The role of small tourism businesses in urban tourism development: A case study of Indianapolis

Thesis (PhD) - Indiana University, School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 2005The problem of this study was to construct a testable model by investigating the dimensions of small tourism businesses and to explore if these characteristics predict support of tourism development in Indianapolis, Indiana. Based on the review of literature, a number of variables were identified for use in the study. A proposed model was developed and small tourism businesses were examined in terms of the type of business activity, type of business ownership, motivation of business ownership, financial success, projected growth, business geographical location, its customer base, and the business' level of community involvement. To answer the research questions, an instrument was developed and administered to small tourism businesses located in one of the six Indianapolis cultural districts (Broad Ripple Village, Wholesale, Fountain Square/Southeast Neighborhood, Downtown Canal, Mass Avenue, and Indiana Avenue Cultural District). For this project, a small tourism business was defined as a business with less than 40 full-time employees, very small market share, annual revenue less than $250,000, or limited infrastructure and assets, and was categorized as one of the following establishments: (a) art galleries or studios, (b) restaurants, (c) historic attractions, (d) museums, (e) performing/visual arts, (f) unique/gift shops, and (g) accommodations. A total of 152 surveys were used in the analysis, which represented a 48.2% response rate; 315 small tourism businesses fit the sample criteria. The initial analysis of the data was conducted using SPSS and produced a number of descriptive statistics describing small tourism businesses in Indianapolis. This information was used to better understand the nature of owners and managers of small tourism businesses. Factor analysis procedures were conducted using principal factors extraction with Promax rotation, resulting in a five-factor solution. A multiple regression analysis was then used to distinguish whether support of tourism development could be predicted by the small tourism businesses' financial success, business performance, owner motivations, perceived self-image, owner values, business activity type, business location, and business ownership type. Based on the conclusions of the study, evidence was not found that this set of independent variables predict the support of tourism development. Results indicate that only 5.8% of support for tourism development by small tourism business owners could be explained by this set of independent variables. The ANOVA table and the standardized coefficients, or the converted beta weights, were examined to review which, if any, of the independent variables contributed to the explanation of the dependent variable. Both data reports support the conclusion that this set of independent variables did not predict the level of support of tourism development by small tourism businesses. From this study a better understanding of the dimensions of small tourism businesses and support for tourism development was reported. This research should be used as a foundation to expand and continue work on future theory development and modification in the areas of small business and tourism

School of PETM Mentoring Plan: Creating a Culture of Advancement

This poster describes the progress and lessons learned as a result of newly implemented Faculty Mentoring Program in the School of Physical Education and Tourism Management

A Longitudinal Study of Cultural Tourism and Quality of Life of Indianapolis Residents

poster abstractCultural tourism development is considered a viable channel to attract tourists to a destination and to enhance residents’ overall quality of life (QOL). This research reports the findings of a five-year study, from 2004-2008, to monitor patterns and changes in perceptions of cultural tourism and residents’ quality of life measurement. The series of studies yield interesting conclusions that have practical implications for Indianapolis city and tourism leaders who continually evaluate the cultural tourism initiatives and ways to improve the residents’ quality of life

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries.

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors

The Obesity-Associated Polymorphisms FTO rs9939609 and MC4R rs17782313 and Endometrial Cancer Risk in Non-Hispanic White Women

Overweight and obesity are strongly associated with endometrial cancer. Several independent genome-wide association studies recently identified two common polymorphisms, FTO rs9939609 and MC4R rs17782313, that are linked to increased body weight and obesity. We examined the association of FTO rs9939609 and MC4R rs17782313 with endometrial cancer risk in a pooled analysis of nine case-control studies within the Epidemiology of Endometrial Cancer Consortium (E2C2). This analysis included 3601 non-Hispanic white women with histologically-confirmed endometrial carcinoma and 5275 frequency-matched controls. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to assess the relation of FTO rs9939609 and MC4R rs17782313 genotypes to the risk of endometrial cancer. Among control women, both the FTO rs9939609 A and MC4R rs17782313 C alleles were associated with a 16% increased risk of being overweight (p = 0.001 and p = 0.004, respectively). In case-control analyses, carriers of the FTO rs9939609 AA genotype were at increased risk of endometrial carcinoma compared to women with the TT genotype [odds ratio (OR)  = 1.17; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03–1.32, p = 0.01]. However, this association was no longer apparent after adjusting for body mass index (BMI), suggesting mediation of the gene-disease effect through body weight. The MC4R rs17782313 polymorphism was not related to endometrial cancer risk (per allele OR = 0.98; 95% CI: 0.91–1.06; p = 0.68). FTO rs9939609 is a susceptibility marker for white non-Hispanic women at higher risk of endometrial cancer. Although FTO rs9939609 alone might have limited clinical or public health significance for identifying women at high risk for endometrial cancer beyond that of excess body weight, further investigation of obesity-related genetic markers might help to identify the pathways that influence endometrial carcinogenesis

Assessing Tourism Development from Sen’s Capability Approach

The purpose of this study is to assess tourism development in the context of Sen’s capability approach. The study developed a model to investigate the relationship between tourism development and human development while focusing on two countries, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The study applied a cointegration technique based on the Granger representation theorem. Overall, tourism development and human development reveals a tenuous relationship in both cases, reflecting some threshold effect. The importance of tourism growth is merited in the distribution of its benefits and the extent that tourism receipts are allocated to support human development (public health, education, safety, etc.). Rising incomes will not necessarily translate into human development performance, thereby rendering support to Sen’s contention that well-being should not be measured by its instrumental antecedents (such as income) alone. Private incomes through tourism expansion seem to matter most at lower levels of human development

The SAMI Galaxy Survey : spatially resolving the main sequence of star formation

We present the ∼800 star formation rate maps for the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey based on H α emission maps, corrected for dust attenuation via the Balmer decrement, that are included in the SAMI Public Data Release 1. We mask out spaxels contaminated by non-stellar emission using the [O iii]/H β, [N ii]/H α, [S ii]/H α, and [O i]/H α line ratios. Using these maps, we examine the global and resolved star-forming main sequences of SAMI galaxies as a function of morphology, environmental density, and stellar mass. Galaxies further below the star-forming main sequence are more likely to have flatter star formation profiles. Early-type galaxies split into two populations with similar stellar masses and central stellar mass surface densities. The main-sequence population has centrally concentrated star formation similar to late-type galaxies, while galaxies >3σ below the main sequence show significantly reduced star formation most strikingly in the nuclear regions. The split populations support a two-step quenching mechanism, wherein halo mass first cuts off the gas supply and remaining gas continues to form stars until the local stellar mass surface density can stabilize the reduced remaining fuel against further star formation. Across all morphologies, galaxies in denser environments show a decreased specific star formation rate from the outside in, supporting an environmental cause for quenching, such as ram-pressure stripping or galaxy interactions.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe