Critical behavior of a three-dimensional hardcore-cylinder composite system

In this work the critical indices β, γ , and ν for a three-dimensional (3D) hardcore cylinder composite system with short-range interaction have been obtained. In contrast to the 2D stick system and the 3D hardcore cylinder system, the determined critical exponents do not belong to the same universality class as the lattice percolation,although they obey the common hyperscaling relation for a 3D system. It is observed that the value of the correlation length exponent is compatible with the predictions of the mean field theory. It is also shown that, by using the Alexander-Orbach conjuncture, the relation between the conductivity and the correlation length critical exponents has a typical value for a 3D lattice system.

Residents’ perceptions on impacts of hosting the “Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture”: comparisons of the pre-and post-2012 ECOC

Residents tend to have high expectations about the benefits of hosting a mega‐event. So, it was not surprising that the nomination of Guimarães, Portugal, as the 2012 European Capital of Culture (2012 ECOC) had raised great expectations in the local community towards its socio‐economic and cultural benefits. The present research was designed to examine the Guimarães residents’ perceptions on the impacts of hosting the 2012 ECOC approached in two different time schedules, the pre‐ and the post‐event, trying to capture the evolution of the residents` evaluation of its impacts. For getting the data, two surveys were applied to Guimarães` residents, one in the pre‐event phase, in 2011, and another in the post‐event phase, in 2013. This approach is uncommonly applied to Portugal data and it is even the first time it was done to a Portuguese European Capital of Culture. After a factor analysis, the results of t‐tests indicate that there were significant differences (p<0.05) between the samples from the pre‐ and post‐2012 ECOC on two positive impact factors (Community’ benefits and Residents’ benefits) and one negative impact factor (Economic, social and environmental costs). Respondents also showed a negative perception of the impacts in all dimensions, except Changes in habits of Guimarães residents.

Residents’ perceptions on impacts of hosting the “Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture”: comparisons of the pre-and post-2012 ECOC

The nomination of Guimarães, a small city located in the northwest of Portugal, as European capital of culture (ECOC) in 2012 raised great expectations in the local community towards its socio-economic and cultural benefits. As noted by various authors, namely Kim and Petrick (2005), Kim, Gursoy and Lee (2006) and Gursoy, Chi, Ai and Chen (2011), residents tend to have high expectations about the benefits of hosting a mega-event, although they tend to recognize that some costs will result from it. Therefore, the present research was designed to examine the Guimarães residents’ perceptions on the impacts of the 2012 European capital of culture (2012 ECOC) on the city and the municipality of Guimarães before and after the mega-event and the differences found between the two time periods.

INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

The purpose of this paper is to, in a holistic way, identify and explore the critical success factors (CSFs) that are considered in the context of the growing discussions, movements, proposed models, and case studies about the integration of management systems (MSs). This work is an investigation focused on the integration of MSs into an integrated management system (IMS) and the proposed approach takes into account the literature review as well as the experience gained by the authors on researches about Portuguese enterprises. This qualitative and empirical research, investigated the integration of MSs from existing scientific publications for the period 1999 to 2014, on-going case studies and one inquiry conducted by the authors. This research contributes to a better understanding of the CSFs regarding the integration of MSs and thus provides an insight on the preventive management. This research shows an evident lack of information regarding case studies on CSFs for integrated management systems (IMSs) and has identified a set of relevant CSFs, for MSs integration and associated guidelines that organizations should take as a priority, in order to be able to manage, on a preventive way, the implementation of IMSs, and consequently to become more competitive with added value for the stakeholders.