a comparative study of the US and the UK

Rita, P., Brochado, A., & Dimova, L. (2019). Millennials’ travel motivations and desired activities within destinations: a comparative study of the US and the UK. Current Issues in Tourism, 22(16), 2034-2050. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2018.1439902Millennials are one of the largest groups to be targeted by tourism companies. This paper compares the travel motivations of Millennials from both the United States and the United Kingdom by ratings, rankings and perceptual structures of both push and pull factors. This exploratory study used a questionnaire to examine the inner motivations (e.g. push factors) and preferred destination activities (e.g. pull factors) of American and British Millennials (n = 322). Data analysis included the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance, an alternating least-squares algorithm (ALSCAL) model and ordinal regression. The results reveal that American and British Millennials are quite homogeneous in their push travel motivations and destination activity preferences. The most important motivational factors for both are ‘to relax’ and ‘to escape from the ordinary’. Both nationalities also agree that the most attractive destination activities are ‘to try local food’ and ‘to go sightseeing’. The findings indicate that the US and UK samples are similar and that there is room for segmentation according to demographics.authorsversionpublishe

Insight into Electric field-induced rupture mechanism of water-in-toluene emulsion films from a model system

This paper presents a model, which we have designed to get insight into the development of electro- induced instability of a thin toluene emulsion film in contact with the saline aqueous phase. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations demonstrate the role of charge accumulation in the toluene-film rupture induced by a DC electric field. Two ensembles¿NVT and NPT ¿are used to determine the critical value of the external field at which the film ruptures, the charge distribution and capacitance of the thin film, number densities, and the film structure. The rupture mechanism as seen from this model is the following: in both NVT and NPT ensembles, condenser plates, where the charge density is maximal, are situated at the very border between the bulk aqueous (water) phase and the mixed layer. No ion penetration is observed within the toluene core, thus leaving all the distribution of charges within the mixed zone and the bulk phase that could be attributed to the formation of hydration shells. When the critical electric field is reached within a certain time after the field application, electric discharge occurs indicating the beginning of the rupturing process. The MD simulations indicate that the NPT ensemble predicts a value of the critical field that is closer to the experimental finding. Published by AIP Publishing. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.498316

Life in the AI era - First result of the Erasmus+ HEDY project

HEDY - Life in the AI era is a 2-year Erasmus+ project started in November 2021 targeting higher education audience. Its goal is to offer a comprehensive and shared view of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is affecting our lives and reshaping our socioeconomic, cultural, and human environments and to define which topics related to AI are of interest to different university studies and how they should be addressed. Four specific free and accessible sources of information will be produced to reach these goals, the first of which is the Booklet, the subject of this paper. The Booklet is an essay defining the HEDY position on life in the AI era and its aim is to identify the challenges, opportunities and expected impact of AI on four different areas: business, governance, skills & competencies, and people & lifestyle. In this paper, we summarise the content of the Booklet. In particular, we describe our methodology to build our rationales based on collecting information from two sources: i) Literature survey, and ii) Focus groups. These two sources provide a unique contribution on AI panorama by combining state of the art research with first-hand opinions and debated questions, concerns, and ideas of interacting individuals. The main finding is that there is the necessity to train citizens in AI by providing teachings, courses and trainings in schools and higher education institutes to facilitate the use and adoption of AI for young people and future generations

Tissue Fluorescence Imaging for Quick Non-Invasive Diagnosis in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Significant vital functions take place in the oral cavity and oropharynx, primarily mastication, as the initial function of the gastrointestinal system, swallowing, respiration and speech. All these vital biological functions can be endangered, ie aggravated, and even disabled by the appearance of neoplasms in that anatomical space. In the maxillofacial region, neoplasms can originate from a variety of tissues, from the mucous membranes of the oral cavity to the jaws, salivary glands, and even tumors of odontogenic origin. However, the most common tumor in the oral cavity is squamous cell carcinoma (OSSC), which originates fromthe oral mucosa.To determine the accuracy, sensitivity (Se)andspecificity (Sp) of the Velscope screening method in the detection of premalignant and initial malignant lesions compared to the gold standard surgical biopsy.The study group consisted of 60 patients divided into two groups. The first group was formed by 30 patients with potentially malignant oral lesions (PML). Another 30 patients withpreliminarydiagnosis -oral cancer (OC) were included in the second group of examinees. The high sensitivity value of 92.86% and the accuracy of the method of 86.67% largely confirm the reliability and efficacy of the Velscope method in patients with highly suspected oral cancer lesions (OC), significantly more, comparing to the group of premalignant lesions. Key words: Velscope, oral cancer, premalignant lesions, tumor

A genome-wide association study identifies risk alleles in plasminogen and P4HA2 associated with giant cell arteritis

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common form of vasculitis in individuals older than 50 years in Western countries. To shed light onto the genetic background influencing susceptibility for GCA, we performed a genome-wide association screening in a well-powered study cohort. After imputation, 1,844,133 genetic variants were analysed in 2,134 cases and 9,125 unaffected controls from ten independent populations of European ancestry. Our data confirmed HLA class II as the strongest associated region (independent signals: rs9268905, P = 1.94E-54, per-allele OR = 1.79; and rs9275592, P = 1.14E-40, OR = 2.08). Additionally, PLG and P4HA2 were identified as GCA risk genes at the genome-wide level of significance (rs4252134, P = 1.23E-10, OR = 1.28; and rs128738, P = 4.60E-09, OR = 1.32, respectively). Interestingly, we observed that the association peaks overlapped with different regulatory elements related to cell types and tissues involved in the pathophysiology of GCA. PLG and P4HA2 are involved in vascular remodelling and angiogenesis, suggesting a high relevance of these processes for the pathogenic mechanisms underlying this type of vasculitis

A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the top quark forward-backward production asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric and chromomagnetic moments in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Abstract The parton-level top quark (t) forward-backward asymmetry and the anomalous chromoelectric (d̂ t) and chromomagnetic (μ̂ t) moments have been measured using LHC pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected in the CMS detector in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The linearized variable AFB(1) is used to approximate the asymmetry. Candidate t t ¯ events decaying to a muon or electron and jets in final states with low and high Lorentz boosts are selected and reconstructed using a fit of the kinematic distributions of the decay products to those expected for t t ¯ final states. The values found for the parameters are AFB(1)=0.048−0.087+0.095(stat)−0.029+0.020(syst),μ̂t=−0.024−0.009+0.013(stat)−0.011+0.016(syst), and a limit is placed on the magnitude of | d̂ t| < 0.03 at 95% confidence level. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

An embedding technique to determine ττ backgrounds in proton-proton collision data

An embedding technique is presented to estimate standard model tau tau backgrounds from data with minimal simulation input. In the data, the muons are removed from reconstructed mu mu events and replaced with simulated tau leptons with the same kinematic properties. In this way, a set of hybrid events is obtained that does not rely on simulation except for the decay of the tau leptons. The challenges in describing the underlying event or the production of associated jets in the simulation are avoided. The technique described in this paper was developed for CMS. Its validation and the inherent uncertainties are also discussed. The demonstration of the performance of the technique is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected by CMS in 2017 at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb(-1).Peer reviewe