Analysing the impact of artificial intelligence on the competitiveness of tourism firms: a modified total interpretive structural modeling (m-TISM) approach

PurposeThis study explores the variables that drive the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the competitiveness of a tourism firm. The relationship between the variables is established using the modified total interpretive structural modelling (m-TISM) methodology. The factors are identified through literature review and expert opinion. This study investigates the hierarchical relationship between these variables.Design/methodology/approachThe modified total interpretive structural modelling (m-TISM) method is used to develop a hierarchical interrelationship among variables that display direct and indirect impact. The competitiveness of a tourism firm is measured by investigating the effect of variables on the firm's financial performance.FindingsThe study identifies ten key factors essential for analysing the impact of AI on a firm's competitiveness. The m-TISM methodology gave us the hierarchical relationship between the factors and their interpretation. A theoretical TISM model has been constructed based on the hierarchy and relationship of the elements. The elements that fall in Level V are “AI Skilled Workforce”, “Infrastructure” and “Policies and Regulations”. Level IV includes the elements “AI Readiness”, “AI-Enabled Technologies” and “Digital Platforms”. Elements that fall under Level III are “Productivity” and “AI Innovation”. Level II and Level I comprise “Tourist Satisfaction” and “Financial Performance”, respectively. The levels indicate the elements' hierarchical level, with Level I the highest and Level V the lowest.Research limitations/implicationsTourism and AI scholars can analyse the given variables by including the transitive links and incorporate new variables depending upon future research. The m-TISM model constructed from literature review and expert opinion can act as a theoretical base for future studies to be conducted by researchers.Practical implicationsManagement/Practitioners can focus on the available characteristics and capitalise on them while working on the factors lacking in their organisation to enhance their competitiveness. Entrepreneurs starting their own business can utilise the elements in understanding the ecosystem of strengthening a firm's competitiveness. They can work to improve on the aspects which are crucial and trigger the impact on competitiveness. The government and management can devise policies and strategies that encompass the essential factors that positively impact the competitiveness of the firms. The approach can then be looked at with a holistic approach to cater to the other related components of the tourism industry.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind to use the modified TISM methodology to understand the impact of AI on the competitiveness of tourism firms.

Identification of the Key Influencing Factors of Urban Rail Transit Station Resilience against Disasters Caused by Rainstorms

Improving the ability of the urban rail transit system to cope with rainstorm disasters is of great significance to ensure the safe travel of residents. In this study, a model of the hierarchical relationship of the influencing factors is constructed from the resilience perspective, in order to research the action mechanisms of the influencing factors of urban rail transit stations susceptible to rainstorm disaster. Firstly, the concept of resilience and the three attributes (resistance, recovery, and adaptability) are interpreted. Based on the relevant literature, 20 influencing factors are discerned from the 3 attributes of the resilience of urban rail transit stations. Subsequently, an interpretative structural model (ISM) is utilised to analyse the hierarchical relationship among the influencing factors. The key influencing factors of station resilience are screened out using social network analysis (SNA). Combined with ISM and SNA for analysis, the result shows that the key influencing factors are: “Flood prevention monitoring capability”; “Water blocking capacity”; “Flood prevention capital investment”; “Personnel cooperation ability”; “Emergency plan for flood prevention”; “Flood prevention training and drill”; “Publicity and education of flood prevention knowledge”; and “Regional economic development level”. Therefore, according to the critical influencing factors and the action path of the resilience influencing factors, station managers can carry out corresponding flood control work, providing a reference for enhancing the resilience of urban rail transit stations.

Sensor-Based Human Activity Recognition Using Adaptive Class Hierarchy

In sensor-based human activity recognition, many methods based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been proposed. In the typical CNN-based activity recognition model, each class is treated independently of others. However, actual activity classes often have hierarchical relationships. It is important to consider an activity recognition model that uses the hierarchical relationship among classes to improve recognition performance. In image recognition, branch CNNs (B-CNNs) have been proposed for classification using class hierarchies. B-CNNs can easily perform classification using hand-crafted class hierarchies, but it is difficult to manually design an appropriate class hierarchy when the number of classes is large or there is little prior knowledge. Therefore, in our study, we propose a class hierarchy-adaptive B-CNN, which adds a method to the B-CNN for automatically constructing class hierarchies. Our method constructs the class hierarchy from training data automatically to effectively train the B-CNN without prior knowledge. We evaluated our method on several benchmark datasets for activity recognition. As a result, our method outperformed standard CNN models without considering the hierarchical relationship among classes. In addition, we confirmed that our method has performance comparable to a B-CNN model with a class hierarchy based on human prior knowledge.

Religious Courts and Rights in Plural Societies: Interlegal Gaps and the Need for Complex Concurrency

The administration or recognition of religious courts is a form of religious accommodation present in many constitutional states today commonly analysed in legal pluralism terms. This article contributes to the further analysis of the relationship between legal pluralism and rights in religiously diverse societies by examining the status of state religious courts and their interaction with state non-religious (secular) courts. In particular, I examine what Cover calls “jurisdictional redundancies” between the courts and conceptualize the allocation of power between religious and non-religious courts as a potentially productive site of interlegality. In doing so, I support concurrent jurisdictional allocations, arguing that exclusive jurisdiction could result in what I call an interlegal gap, whereby instead of inter-penetration of norms and production of reconciliatory principles, there is a justice gap whereby litigants may find themselves unable to obtain appropriate legal recourse including when neither court is willing to assume jurisdiction over the matter. This requires us to see the relationship between religious courts and non-religious courts through the more mundane but more practical lens of jurisdictional overlaps and competition, rather than through the more abstract framing of normative or even civilizational clashes. Accordingly, I argue that concurrent jurisdiction and interlegality have greater potential to strike a balance between individual and group rights and could be more protective of religious diversity. In other words, I argue for a closer, rather than a more separate, relationship between religious and non-religious courts, while denying that a hierarchical relationship where religious courts are subordinated to non-religious courts is the only way to protect rights.

Parents’ Perceptions of the Value of Children’s Participation in Pediatric Rehabilitation Services: A Phenomenographic Study

Ensuring that children have opportunities to be involved in decision-making regarding their own care is associated with quality improvement in pediatric rehabilitation. The aim of the study was to explore parents’ perceptions of the value of children’s participation in pediatric rehabilitation services. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 parents of children with disabilities who visited pediatric rehabilitation services. A phenomenographic analysis method was used. Three categories developed from the analysis describing how participation generated value in terms of empowerment, self-awareness, and independence. The outcome space describes a hierarchical relationship between the categories and their influence on each other. Independence achieved through participation was a core aspect and is at the highest level in the hierarchy since it includes and depends on the outcomes from both empowerment and self-awareness. Parents’ perceptions of the value of children’s participation in pediatric rehabilitation services include the possibility for the child to use their entire capacity through values created in terms of empowerment, self-awareness, and independence, in order to live the best life possible. Children with disabilities are diverse as a group, and further research to identify barriers and facilitators of participation is needed to adjust interventions within pediatric rehabilitation services to ensure that children with disabilities can be increasingly empowered, self-aware, and independent.

A Failure Propagation Analysis Method Based on 3 X 3 Hierarchical Model

In recent years, with the increasing complexity of equipment, system design and safety analysis for the equipment are becoming more and more difficult. In this paper, we make a more comprehensive analysis of the hierarchical relationship of the system from the vertical and horizontal angles and put forward the 3 × 3 Hierarchical Model. Then, we propose a failure propagation analysis method based on 3 × 3 Hierarchical Model. At the same time, SysML is used to build the models, which is convenient for different people to learn and modify the models. Finally, a hydraulic transmission system is taken as an example to illustrate the feasibility of the method.

Backchannel as a Listener’s Consideration Behavior: Politeness Strategy of Japanese Native Speakers in Interaction

Japanese tend to deliver backchannel for being supportive and representing people’s interest in their interaction. Many linguists believed Backchannel as discourse markers that showed interlocutors’ negative faces and determined their social hierarchy position. Brown and Levinson’s (henceforth BL) politeness theory has been modified, criticized, and applied to all languages globally. This research aims to know whether the BL politeness theory can explain Backchannel as a consideration behavior. Furthermore, we investigate the position, situation, and the relation between the speaker listener in a conversation. The primary data are a data corpus of 30 minutes’ length of 15 natural conversations. The age of the target is between the ‘20s to ‘40s. We also compare and analyze the situation from a first-timer conversation, a conversation between friends, and a hierarchical relationship. This study will help understand the relation between speaker and listener or whether Backchannel is considered a consideration behavior. Consideration is one act to shows politeness to the interlocutors. The result shows that Japanese people use different Backchannel according to the partner he/she speaks. When the interlocutors meet for the first time or have a higher position, they mostly use the polite form. They also consider the relationship, the interlocutor's gender, and age. This finding shows that the Japanese use Backchannel as a consideration to maintain the interlocutor's face.

A New Model of Mathematics Education: Flat Curriculum with Self-Contained Micro Topics

The traditional way of presenting mathematical knowledge is logical deduction, which implies a monolithic structure with topics in a strict hierarchical relationship. Despite many recent developments and methodical inventions in mathematics education, many curricula are still close in spirit to this hierarchical structure. However, this organisation of mathematical ideas may not be the most conducive way for learning mathematics. In this paper, we suggest that flattening curricula by developing self-contained micro topics and by providing multiple entry points to knowledge by making the dependency graph of notions and subfields as sparse as possible could improve the effectiveness of teaching mathematics. We argue that a less strictly hierarchical schedule in mathematics education can decrease mathematics anxiety and can prevent students from ‘losing the thread’ somewhere in the process. This proposal implies a radical re-evaluation of standard teaching methods. As such, it parallels philosophical deconstruction. We provide two examples of how the micro topics can be implemented and consider some possible criticisms of the method. A full-scale and instantaneous change in curricula is neither feasible nor desirable. Here, we aim to change the prevalent attitude of educators by starting a conversation about the flat curriculum alternative.

THE PHENOMENON OF DISRUPTED COMMUNICATION IN THE NOVEL “EFFI BRIEST” BY THEODOR FONTANE AND IN THE FILM ADAPTATION BY RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER: SPEECH AND GESTURE

The subject of this article’s comparative intermedial analysis is the phenomenon of disrupted communication in the novel by the German writer Theodor Fontane “Effi Briest” (1895) and in the film adaptation of this work by Rainer Werner Fassbinder “Fontane Effi Briest” (1974). The article consists of five parts: 1) introduction; 2) analysis of dialogues in Fontane’s novel; 3) description of the means of creating the effect of disrupted communication in Fassbinder’s film; 4) comparative analysis of some fragments of two works by the method of close reading; 5) conclusions. Methodologically, the research is based on the achievements of the theory of communication, carpalistics, comparative and intermedial approaches to the study of film adaptations. The main point of the article is that the effect of disrupted communication, which is observed in numerous dialogues of Fontane’s novel, is also created by visual means in Fassbinder’s film, among which a significant place is occupied by a gesture. The gesture of turning away deserves special attention: the characters of the film turn away from each other, turn their backs to the interlocutor and the viewer, turn to their reflection. The unconventionality and intensity of such gestures accentuate the problematic nature of communication between the characters. This structure, peripheral in Fontane’s work, becomes central in the film of Fassbinder, grasping the viewers’ attention. In this regard, the article adds to a traditional discussion about the hierarchical relationship between a literary text and its film adaptation.