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In this paper new cubic v‐splines monotonic one‐dimensional profiles are presented, for the finite volume solution of convection‐diffusion problems. By studying the profile in normalized variables, some weight functions have been determined for the profile. Being free of the requirement that the volumes be equal, the volume size can be reduced where needed. Numerical properties of the proposed method were formally analysed and are confirmed by numerical examples included here.

This chapter has aimed to indicate some new important emerging policy problems, which have characterised the Covid crisis in the European economy during 2020 and then the bounce-back in 2021. The chapter has illustrated an economic theoretical framework focussed on innovation and structural changes, according to a Schumpeterian and evolutionary or neo-institutional approach, which seems more appropriate than the traditional neoclassical and macroeconomic models, as the basis for a ‘new industrial strategy’ in the European Union. The mainstream economic models are static and point-like, as they do not consider the role of time and of space, such as the existence of asymmetric information and external economies and also the interdependence between the companies and the other ‘stakeholders’ in the process of economic development. On the contrary, the theoretical framework of this chapter considers the factors that act on the structural changes according to four different and interdependent dimensions: the final demand, the intermediate productions and also the supply of labour and the endowment of natural resources. Finally, some preliminary indications on the organisation of a new industrial strategy at the European scale are discussed, different from the focus on just the digital and green technologies, as indicated by the NGEU program by the European Commission.

This study aims to investigate the global issues of youth unemployment using bibliometric analysis covering the period from 1983 to 2022. There is a dearth of a bibliometric study analysis on unemployment, particularly youth unemployment even at the global level. The present study seeks to fill this gap by exploring the prominent studies related to youth unemployment at the global level.

Using VOSviewer software bibliometric results and the Scopus database, the study uncovered the most frequently cited, prominent and influential authors, as well as the institutions that have worked on youth unemployment and the most prominent keywords published on youth unemployment.

Nearly 80% of the research articles on youth unemployment were published from 2005 to 2022, and a significant increase in publication after 2012 is observed. Based on the published papers, the most studied determinants of youth unemployment are increased levels of regional economic advances, state demographics, relocation, household conditions, regional openness and export/import. Economic freedom, labour market reforms, economic growth, high proportion of part-time employment, active labour market policies, minimum wage norms, extent of bargaining scope and alignment are prominent determinants that reduce unemployment at large and improve labour market performance of youth in particular.

Bibliometric analysis, like the present study, can narrow down the most prominent sources of information on youth unemployment for beginners in this field of research.

This bibliometric study on youth employment assists researchers and policymakers in understanding and summarizing the necessary determinants of youth employment that are already being identified and studied based on practical evidence from the authors’ case study-based research work. The present study raises the issue of youth unemployment at large. It helps in identifying factors in one place and thus new researchers can use it as a starting point for their research on youth unemployment. It helps in providing clustering of factors. It highlighted the significant studies, authors and institutions working in this field.

On social implication, it can be argued that studies on topics related to human resources have a direct impact on society standards. By producing scientific knowledge that aids in the recognition of the complexities of human processes and behaviours, social science research significantly contributes to the enrichment of the community as a whole. When young people are unemployed, it causes social unrest and may increase crime and terrorism, all of which contribute to political instability. Youth unemployment causes psychological illness because of anxiety, alienation and depression. As a result, it causes social instability and necessitates immediate attention in all societies. The present study highlights that although the unemployment rate of youth is significantly higher in underdeveloped countries than the developed countries, their representation in the publication is significantly low. This under-representation of countries shows their lack of commitment to society in working on the issue of youth unemployment.

It is assumed that there are plenty of research studies on unemployment, particularly at the global level. However, various domains of researchers may require a bibliometric kind of analysis wherein they may get an idea about the prominent number of literatures arguing concerning issues at large, in the sense of “focused studies” covering the comprehensive viewpoint on youth unemployment. The paper aimed to emphasize the topic of youth unemployment, its development in the research field and the usefulness of bibliometric analysis in social sciences in general, and youth unemployment in particular.

One of the major goals of sustainable development is creating employment opportunity among all. Despite its largest demographic dividends, the whole world faces challenges in employment generation among youth. The growing number of unemployed youths is one of the important problems faced by developed as well-developing countries. Youth unemployment is the situation of young people who are looking for a job but cannot find a job in the age between 15 and 24. Mismatch between education and employability resulted in high unemployment rates among the youth. A key research question is that how we can bridge the gap and equip the youth for job field. Although eminent economists, newspapers, international statistical bodies continuously put fingers towards this vulnerability, research work in this field is really scant. On this backdrop, this chapter wants to explore the intensity of youth unemployment in India; keeping in mind, India has the largest youth population in the world. Based on data sources from World Development Indicators, the chapter studies the time series since globalisation to COVID periods. This chapter also tries to search the macroeconomic variables related anyway to the youth unemployment rate. As research methodology, we use vector autoregressive (VAR) Granger causality test. Based on our results, the author has concluded that human development index in India and GDP both ways causes each other. And youth unemployment rate in India causes HDI. However, our econometric investigations can be useful to better assessment of youth unemployment in India from liberalisation to pandemic. At the end of this chapter, some final considerations and policy implications on youth labour market dynamics are analysed and discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main “models of growth” characterising the EU countries in the last two decades, with particular reference to the employment‐productivity relationship, and to reveal the key determinants of productivity.

After a survey of the relevant literature, the empirical section analyses the “models of growth” by graphical inspection, identifying four models (for EU‐27 in the 1990‐2008 period): extensive, intensive, virtuous, and stagnant. Then different econometric investigations (beta convergence, dynamic panel with GMM estimation, fixed effects panel, cross‐section) are used to test the “diminishing returns of employment rate” hypothesis (for the 2000‐2006 period), to assess the convergence processes and to determine the key variables affecting productivity.

The main finding is the confirmation of the hypothesis mentioned: high employment growth is likely to lead to slower productivity growth. Moreover, besides verifying the beta convergence of productivity per worker, the most significant determinants of productivity are the following: education, a transition index, some structural indicators, and a “shadow economy” proxy. Finally, the descriptive analysis shows that “old” EU countries, coming from two decades of “jobless growth”, shifted to an “extensive” growth model; in contrast, transition countries (NMS) followed the opposite path: reducing employment and raising productivity.

It would be advisable to extend the period of the analysis, as soon as new data become available.

The main policy implication is to get the EU Lisbon strategy – i.e. to create “more and better” jobs – working effectively.

The most original finding is the clear assessment of an employment‐productivity trade‐off. Also, the different models of growth are categorised simply and effectively.

This paper aims at building a discharge model for the power cable bellows based on plasma energy deposition and analyzing the discharge ablation problem.

Aiming at the multiphysical mechanism of the discharge ablation process, a multiphysical field model based on plasma energy deposition is established to analyze the discharge characteristics of the power cable bellows. The electrostatic field, plasma characteristics, energy deposition and temperature field are analyzed. The discharge experiment is also carried out for result validation.

The physical mechanism of the bellows ablative effect caused by partial discharge is studied. The results show that the electric field intensity between the aluminum sheath and the buffer layer easily exceeds the pressure resistance value of air breakdown. On the plasma surface of the buffer layer, the electron density is about 4 × 1,019/m³, and the average temperature of electrons is about 3.5 eV. The energy deposition analysis using the Monte Carlo method shows that the electron range in the plasma is very short. The release will complete within 10 nm, and it only takes 0.1 s to increase the maximum temperature of the buffer layer to more than 1,000 K, thus causing various thermal effects.

Its physical process involves the distortion of electric field, formation of plasma, energy deposition of electrons, and abrupt change of temperature field.

The Islamic world spans many different languages with different language structures. This paper aims to explore one way in which language structure affects consumer response to the marketing of cobrands.

Two between subject experiments were conducted using samples of participants from Saudi Arabia and the USA. The first manipulated partner brand category similarity and brand name order, along with the structure of the language used to communicate with the market. The data for this study includes Arabic speakers in Saudi Arabia as well as English speakers in the USA. The second study explores how targeting a population fluent in multiple languages of varied structure nullifies the findings from the first study and uses Latino participants in the USA.

This study finds that when brands come from similar product categories, name order did not affect cobrand evaluations, but it did when the brands come from dissimilar product categories. Here, evaluations of the cobrand are enhanced when the invited brand is in the position that adjectives occupy in the participant’s language. The authors also find that being proficient in two languages, each with a different default order for adjectives and nouns, quashes the effect of name order otherwise seen when brands from dissimilar product categories engage in cobranding.

By examining the impact of language structure on the effects of cobrand evaluation and conducting studies among participants with differing dominant languages, this research can rule out simple primacy or recency effects.

This study conducts a comparative study on the performance of reliability assessment methods based on adaptive surrogate models to accurately assess the reliability of automobile components, which is critical to the safe operation of vehicles.

In this study, different adaptive learning strategies and surrogate models are combined to study their performance in reliability assessment of automobile components.

By comparing the reliability evaluation problems of four automobile components, the Kriging model and Polynomial Chaos-Kriging (PCK) have better robustness. Considering the trade-off between accuracy and efficiency, PCK is optimal. The Constrained Min-Max (CMM) learning function only depends on sample information, so it is suitable for most surrogate models. In the four calculation examples, the performance of the combination of CMM and PCK is relatively good. Thus, it is recommended for reliability evaluation problems of automobile components.

Although a lot of research has been conducted on adaptive surrogate-model-based reliability evaluation method, there are still relatively few studies on the comprehensive application of this method to the reliability evaluation of automobile component. In this study, different adaptive learning strategies and surrogate models are combined to study their performance in reliability assessment of automobile components. Specially, a superior surrogate-model-based reliability evaluation method combination is illustrated in this study, which is instructive for adaptive surrogate-model-based reliability analysis in the reliability evaluation problem of automobile components.

The application of circular economy (CE) has received wide coverage in the built environment, including public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects, in recent times. However, current studies and practical implementation of CE are largely associated with construction demolition, waste and recycling management. Few studies exist on circular models and success factors of public infrastructures developed within the PPP contracts. Thus, the main objective of this article is to identify the models and key success factors associated with CE implementation in PPP infrastructure projects.

A systematic review of the literature was undertaken in this study using forty-two (42) peer-reviewed journal articles from Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and PubMed.

The results show that environmental factors, sustainable economic growth, effective stakeholder management, sufficient funding, utilization of low-carbon materials, effective supply chain and procurement strategies facilitate the implementation of CE in PPP infrastructure projects. Key CE business models are centered around the extension of project life cycle value, circular inputs and recycling and reuse of projects.

Although the study presents relevant findings and gaps for further investigations, it has a limited sample size of 42 papers, which is expected to increase as CE gain more prominence in PPP infrastructure management in future.

The findings are relevant for decision-making by PPP practitioners to attain the social, economic and environmental benefits of transitioning to circular infrastructure management.

This study contributes to articulating the key models and measures toward sustainable CE in public infrastructure development.

The role of financial institutions and financial intermediaries in fostering economic growth (ECO) by improving the efficiency of capital accumulation, encouraging savings, and ultimately improving the productivity of the economy has been well established by the researchers. The reforms in the financial sector worldwide during the 1980s and 1990s were aimed at ushering in greater efficiency and more competitiveness.

The impact of financial market freedom (MF) on the overall development of the financial sector and thereby the growth in an economy is one of the most important considerations for policymakers over the years. This chapter aims to examine the causal relationship between financial MF and ECO in the Indian economy in the post-reform period.