Determining Factors of Mountain Destination Innovativeness

A rapidly changing business environment is forcing destinations to innovate in order to remain competitive. Innovation is increasingly recognized as being important for destination development (Weiermair, 2003; Volo, 2005; Zach & Fesenmaier, 2009; Haugland, Ness, Grønseth & Aarstad, 2010). A concept of innovativeness is used, based on Wang’s and Ahmed’s (2004) multi-dimensional definition and Huang’s, Li’s & Chen’s (2009) recognition of the importance of tangible and intangible dimensions, in order to cover all aspects of mountain destination innovativeness. Mountain tourism destinations were chosen for analysis as they are experiencing pressure, uncertainty and crisis (Bourdeau, 2009). Organizational and strategic innovations are needed in order to adapt to the changing environment (Macchiavelli, 2009). Flagestad & Hope (2001), Pechlaner & Sauerwein (2002), Bordeau (2009) and Macchiavelli (2009) believed that mountain tourism has to be redefined, which can be done with the help of identified important mountain destination elements, based on which factors of mountain destination innovativeness are constructed. Existing destination competitiveness models and innovation literature represent a foundation for the development of mountain destination innovativeness elements, which are tested for their importance in the first part of the analysis. An exploratory factor analysis is then conducted using only the more important elements to form three factors that represent underlying dimensions of mountain destination innovativeness. The results show that mountain destination innovativeness incorporates the factors of socio-cultural sustainability and stakeholder participation, environmental sustainability (natural environment) and proactiveness

Half‐Space Neutron Transport with Linearly Anisotropic Scattering

The method developed by Case is used to solve four time‐independent, one‐speed problems for neutron transport in a homogeneous medium where the scattering function is linear in the cosine of the scattering angle. The solutions to the albedo, Milne, Green's function, and constant isotropic source problems for a half‐space are facilitated by the use of half‐range bi‐orthogonality relations between the eigenfunctions of the homogeneous transport equation. Expressions are also derived for the emerging angular densities and the densities and net currents on the surface of the half‐space.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70296/2/JMAPAQ-6-12-1939-1.pd

Time‐Dependent One‐Speed Albedo Problem for a Semi‐Infinite Medium

A Laplace transformation technique is used to determine the neutron distribution in a semi‐infinite medium which has been irradiated by a neutron pulse. The result is given in terms of known solutions of Milne's problem and of the steady‐state albedo problem, which in turn are expressed by aid of Case's X‐function. Simple asymptotic approximations, valid for t ≫ 1, are deduced from the exact result.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71087/2/JMAPAQ-6-7-1125-1.pd

Closure Relations for the Eigenfunctions of the One‐Speed Transport Equation

Orthogonality relations for the eigenfunctions of the one‐speed transport equation are used to derive the corresponding closure relations. These express in a concise form the completeness properties previously proved by Case.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69771/2/JMAPAQ-8-4-823-1.pd

Rational Design of Polyketide Natural Products

Compounds of polyketide origin possess a wealth of pharmacological effects, including antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, anticancer and immunosuppressive activities. Many of these compounds and their semi-synthetic derivatives are used today in the clinic. The first complete gene cluster encoding the polyketide antibiotic actinorhodin was cloned twenty years ago. The erythromycin gene cluster followed in 1990, and since then most of the gene clusters encoding commercially important drugs have also been cloned, sequenced and their biosynthetic mechanisms studied in great detail. Recent advances in the area of biosynthetic engineering of the enzymes involved in polyketide biosynthesis are presented in this review. The biosynthesis of a typical polyketide can be divided into three separate steps, including (i) choice of starter unit, (ii) the choice of extender units and the degree of beta-keto group reduction, and (iii) post-PKS tailoring of the basic polyketide backbone. Each of these steps represents a potential opportunity for the introduction of structural modification. The technologies to achieve this have now been highly developed and transferred into the industrial arena. The power of biosynthetic engineering will be exemplified by manipulations carried out on the erythromycin and the rapamycin biosynthetic gene clusters

DETERMINING IMPORTANT ENVIRONMENTS FOR MOUNTAIN DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT

Planinske destinacije sve više u turizmu vide mogućnosti za svoj razvoj. Kako bi se održao korak s neprestanim promjenama, neophodno je odrediti okoliše koji pridonose održivom razvoju turizma. Ovaj rad ima za cilj odrediti elemente i čimbenike destinacijskih okoliša važnih za razvoj planinskih destinacija. Popis mogućih elemenata pronađenih u literaturi poslan je turističkim menadžerima i znanstvenicima koji su ocijenili njihovu važnost za razvoj planinskih destinacija. Provedena je faktorska analiza u kojoj su korišteni samo važni elementi. Identificirani su sljedeći čimbenici: tehološki okoliš, socio-kulturni okoliš, prirodni okoliš te politički i pravni okoliš. Među tim čimbenicima nije identificiran ekonomski okoliš te se u radu istražuje zašto je tomu tako. Ovo istraživanje pruža dodatna saznanja korisna sveučilišnoj zajednici i dionicima u planinskim destinacijama. Usto, menadžerima planinskih destinacija donosi informacije o tome koji čimbenici okoliša pridonose održivom razvoju destinacije.Mountain destinations are increasingly seeking their development opportunities in tourism. In order to keep pace with rapidly changing situations, it is necessary to determine the environments that contribute to sustainable tourism development. The purpose of this paper is to determine the elements and factors of destination environments that are important for mountain destination development. A literature-based list of possible elements was sent to tourism managers and researchers who evaluated their importance for mountain destination development. Factor analysis was then conducted, using only the important elements. The identified factors are: technological environment, socio-cultural environment, natural environment and political and legal environment. The economic environment was not identifi ed among these factors, and the paper examines the reasons for its absence. This research provides more in-depth knowledge to both academics and stakeholders in mountain destinations. It provides information to mountain destination managers about which factors in environments help advance sustainable destination development

Relaxation rates and collision integrals for Bose-Einstein condensates

Near equilibrium, the rate of relaxation to equilibrium and the transport properties of excitations (bogolons) in a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) are determined by three collision integrals, $\mathcal{G}^{12}$, $\mathcal{G}^{22}$, and $\mathcal{G}^{31}$. All three collision integrals conserve momentum and energy during bogolon collisions, but only $\mathcal{G}^{22}$ conserves bogolon number. Previous works have considered the contribution of only two collision integrals, $\mathcal{G}^{22}$ and $\mathcal{G}^{12}$. In this work, we show that the third collision integral $\mathcal{G}^{31}$ makes a significant contribution to the bogolon number relaxation rate and needs to be retained when computing relaxation properties of the BEC. We provide values of relaxation rates in a form that can be applied to a variety of dilute Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Journal of Low Temperature Physics 7/201

Quality destination management

Tourism is recognized as a significant industry worldwide, a key sector and source of development and income in several countries. The article focuses on quality management in tourist destinations in the Czech Republic. The overall objective of the present study is to uncover the evaluation of destination management by tourist organisations. Hence, the importance of destination management for each organisation based on the model of excellence EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) is evaluated. Moreover, the article highlights and assesses the difference between organisations which possess a certificate of quality and those which do not. Furthermore, the findings of the research, the data for which were collected from respondents at tourism organisations in the Czech Republic, can be used for assessing the competitiveness of destinations and for recommendations for sustainable development in the future.O

Photoinduced IR absorption in (La(1-x)Sr(x)Mn)(1-\delta)O3: changes of the anti-Jahn-Teller polaron binding energy with doping

Photoinduced IR absorption was measured in (La(1-x)Sr(x)Mn)(1-\delta)O3. A midinfrared peak centered at ~ 5000 cm$^{-1}$ was observed in the x=0 antiferromagnetic sample. The peak diminishes and softens as hole doping is increased. The origin of the photoinduced absorption peak is atributted to the photon assisted hopping of anti-Jahn-Teller polarons formed by photoexcited charge carriers, whose binding energy decreases with increasing hole doping. The shape of the peak indicates that the polarons are small.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR