Topic Modelling of Tourist Dining Experiences Based on the GLOBE Model

The needs of travellers vary across cultures. When it comes to culinary aspects, there is a strong connection between gastronomy and culture. To optimise service offerings, investigation of the essential aspects of dining experiences in relation to cultural backgrounds is of great importance. In the age of digitalisation, tourists share their dining experiences throughout their multiphasic travel journey via online platforms. By considering nine distinct cultural backgrounds, this research aims to investigate tourist experiences based on TripAdvisor restaurant reviews through topic modelling, using the city of Salzburg as its study context. Depending on one’s cultural circumstances, the findings demonstrate that the most important aspects include staff, food-menu items, value for money, restaurant physical appearance, food authenticity, overall service, menu offers, food quality, atmosphere, and recommendations. This study advances the state-of-the-art knowledge of societal culture as a variable in the target market analysis of restaurant customers. Findings allow restaurant owners, other tourism service providers, and destination management organisations to analyse and adapt their service offerings and strategies accordingly.

An Accessible City is a Healthy and People-Centred Smart City

Accessibility for all is an inspiring issue for future urban agendas. In European cities, the ageing of urban population and the growth of social and economic disparities call for interdisciplinary reflection and practice on the relations between well-being and inclusion and the organization and upgrading of public facilities. The challenge is to ensure the usability of urban spaces to the largest extent of persons, according to their different capabilities. Based on research developed at the University of Trieste (Italy), and taking the region Friuli Venezia Giulia as its main study context, the article questions a variety of recent urban tools and policies in order to show their level of innovation and the obstacles that still oppose their more effective integration. The aim is to highlight possible fields for public action and the need to rethink planning instruments and technical skills in the frame of a user experience and smart design approach.

Video Game Experiential Marketing in Tourism: Designing for Experiences

While film and television have a long tradition in tourism marketing, the potential of video games is overlooked. This study unlocks a novel era of marketing by investigating the interplay between experiential factors and in-game experiences, and how they may contribute to one’s intention to visit in-game destinations. By taking Assassin’s Creed Odyssey as the study context, game world dynamics, level of immersion, level of freedom, connection to characters, and sense of realism are identified as the five pillars that shape gaming experiences. Drawing upon experience design, this study lays the groundwork for emerging marketing opportunities using video games for tourism and contributes to the broader field of media-induced tourism literature.

Components of Context: Respecifying the Role of Context in Migration Research

For a century, scholars have studied immigrant integration in a range of destinations. Yet, the precise role of context in shaping integration outcomes remains poorly understood. Drawing from an analysis of an original database of articles and books in migration studies, I argue that this knowledge gap may be due to two closely related tendencies in the scholarship. First, case selection has relied on criteria such as the immigrant population's size and growth rate that are not clearly connected to integration outcomes. Second, most scholars have studied either heavily urban contexts (with large immigrant populations) or very rural contexts (where the immigrant population is growing rapidly), while much less attention has been given to destinations in-between. To improve the understandings of the role of context in immigrant integration, migration scholars should endeavor to move past population criteria when selecting study sites and to study the full range of contexts where immigrants are settling. To contribute to these efforts, I propose a framework that does not rely on population or newness as criteria for case selection and that focuses, instead, on the components of context that existing research has shown matters for intergenerational mobility. I also introduce a typology of contexts based on possible combinations of four of these components and offer some initial hypotheses of how these context types might affect immigrant integration. The arguments presented here recenter the role of local context in migration studies and contribute to debates about where and how scholars should study context moving forward.

Contrasting approaches for addressing non-adherence in randomized controlled trials: An illustration from the REFLUX trial

Background: In many randomized controlled trials, a substantial proportion of patients do not comply with the treatment protocol to which they have been randomly assigned. Randomized controlled trials are required to report results according to the intention-to-treat estimand, but recent methodological guidance recognizes the importance of estimating other causal quantities. Methods: This article outlines an analytical framework for randomized controlled trials with non-compliance. We apply the ICH E9 (R1) addendum and combine it with the potential outcomes framework to define key estimands, outline the major assumptions for identification of each estimand, and highlight the assumptions that cannot be verified from the randomized controlled trial data. We contrast the assumptions and estimates in a re-analysis of the REFLUX trial. We report alternative estimates for the effectiveness of receipt of laparoscopic surgery versus medical management for patients with gastro-intestinal reflux disease. Results: The article finds that adjusted as-treated and per-protocol estimates were similar in magnitude to those based intention-to-treat methods. Instrumental variable estimates of the complier average causal effect were larger, with wider confidence intervals. Conclusion: We recommend that in randomized controlled trials with non-compliance, studies should outline which estimand is most relevant to the study context, evaluate key assumptions, and present estimates from a range of methods as a sensitivity analysis.

Lansia Sebagai Populasi Rentan Dimasa Pandemi Covid-19: Scoping Review

Elderly are a vulnerable society in term of COVID-19. This is related to decrease immunity and comorbid diseases suffered by the elderly. The mortality rates of elderly suffered COVID-19 was high worldwide, including Indonesia. This study aimed to describe the vulnerability of the elderly and their relationship to COVID-19. The study applied a scoping review. The articles were searched in PubMed database. The keywords used are elderly, aged, older people and covid19, corona virus disease, SARS-Cov19 and selected in full text. As the results, there were 22,939 articles found but the author only took 7 articles according to the study context. The results show that the average age of the elderly who were affected by COVID-19 was 72.43 with a standard deviation of 4.1. Women were more affected by as many as 241 respondents (56.97%). The elderly are a vulnerable group due to decreased immunity and degenerative processes. Immunization for the elderly can be given as a preventive intervention. The elderly are vulnerable population of various diseases, including covid-19. A weakened immune system coupled with chronic disease can increase the risk of COVID-19 in the elderly. Due to the degeneration process among elderly, it is high risk of COVID-19 infection that causes severe disorders, even death among them.Keywords: COVID-19, Elderly, Immunity, Vaccination AbstrakLanjut usia (lansia) merupakan kelompok rentan terserang COVID-19. Hal tersebut terkait dengan penurunan daya tahan tubuh dan penyakit komorbid yang diderita lansia. Data mortalitas akibat COVID-19 pada lansia masih tinggi hampir di semua Negara, termasuk Indonesia. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan kerentanan lansia dan hubungannya dengan COVID-19. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah scoping review, dengan pencarian artikel menggunakan database PubMed. Kata kunci yang digunakan adalah elderly, aged, older people and covid19, corona virus disease, SARS-Cov19 dan dipilih secara full text. Pada penelitian artikel didapatkan 22.939 artikel namun penulis hanya mengambil 7 artikel sesuai dengan konteks penelitian. Berdasarkan hasil scoping review dari 7 artikel mengenai lansia dan covid-19 didapatkan bahwa rata-rata usia lansia yang terserang COVID-19 adalah 72.43 dengan standard deviasi 4.1. Perempuan lebih banyak terserang yaitu sebanyak 241 responden (56.97%). Lansia merupakan kelompok rentan karena penurunan imunitas dan proses degenerative. Imunisasi bagi lansia dapat diberikan sebagai upaya pencegahan. Lansia rentan terserang berbagai penyakit, termasuk COVID-19. Sistem imun yang melemah ditambah adanya penyakit kronis dapat meningkatkan risiko covid-19 pada lansia. Dengan terjadinya proses degenerasi pada lansia, hal tersebut mendukung risiko terjadinya infeksi COVID-19 yang menimbulkan gangguan yang parah, bahkan kematian pada lansia.Kata kunci: Lansia, Covid-19.

Assessment of English Oral Reading Fluency Rates for Grade seven English Second Language Learners in Tanzania

This study aimed at assessing reading rates for learners in grade seven English second language (ESL) in Morogoro region, Tanzania. A total of 220 participants were randomly selected and assigned two grade appropriate English texts to read so as determine their reading rates. Fluency scale test was used to assess pupils’ reading fluency rates and the data was statistically analysed using SPSS software. It was necessary to asses pupils’ reading rates in the study context because there are no established fluency rate norms set for grade seven pupils in the country. In this case the current study serves as a reference for improvement. Results show that grade seven pupils in Morogoro region had an average reading fluency rate of 101words per minute (WPM) for fiction text and 95WPM for non-fiction text. The difference in the two texts can be due to the length of words and difficulty level in non-fiction text against fiction text. The scored rate is below the adopted benchmarks which implies that these pupils are at risk in reading fluency, consequently, calling for immediate interventions.

Implementation of a Multimodal Academic Literacy Resource at a South African University

As a lecturer at a higher education institution in South Africa, the author is conscious of an emphasis placed on multimodal resources as part of the globally experienced shift to teach remotely due to the COVID-19 epidemic. In this autoethnographic study, she critically reflects on her experience in planning and executing the implementation of a custom-made multimodal resource called WIReD. WIReD is an acronym for writing, information literacy and reading development. She situates academic literacy and WIReD within the theoretical framework of multiliteracies, and thereafter provides background in terms of the study context and gives a brief description of WIReD. The methodology section includes the data used, a brief discussion on validity, reliability, and the reflexive process. The data analysis led to two broad categories of implementation inhibitors, namely inadequate resources and collaboration. These hindrances highlight broader issues with regard to institutional management, lecturers, and the needs of students in the South African higher education context.

Learning Beyond the Classroom: Teachers’ Perspectives of the Extracurricular Activities in Learning English as a Foreign Language

The current study investigated teachers’ perspectives of the use of extracurricular activities in EFL context. Data for the study were collected from 187 questionnaire respondents from Arabic speaking countries. The findings reveal that most of EFL teachers in study context use ECAs in their teaching of English. They also show that teachers not only use these activities to improve language proficiency but also to promote other language related skills. The findings also reveal some challenges in implementing ECAs such as time convenience, school workload, lack of funding, some social and cultural barriers, and students’ perception of these activities. Based on the findings, the researcher suggests further investigation into some other factors such as teachers’ readiness to implement these activities and the different types of activities that work best for the study context.

Shifting Peaks and Cumulative Consequences: Disqualifying Convictions in High-security Jobs

Objectives: Disqualifying conviction lists (DCLs) bar applicants with certain convictions within specified timeframes from employment. Using proposed federal legislative changes in the aviation sector as a case study, we examine whether convictions under the existing policy are associated with subsequent arrest. Then we consider the implications of proposed expansions—arrests instead of convictions and a longer look-back window—on employment restrictions. Methods: Since DCLs exclude ineligible applicants with conviction records, we use a large, single-state sample of diverse criminal histories. We compare subsequent arrest rates across offense types, consider variations in hazard patterns, and project exclusion estimates based on current and anticipated policy reforms. Results: Only half of the disqualifying offenses have consistently higher recidivism rates than non-disqualifying offense types. Over 20 percent of the sample would be barred from employment, policy extensions double this estimate, and exclusions are age-graded, shifting a peak conviction age of 20 years old to a peak “consequence age” of 28. Conclusions: Including a narrower set of offenses would reduce those automatically disqualified in our study context by nearly 20 percent, or 39,000 individuals. Instead of expanding the DCL scope, successful criteria should be both effective in prediction and narrow in application.