University of Alicante

About: University of Alicante is a education organization based out in Alicante, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Population. The organization has 8681 authors who have published 22690 publications receiving 476064 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitat d'Alacant & Universidad de Alicante.

TQM, managerial factors and performance in the Spanish hotel industry

Abstract: Purpose – Several important managerial factors, such as training, information and communication technologies and information systems (ICT/IS), and environmental management, can be related to total quality management (TQM) in the hotel industry. This paper aims to analyse how TQM is associated with these factors and to verify whether more TQM‐committed hotels achieve higher performance.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data were collected from a sample of 301 three‐to‐five‐star Spanish hotels. A cluster analysis was carried out to identify the different TQM commitment levels, after which a regression analysis tested the TQM‐performance link.Findings – Managerial factors are significantly further developed in hotels with a stronger TQM commitment, which also have higher performances. TQM does not seem to influence all the performance variables measured.Practical implications – Hotels showing a stronger commitment to TQM develop more advanced management systems and achieve higher performance levels...

Thermal conductivity of Al–SiC composites with monomodal and bimodal particle size distribution

Abstract: The thermal conductivity of aluminum matrix composites having a high volume fraction of SiC particles is investigated by comparing data for composites fabricated by infiltrating liquid aluminum into preforms made either from a single particle size, or by mixing and packing SiC particles of two largely different average sizes (170 and 16 mu m). For composites based on powders with a monomodal size distribution, the thermal conductivity increases steadily from 151 W/m K for particles of average diameter 8 mu m to 216 W/m K for 170 mu m particles. For the bimodal particle mixtures the thermal conductivity increases with increasing volume fraction of coarse particles and reaches a roughly constant value of 220 W/m K for mixtures with 40 or more vol.% of coarse particles. It is shown that all present data can be accounted for by the differential effective medium (DEM) scheme taking into account a finite interfacial thermal resistance. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The influence of petrophysical properties on the salt weathering of porous building rocks

Abstract: The influence of pore structure, water transport properties and rock strength on salt weathering is evaluated by means of a thorough rock characterisation and a statistical analysis. The pore structure was described in terms of its porosity, pore size distribution (quantified by mean pore radius) and specific surface area, density and water transport was characterised by means of water permeability (saturated flow) and capillary imbibition (unsaturated flow); whilst the rock strength test was carried out using uniaxial compressive strength, compressional and shear wave velocities, dynamic elastic constants and waveform energy and attenuation were obtained from the digital analysis of the transmitted signal. A principal component analysis and a stepwise multiple regression model was carried out in order to examine the direct relationships between salt weathering and petrophysical properties. From the principal component analysis, two main components were obtained and assigned a petrophysical meaning. The first component is mostly linked to mechanical properties, porosity and density whereas the second component is associated with the water transport and pore structure. Salt weathering, quantified by the percentage of weight loss after salt crystallisation, was included in both principal components, showing its dependence on their petrophysical properties. The stepwise multiple regression analysis found that rock strength has a predominant statistical weight in the prediction of salt weathering, with a minor contribution of water transport and pore structure parameters.