Tourism management and information and communication technologies (ICTs): The new smart destinations approach

Este artículo analiza el nuevo enfoque de los destinos inteligentes para la gestión turística a escala local. Se estudia su génesis y se realiza una propuesta de conceptualización desde una perspectiva sistémica, que se contrasta con la gestión turística actual mediante una encuesta a municipios turísticos de la Comunidad Valenciana. Los resultados ponen de relieve que no se ha asumido como objetivo de gestión el enfoque de los destinos inteligentes, el cual requiere un proyecto global que incorpore cinco ámbitos fundamentales: gobernanza, sostenibilidad, conectividad, sistema de información e innovación. No obstante, la complejidad asociada a este enfoque hace aconsejable un desarrollo de tipo flexible, escalable y adaptado a cada entorno territorial.Aquest article analitza la nova perspectiva de les destinacions intel·ligents per a la gestió turística a escala local. Se n’hi estudia la gènesi i s’hi realitza una proposta de conceptualització des d’un punt de vista sistèmic que es contrasta amb la gestió turística actual mitjançant una enquesta als municipis turístics de la Comunitat Valenciana. Els resultats demostren que no s’ha assumit com a objectiu de gestió la perspectiva de les destinacions intel·ligents, la qual requereix un projecte global que integre cinc àmbits fonamentals: governança, sostenibilitat, connectivitat, sistema d’informació i innovació. Tanmateix, la complexitat associada a aquesta perspectiva fa aconsellable un desenvolupament de tipus flexible, escalable i adaptat a cada entorn territorial.This article analyzes the new smart destinations approach to tourism management at the local level. We examine the origins of this approach and propose a conceptualization from a systemic perspective, which is contrasted with current tourism management strategies through a survey of tourist destinations in the Valencia Region. The results show that the smart destinations approach has not been considered as a management objective. This approach requires a global project incorporating five key areas: governance, sustainability, connectivity, information system and innovation. However, due to the complexity of the smart tourist destination approach, a particular kind of development that is flexible, scalable and adapted to each geographical environment is recommendable.El presente trabajo se enmarca en el proyecto de investigación Nuevos enfoques para la planificación y gestión del territorio turístico: Conceptualización, análisis de experiencias y problemas. Definición de modelos operativos para destinos turísticos inteligentes (CSO2014-59193-R), financiado por el Programa Estatal de I+D+i, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad

Tabaco, estrés oxidativo e inflamación en vías aéreas. Papel del AMPc.

La Enfermedad Pulmonar Obstructiva Crónica (EPOC) es una patología caracterizada por una obstrucción progresiva irreversible de las vías aéreas cuya causa principal es el humo de tabaco. Una característica distintiva de esta enfermedad es la hipersecreción mucosa; además, el estrés oxidativo está implicado en este proceso. En dicho estés oxidativo juega un papel muy importante el complejo NADPH oxidasa. En esta tesis, se planteó el caracterizar los mecanismos por los que la activación del complejo NADPH oxidasa mediada por tabaco conducían a la hipersecreción mucosa, estudiando la implicación del AMPc en dicho proceso. Los resultados muestran que el tabaco activa el complejo NADPH oxidasa, el cual genera un estrés oxidativo que conduce a la activación del receptor del factor de crecimiento epidérmico (EGFR), y que dicha activación conduce a una sobreexpresión de mucinas en un proceso dependiente del descenso de los niveles de AMPc. Tanto el bloqueo de la actividad NADPH oxidasa con un inhibidor no específico del sistema, el difenileneidonio (DPI), con el antioxidante N- acetilcisteína (NAC), así como con el inhibidor selectivo de la fosfodiesterasa (PDE)4 piclamilast vía un aumento de los niveles de AMPc, inhiben a diferentes niveles la inducción de la expresión génica de mucinas en respuesta a la activación del complejo NADPH oxidasa por extracto de humo de tabaco.Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a pathological state characterised by an irreversible and progressive airway obstruction where tobacco smoke is the main cause of disease progression. Mucus hypersecretion is a distinctive feature in COPD patients; moreover oxidative stress plays a key role in the pathology. NADPH oxidase system is involved in this oxidative stress. Currently, selective inhibition of phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4 appears to be promising in COPD management, due to PDE4 are expressed in distinct cellular types involved in inflammatory and immunomodulatory responses. Intracellular cyclic AMP (cAMP) levels are augmented as a consequence of PDE4 inhibition. In the present thesis we aimed to study the characterisation of mechanisms by which NADPH oxidase system activation is induced in response to cigarette smoke extract, studying further AMPc involvement in the process. Results shown that NADPH oxidase system was induced in response to cigarrete smoke extract, which generates an oxidative stress that leads to activation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) , and mucin overexpression was produced in a reduced AMPc levels dependent process in consequence. Blocking NADPH oxidase activity using a nonspecific inhibitor of the system, diphenileneidonium (DPI), N-acetylcisteine (NAC) as antioxidant, as well as piclamilast as a PDE4 selective inhibitor (via a cAMP level increase), inhibited mucin expression induction at different levels in response to NADPH oxidase system activation dependent by cigarette smoke extract

Crowd Monitoring in Smart Destinations Based on GDPR-Ready Opportunistic RF Scanning and Classification of WiFi Devices to Identify and Classify Visitors’ Origins

Crowd monitoring was an essential measure to deal with over-tourism problems in urban destinations in the pre-COVID era. It will play a crucial role in the pandemic scenario when restarting tourism and making destinations safer. Notably, a Destination Management Organisation (DMO) of a smart destination needs to deploy a technological layer for crowd monitoring that allows data gathering in order to count visitors and distinguish them from residents. The correct identification of visitors versus residents by a DMO, while privacy rights (e.g., Regulation EU 2016/679, also known as GDPR) are ensured, is an ongoing problem that has not been fully solved. In this paper, we describe a novel approach to gathering crowd data by processing (i) massive scanning of WiFi access points of the smart destination to find SSIDs (Service Set Identifier), as well as (ii) the exposed Preferred Network List (PNL) containing the SSIDs of WiFi access points to which WiFi-enabled mobile devices are likely to connect. These data enable us to provide the number of visitors and residents of a crowd at a given point of interest of a tourism destination. A pilot study has been conducted in the city of Alcoi (Spain), comparing data from our approach with data provided by manually filled surveys from the Alcoi Tourist Info office, with an average accuracy of 83%, thus showing the feasibility of our policy to enrich the information system of a smart destination.This research was carried out within the research Project Alcoi Tourist Lab framework, co-funded by the Alcoi City Council & the Valencian Innovation Agency. The research was also partially funded by project UAPOSTCOVID19-10 from the University of Alicante. Finally, this research was partly supported by the EU CEF project GreenMov, CARM HORECOV-21 project (https://horecovid.com/ (accessed on 12 January 2022)). is financed through the Call for Public Aid destined to finance the Strategic projects contemplated in the Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization - RIS3MUR Strategy by the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, through the Ministry of Economic Development, Tourism and Employment within the framework of the FEDER Region of Murcia Operational Program 2014–2020 within the framework Thematic Objective 1. Strengthen research, technological development and innovation by 80% and with CARM’s own funds in 20%, and finally the EU project H2020 NIoVE (833742)

Measuring the progress of smart destinations: The use of indicators as a management tool

This paper aims at developing and applying an indicators system for smart tourism destinations in order to better understand the current situation of a set of destinations which are developing smart tourism policies. The indicators were developed by adapting existing indicators in tourism destination management and smart cities literature, creating a new system based on a smart destination theoretical model that establishes three interrelated levels in which smart destinations are grounded: strategic-relational, instrumental and applied levels. Within these levels, nine different dimensions to be measured were identified. The indicators were constructed in collaboration with a public organisation (INVAT.TUR) devoted to providing technical assistance to smart destinations and were pre-tested, readjusted and then applied to a set of destinations of the Region of Valencia (Spain). Obtained findings reveal an uneven performance of destinations in the different dimensions of the three levels. A notable performance is observed in indicators for connectivity and online marketing, while more efforts need to be done in accessibility and sustainability initiatives. However, disparities are evident between different indicators and destinations. These results are discussed and framed within the relevant literature on smart destinations while providing information for destination managers and policy makers to adapt and replicate these indicators in their own territories. This paper is a first attempt to develop and apply indicators to measure smart destinations progress in literature and therefore constitutes an important precedent for future studies.Work supported by the Spanish National R&D&I Plan financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under grant CSO2017-82592-R (“Analysis of planning processes applied to smart cities and tourist destinations. Balance and proposal of a new methodology: Smart Tourism Planning”)

Universal sex differences in the desire for sexual variety: tests from 52 nations, 6 Continents, and 13 Islands

Evolutionary psychologists have hypothesized that men and women possess both long-term and short-term mating strategies, with men's short-term strategy differentially rooted in the desire for sexual variety. In this article, findings from a cross-cultural survey of 16,288 people across 10 major world regions (including North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Oceania, South/Southeast Asia, and East Asia) demonstrate that sex differences in the desire for sexual variety are culturally universal throughout these world regions. Sex differences were evident regardless of whether mean, median, distributional, or categorical indexes of sexual differentiation were evaluated. Sex differences were evident regardless of the measures used to evaluate them. Among contemporary theories of human mating, pluralistic approaches that hypothesize sex differences in the evolved design of short-term mating provide the most compelling account of these robust empirical findings

Common Interactions between S100A4 and S100A9 Defined by a Novel Chemical Probe.

S100A4 and S100A9 proteins have been described as playing roles in the control of tumor growth and metastasis. We show here that a chemical probe, oxyclozanide (OX), selected for inhibiting the interaction between S100A9 and the receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) interacts with both S100A9 and S100A4. Furthermore, we show that S100A9 and S100A4 interact with RAGE and TLR4; interactions that can be inhibited by OX. Hence, S100A4 and S100A9 display similar functional elements despite their primary sequence diversity. This was further confirmed by showing that S100A4 and S100A9 dimerize both in vitro and in vivo. All of these interactions required levels of Zn(++) that are found in the extracellular space but not intracellularly. Interestingly, S100A4 and S100A9 are expressed by distinct CD11b(+) subpopulations both in healthy animals and in animals with either inflammatory disease or tumor burden. The functions of S100A9 and S100A4 described in this paper, including heterodimerization, may therefore reflect S100A9 and S100A4 that are released into the extra-cellular milieu

Regletas Cuisenaire - números en color

El desarrollo de esta propuesta esta pensado para primer ciclo de Educación Primaria, concretamente segundo curso. Los objetivos están vinculados al desarrollo del pensamiento relacional: identificar el signo igual como una expresión de equivalencia, desarrollar el pensamiento relacional, descomponer aritméticamente números menores de 20, descubrir las propiedades conmutativa y asociativa de estructuras aditivas, resolver sentencias numéricas haciendo use de las regletas de Cuisenaire de forma simbólica y mediante representaciones gráficas y explicar el proceso de resolución de sentencias usando los términos matemáticos correctos

Por la Universidad de Alicante

Se trata de planear distintos recorridos en los que se trabaje de una manera lúdica y transversal diversos puntos de vista del paisaje que les rodea y plantear las preguntas necesarias que guíen y permitan al alumnado percibir la importancia de las matemáticas y su presencia en todo aquello que nos rodea. Bajo estas premisas, hemos elaborado una ruta matemática por el campus de la Universidad de Alicante. Nuestra ruta esta diseñada para el tercer ciclo de educación primaria, más concretamente para sexto curso. Se ha elegido esta ubicación por la seguridad que reportan sus instalaciones así como por la riqueza arquitectónica y de recursos naturales que encontramos en él. Las actividades que detallaremos son solo algunos ejemplos de las múltiples posibilidades que permite el campus. Pensamos que todas ellas, con pequeñas adaptaciones, pueden ser perfectamente aplicables a entornos diferentes al propuesto de las mismas

Las OGDs ante el ecosistema turístico inteligente: oportunidades y riesgos

Comunicación presentada en II Congreso Mundial de Destinos Turísticos Inteligentes. Oviedo (España), 25-27 junio de 2018.La presente comunicación se plantea tres objetivos fundamentales: 1. Analizar los diferentes enfoques del Ecosistema Turístico Inteligente (ETI) desde la perspectiva de las Organizaciones de Gestión de Destinos (OGDs). 2. Identificar el impacto del ETI en las funciones principales de las OGD. 3. Contrastar con profesionales de la gestión turística local las oportunidades y riesgos que se derivan del ETI para las OGD.La presente comunicación se enmarca en el proyecto de investigación “Análisis de procesos de planificación aplicados a ciudades y destinos turísticos inteligentes. Balance y propuesta metodológica para espacios turísticos: Smart Tourism Planning”. Proyecto CSO2017-82592-R del Programa Estatal de I+D+i del Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (2018-2020)

Proyecto de recuperación de la playa del Postiguet (Alicante)

El proyecto está diseñado para 6° de educación primaria. El proyecto está articulado en tres fases. En la primera, los alumnos deberan calcular el área que ocupa la playa y el volumen de arena que se ha llevado el viento. Para ello, podrán emplear la aplicación Google Earth. En la segunda fase, los alumnos deberán relacionar el volumen de arena necesaria con su peso, ya que los datos vendrán dados en toneladas. Posteriormente, se les ofrecerán los datos aportados por dos empresas areneras para que, realizando los cálculos pertinentes, seleccionen cuál de ellas es más económica. Durante el proceso, deberán obtener el número de toneladas necesarias y el coste de las mismas. Finalmente, deberán elaborar un presupuesto. En la tercera fase, los alumnos deberán exponer el presupuesto que han elaborado ante el grupo-clase y las estrategias matemáticas que han empleado para su elaboración. Por último, deberán justificar por qué el ayuntamiento debe seleccionar su presupuesto para llevar a cabo la reposición de arena perdida