The innovative behaviour of tourism firms

Tourism is a growing and an extremely competitive sector. To be competitive, tourism firms need do innovate, responding to the more and more demanding tourist. Nonetheless, research on this field is limited and insufficient. In Portugal, the tourism sector is a highly strategic sector for the Portuguese economy, but there is no evidence on how Portuguese tourism firms innovate. This paper presents a thesis proposal with the aim to provide empirical evidence of the innovative behaviour of Portuguese tourism firm. Trough a direct survey on all the Portuguese tourism firms we intent to investigate firms’ innovativeness and their determinants and then compare the results with data from Danish and Spanish tourism firms. The literature on innovation in services and in tourism, in particular Sunbdo et al. (2007) taxonomy of tourism firms, provides us a guide to our investigation. It is also our aim to contribute with additional findings on the process of innovation in the tourism industry.Innovation, Tourism Industries, Portugal

Single Stellar Populations in the Near-Infrared - I. Preparation of the IRTF spectral stellar library

We present a detailed study of the stars of the IRTF spectral library to understand its full extent and reliability for use with Stellar Population (SP) modeling. The library consist of 210 stars, with a total of 292 spectra, covering the wavelength range of 0.94 to 2.41 micron at a resolution R = 2000. For every star we infer the effective temperature (Teff), gravity (logg) and metallicity ([Z/Zsun]) using a full-spectrum fitting approach in a section of the K band (2.19 to 2.34 micron) and temperature-NIR colour relations. We test the flux calibration of these stars by calculating their integrated colours and comparing them with the Pickles library colour-temperature relations. We also investigate the NIR colours as a function of the calculated effective temperature and compared them in colour-colour diagrams with the Pickles library. This latter test shows a good broad-band flux calibration, important for the SP models. Finally, we measure the resolution R as a function of wavelength. We find that the resolution increases as a function of lambda from about 6 angstrom in J to 10 angstrom in the red part of the K-band. With these tests we establish that the IRTF library, the largest currently available general library of stars at intermediate resolution in the NIR, is an excellent candidate to be used in stellar population models. We present these models in the next paper of this series.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Cashmere x creole kids yield carcass and body component at weaning

Cashmere x Creole kids were slaughtered at weaning with 14.8 kg of live weight. The skin, head, feed, blood, full and empty digestive tract, heart, liver kidney, lung plus trachea, hot carcass with and without head, eye loin area and carcass length were determinate. It were calculated the empty body weight, commercial, true and body component yield. The average and variation coefficient were calculated. The hot carcass weight, with and without head were 7.36 ± 0.45 and 6.47 ± 0.42 kg, respectively. The commercial, true and by product were 43.82 ± 2.09; 50.22 ± 1.85 and 11.15 ± 0.98 percent, respectively.Se evaluó el rendimiento de canal y componentes corporales de cabritos Cashmere x Criollos faenados con 14,8 kg de peso vivo. Se determinó el peso del cuero, cabeza, patas, sangre, tracto digestivo lleno y vacío, corazón, hígado, riñones, pulmón más tráquea, canal caliente con y sin cabeza, área de ojo lomo y largo de canal. Con la información obtenida se calculó: peso vivo destarado, rendimiento comercial, verdadero y componentes corporales. Se calculó el promedio y coeficiente de variación. El peso de canal caliente con y sin cabeza fue de 7,36 ± 0,45 y 6,47 ± 0,42 kg respectivamente. El rendimiento comercial, verdadero y de subproductos fue de 43,82 ± 2,09; 50,22 ± 1,85 y 11,15 ± 0,98 p.100, respectivamente

The Theories of Interconstitutionality and Transconstitutionalism. Preliminary Insights from a Jus-cultural Perspective (With a view to Transnational Social Justice)

In the following pages, some light will hopefully be shed into the recent proposals of interconstitutionality and transconstitutionalism – deemed highly influential among Portuguese and Spanish-speaking countries – considering them against the backdrop defined by the more general disquisitions recently devoted to interculturality and transculturality in their quality of practical responses to the globalization and social differentiation phenomena. Acknowledging the fact that, even inside the juridical linguistic game and within the juristic community of interpreters, the new narratives interwoven through the above mentioned concepts are becoming more and more intricate – v.g., including epistemic and normative, as well as subjective and objective perspectives, giving birth to new elaborate semantic networks and covering an ever growing territory – it is important to admonish, at the outset, that, in this stance, we cannot but provide a preliminary and provisory map of the vast continent thereby comprised. As a consequence, the present text will limit itself to the signalling of some landmarks and the rough drawing of the basic lineaments for further (and certainly wiser and more competent) cartographic and exploratory endeavours

Interaction Effects on the Magneto-optical Response of Magnetoplasmonic Dimers

The effect that dipole-dipole interactions have on the magneto-optical (MO) properties of magnetoplasmonic dimers is theoretically studied. The specific plasmonic versus magnetoplasmonic nature of the dimer's metallic components and their specific location within the dimer plays a crucial role on the determination of these properties. We find that it is possible to generate an induced MO activity in a purely plasmonic component, even larger than that of the MO one, therefore dominating the overall MO spectral dependence of the system. Adequate stacking of these components may allow obtaining, for specific spectral regions, larger MO activities in systems with reduced amount of MO metal and therefore with lower optical losses. Theoretical results are contrasted and confirmed with experiments for selected structures