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This chapter aims to examine the impact of whistleblowing policy (WH) on earnings management (EM) in an emerging market, Egypt. Our sample period from 2014 to 2019: the pre-whistleblowing policy period is 2014–2016 and the post-whistleblowing policy period is 2017–2019 with a total of 780 observations and the data are analyzed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis. Data are collected from annual reports, corporate governance reports, and companies’ website. The empirical analysis shows that whistleblowing policy coefficient is negative and significantly impacts EM in Egyptian firms. The result shows that when the firm adopts a whistleblowing policy, it led to decrease in EM. In addition, we provide strong and robust evidence by the difference-in-difference (DID) method to show that whistleblowing is significantly negatively associated with the extent of EM, which indicates that firms have an effective whistleblowing policy and can have several benefits. Firstly, it can help to identify and prevent illegal or unethical behavior within an organization, which can ultimately save the company from potential legal and reputational damage. Secondly, a whistleblowing policy can empower employees to speak up about any concerns they have, without fear of retaliation, which can help to create a more transparent and ethical work environment. Overall, an effective whistleblowing policy can contribute to the long-term success of a company and the broader economy. The findings of this chapter are relevant to policymakers, governments, management, employees, and shareholders to constraining EM in Egyptian firms.

Social psychology has focused on an individual’s reaction to emergencies and witnessing a crime, which has developed theories of bystander intervention and bystander apathy. The purpose of this study is to explore why people choose to intervene when they are a bystander to intimate partner violence (IPV) and the psychological processes that underpin this. Decision-making was explored drawing on literature from the whistleblowing field.

Through a mixed methods epistemology, this study explored factors that explained intervening behaviour concerning IPV. In total, 212 participants who had known someone who was a victim of IPV were recruited from the general population.

A logistic regression model indicated that conscientiousness and fairness were found to predict intervening behaviour. Being a child witness was found to predict non-intervening behaviour. Qualitative analysis revealed three types of bystander apathy: those who lacked capability as they were children; those who were indifferent and did not see it as their place to intervene; and those who wanted to intervene but did not as they were frightened of exacerbating the situation.

IPV has significant physical and psychological effects on victims. However, the choice to intervene is complex, and bystander intervention in this study was also associated in some cases with not only a continuation of the IPV behaviour towards the victim but also aggression and physical violence towards the bystander (whistleblower retaliation). Based on the findings of this study, recommendations are made for how to support bystanders and victims of IPV.

This study involved participants with real-life experience of being a bystander to IPV. The mixed methodology provided an insight into the psychological processes, which underpin bystander experiences of IPV and maps onto the literature in relation to whistleblowing.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as a fiber molding polymer is widely used in aerospace, electrical and electronic, clothing and other fields. The purpose of this study is to improve the thermal insulation performance of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the SiO₂ aerogel/PET composites slices and fibers were prepared, and the effects of the SiO₂ aerogel on the morphology, structure, crystallization property and thermal conductivity of the SiO₂ aerogel/PET composites slices and their fibers were systematically investigated.

The mass ratio of purified terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol was selected as 1:1.5, which was premixed with Sb₂O₃ and the corresponding mass of SiO₂ aerogel, and SiO₂ aerogel/PET composites were prepared by direct esterification and in-situ polymerization. The SiO₂ aerogel/PET composite fibers were prepared by melt-spinning method.

The results showed that the SiO₂ aerogel was uniformly dispersed in the PET matrix. The thermal insulation coefficient of PET was significantly reduced by the addition of SiO₂ aerogel, and the thermal conductivity of the 1.0 Wt.% SiO₂ aerogel/PET composites was reduced by 75.74 mW/(m · K) compared to the pure PET. The thermal conductivity of the 0.8 Wt.% SiO₂ aerogel/PET composite fiber was reduced by 46.06% compared to the pure PET fiber. The crystallinity and flame-retardant coefficient of the SiO₂ aerogel/PET composite fibers showed an increasing trend with the addition of SiO₂ aerogel.

The SiO₂ aerogel/PET composite slices and their fibers have good thermal insulation properties and exhibit good potential for application in the field of thermal insulation, such as warm clothes. In today’s society where the energy crisis is becoming increasingly serious, improving the thermal insulation performance of PET to reduce energy loss will be of great significance to alleviate the energy crisis.

In this study, SiO₂ aerogel/PET composite slices and their fibers were prepared by an in situ polymerization process, which solved the problem of difficult dispersion of nanoparticles in the matrix and the thermal conductivity of PET significantly reduced.

Undertaking the theoretical lens of “The need to belong” theory, the present study intends to explore the aftermath of internal whistleblowing and the behavioral outcomes that follow by linking it to the literature on workplace ostracism, loneliness and intentions to quit.

The respondents were hotel employees in the Delhi NCR region of northern India. A hypothesized sequential mediation model was tested on a sample of employees from a hotel using a three-wave time-lagged multistudy design.

The findings of the study established that internal whistleblowing leads to intentions to quit via workplace ostracism and loneliness at work.

The unique contribution of this study lies in understanding the underlying mechanisms and discussing the behavioral outcomes that follow post-whistleblowing. HR managers need to develop a work environment that protects whistleblowers and has a zero-tolerance policy against employees engaging in any form of retaliation or unethical business practices. Managers must be more proactive and sensitive to the social cues that will make them aware of the presence of acts of ostracism. Upon encountering such acts, managers can consider counseling employees engaging in such unhealthy practices.

Damage to reinforced concrete (RC) structural elements is inevitable. Such damage can be the result of several factors, including aggressive environmental conditions, overloading, inadequate design, poor work execution, fire, storm, earthquakes etc. Therefore, repairing and strengthening is one way to improve damaged structures, so that they can be reutilized. In this research, the use of an ultra high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) layer is proposed as a strengthening material to rehabilitate damaged-RC beams. Different strengthening schemes pertaining to the structural performance of the retrofitted RC beams due to the flexural load were investigated.

A total of 13 normal RC beams were prepared. All the beams were subjected to a four-point flexural test. One beam was selected as the control beam and tested to failure, whereas the remaining beams were tested under a load of up to 50% of the ultimate load capacity of the control beam. The damaged beams were then strengthened using a UHPFRC layer with two different schemes; strip-shape and U-shape schemes, before all the beams were tested to failure.

Based on the test results, the control beam and all strengthened beams failed in the flexural mode. Compared to the control beam, the damaged-RC beams strengthened using the strip-shape scheme provided an increase in the ultimate load capacity ranging from 14.50% to 43.48% (or an increase of 1.1450 to 1.4348 times), whereas for the U-shape scheme beams ranged from 48.70% to 149.37% (or an increase of 1.4870–2.4937 times). The U-shape scheme was more effective in rehabilitating the damaged-RC beams. The UHPFRC mixtures are workable, as well easy to place and cast into the formworks. Furthermore, the damaged-RC beams strengthened using strip-shape scheme and U-shape scheme generated ductility factors of greater than 4 and 3, respectively. According to Eurocode8, these values are suitable for seismically active regions. Therefore, the strengthened damaged-RC beams under this study can quite feasibly be used in such regions.

Observations of crack patterns were not accompanied by measurements of crack widths due to the unavailability of a microcrack meter in the laboratory. The cost of the strengthening system application were not evaluated in this study, so the users should consider wisely related to the application of this method on the constructions.

Rehabilitation of the damaged-RC beams exhibited an adequate structural performance, where all strengthened RC beams fail in the flexural mode, as well as having increment in the failure load capacity and ductility. So, the used strengthening system in this study can be applied for the building construction in the seismic regions.

Aside from equipment, application of this strengthening system need also the labours.

The use of sand blasting on the surfaces of the damaged-RC beams, as well as the application of UHPFRC layers of different thicknesses and shapes to strengthen the damaged-RC beams, provides a novel innovation in the strengthening of damaged-RC beams, which can be applicable to either bridge or building constructions.

This study aims to examine the impact of corporate governance (CG) on anti-corruption disclosure (A-CD), paying particular attention to the FTSE 100. Notably, it examines how board and audit committees’ characteristics affect the quantity and quality of anti-corruption disclosure.

Data from FTSE 100 firms, spanning the period from 2014 to 2020, were analysed using the regression of the Poisson fixed effect and GEE analyses.

The findings show that gender diversity, audit committee expertise and the independence of the audit committee are positively associated with both quantity and quality of anti-corruption disclosure. Notably, no statistically significant relationships were identified between anti-corruption disclosure and factors such as board size, role duality or board meetings.

The findings provide valuable insights for decision-makers and regulatory bodies, shedding light on the elements that compel UK companies to enhance their anti-corruption disclosure and governance protocols to alleviate corruption and propel efforts towards ethical behaviour.

This study makes a notable contribution to the sparse body of evidence by examining the influence of board and audit committee attributes on anti-corruption disclosure subsequent to the implementation of the UK Bribery Act in 2010. Specifically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study assesses for the first time the impact of board and audit committee mechanisms on both the quantity and quality of anti-corruption disclosure.

Identification of the direction of the sound source is very important for human–machine interfacing in the applications such as target detection on military applications and wildlife conservation. Considering its vast applications, this study aims to design, simulate, fabricate and test a bidirectional acoustic sensor having two cantilever structures coated with piezoresistive material for sensing has been designed, simulated, fabricated and tested.

The structure is a piezoresistive acoustic pressure sensor, which consists of two Kapton diaphragms with four piezoresistors arranged in Wheatstone bridge arrangement. The applied acoustic pressure causes diaphragm deflection and stress in diaphragm hinge, which is sensed by the piezoresistors positioned on the diaphragm. The piezoresistive material such as carbon or graphene is deposited at maximum stress area. Furthermore, the Wheatstone bridge arrangement has been formed to sense the change in resistance resulting into imbalanced bridge and two cantilever structures add directional properties to the acoustic sensor. The structure is designed, fabricated and tested and the dimensions of the structure are chosen to enable ease of fabrication without clean room facilities. This structure is tested with static and dynamic calibration for variation in resistance leading to bridge output voltage variation and directional properties.

This paper provides the experimental results that indicate sensor output variation in terms of a Wheatstone bridge output voltage from 0.45 V to 1.618 V for a variation in pressure from 0.59 mbar to 100 mbar. The device is also tested for directionality using vibration source and was found to respond as per the design.

The fabricated devices could not be tested for practical acoustic sources due to lack of facilities. They have been tested for a vibration source in place of acoustic source.

The piezoresistive bidirectional sensor can be used for detection of direction of the sound source.

In defense applications, it is important to detect the direction of the acoustic signal. This sensor is suited for such applications.

The present paper discusses a novel yet simple design of a cantilever beam-based bidirectional acoustic pressure sensor. This sensor fabrication does not require sophisticated cleanroom for fabrication and characterization facility for testing. The fabricated device has good repeatability and is able to detect the direction of the acoustic source in external environment.

In this paper, the authors aim to study the effect of hydrogen on the pitting corrosion behavior of Incoloy 825, a commonly used material for heat exchanger tubes in hydrogenated heat exchangers.

The pitting initiation and propagation behaviors were investigated by electrochemical and chemical immersion experiments and observed and analyzed by scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectrometer methods.

The results show that hydrogen significantly affects the electrochemical behavior of Incoloy 825; the self-corrosion potential decreased from −197 mV before hydrogen charging to −263 mV, −270 mV and −657 mV after hydrogen charging, and the corrosion current density increased from 0.049 µA/cm² before hydrogen charging to 2.490 µA/cm², 2.560 µA/cm² and 2.780 µA/cm² after hydrogen charging. The pitting susceptibility of the material increases.

Hydrogen is enriched on the precipitate, and the pitting corrosion also initiates at that location. The synergistic effect of hydrogen and precipitate destroys the passive film on the metal surface and promotes pitting initiation.

The color painting of ancient buildings has high historical and artistic value but is prone to aging due to long-term outdoor exposure. The purpose of this study is to develop a new type of sealing coating to mitigate the impact of ultraviolet (UV) light on color painting.

The new coating was subjected to a 500-h UV-aging test. Compared with the existing acrylic resin Primal AC33, the UV aging behavior of the new coating, such as color difference and gloss, was studied with aging time. The Fourier infrared spectra of the coatings were analyzed after the UV-aging test.

Compared with AC33, the antiaging performance of SF8 was substantially improved. SF8 has a lower color difference value and better light retention and hydrophobicity. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results showed that the C-F bond and Si-O bonds in the resin of the optimized sealing coating protected the main chain C-C structure from degradation during the aging process; thus, the resin maintained good stability. The hindered amine light stabilizer TN292 added to the coating inhibited the antiaging process by trapping active free radicals.

To address the problem of UV aging of oil-decorated colored paintings, a new type of sealing coating with excellent antiaging properties was developed, laying the foundation for its demonstration application on the surface of ancient buildings.

This paper aims to examine the effect of family control on corporate anticorruption disclosures of UK publicly listed firms and whether female board directors moderate the latter relationship.

This paper uses Poisson regression analysis for a sample of 1,546 FTSE 350 firm-year observations. Weighted least squares and propensity score matching are then used to assess the robustness of the findings.

The results show that family ownership and involvement are negatively associated with anticorruption disclosures. The tests of moderation indicate that female directors decrease the negative effect of family control on anticorruption disclosures.

To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, this paper is the first to investigate the impact of family control on anticorruption disclosures while taking into consideration the moderating effect of female directors.