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The purpose of this paper is to describe the fabrication and characterization of poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-(R)-3-hydroxyexanoate] (PHBHHx) tissue engineering scaffolds with anatomical shape and customized porous structure.

Scaffolds with external shape and size modeled on a critical size segment of a rabbit’s radius model and an internal macrochanneled porous structure were designed and fabricated by means of a computer-aided wet-spinning (CAWS) technique. Morphological, thermal and mechanical characterization were carried out to assess the effect of the fabrication process on material properties and the potential of the PHBHHx scaffolds in comparison with anatomical star poly(e-caprolactone) (*PCL) scaffolds previously validated in vivo.

The CAWS technique is well suited for the layered manufacturing of anatomical PHBHHx scaffolds with a tailored porous architecture characterized by a longitudinal macrochannel. Morphological analysis showed that the scaffolds were composed by overlapping layers of microfibers with a spongy morphology, forming a 3D interconnected network of pores. Physical-chemical characterization indicated that the used technique did not affect the molecular structure of the processed polymer. Analysis of the compressive and tensile mechanical properties of the scaffolds highlighted the anisotropic behavior of the porous structure and the effect of the macrochannel in enhancing scaffold compressive stiffness. In comparison to the *PCL scaffolds, PHBHHx scaffolds showed higher compressive stiffness and tensile deformability.

This study shows the possibility of using renewable microbial polyester for the fabrication of scaffolds with anatomical shape and internal architecture tailored for in vivo bone regeneration studies.

The application of dry-type transformers is growing in the market because the technology is non-flammable, safer and environmentally friendly. However, the unit dimensions are normally larger and material costs become higher, as no oil is present for dielectric insulation or cooling. At designing stage, a transformer thermal model used for predicting temperature rise is fundamental and the modelling of cooling system is particularly important. This paper aims to describe a thermal model used to compute dry transformers with different cooling system configurations.

The paper introduces a fast-calculating thermal and pressure network model for dry-transformer cooling systems, preliminarily verified by analytical methods and advanced CFD simulations, and finally validated with experimental results.

This paper provides an overview of the network model of dry-transformer cooling system, describing its topology and its main variants including natural or forced ventilation, with or without cooling duct in the core, enclosure with roof and floor ventilation openings and air barriers. Finally, it presents a formulation for the new heat exchanger element.

The network approach presented in this paper allows to model efficiently the cooling system of dry-type transformers. This model is based on physical principles rather than empirical assessments that are valid only for specific transformer technologies. In comparison with CFD simulation approach, the network model runs much faster and the accuracies still fall in acceptable range; therefore, one is able to utilize this method in optimization procedures included in transformer design systems.

Market globalisation produces a very competitive scenario that affects mainly enterprises operating in very fragmented contexts. Tourist enterprises have difficulty in finding economic and efficient conditions, they are generally small‐sized and the management culture in tourism is still at the beginning. Cooperation and integration among stakeholders operating in the tourism system are the conditions that ensure the full satisfaction of tourists' expectations; but also that promote the search for business economies. A tourist destination becomes a product only if it provides tourists with an integrated supply system. The cooperation among enterprises and institutions creates added value for the tourism destinations and for the single businesses, but operators have difficulty in recognising it. Especially the mature destinations are those that find it hard to change their mode of operating, mainly because they do not wish to re‐nounce to the perpetual annuities that have already been obtained. Some examples, with reference to the Italian situation, confirm this. Operators tend to evaluate the benefits of their initiatives in the short‐run, but the results of integration actions should be assessed in the medium‐ and long‐term. Furthermore, in a process of organisational change the powers and the skills tend to be redistributed unevenly. The points of view of tourists and enterprises shall overlap more and more till they can no longer be separated. In this way the services supplied will meet the tourists' expectations. The re‐organisation of the industrial sector proved that network‐based operations are essential for the efficiency of the enterprises and for the competitiveness of the tourist areas.

It tends to be called the corner shop, mainly because it occupied a corner building for extra window space, but also due to the impetus given to the name by television series seeking to portray life as it used to be. The village grew from the land, a permanent stopping place for the wandering tribes of early Britain, the Saxons, Welsh, Angles; it furnished the needs of those forming it and eventually a village store or shop was one of those needs. Where the needs have remained unchanged, the village is much as it has always been, a historical portrait. The town grew out of the village, sometimes a conglomerate of several adjacent villages. In the days before cheap transport, the corner shop, in euphoric business terms, would be described as “a little gold mine”, able to hold its own against the first introduction of multiple chain stores, but after 1914 everything changed. Edwardian England was blasted out of existence by the holocaust of 1914–18, destroyed beyond all hope of recovery. The patterns of retail trading changed and have been continuously changing ever since. A highly developed system of cheap bus transport took village housewives and also those in the outlying parts of town into busy central shopping streets. The jaunt of the week for the village wife who saw little during the working days; the corner shop remained mainly for things they had “run out of”. Every village had its “uppety” madames however who affected disdain of the corner shop and its proprietors, preferring to swish their skirts in more fashionable emporia, basking in the obsequious reception by the proprietor and his equally servile staff.

This paper aims to investigate the market access (MA) of ethical drugs, the underlying public-private interaction (PPI) between pharmaceutical companies and public actors, and the implications for the sustainability of the health system.

A qualitative interpretivist approach was selected. Interviews were carried out as the primary method of data collection: 27 interviews were conducted with 13 key informants from the pharmaceutical industry.

The perspective of MA evolves from formal negotiation with the public actor at various levels to PPI, which should include aspects of interactions with other actors in the network. Conceptualization in these terms is fundamental because it allows an understanding of the implications in terms of the sustainability of the health system.

The paper discusses MA by highlighting the shift from a “market access as formal negotiation” perspective to a “public-private interaction for market access” perspective, in which the focus is on the content of the interaction and the representation of the network of relevant actors for MA. It contributes to the debate on the sustainability of health systems by suggesting the adoption of a medium-to-long-term approach to economic and social sustainability based on PPI; it adopts an industrial marketing approach and contributes to the recent debate on PPI.

Researchers ascertain that the more the activities of new product development (NPD) process are outsourced to partners, the higher the need for integration. The purpose of this paper is to study: the extent to which the amount of information shared with the partners during NPD projects (DC visibility) depends on the degree of outsourcing (DC virtuality), and what are the context variables (product features and business relationship features) that influence this relationship.

This paper provides two sets of quantitative indexes to measure: the relevance of the activities outsourced during the NPD project (i.e. virtuality), in terms of the spread of the outsourced technological knowledge, and in terms of outsourced workload; and the amount of information that a focal company shares with product development partners (i.e. visibility). Seven NPD projects in different companies have been analyzed to investigate visibility, virtuality, and the implications of contingencies.

The cross-case analysis shows that the amount of information shared with the partners during the NPD project varies with the relevance of outsourced activities. In particular, the higher the relevance, the higher the amount of information shared with the partner. Partner location and integration, trust, and ICT support have a role in determining the amount of information shared with each single partner.

This study adopts an original network perspective in that the whole set of partners involved in the NPD process is analyzed. New quantitative indexes of visibility and virtuality of NPD projects are proposed, along with original insights about the impact of context variables. The quantitative indexes also provide a useful managerial tool to evaluate whether a focal company has the possibility to build competitive advantages that exploit unique resources beyond the boundaries of the company.

The paper aims to focus on management‐customer relations as a way to understand the competitive advantages of small/medium‐sized family businesses. The aim of this work is to verify whether management perceptions of business strengths and customer perceptions of the same strengths agree, and whether this agreement (perceptive concordance) can become an important factor in maintaining the firm's competitive advantages.

The research is carried out through a single case study with a sample of 120 customers.

The findings indicate that when management and customers agree on certain business issues, performance benefits. Comparing management's perception of strengths and customers' perceptions of the same strengths allow one to relate what the firm thinks of itself to what the customer sees in it.

The research offers useful information about the efficiency of the firm's external communications and demonstrates that a shared language between the firm and its customers does exist and is understood by both entities. Moreover, practical implications are related to customers' degree of satisfaction with respect to management beliefs, and to management's opportunity to correct the weaknesses revealed by the agreement factor.

The paper provides a different perspective on how to analyse competitive advantage inside small to medium‐sized family businesses with cases and specific analyses not considered in depth by the family business literature.

The spatial development of urban areas affects the characteristics of landscape as well as people’s aesthetic perception of it. Specifically, sprawl results in an urban morphology which is diametrically opposed to the compact city model and which assumes several kinds of patterns: for example “striped”, “ribbon” or “leapfrogged” urban development. Assessing urban morphology in spatial terms is crucial to urban policy, while landscape metrics are the key to a comprehensive understanding of different urban development patterns. The purpose of this paper to design and test an urban morphology indicator (UMI) for the Lombardy Regional Landscape Plan.

The paper describes an UMI that can be used to identify the heterogeneity of built-up patterns according to urban porosity, fragmentation and patch shape. This UMI is a result of Esri ArcGIS 10.3 “grouping analysis” which works by applying a spatial statistical metric for clustering geometries in a given geographical area.

Morphological analysis was used in regional urban development policies with a view to minimising impact on surrounding ecosystems and preserving the natural environment and landscape. It defines 28 different urban morphology patterns in the region, which are divided into systems, polarities and urbanised units.

The proposed methodology differs from those traditionally used in qualitative/descriptive landscape planning and supports the identification of morphological features with quantitative statistical and spatial data, allowing a fine-scale assessment of complex metrics.