Surf tourism: segmentation by motivation and destination choice

The choice of touristic destinations depends on a number of factors, whether they’re personal, sociological or economical. The tourist demand is, thus, closely related to the decision that people make when planning their leisure activities. The following analysis seeks to provide information that will provide guidance to public authorities and companies planning in the strategy of sustainable tourism development within a specific segment, in this case surf tourism. This is a new business opportunity, currently having an assuming an important role in the development of regions. Motivation involves a selection process based also on the attributes of the destination. The main goal of this study, trying to make the characterization and profile of surf tourists, is the identification of factors implied on their motivation and the resulting segmentation of this market. The understanding of these issues constitutes is an important contribution for the promotion of a destination’s better performance and competitiveness. The study was based supported in a collection of data from a questionnaire to surf tourists. The market was segmented using multivariate analysis: factor and cluster analysis. The main results of this study have identified that surf tourists value certain attributes when choosing a destination for surfing, which can be synthesized in the factors "Destination", "Entertainment and Recreation" and " Surf Quality”, as well as and the existence of two opposing segments, that value different attributes, when choosing a surfing destination

Good practices in virtual leadership – the e-3cs rule (communication, trust and coordination)

Studies conducted under a doctorate programme, aiming at designing a Skills and Good Practices Model in e-leadership, clearly identified, from literature review, eDelphi study and further analysis of the results obtained from an interview Focus Group, a set of items linked to e-Leaders specific skills and good practices required in the process of collaborative learning within virtual teams ( e- Teams): “ 11 – Effective e-leader communication”, “ 5 - e-leader skills to building trust”, “12- Operating coordination of the Virtual Team”; and “4 – E-leader behaviours to promote effectiveness”. Since these items are considered of utmost importance in the e-Delphi study and in the Focus Group, they validate the areas of the Skill Model MOODO COMPETE E-LEADER, namely the Operational Coordination, Training and Education, Architecture and Technological Infrastructures. For each of these areas a set of guidelines is presented that provide the e-Leader a series of good practices that facilitate the making of a Global Environment, Virtual, to build High Levels of Trust within the e-Team and the spread of the Creation and Sharing of Knowledge. This environment must be supported by an appropriate structure of empowered leadership. The article show also a model for understanding the specific skills and characteristics of e-leadership in Learning Management Systems (LMS), used for implementation of virtual teams. A framework was done, to identify skills and characteristics of the e-leaders, based on the review of literature about the e-leadership paradigm and its relationship with the virtual teams

Uma observação sobre estimativas da prevalência de algumas doenças crónicas, em Portugal Continental

Objectivo: O Observatório Nacional de Saúde realizou um estudo com o objectivo de estimar a prevalência auto-declarada de algumas doenças crónicas na população residente em unidades de alojamento do Continente, com telefone fixo. Metodologia: O estudo, descritivo transversal, constou de um inquérito realizado por entrevista telefónica, no último trimestre de 2004, a um elemento de 18 e mais anos, residente nas unidades de alojamento (UA) que integram a amostra de famílias ECOS. Este respondente deu informação sobre a ocorrência de doenças crónicas noutros elementos do agregado. Esta amostra é aleatória e constituída por 1211 UA, com telefone fixo, com alocação homogénea, estratificada por Região de Saúde do Continente. Nestas unidades de alojamento existem 3434 indivíduos. As variáveis colhidas contemplaram idade, nível de instrução, ocupação e Região de Saúde de residência, peso, altura, ocorrência de sensação de ardor/queimadura retroesternal, tensão arterial elevada, diabetes, asma/bronquite asmática, doenças reumáticas, cancro, doença da tiróide, doença de Alzheimer; doença bipolar, doença de Parkinson, doença de Crohn e psoríase. Resultados: Obtiveram-se 975 questionários válidos que incluíram respostas referentes a 2820 indivíduos. As prevalências, auto declaradas, estimadas na amostra de indivíduos em estudo (2820) foram as seguintes: Hipertensão arterial, 18%. Diabetes, 5%. Asma/bronquite asmática, 9%. Doenças reumáticas, 24%. Qualquer tipo de cancro com confirmação médica, 2%. Doença da tiróide com confirmação médica, 4%. Doença de Alzheimer com confirmação médica, 0,1%. Doença Bipolar com confirmação médica, 0,4%. Doença de Parkinson com confirmação médica, 0,3%. Doença de Crohn com confirmação médica, 0,3%. As prevalências, auto declaradas, estimadas apenas na amostra de respondentes de 18 e mais anos (975) foram as seguintes: Sintomatologia sugestiva de Doença do Refluxo Gastro-Esofágico (sensação de ardor/queimadura retroesternal), 35%. Psoríase, 1,8%. Obesidade, 15,4%. Apesar das limitações metodológicas e da eventual imprecisão de alguns valores, estes resultados podem constituir valores de referência, úteis na fundamentação de programas de prevenção/intervenção

O lúpulo: da cultura ao extrato. Técnica cultural tradicional

Este trabalho consiste numa breve revisão sobre a cultura do lúpulo em Portugal, com incidência na técnica cultural tradicional. Faz-se um breve apontamento histórico sobre a cultura do lúpulo, em particular do desenvolvimento inicial da cultura em Portugal. Segue-se uma descrição sumária dos principais aspetos botânicos da planta e da sua adaptação ecológica. Na descrição da técnica cultural tentam destacar-se aspetos importantes como instalação da cultura, fertilização, poda, rega, proteção sanitária e colheita.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Macrozonagem da Aptidão do Solo para a Cultura do Lúpulo no Distrito de Bragança

Existem em Portugal excelentes condições para o lúpulo, cuja cultura já teve uma dimensão importante nas regiões de Bragança e Braga. À presente data restam apenas cerca de 12 hectares pertencentes a 2 produtores de Bragança. O abandono desta cultura acompanhou o gradual abandono doutros sistemas tradicionais de agricultura, como os terrenos de regadio e pastagens permanentes. No contexto actual, podem existir possibilidades favoráveis para o regresso da cultura do lúpulo. Neste trabalho fez-se inicialmente uma revisão sobre os aspectos culturais do lúpulo e da sua adaptação ecológica. Foram consideradas as possibilidades de modernização desta cultura – instalação, fertilização, poda, rega, protecção sanitária e colheita, que permitam considerar o alargamento para outras áreas potenciais além das outrora ocupadas com lúpulo. Considerando as exigências edafoclimáticas desta cultura modelou-se a informação geográfica digital disponível através de Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (SIG) e pesquisaram-se as áreas de Bragança potencialmente mais favoráveis para a instalação do lúpulo. O conhecimento que venha a adquirir-se futuramente acerca da cultura do lúpulo na região poderá refinar esta análise. Foi produzida uma simulação da aptidão de uso do solo para a cultura do lúpulo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

MDSheet: a framework for model-driven spreadsheet engineering

In this paper, we present MDSHEET, a framework for the embedding, evolution and inference of spreadsheet models. This framework offers a model-driven software development mechanism for spreadsheet users

Embedding and evolution of spreadsheet models in spreadsheet systems

This paper describes the embedding of ClassSheet models in spreadsheet systems. ClassSheet models are wellknown and describe the business logic of spreadsheet data. We embed this domain specific model representation on the (general purpose) spreadsheet system it models. By defining such an embedding, we provide end users a model-driven engineering spreadsheet developing environment. End users can interact with both the model and the spreadsheet data in the same environment. Moreover, we use advanced techniques to evolve spreadsheets and models and to have them synchronized. In this paper we present our work on extending a widely used spreadsheet system with such a model-driven spreadsheet engineering environment

A bidirectional model-driven spreadsheet environment

Software Engineering (ICSE), 2012In this extended abstract we present a bidirectional model-driven framework to develop spreadsheets. By being model driven, our approach allows to evolve a spreadsheet model and automatically have the data co-evolved. The bidirectional component achieves precisely the inverse, that is, to evolve the data and automatically obtain a new model to which the data conforms.(undefined

Extension and implementation of classSheet models

In this paper we explore the use of models in the context of spreadsheet engineering. We review a successful spreadsheet modeling language, whose semantics we further extend. With this extension we bring spreadsheet models closer to the business models of spreadsheets themselves. An addon for a widely used spreadsheet system, providing bidirectional model-driven spreadsheet development, was also improved to include the proposed model extension.(undefined

Embedding, evolution, and validation of model-driven spreadsheets

This paper proposes and validates a model-driven software engineering technique for spreadsheets. The technique that we envision builds on the embedding of spreadsheet models under a widely used spreadsheet system. This means that we enable the creation and evolution of spreadsheet models under a spreadsheet system. More precisely, we embed ClassSheets, a visual language with a syntax similar to the one offered by common spreadsheets, that was created with the aim of specifying spreadsheets. Our embedding allows models and their conforming instances to be developed under the same environment. In practice, this convenient environment enhances evolution steps at the model level while the corresponding instance is automatically co-evolved.Finally,wehave designed and conducted an empirical study with human users in order to assess our technique in production environments. The results of this study are promising and suggest that productivity gains are realizable under our model-driven spreadsheet development setting.The authors of this paper would like to express their gratitude to Dr. Nuno Alpoim, CEO of Agere, for providing us and our study with a spreadsheet under usage in industry. This work is funded by ERDF-European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within projects FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-020532 and FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-010048. This work was also supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia with grants SFRH/BPD/73358/2010 and SFRH/ BPD/46987/2008