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Integrity is a critical issue as it could lead to failures in governance, fraud, inefficacy, corruption and weak financial management particularly in the public sector. At present, the public sector is a matter of global concern because of the constant cases of failures in governance, fraud, inefficacy and corruption. As such, this sector has been pressurized to provide justification of the sources and usages of public resources and to improve their service performance as the public has the right to monitor the public sector management’s transparency and efficacy. This study aims to evaluate the state of present integrity practices among public sector employees from various Malaysian service schemes.

Primary data were collected using a questionnaire survey approach with 194 heads of departments in the Malaysian federal ministries. The collection of data was according to the perspective of 13 factors in integrity practices using a five-point Likert scale. Factor analysis and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. In addition, data reliability was checked by Cronbach’s alpha test; data normality was examined by Skewness and Kurtosis tests, and data validity was tested by using Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin test and Barlett’s test.

The findings show that 92.6 per cent of the participants reported that they practised integrity within their departments. Nevertheless, the priority for these integrity factors varies according to the service schemes. In general, the departments of finance, audits and administration had an above-average integrity practice level; however, the practice of the accounting scheme is below the general average level.

These findings of the study will help policymakers to take necessary steps to improve the practices of integrity in the public sector to create a more dependable and efficient public sector in Malaysia.

This is an original study based on primary data that assess the performance of practicing integrity in the public sector of Malaysia.

This paper argues that there is an absence of halal integrity within the conventional stages of a food chain. This paper adapts the understanding of the different stages and argues the need to develop a critical consciousness for halal integrity within the food chain to address the needs of the ever-growing Muslim consumers’ market. The purpose of this paper is to propose a definition of halal integrity using farm to fork and global food supply chain models.

The study includes a review of priori literature and media reports regarding cross-contamination of food products with haram (forbidden) components. This background will be used to conceptualise halal integrity using farm to fork and global supply chain models.

Different interpretations of halal – what is permitted and what is prohibited – exist for the different schools of Islamic legal thought and within the customs of different countries. In order to ensure that food production is embracive of the religious needs of the global Muslim customer market, this paper utilises the farm to fork and global supply chain models to foster a critical awareness of halal needs. Halal integrity should be clearly presenting the details of the halal status of the product and assuring that the requirements for halal as stated are met. Halal integrity not only deals with permitted and prohibited foods, but that the halal status of the food products (i.e. from raw materials until it reaches the consumers) should not be breached (i.e. no cross-contamination with haram products/methods and no ill intents). A formal definition of halal integrity has been proposed.

The SWOT analyses serve as a guideline as the analysis done may be outdated as the environments are constantly changing.

This research although academic is meant to have a real value in improving the integrity of the halal food supply chain, providing value to the food industry, to countries that are concerned about this supply chain and to Muslim consumers. Halal integrity is crucial to the success of the emerging halal market.

This study documents that an outcome-favorable bias is greater when the quantity of information describing a balanced tax-decision context is substantially increased. Second, the study demonstrates that an outcome-favorable bias can be offset by the use of principles-based ethical standards. Specifically, we examine the effect of AICPA Code of Conduct Section 54 for integrity and Rule 102-6 for advocacy. Students volunteered to participate in this study examining the manner in which accounting novices initially process principles-based standards. Prior studies using student subjects in an audit setting have found that principles-based standards were effective only when students had high levels of moral reasoning (Herron & Gilbertson, 2004), and rules-based technical standards had no impact on student subjects when making financial adjustments (Pflugrath, Martinov-Bennie, & Chen, 2007). If professional standards increasingly rely on principles-based standards, then understanding the impact of such standards on future entrants into the profession would provide guidance in the creation and implementation of future standards, as well as assist educators in the development of accounting curricula. We extend the pattern of past research to a tax setting and show that tax-saving recommendations are a function of the presence of a professional standard and the level of contextual detail.

In this paper, we present a conceptual and terminological system – what we term the ‘Comprehensive Integrity Framework’ – capable of applying to both personal and institutional integrity, and to different levels of institutions (including sub-institutions and institutional complexes). We distinguish between three sorts of integrity: consistency-integrity (whether the agent’s acts accord with her claimed values); coherence-integrity (whether the agent’s character and internal constitution accord with her claimed values); and context-integrity (whether the agent’s environment facilitates her living up to her claimed values). We then employ this conceptual system to explore similarities, differences and overlaps between personal and institutional integrity, drawing in particular on moral philosophic work on personal integrity (on the one hand) and on ‘integrity systems’ and public administration approaches to institutional integrity (on the other).

In recent years, the mechanical industries began to apply many investments in research and technological development to obtain efficient methods to analyze the integrity of structures and prevent disasters and/or accidents, ensuring people’s lives and preventing economic losses. Any structure, whether mechanical or aeronautical, before being put into use undergoes a structural integrity assessment and testing. In this case, non-destructive evaluations are performed, aiming to estimate the degree of safety and reliability of the structure. For this, there are techniques traditionally used such as ultrasonic inspection, X-ray, acoustic emission tests, among other techniques. The traditional techniques may even have a good instrumental apparatus and be well formulated for structural integrity assessment; however, these techniques cannot meet growing industrial needs, even more so when structures are in motion. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate artificial immune systems (AISs), ate and strengthen the emergence of an innovative technological tool, the biological immune systems and AISs, and these are presented as computing methods in the field of structural health monitoring (SHM).

The concept of SHM is based on a fault detection mechanism used in industries, and in other applications, involving the observation of a structure or a mechanical system. This observation occurs through the dynamic response of periodic measurements, later related to the statistical analysis, determining the integrity of the system. This study aims to develop a methodology that identifies and classifies a signal in normal signals or in faults, using an algorithm based on artificial immunological systems, being the negative selection algorithm, and later, this algorithm classifies the failures in probabilities of failure and degree of fault severity. The results demonstrate that the proposed SHM is efficient and robust for prognosis and failure detection.

The present study aims to develop different fast access methodologies for the prognosis and detection of failures, classifying and judging the types of failures based on AISs. The authors declare that the present study was neither published in any other vehicle of scientific information nor is under consideration for publication in another scientific journal, and that this paper strictly followed the ethical procedures of research and publication as requested.

This study is original by the fact that conventional structural integrity monitoring methods need improvements, which intelligent computing techniques can satisfy. Intelligent techniques are tools inspired by natural and/or biological processes and belong to the field of computational intelligence. They present good results in problems of pattern recognition and diagnosis and thus can be adapted to solve problems of monitoring and identifying structural failures in mechanical and aeronautical engineering. Thus, the proposal of this study demonstrates and strengthens the emergence of an innovative technological tool, the biological immune system and the AIS, and these are presented as computation methods in the field of SHM in rotating systems – a topic not yet addressed in the literature.

Treatment integrity (TI; also known as fidelity of implementation, treatment fidelity, and procedural reliability) refers to the degree to which an intervention is implemented as intended. TI data provides evidence of the internal validity of a study; without TI data, one cannot attribute observed effects to an intervention or distinguish whether interventions that fail do so because of problems with the intervention, its delivery, or both. Unfortunately, the field of intervention research has seen limited progress in the assessment and reporting of TI over time. This chapter describes the development of models of TI across fields, options for measuring TI, and important issues yet to be resolved.

This research paper aims to consider the use of the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) as a resource providing access to otherwise unavailable data from the UK Police forces. Not seeking to be a critical examination of Police practice, it offers insight to many aspects of records management appertaining to the police service provision of recorded crime. Authors consider whether record management is sufficiently integrated into police practice, given the transparency called for by the FOIA, contemporary societal needs and the growing requirement to provide high value evidence led assessments of activity both within and external to the service.

FOIA was utilised to collect data from all police forces in England and Wales through multiple requests. Carried out over a 15-month period, three requests were collated and responses compared, allowing for examination of compliance with the legislation and reflections on the manner in which records were sought and ultimately disseminated.

Generally, responding to FOIA requests was well managed by English Police Forces. Methods of data management and collection practice were exposed which the authors suggest pose questions on the strength of records management consideration that may be worthy of further work. Configuration management of records is highlighted as an essential function given the disparity of data releases experienced.

This research highlights the FOIA as a valuable methodological tool for academic researchers, but it is limited in respect of seeking firm contextual explanation of the Police internal procedures to answer requests. By making common requests over a long time period to the same Police forces, it provides a clear study of FOIA processes and raises potentially significant questions for records management consideration.

Findings provide advice on developing use of the FOIA as an academic methodological resource and reflect on the findings impact on internal police use of data and information records.

This paper allows for reflection on the importance of high-value records management in the day-to-day business of the police service and questions whether such knowledge areas are suitably considered. Covering an area of little previous academic enquiry, the research informs criminal justice practitioners of areas for potential further discussion and academic researchers on the validity of using the FOIA as a valuable information source.

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to study the ecological developments that are growing rapidly and are complemented by technological developments that make ecology a discipline which is able to collaborate, integrate, and use data for the development of science.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The method involves integration, analysis, and conclusion, drawing knowledge dissemination from heterogeneous ecological data that make the ecological research so complex requiring an approach to simplify the problem.

Findings – The data involved in ecology are very complex and diverse and spread from various sources, which are not mutually integrated so that a structured arrangement is required through the arrangement of computer-based data management.

Research Limitations/Implications – Eco-informatics is one of the options to manage the data, settings, and transform it into information and knowledge.

The safety and reliability of high-speed trains rely on the structural integrity of their components and the dynamic performance of the entire vehicle system. This paper aims to define and substantiate the assessment of the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains in both theory and practice. The key principles and approaches will be proposed, and their applications to high-speed trains in China will be presented.

First, the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains are defined, and their relationship is introduced. Then, the principles for assessing the structural integrity of structural and dynamical components are presented and practical examples of gearboxes and dampers are provided. Finally, the principles and approaches for assessing the dynamical integrity of high-speed trains are presented and a novel operational assessment method is further presented.

Vehicle system dynamics is the core of the proposed framework that provides the loads and vibrations on train components and the dynamic performance of the entire vehicle system. For assessing the structural integrity of structural components, an open-loop analysis considering both normal and abnormal vehicle conditions is needed. For assessing the structural integrity of dynamical components, a closed-loop analysis involving the influence of wear and degradation on vehicle system dynamics is needed. The analysis of vehicle system dynamics should follow the principles of complete objects, conditions and indices. Numerical, experimental and operational approaches should be combined to achieve effective assessments.

The practical applications demonstrate that assessing the structural integrity and dynamical integrity of high-speed trains can support better control of critical defects, better lifespan management of train components and better maintenance decision-making for high-speed trains.