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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the nutritional effects in Wistar rats of supplementation with stand-alone saturated fatty acid (SFA) or monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), the replacement of SFA by MUFA and the combination of both (SFA + MUFA) over a long period of time (13 weeks).

In total, 30 Wistar rats were used and randomly assigned to receive (n = 6): control – lab chow; lard (L20%) – lab chow with added lard (20%); olive oil (O20%) – lab chow with added olive oil (20%); lard replacement with olive oil (L20% –O20%) – during six weeks lab chow with added lard (20%) replaced by lab chow with added olive oil (20%) given during the past seven weeks of the trial; lard combination with olive oil (L10% + O10%) – lab chow with added lard (10%) and olive oil (10%). Food and caloric intake, weight gain, food and energy efficiency, body mass index, bone mineral composition and blood biochemistry were evaluated.

All diets with added fatty acids showed higher energy intake (p < 0.001), weight gain (p = 0.01), accumulation of adipose tissue (p = 0.02) and food and energy efficiency (p = 0.01) compared to the control group. All groups exhibited higher levels of blood triglycerides compared to the control group (p = 0.02). In addition, the L10% + O10% group developed hyperglycemia (p < 0.001); the L group showed higher amounts of non- high density lipoprotein (HDL-c) (p = 0.04); and the L20%−O20% group exhibited high levels of the triglyceride/HDL-c ratio (p = 0.04) in relation to the control.

These results indicate that regardless of the fatty acid type, consumption in large quantities of fatty acids for long periods of time can cause obesity and dyslipidemia.

This study aims to investigate the influence of surface roughness and viscosity on micropitting and their influence sequence.

Specimens were made of carburized and quenched 18CrNiMo7-6, and different surface roughness was obtained by grinding and shot peening. Tests were carried out on a rolling-sliding tribometer, with different viscosity lubricants and a heavy load under a boundary lubrication condition. The laser confocal microscope was used to measure the aspects, surface roughness, profiles in the contacted region and micropitting damage percentage. A factorial experiment was designed, and the range analysis was applied to find the sequence of influence of surface roughness and viscosity.

The result shows that surface roughness has a more noticeable influence since the change of viscosity cannot generate sufficient wear loss to suppress micropitting.

The influence sequence of two factors on micropitting was investigated and the reason for the distribution was analyzed.

Describes a spreadsheet approach for implementing Wagner‐Whitin (WW) and Silver‐Meal (SM) methods for lotsizing time‐varying demands. Suggests that this approach manages the computation and makes tedious and repetitive tasks more interesting; consequently, the student/user can concentrate on the concepts. Outlines the methods, which involve the computation of incremental costs (inventory carrying and replenishment costs) for several alternatives in each period. Presents a spreadsheet template to compute the incremental costs for possible alternatives which is created by using only a small number of spreadsheet formulae and a series of copy commands. The costs are displayed as a matrix. Describes a step‐by‐step procedure to determine the period and the quantity of replenishment.

Third-party certifications promote firms' high standards and enhance their legitimacy and reputation, potentially positively impacting their performance, namely on exports.

This paper studies the differences in firms' export performance between firms with and without the “SME Leader” label, a Portuguese firm-specific label. This study data set comprises data for 5.489 SMEs, for 2014–2020, where 2.950 firms obtained their certification during the period and 2.539 are non-certified control firms. The methodology adopted circumvents the traditional endogeneity problems in this type of study.

The results indicate that the “SME Leader” label does not directly improves a firm's export performance. Additionally, industry characteristics seem relevant for the relationship between SMEs' certification and their levels of internationalization.

Since the study sample includes firms from all industrial sectors, this study results apply to various organizations.

Las certificaciones de terceros promueven los altos estándares de las empresas y mejoran su legitimidad y reputación, lo que puede tener un impacto positivo en su desempeño, especialmente en las exportaciones.

Este documento estudia las diferencias en el desempeño de las exportaciones de las empresas entre las empresas con y sin la etiqueta “Líder PYME”, una etiqueta específica de la empresa portuguesa. Nuestro conjunto de datos comprende datos de 5.489 Pymes, para 2014–2020, donde 2.950 empresas obtuvieron su certificación durante el período y 2.539 son empresas de control no certificadas. La metodología adoptada sortea los tradicionales problemas de endogeneidad en este tipo de estudios.

Los resultados indican que la etiqueta de “PYME líder” no mejora directamente el desempeño exportador de una empresa. Además, las características de la industria parecen relevantes para la relación entre la certificación de las PYMES y sus niveles de internacionalización.

Dado que nuestra muestra incluye empresas de todos los sectores industriales, nuestros resultados se aplican a varias organizaciones.

Networks linking tourist attractions or organizations are a major focus of tourism research. Despite extensive research on tourism networks, academic research on the spatial structure and formation of wine tourism networks is limited. This study aims to investigate the spatial structure and factors influencing the development of a network among Ningxia wineries, an emerging wine tourism destination in China.

This study uses social network analysis to uncover “what” the spatial structure of wine tourism networks looks like. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted among key stakeholders to explain the “why” of such structural characteristics.

The results show that in an emerging wine tourism destination, popular tourist attractions enjoy high centrality and hold key positions in the wine tourism network. Small wineries exhibit high closeness centrality, and only one winery serves as a network broker. According to the stakeholders, the importance of network actors will increase as their economic and political importance increase, while small wineries that lack differentiation in the network may perish.

Local governments can implement the suggested measures for improving network connections, and wineries are advised to find suitable positions to improve the experiences of tourists.

This study pioneers the identification of the distinct structure and factors influencing the network of an emerging wine tourism destination, thus enriching the understanding of the interplay and roles of different actors.

The Group of Twenty (G20) has substantial influence in global economic policy but has been peripheral in global education governance. There is intensification of education policy-relevant engagement within the Think 20 (T20), the “ideas bank” and official engagement group of the G20. The authors analyse the evolution of education as a policy domain within the T20, the ideas and discursive framing of education and global education policy “solutions” and assumptions about the G20 in education policy engagement.

The authors view the T20 as an external actor that can mobilise policy-relevant ideas to G20 actors responsible for internal policy selection and translation. The analysis covers the period 2018–2021 when education became an explicit T20 policy area. The authors screened all 461 T20 policy briefs across all domains. Of these, 32 briefs and four final T20 Summit communiqués were reviewed using critical discourse analysis. Data were supplemented via organisational websites and tacit professional knowledge.

Three assumptions on the G20 as an actor prevailed: (1) policymaker, (2) policy shaper and (3) knowledge mobiliser. The framing ideas on education were linked to assumptions on drivers of education system reform as intertwined with, or to enable: (1) economic adaptation, (2) technical adaptation and (3) socio-political adaptation of individuals and societies.

Accelerated education engagement within the T20 and its direct reach to G20 leaders makes it, and the G20, analytically unique and new unexamined actors of potential influence. The authors conclude that the T20 is positioned as a unique actor, both that can mobilise education policy-relevant ideas to G20 leaders, and legitimised as the actor from which G20 leaders and policymakers should adopt ideas.

Blockchain technology has fascinated researchers and industry professionals. Since its birth, the attention for blockchain has been exponentially increasing, however, most of the industries are still skeptical in adoption for value creation. The purpose of this study is to analyze the actual level of implementation and diffusion of blockchain technology within the logistics and transportation industry by comparing and using the collective intelligence of academic literature and industry practices of implementation of blockchain in this domain.

This study uses the methodology of systematic literature review along with inductive reasoning. The systematic literature review of academic and industry frontiers together has brought a bigger and real picture into consideration.

The results highlight that, within the transportation sector, currently there is a very low diffusion of blockchain, although applications show immense promises for the future. The various application where blockchain technology can make a significant impact are also identified.

Due to the early stage of experimentation with blockchain technology, high-quality data which is relevant to the optimized usage of this technology in the logistics and transportation industry is not available.

The study will help the practitioners in identifying additional avenues in which they could implement blockchain for the effectiveness, efficiency and growth of the logistics and transportation industry.

The analysis of mixed sources of information for undertaking systematic literature review by assessing academic and trade publications is a novelty of this study.

The manager of the 21st century is expected to succeed in an environment strongly characterized by unprecedented volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). In fact, today’s business environment consists of contradictory pressure and tensions, where competitive advantage could be gained by ambidextrous activities. The concept of ambidexterity has already been discussed by many scholars, but still little is known about managerial practice and actions that are useful for finding the balance between the paradoxes that have been identified at that level. Although there are different tensions, dynamic and evolving according to the changes observed in the environment: more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, the pressure to remain flexible and simultaneously maintain the plan of development, seems to be essential. In recent research studies, networking perspective is mentioned as one of areas worth exploring while analyzing the concept of ambidexterity. For that reason, the main goal of this chapter is to investigate if networking is one of the factors useful for managing ambidexterity. To gain deeper insight, we investigated further, searching for the factors essential for managing ambidexterity: we compared the research results between companies of different sizes to identify any regularities. We focused on ambidexterity reflected by managerial practice where stability/plans and flexibility are implemented simultaneously. We investigated 150 managers using paper-and-pencil interviewing. Our research results confirmed that networking could be one of the main approaches having an impact on ambidextrous activities. However, we cannot conclude that companies are obliged to apply a networking perspective to be ambidextrous, although it could be recommended. Further analysis of companies of different sizes revealed the relationship between ambidexterity and networking in case of small and large companies, and no relation in medium-sized enterprises.