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The rapid growth of 3D printing has transformed the cost-effective production of prototypes and functional items, primarily using extrusion technology with thermoplastics. This study aims to focus on optimizing mechanical properties, precisely highlighting the crucial role of mechanical compressive strength in ensuring the functionality and durability of 3D-printed components, especially in industrial and engineering applications.

Using the Box−Behnken experimental design, the research investigated the influence of layer thickness, wall perimeter and infill level on mechanical resistance through compression. Parameters such as maximum force, printing time and mass utilization are considered for assessing and enhancing mechanical properties.

The layer thickness was identified as the most influential parameter over the compression time, followed by the degree of infill. The number of surface layers significantly influences both maximum strength and total mass. Optimization strategies suggest reducing infill percentage while maintaining moderate to high values for surface layers and layer thickness, enabling the production of lightweight components with adequate mechanical strength and reduced printing time. Experimental validation confirms the effectiveness of these strategies, with generated regression equations serving as a valuable predictive tool for similar parameters.

This research offers valuable insights for industries using 3D printing in creating prototypes and functional parts. By identifying optimal parameters such as layer thickness, surface layers and infill levels, the study helps manufacturers achieve stronger, lighter and more cost-efficient components. For industrial and engineering applications, adopting the outlined optimization strategies can result in components with enhanced mechanical strength and durability, while also reducing material costs and printing times. Practitioners can use the developed regression equations as predictive tools to fine-tune their production processes and achieve desired mechanical properties more effectively.

This research contributes to the ongoing evolution of additive manufacturing, providing insights into optimizing structural rigidity through polylactic acid (PLA) selection, Box−Behnken design and overall process optimization. These findings advance the understanding of fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology and offer practical implications for more efficient and economical 3D printing processes in industrial and engineering applications.

This paper aims to analyse the effect of different polylactic acid (PLA) colours used on fused deposition modelling (FDM), considering the product finishing quality produced with the same process conditions.

The methodology adopted was to design a virtual modelling object and three-dimensional (3D) print it with FDM with different PLA colours (natural, green and black), using the same parameters. 3D scanning and scanning electron microscopy was used to analyse the model finishing of each sample. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis, thermogravimetric analysis and dynamic mechanical analysis were used to characterize the material and verify if the colour affected its thermal behaviour.

Findings showed that different PLA colours lead to distinct 3D printed finishings under the same process conditions. Thermal analysis showed a reason for the printing finishing difference. The degradation temperatures and the glass temperatures vary depending on the PLA colour. This affects the FDM working temperature.

This study will contribute to improving the finishing quality of 3D printed products by collaborating to the determination of its process conditions.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

This paper aims to study the dynamics of bitcoin prices in Brazil, a large emerging economy with an unregulated bitcoin market.

First, this study tests if the Law of One Price (LOOP) is valid for bitcoin prices in Brazil, conducting tests with data from three Brazilian exchanges. Next, this study documents bitcoin price dynamics in the short run by studying the price discovery mechanism in these exchanges. This study uses Information Share and Component Share, combining the two measures to obtain an Information Leadership Share (ILS) measure.

This study finds a common trend within bitcoin prices among a set of exchanges, with cointegration tests between the price series indicating that LOOP is valid in Brazilian markets in the long run. ILS indicated that, for closing prices, the most liquid exchange (Foxbit) leads discovery, whereas the least liquid (Local Bitcoin) lags, with Mercado Bitcoin in the middle both in terms of discovery and liquidity. Finally, this study provides evidence that the price variation in the market that leads price discovery can be used to construct an arbitrage in another exchange.

This research brings the first evidence of a price discovery mechanism for exchanges in Brazilian Reais. Although LOOP is valid in the long run, price leadership in bitcoin markets potentially create arbitrage opportunities in the short run. This study contributes to the growing literature of bitcoin prices with novel evidence from a large emerging economy.

Success in the transition between the university and the labor market is an important indicator of the adaptation of newly graduates to the worker’s role in life. This study aims to describe the validity and reliability of the University-to-Work Success Scale based on its internal structure and relationship with measures of career success, protean career orientation and life satisfaction in newly Portuguese graduates.

Using an online protocol, responses were collected from 576 graduates for less than twelve months (74.1% women), aged between 20 and 64 years (M = 25.8, SD = 6.693). Instruments included a socio-demographic questionnaire and measures of transition success, career success and life satisfaction.

The internal structure of the scale was evaluated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses that supported a four-factor hierarchical structure with a good fit. The reliability of the factors evaluated by Cronbach’s Alpha was satisfactory. The scale consists of 29 items divided into four subscales (professional insertion and satisfaction, confidence in the future of career, income and financial independence and adaptation to work).

These results support the use of the scale as a valid and reliable measure to assess success in the transition between university and the labor market in newly Portuguese graduates.

This study is very important because this measure can serve as a basis for both preventive and corrective career interventions and policies. The preventive approach can help graduates in their transition to the labor market by promoting career resources. The corrective approach can include re-evaluating organizational integration practices after employment, with an emphasis on promoting gender equality.

Corruption is a major social problem, and scholars have devoted considerable attention to this phenomenon. However, less attention has been paid to how corruption spreads among organizations and what factors can make its spread more likely. This study aims to fill the gap by modelling corruption as an interorganizational contagion.

The authors used social contagion theory to model corruption as an interorganizational contagion, influenced by the susceptibility of organizations and the strength of contagion sources. The study analysed 736 medium and large Italian municipalities over a five-year period, with 3,146 observations (excluding missing data). The authors conducted a longitudinal analysis using panel logistic regression techniques and performed robustness and endogeneity checks through a dynamic panel data model.

The authors found that municipalities with a higher percentage of corrupt neighbouring municipalities were more likely to experience corruption. The probability of experiencing corruption was also significantly higher for municipalities with weaker organizational resistance to corruption contagion.

Previous studies have not clearly explained the organizational mechanisms behind the spread of corruption at the interorganizational level. The study suggests that corruption contagion at the municipal level occurs via reduced uncertainty in decision-makers and is influenced by the prevalence of corruption locally. The spread can be driven by conscious or unconscious mechanisms. This study challenges the idea that corruption contagion is immediate and inevitable. Organizational resistance to corruption can affect the risk of contagion, highlighting the importance of anti-corruption controls and ethical systems in preventing it.

Employability has long been a concern of scholars because of its complicated nature and changes in the requirements in labor markets to meet the new requirements of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 and globalization. However, there has not yet been much systematic investigation of the existing literature tracing the trends, changes and developments in employability research. This paper aims to fill this void by analyzing data obtained from the Scopus dataset from 1972 to 2019.

A total of 1,703 Scopus-indexed articles were filtered from 7,885 documents. The results reflect a rapidly emerging literature on employability, given the worldwide interest in this topic. Using descriptive statistics and bibliometric analyses, the review identified trends in employability research, whose impact has been sustained for several decades.

With science mapping, the conceptual structure of scientific disciplines was visualized, highlighting three main schools of thought including employers’ requirements and higher education institutions’ preparation; the antecedents of employability; and the role of work-integrated learning in enhancing employability.

The paper calls for more integrative research focusing on personal agency with the development of career paths inside organizations as well as for a more focus on a multilevel perspective exploring both individuals' and organizations’ perceptions.

Drawing on an ethnographic research study, developed in three different food assistance initiatives (FAIs) operating in Portugal, this article seeks to explore the elements that characterize them and the main organizational challenges they face.

Participant observation was carried out in a surplus food redistribution charity, a soup kitchen and a social supermarket, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with supervisors of these FAIs. The study followed an inductive coding strategy, and a thematic analysis was developed.

The main results point to an appreciation of the initiatives and the role they play, but they also highlight the existence of several challenges, mainly related to: 1) difficulties in accessing sources of funding, 2) the absence of an intervening state and 3) a scarcity of resources that allow a thorough assessment of their activities and services provided, which weakens the public image of these responses.

The development of food assistance in Europe has a long history. Over the past few years, this sector has grown significantly. Nowadays, it is possible to identify several realities around emergency food provision. However, this heterogeneity has not been sufficiently explored in the literature. In addition, there are few studies that report on the variety of initiatives that coexist in Portugal and establish a comparison between them. The current paper intends to overcome this gap by seeking to understand the main models of food assistance operating in the country.

This study aims to develop a risk prioritization process using failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) in association with composition of probabilistic preferences (CPP) and weighting the risk analysis criteria. It seeks to develop decision-making considering the fast response necessary to achieve project objectives in complex scenarios, such as the pandemic of COrona VIrus Disease 19 (COVID-19).

After identifying the risks, the prioritization process was applied to a project in the oil and gas area, in which a focus group assessed these risks. This evaluation took place employing traditional FMEA, FMEA with CPP by axes considering four points of view and FMEA with CPP by weighted sum with the use of a multicriteria method to weight the criteria. These approaches were compared to understand their differences and benefits, with a flow chart being developed, consolidating the procedure.

The methodologies that showed the greatest benefits were FMEA with CPP by axes PO (progressive-optimistic) and by weighted sum. Essentially, this was mainly related to the interrelationship between risks and to the importance of prioritization.

This procedure can consider company's views on what is critical and the interrelationship between risks. It provides a clear segmentation of what should and should not be prioritized. It was also developed in a practical case, showing a possible alternative to support fast responses in decision-making.