THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL MARKETING ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM IN REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA

The tremendous growth of tourism in Albania in recent decades, made important the understanding of the role that digital marketing and mobile technology is playing in this field. Tourism in Albania is one of the most important economic sectors of the country, and is growing year after year. It is emphasized that digitalization is a new form of communication between producers and consumers of tourism services, becoming a source of competitive advantages for tourism organizations. The main goal of the study is to give us a clear overview of the use of the Internet, information technologies and digital marketing in Albania. For the realization of this study, we used a methodology that combines primary data with secondary ones. The research was conducted through questionnaires that were sent to Albanian travel agencies via email. The questionnaire contains 17 questions, and was sent to 150 travel agencies, of which 102 agencies responded. Regarding the study, digital marketing plays an important role in improving the image of Albanian tourism throughout the world. It has created facilities in the way of doing marketing and reducing the costs of businesses. Through digital marketing, travel agencies have managed to promote our country online, personalize services and, above all, be closer to customers. The research found that the most effective digital marketing tools used by the agencies are Instagram and Facebook.

Cutting through the noise during crisis by enhancing the relevance of research to policymakers

Background:It is widely recognised that policymakers use research deemed relevant, yet little is understood about ways to enhance perceived relevance of research evidence. Observing policymakers' access of research online provides a pragmatic way to investigate predictors of relevance.Aims and objectives:This study investigates a range of relevance indicators including committee assignments, public statements, issue prevalence, or the policymaker's name or district.Methods:In a series of four rapid-cycle randomised control trials (RCTs), the present work systematically explores science communication strategies by studying indicators of perceived relevance. State legislators, state staffers, and federal staffers were emailed fact sheets on issues of COVID (Trial 1, N = 3403), exploitation (Trial 2, N = 6846), police violence (Trial 3, N = 3488), and domestic violence (Trial 4, N = 3888).Findings:Across these trials, personalising the subject line to the legislator's name or district and targeting recipients based on committee assignment consistently improved engagement. Mentions of subject matter in public statements was inconsistently associated, and state-level prevalence of the issue was largely not associated with email engagement behaviour.Discussion and conclusions:Together, these results indicate a benefit of targeting legislators based on committee assignments and of personalising the subject line with legislator information. This work further operationalises practical indicators of personal relevance and demonstrates a novel method of how to test science communication strategies among policymakers. Building enduring capacity for testing science communication will improve tactics to cut through the noise during times of political crisis.

Development of Infectious Disease Emergency Response Competencies for Nurses in China: A Delphi Study and an Analytic Hierarchy Process

Aim. To develop a set of infectious disease emergency response competencies specific to frontline nurses in China. Background. Nurses play an important role in the infectious disease emergency response. Competency-based training is the cornerstone of the professionalization of disaster rescue, including the infectious disease emergency response. Accordingly, reaching a consensus on a set of core competencies is essential. However, information regarding the competencies needed for nurses in the infectious disease emergency response is limited. Methods. A literature review and in-depth expert interviews were conducted to establish a draft of competencies, which consisted of 53 items, including 3 first-level index items, 12 second-level index items, and 38 third-level index items. Eighteen experts with the knowledge of infectious disease management and experience with infectious disease emergency rescue from different regions in China were recruited for Delphi consultation. A two-round Delphi survey was conducted via email. Consensus was defined as a mean importance value >4.5 and the coefficient of variation <0.25 among the experts. Finally, the analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the weight of each index on which consensus had been reached. Results. An index system of infectious disease emergency response competencies for nurses was constructed, including 3 first-level indices (knowledge, attitudes, and skills), 10 second-level indices, and 32 third-level indices. The response rates of the two rounds of the Delphi survey were both 100%, and the authority coefficient of the 18 experts was 0.903. The weighted value of each index was established with a consistency ratio <0.1, demonstrating that skill (0.5396) ranked first among the three first-level indices, followed by knowledge (0.2970) and attitudes (0.1634). Conclusion. The study developed a consensus on infectious disease emergency response competencies required for nurses in China, which provides guidance for the assessment and training of nurses on infectious disease emergency response. Implications for Nursing Management. According to the competency index system, nursing managers could develop effective training programs of infectious disease emergency response competency for nurses and select competent nurses for emergency response to infectious diseases.

Community bushfire safety awareness: a community-led initiative progress report

Over the last 30 years, approaches to community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) in Australia have moved from the margins towards the mainstream of policy and practice. CBDRM is now understood to be an important pillar for building resilience to increasing risks. Compared with previous top-down, command-and-control approaches, CBDRM orients disaster management around principles of community participation, ownership and capacity-building.1 This paper describes a locally led initiative in an outer-eastern Melbourne community that is helping residents recognise their bushfire risks and how to take action to mitigate them.

CRITICAL STORYTELLING DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: BEREA COLLEGE STUDENTS SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES

Pohl reviews Critical Storytelling During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Berea College Students Share Their Experiences edited by Nicholas D. Hartlep, Christopher V. Stuchell, Nathaniel Elisha Whitt and Brandon O. Hensley.

Phish Responder: A Hybrid Machine Learning Approach to Detect Phishing and Spam Emails

Using technology to prevent cyber-attacks has allowed organisations to somewhat automate cyber security. Despite solutions to aid organisations, many are susceptible to phishing and spam emails which can make an unwanted impact if not mitigated. Traits that make organisations susceptible to phishing and spam emails include a lack of awareness around the identification of malicious emails, explicit trust, and the lack of basic security controls. For any organisation, phishing and spam emails can be received and the consequences of an attack could result in disruption. This research investigated the threat of phishing and spam and developed a detection solution to address this challenge. Deep learning and natural language processing are two techniques that have been employed in related research, which has illustrated improvements in the detection of phishing. Therefore, this research contributes by developing Phish Responder, a solution that uses a hybrid machine learning approach combining natural language processing to detect phishing and spam emails. To ensure its efficiency, Phish Responder was subjected to an experiment in which it has achieved an average accuracy of 99% with the LSTM model for text-based datasets. Furthermore, Phish Responder has presented an average accuracy of 94% with the MLP model for numerical-based datasets. Phish Responder was evaluated by comparing it with other solutions and through an independent t-test which demonstrated that the numerical-based technique is statistically significantly better than existing approaches.

Deconstructing the Challenges of COVID-19 on First-Year Rural University Students in South Africa

Assumptions and facts exist about the various challenges rural learners face when transitioning into university education in South Africa due to the pedagogical differences between secondary and university education. However, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic compounded the transitioning challenges of students because most of the universities, especially the selected university, utilise online learning, which is alien to first-year students who are transitioning from rural high schools to the university. This study explores the challenges and solutions associated with first-year students transitioning to a new level of education during the COVID-19 pandemic. An asset-based approach was used to theorise the study within the Transformative Paradigm (TP), while Participatory Research (PR) was used to design the study. These are relevant because both TP and PR are targeted towards transforming people's predicaments. The participants consisted of ten first-year students selected using a convenient sampling technique. Data was collected using electronic interviews such as email, WhatsApp messages, and phone calls. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The study revealed that first-year rural university students' inability to use online learning tools effectively and unstable internet connections in the rural community are major challenges. The study, therefore, concludes that the provision of internet access and students' readiness for adaptability are the possible solutions.

Cybersecurity and Data Science

The unprecedented increase in data availability in many science and technology fields (e.g., genomic data, data from industrial environments, sensory data of smart cities, and social network data) require new methods and solutions for data processing, information extraction, and decision support. ‘Multi-Language Spam/Phishing Classification by Email Body Text: Toward Automated Security Incident Investigation’ by Rastenis et al. The authors proposed a semi-automatic information security model, which can deal with situational awareness data, strategies prevailing information security activities, and protocols monitoring specific types of the network next to the real-time information environment. [...]the paper entitled ‘Simulation of Authentication in Information-Processing Electronic Devices Based on Poisson Pulse Sequence Generators’ by Maksymovych [17] was devoted to modelling authenticators of information-processing electronic devices by creating a bit template simulator based on a Poisson pulse sequence generator.

Aspects of ICT connectivity among older adults living in rural subsidized housing: reassessing the digital divide

Purpose>This article examines aspects of information communication technology (ICT) connectivity among the understudied population of low-income older adults living in rural and peri-urban subsidized housing. We aim to investigate if variations exist in access and connectivity when economic and housing conditions are constant and use data from northern New England.Design/methodology/approach>The multidisciplinary, mixed-methods approach involved administering structured surveys using iPads with senior residents (n = 91) from five housing sites, qualitative observations by field researchers and an ecological assessment of ICT resources at housing, community and state levels.Findings>All subsidized housing sites were broadband accessible and nearby libraries. Fewer sites had Wi-Fi freely available to residents, and individual residents disparately accessed the Internet. Age and education demonstrably influenced ICT use of social media and email. Technology in the form of iPads used for surveys posed functional challenges for some older adults, but these technology-mediated interactions were also perceived as important sites of sociability.Originality/value>Older adults disparately access and use ICT relative to socioeconomic status even as housing conditions remain constant, and access and use influences frequency of social connections with friends and family. The findings reveal factors that contribute to the existing digital divide facing older adults and broader lack of digital equity.

INCREASING CONFIDENCE OF FOUNDATION DOCTORS IN MAKING AND DISCUSSING ESCALATION DECISIONS

Introduction The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in renewed emphasis on escalation decisions and discussions, often conducted by junior doctors without any training. Our local Foundation Year (FY) teaching does not address these topics. The distress caused by poor communication regarding escalation is well recognised. Our goal was to improve FY doctors’ confidence in this area and consequently improve quality of patient care. Method In PDSA cycle one, email questionnaires established a lack of confidence amongst FY1 doctors. This cycle resulted in the design of a one-hour workshop by middle-grade trainees interested in geriatrics or acute medicine. This workshop included an interactive teaching session, followed by demonstrative and participant role play. Feedback from the first workshop closed cycle two. In cycle three, a subsequent workshop was amended according to feedback. Workshop participants completed anonymous feedback, rating the impact on their confidence. Results Thirteen FY1 doctors responded positively to the initial questionnaire, with nine able to attend a workshop. Pre- and post-workshop questionnaires asked respondents to rate their confidence from 1 (low) to 5 (high). Comparison demonstrated an increase in confidence making decisions from an average of 1.8 to 3.7 and discussing decisions with patients from 2 to 3.1. Qualitative feedback emphasised benefit from participant role play and the need for longer workshops. Conclusion Our project highlighted the need and desire for FY training in making and discussing escalation decisions. A one-hour workshop increased confidence in this group, though we acknowledge this is a surrogate marker of improved care. Workshop uptake was limited by a small local FY1 cohort, leave and clinical commitments. Though convenient, a one-hour session did not provide adequate time to realise full benefit. We hope to address these issues by integrating longer sessions into the protected teaching for all FY doctors in our health board.

Performance Assessment of some Phishing predictive models based on Minimal Feature corpus

The credentials harvested normally include bank account numbers, passwords or PINs, credit card numbers, security questions, security codes etc. In most instances, vulnerability to phishing threat is due to the ease with which unsuspecting online users navigate web pages using links or URL within a body of an online message (Han et al. 2012). [...]there is an increased motivation for phishers as the number of mobile-connected devices accessing social media sites continues to grow. The limitation is often connected with superfluous training/testing time which may result in high memory overheads, delay in detection time, expensive maintenance/update etc. [...]responsiveness is used to measure prediction accuracy with commensurate processing time while the response time is used to ensure that the detection time for any window of vulnerability is reasonable and insignificant (Silva et al. 2020). In this work, we proposed an approach to examining the different state of art predictive model using reduced phishing feature corpus to resolve the uncertainties that result from performance issues (responsiveness) and other inconsistencies (response time, computational overhead etc.) in the feature set corpus.

Self-efficacy and Use of Digital Health Care and Social Welfare Services Among Incarcerated People: Cross-sectional Survey Study

Background: The digitization of health care and social welfare services creates many opportunities for the rehabilitation of incarcerated people and their preparation for release from prison. A range of digital platforms and technology solutions have been developed that offer multiple opportunities to handle private matters either by video conference, email, or some other digital format during imprisonment. However, incarcerated people have limited access to digital health care and social welfare services, and face challenges related to shortcomings in their digital skills and self-efficacy. Objective: This article assessed the significance of incarcerated people’s self-efficacy in terms of their sense of control over the use of digital health care and social welfare services. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a questionnaire. Research data were collected from 11 prisons in different parts of Finland, and a total of 225 incarcerated people responded to the survey. Statistical analyses were conducted using the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, 2-tailed t test, linear regression analysis, and Hayes bootstrapping method. Results: The results showed the significance of both general and internet-specific self-efficacy, which appear to be more important for the use of digital health care and social welfare services than factors related to a person’s socioeconomic background or sentence. Age was negatively correlated with perceived control over the use of digital health care and social welfare services. Furthermore, the study emphasized the importance of support from family and friends, as well as prison employees. Conclusions: The digitalization of prisons offers many opportunities, but special consideration should be given to how the digitization of health care and social welfare services responds to the needs of incarcerated people in terms of their integration into society and the prevention of recidivism. During imprisonment, attention should be paid to strengthening the digital skills of incarcerated people, with support provided by prison employees. In addition to providing guidance on the use of individual digital services, the study recommends strengthening the general digital skills of incarcerated people, as well as developing their life management skills.

Serological surveys to estimate cumulative incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in adults (Sero-MAss study), Massachusetts, July–August 2020: a mail-based cross-sectional study

ObjectivesTo estimate the seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM among Massachusetts residents and to better understand asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 transmission during the summer of 2020.DesignMail-based cross-sectional survey.SettingMassachusetts, USA.ParticipantsPrimary sampling group: sample of undergraduate students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (n=548) and a member of their household (n=231).Secondary sampling group: sample of graduate students, faculty, librarians and staff (n=214) and one member of their household (n=78). All participants were residents of Massachusetts without prior COVID-19 diagnosis.Primary and secondary outcome measuresPrevalence of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity. Association of seroprevalence with variables including age, gender, race, geographic region, occupation and symptoms.ResultsApproximately 27 000 persons were invited via email to assess eligibility. 1001 households were mailed dried blood spot sample kits, 762 returned blood samples for analysis. In the primary sample group, 36 individuals (4.6%) had IgG antibodies detected for an estimated weighted prevalence in this population of 5.3% (95% CI: 3.5 to 8.0). In the secondary sampling group, 10 participants (3.4%) had IgG antibodies detected for an estimated adjusted prevalence of 4.0% (95% CI: 2.2 to 7.4). No samples were IgM positive. No association was found in either group between seropositivity and self-reported work duties or customer-facing hours. In the primary sampling group, self-reported febrile illness since February 2020, male sex and minority race (Black or American Indian/Alaskan Native) were associated with seropositivity. No factors except geographic regions within the state were associated with evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the secondary sampling group.ConclusionsThis study fills a critical gap in estimating the levels of subclinical and asymptomatic infection. Estimates can be used to calibrate models estimating levels of population immunity over time, and these data are critical for informing public health interventions and policy.

COVID-19-related stressors and coping strategies of support staff working with people with learning disabilities

Background During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, support staff working with people with learning disabilities experienced a range of stressors directly related to the effects of the pandemic on themselves and on service users. Supporting staff well-being is crucial given their essential role in the lives of people with learning disabilities.Aim To investigate the experiences, during the COVID-19 pandemic, of support staff working in residential and supported-living services for people with learning disabilities and understand the stressors staff encountered, the ways in which they managed stress and the support mechanisms they found useful.Method A qualitative descriptive approach was used and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 support staff working in residential or supported-living services for people with learning disabilities in the south of England.Findings The COVID-19 pandemic caused additional stress for staff, including information overload, challenges in providing person-centred, holistic support, and feelings of unfairness or being let down. However, staff derived benefits from timely, practical and non-judgemental support from managers and peers, and from celebrating their own and service users’ achievements.Conclusion A greater focus on non-judgemental listening by managers, celebration of staff’s and service users’ achievements and awareness of the potential overwhelming effects of email communication could reduce the stress levels support staff are exposed to.

The need for revision of selected aspects of online Master's and doctoral student supervision

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions have been concerned about their Master and doctoral students, in particular how and when they would be able to continue and complete their research activities and dissertations. Scholars have noted the potential deterioration in the quality of research projects for a variety of reasons (transformation and/ or abandoning of approved research methods, anxiety-related lowered performance rates, altered modes of supervision and delays in completion times). In this article, I discuss the findings of a small-scale study, undertaken in July 2020, on whether there has been a significant change in the supervision of Master's and doctoral students in Africa due to the outbreak and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. I used a Google Form online survey to obtain participants' opinion on the frequency of interactions between supervisors and supervisees, the medium of interaction as well as the Master's and doctoral candidates' general progress. The study participants were all instructors in higher education who supervise Master and PhD students. There has been a change in frequency and means of supervision, that there is more reliance on videoconferencing tools and interaction "at a distance". However, the data cannot conclusively confirm that there has been a significant transformation in the way students are supervised because many study participants indicated their wish to return to the way things were done pre-pandemic. Nevertheless, there will probably be more reliance on social media, email and other online tools such as Zoom and Skype post-pandemic. In the words of the study participants, "online supervision is developing" and "the pandemic has also given us more tools of engagement, which is good".

E-participation decision across different channels

Purpose>This study focuses on understanding how channel features can affect people's intention to continue to use an electronic channel in public affairs and their recommendation behaviors. Specifically, three different channels are focused on: email, microblogs and online meetings.Design/methodology/approach>A research model on an e-participation channel based on the channel-disposition framework was developed and an online survey was conducted to collect data from 397 individuals who used three e-participation channels to validate seven hypotheses.Findings>The study found that information quality, channel interaction quality and the social appearance of other citizens all had a significant impact on users' intention to continue to use an electronic channel, which, in turn, affected their recommendation behaviors. However, the impact differed across the three e-participation channels. Information quality had a stronger impact on microblog and online meeting users' intention to continue to use these channels than on email users' intention to continue using email to participate in public affairs. Channel interaction quality had a stronger impact on email users' intention to continue to use email than on microblog and online meeting users' intention to continue to use these channels in public affairs.Originality/value>This study helps better explain how various channels and their features can affect participants' use intentions and behaviors in e-participation. It also provides practical guidance for government to better manage e-participation channels and effectively engage citizens in public affairs.

TEACHING TO A SCREEN: Is Anyone Out There?

March 4, 2020, was a regular school day at the middle school where I taught, but in Italy it was the day that all the schools across the country closed due to a surge in COVID-19 cases nationwide. [...]it was like waking up to see if there was a snow day;we were excited by the idea of having an extra day or two off of school. Each state was color-coded according to the status of their states schools: dark red for closed, red and white striped for impending closure, and grey for still in school. [...]my workload began compounding.

Branch Lines

PAUL GRAHAM Broadstairs 2020 being the 150th anniversary of Dickens's death, the Broadstairs Branch of the Fellowship decided to site two new benches on Nuckell's Gardens, opposite the Dickens House Museum, to commemorate this event. The gardens, home of the famous 'Donkeys!' scene in David Copperfield, are maintained by the Broadstairs Dickens Fellowship, and in normal times have been our venue each September for our outdoor meeting with a glass of wine and a reading by the Dickens Declaimers. [...]we did manage to organise a meeting for 8 September, at which Professor Tony Pointon gave us an interesting talk entitled 'Dickens and the Detectives', and he brought along some copies of his latest book - Charles Dickens's Last Case: Edwin Drood and the Curious Incident of the Unasked Question for sale to members. On the more local level The Danish Dickens Society has begun a cooperation with the local library in Copenhagen about A Christmas Carol this coming Christmas.

Housekeeping: Labor in the Pandemic University

THE ASYMMETRICAL, UNCOMPENSATED LABORS OF ACADEME have been the object of feminist scrutiny for years-well before the global outbreak of COVID-19.1 Noting the obvious "parallels with family life," critics long have observed that feminized faculty tend to take on, or to be tasked with, a disproportionate amount of institutional caretaking: non-research and non-teaching functions such as serving on institutional committees, managing admissions processes, writing student letters of recommendation, and advising, mentoring, and counseling students from underrepresented and marginalized communities navigating hostile or indifferent environments.2 Research plainly shows that such caring labor is disproportionately conducted by feminized workers, and increasingly feminized workers of color.3 Advice for how to rectify these inequities, echoing the victim-blaming bromides delivered to overwhelmed housewives, often is reduced to individual behavioral modification, as when "senior female professors" are encouraged to "model self-restraint" for untenured faculty members by "learning how to say 'no. Small regional private colleges with low endowments currently face financial pressures distinct from vocational twoyear colleges, online credentialing programs, or top-tier global research universities;state regulations and revenue streams vary by national and regional context;religiously-affiliated institutions embody entanglements that non-religiously affiliated institutions do not;in the US context, HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges, and predominantly white institutions occupy dissimilar social positions. The broad outlines of that restructuring are likely familiar to most readers of this academic journal: government divestment from public higher education, increased student fees and tuitions, the corporatization of university administration, the expansion of contingent and disposable teaching labor, the focus on education as a "deliverable" for students to "consume," the extension of working hours through 24/7 email availability, etc.8 Take, for example, the United States, where our academic labor is physically located (even as it is Zoom-distributed elsewhere): as recently as three decades ago, 75 percent of working faculty members were tenured or tenure track;now it is roughly 25 percent, depending on how online educators are tallied.9 The new contingent majority often teach, advise, write, and think in highly precarious conditions, commuting weekly, if not daily, between multiple campuses. Exhausting emotional and manual labor can remain inadequately recognized and compensated as long as that labor is effectively naturalized as maternal affection or feminine empathy.17 Already, in the pre-pandemic university, the affective imperative to work excessively out of love (for literature, for science, etc.) provided a means of access to the academic professional's embodied labor power - access shaped, as ever, by hierarchies of race, language, citizenship, gender, sexuality, age, and ability.

Where in The World?

If educators's goal is to prepare children for the real world and provide authentic learning experiences, the STEAM project is an ideal tool to teach global connections. Miller et al have experienced a world global connection during the pandemic like no other. In every country, every corner of the world was a part of the "practical experiment." For years, they have aspired to make engineering more accessible and encourage students to pursue engineering careers. COVID-19 has engaged the world in STEAM. People are glued to social media, navigating data, looking at graphs, and learning about microbiology all to gain a deeper understanding of a virus. STEAM, in the absence of global education connections, is not representative of the scientific enterprise. Just as the virus knows no borders, neither do discovery or innovation. Society will only succeed if they recognize that they are a collection of their individual stories and perceptions that will create a beautifully unique tapestry when woven together with guidance. Creative problem solving will tackle global challenges, and educators must prepare and encourage their students to charge forward with a global mindset.