Policy Response to the Tourism Crisis during the COVID-19 Pandemic : A Meta Policy Analysis of Select Countries

The Pandemic cracked the fragile mold of what was decided as the norm and pushed countries to resort to survival. Tourism, a mechanism proven to bridge gaps between cultures was worst affected on a global level and the only flotation device utilized were policies. Yet, States with different political ideologies, how have they responded in reality? Which ideology has become a tool to design the policy to address tourism crisis caused by the pandemic? remained an unexplored field of research. To address these questions there is a need to look at the policies initiated by selected countries representing varied political spectrum to analyse the pragmatically working ideology during/after the pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to observe the complexities of crisis management and the shift of ideology between the usual state of government to the adoption of a foreign even opposing ideology to rebuild after an unprecedented catastrophe. To enunciate its shift, the methodology divides its countries into ideologies based on liberal, socialist, and conservative categories and selects two countries each of which are contributing a major portion of GDP share to the tourism industry. The study had adopted the ideological approach to examine the select policies formulated by the respective countries to revive their tourism industry such as what are the bail-out programmes, financial aids, etc. The present study relied on a meta-analysis approach to identify, summarize, and analyze how the selected countries adopted different models to identify and define policy problems. Based on the findings of the meta-analysis, the study establishes that countries adopted ideologies that pragmatically worked and rejected ideologies that are inherently adopted as the state’s governing principle

Effects of Individual Strategies for Resource Access on Collaboratively Maintained Irrigation Infrastructure

Built infrastructure for water and energy supply, transportation, and other such services underpins human well-being and socioeconomic development. A fundamental understanding of how infrastructure design and user strategies interact can guide important design decisions as well as policy formulation for ensuring long-term infrastructure viability in conjunction with improved individual user benefits. In this work, an agent based model (ABM) is developed to study this issue for the specific case of irrigation canals. Cooperatively maintained irrigation canals serve essential roles in sustaining agriculture-based economies in many regions. Canal system design can strongly affect benefits derived by distributed users, regional agricultural output, and the long-term viability of the shared infrastructure itself. Here, an ABM is used to investigate how an option to use an independent water source interacts with canal design to affect canal maintenance cooperation and farmer income. The independent water source is stylized as a well that provides access to groundwater and represents a strategically robust design option; a design option that reduces the implementer\u27s utility vulnerability to unfavorable actions by other actors. Research in other systems has demonstrated that strategically robust designs can improve both implementer utility and the probability of collaboration. The results of this research, in contrast, demonstrate that the option of individual resource access, the strategically robust design option, as represented by a well, reduces cooperative maintenance in most cases. However, wells also improve farmer income, especially for downstream farmers that are most affected by water theft

In vitro cryopreservation of date palm caulogenic meristems

Cryopreservation is the technology of choice not only for plant genetic resource preservation but also for virus eradication and for the efficient management of large-scale micropropagation. In this chapter, we describe three cryopreservation protocols (standard vitrification, droplet vitrification, and encapsulation vitrification) for date palm highly proliferating meristems that are initiated from vitro-cultures using plant growth regulator-free MS medium. The positive impact of sucrose preculture and cold hardening treatments on survival rates is significant. Regeneration rates obtained with standard vitrification, encapsulation-vitrification, and droplet-vitrification protocols can reach 30, 40, and 70%, respectively. All regenerated plants from non-cryopreserved or cryopreserved explants don't show morphological variation by maintaining genetic integrity without adverse effect of cryogenic treatment. Cryopreservation of date palm vitro-cultures enables commercial tissue culture laboratories to move to large-scale propagation from cryopreserved cell lines producing true-to-type plants after clonal field-testing trials. When comparing the cost of cryostorage and in-field conservation of date palm cultivars, tissue cryopreservation is the most cost-effective. Moreover, many of the risks linked to field conservation like erosion due to climatic, edaphic, and phytopathologic constraints are circumvented. (Résumé d'auteur

Towards Explainable Educational Recommendation through Path Reasoning Methods

Current recommender systems in education lack explainability and interpretability, making it challenging for stakeholders to understand how the recommended content relates to them. Path reasoning methods are an emerging class of recommender systems that provides users with the reasoning behind a recommendation. While these methods have been shown to work well in several domains, there is no extensive research on their effectiveness in the context of education. In this ongoing project, we investigate the extent to which the existing path reasoning methods meet utility and beyond utility objectives in educational data. Experiments on two large-scale online course datasets show that this class of methods yields promising results and poses the ground for future advances

Widespread fear of dengue transmission but poor practices of dengue prevention : A study in the slums of Delhi, India

Background This study has been conducted to throw light on the knowledge and practices related to dengue fever among the poor population living in Delhi's slums. Materials A household survey was conducted in 2013 among 3,350 households. The households were stratified by a number of variables related to socio-economic status and health events such as hospitalisation. The data collection was completed through face-to-face interviews conducted with the help of 25 field investigators. Results About 8% of the households had at least one diagnosed dengue case. In comparison to the population surveyed, teenagers (15-19 years) and adults (30-34 years) were more affected whereas children under four years of age were underrepresented. Housewives are more affected by dengue (24%) compared to their share of the population surveyed (17%). Despite the fact that 77% of the respondents are worried about mosquitoes, only 43% of them monitor environment to avoid the presence of breeding sites. Conclusion One cannot exclude the possibility that though young children under the age of four years are exposed to the virus, either their cases were asymptomatic or family members infected during this period had potentially more serious symptoms leading to hospitalisation. This result could thus be explained by budget-related health choices made by this population which do not favour small children. Educational programs should target housewives to improve their impact, as they are the ones mostly responsible for water storage and cleanliness of the house and its neighbourhood. Even with a dengue experience and potentially an acute perception of the risk and its factors, a proper management of environmental conditions is lacking. This along with the fact that word-of-mouth is the main source of information quoted should be a message for municipality health workers to give door-to-door information on how to prevent breeding sites and dengue infection

Contribution of spatially explicit models to climate change adaptation and mitigation plans for a priority forest habitat

Climate change will impact forest ecosystems, their biodiversity and the livelihoods they sustain. Several adaptation and mitigation strategies to counteract climate change impacts have been proposed for these ecosystems. However, effective implementation of such strategies requires a clear understanding of how climate change will influence the future distribution of forest ecosystems. This study uses maximum entropy modelling (MaxEnt) to predict environmentally suitable areas for cork oak (Quercus suber) woodlands, a socio-economically important forest ecosystem protected by the European Union Habitats Directive. Specifically, we use two climate change scenarios to predict changes in environmental suitability across the entire geographical range of the cork oak and in areas where stands were recently established. Up to 40 % of current environmentally suitable areas for cork oak may be lost by 2070, mainly in northern Africa and southern Iberian Peninsula. Almost 90 % of new cork oak stands are predicted to lose suitability by the end of the century, but future plantations can take advantage of increasing suitability in northern Iberian Peninsula and France. The predicted impacts cross-country borders, showing that a multinational strategy, will be required for cork oak woodland adaptation to climate change. Such a strategy must be regionally adjusted, featuring the protection of refugia sites in southern areas and stimulating sustainable forest management in areas that will keep long-term suitability. Afforestation efforts should also be promoted but must consider environmental suitability and land competition issues

A study on prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia among children at base hospital Kalmunai north, Ampara

Children are particularly vulnerable to iron-deficiency anemia because of their increased iron requirements during periods of rapid growth, especially in the first five years of life. Sri Lanka, a lower-middle-income country with a high prevalence of under nutrition mostly in the children. Currently Sri Lanka is facing a triple burden of malnutrition and the current food and nutrition insecurity is turning on a red alert. This study explores the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia among paediatric patients at Base Hospital Kalmunai North. A cross sectional analytical study was carried out among children (101), age group of 1-14 who attended the paediatric clinic and admitted to paediatric ward of Base Hospital, Kalmunai North over a period of 6 months from January to June 2022. The iron deficiency anaemia among children was diagnosed by clinical examinations and the following blood parameters; full blood count (Hb), serum ferritin (SF) level and C - reactive protein (CRP) were measured. WHO defined cut-off levels were used to assess the anaemia (Hb < 11g/dl) iron deficiency (SF < 15 µg/l). To categorize the degree of anemia, the following cut-off points were used: 10.0-10.9 g/dl- mild anemia; 7.0-9.9 g/dl - moderate anemia; <7 g/dl -severe anemia. According to the findings of the study, the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia was 7.9% of the paediatric patients at Base Hospital in Kalmunai North. In comparison to previously published national prevalence rates in Sri Lanka (7.3 %), the IDA prevalence is greater in this region. It was most common in children between the ages of 1-6 with moderate IDA (4 %). Children between the ages of 1 and 3 had mild to moderate IDA. Further studies must be done on the causes for IDA and need awareness programmes on nutritional education among the children and the parents

Types of nasal deformities in individuals seeking rhinoplasty at governmental hospital in Saudi Arabia

IntroductionThis study explores the profound impact of nasal structure on individuals' self-image and emotional well-being, emphasizing the increasing popularity of rhinoplasty in Saudi Arabia, influenced by societal beauty standards portrayed on social media. The investigation aims to unravel the complex interplay between demographic factors, such as gender and age distribution, and prevalent nasal deformities in a cohort of 293 participants.Material and methodsThis retrospective study at the University of Hail and King Khalid Hospital, Saudi Arabia, investigated nasal deformities in 293 participants aged 15–54. Ethical approval was obtained, and data, including bio-demographics and nasal deformities, were retrospectively reviewed. Statistical analyses, utilizing chi-square and Fisher exact tests, assessed associations, enhancing internal validity. The study targeted a diverse population, emphasizing ethical guidelines and systematic sampling.ResultsOur study of 293 participants revealed a prevalence of common nasal deformities. Dorsal hump deformity (59.0%) was the most prevalent, followed by external nasal deviation (54.6%). Significant gender differences were observed, with males more prone to external nasal deviation (65.6%), while decreased nasal tip rotation was more common in females (40.6%). Variations in nasal tip shape were statistically significant, with broad nasal tip shape more prevalent in females (35.2%).ConclusionIn conclusion, our study highlights the prevalence of common nasal deformities, emphasizing significant gender variations. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of nasal anatomy, essential for informed decision-making in rhinoplasty