Empirical Evidences on Foreign Tourist Demand Perception on Bucharest

Tourism is one of the most dynamic economic sectors, largely influenced by consumer’s perception and overall satisfaction. Tourism destinations are very complex being determined by many attributes. They are often perceived before the visit and confirmed or contradicted as attractive places by tourists’ experiences which determine their loyalty toward them. Our study depicts the incoming tourists’ perception upon Bucharest, the elements leading to it and the degree into which they are satisfied and would come back. Literature research, official statistics and a survey addressed to in-bound tourists were the main sources for collecting data, further on quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed using appropriate software solutions in order to detach a before and an after visit opinion on Bucharest. The research results show the fact that a dominantly negative perception on the tourist destination of Bucharest, formed before the visit, suffers an obvious post-consume change. As a consequence of their positive experiences during the visit most incoming tourists declare their intent to include Romania on their list of future holiday destinations. These results may be used by both academics and practitioners as a valid argument for further in-depth marketing studies and better oriented branding and promotional strategies aiming tourism development for Bucharest

Vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers in Europe: A qualitative study.

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are often referred to as the most trusted source of vaccine-related information for their patients. However, the evidence suggests that a number of HCWs are vaccine-hesitant. This study consists of 65 semi-structured interviews with vaccine providers in Croatia, France, Greece, and Romania to investigate concerns HCWs might have about vaccination. The results revealed that vaccine hesitancy is present in all four countries among vaccine providers. The most important concern across all countries was the fear of vaccine side effects. New vaccines were singled out due to perceived lack of testing for vaccine safety and efficacy. Furthermore, while high trust in health authorities was expressed by HCWs, there was also strong mistrust of pharmaceutical companies due to perceived financial interests and lack of communication about side effects. The notion that it is a doctor's responsibility to respond to hesitant patients was reported in all countries. Concerns were also seen to be country- and context-specific. Strategies to improve confidence in vaccines should be adapted to the specific political, social, cultural and economic context of countries. Furthermore, while most interventions focus on education and improving information about vaccine safety, effectiveness, or the need for vaccines, concerns raised in this study identify other determinants of hesitancy that need addressing. The representativeness of the views of the interviewed HCWs must be interpreted with caution. This a qualitative study with a small sample size that included geographical areas where vaccination uptake was lower or where hesitancy was more prevalent and it reflects individual participants' beliefs and attitudes toward the topic. As HCWs have the potential of influencing patient vaccination uptake, it is crucial to improve their confidence in vaccination and engage them in activities targeting vaccine hesitancy among their patients

The Evolution of Romanian Tourism – A Geographical Perspective

Romania has a very rich fund of tourism resources wh ich are either part of the natural environment or a result of human thinking and activ ities developed on its territory. They are randomly spread and differently grouped based on th eir specific, the degree of preservation and their involvement in different types of tourism act ivities. The correlation of tourism objectives to a dequate structures and the resulting forms of tourism durin g different periods of time allowed the differentiation of several phases with various char acteristics for tourism development in Romania: • the creation of the preliminary fund of tourism att ractions (till the end of 18 th century) • the organization and development of tourism activit ies (19 th century – 1950) • the 20 th century registered on its turn several phases amon g which the most important could be considered the one of central controlled p lanning in tourism activities (after 1950) and the post-communist phase of tourism devel opment The study makes reference and exemplifies the main characteristics of tourism resources, structures and activities for each of th ese phases

Tourism Destination Marketing Study Workpaper – An Operational Working Instrument for Geographers

Marketing is an essential domain for tourism, being recently more and more theoretically approached and conceptualized by research papers (e specially in the Anglo-Saxon literature). An economic term by excellence, marketing is as well ad opted by geographic literature and by the geography of tourism, one of the major specializati ons of Romanian faculties of geography as numerous students opt for it. Consequently there is a great need for geography students and geographers to study tourism oriented concepts even if mainly coming from other domains such as economy, social sciences, etc. and to elaborate appropriate studies without getting far from their topic of interest. In this respect the develo pment of methods and instruments of research and study is a necessity already underlined by bibliogr aphic references in the domain. They represented th e departure point of this paper which enlarges the deb ate upon a tourism destination marketing study work paper developed as an operational working instrument for geography students

Sharing common pool resources at the border of protected areas in the Romanian Carpathians

The common pool resources are a very actual topic a pproached by both scientists and practitioners preoccupied nowadays of gradually incr easing environmental problems. Protected areas in Romania and especially in Romanian Carpath ians of national and natural park type (IUCN II and V) represent areas of particular interes t in the light of the common pool resources theory imposing conservation laws on areas meeting a n increased pressure from human communities around them. The important socio-econom ic and ownership changes that Romania met in the last decades changed its previous state unique ownership into a multiple stakeholder ownership. At the same time vulnerable human communi ties located in fragile mountain areas and depending to a high extent on natural resources met an increased stress when exploiting natural resources at the border of protected areas. Consequently sharing the common pool of resources in the buffer zone of protected areas in the Romanian Carpathians represents a very actual and important topic to be treated in the pre sent study

The Transferability of Health Promotion and Education Approaches Between Non-communicable Diseases and Communicable Diseases—an Analysis of Evidence

Background: There is a seeming lack within the public health fields of both research and practice of information sharing across so-called “silos of work”. Many professionals in the public health fields dealing with infectious diseases (IDs) are unaware of the programs and approaches taken by their colleagues in the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) arena, and vice versa. A particular instance of this is in the understanding and application of health promotion approaches. This is a problem that needs to be addressed with the goal of producing the most efficient and effective health promotion approaches to the prevention and control of diseases in general. Objectives: This project examined health promotion approaches to the prevention of NCDs that could be used in the prevention of IDs. Methods: A knowledge synthesis and translation perspective was undertaken. We screened and analyzed a wide range of sources that were considered relevant, with particular emphasis on systematic reviews, published articles and the grey literature. Results: The analysis revealed a diverse health promotion knowledge base for application to IDs. Comprehensive health promotion models were found to be useful. Findings suggest that there are profound similarities for health promotion approaches in both NCDs and IDs. Conclusions: This study revealed gaps in knowledge synthesis to translation. The need for development of intervention and implementation research is considered

Enhanced electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry of long-chain polysaccharides

A novel strategy was developed to extend the application of electrospray ionization (ESI) Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometry (MS) to the analysis of long-chain polysaccharides. High molecular weight polydisperse maltodextrins (poly-(1-4) glucose) and dextrans (poly-(1-6) glucose) were chosen as model compounds in the present study. Increased ionization efficiency of these mixtures in the positive ion mode was achieved upon modification of their reducing end with nitrogen-containing groups. The derivatization method is based on the formation of a new CN bond between 1,6-hexamethylenediamine (HMD) and the reducing end of the polysaccharide, which exists in solution as an equilibrium between the hemiacetal and the open-ring aldehyde form. To achieve the chemical modification of the reducing end, two synthetic pathways were developed: (i) coupling of HMD by reductive amination and (ii) oxidation of the hemiacetal to lactone, followed by ring opening by HMD to yield the maltodextrin lactonamide of 1,6-hexanediamine (HMMD). Amino-functionalized polysaccharides were analyzed by electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (ESI FTICR-MS) in the positive ion mode by direct flow injection. The hexamethylenediamine (HMD) and maltodextrin lactonamide of 1,6-hexanediamine (HMMD) moieties provide increased proton affinities which dramatically improve the detection of the long-chain polysaccharides by FTICR-MS. The present approach allowed for identification of single components in mixtures with prominent heterogeneity in the degree of polymerization (DP), without the need for chromatographic separation prior to MS. The high mass accuracy was essential for the unambiguous characterization of the species observed in the analyzed mixtures. Furthermore, molecular components containing up to 42 glucose residues were detected, representing the largest polysaccharide chains analyzed so far by ESI FTICR-MS