Short break drive holiday destination attractiveness during COVID-19 border closures

Research into the topic of destination image has been popular in the tourism literature since the 1970s. However, only a minority of destination image studies have focused on the context of short break drive holidays. Domestic holidays have taken on increased importance for the tourism industry in many parts of the world during travel restrictions caused by COVID-19. Building on theorizing from evolutionary psychology, this paper reports a study with the data collected from two samples in New Zealand and Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conjoint analysis revealed the two most important destination attributes in terms of crowdedness and accommodation type, and latent class analysis revealed four segments. These insights have practical implications for marketers of smaller, less crowded destinations interested in the short break drive market, particularly given uncertainties about international leisure travel during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the possibility of future coronavirus outbreaks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Editorial: Automations in Long-Term Neurorehabilitation

Neurological disorders, such as stroke, Parkinson's disease, dementia, etc., are increasing globally mainly because of the rapid growth of the aging population and the trend of these diseases in younger generations. Long-term neurorehabilitation for these disorders has been challenging in traditional rehabilitation services, which heavily rely on manual operations by professional manpower in diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up, when the patient populations are expanding. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has already lasted for years globally with an unforeseeable end-date, which has triggered the urgent need of more flexible rehabilitation, e.g., remote and self-help modes at home, to augment the traditional, centralized, and face-to-face practices in hospitals/clinics.

Combined lifestyle, mental health, and mortality in US cancer survivors: a national cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Adopting healthy lifestyles and staying mentally health are two cost-effective modifiable strategies that cancer survivors can implement in self-management. We aimed to evaluate the independent, mediation, interaction, and joint associations of combined lifestyle and mental health with mortality in cancer survivors. METHODS: We performed a cohort study including 3145 cancer survivors from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-2018). A healthy lifestyle score was constructed based on post-diagnosis body mass index, physical activity, diet, smoking, and drinking. Post-diagnosis mental health was assessed by Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause, cancer, and non-cancer mortality were computed using Cox proportional hazards regression models. RESULTS: After 20,900 person-years of follow-up (median, 6.3 years), cancer survivors with higher lifestyle score had decreased mortality, independent of mental health. Compared to participants with lower lifestyle score (0-1), HRs (95% CIs) for all-cause and non-cancer mortality among those with higher lifestyle score (3-5) were 0.68 (0.52-0.89) and 0.69 (0.56-0.85), respectively. 6.2-10.3% of the associations were mediated by mental health. Similar trends were observed among participants categorized by mental health, those with better mental health had lower mortality, independent of lifestyle. Participants with better mental health benefited more from adopting healthy lifestyles, and vice versa. Combinations of higher healthy lifestyle score and better mental health were associated with significant decreased mortality, the lowest mortality was seen in participants with highest healthy lifestyle score and concurrently with best mental health. CONCLUSIONS: For the first time, in this cohort study with a nationally representative sample of US cancer survivors, we comprehensively explored the complex associations of lifestyle, mental health, and mortality. Evidence derived from this study may give much confidence to cancer survivors and healthcare providers that, changing one's lifestyle and/or staying mentally healthy after cancer diagnosis can improve survival.

Investigation and analysis of cognitive function and psychological status in stroke patients with COVID-19

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients with stroke and the changes of cognitive function and mental state within 6 months after discharge. Methods Retrospective analysis of 32 patients with COVID-19 complicated with stroke in the Third people's Hospital of Hubei Province from January 21 to June 1, 2020, and 32 patients with COVID-19 patients without stroke and 32 common pneumonia patients complicated with stroke treated in the same period as the control group. The clinical data and experimental parameters in the hospital were counted. They were followed up within 6 months after discharge, and the cognitive function of the patients was evaluated by Montreal cognitive function evaluation form, GAD-7 extensive anxiety scale and PHQ-9 depression scale, to test the psychological state of patients. The significant differences under three scores of the groups were analyzed, and the related risk factors of anxiety and depression were analyzed by binary logistic regression. Results Kruskal-wallisH test showed that there was a significant difference in cognitive score, anxiety score, depression score among groups(P<0. 05). Binary logistic regression analysis showed that female gender (P = 0.004) and COVID-19 infection(P < 0.001) were independent risk factors for anxiety and depression in stroke population. Conclusion COVID-19 was indeed associated with prognosis anxiety and depression, but not with cognitive impairment. Women and patients with COVID-19 infection were independent factors of anxiety and depression in stroke population. There are serious negative emotions such as anxiety and depression within 6 months after discharge, and there are still many psychological problems. After discharge, taking corresponding psychological intervention for patients can maintain their mental health and promote disease rehabilitation.

Short break drive holiday destination attractiveness during COVID-19 border closures

Research into the topic of destination image has been popular in the tourism literature since the 1970s. However, only a minority of destination image studies have focused on the context of short break drive holidays. Domestic holidays have taken on increased importance for the tourism industry in many parts of the world during travel restrictions caused by COVID-19. Building on theorizing from evolutionary psychology, this paper reports a study with the data collected from two samples in New Zealand and Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conjoint analysis revealed the two most important destination attributes in terms of crowdedness and accommodation type, and latent class analysis revealed four segments. These insights have practical implications for marketers of smaller, less crowded destinations interested in the short break drive market, particularly given uncertainties about international leisure travel during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the possibility of future coronavirus outbreaks.

Recognition efficiency of atypical cardiovascular readings on ECG devices through fogged goggles.

In their continuing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, medical workers in hospitals worldwide need to wear safety glasses and goggles to protect their eyes from the possible transmission of the virus. However, they work for long hours and need to wear a mask and other personal protective equipment, which causes their protective eye wear to fog up. This fogging up of eye wear, in turn, has a substantial impact in the speed and accuracy of reading information on the interface of electrocardiogram (ECG) machines. To gain a better understanding of the extent of the impact, this study experimentally simulates the fogging of protective goggles when viewing the interface with three variables: the degree of fogging of the goggles, brightness of the screen, and color of the font of the cardiovascular readings. This experimental study on the target recognition of digital font is carried out by simulating the interface of an ECG machine and readability of the ECG machine with fogged eye wear. The experimental results indicate that the fogging of the lenses has a significant impact on the recognition speed and the degree of fogging has a significant correlation with the font color and brightness of the screen. With a reduction in screen brightness, its influence on recognition speed shows a v-shaped trend, and the response time is the shortest when the screen brightness is 150 cd/m2. When eyewear is fogged, yellow and green font colors allow a quicker response with a higher accuracy. On the whole, the subjects show a better performance with the use of green font, but there are inconsistencies. In terms of the interaction among the three variables, the same results are also found and the same conclusion can be made accordingly. This research study can act as a reference for the interface design of medical equipment in events where medical staff wear protective eyewear for a long period of time.

Visual recognition efficiency of handheld infrared thermometer interface information under low ambient illuminance

One of the symptoms of plagues, epidemics or pandemics is often a fever, so during such unprecedented times, handheld infrared thermometers are vital devices for monitoring symptomatic individuals. It is therefore very important to enhance reading efficiency when these thermometers are used for lengthy periods of time in a low illuminance environment. The need for the efficient reading of infrared thermometers or a fast reaction time when reading the information is even more relevant now during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, a target search experiment of digital characters is carried out through a simulated interface and use scenarios of a handheld thermometer based on three variables: the inclination angle or slant of the seven segment display characters, screen brightness, and ambient illuminance. The experimental results show that the inclination angle or slant of the characters and ambient illuminance have a significant effect on the reaction speed. In general, the slowest reaction time is found when reading characters with a slant of 10° to the left and the reaction time is the fastest with a right slant of 20°. A continued reduction in ambient illuminance does not affect the visual recognition performance but instead further enhances reading efficiency. Increasing the screen brightness increases the reaction time more in relatively low ambient illuminance conditions as opposed to relatively high ambient illuminance, which implies that in higher ambient illuminance conditions, a brighter screen needs to be used to obtain the same reaction speed as that in lower ambient illuminance conditions.

The effects of crowdedness and safety measures on restaurant patronage choices and perceptions in the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper investigates the effects of crowdedness and in-restaurant safety measures on consumers' restaurant patronage choices (eat-in vs. order takeaway vs. not patronize) and their perceptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an online experiment with 593 US consumers and 591 Australian consumers, we assess the effects of three levels of crowdedness (low vs. medium vs. high crowdedness) and four types of in-restaurant safety measures (none vs. partition vs. increasing distances between tables vs. not using in-between tables) by showing participants an image of the restaurant setting. Results show that US consumers are more sensitive to crowdedness, whereas Australian consumers are more sensitive to different types of safety measures, which greatly influence their patronage choices. In general, safety measures featuring social distancing are preferred over partitions, and there is no preferential difference between the measure of increasing distances between tables and the measure of not using in-between tables.

To disclose or to falsify: The effects of cognitive trust and affective trust on customer cooperation in contact tracing.

Contact tracing involves collecting people's information to track the spread of COVID-19 and to warn people who have been in the proximity of infected individuals. This measure is important to public health and safety during the pandemic. However, customers' concerns about the violation of their privacy might inhibit their cooperation in the contact tracing process, which poses a risk to public safety. This research investigates how to facilitate customers' cooperative behavior in contact tracing based on cognitive trust and affective trust. The findings show that cognitive trust increases people's willingness to disclose information and reduces their willingness to falsify it, whereas affective trust increases the willingness for both disclosure and falsification. This research contributes to the literature on customer data privacy by illuminating how cognitive and affective trust distinctly influence cooperative behavior, which has important implications for hospitality businesses.

The negative effect of scarcity cues on consumer purchase decisions in the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 pandemic

Existing literature shows a positive effect of demand-driven scarcity cues on consumer purchase intentions. Hospitality businesses with high market demand tend to be preferred as consumers perceive these services to be popular and have superior quality. In this research, we demonstrate that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers form a novel inference about demand-driven scarcity cues: consumers consider scarce hospitality businesses to be less safe to consume. This new scarcity-safety inference in turn lowers consumer purchase intentions and preferences because the scarcity-safety inference is more diagnostic than scarcity-popularity and scarcity-quality inferences in the current pandemic. Furthermore, when consumers are presented with more diagnostic external information (e.g., customer reviews) or when the consumption context lowers safety concerns (e.g., order food online and consume at home), the main negative effect of scarcity cues on consumer purchase decisions is attenuated. These findings provide important managerial implications for hospitality businesses.