Ontological mingling and mapping: Chinese tourism researchers’ experiences at international conferences

Within tourism studies, the 'critical turn' has evoked growing reflective and critical perspectives on the role of the researcher in producing knowledge. This has also led to calls for building an inclusive research community, particularly through including non-Western and non-positivist methodologies. While it is noted that non-Western scholarship has gained more visibility in the international tourism research community through publications in prestigious academic journals, few studies discuss non-Western scholars' interactions with other scholars in a qualitative and individual manner. Based on in-depth interviews with nineteen Chinese tourism scholars, we explore how their experiences at international conferences have shaped their positionality as 'Chinese researchers' in the international scientific community and thus contributed to their knowledge making. A process of mingling and mapping is shown in the narratives, where Chinese scholars attempt to find meanings of being at an academic conference and to understand the relations embedded in the conference space. Dynamics and reflexivity are seen in terms of how one goes around certain constructed binaries, such as 'Western/non-Western', 'male/female' and 'junior/senior'. Finally, such a process of mingling and mapping affects the participants' views on who will make the non-Western knowledge and how. With these voices from Chinese tourism scholars, we therefore contribute to the discourse of non-Western knowledge-making

Developmental Regulation of Mossy Fiber Afferent Interactions with Target Granule Cells

AbstractIn anin vitromodel system based on purified target cerebellar granule neurons and explants of afferents, pontine mossy fiber afferents stop growing through contact-mediated mechanisms when they encounter granule neurons. Here we studied the developmental regulation of the stop signal posed by granule cells and the response of mossy fibers to the stop signal in two culture systems. Granule neurons presented in slices or as dissociated cells from postnatal day (P) 4 and P7 cerebellum were more potent in the arrest of P0 pontine neurites than younger (P0-P2) or older (up to P14) granule neurons. In contrast, pontine neurites at embryonic day (E) 18, during their period of normal growth toward the cerebellum, grew extensively on both cerebellar slices of all ages from P0 to P10 and dissociated P4 granule neurons. When E18 explants were maintained for 2 days before plating in medium conditioned by neonatal cerebellar cells, E18 pontine explants were rendered more responsive to the stop signal from P4 granule cells. These results indicate that the stop signal, and the response of afferents to it, are developmentally regulated. Moreover, factors within the target region may initiate these interactions

To Disclose or Not to Disclose, That Is the Question: Evidence from TripAdvisor

Online consumers may be hesitant to disclose personal information due to potential threats, leading to an impact on their content generation. This, in turn, poses a challenge to the credibility and sustainability of online reviews on digital platforms. To address this issue, our research examines how consumers\u27 self-disclosure affects their rating behaviors and the existence of the positive-negative asymmetry based on negativity bias. Utilizing data from TripAdvisor, our analysis demonstrated that consumers\u27 self-disclosure had a negative impact on rating inconsistency and a stronger herding behavior for those submitting ratings lower than the hotel’s average ratings. Additionally, we found that certain factors, such as more peer disclosure, longer time intervals between check-in and review posting, and greater expertise, can mitigate the negative impact of self-disclosure on rating behavior. Our findings make critical contributions to the extant literature, as well as provide significant managerial implications to participants in the digital platform

Internal Control Quality: The Role of Critical Audit Matters Reporting

We examine whether critical audit matter (CAM) reporting in audit reports improves issuers’ internal controls over financial reporting. We propose that increased scrutiny by auditors on CAM-related matters lead to early identification and remediation of material weaknesses in internal control (ICMW). Analyses show that compared to control companies, companies with CAM reporting experience a statistically significant decrease in both the likelihood of having an ICMW and the number of ICMWs. This result is driven primarily by account-level ICMWs rather than entity-level ICMWs. We also find that issuers with revenue-recognition CAMs have significantly fewer revenue-related ICMWs, suggesting that ICMWs related to revenue recognition are identified and remediated through the CAM evaluation process. For those that reported ICMW at year end, we find a positive and significant association between CAM reporting and the likelihood of disclosing ineffective internal control in SOX 302 reports. This finding supports that CAM reporting leads to early identification of internal control problems. Overall, our evidence suggests that by focusing auditor attention on areas of potential concern, CAM reporting leads to improvements in internal control quality. Our findings have important policy implications as they show that CAM reporting improves financial reporting quality by affecting auditor and management behavior

Motivations and the Intent to Study Abroad Among US, French and Chinese Students

This paper analyzes the relationship between students’ motivations and their intention to participate in study abroad programs using a model based on expectancy theory. We surveyed US, Chinese and French business students who studied in their home countries. Results suggest that certain motivations are common among students from the three countries. We found that the direction of the relationship between motivations and the intent to study abroad varied among the three countries, that nationality moderates all of the relationships, and that different levels of the barriers moderate the relationship between motivations and the intention to study abroad

Luxury shopping tourism : views from Chinese post-1990s female tourists

Peer reviewedPostprin

Enhancing Older Adults’ Mobility in Active Living and Tiered Living Communities

The U.S. population is aging rapidly. As people get older, they increasingly face issues such as increased susceptibility to injuries and the need to be assisted with many day-to-day activities. Older adults have the opportunity to opt-in to live in an older adult community (OAC) based on their needs and capabilities. This study comprehensively reviews existing governing development regulations and design criteria related to the older adults’ communities, conducts surveys among people involved with some of these communities in California, and recommends improvements to community design for active living and tiered living communities. This study proposes a new scoring system to evaluate the overall life-space mobility of OACs and the surrounding areas. For each of the ten communities within California, the area\u27s Active Mobility Infrastructure (AMI), both inside and outside, and Permeability (PERM) are assessed. Furthermore, the study aims to comprehend how residents feel about the available facilities and how they are utilized through a survey that includes questions regarding how frequently residents partake in active transportation within and outside their communities and assesses residents’ financial and educational standings. Using Welch’s T-Test, Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient, and a Multinomial Logit Regression model, this study addresses three questions: (1) Are there any statistically significant differences in the transportation connection qualities within and surrounding the older adult communities perceived by their residents? (2) Are there strong correlations between the quality of transport connections and the walking frequency of the residents? (3) What are the main influential factors of walking frequency? The findings from this research can aid transportation professionals in improving the governing development regulations and associated design criteria for better person-environment fit in older living communities

A Smartphone App for Attentional Bias Retraining in Smokers: Mixed Methods Pilot Study

Background: Smoking is a global health threat. Attentional bias influences smoking behaviors. Although attentional bias retraining has shown benefits and recent advances in technology suggest that attentional bias retraining can be delivered via smartphone apps, there is a paucity of research on this topic. Objective: This study aims to address this gap by exploring the use of attentional bias retraining via a novel smartphone app using a mixed methods pilot study. In the quantitative phase, it is hypothesized that participants in the training group who undertake attentional bias retraining via the app should have decreased levels of attentional bias, subjective craving, and smoking frequency, compared with those in the control group who do not undertake attentional bias retraining. The qualitative phase explores how the participants perceive and experience the novel app. Methods: In all, 10 adult smokers (3 females and 7 males) between the ages of 26 and 56 years (mean 34.4 years, SD 9.97 years) were recruited. The participants were randomly allocated to the training and control groups. In weeks 1 and 3, participants from both groups attempted the standard visual probe task and rated their smoking frequency and subjective craving. In week 2, the participants in the training group attempted the modified visual probe task. After week 3, participants from both groups were interviewed about their views and experiences of the novel app. Results: The results of the quantitative analysis did not support this study’s hypothesis. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results yielded 5 themes: ease, helpfulness, unhelpful aspects, barriers, and refinement. Conclusions: Findings from the qualitative study were consistent with those from previous studies on health-related smartphone apps. The qualitative results were helpful in understanding the user perspectives and experiences of the novel app, indicating that future research in this innovative area is necessary