18 research outputs found

    Untangling hotel industry’s inefficiency: An SFA approach applied to a renowned Portuguese hotel chain

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    The present paper explores the technical efficiency of four hotels from Teixeira Duarte Group - a renowned Portuguese hotel chain. An efficiency ranking is established from these four hotel units located in Portugal using Stochastic Frontier Analysis. This methodology allows to discriminate between measurement error and systematic inefficiencies in the estimation process enabling to investigate the main inefficiency causes. Several suggestions concerning efficiency improvement are undertaken for each hotel studied.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Sediment budget for a North Pennine upland reservoir catchment, UK

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    Sediment delivery from upland fluvial systems in the UK is of considerable importance in catchment management. However, scarcity of detailed data on sediment sources, storage and linkages between geomorphic processes inhibits current understanding of such systems. A sediment budget for an un-gauged, upland catchment at Burnhope Reservoir (North Pennines, UK) has been developed that couples catchment sediment sources and suspended sediment dynamics to reservoir sedimentation and; quantifies historic and contemporary sediment yields. Stream-side scars and cut banks are the dominant catchment sediment sources with greatest connectivity in first order tributaries during high discharge events. The catchment sediment system is supply-limited and sediment exhaustion occurs on an intra and inter-storm event basis. Bathymetric surveys, core transects and aerial photographs were used to assess spatial variability in sediment accumulation in the reservoir. Physical and radiometric analysis ((^137)Cs) of core sediments provided estimates of dry bulk density, particle size variations and a sedimentation chronology. Total reservoir sedimentation over the 67 year period has been estimated at 592 t yr(^1) ± 10% (33.3 t km(^-2) yr(^1)) with average sedimentation rates of 1.24 and 0.77cm yr(^-1)calculated from the distal and proximal areas of the reservoir respectively. Inputs of fine suspended sediment from direct catchwater streams accounts for 54% of sediment supply to the reservoir (best estimate yield of 318 t yr(^-1) ± 129%), while inputs from the actively eroding reservoir slopes and shorelines contribute a gross yield of 328 t yr(^-1) + 92%. However, 70% of sediment from shoreline erosion is >2 mm diameter and is stored on the shoreline and toe slopes. The remaining 30% (98.41) of fine sediment is transferred to deep-water reservoir storage. This highlights the importance of shoreline erosion and sediment storage in the overall budget. Error analysis of the sediment balance equation enabled the residual sediment inputs from ungauged tributary streams to be estimated (232.6 t yr(^-1) ± 394.9%). The specific sediment yield of 33.3 t km(^-2) yr(^-1) to Burnhope Reservoir is relatively low. It is 40% lower than the average yield of 84 t km(^-2) yr(^-1) estimated from British storage reservoirs (DETR, 2001) and an order of magnitude lower than estimates from South Pennine reservoirs. Analysis of the particle size of core sediments showed abrupt increases in sand-sized particles in the top 20 cm of the cores (late 1970s onwards). This is related to the diverging trends in winter and summer-centred rainfall records and rapidly fluctuating reservoir levels. The sediment budget approach together with the chronology of reservoir sedimentation identifies the main sediment transfer pathways in the Burnhope catchment, and provides evidence of both extrinsic and intrinsic controls on sediment transfer and deposition

    Book of Abstracts 15th International Symposium on Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering and 3rd Conference on Imaging and Visualization

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    In this edition, the two events will run together as a single conference, highlighting the strong connection with the Taylor & Francis journals: Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering (John Middleton and Christopher Jacobs, Eds.) and Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: Imaging and Visualization (JoãoManuel R.S. Tavares, Ed.). The conference has become a major international meeting on computational biomechanics, imaging andvisualization. In this edition, the main program includes 212 presentations. In addition, sixteen renowned researchers will give plenary keynotes, addressing current challenges in computational biomechanics and biomedical imaging. In Lisbon, for the first time, a session dedicated to award the winner of the Best Paper in CMBBE Journal will take place. We believe that CMBBE2018 will have a strong impact on the development of computational biomechanics and biomedical imaging and visualization, identifying emerging areas of research and promoting the collaboration and networking between participants. This impact is evidenced through the well-known research groups, commercial companies and scientific organizations, who continue to support and sponsor the CMBBE meeting series. In fact, the conference is enriched with five workshops on specific scientific topics and commercial software.info:eu-repo/semantics/draf

    NOTIFICATION !!!

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    All the content of this special edition is retrieved from the conference proceedings published by the European Scientific Institute, ESI. http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/pages/view/books The European Scientific Journal, ESJ, after approval from the publisher re publishes the papers in a Special edition

    NOTIFICATION !!!

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    All the content of this special edition is retrieved from the conference proceedings published by the European Scientific Institute, ESI. http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/pages/view/books The European Scientific Journal, ESJ, after approval from the publisher re publishes the papers in a Special edition

    NOTIFICATION !!!

    Get PDF
    All the content of this special edition is retrieved from the conference proceedings published by the European Scientific Institute, ESI. http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/pages/view/books The European Scientific Journal, ESJ, after approval from the publisher re publishes the papers in a Special edition

    NOTIFICATION !!!

    Get PDF
    All the content of this special edition is retrieved from the conference proceedings published by the European Scientific Institute, ESI. http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/pages/view/books The European Scientific Journal, ESJ, after approval from the publisher re publishes the papers in a Special edition
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