Abstract
The ancient Silk Roads are reputed for demonstrating a more tolerant Asia–Europe interaction than is believed possible today among modern nation-states. What is the Silk Roads’ contribution ...to global thought? Along the original Silk Roads, a cosmopolitan ethic of hospitality to foreigners emerged from a confluence of hostile secular attitudes as well as accommodation of differences within each religion's conception of ecumenism and standardization. This is manifest in the writings of Marco Polo, a quintessential traveller along the ancient overland Silk Road, assorted Christian monks serving as Papal representatives to the Mongols, and two Buddhist pilgrims, Fa-Hsien and I-Tsing of China. In treating these underappreciated writings as contributions to global thought from Asia, the author identifies three indelible elements that add up to an amorphous cosmopolitanism in progress: the role of violence in managing social order, piety through ritual, and the custom of travellers and hosts exchanging gifts.
Research objectives: To analyze the genre-typological and stylistic peculiarities of the narrative parts that accompany the actual dictionary entries of the Turkic-Russian dictionary, and thus to add ...a new source to the group of narrative monuments from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries centuries which pertain to Crimea. Research materials: The Turkic-Russian dictionary (“Kniga Elihv”) included in the manuscript miscellany (“Tsvetnik”) that was compiled by the hieromonk, Prokhor Kolomiatin, in 1668. The manuscript is kept in the collection of the State Historical Museum (Muzeyskoe sobr., No. 2803). Results and novelty of the research: The Turkic-Russian dictionary included in Prokhor Kolomiatin’s miscellany is one of the earliest examples of a Turkic lexicography in the Cyrillic tradition. Along with the records of lexemes and word collocations, it contains lengthy narratives concerning religion, geography, and ethnography of Crimea. The nature of the information provided suggests that the author of the dictionary was living in Crimea for some time, most likely as a prisoner, although having a certain privileged status. Having little opportunity to travel outside the peninsula, he received knowledge, including information about other countries, from verbal communication with the local inhabitants made up of different national and social groups. Analysis of the content of the narrative material allows us to state that the text has its own degree of originality, although it naturally finds thematic and genre parallels with the well-known medieval narratives concerning Crimea.
Gnathostomiasis is a parasitic infection caused by the third larval stage of nematodes of the genus Gnathostoma. The disease is endemic in some countries around the world. In the American continent, ...the majority of cases is concentrated in Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru. However, due to increasing traveling either at the intercontinental or intracontinental level, the disease is seen each time more frequently in tourists. Furthermore, countries, such as Brazil, that have never been considered endemic are reporting autochthonous cases. The disease usually presents as a deep-seated or slightly superficial migratory nodule in patients with history of eating raw fish, in the form of ceviche, sushi, or sashimi. Along with the clinical presentation, diagnostic criteria include either blood or tissue eosinophilia. In most instances, these criteria are enough for the attending physician to institute therapy. Chances of finding the parasite are low, unless the biopsy is taken from a very specific area that develops after antiparasitic treatment is started. The potential of other organ involvement with more serious consequences should always be kept in mind.
On-time delivery is of utmost importance in today’s urban logistics. However, travel times are uncertain and classical deterministic routing solutions often fail to ensure timely delivery. In this ...paper, a robust solution that exploits travel times data to determine the best routes for maximal timely delivery is proposed. A new decision criterion is introduced, the service fulfillment risk index (
sri
), which accounts for both the late arrival probability and its magnitude. Together with Wasserstein distance–based ambiguity in travel times,
sri
can be evaluated efficiently in closed form. In addition, an exact branch-and-cut approach and a meta-heuristic algorithm are developed to minimize
sri
with a given travel cost. Simulation studies demonstrate that handling uncertainty improves service punctuality, and that incorporating ambiguity prevents overfitting. Most importantly,
sri
outperforms the canonical decision criteria of lateness probability and expected lateness duration.
Optimal routing solutions based on deterministic models usually fail to deliver promised on-time services in an uncertain real world, which can lead to the loss of customers and revenue. We study a
vehicle routing problem with time windows
(
vrptw
) toward the end of mitigating the risk of late customer arrivals as much as possible when travel times are based on empirical distributions. To prevent overfitting, we propose a distributionally robust optimization model that uses a Wasserstein distance–based ambiguity set to characterize ambiguous distributions that are close to the empirical distribution. Our model minimizes the decision criterion regarding delays, termed the
service fulfillment risk index
(
sri
), while limiting budgeted travel costs. The
sri
accounts for both the late arrival probability and its magnitude, captures the risk and ambiguity in travel times, and can be evaluated efficiently in closed form. Under the Wasserstein distance–based ambiguity, the closed-form solution reduces the
vrptw
of interest to the problem under empirical travel times where all deadlines are advanced by some Wasserstein distance–related durations. To solve the problem, we develop an exact branch-and-cut approach and a variable neighborhood search meta-heuristic algorithm and explore their speedup strategies. The effectiveness of these algorithms is established by extensive computational studies. In particular, our solution greatly improves on-time arrival performance with only modest increases in expenditures compared with the deterministic solution. Finally, our
sri
also performs better during out-of-sample simulations than do the canonical decision criteria of lateness probability and expected lateness duration.
The Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has become a global health emergency owing to its magnitude, attributed deaths, and its propensity to spread across the world. In-fact, owing to its ...quick spread across international boundaries and the resulting caseload, the disease has been declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020. It is worth noting that out of the 395 cases detected in other nations, 165 (41.8％) have a positive history of travel to China. As of now, the World Health Organization has not recommended for any restrictions on the travel or trade aspects, but has clearly specified that implementation of International Health Regulations should be strictly done at the airports and seaports. In conclusion, the COVID-19 outbreak has created an alarm across the globe as the causative virus is novel in nature. However, strengthening of standard infection control practices and adoption of preventive measures for travelers can significantly minimize the threat of further transmission of the disease.
Precise travel time prediction benefits travelers and traffic managers by enabling anticipation of future roadway conditions, thus aiding in pre-trip planning and the development of traffic control ...strategies. This approach contributes to reducing travel time and alleviating traffic congestion issues. To achieve real-time state perception of vehicles on expressways, we propose an algorithm to estimate the arrival time of vehicles in the next segment using Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) data. Firstly, the characteristics of ETC data and GPS data are meticulously described. We devise algorithms for data cleaning and fusion, subsequently segmenting the vehicle journey into multiple sub-segments. In the following step, feature vectors are constructed from the fused data to detect service areas and analyze the expressway segment characteristics, vehicle traits, and the influence of service areas. Finally, an algorithm utilizing LightGBM is introduced for estimating the arrival time of vehicles at various segments, corroborated by empirical tests using authentic traffic data. The MAE of the algorithm is recorded as 20.1 s, with an RMSE of 32.6 s, affirming its efficacy. The method proposed in this paper can help optimize transportation systems for improving efficiency, alleviating congestion, reducing emissions, and enhancing safety.
In contemporary business conditions characterized by the intensive competitive pressure, attracting new customers/ service users is becoming a more complex and expensive business activity. The ...development of information-communication technologies (ICT) and the intensive development of the hotel industry has affected the appearance of significant changes in marketing and hotel sales strategies. The contemporary market is a witness to the opening of more and more independent hotels, but there is also an expressed trend of growth and development of branded hotel chains, which significantly influences the growth of competitive pressure. In such conditions attracting guests is becoming the most important challenge within the business of the hotel sector. Due to the globalization of the world economy, the number of business travelers is increasing in all regions of the world. Business travelers are a significant segment of guests for all hotels, and especially for those located within big cities and administrative business centers. Hotels direct their business efforts and marketing strategy more intensively to this segment of tourists. The adjusting of the offer towards the preferences and expectations of the business travelers is extremely important in order to achieve competitive advantage in the process of their attracting and retaining. Big hotel chains develop the brands of lower, medium and high level of luxury in order to adjust their offer. Independent hotels create the personal identity and originality which enables the offer adjustment to a specific segment. The aim of the paper is to identify key factors in decision making of the business traveler concerning the hotel selection. The analysis is based on an empirical research regarding business traveler preferences in Serbia who travel relatively often for reasons of business.
Tourism is one of the development strategies working to unite the world by expansion, not without transportation services, though! The study assessed the perceived influence of transportation ...services on tourism participation in Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information from three hundred and thirty respondents who were randomly selected from Ibadan domestic airport, one public and one private motor park, one tricycle and one motorcycle terminal, all along Ife Road through Iwo Road to Ojoo Road, and Dugbe Train Station in Ibadan. The findings revealed that the factors considered most by respondents for choice/use of transportation services were accessibility(x=4.64) ranked first; Duration of the journey (x=4.36) ranked second; and Information about the transportation services and Availability (x=4.35) both tied on third position. It was also found that a bus was the most engaged transport by travelers while the airplane was the most preferred. Availability (r = 0.211) of transportation services had a low probability of influencing tourism participation; Comfort had the likelihood of influencing transportation choice in tourism participation varied. Ride comfort showed positive significance relationship with a high marginal effect on households’ participation (r=0.539) while ambient condition and facility did not have a significant influence and had a low marginal effect (r=0.626) thus, Comfort was found to influence transportation choice towards tourism participation. Customer care had a significant influence on transportation decision of tourists on tourism participation; Safety from crime (r=0.424) and safety from accident (r=0.419) had weak correlation coefficients with participation in tourism. Meanwhile, ticketing did not have a significant coefficient but had a moderate marginal effect of 0.681. The analysis further indicated that the probability of a traveler/tourist participating in tourism increased with increase in the ticketing. Time of the journey showed significant relationship between transportation and motivation to travel. Based on the results, it was recommended that transportation services need to improve to attract interest in travel which will translate to tourism participation.
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