Service Robots Usage in Marketing Hospitality in China

Since the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) has had brought severe impact on all aspects of the world. A series of interpersonal distancing methods such as ensuring effective and safe social distancing among people, wearing masks, and traffic lockdown measures are also continuing to take effect to curb the continuing outbreak of the COVID-19 (“Advice for the public on COVID-19”, 2020). In response to the globally spread of COVID-19, many advanced technologies in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) were applied rapidly and played an essential role in the operation for several months. There are many different leading technology categories in the field of artificial intelligence and many different sub-categories within each main technology categories. Moreover, since the AGI technology does not yet reach the basic human intelligence level, this study will focus on the impact of service robots, which are already widely used in the NAI application category, on hospitality marketing in the current situation in China. In this paper the aim is to assess the effectiveness of use of service robots in Marketing Hospitality Industry during the pandemic through a quantitative study.

“Toward a Shamanic Daily Life”

This article contributes to the discussion on reactions and responses to the coronavirus pandemic in Japan, with specific reference to the field of “new spirituality” and, within this broad category, of shamanic spirituality. The case of the dance therapist, or “dance movement shaman,” Ms. Hiroda demonstrates how she managed to keep in contact with her practitioners and to design new ways to help them cope with the situation. The solution she offers, in line with the characteristics of shamanic spirituality, is to help each individual to acknowledge the importance of interconnectedness. In particular, Ms. Hiroda emphasizes body, community, and nature: to become aware of one’s own body again and of the necessity of connection with others and nature, especially in times of interpersonal distancing and crisis. Her response to the first wave of COVID-19 is thus to offer a strategy to live peacefully with—and despite—the virus.

THE EXPERIENCE OF RECEIVING A TUBERCULOSIS DIAGNOSIS: A QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION

This study aimed to investigate the psycho-social experiences of individuals with a tuberculosis diagnosis and to explore processes related to stigma and coping in this context. Towards this aim, in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 adults who had received pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosis at different dispensaries in İstanbul, and who were in different stages of treatment. The data was analyzed using Thematic Analysis and the MAXQDA software. The findings were organized under 1) Psychosocial effects of receiving a tuberculosis diagnosis, 2) Coping, and 3) Factors that account for the differences in the experiences. Findings are discussed in the light of existing literature and strengths and limitations of the current study as well as recommendations for future research are presented. In line with the literature, issues related to interpersonal relationships and finances were the most salient matters that came to fore and were interwoven with accounts of stigma related experiences such as fear of infecting others, interpersonal distancing and difficulties with self-disclosure. As expected, availability of social support was an important stress buffer. That the reported responses by others were not exclusively stigmatizing, and that attempts at sympathy and care were also observed support the findings of previous research in Turkey that has found recipients of TB to be moderately stigmatized by others. Arguments are made both for the need to educate the public to reduce societal stigma, as well as for psychosocial interventions with individuals with TB diagnosis based on possible predictors of the differences in experiences with the illness.

Behavioral risk compensation and the efficacy of nonpharmacological interventions

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments around the world into drastic measures without the normal evidence base or analyses of consequences. We present a quantitative model that can be used to rapidly assess the introduction and interaction of nonpharmaceutical infection prevention measures (NPI) both in rapid a priori predictions and in real-world a posteriori evaluations. Two of the most popular NPIs are imposing minimum physical interpersonal distancing and the use of face coverings. The success of both measures is highly dependent on the behavior of the public. However, there is very little published information about the interactions between distance, mask wearing, and the behavioral adaptations that they are likely to generate. We explore the relation between these two fundamental NPIs and the behavioral responses that they may induce, considering both risk compensation and social norms enhancement. At present, we do not have the necessary information to parameterize our model to a sufficient degree to generate quantitative, immediately applicable, advice, but we explore a vast parameter space and illustrate how the consequences of such measures can range from highly beneficial to paradoxically harmful in plausible real situations.

Impacts of interpersonal distancing on-board trains during the COVID-19 emergency

Introduction The COVID-19 emergency and the cities lockdown have had a strong impact on transport and mobility. In particular, travel demand has registered an unprecedented overall contraction, dramatically dropping down with peaks of - 90%-95% passengers for public transport (PT). During the re-opening phase, demand is gradually resuming the levels before the crisis, although some structural changes are observed in travel behaviour, and containment measures to reduce the risk of contagion are still being applied, affecting transport supply. Objective This paper aims at assessing to what extent keeping a one-meter interpersonal distancing on-board trains is sustainable for public transport companies. Method The analysis is based on travel demand forecasting models applied to two case-studies in Italy: a suburban railway line and a High-speed Rail (HSR) line, differentiated by demand characteristics (e.g. urban vs. ex-urban) and train access system (free access vs. reservation required). Results In the suburban case, the results show the need of new urban policies, not only limited to the transport domain, in order to manage the demand peaks at the stations and on-board vehicles. In the ex-urban case, the outputs suggest the need for public subsidies in order for the railways undertakings to cope with revenue losses and, at the same time, to maintain service quality levels.

Estimating density limits for walking pedestrians keeping a safe interpersonal distancing

With people trying to keep a safe distance from others due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the way in which pedestrians walk has completely changed since the pandemic broke out1,2. In this work, laboratory experiments demonstrate the effect of several variables—such as the pedestrian density, the walking speed and the prescribed safety distance—on the interpersonal distance established when people move within relatively dense crowds. Notably, we observe that the density should not be higher than 0.16 pedestrians per square meter (around 6 m2 per pedestrian) in order to guarantee an interpersonal distance of 1 m. Although the extrapolation of our findings to other more realistic scenarios is not straightforward, they can be used as a first approach to establish density restrictions in urban and architectonic spaces based on scientific evidence.

Impacts of interpersonal distancing on-board trains during the COVID-19 emergency: case studies and viewpoints from industry, consultancies and public transportation companies in Italy

The emergency from COVID-19 and the cities lockdown have had a strong impact on transportation sector. Travel demand, in particular, registered an unprecedented overall contraction, especially in passenger transportation which has dramatically dropped down with peaks of less 90%-95%. In the re-opening phase, travel demand is gradually resuming the levels before the crisis, but some structural changes are observed both in travel behavior and in transportation supply.This paper aims at giving a contribution to the undergoing debate by presenting the results of a study to forecast the impacts of keeping an interpersonal distancing of one-meter between passengers on board (sub-urban and high-speed) trains. The results of the study have been shared and discussed with a panel of chief executives of industries, consultancies in the mobility sector and Public Transportation (PT) companies. It has emerged that interpersonal distancing and the reduced level of capacity on board vehicles are seen as effective to prevent the contagion, but are perceived as not sustainable due to the induced increase in operating costs. This is confirmed by the simulation carried out during the study which have showed the need of new urban policies not only limited to the transportation domain (e.g. changes in the times of schools, commerce and industries) in order to manage the demand peaks at the stations and on-board vehicles.

The predictive effect of quarantine regulations and anxiety on curiosity during the emerging infectious disease outbreak

With the world-wide implementation of quarantine to suppress the spread of the COVID-19, people, having weathering a hard time, are confronted with an alarming state of mental health. For people who have taken self-quarantine at home for a long time, the anxiety and the new “staying home normality” may undermine their desire to seek information and thus might have negative effects on their curiosity. Here, we explored and examined how anxiety and the effect of quarantine regulations during the public health emergency predict different kinds of curiosity. With 1071 participants, we conducted an exploratory study (N = 570) and a confirmatory study (N = 501), with measures of anxiety, curiosity, interpersonal distancing and autistic tendency etc. There are three main findings in our results: (1) trait anxiety had negatively indirect impact on trait curiosity and the time spent on update of the COVID-19 information, however, no such correlation was found between state anxiety and epistemic curiosity; (2) state anxiety has negatively indirect impact on perceptual curiosity through increasing interpersonal distancing during quarantine; (3) interpersonal distancing and autistic tendency have negatively indirect impact on interpersonal curiosity. These effects suppressed the positive prediction of anxiety to interpersonal curiosity. Our research provides insights for the relationship between quarantine, anxiety and curiosity during the COVID-19.