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The production departments are concerned with exhibiting incessant product manufacturing scenarios demanding an uninterrupted flow of inventory. But, the growing problems of climate change and green sustainability lay both implicit and explicit constraints on inventory management. In this paper, an inventory model comprising the strategies of maintaining essential inventory levels to avert production stagnation caused by the impacts of climate change is developed together with the inclusion of respective cost parameters of quality sustenance and green sustainability. This research work focuses on warehouse management for stocking inventory. The proposed inventory model will certainly benefit the decision-makers to devise optimal solutions for inventory management at times of climate change and this model is highly comprehensive as it accommodates the cost parameters of warehouse management, quality sustenance, and green sustainability. Sensitivity analysis has been performed.

The present study evaluates the consequences of a change in pig and poultry protein nutrition through compound feed over time in France, on raw materials consumption, economic performances, and environmental impacts. It has been conducted using the “Prospective Aliments” model by Céréopa, which applies the principles of linear programming at a national scale (France). The study is based on a prospective approach. A decrease of 1 and 2 percentage points in pig and poultry feed crude protein (CP) content is applied (CP-1 or CP-2, respectively). As a consequence, consumptions of raw materials for total French compound feed production change drastically, by using rapeseed meals, over soybean meals (−425 000 t for CP-2) and sunflower meals, and including more grains, with maize replacing wheat. This shows that the feed CP content of commercial feed can be decreased at a national scale, yielding significant environmental benefits. This raises the question of developing an incentive-based policy to absorb potential over costs.

Cracks were initiated and grown from notched specimens with notch lengths of 0.03 (FIB), 0.06, 0.1 and 0.5 mm (diamond blade), in cast gamma titanium aluminide at 400 oC. Specimens with longer 0.1 and 0.5 mm notches initiated from the notch and show no effect from initial notch size on either crack growth threshold or propagation. Specimens with shorter 0.03 and 0.06 mm notches initiated naturally, cracking from microstructural features away from the notch. The fracture surfaces of these specimens were characterised to distinguish areas of initiation, fatigue and overload. Multiple initiation sites were observed on these fracture surfaces. It is inferred that, for this alloy and process route, microstructural initiation is dominant where notches are less than ~100 µm in size.

No abstract.

Advertising is an area that has to rely heavily on reduced and simplified message content due to its often very short perception time or its high reception speed (cf. Kroeber-Riel et al. 2009). Therefore, advertising is a fertile field for investigating stereotypes whose reduced form of presentation serves a quicker orientation in an increasingly complex media society with stimulus overload (cf. Müller/Gelbrich 2014a). In this article, the principle of the “unspoiled world”, “Die heile Welt”, in advertising (cf. Thomsen 1998; Schoenen 2008; Siegert/Brecheis 2010) as a stereotype is identified and discussed. This particular advertising style has previously only been mentioned sporadically in literature. Therefore, in this article different case studies from German advertising and their scholarly thematisation (cf. e. g. Moritz 1997; Bohnsack 2003) are discussed from different perspectives. The specific stereotype advertising phenomenon of “heile Welt” is used to support, develop and differentiate different conceptualisations of advertising style.

This article is an attempt to analyse the potential for EU-grown soybean to become a credible market alternative in order to reduce the European protein deficit. The analysis is conducted from the perspective of the European feed industry. The market analysis shows that the EU has very little control on its soybean supply. Moreover, the nature of the EU protein deficit calls for an increase of the availability of protein-rich ingredients. With a favourable outlook from the point of view of the demand, the most relevant growth model should be determined in order to improve the competiveness of soybean for EU arable crops farmers. The two main options are niche markets as a first step to reach mainstream supply or a more direct approach towards mainstream supply which would very probably require public support.

This article provides a description of the current European situation regarding protein supply. It calls for a more accurate assessment of the contribution of domestic feed materials to the EU protein balance sheet, in particular cereals. The article then looks at various options to improve the EU protein balance sheet and analyses the consequences of main EU policies in that regard, such as the Common Agricultural Policy and the EU biofuels policy. The last part of the article deals with the possibility to reduce protein consumption by the EU feed industry, by further increase of feed efficiency. Taking into account the need for the EU feed and livestock industries to remain competitive on a global market, as well as the strategic dimension of the EU protein deficit, this article calls for a pragmatic approach and recommends facilitating access to existing sources of vegetable proteins as a first step to improve the EU protein supply. The article also underlines the importance of research and development to improve the competiveness of EU protein crops, therefore reducing the need for public support.

What happens to market communication theory (MCT) when it embraces a global business world? MCT’s applications of the ‘global’ turn out to serve “as a magnifier” for modernity, when we discuss MCT and its conceptions of the market from the perspective of emergent and dynamic cultural theory. We critically discuss the conception of the market, the relation between communication and market and how globalization is integrated into the field. We then interface selected approaches to MCT with cultural approaches to globalization. Finally, we explore and suggest new ways of bringing together market, culture, communication and the global. In the course of these critical discussions, we develop the elements of an alternative conception of the global market as marketscapes. Furthermore, we point to several consequences of our findings for MCT. MCT has to deal with a global market as a concept, that is a way of perceiving and thinking stakeholder activities in a ‘translocal’, post-national and multidirectional perspective. We conclude by pointing out areas for future MC research.

No abstract.

Instructive texts are an inclusive term for a wide range of action initiating texts, i.e. texts where the action is being initiated through the text (e.g. in a sales letter, Nielsen 2003a: 66), and action commanding texts, i.e. texts where an action which the receiver wanted to execute anyway is being instructed (e.g. instructions, Reiß 1983: 17). Since sales letters are action-initiating and thus as a text genre constituting feature contain directive speech acts (Searle 1969, 1976, Wagner 2001, Nielsen 2006), they are per definition face-threatening (Brown/ Levinson 1978, Nielsen 2006). The communication configuration is asymmetric and the power relationship skewed: On the one hand, the sender wants something from the receiver although not entitled to claim that because of the power relations. On the other hand, the action that the receiver is requested to do might very well be in the interest of the receiver. On that background it seems natural that there is a wide range in the realization of instructions in sales letters: from the euphemistic „We invite you!“ to the completely unhidden, almost rude „Register now!“ This article sets out to describe and explore this range on the basis of authentic Danish and German sales letters and to make an attempt at a first tentative classification of politeness strategies that soften the face-threatening speech acts of those instructions.

No abstract.