Miguel Castilho, Barbara Gouveia, Inês Pires, Jorge Rodrigues and Manuel Pereira
This paper aims to study the influence of the binder saturation level on the accuracy and on the mechanical properties of three-dimensional (3D)-printed scaffolds for bone tissue…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the influence of the binder saturation level on the accuracy and on the mechanical properties of three-dimensional (3D)-printed scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.
Design/methodology/approach
To study the influence of the liquid binder volume on the models accuracy, two quality test plates with different macropore sizes were designed and produced. For the mechanical and physical characterisation, cylindrical specimens were used. The models were printed using a calcium phosphate powder, which was characterised in terms of composition, particle size and morphology, by X-ray diffraction (XRD), laser diffraction and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The sample’s physical characterisation was made using the Archimedes method (porosity), SEM, micro-computer tomography (CT) and digital scan techniques, while the mechanical characterisation was performed by means of uniaxial compressive tests. Strength distribution was analysed using a statistical Weibull approach, and the dependence of the compressive strength on the porosity was discussed.
Findings
The saturation level is determinant for the structural characteristics, accuracy and strength the models produced by three-dimensional printing (3DP). Samples printed with the highest saturation showed higher compressive strengths (24 MPa), which are over the human trabecular bone. The models printed with lower saturations presented the highest accuracy and pore interconnectivity.
Originality/value
This study allowed to acquire important knowledge concerning the effects of shell/core saturation on the overall performance of the 3DP. With this information it is possible to devise scaffolds with the required properties for bone scaffold engineering.
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Carla Lousas, Humberto Ribeiro, Sandra Alves and Cláudia Veloso
Since the dawn of the civilizations that olive has been playing a critical role on both the society and the economy. Indeed, one can argue that olive and olive oil were as…
Abstract
Since the dawn of the civilizations that olive has been playing a critical role on both the society and the economy. Indeed, one can argue that olive and olive oil were as critical as they shaped a form of culture, a seminal pillar that supported the Mediterranean civilizations and that has since then spread worldwide, influencing others. As waves and tides, the use of olive and olive oil has certainly met low points, to the extent that its use even became to be considered old fashioned more recently, when the traditional Mediterranean food and culture started to be jeopardized by very different modern ways of living. Nevertheless, despite defying challenging conditions, stubbornly as always, the Mediterranean diet not only continues to prevail, but keeps granting the admiration of diverse strands of the society and science, being notoriously evident the set of recent research that points to its health benefits, having olive oil as the cornerstone, a vegetable fat, considered to be highly healthy, as it enhances the control of important health indicators, such as the bad cholesterol, serving for nutritional and therapeutic uses, and preventing the occurrence of a number of diseases, including cardiovascular problems and some forms of cancer.
Taking into consideration this framework, the research presented in this book is focused on the examination of the main trends on olive and olive oil in the Iberian Peninsula, from production to retail and consumption, by analyzing several data sets covering recent decades. In terms of findings for more recent years, it was possible to conclude that despite the increasing recognition of the benefits of olive and olive oil by the society, and despite the increase in olive production, the consumption of olive oil has been decreasing internally, being replaced by increases in exports. This is most probably due to the economic conditions that have deteriorated due to the 2008’s financial crisis, which, together with an increase in olive oil prices, has prevented a considerable portion of the population to have financial conditions to access to the consumption of such an important component of the Mediterranean diet.
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Yaw A. Debrah and Ian G. Smith
Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on…
Abstract
Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.
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Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American…
Abstract
Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.
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Konstantinos Poulis, Efthimios Poulis and Mo Yamin
The purpose is to construct an analytical framework that encapsulates implications for the marketing offering of service firms as a result of observed intra-national ethnic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is to construct an analytical framework that encapsulates implications for the marketing offering of service firms as a result of observed intra-national ethnic diversity in these firms' markets of operation.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual approach which promotes the idea that acculturation matters for service firms operating in multicultural markets and adopts relevant propositions related to service firms' strategy in such markets.
Findings
Integrating fragmented insights from consumer behaviour and multicultural marketing, the study suggests that the various interactions and contacts between ethnic groups in a multicultural country can generate acculturation outcomes that lend themselves to novel avenues for empirical research. These avenues move beyond a research focus on the presence of ethnic groups as stand-alone entities of intra-ethnic uniformity.
Practical implications
Firms with a broader market horizon in a multicultural market can employ acculturation in their marketing strategy since an exclusive focus on ethnicity as a basis of segmenting the market reveals shortcomings. Otherwise, a myopic approach that ignores cross-ethnic interactions may lead to bypassing opportunities for more considerate market responses by a service firm.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the only acculturation study in a services context that offers an analytical framework and propositions that can be used as a guide for multicultural, services marketing researchers and practitioners that see the market in a holistic fashion.
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Outlines the evolution of the idea of private property in the West and in early Islamic states; and its practical translation into property rights in land in the UK, Islamic…
Abstract
Outlines the evolution of the idea of private property in the West and in early Islamic states; and its practical translation into property rights in land in the UK, Islamic territories and South Asia. Provides a glossary of terms which may be unfamiliar to Western readers and argues that the East India Company’s Permanent Settlement Regulation in South Asia recognized existing rights and did not create new ones. Believes that understanding this is important for any evolutionary theory of the South Asian economy.
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This study investigates the process of praxeological transformation developed in an early childhood institution using context-based staff educational practices as strategy to…
Abstract
This study investigates the process of praxeological transformation developed in an early childhood institution using context-based staff educational practices as strategy to support the professional development of educators. It aims at developing a pedagogy that recognises and legitimises children as full-right citizens, thus valuing their competences to participate.
The context-based staff educational practices were taken in an ecological perspective thus recognising an interconnection between professional development, curriculum and organisational development. This is a longitudinal case study (four years) framed in a qualitative constructivist approach, using action research, context-based staff development and participatory childhood pedagogy as means to change educational practices. It is founded in the principles of the Childhood Association's pedagogical approach for children learning and teachers' development, as well as on the Effective Early Learning Project as a reference for monitoring and evaluating quality co-construction. The main objectives of the study were defined around the reconstruction of children and educators' images, to create democratic participatory understandings of central actors that will develop a situated pedagogy of respect and learning. The reconceptualisation of the image of the child, based on the listening of his/her voices, has been key for their right to participate and a professional motivation for kindergarten teachers to change their daily professional practices. The data gathered reveal the understanding of children as competent persons and active learners who construct complex forms of thought and action. This long process of learning led the participants to realise the importance of participatory childhood pedagogies.
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Explains the development of Israel’s welfare state, concentrating on the labour exchange system and housing. Links the development of the Zionist welfare state to economic and…
Abstract
Explains the development of Israel’s welfare state, concentrating on the labour exchange system and housing. Links the development of the Zionist welfare state to economic and political conditions, in particular state‐building and the management of the Palestinian community within the state. Refers to literature on policy paradigms. Notes the stable institutional infrastructures developed by the Jewish community in Palestine and the Zionist labour movement, which led to an embryonic welfare state. Recounts the development of the labour exchange process and the public housing policy, describing how the policies reinforced statehood – settling immigrants into areas where Jewish presence needed strengthening and, at first, largely excluding the Palestinian community from access to housing and the labour process. Points out that, over time, the exclusion of Palestinians became unrealistic. Concludes that Israel’s welfare state was determined by political conditions of developing statehood – most importantly the exodus of Palestinians and the influx of Jewish immigrants.
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This paper, based on forty in‐depth interviews with teachers and principals in Hong Kong, utilizes the insights of feminist organization studies to explore the persistence of…
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This paper, based on forty in‐depth interviews with teachers and principals in Hong Kong, utilizes the insights of feminist organization studies to explore the persistence of gender inequalities in primary school teaching. Two common practices, namely the assignment of women and men to teach lower and higher grades respectively and the monopoly of men in positions of disciplining and authority, are centered. The data suggest that schools and teachers actively construct and reproduce gender inequalities by trivializing teaching of young children as babysitting, naturalizing women as natural caregivers, and normalizing the use of threat in disciplinary control. My analysis also argues that these routine and pervasive gendering processes are not often acknowledged or challenged, which have the effects of marginalizing caring work, overlooking the emotional labor of women, valorizing a masculine view of authority, encouraging men and boys to compete for power via aggression, and hence producing a masculinist workplace.
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Outlines the development of globalization and related research; and takes the Middle East as a basis for examining regionalization in more depth. Discusses the definition of…
Abstract
Outlines the development of globalization and related research; and takes the Middle East as a basis for examining regionalization in more depth. Discusses the definition of boundaries in economic, geographic and political terms; the impact of various types of regional trade associations and trade and investment; and five factors affecting regionalization in the Middle East; peace, political will, economic compatibility, socio‐cultural similarity and geographical proximity. Considers the implications for the corporate strategy of multinationals, e.g. market segmentation, integration, strategic sourcing etc.