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Polyamide 12 (PA12) processed by the additive manufacturing technique of selective laser sintering (SLS) is acquiring a leading role in cutting-edge technological sectors pertaining to transport and biomedical among others. In many of these applications, design requirements must ensure fatigue structural integrity. One of the characteristic features of these SLS PA12 is the layer-wise structure that may influence the mechanical response. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the fatigue life behavior of PA12, focusing on the effect of the load direction with respect to the load orientation.

With the aim of analyzing the effect of the load direction with respect to the layer wise structure, fatigue tests on plain samples of SLS PA12 were carried out with the load applied parallel and perpendicular to the layer planes. The S-N stress life curves and the fatigue limit at 106 cycles were determined at room temperature and at a stress ratio of 0.1. The fracture surfaces were inspected to evaluate the damage evolution, modeled via the fracture mechanics methodology to obtain the fracture parameters.

The fatigue resistance was better when the load was applied parallel than when was applied perpendicularly to the layered structure. The analysis of the postmortem specimens evidenced three regions. The inspection of the fatigue macro crack growth region revealed that crazing was the mechanism responsible of nucleation and growth of damage till a macroscopic crack was generated, as well as of the consequent crack advancement. The calculated fracture parameters computed from the application of the fracture mechanics approach were similar to those obtained from standardized fracture tests, except when the stress levels were close to the yield strength.

The fatigue knowledge of polymers, and especially of polymers processed via additive manufacturing techniques, is still scarce. Therefore, the value of this investigation is not only to obtain fatigue data that could be used for structural design with SLS PA12 materials but also to advance in the knowledge of damage evolution during the fatigue process.

Polyamide 12 (PA12) properties meet specific requirements for various applications in the automotive and aerospace industries. Bulk specimens made of PA12 and processed via the additive manufacturing technique such as selective laser sintering (SLS) present a layered structure. In case of structural applications, the fatigue performance of SLS PA12 parts is of vital importance and fatigue response studies in these type of materials are still scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of the applied load orientation on the fatigue crack propagation behaviour of the layered structure of SLS PA12.

With the aim of understanding the effect of the applied load with respect to the layer orientation on the fatigue crack growth of SLS PA12, fatigue crack growth tests were carried out at two orientations. The specimens called PARA were orientated in such a way that the applied force direction belongs to the layer plane while in the group called PERP, the tensile force direction is coincident with the build direction, that is, perpendicular to the slice. Besides, special attention has been paid to the analysis of the fracture surfaces of the specimens, linking the micromechanisms of failure with the microstructure of the material.

The SLS PA12 specimens tested with the load applied parallel to the layered structure show a little better fatigue response than those tested at perpendicular orientation. The fracture surfaces of the specimens tested at perpendicular orientation are slightly smoother than those tested at parallel orientation. Crazes are the main micromechanism of failure with a crater size of 50 microns, which coincide with the spherulite size. This indicates that the void nucleation of the crazes takes places between lamellae inside the spherulites, and consequently, the craze growth and rupture occurs mainly in a transspherulitic mode.

PA12 parts manufactured via SLS are becoming more valuable in structural elements in the automative and aeronatical fields. In such applications, fatigue performance is vital for design. Fatigue studies are scarce in literature and even more when dealing with fatigue crack growth behaviour. The value of this work is the analysis of the fatigue crack growth response of these materials taking into account the anisotropic microstructure and to get a better understanding, this behaviour is explained taking into account the micromechanisms of failure and the microstructure of the material.

Studies in higher education tend to use different methods and methodologies, from documentary analysis to auto/biographical and observational studies. Most studies are either qualitative or qualitative. A mixed-methods approach has emerged in recent years, in which the qualitative approach generally plays an important role. The purpose of this chapter is to show the potential of a new methodology that is also appropriate for higher education research and widely used in the social sciences: probabilistic topic models. A probabilistic method can be used to analyse and categorise thousands of words. After collecting large sets of texts, content analysis is used to deeply analyse the meaning of these words. The huge number of texts published today pushes researchers to employ new techniques in their search for hidden structures built upon a set of core ideas. These methods are called topic modelling algorithms, with Latent Dirichlet Allocation being the basic probabilistic topic model. The application of these new techniques to the field of higher education is extremely useful, for two reasons: (1) studies in this area deal in some cases with a great volume of data and (2) these techniques allow one to devise models in a way that is unsupervised by humans (even when researchers operate on the resulting model); thus they are less subjective than other types of analyses and methods used for qualitative purposes. This chapter shows the foundations and recent applications of the technique in the higher education field, as well as challenges related to this new technique.

Knowledge management literature highlights the fact that, in the new economy, the achievement of a sustained competitive advantage depends on firm’s capacity to develop and deploy its knowledge‐based resources. However, not all resources are equally important for the achievement of this competitive edge. In this sense, this paper proposes an integrative framework for the analysis of human capital combining the advances from three different areas of research: knowledge management, intellectual capital, and strategic human resource management. Juxtaposing two dimensions – value and uniqueness – it analyzes the different forms of firm’s human capital. These are the following: idiosyncratic, ancillary, core and compulsory. Furthermore different human resources practices that should be used to manage such specific forms of human capital are described.

The purpose of this study is to develop a decomposed model to inspect the effect of knowledge management practices (knowledge sharing culture [KSC], knowledge-based human resource management [KHRM], strategy and leadership [S&L], information and communication technology [ICT] on organizational performance [OP]) by using the four balanced scorecard outcomes (BSC) (learning and growth [L&G], internal process [IP] perspective, customer satisfaction [CS] perspective and financial performance [FP]).

The research methodology included development of a research model based on comprehensive literature review followed by survey of knowledge-intensive organizations. A sample of 277 employees was obtained and structured equation modeling analysis using SPSS AMOS was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses.

The study shows that KSC and KHRM have a highly significant effect on all the four aspects of OP; S&L positively and significantly affects only L&G and IP but does not have any significant effect on the other two, i.e. CS and FP, while ICT practices did not affect any of the measures significantly.

The data are limited to 277 middle and senior level managers of Indian firms, which may be a limiting factor for generalizability.

The proposed model uncovers the dynamics of individual relationships between KM practices and measures of performance (proposed by BSC) in comparison to existing models which have mainly focused on the overall effect.

Researchers have become aware of the importance of festivals as a phenomenon worthy of studying, but in-depth studies of cultural festivals are lacking. The purpose of this study is to describe the attributes of cultural festivals, specifically theatre festivals and examine the motivations to organise them. Similarly, this study seeks to discover the type of tourist that attends these types of festivals.

A questionnaire was applied to a representative sample of tourists who visited one of the most prestigious festivals in the international panorama: Almagro International Festival of Classical Theatre. A non-probabilistic technical sample was used. Tabulation of the data was performed by the study group using the SPSS, v. 23.

This study makes a segmentation of the tourists who attend the festival based on their motivations. Using this segmentation, the authors analyse the socio-demographic characteristics and tourists’ behaviour, as well as their experience at the festival. Amongst the higher-rated attributes of the festival are care and service organisation and interpretative quality of the actors and/or theatre company.

The main practical application of this study is to help understand the peculiarities of each segment of visitors and their evaluation of the destination to create tourist and cultural products that provide greater satisfaction with respect to their needs.

The main value is the novelty of studying this kind of cultural event. The authors analyse the reasons to visit it in relation to the motivations that move the visitors. The authors also study the assessment the tourist does of the qualities of the festival.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the survival of university spin-offs (USOs) in Spain. First, the survival rates of USOs are compared with those of a group of similar firms. Second, the firm-specific characteristics of surviving USOs are compared with those of failed USOs.

The study is based on two subsamples consisting of 469 USOs and 469 non-USOs. A matching procedure is used for identifying a valid control group that allows for an outcome comparison between USOs and non-USOs. A longitudinal data set (2000-2010) is constructed, combining data regarding firm-specific characteristics and patent activity. The survival rates of both USOs and non-USOs are described first, and then, the firm-specific characteristics of the surviving USOs are discussed and compared with those of the failed USOs.

The authors find that the survival rates of the USOs are slightly lower than those of the non-USOs. In addition, the failed USOs have a longer average life span than the failed non-USOs. Finally, the data show that the surviving USOs are more likely to have venture capital investors, exports and patents than the failed USOs.

This study carries out an explanatory analysis of the survival of Spanish USOs. As the results showed no significant differences between the characteristics of the surviving USOs and those that failed, except for subtle differences in the profiles of the two groups, it is necessary to analyse the underlying causes of this situation.

In many countries, large amounts of public funds have been invested in the creation of USOs. This policy only makes sense if these firms increase the business value and create jobs. The support of USOs with a low expectation of survival or economic viability opens a debate on the amount of public funds invested in these firms. In the current context, funding obtained by these companies could be considered to drain resources from those projects that really deserve to be targeted.

The creation of USOs has become a mainstay of universities’ entrepreneurship strategies. Analysing USOs’ survival is therefore crucial for understanding the contribution of entrepreneurial universities to society. Survival is not another measure of this performance, but it is a pre-condition for university-based entrepreneurship to have an effect on society.

This paper aims to present and describe the main actions carried out in six different faculties and common areas such as cultural and research centres and administrative buildings in the Ferrol campus at the University of A Coruña to achieve the second green flag on a Galician University.

A case study describing the steps for implementing a green campus programme in a medium-size, young university campus integrated into a small city. An Environmental Campus Committee was created to assess the main factors that affect environmental footprint, discuss sustainability initiatives and develop a guide to action regarding different goals related to sustainable transport options, energy, water conservation and waste reduction. The actions included several fields such as education, circular economy and healthy life and involved the on and off-campus community.

The programme achieved a decrease in water consumption and electrical energy. An important change in educational values and behaviours regarding sustainability was observed in and out of the campus community. The measurements adopted mainly in waste management, mobility and education led the Ferrol campus to achieve a green campus flag on November 2019.

This experiment can serve as a guide to establish the Green Campus philosophy in other similar university campuses.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the amount of online information reported by Spanish municipal-owned enterprises (MOEs) according to the legal requirements indicated in the Spanish Law 19/2013 on Transparency and Good Governance. In addition, the authors analyze how different variables can affect the extent of online information reported by such enterprises.

To do this, we conducted a content analysis of the web pages of Spanish MOEs located in cities with more than 100.000 habitants, as well as those cities that are provincial capitals. To find information about these enterprises, the authors accessed the General Intervention Board of the State Administration (IGAE) webpage (www.igae.pap.minhafp.gob.es/sitios/igae/es-ES/Paginas/inicio.aspx). This sample was composed of 273 enterprises majority owned and controlled by local governments.

The findings reveal that the amount of information reported by Spanish MOEs, in accordance with the legal requirements, is quite reduced. The most influential variables for explaining Spanish MOEs’ commitment to information disclosure are population size, political positioning of the local government and reputation.

This study seeks to contribute to the scarce literature on mandatory transparency in the public sector as well as to reinforce the degree of compliance with requirements of information disclosure.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the internal and external factors related to the disclosure of environmental information in universities which reflect the actions carried out in these universities.

Taking as reference the first 200 universities in the Shanghai ranking, several factors associated with the degree of environmental information disclosure in universities – governance dimension, the relationship and participation of stakeholders, position and prestige as signs of the quality of the institution and cultural concern in the university’s country for the environment – are analysed.

The results obtained show that the size of the leadership team, stakeholder participation, the position of the university in rankings and cultural concern in the university’s country for the environment are determining factors in the university’s environmental actions and, consequently, in their disclosure. Other factors – such as the size of the university, the level of self-financing and financial autonomy – do not affect the disclosure of environmental information.

Scant research exists on the environmental commitments of universities; this paper aims to fill that gap. Their role as the main channel of research and as instructors of future professionals makes them points of reference in society. Research on university ranking has traditionally focussed on teaching and research results, but environmental issues are becoming increasingly important. This paper enumerates the factors that influence the dissemination of environmental information in the most prestigious universities. This research also provides an original approach by considering not only top-down but also bottom-up strategies through communication channels and the incidence of cultural factors.