Artificial Intelligence and Automation

Transformation is being observed in almost every sphere of life. Industries accept technological advancements by accepting artificial intelligence and automation to improve the quality of products and services and to have errorless processes. The industry has a large number of human resources, and it functions on the concept of human touch, also known as the essence of hospitality; however, with the advent of artificial intelligence, fear of losing the human resources and human touch in the industry is paramount. The authors of the chapter detail the significance of the human touch in the tourism and hospitality industry. The chapter also highlights the usage of artificial intelligence in tourism through predictive analysis, travel experiences through virtual assistance, and the digital transformation tourism and hospitality have observed mainly in the coronavirus pandemic. It ends with a discussion on artificial intelligence in tourism and hospitality as support system for human resources or enhanced service quality and customer experience.

Touched by Loneliness – How Loneliness Impacts the Response to Observed Human Touch: a tDCS Study

Lonely people often crave connectedness. However, they may also experience their environment as threatening, entering a self-preserving state that perpetuates loneliness. Research shows conflicting evidence about their response to positive social cues, and little is known about their experience of observed human touch. The right inferior frontal gyrus (rIFG) is part of an observation-execution network implicated in observed touch perception. Correlative studies also point to rIFG’s involvement in loneliness. We examined the causal effect of rIFG anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on high and low loneliness individuals observing human touch. In a cross-over design study, 40 participants watched pictures of humans or objects touching or not touching during anodal and sham stimulations. Participants indicated whether pictures contained humans or objects and their reaction time was measured. Results show that the reaction time of low loneliness individuals to observed human touch was significantly slower during anodal stimulation compared to high loneliness individuals, possibly due to them being more emotionally distracted by it. Lonely individuals also reported less liking of touch. Our findings support the notion that lonely individuals are not drawn to positive social cues. This may help explain the perpetuation of loneliness, despite social opportunities that could be available to lonely people.

Robo-Advisory Services in India

The transcendence of automated digital services is challenging already established financial advisory services. Robo-advisory is gaining popularity where human touch is missing while making the investment decision. The present study is aimed to understand the awareness of robo-advisors amongst millennials in India along with their perception towards robo-advisory services. A self-administered questionnaire was sent out to the college students, and 288 college students responded to this. The responses were analysed using independent sample t-test, Anova, and factor analysis using IBM SPSS 22. The findings indicate that there is a lack of awareness about robo-advisors amongst college students. Measures should be taken by universities and colleges to include this as a part of the syllabus along with industry-academia partnership to create awareness as these students will be earning and investing in the next 1-3 years.

Temperature Monitoring Devices in Neonates

Introduction: Accurate temperature monitoring of neonates is vital due to the significant morbidities and mortality associated with neonatal hypothermia. Many studies have compared different thermometers in neonates, however, there is a lack of consensus regarding which of the currently available thermometers is most suitable for use in neonates.Objectives: The aim of this review was to identify and compare current methods available for temperature monitoring of neonates beyond the delivery room, including the accuracy, advantages and disadvantages of each.Methods: A recent search and narrative synthesis of relevant studies published between January 1, 1949 and May 5, 2021 on the OVID Medline, PubMed and Google Scholar databases.Results: A total of 160 papers were retrieved for narrative synthesis. The main methods available for temperature monitoring in neonates are human touch and mercury-in-glass, electronic, infrared tympanic and other infrared thermometers. Newer innovations that are also available include liquid crystal thermometers and the BEMPU TempWatch. This paper discusses the current evidence available regarding the utility of these devices, and identifies barriers to valid comparison of different thermometry methods.Conclusion: Many methods for temperature monitoring in neonates are currently available, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. However, the accuracies of different devices are hard to determine due to variable methodologies used in relevant studies and hence, further research that addresses these gaps is needed.

Touch desire, avoidance and awareness: tracking touch attitude changes before and after the COVID-19 outbreak

Touch is essential for social interactions, environmental exploration, and wellbeing. However, human touch behaviour has been greatly restricted by COVID-19 prevention measures, and this is expected to impact people’s attitude toward touch. Here we examined the transition of people’s touch attitudes (touch desire, avoidance, and awareness) before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, using data from millions of public Twitter posts over an eight-year span. We found that people's desire for touching the human body and pet animals increased significantly after the COVID-19 outbreak and remained high afterward. In contrast, the avoidance and the awareness of touching everyday objects increased immediately after the outbreak but gradually returned to the pre-COVID-19 levels. Our findings highlight the sign of “skin hunger”, a public health crisis due to social distancing, and call attention to the trend that people are becoming less aware of infection control as COVID-19 persists.