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This study aims to examine the determinants of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations and consequences of FCPA enforcements.

This paper uses publicly available data from Compustat, I/B/E/S and Thomson Reuters databases, combined with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) cases, to extract insights on FCPA violations and enforcements using econometric approaches.

The main determinants of FCPA violations appear to be firm size, multinational structure, country corruption and Sarbanes-Oxley Act control weaknesses. Traditional misreporting risks (F-score and M-score) do not predict FCPA violations. This study discovers significant differences between FCPA violations by motivation, as in, sale generation, rent extraction or cost evasion. Bribes motivated by sale generation or rent extraction are partially driven by the extent of the firm’s global operations, whereas bribes motivated by cost evasion relate to internal influences. This study also finds that enforcement is more salient for criminal violations (DOJ enforcement), compared to civil violations (SEC enforcement).

This research provides new insights into the determinants of FCPA violations while underscoring the need for effective measures to combat bribery and promote ethical business practices. This research contributes to the ongoing efforts to curtail bribery, offering valuable insights into the characteristics of firms more likely to engage in bribery and contexts in which these activities occur. It provides critical implications for regulatory bodies, highlighting the differential responses of firms to varying types of enforcement, namely, criminal versus civil, as the authors observe greater decreases in internal control weaknesses following DOJ enforcement compared to SEC enforcement.

For enforcement agencies, the findings underscore the importance of rigorous criminal enforcement against FCPA violations, highlighting the improved control environments prompted by DOJ actions. Managers will find this research relevant, as it demonstrates that a firm’s entry into international markets substantially elevates the risk of its representatives engaging in bribery with foreign officials. In addition, the results are of interest to regulators, revealing that the underlying motivations driving a firm’s activities can significantly alter the factors to consider that might lead to an FCPA violation.

This paper is the original work of the authors and explores the determinants and consequences of FCPA violations and enforcement actions since 2002. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first to explore bribe determinants by their motive and documents industry-wide benefits arising from criminal enforcement.

This study aims to evaluate the thermal performance of sodium alginate (SA) aerogel attached to nano SiO₂ and its radiative cooling effect on firefighting clothing without environmental pollution.

SA/SiO₂ aerogel with refractory heat insulation and enhanced radiative cooling performance was fabricated by freeze-drying method, which can be used in firefighting clothing. The microstructure, chemical composition, thermal stability, and thermal emissivity were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analyzer and infrared emissivity measurement instrument. The radiative cooling effect of aerogel was studied using thermal infrared imager and thermocouple.

When the addition of SiO₂ is 25% of SA, the prepared aerogel has excellent heat insulation and a high radiative cooling effect. Under a clear sky, the temperature of SA/SiO₂ aerogel is 9.4°C lower than that of pure SA aerogel and 22.1°C lower than that of the simulated environment. In addition, aerogel has more exceptional heat insulation effect than other common fabrics in the heat insulation performance test.

SA/SiO₂ aerogel has passive radiative cooling function, which can efficaciously economize global energy, and it is paramount to environment-friendly cooling.

This method could pave the way for high-performance cooling materials designed for firefighting clothing to keep maintain the wearing comfort of firefighters.

SA/SiO₂ aerogel used in firefighting clothing can release heat to the low-temperature outer space in the form of thermal radiation to achieve its own cooling purpose, without additional energy supply.

Online open innovation platforms provide opportunities for product users to participate in the innovation process and contribute their ideas to the platform. Nonetheless, they also present a significant challenge for platform managers, who select high-quality innovations from a massive collection of information with diverse quality.

In this study, the authors employed a machine learning method to automatically collect a real dataset of 2,276 innovations and 30,004 detailed comments from the online platform of IdeaExchange and then conducted empirical experiments to verify the study hypothesis.

Results show that extraversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience positively and directly influenced the quality of their innovation. Furthermore, an individual's social network position mediated among extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness to experience and the quality of an innovation.

Results showed that extraversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience positively and directly influenced the quality of their innovation. Furthermore, an individual's social network position mediated among extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, openness to experience and the quality of innovations.

This study combined the Big Five personality traits theory and social network theory to examine the association between user intrinsic personality traits, social network position and the quality of their innovative ideas in the context of online innovation platforms. Additionally, the findings provide new insights for platform managers on how to select high-quality innovation information by considering user personality traits and their social network position.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of nano ZrC particles on the mechanical and electrochemical corrosion properties of FeCrAl alloys, providing a beneficial reference basis for the development of high-performance carbide reinforced FeCrAl alloys with good mechanical and corrosion properties in the future.

Nano ZrC reinforced FeCrAl alloys were prepared by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering. Phases composition, tensile fractography, corrosion morphology and chemical composition of nano ZrC reinforced FeCrAl alloys were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, respectively. Microhardness and tensile properties of nano ZrC reinforced FeCrAl alloys were investigated by mechanical testing machine and Vickers hardness tester. Electrochemical corrosion properties of nano ZrC reinforced FeCrAl alloys were investigated by electrochemical workstation in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution.

The results showed that addition of nano ZrC can effectively improve the mechanical and corrosion properties. However, excessive nano ZrC could decrease the mechanical properties and reduce the corrosion resistance. In all the FeCrAl alloys, FeCrAl–0.6 wt.% ZrC alloy exhibits the optimum mechanical properties with an ultimate tensile strength, elongation and hardness of 990.7 MPa, 24.1% and 335.8 HV1, respectively, and FeCrAl–0.2 wt.% ZrC alloy has a lower corrosion potential (−0.179 V) and corrosion current density (2.099 µA/cm2) and larger pitting potential (0.497 V) than other FeCrAl–ZrC alloys, showing a better corrosion resistance.

Adding proper nano ZrC particles can effectively improve the mechanical and corrosion properties, while the excessive nano ZrC is harmful to the mechanical and corrosion properties of FeCrAl alloys, which provides an instruction to develop high-performance FeCrAl cladding materials.

When handling small-sized shafts and holes, achieving optimal safety, size compatibility and shape adaptability using rigid grippers presents significant problems. Recent advancements have introduced soft end-effectors that offer enhanced safety and adaptability for gripping parts. However, these soft end-effectors often struggle to maintain the necessary gripping positional accuracy. The purpose of this paper is to design a soft end-effector specifically engineered to address these problems, combining precise gripping capabilities with improved safety, positional accuracy and adaptability to the size and shape of fragile, small-sized components.

A soft finger with multilayer decreasing drive air chambers is designed to achieve the finger bending increasing from the root to the tip of the finger to improve the flexibility of the fingertip. Additionally, a three-finger self-centering configuration is employed, coupled with an expandable structure to increase the gripping range. Furthermore, a theoretical mathematical model of the finger is established. The physical prototype is manufactured and subjected to experimental testing, including gripping tests on small-sized, fragile shaft holes, to validate its operational performance.

The grasping experiments confirm that the designed end-effector can maintain coaxial positioning and meet adaptability requirements when handling fragile components with small-sized shaft holes. Furthermore, the addition of expanding palm structure increases the gripping attitude and enriches the application scene and gripping space.

The design of multilayer decreasing air chamber structure to solve the problem of poor gripping stability and low positional accuracy of soft manipulator; the expandable palm design is introduced to enhance gripping space; and solved the problem of gripping accuracy in the assembly of fragile parts with small-size shafts and holes.

Multilayer composite liner structures are the primary structural form of hydraulic tunnels. However, the bearing mechanism of multilayer composite liners has not been investigated thoroughly. Many existing design schemes do not properly achieve a balance between structural safety, anti-seepage capacity, and cost effectiveness. Thus, a new composite liner structure type and its theoretical model was proposed.

A novel hydraulic tunnel composite liner structure with a polyurea spray coating interlayer was proposed in this study. A theoretical model based on the state-space method was developed and verified using FEM models and existing theoretical models. Parametric analysis was conducted based on the theoretical model to investigate the influence of various variables, including interfacial shear stiffness, inner liner thickness, and outer liner elastic modulus.

It was concluded that the proposed theoretical model can be used successfully to calculate multilayer composite liner structures with high calculation efficiency. The overall deformation stiffness of the composite liner system increased with the interfacial shear stiffness. The sprayed coating interlayer significantly affects the residual force distribution between the outer and inner liners, which can also be affected by the adjustment of the thickness of the outer and inner liners. Thus, attention should be paid to these factors in the rational design of the proposed composite liner system.

With the development of China’s water conservancy projects, complex geological conditions, high surrounding rock stress, high internal and external water pressures, and other unique application scenarios have gradually increased. This places higher requirements on the bearing performance and impermeability of hydraulic tunnel lining structures. On the other hand, conventional hydraulic tunnel lining structures can hardly achieve a satisfactory balance between economy, structural safety, and impermeability. Thus, the proposed structure has the potential to be used in a wide range of applications.

Ensuring the safety of structures is important. However, when a structure possesses both an implicit performance function and an extremely small failure probability, traditional methods struggle to conduct a reliability analysis. Therefore, this paper proposes a reliability analysis method aimed at enhancing the efficiency of rare event analysis, using the widely recognized Relevant Vector Machine (RVM).

Drawing from the principles of importance sampling (IS), this paper employs Harris Hawks Optimization (HHO) to ascertain the optimal design point. This approach not only guarantees precision but also facilitates the RVM in approximating the limit state surface. When the U learning function, designed for Kriging, is applied to RVM, it results in sample clustering in the design of experiment (DoE). Therefore, this paper proposes a FU learning function, which is more suitable for RVM.

Three numerical examples and two engineering problem demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

By employing the HHO algorithm, this paper innovatively applies RVM in IS reliability analysis, proposing a novel method termed RVM-HIS. The RVM-HIS demonstrates exceptional computational efficiency, making it eminently suitable for rare events reliability analysis with implicit performance function. Moreover, the computational efficiency of RVM-HIS has been significantly enhanced through the improvement of the U learning function.