International tourists purchase intention towards low-carbon tour packages / Teng-Yuan Hsiao, Pei-Ling Sung and Chia-Yun Lu

More attention hence has been paid to low-carbon economic theory to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and understand green development. Therefore, the concept of low-carbon tourism has become increasingly accepted. Also, travel agencies play a crucial role in promoting the concept of environmental protection and low-carbon tourism. In recent years, the importance of the tourism development has been emphasized in Taiwan. The government has developed various tourist policies, and the number of tourists in Taiwan has increased to more than 10 million in 2015. However, no studies have investigated the international tourists in Taiwan who purchased low-carbon tour packages provided by travel agencies. The present study, therefore, explored international tourists’ understanding of low-carbon tour packages in Taiwan, their purchase intention, and willingness to pay. The following results were revealed. First, international tourists in Taiwan exhibited a certain degree of understanding of low-carbon tour packages (M = 3.79). Second, the understanding of low-carbon tour packages significantly influenced purchase intention; particularly, tourists’ views about food and accommodation effectively predicted their purchase intention. Third, 34.5% of international tourists in Taiwan were willing to pay 5% more to purchase low-carbon tour packages, and 32.3% of international tourists in Taiwan were willing to pay 10% more to purchase low-carbon tour packages. That the results of this study can serve as a reference for the government and travel agencies to design and determine prices for low-carbon tour packages

Initiation Village-Owned Enterprise for Strengthening Tourism Development

This study takes a perspective on the analysis of village owned enterprise involvement on tourism development in Tamansari, Indonesia. Using descriptive data, the paper aims to demonstrate that the driving force behind these enterprises is the need to improve the village economy such as optimizing village assets, developing community resources, and creating business opportunities. The qualitative study was undertaken between August - October 2019. It employed interviews with stakeholders (enterprise managers, local government, and residents of Tamansari).  Furthermore, the study utilised observation and secondary materials. This paper discusses preliminary findings regarding the study’s participants’ concerns in strengthening sustainability of tourism development in Tamansari.  Accordingly, the study develops the key factor role of village enterprise and how to gain the sustainability business community, and tourism development in local area. Keywords: Village-Owned Enterprise, Sustainable Tourism, Initiation, Banyuwangi, Indonesi

The influence of green trust on travel agency intentions to promote low-carbon tours for the purpose of sustainable development

Through corporate social responsibility, tourism companies can contribute to sustainable development by embracing concepts such as low-carbon tourism and environmental protection. The purpose of this research was to determine the intention of Taiwanese travel agencies to promote low-carbon tours by incorporating government-approved eco-friendly travel products. In total, 427 valid questionnaires were collected and examined by means of PLS-SEM. The findings showed that green trust not only had a significant and direct impact on intentions to sell low-carbon tours, but also influenced agency attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The study also demonstrated that the TPB was appropriate for predicting intentions for green decision-making at an organizational level and that subjective norms (e.g., peers, customers) influenced by green trust displayed more predictive strength (53.4%). The findings provide a method for incorporating low-carbon tourism into the travel industry

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data