It is known from various studies that the choice of the drinkware could deeply affect consumer perception during beverage consumption. In our previous study we have demonstrated that there are a lot of differences in the ratings of taste, palatability bitterness and saturation were noted depending on the type of vessel in which beer was served. This study continues our previous research and expands it even further. In this study we test four different types of beer – each one with a different essence content. This is to determine whether glassware type affects customer experience from drinking each type of beer. Four types of beer purchased from different producers were used for the research. Beer samples for evaluation were served in beer mugs with a classic design and solid construction, tall glasses (wheatbeerglasses) with a characteristic elongated shape, and beer goblets (also called tulip glass), distinguished by a short stem and a very large bowl that tapers towards the top. The experimental results showed how the characteristics of a glass could affect beverage bouquet and flavour, and suggest that their rational optimization, based on experimental data, could enhance the consumer enjoyment of it. Taking into account the above studies, certain conclusions can be drawn regarding the research we conducted. Light beer with an essence content 12% served in a tulip glass has been assessed worse in every single tested trait. Odour, taste, saturation, palatability, bitterness and general quality index (GQI) have been perceived worst when the beer was served in tulip glass. It seems that tulip glass is particularly unsuitable for this type of beer. Moreover, sustainability considerations are becoming increasingly relevant in this context. Understanding the interactions between the drink and its container may foster more deliberate and responsible purchasing behavior. The above-mentioned factors also affect the consumer experience that can be created by combining a drink with the right glass.
This design proposal extends and intensifies the powerfully present geological conditions of Te Whanganui-a-Tara–Wellington’s harbour. Originally conceived for an international design competition it contextualises the magnitude of geologic time and imagines an embodied experience of suspension, a quality of being between worlds yet in the felt immediacy of nothing but kenetic change. The design emerges from and is given meaning by Te Ātiawa pūrākau of taniwha Ngake and Whātaitai. Together these taniwha give the why and how of Pōneke Wellington’s land and seascape; they contextualise geomorphology in deep time and express the entangled alliance between mana whenua and the specificity of place, a quality defining Pōneke Wellington. With the design we touch into multiple relational intersections made possible by the forever mercurial space where the sea and the land meet, yet do so in such a way to unsettle settler colonial schemas of landscape-seascape experience.
Unlocking the power of sustainable growth, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles are redefining the future of responsible investment and corporate excellence. ESG regulations ensure that organizations maintain sustainable development and improve non-monetary metrics, such as stakeholders’ engagement, customer satisfaction, market acceptability, societal ethics, and values. Higher ESG scores demonstrate commitment towards responsible business practices and indicate higher market value for companies, which are valid for all sectors, including IT. However, existing literature reveals that IT sector companies pay less attention to planning their operations to make them more sustainable. Therefore, IT firms must identify methods and practices to maintain high ESG scores to achieve sustainable growth. The current study leads the readers into a new area of ESG through the help of an advanced method, DEA. DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) methodology has been used to identify the decision units’ relative efficiency scores and helps identify peers and followers based on ESG scores. The study reveals that among the selected IT firms using the output-oriented strategy, 56.25% experience increasing returns to scale, 18.75 per cent experience decreasing returns to scale, and the remaining 25.00 per cent report constant returns to scale. This indicates that most IT industry firms can generate greater output change in proportion to the input change.
Andrea Seňová, Katarína Čulková, Marcela Taušová
et al.
Growth becomes one of the factors influencing a business's ability to obtain financial sources. Anyway, many SMEs still need help finding out finances for their business. The contribution deals with business financing in Slovakia, intending to find out what financing possibilities are not used and to offer a solution for the problematic financing. The paper aims to answer three research questions in business financing from the view of classical and modern financing, from the perspective of territorial structure and from the standpoint of the business's legal form. To find out the actual situation in business financing in Slovakia (selected as a representative of one of V4 countries having similar development), we used questionnaire research from talking companies from different sectors and legal forms of business. Consequent data was obtained from the official database of financial reports in Slovakia. The questionnaire results are used for cluster analysis with the Ward method. The research, orientated to financial source use, proved that internal sources present the most significant rate of business activities financing. The results suggested how to increase the effectiveness of business financing by considering modern financing forms.
Thiago José Arruda de Oliveira, Stefan Hubertus Dorner, Rodrigo Estevam Munhoz de Almeida
Em vista dos confrontos armados na Ucrânia e as suas consequências negativas para o agronegócio brasileiro, analisou-se o seu nível de dependência com os fertilizantes importados. Justificou-se o estudo devido à elevação nos custos de produção agrícola e às limitações internas no fornecimento de insumos a montante. Para tanto, empregaram-se dados secundários oficiais e análises gráficas e econométricas que identificaram quais os elementos com maior nível de prioridade para os plantadores de soja e milho do Brasil. Os resultados apontaram que todos os componentes da formulação NPK (nitrogenados, fosfatados e potássios) importados se correlacionam com a produção e produtividade dos grãos em estudo. Nesse contexto, destacou-se a ureia, da qual a Petrobras era um dos fornecedores até 2015. Portanto, a mitigação da subordinação estrangeira no agronegócio brasileiro, passa, a princípio, pela reformulação do setor petroquímico nacional.
Abstract: Recent armed conflicts in Ukraine have caused negative effects on Brazilian agribusiness. Fertilizer supply has been strongly dependent on imported products, focus of this research. Increased costs of national food production due to shortage of national fertilizer production were the main motives for this paper. Data was obtained by governmental institutions and submitted to visual and econometric analysis. It was intended to identify which fertilizer inputs have been crucial for soy and maize producers in Brazil. The results suggested that all elements of NPK (nitrogenous, phosphate, and potassium) were correlated to production and profitability. Furthermore, urea is a core input which Petrobras produced until 2015. In conclusion, the mitigation of external dependence on Brazilian agribusiness requires a reframing of national petrochemical industry.
HOLENU MANGENDA HOLY, John Ngalamulume Munekayi, Alfred KIASUKUA
De nos jours, lorsque l’on parle de la République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), on entend souvent parler du problème démocratique ainsi que des conflits meurtriers qui ont lieu dans certaines régions notamment du Kasaï ou des Kivus. Les journaux expliquent souvent ces violences en faisant référence à des conflits ethniques et fonciers qui constituent le quotidien des congolais depuis des dizaines d’années. La problématique foncière joue en effet un rôle important dans la cohésion et la paix sociale du pays.
Si le sol et sous-sol appartiennent à l’Etat, deux régimes fonciers coexistent de facto: celui de la concession, en ville et dans les grandes exploitations agricoles, minières ou forestières; et partout ailleurs celui des terres domaniales relevant des règles coutumières. Celles-ci se heurtent aux bureaux du cadastre, qui, sur fond de flou juridique et de corruption à tous les niveaux, confisquent les terres des communautés paysannes pour brader au plus offrant. La spoliation des terres agricoles et le pillage minier sont illustrés par des cas précis relevés au Kivu et au Katanga et dans la plupart des coins de la RDC, montrent l’ampleur d’un désastre qui est aussi humain et environnemental.
Les résultats des analyses montrent que 80% des conflits soumis aux cours et tribunaux se rapportent, directement ou indirectement, au foncier et à l’immobilier, signe que le secteur foncier est l’objet de préoccupations et de problèmes. Les acteurs travaillant dans la médiation des conflits au niveau local confirment qu’une part très importante des conflits qu’ils sont amenés à trancher est liée à des questions de terre.
D’autant que le secteur foncier est primordial dans les vies des citoyens de la RDC que l’on pense au développement socio-économique, à la paix, à la sécurité ou à la stabilité.
Cristiane Biazzin, Mario Sacomano Neto, Silvio Eduardo Alvarez Candido
Abstract Paper aims This paper aims to understand how the social skill of managers influence the diffusion of operational capabilities in food and auto parts manufacturing networks. Originality There are taken-for-granted beliefs that its diffusion is based on replicating or transferring resources and practices from one site to another. This study is one of the first ones to discuss operational capability and socially skilled actors. Research method Two polar cases were analyzed through the Strategic Action Fields perspective based on a qualitative perspective and 17 in-depth interviews. Main findings Results demonstrate that diffusion of capability among various actors in subsidiaries will depend on a series of multidimensional factors that influence this process as the stability, state, and relationship between fields. Moreover, members tend to adopt a logic (perception of the world) that reflects the point of view of the group, and from this, the actors construct their narratives, recognize the legitimacy and justify their actions. Implications for theory and practice These perspectives have scarcely been explored in Operations management till today and shall open a new dialogue between Operations Strategy and Organization Studies. It offers practical guidance for diffusing and deploying operational capabilities.
The article deals with the conceptual approach to the intensification of the use of rural areas. The author’s systematic study of the problem of intensification of the use of rural areas. Development of the conceptual model of the organization of the use of rural areas. In the process of studying the problem of intensification of the use of rural areas, the methods of monographic and logical analysis were used. The developed model proceeds from the fact that the process of intensification of the use of rural areas has an integral character, taking into account the interaction of different mechanisms of the use of the complex properties of rural areas. In it, in contrast to the traditional approach to territorial and agricultural planning, the category «territory» is replaced by the category «activity», concretized in relation to the territories. Within the framework of the conceptual model of the organization of the use of rural areas, it is stated that the measures to intensify the use of rural areas are designed to solve three interrelated tasks: - full involvement in the turnover of land resources in rural areas through the rationalization of the use of all types of agricultural land; - rational distribution of territorial resources in favor of socio-economic activities; - saving the total time spent on the creation, operation and use of rural resources.
Land change models commonly model the expected quantity of change as a Markov chain. Markov transition probabilities can be estimated by tabulating the relative frequency of change for all transitions between two dates. To estimate the appropriate transition probability matrix for any future date requires the determination of an annualized matrix through eigendecomposition followed by matrix powering. However, the technique yields multiple solutions, commonly with imaginary parts and negative transitions, and possibly with no non-negative real stochastic matrix solution. In addition, the computational burden of the procedure makes it infeasible for practical use with large problems. This paper describes a Regression-Based Markov (RBM) approximation technique based on quadratic regression of individual transitions that is shown to always yield stochastic matrices, with very low error characteristics. Using land cover data for the 48 conterminous US states, median errors in probability for the five states with the highest rates of transition were found to be less than 0.00001 and the maximum error of 0.006 was of the same order of magnitude experienced by the commonly used compromise of forcing small negative transitions estimated by eigendecomposition to 0. Additionally, the technique can solve land change modeling problems of any size with extremely high computational efficiency.
Abdourahmane Coulibaly, Lara Gautier, Laurence Touré
et al.
Le financement basé sur les résultats (FBR) compte parmi les expérimentations récentes mises en place au Mali pour améliorer les indicateurs de santé maternelle et infantile. À partir d’une analyse basée sur la théorie des courants de Kingdon (1984) et d’une approche inspirée de l’anthropologie du développement, l’article présente une étude qualitative qui vise à décrire les formes d’appropriation nationale du FBR et à comprendre si, à ce stade, on peut parler d’émergence d’une politique publique de FBR dans ce pays. L’apport de cette étude se situe au double plan théorique (comprendre l’émergence d’une politique) et empirique (rôles des acteurs locaux et des acteurs internationaux). Les données proviennent de 33 entrevues qualitatives réalisées auprès de personnes représentant diverses institutions, notamment le Ministère de la santé. Les résultats suggèrent une absence d’émergence d’une politique publique de FBR au Mali à cause d’une myriade de contraintes : peu d’entrepreneurs politiques, peu de fenêtres d’opportunités et de partenaires financiers intéressés ainsi que de trop courtes durées de mise en œuvre des projets pilotes.
Political science, Economic growth, development, planning
Study region: The annually flooded Barotse Floodplain in the upper Zambezi River Basin in the Western Province of Zambia, Southern Africa.
Study focus: Discharge variability plays a significant role in inundation extent and thus it controls habitat conditions of river channels and the linked wetlands. The linkage between discharge and inundation extent in the Barotse Floodplain allowed us to analyse the trends in extent overtime using optical satellite imagery MODIS. The Desert Flood Index, a surface water extraction algorithm, was used to generate time series of inundation extent. For validation of the inundation extent we used a flood mask extracted from a supervised classification land cover map using Landsat imagery. The land cover map was validated using the error matrix method with ground truthed data. The estimated inundation extent time series enabled us to test the inundation correlation with discharge and water level using Pearson r correlation, a parametric statistical test. Based on the established correlation we used the Mann–Kendall, a non-parametric test, to analyse trends in the inundation extent and discharge and water level time series from which we made inferences on the direction of the historical trend in inundation extent.
New hydrological insights for the region: The results revealed that there is observable inter-annual variability in inundation extent in the Barotse Floodplain with prominent differences demonstrated in both the flood ascending/peak and receding period. For the period 2003–2013 the results indicated a rising trend in inundation extent with a Mann–Kendall Z statistic of 1.71 and increase in magnitude of 33.1 km2 at significance level alpha of 0.05. Strong correlations between inundation extent and water level and between inundation extent and discharge with correlation coefficients of determination of 0.86 and 0.89 respectively were observed. For the period 2000–2011 water level time series showed a rising trend with the Mann–Kendall Z statistic of 2.97 and increase in magnitude of 0.1 m at significance level alpha of 0.05. Overall, during the period 1952–2004 discharge in the floodplain showed a declining trend with Mann–Kendall Z statistics of −2.88 and −3.38 at the inlet and outlet of the floodplain respectively. By correlation inference, the overall inundation extent trend in the floodplain was in a downward movement. Rainfall and discharge variability, high evapotranspiration and the changes in the land cover-use in the catchment of the floodplain are largely the factors affecting the observed variability and trends in inundation extent in the floodplain. The presented remote sensing based approach significantly reduces the need for the expensive and time limiting traditional physical field based wetland inundation mapping methods that form a limitation for achieving progress in wetland monitoring especially in open and sparsely gauged floodplains such as the Barotse.
This study is aimed at investigating the effect of using humic, bio and nano fertilizers and levels of nitrogen fertilizers in flower yield of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) at the University of Torbat Heydarieh research farm located in Zaveh in 2014-2015. Treatments consisted of three levels of nitrogen application and use of fertilizer sources as the main factor, including Bioumik, Super Humic, combined Super Humic and Bioumik, Humi Ful, Nitrokara and no fertilizer as sub plots as split plot based on randomized complete block design with 18 treatments and three replications. Analysis of data showed that the effect of year and fertilizer sources on all traits measured was significant. The effect of nitrogen treatments was significant (at 1%) except on number of flowers, dry style, mean dry weight stigma, and mean dry weight. Fertilizer sources increased all measured traits significantly. Application of Biomic increased petals and sepals dry weight (736.34 g/m2) by 46.78% in comparison with the control (464.19 g/m2). The highest dry weight stigma (524.2 g/m2) was seen in Super Humic + Bioumik treatment compared to the control group (443.1 g/m2). Super Humic treatment increased dry weight stigma by 86.49% relative to control. It seems that the use of humic, bio and nano fertilizers has a good effect on saffron performance.