Determinants Of Destination Image And Competitiveness In Sibu Heritage Trail: A PLS-SEM Approach

Tourism is the largest sector in the world and contributes significantly to the economies of the most advanced and developing countries. A major concern on limited resources and acknowledgement of competitiveness all led to the expansion of the literature on the competitiveness of tourism destinations. While there are limited studies investigating destination image and destination competitiveness, no studies have been found to examine the determinants of destination image and destination competitiveness. Thus, the present study attempts to explore whether accessibility quality, accommodation quality, destination attractiveness & resources on destination image and competitiveness. Data were collected from 132 tourists who have visited Sibu Heritage Trail. SmartPLS 3.0 was used to assess the developed model. The results highlighted that accessibility quality was positively and significantly related to the destination image. Besides, destination attractiveness and resources were found to be positively and significantly related to destination competitiveness as well as destination image. On the other hand, destination image was also found to have a significant and positive impact on destination competitiveness. The implications and limitations of the present study were further discussed

ANTECEDENTS OF DESTINATION IMAGE IN NATURAL PROTECTED AREA: THE MODERATING ROLE OF PERCEIVED VALUE

Ecotourism is a nature-oriented tourism idea that is flourishing and with promising outlook. The present study attempts to explore the importance of local communities’ attitude, carrying capacity and destination attractiveness & resources towards destination image by adopting perceived value as a moderator on examining the antecedents on destination image. Data were collected from 146 tourists who have visited Bako National Park, Sarawak. The research employs WarpPLS 6.0 and the results revealed that local communities’ attitude, carrying capacity and destination attractiveness & resources have impact on destination image. Perceived value has moderating effect between destination attractiveness & resources and destination image

Lonely but avoidant—the unfortunate juxtaposition of loneliness and self-disgust

Loneliness is prevalent worldwide and is a known risk factor for numerous physical and mental health outcomes. The health consequences of chronic loneliness coupled with the cost on public health care has necessitated the development of interventions and campaigns to end loneliness globally. According to a recent meta-analysis, such interventions focus on improving social skills, increasing opportunities for social contact/support (i.e., reducing social isolation) or addressing maladaptive cognition (e.g., irrational thoughts, self-defeating, and self-blame thoughts). The results showed that changing maladaptive thoughts offer “the best chance” for alleviating feelings of loneliness. In accordance with the latter approach, this paper proposes a new paradigm in understanding and treating loneliness that takes into account self-disgust, an aversive self-conscious affective state that reflects disgust directed towards the self. Based on findings from published and unpublished data, it is argued that interventions against loneliness that focus exclusively on improving social skills and increasing opportunities for social contact may be ineffective because lonelier people experience more self-disgust, which makes them more socially inhibited and reluctant to connect with other people. Future interventions should consider self-disgust in the treatment of loneliness and explore ways to counter feelings of self-disgust

The effect of disgust-related side-effects on symptoms of depression and anxiety in people treated for cancer: a moderated mediation model

As maladaptive disgust responses are linked to mental health problems, and cancer patients may experience heightened disgust as a result of treatments they receive, we explored the associations between disgust-related side-effects and symptoms of depression and anxiety in people treated for cancer. One hundred and thirty two (83 women, Mage = 57.48 years) participants answered questions about their treatments, side-effects, disgust responding, and mental health. Experiencing bowel and/or bladder problems, sickness and/or nausea (referred to here as “core” disgust-related side-effects) was significantly related to greater symptoms of depression and borderline increased anxiety. Further, these links were explained by a moderated mediation model, whereby the effects of core disgust side-effects on depression and anxiety were mediated by (physical and behavioural) self-directed disgust, and disgust propensity moderated the effect of core disgust side-effects on self-disgust. These findings stress the importance of emotional responses, like disgust, in psychological adaptation to the side-effects of cancer treatments

Effect of partners’ disgust responses on psychological wellbeing in cancer patients

The aim of this study was to explore quantitatively the relationship between disgust responses in cancer patients and their partners, and in turn their relationship to patients’ psychological well-being. We recruited 50 participants with heterogeneous cancer diagnoses and their partners from cancer-related groups (e.g., charities). Patients completed questionnaires to determine levels of disgust propensity, disgust sensitivity, self-disgust, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Disgust propensity and sensitivity were also assessed in their partners. Partners’ disgust sensitivity was significantly positively correlated with cancer patients’ self-disgust, disgust propensity, and depression. Path analyses suggested that patients’ self-disgust plays a role in mediating the effect of partners’ disgust sensitivity on patients’ psychological well-being. This study provides the first quantitative evidence that psychological well-being in cancer patients is contingent on their partners’ sensitivity to disgust, and that patients’ self-disgust plays a mediating role. Focusing therapeutically on disgust responses could well be beneficial to people with cancer

Anthocyanidins and anthocyanins: colored pigments as food, pharmaceutical ingredients, and the potential health benefits

Anthocyanins are colored water-soluble pigments belonging to the phenolic group. The pigments are in glycosylated forms. Anthocyanins responsible for the colors, red, purple, and blue, are in fruits and vegetables. Berries, currants, grapes, and some tropical fruits have high anthocyanins content. Red to purplish blue-colored leafy vegetables, grains, roots, and tubers are the edible vegetables that contain a high level of anthocyanins. Among the anthocyanin pigments, cyanidin-3-glucoside is the major anthocyanin found in most of the plants. The colored anthocyanin pigments have been traditionally used as a natural food colorant. The color and stability of these pigments are influenced by pH, light, temperature, and structure. In acidic condition, anthocyanins appear as red but turn blue when the pH increases. Chromatography has been largely applied in extraction, separation, and quantification of anthocyanins. Besides the use of anthocyanidins and anthocyanins as natural dyes, these colored pigments are potential pharmaceutical ingredients that give various beneficial health effects. Scientific studies, such as cell culture studies, animal models, and human clinical trials, show that anthocyanidins and anthocyanins possess antioxidative and antimicrobial activities, improve visual and neurological health, and protect against various non-communicable diseases. These studies confer the health effects of anthocyanidins and anthocyanins, which are due to their potent antioxidant properties. Different mechanisms and pathways are involved in the protective effects, including free-radical scavenging pathway, cyclooxygenase pathway, mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, and inflammatory cytokines signaling. Therefore, this review focuses on the role of anthocyanidins and anthocyanins as natural food colorants and their nutraceutical properties for health. Abbreviations: CVD: Cardiovascular disease VEGF: Vascular endothelial growth factor

Feedback passivation plus tracking-error-based multivariable control for a class of free-radical polymerisation reactors

This paper proposes a tracking-error-based multivariable control to stabilise a nonlinear system at the desired trajectory (including the open-loop unstable equilibrium manifold). The control approach is developed on the basis of feedback passivation and then applied to stabilise globally exponentially a class of free-radical polymerisation reactors. More precisely, under certain conditions the system dynamics can be rendered strictly input/output passive through the use of an appropriate input coordinate transformation. A canonical form related to the so-called port-Hamiltonian representation of passive system is consequently derived and provides physical interpretations such as dissipative/non-dissipative term and supply rate. A feedback law based on tracking-error is then designed for the global exponential stabilisation at a reference trajectory passing through the desired set-point. The theoretical developments are illustrated for polystyrene production in a continuous stirred tank reactor. Numerical simulations show that the system trajectory converges globally exponentially to the reference trajectory despite effects of disturbance. © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Tracking error plus damping injection control of non-minimum phase processes

This work proposes a passivity-based approach to deal with the output-tracking-error problem for a large class of nonlinear chemical processes including non-minimum phase systems. More precisely, in that framework, the system dynamics is firstly written into the relaxing (pseudo) port-Hamiltonian representation which does not necessarily require the positive semi-definite property of the damping matrix. Then, a reference trajectory associated with a certain structure passing through a desired equilibrium point (i.e., the set-point) is chosen so that the error dynamics can be globally asymptotically stabilized at the origin thanks to the assignment of an appropriate damping injection. This method is subsequently illustrated for a benchmark of multiple reactions systems, namely Van de Vusse reaction system. The numerical simulations show the applications of the proposed approach

Review and classification of recent observers applied in chemical process systems

AbstractObservers are computational algorithms designed to estimate unmeasured state variables due to the lack of appropriate estimating devices or to replace high-priced sensors in a plant. It is always important to estimate those states prior to developing state feedback laws for control and to prevent process disruptions, process shutdowns and even process failures. The diversity of state estimation techniques resulting from intrinsic differences in chemical process systems makes it difficult to select the proper technique from a theoretical or practical point of view for design and implementation in specific applications. Hence, in this paper, we review the applications of recent observers to chemical process systems and classify them into six classes, which differentiate them with respect to their features and assists in the design of observers. Furthermore, we provide guidelines in designing and choosing the observers for particular applications, and we discuss the future directions for these observers