Search results for: diving

Authors: L. Mota, O. Frausto

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Marine Protected Areas can benefit from nature based tourism, monitoring environmental impacts and also become target for human presence. From more than 3 million tourists visiting Cozumel Island every year, an average of 2,8 million arrive by cruise ship, and 41% are estimated to have motivation for water activities. The destination is relying so much on the tourism activity, that scuba diving and snorkeling in the National Park Reef of Cozumel sustain the major economic activity. In order to achieve the sustainable development indicator designed for regional environmental development, the PNAC offers a training course for tourism providers acceding the protected area. This way, the update of the last 5 years of such training is directed to diving staff, boat crew and professionals, making them able to assist in managing the natural resource. Moreover, the case study is an example to be used for raising awareness among tourists visiting protected areas.

Keywords: education, marine protected area, scuba diving, sustainability, tourism

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Authors: D. P. Rollinson, B. J. Dilley, P. G. Ryan

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The white-chinned petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) is the seabird species most commonly killed by Southern Hemisphere longline fisheries. Despite the importance of diving ability for mitigating longline bycatch, little is known of this species’ diving behaviour. We obtained data from temperature–depth recorders from nine white-chinned petrels breeding on Marion Island, southwestern Indian Ocean, during the late incubation and chickrearing period. Maximum dive depth (16 m) was slightly deeper than the previous estimate (13 m), but varied considerably among individuals (range 2–16 m). Males dived deeper than females, and birds feeding chicks dived deeper than incubating birds, but dive rate did not differ between the sexes. Time of day had no significant effect on dive depth or rate. Our findings will help to improve the design and performance of mitigation measures aimed at reducing seabird bycatch in longline fisheries, such as the calculation of minimum line sink rates and optimum aerial coverage of bird-scaring lines.

Keywords: dive depth, dive duration, temperature–depth recorders, seabirds, bird-scaring lines

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Authors: Kimberly Joyce A. Roguis, Mica Lorraine L. Fernando, Alan Vito B. Macadangdang, Jennina Mari C. Mijares, Maria Carinnes A. Gonzalez

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The paper showcases the vulnerability of the tourism industry especially the inevitable occurrence of natural disasters, implicating the necessity for post-disaster analysis on tourist attractions. This study discusses the aftermath of the super typhoon ‘Yolanda’ incident in the locality of Coron Island, Palawan, assessing its general effect on the community and its tourism livelihood through the analysis of responses from key role-players in the tourism industry of the area gathered through semi-structured interviews and direct observation. The local government’s instigation of recovery programs to their locality has been a pivotal factor in reviving the vitality of their tourism industry and the involvement of the community has been the determining condition that shifted the industry towards revival a year after the incidence. The study illuminates the disaster mitigation processes in the local tourism livelihood perspective, predominantly the diving industry. It did not suffer physical damage to a great extent but was affected because of the public imagery the disaster brought upon. Collaboration between the local government and the community is the highlight of the research for they maneuvered recovery revealing that cooperation between these two parties bridged the correlation of recovery to tourism development. The disaster paved way to a stance towards promoting progressive tourism outlooks, raising awareness among the public and private sectors and re-assessment of the tourism vitality in their locality. The mayhem and destruction proved to be a liberating creative process to give way to progression and was deemed to be of high significance in the over-all tourism system process despite its impediments in the case of the tourism industry in Coron, Palawan.

Keywords: disaster recovery, tourism development, diving, Palawan

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Authors: Frappi Sofia, Nicolas Pilcher, Sander DenHaring, Royale Hardenstine, Luis Silva, Collin Williams, Mattie Rodrigue, Vincent Pieriborne, Mohammed Qurban, Carlos M. Duarte

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Nowadays, elasmobranch populations are disappearing at a dangerous rate, mainly due to overexploitation, extensive fisheries, as well as climate change. The decline of these species can trigger a cascade effect, which may eventually lead to detrimental impacts on local ecosystems. The Elasmobranch in the Red Sea is facing one of the highest risks of extinction, mainly due to unregulated fisheries activities. Thus, it is of paramount importance to assess their current distribution and unveil their environmental preferences in order to improve conservation measures. Important data have been collected throughout the whole red Sea during the Red Sea Decade Expedition (RSDE) to achieve this goal. Elasmobranch sightings were gathered through the use of submarines, remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV), scuba diving operations, and helicopter surveys. Over a period of 5 months, we collected 891 sightings, 52 with submarines, 138 with the ROV, 67 with the scuba diving teams, and 634 from helicopters. In total, we observed 657 and 234 individuals from the superorder Batoidea and Selachimorpha, respectively. The most common shark encountered was Iago omanensis, a deep-water shark of the order Carcharhiniformes. To each sighting, data on temperature, salinity density, and dissolved oxygen were integrated to reveal favorable conditions for each species. Additionally, an extensive literature review on elasmobranch research in the Eastern Red Sea has been carried out in order to obtain more data on local populations and to be able to highlight patterns of their distribution.

Keywords: distribution, elasmobranchs, habitat, rays, red sea, sharks

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Authors: Andrey Davydov, Konstantin Sveshnikov, Yulia Voronina

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There is now a lot of interest to the non-perturbative QED-effects, caused by diving of discrete levels into the negative continuum in the supercritical static or adiabatically slowly varying Coulomb fields, that are created by the localized extended sources with Z > Z_cr. Such effects have attracted a considerable amount of theoretical and experimental activity, since in 3+1 QED for Z > Z_cr,1 ≈ 170 a non-perturbative reconstruction of the vacuum state is predicted, which should be accompanied by a number of nontrivial effects, including the vacuum positron emission. Similar in essence effects should be expected also in both 2+1 D (planar graphene-based hetero-structures) and 1+1 D (one-dimensional ‘hydrogen ion’). This report is devoted to the study of such essentially non-perturbative vacuum effects for the supercritical Dirac-Coulomb systems in 1+1D and 2+1D, with the main attention drawn to the vacuum polarization energy. Although the most of works considers the vacuum charge density as the main polarization observable, vacuum energy turns out to be not less informative and in many respects complementary to the vacuum density. Moreover, the main non-perturbative effects, which appear in vacuum polarization for supercritical fields due to the levels diving into the lower continuum, show up in the behavior of vacuum energy even more clear, demonstrating explicitly their possible role in the supercritical region. Both in 1+1D and 2+1D, we explore firstly the renormalized vacuum density in the supercritical region using the Wichmann-Kroll method. Thereafter, taking into account the results for the vacuum density, we formulate the renormalization procedure for the vacuum energy. To evaluate the latter explicitly, an original technique, based on a special combination of analytical methods, computer algebra tools and numerical calculations, is applied. It is shown that, for a wide range of the external source parameters (the charge Z and size R), in the supercritical region the renormalized vacuum energy could significantly deviate from the perturbative quadratic growth up to pronouncedly decreasing behavior with jumps by (-2 x mc^2), which occur each time, when the next discrete level dives into the negative continuum. In the considered range of variation of Z and R, the vacuum energy behaves like ~ -Z^2/R in 1+1D and ~ -Z^3/R in 2+1D, exceeding deeply negative values. Such behavior confirms the assumption of the neutral vacuum transmutation into the charged one, and thereby of the spontaneous positron emission, accompanying the emergence of the next vacuum shell due to the total charge conservation. To the end, we also note that the methods, developed for the vacuum energy evaluation in 2+1 D, with minimal complements could be carried over to the three-dimensional case, where the vacuum energy is expected to be ~ -Z^4/R and so could be competitive with the classical electrostatic energy of the Coulomb source.

Keywords: non-perturbative QED-effects, one- and two-dimensional Dirac-Coulomb systems, supercritical fields, vacuum polarization

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Authors: Stefano Frassinelli, Alessandro Niccolai, Riccardo E. Zich

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Diving is an important Olympic sport. In this sport, the effective performance of the athlete is related to his capability to interact correctly with the springboard. In fact, the elevation of the jump and the correctness of the dive are influenced by the vibrations of the board. In this paper, the vibrations of the springboard will be analyzed by means of typical tools for vibration analysis: Firstly, a modal analysis will be done on two different models of the springboard, then, these two model and another one will be analyzed with a time analysis, done integrating the equations of motion od deformable bodies. All these analyses will be compared with experimental data measured on a real springboard by means of a 6-axis accelerometer; these measurements are aimed to assess the models proposed. The acquired data will be analyzed both in frequency domain and in time domain.

Keywords: springboard analysis, modal analysis, time domain analysis, vibrations

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Authors: J. R. Wang, W. Y. Li, H. T. Lin, B. H. Lee, C. Shih, S. W. Chen

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In this research, the TRACE/PARCS model of Lungmen ABWR has been developed for verification of ultimate response guideline (URG) efficiency. This ultimate measure was named as DIVing plan, abbreviated from system depressurization, water injection and containment venting. The simulation initial condition is 100% rated power/100% rated core flow. This research focuses on the estimation of the time when the fuel might be damaged with no water injection by using TRACE/PARCS first. Then, the effect of the reactor core isolation system (RCIC), control depressurization and ac-independent water addition system (ACIWA), which can provide the injection with 950 gpm are also estimated for the station blackout (SBO) transient.

Keywords: ABWR, TRACE, safety analysis, PARCS

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Authors: Felipe B. Martinez, Imelda C. Galera

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This paper presents an update on the physico-chemical properties of the Taal Lake for local government officials and representatives of non-government organizations by monitoring and evaluating a total of nine (9) water quality parameters. The study further shows that the Taal Lakes surface temperature, pH, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, color, and dissolved oxygen content conform to the standards set by the Department of Environment and Natural resources (DENR); while phosphate, chlorine, and 5-Day 20°C BOD are below the standard. Likewise, the T-test result shows no significant difference in the overall average of the two sites at the Taal Lake (P > 0.05). Based on the data, the Lake is safe for primary contact recreation such as bathing, swimming and skin diving, and can be used for aqua culture purposes.

Keywords: cool dry season, hot dry season, rainy season, Taal Lake, water quality

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Authors: Maryam Shayan

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Programming frameworks have been utilized as a part of chemical industry process safety operation and configuration to enhance its effectiveness. This paper gives a brief survey and investigation of the best in class and effects of programming frameworks in process security. A study was completed by talking staff accountable for procedure wellbeing practices in the Iranian chemical process industry and diving into writing of innovation for procedure security. This article investigates the useful and operational attributes of programming frameworks for security and endeavors to sort the product as indicated by its level of effect in the administration chain of importance. The study adds to better comprehension of the parts of Information Communication Technology in procedure security, the future patterns and conceivable gaps for innovative work.

Keywords: programming frameworks, chemical industry process, process security, administration chain, information communication technology

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Authors: Ferentinos George, Papatheodorou George, Belmonte Genuario, Geraga Maria, Christodoulou Dimitris, Fakiris Elias, Iatrou Margarita, Kordella Stravroula, Prevenios Michail, Mentogianis Vassilis, Sotiropoulos Makis

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The Ionian Sea Aquarium-Museum in Kefallinia Island, Greece and its twinning with that of Santa Maria al Bagno in the Salento peninsula, Italy, are recently established Hubs in the Ionian Sea funded by the European Territorial Cooperation Programme, Greece-Italy 2007-2013. The objectives of the Ionian Sea Aquarium-Museum are: (i) exhibiting to the public the underwater natural and cultural treasures of the seas surrounding the island, (ii) the functioning of a recreational/vocational hub for all educational levels but also for sea users and stakeholders, to raise their awareness of the seas and engage them in the European notion of the Blue Growth of the Seas and (iii) setting up diving parks in sites of natural and cultural importance. The natural heritage in the Aquarium-Museum is exhibited in five tanks displaying the two most important benthic habitats in the Mediterranean Sea, that is, the Posidonia oceanica and the Coralligene assemblages with the associated rich fauna. The cultural heritage is exhibited in: (i) Dioramas displaying scale model replicas of the three best preserved ancient and historic wrecks. -The Fiscardo Roman wreck dating between 1st cent B.C. and 2nd cent. A.D., which is one of the largest and best preserved in the Mediterranean Sea. -The HMS PERSEUS British submarine, which is known for the second deepest submarine escape from all sunken submarines in WW II, and -A wooden wreck, the Italian ship Alma probably, which was requisitioned by the German army and used for transporting supplies and ammunition. (ii) Documentaries: The first two present the complete story from launching to sinking of: the HMS PERSEUS British submarine, the SS Ardena which is associated with the Italian Aqui Division killed by the German forces in Kefallinia and made known from the book and film “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” and the third documentary deals with the birth place of seafaring in the world, which took place in the Greek. Archipelago by Neanderthals and modern humans between 115 and 35 thousand years ago. The Aquarium-Museum starts from next year (a) educational programmes for schools and tourists to discover the natural and cultural treasures around Kefallinia island, (b) recreational/vocational holiday activities centered on eco-diving and get involved in mapping and monitoring NATURA 2000 sites around the island and thus actively engaged in the Blue Growth of the seas and (c) summer schools aimed at under/post-graduate students, who are interested in marine archaeology and geo-habitat mapping and are looking for a job in the sustainable management of the seas. The exhibition themes in the Aquarium-Museum as well as the recreational /vocational and educational activities are prepared by the Oceanus Net laboratories of Patras University and were selected after surveying the seafloor using the latest state of art sonar and camera technologies.

Keywords: aquarium-museum, cultural and natural treasures, ionian sea, Kefallinia Island

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Authors: H. Shafaattalab Dehghani, H. R. Zarei

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The large karstic Bell spring with a discharge ranging between 250 and 5300 lit/ sec is one of the most important springs of Kermanshah Province. This spring supplies drinking water of Nodsheh City and its surrounding villages. The spring is located in the reservoir of Daryan Dam and its mouth would be submerged after impounding under a water column of about 110 m height. This paper has aimed to render an account of the karstification pattern around the spring under consideration with the intention of preventing Bell Spring from being submerged in Daryan Dam Reservoir. The studies comprise engineering geology and hydrogeology investigations. Some geotechnical activities included in these studies include geophysical studies, drilling, excavation of exploratory gallery and shaft and diving. The results depict that Bell is a single-conduit siphon spring with 4 m diameter and 85 m height that 32 m of the conduit is located below the spring outlet. To survive the spring, it was decided to plug the outlet and convey the water to upper elevations under the natural pressure of the aquifer. After plugging, water was successfully conveyed to elevation 837 meter above sea level (about 120 m from the outlet) under the natural pressure of the aquifer. This signifies the accuracy of the studies done and proper recognition of the karstification pattern of Bell Spring. This is a unique experience in karst problems in Iran.

Keywords: bell spring, Karst, Daryan Dam, submerged

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Authors: Su Tezel

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The paper deals with licensed athletes affiliated with the Turkish Underwater Sports Federation to assess the consumption status of street food. The aim of the paper is the frequency of training during competition preparatory training or season periods, the athletes' economic situation, social life, work-life or education situations are the directs them to street food? Also to evaluate the importance that athletes attach to their nutritional status. Data were collected with survey method. 141 underwater sports athletes participated in the survey. Empirical findings on 141 respondents are related to athletes' demographic information, which underwater sports branch they doing (underwater hockey, underwater rugby and free diving), with whom they live, training hours and frequency, street food consumption frequency and preferences, which type drinks they prefer drink with or without street foods and other similar things. Most of the athletes were male (64.5%), female (35.5%) and the most athletes from the sports branches included in the survey belong to underwater hockey (95.7%). 93.7% of athletes have a training time between 08:00 pm to 00:00 am and the frequency of consuming street food after training is 88%. As a remarkable result, 48% of the reasons for consuming street food easy access to street foods after training. Statistical analyzes were made with the data obtained and the status of street food consumption of athletes, whether they were suitable for professional athlete nutrition and their attitudes were evaluated.

Keywords: nutrition, street foods, underwater hockey, underwater sport

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Authors: Athira M., Prakasha G. S.

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The rising prevalence of academic entitlement among school and college students necessitates a comprehensive investigation. This study focuses on discovering gender differentials in academic entitlement and their nexus with diverse grade negotiation behaviors within the undergraduate (UG) student cohort. Grade negotiation behaviors, encompassing a range from amicable discussions to more assertive tactics, are influenced by students' perceptions of their academic entitlement. The research delves into the broader significance of academic entitlement, considering its implications for student-teacher conflicts and the dynamics it introduces into the educational field. Employing a quantitative research approach, data from UG students is meticulously analyzed. Mann-Whitney U tests unveil pronounced gender difference in academic entitlement, with females demonstrating higher entitlement levels. Furthermore, the study unearths significant correlations between academic entitlement and specific negotiation styles, notably yielding and forcing strategies, albeit with minimal impact on academic performance. These findings provide a foundational understanding for educators and institutions to foster equitable learning environments and formulate effective conflict resolution strategies, ultimately elevating the quality of the educational experience. Moreover, this study opens avenues for future research, exploring interventions to enhance negotiation skills and diving deeper into the intricate dimensions of academic entitlement within academic life.

Keywords: academic entitlement, grade negotiation, negotiation styles, student-teacher conflict

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Authors: Jingsong Ma

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In political translation, ideology plays an important role in conveying implications accurately. Ideological collisions can occur in political translation when there existdifferences of political environments embedded in the translingual political texts in both source and target languages. To reach an accurate translationrequires the translatorto understand the ideologies implied in (and often transcending) the texts. This paper explores the conditions, procedure, and purpose of processingideological collision and resolution of such issues in political translation. These points will be elucidated by case studies of translating English and Chinese political texts. First, there are specific political terminologies in certain political environments. These terminological peculiarities in one language are often determined by ideological elements rather than by syntactical and semantical understanding. The translation of these ideological-loaded terminologiesis a process and operation consisting of understanding the ideological context, including cultural, historical, and political situations. This will be explained with characteristic Chinese political terminologies and their renderings in English. Second, when the ideology in the source language fails to match with the ideology in the target language, the decisions to highlight or disregard these conflicts are shaped by power relations, political engagement, social context, etc. It thus is necessary to go beyond linguisticanalysis of the context by deciphering ideology in political documents to provide a faithful or equivalent rendering of certain messages. Finally, one of the practical issues is about equivalence in political translation by redefining the notion of faithfulness and retainment of ideological messages in the source language in translations of political texts. To avoid distortion, the translator should be liberated from grip the literal meaning, instead diving into functional meanings of the text.

Keywords: translation, ideology, politics, society

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Authors: Imam Taufiqurrahman, Anugrah Adiwilaga, Egi Hidayat, Bambang Riyanto Trilaksono

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Autonomous Underwater Vehicle glider is one of the renewal of underwater vehicles. This vehicle is one of the autonomous underwater vehicles that are being developed in Indonesia. Glide ability is obtained by controlling the buoyancy and attitude of the vehicle using the movers within the vehicle. The glider motion mechanism is expected to provide energy resistance from autonomous underwater vehicles so as to increase the cruising range of rides while performing missions. The control system on the vehicle consists of three parts: controlling the attitude of the pitch, the buoyancy engine controller and the yaw controller. The buoyancy and pitch controls on the vehicle are sequentially referring to the finite state machine with pitch angle and depth of diving inputs to obtain a gliding cycle. While the yaw control is done through the rudder for the needs of the guide system. This research is focused on design and implementation of control system of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle glider based on PID anti-windup. The control system is implemented on an ARM TS-7250-V2 device along with a mathematical model of the vehicle in MATLAB using the hardware-in-the-loop simulation (HILS) method. The TS-7250-V2 is chosen because it complies industry standards, has high computing capability, minimal power consumption. The results show that the control system in HILS process can form glide cycle with depth and angle of operation as desired. In the implementation using half control and full control mode, from the experiment can be concluded in full control mode more precision when tracking the reference. While half control mode is considered more efficient in carrying out the mission.

Keywords: control system, PID, underwater glider, marine robotics

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Authors: A. Hamadelnil, Z. Razak, E. Matsoom

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Boat landings on fixed offshore structure are designed to absorb the impact energy from the boats approaching the platform for crew transfer. As the size and speed of operating boats vary, the design and maintenance of the boat landings become more challenging. Different oil and gas operators adopting different design criteria for the boat landing design in the region of South East Asia. Rubber strip is used to increase the capacity of the boat landing in absorbing bigger impact energy. Recently, it has been reported that all the rubber strips peel off the boat landing frame within one to two years, and replacement is required to avoid puncturing of the boat’s hull by the exposed sharp edges and bolts used to secure the rubber strip. The capacity of the boat landing in absorbing the impact energy is reduced after the failure of the rubber strip and results in failure of the steel members. The replacement of the rubber strip is costly as it requires a diving spread. The objective of this study is to propose the most practicable criteria to be adopted by oil and gas operators in the design of the boat landings in the region of South East Asia to improve the performance of the boat landing and assure safe operation and cheaper maintenance. This study explores the current design and maintenance challenges of boat landing and compares between the criteria adopted by different operators. In addition, this study explains the reasons behind the denting of many of the boat landing. It also evaluates the effect of grout and rubber strip in the capacity of the boat landing and jacket legs and highlight. Boat landing model and analysis using USFOS and SACS software are carried out and presented in this study considering different design criteria. This study proposes the most practicable criteria to be used in designing the boat landing in South East Asia region to save cost and achieve better performance, safe operation and less cost and maintenance.

Keywords: boat landing, grout, plastic hinge, rubber strip

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Authors: Majid Afkhami, Maryam Ehsanpour, Rastin Afkhami

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Sea cucumbers are aquatic animals with a wide variety useful for human health. Sea cucumbers are from the aquatic creatures that have many important and useful properties known for human health. Increasing demand for beche-de-mer along with steady price increases have led to worldwide intensification of sea cucumber harvesting. The rearing of sea cucumber with shrimp controls the environmental pollution results from extra enriched nutritious built on the pond bottom. These animals eat detritus and with devouring of organic materials on the surface, not only do they make the environment clean, but also they cause the fast growth of shrimp and themselves. Holothuria scabra is a main species for producing of Beche-de-mer and more exploited in tropical region of the world. The wall of body is used in the process of beche-de-mer production that forms the 56% of the whole body. Holothuria scabra (sandfish) is an aspidochirote holothurian widely distributed in coastal regions throughout the Indo-Pacific region. H. scabra is often found on inner reef flats and near estuaries, half buried in the silt sand during the day and emerging at night to feed. In this study upon to information from local fishermen's in Qeshm island, we Providing some data about fishing methods, processing and distribution in the Qeshm island coastline. Comparative study of fishing status with another part of the world determined that the status of sea cucumber stocks in Qeshm Island is suitable. For preventing of over exploited of sandy sea cucumber capture prohibition should be continue. In this study, 7 explotide sites are recognized, the target size for fishermen's was more than 20 cm and sandy cucumber was the target species in Qeshm Island. In this area the fishing operation was only done by scuba diving and has been done only by men's. Although in another countries women's have an important role in sea cucumber fishing operation. In the coast around Qeshm island it is found in Hmoon, Tolla, kovei, Ramchah, Messen, and Hengam. The maximum length and weight was recorded 35 cm and 1080 gr, respectively.

Keywords: sea cucumber, Holothuria scabra, fishing status, Qeshm Island

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Authors: Rute Martins, Margarida Mascarenhas, Elsa Pereira

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The importance between sport and the natural environment was researched through a systematic literature in order to analyse the available scientific articles on the association of sport -angling also the physical activity, active leisure and recreation- and environmental behaviour. The collected data were gathered within the last five years (from 2013 to April 2018) in the Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Sage, Green Leaf Online Library, GreenFile (EBSCO) and Wiley online Library databases. The content analysis based on the qualitative methods employed in this study was made with Nvivo software. Regarding only the inclusion of scientific articles, more than half of the collected papers highlighted tourism as the main area where sports is being researched with regard to the environmental theme. Thus, it is possible to extract a perspective of the orientations of the ecological concerns in the sports tourism industry. As such, in the winter sports, the climate change is already an identified issue, wondering about the impact of the environment on the sports practice. In this context, there is a focus on the possible adaptative strategies, researching the characteristics of the sports tourist and the winter sports industry. Regarding the natural parks and protected areas (such as reefs), most of the research is on the environmental impact of the sports tourism, choosing the conservation and the protection of nature as the core topics. The research of the sports tourist profile is addressed by many articles, where the motives for practice and the environmental values are being scanned, and relations to the recreation specialization, environmental responsibility, environmental education, and place-attachment concepts are being made. Regarding the sustainable management, the sports tourism study area is approaching the research in a more holistic way; exploring the stakeholder’s interconnection, focusing on landscape planning and environmentally sustainable practices of sport tourism organizations. The natural parks, protected areas, coral reefs, and snow areas serve as the preferred case-studies for investigating the environmental impact and the ecotourism, in particular, studied through hiking and diving in the great majority. The results of the study are a valuable resource to understand the importance of the sports tourism in the environmental and sustainable action along with the need of embracing all stakeholders within the relationship between the sport and the natural environment.

Keywords: ecotourism, environmental behaviour, outdoor recreation, sport tourism

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Authors: K. C. Bloom, Cynde McInnis

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The Covid-19 pandemic has caused immense changes in the way that we live, work and travel. The impact of these changes is readily apparent in tourism to Massachusetts and the region of New England. Whereas, in general, Massachusetts and New England are a hotspot for travelers from around the world, this form of travel has largely been shut down due to the pandemic. One such area where the impact has been felt is in marine-based wildlife tourism. Massachusetts is home to not only whales but also seals and great white sharks. Prior to the pandemic, whale watching had long been a popular activity while seal and shark tourism has been a developing one. Given that seeing a great white shark was rare in New England for many years, shark tourism has not played a role in the economies of the region until recently. While whales have steadily been found within the marine environments of Massachusetts and whale watching has been a popular attraction since the mid-1970s, the lack of great white sharks in New England was, in part, a response to a change in their environment in that a favorite food source, the gray seals, were culled by regional fishermen as the fishermen believed that seals were taking their catch. This retaliatory behavior ended when the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 (MMPA) was passed. The MMPA prohibited the killing of seals and since then the seal population has increased to traditional numbers (Tech Times, 2014). Given the increase in the seal population in New England, and especially Cape Cod, Massachusetts, there has been a similar increase in the numbers of great white sharks. In fact, over the time between 2004 and 2014, the number of sightings increased from an average of two per year to more than 20 (NY Post, 7/21/14). This has increased even more over the last six years. As a result, residents and businesses in Massachusetts have begun to embrace the great whites as a potential tourism draw. Local business owners are considering opening up cage diving and shark viewing businesses while there has also been an increase in shark-related merchandise throughout the Cape Cod region. Combined with a large whale watching industry, marine-based wildlife tourism is big business to Massachusetts. With the Covid-19 pandemic shuttering international travel, this study aims to look at the impacts of the pandemic on this industry. Through interviews with marine-based wildlife tourism businesses as well as survey data collection from visitors, this study looks at the holistic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on an important part of the marine tourism industry in the state.

Keywords: marine tourism, ecotourism, Covid, wildlife

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Authors: Chua Si Wen Alicia, Marcus Goh Tian Xi, Eunice Gan Ghee Wu, Helen Bound, Lee Liang Ying, Albert Lee

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In a world full of rapid changes, people often need a set of skills to help them navigate an ever-changing workscape. These skills, often known as “future-oriented skills,” include learning to learn, critical thinking, understanding multiple perspectives, and knowledge creation. Future-oriented skills are typically assumed to be domain-general, applicable to multiple domains, and can be cultivated through a learning approach called Dialogical Inquiry. Dialogical Inquiry is known for its benefits of making sense of multiple perspectives, encouraging critical thinking, and developing learner’s capability to learn. However, it currently exists as a quantitative tool, which makes it hard to track and compare learning processes over time. With these concerns, the present research aimed to develop and validate a quantitative tool for the Map of Dialogical Inquiry, focusing Imagining aspect of learning. The Imagining aspect four dimensions: 1) speculative/ look for alternatives, 2) risk taking/ break rules, 3) create/ design, and 4) vision/ imagine. To do so, an exploratory literature review was conducted to better understand the dimensions of Imagining. This included deep-diving into the history of the creation of the Map of Dialogical Inquiry and a review on how “Imagining” has been conceptually defined in the field of social psychology, education, and beyond. Then, we synthesised and validated scales. These scales measured the dimension of Imagination and related concepts like creativity, divergent thinking regulatory focus, and instrumental risk. Thereafter, items were adapted from the aforementioned procured scales to form items that would contribute to the preliminary version of the Imagining Scale. For scale validation, 250 participants were recruited. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) sought to establish dimensionality of the Imagining Scale with an iterative procedure in item removal. Reliability and validity of the scale’s dimensions were sought through measurements of Cronbach’s alpha, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. While CFA found that the distinction of Imagining’s four dimensions could not be validated, the scale was able to establish high reliability with a Cronbach alpha of .96. In addition, the convergent validity of the Imagining scale was established. A lack of strong discriminant validity may point to overlaps with other components of the Dialogical Map as a measure of learning. Thus, a holistic approach to forming the tool – encompassing all eight different components may be preferable.

Keywords: learning, education, imagining, pedagogy, dialogical teaching

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Authors: Antonis Elia, Theo Loizou, Gladys Onambele-Pearson, Matthew Barlow, Georgina Stebbings

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Hypoxic conditions have been reported to enhance red blood cell production in both acclimatised low-landers and altitude adapted populations. This process is mediated by the erythropoietin hormone, which is released predominantly by the hypoxic kidney. A higher haemoglobin concentration was previously reported in elite breath-hold divers when compared to elite-skiers and untrained individuals. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate whether apnoea induced hypoxia could induce a significant increase in serum erythropoietin concentration in recreational breath-hold divers which would provide an explanation to the higher haemoglobin levels observed in elite breath-hold divers. Identifying whether apnoea induced hypoxia induces a significant increase in serum erythropoietin might suggest that apnoea can be used as an alternative acclimatisation method to high altitude exposure. Seven healthy, recreational male breath-hold divers performed two sets of five 180 second breath-holds with a ten-minute supine rest between each set and a two-minute seated rest between each apnoea. During each breath-hold, participant’s heart rate and peripheral oxygen saturation levels were recorded every subsequent 10 seconds until the end of the 180 second breath-hold. After each 180 second breath-hold a capillary blood sample was collected from the finger to identify circulating haemoglobin levels. Following completion of the apnoeic protocol, three blood samples were collected at 30, 90 and 180 minutes to measure circulating erythropoietin levels. A significant interaction between erythropoietin and time was observed (F(3,18)= 4.72, p < 0.001), with significant increases in erythropoietin evident at 30 (t(6)= -5.035, p < 0.0590 (t(6)= -6.162, p < 0.05) and 180 (t(6)= - 7.232, p < 0.001) minutes post the last apnoea when compared to baseline. Corresponding average increases when compared to baseline were 16% at 30, 23% at 90 and 40% at 180 minutes post the last apnoea. A significant interaction between haemoglobin and time was observed (F(78,84)= 20.814, p < 0.001), with significant increases in haemoglobin evident at the fifth (t(29)= -1.124, p < 0.001), ninth (t(29)= -1.357, p < 0.001) and tenth (t(29)= -1.211, p < 0.05) apnoeas when compared to baseline. A significant interaction between peripheral oxygen saturation and time was observed (F(10,60)= 408.23, p < 0.001). The present study demonstrates that a series of ten 180 second breath-holds is sufficient to induce a significant increase in the circulating erythropoietin concentration of recreational breath hold divers. These observations may suggest that apnoea induced hypoxia may be used as an alternative acclimatisation method to high altitude exposure.

Keywords: apnoea, breath-holding, diving reflex, erythropoietin, haemoglobin

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Authors: Lynn C. Jonas

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The African continent is rich in coastal history, heritage, and culture, presenting immense potential for the development of maritime tourism. Shipping and its related components are generally associated with the maritime industry, and tourism’s link is to the various forms of nautical tourism. Activities may include cruising, yachting, visits to lighthouses, ports, harbors, and excursions to related sites of cultural, historical, or ecological significance. There have been hundreds of years of explorers leaving a string of shipwrecks along the various coastal areas on the continent in their pursuit of establishing trade routes between Europe, Africa, and the Far East. These shipwrecks present diving opportunities in artificial reefs and marine heritage to be explored in various ways in the maritime cultural zones. Along the South African coast, for example, six Portuguese shipwrecks highlight the Bartolomeu Dias legacy of exploration, and there are a number of warships in Tanzanian waters. Furthermore, decades of African countries being under colonized rule have left the continent with an intricate cultural heritage that is enmeshed in European language architecture interlinked with, in many instances, hard-fought independent littoral states. There is potential for coastal trails to be developed to follow these historical events as, at one point in history, France had colonized 35 African states, and subsequently, 32 African states were colonized by Britain. Countries such as Cameroon still have the legacy of Francophone versus Anglophone as a result of this shift in colonizers. Further to the colonized history of the African continent, there is an uncomfortable heritage of the slave trade history. To a certain extent, these coastal slave trade posts are being considered attractive to a niche tourism audience; however, there is potential for education and interpretive measures to grow this as a tourism product. Notwithstanding these potential opportunities, there are numerous challenges to consider, such as poor maritime infrastructure, maritime security concerns with issues such as piracy, transnational crimes including weapons and migrant smuggling, drug, and human trafficking. These and related maritime issues contribute to the concerns over the porous nature of African ocean gateways, adding to the security concerns for tourists. This theoretical paper will consider these trends and how they may contribute to the growth and development of maritime tourism on the African continent. African considerations of the growth potential of tourism in coastal and marine spaces are needed, particularly with a focus on embracing the continent's tumultuous past as part of its heritage. This has the potential to contribute to the creation of a sense of ownership of opportunities.

Keywords: coastal trade routes, maritime tourism, shipwrecks, slave trade routes

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Authors: Reeden Bicomong

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Ecotourism activities, though geared towards conservation efforts, still put pressures against the natural state of the environment. Influx of visitors that goes beyond carrying capacity of the ecotourism site, the wastes generated, greenhouse gas emissions, are just few of the potential negative impacts of a not well-managed ecotourism activities. According to Girard and Nocca (2017) tourism produces many negative impacts because it is configured according to the model of linear economy, operating on a linear model of take, make and dispose (Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2015). With the influx of tourists in an ecotourism area, more wastes are generated, and if unregulated, natural state of the environment will be at risk. It is in this light that a study on waste analysis and classification study in five different ecotourism sites of Samal Island, Philippines was conducted. The major objective of the study was to analyze the amount and content of wastes generated from ecotourism sites in Samal Island, Philippines and make recommendations based on the circular economy perspective. Five ecotourism sites in Samal Island, Philippines was identified such as Hagimit Falls, Sanipaan Vanishing Shoal, Taklobo Giant Clams, Monfort Bat Cave, and Tagbaobo Community Based Ecotourism. Ocular inspection of each ecotourism site was conducted. Likewise, key informant interview of ecotourism operators and staff was done. Wastes generated from these ecotourism sites were analyzed and characterized to come up with recommendations that are based on the concept of circular economy. Wastes generated were classified into biodegradables, recyclables, residuals and special wastes. Regression analysis was conducted to determine if increase in number of visitors would equate to increase in the amount of wastes generated. Ocular inspection indicated that all of the five ecotourism sites have their own system of waste collection. All of the sites inspected were found to be conducting waste separation at source since there are different types of garbage bins for all of the four classification of wastes such as biodegradables, recyclables, residuals and special wastes. Furthermore, all five ecotourism sites practice composting of biodegradable wastes and recycling of recyclables. Therefore, only residuals are being collected by the municipal waste collectors. Key informant interview revealed that all five ecotourism sites offer mostly nature based activities such as swimming, diving, site seeing, bat watching, rice farming experiences and community living. Among the five ecotourism sites, Sanipaan Vanishing Shoal has the highest average number of visitors in a weekly basis. At the same time, in the wastes assessment study conducted, Sanipaan has the highest amount of wastes generated. Further results of wastes analysis revealed that biodegradables constitute majority of the wastes generated in all of the five selected ecotourism sites. Meanwhile, special wastes proved to be the least generated as there was no amount of this type was observed during the three consecutive weeks WACS was conducted.

Keywords: Circular economy, ecotourism, sustainable development, WACS

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Authors: Anum Rafiq

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Adolescence is a vulnerable period for youth across the world. It is a period of new learning with opportunities to understand and develop perspectives on health and well-being. With youth beginning to engage in intimate relationships at an earlier age in the 21st century, concentrating on the learning opportunity they have in school is paramount. The nature of what has been deemed important to teach in schools has changed throughout history, and the focus has shifted from home/family skills to teaching youth how to be competitive in the job market. Amidst this emphasis, opportunities for them exist to learn about building healthy intimate relationships, one of the foundational elements of most people’s lives. Using an Institutional Ethnography (IE), the lived experiences of youth in how they understand intimate relationships and how their learning experience is organized through the high school Health and Physical Education (H&PE) course is explored. An empirical inquiry into how the actual work of teachers and youth are socially organized by a biomedical, employment-related, and efficiency-based discourse is provided. Through thirty-two qualitative interviews with teachers and youth, a control of ruling relations such as institutional accountability circuits, performance reports, and timetabling over the experience of teachers and youth is found. One of the facets of the institutional accountability circuit is through the social organization of teaching and learning about healthy intimate relationships being framed through a biomedical discourse. In addition, the role of a hyper-focus on performance and evaluation is found as paramount in situating healthy intimacy discussions as inferior to neoliberally charged productivity measures such as employment skills. Lastly, due to the nature of institutional policies such as regulatory guidelines, teachers are largely influenced to avoid diving into discussions deemed risky or taboo by society, such as healthy intimacy in adolescence. The findings show how texts such as the H&PE curriculum, the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) guidelines, Ministry of Education Performance Reports, and the timetable organize the day-to-day activities of teachers and students and reproduce different disjunctures for youth. This disjuncture includes some of their experiences being subordinated, difficulty relating to curriculum, and an experience of healthy living discussions being skimmed over across sites. The findings detail that the experience of youth in learning about healthy intimate relationships is not akin to the espoused vision outlined in policy documents such as the H&PE (2015) curriculum policy. These findings have implications for policymakers, activists, and school administration alike, which call for an investigation into who is in power when it comes to youth’s learning needs, as a pivotal period where youth can be equipped with life-changing knowledge is largely underutilized. A restructuring of existing institutional practices that allow for the social and institutional flexibility required to broach the topic of healthy intimacy in a comprehensive manner is required.

Keywords: health policy, intimate relationships, youth, education, ruling relations, sexual education, violence prevention

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Authors: Yiorgos Hadjichristou

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The paper will focus on the strategic development deriving from the evolution of the traditional courtyard spatial organization towards a new, contemporary sustainable way of living. New sustainable approaches that engulf the social issues, the notion of place, the understanding of weather architecture blended together with the bioclimatic behaviour will be seen through a series of experimental case studies in the island of Cyprus, inspired and originated from its traditional wisdom, ranging from small scale of living to urban interventions. Weather and nature will be seen as co-architectural authors with architects as intelligently claimed by Jonathan Hill in his Weather Architecture discourse. Furthermore, following Pallasmaa’s understanding, the building will be seen not as an end itself and the elements of an architectural experience as having a verb form rather than being nouns. This will further enhance the notion of merging the subject-human and the object-building as discussed by Julio Bermudez. This eventually will enable to generate the discussion of the understanding of the building constructed according to the specifics of place and inhabitants, shaped by its physical and human topography as referred by Adam Sharr in relation to Heidegger’s thinking. The specificities of the divided island and the dealing with sites that are in vicinity with the diving Green Line will further trigger explorations dealing with the regeneration issues and the social sustainability offering unprecedented opportunities for innovative sustainable ways of living. The above premises will lead us to develop innovative strategies for a profound, both technical and social sustainability, which fruitfully yields to innovative living built environments, responding to the ever changing environmental and social needs. As a starting point, a case study in Kaimakli in Nicosia a refurbishment with an extension of a traditional house, already engulfs all the traditional/ vernacular wisdom of the bioclimatic architecture. It aims at capturing not only its direct and quite obvious bioclimatic features, but rather to evolve them by adjusting the whole house in a contemporary living environment. In order to succeed this, evolutions of traditional architectural elements and spatial conditions are integrated in a way that does not only respond to some certain weather conditions, but they integrate and blend the weather within the built environment. A series of innovations aiming at maximum flexibility is proposed. The house can finally be transformed into a winter enclosure, while for the most part of the year it turns into a ‘camping’ living environment. Parallel to experimental interventions in existing traditional units, we will proceed examining the implementation of the same developed methodology in designing living units and complexes. Malleable courtyard organizations that attempt to blend the traditional wisdom with the contemporary needs for living, the weather and nature with the built environment will be seen tested in both horizontal and vertical developments. A new social identity of people, directly involved and interacting with the weather and climatic conditions will be seen as the result of balancing the social with the technological sustainability, the immaterial and the material aspects of the built environment.

Keywords: building as a verb, contemporary living, traditional bioclimatic wisdom, weather architecture

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Authors: C. Fortin, D. Tokmeninova, O. Ushakova

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Among 500 Russian universities Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) is one of the youngest (established in 2011), quite small and vastly international, comprising 20 percent of international students and 70 percent of faculty with significant academic experience at top-100 universities (QS, THE). The institute has emerged from close collaboration with MIT and leading Russian universities. Skoltech is an entirely English speaking environment. Skoltech curriculum plans of ten Master programs are based on the CDIO learning outcomes model. However, despite the Institute’s unique focus on industrial innovations and startups, one of the main challenges has become an evident large proportion of nearly half of MSc graduates entering PhD programs at Skoltech or other universities rather than industry or entrepreneurship. In order to increase the share of students joining the industrial sector after graduation, Skoltech started implementing a number of unique practices with a focus on employers’ expectations incorporated into the curriculum redesign. In this sense, extended knowledge exchange with industrial partners via collaboration in learning activities, industrial projects and assessments became essential for students’ headway into industrial and entrepreneurship pathways. Current academic curriculum includes the following types of components based on extended knowledge exchange with industrial partners: innovation workshop, industrial immersion, special industrial tracks, MSc defenses. Innovation workshop is a 4 week full time diving into the Skoltech vibrant ecosystem designed to foster innovators, focuses on teamwork, group projects, and sparks entrepreneurial instincts from the very first days of study. From 2019 the number of mentors from industry and startups significantly increased to guide students across these sectors’ demands. Industrial immersion is an exclusive part of Skoltech curriculum where students after the first year of study spend 8 weeks in an industrial company carrying out an individual or team project and are guided jointly by both Skoltech and company supervisors. The aim of the industrial immersion is to familiarize students with relevant needs of Russian industry and to prepare graduates for job placement. During the immersion a company plays the role of a challenge provider for students. Skoltech has started a special industrial track comprising deep collaboration with IPG Photonics – a leading R&D company and manufacturer of high-performance fiber lasers and amplifiers for diverse applications. The track is aimed to train a new cohort of engineers and includes a variety of activities for students within the “Photonics” MSc program. It is expected to be a successful story and used as an example for similar initiatives with other Russian high-tech companies. One of the pathways of extended knowledge exchange with industrial partners is an active involvement of potential employers in MSc Defense Committees to review and assess MSc thesis projects and to participate in defense procedures. The paper will evaluate the effect and results of the above undertaken measures.

Keywords: Curriculum redesign, knowledge exchange model, learning outcomes framework, stakeholder engagement

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Authors: Aathira Peedikaparambil Somasundaran

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The beginning of the 20th century marked the perios when a new generation of Lebanese radicals sowed the seeds for the second phase of Levant literary modernism, situated in the Levant. Beirut, during this era popularly fit every radical writer’s criterion owing to its weakened censorship and political control, despite the absence of a protective womb for the development of literary modernism, caused by the natively prevalent political unsettlement. The third stage of literary modernization, in which scholars used Western-inspired critical techniques to better understand their own cultures, coincides with the time period examined in this paper, which involved the international-inspired critical analysis of native cultural stimulants, which raised questions among Arab freethinking intellectuals. Locals who ventured outside recognised the difference between the West's progress and their own nations' stagnation. The awareness of such ‘gap of success’ aroused an ambition from journalists, authors, and proletarian revolutionaries who had studied in Europe, and finally developed enlightened ideas. Some Middle Eastern authors and artists only adopted current social and political frameworks after discovering western modernity. After learning about the upheavals that were happening in the West, these thinkers aspired to bring about equally broad drastic developments in their own country's social, political, and cultural milieu. These occurrences illustrate the increased power of migration to alter the cultural and literary scene in the Levant. The paper intends to discuss the different effects of migration that contributed to Levant literary modernism. The exploration of these factors as causes begins with addressing the politically influenced activism, that has always been a relevant part of Beirut, and then diving into the psychological effects of migration in the individuals of the society, which might have induced an accommodability to alien thoughts and ideas over time, as a coping mechanism. Nature or environmental stimuli, a common trigger for any creative output, often having the highest influence during travel will be identified and analysed to inspect the extent of its impact on the exchange of ideas that resulted in Levant modernism. The efficiency of both the stimulating component of travel and the diaspora of the indigenous, a by-product of travel in catalysing modernism in the Levant has to be proven in order to understand how migration indirectly affected the transmission and adoption of ideas in Levant literature. The paper will revisit the events revolving around these key players and platforms like Shir, to understand how the Lebanese literature, tied down in poetry drastically mutated under the leadership of Adonis, Yusuf et Khal, and other pioneers of Levant literary modernism. The conclision will identify the triggers that helped authors overcome personal and geographical barriers to unite the West and the Levant, and investigate the extent to which the bi-directional migration prompted a transformation in the local poetry. Consequently, the paper aims to shed light into the unique factor that provoked the shift in the literary scene of Twentieth century in the Middle East.

Keywords: literature, modernism, Middle East, levant, Beirut

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