Money laundering and FATF compliance by the international community

This paper examines the anti-money laundering systems of Australia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA), the extent to which they have implemented the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations, and how compliance with these recommendations is affected by local cultural and economic factors. The paper makes use of FATF evaluation reports to compare the countries’ compliance; it examines some of the underlying cultural considerations and culture-specific ethical issues that affect the extent of compliance, and how cultural and ethical considerations may affect good governance. The findings indicate that the UK and the USA are the most advanced with regards to their compliance with the FATF recommendations and Australia and the UAE less so. The UAE is in particular found to be least compliant. We relate this finding to previous work on how a country’s legal and financial systems develop in line with its religion, culture and socio-economic situation, and examine how such local factors have affected the UAE’s financial and anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) systems. This research will be of interest to policy-makers and government agencies involved in addressing money laundering and its successful detection and prosecution.

The impact of gender diversity on turnover : the moderating effect of human resource policies and practices

Demography theory suggests that high gender diversity leads to high turnover. As turnover is costly for organizations, we examined whether HR policies and practices influence the expected gender diversity-turnover relationship. Survey data were collected from 198 HR decision makers at publicly listed organizations. We found that HR policies and practices that are supportive of diversity moderate the gender diversity-turnover relationship, such that high gender diversity leads to low turnover in organizations with many diversity supportive policies and practices. Results suggest that organizations can avoid the negative consequences of high gender diversity by implementing diversity supportive HR polices and practices.

Dealing with the problem of cybercrime

Lack of a universally accepted and comprehensive taxonomy of cybercrime seriously impedes international efforts to accurately identify, report and monitor cybercrime trends. There is, not surprisingly, a corresponding disconnect internationally on the cybercrime legislation front, a much more serious problem and one which the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) says requires „the urgent attention of all nations‟. Yet, and despite the existence of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, a proposal for a global cybercrime treaty was rejected by the United Nations (UN) as recently as April 2010. This paper presents a refined and comprehensive taxonomy of cybercrime and demonstrates its utility for widespread use. It analyses how the USA, the UK, Australia and the UAE align with the CoE Convention and finds that more needs to be done to achieve conformance. We conclude with an analysis of the approaches used in Australia, in Queensland, and in the UAE, in Abu Dhabi, to fight cybercrime and identify a number of shared problems.

Evaluation of accessibility for knowledge-based cities

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to develop a framework for evaluation of accessibility for knowledge based cities. ----- ----- Design/methodology/approach: This approach notifies common mistakes and problems in accessibility assessment for knowledge cities. ----- ----- Originality/value: Accessibility plays a key role in transport sustainability and recognizes the crucial links between transport and sustainable goals like air quality, environmental resource consumption & social equity. In knowledge cities, accessibility has significant effects on quality of life and social equity by improving the mobility of people and goods. Accessibility also influences patterns of growth and economic health by providing access to land. Accessibility is not only one of the components of knowledge cities but also affects other elements of knowledge cities directly or indirectly. ----- ----- Practical implications: The outcomes of the application will be helpful for developing particular methodologies for evaluating knowledge cities. On other words, this methodology attempts to develop an assessment procedure for examining accessibility of knowledge-based cities.

Bubble rise velocity and trajectory in xanthan gum crystal suspension

An experimental set-up was used to visually observe the characteristics of bubbles as they moved up a column holding xanthan gum crystal suspensions. The bubble rise characteristics in xanthan gum solutions with crystal suspension are presented in this paper. The suspensions were made by using different concentrations of xanthan gum solutions with 0.23 mm mean diameter polystyrene crystal particles. The influence of the dimensionless quantities; namely the Reynolds number, Re, the Weber number, We, and the drag co-efficient, cd, are identified for the determination of the bubble rise velocity. The effect of these dimensionless groups together with the Eötvös number, Eo, the Froude number, Fr, and the bubble deformation parameter, D, on the bubble rise velocity and bubble trajectory are analysed. The experimental results show that the average bubble velocity increases with the increase in bubble volume for xanthan gum crystal suspensions. At high We, Eo and Re, bubbles are spherical-capped and their velocities are found to be very high. At low We and Eo, the surface tension force is significant compared to the inertia force. The viscous forces were shown to have no substantial effect on the bubble rise velocity for 45 < Re < 299. The results show that the drag co-efficient decreases with the increase in bubble velocity and Re. The trajectory analysis showed that small bubbles followed a zigzag motion while larger bubbles followed a spiral motion. The smaller bubbles experienced less horizontal motion in crystal suspended xanthan gum solutions while larger bubbles exhibited a greater degree of spiral motion than those seen in the previous studies on the bubble rise in xanthan gum solutions without crystal.

The impact of gender diversity on performance in services and manufacturing organizations

We present three competing predictions of the organizational gender diversity-performance relationship: a positive linear prediction, a negative linear prediction, and an inverted U-shaped curvilinear prediction. The paper also proposes a moderating effect of industry type (services vs. manufacturing). The predictions were tested using archival quantitative data with a longitudinal design. The results show partial support for the positive linear and inverted U-shaped curvilinear predictions as well as for the proposed moderating effect of industry type. The results help reconcile the inconsistent findings of past research. The findings also show that industry context can strengthen or weaken gender diversity effects.

Workforce gender diversity: Is it a source of competitive advantage?

Research on workforce diversity at the organisational level gained momentum in the 1990s, because of the growing trend in HR research to link HR practices with organisational performance. The new parallel wave of research focused on the business case for diversity, in which diversity was linked to organisational performance. However, the results of these studies, mainly focusing on linear diversity-performance relationships, have been inconsistent. Based on contrasting theories, this paper proposes three competing predictions of the gender diversity-performance relationship at the organisational level: a positive linear relationship derived from the resource-based view of the firm, a negative linear relationship derived from self-categorisation and social identity theories, and a U-shaped curvilinear relationship derived from the integration of the resource-based view of the firm with self-categorisation and social identity theories. The U-shaped relationship accounts for the inconsistent findings in past research, because different proportions of men and women produce different social dynamics that have different effects on organisational performance. Further, the proposed U-shaped relationship can have different slopes in the manufacturing and services industries. The paper contributes to the field of diversity by strengthening its weak theoretical foundations and by highlighting the industry differences.

The organisational gender diversity-performance link : does industry type matter?

Research on workforce diversity gained momentum in the 1990s. However, empirical findings to date on the link between gender diversity and performance have been inconsistent. Based on contrasting theories, this paper proposes a positive linear and a negative linear prediction of the gender diversity-performance relationship. The paper also proposes that industry type (services vs. manufacturing) moderates the gender diversity-performance relationship such that the relationship will be positive in service organisations and negative in manufacturing organisations. The results show partial support for the positive linear gender diversity-performance relationship and for the moderating effect of industry type. The study contributes to the field of diversity by showing that workforce gender diversity can have a different impact on organisational performance in different industries.

Drag coefficient in a crystal suspension

A single air bubble rising in xanthan gum crystal suspension has been studied experimentally. The suspension was made by different concentrations of xanthan gum solutions with 0.23 mm polystyrene crystal particles. Drag co-efficient data and a new correlation of drag coefficient is presented for spherical and nonspherical bubbles in non-Newtonian crystal suspension. The correlation is developed in terms of the Reynolds number, Re and the bubble shape factor, � (the ratio between the surface equivalent sphere diameter to the volume equivalent sphere diameter). The experimental drag coefficient was found to be consistent with this new predicted correlation and published data over the ranges, 0.1

The gender diversity-performance relationship in services and manufacturing organizations

Empirical findings on the link between gender diversity and performance have been inconsistent. This paper presents three competing predictions of the organizational gender diversity-performance relationship: a positive linear prediction derived from the resource-based view of the firm, a negative linear prediction derived from self-categorization and social identity theories, and an inverted U-shaped curvilinear prediction derived from the integration of the resource-based view of the firm with self-categorization and social identity theories. This paper also proposes a moderating effect of industry type (services vs. manufacturing) on the gender diversity-performance relationship. The predictions were tested in publicly listed Australian organizations using archival quantitative data with a longitudinal research design. The results show partial support for the positive linear and inverted U-shaped curvilinear predictions as well as for the proposed moderating effect of industry type. The curvilinear relationship indicates that different proportions of organizational gender diversity have different effects on organizational performance, which may be attributed to different dynamics as suggested by the resource-based view and self-categorization and social identity theories. The results help reconcile the inconsistent findings of past research that focused on the linear gender diversity-performance relationship. The findings also show that industry context can strengthen or weaken the effects of organizational gender diversity on performance.

HIFiRE re-entry observation using an image-based visual servoing system

This paper presents an image based visual servoing system that is intended to be used for tracking and obtaining scientific observations of the HIFiRE vehicles. The primary aim of this tracking platform is to acquire and track the thermal signature emitted from the surface of the vehicle during the re-entry phase of the mission using an infra-red camera. The implemented visual servoing scheme uses a classical image based approach to identify and track the target using visual kinematic control. The paper utilizes simulation and experimental results to show the tracking performance of the system using visual feedback. Discussions on current implementation and control techniques to further improve the performance of the system are also explored.