Clustering visitors to a religious island : the case of Tinos

Tourists visiting religious destinations are usually influenced by religious motivations. However, this might not be the case for all tourists, since visitors to religious sites may visit a destination not only for pilgrimage, but also to satisfy various needs interlinked with social, cultural and recreational factors. This paper attempts to investigate the motivations and activities of tourists visiting Tinos, a Greek island known as a religious destination for Christian Orthodox, by undertaking a clustering approach. A self-administrated questionnaire was distributed to 97 visitors of Tinos during the summer of 2007. From the findings it is evident that although the island is considered as one of the main religious sites for Christian Orthodox, tourists are not a homogenous group. Instead, the analytical approach adopted produced three segments, namely the “cultural tourists”, the “vacationers” and the “religious tourists”

Lichen taxonomic composition from MustafaKemalpaºa, Bursa district (Turkey)

A total of 130 lichen taxa belonging to 24 families in Ascomycotina are listed for MustafaKemalPaºa, NW Turkey. Tuckneraria laureri and Usnea substerilis are newly recordeds for Turkey. Distribution and substrates are presented

Three new lichenicolous fungi records for Turkey and Asia

Three lichenicolous fungi, Abrothallus peyritschii, Lichenochora verrucicola and Sclerococcum montagnei, collected from Burdur and Bitlis provinces, are reported as new to Turkey, the latter species is also new to Asia. Short descriptions, including geographical distributions, hosts and comparisons with similar taxa are provided

Feedback Increases the Capacity of Queues with Bounded Service Times

In the "Bits Through Queues" paper, it was conjectured that full feedback always increases the capacity of first-in-first-out queues, except when the service time distribution is memoryless. More recently, a non-explicit sufficient condition on the service time under which feedback increases capacity was provided, along with simple examples of service times satisfying this condition. In this paper, it is shown that full feedback increases the capacity of queues with bounded service times. This result is obtained by investigating a generalized notion of feedback, with full feedback and weak feedback as particular cases.Comment: 10 pages; two-colum

How Are Curiosity and Interest Different? Naive Bayes Classification of People's Beliefs

Researchers studying curiosity and interest note a lack of consensus in whether and how these important motivations for learning are distinct. Empirical attempts to distinguish them are impeded by this lack of conceptual clarity. Following a recent proposal that curiosity and interest are folk concepts, we sought to determine a non-expert consensus view on their distinction using machine learning methods. In Study 1, we demonstrate that there is a consensus in how they are distinguished, by training a Naïve Bayes classification algorithm to distinguish between free-text definitions of curiosity and interest (n = 396 definitions) and using cross-validation to test the classifier on two sets of data (main n = 196; additional n = 218). In Study 2, we demonstrate that the non-expert consensus is shared by experts and can plausibly underscore future empirical work, as the classifier accurately distinguished definitions provided by experts who study curiosity and interest (n = 92). Our results suggest a shared consensus on the distinction between curiosity and interest, providing a basis for much-needed conceptual clarity facilitating future empirical work. This consensus distinguishes curiosity as more active information seeking directed towards specific and previously unknown information. In contrast, interest is more pleasurable, in-depth, less momentary information seeking towards information in domains where people already have knowledge. However, we note that there are similarities between the concepts, as they are both motivating, involve feelings of wanting, and relate to knowledge acquisition

Morphometric and macroanatomic examination of auditory ossicles in male wolves (Canis lupus)

Background: The aim of the study was to determine morphometric and macroanatomic features of auditory ossicles and the tympanic bulla in wolf. Materials and methods: For this purpose, 7 skulls of adult male wolf were used in the study. Auditory ossicles was photographed on a dissection microscope after it was removed from the skull. A total of 14 morphometric measurements were taken among the different points of malleus, incus and stapes in Image J programme. Mean values of the measurements were obtained and statistically compared in terms of sides (right-left). Results: In male wolves, the lengths of the right and left malleus were determined as mean 9.35 ± 0.14 and 9.57 ± 0.25 mm, the lengths of the incus as mean 3.01 ± 0.32 and 2.94 ± 0.16 mm, and the lengths of the stapes as mean 2.57 ± 0.12 and 2.59 ± 0.14 mm, respectively. The differences were not statistically significant when all the morphometric parameters were compared in terms of sides (p > 0.05). Conclusions: It is considered that this study will contribute to the anatomical studies to be conducted in the Canidae family regarding auditory ossicles

Macroanatomical and histological study of the structure of intercornual gland in Abaza (Capra Aegagrus) and Gurcu (Capra Falconeri) goats breeds

Background: The anatomical localisation of the odour glands, which increase activity during the reproduction period and help goat species to find each other, varies. Materials and methods: In our study, the anatomical and histological structures of the glands around the horn were examined in the Gurcu and Abaza goats, which are native breeds. In this study a total of 12 Abaza and Gurcu goat heads were used. Results: The area between the two horns and area at the back of the horns were shaved to remove all hair. The distance between the horns of both goat breeds was measured using an electronic calliper. The mean distance between the horns of the Abaza goats was determined as 36.80 ± 8.62 mm while this distance was 39.63 ± 4.10 mm for the Gurcu goats. Gland tissue that could not be seen anatomically under the skin was examined histologically. For the histological examination, skin samples were taken from the anterior, middle, right posterior and left posterior of the area between the two horns of both breeds. Crossman triple staining and haematoxylin and eosin staining were applied to the samples. Conclusions: Glandula intercornualis was found to be slightly caudal between the horns in both breeds and normal sebaceous glands were almost absent in the areas where these glands were found. Lobes and branched alveolar glands were located around the hair follicles