“Identifying key relations for destination competitiveness and for creating cultural tourism products: a value system approach to tourist destinations”

Purpose of the Paper – A natural link exists between organizations and institutions involved in developing destination competitiveness and creating cultural tourism products, yet little research has examined their relation. This conceptual paper is designed to address this gap and to link local tourism promotion agencies, tourism organizations, and cultural heritage institutions. Approach – A value system model is used, in order to understand the relations between the organizations analysed. Findings – The use of the value system model in the tourism sector enables the identifying of a system of value creation and competitiveness development, customized on the basis of key stakeholders involved. Practical Implications –The use of the value system model enables the designing of a comprehensive framework which allows the planning of the creation of competitive destinations and tourism products. Originality/value – The study represents a first attempt to analyse relations between local tourism promotion agencies, tourism organizations, and cultural heritage institutions according to the value system model. Type of paper – Conceptual paper

Structural adaptation of extreme halophilic proteins through decrease of conserved hydrophobic contact surface

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Halophiles are extremophilic microorganisms growing optimally at high salt concentrations. There are two strategies used by halophiles to maintain proper osmotic pressure in their cytoplasm: accumulation of molar concentrations of potassium and chloride with extensive adaptation of the intracellular macromolecules ("salt-in" strategy) or biosynthesis and/or accumulation of organic osmotic solutes ("osmolyte" strategy). Our work was aimed at contributing to the understanding of the shared molecular mechanisms of protein haloadaptation through a detailed and systematic comparison of a sample of several three-dimensional structures of halophilic and non-halophilic proteins. Structural differences observed between the "salt-in" and the mesophilic homologous proteins were contrasted to those observed between the "osmolyte" and mesophilic pairs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results suggest that haloadaptation strategy in the presence of molar salt concentration, but not of osmolytes, necessitates a weakening of the hydrophobic interactions, in particular at the level of conserved hydrophobic contacts. Weakening of these interactions counterbalances their strengthening by the presence of salts in solution and may help the structure preventing aggregation and/or loss of function in hypersaline environments.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Considering the significant increase of biotechnology applications of halophiles, the understanding of halophilicity can provide the theoretical basis for the engineering of proteins of great interest because stable at concentrations of salts that cause the denaturation or aggregation of the majority of macromolecules.</p

Exploring the link between managing cultural heritage and tourism industry competitiveness: a two country comparison

Purpose of the Paper – Built cultural heritage, such as museums, are deeply linked to their locations and have a crucial role to play in tourism developments. Yet, the literature on museum management is focused upon museums without considering the competitiveness of the tourism industry where they are located. This paper will seek to address this lacuna, and attempt to connect or link museums management and competitiveness in the tourism industry. Design – Two samples (most visited U.K. and Italian museums) will be analysed together with the competitiveness of their (local) tourism industry. Findings – Research findings will allow classifying most visited U.K. and Italian museums in clusters. The comparison will reveal country-specific differences and tourism industry competitiveness of regions of most visited Italian and U.K. museums. Practical Implications – The differences in tourism industry competitiveness and the museums appeal will enable elaboration of specific strategies for museums and the tourism industry for each identifiable cluster. Originality/value – The link between museum marketing strategies and destination competitiveness has been quite neglected by researchers to date. This paper is a first attempt to address this gap, with regard to U.K. and Italian context

“Exploring the link between managing cultural heritage and tourism industry competitiveness: a two country comparison”

Purpose of the Paper – Built cultural heritage, such as museums, are deeply linked totheir locations and have a crucial role to play in tourism developments. Yet, theliterature on museum management is focused upon museums without considering thecompetitiveness of the tourism industry where they are located. This paper will seek toaddress this lacuna, and attempt to connect or link museums management andcompetitiveness in the tourism industry.Design – Two samples (most visited U.K. and Italian museums) will be analysed togetherwith the competitiveness of their (local) tourism industry.Findings – Research findings will allow classifying most visited U.K. and Italian museums in clusters. The comparison will reveal country-specific differences andtourism industry competitiveness of regions of most visited Italian and U.K. museums.Practical Implications – The differences in tourism industry competitiveness and themuseums appeal will enable elaboration of specific strategies for museums and thetourism industry for each identifiable cluster. Originality/value – The link between museum marketing strategies and destinationcompetitiveness has been quite neglected by researchers to date. This paper is a firstattempt to address this gap, with regard to U.K. and Italian context.KEY WORDS museums | tourism destination competitiveness | museum marketingstrategies | tourism industry strategie

A VSA Communication Model for Service Systems Governance.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for governance and management of the decision making process for corporate communication. The aim is to address a gap in the literature in that to date, by adopting some basic assumptions from Viable Systems Approach, integrated with Service Science perspective, in order to identify communication resources, the nature (static and dynamic) of the corporate communication activities, and “engineering” communication process. Parsons’ sociological approach, with reference to the classification of organisational decisions (policy, allocation and coordination) results fundamental to contextualise this approach to the decision-making within corporate communication function/departmen

Serine Hydroxymethyltransferase from the Cold Adapted Microorganism Psychromonas ingrahamii: A Low Temperature Active Enzyme with Broad Substrate Specificity

Serine hydroxymethyltransferase from the psychrophilic microorganism Psychromonas ingrahamii was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified as a His-tag fusion protein. The enzyme was characterized with respect to its spectroscopic, catalytic, and thermodynamic properties. The properties of the psychrophilic enzyme have been contrasted with the characteristics of the homologous counterpart from E. coli, which has been structurally and functionally characterized in depth and with which it shares 75% sequence identity. Spectroscopic measures confirmed that the psychrophilic enzyme displays structural properties almost identical to those of the mesophilic counterpart. At variance, the P. ingrahamii enzyme showed decreased thermostability and high specific activity at low temperature, both of which are typical features of cold adapted enzymes. Furthermore, it was a more efficient biocatalyst compared to E. coli serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) particularly for side reactions. Many β-hydroxy-α-amino acids are SHMT substrates and represent important compounds in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and food additives. Thanks to these attractive properties, this enzyme could have a significant potential for biotechnological applications

The structure of a PII signaling protein from a halophilic archaeon reveals novel traits and high-salt adaptations

To obtain insights into archaeal nitrogen signaling and haloadaptation of the nitrogen/carbon/energy-signaling protein PII, we determined crystal structures of recombinantly produced GlnK2 from the extreme halophilic archaeon Haloferax mediterranei, complexed with AMP or with the PII effectors ADP or ATP, at respective resolutions of 1.49 Å, 1.45 Å, and 2.60 Å. A unique trait of these structures was a three-tongued crown protruding from the trimer body convex side, formed by an 11-residue, N-terminal, highly acidic extension that is absent from structurally studied PII proteins. This extension substantially contributed to the very low pI value, which is a haloadaptive trait of H. mediterranei GlnK2, and participated in hexamer-forming contacts in one crystal. Similar acidic N-extensions are shown here to be common among PII proteins from halophilic organisms. Additional haloadaptive traits prominently represented in H. mediterranei GlnK2 are a very high ratio of small residues to large hydrophobic aliphatic residues, and the highest ratio of polar to nonpolar exposed surface for any structurally characterized PII protein. The presence of a dense hydration layer in the region between the three T-loops might also be a haloadaptation. Other unique findings revealed by the GlnK2 structure that might have functional relevance are: the adoption by its T-loop of a three-turn α-helical conformation, perhaps related to the ability of GlnK2 to directly interact with glutamine synthetase; and the firm binding of AMP, confirmed by biochemical binding studies with ATP, ADP, and AMP, raising the possibility that AMP could be an important PII effector, at least in archaea.This work was supported by grants from the Spanish government (BFU2011-30407 and BIO2008_00082, to V. Rubio and M. J. Bonete, respectively) and from the Valencian government (Prometeo 2009/51 to V. Rubio). C. Palanca is a JAE-Predoc fellow of the CSIC and, during this work, L. Pedro-Roig was a FPU fellow of the Spanish Ministry of Education. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under BioStruct-X (grant agreement No. 283570)