Beyond ‘Greening the Boardroom’:Linkages Between Gender Parity and Corporate Environmental Sustainability

This article analyses the correlation between boardroom gender parity and environmental sustainability in corporate governance. While economic and environmental factors are critical considerations, other factors must also be taken into account. In this regard, the study emphasises the importance of both issues to stakeholders and the wider society. Despite the progress made, gender disparities still exist in boardrooms. The research delves into the impact of including women in business strategies on organisational success, highlighting the need for board composition that is both environmentally conscious and dedicated to achieve gender balance. Ultimately, the study concludes by urging proactive measures towards strategic planning and addressing gender imbalances in boardrooms. This study delves into the most recent research on corporate governance, boardroom gender diversity, social stereotypes, environmental sustainability, and the integration of environmental concerns in board decision-making. The primary objective of the study was to examine the correlation between gender diversity in the boardroom and corporate environmental sustainability. A methodical analysis of pertinent literature released between 2015 and 2024 was conducted, covering topics such as corporate governance, board of directors, gender diversity, and corporate environmental sustainability. This research paper explores the relationship between gender diversity in boardrooms and initiatives for environmental sustainability. The paper offers a unique perspective on the subject, transcending the conventional emphasis on financial performance. Instead, it underscores the significance of gender balance in driving corporate environmental sustainability. The study critically evaluates current corporate culture and management practices, emphasising the necessity of a board composition that is not only gender-balanced but also committed to environmentally responsible business operations. The research serves as a valuable foundation for future research on the interplay between boardroom gender parity and corporate sustainability. While the notion of achieving gender parity in boardrooms is conceptually appealing, its practical implementation poses significant challenges. The absence of gender diversity on boards renders research in this area somewhat inconclusive, as the requisite data to measure progress is lacking. Moreover, previous studies have been limited in scope and, therefore, lack the necessary breadth to allow for the generalisation of results. Furthermore, the confidential nature of boardroom deliberations renders the evaluation of boardroom dynamics a complex and onerous task, impeding the ability to conduct a robust analysis of board proceedings. As a result, conducting an exhaustive evaluation of boardroom dynamics is a practically daunting and challenging endeavour. The findings in this research provide critical insights for regulatory authorities and policymakers to reconsider the significance of gender parity within boardrooms, particularly in relation to corporate environmental sustainability. The outcomes of this research can benefit academics, government agencies, business leaders, investors, and policymakers alike. The results can help these stakeholders gain a better understanding of the value of gender diversity in the boardroom, particularly regarding environmental sustainability. As such, it can contribute to the development of more effective policies and frameworks for achieving business sustainability goals through gender-balanced leadership

Mapping of local droplet size and velocity distributions in flat-fan sprays using high-speed videography

A methodology based on high-speed photography has been developed to measure local droplet size and velocity distributions across the entire flow domain of a continuous, quasi-steady flat-fan water spray. The motivation is to complement phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) point measurements, which are limited to the far-field, dilute region of sprays. The nozzle was systematically shifted to capture a series of non-overlapping images of the spray, which were subsequently ’stitched’ to form composite images. To reconstruct distributions along the stiches, four grids were used, each offset vertically and/or horizontally. Image analysis was employed to quantitatively evaluate the primary breakup zone and reconstruct droplet size and velocity distributions at all locations. Results showed that droplet sizes and velocities decrease downstream, with larger droplets and higher velocities observed at the periphery, attributed to rim tearing. Droplet sizes ranged from 10 to 250 µm, with velocities between 6 and 24 m/s. The local droplet size distributions were found to follow a lognormal distribution, consistent with previous observations. The local velocity distributions within the main spray region exhibited a Gaussian profile, whereas those along the spray periphery displayed a negatively skewed distribution, varying from monomodal to bimodal. At lower flow rates, the breakup zone contracted and shifted further from the nozzle. Rim tearing became dominant, leading to increased polydispersity and velocity fluctuations along the periphery.</p

Researching hate crime with LGBTQ+ individuals

Conducting social research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ+) people is a particularly complex process. LGBTQ+ people have always been located within a troublesome legal framework that has (and continues in many nations in the world) criminalised, persecuted, and oppressed them. Crimes aggravated by specific identities, in this case, sexuality and gender, are a legislative construct that responds to the violence experienced by LGBTQ+ communities. Accessing LGBTQ+ communities is therefore particularly difficult, and the researcher has a delicate task in sensitively and empathically gathering the stories and experiences of anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime from victimised participants. Hate crime is an adult-centric concept that has excluded young people from its remit. Tips and strategies are offered to recruit and make space for young LGBTQ+ people. Considerable care, emotional literacy, empathy and reflection are required of the researcher to avoid retraumatising victims and create a secure space that is emotionally safe for both researcher and participant. LGBTQ+ researchers may experience the harms of hate, vicariously, through their shared identity with their participants. It is, therefore, vitally important that researchers remain introspective when researching their own community to prevent taking on the trauma of participants

Towards making EIA more human-centric:Demonstration in Nepal of a values crystallization approach to capture local shared values for scoping use

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are a critical component of planning and decision-making processes before projects are conducted, because they are used to forecast and inform mitigation of potential impacts on the local community, including its social, physical, and natural environments. Current EIA processes predominantly focus on issues that can be directly measured using objective methods, with mostly tokenistic inadequate use of suites of qualitative methodologies needed for identification and documentation of issues relating to community shared values. On the other hand, protests and tensions are known to easily arise which are related to such human values-based issues not being addressed. In this pragmatic study, a method is demonstrated which can bridge this gap, by capturing local community shared values in a well-defined manner and short time. The approach, called WeValue InSitu, enables local communities to construct their own bespoke group shared values statements in a specialized crystallization process, with outputs which are well-articulated proto-indicators. In this study we compare the outputs from two existing scoping reports of EIA in Nepal with the outputs from the values crystallization approach which we conducted with ten groups in a village in Nepal, and show that the latter brings out many more, and more localised, shared values of the community, and additionally reveals underlying interrelationships between values, producing conceptual maps for planning effective mitigations. Future studies can investigate whether the achievements of this method offer any advantages to existing qualitative methods in improving EIA-SIA scoping, and/or whether the hegemony of objectivism of institutions and proponents is an unsurmountable barrier.</p

Depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction in gay and bisexual men in Lebanon:A cross-sectional correlational study

Minority stress theory postulates that exposure to distal and proximal stressors due to one’s sexual orientation can undermine mental health outcomes and identity process theory posits that mental health is undermined when these stressors result in identity threat (i.e., decreased levels of self-esteem, self-efficacy, continuity and positive distinctiveness). Drawing upon tenets of these theories, this study examines the unique contributions of intrapsychic and group-based factors to predicting depression, anxiety and life satisfaction in a sample of 241 gay and bisexual men in Lebanon. Cross-sectional correlational survey data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. Life satisfaction was predicted by sexuality-related identity threat, sexuality deflection as a sexuality management strategy, and identity resilience. Depression was predicted by sexuality-related identity threat, homophobic school bullying, and identity resilience. Anxiety was predicted by sexuality-related identity threat, sexuality acceptance as a sexuality management strategy, and general outness. Consistent with minority stress theory and identity process theory, the results show the significance of identity threat in the onset of poor mental health and the general importance of intrapsychic factors, over and above group-based variables, as risk or protective factors for mental health in gay and bisexual men in Lebanon. Culturally tailored mental health promotion strategies should focus on reducing sexuality-related identity threat, addressing societal stigma, and fostering protective factors, such as identity resilience and family support

A novel fabrication method for polymeric flat plate pulsating heat pipe via additive manufacturing

Advancements in material development and fabrication techniques have led to the production of a new generation of electronic devices that are flexible, compact, small-scale, and lightweight. Effective thermal control management is crucial to ensure their performance, reliability, and durability. This paper proposes the fabrication of a polymeric pulsating heat pipe (PPHP) using a common stereolithography technology. The heat transfer performance of three PPHPs with different channel configurations was compared at heating powers ranging from 5 to 30 W and at a constant filling ratio of 50 %, using FC-72 as the working fluid due to its compatibility with the solid material. All three PPHPs have eight turns and length, width, and thickness dimensions of 185 mm, 85 mm, and 2 mm, respectively. All experiments were conducted for four thermal hysteresis cycles. The findings revealed that pressure and temperature distributions displayed similar patterns and fluctuations in response to heating power for all the PPHPs. Despite the simple technique and the use of a standard plastic material, the thermal resistance ranged from 2.5 to 1.7 °C/W, i.e., the effective thermal conductivity was already more than one thousand times higher than the conductivity of a solid plastic sheet for a 30 W heat input. The non-uniform channel configurations in PPHPs offered the potential of better heat transfer performance, fluid distribution, and operational stability. The present overture investigation paves the way for a more extended development of plastic 3D printing technologies for prototyping flexible PHPs and for teaching purposes

1. The Fairytale Mother 2. Empty Nest 3. Teenage mum at the school gates 4. Thimble Child 5. Silence 6. Broken Hearted

A series of six poems, critically recounting experiences of motherhoo

COVER:Enhancing virtualization obfuscation through dynamic scheduling using flash controller-based secure module

Virtualization obfuscation is a very effective method used to protect programmes from malicious analysis by obscuring their code. Due to the fixed scheduling structures, typical virtualization obfuscation schemes can be compromised by automated analysis tools. To enhance the protection strength of virtualization obfuscation, additional protection techniques of the virtualization structure have been proposed. However, previously proposed solutions incur significant performance overhead or require a strong assumption in software-protection techniques. We present COVER, a novel virtualization obfuscation technique in conjunction with the flash controller. COVER enhances the obfuscation and protects the secret parameters of the virtualization structure with a flash controller-based secure module. We implement a prototype of COVER and describe a prototype implementation of a flash controller-based secure module on a Solid State Drive (SSD). We demonstrate COVER’s efficacy against various code analysis methods, and evaluate COVER’s performance using a set of real-world applications. The evaluation results demonstrate that COVER effectively protects the secret parameters of the virtualization structure and increases the effort involved in deobfuscation. Compared with two commercial obfuscators, COVER provides additional protection strength without incurring significantly more overhead in terms of runtime and code size

Comparison of high-speed videography and phase Doppler anemometry applied to flat-fan sprays

This aim of this study is to investigate local droplet size and velocity distributions in a near two-dimensional quasi-steady flat-fan water spray injected under quiescent conditions. The objective is to provide accurate experimental data to validate the generalised Fully Lagrangian Approach (gFLA) model for polydisperse droplet flows. To achieve this, droplet size and velocity distributions were characterised using classical phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) and a recently-developed imaging framework based on high-speed shadowgraphy in conjunction with particle image velocimetry (PIV). The latter technique can also be referred to as high speed videography (HSV). Average horizontal velocity components obtained from both techniques are in good agreement within the main body of the spray. However, average vertical velocity components measured using HSV were consistently lower than those from PDA by up to 20%. This discrepancy is primarily attributed to the broader dynamic range of PDA, allowing it to capture a wider spectrum of velocities, whereas HSV is constrained by the temporal and spatial resolution of the optical setup. Both techniques showed that droplet number median diameter decreases downstream, due to secondary and tertiary atomisation, though PDA consistently reported larger values compared to HSV by up to 15%. These differences stem from the limited size range of each method, as HSV measures droplet diameters from 10–300 µm, while PDA is restricted to 2–120 µm. These findings highlight the importance of selecting an appropriate combination of measurement techniques for spray characterisation. PDA is well-suited for velocity measurements due to its high temporal resolution, while a hybrid approach incorporating both PDA and HSV for droplet size distributions offers a more comprehensive representation of the spray field