Foreign Users Research Articles

Volunteered Geographical Information and Recreational Uses within Metropolitan and Rural Contexts

Data obtained through Volunteered Geographical Information (VGI) have gradually been used to monitor and support planning mainly in urban contexts. Regarding recreational activities in peri-urban green and natural areas, VGI has been used to map, measure use intensity, profile users, and evaluate their preferences and motivations. Given their extensive use, it is now worthwhile to assess the value of VGI data to (1) compare recreational uses, profile users and map recreational activities in different contexts (metropolitan vs. rural areas), and (2) evaluate outdoor and adventure tourist products such as Grand Routes (GR). Data from former GPSies (AllTrails nowadays), one of the most popular web-share services, were used to assess recreational uses in Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) and southwest Portugal (SWPT). A set of 22,031 tracks of “on foot” and “on wheels” activities, submitted by 3297 national and foreign users, covering 12 years, was analysed within a GIS modelling environment. Results indicate that, although there are many more submissions in the LMA, the influence of foreigners in the SWPT is higher (11% vs. 19%). The existing GR in SWPT concentrates the foreign use for hiking (71% of foreign vs. 28% of national users), demonstrating its attractiveness. For the favourite activity in both areas—Mountain biking—results show a higher spatial dispersion, yet part of the activity in SWPT still conforms to the GR (16% of foreign and 20% of national use). This study proves other applications for VGI, showing its usefulness for assessing recreational uses in both metropolitan and rural areas. Spatial knowledge about recreational uses is a valuable tool to evaluate and monitor such activities, and to know what users like to do, and where, and is also useful information when designing recreational products considering their tourist potential, thus adding value to these offers.

In search of a dialogue: Digital di-plomacy of Sweden

Digital diplomacy opens up new opportunities for both developed and devel-oping states to promote their international image, clarify their position on current issues, and realize long-term foreign policy aspirations, but it also brings com-pletely new challenges. The chief one among them is establishing a continuous constructive dialogue with the target audience in the virtual space. Facilitation for this dialogue is one of the key priorities of the digital diplomacy of Sweden. The author examines the activities of the key actors of Sweden’s digital diplomacy (the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs of Sweden, the Swedish Institute, the Swedish Tourist Association (Svenska Turistföreningen), ‘Visit Sweden’) and identifi es their key features. Particularly, the author emphasizes the government’s readiness to implement innovative and creative methods to promote its media projects. The latter include such projects as ‘The Second House of Sweden’, ‘Curators of Sweden’, and ‘Swedish Number’, which were aimed at improving the quality of communication with the foreign audience. In doing so, the responsible minis-tries and agencies placed a heavy emphasis on promoting a dialogue via social networks between the Swedish offi cials and representatives of the civil society on the one hand and foreign users on the other. The leading actors of Sweden’s digital diplomacy actively engaged the foreign audience in discussions on the most important issues on the foreign policy agenda of Sweden. This was most clearly demonstrated in media campaigns designed to eliminate discrimination against women and gender-based violence. The author concludes that Sweden has achieved a certain degree of success in establishing a dialogue with the foreign audience, yet this dialogue is not comprehensive enough and still depends on the initiative of individual politicians and diplomats.

Problems of Scientific Translation in Electronic Correspondence Between Iraqi and Foreign Users in Light of the Corona Virus Pandemic

Problems of Scientific Translation in Electronic Correspondence Between Iraqi and Foreign Users in Light of the Corona Virus Pandemic

Is the Renminbi a Global Currency in the Making? Globalization of Digital yuan

Since the global financial recession of 2008 and the subsequent sovereign debt crisis, the US economic supremacy has experienced setbacks. China has steadily grown into a dependable economic force across the globe, particularly in Asia. Is the renminbi on the verge of becoming a global currency given the financial domination setbacks of the US economy? In this critical review analysis, I contend that the dollar’s hegemonic position is at risk, but the political and economic climate does not appear to be ripe for renminbi globalization. The Chinese hawks see the economic sanctions levied against Russia following the Ukraine invasion as a chance to challenge the dominance of the US dollar. Furthermore, China has benefited from the first-mover advantage through the launching of the Central Bank Digital Currency. However, China must gain the trust of foreign users in the robustness of its financial system, economy, and digital yuan’s functionality for the globalization of the digital yuan to be effective. Moreover, to promote renminbi internalization, China must ease capital regulations, increase renminbi convertibility, and restructure its financial system.

Revizija švajcarskog zakona o arbitraži

Arbitration is a popular method for the effective and efficient resolution of commercial disputes. Switzerland, with its tradition of neutrality and cultural diversity, has become one of the leading places for arbitration worldwide. In 2021, Switzerland enacted its revised arbitration law, Chapter 12 of the Swiss Private International Law Act. e revision introduced new provisions, which make the arbitration law more accessible for foreign users. At the same time, the legislator avoided overloading the law with unnecessary provisions. e Swiss arbitration law remains concise and straightforward and will continue to serve the international arbitration community well.

대구광역시 달서구 외국인 밀집 지역 외국인의 공원이용특성 및 만족도 가 삶의 질에 미치는 영향1

With the recent increase in the number of foreigners staying in Korea, the use of public goods around their residences is also increasing, and parks in cities may not be an exception. Nevertheless, few studies have been found on the park usage behavior of foreigners in densely populated areas underlying the park's In this study, we analyzed how the characteristics and satisfaction of foreigners in dense foreign residential areas in Dalseo-gu, Daegu affect the quality of life of foreign users. In this study, two urban parks were selected based on data analysis among various target sites and the collected data were analyzed based on 172 surveys conducted on users of the park. According to statistical analysis, 45.9 percent of respondents visited the park once or twice a month for park usage patterns. Their purpose of using the park was to exercise and the park's stay was within an hour. More than 50 percent of the respondents preferred to use the park at night, with most foreign respondents living around the park less than 20 minutes on foot. The use characteristics and satisfaction of parks were investigated through the ANOVA test on the quality of life of foreign residents. First, foreign respondents with the lowest quality of life index used the park once or twice a week. On the other hand, foreign respondents who use parks every day had the highest quality of life index. The quality of life index of foreigners, whose access time is 30 to 40 minutes from home to the park, was the lowest, and the quality of life index of foreigners with access time within 10 minutes was the highest. The correlation between the quality of life of foreigners living in Korea and the satisfaction of parks was found to be significant at 1% significance level, and nine factors related to park facilities affected the quality of life. According to the analysis, among the nine factors, the park's "natural facilities" factor has a greater impact on the quality of life of foreign park users than other factors. This study analyzed the characteristics and satisfaction of foreigners in areas with concentrated foreigners, and it is significant that it provided basic data on how to induce foreign residents to use parks and improve their quality of life.

Prioritization of Brand Equity Components Using an Integrated Structural Equation Modelling and Fuzzy AHP

Brand equity of health tourism is the set of assets (or liabilities) of the brand in relation to the name and symbol of the tourism destination that cause changes in the value of services and experiences that are determined there. Considering the characteristics and cultural, social and economic capacities of Iranian tourism destinations, this study tends to develop a model for brand equity in health tourism, derived from the Acker model, according to Iran's conditions and studies conducted. First, previous studies in this regard were carefully reviewed by meta-synthesis. Then the mixed method including qualitative and quantitative methods was applied. The data were analyzed using grounded theory and MAXQDA18 software and then using structural equation method and fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy AHP). Statistical population included experts including professors in the field of marketing and health tourism specialists for qualitative part, and foreign users of health tourism services of Iran for quantitative part. The results showed that hospital brand equity is directly affected by brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, brand loyalty, social responsibility, firm value and customer value. As a result, at the national level, investing in this sector and branding and paying attention to brand equity of health tourism can make Iran one of the best health tourism destinations in the world.

Examining the Growth of the Global Space Situational Awareness Sector: A Network Analysis Approach

The global space situational awareness sector is rapidly evolving as government and commercial entities around the world increase their ability to monitor the space environment. In many cases, these entities are increasing capabilities by creating or joining international organizations, forging partnerships, and purchasing data or services from new sources. The ways in which these entities engage with one another will affect the quality of SSA data available to civil, commercial, and foreign users around the world. This, in turn, affects the security of key military space assets as well as the sustainability of the space environment as a whole. In this paper, I use social network analysis to map out the current state of the global SSA sector and discuss its potential future evolution.

Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in Livestock Sector: What Have We Learnt So Far?

Simple SummaryAdoption of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Nagoya Protocol) in 2010, and its entering into the force October 2014, created many questions within the genetic resources (GR) sector. The Protocol addresses access to and benefit sharing (ABS) resulting from utilization of GR and associated traditional knowledge (TK). The Protocol has been tailored to address commercial utilization of mainly wild species, and especially plants, due to their gene flow from the biodiverse rich countries of the South to countries in the North. Characteristics of the livestock sector differ in many aspects from the plant sector. Most significantly, the gene flow of livestock genetic resources of breeds and lines with high genetic potential for production is the highest between North–North countries and then North–South countries. Therefore, many working in the livestock breeding industry believed that impacts of the implementation of the Protocol would be limited for their sector. The question arises if this prediction is true, and how can we check impacts based on currently available sources of information related to the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol.The aim of the paper was to analyze impacts of seven years of implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on the livestock sector based on available sources of information and literature. Interim National Reports on implementation of the Nagoya Protocol provided by countries and other information available at the ABS Clearing House managed by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, especially Internationally Recognized Certificates of Compliance (IRCC), were analyzed. Moreover, trends in geneflow of breeding products in selected countries, based on the national reports provided to the UN COMATRADE database, have been compared. Analysis from these sources showed limited impact of the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol for livestock breeding and conservation, as out of 2370 IRCC issued by 31 May 2021, only 573 were granted for animal genetic/biological resources including 90 with livestock as the subject matter. Only one IRCC was granted to a foreign user; all other IRCC were issued for domestic users. The intent was to use livestock genetic/biological resources as bioresources for innovation, which should lead to establishment of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) with benefits to be shared through the National Competent Authority or for research purposes.

Health care of immigrant patients in Italy: the perspective of health professionals

Within a multicultural society, healthcare professionals (HPs) need to implement specific care pathways to meet the needs of patients with different cultural backgrounds who regularly present themselves in healthcare facilities in Italy. This study intends to examine the experiences and representations lived by HPs who deal with the care and management of foreign immigrant patients living in Italy, with chronic diseases. For this goal, a survey was conducted on a sample of 54 HPs recruited in hospital and outpatient facilities. The survey was analyzed with a quantitative analysis method. The results underlined that it is necessary to provide specific training paths to work with chronic immigrant patients, standardizing the training of medical staff both in hospitals and clinics, and providing for other types of professionals specialized in relations with foreign patients, to respond to all requests from foreign users, and not just healthcare ones. This study proposes a new survey model aimed at obtaining in-depth information on the representation of HPs towards the health and well-being of chronic immigrant patients, to provide concrete answers to the needs of the foreign population, providing for the collaboration of several specialised professionals.

Sentiment Analysis on Overseas Tweets on the Impact of COVID-19 in Indonesia

This study aims to conduct analysis to determine the trend of sentiment on tweets about Covid-19 in Indonesia from the Twitter accounts overseas on big data perspective. The data was obtained from Twitter in the period of April 2020, with the word query "Indonesian Corona Virus" from foreign user accounts in English. The process of retrieving data comes from Twitter tweets by crawling the text using Twitter's API (Application Programming Interface) by employing Python programming language. Twitter was chosen because it is very fast and easy to spread through status updates from and among the user accounts. The number of tweets obtained was 8,740 in text format, with a total engagement of 217,316. The data was sorted from the tweets with the largest to smallest engagement, then cleaned from unnecessary fonts and symbols as well as typo words and abbreviations. The sentiment classification was carried out by analytical tools, extracting information with text mining, into positive, negative, and neutral polarity. To sharpen the analysis, the cleaned data was selected only with the largest engagement until those with 100 engagements; then was grouped into 30 sub-topics to be analyzed. The interesting facts are found that most tweets and sub-topics were dominated by the negative sentiment; and some unthinkable sub-topics were talked by many users.

Taiwan’s E-Government Usability from Foreign Perspective and Website Accessibility amid COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of this research intends to investigate Taiwanese egovernment websites with regards to Accessibility and Usability. The automated WAVE Accessibility tool and Nielsen’s 10 Heurestic Principle based surveys of foreign users of the English egovernment websites were used to test Accessibility and Usability respectively. The study found poor results that were unanimous across the board for Usability and total of just over 100 errors for Accessibility was the best performing website. The study proves that further research and investigation is necessary if Taiwan wants to meet its own governmental ambitions with regards to egovernment.

Enabling Secure Authentication in Industrial IoT With Transfer Learning Empowered Blockchain

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is ushering in huge development opportunities in the era of Industry 4.0. However, there are significant data security and privacy challenges during automatic and real-time data collection, monitoring for industrial applications in IIoT. Data security and privacy in IIoT applications are closely related to the reliability of users, which is determined by user authentication that have been widely used as an effective approach. However, the existing user authentication mechanisms in IIoT suffer from single factor authentication and poor adaptability with the rapid growth of the number of users and the diversity of user categories. To solve the aforementioned issues, this article proposes a novel Authentication mechanism based on Transfer Learning empowered Blockchain, coined ATLB. In ATLB, blockchains are applied to achieve the privacy preservation for industrial applications. In addition, by introducing the transfer learning based authentication mechanism, trustworthy blockchains are built such that the privacy preservation for industrial applications is further enhanced. Specifically, ATLB first employs a guiding deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm to train the user authentication model of a specific region, which is then transferred locally for foreign user authentication or cross-regionally for another region's user authentication such that the model training time is significantly reduced. Experimental results show that the proposed ATLB not only provides accurate authentications for IIoT applications but also achieves high throughput and low latency.

THEORETICAL ESSENCE OF BUSINESS ENTITIES FOREIGN ECONOMIC ACTIVITY AUDIT

The growth of business activity of foreign economic activity entities leads to an increase in illegal transactions. Accordingly, there is a need for greater control over the international activities of enterprises. This control can be exercised both at the state level and at the business entity level through an audit. A comprehensive audit system of foreign economic transactions should solve the problem of the tax base of export-import transactions. Incorrect determination of the tax base leads to an understatement of tax amounts, which leads to a decrease in the country's financial security. Negative consequences for foreign economic activity entities due to unconfirmed tax transactions caused in the form of fines and distortions of financial indicators lead to a decrease in financial confidence in the company by foreign users of information and investors and buyers. Therefore, the issues of auditing foreign economic activity are relevant to improving the economic security of the state and the entity. The purpose of the article is to study the theoretical and methodological approaches to the organization and business entities' foreign economic activity audit. To achieve this goal, scientific abstraction, dialectical, logical generalization, analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction were used. The main results of the study: 1) based on a comparative study of several scientific sources, it is established that today there are three types of audit of foreign economic activity: domestic, independent foreign, and state; 2) systematized the main tasks, so the essential purpose of each of the types of audit of foreign economic activity; 3) it is established that today there is a growing demand for independent audits, the result of which is an independent audit opinion because independent control has the most positive impact on the company's image and its development at the international level. Conclusions: comprehensive audit of foreign economic activity is an ongoing process, which includes three components: 1) internal audit of current foreign economic transactions, the primary purpose of which is to obtain reliable and complete information on financial statements to make sound management decisions; 2) independent external audit during the growth of foreign economic activity of the enterprise, the primary purpose of which is, on the one hand, to increase the confidence of external users in the financial statements of foreign economic activity, and on the other - to avoid potential penalties and, consequently, increase financial security ; 3) state audit, the purpose of which is constant control over the correctness of accrual and payment of taxes by the subjects of foreign economic activity. Carrying out a full-fledged audit of foreign economic transactions requires constant monitoring of various types of factors that affect the emergence of risks in foreign economic activity.

Evaluating Perception of Sustainability Initiatives Invested in the Coastal Area of Versilia, Italy

Nowadays, following the increased interest and need for the issue of sustainability, tourist destinations are called upon to promote sustainable tourism development through the implementation of investments and initiatives. Despite the investments by the destinations, how are these perceived by tourists and residents? Based on this, this paper aims to assess the perception of sustainable investments in a coastal area located in Tuscany, through the administration of a questionnaire among 750 people, including both tourists and house owners. The study adopted statistical logit and probit models to detect the perception of sustainable initiatives in relation to beach satisfaction. Moreover, this research developed a model for understanding if there are substantial differences in perception between Italian and foreign beach users and at the same time between residents/house owners and tourists. The findings reveal that those who perceive investments in sustainability are more than satisfied with beach and facilities. The model shows that foreigners and residents/house owners perceive sustainable investments implemented in the destination more than tourists and Italian respondents. This research can provide support to local operators and policymakers in defining the destination image in relation to sustainability.

Corporate hedging theories and usage of foreign currency loans: a logit model approach

The present study has attempted to discuss the association between corporate hedging theories and the usage of foreign currency loans by companies listed in India. A total of 349 non-financial companies were selected, and the data for the financial year ending 31st March, 2018 were considered for the analysis. The descriptive statistics indicate that 55% of the sample companies had borrowed funds in foreign currency. The companies were highly levered and maintained adequate short-term assets to honor short-term obligations. A logit model was employed for analyzing the cross-sectional data. The dependent variable being binary (‘0’ for non-user of foreign currency loans and ‘1’ for foreign currency loan user), the study found the variable ‘industry type’ to have a significant association with usage of foreign currency loans. Companies from the manufacturing sector were likely to use foreign currency loans than companies from the services sector. Debt to net worth, export to sales, revenue (log of revenue) were the variables that significantly influenced the likelihood of companies raising foreign currency loans. Interest coverage ratio had a negative influence on the likelihood of companies opting for foreign currency loans. Hosmer and Lemeshow test showed that the model is a good fit indicating 73% accuracy in predicting the users of foreign currency loans as ‘foreign currency loan users’. Theories such as financial distress, size, and extent of international operations explain why companies raise foreign currency loans.

Relative convenience, relative advantage, perceived security, perceived privacy, and continuous use intention of China’s WeChat Pay: A mixed-method two-phase design study

Using a mixed-method two-phase design approach, this study explores the relative convenience, relative advantages, perceived privacy, and perceived security of WeChat Pay, as perceived by foreign users living in China and their intention to keep using this mobile wallet. This study also examines how Relative Convenience, Relative Advantage, Perceived Privacy, and Perceived Security of WeChat Pay influence Continuous Use Intention of this mobile wallet among foreign users. Results from a qualitative investigation (N = 70 responses) and quantitative investigation (N = 472) indicate that WeChat Pay is relatively more convenient and advantageous and also offers relatively more security and privacy protection compared to the traditional payment methods. The results also show that Relative Convenience, Relative Advantages, Perceived Privacy, and Perceived Security influence positively Continuous Use Intention of WeChat Pay among foreign users living in China. Based on these findings, theoretical and managerial contributions and the limitations of this study are discussed and also suggestions for future research are provided.

The treatment of cultural words in Chinese foreign dictionaries--a case study on “粽子”

Abstract The treatment of cultural words in bilingual dictionaries has always been an aporia for lexicographers who differ greatly in their opinions and practices on methods and strategies used on cultural words. The present study, taking Chinese cultural speciality 粽子 (zongzi) as an example, examined the treatment of this word in Chinese foreign dictionaries. Problems were found through both investigation on dictionaries and comparison with the data presented in a Chinese corpus: 1. inconsistent presentation; 2. insufficiently presented information; 3. difference in translation strategies. This paper gives suggestions to solve these problems by fully presenting cultural information and stressing the accuracy, sufficiency and the identity of 粽子 in Chinese foreign dictionaries in order to meet the consulting needs of foreign users of this cultural word.

A Comparative Study on User Experience of Contactless Retail Services between Chinese and Korean Users

In order to study the similarities and differences of user experience of contactless retail services between Chinese and Korean users, this study focuses on E-mart 24 Self Convenience Store Gimpo DC Branch, Conducted in-depth interviews with Chinese and Korean users who have experience. The interviews are based on the 7 principles of Peter Morville’s Honeycomb Model. As a result, the satisfaction of Chinese users is higher than that of Korean users. Human touch, and the desire for a faster society made Korean users more resistant to E-mart 24 Self Convenience Store. Chinese users raised concerns about the inconvenience of the system with little consideration for foreign users. It is expected that this study will help E-mart 24 Self Convenience Store to satisfy users from more cultural backgrounds.

OPAC functionality: Russian and foreign users’ requirements

The article considers the results of studying the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) functionality, revealed by specialists of domestic and foreign libraries. The user survey results showed that OPAC of foreign libraries provides a more developed search system than the OPAC of domestic libraries. While a foreign user is able to interact with a catalogue in a natural language, domestic library OPAC operate mostly in a query-response mode. The problems were revealed which the user encounters during information search, connected with information perception, granting incomplete information on library collections, and absence of stability in work of servers. Often, there is no tooltip system. Users cannot understand the content of classification indices. It is difficult to find information about the library and access to OPAC on university websites, as this information is not always easily accessible. On the other hand, there is often a low level of user information culture. Most of them do not have the skills to write search queries and use logical operators. Maintaining OPAC in different automated library and information systems (ALIS), involving different options for combining, shortening, clarification of terms in information search, exacerbates these problems. After all, even advanced users may get incomplete search results assuming that library ALIS works similarly to other systems they are familiar with. It negatively affects the OPAC use efficiency. Ways of solving the revealed problems are suggested. Conducting regular training activities for OPAC users, development and improvement of tooltip system, ensuring integrated search in all library databases, providing information on classification information retrieval languages, conducting retrospective conversion of card catalogues, ensuring completeness and accuracy of provided bibliographic data, conducting systematic research to identify user requirements for the functionality of the electronic part of the reference and search apparatus will facilitate the process of searching and obtaining data about library information resources, improve the quality of OPAC information.