Travelling for Umrah:destination attributes, destination image, and post-travel intentions

This paper examines the links between cosmopolitanism, self-identity, and a desire for social interaction perceived destination image and behavioural intentions. A model tested using a sample of 538 Iranian visitors to Mecca for the purpose of Umrah. The result from the structural model suggests that destination attributes influence perceived destination image. Further, such tourists are likely to revisit or recommend Islamic destinations if their experience matches their perceived image of the destination. This implies that, while the religious characteristics of the destination remain important, destination managers cannot disregard the tangential, non-religious attributes of a destination which are crucial in order to satisfy more conventional tourist desires. As such, this study suggests that those managing religious travel destinations should endeavour to foster a welcoming image, where experience, interaction and tolerance are at the forefront of the destination’s offering

Using Drones for Art and Exergaming

This Spotlight department features two separate articles. In 'Flying Displays and Drone-Assisted Art Making,' Jürgen Scheible and Markus Funk provide an overview of their work in creating flying displays and viewports for drone-assisted art making. In 'Interactive Context-Aware Projections with Drones for Exergaming,' Klen Copic Pucihar, Matjaz Kljun, Mark Lochrie, Paul Egglestone, and Peter Skrlj present a moving projection platform that can project content onto arbitrary surfaces while tracking user interaction within and around the displayed content. In particular, they explore how the platform's mobility and rich interaction possibilities create opportunities for advancing research focused on human-drone interaction during street games. This department is part of a special issue on drones

Queer Touch Between Holy Women: Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Birgitta of Sweden, and the Visitation

Under embargo until: 2021-12-17This essay takes a new approach to the well-known meeting between two late-medieval English visionary women, Margery Kempe and the anchoress Julian of Norwich, as described in The Book of Margery Kempe. In this analysis their conversation subtly evokes a long history of women concentrating their subversive power through intimate, spiritual exchange, a history reaching back to the Biblical Visitation scene and expressed in its medieval artistic and literary instantiations. A queer reading illuminates the way that such female same-sex relationships challenge patriarchal systems by offering a privileged access to God outside clerical supervision. By examining Margery and Julian’s encounter, Luke’s Visitation passage, its depiction in a late-medieval Book of Hours, and comparing two different Middle English translations of a Visitation vision in Birgitta of Sweden’s Revelations, the full transgressive effect of queer touch between women—or even its unspoken possibility—emerges.acceptedVersio

Computerised interpretation of fetal heart rate during labour (INFANT): a randomised controlled trial

Background. Continuous electronic fetal heart-rate monitoring is widely used during labour, and computerised interpretation could increase its usefulness. We aimed to establish whether the addition of decision-support software to assist in the interpretation of cardiotocographs affected the number of poor neonatal outcomes. Methods. In this unmasked randomised controlled trial, we recruited women in labour aged 16 years or older having continuous electronic fetal monitoring, with a singleton or twin pregnancy, and at 35 weeks’ gestation or more at 24 maternity units in the UK and Ireland. They were randomly assigned (1:1) to decision support with the INFANT system or no decision support via a computer-generated stratified block randomisation schedule. The primary outcomes were poor neonatal outcome (intrapartum stillbirth or early neonatal death excluding lethal congenital anomalies, or neonatal encephalopathy, admission to the neonatal unit within 24 h for ≥48 h with evidence of feeding difficulties, respiratory illness, or encephalopathy with evidence of compromise at birth), and developmental assessment at age 2 years in a subset of surviving children. Analyses were done by intention to treat. This trial is completed and is registered with the ISRCTN Registry, number 98680152. Findings. Between Jan 6, 2010, and Aug 31, 2013, 47062 women were randomly assigned (23515 in the decision-support group and 23547 in the no-decision-support group) and 46042 were analysed (22987 in the decision-support group and 23055 in the no-decision-support group). We noted no difference in the incidence of poor neonatal outcome between the groups—172 (0·7%) babies in the decision-support group compared with 171 (0·7%) babies in the no-decision-support group (adjusted risk ratio 1·01, 95% CI 0·82–1·25). At 2 years, no significant differences were noted in terms of developmental assessment. Interpretation. Use of computerised interpretation of cardiotocographs in women who have continuous electronic fetal monitoring in labour does not improve clinical outcomes for mothers or babies