Development of binder system for manufacturing metallic and ceramic parts by Powder Injection Molding technology

The technology is used by manufacturing companies of metallic and ceramic parts. The PIM companies have an important problem: they have to use a patented feedstock. This fact causes an increasing of the cost of final product. Moreover sometimes is difficult to obtain parts from several materials because only exists few commercial feedstocks. We offer some innovative aspects, the possibility of development of feedstocks from different ceramic and metallic powders and different morphologic and surface characteristics

PRICING POLICY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF CRUISE DESTINATION MANAGEMENT

Destination management includes determination of development goals that are compatible with existing strategic planning documents, rules and limitations of sustainable development, defining mechanisms of action and management in accordance with the objectives and continuous adjusting of operational objectives to development strategy. The assessment of competitive position and analysis of competitive advantages are important for understanding the current situation as well as possibilities of adjusting the individual factors of competitiveness to market demands. When defining and designing different mechanisms of demand management it is necessary to first identify the factors of competitiveness, as well as the legality and cause - effect relationship between these phenomena. Handling of the ship, passenger and crew members is an important part of port supply. In order to perform such complex and highly demanding work at the user\u27s satisfaction, it is necessary to appropriately organize that process and clear normative regulation of responsibilities, relationships, standards and costs, in order to know at all times the tasks and activities of individual holders, which is the scope of their work, which standards / criteria need to be fulfilled and what is the cost of services. Active participation of the organization / destination in relation to the market situation should be based on scientific - research activities as the basis in conducting business policy and development policy. Marketing is the business function that is future-oriented, using the results of research of all states and conditions at the market. Pricing policy is an essential part of the integrated destination management, but is also directly conditioned by its existence and functioning

PRICING POLICY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF CRUISE DESTINATION MANAGEMENT

Destination management includes determination of development goals that are compatible with existing strategic planning documents, rules and limitations of sustainable development, defining mechanisms of action and management in accordance with the objectives and continuous adjusting of operational objectives to development strategy. The assessment of competitive position and analysis of competitive advantages are important for understanding the current situation as well as possibilities of adjusting the individual factors of competitiveness to market demands. When defining and designing different mechanisms of demand management it is necessary to first identify the factors of competitiveness, as well as the legality and cause - effect relationship between these phenomena. Handling of the ship, passenger and crew members is an important part of port supply. In order to perform such complex and highly demanding work at the user\u27s satisfaction, it is necessary to appropriately organize that process and clear normative regulation of responsibilities, relationships, standards and costs, in order to know at all times the tasks and activities of individual holders, which is the scope of their work, which standards / criteria need to be fulfilled and what is the cost of services. Active participation of the organization / destination in relation to the market situation should be based on scientific - research activities as the basis in conducting business policy and development policy. Marketing is the business function that is future-oriented, using the results of research of all states and conditions at the market. Pricing policy is an essential part of the integrated destination management, but is also directly conditioned by its existence and functioning

Ka Lono

3 numbers in 1 volume

COMPETITIVENESS OF PORTS ON THE CRUISE MARKET: CASE OF DUBROVNIK PORT

U slučaju pomorskih krstarenja, ono što pojedini aranžman čini privlačnim je izbor itinerara (plovidbenog puta) s usputnim lukama pristajanja. Međutim, ovaj se oblik turističkog proizvoda sastoji također i od niza elemenata ponude koji se generiraju na brodu. Na važnosti ovih elemenata se sve više inzistira pa se tako razvijaju brodovi – destinacije čija je osnovna karakteristika raznovrsnost i količina dodatnih sadržaja, pored onih osnovnih smještajnih i ugostiteljskih. Ipak, bez obzira na ovu karakteristiku razvojnog trenda krstarenja, destinacije uključene u itinerar uvijek će ostati primarni činitelj privlačnosti pojedinog aranžmana. Odabir destinacije, te uključivanje u pojedine itinerare ovisi o zadovoljavanju niza kriterija. Promatrano sa pozicije upravljačke strukture destinacije, zadovoljavanje potrebe za pozicioniranjem na tržištu pomorskih krstarenja iziskuje poznavanje konkurentskog okruženja, kao i činitelja konkurentnosti, te važnost njihove uloge prilikom odabira. U uvjetima izrazite dinamike tržišta pomorskih krstarenja te intenzivne borbe za tržišnu poziciju, biti će sve važnije zadržati konkurentnost. Konkurentnost turističke destinacije predstavlja sposobnost destinacije da udovolji zahtjevima potrošača/posjetitelja uspješnije od konkurencije, te da pruži zadovoljavajuću vrijednost za novac. Osnovni činitelj konkurentnosti destinacije za pomorska krstarenja je turistički resurs. Dubrovnik raspolaže s turističkim resursom, tj. kulturno – povijesnom baštinom čija je vrijednost odavno priznata i prepoznata u svijetu. Turizam pomorskih krstarenja postavlja specifične zahtjeve pred destinaciju pa je valorizira u skladu s mogućnostima iskorištavanja destinacije za što kvalitetnije poludnevne ili cjelodnevne posjete. Dubrovnik u velikoj mjeri odgovara ovim zahtjevima. Potreba za definiranjem politike razvoja turizma pomorskih krstarenja u Dubrovniku temelji se na nužnosti spoznaje o trenutnim pozicijama, prirodi i zakonitosti, te međusobnim odnosima pojedinih pojava u sklopu tržišta. Spoznaja konkurentske pozicije, te mogućnosti i načina utjecaja na daljnji razvoj od velike je važnosti u kontekstu oblikovanja smjernica za budućnost. Komparativna analiza lučkih pristojbi i naknada u destinacijama Sredozemlja koje su označene kao Dubrovniku konkurentne destinacije pokazala je da je Dubrovnik veoma konkurentan s gledišta ovog činitelja. Konkurentnost luke na tržištu pomorskih krstarenja ne može promatrati izolirano od turističkog proizvoda destinacije koji predstavlja primarni uvjet za uključivanje u ovo tržište pa je u analizu su uključeni i činitelji koji se odnose na prikladnost destinacije za pomorska krstarenja.In case of sea cruises, what makes a particular package more attractive is the choice of itinerary (sea route) with ports of call. However, this form of tourist product also consists of a number of elements of supply that is being generated on board. These elements are increasingly important, thus developing ships - destinations with main characteristics of diversity and volume of additional contents, in addition to basic accommodation and catering facilities. However, despite this characteristic of cruise development trend, destinations included within the itinerary will always remain the primary factor in the attractiveness of a certain package. The choice of destination, and the inclusion of individual itineraries depend on satisfying a number of criteria. From the point of view of destination management structure, meeting the requirements of the market position of sea cruises seeks knowledge of the competitive environment, as well as factors of competitiveness and the importance of their role in the selection process. In conditions of extreme cruise market dynamics of and intense battle for market position, it will be increasingly important to maintain competitiveness. Competitiveness of a tourist destination represents the ability of destinations to meet the demands of customers / visitors more effi ciently than the competition, and to provide satisfactory value for money. The main factor in the competitiveness of cruise destinations is tourist resource. Dubrovnik has tourism resources or cultural - historical heritage whose value has long been acknowledged and recognized in the world. Cruise tourism sets specific requirements on the destination and valuates it according to the possibilities of exploiting destination for high quality half-day or all-day tours. Dubrovnik mostly meets these requirements. The need to define cruise development policy in Dubrovnik is based on the necessity of understanding the current position, nature and laws, as well as mutual relations of certain phenomena in the market. Knowing the competitive position and whether and how they impact on the further development is of great importance in the context of designing guidelines for the future. Comparative analysis of port fees and charges in the Mediterranean destinations marked as Dubrovnik competitive destinations showed that Dubrovnik is very competitive from the standpoint of this factor. Port competitiveness on the cruise market can not be viewed in isolation from the tourist destination product which is the primary criterion for inclusion in this market and the analysis includes factors relating to the suitability of a cruise destination

Candidate Stability and Voting Correspondences

We study the incentives of candidates to enter or to exit elections in order to strategically affect the outcome of a voting correspondence. We extend the results of Dutta, Jackson and Le Breton (2000), who only considered single-valued voting procedures by admitting that the outcomes of voting may consist of sets of candidates. We show that, if candidates form their preferences over sets according to Expected Utility Theory and Bayesian updating, every unanimous and non dictatorial voting correspondence violates candidate stability. When candidates are restricted to use even chance prior distributions, only dictatorial or bidictatorial rules are unanimous and candidate stable. We also analyze the implications of using other extension criteria to define candidate stability that open the door to positive results.Candidate Stability, Voting Correspondence, Extension Criterion

High-capacity Li4Ti5O12-C thick ceramic electrodes manufactured by powder injection moulding

Lithium-ion batteries are the most efficient electrochemical energy storage devices. However, there is still room for improvement in terms of safety and energy density, presently limited by conventional tape-casting electrode processing. In this study, a blend of the anodic material Li$_{4}$Ti$_{5}$O$_{12}$ with 2 wt% carbon black has been processed through powder injection moulding (PIM) yielding, after subsequent debinding and sintering processes, to ultra-thick (>500 µm) ceramic binder-free electrodes. The mixture of Li$_{4}$Ti$_{5}$O$_{12}$ with the thermoplastic binder composed of polypropylene, paraffin wax, and stearic acid is investigated to identify a rheologically suitable feedstock for the PIM process. The resulting disk-type green parts contain 50 vol% of ceramic powder. After removing the binder with solvents and subsequent thermal treatment, the parts are sintered at 900 °C, aiming for a relatively high porosity, i.e., 25.7%. The resulting electrodes show very high areal and volumetric capacities up to 26.0 mA·h·cm−2 and 403 mA·h·cm−3 at C/24, respectively, in a half-cell against lithium metal

Using Metal-Organic Framework HKUST-1 for the Preparation of High-Conductive Hybrid Membranes Based on Multiblock Copolymers for Fuel Cells

Novel proton-conducting hybrid membranes consisting of sulfonated multiblock copolymer of polysulfone and polyphenylsulfone (SPES) reinforced with a HKUST-1 metal-organic framework (MOF) (5, 10, and 20 wt. %) were prepared and characterized for fuel cell applications. The presence of the MOF in the copolymer was confirmed by means of FE-SEM and EDS. The hybrid membranes show a lower contact angle value than the pure SPES, in agreement with the water uptake (WU%), i.e., by adding 5 wt. % of the MOF, this parameter increases by 20% and 40% at 30 °C and 60 °C, respectively. Additionally, the presence of the MOF increases the ion exchange capacity (IEC) from 1.62 to 1.93 mequivH+ g−1. Thermogravimetric analysis reveals that the hybrid membranes demonstrate high thermal stability in the fuel cell operation temperature range ( 85 MPa in the Na+ form). Proton conductivity was analyzed using EIS, achieving the highest value with a 5 wt. % load of the HKUST-1. This value is lower than that observed for the HKUST-1/Nafion system. However, polarization and power density curves show a remarkably better performance of the hybrid membranes in comparison to both the pure SPES and the pure Nafion membranesThis work was funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI)/Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER/UE), PID-2019-106662RB-C43, by the Spanish Government, MAT2016-78632-C4-3-R, by the Regional Government PEM4ENERGY-CM-UC3M funded by the call “Programa de apoyo a la realización de proyectos interdisciplinares de I + D para jóvenes investigadores de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2019–2020” under the frame of the “Con-venio Plurianual Comunidad de Madrid-Universidad Carlos III de Madrid”, and by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (State assignment in the field of scientific activity, № 0852-2020-0019). The authors would like to thank the following institutions for funding the projects: the Agencia Española de Investigación/Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER/UE): Projects PID2019-106662RBC43 and MAT2016-78362-C4-3-R, and the Comunidad de Madrid: Projects “Excelencia para el Profesorado Universitario”—(EPUC3M04) and PEM4ENERGY-CM-UC3

Sulfonated Polysulfone/TiO2(B) Nanowires Composite Membranes as Polymer Electrolytes in Fuel Cells

New proton conducting membranes based on sulfonated polysulfone (sPSU) reinforced with TiO2 (B) nanowires (1, 2, 5 and 10 wt.%) were synthesized and characterized. TiO2 (B) nanowires were synthesized by means of a hydrothermal method by mixing TiO2 precursor in aqueous solution of NaOH as solvent. The presence of the TiO2 (B) nanowires into the polymer were confirmed by means of Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy, Fourier transform infrared and X-ray diffraction. The thermal study showed an increase of almost 20 ◦C in the maximum temperature of sPSU backbone decomposition due to the presence of 10 wt.% TiO2 (B) nanowires. Water uptake also is improved with the presence of hydrophilic TiO2 (B) nanowires. Proton conductivity of sPSU with 10 wt.% TiO2 (B) nanowires was 21 mS cm−1 (at 85 ◦C and 100% RH). Under these experimental conditions the power density was 350 mW cm−2 similar to the value obtained for Nafion 117. Considering all these obtained results, the composite membrane doped with 10 wt.% TiO2 (B) nanowires is a promising candidate as proton exchange electrolyte in fuel cells (PEMFCs), especially those operating at high temperatures.The authors would like to thank the following Institution for funding the Projects: Agencia Española de Investigación /Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER/UE): Projects PID2019-106662RBC43 and MAT2016-78362-C4-3-R. Comunidad de Madrid: Projects "Excelencia para el Profesorado Universitario"—EPUC3M04) and PEM4ENERGY-CM-UC3M