The Reality of Financing Small Tourism Firms: The Case of Indian Tourism SMEs

mall tourist firms occupy an important place within the Indian tourism industry and make a significant contribution towards gross domestic production. This study investigates access to and finance preferences of SME tourism firms in the Punjab area, India. The study employed a post-positivist research approach depending on semi-structured questionnaires and interviews. The findings confirmed that tourism firms relied on pecking order trajectory, drawing capital from own savings, family and informal lenders, which is consistent with the literature. The study provides a unique insight into issues related to tourism firms and benchmarks findings with SME literature to identify the salient points

Study of the influence of surface treatments in kraft paper for the compatibilization with thermoplastic polymers

The transports industry has been presenting a set of solutions that integrates natural fibers and their compatibility with structural materials, like polymers. However, it is fundamental to ensure the fulfillment of mechanical requirements. One of the main reasons that is driving the use of this type of fibers, instead of synthetic fibers, is related with the some actual trends, such as weight reduction, which is linked with its lower density. Moreover, weight reduction also contributes, indirectly, to the sustainability and decrease of greenhouse gases emissions, since it makes possible to reduce the fuel consumption of transports.However, due to the different polarities verified between apolar thermoplastic polymers, such as polypropylene (PP), and natural fiber reinforcements, such as kraft paper, a study of the effect of physical and chemical surface treatments was carried out in order to verify their influence on the fiber-matrix interface properties. The physical process, corona treatment, was applied in the kraft paper with different discharge dosages, while the chemical treatment was performed through the use of several alkali solutions with different concentrations of NaOH. The obtained results from the performed tests shows that the alkali solution treatments improved, up to 57%, the mechanical properties of tensile strength and Young Modulus of the composite material, comparatively with the effect of corona treatment on its surface. These results induce an increase of interface compatibility between the matrix and kraft paper

Phase evolution in an MCrAlY coating during high temperature exposure

MCrAlY (M = Ni and/or Co) coating systems are often applied on gas turbine blades and vanes to withstand the challenges of severe conditions. During service MCrAlY coatings are subjected to microstructural transformations that can be an indication of components service temperatures. The development of indirect methods to measure this parameter is of great concern in the gas turbine \u201cworld\u201d due to the impossibility of direct measurements. In the present work the evolution of an MCrAlY coating applied on Ren\ue980 by LPPS (Low Pressure Plasma Spray) technique has been studied in order to verify if it was possible to identify a microstructural indicator of the service temperature. The specimens were exposed for different lengths of time at test temperatures of 700 \u2013 800 \u2013 900 \ub0C in order to characterize the phase evolution with time and temperature. Selective etching was employed for optical metallographic investigation. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) observation combined with Electron Backscattered Diffraction (EBSD) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) showed that the coating is composed of a \u3b3- Co matrix, \u3b2-AlNi, \u3c3-(Cr, Co), Cr carbide and Y-rich phases. Among these phases, the sigma phase resulted in a temperature \u2013 composition dependence that can be a useful tool for evaluating the local service temperature and modelling the residual lifetime

Health expectancies in the European Union: same concept, different methods, different results

Background Healthy life expectancy (HLE) is a population health measure that combines mortality and morbidity, which can be calculated using different methods. In this study, we aimed to assess the correlation, reliability and (dis)agreement between two estimates monitored in the European Union (EU), that is, the European Commission&#8217;s HLE based on self-perceived health (SPH-HLE) and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation&#8217;s HLE based on disability weight (DW-HLE), by sex, and comparing these results with LE and proportion of life spent in good health (%GH). Methods We performed a retrospective study in the EU28 countries, between 2010 and 2017. The HLE methods differ in definition, measurement and valuation of health states. While SPH-HLE relies directly on one question, DW-HLE relies on epidemiological data adjusted for DW. Spearman’s r, intraclass correlation coefficient, information-based measure of disagreement and Bland-Altman plots were used to assess reliability, correlation and disagreement in HLE resulting from both methods and in LE or %GH measured by both&nbsp;institutions. Results Correlation and reliability between SPH-HLE and DW-HLE were good (better for males), with low disagreement, and were even better for LE between both institutions. The HLE Bland-Altman plots suggest a variability range of approximately 6 years for both sexes, higher for females. There was also an increasing HLE difference between methods with higher average HLE for both&nbsp;sexes. Conclusion We showed wide variations between both methods with a clear and different high impact on female and male HLE, showing a tendency for countries with higher health expectancies to yield larger gaps between SPH-HLE and DW-HLE.</p