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This study aims to integrate design methods and additive manufacturing with the use of a thermoplastic elastomer certified for medical use and reverse engineering towards a new concept of a customized buttress model with optimized features for the reconstruction of the osteo-dural opening after endoscopic endonasal transtuberculum-transplanum approach.

Additive manufacturing allows making of cost-effective and useable devices with tailored properties for biomedical applications. The endoscopic endonasal approach to the suprasellar area enables the management of different intradural tumours, and the craniectomy at the skull base is generally wide and irregular. Defining an optimal strategy for osteodural defect closure at the preoperative stage represents a significant challenge.

Using the results obtained from a computed tomography analysis, skull base defects were designed to plan the surgical approach. Several concepts of customized buttress models were first built up, initially focusing on thin, flexible edges characterized by different thicknesses. Finite element analyses and design optimization allowed us to achieve the optimal design solution with improved compliance/flexibility for easy intranasal manoeuvrability, maintaining an adequate mechanical stability. As the thickness of the edges decreased, an increase of strain energy values was found (i.e. 1.2 mJ – Model A, 1.7 mJ – Model B, 2.3 mJ – Model C, 4.3 mJ – Model D). However, a further optimization (Model E) led to a significant increase of the compliance (strain energy of 14.1 mJ).

The results obtained from clinical evaluations demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed technical solutions, improving surgery effectiveness.

This paper seeks to address the questions of how and why the negative consequences emanating from a stricken social enterprise spread to other social enterprises, threatening viability of social enterprises as a whole.

Based on social categorization theory, a conceptual model is developed to understand how and why the perception of stakeholders on one single, stricken social enterprise can spread to other social enterprises, and ultimately affecting viability of social enterprises.

A conceptual model outlines how a violation of the legitimacy of a single social enterprise results in bad perception of this stricken enterprise, and which in turn evokes negative responses from stakeholders. Then stakeholders are likely to further conclude that other social enterprises may have similar problems. As a result, they spread their negative responses to other social enterprises as the initially stricken enterprise. These negative consequences can seriously damage a social enterprise and threaten viability of other social enterprises as well.

To regain legitimacy, social entrepreneurs of a focal social enterprise need to upgrade their skills, rationalize operations and enhance governance structure. Given the harmful spillover effect(s) that may inflict other social enterprises, social entrepreneurs of these social enterprises need to differentiate themselves from the focal social enterprise. Social investors need to take the spillover effects into consideration when making investment decisions.

This paper seeks to contribute to social enterprise literature by highlighting the importance of cognitive processing of stakeholders that is subsumed under social categorization theory, while advancing the understanding of viability of social enterprises from a critical perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the expected cost of a large-sized photovoltaic (PV) system (= 1 MW) in reaching grid parity, not taking into account any type of government incentives (now quite uncommon in industrialized countries). A PV system located in Southern Italy will be the subject of this assessment.

The paper presents the case of a 1 MW ground-mounted PV system. The data regarding solar radiation on the surface of the modules and the relative solar diagrams were simulated and reported using PVSYST® 5.21 software. To evaluate the profitability and solvency of the project, a number of factors were taken into consideration: profitability indicators of net present value and internal rate of return, the debt service coverage indicators of debt service cover ratio and loan life cover ratio and their mean annual values (annual debt service cover ratio and annual loan life cover ratio, respectively). A sensitivity analysis with respect to the most critical element (weighted average cost of capital) gave strength to the results.

The achievement of grid parity for 200 kW PV systems is happening globally in areas with higher irradiation, but it clearly refers to residential utilities and is not applicable to large systems. The case study considers a power plant (= 1 MW) to assess the total cost that it would need to have to be economically advantageous.

This is an assessment made using a case which, given an average irradiance value in the area and the energy produced, can be used in all countries lying in the temperate zone. For other areas, a scaling coefficient would be needed.

The paper is useful for understanding the order of cost, which must catch up to PV technology to make investments in power plants profitable in the absence of government incentives. It is also helpful for those who make government policies so that these may propose possible incentives commensurate with the actual difference between the value of the technology and the value of the investment. The study is also useful for a possible comparison with a system sharing the same characteristics (size, energy production) for off-grid use and customers.

The study can be a valuable support for government policies to incentivate PV systems that contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gases and that help contain climate change. The case study represents a real case taken directly from a real project. This case study and its sustainable features have not been previously presented in a scientific journal.

This study seeks to examine the mediating role of mental health issues in the workplace (MHIW) in explaining the complex relationship between person-organization-fit (P.O-fit) dimensions and workers' productivity (WP) variance during COVID-19 in the Egyptian soap and detergents industry.

Using a cross-sectional survey, the authors collected data from 373 frontline workers and supervisors working at ARMA soap and detergents (ASD) factories. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 production-lines and quality-control supervisors. The hypothesized model was analyzed using the partial least square structural equation modeling technique.

The authors found a significant, high P.O-fit level among ASD workers. The need-supplies-fit and supplementary-fit controlled MHIW. The need-supplies-fit and supplementary-fit alongside MHIW explained the growth in WP during COVID-19. The MHIW mediated the relationship between P.O-fit dimensions and WP during the pandemic.

Limited attention was paid to investigating how the P.O-fit dimensions enable frontline workers to remain productive despite the MHIW associated with COVID-19. This study bridges the aforementioned research gap by elucidating how the supplementary-fit, demand-abilities-fit and need-supplies-fit manipulate MHIW and maintain WP growth during the pandemic.

The findings provide clear guidelines for the first-line supervisors to foster the P.O-fit dimensions, control MHIW and sustain WP growth during COVID-19.

This study is among the first to add significant information on how MHIW (as mediator) explains the relationship between P.O-fit and WP growth during the pandemic.