Good advice is rarer than rubies: A study on online Tripadvisor hotel reviews

User-generated content websites, such as review sites or travel communities, have become a major source of information for travelers with the advent of Web 2.0. A recent study [1] showed that more than 40% of travelers use the reviews and comments of other consumers as information sources when planning trips. While many studies have investigated the use and influence of online reviews on consumers, less is known about what motivates travelers to write online reviews. According to the results of the Yoo & Gretze's survey [2], based on a panel of TripAdvisor reviewers, the motivation to write online travel reviews is accounted for by four dimensions: Enjoyment/positive self- enhancement, Venting negative feelings, Concerns for other consumers, and Helping the company. As a consequence, the motivation to review should be high after extremely good outcomes (due to enjoyment in sharing a good experience, helping the company that provided a good travel service) and extremely bad experiences (owing to engagement in negative word-of-mouth to warn others, see also [3]), and low after intermediate/neutral experiences. In this study we adopted a data-driven approach in order to test the empirical robustness of such an expectation. Specifically, we investigated the motivation to write online travel reviews, by analyzing a publicly available world-wide dataset of 246,399 user generated hotel reviews posted on TripAdvisor [4]. Following on the expectation rising from the four dimension model of motivation proposed by [2], if reviewers are highly motivated to write after extremely good and extremely bad experiences, the distribution of overall hotel ratings (ranging from 1 \u201cbubble\u201d, labeled as \u201cterrible\u201d, to 5 \u201cbubbles\u201d, labeled as \u201cexcellent\u201d) should be expected to be U-shaped, with central ratings being less represented than extreme values (1 \u201cbubble\u201d and 5 \u201cbubbles\u201d). The empirical distribution of ratings showed instead that the most represented ratings were 5 and 4 \u201cbubbles\u201d (accounting for 75% of all ratings), thus reflecting the fact that the majority of reviewers judged their experience in a monotonic continuum from very good to excellent. The same pattern of results emerged also in sub- ratings (business service \u2013 63%, cleanliness \u2013 81%, front desk \u2013 75%, location \u2013 84%, rooms \u2013 73%, service \u2013 75%, and value \u2013 73%). The monotonic pattern of responses revealed by our study demonstrated that engaging in negative word-of-mouth to vent negative feelings and to warn others may not be an important motivation for writing online reviews. We speculate that monotonicity could results from a positivity bias in remembering and evaluating hedonic experiences [5]. Acknowledgment: This research was supported by the University of Trieste FRA 2013 grant to CF. TSPC2015 November, 13th \u2013 P42 1. Xiang Z, Wang D, O'Leary JT, Fesenmaier DR. (2015). Adapting to the internet. Trends in travelers\u2019 use of the web for trip planning. Journal of Travel Research, 54:511-527. 2. Yoo KH, Gretzel U. (2008). What motivates consumers to write online travel reviews? Information Technology & Tourism, 10: 283-295. 3. Wetzer IM, Zeelenberg M, Pieters R. (2007). \u201cNever eat in that restaurant, I did!\u201d: Exploring why people engage in negative word\u2010of\u2010mouth communication. Psychology & Marketing, 24: 661-680. 4. Wang H, Lu Y, Zhai C. (2011). Latent aspect rating analysis without aspect keyword supervision. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM SIGKDD international conference on Knowledge discovery and data mining (pp. 618-626). 5. Wirtz D, Kruger J, Scollon CN, Diener E. (2003). What to do on spring break? The role of predicted, on-line, and remembered experience in future choice. Psychological Science, 14: 520-524

Thermoluminescence response of sodalime glass irradiated with proton and neutron beams

In the research field of emergency dosimeters to be used in case of accidental radiation exposure of the population, watch glass has been considered as a possible fortuitous dosimetric material. This paper reports on results obtained by thermoluminescence of glass samples exposed to neutron and proton beams. Thermoluminescent glow curves have been analyzed for each irradiation studying the modifications induced by the irradiation as a function of proton dose or neutron fluence. The glow curve in a specific temperature range has been used as dosimetric parameter. The thermoluminescence response of samples exposed to protons has been found to be linear in the dose range between 2 and 20 Gy and the lowest detectable dose for this radiation beam is estimated to be smaller than than 1 Gy. In case of exposure with thermal neutrons the TL signal linearly increases with neutron fluence (up to about 3 × 1011 cm-2) and the lowest detectable fluence has been found to be of the order of magnitude of 109 cm-2. These results could be of interest for accidental retrospective dosimetry. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Refining of vegetable oils and fats; formation pathway and mitigation of 3-MCPDe and Glycidyl esters

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection represents one of the main cause mortality after Stem Cell Transplantation. Recently, a protective effect of the T allele of rs12979860 IL28B Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) against CMV infection in the allogenic stem cell transplantation was suggested. We investigate whether the rs12979860 IL28B SNP and the relative rs368234815 (IFNλ4) genotype may affect the incidence of active CMV infection in Autologous stem cell transplantation (Auto-SCT) setting. The study included 99 patients who underwent to Auto-SCT. IL28 and IFNΔ4 SNPs were correlated with CMV reactivation along with other clinical and treatment parameters. CMV reactivation by CMV DNAemia was evaluated once a week until day 100 from Auto-SCT. CMV reactivation was documented in 50% (TT-ΔG/ΔG), 35% (CC-TT/TT) and 29.2% (CT-TT/ΔG) of the patients respectively. No differences in CMV copies number were recorded at reactivation between different IL28/IFNλ4 genotypes. The analysis of patients older than 60 years showed a significantly higher incidence of active CMV infection in the TT-ΔG/ΔG (83%) population with respect to CC-TT/TT (21%) and CT-TT/ΔG (40%) patients. Our data suggest a negative role of TT-ΔG/ΔG genotype in the CMV reactivation in Auto-SCT. The exposure to rituximab and the pre-infusion presence of anti CMV IgG also significantly influenced CMV reactivation

Impact of Different Cell Counting Methods in Molecular Monitoring of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patients

Background: Detection of BCR-ABL1 transcript level via real-time quantitative-polymerase-chain reaction (Q-PCR) is a clinical routine for disease monitoring, assessing Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor therapy efficacy and predicting long-term response in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients. For valid Q-PCR results, each stage of the laboratory procedures need be optimized, including the cell-counting method that represents a critical step in obtaining g an appropriate amount of RNA and reliable Q-PCR results. Traditionally, manual or automated methods are used for the detection and enumeration of white blood cells (WBCs). Here, we compared the performance of the manual counting measurement to the flow cytometry (FC)-based automatic counting assay employing CytoFLEX platform. Methods: We tested five different types of measurements: one manual hemocytometer-based count and four FC-based automatic cell-counting methods, including absolute, based on beads, based on 7-amino actinomycin D, combining and associating beads and 7AAD. The recovery efficiency for each counting method was established considering the quality and quantity of total RNA isolated and the Q-PCR results in matched samples from 90 adults with CML. Results: Our analyses showed no consistent bias between the different types of measurements, with comparable number of WBCs counted for each type of measurement. Similarly, we observed a 100% concordance in the amount of RNA extracted and in the Q-PCR cycle threshold values for both BCR-ABL1 and ABL1 gene transcripts in matched counted specimens from all the investigated groups. Overall, we show that FC-based automatic absolute cell counting has comparable performance to manual measurements and allows accurate cell counts without the use of expensive beads or the addition of the time-consuming intercalator 7AAD. Conclusions: This automatic method can replace the more laborious manual workflow, especially when high-throughput isolations from blood of CML patients are needed

CMV DNAemia at reactivation distributed between different IL28B/IFNλ4 genotypes.

<p>CMV DNAemia at reactivation distributed between different IL28B/IFNλ4 genotypes.</p

Kaplan Meier plot of CMV reactivation according to the type of conditioning chemotherapy regimen (BEAM vs. FEAM vs. MEL).

<p>Kaplan Meier plot of CMV reactivation according to the type of conditioning chemotherapy regimen (BEAM vs. FEAM vs. MEL).</p

Pre-transplant viral screening.

<p>Pre-transplant viral screening.</p

Landascape education as italian contribution to the implementation of the Agenda 2030

Perhaps it could be suggested to the Commission of Sages who are elaborating the Plan for the National Strategy for Sustainable Development in implementation of the global commitments established by the Agenda 2030, to deepen the theme of landscape education: it could thus make a real original contribution and specifically national protection, of the destinies of the world. In fact, in the Italian landscape, many of those 17 “goals” are embodied which constitute the objectives of the Agenda. But above all in the Italian landscape, as it has been configured in secular history, it is outlined - this is the meaning of this article - a real alternative ecological paradigm, a model of balance between humanity and nature full of future and able to overcome , in friendship, beauty, harmony, conviviality, the often violent and contrasting hybris that yesterday in the West and today also in the East has marked modernity