The aim of the research is to identify best practices in working with social media by analyzing the e-marketing communications of a soft drink company and its direct competitors. For this purpose, the social media accounts of 3 selected soft drink manufacturing companies using their own social media accounts between February and March 2023 are monitored and analyzed. The social media networks monitored include Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Businesses promote their new or existing products on their social networks on an almost daily basis and often use celebrities for this promotion. By using celebrities, they gain more engagement from social media users in the form of likes, comments, views, and new followers.

This work aims to characterize 3D-printed structures composed of a thermoplastic material (polylactic acid (PLA)) containing a combination of magnetic particles composed of iron(III) oxide (hematite) and iron(II)–iron (III) oxide (magnetite) with various infill densities and print orientations in regard to their possible processing by Fused Filament Fabrication additive technology. The correct processing temperatures have been determined using thermal analysis, and the paramagnetic and mechanical properties of the samples have been tested. The relative permeability has been identified to be strongly dependent on the topology parameters of the tested samples. The results of the inductance values for the samples without magnetic additives (infill densities 50% and 100%) have been detected to be comparable; nonetheless, the magnetic samples with 100% infill density has been found to be about 50% higher. A similar trend has been observed in the case of the values of the relative permeability, where the magnetic samples with 100% infill density have been measured as having an about 40% increased relative permeability in the comparison with the samples without magnetic additives (infill densities 20–100%). Finite Element Modelling (FEM) simulations have been applied to determine the magnetic field distributions and, moreover, to calculate the holding forces of all the printed samples. The maximum value of the holding force for the minimum distance of the plastic plate has been found to reach a value of almost 300 N (magnetic sample with 100% infill density). The obtained comprehensive characterization of the printed samples may be utilized for designing and tuning the desired properties of the samples needed in various industrial applications.

PurposePaper aims to investigate the interdependencies and spillover effects that the Visegrad (V4 hereafter) Equity Markets hold on each other. The V4 group stands for the political alliance of four Central European countries: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses Wavelet coherence, dynamic conditional correlation GARCH (1, 1) and unrestricted vector autoregression (VAR) methodologies. Daily data series (covering the period from January 2, 2006, to February 2, 2023) are analyzed to assess coherence, time-varying conditional correlation and shock transmission among the V4 Equity Markets.FindingsWavelet analysis reveals that the Slovak equity market does not maintain coherence with three other equity markets. The time-varying conditional correlation documents for the high interdependence during the COVID-19 outbreak of the four indexes. The VAR estimates reveal that shocks in the Warsaw equity market are easily transmitted in Prague and Budapest exchanges but not in Bratislava. The results show that the Slovak equity market tends to be isolated from the influence of other three V4 exchanges. This isolation is attributed to its size, limited volume and adoption of the euro in 2009. The study emphasizes the Slovak financial system’s gravitation toward the Eurozone after euro adoption.Originality/valueNotably, the findings provide important signals for local and international investors as the results cover four significant international shocks. The global meltdown of 2008/09, the Greek debt crisis of 2010/11, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

The design and assessment of forest and rural road pavements made from unbound natural and recycled materials require the careful determination of their physical-mechanical properties. The fundamental parameter for characterizing the soil material property is considered to be the resilient modulus Mr. The generally accepted alternative solution for its calculation is the cyclic CBR test, which uses standard CBR testing equipment. To perform tests on intact specimens and under stress conditions corresponding to expected states of stress in a pavement structure, an updated cyclic CBR test is proposed. In contrast to the standard cyclic CBR test, the applied loading force for repeated loadings is not determined in the first loading step by the plunger penetration to the prescribed depth, but by the stress value that is expected in an actual pavement structure. The updated test was verified on 240 tested specimens taken from a total of 40 soil samples belonging to nine soil types according to the USCS system. The resilient modulus results obtained are compared with those obtained using the standard cyclic CBR test and the cyclic triaxial test.

The goal of this work was to use the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) diagnostic method to find out the existing and preferred organizational culture in companies in the Czech Republic and then to evaluate their dependence on the size of the organizations. Data were collected in 2019-2021 and evaluated using Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS 24 statistical program, e.g., descriptive statistics tools, one-sample z-test, analysis of variance and post hoc test (Tukey's honest significant difference - HSD). The research was conducted on a sample of 962 companies across the entire republic and fields. The results of the study show that clan culture prevails in the Czech Republic, which was dominant in all six dimensions. Enterprises in the Czech Republic have a mix of organizational cultures in the following order: (1) clan culture (31.72%), (2) hierarchical culture (25.46%), (3) market culture (21.5%), and (4) adhocratic culture (21.28%). However, with regard to the desired cultural mix, this order changes as follows: (1) clan (35.3%), (2) hierarchical (22.91%), (3) adhocratic (22.63%), and (4) market culture (19.17%). Furthermore, it was found that a statistically significant difference was observed in the assessment of organizational culture depending on the size of the organization in the Czech Republic. A limitation of the research could be the unequal number of respondents in 2020 and 2021, which does not allow comparing differences in the time period. This work can serve as a comparative basis of organizational culture with another national culture.

Azo–imidazole photoswitches based on NH– and N–methylimidazole were designed and prepared via a convenient synthetic route. These azo-compounds were investigated by means of XRD analysis, cyclic voltammetry, thermal analysis, UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy and DFT calculations. The photoswitching was mostly affected by imidazole N-substitution with the half-life of (Z)–isomers found within the range of tens of seconds (NH-imidazoles) vs. tens of hours (N-methylimidazoles). N-Methylimidazole switches can be further tuned by altering electronic effects of the appended substituents (acyl, bromine, trifluoromethyl and pentafluorosulfanyl). The latter group proved to be particularly interesting in stabilizing (Z)–isomer. Its large half-life (∼24 h), high photoconversion (89 %) and diminished nonlinear optical response in contrast to the (E)-isomer (βE/Z = 3.82) point to a very useful strategy in introducing SF5 group in the structure of molecular switches. In summary, this detailed study demonstrates that photoswitching properties of azo-imidazoles can be significantly tuned in a broad extent by (preventing) imidazole tautomerism as well as by altering electronic effects of appended substituents.

What the article talks about are the difficulties of figuring out how reliable the workings of a complicated technological object are, especially when using a five-valued logic-based diagnostic method. The foundation for conducting dependability studies on technological objects is the utilization of prepared models that depict operational processes. The present study aims to build and provide a comprehensive description of a five-state model that characterizes the operational process of the diagnosed facility. The operational states that hold significance are the states of the object being tested, as diagnosed within the framework of 5VL-value logic. The model of the exploitation process that was constructed was further validated using simulated experiments. The outcomes of these comparative tests yield the calculated probabilities of the tested thing existing in its distinct conditions. The estimated time frames of occurrence of the recognized states in the object were determined based on the probability of occurrence of the diagnostic states, which were derived from the reliability features of the tested object.

The market serves as the convergence point of supply and demand and represents the process through which market relations between economic units materialize. From a global perspective, the focus shifts to the world market, which is the fundamental structure on which the global economy is based. The world economy operates as a very complex ecosystem. When it is exposed to the extremely damaging effects of a global pandemic, the term of a pandemic economic crisis becomes relevant.

In the present study, the efficacy of one-step direct transesterification (OSDT) and Dual-step extraction-transesterification (DSET) of Chlorococcum sp., Nannochloropsis sp., and their consortium was evaluated for fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield. Initially, the biomass yield and lipid content of the two strains and their consortium were estimated. Of the biomasses, the consortium showed a higher biomass yield of 1.41 g/L and lipid content of 30.2%, which is higher than the monocultures irrespective of the different biomass drying methods used. With regards to the FAME yield, OSDT and DSET have yielded almost similar quantities about 21 g/100g dried biomass. Of the different reaction conditions of OSDT tested, a higher FAME yield at 70–71% (based on lipid weight) was obtained at 75 °C reaction temperature, 3 h reaction time with a 2g sample size. Eventually, the fatty acid composition of consortium biomass revealed higher levels of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids in the vicinity of 46 and 25%, respectively. Based on the results, it is concluded that OSDT is a promising method due to its low energy consumption, cost-effective and time-saving attributes for quality biodiesel production from the Chlorococcum-Nannochloropsis consortium.