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The purpose of this investigation was to develop a digital instrument for the quantitative evaluation of pitting corrosion in metals.

This investigation comprised two central parts: research, testing and monitoring of the formation of pitting by conventional methods and applying American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standards, and the development of a virtual instrument based on the LabVIEW 2010 platform.

The methodology used was suitable for the analysis of pitting on carbon steel and aluminum alloy UNS A96061, used in the aerospace industry.

This technique allows pits to be to localized, measured and quantified on metallic surfaces, for corrosion evaluation in atmospheric and industrial environments.

This combination of conventional and digital methods can assist in corrosion control of pitting in industrial equipment.

The integral transform method is employed for the hybrid numerical‐analytical solution of two‐dimensional, steady‐state heat conduction within extended surfaces of variable longitudinal profile and temperature dependent thermal conductivity. Numerical results are then obtainable with automatic accuracy, allowing for the establishment of benchmark results and for the validation of approximate solutions. Convergence rates are illustrated for longitudinal fins with trapezoidal and parabolic profiles, and for different values of the governing parameters, Biot number and aspect ratio. In addition, the classical one‐dimensional approximate solutions are critically examined for these typical non‐straight profiles, and the applicability limits are investigated.

This paper examined the inclusive growth position of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through the metrics of poverty-gap, bottom20 and employment. Through these indicators, the study investigated the effects of domestic-investment on inclusive-growth and established the moderating impact of governance in the domestic investment-inclusive growth nexus. It further accounted for potential nonlinearity and investigated the governance threshold that moderates domestic investment-inclusive growth relationships.

Using a sample of 41-SSA countries, the paper employed the fixed effect (FE) with the Driscoll and Kraay nonparametric consistent covariance matrix estimator, the generalized method of moments (GMM) and the dynamic-panel threshold techniques.

The poverty-gap metric showed that with increasing GDP-growth, the income of the poor falls below the poverty-line, suggesting that GDP-growth episodes may have widened the poverty-gap and contributed minimally to reducing it. Findings revealed insignificant effects of GDP-growth on the bottom-20 metric while the employment-metric indicated that the “jobless-growth” phenomenon remained valid. The authors essentially established that economic growth has not been inclusive but the complementary roles played by domestic-investments and governance are essential requirements for achieving inclusive growth. The threshold-modeling indicated that countries in the upper-regime of governance gained more in reducing poverty gaps, increasing income shared by the bottom-quintile and improving employment for every percentage increase in investment. The authors confirmed nonlinearity and showed that there exists a governance threshold that respective governments in Africa must reach for domestic-investment to enhance inclusive growth.

The paper accounted for cross-sectional dependence, nonlinearity and the governance threshold needed for domestic-investment to stimulate inclusive growth.

This paper focuses on three key metrics of poverty, income distribution and employment to ascertain the pro-poor and inclusive-growth position of the western African region. The roles of governance structures and their interactive effects are also accommodated to capture the peculiarity of the region.

The paper employs fixed and dynamic models.

Evidence suggests that growth is pro-poor, although virtually all governance indicators are sterile in stimulating poverty reduction. The authors observe that health and education spending coupled with trade-openness stimulate pro-poor growth potentials, whereas conflicts culminate the pervasiveness of poverty in the region. By empirically answering the question of how inclusive is economic growth through the lens of income-distribution and employment, the authors show that growth has been exclusive as per-capita-GDP growth rather dampens income shared by the poorest 20%. Also, it is observed that growth has not been inclusive as the jobless-growth argument remains valid while high inequality further exacerbates unemployment in the region. It is further shown that governance has been generally weak in propelling inclusive growth except where the institutional-component of governance stimulates inclusive growth through improvement in equality and labor employability.

The study jointly examines the metrics of poverty, income distribution and employment to ascertain growth pro-poorness and inclusivity which are key for the achievement of African-union (AU) agenda 2063. The study captures cross-sectional dependence among selected countries which previous studies ignored.

The purpose of this paper is to address the aftermath of the crisis that has plagued the Spanish financial sector from a microeconomic and emotional perspective associated to financial entities’ relationships with their customers.

The authors build a model of effects with structural equation modelling based on the quality of the relationship between financial entities and their customers. The authors identify the different dimensions of quality in the entity’s service provision (tangible quality, functional quality and staff quality) as essential antecedents of the different dimensions of relationship quality (satisfaction, trust and loyalty). Moreover, the authors develop a multi-group analysis to test the moderator effect of age in the proposed model.

The work shows that bank customers have been eminently results driven focusing on functional quality which is a determinant cause of customer satisfaction and trust.

Furthermore the authors consider that the dimensions of service quality are interrelated. Functional quality represents an essential quality in customer service, whereas tangible and personnel qualities act to reinforce functional quality. In turn, qualities based on tangible aspects have positive effects on qualities based on intangible aspects.

Moreover, the results confirm the consideration of related variables to conform the construct of relationship quality: satisfaction, trust and loyalty. Finally, age has been found to have a considerable effect as a moderating variable in the relations.

These results represent a significant change in traditional patterns of bank customer behaviour, and fit in with postulates of a new approach based on individual differences in attitudes, with relevant practical implications.

This paper aims to examine the knowledge production on tourism gender research in Latin America and to reflect on the main challenges faced by this subfield.

The study conducts a bibliometric analysis of the journal articles on tourism gender research in the largest scientific databases in Latin America: Redalyc, Scielo and Latindex. The paper examines variables such as year of publication, journal, authors, affiliation, types of articles, research topics, methodologies and geographical location of fieldwork.

The study identified 153 gender aware papers from 70 journals for the period 2001-2015. The leading countries in the subfield are Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. The majority of papers are empirical and have a local scope. The main theoretical approaches derive from sociological and anthropological perspectives with a predominance of qualitative methodologies. There is a need to strengthen the theoretical and epistemological frameworks and increase international collaboration for knowledge exchange among tourism gender scholars.

The bibliometric analysis was limited to indexed journals with online access. It focused on academic articles and excluded research notes, book reviews and conference proceedings.

As the main working languages of scientific production in Latin America are Spanish and Portuguese, this is the first attempt to make tourism gender research from this region visible for the predominantly Anglophone tourism academy, with the intention of identifying common challenges.

The relationship between economic growth performance and achieving inclusive growth, especially concerning poverty rate, is a subject of continuous argument in economic literature. Although some argue that this relationship is deterministic, i.e. achieving economic growth will definitely reduce poverty and enhance inclusive growth, others believe that the relationship between growth and poverty is conditional, depends mainly on the status of income distribution in this country, i.e. if the growth is combined with a significant improve in distribution then it will reduce poverty.

Africa is a clear example of the nexus between economic growth and poverty reduction. Although many African countries manage to achieve relatively high growth rates, hit two digits in some cases, during the last decades, poverty still widely spread in those countries. Of the 30 poorest countries in the world, 24 are African countries. And about 50% of African people still live under the poverty line. Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which could be considered as one of the fastest growing regions in Africa, is not an exception; although the region achieves relatively high growth rates, poverty and inequality are still among the region’s main development challenges.

This paper found that the economic growth rate achieved in COMESA countries could not be considered as inclusive growth as it does not combine with adequate enhancement in inclusiveness indicators. And that the structural characteristics of those countries economy and its inelasticity are the main reasons behind this inefficiency.

In this context, this paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of economic growth achieved in COMESA countries in achieving inclusive growth and to identify the main factors affecting this relationship by using two steps data envelopment analysis. Although this method is originally developed to evaluate the relative economic efficiencies, the main contribution of this paper is the adaptation of data envelopment analysis to evaluate the efficiency of economic growth achieved in COMESA countries in enhancing inclusive growth dimensions such as poverty rate, inequality, unemployment, education, health, and then to identify in its second step the main indicators that could be used to explain the variation in efficiency scores.

The purpose of this paper is the segmentation of the spectators attending a music festival in the city of Córdoba, Spain, according to their musical preferences.

In order to achieve this objective, the methodology used in the research consisted of the application of a group of multivariable techniques and in the realisation of a post hoc single-variate ANOVA analysis.

The principal conclusion resulting from this research is that there are different musical preferences with respect to the spectators at a music festival.

The main practical application of this research focusses on knowing the principal factors that determine musical preferences of the persons attending the festival.

The principal originality factor and innovation is analysing how the spectators of a music festival that has been held for many years attend with different motivations with respect to their musical preferences.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of inclusive tourism in a small-island tourism economy of the Caribbean. Dubbed the “One Happy Island” in the Caribbean, the operationalization and development of direct and indirect channels of inclusive tourism are studied and discussed to foster policy guidance and future studies.

Based on an in-depth case study of Aruba, the findings yield significant insights on the unfolding of inclusive tourism within the context of a maturing small-island tourism economy in Aruba. A mix of historical socioeconomic analysis in conjunction with community resident perspectives provides an expanded framing of small-island inclusive tourism development.

In mature, small-island tourism economies such as Aruba, social and ecological disparities are particularly evident and over an extended period have exceeded direct economic contribution. The case study reveals an Aruban community experiencing significant negative socioecological impacts and subsequent diminishing economic contribution and well-being. Concerns about environmental pollution and destruction, the loss of quality of life and income equality, in addition to over construction and crowding, indicate a growing animosity toward tourism and further tourism growth.

Based on previous studies, this study provides an extended framing of small-island inclusive tourism, which opens opportunities for further testing and validation across other small-island tourism economies. It provides a conceptual critique of classical tourism growth maxims in small-island developing states.

The paper provides rich historical insights using an in-depth case study approach that extends the concept and evolution of inclusive tourism in mature, small-island tourism destinations, especially in the Caribbean, thus providing a contemporary framing of inclusive tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the generalized integral transform technique (GITT) to the solution of convection-diffusion problems with nonlinear boundary conditions by employing the corresponding nonlinear eigenvalue problem in the construction of the expansion basis.

The original nonlinear boundary condition coefficients in the problem formulation are all incorporated into the adopted eigenvalue problem, which may be itself integral transformed through a representative linear auxiliary problem, yielding a nonlinear algebraic eigenvalue problem for the associated eigenvalues and eigenvectors, to be solved along with the transformed ordinary differential system. The nonlinear eigenvalues computation may also be accomplished by rewriting the corresponding transcendental equation as an ordinary differential system for the eigenvalues, which is then simultaneously solved with the transformed potentials.

An application on one-dimensional transient diffusion with nonlinear boundary condition coefficients is selected for illustrating some important computational aspects and the convergence behavior of the proposed eigenfunction expansions. For comparison purposes, an alternative solution with a linear eigenvalue problem basis is also presented and implemented.

This novel approach can be further extended to various classes of nonlinear convection-diffusion problems, either already solved by the GITT with a linear coefficients basis, or new challenging applications with more involved nonlinearities.