Duplex Aging and Gas Nitriding Process as a Method of Surface Modification of Titanium Alloys for Aircraft Applications

This study discusses the effect of a duplex aging + nitriding process on the wear resistance of an aged double-phase titanium alloy, BT22. Nitriding was applied simultaneously with the heat treatment of the alloy, which is advantageous over the conventional heat and surface treatment methods applied to titanium alloys. According to the results, the thickness of the case depth of the nitrided samples was 40–50 μm. Moreover, nitrogen was uniformly dispersed in the substrate, which was indicated by the hardness tests. The average microhardness of the substrate material was 300 HV0.01, while the hardness of the top layer was 1190 HV0.01, which is an almost four-fold increase. The applied duplex treatment substantially affected the wear performance of the tested alloy. For the untreated alloy, the maximum coefficient of friction was 0.8, while in the surface-modified sample, the maximum fluctuations reached 0.6. The abrasive wear process was dominant in the nitrided samples, while delamination and adhesive wear were observed for the untreated specimens. The nitrided alloy exhibited double the wear resistance of the untreated samples. The proposed treatment does not require additional time or energy consumption, providing a substantial technological advantage over conventional methods. Though the alpha case reduces the mechanical performance of titanium, the nitriding of only the component sections intended to withstand friction will have a positive effect.

Testing Forestry Digital Twinning Workflow Based on Mobile LiDAR Scanner and AI Platform

Climate-smart forestry is a sustainable forest management approach for increasing positive climate impacts on society. As climate-smart forestry is focusing on more sustainable solutions that are resource-efficient and circular, digitalization plays an important role in its implementation. The article aimed to validate an automatic workflow of processing 3D pointclouds to produce digital twins for every tree on large 1-ha sample plots using a GeoSLAM mobile LiDAR scanner and VirtSilv AI platform. Specific objectives were to test the efficiency of segmentation technique developed in the platform for individual trees from an initial cloud of 3D points observed in the field and to quantify the efficiency of digital twinning by comparing the automatically generated results of (DBH, H, and Volume) with traditional measurements. A number of 1399 trees were scanned with LiDAR to create digital twins and, for validation, were measured with traditional tools such as forest tape and vertex. The segmentation algorithm developed in the platform to extract individual 3D trees recorded an accuracy varying between 95 and 98%. This result was higher in accuracy than reported by other solutions. When compared to traditional measurements the bias for diameter at breast height (DBH) and height was not significant. Digital twinning offers a blockchain solution for digitalization, and AI platforms are able to provide technological advantage in preserving and restoring biodiversity with sustainable forest management.

Applying Social Networks in the Management of Sustainable Tourist Destinations: An Analysis of Spanish Tourist Destinations

In this study, the presence and management of the social networks of 78 tourist destinations were analyzed for the development of sustainable tourism, with particular attention being paid to Spanish smart destinations. The variables for the empirical analysis were determined from a literature review, and it was concluded from a descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and an analysis of variance, that although the presence of tourist destinations on the internet and on social networks was notable, their management was inadequate for the development of sustainable tourist destinations. It was shown that there is a direct relationship between the number of visitors at a tourist destination and its presence on social networks. However, our analyses found that this correlation was not related to social network management; a greater number of visitors were not related to the effective management of social networks. It was concluded that smart destinations, despite having a technological advantage, did not stand out for their presence and management on social networks. The manuscript ends with some recommendations for the future

A Dynamic Contest Model of Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets

This paper examines the dynamic competition between platform firms in two-sided markets with network externalities. In our model, two platforms compete with each other via a contest to dominate a certain market. If one platform wins the contest, it can serve the market for a certain duration as a monopolistic platform. Our paper shows that platform firms can compensate for cost disadvantages with network effects. A head start (e.g., technological advantage) does not guarantee future success for platform firms. Network effects and cost efficiency are decisive for future success. Interestingly, higher costs of a platform can induce higher platform profits in our dynamic model. Moreover, we find that a platform’s size and profit are not necessarily positively correlated. Our model also provides new insights with respect to the underlying causes for the emergence of market dominance. The combination of technological carry-over and network effects can explain a long-lasting dominance of a platform that benefits from a head start. The necessary preconditions for this emergence are convex costs, small network effects and high carry-over.

Nutritional and technological aspects of vegetable oils that stand out for the prevalence of medium-chain triacylglycerides: A review

The nature of the fatty acid presented in each type of vegetable oil will determine the oil’s characteristic. The purpose of this review is to describe the medium chain fatty acids present in vegetable oils absorption mechanism and their benefits for human body, combined with technological advantages in the preparation of food formulations. Highlighting how the source of the raw material and the extraction method interfere with the concentration of fatty acids present in the oils. It is a review of narrative literature, which used as a theoretical framework recent scientific articles in the English language. Oils derived from coconut, palm kernel, and babassu, for example, have a solid or semi-solid characteristic at room temperature. This happens due to the presence of saturated fatty acids with medium-length carbon chains, that is from 6 to 12 carbons. Although medium-chain fatty acids are saturated, they present characteristics that are different from other long-chain saturated fatty acids. They are quickly digested by the body, which favors the absorption and the using of these nutrients, leading an impact on diseases’ control, such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. In addition, due to their chemical structure, medium chain fatty acids can be used in the food industry as a substitute for animal fat, combining their nutritional benefits with technological advantage, being used in food preparations to impact texture, flavor, stabilize emulsions, and improve the rheological characteristics of the product.

INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN GLOBALIZATION

Change is a pre-requisite for survival amongst individual human beings and even more so in the organizations which they create and in which they work. Put simply, if an organization does not change what it offers the world – its product or services- and the ways in which it creates and delivers these offerings, it may not survive. The pressure for a constant innovation means that creativity is a key resource. Innovation, technology advances and competitive advantage are connected by complex and multidimensional relationships. Demands for organizational innovation and technological advantage are increasingly crucial components of competitive strategy for many firms. Most firms face serious competitive challenges due to the rapid pace and unpredictability of technology change. Industries dependent on highly sophisticated technologies and firms engaged in multinational competition are particularly vulnerable to the need for continuous and rapid modification of their product features and the ways in which they conduct business.

The Origins of National Technological Advantage

This chapter addresses how big government is also responsible for countries achieving strategic technological advantages. Strategic technological advantage is the key to gaining from unequal terms of trade. If your country has invented something and controls proprietary technology, your nation has a monopoly and can charge monopoly prices. Other countries have to compete with other vendors to sell their goods and sell at low competitive prices. But how do countries get technological monopolies? America's scientific and engineering dominance comes from the superiority of its higher education. The United States was the only country to create large public universities with cheap tuition in every state or province in the nation. The chapter then looks at the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890; the Hatch Act of 1914; and the GI Bill. It also considers the founding of the National Science Foundation. The plan was that not only would the United States have stronger armed forces due to military technology, but it would also have a better economy due to civilian technology and would be better able to solve social problems with the use of social technology.

Exploring EU’s Regional Potential in Low-Carbon Technologies

This research builds on the regional innovation literature, and aims to better understand the potential for, and development of, low-carbon technologies in the European Union. Exploiting the OECD’s REGPAT for regionalised patent data, we estimate the potential advantage of European NUTS2 regions have in 14 green technologies. We use network proximity between technologies and between regions to understand technological/regional clusters of revealed technological advantage and build the regressors for estimating regional potential advantage in specific technologies via zero-inflated beta regressions. Based on this, we explore the region-technology networks, finding two gravity centres for green innovation in France’s and Germany’s industrial and high-tech hubs (Île de France, Stuttgart, and Oberbayern). We also construct a dataset of lagged potentials and labour market, economic and demographic variables, and perform an elastic net regularisation to understand the association with current revealed advantages. Our approach indicates an association between technological advantage in green technologies and the (lags of) participation rates in labour markets, sectoral employment in science and technology, general higher education, duration of employment, percentage of GDP spent on R&D (public and private) and other expenditure on R&D. If confirmed by causality tests, the established associations could help in designing horizontal economic policies to enable specific regions to realise their specialisation potential in specific green technologies.

Proposed Research on the Relationships Between Innovation Competitiveness and Export Competitiveness in Central and Eastern European Countries

Research background: In the contemporary world, innovations are the driving force of economic development and new products, designs, trademarks and creative projects are of key importance to everyday economic decisions. Both economic theories and empirical research concern relations between innovations and foreign trade. This article belongs to this research trend and is devoted to an analysis of relations between innovations and export competitiveness in selected Central and Eastern European countries. Purpose: The paper is aimed at assessing the impact of innovation competitiveness on export competitiveness in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Research methodology: The paper contains an analysis with the use of standardised innovation competitiveness and export competitiveness indices. Countries and industry sectors are analysed in terms of the frequency of occurrence of these indices with various combinations of their signs. The impact of innovation competitiveness on export competitiveness has been tested using dynamic models of panel data. Results: The conducted research indicates that technological advantage usually has a considerable positive impact on the trade competitiveness of Central and Eastern European countries but the strength of the impact depends on the branch of industry. Generally, the influence of technological competitiveness on trade competitiveness is stronger in highly and moderately technologically advanced industries than in industries characterised by low technological advancement. Novelty: The evaluation of the influence of innovation competitiveness on export competitiveness in Central and Eastern European countries using standardised competitiveness indices and a dynamic model of panel data is an added value in the paper.