Chilling Out Data Chaos: Leveraging Cold Chain Principles and the Triple Helix Framework

As big data increasingly influences decision-making, ensuring data consistency and reliability has become essential. This paper explores how the cold chain’s singular focus on temperature can serve as a model for building unified, high-quality, and sustainable data systems. Despite the primary emphasis on machine learning of literature, this grounded in theory research, investigates how big data quality impacts technological execution and decision-making across industries. Drawing on 65 expert interviews, the study’s final discussion highlights the potential of the Triple Helix model—collaboration between government, industry, and society—as a framework for creating unified data systems. The cold chain, with its focus on temperature as the sole variable, exemplifies how such collaboration can enhance data reliability. Key challenges identified include data governance, operational inconsistencies, and barriers to collaboration. The paper proposes solutions such as professional training and the development of collaborative infrastructures to improve data dependability and support sustainable decision-making across industries

Anàlisi de la capacitat de decisió sobre els impostos de la Generalitat de Catalunya

Aquesta comunicació té l’objectiu d’avaluar l’autonomia tributària real de la Generalitat de Catalunya. L’OCDE empra una metodologia de determinació de l’autonomia tributària basada en una classificació del poder normatiu sobre els elements dels impostos en categories que no reflecteixen adequadament les especificitats de les potestats que tenen les comunitats autònomes. A partir d’aquesta metodologia, considerant el marc legal de la capacitat normativa fiscal i l’ús que n’han fet les diferents comunitats autònomes, s’ha elaborat una classificació adaptada a les comunitats autònomes del Règim Comú per a quantificar el nivell de poder tributari de la Generalitat de Catalunya i de la resta de comunitats.   L’anàlisi del poder normatiu conclou que, tot i l’elevada descentralització dels ingressos tributaris, la Generalitat disposa d’un marge reduït per tal d’establir una política fiscal pròpia. No disposa de cap competència normativa sobre aproximadament la meitat dels seus ingressos tributaris, incloent els de l’IVA, i disposa d’una capacitat intermèdia sobre la major part de la resta, entre els quals destaca l’IRPF. La capacitat normativa sobre la base imposable és pràcticament inexistent i els tributs propis, sobre els quals la Generalitat compta amb plena capacitat, tenen un paper modest.   Més enllà de les competències normatives, hi ha altres elements que limiten l’exercici del poder tributari per part de la Generalitat. La potestat tributària original és de l’Estat i les seves decisions sobre els impostos compartits i els impostos estatals tenen externalitats tributàries verticals. L’Estat ha centralitzat alguns impostos, restant capacitat fiscal a la Generalitat, i ha ocupat fets imposables nous en detriment de l’espai per a la creació de tributs propis autonòmics. D’altra banda, les rebaixes o supressions d’impostos que han fet diverses comunitats autònomes obeeixen a fenòmens de competència fiscal que condicionen a la pràctica l’exercici del poder tributari de la Generalitat. També cal considerar que el sistema de cobrament d’ingressos impositius mitjançant el sistema de bestretes i liquidacions no incentiva la coresponsabilitat fiscal ja que la variació dels rendiments de l’IRPF per exercici de la capacitat normativa no es trasllada automàticament als ingressos sinó que hi ha un decalatge temporal de dos anys.   La limitació de l’autonomia tributària de la Generalitat en un sistema institucional amb descentralització competencial té un conjunt d’implicacions. Suposa una restricció en el poder de determinar el nivell propi de prestació de serveis públics i en la capacitat d’adaptar la fiscalitat a les preferències i realitats de la població. El marge reduït de política fiscal pròpia té implicacions en termes de responsabilitat fiscal, tenint en compte que la despesa autonòmica ve determinada per una atribució de competències que té força rigideses

(When) Should a Company Have Purpose? [full submission]

Organizations in Catalonia and elsewhere are facing mounting pressures to embrace social, environmental, and governance (ESG) goals beyond profit maximization. Yet, these objectives are rarely aligned in ways that create value for shareholders and society. I use an organizational economics lens to survey recent evidence, tackling the question: when should a company have purpose? I focus on firms’ ability to attract talent and finance via social activities, contrasting the experiences of smaller, younger organizations with those of larger, established ones. This review does not aim to be comprehensive or to dismiss social activities’ value across the board, but simply to interpret poignant recent (empirical) evidence bearing on this important debate among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. In doing so, I highlight modern methods scholars use to study the role of organizational purpose

IMPACTE SOCIAL DE LA ZBE (ZONA DE BAIXES EMISSIONS) DE LES RONDES DE BARCELONA. UNA ANÀLISI COST-BENEFICI.

L’any 2020 es va posar en marxa l’anomenada Zona de Baixes Emissions (ZBE) Rondes de Barcelona que limitava l’accés dels vehicles a l’espai central de la ciutat en base a criteris ambientals. En aquesta comunicació es planteja una anàlisi d’avaluació d’aquesta política en base a l’aplicació d’una Anàlisi Cost Benefici (ACB) que valori si, en termes de benestar, la ZBE ha estat positiva. Es pretén exposar com es pot aplicar aquesta metodologia a una política d’aquestes característiques, així com les seves limitacions, i obtenir uns resultats per quantificar l’impacte net que comporta sobre el benestar de la població la seva posada en funcionament. Paraules clau: Zona Baixes Emissions, Avaluació, ACB, Valoració d’intangibles, Rendibilitat social

A microstructure-integrated acoustoplastic constitutive model for ultrasonic-assisted machining of Ti6Al4V alloy

The ultrasonic-assisted machining (UAM) technology, compared to conventional machining (CM), has been proven to be an effective method for machining the difficult-to-cut Ti6Al4V alloy (TC4). In the UAM process, the evolution mechanism of microstructure and hardness directly influences the material behavior and consequently, mechanical response, which remains unrevealed from a computational perspective. To address this, in this study, we present a developed modeling technique that combines the Particle Finite Element Method (PFEM) with incremental homogeneous field distributions in a coupled manner to effectively predict the macro and micro response of the material in both CM and UAM processes. First, the evolution of microstructural parameters, including immobile dislocation density (IDD) and mobile dislocation density (MDD), dynamic recrystallization (DRx) grain size, and hardness, is incrementally developed and incorporated into the PFEM using internal state variables. The Johnson–Mehl–Avrami–Kolmogorov (JMAK) model and Hall–Petch equation are employed for predicting grain size and hardness, respectively. Second, A microstructure-integrated acoustoplastic constitutive model is developed based on a modified Johnson–Cook (JC) model and average grain size (AGS) predictions dependent on ultrasonic vibration (UV) parameters. The proposed model is embedded into the PFEM to conduct a thermo-mechanical analysis capable of capturing the TC4 response, particularly in terms of serrated chip formation during CM and UAM processes. The model’s validity is checked through comparison with available experimental results in terms of chip shapes. Lastly, the predicted AGS and hardness in serrated chips and machined surface are compared with experimental data, showing good agreement. This suggests that the proposed acoustoplastic constitutive model, coupled with microstructure and UV parameters, can reliably analyze the CM and UAM processes of the TC4

The Potential Applications of Recombinant Spider Silk Proteins in Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. However, the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI) driven by cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is limited to heart transplantation. Tissue engineering is an alternative solution as the availability of heart transplantation largely depends on the availability of donor organs. While synthetic materials may trigger anti-inflammatory responses after implantation, natural biomaterials such as silk have a high potential as a material for building scaffolds due to its high biocompatibility and biodegradability. Spider silk is a material composed of fibroin proteins. When the proteins are spun, they are called recombinant spider silk, which can be used itself or combined with other biomaterials for surface modification. Especially in relation to cardiovascular tissue engineering, spider silk’s biocompatibility has proven to resemble the native cardiac tissue. Spider silk’s potential for cardiovascular tissue engineering application is investigated through reliable literature reviews and comparisons with other biomaterials including collagen, PCL, PLA, silkworm silk, alginate, chitosan. The growth of the field in research for each biomaterial in relation to cardiovascular tissue engineering was statistically evaluated. The statistical results indicated that there is an urgent need for more research of spider silk and cardiovascular tissue engineering. The mechanical properties of the biomaterials including ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elastic modulus (EM) were analyzed corresponding to those of native cardiac tissue. The results suggested spider silk’s promising ability to be used as a biomaterial for scaffolds. The applicability of spider silk to electrospinning and combination with poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) were discussed