Limits to community participation in the tourism development process in developing countries

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This study deals with a normative concept of participatory development approach, which originates in the developed world. In particular, it analyses and explains the limitations to the participatory tourism development approach in the context of developing countries. It was found that there are operational, structural and cultural limits to community participation in the TDP in many developing countries although they do not equally exist in every tourist destination. Moreover, while these limits tend to exhibit higher intensity and greater persistence in the developing world than in the developed world, they appear to be a reflection of prevailing socio-political, economic and cultural structure in many developing countries. On the other hand, it was also found that although these limitations may vary over time according to types, scale and levels of tourism development, the market served, and cultural attributes of local communities, forms and scale of tourism developed are beyond the control of local communities. It concludes that formulating and implementing the participatory tourism development approach requires a total change in socio-political, legal, administrative and economic structure of many developing countries, for which hard political choices and logical decisions based on cumbersome social, economic and environmental trade-offs are sine qua non alongside deliberate help, collaboration and co-operation of major international donor agencies, NGOs, international tour operators and multinational companies. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Preliminary Evidence of Increased Hippocampal Myelin Content in Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Recent findings suggest the formation of myelin in the central nervous system by oligodendrocytes is a continuous process that can be modified with experience. For example, a recent study showed that immobilization stress increased oligodendrogensis in the dentate gyrus of adult rat hippocampus. Because changes in myelination represents an adaptive form of brain plasticity that has a greater reach in the adult brain than other forms of plasticity (e.g., neurogenesis), the objective of this "proof of concept" study was to examine whether there are differences in myelination in the hippocampi of humans with and without post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We used the ratio of T1-weighted/T2-weighted magnetic resonance image (MRI) intensity to estimate the degree of hippocampal myelination in 19 male veterans with PTSD and 19 matched trauma-exposed male veterans without PTSD (mean age: 43 ± 12 years). We found that veterans with PTSD had significantly more hippocampal myelin than trauma-exposed controls. There was also found a positive correlation between estimates of hippocampal myelination and PTSD and depressive symptom severity. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine hippocampal myelination in humans with PTSD. These results provide preliminary evidence for stress-induced hippocampal myelin formation as a potential mechanism underlying the brain abnormalities associated with vulnerability to stress

Alterations of store-operated calcium entry and cyclopiazonic acid-induced endothelium-derived relaxations in aging rat thoracic aorta

The purpose of our study was to investigate whether endothelium-derived relaxations induced by store depletion are altered in aging rat thoracic aorta. Vascular responses were measured in aortic segments isolated from young (2–4 month) and old (20–24 month) male Sprague-Dawley rats. In phenylephrine-contracted intact tissues, receptor-mediated and receptor-independent endothelium-derived relaxations were induced by acetylcholine (ACh) and sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase (SERCA) blocker cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), respectively. In addition, CPA-induced changes in intracellular calcium levels were monitored in fura-2-loaded endothelium-denuded tissues. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis were performed to determine the transient receptor potential canonical (TRPC) 4 mRNA and protein levels. Endothelial TRPC4 mRNA levels were apparently decreased in aging rats. Immunoblot analysis showed that TRPC4 protein levels significantly decreased in intact aorta from 20- to 24-month-old rats compared to that from 2- to 4-month-old rats. ACh- and CPA-induced endothelium-dependent relaxations decreased in old rat aorta without any change in direct vasodilation induced by sodium nitroprusside. Store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE) induced by CPA was significantly decreased, whereas sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ release was unaffected in endothelium-denuded aging rat aorta. In conclusion, TRPC4 downregulation could be associated with decreased endothelium-dependent vasorelaxations. As endothelial nitric oxide synthase is activated by SOCE-induced caveolar internalization, tracking the expression levels of SERCA, ion channels, and/or associated proteins involved in SOCE would lead to the development of novel therapeutics for age-related vasospastic disorders with dysfunctional endothelium

Graph run-length matrices for histopathological image segmentation

Cataloged from PDF version of article.The histopathological examination of tissue specimens is essential for cancer diagnosis and grading. However, this examination is subject to a considerable amount of observer variability as it mainly relies on visual interpretation of pathologists. To alleviate this problem, it is very important to develop computational quantitative tools, for which image segmentation constitutes the core step. In this paper, we introduce an effective and robust algorithm for the segmentation of histopathological tissue images. This algorithm incorporates the background knowledge of the tissue organization into segmentation. For this purpose, it quantifies spatial relations of cytological tissue components by constructing a graph and uses this graph to define new texture features for image segmentation. This new texture definition makes use of the idea of gray-level run-length matrices. However, it considers the runs of cytological components on a graph to form a matrix, instead of considering the runs of pixel intensities. Working with colon tissue images, our experiments demonstrate that the texture features extracted from "graph run-length matrices" lead to high segmentation accuracies, also providing a reasonable number of segmented regions. Compared with four other segmentation algorithms, the results show that the proposed algorithm is more effective in histopathological image segmentatio

Structure and Magnetism of Mn5Ge3 Nanoparticles

In this work, we investigated the magnetic and structural properties of isolated Mn5Ge3 nanoparticles prepared by the cluster-beam deposition technique. Particles with sizes between 7.2 and 12.6 nm were produced by varying the argon pressure and power in the cluster gun. X-ray diffraction (XRD)and selected area diffraction (SAD) measurements show that the nanoparticles crystallize in the hexagonal Mn5Si3-type crystal structure, which is also the structure of bulk Mn5Ge3. The temperature dependence of the magnetization shows that the as-made particles are ferromagnetic at room temperature and have slightly different Curie temperatures. Hysteresis-loop measurements show that the saturation magnetization of the nanoparticles increases significantly with particle size, varying from 31 kA/m to 172 kA/m when the particle size increases from 7.2 to 12.6 nm. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant K at 50 K, determined by fitting the high-field magnetization data to the law of approach to saturation, also increases with particle size, from 0.4 × 105 J/m3 to 2.9 × 105 J/m3 for the respective sizes. This trend is mirrored by the coercivity at 50 K, which increases from 0.04 T to 0.13 T. A possible explanation for the magnetization trend is a radial Ge concentration gradient

Towards a typology of community participation in the tourism development process

Although the notion of community participation in tourism originates from the general concept of community participation in development studies, the subject of the former seems to have evolved and popularized in isolation from the meaning and scope of its origin. This article reveals that such isolation has ushered in a rigid and simple paradigm of community participation in tourism. This is assumed to be of one form and has universal validity without considering the existence of the different circumstances at various tourist destinations. It is suggested that the concept of community participation should be re-considered in terms of an adaptive categorical paradigm, which incorporates a range of various forms of community participation. These forms of participation are outlined for a variety of abstract situations with the aim of illustrating the legitimacy of different forms of community participation in tourism

Unsupervised tissue image segmentation through object-oriented texture

This paper presents a new algorithm for the unsupervised segmentation of tissue images. It relies on using the spatial information of cytological tissue components. As opposed to the previous study, it does not only use this information in defining its homogeneity measures, but it also uses it in its region growing process. This algorithm has been implemented and tested. Its visual and quantitative results are compared with the previous study. The results show that the proposed segmentation algorithm is more robust in giving better accuracies with less number of segmented regions. © 2010 IEEE

Structure and Magnetism of Co2Ge Nanoparticles

The structural and magnetic properties of Co2Ge nanoparticles (NPs) prepared by the cluster-beam deposition (CBD) technique have been investigated. As-made particles with an average size of 5.5 nm exhibit a mixture of hexagonal and orthorhombic crystal structures. Thermomagnetic measurements showed that the as-made particles are superparamagnetic at room temperature with a blocking temperature (TB) of 20 K. When the particles are annealed at 823 K for 12 h, their size is increased to 13 nm and they develop a new orthorhombic crystal structure, with a Curie temperature (TC) of 815 K. This is drastically different from bulk, which are ferromagnetic at cryogenic temperatures only. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements suggest the formation of a new Co-rich orthorhombic phase (OP) with slightly increased c/a ratio in the annealed particles and this is believed to be the reason for the drastic change in their magnetic properties

Structure and Magnetism of Mn5Ge3 Nanoparticles

In this work, we investigated the magnetic and structural properties of isolated Mn5Ge3 nanoparticles prepared by the cluster-beam deposition technique. Particles with sizes between 7.2 and 12.6 nm were produced by varying the argon pressure and power in the cluster gun. X-ray diffraction (XRD)and selected area diffraction (SAD) measurements show that the nanoparticles crystallize in the hexagonal Mn5Si3-type crystal structure, which is also the structure of bulk Mn5Ge3. The temperature dependence of the magnetization shows that the as-made particles are ferromagnetic at room temperature and have slightly different Curie temperatures. Hysteresis-loop measurements show that the saturation magnetization of the nanoparticles increases significantly with particle size, varying from 31 kA/m to 172 kA/m when the particle size increases from 7.2 to 12.6 nm. The magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant K at 50 K, determined by fitting the high-field magnetization data to the law of approach to saturation, also increases with particle size, from 0.4 x 105 J/m3 to 2.9 x 105 J/m3 for the respective sizes. This trend is mirrored by the coercivity at 50 K, which increases from 0.04 T to 0.13 T. A possible explanation for the magnetization trend is a radial Ge concentration gradient

A computer-based automated algorithm for assessing acinar cell loss after experimental pancreatitis

The change in exocrine mass is an important parameter to follow in experimental models of pancreatic injury and regeneration. However, at present, the quantitative assessment of exocrine content by histology is tedious and operatordependent, requiring manual assessment of acinar area on serial pancreatic sections. In this study, we utilized a novel computer-generated learning algorithm to construct an accurate and rapid method of quantifying acinar content. The algorithm works by learning differences in pixel characteristics from input examples provided by human experts. HE-stained pancreatic sections were obtained in mice recovering from a 2-day, hourly caerulein hyperstimulation model of experimental pancreatitis. For training data, a pathologist carefully outlined discrete regions of acinar and non-acinar tissue in 21 sections at various stages of pancreatic injury and recovery (termed the ''ground truth''). After the expert defined the ground truth, the computer was able to develop a prediction rule that was then applied to a unique set of high-resolution images in order to validate the process. For baseline, non-injured pancreatic sections, the software demonstrated close agreement with the ground truth in identifying baseline acinar tissue area with only a difference of 1%±0.05% (p = 0.21). Within regions of injured tissue, the software reported a difference of 2.5%± 0.04% in acinar area compared with the pathologist (p = 0.47). Surprisingly, on detailed morphological examination, the discrepancy was primarily because the software outlined acini and excluded inter-acinar and luminal white space with greater precision. The findings suggest that the software will be of great potential benefit to both clinicians and researchers in quantifying pancreatic acinar cell flux in the injured and recovering pancreas