Around the world, there are thousands of metal structures completely or partially buried in the soil. The main concern in their design is corrosion. Corrosion is a mechanism that degrades materials and causes structural failures in infrastructures, which can lead to severe effects on the environment and have direct impact on the population health. In addition, corrosion is extremely complex in the underground environment due to the variability of the local conditions. The problem is that there are many methods to its evaluation but none have been clearly established. In order to ensure the useful life of such structures, engineers usually consider an excess thickness that increases the economic cost of manufacturing and does not satisfy the principles of efficiency in the use of resources. In this paper, an extended revision of the existing methods to evaluate corrosion is carried out to optimize the design of buried steel structures according to their service life. Thus, they are classified into two categories depending on the information they provide: qualitative and quantitative methods. As a result, it is concluded that the most exhaustive methodologies for estimating soil corrosion are quantitative methods fed by non-electrochemical data based on experimental studies that measure the mass loss of structures.

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Abstract:A balanced scorecard (BSC) framework for a factory that develops software for banking was proposed by us at the end of 2015 to ensure its sustainability, and was focused on improving its productivity and cost. Based on this framework, the aim of this study is to construct an approach using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and BSC for evaluating a factory's performance in order for it to become a sustainable business. In this study, AHP is proposed to prioritise and determine weights for the perspectives and indicators included in the BSC for a financial software factory (FSF). The combination of these weights with different indicator measures produces a model that provides an effective assessment tool for FSF managers. The results of the study, which are shown both globally and disaggregated according to the different roles of FSF stakeholders, show that user satisfaction is the main pillar for making decisions. In addition, the result considering roles shows differences according to the relationship of each stakeholder with the software factory. The current study has been validated in a Spanish factory that develops software for several financial entities.

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Crowdfunding is a response to the financing problem of innovative projects in an environment of severe economic crisis. Its competitive advantage lies in its independence from banking institutions and the distribution of risk among a certain number of funders. Since its inception, the number of successfully completed projects has grown to a point where it has started to suffer a downturn that puts its sustainability at risk. This study concerns this particular period of downturn, in order to identify attributes that characterize it, and to define behavioral stereotypes that may be associated with new projects. On a wide data set from sufficiently contrasted projects, and through the use data mining techniques, we extracted the most influential factors in determining the success or failure of the projects, that will subsequently be grouped together using clustering techniques. Six groups of projects have been identified, each with their own characteristics that define them, two of them clearly guide the projects to success and another one allows the modification its characteristics to move away from failure. This achieved strategy allows us to estimate which potential group would be the result of a new project.By means of crowdfunding, unlike the traditional sale of products, the necessary funds are advanced, which reduces risk and makes the project development possible. The contact is carried out through specific platforms that connect people interested in a particular type of product with entrepreneurs offering them. Otherwise, they would not come into contact, causing unmet needs and unrealized expectations [4]. So, a crowdfunding campaign is considered "successful" when the project reaches the minimum necessary funds (budgeted in advance) and is usually considered "very successful" if the funds reached exceed the budgeted amount.The rise of these platforms has been unquestionable since 2006, when the Sellaband platform was created, aimed at raising funds for musical projects. It was the first online platform with an interface just as it is known nowadays. Since then, its number has not stopped growing; 2011 ended with 348 platforms [5] and 2017 closes with more than 2000 active platforms [6] and a large amount of money raised; Kickstarter, the industry's most popular platform, has accumulated a total revenue of just over $4 Billion [7].Despite this positive data, crowdfunding has not reached maturity, since the failure rate is far from improving over the time. According to a study by Professor Mollick, based on an extensive database of Kickstarter projects between 2009 and 2012, the average success rate during that period was 48.1% [8]. The data that the platform shows in its statistics are even worse, starting with success rates in 2010 and 2011 of 43% and 46% respectively, and finishing with the last couple of years 2015 and 2016 with 36% and 32% success. 2016 stands out as the first year in which there is a recess in the number of projects proposed for funding, 14.5% less than the previous year [9]. The suc...