The Role of Travel Conditions in Cycling Tourism: Implications for Destination and Event Management

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of travel conditions on preferred destination, event, and travel characteristics in the context of Active-Sport-Event Travel Carers among cyclists who travel to take part in events. Travel conditions are circumstances surrounding a trip such as travel with family or the length of travel. A sample of cyclists that travel to participate in events (N = 1452) was collected via online survey through cycling organizations and websites. Data analysis consisted of a series of repeated measures ANOVAs and paired sample t-tests. The results indicated an individual's event, destination, and travel-style preferences are dependent on whether he or she was traveling with a non-cyclist (e.g. family member) and the distance traveled. Prior research has suggested that for active sport tourists event criteria are more important than destination characteristics and travel preferences remain relatively stagnant with career progression. In contrast, the findings here suggest travel preferences vary based on travel conditions and that attractive destinations only become advantageous if event participants are traveling with non-cyclists or on trips involving longer distances. For instance when non-participant travel companions are included, the entertainment, attractions, and activities available in the destination become much more important to active event tourists. Communities seeking to attract sport tourists as a form of sustainable tourism development would be advised to organize events incorporating these preferences and to consider the influence of travel conditions

The Evolution of Active Sport Event Travel Careers

Using the event-travel-career concept, this study examined the trajectory of active-sport-event travel careers through stages of development and the corresponding factors and dimensions perceived to influence career progression in the sport of cycling. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 amateur cyclists engaged in lifestyles geared toward active event travel. A grounded theory approach revealed that active event travel careers evolve through a complex progression of 9 core themes and related subthemes. The core themes included the first event, starting out, motivation, temporal, travel style, destination criteria, event types, spatial, and later in life. On the basis of these findings, a 6-stage active-sport-event travel career model is proposed consisting of initiation, introduction, expansion, peak threshold, maintenance, and maturity. From this model, theoretical contributions, suggestions for future research, and practical implications for sport tourism and event management are discussed

Participation Versus Nonparticipation in a Charity Running Event

Hosting sport events to raise money for charitable causes has become pervasive, yet we know little about why individuals choose to participate or not. This study examined the differences between participants and nonparticipants of a hallmark small-scale charity running event. Data were collected via an online survey containing measures of charity event participation frequency, enduring involvement, negotiation efficacy, family support, running participation patterns, and demographics. Nonparticipants were also asked about event-related participation constraints. The sample was comprised of N = 322 event participants and N = 112 nonparticipants (committed runners). A one-way ANOVA demonstrated no statistically significant differences between the two independent samples with respect to the variables of interest. Nonparticipants indicated relatively low constraints to event participation. The most commonly reported constraints solicited in an open-ended question format were injuries and participation in an alternative event. Findings revealed that event participants and nonparticipants are very similar in terms of their running participation patterns. However, definite nonnegotiable constraints or preplanned involvement with other events inhibited participation in the studied event. Over time, this can result in either the expansion or contraction of their involvement in the running event. By illuminating nonnegotiable constraints, this study may help event organizers improve planning and management towards event sustainability

A protocol for a systematic review of clinical guidelines and published systematic reviews on the early detection of oral cancer

Background: The predicted increase in incidence of oral cavity cancer (OCC) coupled with high mortality and poor prognosis – particularly when diagnosed at a late/advanced stage – highlights the need for prevention and early detection/screening to reverse these trends. Dental healthcare professionals in primary care settings have a pivotal role in this effort. Aim: The aim of this protocol is to detail the process for assessing the evidence for the best practice and methods of early detection/screening for OCC in primary care dental settings by undertaking a systematic review of global clinical guidelines and published systematic reviews. Method: Searches for clinical guidelines and systematic reviews will be conducted in the following databases: Cochrane library, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (Ovid), Excerpta Medical dataBASE, PubMed, Turning Research into Practice, SCOPUS and Web of Science Core Collection. Our search will extend to include Google Scholar and international professional organizations/associations websites. In addition, we will handsearch the bibliographies and undertake citation searches of the selected papers. Quality appraisal will be undertaken using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation version II instrument for the clinical guidelines and both A MeaSurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews and Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews tools for the systematic reviews. A narrative synthesis approach will be used to assess the evidence of extracted data, primarily taking account of quality appraisal and recency of publication. Discussion: The synthesis of evidence will determine best practice for OCC early detection/screening by primary care dental healthcare professionals and will evaluate the relationship between clinical guidelines and the evidence base available from systematic reviews in this area

Behavior change interventions: the potential of ontologies for advancing science and practice

A central goal of behavioral medicine is the creation of evidence-based interventions for promoting behavior change. Scientific knowledge about behavior change could be more effectively accumulated using "ontologies." In information science, an ontology is a systematic method for articulating a "controlled vocabulary" of agreed-upon terms and their inter-relationships. It involves three core elements: (1) a controlled vocabulary specifying and defining existing classes; (2) specification of the inter-relationships between classes; and (3) codification in a computer-readable format to enable knowledge generation, organization, reuse, integration, and analysis. This paper introduces ontologies, provides a review of current efforts to create ontologies related to behavior change interventions and suggests future work. This paper was written by behavioral medicine and information science experts and was developed in partnership between the Society of Behavioral Medicine's Technology Special Interest Group (SIG) and the Theories and Techniques of Behavior Change Interventions SIG. In recent years significant progress has been made in the foundational work needed to develop ontologies of behavior change. Ontologies of behavior change could facilitate a transformation of behavioral science from a field in which data from different experiments are siloed into one in which data across experiments could be compared and/or integrated. This could facilitate new approaches to hypothesis generation and knowledge discovery in behavioral science

The Very Low Albedo of WASP-12b From Spectral Eclipse Observations with Hubble\textit{Hubble}

We present an optical eclipse observation of the hot Jupiter WASP-12b using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope. These spectra allow us to place an upper limit of $A_g < 0.064$ (97.5% confidence level) on the planet's white light geometric albedo across 290--570 nm. Using six wavelength bins across the same wavelength range also produces stringent limits on the geometric albedo for all bins. However, our uncertainties in eclipse depth are $\sim$40% greater than the Poisson limit and may be limited by the intrinsic variability of the Sun-like host star --- the solar luminosity is known to vary at the $10^{-4}$ level on a timescale of minutes. We use our eclipse depth limits to test two previously suggested atmospheric models for this planet: Mie scattering from an aluminum-oxide haze or cloud-free Rayleigh scattering. Our stringent nondetection rules out both models and is consistent with thermal emission plus weak Rayleigh scattering from atomic hydrogen and helium. Our results are in stark contrast with those for the much cooler HD 189733b, the only other hot Jupiter with spectrally resolved reflected light observations; those data showed an increase in albedo with decreasing wavelength. The fact that the first two exoplanets with optical albedo spectra exhibit significant differences demonstrates the importance of spectrally resolved reflected light observations and highlights the great diversity among hot Jupiters.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, published in ApJL, in pres

Developing a Reliable Welfare Assessment Tool for Captive Hibernatory Bear Species

Animal welfare assessments are essential for the identification of welfare hazards and benchmarking of welfare improvements, though welfare assessments for zoo species are lacking. Bears are commonly housed in zoos but currently no composite welfare assessment tool exists for captive bears. This study describes the development of such a tool for use across hibernating bear species. A draft tool was developed using indicators derived from the literature and a modified Delphi analysis with an international group of bear keepers. A total of 18 bear keepers from 12 zoos were recruited to trial the tool on 24 brown bears and American black bears. The participating keepers assessed their bears three times across a period of nine days. Intraclass correlation coefficients analysis was used to analyse inter-, intra-rater and item reliability. The inter- and intra-rater reliability showed good to excellent levels of agreement (>0.7, p 0.05). Item reliability was also assessed and showed good to excellent levels of agreement (>0.75, p 0.05). The resulting bear welfare assessment is an important step in identifying and understanding challenges to bear welfare in captivity

How the Western Was Won: Evidence for Netrin Signaling Machinery in Tetrahymena thermophila

Netrins are pleiotropic signaling molecules with diverse roles in animal development. Netrin signals through a number of receptors in animals, including the UNC-5 family, neogenin, DSCAM, and DCC. Previous studies have shown that netrin-1-peptide, netrin-3-peptide, and recombinant netrin-4 all act as chemorepellents in Tetrahymena (Kuruvilla et al., 2016, Khol et al., 2018; Bradley and Kuruvilla, 2020). In addition, netrin-1 peptide appears to signal through a tyrosine kinase in this organism (Kuruvilla et al., 2016), similar to vertebrate signaling through UNC-5, which uses the tyrosine kinase, src. In light of these data, we hypothesized that Tetrahymena thermophila possess netrin signaling machinery, including a tyrosine kinase. In order to investigate this hypothesis, we searched for various netrin receptors, as well as a src homologue, in Tetrahymena using immunofluorescence (Khol et al., 2018). We found that anti-UNC-5 and anti-neogenin antibodies showed fluorescence, while anti-DCC and anti-DSCAM antibodies did not. In addition, an anti-src antibody showed significant fluorescence in Tetrahymena (Khol et al., 2018. In our current study, we searched the Tetrahymena Genome Database for homologs of UNC-5, neogenin, and src. We also used Western blotting to screen for potential homologues of these proteins. At the present time, there are several proteins of interest which we would like to study further

Summer

This study analyzes short vlogs posted to YouTube in order to investigate how women and men communicate using vlogs and react as viewers to vlogs. Vlogs are visual texts that are usergenerated. Analyzing online videos presents a new challenge for researchers: traditionally, analysis of visual media and communication focused on either the production or the reception of the material. Our vlog study uses a dual analytical approach to analyze both production and reception, while conducting content, visual and audience analysis, thus making a contribution to the field of new visual media and communication. ______________________________________________________________________________ Heather Molyneaux is an analyst in the People-Centred Technologies group at the National Research Council Institute for Information Technology. Correspondence to: NRC Institute for Information 2 Producing and sharing user-generated video, known as &quot;video blogging,&quot; has recently become popular with millions of people. Video blogs, also known as &quot;vlogs,&quot; are blogs created in video rather than textual form. Vlogs are a form of online publishing, allowing everyone with web access and simple video production tools -such as a computer and a webcam or a cell phone with video capabilities -to create and post content. Most vlogs are authored by individuals and focus on personal themes . Like blogs, vlogs are a user-generated form of online communication that serve as media for social commentary, alternative newscasts, creative outlets or personal online diaries. We chose YouTube as an obvious source of online videos and a potential user community. YouTube is currently the most popular online video website and hosts more videos than rival video sites This study analyzes short vlogs posted to YouTube in order to investigate how and why people communicate using vlogs, and how viewers react to vlogs. In particular we examine potential uses of user-generated video for women, and how women are creating vlogs and using YouTube. Analyzing online videos presents a new challenge for researchers: traditionally, analysis of visual media and communication focused on either the production or the reception by different actors. Our study&apos;s dual analytical approach thus makes a useful contribution to the field of new visual media and communication. Our initial findings reveal gender differences in both vlog creation and YouTube use. Analyzing vlogs Videos are complicated texts requiring careful analysis conducted via various methods. Even though visual analysis is complex and the results usually subjective, videos need to be examined because they are becoming increasingly important in contemporary culture. Videos can aid communication by increasing communication richness, empowering those who develop their own videos and encouraging identity formation among users. Users benefit because video channels allow them to communicate in a more natural way resembling face-to-face communication New technologies could potentially change traditional social and political hierarchies and transform the boundaries between the private and the public Navarro, 1993, Milliken et al, 2008). New technologies also create new spaces for interaction and participation. At the same time, however, such technologies serve to widen gaps to access. Marginalized or minority groups are especially vulnerable to this phenomenon. Communication technology could play a role in turning women&apos;s talk into voice but there are limitations Another concern with the visual representation of women is exploitative images that present women not as subjects but as objects for the male gaze Although intervention is difficult, socially constructed meanings are neither fixed nor unalterable User-generated video on YouTube is just beginning to be examined by scholars. Little is known about who creates these videos, why they post them and who watches them Research methodology The research methods included a content and visual analysis of vlogs on YouTube and a study of YouTube users. Content analysis enables researchers to determine, through careful observation and analysis, the major themes in media content. We conducted our content analysis to explore who is vlogging, how audiences respond to vloggers and the influence of gender on these variables. Interpretations of vlogs change according to place, time and the audience; however visual messages have dominant meanings that provide interpretive boundaries for the decoding of messages 4 We conducted a content analysis on a random sample of YouTube vlogs. At the time of the study there was no obvious category on YouTube for vlogs so we conducted an initial search on YouTube using the term &quot;blog&quot; which returned more than 30,000 entries available for general viewing. For our population we chose vlogs posted over a 15-day period, from October 6 to October 21, 2006. To enable comparison among potentially similar vlogs, vlogs longer than three minutes and non-English vlogs were excluded, leaving us with a population of 1,028 vlogs. Using a listing of random numbers (RAND, 2001) we randomly selected 100 numbers between 1 and 1,028 and selected the vlogs corresponding to these random numbers. The quantitative analysis conducted on this sample is accurate within a 90% confidence level and a 7.8% error level. Since we were counting number of views for each vlog, we waited one month from the time of initial posting to the coding of the video. The vlogs and the profiles of the vloggers were coded for a number of variables, including gender, age, location, audience, message, motivation, technical quality (both audio and visual), and the number of views. Cohen&apos;s Kappa for these variables averaged .85. The final aspect of the research was an audience analysis of vlogs. We collected data on the number of views of each of the vlogs within the random sample and the views and comments from the YouTube site on the four videos analyzed in greater detail. We also conducted a study of 60 participants who were YouTube users. These participants were recruited from a university in Atlantic Canada. The study was designed to include an equal number of males (30) and females (30). Participants viewed the four vlogs described above, in a random order presented in their questionnaire. The study participants completed a paper questionnaire comprised of demographic questions and a section for feedback on the video blogs. Participation took approximately 45 minutes and participants were given a $10 honorarium. Research findings and discussion Our research findings are presented according to the three different methodological and analytical approaches we used, described above. The results of the content analysis conducted on the random sample of our population and the findings from the visual analysis of four vlogs and audience analysis are discussed. Content analysis -the vloggers A content analysis of the characteristics of vloggers in our random sample revealed that the majority of vlogs featured a single participant. Men posted vlogs more than women -58% to 33%; the gender of the vlogger could not be determined for the remaining 9%. When vlogs contained more than one participant, the majority of secondary participants were also male. Most vloggers, 61%, were adults ranging in age from 20 to 50 years, although about one-third, or 36%, were younger. The age of the vlogger could not be determined for 3% of the vlogs. The average age of the main vlog participant was 23 years. There was no great difference in the ages of men and women vloggers: the average age of men was 24, while the average age of women was 21. These findings are not surprising; studies done on internet use in the U.S. show that college students, who have greater access to technology, are frequent internet video users. A 5 2007 PEW internet study indicates that young adults, ages 18-29 are the most avid viewers of online video in the United States Text information posted on the user profiles occasionally differed from that stated in the actual video blog. The most popular misreported information was age. The researchers found four cases of vloggers posting on their profile a different age than they state in the video blog. In all four cases the vloggers were young women, ages 12, 14, 15 and 15, who reported their age in their profile as older than their actual age -86, 22, 20 and 46. Content analysis -the vlogs For our analysis we coded each vlog into one of five categories that we created: personal, public, entertainment, YouTube, and technology. The categorization was based on the message of the video. Personal vlogs offer viewers introductions to the vloggers&apos; personal lives, provide updates on their lives, or act as home movies. Public vlogs report or discuss the news or politics, or offer social commentary. Entertainment vlogs consist of comedy routines, musical numbers, acted skits or dancing or a combination of these elements. YouTube vlogs are videos where people either ask questions for others to answer, respond to questions asked by other vloggers, or discuss other vlogs on YouTube. Technology vlogs either discuss technology or test out equipment. Herring, et al, note in their study of blogs that more bloggers discussed personal matters than any other category Content analysis -image and audio quality The quality of the vlog did not differ by the gender of the vlogger. When coding for quality the researchers took a basic approach, coding for three categories (excellent, acceptable and poor) for the quality of the image and sound. Men and women vloggers scored very similar ratings across the board. The videos created by women vloggers had slightly better image quality, and slightly poorer sound quality than those created by men

Nanometric depth resolution from multi-focal images in microscopy

We describe a method for tracking the position of small features in three dimensions from images recorded on a standard microscope with an inexpensive attachment between the microscope and the camera. The depth-measurement accuracy of this method is tested experimentally on a wide-field, inverted microscope and is shown to give approximately 8 nm depth resolution, over a specimen depth of approximately 6 µm, when using a 12-bit charge-coupled device (CCD) camera and very bright but unresolved particles. To assess low-flux limitations a theoretical model is used to derive an analytical expression for the minimum variance bound. The approximations used in the analytical treatment are tested using numerical simulations. It is concluded that approximately 14 nm depth resolution is achievable with flux levels available when tracking fluorescent sources in three dimensions in live-cell biology and that the method is suitable for three-dimensional photo-activated localization microscopy resolution. Sub-nanometre resolution could be achieved with photon-counting techniques at high flux levels