Guojun Zeng, Frank Go and Christian Kolmer
This study aims to explain the impact of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 on China's image in the international TV media. It applies agenda-setting theory to analyse foreign TV…
Abstract
This study aims to explain the impact of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 on China's image in the international TV media. It applies agenda-setting theory to analyse foreign TV coverage of the Olympics in nine countries. Using Rivenburgh's national image richness construct, it attempts to make sense of the coverage before and after Beijing 2008, particularly its impact on the image of the host country. The study concludes that the breadth and attribution of China's image remained relatively stable, that these factors did not improve China's national image directly but that indirectly they raised awareness of China in the international media and framed the host country's image more clearly.
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Naeem Akhtar, Xianglan Chen, Umar Iqbal Siddiqi, Guojun Zeng and Tahir Islam
To address critical research gaps in the extant literature, the present study develops a model that links language constraints in hotel attributes—core and facilitating––with…
Abstract
Purpose
To address critical research gaps in the extant literature, the present study develops a model that links language constraints in hotel attributes—core and facilitating––with consumers' offendedness (CO) and examines the consequent behavioral intentions of an offended consumer. For this purpose, it investigates (1) the role of language constraints in core and facilitating attributes in shaping CO, (2) how CO relates to adverse behavioral outcomes and (3) the moderating role of attribution of service failure (ASF) between language constraints and CO.
Design/methodology/approach
The present research used convenience sampling and collected data from 398 inbound tourists in Beijing through a survey questionnaire. The study performs measurement and structural evaluation by employing Amos Graphics 24.0 and moderation analysis through IBM SPSS 25.0.
Findings
The study examines language constraints in China's hospitality context, which restricts its generalizability. However, it serves as a better approach to examine the tourists who visit other Western hotels in China and unveils the factors contributing to CO.
Research limitations/implications
The study examines language constraints in Chinese hotels, which restrict its generalizability. It serves as a better approach to examine the tourists who visit other Western hotels in China and unveils the factors contributing to CO.
Originality/value
Few studies validate communication barriers in service encounters in hotel services and apprehend related outcomes. The present study takes a unique initiative in the context of China and examines the role of language constraints in core and facilitating hotel attributes in service encounters at Chinese hotels. This study informs the Chinese hotel industry and international destination firms to understand the language constraints in service encounters to further their strategies to overcome threats and tap potential opportunities.
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Agnes Mbachi Mwangwela, Vincent Mlotha, Alexander Archippus Kalimbira, William Kasapila, Jessica Kampanje Phiri, Samuel Mwango and Samson Pilanazo Katengeza
A case study of Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi explores its contribution to improving food security and nutrition using varied genetic…
Abstract
A case study of Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi explores its contribution to improving food security and nutrition using varied genetic resources and plant-based diets. The chapter articulates specific examples of research and outreach activities conducted to improve availability, access, and consumption of safe and quality food to reduce undernutrition. Malawi, together with other countries, adopted the global 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs) during the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 to transform the world, end poverty and inequality, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy health, justice, and prosperity. SDG2 is on ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture. Malawi has made significant progress and is on track to achieving SDG number 2 by 2030, and LUANAR has contributed to this achievement in multiple ways. The university has academic programmes and carries out research in various areas of agriculture and natural resources that relate directly to SGD 2. The faculty of Food and Human Sciences champions training, research, and innovation on food and nutrition at the university. The chapter concludes by reiterating that government leadership, support from development partners, and collaboration with the academic, research, and private sectors are key to success. The research models, impact, and challenges presented in the chapter have relevance and potential for wider application in the developing world.
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Guofu Wang, Yuhua Yang, Jiangong Cui, Wendong Zhang, Guojun Zhang, Renxin Wang, Pengcheng Shi and Hua Tian
In recent years, the incidence of cardiovascular disease has continued to rise, and early screening and prevention are especially critical. Phonocardiography (PCG) and…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, the incidence of cardiovascular disease has continued to rise, and early screening and prevention are especially critical. Phonocardiography (PCG) and electrocardiography (ECG), as simple, cost-effective and non-invasive tests, are important tools for clinical analysis. However, it is difficult to fully reflect the complexity of the cardiovascular system using PCG or ECG tests alone. Combining the multimodal signals of PCG and ECG can provide complementary information to improve the detection accuracy. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose a multimodal signal classification method based on continuous wavelet transform and improved ResNet18.
Design/methodology/approach
The classification method is based on the ResNet18 backbone, and the ResNet18 network is improved by embedding the global grouped coordinate attention mechanism module and the improved bidirectional feature pyramid network. Firstly, a data acquisition system was built using a MEMS-integrated PCG-ECG sensor to construct a private data set. Second is the time-frequency transformation of PCG and ECG synchronized signals on public and private data sets using continuous wavelet transform. Finally, the time-frequency images are categorized.
Findings
The global grouped coordinate attention mechanism and bidirectional feature pyramid network modules proposed in this paper significantly enhance the model’s performance. On public data sets, the method achieves precision, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and F1 score of 97.96%, 98.51%, 97.58%, 98.08% and 98.23%, respectively, which represent improvements of 3.54%, 3.92%, 4.18%, 4.03% and 3.72% compared to ResNet18. Additionally, it demonstrates a clear advantage over existing mainstream algorithms. On private data sets, the method’s five metrics are 98.15%, 98.76%, 98.08%, 98.42% and 98.45%, further validating the model’s generalization ability.
Originality/value
The method proposed in this paper not only improves the accuracy and efficiency of the test but also provides an effective solution for early screening and prevention of cardiovascular diseases.
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Zhongfeng Sun, Guojun Ji and Kim Hua Tan
This paper aims to study the joint decision making of advance selling and service cancelation for service provides with limited capacity when consumers are overconfident.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the joint decision making of advance selling and service cancelation for service provides with limited capacity when consumers are overconfident.
Design/methodology/approach
For the case in which consumers encounter uncertainties about product valuation and consumption states in the advance period and are overconfident about the probability of a good state, we study how the service provider chooses the optimal sales strategy among the non-advance selling strategy, the advance selling and disallowing cancelation strategy, and the advance selling and allowing cancelation strategy. We also discuss how overconfidence influences the service provider’s decision making.
Findings
The results show that when service capacity is sufficient, the service provider should adopt advance selling and disallow cancelation; when service capacity is insufficient, the service provider should still implement advance selling but allow cancelation; and when service capacity is extremely insufficient, the service provider should offer spot sales. Moreover, overconfidence weakens the necessity to allow cancelation under sufficient service capacity and enhances it under insufficient service capacity but is always advantageous to advance selling.
Practical implications
The obtained results provide managerial insights for service providers to make advance selling decisions.
Originality/value
This paper is among the first to explore the effect of consumers’ overconfidence on the joint decision of advance selling and service cancelation under capacity constraints.
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Zhenzhen Shang, Wendong Zhang, Guojun Zhang, Xiaoyong Zhang, Lansheng Zhang and Renxin Wang
The problem of port and starboard ambiguity will exist when only utilize the vector or scalar parameters. Meanwhile, the amplitude-phase error between the vector and scalar can…
Abstract
Purpose
The problem of port and starboard ambiguity will exist when only utilize the vector or scalar parameters. Meanwhile, the amplitude-phase error between the vector and scalar can also cause this problem. In this paper, a compound MEMS vector hydrophone which contains cilia vector microstructure and piezoelectric ceramic tube has been presented to solve the problem. Compared with traditional MEMS vector hydrophone, the compound MEMS vector hydrophone can realize the measurement of sound pressure and vibration velocity simultaneously.
Design/methodology/approach
A compound MEMS vector hydrophone has been presented. The unipolar directivity of the combined signal which combine the acoustic pressure and vibration velocity is used to achieve the direction of arrival (DOA). This paper introduced the working principle and the target detection mechanism of the compound vector hydrophone. The amplitude and phase error are analyzed and corrected in the standing wave tube. After that, the authors use beam-forming algorithm to estimate the DOA.
Findings
The experimental results in the standing wave tube and the external field verified the vector hydrophone's directional accuracy up to 1 and 5 degrees, respectively.
Practical implications
The research of compound vector hydrophone plays an important role in marine acoustic exploration and engineering applications.
Originality/value
This research provides a basis for MEMS hydrophone directivity theory. The compound vector hydrophone has been applied in the underwater location, with a huge market potential in underwater detection systems.
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Michele Bufalo and Giuseppe Orlando
This study aims to predict overnight stays in Italy at tourist accommodation facilities through a nonlinear, single factor, stochastic model called CIR#. The contribution of this…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to predict overnight stays in Italy at tourist accommodation facilities through a nonlinear, single factor, stochastic model called CIR#. The contribution of this study is twofold: in terms of forecast accuracy and in terms of parsimony (both from the perspective of the data and the complexity of the modeling), especially when a regular pattern in the time series is disrupted. This study shows that the CIR# not only performs better than the considered baseline models but also has a much lower error than other additional models or approaches reported in the literature.
Design/methodology/approach
Typically, tourism demand tends to follow regular trends, such as low and high seasons on a quarterly/monthly level and weekends and holidays on a daily level. The data set consists of nights spent in Italy at tourist accommodation establishments as collected on a monthly basis by Eurostat before and during the COVID-19 pandemic breaking regular patterns.
Findings
Traditional tourism demand forecasting models may face challenges when massive amounts of search intensity indices are adopted as tourism demand indicators. In addition, given the importance of accurate forecasts, many studies have proposed novel hybrid models or used various combinations of methods. Thus, although there are clear benefits in adopting more complex approaches, the risk is that of dealing with unwieldy models. To demonstrate how this approach can be fruitfully extended to tourism, the accuracy of the CIR# is tested by using standard metrics such as root mean squared errors, mean absolute errors, mean absolute percentage error or average relative mean squared error.
Research limitations/implications
The CIR# model is notably simpler than other models found in literature and does not rely on black box techniques such as those used in neural network (NN) or data science-based models. The carried analysis suggests that the CIR# model outperforms other reference predictions in terms of statistical significance of the error.
Practical implications
The proposed model stands out for being a viable option to the Holt–Winters (HW) model, particularly when dealing with irregular data.
Social implications
The proposed model has demonstrated superiority even when compared to other models in the literature, and it can be especially useful for tourism stakeholders when making decisions in the presence of disruptions in data patterns.
Originality/value
The novelty lies in the fact that the proposed model is a valid alternative to the HW, especially when the data are not regular. In addition, compared to many existing models in the literature, the CIR# model is notably simpler and more transparent, avoiding the “black box” nature of NN and data science-based models.
设计/方法/方法
一般来说, 旅游需求往往遵循规律的趋势, 例如季度/月的淡季和旺季, 以及日常的周末和假期。该数据集包括欧盟统计局在打破常规模式的2019冠状病毒病大流行之前和期间每月收集的在意大利旅游住宿设施度过的夜晚。
目的
本研究旨在通过一个名为cir#的非线性单因素随机模型来预测意大利游客住宿设施的过夜住宿情况。这项研究的贡献是双重的:在预测准确性方面和在简洁方面(从数据和建模复杂性的角度来看), 特别是当时间序列中的规则模式被打乱时。我们表明, cir#不仅比考虑的基线模型表现更好, 而且比文献中报告的其他模型或方法具有更低的误差。
研究结果
当大量搜索强度指标被作为旅游需求指标时, 传统的旅游需求预测模型将面临挑战。此外, 鉴于准确预测的重要性, 许多研究提出了新的混合模型或使用各种方法的组合。因此, 尽管采用更复杂的方法有明显的好处, 但风险在于处理难使用的模型。为了证明这种方法能有效地扩展到旅游业, 使用RMSE、MAE、MAPE或AvgReIMSE等标准指标来测试cir#的准确性。
研究局限/启示
cir#模型明显比文献中发现的其他模型简单, 并且不依赖于黑盒技术, 例如在神经网络或基于数据科学的模型中使用的技术。所进行的分析表明, cir#模型在误差的统计显著性方面优于其他参考预测。
实际意义
这个模型作为Holt-Winters模型的一个拟议模型, 特别是在处理不规则数据时。
社会影响
即使与文献中的其他模型相比, 所提出的模型也显示出优越性, 并且在数据模式中断时对旅游利益相关者做出决策特别有用。
创意/价值
创新之处在于所提出的模型是Holt-Winters模型的有效替代方案, 特别是当数据不规律时。此外, 与文献中的许多现有模型相比, cir#模型明显更简单、更透明, 避免了神经网络和基于数据科学的模型的“黑箱”性质。
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Normalmente, la demanda turística tiende a seguir tendencias regulares, como temporadas altas y bajas a nivel trimestral/mensual y fines de semana y festivos a nivel diario. El conjunto de datos consiste en las pernoctaciones en Italia en establecimientos de alojamiento turístico recogidas mensualmente por Eurostat antes y durante la pandemia de COVID-19, rompiendo los patrones regulares.
Objetivo
El presente estudio pretende predecir las pernoctaciones en Italia en establecimientos de alojamiento turístico mediante un modelo estocástico no lineal de un solo factor denominado CIR#. La contribución de este estudio es doble: en términos de precisión de la predicción y en términos de parsimonia (tanto desde la perspectiva de los datos como de la complejidad de la modelización), especialmente cuando un patrón regular en la serie temporal se ve interrumpido. Demostramos que el CIR# no sólo aplica mejor que los modelos de referencia considerados, sino que también tiene un error mucho menor que otros modelos o enfoques adicionales de los que se informa en la literatura.
Resultados
Los modelos tradicionales de previsión de la demanda turística pueden enfrentarse a desafíos cuando se adoptan cantidades masivas de índices de intensidad de búsqueda como indicadores de la demanda turística. Además, dada la importancia de unas previsiones precisas, muchos estudios han propuesto modelos híbridos novedosos o han utilizado diversas combinaciones de métodos. Así pues, aunque la adopción de enfoques más complejos presenta ventajas evidentes, el riesgo es el de enfrentarse a modelos poco manejables. Para demostrar cómo este enfoque puede extenderse de forma fructífera al turismo, se comprueba la precisión del CIR# utilizando métricas estándar como RMSE, MAE, MAPE o AvgReIMSE.
Limitaciones/implicaciones de la investigación
El modelo CIR# es notablemente más sencillo que otros modelos encontrados en la literatura y no se basa en técnicas de caja negra como las utilizadas en los modelos basados en redes neuronales o en la ciencia de datos. El análisis realizado sugiere que el modelo CIR# supera a otras predicciones de referencia en términos de significación estadística del error.
Implicaciones prácticas
El modelo propuesto destaca por ser una opción viable al modelo Holt-Winters, sobre todo cuando se trata de datos irregulares.
Implicaciones sociales
El modelo propuesto ha demostrado su superioridad incluso cuando se compara con otros modelos de la bibliografía, y puede ser especialmente útil para los agentes del sector turístico a la hora de tomar decisiones cuando se producen alteraciones en los patrones de datos.
Originalidad/valor
La novedad radica en que el modelo propuesto es una alternativa válida al Holt-Winters especialmente cuando los datos no son regulares. Además, en comparación con muchos modelos existentes en la literatura, el modelo CIR# es notablemente más sencillo y transparente, evitando la naturaleza de “caja negra” de los modelos basados en redes neuronales y en ciencia de datos.