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In recent years, the scientific names of many cultivated and well-known medicinal fungal species have been changed. However, the results of taxonomic and nomenclature works on these economically important fungi are often overlooked or ignored in applied researches. The incorrect use of scientific names may cause uncertainty in research and in the global medicinal mushroom market. In this paper, we briefly review the current taxonomy and nomenclature of "Fuling" medicinal mushroom and make a proposal for biochemists, pharmacists and businessmen on the correct use of scientific names related to this species. Based on the recent taxonomic results and nomenclatural proposals, the use of the names Wolfiporia extensa, W. cocos and especially Poria cocos for the "Fuling" mushroom are incorrect and misleading; therefore, the acceptance of the names Pachyma hoelen or Wolfiporia hoelen is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies and characterizes a corporate network based on Argentinian-Spanish business (Catalan mainly) that was built around a dozen companies all located in Buenos Aires, in the first half of 20th century. Studying the board of directors of the company Providencia Compañía Argentina de Seguros, it finds meeting points in which different groups are involved and it analyzes what corporate strategies they applied. It also determines whether any political compromise was acquired by the members of the network, both in Spain and Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship is increasingly promoted as a salve for the political problem of jobless growth and shrinking state coffers. But, its contemporary position at the frontiers of African capitalism is premised on nearly a century of attention on the African 'economic man', figured and reconfigured through efforts of governments and international development institutions. This paper traces a genealogy of this labouring subject in Kenya, describing the ideological, discursive and material practices undertaken to mould African workers into productive economic agents. Across colonial and post-colonial periods, and within different employment contexts, the purported African habitus has been construed as an obstacle to progress, one that can be surmounted through the acquisition of enterprising qualities and entrepreneurial dispositions. Steeped in an ideal of selfhood as individualistic, industrious and future-oriented, the productive economic man has come to represent a set of ideas about the future of the nation, and is deeply entwined with moral valuations of Kenya's citizenry and with idioms of development and economic growth. The paper details how the productive and enterprising subject is continually invoked as a response to shifting economic and political dynamics, and invested with a perennial capacity to reinvigorate the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at discussing dimensions of violence in three empirical scenarios in which physical and symbolic violence differently surfaced: an account of a female victim of violence about her attempt to press charges about threats made by her then husband; the comments by a businessman about the lack of value of the lives of favela residents in the context of the Covid-19 pandemics; a newspaper cover displaying the head of the former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff on fire. The article builds on the concepts of scales, communicability and indexicality in order to render intelligible the ways in which violence was perceived and framed in the first context; in addition to how it virally spread in the second, and to how it participated in the semiotization and contextualization of an image in the third. Methodologically, the paper combines ethnographic and documental approaches, and applies them differently in each empirical context. In addition to providing a situated discussion of these three manifestations of violence, we point to modes of resistance to violence, some of which are inscribed in the very production of reflexive activity about the manifestation and effects of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we address the problem where a distributed group of people wish to meet securely over the Internet. Obviously, basic encryption techniques fail to achieve this aim since they involve the encoding or decoding of messages between two parties only. For this purpose, we propose a cryptographic protocol that allows any number of people to meet remotely while keeping their discussions secure from any potential eavesdropper. Our solution uses a trusted third party and is based on a refined version of the original Otway-Rees protocol. Prior to the establishment of a secure communication channel, we start by authenticating all the users involved. We also provide a formal proof of the correctness of the suggested protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the way to build political subjectivity of neoliberal capitalism using tools from Lacan's theory of discourses. I concludes that neo-liberalism was constituted as a new master discourse during the 1990s. The new master was structured through an updated articulation of the capitalist discourse with a university discourse and a reformulation of the old master discourse. Through the metaphorical constructions and the superego mandate of their representatives, this discourse was invested with a corporal and linguistic enjoyment. In turn, the master demonstrated giving up part of the enjoyment to the slave-worker through a fantasy of freedom in order to choose autonomously in the market, participate horizontally with the boss in the new flexible order and access, through sacrifice, a future of wealth of the rich. This illusion of the return of enjoyment to the slave reinforced the political domination of the master- businessman. In the Argentinean case, together with the Convertibility Plan as an object a cause of desire, from Menem to De la Rúa it was found a change of register in the superego commands and in the sources of enjoyment, within a same neoliberal capitalist discourse of social disciplination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Since the Brundtland report appeared in 1987 various approaches to realising sustainable consumption and production have come into practice. While more traditional approaches like Ecodesign and Design for Sustainability often emphasize optimizing existing products, processes and businesses; more radical approaches like Product-Service Systems and System Innovation for Sustainability emphasize developing new innovative products and services with higher environmental gains. Although these studies increased our understanding of sustainability in relation to product design, they are criticized for failing to draw on existing theoretical frameworks in the organizational innovation literature (Berchicci, 2005). This paper seeks to explore the innovation process within new ventures driven by sustainability since 1) conventional wisdom suggests that young and new firms have advantages in innovation (Acs and Audretsch, 1990) and as such they are the potential candidates of offering radical solutions to the challenges of sustainability; and 2) there are few studies that address exploiting sustainable product ideas through new organizations. The paper reports on the results of an explorative study involving the use of generative techniques during 19 individual semi-structured interviews with eight entrepreneurs and seven innovation support organizations. The results suggest that the relative impact of internal and external factors on the innovation process change over time as the new organization forms. In addition, creating new businesses from sustainability ideals is influenced by the firms'' ability in understanding and managing the differences between intended and created value and in finding an overlap between customer benefits and clearly defined (prioritized) sustainability goals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose -- Exploration of the policy reforms necessary to strengthen Canada's competitiveness among world trading economies. The paper aims to compare Canada's competitiveness with two economic partners, the USA and the UK, and two emerging economies, China and India. Design/methodology/approach -- Data from the annual Global Competitiveness Reports (GCRs) were used to compare Canada with the other countries. Findings -- Canada requires a national strategy to create a generation of Canadian innovators, entrepreneurs and executives with a global mindset. Research limitations/implications -- Although Canada has many global trading partners, the paper compares Canadian competitiveness with only two economic partners and two emerging economics. Also, only data from the GCRs are used. Other measures of competitiveness need to be taken into consideration to better understand Canada's global and business competitiveness. Originality/value -- This paper provides new insights into Canada's lack of global competitiveness. The main reasons for this lack of competitiveness are analysed and recommendations are provided for Canadian policy makers to enhance competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of aligning purchasing strategy with business strategy is argued using a substantial literature review. However, some purchases will have a greater impact on the strategic priorities of the business, and suppliers cannot be expected to achieve optimal performance in everything they do, especially at day 1. This paper presents the application of the analytic hierarchy process to prioritise the components of an electric traction elevator in the context of their importance to the business strategy of the manufacturer. This is the first step in the formulation of the manufacturer’s purchasing strategy. The relative importance of the competitive elements in the form of quality, cost, availability and time are first established for the manufacturer’s business strategy, along with the relative importance of the sub-criteria used to measure these elements. The components of the elevator are then assessed to see which have the greatest impact on these sub-criterion measures to establish component priorities and groupings to guide those forming the purchasing strategy. The paper includes a justification of the criteria and sub-criterion measures used, based on a literature review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entrepreneurship policy to promote economic growth and competitiveness is heavily focused on the supply of entrepreneurs. However, as it was stressed by Baumol (1990), the neglected factor is allocation between productive and unproductive entrepreneurial activities. While some EU countries, such as Czech Republic, Poland, and Portugal demonstrate high rates of entrepreneurial activities, they rank low in terms of competitiveness. This paper argues that in order to explain such phenomenon, we have to rethink the existing approaches from the perspective of economic sociology. Coming back to Baumol (1990), we should acknowledge a rather trivial but often neglected fact that entrepreneurs are persons who primarily seek to enhance their own wealth. The case study of Land Use Administration in Lithuania shows how entrepreneurial activities are embedded in the informal network of public officers and land dealers. The paper also argues that "land use" entrepreneurship activities are path-dependent. It is implicitly assumed that entrepreneurship is an exogenous variable, that entrepreneurs should be "bred" at universities and business schools. However, entrepreneurial activities, such as blat and unofficial economy, also existed in planned economy. Moreover, the legacy of Soviet entrepreneurship affects the current situation in Lithuania. In the case of "land use business" the entrepreneur does not collaborate with public sector, but in contrary - they view the state as a hostile country, like it was in Soviet times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper first situates the trade carried on by private European traders in the overall framework of the Indian Ocean trade in the early-modern period. It then discusses in some detail the trading network of private English merchants in the Western Indian Ocean with special reference to the Surat-Mocha link in the 1720s and the 1730s. The evidence base is provided mainly by the private papers of Sir Robert Cowan, governor of Bombay between 1729 and 1734 and a major English private trader, operating in collaboration with Henry Lowther, chief of the English factory at Surat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manifold linkages exist between climate change and sustainable development. Although these are starting to receive attention in the climate exchange literature, the focus has typically been on examining sustainable development through a climate change lens, rather than vice versa. And there has been little systematic examination of how these linkages may be fostered in practice. This paper examines climate change through a sustainable development lens. To illustrate how this might change the approach to climate change issues, it reports on the findings of a panel of business, local government, and academic representatives in British Columbia, Canada, who were appointed to advise the provincial government on climate change policy. The panel found that sustainable development may offer a significantly more fruitful way to pursue climate policy goals than climate policy itself. The paper discusses subsequent climate change developments in the province and makes suggestions as how best to pursue such a sustainability approach in British Columbia and other jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The informal sector is a fast growing economic sector in Uganda for development and employment of most small business entrepreneurs including women in the country. This paper presents insights into the information needs and information seeking strategies of the Ugandan women in the informal sector. Their business characteristics and sources, and channels they use to access information as well as constraints they face in information seeking, have been explored and represented. Qualitative research design and methods that involved the use of critical incidence technique were largely used. One hundred and seventeen women from five districts were sampled through snowballing and disproportionate sampling techniques. This paper recommends actions to be taken to make business information available to women. More research on women related information is advocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of every business activity is maximising profits, which explains the tendency of business entities to make products and services readily and easily available for customers. The insurance activity is not free of placement problems. In order to survive, an insurance company must constantly follow the trend of the development of services and distribution channels. As an emergence of global insurers has raised the issue of the placement of insurance services, innovations related to the placement of insurance services will be the subject of this paper. However, the success of the placement of services is dependent upon the fulfilment of the following preconditions: the service is of great quality; it is adequately distributed - available, its price - the insurance premium - suits the quality and is competitive; the service is presented to customers in a quality manner, while the sales personnel is highly motivated to do their job. The merger of a banking and insurance subject may result in the reduction of costs, as well as in spurring the synergistic effects and an increase in revenue. New technologies, new approaches and dexterities of businessmen contribute to delivering better business results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop two revelation mechanism models of a supply chain consisting of one manufacturer and one retailer under asymmetric information, where the retailer provides store assistance (SA) to reduce consumer returns rate and increase demand. Under full information, we find that a higher returns rate or returns handling cost increases the SA level if the market scale is sufficiently high. In the demand information asymmetry model, we find that: (i) the low-type retailer (facing a low demand) has no incentive to distort demand information while the high-type retailer may report wrong information; (ii) the manufacturer would like to design a menu of wholesale price-order quantity contract to induce truthful demand information and the manufacturer pays an information rent to the high-type retailer if the returns rate or returns handling cost for the retailer is sufficiently low; (iii) asymmetry of information does not change the monotonicity of the unit wholesale price in the retailer's type, and information asymmetry decreases the retail price but increases the SA level. Unlike the demand information asymmetry model, a higher retailer's returns handling cost expands the effects of information asymmetry on the retail price and the SA level, and using revelation mechanism decreases the channel profit if the retailer's returns handling cost is sufficiently high under the returns rate information asymmetry model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the new measurement of launching online distribution channels of tobacco enterprises in China, this paper investigates the tobacco firm’s pricing decisions on the supply chain which consists of two manufacturers and one retailer under three dual-channel structures. Three dual-channel structures include no online channel, only one online channel by one manufacture, and two online channels by two manufacturers. We apply the Stackelberg game to analyze the equilibrium pricing strategies under different structures and try to explore the necessity and advantages of launching online sales channels. The results demonstrate that the substitutability of a product has significant impact on introducing online sales channels, and the online dual-channel structure could result in less profit for manufacturers compared to the traditional retail channel structure; and thus, a dual-channel structure with online sales is not the best strategy for traditional manufacturers. Moreover, when the product is less substitutable, the effect of the tobacco control on the online sales channel is inferior to the traditional channels and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of the retailer’s overconfident behavior on supply chain performance. We start with a basic model on the rational newsvendor model and investigate the retailer’s optimal ordering decision and expected profit. Next, we extend the basic model and introduce an overconfident retailer. We find that the retailer’s overconfident behavior does not necessarily damage the supply chain compared with the basic model when the overconfident level does not exceed a threshold. We also design the cooperation and buyback mechanism and conduct numerical analysis to compare the manufacturer’s and retailer’s expected profits and real profits with those in the basic newsvendor model. It can achieve Pareto improvement in the supply chain when the overconfident level is low. When the retailer’s overconfident level exceeds a threshold, the retailer’s ordering decision cannot make the whole supply chain sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the scheduling of supply chain with interrelated factories containing suppliers and manufacturers. These elements of the chain are positioned in series and thus the efficient design of the link among them would insure good performance of the whole. In this paper, jobs transportation among factories and also delivery to the customer can be performed by batch of jobs. The capacity of each batch is limited and the cost per batch delivery is fixed and independent of the number of jobs in the batch. Thus decision should be made on the number of batches, assignment of each job to a batch and also production and delivery scheduling of batches in each factory. The problem scrutinization is on the tradeoff between minimizing transportation cost and tardiness cost. A branch and bound method for solving this problem is presented. A lower bound and a standalone heuristic which is used as an upper bound are also introduced. Computational tests are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ibiza is very dependent on the tourism sector and is a highly recognized international brand. However, before the tourist boom, the situation was different, since it was an economically underdeveloped and almost unknown island. In the 1950s, an eminently endogenous tourism development began thanks to local entrepreneurship, usually workers and modest traders who dared to invest in the new sector. The development was not homogeneous throughout the island, with Sant Antoni de Portmany being the pioneer town in the post-Spanish Civil War recovery (1939–1959), the example from which the rest of the island learned and the starting point of the current image of Ibiza. This article seeks to delve into the social context of Sant Antoni in its tourist beginnings, especially in the mentality and way of being of the workers and businessmen of that time. It is an economic history paper that analyzes bibliography and testimonies of that time to provide a vision of what society, tourism and pioneering entrepreneurs were like. The peculiarities of the society, workers and entrepreneurs from the beginnings of the tourism sector have generated many of the positive and negative elements of current society and tourism in Ibiza, highlighting the survival of a mentality, way of doing and vital approach based on networking, irregularities and improvisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper represents logical block diagram of cooperative advertising costs adjustment in manufacturer and retailer's logistics chain. Manufacturer and retailer's joint interaction profit is considered provided linear demand function and nonlinear response function of advertising expenditures. Dimensionless variables system is introduced to form cooperative income function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to describe the motivations for the adoption of trade marketing in convenience stores, as well as its attributions and functional position in the organizational structure. We chose the multiple case study method approach in order to study the motivations and practices of four convenience store chains and five manufacturers. Results indicate that the existence of a formal trade marketing area does not per se ensure collaboration between manufactures and convenience store chains. Trade marketing activities are developed and negotiated with franchisors, but the execution takes place at the franchisee level. It is, in fact, a triadic relationship that encompasses the manufacturer, the franchisor of the convenience stores and its franchisees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for delivering product variety has been increasing. Increased product variety caused by product customization, personalization, evolution and changes in their manufacturing systems. Variety allows manufacturers to satisfy a wide range of customer requirements, but it can also be a major contributing factor to increased complexity of assembly. Complexity is generally believed to be one of the main causes of the present challenges in manufacturing systems such as lengthy and costly design processes, higher life cycle costs and the existence of numerous failure modes. Complex assembly systems are costly to implement, run, control and maintain. Assessing complexity of assembly helps guides designers in creating assembly-oriented product designs and following steps to reduce and manage sources of assembly complexity. On the other hand, reducing complexity of assembly helps lower assembly cost and time, improves productivity and quality and increases profitability and competitiveness. The complexity of assembly should be assessed by considering both products and their assembly systems. In this paper, a structural classification coding scheme has been used to measure assembly systems complexity. It considers the inherent structural complexity of typical assembly equipment. The derived assembly systems complexity accounts for the number, diversity and information content within each class of the assembly system modules. A domestic appliance drive assembly system is used to demonstrate the use of the classification code to calculate the assembly system complexity. The developed complexity metrics can be used by designers as decision support tools to compare and rationalize various automated assembly systems alternatives and select the design that meets the requirements while reducing potential assembly complexity and associated cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A closed-loop supply chain network involves the manufactured and remanufactured homogeneous products. It comprises operation links to represent business activities including manufacturing/ remanufacturing activities, treatment activities for EOL products, transportation activities, and storage activities, which are performed by the firms. Among all closed-loop supply chain problems, the horizontal merger of oligopolistic firms is so important and attracting to both businessman and researchers. In this paper, the interaction of the competitive firms prior to horizontal merger is analyzed. Three networks including prior to horizontal merger, postpartial merger, and complete merger are studied. Simultaneously, three economical models for these networks on different conditions of mergers are established and discussed. The variational inequality formulations are used for these three models, whose solutions give out the production quantity of new products, and remanufactured products, the product flows for new products, remanufactured products and end-of-life products at every path, the demand quantity, the recovery quantity of end-of-life products and the equilibrium prices. Finally, numerical examples are tested and illustrated for the proposed models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a new system of firm governance. In the system, the responsibility for voting the shares of a firm (“voice”) is given to the people who ultimately provided the money, who, however, have to delegate it to proxy voting institutions. The system helps overcome collective action problems and conflicts of interest within firms, and it reduces the private benefits of control. The disadvantages for firm governance may be relatively modest. However, since the new system of voice is a conceptual innovation, the analysis of its effects is rather tentative. Further research and experimentations are required for firmer conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's transition from an injection drug-driven HIV epidemic to one primarily transmitted through sexual contact has triggered concern over the potential for HIV to move into the non-drug-injecting population. Much discussion has focused on the migrant men of China's vast 'floating population' who are considered a high-risk group. As a result, many men who frequently engage in high-risk behaviour but are not included in this especially vulnerable group are evading HIV prevention messages. This paper highlights the socio-cultural and politico-economic factors that motivate many of China's wealthy businessmen and government officials, sometimes referred to as 'mobile men with money', to engage in such behaviour. Examination of the activities related to the work of these men reveals a situation where the confluence of a market-oriented economy operating within a socialist-style political system under the influence of traditional networking practices has engendered a unique mode of patron-clientelism that brings them together over shared social rituals including feasting, drinking and female-centered entertainment that is often coupled with sexual services. As a result, consideration of the socio-cultural factors influencing these men's sexual practices is important for responding to the newly emerging stage of China's HIV epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has recently entered a new era, where the old-fashioned static, long-term relationships between involved actors are being replaced by new, dynamic negotiating schemas, established over virtual organizations and trading marketplaces. SCM environments now operate under strict policies that all interested parties (suppliers, manufacturers, customers) have to abide by, in order to participate. And, though such dynamic markets provide greater profit potential, they also conceal greater risks, since competition is tougher and request and demand may vary significantly in the quest for maximum benefit. The need for efficient SCM actors is thus implied, actors that may handle the deluge of (either complete or incomplete) information generated, perceive variations and exploit the full potential of the environments they inhabit. In this context, we introduce Mertacor, an agent that employs robust mechanisms for dealing with all SCM facets and for trading within dynamic and competitive SCM environments. Its efficiency has been extensively tested in one of the most challenging SCM environments, the Trading Agent Competition (TAC) SCM game. This paper provides an extensive analysis of Mertacor and its main architectural primitives, provides an overview of the TAC SCM environment, and thoroughly discusses Mertacor’s performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The standards for management systems such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 are developing towards a higher degree of compatibility. At the same time, organisations increasingly integrate these systems. The paper discusses this development and presents different levels of integration. The aim is to suggest the next steps to take in order to improve an integration which promotes sustainable management. Product-oriented management and stakeholders are in focus and the standards for management systems and the need for a common integrated ISO standard are discussed. Finally, the need for changes in life style and needs is presented as crucial to the development of more sustainable management systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper probes how two small foundries in Belgaum, Karnataka State, India, have achieved technological innovations successfully based on their technological capability and customer needs, enabling them to sail through the competitive environment. This study brought out that technically qualified entrepreneurs of both the foundries have carried out technological innovations, mainly due to their self-motivation and self-efforts. Changing product designs, as desired or directed by the customers, cost reduction, quality improvement and import substitution through reverse engineering are the characteristics of these technological innovations. These incremental innovations have enabled the entrepreneurs of the two foundries to enhance competitiveness, grow in the domestic market and penetrate the international market and grow in size over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding of the buy-sale process as the most common of contracts is equal to state that it is the fabric that facilitates most of the transactions between common people, dealers and entrepreneurs. It is because of this that it is needed special protection for the buyer's rights, as is the case of solving hidden defects cases in the civil code, the guarantee of proper working in the code of commerce, and the laws of protection to the consumer. The purpose of this paper is to present a brief but complete review of these institutions, making special emphasis on its regulation and their substantial and processal differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To remain competitive and to boost profitability, manufacturers in capital-intensive and highly competitive industries want to maximize throughput and minimize flow time. Achieving high throughput conflicts with achieving low flow time. In order to unhide the tradeoff between throughput and flow time, a performance measure, called manufacturing performance, has been developed. The manufacturing performance is defined by the quotient of the ratio between throughput and flow time of an actual manufacturing system and this ratio of a reference system. The reference system can be adapted by the user in correspondence with objectives. By applying the manufacturing performance to one workstation and using analytic approximation for this workstation, manufacturing performance can be expressed analytically. It seems that manufacturing performance has an optimal value that is given by equipment availability and coefficient of variation. Manufacturing performance is applied also to a four-workstation manufacturing line. Results from analytic approximations show the practicability of the manufacturing performance. Comparison of manufacturing performance with overall fab efficiency, an earlier proposed metric, showed that the manufacturing performance is a more clear metric. This conclusion was based upon simulations with a two-stations manufacturing line. The manufacturing performance is a technical performance metric for manufacturing lines that supports, for instance, economical considerations to obtain optimal throughput flow time combinations under economical optimal results. This is a useful addition to the existing metrics, which may benefit manufacturers in their operations. The authors consider this contribution as a discussion paper and demand for comment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Permanent continuous power quality monitoring is beginning to be recognized as an important aid for managing power quality. Preventive maintenance can only be initiated if such monitoring is available to detect the minor disturbances that may precede major disruptions. This paper establishes the need to encourage interoperability between power quality instruments from different vendors. It discusses the frequent problem of incompatibility between equipment that results from the inherent inflexibilities in existing designs. A new approach has been proposed to enhance interoperability through the use of open systems in their design. It is demonstrated that it is possible to achieve such open design using existing software and networking technologies. The benefits and disadvantages to both the end-users and the equipment manufacturers are also being discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing attention to the environmental and health impacts of industry activities by governmental regulation and by the growing awareness in society is forcing manufacturers to reduce the use of lubricants.In the machining of aeronautical materials, classified as difficult-to-machine materials, the consumption of cooling lubricant during the machining operations is very important. The associated costs of coolant acquisition, use, disposal and washing the machined components are significant, up to four times the cost of consumable tooling used in the cutting operations. To reduce the costs of production and to make the processes environmentally safe, the goal of the aeronautical manufacturers is to move toward dry cutting by eliminating or minimising cutting fluids. This goal can be achieved by a clear understanding of the cutting fluid function in machining operations, in particular in high speed cutting, and by the development and the use of new materials for tools and coatings. High speed cutting is another important aspect of advanced manufacturing technology introduced to achieve high productivity and to save machining cost. The combination of high speed cutting and dry cutting for difficult-to-cut aerospace materials is the growing challenge to deal with the economic, environmental and health aspects of machining.In this paper, attention is focussed on Inconel 718 and recent work and advances concerning machining of this material are presented. In addition, some solutions to reduce the use of coolants are explored, and different coating techniques to enable a move towards dry machining are examined. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

State of the art lifecycle inventory (LCI) models are typically used to relate resource use and emissions to manufacturing and use of a certain product. Corresponding software tools are generally specialised to perform normalisation of the flows to the functional unit. In some cases it is, however, desirable to make use of the LCI model for other types of environmental assessments. In this paper, an alternative modelling technique resulting in a more flexible model is investigated.We exemplify the above by designing and building a model of a cement plant. The commissioner’s, in this case Cementa AB’s, requirements on a flexible model that generates information on environmental performance, product performance and the economic cost were seen as important. The work reported here, thus, has two purposes: on the one hand, to explore the possibility of building more flexible LCI models, and on the other hand, to provide the commissioner with a model that fulfils their needs and requirements.Making use of a calculational a-causal and object-oriented modelling approach satisfied the commissioner’s special requirements on flexibility in terms of modularity and the types of calculations it was possible to perform. In addition, this model supports non-linear and dynamic elements for future use. The result is a model that can be used for a number of purposes, such as assessment of cement quality and environmental performance of the process using alternative fuels. It is also shown that by using the above modelling approach, flexibility and modularity can be greatly enhanced. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The tube hydroforming process has gained increasing attention in recent years. With the hydroforming process, manufacturers can realize substantial cost savings as it provides reduced part count, increased part strength and stiffness, and reduced weight. Coordination of the pressurization and feeding curves is critical to generate successful parts without fracture or wrinkling failure. Herein a new process parameter, counter pressure, is introduced to achieve favorable tri-axial stress state during deformation process. This paper will establish the merits of applying external counter pressure in tube hydroforming. It is observed that the counter pressure will provide back support to the tube material. Excessive thinning and premature wrinkling could be prevented. Thus, larger tube expansion could be achieved. The process will be referred as dual hydroforming. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Enterprise Resource Planning systems tend to deploy Supply Chain Management and/or Customer Relationship Management techniques, in order to successfully fuse information to customers, suppliers, manufacturers and warehouses, and therefore minimize system-wide costs while satisfying service level requirements. Although efficient, these systems are neither versatile nor adaptive, since newly discovered customer trends cannot be easily integrated with existing knowledge. Advancing on the way the above mentioned techniques apply on ERP systems, we have developed a multi-agent system that introduces adaptive intelligence as a powerful add-on for ERP software customization. The system can be thought of as a recommendation engine, which takes advantage of knowledge gained through the use of data mining techniques, and incorporates it into the resulting company selling policy. The intelligent agents of the system can be periodically retrained as new information is added to the ERP. In this paper, we present the architecture and development details of the system, and demonstrate its application on a real test case. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we develop a framework for the modelling, analysis, and computation of solutions to global supply chains. We consider three tiers of decision-makers: manufacturers, who may be located in the same or in different countries; intermediaries, in the form of retailers, who may be either physical or virtual, as in the case of electronic commerce; and consumers at the demand markets who may purchase the product in different currencies in the countries. We model the behavior of the decision-makers, derive the equilibrium conditions, and establish the variational inequality formulation. We then utilize the variational inequality formulation to obtain qualitative properties of the equilibrium product shipment and price pattern. In addition, we propose a dynamic adjustment process for the continuous time adjustment of the product flows and prices and formulate it as a projected dynamical system whose set of solutions coincides with the set of solutions to the variational inequality problem. A discrete-time algorithm is then applied to several numerical supply chain examples. This research extends the recent results surrounding the modelling of supply chains in a network equilibrium setting to the global arena. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

After decades of inviting foreign companies to invest in Singapore, the government of the city-state recently has started to encourage domestic entrepreneurs to expand their businesses abroad. This paper investigates the various ways in which domestic Singaporean businesses respond to these policy measures. Focusing on shifts in capital input — defined in terms of economic (start-up capital), social (networks), and cultural (certified knowledge) capital — three different transborder business strategies are identified: "conventional", "hybrid", and "new". In contrast to conventional (that is, family-based and governmentinitiated) patterns of transborder ventures, "new" entrepreneurs rely on personalized networks to expand their businesses into a myriad of foreign countries. A hybrid and rather popular strategy is being a subcontractor of multinational corporations, which leaves risks involved with transborder business expansion to the contractor, while benefiting from new production sites and markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the archaeological and documentary evidence for wampum production at the Albany almshouse within its historical and cultural contexts and in light of Dutch notions of charity, while considering the continually shifting functions and meanings of wampum. It suggests that in the mid-eighteenth century, both the Dutch Reformed Church and private entrepreneurs were involved in producing wampum for trade on the northern and western frontiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the article is to reveal the type and level of timeshare integration in the rural tourism. In this connection the nature and specifics of hospitality timeshare are investigated and briefly explained. Special attention is paid to the main representatives of the timeshare industry in rural areas. The timeshare owner is researched and segmented, whereby the author suggests short customer profiles of them. The timeshare developer, on the other hand, is also explored and the typical timeshare businessman in rural areas is pointed out. In conclusion, the author comments the role and meaning of the timeshare industry for the development of rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of firm-level panel data from three Sub-Saharan African economies shows that export manufacturers have an average total factor productivity premium of 17 percent. In addition to the effect on productivity levels, exporters enjoy productivity growth that is 10 percent faster than do nonexporters. The data do not allow testing of whether these premiums are because more efficient producers go into exporting or because of a process of learning-by-exporting. In thinking about the mechanisms behind selectivity and learning, however, our finding of higher premiums for direct exporters, and for those who export to areas outside of Africa, could be interpreted as being consistent with learning-by-exporting effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]