Nationale Citymarketing Monitor 2010

Inleiding Citymarketing is volop in beweging. In het begin van de jaren tachtig was het aantal gemeenten met een citymarketingbeleid nog relatief klein; inmiddels doen veel meer gemeenten aan citymarketing1. Anno 2010 is citymarketing één van de gemeentelijke beleidsterreinen. Citymarketing komt terug in collegeakkoorden, er zijn wethouders met citymarketing in de portefeuille en er zijn ambtenaren belast met het ontwikkelen, coördineren en uitvoeren van citymarketing . Ook zien we op meerdere plaatsen externe – vaak deels door de gemeente gesubsidieerde - partijen die een belangrijke rol vervullen in de citymarketing. Soms hebben deze externe organisaties vooral uitvoeringstaken, maar er zijn ook externe organisaties die verantwoordelijk zijn voor het ontwikkelen en coördineren van het citymarketingbeleid. We kunnen ook spreken van een beroepsgroep van citymarketeers. Een goed voorbeeld hiervan is dat er veel professionals lid zijn van de Linked In groep voor citymarketing. Ook kunnen we zeggen dat de aard en omvang van citymarketingactiviteiten in de afgelopen decennia is veranderd. Zo was city branding nauwelijks aan de orde in de jaren tachtig en negentig. Vanaf de millenniumwisseling is de belangstelling voor het gebruik van branding toegenomen

Does Disclosure of Performance Information Influence Street-level Bureaucrats' Enforcement Style?

Governments use different regulatory instruments to ensure that businesses owners or "inspectees" comply with rules and regulations. One tool that is increasingly applied is disclosing inspectees' performance information to other stakeholders. Disclosing performance information has consequences for street-level bureaucrats because it increases the visibility of their day-to-day work. Using a survey (n =507) among Dutch inspectors of the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, this article shows that the disclosure of performance information has an impact on enforcement style at the street level. Findings show that perceived disclosed performance information positively enhances all three dimensions of street-level bureaucrats' enforcement style (legal, facilitation, and accommodation). This effect is strongest for facilitation and accommodation and weakest for the legal style. Perceived resistance by inspectees partly explains this effect. Contrary to expectations, more perceived disclosure does not result in more but in less perceived resistance of inspectees by street-level bureaucrats

Blaming the bureaucrat: does perceived blame risk influence inspectors’ enforcement style?

Is there a relation between street-level bureaucrats’ enforcement style and their perception of the risk of getting blamed? This article answers this question on the basis of a survey (n = 507) among inspectors of the Netherlands Food and Product Safety Authority. We included perceived media attention on their work as a factor that might influence street-level bureaucrats’ perception of blame risk and their enforcement style. Three dimensions of enforcement style were distinguished from earlier research: legal, facilitative and accommodative. We found that when inspectors perceive more blame risk, they employ a slightly less legal style and, instead, employ a more accommodative style. Thus, they act a little less formally and less coercively (i.e. legal) and take greater account of their peers’ opinions (i.e. accommodative). However, perceived media attention did not have a significant influence on enforcement style. Points for practitioners: 1. When inspectors perceive more blame risk, they tend to pay more attention to the opinion of peers (other inspectors, supervisors, etc.). 2. Blame risk does not lead to the use of a more formal inspection style. 3. Media attention does not play an important role in enhancing the blame risk perception of inspectors. 4. This media and blame risk is less important than often found in the case of politicians. This may be connected to the fact that the work of inspectors as street-level bureaucrats is less visible to the wider public (and the media)

The Effect of Air on Granular Size Separation in a Vibrated Granular Bed

Using high-speed video and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) we study the motion of a large sphere in a vertically vibrated bed of smaller grains. As previously reported we find a non-monotonic density dependence of the rise and sink time of the large sphere. We find that this density dependence is solely due to air drag. We investigate in detail how the motion of the intruder sphere is influenced by size of the background particles, initial vertical position in the bed, ambient pressure and convection. We explain our results in the framework of a simple model and find quantitative agreement in key aspects with numerical simulations to the model equations.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, submitted to PRE, corrected typos, slight change

The differential effect of various stakeholder groups in place marketing

This article analyses whether involving various stakeholder groups in place marketing has effects on the content of place brands, and on how place marketing influences other policy fields, i.e. spatial planning and tourism/leisure policies. The research applies structural equation modelling to nationwide surveys in the Netherlands and Germany among professionals in place marketing (N = 444). The study shows that different stakeholder groups have a varied influence; involving residents and public managers increases the influence of place marketing on spatial planning policies, whereas involving businesses increases influence on tourism/leisure policies. Other studies have shown varying influence of stakeholder groups in cases, but not in quantitative studies. The research also addresses the mechanisms at play in Germany and the Netherlands, showing mainly commonalities

Modeling and enacting complex data dependencies in business processes

Enacting business processes in process engines requires the coverage of control flow, resource assignments, and process data. While the first two aspects are well supported in current process engines, data dependencies need to be added and maintained manually by a process engineer. Thus, this task is error-prone and time-consuming. In this report, we address the problem of modeling processes with complex data dependencies, e.g., m:n relationships, and their automatic enactment from process models. First, we extend BPMN data objects with few annotations to allow data dependency handling as well as data instance differentiation. Second, we introduce a pattern-based approach to derive SQL queries from process models utilizing the above mentioned extensions. Therewith, we allow automatic enactment of data-aware BPMN process models. We implemented our approach for the Activiti process engine to show applicability. Keywords: Process Modeling, Data Modeling, Process Enactment, BPMN, SQ

Delivering strong 1H nuclear hyperpolarization levels and long magnetic lifetimes through signal amplification by reversible exchange

Hyperpolarization turns typically weak NMR and MRI responses into strong signals so that ordinarily impractical measurements become possible. The potential to revolutionize analytical NMR and clinical diagnosis through this approach reflect this area's most compelling outcomes. Methods to optimize the low cost parahydrogen based approach signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE) with studies on a series of biologically relevant nicotinamides and methyl nicotinates are detailed. These procedures involve specific 2H-labelling in both the agent and catalyst and achieve polarization lifetimes of ca. 2 minutes with 50% polarization in the case of 4,6-d2-methylnicotinate. As a 1.5 T hospital scanner has an effective 1H polarization level of just 0.0005% this strategy should result in compressed detection times for chemically discerning measurements that probe disease. To demonstrate this techniques generality, we exemplify further studies on a range of pyridazine, pyrimidine, pyrazine and isonicotinamide analogues that feature as building blocks in biochemistry and many disease treating drugs

Random-phase approximation and its applications in computational chemistry and materials science

The random-phase approximation (RPA) as an approach for computing the electronic correlation energy is reviewed. After a brief account of its basic concept and historical development, the paper is devoted to the theoretical formulations of RPA, and its applications to realistic systems. With several illustrating applications, we discuss the implications of RPA for computational chemistry and materials science. The computational cost of RPA is also addressed which is critical for its widespread use in future applications. In addition, current correction schemes going beyond RPA and directions of further development will be discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures, published online in J. Mater. Sci. (2012

The Effects of Media and their Logic on Legitimacy Sources within Local Governance Networks: A Three-Case Comparative Study

__Abstract__ Although theoretical and empirical work on the democratic legitimacy of governance networks is growing, little attention has been paid to the impact of mediatisation on democracies. Media have their own logic of news-making led by the media’s rules, aims, production routines and constraints, which affect political decision-making processes. In this article, we specifically study how media and their logic affect three democratic legitimacy sources of political decision-making within governance networks: voice, due deliberation and accountability. We conducted a comparative case study of three local governance networks using a mixed method design, combining extensive qualitative case studies, interviews and a quantitative content analysis of media reports. In all three cases, media logic increased voice possibilities for citizen groups. Furthermore, it broadened the deliberation process, although this did not improve the quality of this process per se, because the media focus on drama and negativity. Finally, media logic often pushed political authorities into a reactive communication style as they had to fight against negative images in the media. Proactive communication about projects, such as public relation (PR) strategies and branding, is difficult in such a media landscape