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Impedance data obtained by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) are fitted to a relevant electrical equivalent circuit to evaluate parameters directly related to the resistance and the durability of metal–coating systems. The purpose of this study is to present a novel and more efficient computational strategy for the modelling of EIS measurements using the Differential Evolution paradigm.

An alternative method to non-linear regression algorithms for the analysis of measured data in terms of equivalent circuit parameters is provided by evolutionary algorithms, particularly the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithms (standard DE and a representative of the self-adaptive DE paradigm were used).

The results obtained with DE algorithms were compared with those yielding from commercial fitting software, achieving a more accurate solution, and a better parameter identification, in all the cases treated. Further, an enhanced fitting power for the modelling of metal–coating systems was obtained.

The great potential of the developed tool has been demonstrated in the analysis of the evolution of EIS spectra due to progressive degradation of metal–coating systems. Open codes of the different differential algorithms used are included, and also, examples tackled in the document are open. It allows the complete use, or improvement, of the developed tool by researchers.

The purpose of this study is to analyse how gender diversity within corporate boardrooms influences business growth, specifically comparing the contexts of Europe and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It aims to explore the dynamics of gender representation in leadership roles, evaluate its impact on organizational performance and assess how cultural and socio-economic factors affect gender diversity in these distinct regions. The study seeks to provide insights that can inform policies promoting gender equality in leadership, contributing to improved decision-making and potentially enhancing business outcomes.

Using a quantitative and comparative approach, this study includes responses from 430 business leaders, with 210 from MENA and 220 from Europe. Data were collected through structured surveys and analysed using SPSS to determine the correlation between gender diversity in boardrooms and business growth. Data were collected through structured surveys and analysed using analysis of variance in SPSS to determine the potential gender diversity in boardrooms and business growth.

The analysis reveals a strong male dominance in decision-making roles in both European and MENA businesses, with men holding most power and influence. European boardrooms show slightly more gender diversity than MENA, though this does not consistently correlate with higher business growth. Interestingly, MENA reports stronger growth despite less diversity. Women leaders in both regions are effective and dedicated but remain underrepresented.

The findings call for region-specific policies to enhance gender diversity in leadership, with Gender Equality Action Plans tailored to Europe and MENA. Businesses should adopt mentorship and inclusive policies to support growth through diverse leadership. Promoting diversity can drive workplace equality, supported by education. Further research on long-term impacts and stakeholder engagement is recommended to foster change.

This research enhances literature by examining women’s representation in gender-balanced boardrooms and addressing the East-West divide. It fills gaps with practical, policy and theoretical recommendations, offering valuable insights for businesses and policymakers promoting gender equality in leadership.

Teacher educators' emotions are shaped by the fluctuating conditions of their work and variable interactions with students and colleagues. Many studies report on emotions in classrooms and teachers' regulation of emotion, yet there is limited research on emotion in teacher education. This chapter focuses on emotions that teacher educators from diverse contexts encountered during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data were written responses and interviews from teacher educators from 29 countries. Coding included identifying explicit and implicit emotion, the mood of the narrative/interview, and categorizing by theme. A shared excel sheet was used for comparison, which generated emergent themes. Interrater reliability was established using 7 data sets; the remaining were individually coded following the same procedure, then discussed. Common emotional experiences were expressed across all countries, save 3, despite the different people and cultures. Although not representative of the entire country, in general, seven themes emerged, which are: (1) feeling sorrow (2) feelings of optimism, (3) concern for future of teaching, (4) concerns for student mental and professional well-being, (5) fulfilment with ethic of care in higher education, (6) concerns over inequity, and (7) efforts in resilience. Viewed as a whole, the future of teacher education is made apparent. Despite the divergent contexts, the state of concern and goals are similar. Such insight can provide guidance for supporting teacher educators' careers, well-being, and professional development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of pre-service teachers (PSTs) who used lesson study on a five-week school-based teaching placement. The paper analyses 12 undergraduate PSTs’ perceptions of the way lesson study affected classroom-based teaching of English as a foreign language to pre-school and primary school.

A qualitative study is carried out from the responses to a semi-structured interview to the PSTs, and written responses to the open-ended question: What are your perceptions of lesson study?

This paper provides empirical insights about the way lesson study reinforced the PSTs’ classroom management and lesson planning skills. The case-pupils’ responses to the PSTs’ questions post-treatment indicated that games and active techniques in the classroom led to high retention of the taught content. Nevertheless, PSTs’ evaluations of pupils’ learning outcomes require further development. These evaluations often resulted in vague perceptions of overall lesson performance.

This study provides hints of how case-pupils better learned and how PSTs did the observations and performed. However, the results cannot be generalized.

The researchers sustain that the teaching degrees should encourage critical thinking in PSTs’ self-evaluations to reduce the focus on standards and expectations. It is believed that if the pressure of designing perfect lessons is removed from the equation, and instead, sensible and realistic lessons are planned, PSTs will be more inclined to learn and respond resourcefully, creatively, and resolutely to classroom situations.

This chapter is designed with the aim to determine the influence of sociodemographic variables on the capacity to generate social enterprises, such as sex, the student’s country, if only they study or if they study and work, as well as if they participate or direct a social enterprise in university students of Latin American business schools. This research adopted an inductive quantitative approach using a questionnaire. The participants were university students of business schools from Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Second-generation structural equation method (SEM-PLS) was used to analyse the results, using the SmartPLS 3.2.7 software applied to data on 3,739 university students. The results suggest that the entrepreneur role, labour situation, country and sex have a moderating effect in the relation between entrepreneurial orientation and entrepreneurial intention. Also, by using resampling technique Bootstrapping (5,000 times,p < 0.01), significance of the trajectory coefficients (beta) and effect size of the coefficients (beta) were measured to demonstrate significance. Finally, with this research the authors ascertain that entrepreneurial orientation positively influences entrepreneurial intention. thus explaining 42.4% of its variance. This chapter is the first attempt on investigating in university students of Latin American business schools about factors of entrepreneurship orientation and entrepreneurship intention, and has strong potential to contribute to development of policies and strategies to promote the growth of entrepreneurship activities in the universities.

This paper aims to analyse the Chilean housing policy from a human rights perspective. The work is based on the framework to study socio, economic and social rights as human rights developed by the current special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights to describe the steps undertaken by the Chilean State in terms of recognition, institutionalisation and accountability of the right to adequate housing.

First, the authors describe the different levels of legal recognition of the right and the lack of constitutional and legislative recognition in the different levels of the Chilean Legal System. Second, they analyse the Chilean Housing Policy and the institutionalisation of the different elements that compose the right to adequate housing, describing and critically reviewing the Chilean housing policy in the past 30 years. The final section analyses the accountability of such policy, taking into consideration the developments of international and regional mechanisms and the processes of accountability lead by civil society and tribunals.

The paper concludes that a human rights perspective of the right to adequate housing with legal recognition could improve the accountability, the results and development of the Chilean housing policy.

The importance of this paper is both empirical and theoretical. Empirically, this paper adds to the current understanding of housing policies in Chile, aiming to complete the narrative of housing laws at the national level. Theoretically, this paper uses for the first time a recognition, institutionalisation and accountability human rights approach to analyse the Chilean housing policies and its loopholes at the national level.

Over the last few decades, corporate environmental reporting (CER) has received substantial attention due to complex societal and ecological challenges experienced at a global scale. While there has been growth in CER research across the world, we know very little of the state of CER research in Africa. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive literature review of CER in sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate its current state, uncover gaps in extant studies and identify areas for further research in the region. We perform a metasearch on the Financial Times Top 50 journals in addition to wider analyses using African Journals Online (AJOL) and Google Scholar between 2008 and 2020. Though there is some progress in interrogating CER in the region, there is much leeway for further research into how public and private corporations provide an account for their interaction with nature. Extant studies have examined how CER is often subsumed within corporate social responsibility initiatives while other studies explore ways in which CER can provide accountability mechanisms in the mining sector of select countries. Important areas of future research include the influences of legal, cultural and political systems on the level of CER, the tensions between economic development driven by multinational corporations and the necessity for ecological protection. Finally, further research could investigate the role CER can play in encouraging specific corporate disclosures around GHG emissions, especially given global efforts being undertaken to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the contribution made by migrants in the territory that hosts them, particularly when they transfer their knowledge to members of the community. In the specific case of the sea urchin fishery, it is described how the Morishita family in Baja California undertakes the sea urchin value chain, from the location of population banks to the commercialization of the product in the Japanese market and, by therefore, the promotion of development in rural places while starting a culture of export and currency generation. An adventure of opportunities that has been successful for more than 50 years, whose origin is the sustainable use of “a plague” that today is a delicacy for many.