The Implementation of the Gats and its impact upon tourism development.

The research is aimed to examine the implementation of the GATS and its impact upon tourism development, particularly in Korea. The GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services) agreement has been implemented in order to liberalise World Trade in services. In this respect, the research examines the performance of GATT to see how successful GATT has been in securing and fostering world trade in manufacturing industry and then moves on to examine the implementation of GATS and, by drawing upon findings from other trading agreements (such as the NAFTA and EU) estimate the likely impacts that such agreements will have on tourism services and the manner in which they are delivered. The GATS agreement is a long-term undertaking in which major trading countries are likely to become members. GATS sets up a legal and operational framework for the liberalisation of international trade in tourism as well as other services. The principle of GATS is the liberalisation of exchange of services and it is adapted from the GATT (General Agreement on Tariff and Trade). The GATS has been established as part of the multilateral trade negotiations and introduced new rules for services to complete overhaul of the GATT trade system. The rapid growth of tourism is the product of liberalisation which has been the hallmark of economic policy throughout the world, during the past decade. The UNCTAD report (1999) states that both globalisation and liberalisation have increased the potential for international trade in goods and services to become an unprecedented engine of growth and an important mechanism for integrating countries into the global economy. However, the GATS has many implications for tourism, particularly for tourism policymakers since it covers many different areas and sectors in tourism. Unlike other services, tourism is not a specific type of service, but a mixture of different services consumed by tourists. Therefore, it is essential to understand the rules and the principles of GATS as applied to tourism sectors in international trade. The overall aims of the study are: 1. To examine the factors that influence world trade in goods and services. 2. To examine the influences that GATS is likely to have on the scope and magnitude of world trade in services. 3. To determine how GATS impacts on tourism development in developing countries and act as a catalyst to enhance the development of developing countries. 4. To examine what are the likely effects. of GATS upon tourism development and delivery in Korea. Since one of the research objectives is to examine what is the likely effect of GATS upon tourism development and delivery in Korea, the case study was a useful technique. In particular, the case study seemed an appropriate strategy to answer the research question because the research area is relatively new. Therefore, descriptive research design was adopted for this particular study. Moreover, the research adopted an explanatory research design, in order to investigate relationships by giving answers to problems and hypotheses. Through explanatory research, this study seeks to explore aspects of tourism development as a result of liberalisation and globalisation in Korea. In particular, this study investigates specified areas such as: how will GATS help future tourism development in Korea? Why are there different perceptions of GATS between the private and public sector? How do government policies and regulations affect future tourism development? by using interviews and questionnaires. For this study, the semi-structured interviews were used and questionnaires were designed to gather information about the impacts of GATS on tourism development in Korea before conducting the survey, but it failed to obtain the necessary information. It is hoped that these findings enhance an understanding of the role of international trade in services particularly tourism industry, which may assist national and international tourism policy makers to consider the complexities and difficulties of understanding the rules of multilateral trade agreements (such as GATS) not only to develop tourism but also to develop other service sectors, especially in developing countries

CittaSlow, Slow Cities, Slow Food: Searching for a Model for the Development of Slow Tourism

Slow Tourism, a new trend that originated in Italy, is now traversing the globe. This study traces its evolution, synthesizes existing definitions, and develops a conceptual model for the stages of Slow Tourism development. It uses a qualitative, exploratory framework situated in the paradigms of constructivism and critical theory and a critical, interpretative form of inquiry and analysis. Data sources included various types of secondary data as well as primary data collected during personal interviews conducted in November of 2010 with key leaders in the first two CittaSlow designated cities in the U.S. Findings suggest that Slow Tourism, which can occur in both rural and urban settings, is an outgrowth of the Slow Food Movement and is tied to CittaSlow through the explicit guarantee of unique slowness offered by these officially designated cities. The presence of Slow Food Convivia, a critical mass of CittaSlow designated cities, and practices of socio-political consumption emerged as important stages in its development

AtRMR1 functions as a cargo receptor for protein trafficking to the protein storage vacuole

Organellar proteins are sorted by cargo receptors on the way to their final destination. However, receptors for proteins that are destined for the protein storage vacuole (PSV) are largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the biological role that Arabidopsis thaliana receptor homology region transmembrane domain ring H2 motif protein (AtRMR) 1 plays in protein trafficking to the PSV. AtRMR1 mainly colocalized to the prevacuolar compartment of the PSV, but a minor portion also localized to the Golgi complex. The coexpression of AtRMR1 mutants that were localized to the Golgi complex strongly inhibited the trafficking of phaseolin to the PSV and caused accumulation of phaseolin in the Golgi complex or its secretion. Coimmunoprecipitation and in vitro binding assays revealed that the lumenal domain of AtRMR1 interacts with the COOH-terminal sorting signal of phaseolin at acidic pH. Furthermore, phaseolin colocalized with AtRMR1 on its way to the PSV. Based on these results, we propose that AtRMR1 functions as the sorting receptor of phaseolin for its trafficking to the PSV

The implementation of the GATS and its impact upon tourism development A case study of Korea

In two volumesAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN064385 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

CittaSlow, Slow Cities, Slow Food: Searching for a Model for the Development of Slow Tourism

Slow Tourism, a new trend that originated in Italy, is now traversing the globe. This study traces its evolution, synthesizes existing definitions, and develops a conceptual model for the stages of Slow Tourism development. It uses a qualitative, exploratory framework situated in the paradigms of constructivism and critical theory and a critical, interpretative form of inquiry and analysis. Data sources included various types of secondary data as well as primary data collected during personal interviews conducted in November of 2010 with key leaders in the first two CittaSlow designated cities in the U.S. Findings suggest that Slow Tourism, which can occur in both rural and urban settings, is an outgrowth of the Slow Food Movement and is tied to CittaSlow through the explicit guarantee of unique slowness offered by these officially designated cities. The presence of Slow Food Convivia, a critical mass of CittaSlow designated cities, and practices of socio-political consumption emerged as important stages in its development

Intraoperative Hypotension Prediction Model Based on Systematic Feature Engineering and Machine Learning

Arterial hypotension is associated with incidence of postoperative complications, such as myocardial infarction or acute kidney injury. Little research has been conducted for the real-time prediction of hypotension, even though many studies have been performed to investigate the factors which affect hypotension events. This forecasting problem is quite challenging compared to diagnosis that detects high-risk patients at current. The forecasting problem that specifies when events occur is more challenging than the forecasting problem that does not specify the event time. In this work, we challenge the forecasting problem in 5 min advance. For that, we aim to build a systematic feature engineering method that is applicable regardless of vital sign species, as well as a machine learning model based on these features for real-time predictions 5 min before hypotension. The proposed feature extraction model includes statistical analysis, peak analysis, change analysis, and frequency analysis. After applying feature engineering on invasive blood pressure (IBP), we build a random forest model to differentiate a hypotension event from other normal samples. Our model yields an accuracy of 0.974, a precision of 0.904, and a recall of 0.511 for predicting hypotensive events

Validation of the Korean Version of the COVID-19 Phobia Scale (K-C19PS)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of a Korean version of the 20-item COVID-19 phobia tool, which was developed through a translation-reverse translation process. These data were collected from 226 persons using a self-reported questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to test construct validity. Finally, for 19 out of 20 items, the item-level convergence and differential validity were confirmed. In addition, the reliability and validity of the tool as a whole has been verified. For the subscales, Cronbach’s α was 0.90 for psychological, 0.87 for psychosomatic, 0.86 for economic, and 0.87 for social. Appropriate reliability was confirmed. Correlations between the COVID-19 phobia tool and fear of COVID-19 confirmed validity. The Korean version of the COVID-19 phobia tool is an appropriate scale for measuring the fear of COVID-19 and relevant psychological characteristics. Therefore, future studies in areas such as health and nursing could use this tool as required

Detection and hazard assessment of pathogenic microorganisms in medical wastes

This study was undertaken to investigate the types and concentrations of microbial agents in various medical wastes as well as to characterize their survivals in these wastes at different temperatures for microbial risk assessment. Medical wastes collected from 5 major hospitals in South Korea were classified and stored at three different temperatures (-20, 6, and 30 degrees C). Presence of various microorganisms such as pathogenic viruses and bacteria were investigated by both cultivation and by (RT)-PCR assays. A number of (opportunistic) pathogenic bacteria, including Pseudomonas spp., Lactobacillus spp., Staphylococcus spp., Micrococcus spp., Kocuria spp., Brevibacillus spp., Microbacterium oxydans, and Propionibacterium acnes, were identified from the various medical wastes. In addition, pathogenic viruses such as noroviruses and hepatitis B virus were also detected in one of the human tissue wastes. Commonly identified bacterial and viral pathogens such as Pseudomonas spp., Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus spp., and respiratory synctial virus (RSV) were inoculated into either gauzes or diapers, and their survivals were characterized. Viral agents such as RSV showed poor survival in most environmental conditions, and demonstrated that various pathogens could be present in medical wastes but that the associated health risk appeared to be low. However, medical waste should be carefully controlled and monitored to prevent nosocomial infection associated with the exposure to these wastes.Lee J, 2008, APPL ENVIRON MICROB, V74, P2111, DOI 10.1128/AEM.02442-07Marinkovic N, 2008, WASTE MANAGE, V28, P1049, DOI 10.1016/j.wasman.2007.01.021Shariati B, 2007, J OCCUP HEALTH, V49, P317de Bruin E, 2006, J VIROL METHODS, V137, P259, DOI 10.1016/j.jviromet.2006.06.024Garcia C, 2006, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V44, P2997, DOI 10.1128/JCM.00065-06Jang YC, 2006, J ENVIRON MANAGE, V80, P107, DOI 10.1016/j.jenvman.2005.08.018ZIEBUHR W, 2006, INT J ANTIMICROB AG, V28, P14Phipps LP, 2004, J VIROL METHODS, V122, P119, DOI 10.1016/j/jviromet.2004.08.008Loberto JCS, 2004, BRAZ J MICROBIOL, V35, P64Seo SH, 2002, NAT MED, V8, P950, DOI 10.1038/nm757Nema SK, 2002, CURR SCI INDIA, V83, P271Katayama K, 2002, VIROLOGY, V299, P225, DOI 10.1006/viro.2002.1568Katayama H, 2002, APPL ENVIRON MICROB, V68, P1033, DOI 10.1128/AEM.68.3.1033-1039.2002Monpoeho S, 2001, APPL ENVIRON MICROB, V67, P2484SALKIN IF, 2001, REV HLTH IMPACTS MICManfredi R, 2000, EUR J EPIDEMIOL, V16, P111Kuo HW, 1999, WATER AIR SOIL POLL, V114, P413Kim BJ, 1999, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V37, P1714HAAS C, 1999, QUANTITATIVE MICROBIKane A, 1999, B WORLD HEALTH ORGAN, V77, P801PRUSS A, 1999, SAFE MANAGEMENT WAST, P20Schlegel L, 1998, EUR J CLIN MICROBIOL, V17, P887Frank U, 1997, CLIN INFECT DIS, V25, P318BELL DM, 1997, AM J MED S5B, V102, P9Lee CC, 1996, J HAZARD MATER, V48, P1GOLDENBERGER D, 1995, PCR METH APPL, V4, P368OHMAN SC, 1995, ACTA ODONTOL SCAND, V53, P49PATEL R, 1994, CLIN INFECT DIS, V18, P207PATTI JM, 1994, INFECT IMMUN, V62, P152TANAKA MM, 1994RUTALA WA, 1992, INFECT CONT HOSP EP, V13, P3848EDWARDS U, 1989, NUCLEIC ACIDS RES, V17, P7843