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The purpose of this paper is to provide a flexible tool to predict the particle temperature distribution for traditional laser applications and for the most recent diode laser processes. In the past few years, surface processing and rapid prototyping applications have frequently implemented the use of powder delivery nozzles and high power fibre‐coupled diode lasers with highly convergent laser beams. Owing to the complexity and variety of the process parameters involved in this technology, mathematical models are necessary to understand and predict the deposition behaviour. Modeling the dynamics of the melting pool and the particle temperature distribution is critical for achieving a good deposition quality.

This study focuses on the development of mathematical models to predict the particle temperature distribution over the melting pool. An analytical and a numerical solution are proposed for two cases of laser intensity distribution: top hat and Gaussian.

The results show that a more vertical position of powder delivery nozzle will lead to a higher and more uniform particle temperature distribution, in particular for the top‐hat intensity distribution case.

Previous work has dealt only with Gaussian laser spatial distributions and collimated laser beams. Therefore, they were limited to a specific class of laser processes. This work provides a flexible tool to predict the particle temperature distribution for traditional laser applications (powder delivery nozzle and Gaussian laser profile) and for the most recent diode laser processes (powder delivery nozzle and top‐hat laser distribution with highly convergent laser beam). In addition, the results demonstrate that the particle temperature does not monotonically increase while increasing the nozzle inclination as in the case of a collimated laser beam, but some particles show a minimum temperature for intermediate values of the nozzle inclination angle.

Worldwide, natural hazards are affecting urban cultural heritage and World Heritage Sites, exacerbating other environmental and human-induced threats deriving from deterioration, uncontrolled urbanization and unsustainable tourism. This paper aims to develop a disaster risk analysis in Italian historic centers because they are complex large-scale systems that are cultural and economic resources for the country, as well as fragile areas.

A heritage-oriented qualitative methodology for risk assessment is proposed based upon the formalization of risk as a function of hazard, vulnerability and exposure, taking into account the values of cultural heritage assets.

This work provides a contribution to the body of knowledge in the Italian context of disaster risk mitigation on World Heritage Sites, opening for further research on the monitoring and maintenance of the tangible heritage assets. The application to the site of San Gimignano proves the effectiveness of the methodology for proposing preventive measures and actions that ensure the preservation of cultural values and a safer built environment.

The application of a value-based simplified approach to risk analysis is a novelty for historic centers that are listed as World Heritage Sites.

Tourism systems have been considered more and more in the light of complexity and chaos theories. Most of the work done in this area has highlighted the reasons for and the issues regarding this approach. A steadily growing strand of the recent literature uses the theories to overcome the problems of a reductionist and mechanistic view that is considered unable to provide a full understanding of the structural and dynamic characteristics of tourism systems, and specifically of tourism destinations. This paper seeks to continue this approach and to provide a series of quantitative methods to assess the dynamics of non‐linear complex tourism systems.

The time series used in the paper contains data collected from a sample of 23 large (four‐star) hotels located in Milan, Italy. For each structure daily data of occupancy, average room rate and RevPAR (revenue per available room) were recorded for the period 2006‐2009. The daily distributions of these observations are highly skewed, and therefore the median of the daily values were considered. This results in three series of 1,461 points per type (occupancy, room rate and RevPAR).

The data confirm the complex nature of the destination system and its tendency towards a chaotic state. Additionally, high stability and long memory effects are detected. The outcomes and the implications of this analysis are examined.

A comparison of the values obtained leads to the conclusion that the series under study has a detectable level of non‐linearity, even if it does not reach the pure chaoticity of the Lorenz attractor. A first conclusion is that, as qualitatively assessed in many similar studies, the tourism destination is a complex system with a tendency to become chaotic.

The picture obtained with the analyses conducted can be summarised by saying that the system under study exhibits an unequivocally complex nature. It tends towards a chaotic stage but does so at a slow pace. The stability of the system is quite high: it might be able to resist transient shocks well but, once led in one direction, its long memory characteristics tend to keep it on the resulting path.

This chapter focusses on the contribution of health professionals' communication competences to patients. We propose a model of communication to be used in the therapeutic relationship, supported by a literature review. The methodology is qualitative. Four focus groups (FGs) composed of Portuguese health professionals (N = 25), such as medical doctors, nurses and professors in health fields, were conducted during 2017 and 2018. All the participants of FGs validated a three-factor aggregated and interdependent model, which is composed of assertiveness, clear language and positivity (ACP model). The factors reinforce the therapeutic relationship and improve health literacy, thus reinforcing the patient's health and well-being. The argument is that health is wealth, so if the communication can improve health, then this has positive social implications. The study is a response to the lack of consensus in the literature on what specific and operative communication competences the health professional should perform in clinical encounters with the patients, and how these competences can improve, in the final instance, their health and well-being.

Crises are often studied in international business (IB) research as the external “context” for business strategies, but firms can also be active participants in the unfolding of crises. The study of crises in IB could benefit greatly from studying the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) as active participants, rather than as mere passive actors, responding to exogenous events. History shows that IB crises typically unfold partially as exogenous processes, and partly as the result of MNE strategies. A multilevel and longitudinal approach to studying crises in IB is clearly necessary. This chapter considers the extent to which smaller events that preceded the present crisis – since 1989 – point to systemic problems in global governance. It also defines five overlapping lenses through which future IB studies can further create relevant insights on how to deal with crises: historic, macro, meso, micro and exogenous. The chapter finally serves as an introduction to the whole Progress in International Business Research volume by indicating the relevance of all parts and chapters that follow.