DEVELOPING EVENTS TO REPOSITION TOURIST DESTINATIONS

In a globalised setting, the only way to differentiate Croatian destinations from others is by asserting the destinations’ traditions, history, indigenous elements and cultural heritage. This paper synthesizes and builds upon the theoretical determinants of event tourism in developing and branding destinations, with practical implementation in the example of the Krk Fair “Lovrečeva”. Based on the current-state analysis of the competitiveness of the Krk Fair and tourism in the Town of Krk, the paper defines development objectives and strategies to enable the event to evolve into the brand, symbol, synonym and identity of the destination based on a culture of learning and integration (synergy of local government and self-government, Tourist Boards, all stakeholders, and residents as drivers of entrepreneurship, together with the active involvement of tourists). The study highlights opportunities and concrete activities in valorising and asserting historical and cultural heritage to bring together the destination’s past and its tourism-related present and future to build a distinctive identity for the Town of Krk. The originality of the paper is the result of theoretical determinants, the opinions of the authors, and the results of surveying managers; as such it presents a starting point for future studies. The limitations of the study relate to the small sample of surveyed managers and to the fact that residents and tourists were not surveye

Structure of halo and quasi-halo helium–helium–alkali trimers

We report a diffusion Monte Carlo study of A4He2 and A4He3He trimers’ structural properties, were A is one of the alkali atoms 6,7Li, 23Na, 39K, 85Rb or 133Cs. Some of them are in a pure halo state, characterized by large spatial extent and universality, while some are close to the halo limit. The theoretical analysis of these trimers enables insight on how structural properties of weakly bound systems change when approaching the halo edge. For that purpose, two-variable distributions of inter-particle separations and angles were calculated. Extreme spatial extensions of some trimers with 3He confirm their halo nature. Although all the considered systems are floppy, trimers with all bound dimer subsystems are less spread and have significantly lower percentage of quasi-linear configurations than those which have at least one unbound dimer subsystem.Postprint (author's final draft

Ground-state properties of weakly bound helium-alkali trimers

Weakly bound triatomic molecules consisting of two helium atoms and one alkali metal atom are studied by means of the diffusion Monte Carlo method. We determined the stability of 4He2A, 4He3HeA, and 3He2A, where A is one of the alkali atoms Li, Na, K, Rb, or Cs. Some of the trimers with 3He are predicted to be self-bound for the first time, but this is observed to be dependent on the He–A interaction potential model. In addition to the ground-state energy of the trimers, we determined their density, radial, and angular distributions. Many of them are spatially very extended, which qualifies them as quantum halo statesPostprint (author's final draft

Archaeometrical study of mortars from public Roman structures in Verona

openThe city of Verona, located in the region of Veneto, in the north of Italy, had an important urban development during the Roman age. Due to its strategical position within the territory, the city counted with a particular importance, being this one of the key locations present in the norther territory of the roman empire. It is because of this high status possessed by the city that it counted with several public structures of great significance. Some of these structures, such as the Arena and part of the theatre are still standing, showing the implementation of remarkable construction techniques. This work aims to produce an archaeometrical characterize the mortars used in some of the most relevant constructions. For this purpose, mortar samples were extracted from the capitolium, the roman theatre, the odeum, the curia, the arena and from the city walls surrounding roman Verona. The samples were then analyzed through means such as x-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), colorimetry, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The obtained results were then analyzed and treated in order to obtain a clear understanding of the mortars present in the aforementioned structures.The city of Verona, located in the region of Veneto, in the north of Italy, had an important urban development during the Roman age. Due to its strategical position within the territory, the city counted with a particular importance, being this one of the key locations present in the norther territory of the roman empire. It is because of this high status possessed by the city that it counted with several public structures of great significance. Some of these structures, such as the Arena and part of the theatre are still standing, showing the implementation of remarkable construction techniques. This work aims to produce an archaeometrical characterize the mortars used in some of the most relevant constructions. For this purpose, mortar samples were extracted from the capitolium, the roman theatre, the odeum, the curia, the arena and from the city walls surrounding roman Verona. The samples were then analyzed through means such as x-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), colorimetry, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The obtained results were then analyzed and treated in order to obtain a clear understanding of the mortars present in the aforementioned structures

Advancing Leadership Capacity: Preparation of Early Childhood Leaders in Australia Through a Coursework Masters Degree

In Australia, positional leadership in the Early Childhood (EC) sector is flourishing propelled by legislative obligations connected with the implementation of the National Quality Framework (ACECQA 2011a) requiring the employment of educational leaders in EC centres. This paper explores the preparation of EC leaders through postgraduate coursework studies at a masters level based on a content analysis of course information dealing with leadership and management of EC settings. Currently, there is limited research based evidence on the formal preparation of these educational leaders. Australian universities offer a range of coursework masters degrees focusing on educational leadership studies. The plethora of options available is confusing for those seeking employment as an educational leader in the EC sector. Findings reported in this paper provoke discussion about the relevance of postgraduate studies for advancing leadership capacity necessary in the EC sector

Managing information and intellectual capital in the development concept of tourism destinations

Tourism of the twenty-first century is evolving into an industry of entertainment, active holidaymaking, events and experiences. By innovating their development concepts based on original solutions and ideas and through the synergy of tourism supply providers and the local population, tourism destinations need to take an active part in creating the future and find answers to the key issues of: (1) how to be better and different relative to the competition, (2) how to more fully meet the needs of modern clients. In permanently optimising a destination’s offering, it is vital to use the new strategic orientations of benchmarking, business intelligence (competition), IQM and CRM (clients) to gather and transform data into information and knowledge as a starting point for making decisions and devising a destination’s development concept. The key is to identify what is essential in a plethora of data and to manage information in selecting a variant of development that provides the greatest likelihood of success. On the globalised, turbulent marketplace, intellectual capital and information are becoming primary resources in gaining higher competitive advantages (speed – time)

Biological Upgrading of Hemicellulose Derived Xylose

As changing climates, resource scarcity, and policy drivers force society toward a future based on renewable resources, technical efforts must be made to achieve the best possible use of all resources. The highest value use for lignocellulosic biomass is achieved through a biorefinery where lignocellulosic biomass is broken into its substituents. While the cellulose and lignin portions (roughly 50% and 25% dry wt. respectively) of biomass have well defined end uses, a high value or high demand use for hemicelluloses (25% dry wt.) derived from lignocellulosic biomass in a biorefinery has yet to be found. These hemicelluloses could be biologically upgraded to lipids by microalgae and subsequently converted to biodiesel. Recent work has shown that many species of microalgae, such as Chlorella protothecoides, can produce lipids at very high yield and that some species can grow heterotrophically on xylose (a five carbon sugar derived from the hemicellulosic fraction of lignocellulosic biomass). Near infrared (NIR) absorbance will be used to monitor sugar concentrations in growth media while Nile red fluorometry will be used to monitor lipid concentrations. By tracking the lipid productivity and growth rate of heterotrophic Chlorella protothecoides in a variety of nitrogen and xylose conditions, this work will identify the optimal conditions under which hydrolyzed hemicelluloses (xylose) could be biologically upgraded to lipids and eventually biodiesel

Develop a safer ground piercing method/process for fiber to the home installation

Cable strike is one of the safety challenges that construction industry’s utilities sector is facing. Such incidents can cause injury and death for operators, as well as costly repairs and compensations. Fiber4all, a Dutch company which is responsible for Fiber-to-the-Home (FttH) connection is suffering from the same problem. Despite specialized equipment, work preparation and process organization cable strikes still occur. Even though the number of such incidents in comparison to the total number of the connections is very low, stakeholders want to avoid such incidents as much as possible. An exploratory study was carried out based on the incidents’ reports from January 2013 till March 2015. Our findings in this study indicate that the majority of cable strikes are associated with human errors and incorrect information in FttH installation. Apart from exploratory study, an investigation was accomplished through six interviews with operators within the FttH work environments. From operators' perspective and their experiences of incident occurrence a taxonomy of the causal factors of cable strikes was constructed. This study suggests to investigate and invest more attention into the human aspect of the system despite the initial understanding, which was more focusing on technology improvements

From Analysis of Information Needs towards an Information Model of Railway Infrastructure

Railway is a tightly coupled network, where the operations are directly effected by the condition of rail infrastructure. With the advancement of ICT, a railway network exploit various computerized systems for efficient railway monitoring, maintenance and operations. However, these systems suffer from number of limitations, mainly, the data related to each asset type (e.g. Track, Bridge, etc) are stored in separate database management system. Such scattered and isolated nature of data present the island of information, while making it impossible to perform the sound decision analysis. In this paper, we propose a nework wide information model of railway infrastructure that structure the railway object, specify their properties and identify their inter-relationships. The presented information model supports the railway monitoring, maintenance and operations by providing the layout of railway infrastructure. Structuring data in the form of railway assets, railway risk assessment, railway load management, railway maintenance, and railway failure will provide a solid base to railway stakeholders, e.g. infrastructure managers, to take informed decisions based on data properties

Correlations of expression of cell wall biosynthesis genes with variation in biomass composition in shrub willow ( Salix spp.) biomass crops

We have measured significant genetically determined variation in biomass composition among breeding populations of shrub willow, a biomass feedstock crop. This project was aimed to ask whether patterns of cell wall gene expression can be correlated with genetic variation in biomass composition at harvest, in order to develop assays of early differences in gene expression as indicators of harvestable biomass chemical composition and potentially reduce the time of selection for new willow genotypes. Previous studies have demonstrated that manipulation of expression of cell wall biosynthetic genes results in altered biomass chemical composition. We analyzed genes encoding enzymes involved in lignin biosynthesis and carbohydrate active enzymes selected based on their functional characterization and conservation in Populus trichocarpa and Arabidopsis thaliana. Fragments of 20 genes were cloned from young stem cDNA of Salix sachalinensis and Salix miyabeana. Expression profiling in willow stem apical tissue and developing stem tissue was performed for each isolated gene using probe-based quantitative real-time PCR. Two willow parental genotypes and six progeny within a hybrid family were selected for analysis, and significant differences in expression among the individuals and between tissue types were observed for most of the genes. Significant correlations between patterns of gene expression and variation in the biomass chemical composition of those genotypes provide insight into the genetic regulation of lignocellulosic deposition in this important bioenergy crop and could be utilized as a tool for early selection of new genotype