Search Results (43)

Cybersecurity threats increasingly originate from human actions within organizations, emphasizing the need to understand behavioral factors behind non-compliance with information security policies (ISPs). Despite the presence of formal security policies, insider threats—whether accidental or intentional—remain a major vulnerability. This study addresses the gap in behavioral cybersecurity research by developing an integrated conceptual model that draws upon Operant Conditioning Theory (OCT), Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore ISP compliance. The research aims to identify key cognitive, motivational, and behavioral factors that shape employees’ intentions and actual compliance with ISPs. The model examines seven independent variables of perceived severity: perceived vulnerability, rewards, punishment, attitude toward the behavior, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, with intention serving as a mediating variable and actual ISP compliance as the outcome. A quantitative approach was used, collecting data via an online survey from 302 employees across the public and private sectors. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with SmartPLS software (v.4.1.1.2) analyzed the complex relationships among variables, testing the proposed model. The findings reveal that perceived severity, punishment, attitude toward behavior, and perceived behavioral control, significantly and positively, influence employees’ intentions to comply with information security policies. Conversely, perceived vulnerability, rewards, and subjective norms do not show a significant effect on compliance intentions. Moreover, the intention to comply strongly predicts actual compliance behavior, thus confirming its key role as a mediator linking cognitive, motivational, and behavioral factors to real security practices. This study offers an original contribution by uniting three well-established theories into a single explanatory model and provides actionable insights for designing effective, psychologically informed interventions to enhance ISP adherence and reduce insider risks. Full article

This article explores religious understandings of interpersonal forgiveness in post-conflict contexts. It challenges views that portray religious perspectives as purely normative, prescriptive, and insensitive to life’s complexities. This study draws from 75 in-depth interviews with religious leaders from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s three largest faith communities (Islamic Community, Roman Catholic Church, and Serbian Orthodox Church). Using grounded theory methodology for data collection and analysis, this research reveals three interrelated conceptualizations of forgiveness: (1) forgiveness as a dispensation from justified punishment, (2) forgiveness as an emotional process, and (3) forgiveness as a spiritual transformation. This paper further examines forgiveness along the dimensions of procedurality, collectivity, conditionality, and memory. Forgiveness emerges as a fragmented, non-linear process shaped by both individual and collective factors. While some fundamental openness toward forgiveness is often seen as unconditional, its progression depends significantly on the wrongdoer’s actions and broader context. Finally, the findings show that forgiveness does not imply forgetting, yet it substantially influences how past injuries are remembered and commemorated. Full article

Nowadays, we are heading towards global decarbonisation, with each sector involved contributing partial solutions to the problem, without realising that an overall vision is necessary. Photovoltaics emerged as a technology that requires a lot of surface area, which is why it has been integrated into buildings and other human infrastructures (BPVI). The effects of the implementation of AVS on an island have been analysed, observing the territory’s energy use, population, and social and topographical realities, collecting all the peculiarities that could be affected by a massive implementation of this technology. The method to be followed is a SWOT and TOWS analysis, widely employed in all types of scientific studies. The increase in the island’s resilience has been assessed, as has its decreasing its dependence on the outside. In this case, it has been observed that conventional PV is currently being installed on agricultural land to decarbonise electricity production, which mostly relies on oil and does not consider that the island is a territory with a high food dependence on the outside; a high unemployment rate; a high factor of soil desertification, meaning fires are frequent; a high rate of abandonment of agricultural land; and a shortage of flat land. Therefore, we affirm that the island’s carbon footprint will increase by not taking all these factors into account. In addition to punishing the local economy by destroying fertile soil, local food and jobs, the current method of energy production increases the need for subsidies to import food products from abroad. In addition, we claim that the use of AVS reduces the water needs of the crop, which is relevant on an island with great water scarcity. It is concluded that 11 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals would be improved with the use of agrovoltaic technology. Full article

The small Mediterranean islands, unique geographical places where coastlines and mountains converge due to volcanic genesis, are among the most threatened environments on Earth. Their marginality, which has historically led to their use as places of detention and punishment, coupled with the extreme climate and rugged geomorphology shaped by terracing practices, has resulted in the loss of systematic land management. This loss stems from the abandonment of cropland in favor of alternative activities and migrations, impacting essential ecosystem services such as the water cycle, soil fertility, and the cultural landscape. The need to counteract the land degradation in these vulnerable areas has been acknowledged for some Mediterranean small islands, including the UNESCO heritage site of Stromboli in the Aeolian Islands, Sicily, Italy—an especially captivating location due to its active volcano. The agricultural abandonment on terraces, intensively cultivated with olives groves and vineyards until the mid-20th century, has rendered the area highly fragile and susceptible to risks such as fires and soil erosion, particularly as a consequence of extreme weather events, as proven in 2022, which saw a destructive fire followed by storms. To mitigate the negative effects of hydrogeological disruptions, the implementation of integrated landscape management—managing ecosystems at the landscape level—has been proposed. Specifically, an agroforestry intervention, coupled with the restoration of dry stone walls, the shaping of soil slopes by recovering the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and the design of water-collecting devices incorporated with the traditional hydraulic knowledge, may be proposed as a strategic approach to minimize the soil erosion risks, adapt to climate change, and extensively restore the use of traditional agrobiodiversity to support the local economy and tourism. A pilot intervention by local stakeholders based on these principles is described as an emblematic agrobiodiversity-based landscape design project in a vulnerable area, aiming at the preservation of the cultural landscapes of the small Mediterranean islands. Full article

Background: Violence against health professionals is a global and growing problem, with significant impacts on the quality of care and the mental health of workers. Objectives: To analyze the level of knowledge, reporting practices and consequences of violence against health professionals in the Alentejo region (southern Portugal). Methods: This was an observational, cross-sectional study involving 440 health professionals (doctors and nurses). Data were collected using an online platform and a structured questionnaire created specifically for this study. In the statistical analysis, the data were described as counts and proportions and the X2 test was used considering a significance level of 0.05. Results: This study reveals that violence against health professionals in the southern region of Portugal is a frequent problem (40%), with a higher incidence among nurses (80%). Despite awareness of the existence and functioning of reporting channels, reporting is low (52%). The main causes are related to the health system, professionals and users. The consequences include mental health problems and a reduction in the quality of care provided. Suggested measures to combat violence include improving security, training and punishing aggressors. Conclusions: This study reveals that violence against health professionals in the southern region of Portugal is a frequent, under-reported problem with serious consequences for professionals and the quality of care. Full article

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of Government Embedment and Organizational Environment on farmers’ Credible Commitment in regard to the Collective Governance of Rural Residential Land and to inform decision-making processes that promote farmers’ compliance with Rural Residential Land management regulations and enhance the effectiveness of the Collective Governance of Rural Residential Land. The research employs various models, including Oprobit, Ologit, IV-2SLS, and moderated mediation. The research results show that (1) both Government Embedment and the Cultural Environment within the Organizational Context significantly enhance Farmers’ Credible Commitment in regard to the Collective Governance of Rural Residential Land. Notably, the quality of the Cultural Environment, when improved by Government Embedment, boosts this commitment further. (2) Endogeneity issues can lead to an overestimation of the effects of these factors. (3) Punishment intensity only positively moderates the impact of the Cultural Environment on Farmers’ Credible Commitment. (4) The moderating effect of punishment intensity correlates positively with its strength, exhibiting a threshold value. In conclusion, our research underscores the need to establish a robust regulatory framework for Rural Residential Land use, foster a conducive village cultural atmosphere, and consistently enhance the punishment intensity for illegal Rural Residential Land use. These measures will encourage farmers to adhere to Credible Commitment in regard to Rural Residential Land use, thereby facilitating the effective implementation of Collective Governance over Rural Residential Land. Full article

In this paper, we collect the basic information data of online rumors and highly topical public opinions. In the research of the propagation model of online public opinion rumors, we use the improved SCIR model to analyze the characteristics of online rumor propagation under the suspicion mechanism at different propagation stages, based on considering the flow of rumor propagation. We analyze the stability of the evolution of rumor propagation by using the time-delay differential equation under the punishment mechanism. In this paper, the evolution of heterogeneous views with different acceptance and exchange thresholds is studied, using the standard Deffuant model and the improved model under the influence of the media, to analyze the evolution process and characteristics of rumor opinions. Based on the above results, it is found that improving the recovery rate is better than reducing the deception rate, and increasing the eviction rate is better than improving the detection rate. When the time lag τ < 110, it indicates that the spread of rumors tends to be asymptotic and stable, and the punishment mechanism can reduce the propagation time and the maximum proportion of deceived people. The proportion of deceived people increases with the decrease in the exchange threshold, and the range of opinion clusters increases with the decline in acceptance. Full article

The unsafe behavior of frontline workers at construction sites is the most important cause of construction accidents. This study proposed a comprehensive model of frontline workers’ unsafe behaviors based on a systems perspective and used structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the influence mechanisms between the objective conditions (e.g., work environment, work climate, and task complexity), safety management (e.g., safety education and training, safety reward and punishment regulations, safety inspection, safety technology disclosure, and safety warning signs), group influence (propagation of unsafe behaviors among workers), personal perception (subjective judgment of operators on their safety knowledge and skills), and unsafe behaviors. Data from 460 frontline workers were collected through questionnaires and the correlation hypotheses were tested using SPSS 26.0 and Amos 26.0 software. The following conclusions were obtained: (1) objective conditions directly positively influence safety management, group influence, and personal perception but indirectly negatively influence unsafe behavior; (2) safety management not only directly positively affects personal perception but also directly negatively affects unsafe behavior. However, the direct effect of safety management on group influence is not significant; (3) group influence has a direct positive effect on unsafe behavior, but the direct effect on personal perception is not significant; (4) the direct effect of personal perception on unsafe behavior is insignificant. These findings can be used as preliminary data to guide decision makers or managers in construction companies to develop reasonable management plans to curb the unsafe behaviors of frontline workers. Full article

In recent decades, with the rising living standards of rural China, the amount and volume of household waste has increased continuously, causing serious environmental and human health risks. Effective garbage classification reduces garbage volume, decreases the difficulty of garbage disposal, and facilitates the recycling of resources, thereby improving environmental quality. Domestic garbage classification (DGC) has been practiced frequently in developed countries and is now at a relatively mature stage. There is no robust model for garbage classification available globally as of yet, and each country has its policy frameworks to reduce, recycle, and reuse (3R) garbage. Little attention has been paid to knowing whether and to what extent incentive-based policies called “rewards and punishments” improve garbage classification and further help achieve targets of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Recently, developing countries, like China, have begun to incorporate DGC into their laws and promote enforcement measures in a few cities. However, empirical studies on residents’ willingness to accept DGC punishments and rewards are still relatively scarce and a hot topic of global scientific discussion. To enrich the knowledge, this study collected datasets from 9983 valid questionnaires from east China (16 selected independent variables), and analyzed the key factors affecting residents’ acceptance of punishments and rewards, employing logit models. The results found that the level of education plays an important role for residents that are more inclined to accept DGC rewards and punishments. Moreover, farmers were insensitive to DGC rewards but very sensitive and unsupportive of punishments, and the hardware facilities of the quarter had a greater impact on residents’ willingness to accept DGC rewards and punishments. Findings recommend that rewards be the main focus and punishments be supplemented, thus the incentive-based policies should be improved through law enforcement and implementation of robust policy frameworks in order to promote residents’ acceptance of rewards and punishments and to accelerate better garbage classification. Full article

This study identifies common perceptions between Thomas Hobbes’ approach to religion with that of Critias the sophist. Despite the distance that separates the social environments within which each of these authors lived and wrote, in their political philosophy we can spot a shared set of concerns, whose importance transcend the historical and political contexts in which the authors lived and wrote: in the state of nature, where no organized commonwealth (or civil society) exists, capable of repressing the innate greed of men and women, savagery and conflict reign supreme; life is threatened by violence and extreme aggression. It is only the state of society that guarantees stability and good life. For both thinkers, belief in immaterial spirits protects the state of society; belief in God promotes obedience to civil law and guarantees human co-existence. In Critias’ mind, religion is a necessary means to avert aggression, even when the State’s executive powers are unable to punish offenders, using all necessary tools to prevent hostility and conflict. While civil law is the hallmark of peace and stability, belief in a transcendent entity that influences collective and individual modes of living, is an important addition to the pursuit of social peace. A few centuries later, Hobbes (influenced by the misery of the English Civil War) developed viewpoints that also highlight the role of religion in defending social peace. Nonetheless, in Hobbes’ mind religion could safeguard stability only (A) when ecclesiastical authorities submit to the judgment of an omnipotent Sovereign and (B) when the coercive mechanisms of the State supress religious pluralism, prohibiting different interpretations of the Bible, which Hobbes himself considered one of the main causes of conflict. Full article

Korea’s industrial accident rate ranks high among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. Moreover, large-scale accidents have recently occurred. Accordingly, the requirements for management and supervision in industrial sites are increasing; in this context, the “Act on Punishment of Serious Accidents, etc.” has been enacted. Aiming to prevent such industrial accidents, various data collected by devices such as sensors and closed-caption televisions (CCTVs) are utilized to track workers and detect hazardous substances, gases, and fires at industrial sites. In this study, an industrial area requiring such technology is selected. A hazardous situation event is derived, and a dataset is built using CCTV data. A violation corresponding to a hazardous situation event is detected and a warning is provided. The events incorporate requirements extracted from industrial sites, such as those concerning collision risks and the wearing of safety equipment. The precision of the event violation detection exceeds 95% and the response and delay times are under 20 ms. Thus, this system is believed to be used at industrial sites and for other intelligent industrial safety prevention solutions. Full article

Water scarcity in the United States needs to be addressed with demand- and supply-side initiatives. Yet, water is often provided for a low cost to households in residential areas that have the potential to reduce water consumption. The theory of planned behavior (TpB) is a social science theory used to understand why volitional conservation behaviors, including water conservation, are performed by consumers. Additional predictors are included in TpB in water literature, and motivations for behavioral actions may help further explain residential water conservation behavior. This study sought to determine whether TpB and motivation predicted residential water conservation behavior. Data were collected with an online survey (n = 907) in September 2022 from residents of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama using non-probability opt-in quota sampling. The data were analyzed in R using the lavaan package. The results indicate that there was a significant direct effect of attitude and subjective norms on intention. There was a significant direct effect of intention on behavior. There was a significant negative direct effect of extrinsic motivation on behavior. Mediation was present in the model with intrinsic motivation. Perhaps the respondents had not thought about rewards or punishments in the context of water conservation because of the availability of water at a low cost and therefore were not extrinsically motivated to conserve water. Full article

Although victims have the right to limited participation in trials and to seek reparations after sentencing, the legal structure of the International Criminal Court (ICC) prioritizes retributive justice over restorative justice and punishment over reparations. Thus, currently, although the perpetrators can be tried through the ICC, it is still difficult to obtain reasonable compensation for the damages suffered by the victims. On the one hand, the ICC’s reparation system may be restricted by the identity of the victim, ICC internal factors, and so on. The current structure of the ICC compensation system allows for hierarchical relationships between victims, while at the same time, there is tension between individual and collective types of compensation. These factors have led to a disconnect and gap between the protection of rights at the theoretical level and actual reparation. This dichotomy between the theoretical protection of the rights of victims and the real protection of victims in practice exists in the ICC. Victims are isolated from the field of vision due to potential repercussions. The idealistic illusion of justice is completed when the ICC stands on the stage and accepts the audience’s praise. However, for compensation in criminal courts, people are paying increasing attention to the legal process and content. In practice, the proportion of victims of international crimes is not low, and in some cases, victims are widespread. It can be seen that criminal compensation for victims is an issue that spans a vast range of people and regions. Nonetheless, there are still research gaps regarding reparation and other ideas of justice according to the ICC, how the ICC provides multifaceted safeguards for victims, and the limitations and influence of the mechanism of the ICC on the compensation of victims. Considering the above problems, this paper aims to analyze the International Criminal Court indemnity cases. This paper wishes to analyze reparations and other ideas of justice under the ICC, examining the approach of the ICC toward compensation for victims, where the ICC is heading regarding reparations for victims, how the reparations system works, and the advantages and disadvantages of the reparations system, as well as what are the potential problems of ICC related to reparations. What guarantees do the ICC’s mechanisms provide for victims to be able to receive reparations? How does the structure of the ICC reparations system conflict with victims’ reparations in practical terms? What are the potential obstacles and gaps between criminal trial reparations and victims? The first chapter wants to analyze the early Nuremberg tribunal, Tokyo tribunal, ICTY, and the ICTR by analyzing whether international criminal justice under these military tribunals was restorative justice or reparation justice and interspersed with analyses of reparation to victims under these tribunals. Then, it analyses it further about justice and reparation of the ICC, and it talks about the compensation for the victim and how the idea of compensation under the ICC has evolved. Using these arguments to analyze reparation and other different ideas of justice under the paly of ICC. The second chapter of the article analyzes the “participatate in trial for compensation”, “The limits of participating in trial”, “Safety protection for victims” to demonstrate the current protection and progress of the ICC system on the issue of victims’ compensation, this is because victims’ participation in the trial will bring a lot of help to the issue of compensation. The article analyses the significance and shortcomings of participation in a trial for compensation, which is necessary and meaningful to the issue of compensation because “participation in trial” and compensation are related and complementary to each other, as participation of the victims will bring a lot of help to the issue of compensation. The article analyses the section “Protection of the financial situation of victims: A possible alternative methods of reparation” because, to some extent, it can be seen as an alternative method of ICC compensation. The third chapter of the article hopes that by analyzing “Little compensation”, “The silence court put on victims’ rights of compensation”, “The ICC’s model of judicial administration remains optional” to argue and analyze how the structure of the ICC reparations system conflict with victim reparations in practical terms. Because the silence the court put on victims’ rights of compensation and the ICC’s model of judicial administration remains optional, both directly impact the issue of compensation. Chapter IV mainly aims to analyze some of the potential negative impacts of the ICC on victim reparations, specifically “The victim’s social death”, “Restrictions on “expression” between the victim and the court”, “Does the ICC hope to improve its attitude to victims?” to specifically analyze and argue these aspects of its potential negative impact on victim reparations. On this basis, this paper analyzes the gap between criminal trial reparations and victims to identify what negatives exist between the two. Full article

(1) Background: The use of force by public and private security forces is currently an issue of great relevance because of the potential injuries caused by any excessive use of force by either active or passive subjects or a deficit in the real mastery of appropriate physical intervention techniques (PITs). For this reason, certain traditionally used physical intervention techniques have been questioned by scientific research studies and punished by justice. On the other hand, certain media have dealt with this matter in a biased and unfair manner by broadcasting videos where the use of force by police officer is displayed out of context. As a consequence, this problem has been brought under the spotlight, causing general uneasiness of the communities and rapidly spreading over social networks while favoring all sorts of parallel judgments. (2) Research method: A suit was equipped with 19 inertial measurement units (IMUs) and a Biomechanics of Bodies software application for Marras analysis of the data collected on trajectory, trunk twisting velocity, sagittal angle, load, and nature and severity of the injuries associated with the different intervention techniques examined. (3) Results: According to the data registered, the implementation of operational tactical procedures (OTPs) reduces the probability of injuries and leads to a more satisfactory outcome. (4) Conclusions: The implementation of operational tactical procedures, together with an awareness of the risks associated with the excessive use of force by public and private security forces and bodies, could reduce the risk of injuries suffered by both officers and citizens. Full article

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things and the popularity of numerous sensing devices, Mobile crowdsourcing (MCS) has become a paradigm for collecting sensing data and solving problems. However, most early studies focused on schemes of incentive mechanisms, task allocation and data quality control, which did not consider the influence and restriction of different behavioral strategies of stakeholders on the behaviors of other participants, and rarely applied dynamic system theory to analysis of participant behavior in mobile crowdsourcing. In this paper, we first propose a tripartite evolutionary game model of crowdsourcing workers, crowdsourcing platforms and task requesters. Secondly, we focus on the evolutionary stability strategies and evolutionary trends of different participants, as well as the influential factors, such as participants’ irrational personality, conflict of interest, punishment intensity, technical level and awareness of rights protection, to analyze the influence of different behavioral strategies on other participants. Thirdly, we verify the stability of the equilibrium point of the tripartite game system through simulation experiments. Finally, we summarize our work and provide related recommendations for governing agencies and different stakeholders to facilitate the continuous operation of the mobile crowdsourcing market and maximize social welfare. Full article