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The purpose of this article is to present the experience of a Central American university that has been successfully advancing an educational model focused on sustainability for over 25 years. Many universities in industrialized nations are assuming a more active role in promoting sustainable development, while in emerging countries, interest in this issue is recent and not well known.

A study was conducted on perceptions of the impact from graduates of EARTH (Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda) University in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, utilizing a mixed methodology that combined the application of a standardized questionnaire, together with focus groups of graduates, and semi-structured interviews of graduates, their employers, members of their communities, clients of the companies where they work and colleagues.

Agricultural engineers who received their education at EARTH University have had a positive social, economic and environmental impact in their communities of origin. They have taken on leadership positions and have become change agents who are aware of the social needs around them. They contribute to economic growth and job creation, and at the same time, promote sustainable management of natural resources.

It is a case study and their findings are limited.

Learning about EARTH University’s experience may be useful for other higher education institutions seeking to cultivate this perspective in their degree programs, and for academics who support a fundamental reorientation in higher education aimed at confronting the challenge of promoting sustainable development.

The results established that most of the agronomists who studied at EARTH University are having a positive economic, social and environmental influence, which appears to be closely associated with their university education. This suggests that higher education may in effect play an important role in promoting sustainability and contributing elements for advancing this perspective in higher education in Latin America.

This study of EARTH University’s educational model reveals that, in the case of Latin America, education for sustainability cannot be limited to providing training in natural resources management. The promotion of inclusive development supposes that students have learned how to manage productive activities that are economically and socially sustainable, and that students have received a solid education in values, aimed at fostering a commitment to build a fairer society.

Roadmapping has been used as an approach to support market, product and technology-integrated planning, resulting in a document commonly known as a roadmap. Despite the gains made in relation to the technique, recent studies indicate that most users leave or have difficulties in sustaining the process (i.e. maintaining the updated roadmaps). This paper aims to present a framework for continuous roadmap updating that incorporates principles from agile management fields.

The framework was developed through action research in a manufacturing firm in the construction industry.

The results demonstrate a positive impact on the degree of continuous information monitoring, roadmap credibility and use of the roadmap during innovation strategy decisions.

The key contribution of this framework is the demonstration of a new strategy for carrying out the maps in which information is internalized by the organization itself, using agile teams, without commissioned specialists and as part of the work standards.

The authors identify the theoretical constructions measuring the intentions to pursue succession as well as the socioemotional wealth theoretical framework, and the authors propose an objective of testing the relationships existing between them so as their importance giving evidence of their relevance.

It is a research with a positivist philosophical position measuring in a quantitative way with a deductive and structured approach applied to 98 CEO owners of Mexican companies, using nonparametric methodologies the authors simulated subsamples with structural equation modeling in SmartPLS 3.3.2, the metrics on the model are described as a functionalist paradigm.

Directors' attitudes paired up with the intentions of succession are significantly related to the socioemotional aspect of the family business; although the theory proposes three aspects to measure these intentions, the social norm in this research has not been strong enough to be a predictor as an influence on the company's socioemotional wealth.

The authors found this a valuable paper for the complement of theory focused on purely manifesting aspects in family companies, because they identified theoretical and empirical relationships opening up guidelines for new research in socioemotional aspects in accordance with the entrepreneurs attitudes to achieve succession, the differentiation lies in measuring psychological aspects of the director's behavior toward succession and not to the succession per se as done in most research; also, the methodology of data analysis facilitates the reader to easily recognize the relationships between the proposed theoretical constructions, showing the detailed metrics development by researchers in the family business field.

Provides a bibliography of materials about Cuba and the Cuban Revolution published in the UK, Australia, Cuba, and the USA. Lists solidarity organizations, publishers and works by and about people who lived in Cuba before and after the Revolution. Aims to be of use to students of modern history, Latin America, and revolutionary politics.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a pattern of interlocking directorates is emerging following reforms in Mexican corporations, and who, if any, are the powerful actors in this network. Drawing on the Bourdieusian notion of social capital, the paper also analyses theoretically the interlocking directorates, networks and powerful actors, and their influences on and potential implications for corporate governance mechanisms.

The data used in the study consisted of 1,442 internal and external board members of the population of 126 Mexican corporations trading on the Mexican Stock Market as of January 2011. Use of social network analysis (SNA) demonstrates individuals’ links with corporations and allows the production of spatial maps to visualise the network structure of interlocking boards.

Using the measures of SNA developed by Freeman (1979 and Bonacich (1972), the authors identify the most powerful and influential directors in the network structure of board members in Mexico. Board members with the greatest number of connections occupy central positions in the network. The authors also find a catalogue of corporate governance scandals. The inclusion of independent directors seems to have had no influence in ensuring better corporate governance.

Mapping out the directors’ links might offer excellent opportunities for policy makers to see how many companies a single director represents, how they share boards, and the implications for minority shareholders of sharing boards, and to understand the workloads of directors in carrying out the monitoring tasks expected of them.

This paper makes an important contribution by employing SNA to illustrate interlocking directorates and the positions of powerful and influential actors. Examining networks of directors from a “social capital” point of view also provides an understanding of why the role of independent directors remains toothless in family-dominated corporations.

Thermal power plants have many problems regarding noise and vibration. Previous studies have shown that such problems are often related to the fans. However, the internal flows are difficult to analyze to find the cause of vibration and noise in fans in actual tests. Therefore, the unsteady internal flow field in a centrifugal fan was simulated numerical to identify the source. This paper aims to present these issues.

The unsteady Reynolds‐averaged Navier‐Stokes equations with the SST k‐ω turbulence model were solved to simulate the flow within the entire flow path of the fan. The conservation of mass and moment and energy equations were used to solve the flow field distribution. The time‐dependent pressure pulsations on the impeller were analyzed for the dynamics problem. The finite volume method with the SIMPLEC algorithm was used to discretize the time‐dependent equations. The second‐order upwind scheme was used for the convection terms and the central difference scheme was chosen for the diffusion terms in the momentum and transport equations.

The numerical simulations illustrated the flow characteristics inside the double suction centrifugal fan. The predicted efficiency is almost the same as the experimental value. The estimated pressure and temperature fields are quite reasonable. The results showed that the interaction between the non‐uniform impeller flow and the fixed volute aroused the significant pressure fluctuations, which is an important source of vibration and noise in centrifugal machinery.

It is assumed that there is no change in the density in the whole flow passage, and the predicted outlet temperature is about 1.15 per cent lower than the experimental result.

The simulation study indicates that the prediction of noise is possible by using pressure pulsation. It is recommended to control the pressure pulsation in the fans, to decrease the vibration and noise of thermal power plants.

This study aims to examine the farmers’ awareness level and explores the factors, which may influence their adoption intention regarding solar powered pumps.

The study consist of a sample of 510 respondents selected from the rural region of Punjab (India) by using convenience sampling. Descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis techniques have been used for the analytical purpose.

The study reveals that dimensions such as perceived benefit, perceived compatibility and government incentives have a significant impact on intention to use solar powered pumps, whereas high investment cost and lack of awareness regarding government subsidies are the main reason for non-adoption of the same.

The sample size has been selected on the basis of convenience sampling and has been taken from the rural area, which may affect its generalizability.

The present research is expected to be useful for the manufacturers, regulators, customers, commercial banks, product and service providers, and other environmental institutions.

The study has acknowledged various intentional factors, which influence the adoption decision of solar powered pumps. Therefore, the present study will be useful to formulate action plans to improve the environmental quality.

This paper aims to present a monitoring system and the usage of a robotic arm to remove finished parts of a three-dimensional (3D) printer build plate, enabling 3D printers to continuously build a sequence of parts.

The system relies on a 2-degree of freedom planar manipulator. The moment to remove printed parts from the printer build plate can be determined based on direct communication with the 3D printer control software or using information from a computer vision system that applies background subtraction and Speeded up Robust Features methods.

The proposed system automatically detects the end of standard 3D print jobs and controls the robotic arm to remove the part.

Lighting variation can deteriorate the response of the computer vision system, which can be minimized using a controlled illumination environment. In addition, the printer build plate edges must be free so the parts can slip off the printer build plate when the robot pushes them out.

The system enables a more practical and automatized usage of 3D printers, reducing the need of human operators.

The proposed system can reduce work hours of laboratory personnel, as there is no need to remove the printed parts manually before another job starts.

Computer vision system monitors the printing process and the automation system that enables continuous sequential 3D printing of parts. A prototype is described, which can be easily replicated with low cost parts.

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate chocolate consumption effects with a non invasive metodology. There is evidence that the consumption of dark chocolate and cocoa with high flavonoid content could have positive effects on blood pressure (BP) and weight management (WM); however, there are complications at the moment of obtaining blood samples to evaluate on children at a primary school level.

A total of 54 healthy scholars were included; consumption of 70 per cent cacao dark chocolate was integrated into the daily snack during a 30-day period. Blood pressure, body fat, total content of polyphenols in urine and total antioxidant capacity of saliva were measured. The results obtained were divided in relation of two groups of students, A and B, with lesser or higher difficulties to WM in a self-assessment test; variables were then statistically evaluated.

Consumption of chocolate produced changes in the total content of polyphenols (from 5.6 to 6.8 µg/mL, p < 0.016) and salivary antioxidant capacity [(14.76 ± 5.4 and 16.14 ± 3.9) TEU nmol versus. t = 0; p < 0.029 and p < 0.001 at 15 and 30 days, respectively]. Group B, which presented higher difficulties concerning WM, presented a body fat reduction of about 0.63 per cent after chocolate consumption (p = 0.045) and a diastolic blood pressure reduction of −2.8 mm Hg in average (p < 0.025). A significant weight gain (p < 0.023) was observed only in Group A.

Despite the reduced sensitivity of the non-invasive methodology, differences in urine and salivary content of polyphenols and antioxidant capacity suggest that the design used could be feasible, although extended studies are needed to corroborate it.

A non-invasive study for screening the potential health benefits of dark chocolate was assayed. The results suggest that dark chocolate consumption in children as part of the daily snack could be a complementary element in weight management and in prevention of future risk factors to chronic diseases.