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Given the adversity of the COVID-19 pandemic, there remains an incomplete understanding of the gender disparities in the affectedness and recovery of micro-entrepreneurs from the crisis. Consequently, this paper aims to scrutinise gender disparities in the initial repercussions of the crisis and throughout the recovery phase.

Acknowledging the interconnectedness of micro-entrepreneurs’ professional and private spheres, the study adopts a mixed-methods approach combining a representative quantitative study with qualitative data from 36 semi-structured interviews with self-employed individuals in Germany amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

The findings indicate a gender gap in the impact and recovery trajectory, particularly affecting female entrepreneurs in caregiving roles beyond immediate financial repercussions. These disparities did not result in more pronounced business measures for recovery but rather involved more experimentation and prosocial behaviours, with a preference for alternatives to state aid, such as personal reserves and social networks.

Unveiling the dual influence of economic and social factors as essential for female entrepreneurs’ recovery from the crisis adds to the literature by providing a comprehensive understanding of gender-specifics.

This paper aims to present the dynamics of housing prices in Italian cities based on unpublished data with regional details from the late 1960s, half-yearly base, for all main Italian cities measuring the average prices for three city dimensions: city centre, sub-centres and outskirts or suburbs. It estimates the Italian long-term house price index, city based in real terms, and shows a combination of methods to deal with large time-series data.

This paper builds long-term cycles based on the city (real) data by estimating the common components of cointegrated time series and extracting the unobservable signals to build real house price index for sub-regions in Italy. Three different econometric methodologies are used: Johansen cointegration test and VAR models to identify the long-term pattern of prices at the estimated aggregate level; principal components to obtain the common (permanent and transitory) components; and signal extraction in ARIMA time series–model-based approach method to extract the unobserved time signals.

Results show three long-term cycle-trends during the period and identify several one-direction causal non-permanent relationships among house prices from different Italian areas. There is no evidence of convergence among regional’s house prices suggesting that the Italian housing prices converge inside the local market with only short diffusion effects at larger regional level.

Data are measured as the average price in squared meters, and the resulting index is not quality controlled.

The long-term trends on housing prices serve to implement further research and know deeply the evolution of Italian housing prices.

This paper contains new and unknown information about the evolution of housing prices in Italian regions and cities.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the addition of flaxseed and amaranth at different proportions on the hydration kinetics, colour and sensory qualities of instant-extruded cereals, important aspects related to the functionality and acceptability of food products.

Instant-extruded cereals were made with different proportions of flaxseed (6.6–9.3%), amaranth (18.7–33.1%), and maize grits (63.8–67.3%); and characteristics such as hydration kinetics, colour parameters and sensory properties were evaluated.

The kinetics of milk absorption showed that the extruded cereals maintained their texture and crispness for a sufficiently long time (≤20 min). The L*, a* and chroma* values of the extruded cereals were significantly affected (p < 0.05) by the flaxseed content. Sensory evaluation showed that all the extrudates had good acceptance in terms of flavour, texture, and colour attributes in relation to high-fibre commercial cereals; according to the preference test, they were as acceptable as commercial extruded cereals when consumed with milk. The addition of high-fibre and protein-containing grains such as flaxseed (8.6–9.3%) and amaranth (18.7–22.9%) in instant-extruded cereals allowed the production of products with acceptable physical and sensory characteristics.

In this study a novel instant-extruded cereal with flaxseed and amaranth was developed. The evaluation of the physical and sensory characteristics of instant-extruded cereals is essential to guarantee consumer acceptability, especially if functional ingredients with a high content of dietary fibre and protein are added.

The paper aims to study the influence of three dimensions of workplace spirituality (inner life, meaningful work and sense of community) on perceived and objective organizational performance in two primary health care settings: health centres (HCs) and family health units (FHUs), differing in terms of work organization.

Data on workplace spirituality and perceived organizational performance were collected from a sample of 266 health care workers (doctors, nurses and administrative staff). Data on objective performance were obtained from the respective regional health authorities. Multiple regression, GLM, and tests of mediation were carried out.

In both groups, perceived and objective organizational performance are predicted by sense of community. Additionally, FHUs presented significantly higher values in perceived and objective organizational performance, as well as sense of community and meaningful work. Finally, workplace spirituality and sense of community were found to mediate the relationship between work group and perceived and objective organizational performance.

The study's limitations include the convenience sample, as well as lack of control for the social desirability effect. Patient satisfaction surveys as well as the inclusion of predictive variables such as leadership should be considered in future studies.

Primary health care services, and particularly FHUs, revealed the importance of workplace spirituality. Work teams with higher sense of community had higher performance results, which may therefore be an input in policy decisions regarding primary health care.

This study compared the scores of workplace spirituality and perceived and objective organizational performance in two types of primary health care services, in a setting that approximates the quasi-field experiment. Workplace spirituality emerged as significantly mediating the relationship between work unit type and organizational performance.