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This paper aims to review recent literature results on the mechanical response of confined pentamode structures behaving either in the stretching-dominated or the bending-dominated regimes.

The analyzed structures consist of multilayer systems formed by pentamode lattices alternated with stiffening plates and are equipped with rigid or hinged connections.

It is shown that such structures are able to carry unidirectional compressive loads with sufficiently high stiffness, while showing markedly low stiffness against shear loads. In particular, their shear stiffness may approach zero in the stretching-dominated regime.

The presented results highlight the high engineering potential of laminated pentamode metamaterials as novel isolation devices to be used for the protection of buildings against shear waves.

This study aims to focus on a short review on recent results dealing with the mechanical modelling and experimental characterization of a novel class of tensegrity structures, named class θ = 1 tensegrity prisms. The examined structures exhibit six bars connected by two disjoint sets of strings.

First, the self-equilibrium problem of tensegrity θ = 1 prisms is numerically investigated for varying values of two aspect parameters and, next, their prestress stability is studied. The mechanical behavior of the examined structures in the large displacements regime under uniform compression loading is also numerically computed through a path-following procedure. Finally, the predicted constitutive response is validated through experimental tests.

The presented results highlight that the examined structures exhibit a large number of infinitesimal mechanisms from the freestanding configuration, and reveal that they exhibit tunable elastic response switching from stiffening to softening.

This multi-faceted elastic response is in agreement with previous literature results on the elastic response of minimal tensegrity prism, and suggests that such units can be usefully used as non-linear springs in next-generation tensegrity metamaterials.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether firms from countries presenting higher levels of corruption are more likely to have higher levels of earnings management than their counterparts from countries with lower levels of corruption. It also explicitly examines how this relationship compares between emerging and developed economies.

Using multiple regression analysis, this study tests the hypothesis of positive association between the countries’ level of corruption and the level of earnings management using a sample of foreign firms with American Depositary Receipts in the US market.

Findings indicate that higher corruption perception is related to higher incentives for firms to manipulate earnings in the case of emerging countries. Such results are not identified in developed countries where the level of minority investors’ protection is higher. Findings also indicate that in developed countries earnings management is negatively related to investor protection, which is not the case for emerging countries.

As far as the authors are aware, this study is the first to examine the effects of corruption on earnings management on the basis of accounting firm-level data.