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In this paper, we address the need to study automatic propaganda detection to establish a course of action when faced with such a complex task. Although many isolated tasks have been proposed, a roadmap on how to best approach a new task from the perspective of text formality or the leverage of existing resources has not been explored yet.

We present a comprehensive study using several datasets on textual propaganda and different techniques to tackle it. We explore diverse collections with varied characteristics and analyze methodologies, from classic machine learning algorithms, to multi-task learning to utilize the available data in such models.

Our results show that transformer-based approaches are the best option with high-quality collections, and emotionally enriched inputs improve the results for Twitter content. Additionally, MTL achieves the best results in two of the five scenarios we analyzed. Notably, in one of the scenarios, the model achieves an F1 score of 0.78, significantly surpassing the transformer baseline model’s F1 score of 0.68.

After finding a positive impact when leveraging propaganda’s emotional content, we propose further research into exploiting other complex dimensions, such as moral issues or logical reasoning.

Based on our findings, we provide a roadmap for tackling propaganda-related tasks, depending on the types of training data available and the task to solve. This includes the application of MTL, which has yet to be fully exploited in propaganda detection.

In this paper, improvements in reducing transmitted accelerations in a full vehicle are obtained by optimizing the gain parameters of an active control in a roughness road profile.

For a classically designed linear quadratic regulator (LQR) control, the vibration attenuation performance will depend on weighting matrices Q and R. A methodology is proposed in this work to determine the optimal elements of these matrices by using a genetic algorithm method to get enhanced controller performance. The active control is implemented in an eight degrees of freedom (8-DOF) vehicle suspension model, subjected to a standard ISO road profile. The control performance is compared against a controlled system with few Q and R parameters, an active system without optimized gain matrices, and an optimized passive system.

The control with 12 optimized parameters for Q and R provided the best vibration attenuation, reducing significantly the Root Mean Square (RMS) accelerations at the driver’s seat and car body.

The research has positive implications in a wide class of active control systems, especially those based on a LQR, which was verified by the multibody dynamic systems tested in the paper.

Better active control gains can be devised to improve performance in vibration attenuation.

The main contribution proposed in this work is the improvement of the Q and R parameters simultaneously, in a full 8-DOF vehicle model, which minimizes the driver’s seat acceleration and, at the same time, guarantees vehicle safety.

There is a growing interest in understanding the strategic behaviour of family firms producing international commodities such as coffee, particularly in contexts where decisions about what products to sell, where to commercialise them and how to promote them appear to be highly based on both business and family aspects. The purpose of this paper is to explore product differentiation strategies in family firms in the specialty coffee industry across Latin American countries. Whilst the socioeconomic relevance of coffee production in Central America is unequivocal, the approach and rationale of families that engage in specialty coffee production remain underexplored.

This study examines product differentiation in specialty coffee family farms across countries in Central America: Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The study relies on in-depth interviews, case studies and an interpretative approach to unpick the dynamics of product differentiation by families in business dedicated to producing specialty coffee.

The findings show that product differentiation in specialty coffee family farms is influenced by both business and family aspects and driven by entrepreneurial stewards. Coffee-farming families can engage in product differentiation through a shared vision, a combination of traditional and specialised knowledge, and through the continuous development of an exchange network. The findings reveal a connection between families in business balancing family and business interests, and the strategic intention to build up their assets entrepreneurially over time.

This study contributes to the literature on stewardship and strategic behaviour in family firms when families in business engage in differentiating their products in a highly competitive industry. More specifically, this study focuses on companies across countries where coffee is of crucial socioeconomic importance, and where the said companies are owned and managed by families. The study expands understanding of product differentiation in family-enterprise-first businesses and suggests that the family elements in differentiation can be explained through an entrepreneurial stewardship perspective.

This chapter focuses on the international development plans implemented in Colombia during the regime of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (1953–1957). It argues that foreign economists and international agencies, such as the World Bank, played a significant role in supporting and strengthening local leaders opposing the regime. By analyzing the creation of the Cauca Valley Corporation in 1955, through the intervention of the former chair of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) David Lilienthal, this study provides two main contributions to the literature on economists and political economy under authoritarian rule. Firstly, it illuminates how local groups mobilized international economists to contrast Rojas. Secondly, it analyses the evolving relationship between World Bank advisors, David Lilienthal, and the regime. After describing the consolidation of political and economic interest groups and their global connections before Rojas coup d’état, it focuses on Rojas’ regime and on how it affected the implementation of the World Bank development started with the General Survey Mission in 1949. In the Cauca Department, local leaders invoked the World Bank and Lilienthal to implement a TVA model in opposition with the central government.

Combining sensory evaluations and hypothetical valuation mechanisms, this study aims to investigate the impact of consumers' product sensory attributes on willingness to pay (WTP) and overall liking for a new apple cultivar.

A sample of non-expert participants (n = 122) evaluated the overall liking and just-about-right (JAR) attributes. A variable transformation approach was applied to make linear and interval regression models between the JAR attributes, overall liking scores and participants' WTP.

The study reveals the high consumer appreciation for the new apple in both hedonic and economic terms. After controlling the anchoring effect's bias, the predicted mean WTP for the new apple cultivar was €3.26 per kilogramme. Crunchiness and flavour significantly affect both participants' overall liking and WTP.

The main limitation is the non-probabilistic sampling procedure, which does not allow for the generalisation of the results. Penalty analysis for JAR attributes in monetary and hedonic terms is beneficial for optimising the product and evaluating its potential in the marketplace.

The findings provide helpful directions for product optimisation in future breeding programmes to ensure the long-term sustainability of the new apple cultivars in the marketplace.

This study provides evidence of the beneficial synergy of mixing sensory-oriented research with the behavioural economics field of study.

European countries face the crucial challenge of integrating newly arrived refugees into society. The purpose of this paper is to explore the feasibility of using e-government services developed by local authorities, as well as NGOs, to support integration processes by analyzing migrants’ perceptions of the utility, usability and efficacy of social computing applications and their impact on integration.

A random sample of 67 newly arrived refugees in Kronoberg County, Sweden, responded to a questionnaire in English, Swedish and Arabic comprising 26 questions covering six central domains (employment, housing, education, health, citizenship and m-government/information and communication technology for refugees).

The successful design and implementation of digital solutions to address social issues or organizational needs are best achieved through collaboration among public, private and academic institutions. The potential use of social computing applications and online services as a resource to support refugee integration processes is determined by people’s preferences and skills when using digital devices. Moreover, newcomers have negative perceptions of online services and sharing personal information because of a lack of confidence and mistrust of social computing applications.

Findings cannot necessarily be extrapolated to Sweden as a whole, or to other European countries, owing to the Swedish government’s determination to devolve decision-making over certain refugee-related issues to the county and municipal levels, and to various European digital ecosystems.

This paper contributes to the analysis of the utility and efficacy of e-government services to integrate newly arrived refugees. This paper points to future improvements in social computing applications and shows the potential of public and third-sector institutions to facilitate the integration of new refugee communities and improve their quality of life.

The concept of corruption is frequently represented as relating to social practices that violate established rules and norms. This paper, however, seeks to demonstrate that corrupt practices are often only possible because they in fact draw on existing institutional mechanisms and cultural dispositions that grant them a certain social approval and legitimacy. The paper aims to explore these issues through a detailed exploration of corruption in Nicaragua, which outlines how competing élite groups have been able to use different discourses to appropriate resources from the state in quite different ways, reflecting the use of contrasting mechanisms for justifying and legitimizing corruption.

The paper focuses on two key periods of recent Nicaraguan political history: that which occurred during the administration of ex‐President Arnoldo Alemán and the events that unfurled in the aftermath of a chain of bank bankruptcies that occurred in Nicaragua during 2001. These events are explored in the context of David Harvey's ideas of “accumulation by dispossession.”

In contrast with more classic practices of corruption in Nicaragua that have openly violated existing formal rules and norms but appealed to an ethos of redistribution and a historically‐specific concept of “the public” in order to imbue their actions with legitimacy, the corrupt practices related to recent banking bankruptcies engaged in an extensive instrumentalization of formal state institutions in order to protect élite parochial interests and to achieve “accumulation by dispossession” through appealing to the legitimating support granted by multilateral financial institutions.

The paper illustrates sharply the inadvisability of perspectives that narrowly define corruption in legalistic terms. Such perspectives focus exclusively on the state as the location of corruption, whereas clearly, in Nicaragua as elsewhere, corruption is a far more complicated phenomenon which crosses the artificial boundaries between private and public sectors. It also evolves and takes a myriad different forms which are intimately connected with the ongoing struggles for control of accumulation processes, suggesting a much more integral role for corruption within accumulation strategies than often allowed for in both orthodox economic and Marxist literatures on capital accumulation.