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The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature in the field of tourism demand forecasting.

Published papers in the high quality journals are studied and categorized based their used forecasting method.

There is no forecasting method which can develop the best forecasts for all of the problems. Combined forecasting methods are providing better forecasts in comparison to the traditional forecasting methods.

This paper reviews the available literature from 2007 to 2017. There is not such a review available in the literature.

In the literature there are numerous tests that compare the accuracy of automated valuation models (AVMs). These models first train themselves with price data and property characteristics, then they are tested by measuring their ability to predict prices. Most of them compare the effectiveness of traditional econometric models against the use of machine learning algorithms. Although the latter seem to offer better performance, there is not yet a complete survey of the literature to confirm the hypothesis.

All tests comparing regression analysis and AVMs machine learning on the same data set have been identified. The scores obtained in terms of accuracy were then compared with each other.

Machine learning models are more accurate than traditional regression analysis in their ability to predict value. Nevertheless, many authors point out as their limit their black box nature and their poor inferential abilities.

AVMs machine learning offers a huge advantage for all real estate operators who know and can use them. Their use in public policy or litigation can be critical.

According to the author, this is the first systematic review that collects all the articles produced on the subject done comparing the results obtained.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a scheme that allows users to interactively explore relations between entities in knowledge bases (KBs). KBs store a wide range of knowledge about real-world entities in a structured form as (subject, predicate, object). Although it is possible to query entities and relations among entities by specifying appropriate query expressions of SPARQL or keyword queries, the structure and the vocabulary are complicated, and it is hard for non-expert users to get the desired information. For this reason, many researchers have proposed faceted search interfaces for KBs. Nevertheless, existing ones are designed for finding entities and are insufficient for finding relations.

To this problem, the authors propose a novel “relation facet” to find relations between entities. To generate it, they applied clustering on predicates for grouping those predicates that are connected to common objects. Having generated clusters of predicates, the authors generated a facet according to the result. Specifically, they proposed to use a couple of clustering algorithms, namely, agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) and CANDECOMP/PARAFAC (CP) tensor decomposition which is one of the tensor decomposition methods.

The authors experimentally show test the performance of clustering methods and found that AHC performs better than tensor decomposition. Besides, the authors conducted a user study and show that their proposed scheme performs better than existing ones in the task of searching relations.

The authors propose a relation-oriented faceted search method for KBs that allows users to explore relations between entities. As far as the authors know, this is the first method to focus on the exploration of relations between entities.

This paper explores the historical roots of accounting for biodiversity and extinction accounting by analysing the 18th-century Naturalist's Journals of Gilbert White and interpreting them as biodiversity accounts produced by an interested party. The authors aim to contribute to the accounting history literature by extending the form of accounting studied to include nature diaries as well as by exploring historical ecological accounts, as well as contributing to the burgeoning literature on accounting for biodiversity and extinction accounting.

The authors’ method involves analysing the content of Gilbert White's Naturalist's Journals by producing an 18th-century biodiversity account of species of flora and fauna and then interpretively drawing out themes from the Journals. The authors then provide a Whitean extinction account by comparing current species' status with White's biodiversity account from 250 years ago.

This paper uses Gilbert White's Naturalist's Journals as a basis for comparing biodiversity and natural capital 250 years ago with current species' status according to extinction threat and conservation status. Further the paper shows how early nature diary recording represents early (and probably the only) forms of accounting for biodiversity and extinction. The authors also highlight themes within White's accounts including social emancipation, problematisation, aesthetic elements and an example of an early audit of biodiversity accounting.

There are limitations to analysing Gilbert White's Naturalist's Journals given that the only available source is an edited version. The authors therefore interpret their data as accounts which are indicative of biodiversity and species abundance rather than an exactly accurate account.

From the authors’ analysis and reflections, the authors suggest that contemporary biodiversity accounting needs to incorporate a combination of narrative, data accounting and pictorial/aesthetic representation if it is to provide a rich and accurate report of biodiversity and nature. The authors also suggest that extinction accounting should draw on historical data in order to demonstrate change in natural capital over time.

Social implications include the understanding gleaned from the authors’ analysis of the role of Gilbert White as a nature diarist in society and the contribution made over time by his Journals and other writings to the development of nature accounting and recording, as well as to one’s understanding and knowledge of species of flora and fauna.

To the authors’ knowledge this is the first attempt to analyse and interpret nature diaries as accounts of biodiversity and extinction.

A healthcare system in any country is rarely the product of one logical policy-making experience, but rather a manifestation of many years of historical development. The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics, components, and variables of South Africa’s healthcare system in the context of global patterns. It leverages a dynamic period in South Africa since 1994, and applies a comparative health systems analysis to explain where the country’s healthcare system is, and where it is potentially going.

This paper reviews literature related to South Africa’s healthcare system, outlines its historical development, and discusses three fundamental challenges experienced in the country. This paper also reviews the literature on healthcare system typologies and identifies three framework models that have been used to categorise national healthcare systems since the 1970s. This paper then discusses the categorisation of South Africa’s healthcare system in these models, in comparison to Canada and the USA.

This paper finds that the framework models are useful tools for comparative analysis of healthcare systems. However, any use of such typologies should be done with the awareness that national healthcare systems are not isolated entities because they function within a larger context. They are not static, since they are constantly evolving with many nuances, even with very similar healthcare system categorisations.

This paper charts the trajectory of change in the South African healthcare system, and demonstrates that the change process must keep internal conditions in mind if the outcome is to be successful. Imitating policies of countries with well-functioning systems, without regard to local realities, may not work, as the government attempts to usher in changes within a short span of time.

The paper provides a detailed historical account of Douglass C. North's early intellectual contributions and analytical developments in pursuing a Grand Theory for why some countries are rich and others poor.

The author approaches the discussion using a theoretical and historical reconstruction based on published and unpublished materials.

The systematic, continuous and profound attempt to answer the Smithian social coordination problem shaped North's journey from being a young serious Marxist to becoming one of the founders of New Institutional Economics. In the process, he was converted in the early 1950s into a rigid neoclassical economist, being one of the leaders in promoting New Economic History. The success of the cliometric revolution exposed the frailties of the movement itself, namely, the limitations of neoclassical economic theory to explain economic growth and social change. Incorporating transaction costs, the institutional framework in which property rights and contracts are measured, defined and enforced assumes a prominent role in explaining economic performance.

In the early 1970s, North adopted a naive theory of institutions and property rights still grounded in neoclassical assumptions. Institutional and organizational analysis is modeled as a social maximizing efficient equilibrium outcome. However, the increasing tension between the neoclassical theoretical apparatus and its failure to account for contrasting political and institutional structures, diverging economic paths and social change propelled the modification of its assumptions and progressive conceptual innovation. In the later 1970s and early 1980s, North abandoned the efficiency view and gradually became more critical of the objective rationality postulate. In this intellectual movement, North's avant-garde research program contributed significantly to the creation of New Institutional Economics.