Explore the vast range of titles available.

This paper presents the conformity assessment process of the epoxy coating thickness applied on water pipes made of gray cast iron with the specifications given for this kind of coating appliance. An epoxy coating was applied to prevent a special form of corrosion called the graphitization of cast iron. In order for the pipe to withstand its designed service life, it is necessary to ensure the required thickness of the applied coating. In accordance with the EN 877 norm, the thickness of the epoxy coating on the pipes for the projected corrosiveness of the environment C4 and the durability of 20 years is at least 70 μm and this indicates the required accuracy of the product. To achieve the desired product quality, statistical control of the coating application process was carried out and the impact of uncertainty associated with the measurement result was analyzed. Considering the quality of the coating application process and the quality of the measuring system, and to ensure the quality of products and to reduce consumer risk, the optimal thickness of the coating was determined.

The acceptance or rejection of a measurement is determined based on its associated measurement uncertainty. In this procedure, there is a risk of making incorrect decisions, including the potential rejection of compliant measurements or the acceptance of non-conforming ones. This study introduces a mathematical model for the spatial evaluation of the global producer’s and global consumer’s risk, predicated on Bayes’ theorem and a decision rule that includes a guard band. The proposed model is appropriate for risk assessment within the framework of multivariate linear regression. Its applicability is demonstrated through an example involving the flatness of the workbench table surface of a coordinate measuring machine. The least-risk direction on the workbench was identified, and risks were quantified under varying selections of reference planes and differing measurement uncertainties anticipated in future measurement processes. Model evaluation was performed using confusion matrix-based metrics. The spaces of the commonly used metrics, constrained by the dimensions of the coordinate measuring machine workbench, were constructed. Using the evaluated metrics, the optimal guard band width was specified to ensure the minimum values of both the global producer’s and the global consumer’s risk.

In recent years, American shoppers have become more conscious of their food choices and have increasingly turned to CSAs, farmers' markets, organic foods in supermarkets, and to joining and forming new food co-ops. In fact, food co-ops have been a viable food source, as well as a means of collective and democratic ownership, for nearly 180 years. InFood Co-ops in America, Anne Meis Knupfer examines the economic and democratic ideals of food cooperatives. She shows readers what the histories of food co-ops can tell us about our rights as consumers, how we can practice democracy and community, and how we might do business differently. In the first history of food co-ops in the United States, Knupfer draws on newsletters, correspondence, newspaper coverage, and board meeting minutes, as well as visits to food co-ops around the country, where she listened to managers, board members, workers, and members. What possibilities for change-be they economic, political, environmental or social-might food co-ops offer to their members, communities, and the globalized world? Food co-ops have long advocated for consumer legislation, accurate product labeling, and environmental protection. Food co-ops have many constituents-members, workers, board members, local and even global producers-making the process of collective decision-making complex and often difficult. Even so, food co-ops offer us a viable alternative to corporate capitalism. In recent years, committed co-ops have expanded their social vision to improve access to healthy food for all by helping to establish food co-ops in poorer communities.

Brazil is the largest country in terms of arable land, a top-5 producer of 34 agricultural commodities, and the largest agricultural net exporter. Its size and standing as a major supplier of commodities around the world and competitiveness in commodity markets suggest potential for continued growth in the agricultural sector. Since the mid-2000s, Brazil has accelerated its transformation from an exporter of mainly tropical agricultural products such as coffee, sugar, citrus, and cacao to a major global supplier of commodities, including soybeans, grains, cotton, ethanol, and meats. Projected price increases in fuel and other raw materials, inland transportation, port and storage issues, credit limitations, and fertilizer shortages are factors that could challenge Brazil's full agricultural production and trade potential.

We combine the concept of location derived by economic geographers with theories of the multinational enterprise (MNE) and the liability of foreignness developed by international business scholars, to examine the factors that propel MNEs toward, or away from, \"global cities\". We argue that three distinctive characteristics of global cities — global interconnectedness, cosmopolitanism, and abundance of advanced producer services — help MNEs overcome the costs of doing business abroad, and we identify the contingencies under which these characteristics combine with firm attributes to exert their strongest influence. Consistent with these arguments, our analysis of a large sample of MNE location decisions using a multilevel multinomial model suggests not only that MNEs have a strong propensity to locate within global cities, but also that these choices are associated with a nuanced interplay of firm- and subsidiary-level factors, including investment motives, proprietary capabilities, and business strategy. Our study provides important insights for international business scholars by shedding new light on MNE location choices and also contributes to our understanding of economic geography by examining the heterogeneous strategies and capabilities of MNEs — the primary agents of economic globalization — that shape the nature of global cities.

Goerzen et al. (J Int Bus Stud 44:427–450, 2013) became influential because it generated a broader view of the international business (IB) domain. The paper broke new ground by going beyond the country and regional levels to analyze MNE location choices, a novel approach that revealed the importance of global cities. The original argument suggested that global connectedness, cosmopolitanism, and advanced producer services mitigated the liability of foreignness, thereby highlighting the complexity of MNE location decisions. It also drew attention to the need for IB research to take a more nuanced view of MNE behavior. Developments since 2013, however, have rendered a very different world. Our goal in this commentary, therefore, is to challenge the IB community to think more deeply about the future of global cities specifically and about IB more generally. We do this by re-evaluating the role of cities as micro-locations against the emergence of megatrends that are shaping our future, including demographic shift and an increase in social awareness, the changing natural environment and an increase in sustainability concerns, and the rise in capability and application of digital technologies. We conclude by suggesting that IB research must connect more deeply with interdisciplinary theories and methodologies to produce generative IB research.

The central argument of this article is that global cities are, due to their clustering of producer service firms, critical governance nodes in global production networks. More in particular, the article scrutinises the role of producer service firms in uneven development and, especially, in the geographical transfer of value (Hadjimichalis, 1984). Because the direct as well as the indirect mechanisms through which value is transferred geographically require the intervention of producer service firms, global cities can be theorised as governance nodes for centripetal wealth transfers along global commodity chains. Moreover, and in the context of the persisting criticism that the global city concept has a bias towards Northern/Western cities, the article argues that the claim that global cities are critical places for the organisation of uneven development also holds for cities beyond ‘the usual suspects’. Referring to cases of how producer service firms in Hamburg and Mexico City erect entry barriers to protect their clients from competition and of how they shape labour relations at the expense of employees, I have maintained that governance is, as Sassen (2010: 158) has argued, indeed ‘embedded’ into the services provided. From that follows that even ‘minor’ global cities are strategic governance places from where the transfer of wealth towards the centres of the world economy is organised. 本文的中心观点是：全球城市由于聚集了生产性服务公司，是全球生产网络中的关键治理节点。更具体而言，本文审视了生产性服务公司在不均衡发展中的作用，尤其是其在价值的地理转移 (Hadjimichalis, 1984) 中所起的作用。由于价值在地理上转移的直接机制和间接机制需要生产性服务公司的介入，全球城市可在理论上表述为全球商品链上向心式财富转移的治理节点。此外，鉴于学界持续批评全球城市概念有着北半球/西方城市偏见，本文指出，全球城市是不均衡发展之组织过程的关键之地，这一论断对于“通常嫌疑”范围之外的城市也适用。本文以汉堡和墨西哥城为案例，讨论了这两座城市的生产性服务公司如何树起进入屏障来保护其客户遭遇竞争，并且如何以牺牲员工为代价塑造劳动关系，重申了 Sassen (2010: 158) 的观点：治理实际上“植入”了所提供的服务中。由此推论，即使“小型”的全球城市，也是财富向世界经济中心转移进程的战略性治理之地。

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is one of the most water-stressed parts of the world. In just over 25 years, between 1975 and 2001. Looking to the future, MENA's freshwater outlook is expected to worsen because of continued population growth and projected climate change impacts. The region's population is on the way to doubling to 700 million by 2050. Projections of climate change and variability impacts on the region's water availability are highly uncertain, but they are expected to be largely negative. To offer just one more example, rainfall and freshwater availability could decrease by up to 40 percent for some MENA countries by the end of this century. The urgent challenge is how to adapt to the future as illustrated by these numbers and how to turn the region's economy onto a sustainable path. This volume suggests new ways of thinking about the complex changes and planning needed to achieve this. New thinking will mean making better use of desert land, sun, and salt water the abundant riches of the region which can be harnessed to underpin sustainable growth. More mundane, but just as important, new thinking will also mean planning for dramatically better management of the water already available. Right now, water is very poorly managed in MENA. Inefficiencies are notorious in agriculture, where irrigation consumes up to 81 percent of extracted water. Similarly, municipal and industrial water supply systems have abnormally high losses, and most utilities are financially unsustainable. In addition, many MENA countries overexploit their fossil aquifers to meet growing water demand. None of this is sustainable while water resources decline. This volume hopes to add to the ongoing thinking and planning by presenting methodologies to address the water demand gap. It assesses the viability of desalination powered by renewable energy from economic, social, technical, and environmental viewpoints, and it reviews initiatives attempting to make renewable energy desalination a competitively viable option. The authors also highlight the change required in terms of policy, financing, and regional cooperation to make this alternative method of desalination a success. And as with any leading edge technology, the conversation here is of course about scale, cost, environmental impact, and where countries share water bodies plain good neighborly behavior.

Carbapenem resistance (CR) is a major global health concern. CR is a growing challenge in clinical settings due to its rapid dissemination and low treatment options. The characterization of its molecular mechanisms and epidemiology are highly studied. Nevertheless, little is known about the spread of CR in food-producing animals, seafood, aquaculture, wildlife, their environment, or the health risks associated with CR in humans. In this review, we discuss the detection of carbapenem-resistant organisms and their mechanisms of action in pigs, cattle, poultry, seafood products, companion animals, and wildlife. We also pointed out the One Health approach as a strategy to attempt the emergency and dispersion of carbapenem-resistance in this sector and to determine the role of carbapenem-producing bacteria in animals among human public health risk. A higher occurrence of carbapenem enzymes in poultry and swine has been previously reported. Studies related to poultry have highlighted P. mirabilis, E. coli , and K. pneumoniae as NDM-5- and NDM-1-producing bacteria, which lead to carbapenem resistance. OXA-181, IMP-27, and VIM-1 have also been detected in pigs. Carbapenem resistance is rare in cattle. However, OXA- and NDM-producing bacteria, mainly E. coli and A. baumannii , are cattle's leading causes of carbapenem resistance. A high prevalence of carbapenem enzymes has been reported in wildlife and companion animals, suggesting their role in the cross-species transmission of carbapenem-resistant genes. Antibiotic-resistant organisms in aquatic environments should be considered because they may act as reservoirs for carbapenem-resistant genes. It is urgent to implement the One Health approach worldwide to make an effort to contain the dissemination of carbapenem resistance.

Climate change has the potential to impact the agricultural sector and the wine sector in particular. The impacts of climate change are likely to differ across producing regions of wine. Future climate scenarios may push some regions into climatic regimes favourable to grape growing and wine production, with potential changes in areas planted with vines. We examine which is the linkage between climate change and productivity levels in the global wine sector. Within the framework of agricultural supply response, we assume that grapevines acreage and yield are a function of climate change. We find that grapevines yield suffers from higher temperatures during summer, whereas precipitations have a varying impact on grapevines depending on the cycle of grapevines. Differently, acreage share of grapevines tends to be favoured by higher annual temperatures, whereas greater annual precipitations tend to be detrimental. The impacts vary between Old World Producers and New World Producers, also due to heterogeneity in climate between them.