated in compare with foreign products by determining certain characteristics that affect purchasing decisions. An analysis of the Croatian geotextile market was conducted, competitive products were compared and consumer preferences were explored when deciding on purchases. The research results indicate the necessity of applying, even simple, product and market research methodologies. Namely, the analysis of the results showed that the qualitative competitiveness of domestic products in relation to the foreign products is not satisfactory, the price is not the most important deciding factor and the domestic origin of the product as a decision making factor is not important.

Today, the demand for soybean for feed industry and food production in Germany is met by imports from South and North America. Soybean cultivation in Germany, although challenging, will be of interest in the future due to an increasing demand for non-genetically modified (NGM) soybeans. To meet this rising demand for NGM soybeans and to increase resource use efficiency there is a need to reduce soybean harvest losses arising from harvesting with combine harvester. The height of the first pod can be a major factor affecting harvest losses, especially when it is not possible to maintain a sufficiently low cutting height. From 2011 to 2013, six soybean varieties were cultivated using two cropping systems (conventional ‘CON’ and organic ‘ORG’) at the Osnabruck University of Applied Sciences in a randomized block design with four replications to investigate the effect of first pod height and plant length on harvest losses and the effect of the cropping system on these parameters. Before harvesting with an experimental harvester, 1.5 m² per plot were harvested manually as a reference. First pod height, number of pods per plant and plant length were determined on 10 plants per plot. Over the three years of the study, the first pod height (10.4 cm) and plant length (81.4 cm) were on average higher under conventional conditions compared to organic cultivation (7.3 cm; 60.9 cm). On average, lower harvest losses (25.6% vs. 39.2%) and higher grain yields (20.8 dt ha⁻¹ vs. 16.9 dt ha⁻¹) were also observed under conventional cultivation. Varieties differed significantly in grain yield, first pod height and plant length. A high first pod height was related to a longer plant length and lower harvest losses at both sites. However, a high first pod height and a high plant length did not lead to higher grain yields on any of the plots. These results indicate that harvest efficiency can be improved by choosing varieties with long plant lengths if it is not possible to maintain a low cutting height when harvesting with a combine harvester.

This study is concerned with identifying the determinants of credit risk in Ethiopian Commercial Banks. We collected secondary data from the audited financial statement of eight senior commercial banks for the period of 14 years. To analyze the data, a fixed effect ordinary list square model was applied. Finally, the study found out macro-economic and micro-economic variables affect the level of credit risk in Ethiopian commercial banking industry.