Change and Continuity in Event Tourism Development in Nigeria: Examples from Ekpe Cultural Festival in Abia State

Events are not only one of the most important parts of tourism, but also an inseparable part of human society. In recent times, events have gained global significance through the tourism industry. As festivals are essentially special events, their special appeal stems in part from their limited duration or concentration of activities over a set period and innate uniqueness of each event or there may be a particular theme. This article critically examines the change and continuity processes of a community festival—Ekpe Cultural Festival in Umunkpeyi and Isingwu in Abia State, Nigeria—for a deeper understanding of the effects in the development of event tourism and its sustainability. Data were collected through ethnographic fieldwork conducted with key informants directly involved in the festival, including the community leaders, chiefs, and staff of the Department of Tourism (DoT), the Abia State Tourism Board (ASTB), and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MoTAC). Data were analyzed using content analysis to identify themes that reflect informants’ perception of the changes and continuity that affect the festival in the study area. Findings revealed notable changes in the practices associated with the festival such as indifference to attire for the festival, drastic reduction in masking, attitude to funding during the festival, while male dominance continues to be paramount. This article concludes that event tourism development requires government support, collaboration, and sensitization to harness and retain some practices of the festival amid obvious changes.

Natural recovery in trichotillomania

Objectives: Trichotillomania is characterized by repetitive pulling out of one’s hair, leading to distress and/or functional impairment. Long considered a chronic condition if left untreated (albeit with fluctuating intensity), there have been intimations that the disorder may be of limited duration in some people. Methods: A sample of 10,169 adults, aged 18–69 years, representative of the general US population, were recruited and screened for current and lifetime trichotillomania. Potential differences in demographic and clinical variables and lifetime comorbidities, between those with natural recovery from trichotillomania, and those with current trichotillomania, were identified using analysis of variance or likelihood-ratio chi-square tests as appropriate. Additional analyses using binary logistic regression were used to control for potential confounding differences between the groups initially identified. Results: In total, 24.9% of the entire sample of people with lifetime trichotillomania reported that they no longer had symptoms of trichotillomania and had never received therapy or medication treatment for it (i.e. they experienced natural recovery). Those who experienced natural recovery did not differ from those with current trichotillomania in terms of demographic or clinical characteristics, except that they were currently older. Natural recovery was associated with significantly lower rates of related comorbidities: obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, panic disorder, skin picking disorder and tic disorder. Discussion: These findings from the first epidemiology study examining natural recovery in trichotillomania highlight the importance of screening for and treating such comorbidities in patients with trichotillomania, in order to maximize chance of clinical recovery.

Multi-mJ Scaling of 5-Optical Cycle, 3 µm OPCPA

We present the design of an ultrafast optical parametric chirped pulse amplifier (OPCPA) operating at 3 µm yielding few-cycle pulses and multi-mJ output energy. This design demonstrates that with a configuration of a single crystal or combination of crystals (KTA and MgO:LN) it is possible to achieve output energies above the mJ with sufficient bandwidth to allow compression to just 5-optical cycles. Here, we consider a 1 µm mJ-level picosecond chirped pulse amplifier (CPA), a typical pumping source for this type of non-linear amplifiers. Compression with a simple bulk material enables reaching close to the pulse Fourier-transform limited duration, paving the way to high energy, ultrafast mid-infrared pulses.

The Design and Development of the i-Jury Management System

Handling an event requires a repetitive and complex task; from initial preparation until its conclusion. One of the important elements in an innovation event is the jurying process. The jurying process usually involves tasks with higher priority and must be completed in limited duration, usually within 4 to 5 days. The inexistence of inexpensive jurying information systems leads to the development of the i-Jury management system (i-Jury). The i-jury management system was developed based on PHP programming language, MySQL database, and jQuery. The development of the information system follows the System Development Lifecycle methodology. The findings show that the development of the information system speeds up the process of managing jury, project management, as well as speeding up the disbursement of results, comparing to previous traditional evaluation methods

Study on the effect of providing learning opportunities on the formation of intention to continue work for non-regular professionals

In Japan, almost 40 per cent of employees are so-called 'non-regular employees'. That is to say, employees with a limited duration of employment. This is in opposition to their 'regular employee' counterparts who are full-time workers without a limited duration of employment. Non-regular employees include both part-time and full-time workers with a short- or intermediate-term of employment. The percentage of non-regular employees is on the rise in Japan and this is bringing with it decreased morale and productivity due to factors such as lack of job security. In addition, motivation is negatively affected by non-regular employees receiving fewer opportunities, such as training, for example, than regular employees. Naturally, a lack of training and education opportunities would have an adverse effect on motivation and morale. Professor Takao Maeda is based in the Faculty of Business, Marketing and Distribution, Nakamura Gakuen University in Japan, and is working alongside collaborators Professors Tomofumi Tohara and Shigeaki Mishima, who are both based in the Faculty of Business Administration, Osaka University of Economics in Japan. The team is focused on research that looks at how closing disparities between regular and non-regular employment could increase the motivation of non-regular employees.

A Custom-Tailored Multi-TW Optical Electric Field for Gigawatt Soft-X-Ray Isolated Attosecond Pulses

Since the first isolated attosecond pulse was demonstrated through high-order harmonics generation (HHG) in 2001, researchers’ interest in the ultrashort time region has expanded. However, one realizes a limitation for related research such as attosecond spectroscopy. The bottleneck is concluded to be the lack of a high-peak-power isolated attosecond pulse source. Therefore, currently, generating an intense attosecond pulse would be one of the highest priority goals. In this paper, we review our recent work of a TW-class parallel three-channel waveform synthesizer for generating a gigawatt-scale soft-X-ray isolated attosecond pulse (IAP) using HHG. By employing several stabilization methods, we have achieved a stable 50 mJ three-channel optical-waveform synthesizer with a peak power at the multi-TW level. This optical-waveform synthesizer is capable of creating a stable intense optical field for generating an intense continuum harmonic beam thanks to the successful stabilization of all the parameters. Furthermore, the precision control of shot-to-shot reproducible synthesized waveforms is achieved. Through the HHG process employing a loose-focusing geometry, an intense shot-to-shot stable supercontinuum (50–70 eV) is generated in an argon gas cell. This continuum spectrum supports an IAP with a transform-limited duration of 170 as and a submicrojoule pulse energy, which allows the generation of a GW-scale IAP. Another supercontinuum in the soft-X-ray region with higher photon energy of approximately 100–130 eV is also generated in neon gas from the synthesizer. The transform-limited pulse duration is 106 as. Thus, the enhancement of HHG output through optimized waveform synthesis is experimentally proved.

The Franchise Agreement in International Trade: its Advantages and Disadvantages

The aim of the article is to analyze the implications of the franchise agreement in international trade. One of the contracts that is usually registered after the appearance and registration of property rights, and especially after the development of trademark rights, is the franchise agreement. A franchise agreement is a contract entered into between the franchisor and the franchisee as the owner of the intellectual property rights. In other words, the franchisee often uses trademark rights and intellectual property rights owned by the franchisor, which have a limited duration. It is concluded that, in franchise agreement, there is a right to enforce the franchisor's business method, which is implemented within the network (this method includes the use of intellectual property rights and know-how). This contract has detailed terms and is closely related to intellectual property rights and competition rights. The franchise must be distinguished from the distribution contract, the concessionaire, and the license. Under this agreement, the franchisee enters the franchise network and agrees to use the franchisor's method of negotiation and pay royalty-free payments instead.

Efficacy of venetoclax plus rituximab for relapsed CLL: Five-year follow-up of continuous or limited-duration therapy

We report long-term follow-up of the phase 1b study of venetoclax and rituximab (VenR) in patients with relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), including outcomes with continuous or limited-duration therapy. Patients received venetoclax daily (200-600 mg) and rituximab over 6 months, then venetoclax monotherapy. Patients achieving complete response (CR), CR with incomplete marrow recovery (CRi), or undetectable minimal residual disease (uMRD) assessed by flow cytometry (<10-4 cutoff) were allowed, but not required, to discontinue therapy, while remaining on study and could be re-treated with VenR upon progression. Median follow-up for all patients (N=49) was 5.3 years. Five-year rates for overall survival, progression-free survival, and duration of response were 86% (95% CI, 72-94), 56% (40-70), and 58% (40-73), respectively. Of the 33 deep responders (CR/CRi or uMRD), 14 remained on venetoclax monotherapy (continuous therapy), and 19 stopped venetoclax therapy (limited-duration therapy) after a median of 1.4 years. Five-year estimates of ongoing response were similar between continuous (71% [95% CI, 39-88]) or limited-duration therapy (79% [49-93]). Six of 19 patients in the latter group had subsequent disease progression, all >2 years off venetoclax (range, 2.1-6.4). Four patients were re-treated with VenR, with partial responses observed in the 3 evaluable to date. VenR induced deep responses that were highly durable with either continuous or limited-duration therapy. Retreatment with VenR induced responses in patients with CLL progression after discontinuing therapy. Continuous exposure to venetoclax in deep responders does not appear to provide incremental benefit. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT01682616