Open pitaya (Stenocereus thurberi) flowers were marked at 10, 20, 30 and 40 days after floration (DAF). When fruit were formed, they were collected from each of the dates with the objective of evaluating physical, physiological and quality changes before and after harvest. In fruits with different DAF, the analyses of fruit size (diameter and length), weight, density, firmness, color in pulp and peel (L*, a* and b*), respiration rate (CO₂) and ethylene production were carried out. In the case of ripe and overripe fruit, in addition to the variables mentioned above, pH, percentage of total soluble solids TSS and total acidity (% citric acid equivalents) were evaluated. Fruit with 40 DAF were stored for up to 14 days at 25 ℃ and 80% RH to evaluate daily changes in respiration rate and ethylene production. It was found that during development the fruit tended to grow more in length than in diameter. In color, the best indicators of changes during fruit development were the parameters L* and b* for peel and for flesh L* and a*. For firmness in pitaya fruits, no significant differences were found with the methodology used. Changes in ethylene production and respiration rate during storage and development showed the usual behavior of climacteric fruits. Pitaya fruits with 40 FDD presented quality characteristics similar to those accepted by the consumer for this type of fruit. It is concluded that it is possible to evaluate the different stages of development in DDF of pitaya fruit based on the changes of the color space variables L*, a* and b*, in addition to the fact that the fruit follows the classical climacteric behavior.

The women’s sector in the academe is one of the most affected profiles during the COVID-19 pandemic which directly ravages their livelihood and other economic activities. Thus, this research project investigated the economic situations of 30 private and public-school teachers who were displaced from their occupations or were forcibly deprived of income-generating activities. In-depth interviews as research instruments were employed in the study to extract responses on how the educators creatively apply adaptive economic strategies and how government should aid them during a global crisis. The research findings showed that the pandemic has affected the economic activities of the respondents including the loss of their livelihood and other economic sidelines. They responded to these economic effects through adaptive strategies using diversifying and analyzing trends, using digital technology resources, data-driven, acquiring new alternative skills, pricing strategy, and becoming an expert. Results dictated that government could support affected women by initiating training options, homepreneurship support, encouraging independent income-earners, financial management and tax breaks, and industry compatibility endorsement. This study is important to map out the specific economic effects of the pandemic and aid them with initiatives by providing them with concrete economic tools and programs.

The objective of this article is to examine the provision of temporary exhibitions and events by Slovak museums and galleries, and to highlight their significance in the context of selected performances of these cultural attractions in the tourism sector. The article employs a secondary data analysis of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic and annual reports from 105 museums and 10 galleries in 2017, as well as 99 museums and 15 galleries in 2022. Correlation and regression analyses were employed to assess the dependence of variables. The results of the analysis confirm a direct, moderate dependence between the number of temporary exhibitions and events and the total number of visitors in museums and galleries. Additionally, the examination demonstrated that the exhibited activity has not had a positive effect on the revenues of museums and galleries. However, with an increasing number of events, their revenues from their own activities grew. The average revenues from one event were found to be higher in museums than in galleries.

Surveys are one of the most important tasks to be executed to get valued information. One of the main problems is how the data about many different persons can be processed to give good information about their environment. Modelling environments through Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) is highly common because ANN’s are excellent to model predictable environments using a set of data. ANN’s are good in dealing with sets of data with some noise, but they are fundamentally surjective mathematical functions, and they aren’t able to give different results for the same input. So, if an ANN is trained using data where samples with the same input configuration has different outputs, which can be the case of survey data, it can be a major problem for the success of modelling the environment. The environment used to demonstrate the study is a strategic environment that is used to predict the impact of the applied strategies to an organization financial result, but the conclusions are not limited to this type of environment. Therefore, is necessary to adjust, eliminate invalid and inconsistent data. This permits one to maximize the probability of success and precision in modeling the desired environment. This study demonstrates, describes and evaluates each step of a process to prepare data for use, to improve the performance and precision of the ANNs used to obtain the model. This is, to improve the model quality. As a result of the studied process, it is possible to see a significant improvement both in the possibility of building a model as in its accuracy.

By reviewing US state-level panel data on infrastructure spending and on per capita income inequality from 1950 to 2010, this paper sets out to test whether an empirical link exists between infrastructure and inequality. Panel regressions with fixed effects show that an increase in the growth rate of spending on highways and higher education in a given decade correlates negatively with Gini indices at the end of the decade, thus suggesting a causal effect from growth in infrastructure spending to a reduction in inequality through better access to education and opportunities for employment. More significantly, this relationship is more pronounced with inequality at the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution. In addition, infrastructure expenditures on highways are shown to be more effective at reducing inequality. By carrying out a counterfactual experiment, the results show that those US states with a significantly higher bottom Gini coefficient in 2010 had underinvested in infrastructure during the previous decade. From a policy-making perspective, new innovations in finance for infrastructure investments are developed, for the US, other industrially advanced countries and also for developing economies.

The transfer of knowledge and the preservation of traditions is passed down from generation to generation. The main objective of this study was to explore people’s knowledge of the gastronomic heritage of the Kisalföld regions through an analysis of the county’s (attendance to, decision-making and willingness to spend on food and beverages) taking place in the county, such as the Flavours of Szigetköz, the County Wines Festival, the Flavours of Rábaköz or Eszterházy Baroque Food Festival at Fertőd. A quantitative research was used to analyse the topic (N = 666), the sample is not representative and the selection of respondents was random. Data were collected between 1 September 2023 and 31 October 2023 using electronic questionnaires shared on Google Drive. Data were processed using SPSS 25.0 and MS Office Excel in addition to the descriptive statistical data (modus, median, standard deviation), correlation, and crosstabulation analyses. Important research questions of the study were whether the respondents’ place of respondents influences gastronomic awareness whether age determines willingness to travel to attend a gastronomy event, The most popular gastronomic event in the county was the Vegetables of Hanság Region (mean 3.35), and the least popular was the Szigetköz Flavours of Szigetköz festival (mean 3.01). The key finding of the study is that an essential aspect of sustainability for decision-makers is to know the characteristics of tourists (middle-aged female target group), to select and maximize the different program packages in the marketing of the offer, to distribute the traffic and to avoid mass tourism.