Seeking romance and a once in a life-time experience : considering attributes that attract honeymooners to destinations

Couples on their honeymoon represent a vital part of the tourism market. Since the destination decision for honeymooners is a joint decision, paired in-depth interviews were conducted with ten British couples to explore their honeymoon destination decision making. The themes that arose from this qualitative study were consistent with more general studies on destination choice, including: culture, natural environment, and accommodation. New themes developed from the research included familiarity, romance, and budget. The results indicate that couples were more likely to stretch their budget for a honeymoon, or appear to be less concerned about the cost of their trip, as many see it as a once in a lifetime experience. This indicates that this valuable segment ofthe market should be further explored.

Sacred time after emigration : a study of the Holy Mother Festival in Zavoj

In Zavoj, a mountainous village in the Republic of Macedonia, the Day of the Holy Mother is the most significant day in the village's ritual calendar. The Day of the Holy Mother, like other holy days associated with saints, is a religious festival in the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar; and Zavoj, like other villages, identifies with a particular holy day, in this case that of the Holy Mother. Festival is historically and etymologically linked to feast, a celebration in honour of gods, and the Day of the Holy Mother, like the two principal feasts in the Christian calendar, the Feast of Nativity of our Lord (Christmas) and the Feast of Resurrection (Easter), is a religious celebration that includes a feast in honour of the saint, traditionally as a breaking of a fast. Importantly, many Zavoj emigrants return to the village for the festival on the Day of the Holy Mother. Over recent years both village and the festival have been transformed, due to large and continuing emigration and the demise of the resident peasant generation. This chapter will examine the changes in the festival, comparing that of 1988, when the village was inhabited, with that of 2007, when there were only a few people resident and by which time many of the peasant generation had passed on. As a result of emigration the village is emptied of its inhabitants, yet it remains the site of, and destination for, the continuity of the annual festival.

Quality control of sensor network data

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a group of sensors that are geographically distributed and interconnected by wireless networks. Sensors gather information about the state of physical world. Then, after processing forward them to the main destination. To be able to provide this service, there are many aspects of communication techniques that need to be explored. Supporting quality of service (QoS) will be of critical importance for pervasive WSNs that serve as the network infrastructure of diverse applications. To illustrate new research and development interests in this field, this paper examines and discusses the requirements, critical challenges, and open research issues on QoS management in WSNs. A brief overview of recent progress is given.

The visitors guide a simple video reuse application

One of the results of the surge in interest in the internet is the great increase in availability of pictorial and video data. Web browsers such as Netscape give access to an enormous range of such data. In order to make use of large amounts of pictorial and video data, it is necessary to develop indexing and retrieval methods. Pictorial databases have made great progress recently, to the extent that there are now a number of commercially available products. Video databases are now being researched and developed from a number of different viewpoints. Given a general indexing scheme for video, the next step is to reuse clips in further applications. In this paper we present an initial application for the reuse of video clips. The aim of the system is to resequence video clips for a particular application. We have chosen a well-constrained application for this purpose, the aim being to produce a video tour of a campus between designated start and destination points from a set of indexed video clips. We use clips of a guide entering and leaving buildings on our campus, and when visitors select a start location and a destination, the system will retrieve clips suitable for guiding the visitor along the correct path. The system uses an index of spatial relationships of key objects for the video clips to decide which clips provide the correct sequence of motion around the campus. Although the full power of the indexing notation is unnecessary for this simple problem, the results from this initial implementation indicate that the concept could be applicable to more complex problems.

Hierarchical representation for spatial knowledge

One of the fundamental issues in building autonomous agents is to be able to sense, represent and react to the world. Some of the earlier work [Mor83, Elf90, AyF89] has aimed towards a reconstructionist approach, where a number of sensors are used to obtain input that is used to construct a model of the world that mirrors the real world. Sensing and sensor fusion was thus an important aspect of such work. Such approaches have had limited success, and some of the main problems were the issues of uncertainty arising from sensor error and errors that accumulated in metric, quantitative models. Recent research has therefore looked at different ways of examining the problems. Instead of attempting to get the most accurate and correct model of the world, these approaches look at qualitative models to represent the world, which maintain relative and significant aspects of the environment rather than all aspects of the world. The relevant aspects of the world that are retained are determined by the task at hand which in turn determines how to sense. That is, task directed or purposive sensing is used to build a qualitative model of the world, which though inaccurate and incomplete is sufficient to solve the problem at hand. This paper examines the issues of building up a hierarchical knowledge representation of the environment with limited sensor input that can be actively acquired by an agent capable of interacting with the environment. Different tasks require different aspects of the environment to be abstracted out. For example, low level tasks such as navigation require aspects of the environment that are related to layout and obstacle placement. For the agent to be able to reposition itself in an environment, significant features of spatial situations and their relative placement need to be kept. For the agent to reason about objects in space, for example to determine the position of one object relative to another, the representation needs to retain information on relative locations of start and finish of the objects, that is endpoints of objects on a grid. For the agent to be able to do high level planning, the agent may need only the relative position of the starting point and destination, and not the low level details of endpoints, visual clues and so on. This indicates that a hierarchical approach would be suitable, such that each level in the hierarchy is at a different level of abstraction, and thus suitable for a different task. At the lowest level, the representation contains low level details of agent's motion and visual clues to allow the agent to navigate and reposition itself. At the next level of abstraction the aspects of the representation allow the agent to perform spatial reasoning, and finally the highest level of abstraction in the representation can be used by the agent for high level planning.

A unified formalism for landmark based representation of maps and navigation plans

We present a unified formalism for representing maps and using them for constructing plans of navigation for an autonomous agent. The foundation of this work lies in addressing key questions that an agent is confronted with when navigating. That is, besides the main task of how to reach the intended destination from the current position, the agent faces other questions like: where am I? what landmarks can I see? where is my destination relative to me and the landmarks I am seeing? Fundamental to this representation is the use of visual landmarks, which are used as pivotal points in the landscape being described. Further, in the representation of spatial information and navigation there are three different viewpoints: first, the localized representation from the viewpoint of a sighted, mobile agent; second, the static representation seen by the map-maker; and third, the view of an external agent giving directions on the basis of his own experience/knowledge. The major contribution of this map model and the associated navigation method lies in the framework which unifies these three different points of view. This unification enables the agent to make no distinction in terms of following implicit instructions contained in a map and the directions given by external agents.

Evoked emotions : textual analysis within the context of pilgrimage tourism to Gallipoli

This chapter focuses on tourism from Australia to Gallipoli to attend Anzac Day commemorations. The research examines diary excerpts of tourists to Gallipoli using theory on emotions to gain insights into the consumption experience. We describe this tourist experience as a pilgrimage, as it is purposeful and is aimed at reaching a specific destination that has spiritual meaning for the consumer. We found that this tourist experience elicits both positively and negatively valanced emotions. The findings highlight that not all tourism experiences elicit hedonically related emotions; however, the outcome of the experience can be positive. Further research on emotions that explores this paradox between emotions in consumption and emotions in post-consumption will assist to understand the ways in which consumers process their emotions within this context.

The fog of flexibility : the riskiness of flexible post-secondary education in Australia

This chapter considers the political, social and technological features contributing to the rise of distance education in 20th Century Australia and to its dissolution in the early 21st Century. The discussion considers both international trends and influences, and particularly the Australian experiences that created the foggy mélange: external studies, extension studies, off-campus studies, open campus, open learning, flexible learning, flexible delivery, distance learning, distance education, correspondence learning, online learning, e-learning etc. The fogginess of the terminology reflects the ‘buzz-word’ politics of the turn-of-the-century governments, their bureaucracies and bureaucratese, and of the commercial world, its marketers and advertising slogans.

Channel estimation of dual-hop MIMO relay system via parallel factor analysis

The optimal source precoding matrix and relay amplifying matrix have been developed in recent works on multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay communication systems assuming that the instantaneous channel state information (CSI) is available. However, in practical relay communication systems, the instantaneous CSI is unknown, and therefore, has to be estimated at the destination node. In this paper, we develop a novel channel estimation algorithm for two-hop MIMO relay systems using the parallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis. The proposed algorithm provides the destination node with full knowledge of all channel matrices involved in the communication. Compared with existing approaches, the proposed algorithm requires less number of training data blocks, yields smaller channel estimation error, and is applicable for both one-way and two-way MIMO relay systems with single or multiple relay nodes. Numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of the PARAFAC-based channel estimation algorithm.

Solving the median shortest path problem in the planning and design of urban transportation networks using a vector labeling algorithm

This paper proposes an alternative algorithm to solve the median shortest path problem (MSPP) in the planning and design of urban transportation networks. The proposed vector labeling algorithm is based on the labeling of each node in terms of a multiple and conflicting vector of objectives which deletes cyclic, infeasible and extreme-dominated paths in the criteria space imposing cyclic break (CB), path cost constraint (PCC) and access cost parameter (ACP) respectively. The output of the algorithm is a set of Pareto optimal paths (POP) with an objective vector from predetermined origin to destination nodes. Thus, this paper formulates an algorithm to identify a non-inferior solution set of POP based on a non-dominated set of objective vectors that leaves the ultimate decision to decision-makers. A numerical experiment is conducted using an artificial transportation network in order to validate and compare results. Sensitivity analysis has shown that the proposed algorithm is more efficient and advantageous over existing solutions in terms of computing execution time and memory space used.

Creative conservation and Balinese traditional landscape : scenarios for eco city concepts and culturally sensitive tourism development

Bali is internationally recognized as an island possessing a beautiful natural landscape as well as a unique culture. The natural qualities of its mountains, lakes, rivers, rice terrace fields with subak irrigation make Bali an important tourism destination. Cultural Tourism is integral in Bali’s tourism industry providing the basic capital for development1. The social condition of this society that is strongly characterized by religious beliefs, and its nature and ecology also supports this. The conservation and maintenance of this traditional landscape is often forgotten because of government agendas to implement cultural city programs aimed at encouraging tourism development. Despite this, the government is now supporting the program of ‘Bali toward Garden Island’, which aims to sustain the physical and cultural environment of the island towards conservation of its landscape. The implementation of this program includes attention to universal, societal and cultural values as unity indicators, of which the landscape planning of the Balinese characteristics and traditions cannot be separated. Landscape planning is integral in this initiative of character defining the region.

Globalisation is increasingly becoming one of the most important discussions amongst the Balinese people. It has become a national concern about the changes implicating Bali’s environment. Urbanisation, population growth, ribbon development, migration and consumption of energy are important imperatives and necessary evils for growing cities. These imperatives are creating the sprawl of building planning, development information, loss of open spaces, as well as the decline of the identity of cities. Places such as Denpasar City are struggling with increasing population at a rate of 1.94% per year that is causing increase in housing and public facilities demanded by both residents and ex-patriates. Thus land associated with the city has been lost to the rapid development of this cultural landscape.

This paper examines the Balinese traditional landscape and its role in encouraging tourism development that based on the Balinese culture and its ecology. The paper focuses on the planning of city landscape appearance characteristics and seeks to test and adopt the terms ‘creative conservation’ and ‘eco city concept’. By conserving the most important philosophy of the Balinese Tri Hita Karana Concept will better inform all aspects of city development in Bali. This study seeks to offer guidance for the legitimate use of landscape planning especially for city development in Bali.

Can't sleep

A devised, alternative musical set in the future, the play charts the story of a group of scientists, who have been tasked with capturing light in deep space. The play’s premise is bound to a strong ideological question: Life After Death or Light After Death? While religions believe in, but cannot prove, ‘life after death’, science proves that there is ‘light after death’… Lotu then asks, what if light holds consciousness? And what if scientific technique could be developed to capture light and experiment on it? “Can’t Sleep” is a story that will trick you into believing that you have embarked on a journey into the absurd, only to reach the destination of a collective reality. Lotu Theatre was awarded a $15,000 Arts Project Grant from Regional Arts Victoria to create the play and to explore the process of professional artists development through the collaborative process.

Understanding aspirations and expectations of international students in Australian higher education

The aspirations and expectations of the growing international student cohort in Australia are implicitly incorporated into recruitment and internationalization strategies but have received little academic analysis. To address this gap in the literature, this paper develops a conceptual model built upon earlier research by Tim Mazzarol and Geoffrey Soutar, which focuses on the push and pull factors relating to home country and country of destination, respectively, in relation to students’ decisions to seek international study. Focusing predominantly on Chinese and Indian students, we conceptualize, extend and place the push and pull factors within a social psychological framework in relation to students’ aspirations and expectations of international education, indicating factors that can be influenced by higher education (HE) institutions and their programmes, and those which cannot. We then interrogate the model and its applicability in Australian HE through the case study of an Indian international Study Tour conducted in our Australian HE institution in 2009. In the present context of decreased international student enrolments in Australia in 2010, where we seek to better understand our international students, the proposed model provides a basis for identifying international students’ expectations and aspirations and developing prospective international relations.

First choice : early childhood

The report provides recommendations to inform the development of the DEECD First Choice: Early Childhood program through the identification and documentation of early childhood student teachers’ expectations and perceptions of their workforce destination after graduating with a teaching qualification that enables employment in both a primary school and an early childhood education and care setting. The focus is on understanding the reasons impacting on the choices and perceptions of early childhood student teachers as to their employment destination.

Robust channel estimation algorithm for dual-hop MIMO relay channels

In conventional two-phase channel estimation algorithms for dual-hop multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay systems, the relay-destination channel estimated in the first phase is used for the source-relay channel estimation in the second phase. For these algorithms, the mismatch between the estimated and the true relay-destination channel affects the accuracy of the source-relay channel estimation. In this paper, we investigate the impact of such channel state information (CSI) mismatch on the performance of the two-phase channel estimation algorithm. By explicitly taking into account the CSI mismatch, we develop a robust algorithm to estimate the source-relay channel. Numerical examples demonstrate the improved performance of the proposed algorithm. © 2012 IEEE.