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Purpose — New methods of measuring user satisfaction in transport services have been proposed and applied in the literature. In this paper, we compare three alternative measures for estimating user satisfaction: the numerical rating, the ordinal rating and the choice.

Approach — We analysed these measures considering their differences and limitations and the models that use these measures as dependent variables. We developed and applied a methodology to build these models. It comprises a preliminary qualitative analysis and a quantitative survey to identify the most relevant attributes of the satisfaction function, and a stated preference survey to obtain information of the alternative satisfaction measures for modelling purpose.

Findings — The ordinal rating may be a better user response to estimate satisfaction than score and choice based on its characteristics. The results obtained in the application reinforced this approach.

Research limitations — It is assumed that choice, score and ordinal valuation depend upon a latent stochastic satisfaction function of the same attributes. Further research is needed to analyse this assumption and how these responses vary according to the context for decision and exogenous factors, including the response scale of ratings.

Practical implications — Gathering alternative satisfaction responses simultaneously from users allowed for the consistency analysis and filtering of data, which greatly benefited the model estimation process.

Originality/value — The paper provides a methodology to estimate user satisfaction models in transit services, which can be applied in other transport services. The conceptual analysis and the application suggest that ordinal ratings are key user responses to uncover the underlying satisfaction function.

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is one of the most popular additive manufacturing (AM) technologies due to its ability to build thermoplastic parts with complex geometries at low cost. The FFF technique has been mainly used for rapid prototyping owing to the poor mechanical and geometrical properties of pure thermoplastic parts. However, both the development of new fibre-reinforced filaments with improved mechanical properties, and more accurate composite 3D printers have broadened the scope of FFF applications to functional components. FFF is a complex process with a large number of parameters influencing product quality and mechanical properties, and the effects of the combined parameters are usually difficult to evaluate. An array of parameter combinations has been analysed for improving the mechanical performance of thermoplastic parts such as layer thickness, build orientation, raster angle, raster width, air gap, infill density and pattern, fibre volume fraction, fibre layer location, fibre orientation and feed rate. This study aims to assess the effects of nozzle diameter on the mechanical performance and the geometric properties of 3D printed short carbon fibre-reinforced composites processed by the FFF technique.

Tensile and three-point bending tests were performed to characterise the mechanical response of the 3D printed composite samples. The dimensional accuracy, the flatness error and surface roughness of the printed specimens were also evaluated. Moreover, manufacturing costs, which are related to printing time, were evaluated. Finally, scanning electron microscopy images of the printed samples were analysed to estimate the porosity as a function of the nozzle diameter and to justify the effect of nozzle diameter on dimensional accuracy and surface roughness.

The effect of nozzle diameter on the mechanical and geometric quality of 3D printed composite samples was significant. In addition, large nozzle diameters tended to increase mechanical performance and enhance surface roughness, with a reduction in manufacturing costs. In contrast, 3D printed composite samples with small nozzle diameter exhibited higher geometric accuracy. However, the effect of nozzle diameter on the flatness error and surface roughness was of slight significance. Finally, some print guidelines are included.

The effect of nozzle diameter, which is directly related to product quality and manufacturing costs, has not been extensively studied. The presented study provides more information regarding the dependence of the mechanical, microstructural and geometric properties of short carbon fibre-reinforced nylon composite components on nozzle diameter.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new core hypothesis on laughter. It has been built by putting together ideas from several disciplines: neurodynamics, evolutionary neurobiology, social networks, and communication studies. The hypothesis focusses on the social nature of laughter and contributes to ascertain its evolutionary origins in connection with the cognitive and social-emotional functions it performs.

An in-depth examination of laughter in the social communication context and along the life cycle of the individual is performed. This instinctive behaviour that appears as a “virtual”, non-physical form of “grooming” would serve as a bond-making instrument in human groups. Further, the neurodynamic events underlying laughter production – and particularly the form of the neural entropy gradients – are congruent with a sentic hypothesis about the different emotional contents of laughter and their specific effects on bonding dynamics.

The new behavioural and neurodynamic tenets introduced about this unusual sound feature of our species justify the ubiquitous presence it has in social interactions at large and along the life cycle of the individual. Laughter, far from being a curious evolutionary relic or a rather inconsequential innate behaviour, should be considered as a highly efficient tool for inter-individual problem solving and for maintenance of social bonds.

Laughter, the authors would conclude, has been evolutionarily kept and augmented as an optimized tool for unconscious cognitive-emotional problem solving, and at the same time as a useful way to preserve the essential fabric of social bonds in close-knit groups and within human societies at large.

The extrusion-based additive manufacturing method followed by debinding and sintering steps can produce metal parts efficiently at a relatively low cost and material wastage. In this study, 316L stainless-steel metal filled filaments were used to print metal parts using the extrusion-based fused filament fabrication (FFF) approach. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of common FFF printing parameters on the geometric and mechanical performance of FFF manufactured 316L stainless-steel components.

The microstructural characteristics of the metal filled filament, three-dimensional (3D) printed green parts and final sintered parts were analysed. In addition, the dimensional accuracy of the green parts was evaluated, as well as the hardness, tensile properties, relative density, part shrinkage and the porosity of the sintered samples. Moreover, surface quality in terms of surface roughness after sintering was assessed. Predictive models based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used for characterizing dimensional accuracy, shrinkage, surface roughness and density. Additionally, the response surface method based on ANNs was applied to represent the behaviour of these parameters and to identify the optimum 3D printing conditions.

The effects of the FFF process parameters such as build orientation and nozzle diameter were significant. The pore distribution was strongly linked to the build orientation and printing strategy. Furthermore, porosity decreased with increased nozzle diameter, which increased mechanical performance. In contrast, lower nozzle diameters achieved lower roughness values and average deviations. Thus, it should be noted that the modification of process parameters to achieve greater geometrical accuracy weakened mechanical performance.

Near-dense 316L austenitic stainless-steel components using FFF technology were successfully manufactured. This study provides print guidelines and further information regarding the impact of FFF process parameters on the mechanical, microstructural and geometric performance of 3D printed 316L components.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the adoption of double entry bookkeeping at the Royal Treasury, Portugal, on its establishment in 1761 and the factors contributing to this development. The Royal Treasury was the first central government organization in Portugal to adopt double entry bookkeeping and was a crucial first step in the institutionalisation of the technique in Portuguese public administration.

Set firmly in the archive, this paper adopts new institutional sociology (NIS) to inform the findings of the local, time‐specific accounting policy and practice at the Portuguese Royal Treasury.

Embedded within the broader European context, this study identifies the key pressures exerted upon the Royal Treasury on its formation in 1761, which resulted in major accounting change within Portuguese central government from that date. The study provides further evidence of the importance of the state in the institutionalization of accounting practices by means of coercive pressures and highlights for Portugal the importance of individual actors who, as powerful change agents, made key decisions that influenced accounting change.

This study examines a major instance of accounting change in European central government and broadens the application of NIS in accounting history research to a different country – Portugal – and to a different time – the eighteenth century. It also serves to illuminate the difficulties of collecting pertinent evidence pertaining to this long‐dated time period in identifying certain forms of institutional pressures.

This paper aims to study the influence of leisure-time physical activity on depression crises and the difficulty in performing light household tasks.

A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the 2020 European Health Survey in Spain. A total of 1,076 individuals diagnosed with depression were selected. ANOVA, chi-square, Fisher’s exact test and Mann–Whitney U test were applied, and a simple moderation analysis was conducted using the SPSS PROCESS 4.0 macro.

Women had higher percentages of some or much difficulty in performing domestic activities (p = 0.007). Differences were found between experiencing a crisis in the past 12 months versus not having one (p < 0.001): less physical activity was performed, perceived health was worse and difficulty in performing domestic activities increased. The moderation analysis confirmed the moderating effect of physical activity on the relationship between experiencing a crisis and having difficulty with domestic activities (p = 0.017).

The usual limitation of descriptive cross-sectional studies, which cannot establish causal relationships, must be added to low sample sizes in some categories.

The analysis with gender differentiation, promoting gender-specific adapted practices, considering age and personal circumstances of the patient, appropriate exercise prescription, as well as its evaluation and follow-up, are areas where specialist nurses need to delve deeper to enhance the quality of care.

Leisure-time physical activity moderates the relationship between experiencing a crisis and having difficulty with light household tasks: those who engage in occasional physical activity have less difficulty compared to those who do not engage in it.

How does state repression influence levels of mobilization in authoritarian regimes? This study argues that the relationship between repression and protest is temporally dynamic. Specifically, the short- and long-term effects of autocrats' coercive actions differ conditionally on each phase of the contentious cycle. This argument is tested taking advantage of an original database of protest events in Pinochet's Chile between 1982 and 1989. Using an Interrupted Time Series design, the results show that the State of Siege declarations issued in 1984 and again in 1986 had divergent short- and long-term influence. When the cycle was on an expansive stage, the State of Siege shows no immediate influence on the protests, followed by an increase in long-term mobilization. However, when the mobilization was declining, the State of Siege was associated with an immediate and prominent drop in mobilization, followed by a progressive decrease in the number of protests over the long term. This chapter contributes to the literature on the protest–repression nexus by providing new evidence on the dynamics shaping the relationship between state repression and civil disobedience in authoritarian regimes.