Asteroseismic Theory of Rapidly Oscillating Ap Stars

This paper reviews some of the important advances made over the last decade concerning theory of roAp stars.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Atividades de enoturismo como facilitadoras da qualidade da relação na indústria do vinho

This study aims to explore how wine producers and distributors and wine producers describe the organizational social capabilities they develop, as a facilitating facet of Relationship Quality (RQ). Therefore, we conducted and analysed 44 in-depth interview among members of top managers of wine producers and wine distributors. Findings highlight the organizational capabilities, social events and the players’ history as the core elements to develop an interactive relationship quality among stakeholdersinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dependence of the Black-body Force on Spacetime Geometry and Topology

In this paper we compute the corrections to the black-body force (BBF) potential due to spacetime geometry and topology. This recently discovered attractive force on neutral atoms is caused by the thermal radiation emitted from black bodies and here we investigate it in relativistic gravitational systems with spherical and cylindrical symmetries. For some astrophysical objects we find that the corrected black-body potential is greater than the flat case, showing that this kind of correction can be quite relevant when curved spaces are considered. Then we consider four cases: The Schwarzschild spacetime, the global monopole, the non-relativistic infinity cylinder and the static cosmic string. For the spherically symmetric case of a massive body, we find that two corrections appear: One due to the gravitational modification of the temperature and the other due to the modification of the solid angle subtended by the atom. We apply the found results to a typical neutron star and to the Sun. For the global monopole, the modification in the black-body potential is of topological nature and it is due to the central solid angle deficit that occurs in the spacetime generated by that object. In the cylindrical case, which is locally flat, no gravitational correction to the temperature exists, as in the global monopole case. However, we find the curious fact that the BBF depends on the topology of the spacetime through the modification of the azimuthal angle and therefore of the solid angle. For the static cosmic string we find that the force is null for the zero thickness case.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Revised versio

Relationship quality between Portuguese wine producers and Chinese distributors insight and recommendations

The current chapter aims to: (1) present the core constructs of relationship quality (RQ) that may differentiate positively or negatively the business-to-business relationships; (2) give an overview of major wine producer countries (old world and new world) from the perspective of the Chinese market; (3) highlight the characteristics of the Chinese wine market, as an opportunity for Portuguese wine producers; and (iv) give insight and recommendations to develop a sustainable exchange relationship with a Chinese distributor. The literature review is based on the scientific publications gathered by searching the database of scientific journals. As for the empirical requirements, secondary data is collected from official statistical reports and primary data by carrying out interviews with wine producers. Findings highlight the relevance in establishing quality relationships and understanding the Chinese market and culture. Four factors are considered as the most relevant in the RQ: Trust; Interdependence; Cooperation; and Long-term Relationship. Regarding difficulties in working with the Chinese market, three factors emerge: physical distance, knowledge about Portugal and its grape varieties, and communication and culture. The chapter also provides recommendations to help understand how to create and maintain a producer–distributor relationship in China.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

HPC Cloud for Scientific and Business Applications: Taxonomy, Vision, and Research Challenges

High Performance Computing (HPC) clouds are becoming an alternative to on-premise clusters for executing scientific applications and business analytics services. Most research efforts in HPC cloud aim to understand the cost-benefit of moving resource-intensive applications from on-premise environments to public cloud platforms. Industry trends show hybrid environments are the natural path to get the best of the on-premise and cloud resources---steady (and sensitive) workloads can run on on-premise resources and peak demand can leverage remote resources in a pay-as-you-go manner. Nevertheless, there are plenty of questions to be answered in HPC cloud, which range from how to extract the best performance of an unknown underlying platform to what services are essential to make its usage easier. Moreover, the discussion on the right pricing and contractual models to fit small and large users is relevant for the sustainability of HPC clouds. This paper brings a survey and taxonomy of efforts in HPC cloud and a vision on what we believe is ahead of us, including a set of research challenges that, once tackled, can help advance businesses and scientific discoveries. This becomes particularly relevant due to the fast increasing wave of new HPC applications coming from big data and artificial intelligence.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, Published in ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR

2,6-Diiodo-4-nitrophenol, 2,6-diiodo-4-nitrophenyl acetate and 2,6-diiodo-4-nitroanisole: interplay of hydrogen bonds, iodo-nitro interactions and aromatic [pi]-[pi]-stacking interactions to give supramolecular structures in one, two and three dimensions

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Verification of the observer property in discrete event systems

The observer property is an important condition to be satisfied by abstractions of Discrete Event System (DES) models. This technical note presents a new algorithm that tests if an abstraction of a DES obtained through natural projection has the observer property. The procedure, called OP-Verifier, can be applied to (potentially nondeterministic) automata, with no restriction on the existence of cycles of 'non-relevant' events. This procedure has quadratic complexity in the number of states. The performance of the algorithm is illustrated by a set of experiments

Wine prestige and experience in enhancing relationship quality and outcomes: wine tourism in Douro

Purpose: The purpose of this study is twofold: conduct a systematic literature review on relationship quality; and analyse the effect of wine brand prestige and wine consumer experience on consumer satisfaction, as well as the wine brand image and word of mouth as outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: The authors employed a systematic approach to develop the literature review and a survey was designed and used to collect responses from 479 wine consumers and tourists. Partial Least Squares approach was used to test the proposed model and analyse the findings. Findings: The systematic approach allows to determine the core constructs of relationship quality, main antecedents and outcomes, which help in the conceptualisation of the proposed model. The findings of the survey suggest that wine brand prestige is more effective in enhancing consumer satisfaction than wine consumer experience. Consumer satisfaction acts as a mediator between wine brand prestige and wine consumer experience and the outcomes, that is, wine. Originality/value: This research sheds light on a strategic and communicational development of prestigious wine brands to enhance wine image and keep wine tourists captivated.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Social partner characteristics as facilitatores of the wine co-creation experiences

This study explores a dyadic perspective of wine producers and distributors using conducting and analysing 44 in-depth interviews among members of top managers of wine producers and wine distributors. They represented 22 companies and 11 exchange relationships. Data gathered by the interviews were processed through the application of specialized software (WEBQDA) to develop the content analysis based on the Grounded Theory. Findings identify Personal Social Capabilities and Organizational Social Capabilities as new constructs of Partner Characteristics, employed to describe the Relationship Quality (RQ) between two important players of the market. The main findings highlight Personal and Organizational Social Characteristics as core elements to develop an interactive relationship quality among stakeholders.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Numerical investigation of the stability of stationary solutions in the theory of cathode spots in arcs in vacuum and ambient gas

The stability of stationary spots on cathodes of arcs in vacuum and ambient gas is investigated by means of the simulation of the temporal evolution of perturbations imposed over steady-state solutions. Two cases of loading conditions are considered, namely, spots operating at a fixed current (the case typical of small-scale experiments) and spots operating at a fixed voltage (the case typical of high-power circuit breakers). Results are reported on spots on large copper cathodes of vacuum arcs and on spots on tungsten cathodes of high-pressure argon arcs. It is shown, in particular, that if the ballast resistance in small-scale laboratory experiments with a high-current arc is insufficient, the potential consequence may be a thermal explosion of a spot, if the arc burns in vacuum, and massive melting of the cathode surface, if the arc burns in ambient gas. This conclusion conforms to trends observed in the experiment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio