Analysis of the impact of length of stay on the quality of service experience, satisfaction and loyalty

Although length of stay is a relevant variable in destination management, little research has been produced connecting it with tourists' post-consumption behaviour. This research compares the post-consumption behaviour of same-day visitors with overnight tourists in a sample of 398 domestic vacationers at two Mediterranean heritage-and-beach destinations. Although economic research on length of stay posits that there are destination benefits in longer stays, same-day visitors score higher in most of the post-consumption variables under study. Significant differences arise in hedonic aspects of the tourist experience and destination loyalty. Thus, we propose that length of stay can be used as a segmentation variable. Furthermore, destination management organisations need to consider length of stay when designing tourism policies. The tourist product and communication strategies might be adapted to different vacation durations

Association between Grape Yeast Communities and the Vineyard Ecosystems

The grape yeast biota from several wine-producing areas, with distinct soil types and grapevine training systems, was assessed on five islands of Azores Archipelago, and differences in yeast communities composition associated with the geographic origin of the grapes were explored. Fifty-seven grape samples belonging to the Vitis vinifera grapevine cultivars Verdelho dos Acores (Verdelho), Arinto da Terceira (Arinto) and Terrantez do Pico (Terrantez) were collected in two consecutive years and 40 spontaneous fermentations were achieved. A total of 1710 yeast isolates were obtained from freshly crushed grapes and 1200 from final stage of fermentations. Twenty-eight species were identified, Hanseniaspura uvarum, Pichia terricola and Metschnikowia pulcherrima being the three most representative species isolated. Candida carpophila was encountered for the first time as an inhabitant of grape or wine-associated environments. In both sampling years, a higher proportion of H. uvarum in fresh grapes from Verdelho cultivar was observed, in comparison with Arinto cultivar. Qualitatively significant differences were found among yeast communities from several locations on five islands of the Archipelago, particularly in locations with distinctive agro-ecological compositions. Our results are in agreement with the statement that grape-associated microbial biogeography is non-randomly associated with interactions of climate, soil, cultivar, and vine training systems in vineyard ecosystems. Our observations strongly support a possible linkage between grape yeast and wine typicality, reinforcing the statement that different viti-cultural terroirs harbor distinctive yeast biota, in particular in vineyards with very distinctive environmental conditions.Joao Drumonde Neves is the recipient of a fellowship of the Azorean Government (M321/006/F/2008) and PROEMPREGO. This work was supported by the strategic programme UID/BIA/04050/2013 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007569) funded by national funds through the FCT I.P. and by the ERDF through the COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI), and by national funds through FCT by the projects FCOMP-01-0124-008775, PTDC/AGR-ALI/103392/2008 and PTDC/AGR-ALI/121062/2010.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A novel approach for the extraction of herbicides and pesticides from water using liquid-core microcapsules

A perstraction system using liq.-core microcapsules for pesticide and herbicide removal from aq. environments is proposed. The microcapsules contain an oil, di-Bu sebacate, surrounded by a hydrogel membrane. The extn. efficiency of the capsules was demonstrated with atrazine, methylparathion, ethylparathion, and 2,4-dichloro-phenoxyacetic acid. The results show that all of the tested compds. could be rapidly extd., typically 75% extn. within 10 min using a capsule: liq. vol. ratio of only 3.5% for ethylparathion, and that the rate of extn. increased with increasing hydrophobicity of the compd. to be extd. Higher rates of extn. could be achieved by changing the capsule: liq. vol. ratio. The effect of different liq. core solvents, size of capsules, agitation rate, and treatment with complexing agents on the properties of the microcapsules and extn. rate were studied. Capsules of a diam. <0.800 mm show little external resistance to mass transfer. The main resistance to mass transfer of the pesticides/herbicides resided in the hydrogel membrane composed of crosslinked alginate/polyacrylamide. Removal of divalent cations from the membrane by the addn. of citrate, resulted in a 50% increase in the mass transfer coeff., probably as a result of solubilization and exo-diffusion of alginate. [on SciFinder (R)

Chemisorption on nickel nanoparticles of various shapes: Influence on magnetism

International audienc

Selecte growth of large chiral angle single-walled carbon nanotubes

International audienceWe have developed a versatile catalyst-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique for the synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) from discrete nickel nanoparticles (average diameter of 4.7 ± 1.5 nm). Atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electron diffraction are used to characterize these as-grown nanotubes. On a particular sample we found that the SWNTs have an average chiral angle of 25.3°. This result shows that a control of the chiral angle of SWNT with large diameters (mean diameter = 1.75 nm) and with a relatively broad diameter distribution (standard deviation = 0.5 nm) is achievable to a certain extent