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Even though it is widely used, reinforced concrete (RC) is susceptible to damage from various environmental factors. The hazard of a fire attack is particularly severe because it may cause the whole structure to collapse. Furthermore, repairing and strengthening existing structures with high-performance concrete (HPC) has become essential from both technical and financial points of view. In particular, studying the postfire behavior of HPC with normal strength concrete substrate requires experimental and numerical investigations. Accordingly, this study aims to numerically investigate the post-fire behavior of reinforced composite RC slabs.

Consequently, in this study, a numerical analysis was carried out to ascertain the flexural behavior of simply supported RC slabs strengthened with HPC and exposed to a particularly high temperature of 600°C for 2 h. This behavior was investigated and analyzed in the presence of a number of parameters, such as HPC types (fiber-reinforced, 0.5% steel, polypropylene fibers [PPF], hybrid fibers), strengthening side (tension or compression), strengthening layer thickness, slab thickness, boundary conditions, reinforcement ratio and yield strength of reinforcement.

The results showed that traction-separation and full-bond models can achieve accuracy compared with experimental results. Also, the fiber type significantly affects the postfire performance of RC slab strengthened with HPC, where the inclusion of hybrid fiber recorded the highest ultimate load. While adding PPF to HPC showed a rapid decrease in the load-deflection curve after reaching the ultimate load.

The proposed model accurately predicted the thermomechanical behavior of RC slabs strengthened with HPC after being exposed to the fire regarding load-deflection response, crack pattern and failure mode. Moreover, the considered independent parametric variables significantly affect the composite slabs’ behavior.

By extending Edmans et al.’s (2021) music sentiment measures to the Vietnam market, the authors aim to investigate the impacts of music sentiment on stock market returns and volatility.

The authors adopted Edmans et al.’s (2021) music-based sentiment to proxy for investor mood. The current study uses linear regression analysis.

The authors find that music sentiment is significantly and positively related to both stock returns and stock market volatility. The authors also show that music sentiment has a contagious effect: Global music sentiment and those in the United States, France and Hong Kong are significant drivers of the Vietnamese stock market. The authors also examine the effect on different industry returns and find that returns on stocks of firms in the communication services, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, healthcare, real-estate, information technology and utility sectors are significantly related to music sentiment. In addition to valence, the authors find that other Spotify audio features can be used to quantify music sentiment.

This study contributes to the behavioral finance literature that focuses on investor sentiment. The authors address this topic in Vietnam using high-frequency data.

Non-performing loans (NPLs) may determine an overall weakness of the banking system within a country. The purpose of the present study is to analyze the impact of government failures on NPLs in Asian countries in the time span 2000–2020. The variables employed as proxies of government failures are public debt as % of gross domestic product (GDP) and a government ineffectiveness index proposed by the World Bank.

The econometric approach employed is a panel generalised time series (GLS) model with heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation specific to each panel.

The results confirm that public debt as % of GDP and governmental ineffectiveness impacted significantly on NPLs for Asian countries in the observed period.

The literature offers similar results only for some individual Asian countries, while a wider analysis is lacking for Asian macroareas. The present paper considers 31 Asian countries, and supports the idea that a healthy financial sector is correlated to institutional quality and political regime. Hence, policy makers are advised to monitor governance indicators to reduce NPLs.

Over the past decades, Islamic finance has expanded its presence to many countries including post-Soviet region. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate this phenomenon in Kazakhstan by adopting qualitative sociological approach. The study also aims to provide vital information and propose recommendations for market participants to contribute to the development of Islamic finance industry in Kazakhstan.

Primary data were gathered using the qualitative method of in-depth expert interviews with nine Islamic finance professionals representing Islamic banks, ijarah companies, funds and development institutions in Kazakhstan who occupy senior positions (directors, managers, heads of departments, etc.). Furthermore, the primary data of interviews were analyzed and processed using another qualitative method of cognitive mapping, the essence of which is to graphically display the concepts that are most often used by informants.

The study has shown that first there is a demand for Islamic finance among Kazakh business and population. At the same time, Muslims are not the only consumers of Islamic financial services; therefore, it is affordability rather than religiosity that is an important criterion for choosing Islamic finance. Second, murabaha and ijarah are the two most popular Islamic financial products in Kazakhstan, while equity-based instruments are hardly ever used. Third, Kazakhstan government policy toward Islamic finance received controversial assessments of experts: the state support is declared, but specific actions required by the market participants are not taken. Fourth, key factors that significantly limit the development of the Islamic finance market in Kazakhstan include a shortage of supply, which, in turn, is strongly associated with the second factor – limited funding of local Islamic finance institutions, the absence of insurance (or guaranteeing) system of investment accounts of the local Islamic banks, insufficient economy of scale, lack of convenient service and weak marketing policy of the existing Islamic banks and, finally, lack of educational programs.

The study reveals the potential development of Islamic finance in Kazakhstan which is a rarely studied topic. The findings and recommendations of this study can be used by the regulators, market players and policymakers of Islamic finance industry in Kazakhstan, post-Soviet and other Islamic finance-oriented countries.

This study offers new insights on the future of Islamic finance in Kazakhstan: in long term, the development will be determined by new financial technologies – Islamic FinTech, but in short term – by Islamic windows (currently not allowed by Central Bank) that will help to significantly expand the audience, increase awareness and demand for Islamic finance among local businesses and public. The current study is original, important and up-to-date, as it uses an approach that sources primary data in the form of experts’ point of view instead of relying on literature or document analysis. It is not a mere theoretical study of the literature but an empirical investigation of the problem. Moreover, it seeks to contribute to the Islamic finance literature in the post-Soviet region, particularly from the experts’ perspective.

This study aims to explore how professional–cultural knowledge is reciprocally shared between experienced expatriates and novice local nurses. To address this, the situated learning in practice lens is combined with social exchange lens.

An interpretive case study methodology enabled an exploratory approach into the knowledge-sharing practices between experienced expatriates and novice local nurses in Saudi Arabia.

Insights gained in the fieldwork suggest that professional–cultural knowledge sharing (KS) often occurred through three primary practices, namely, developing a professional–cultural meaning, forming clinical competency development opportunities and intervening in unfamiliar professional–cultural situations. In addition, two micro-level conditions shaped the reciprocity of professional–cultural KS practices between expatriate and local nurses, which were individual differences and situational conditions.

This study advances and improves the understanding of two intertwined but rarely studied aspects of knowledge-sharing practices. The exploratory lens sought and gained rich insights into the knowledge-sharing practices between experienced and novice individuals and expatriate and local individuals.

The research focused on analysing a unique type of heat exchanger that uses swirling air flow over heated tubes. This heat exchanger includes a round baffle plate with holes and opposite-oriented trapezoidal air deflectors attached at different angles. The deflectors are spaced at various distances, and the tubes are arranged in a circular pattern while maintaining a constant heat flux.

This setup is housed inside a circular duct with airflow in the longitudinal direction. The study examined the impact of different inclination angles and pitch ratios on the performance of the heat exchanger within a specific range of Reynolds numbers.

The findings revealed that the angle of inclination significantly affected the flow velocity, with higher angles resulting in increased velocity. The heat transfer performance was best at lower inclination angles and pitch ratios. Flow resistance decreased with increasing angle of inclination and pitch ratio.

The average thermal enhancement factor decreased with higher inclination angles, with the maximum value observed as 0.94 at a pitch ratio of 1 at an angle of 30°.

Many scholars and practitioners in the fields of business and management have recently published theoretical and empirical studies on the subject of business culture and its impact on its growth and effectiveness; yet, there has been a dearth of research on the topic of how organizational culture affects productivity. Moreover, there are hardly any theoretical or empirical research that examines these two concepts within the context of a micro-enterprise. This chapter uses a sample of 279 Ancash Region microenterprises to investigate the effect of local entrepreneurial culture on businesses’ overall performance. Among the four types of entrepreneurial cultures studied, only the Hierarchical culture was shown to have no effect on the degree of performance of the microenterprises. There is evidence of a significant causal relationship between the variables studied, the coefficient of determination was; business performance (r² = 0.796), with an SRMR of 0.037, the confirmatory model is relevant within its range of accuracy, while market culture has the greatest impact on business performance.

This chapter provides a literature review on the topic of emotional intelligence (EI) in the workplace. Quantitative methods were used, with surveys sent to a predetermined sample and processed with the SPSS statistical package. The overall aim of the study was to investigate the effect of EI based on self-awareness, self-management, empathy, and relationship management on work engagement in a public university. One hundred eight professors at the public university. The data for this study were collected by means of a questionnaire. In total, there are 23 questions on a Likert scale. Cronbach's alpha showed that the reliability of the instrument was higher than 0.763. In light of the data, it has been shown that there is correlation between self-awareness, self-management, relationship management, empathy with both work engagement and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the results show that EI is significantly related to both university loyalty and job happiness. Only a conditional link was created between professors' achievements and the success of the public university.

The 2021 Malacca state election was the first state election in West Malaysia held post-2018 general election during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a state where the governmental power fell into the hands of Pakatan Harapan (PH) during the 2018 general election before switching hands to Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN). After losing majority support, the state assembly was dissolved to make way for a fresh election. Although the Chinese voters in this election did not show much swing towards non-PH party, the support for PH is no long as enthusiastic as before. This chapter studies the political landscape in the 2018 general election focussing on Malacca before analysing the 2021 Malacca state election result that was held during a global health crisis.