Spreading Tourists around Host Countries of Mega Sport Events: a Strategy to Overcome Over-tourism in Host Cities

Purpose – The study aims to recommend initiatives that can be adopted to overcome overtourism in host destinations of mega sport events. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopt qualitative research design that involved 20 semi-structured interviews with key informant stakeholders of the London 2012 Olympic Games. An exploratory case study approach was used to investigate strategies used to leverage tourism benefits in host destinations, and we used thematic analysis to present strategies to overcome over-tourism in host cities. Findings – This study emphasises the need for spreading tourists beyond the host city as a main strategy. To do so, three main initiatives were recommended: (1) Spreading domestic tourism outside the host city, (2) Showcasing destination beyond the host city and (3) Promoting regional collaboration. Research implications – This research provides tourism practitioners and DMOs in host destinations of mega sport events with an advanced strategic insights to capitalise on mega sport events. We suggest considering the events as a “theme” through event planning process in order overcome potential over-tourism in unique host cities. Originality/value – As over-tourism is mainly researched form impacts points of view on visited destinations, this study argue that over-tourism can be generated by mega sport events. The paper offers an extended insight into overcoming over-tourism by implementing strategic event tourism leveraging initiatives that can be extended in use to reach geographic areas beyond host cities of mega sport events

Cell-Free Approaches in Synthetic Biology Utilizing Microfluidics

Synthetic biology is a rapidly growing multidisciplinary branch of science which aims to mimic complex biological systems by creating similar forms. Constructing an artificial system requires optimization at the gene and protein levels to allow the formation of entire biological pathways. Advances in cell-free synthetic biology have helped in discovering new genes, proteins, and pathways bypassing the complexity of the complex pathway interactions in living cells. Furthermore, this method is cost-and time-effective with access to the cellular protein factory without the membrane boundaries. The freedom of design, full automation, and mimicking of in vivo systems reveal advantages of synthetic biology that can improve the molecular understanding of processes, relevant for life science applications. In parallel, in vitro approaches have enhanced our understanding of the living system. This review highlights the recent evolution of cell-free gene design, proteins, and cells integrated with microfluidic platforms as a promising technology, which has allowed for the transformation of the concept of bioprocesses. Although several challenges remain, the manipulation of biological synthetic machinery in microfluidic devices as suitable 'homes' for in vitro protein synthesis has been proposed as a pioneering approach for the development of new platforms, relevant in biomedical and diagnostic contexts towards even the sensing and monitoring of environmental issues

Stakeholders' perspectives of leveraging tourism and business legacy outcomes from mega sports events.

The aim of this research is to develop a critical understanding of the process by which stakeholders leverage tourism and business legacy outcomes from mega sports events. It is common now for many mega sport events stakeholders to look beyond short-term impacts towards achieving long-term legacy outcomes. This indicates that mega sport events have become a part of a broader process that must be invested in throughout the planning process, before, during and after the event. Within previous leveraging approaches, whilst mega sport events are temporally contained, the effect of leveraging is subject to the short term period of the event per se. A strategic approach is required in order to fully leverage legacy outcomes over the long term. This research is concerned with the stakeholders’ perspectives on how such long-term leveraging could be achieved. The methodological design is guided by an exploratory stance. The method adopted is key informant interviews undertaken with salient stakeholders of the London 2012 Olympic Games. A stakeholder is an individual or organisation who is affected by and/or affects the planning process associated with leveraging such legacy outcomes of mega sport events. Identifying key informants as stakeholders depended upon their saliency by evaluating their power, legitimacy and urgency. Snowballing techniques and careful planning assisted in accessing stakeholders for interviews. A total of 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken in order to encourage stakeholders to explain their perspectives of optimal leveraging strategies and initiatives. An iterative thematic analysis process was adopted for the rich data, where the research discovered new concepts and categories. The analysis led to three main aspects of leveraging: tourism, business and the role of media in the leveraging process. The evaluation of stakeholders’ perspectives of the factors contributing to the leveraging process from the London 2012 Olympic Games allowed a framework for leveraging tourism and business legacies of mega sport events to be developed. The framework consists of leveraging initiatives that characterised by their proactivity throughout the event planning process, and by considering the event as a theme within this long-term planning process. The emerged leveraging approach is called mega-leverage of mega-events that is not led by the events per se. Thus, the new strategic approach provide a contribution to both knowledge and practice of leveraging tourism and business legacy outcomes of mega sport events, by advancing understanding of what is specifically required for the leveraging process. The thesis also offers holistic insights relevant for leveraging mega sport events by providing tangible recommendations that could lead to more favourable leveraging models of such events. This is especially important because this area of research has both a high potential impact as well as being an under-researched area

Introduction to Tissue Engineering

Tissue engineering is a recent field that aims at developing or regenerating artificial tissues and organs. The idea of replacing a damaged body part using materials from natural origin was proposed and even applied over 4000 years ago. However, it was not till very recently that living tissues were engineered, giving rise to the field of tissue engineering. Tissue engineering is an emerging field that holds strong promises to provide replacements for damaged tissues by combining three main elements, namely cells, scaffolds, and biomechanical or biochemical signals. Current research in the field focuses on the development of these three elements to answer basic questions and produce functional living tissues. Tissue engineering has already showed remarkable successes in producing avascular tissues and organs (e.g., skin, cartilage, bladder, etc.) and holds great promises for producing more complex tissues and organs containing highly organized three-dimensional vascular structures. In the future, tissue engineering is expected to result in more complex tissues and organs that will be useful in overcoming the need for organ donations, reducing the number of animals used in drug discovery and drug toxicity research, and facilitating the development of patient-specific smart diagnostics and personalized medicine. Alongside applied tissue engineering, the needs for complete understanding of the basic sciences governing cells, their microenvironment, and signals that control their behavior are crucial. This chapter provides a brief introduction to tissue engineering. The history of tissue engineering, the recent advancements in the field, and the future of tissue engineering are briefly discussed. 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.Scopu