How to Learn Something in an Empowerment Project

Author(s):  
Nina Eliasoph

This chapter is an overview of “empowerment projects.” It shows how empowerment projects are supposed to blend different kinds of people and different kinds of organizations—civic association, state agency, nonprofit organization, family, and cultural tradition. Since funding is usually short-term, all of this blending has to happen flexibly, rapidly, and transparently, with documentation for multiple sources, each with a separate form. Organizers celebrate all this melting of stiff boundaries, finding it exciting and empowering. But the blending also produces tensions, as it is often hard to juggle this many different types of relationships all in one place, all at once.

2021 ◽  
pp. 193896552110335
Author(s):  
John W. O’Neill ◽  
Jihwan Yeon

In recent years, short-term rental platforms in the lodging sector, including Airbnb, VRBO, and HomeAway, have received extensive attention and emerged as potentially alternative suppliers of services traditionally provided by established commercial accommodation providers, that is, hotels. Short-term rentals have dramatically increased the available supply of rooms for visitors to multiple international destinations, potentially siphoning demand away from hotels to short-term rental businesses. In a competitive market, an increase in supply with constant demand would negatively influence incumbent service providers. In this article, we examine the substitution effects of short-term rental supply on hotel performance in different cities around the world. Specifically, we comprehensively investigate the substitution effects of short-term rental supply on hotel performance based on hotel class, location type, and region. Furthermore, we segment the short-term rental supply based on its types of accommodations, that is, shared rooms, private rooms, and entire homes, and both examine and quantify the differential effects of these types of short-term rentals on different types of hotels. This study offers a comprehensive analysis regarding the impact of multiple short-term rental platforms on hotel performance and offers both conceptual and practical insights regarding the nature and extent of the effects that were identified.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Miguel R. Luaces ◽  
Jesús A. Fisteus ◽  
Luis Sánchez-Fernández ◽  
Mario Munoz-Organero ◽  
Jesús Balado ◽  
...  

Providing citizens with the ability to move around in an accessible way is a requirement for all cities today. However, modeling city infrastructures so that accessible routes can be computed is a challenge because it involves collecting information from multiple, large-scale and heterogeneous data sources. In this paper, we propose and validate the architecture of an information system that creates an accessibility data model for cities by ingesting data from different types of sources and provides an application that can be used by people with different abilities to compute accessible routes. The article describes the processes that allow building a network of pedestrian infrastructures from the OpenStreetMap information (i.e., sidewalks and pedestrian crossings), improving the network with information extracted obtained from mobile-sensed LiDAR data (i.e., ramps, steps, and pedestrian crossings), detecting obstacles using volunteered information collected from the hardware sensors of the mobile devices of the citizens (i.e., ramps and steps), and detecting accessibility problems with software sensors in social networks (i.e., Twitter). The information system is validated through its application in a case study in the city of Vigo (Spain).


2021 ◽  
pp. 109634802110191
Author(s):  
Jungtae Soh ◽  
Kwanglim Seo

Much scholarly attention has been paid to Airbnb’s influence on the hotel industry. However, extant studies have limitations because they consider only Airbnb while overlooking various other short-term vacation rental players that can also affect performance of hotels. To address this research gap, this study aims to provide a broader understanding of the impacts of short-term vacation rentals by analyzing data obtained from various vacation rental platforms. This study shows that while increase in short-term vacation rentals has an overall negative effect on hotel performance, the economic effect is more significant in the low-end market than in the high-end market. Our findings further reveal that the negative effect is reduced when there is a large price difference between short-term vacation rentals and hotels. By comprehensively examining multiple sources of data on hotels and vacation rentals, this study brings alternative perspectives to the attention of researchers for further investigation of vacation rentals.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 589-592
Author(s):  
Katsuyuki KATOU ◽  
Hitoshi MARUYAMA

Author(s):  
Viktor Ivanovich Sergevnin ◽  
Larisa Gennadievna Kudryavtseva ◽  
Anna Igorevna Zolotukhina

An estimate of the incidence of nosocomial purulent-septic infections (GSI) of adult patients after various types of closed heart surgery according to the results of a study of medical records of 3275 patients is presented. It was established that the incidence rate of typical GSI after endovascular cardiac surgery was 3.1, with prenosological forms — 3.9 per 1000 operations. The main clinical options for postoperative GSI were infections in the field of surgical intervention, community-acquired pneumonia, urinary tract infection and bloodstream infection. There were no statistically significant differences between the incidence of GSI after stenting of the coronary arteries, operations for heart rhythm disturbances, stenosis of the carotid artery and other operations. The low incidence of GSI after closed heart surgery is due to the short duration of surgery, as well as the absence or short-term resuscitation of patients.


2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Paixão Araújo ◽  
João Felipe Coimbra Leite Costa

AbstractDecisions, from mineral exploration to mining operations, are based on grade block models obtained from samples. This study evaluates the impact of using imprecise data in short-term planning. The exhaustive Walker Lake dataset is used and is considered as the source for obtaining the true grades. Initially, samples are obtained from the exhaustive dataset at regularly spaced grids of 20 × 20 m and 5 × 5 m. A relative error (imprecision) of ±25% and a 10% bias are added to the data spaced at 5 × 5 m (short-term geological data) in different scenarios. To combine these different types of data, two methodologies are investigated: cokriging and ordinary kriging. Both types of data are used to estimate blocks with the two methodologies. The grade tonnage curves and swath plots are used to compare the results against the true block grade distribution. In addition, the block misclassification is evaluated. The results show that standardized ordinary cokriging is a better methodology for imprecise and biased data and produces estimates closer to the true grade block distribution, reducing block misclassification.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezequiel Martin Durand López

This study examines whether different types of bilingualism modulate memory capacity differently. More specifically, the study assesses the effects of age of acquisition, number of languages acquired and proficiency in the L2 on phonological short-term memory, visuospatial memory and semantic memory.DesignMemory capacity was measured by means of three tasks: digit span task (phonological short-term memory), Corsi block task (visuospatial memory) and word span task (semantic memory). Participants were divided into five groups based on the number of languages acquired, age of acquisition and proficiency: monolinguals, intermediate L2 learners, advanced L2 learners, simultaneous bilinguals and multilinguals.Data and analysisAnalyses of variance were used to analyze participants’ scores for each of the memory tasks.Findings and conclusionsFor the word span task, no significant differences were found among the groups, which supports the notion that semantic memory is language independent. Furthermore, intermediate and advanced L2 learners and multilinguals presented significantly higher phonological short-term memory spans compared to simultaneous bilinguals. Finally, intermediate L2 learners and multilinguals significantly outperformed monolinguals on visuospatial memory spans. Results suggest that L2 acquisition might strengthen both visuospatial and phonological short-term memory, which in turn tend to improve as L2 proficiency increases.OriginalityWhile previous studies have provided evidence of a bilingual advantage in memory capacity, these studies have generally grouped different types of bilinguals together (e.g., L2 leaners and heritage speakers). This study takes a step forward by examining differences on memory capacity across different types of bilinguals and in comparison to their monolingual peers in order to better understand the cognitive effects of bilingualism.Significance and implicationsWhen considering age of acquisition, number of languages acquired and proficiency as grouping factors, different effects of bilingualism on memory capacity can be observed. Future studies on this matter should include bilingual participants that are comparable with regard to the aforementioned variables.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-35
Author(s):  
Hamed Vaezi ◽  
Hossein Karimi Moonaghi ◽  
Reyhaneh Golbaf

In recent years medical education has developed dramatically, but lecturers often cite the existence of a gap between theoretical and practical knowledge. In the first decade of the present century, new research methodology named “design-based research (DBR)” was developed, which most experts and journals refer to as a fundamental way to make changes in the quality and applicability of studies and educational research as well as to enhance and improve the practice of instruction. The aim of the present study was introducing design-based research and its concepts, features, applications, and challenges. A narrative review was conducted in 2018. For this purpose, authorized English academic database including Web of Science, Science Direct, Google Scholar, international database and library in medical research filed with keywords including “design-based research, definition of DBR, DBR applications, medical education, and DBR challenges” without date limitation until 2018.11.21 were screened. Overall, 68 articles were selected and after careful reading, 21 article with related subjects were selected for material extraction. The conclusion was made that DBR that combines empirical research with design-based theories could be considered as an effective method for understanding quality, time and the cause of the phenomenon of educational innovation in practice. Usually DBR is formed by initial evaluation of a problem that occurs in a particular context, and this assessment continues throughout design and implementation. One of the characteristics of DBR is the guiding team, which includes researchers, professionals, designers, managers, teachers, trainers and others whose expertise and knowledge may in some way help. The application of DBR in web-based training programs is quite evident. The probability of non-returns in short-term projects is one of the main challenges of DBR. Medical education has developed dramatically in recent years, but it has made little progress in promoting innovative research methodologies. DBR can be used as a bridge between theories and practice and provide the basis for close communication between researchers, designers, and participants. By applying sophisticated methods and multiple sources of information, the success rate of an intervention in a particular environment is assessed, which ultimately leads to improved theories.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naseer Baloch ◽  
Per J. Nilsson ◽  
Caroline Nordenvall ◽  
Mirna Abraham-Nordling

Aims: This study aimed to describe the short-term perineal healing rates in patients with perineal reconstruction using a biological mesh following extralevator abdominoperineal excision (elAPE). Methods: In a retrospective, descriptive single-centre cohort study, 88 consecutive patients treated with elAPE and perineal closure using a biological mesh between January 2011 and December 2015 were reviewed. All available data from electronic hospital records was collected. Patients were followed for 1 year following surgery and perineal wound status assessed at 3 months and at 1 year. Results: In total, 63 patients were male and all but 8 patients were treated for primary rectal cancer. All patients but 3 had received radiotherapy prior to surgery. Multivisceral excisions were performed in 19 patients. Omentoplasty was performed in 55 patients and 3 different types of meshes were used during the study period. At 3 months, 58 patients (66%) had a healed perineum. No association was detected between patient, tumour or perioperative characteristics and perineal wound status at 3 months. At 1 year, 4 patients were deceased and among the remaining 84, the perineal wound was healed in 77 patients (92%). Conclusion: The use of biological meshes in perineal reconstruction following elAPE is feasible and safe, and the perineal wound is healed in the majority of the patients within 3 months.


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