Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2012-12"
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- Food tourism in the touristic development pole of the western region – PortugalPublication . Oliveira, Simão; Elias-Almeida, Anabela; Ferreira, Cátia; Ezequiel, Graça; Cabral, PaulaCurrently, tourism is characterized by significant changes in its supply. These changes are motivated by the need of adjustment to the actual demand, which seek new types of experiences, different sensations and new destinations. Regarding tourist behavior, we can identify that there are profound changes, today, in comparison to previous years. Tourists travel more annually (but with shorter stays), are more knowledgeable about the destinations and products offered (playing, in this case, the internet a very important role) seeking new sensory experiences that are compelling, often to release accumulated labor stress resulting from a competitive urban society. As a result of these changes, niche tourism (also called thematic tourism), has gained an increasing interest from the tourism industry (supply) as well as by the academic community, which particularly in the mid-90s, began to turn more of its attention to this new way of supplying and practicing tourism. Food tourism in academic terms only began to receive greater attention in the beginning of this century. However, it has been relegated, to a secondary plan, in comparison with other types of niche tourism, such as wine tourism, ecotourism or even sports tourism. Therefore, it is easy to understand that all the studies about food tourism are relevant to increment the state of the art. This article results from a research project in the Western Region of Portugal, which had the duration of one year (May 2010 to May 2011) with a team of five investigators and two fulltime research fellows. This region is gastronomically rich, especially on fish, which attracts visitors to the area. Thus, among others, the following objectives were outlined for the study: Assess the potential of food tourism in the Western Touristic Pole; assess the local tourist agents’ perception on food tourism and their sensibility of the same; to profile the food tourist that travels to the Western Touristic Pole; and identify key practices of those who travel, motivated by food. In terms of methodology, the case study approach was used, with field work that resulted in 863 questionnaire surveys on the demand side and 92 questionnaire surveys on the supply side, resulting in a very interesting sample. The conclusions of the project revealed that food can actually be an important factor as a primary attraction, as well as secondary; that although the local agents are aware, the non-structure of a concrete product, results in a predominance of day visitors; there is little promotion of this tourism product; and it was possible to identify the profile of food tourists that visit the region.
- Impact of the types of clusters on the innovation output and the appropriation of rents from innovationPublication . Ferreira, Manuel Portugal; Serra, Fernando Ribeiro; Costa, Benny Kramer; Maccari, Emerson A.; Couto, Hergos RitorThe ability to generate innovations and capture the rents from innovation are important for firms’ competitive advantage. Increasingly firms seek knowledge abundant locations, or industry clusters, to access novel knowledge and generate innovations through knowledge recombinations (Schumpeter, 1934). We examine how different types of clusters impact on the innovation output, the knowledge flows among the clustered firms and, ultimately, on who captures the rents from innovation. The type of cluster reflects the configuration of firms and the interactions among firms, individuals and agencies in the cluster and is likely to be a major driver of both the innovative output and of which firms will be more likely to capture the rents from innovation. Extant research has noted that the social and business networks binding firms in clusters are excellent vehicles for the flow of knowledge that eases innovations, but different types of clusters may lead to different outcomes.
- Performance and Computational Complexity Assessment of High-Efficiency Video EncodersPublication . Correa, Guilherme; Assunção, Pedro; Agostini, Luciano; Cruz, Luis A. da SilvaThis paper presents a performance evaluation study of coding efficiency versus computational complexity for the forthcoming High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. A thorough experimental investigation was carried out to identify the tools that most affect the encoding efficiency and computational complexity of the HEVC encoder. A set of 16 different encoding configurations was created to investigate the impact of each tool, varying the encoding parameter set and comparing the results with a baseline encoder. This paper shows that, even though the computational complexity increases monotonically from the baseline to the most complex configuration, the encoding efficiency saturates at some point. Moreover, the results of this paper provide relevant information for implementation of complexity-constrained encoders by taking into account the tradeoff between complexity and coding efficiency. It is shown that low-complexity encoding configurations, defined by careful selection of coding tools, achieve coding efficiency comparable to that of high-complexity configurations.
- Identification of the optimal entry points at District Metered Areas and implementation of pressure managementPublication . Gomes, Ricardo; Marques, Alfeu Sá; Sousa, JoaquimNowadays, the implementation of pressure management in District Metered Areas (DMAs) is considered one of the most effective tools for leakage control, particularly in large networks and in systems with deteriorated infrastructures and with high pressure. The goal of the methodology proposed in this paper is to identify the optimal entry points at DMAs, determine the network needs in terms of reinforcement/replacement, and fix both the location and settings of different types of Pressure Reduction Valves (PRVs) for leakage control. This methodology is based on an optimisation model, which is solved by a Simulated Annealing algorithm, and the solutions obtained always fulfil the minimum pressure requirements for the network. The objective function comprises the total cost of the DMAs implementation and the economic benefits that can be achieved by pressure management. Finally, the results for two case studies are presented and discussed.
- Retail employees' self-efficacy and hope predicting their positive affect and creativityPublication . Rego, Arménio; Sousa, Filipa; Marques, Carla; Cunha, Miguel Pina E.The study shows how retail employees’ self-efficacy and hope predict their creativity, both directly and through the mediating role of positive affect. Five hundred and seven retail employees reported their hope, self-efficacy, and positive affect, their supervisors reporting their creativity. Three main findings are: (1) hope and self-efficacy predict creativity; (2) positive affect also predicts creativity; (3) positive affect partially mediates the relationship between both dimensions of positive psychological capital (self-efficacy and hope), and creativity. The study suggests that retail organizations may foster employees’ creativity by encouraging conditions that cultivate employees’ hope and selfefficacy, as well as their positive affect.
- EditorialPublication . Bártolo, Paulo; Chua, C.K.The year of 2012 is a fruitful year for Virtual & Physical Prototyping. The journal has maintained its usual publication record and published a total of twenty-three original research articles (including this issue). Similarly, total citations to this journal in Year 2012 have also maintained at a near-hundred level by the mid-October (Scopus). The stabilized publication record and total citations demonstrate a mature and healthy status of the journal. In this regard, we thank all authors who have made contributions to this journal.
- Dynamic tree-depth adjustment for low power HEVC encodersPublication . Correa, Guilherme; Assunção, Pedro; Cruz, Luis A. da Silva; Agostini, LucianoPower consumption is a major problem in multimedia-capable mobile devices, especially those equipped with the most advanced video codecs. The emerging HEVC standard introduces a set of features which significantly increase the encoder computational complexity and consequently the power consumption in comparison to its predecessor, H.264/AVC. This paper presents two complexity reduction methods that selectively constrain the coding tree depth to keep computational complexity below a pre-established limit. Experimental results show that the encoder complexity can be reduced to 60% of the original complexity, allowing the implementation of low power HEVC encoders with small or negligible loss in rate-distortion performance.
- A state-of-the-art review on shear-frictionPublication . Santos, Pedro M.D.; Júlio, Eduardo N.B.S.Initially proposed in 1966, the ‘‘shear-friction theory’’ has been adopted in all design codes to analyse concrete-to-concrete interfaces. In the last decades, several improvements were suggested to take into account more influencing factors, to increase the accuracy and to enlarge the application field. The inclusion of the concrete strength and density and the consideration of the dowel action are examples of the proposed improvements. This paper presents a literature review on design expressions for shear-friction, chronologically ordered, describing proposals from the earliest research studies, precursors of the theory, until the most recent studies, incorporated in the newest fib Model Code. The most significant contributions are identified and a comparison between some of these design expressions is presented. Codes updates concerning shear-friction provisions are also identified in the literature review herein presented.
- Effect of surface preparation and bonding agent on the concrete-to-concrete interface strengthPublication . Santos, Dinis S.; Santos, Pedro M.D.; Dias-da-Costa, DanielConcrete-to-concrete interfaces are present both in new and existing structures. Two distinctive situations can be identified: (1) placing hardened concrete against hardened concrete parts, such as the case of precast members for viaducts and bridge decks; and (2) placing fresh concrete against hardened concrete parts, such as the rehabilitation and strengthening of existing structures by concrete jacketing or concrete overlay, among other techniques, as well as the use of precast members placed on site to later receive a cast-in-place concrete layer. The bond strength of the concrete-to-concrete interface is influenced by several parameters but mainly by: (1) the surface preparation; (2) the use of bonding agents; (3) the compressive strength of the weakest concrete; (4) the moisture content of the substrate; (5) the curing conditions; (6) the stress state at the interface; (7) the presence of cracking; and (8) the amount of steel reinforcement crossing the interface, among others. This paper presents an experimental study conducted to assess the influence of the surface preparation and bonding agent on the bond strength of the concrete-to-concrete interface. The contribution of the substrate moisture is also addressed. Experimental results are discussed and conclusions drawn.
- Uncertainty in DLL deskewing schemesPublication . Figueiredo, Mónica; Aguiar, Rui L.This paper proposes an analytical model to evaluate deskewing uncertainty, considering floorplanning and scalability issues. It can be a helpful tool in evaluating the potential gains of clock deskewing or finding the best deskewing topology for a given application, at an early design stage. Also, we show that all deskewing schemes trade static for dynamic clock uncertainty and thus, our model can be used to determine the maximum tolerable noise levels if a deskewing scheme is to be applied.
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