Residents’ apathy and its influence on tourism development

The purpose of this research is to conceptualise and analyse the concept of the residents’ apathy toward tourism phenomenon and to investigate how it influences tourism development. To achieve this aim, both resident-based and tourist-based perspectives will be adopted. Firstly, the study reviews and discusses the existing literature devoted to community participation in tourism, paying particular attention to those who refer to, and describe, a kind of “passive” and “apathetic” attitude and behaviour of residents toward tourism development. Specifically, the literature review will focus on considering studies from three main disciplines (psychology, socio-politics and environment); thus, following a multidisciplinary approach, this will lead us to theoretically identify the main dimensions defining residents apathy (i.e. lack of interest, lack of initiative and environmental-based apathy). Secondly, the study aims at investigating the extent to which these different dimensions influence residents’ support for tourism development and their brand ambassadorship behaviour. To achieve this goal, a survey was applied to three convenient samples of residents in three different destinations; namely Olbia (Italy), Lisbon (Portugal) and Isfahan (Iran). Hence, 1,334 questionnaires were used to test the conceptual model. Resident apathy was included in the three main constructs in this stage. Our findings highlight that apathy (and its dimensions) negatively influences residents’ support for tourism and their brand ambassadorship behaviour. Thirdly, this study adopted a tourist-based perspective in order to investigate whether and how residents’ apathy, as perceived by visitors, is able to influence tourists’ perceptions of both service quality and the brand ambassadorship behaviour. To this purpose, visitors from the same tourism destinations used in the resident-based part of the study were interviewed (convenience samples); a total number of 947 completed questionnaires were collected. Adopting a tourist-based perspective, our findings seemed to identify a further dimension of residents’ apathy to be considered (i.e. alienation). Then, our purpose was to test a conceptual model, aiming to analyse how residents’ apathy (lack of interest, lack of initiative, environmental-based apathy and alienation), as perceived by tourists, affects the host-guest interaction process and, more specifically, both the perceived service quality and visitors’ behavioural intentions. The statistical analysis for both the resident-based and tourist-based studies followed a three step system of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Firstly, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was run to reveal the underlying factors in the data. Secondly, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to further confirm the structure of the identified factors. Then, finally, a Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses and to validate the conceptual models. In addition, a multi-group analysis was adopted to investigate whether any differences existed in the way the model worked in the three different research settings. Based on our findings, the contributions of this study to the current body of academic knowledge and managerial implications are discussed, together with the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research

Exploring the impact of climate change on lodging establishments: a systematic literature review

Purpose This study aimed to identify scientific research concentrating on climate change impacts on accommodation services and examine the most relevant outputs related to man agement strategies due to exposure to climate change. Methodology It used a systematic review of the literature of scientific articles published in the Web of Science and SCOPUS. The search strings were validated by academics, who suggested adding more keywords for studying the relationship between accommodation settings and climate change. As a result, four search strings were established and identified 39 articles for qualitative analysis with MAXQDA. Findings Some studies asserted that corporate social responsibility is important for mit igating climate change issues. hotels work together with local businesses, enforcing the community’s adaptive capacity to climate change and supporting the need for education and training programs to understand climate change risks better. Moreover, green human resources management directly relates to the level of environmental awareness in local communities. Using air conditioning for combating heat waves consumes high amounts of energy. One option lies in energy-efficient buildings such as passive houses, using compact designs for reducing the cost of operation. Currently, hotel operations rely more on being more transparent regarding informing guests and influencing eco-friendly choices. On the other hand, there is an investment in training employees regarding good practices for energy use and management. Such action leads to accountable energy savings. Nevertheless, hotels still struggling to adapt because of their elevated energy consumption for heating, hot water, lightning, or cooling aggregates.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Manifestation of Social Trust among Migrants: The Case of Iranian Residents in Toronto, Canada

This paper is excerpted from a research project titled “A Sociological Analysis of Socio-economic Situation of Iranian Migrants in Canada (Case Study: Toronto). This survey research has been carried out in 2005. Its main goal is to answer the following questions: What is the trust level among Iranian migrants residing in Toronto? What is the difference between the in-group social trust level (trust among Iranians) and the out-group trust level (confidence toward Canadians living in Toronto)? In an attempt to answer these questions a sample of 182 Iranians were interviewed on the basis of a standardized questionnaire. The findings reveal that the in-group social trust level – as measured against the defined scale – is slightly below the average, whereby the difference from the middle point of the scale is statistically significant. Moreover, it demonstrates that the mean figure for out-group social trust is significantly higher than the average defined on the scale. The results also suggest that the most important cause for lower in-group trust should be sought for in the pre- migration period. Researches carried out on social confidence indicate that weakness of social trust in home country is often transferred to other countries – after migration – and is intensified due to problems of the migrant community and increase of social risk

Effects of different powder to liquid ratios on the push out bond strength of CEM cement on simulated perforations in the furcal area

Proper bond strength to dentin is one of the properties of biomaterials used for therapeutic purposes such as repair of furcal perforations. The aim of the present study to evaluate the effects of different powder to liquid ratios of Calcium-enriched mixture (CEM) on the push-out bond strengths in simulated perforations in the furcal area and compare it with Mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA). Furcal perforations, measuring 1.3 mm in diameter and 2 mm in height, were prepared in 120 mandibular first molars. Then the samples were randomly assigned to two groups (n=60). MTA and CEM cement were used for the repair of perforations in groups 1 and 2, respectively. Each group was divided into 3 subgroups based on the powder to liquid rations as follows: subgroup 1 (W/P) , 1:2; subgroup 2, 1:3; and subgroup 3, 1:4. After mixing and placing the materials in the perforation area, the samples were placed in closed containers at 37°C and 100% relative humidity for one week. A universal testing machine was used to determine the bond strength values. After recording the standard deviations, data were analyzed with two-way ANOVA. Statistical significance was set at P<0.05. In the MTA and CEM groups the highest push-out bond strength values were recorded in the third (W/P: 1:4) and first (W/P: 1:2) subgroups, respectively. There were significant differences in both groups between the ratios mentioned above and the other ratios (P<0.05). Under the limitations of the present study, an increase in the powder-to-liquid ratio in CEM cement resulted in a decrease in bond strength, contrary to MTA

Islamic Republic of Iran Army Cyber Offensive Evaluation Model

Objective: This research was carried out to provide a model for evaluating the cyber offensive power of the army of the Islamic Republic of Iran.Method: The implementation method of this research is descriptive, by applied type, which is done with a mixed approach. Seven experts from the army's cyberspace were selected for interviews to theoretical saturation by purposeful sampling. The statistical population for the questionnaire included some staff of the army of the Islamic Republic of Iran with at least a bachelor's degree in the cyber science. In addition, they have served at least 10 years in cyber career positions. the statistical population included 79 people, so the census method was used to distribute the questionnaires. First, document study and interviews were used to collect data. After that, the questionnaire was used. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed with Cronbach's alpha. Qualitative data analysis was done using content analysis method and quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS software       Findings: Manpower, cyber complexity, cyber weapons and cyber situational awareness are the most important components that the finding of this research were 12 indicators for evaluating cyber offensive power. It also provided a model to evaluate the cyber offensive power of the army of the Islamic Republic of Iran.   Conclusion: This model illustrates that the autonomy of the cyber weapon should be considered by the manufacturers in the design and construction of cyber weapons (embodied and disembodied). On the other hand, quality of manpower with a wide range of technical skills, creativity, who have high situational awareness with proper training, is necessary to use these weapons and overcome cyber complexities

Classification of voice disorder in children with cochlear implantation and hearing aid using multiple classifier fusion

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Speech production and speech phonetic features gradually improve in children by obtaining audio feedback after cochlear implantation or using hearing aids. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate automated classification of voice disorder in children with cochlear implantation and hearing aids.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We considered 4 disorder categories in children's voice using the following definitions:</p> <p>Level_1: Children who produce spontaneous phonation and use words spontaneously and imitatively.</p> <p>Level_2: Children, who produce spontaneous phonation, use words spontaneously and make short sentences imitatively.</p> <p>Level_3: Children, who produce spontaneous phonations, use words and arbitrary sentences spontaneously.</p> <p>Level_4: Normal children without any hearing loss background. Thirty Persian children participated in the study, including six children in each level from one to three and 12 children in level four. Voice samples of five isolated Persian words "mashin", "mar", "moosh", "gav" and "mouz" were analyzed. Four levels of the voice quality were considered, the higher the level the less significant the speech disorder. "Frame-based" and "word-based" features were extracted from voice signals. The frame-based features include intensity, fundamental frequency, formants, nasality and approximate entropy and word-based features include phase space features and wavelet coefficients. For frame-based features, hidden Markov models were used as classifiers and for word-based features, neural network was used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After Classifiers fusion with three methods: Majority Voting Rule, Linear Combination and Stacked fusion, the best classification rates were obtained using frame-based and word-based features with MVR rule (level 1:100%, level 2: 93.75%, level 3: 100%, level 4: 94%).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Result of this study may help speech pathologists follow up voice disorder recovery in children with cochlear implantation or hearing aid who are in the same age range.</p