Assessment of the Touristic Activities Conducted by Couchsurfing Participants in Terms of Their Relevance to Slow Tourism Criteria

Especially lately, it is quite apparent that tourists are adopting a slow life style.  The couchsurfing (CS) social network creates an environment that is socially, culturally and environmentally interactive and enables travellers from different cultures to come together. This study examines CS’s members travel behaviour within the context of slow tourism. The data were gathered through a survey technique, one of the common quantitative research methods, and analyzed with the SPSS 20.0 Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The results show that the general slow tourism level (=3. 31) of the participants is around 3 points, which is a medium level. When arithmetic average figures regarding the sub-dimensions of slow tourism are analyzed, average points for  “slowness” and “emotion” are higher than other aspects, which are  =3.31 and  =3.26 respectively. It has not been found another study regarding CS’s members travel behaviour within the context of slow tourism in the literature. Therefore the results of this study have not been compared with another study results. The entire universe could not be reached because of the number of people constituting the universe is greater than ten thousand and time constraints. Therefore sampling method was used. Although the survey sent to 1700 CS members, 180 questionnaires were collected. In this study participants’ slow tourism behaviors according to place living in and to preferred place is studied. However participants’ slow tourism behaviors according to the nationality is not studied. In future studies, if participants’ slow tourism behaviors according to the nationality will examination, literature would be made an important contribution. In addition, there are millions of CS members all over the world. This study is seen that the general slow tourism ( =3,02) values of the CS participants that are approximately 3 points the middle value. Therefore if local governments will focus slow tourism activities in the destination, especially for slowness dimension, it will be effective to attract CS members to the destination. Keywords: couchsurfing; slowness; cultural interaction; slow tourism; accommodatio

Karadeniz ve Akdeniz tsunamileri için model geliştirme ve risk analizi projesi

TÜBİTAK ÇAYDAG15.07.201

Core Outcome Set for IgE ‐mediated food allergy clinical trials and observational studies of interventions: International Delphi consensus study ‘ COMFA ’

Background: IgE‐mediated food allergy (FA) is a global health concern with substantial individual and societal implications. While diverse intervention strategies have been researched, inconsistencies in reported outcomes limit evaluations of FA treatments. To streamline evaluations and promote consistent reporting, the Core Outcome Measures for Food Allergy (COMFA) initiative aimed to establish a Core Outcome Set (COS) for FA clinical trials and observational studies of interventions. Methods: The project involved a review of published clinical trials, trial protocols and qualitative literature. Outcomes found as a result of review were categorized and classified, informing a two‐round online‐modified Delphi process followed by hybrid consensus meeting to finalize the COS. Results: The literature review, taxonomy mapping and iterative discussions with diverse COMFA group yielded an initial list of 39 outcomes. The iterative online and in‐person meetings reduced the list to 13 outcomes for voting in the formal Delphi process. One more outcome was added based on participant suggestions after the first Delphi round. A total of 778 participants from 52 countries participated, with 442 participating in both Delphi rounds. No outcome met a priori criteria for inclusion, and one was excluded as a result of the Delphi. Thirteen outcomes were brought to the hybrid consensus meeting as a result of Delphi and two outcomes, ‘allergic symptoms’ and ‘quality of life’ achieved consensus for inclusion as ‘core’ outcomes. Conclusion: In addition to the mandatory reporting of adverse events for FA clinical trials or observational studies of interventions, allergic symptoms and quality of life should be measured as core outcomes. Future work by COMFA will define how best to measure these core outcomes