Do Blue Flag promotions influence tourists’ willingness to pay a price premium for coastal destinations?

The Blue Flag is a popular eco-label in tourism. This study aims at examining the effectiveness of Blue Flag promotion on tourists' willingness to pay a price premium to coastal destinations via two online experiments. Study 1 shows (n = 152) that the Blue Flag stimulates higher willingness to pay a price premium for coastal destinations directly as well as indirectly through self-congruity and destination brand identification. Study 2 (n = 160) used a new sample to enhance external validity and generalizability of the Study 1 findings. Study 2 shows that destination brand quality and destination brand identification serially mediate the effect of Blue Flag promotions on the tourist's willingness to pay a price premium. The findings suggest that destination managers should deploy the Blue Flag Logo in destination promotions to enhance self-congruence, destination brand identification, perceived destination quality, and the tourist's willingness to pay a price premium

The Impact of Political Factors on International Student Mobility

International student mobility contributes to a knowledge-based economy and forms an important component of a highly educated migration. This article aims to identify how far political factors – including political discrimination, restrictions, freedom, UK migration policies and social cultural norms and policies - enhance or inhibit individuals’ capabilities to become mobile. It offers a novel conceptualisation of mobility drawing on Structuration Theory and Capability Approach to reveal the link between structure, capability and agency in the mobility process. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with forty PhD students, two professors from Turkey in the UK and three international education experts. A capability list established shows how mobility occurs when students’ capabilities (freedoms) fail to flourish and they lose their power (capacity) to influence society due to the political environment in the home country. ‘Impo-mobility’, derived from the word ‘imposed’, is proposed to refer to highly educated people having to become mobile as a result of impositions placed upon them by home and host government political practices. An appealing political environment is necessary if Turkey is not to lose highly educated individuals and the UK is to remain a global player in international higher education

Social Determinants of International Students’ Mobility: Enhancing the Capabilities of PhD Students from Turkey

Student mobility is part of the increasing internationalisation of higher education in the 21stcentury, being used by many as a stepping-stone for a career away from the country of birth. Despite acknowledgement of its contribution to human development and to a country’s economic development, this form of mobility is highly complex. For many of those involved, it represents a process of transformation underpinned by multiple factors and concluding with a decision whether or not to adopt migrant status. This research focuses on international PhD student mobility, a topic overlooked generally in the literature. The aim is to identify structural and agency factors influencing international mobility and to elicit how these impact on students’ capabilities to become mobile. From a theoretical perspective, this is achieved by drawing upon Structuration Theory together with the Capability Approach and applying these in the context of PhD students from Turkey in the UK. The findings, derived from 45 semi-structural interviews at macro and micro levels, reveal that political and socio-cultural factors are the main concerns of students with non-return plans to Turkey. Whilst political factors, particularly political freedoms and discrimination, lead to restrictions on academic and employment capabilities, socio-cultural ones, including family and societal pressure, as well as division and polarisation in Turkey, limit students’ capabilities in terms of freedom of life-style choice. With agency factors, ethnicity restricts the capability of expression of identity, whilst the level of acquired capability of independence varies according to gender. These differences provide evidence that agency factors play a significant role in mobility and thus it is essential that future work should include the capabilities of individuals, as well as micro level factors. Further, it is elicited that studying abroad enhances the capability of becoming a cosmopolitan citizen and, hence, being mobile. The conclusion drawn is that student mobility depends on whether a country can provide the opportunity for capabilities (freedoms/power) to flourish, with minimal perceived insecurity. For many participants, neither Turkey nor the UK was the country where they felt they could exploit their capabilities and they were looking for opportunities in third countries. This was owing to the lack of freedom in many aspects of life in Turkey and the strict migration policies’ in UK. The current study provides an extended framework for understanding the impact of structural and agency factors on mobility and the capabilities associated with mobility. Mobility groups identified are: for non-return students, Impo-Mobile, Voluntarily Mobile or Hyper Mobile; and for return students, Constant Immobile or Inconstant Immobile. The thesis can provide valuable pointers for further research and inform government policies on how to attract highly qualified individuals.

Reduced incidence of atrial fibrillation after cardiac surgery by continuous wireless monitoring of oxygen saturation on the normal ward and resultant oxygen therapy for hypoxia

Objective: Monitoring of cardiac surgical patients after transfer from the intensive care unit to the normal ward is incomplete. Undetected hypoxia, however, is known to be a risk factor for occurrence of atrial fibrillation. We have utilized Auricall® for continuous wireless monitoring of oxygen saturation and heart rate until discharge. The object of the study was to analyze if oxygen therapy as a result of Auricall® alerts of hypoxia can decrease the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation. Methods: Auricall® is a wireless portable pulse oximeter. An alert is generated depending on preset threshold values (heart rate, oxygen saturation). Over a period of 6 months, 119 patients were monitored with the Auricall® following coronary artery bypass graft and/or valve surgery. Oxygen therapy was started subsequent to an oxygen saturation below 90%. These patients were compared with a cohort of 238 patients from the time period before availability of Auricall®. The patient characteristics were comparable in both groups. In a retrospective study, the incidence of atrial fibrillation was measured in both groups. Results: The postoperative AF was observed in 22/119 patients (18%) in group I and in 66/238 patients (28%) in group II. This difference between the two groups approached significance (p=0.056). In the subgroup of patients with coronary artery bypass graft with our without simultaneous valve surgery (n=312), Auricall® monitoring resulted in a significantly reduced incidence of atrial fibrillation (14% vs 26%, p=0.016). Conclusions: Continuous monitoring of oxygen saturation on the normal ward and subsequent oxygen therapy for hypoxia can reduce the incidence of atrial fibrillation in a subgroup of patients after cardiac surgery. Prospective randomized trials are warranted to confirm these dat

Modeling the kinetics of peroxidase inactivation, colour and texture changes of Portuguese cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. costata DC) during UV-C light and heat blanching

The e ects of heat blanching and UV-C light followed by heat on Portuguese cabbage peroxidase (POD), colour and texture were studied in the temperature range of 80-95 °C. POD inactivation, lightness (L) and yellowness (b) colour changes were described by a rst-order reaction model. The greenness (a) colour and texture ( rmness) changes followed a two fraction kinetic model behaviour. The temperature e ect was well described by the Arrhenius law. At lower temperatures the combined treatment showed higher POD inactivation. Colour and texture parameters did not show signi cant di erences between treatments. Long processing times turned the leaves slightly darker, decreased greenness, yellowness and rmness. Short processing times increased the rmness and greenness of the leaves. The treatment at 80 °C for 90 seconds reduced 90% of POD, retaining 98% of lightness and 92% of yellowness and improved the green colour (130%) and rmness (125%). At 80 °C the heat blanching required 7.4 min to inactivate 90% of the enzyme activity, reducing lightness, greenness, yellowness and rmness to 92%, 68%, 62% and 61%, respectively. The present ndings will help to optimize the Portuguese cabbage blanching conditions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Hydrothermal treatments of corn cob and hemicelluloses extraction

Corn cob samples were treated with water (autohydrolysis reaction) using a liquid to solid ratio of 10:1 w/w. The optimal condition for extraction of hemicelluloses was found at 185ºC for 30 min. This resulted in the release of 9.7% of hemicelluloses (% dry starting material), corresponding to the dissolution of 27.9% of the original hemicellulose. Chemical composition and physico-chemical properties of the samples were elucidated by a combination of sugar analyses and thermal analysis. The results showed that the treatment was effective on the extraction of hemicelluloses from corn cob and that the TGA analysis of xylan from birch wood was found to be initially degraded at about 220 ºC whereas hemicelluloses from corn cob would be degraded at about 225 ºC.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).Erasmus Programme (Turkey)

During the covid-19 pandemic, students' opinions on distance education in department of engineering

The decision regarding the distance education method in Turkey on March 15, 2020, has completely changed the learning and teaching methodology of all university students and educators, and it has been seen that all courses have started to be given with distance education. The purpose of this research is to examine the perspectives of engineering university students towards distance education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research consists of engineering faculty students studying at various universities in the Aegean region and Russian Federation. In the research, a scanning model was used. The data of the research were collected from 520 engineering department university students from various universities in our country, according to the convenience sampling method, and through an online questionnaire filled out by the students. Thanks to this wide participation, results have been obtained that will explain the Covid-19 process related to distance education in a good way. In general, it has been concluded that students are happy to see them in distance education model courses, so they do not fall behind in their education, and university students watch their courses mostly with the help of smart devices.WOS:000772618100001Emerging Sources Citation IndexArticleUluslararası işbirliği ile yapılan - EVETApril2022YÖK - 2021-22Mar