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More than 20 years’ experience in development and application of techniques and instrumentation for evaluation of space environment effect on polymer materials and adhesively bonded joints in active experiments on‐ and overboard low Earth orbit space stations Salyute, Mir and the international space station (ISS) is reviewed. Six techniques and instrumentation sets were developed and tested for remote control of polymer materials and adhesive joints structure/properties changes during long‐term exposure in space environment. This made it possible to evaluate visco‐elastic and dielectric properties, surface defectiveness and crack resistance as material parameters, which are sensitive to structure changes of polymer materials and adhesive joints and are their important service characteristics. Some experimental results of the techniques and instrumentation, ground and space tests are presented.

Public agencies contract out to pursue a variety of goals. But, these goals cannot be realized if the performance of contractors is not assessed and monitored. This study examines the state of performance measurement and contract monitoring in the U.S. transit agencies. We focus on three research questions: (1) What monitoring capacity exists within transit agencies? (2) What monitoring methods are used by transit agencies? (3) What performance measures are tracked by transit agencies? We find monitoring units are common in a third of agencies in the study. Service and customer complaints are the most common performance measures, while penalties and liquidated damages are the most frequent form of penalties. Finally, we find that transit agencies utilize a variety of output and outcome measures to monitor contractors.

This paper sets out to show the feasibility of the genetic algorithm inverse method for the determination of the parameters of crystallization kinetics laws in isothermal and non‐isothermal conditions, using multiple experiments.

The mathematical model for crystallization kinetics determination and the numerical methods of its resolution are introduced. Crystallization kinetic parameters determined by approximate physical analysis and the inverse genetic algorithm method are presented. Injection molding simulations taking into account crystallization are performed using the finite element method.

It is necessary to perform the optimization on two parameters, transformed volume fraction and number of spherulites to obtain correct results. It is possible to use results from different samples, in spite of the dispersion of some values.

Experimental data for isothermal and non‐isothermal conditions were used and obtained good results for the parameters of crystallization kinetics laws from which the evolutions of overall crystallization kinetics and crystalline microstructure were deduced. Nevertheless, the dispersion of the experimental data concerning the number of spherulites obtained with different samples is important. The evolution of the number of spherulites is required for the optimization to get correct results.

An important result of this work is that the genetic algorithm optimization can be applied to this problem where the experiments cannot be performed with a single sample and the experimental data for the number of spherulites have low precision. Even if only the crystallization kinetics was considered, the feasibility in molding simulation has been shown.

Simulation of crystallization in injection molding is very important for a later prediction of the end‐use properties.

The development of regional public brands for agricultural products necessitates compelling narratives that resonate deeply with consumers. Given the distinctiveness of agricultural products, consumers prioritize the inherent connection to roots and heritage when making purchasing decisions. Therefore, crafting brand narratives must emphasize this root appeal, namely, consumers’ information appeal preference, to positively influence consumers’ brand perceptions and underscore the value of regional public brands. This study investigates this phenomenon through the lens of cue utilization theory.

Four experiments were conducted for this purpose. Study 1 examined the stimulus materials for brand story type (typical vs atypical). The purpose of study 2 was to verify whether the experimental material could be used to categorize participants' information appeal preferences (geographic vs cultural). Study 3 employed a between-subjects design with a 2 (brand story: typical vs atypical) × 2 (consumers’ information appeal preferences: cultural vs geographic) factorial design. Study 4 used a between-subjects design of 2 (brand story: typical and atypical) × 2 (consumers’ information appeal preferences: cultural vs geographic) × 2 (culturally derived power perception: individual and social).

The findings indicated that the type of brand story and consumers’ information appeal preferences interact with consumers’ brand attitudes toward regional public brands for agricultural products. In addition, a sense of place was found to mediate the interaction between the type of brand story and consumers’ information appeal preferences. Furthermore, culturally derived power perceptions moderated this mechanism.

This study offers valuable insights into marketing regional public brands for agricultural products by categorizing their brand stories into typical and non-typical narratives.

The development of service activities at the present stage of the economy is increasingly taking its place in the market for the provision of services, thereby intensifying competition among service organisations.

In the process of research, the author identified the main ways to improve the quality of customer service.

A theoretical substantiation of the analysis of the studied problem of service quality by organisations and the impact of service quality on the economic performance of enterprises, which are one of the problems of the country's economic development at the present stage, is carried out, the service process is an integral part of the service.

As part of the study, an assessment was made of the qualitative indicators of service organisations providing services to the population. Proposals have been made to improve the efficiency of service quality.

Technological audit at the enterprise makes it possible to assess the economic level, indicators and opportunities for further development.

Based on the data obtained, the auditors form a list of possible production activities, a number of measures to improve work with the existing indicators and financial capabilities of the organisation. The author considers the mechanism for the development of modern entrepreneurship through the methodology of technological audit. The purpose of the article is to study the methods of conducting a technological audit at an industrial enterprise.

In the process of research, the author defined the purpose of a technology audit as an opportunity to assess the capacity of the organisation, the ability to create, develop and include research and development in the process of work and product creation, the possibility of a patent, sale of developments by searching for worthy partners.

The principles, the observance of which is necessary for conducting a technological audit, are analysed. Thanks to the results of a technology audit, one can see not only the organization's prospects in the field of innovation but also identify possible threats, as well as draw up a strategy for increasing income through the development of innovation and intellectual property.

This study aims to highlight the growth and development of Indo-German collaborative research over the past three decades. Moreover, this study encompasses an in-depth examination of funding acknowledgements to gain valuable insights into the financial support that underpins these collaborative endeavours. Together with this paper, the authors provide an openly accessible data set of Indo-German research papers for further and reproducible research activities (the “Indo-German Literature Dataset”).

The data were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database from the year 1990 till the 30th of November 2022. A total of 36,999 records were retrieved against the used query. Acknowledged entities were extracted using a named entity recognition (NER) model specifically trained for this task. Interrelations between the extracted entities and scientific domains, lengths of acknowledgement texts, number of authors and affiliations, number of citations and gender of the first author, as well as collaboration patterns between Indian and German funders were examined.

The study reveals a consistent and increasing growth in the publication trend over the years. The study brings to light that Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, Astronomy and Astrophysics and Engineering prominently dominate the Indo-German collaborative research. The USA, followed by England and France, are the most active collaborators in Indian and German research. Largely, research was funded by major German and Indian funding agencies, international corporations and German and American universities. Associations between the first author’s gender and acknowledged entity were observed. Additionally, relations between entity, entity type and scientific domain were discovered.

The study paves the way for enhanced collaboration, optimized resource utilization and societal advantages by offering a profound comprehension of the intricacies inherent in research partnerships between India and Germany. Implementation of the insights gleaned from this study holds the promise of cultivating a more resilient and influential collaborative research ecosystem between the two nations.

The study highlights a deeper understanding of the composition of the Indo-German collaborative research landscape of the past 30 years and its significance in advancing scientific knowledge and fostering international partnerships. Furthermore, the authors provide an open version of the original WoS data set. The Indo-German Literature Data set consists of 22,844 papers from OpenAlex and is available for related studies like literature studies and scientometrics.

The main aim of this chapter is to analyse whether recent economic developments in Central and Eastern European countries have been subjected to a typical process of Dutch Disease (DD). We investigate the impact of foreign aid and other external inflows on the economies of these countries through their effect on the real exchange rate (RER).

After a review of the literature on the DD, we apply robust new generation augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) tests, and autoregressive distributed lag models following the methodology of Arellano and Bond (1991) and Blundell and Bond (1998) to establish the impact of capital inflows on output growth for the period 2003–2013.

We find no significant role for financial costs in the determination of the RER in the integration process of these countries. The evidence supports a positive influence of external capital inflows, and in particular European structural funds, on the determination of RER. This positive influence also extends to non-tradable goods and public investments.

In order to promote medium-long run sustainability, Central and Eastern European countries should carefully apply European funds in a way that does not bring about higher internal prices, or, if possible, control the nominal exchange rate in accordance. They must invest more in the higher qualification of human resources, research and development, innovation, entrepreneurship and industrial clusters, in view of the development of the tradable sector.

It is the first chapter that analyses the presence of DD originated by European structural funds and external inflows of funds for this group of countries.

The post-Cold War period allowed the U.S. nuclear legacy of ecocide to be declassified and made public. The policy of nuclear secrecy, evident in Russia (see Mironova et al., this volume), was not merely an eastern practice. Western nuclear releases were kept equally under wraps. In England, for example, the Windscale disaster was not fully disclosed until 1987.¹ Likewise, releases from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, in Washington State, and other U.S. nuclear sites were kept undercover until the same period. The irony was that Americans learned of many of the nuclear skeletons in their closet around the time that Russians learned of theirs (see Mironova et al., this volume). It would appear that glasnost was contagious.