Developing Student Engagement in China Through Collaborative Action Research

As its market and society open up, China has transformed itself from a closed agrarian socialist economy to an urban state and an economic force. This has released accumulated tourism demand, led to the development of a diversified industry, and the spread of university and vocational courses in this field. However, the industry faces challenges to recruit and retain staff, with tourism education in higher education blamed for the shortfall in numbers and quality of candidates with suitable purpose, knowledge, and passion to serve. This chapter provides a background to the development of and problems facing tourism education in China, and suggests how to support student engagement and hence the future workforce

Seroprevalence of Taenia solium infections in Croatian patients presenting with epilepsy

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, while neurocysticercosis caused by Taenia solium infection of the central nervous system currently represents the leading cause of secondary epilepsy in Central and South America, East and South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. As a result of increased migration from these endemic regions, neurocysticercosis and subsequent epilepsy are becoming a growing public health problem in developed countries as well. In order to determine the prevalence of T. solium infection in patients with epilepsy in Croatia, a retrospective serological study was conducted. A total of 770 serum samples were tested for the presence of T. solium IgG antibodies using a commercial qualitative enzyme immunoassay. The Western blot technique was used as a confirmatory test for the diagnosis. The overall seroprevalence rate of T. solium infection in patients with clinically proven epilepsy was 1.5%. Although the results have shown that infection with this tapeworm is rare in Croatia, this study hopes to increase awareness about the importance of preventive measures and benefits of accurate and timely diagnosis. Intervention measures for infection control are crucial, namely sanitation improvement, control of domestic pig-breeding, detailed meat inspection, detection and treatment of tapeworm carriers, hand washing and health education

FUELS IN TOBACCO PRODUCTION

Energy production from biomass can reduce „greenhouse effect” and contribute to solving energy security especially in the agricultural households which rely on energy from fossil fuels. In Croatia fuel-cured tobacco is produced on about 5000 ha. Gross income for the whole production is about 180 000 000 kn/year. Flue-cured tobacco is a high energy consuming crop. There are two parts of energy consumption, for mechanization used for the field production (11%) and, energy for bulk-curing (89%). In each case, presently used fuels of fossil origin need to be substituted by an alternative energy source of organic origin. Hereafter attention is paid to finding a more economic and ecologically acceptable fuel for curing tobacco. Curing flue-cured tobacco is done by heated air in curing burns. Various sources of heat have been used; wood, coal, oil and gas. In each case different burning facilities of different efficiency have been used. This has had an impact on curing costs and ecology. Recently, mostly used fuel has been natural gas. However, gas is getting expensive. Consequently, an alternative fuel for curing tobacco is sought for. According to literature, agricultural crops suitable for the latter purpose could be wheat, barley, maize, sorghum, sugar beet and some other annual and perennial plant species. Wooden pellets (by-products) are suitable for combustion too. Ligno-cellulose fuels have been used for heating since long time. However, not sufficient research has been done from an applied point of view (Venturi and Venturi, 2003). Fuel combustion is getting more efficient with developing technological innovations. The curing barn manufacturers are offering technology for combusting wooden pellets (by-products) for curing tobacco. The pellets are available on domestic market. The same technology can be used for combustion of maize grain. Within “Hrvatski duhani” research on suitability of using wooden pellets and maize grain and whole plants for curing tobacco has been undertaken. Row materials of some other farm produced ligno-cellulose annual and perennial crops are considered too, to determine the input- output gain under our production conditions

Seroepidemiology of Hepatitis E in Selected Population Groups in Croatia: A Prospective Pilot Study

Hepatitis E has become an emerging infection in many European countries. We analysed the prevalence of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection in selected population groups in Croatia. Overall HEV IgG seropositivity was 5.6%, while 1.9% participants showed IgM antibodies suggestive of recent infection. No IgM-positive sample was positive for HEV RNA. HEV IgG antibodies were most prevalent in alcohol abusers (8.9%) and war veterans (8.6%), compared with 6.1% among injecting drug users and 2.7% in healthcare professionals. No individual with high-risk sexual behaviour tested HEV seropositive. HEV IgG positivity increased significantly with age from 1.8% to 2.3% in individuals younger than 40 years to 11.3% in individuals older than 50 years (P = 0.023). The mean age of HEV-positive participants was significantly higher than that of HEV-negative participants (50.9 ± 11.8 years versus 41.2 ± 11.8 years, P = 0.008). Seroprevalence rates were significantly higher in residents of suburban and rural areas compared with residents of urban areas (14.5% versus 2.5%, P = 0.003). Additionally, an increasing prevalence of HEV IgG antibodies was observed from 1.8% in participants living in families with two household members to 12.1% in those living with more than four members (P = 0.046). Gender, marital status, educational level, sexual orientation, source of drinking water, history of blood transfusions, surgical procedures, tattooing and travelling were not associated with HEV seroprevalence. Logistic regression showed that living in suburban/rural areas was the main risk factor for HEV seropositivity (OR = 6.67; 95%CI = 1.89-25.0; AOR = 7.14, 95%CI = 1.89-25.0)