Assessing Tourist Revisit Intention through the Sports and Recreational Services Offered

Background: Sports and recreational tourism are forms of tourism that imply active involvement of tourists in various sports activities during their vacation, and it can be said that the main motive of such a vacation is a sport. Objectives: This research aimed to determine the relationship between sports and recreational activities and tourist satisfaction based on the questionnaire related to the behaviour and satisfaction of tourists during their stay in Montenegro. Methods/Approach: Regression analysis has been conducted in order to assess the interaction between sport-recreational activities and previous experience in Montenegro, and their effect on tourist revisit intention. Results: Empirical results demonstrate the influence of sports and recreational services on tourist satisfaction measured by tourists’ revisit intentions. Distinguishing between sports, and health, spa and wellness facilities and services, the findings indicate that health, spa, and wellness facilities and services have a higher impact on revisit intention than sports activities. In addition, the interaction effect between different sports and recreational activities and previous experience in Montenegro did not provide a more amplified effect on tourist satisfaction. Conclusions: Establishing closer links between workers who provide sports services and those providing other tourist services is one of the main challenges in the future of the development of sports tourism in Montenegro, as one of the most critical aspects that can provide tourist satisfaction. The data study can be used for more efficient and effective decision making and strategy development of sports and recreational activities in the tourism industry

Assessing Tourist Revisit Intention through the Sports and Recreational Services Offered

Background: Sports and recreational tourism are forms of tourism that imply active involvement of tourists in various sports activities during their vacation, and it can be said that the main motive of such a vacation is a sport

A mechanistic model for atherosclerosis and its application to the cohort of Mayak workers.

We propose a stochastic model for use in epidemiological analysis, describing the age-dependent development of atherosclerosis with adequate simplification. The model features the uptake of monocytes into the arterial wall, their proliferation and transition into foam cells. The number of foam cells is assumed to determine the health risk for clinically relevant events such as stroke. In a simulation study, the model was checked against the age-dependent prevalence of atherosclerotic lesions. Next, the model was applied to incidence of atherosclerotic stroke in the cohort of male workers from the Mayak nuclear facility in the Southern Urals. It describes the data as well as standard epidemiological models. Based on goodness-of-fit criteria the risk factors smoking, hypertension and radiation exposure were tested for their effect on disease development. Hypertension was identified to affect disease progression mainly in the late stage of atherosclerosis. Fitting mechanistic models to incidence data allows to integrate biological evidence on disease progression into epidemiological studies. The mechanistic approach adds to an understanding of pathogenic processes, whereas standard epidemiological methods mainly explore the statistical association between risk factors and disease outcome. Due to a more comprehensive scientific foundation, risk estimates from mechanistic models can be deemed more reliable. To the best of our knowledge, such models are applied to epidemiological data on cardiovascular diseases for the first time

Age dependent hazard and relative risk of hypertension.

<p>In both panels, the solid line refers to the mechanistic model while the empirical model is shown by a dashed line and with 95% confidence interval indicated in gray. The plots refer to a worker born in 1930, smoking and without higher education. A: Hazard of a worker with normal blood pressure. The kink after age 60 is related to a calendar year effect around the time of the transition from the Soviet Union to Russia. B: Ratio of the hazard of a worker with hypertension compared to the hazard of a worker with normal blood pressure.</p

Modeled percentage of persons with at least <i>X</i> macrophages and foam cells (<i>X</i> = 10²: green, <i>X</i> = 10³: blue, <i>X</i> = 10⁴: red).

<p>The solid lines correspond to the parameter set <i>Nν</i>₀ = 3 year⁻¹, <i>α</i> = 12 year⁻¹, <i>γ</i> = 0.2 year⁻¹, <i>ν</i>₁ = 1 year⁻¹ and <i>ν</i>₂ = 10⁻⁷ year⁻¹. In each panel, results of variation of a parameter are shown with dashed and dotted lines. Black dots are adopted from Fig 3 in ref. [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0175386#pone.0175386.ref046" target="_blank">46</a>], a histological study of coronary arteries in persons who died from causes other than disease. Filled / open dots represent the observed percentage of persons with any lesion / a non-minimal lesion.</p

Parameter choices in the model fit.

<p>Parameter choices in the model fit.</p