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The development of sustainable and innovative solutions for the production and supply of energy at district level is nowadays one of the main technical challenges. In the past, district heating and cooling networks aimed to achieve greater energy efficiency through the centralization of the energy production process but with relevant losses related to heat transport. Moving towards a higher share of renewables and lower demand of primary energy requires redesign of the energy district networks. The novel concept of cold district heating networks aims to combine the advantages of a centralized energy distribution system with low heat losses in energy supply. This combined effect is achieved through the centralized supply of water at relatively low temperatures (in the range 10–25 °C), which is then heated up by decentralized heat pumps. Moreover, cold district heating networks are also very suitable for cooling delivery, since cold water supplying can be directly used for cooling purposes (i.e., free cooling) or to feed decentralized chillers with very high energy efficiency ratio. This paper provides a preliminary literature review of existing cold district heating networks and then qualitatively analyses benefits and drawbacks in comparison with the alternatives currently used to produce heat and cold at district level, including the evaluation of major barriers to its further development.

The origin of tannins, their historical evolution, their different types, and their applications are described. Old and established applications are described, as well as the future applications which are being developed at present and that promise to have an industrial impact in the future. The chemistry of some of these applications is discussed where it is essential to understand the tannins and their derivates role. The essential points of each application, their drawbacks, and their chance of industrial application are briefly discussed. The article presents historical applications of tannins, such as leather, or traditional medicine, and more recent applications.

Telework, also known as remote work or telecommuting, has become increasingly prevalent in modern work environments, especially in response to global events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, reshaping traditional work practices and prompting questions about its impact on various aspects of work life, including the perceived advantages and drawbacks. This study aimed to develop and validate a scale that assesses the benefits and disadvantages of remote working. A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted between October 2022 and March 2023 using a self-report questionnaire. Snowball sampling enabled the enrollment of 230 participants aged 20 to 80, divided into three categories based on their employment type: face-to-face, telework, and hybrid. The exploratory factor analysis of the perception of telework practices total scale produced two subscales (subscale 1: Perceived Drawbacks and subscale 2: Perceived Advantages of Telework Practices). The advantages/drawbacks of telework were positively correlated with each other and with their own factors. A significant, weak, but positive correlation was found between telework drawback and advantage scores (r = 0.266, p < 0.001). Moreover, a positive correlation was also found between the E-Work Life (EWL) subscales and the Perceived Advantages of Telework Practices. The Perceived Drawbacks scale was overall less associated with the EWL satisfaction subscale, and no significant correlation was found with productivity or flexibility. This study developed and validated the Perception of Telework Practices (PTP) scale with excellent psychometric properties. The validated scale measures telework perceptions in developing country contexts, supporting evidence-based policy and organizational decisions in modern workplaces.

This study examines the perceptions of US higher education students regarding the use of ChatGPT for academic purposes. The focus is on the benefits, challenges, and pedagogical implications of its use. A survey of 252 undergraduate students revealed that ChatGPT was widely used for tasks, such as understanding complex concepts, generating ideas and structuring academic assignments, with most respondents finding it effective in enhancing academic efficiency and performance. However, significant concerns were identified, including overreliance on AI tools, potential impacts on critical thinking and ethical issues related to plagiarism and privacy. The findings emphasize the need for clear institutional policies, ethical guidelines and integration of digital literacy into curricula to ensure responsible use. While ChatGPT shows promise in improving academic outcomes, its effectiveness depends on thoughtful implementation and ongoing adaptation.

The most popular ways to test for independence of two ordinal random variables are by means of Kendall's tau and Spearman's rho. However, such tests are not consistent, only having power for alternatives with \"monotonie\" association. In this paper, we introduce a natural extension of Kendall's tau, called τ*, which is non-negative and zero if and only if independence holds, thus leading to a consistent independence test. Furthermore, normalization gives a rank correlation which can be used as a measure of dependence, taking values between zero and one. A comparison with alternative measures of dependence for ordinal random variables is given, and it is shown that, in a well-defined sense, τ* is the simplest, similarly to Kendall's tau being the simplest of ordinal measures of monotone association. Simulation studies show our test compares well with the alternatives in terms of average p-values.

Liner shipping plays a major role for freight transportation and international seaborne trade. The economic development of different countries is significantly dependent on the movement of a containerized cargo. One of the most challenging decision problems, tackled by liner shipping companies, is the design of vessel schedules. At the vessel scheduling stage, the liner shipping company aims to determine vessel sailing speeds at voyage legs of a given liner shipping route, port times, vessel handling rates at ports, the minimum number of vessels required in order to provide the agreed service frequency at ports, and other factors. Considering the existing pollution levels, the environmental impacts of liner shipping have to be captured in the vessel scheduling models as well. This study conducts a comprehensive survey of the existing research on vessel scheduling in liner shipping. The collected vessel scheduling studies are classified into different categories, including general vessel scheduling, uncertainty in liner shipping operations, collaborative agreements, vessel schedule recovery, and green liner shipping. Based on a detailed analysis of the collected literature, findings are discussed, and limitations in the state-of-the-art are identified for each category of studies. The study concludes with a number of future research opportunities, taking into account the recent developments and trends in liner shipping.

O Regime Aduaneiro de Drawback é um incentivo fiscal à exportação, autorizado pelo Governo Federal que consiste na isenção ou restituição de impostos. Assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa consiste em analisar os efeitos que a utilização do Regime Aduaneiro de Drawback causa no custo do produto vendido das empresas listadas na Bolsa, Brasil, Balcão [B]³que utilizam tal regime. Para este estudo, foi adotada uma pesquisa quantitativa, descritiva, com população composta pelas empresas listadas na [B]³ e que aderiram ao regime Drawback. A análise dos resultados, foi realizada por meio da estatística descritiva e do teste não paramétrico Mann-Whitney. Os dados foram coletados na plataforma Thomson Reuters e dividido em dois grupos: o primeiro grupo, é composto pelos períodos anteriores a utilização do Drawback, correspondendo aos anos de 2014 e 2015. Já o segundo trata-se do período após a utilização do regime de Drawback, composto pelos anos de 2016 e 2017. Dentre os achados, observou-se que os custos e as despesas permaneceram constantes durante todo o período analisado, os quais evidenciaram que não é possível confirmar que o Drawback pode ser usado como uma ferramenta para o crescimento uma vez que não constatou-se diferenças entre os percentuais de custos do produto vendido e despesas analisados antes e após a utilização do mecanismo de Drawback. Ademais, os custos representaram 60% maiores que as despesas operacionais nos dois grupos.

Current trends in the application of nanomaterials are emerging in the nano-biotechnological sector for development of medicines. Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) are photosynthetic prokaryotes that have applications to human health and numerous biological activities as dietary supplements. Cyanobacteria produce biologically active and chemically diverse compounds such as cyclic peptides, lipopeptides, fatty acid amides, alkaloids, and saccharides. More than 50% of marine cyanobacteria are potentially exploitable for the extraction of bioactive substances, which are effective in killing cancer cells by inducing apoptotic death. The current review emphasizes that not even 10% of microalgal bioactive components have reached commercialized platforms due to difficulties related to solubility. Considering these factors, they should be considered as a potential source of natural products for drug discovery and drug delivery approaches. Nanoformulations employing a wide variety of nanoparticles and their polymerized forms could be an emerging approach to the development of new cancer drugs. This review highlights recent research on microalgae-based medicines or compounds as well as their biomedical applications. This review further discusses the facts, limitations, and commercial market trends related to the use of microalgae for industrial and medicinal purposes.

The growing importance of cooperative relationships may currently be observed throughout the world. The vast majority of such relationships take the form of coopetition, i.e., the simultaneous existence of cooperation and competition between competitors. Previous research on coopetition characterizes these relationships mostly in the context of the benefits achieved. Researchers emphasize a number of benefits resulting from coopetition, e.g., stimulation of innovations of partners, development of the technology, obtaining complementary resources, entering new markets, or creating new products. However, when deciding to begin coopetition, companies should not only consider the benefits, but also the drawbacks associated with such relationships. This is due to the fact that disadvantages are inherent features of coopetitive relationships between competitors. The relationship between the duration of cooperative relationships in particular areas and the benefits and costs associated with these relationships is scarcely researched. Using a sample of 210 companies operating in the high-tech sector in Poland, we aimed to cover this gap in the knowledge base and to analyze this aspect of coopetition. Several research methods including multidimensional correspondence analysis, correlation analysis of qualitative variables, a chi-square test, multi-table analysis, and association rules were applied. The results of our research showed that coopetition is a viable strategy which contributes to the sustainable development of firms. We also found that the duration of coopetitive relationships in different areas of company activity is related to different types of benefits to collaboration partners.

The aim of this study was to seek scientific evidences about the positive and negative aspects that have led Brazilian companies to establish or not the customs regime of Drawback. It is an Integrative Review of literature, with systematic content analysis, conducted between March-April/2017. Primary studies published between 2005 and 2017, on-line and in full text format and data from the Foreign Trade Secretariat portal of the Ministry of Development and Industry and Commerce were included. The results showed that although Drawback effectively reduces the tax burden of export inputs, there was no increase in the regime's use rates in relation to total Brazilian exports in recent years. Even among the Drawback users, most companies exported with a high index of nationalization, without the benefits of the regime. Due to the excessive bureaucracy of the customs system and the lack of personnel capable of operationalizing it, the benefits of Drawback although relevant - such as cost reduction, expansion of foreign markets and improvement of production efficiency - did not encourage significant Brazilian companies to join Drawback. Therefore, it is necessary political investments of incentive to international trade, as managerial qualification for its operation, to stimulate Brazilian companies to adopt the Drawback regime.