1,345 research outputs found

    WHO IS AN OLEOTOURIST? A MOTIVATION-BASED SEGMENTATION STUDY

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    Purpose – Oleotourism is becoming increasingly important as Special Interest Tourism (SIT), especially among researchers who seek to propose an individual tourist experience related to the Mediterranean and olive oil production. This paper examines the profile of visitors to olive farms and olive mills to determine their motives. Design – Purposive sampling was used as the method of data collection. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire during the mid-summer season and the post-summer season 2019 in Istria County (Croatia). Methodology – In total, 263 adequately completed questionnaires were used for data analysis. Approach – Twenty-five items of push and pull motivation are analysed with exploratory factor analysis (EFA), followed by cluster analysis on identified factor dimensions. Findings – After EFA the questionnaire consisted of twenty-two motivational items. Five factor dimensions are identified after EFA and labelled: (1) Socialising and experience, (2) Exterior farm features, (3) Relax with family, (4) Surroundings, and (5) Olive oil and recognition. Cluster analysis revealed 2 different clusters, labelled: Involved olive visitors as the dominant cluster and Inconsequential as the smaller set. Originality of the research – Market segmentation by motivation is key for understanding visitor behaviour in SIT such as oleotourism. This paper explores motivation through push and pull motives and provides a solid basis for further research as well as guidelines for tourism firms dealing with this flourishing business

    Curved footbridges supported by a shell obtained through thrust network analysis

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    After Maillart's concrete curved arch bridges were built before the Second World War, in the second half of the past century and this century, many curved bridges have been built with both steel and concrete. Conversely, since the construction of Musmeci's shell supported bridge in Potenza, few shell bridges have been constructed. This paper explains how to design a curved footbridge supported by an anticlastic shell by shaping the shell via a thrust network analysis (TNA). By taking advantage of the peculiar properties of anticlastic membranes, the unconventional method of shaping a shell by a TNA is illustrated. The shell top edge that supports the deck has an assigned layout, which is provided by the road curved layout. The form of the bottom edge is obtained by the form-finding procedure as a thrust line, by applying the thrust network analysis (TNA) in a non-standard manner, shaping the shell by applying the boundary conditions and allowing relaxation. The influence of the boundary conditions on the bridge shape obtained as an envelope of thrust lines is investigated. A finite element analysis was performed. The results indicate that the obtained shell form is effective in transferring deck loads to foundations via compressive stresses and taking advantage of concrete mechanical properties

    Optimal Design of Elastic Circular Plane Arches

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    Arches represent a structural system adopted in construction practice for thousand years, and they are still widely adopted if large spans have to be covered. The structural efficiency of arches principally depends on the minimization of the eccentricity of the pressure curve, which allow us to reduce their structural weight. Despite the millenarian use and a very abundant literature, there is still scope for design optimization of arches. This study is framed within this context and is focused on plane circular arches under uniformly distributed vertical load and self-weight. The arches are elastically clamped at both end sections. A semianalytical approach is developed to minimize the volume, with the aim of determining the fundamental mechanical parameters governing the optimal design. Finally, the results are charted to allow their use in a design process

    Optimal Design of Elastic Circular Plane Arches

    Get PDF
    Arches represent a structural system adopted in construction practice for thousand years, and they are still widely adopted if large spans have to be covered. The structural efficiency of arches principally depends on the minimization of the eccentricity of the pressure curve, which allow us to reduce their structural weight. Despite the millenarian use and a very abundant literature, there is still scope for design optimization of arches. This study is framed within this context and is focused on plane circular arches under uniformly distributed vertical load and self-weight. The arches are elastically clamped at both end sections. A semianalytical approach is developed to minimize the volume, with the aim of determining the fundamental mechanical parameters governing the optimal design. Finally, the results are charted to allow their use in a design process

    How Many Templates for GW Chirp Detection? The Minimal-Match Issue Revisited

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    In a recent paper dealing with maximum likelihood detection of gravitational wave chirps from coalescing binaries with unknown parameters we introduced an accurate representation of the no-signal cumulative distribution of the supremum of the whole correlator bank. This result can be used to derive a refined estimate of the number of templates yielding the best tradeoff between detector's performance (in terms of lost signals among those potentially detectable) and computational burden.Comment: submitted to Class. Quantum Grav. Typing error in eq. (4.8) fixed; figure replaced in version
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