Multiple Websites Research Articles

Comparing consumer-produced product reviews across multiple websites with sentiment classification

ABSTRACTOnline consumer reviews have been extensively studied. However, existing literature analyzing online consumer review data mostly relies on a single data source, resulting in potentially biased analytics conclusions. Many websites encourage consumers to post reviews of their purchased products, so that new consumers can evaluate these reviews for the same product across different websites to help them make purchasing decisions. Confusions often arise in this process, because there often exist substantial discrepancies in customer reviews across different retailers on the same product. Clarifying such confusions can help consumers reduce concerns to make up their mind for their purchases, therefore benefiting both consumers and retailers. Through text analytics and sentiment analysis, we comparatively examine the underlying patterns of online consumer reviews of three large retailers including Sears, Home Depot, and Best Buy for a same product. Afterward, we combine online consumer reviews from these large retailers and conduct an overall text analytics and sentiment analysis. The overall results are further compared with the results from individual retailers. The findings show that the sentiment of the online consumer reviews could vary substantially so relying on a single data source to make purchase decision is not a wise idea. Based on the results, we further devise a framework to comparatively examine and integrate multiple data sources for social media analytics of online consumer reviews. This study offers important managerial implications and identifies several new research directions for social media analytics.

Association Analysis Identifies New Risk Loci for Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis in Han Chinese Men.

Coal worker's pneumoconiosis (CWP) is a debilitating and progressive occupational lung disease resulted from long-term inhalation of airborne silica-containing coal mine dust. Both environmental factors and genetic variations contribute to CWP. Our previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) revealed a tiny fraction of variants with the top associations in Chinese Han population. To identify novel susceptibility loci of CWP, functional variants with suboptimal associations in the GWAS scan were further studied here. Imputation was firstly performed to access the associations between ungenotyped variants and CWP risk, and suboptimal associations with p < 1.0 × 10-3 were annotated with genotype-tissue expression (GTEx) and dbNSFP. Further, expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) and nonsynonymous variants were validated within an independent cohort with 703 CWP cases and 705 exposed controls. Comprehensively functional annotations were performed for identified single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) based on multiple bioinformatics databases and websites. We found 4 CWP risk-associated eQTL SNPs, including rs10797062 at 1q23.2 (p = 6.91 × 10-4, OR = 1.28), rs1667614 at 2q13.1 (p = 1.48 × 10-4, OR = 0.53), rs2540438 at 2q33.1 (p = 2.13 × 10-3, OR = 1.33), and rs2274554 at 13q31.1 (p = 9.01 × 10-5, OR = 1.35). Based on the results from GTEx, the identified variants were significantly associated with host genes in lung tissues: rs10797062-ATP1A4 (p = 8.60 × 10-11), rs1667614-FNBP1P1 (p = 1.00 × 10-20), rs2540438-ALS2CR12 (p = 1.90 × 10-7), and rs2274554-RBM26 (p = 5.00 × 10-6). Joint effect analysis showed the risk of CWP was significantly increased with the number of risk variant alleles in an allele-dosage manner (ptrend = 2.20 × 10-12). Enrichment pathway analysis suggested coexpressed genes of ATP1A4, FNBP1P1, and RBM26 were enriched in Ubiquitin mediated proteolysis pathway simultaneously. These results may provide a deeper understanding of the genetic predisposition of CWP.

Website replica detection with distant supervision

Duplicate content on the Web occurs within the same website or across multiple websites. The latter is mainly associated with the existence of website replicas—sites that are perceptibly similar. Replication may be accidental, intentional or malicious, but no matter the reason, search engines suffer greatly either from unnecessarily storing and moving duplicate data, or from providing search results that do not offer real value to the users. In this paper, we model the detection of website replicas as a pairwise classification problem with distant supervision. That is, (heuristically) finding obvious replica and non-replica cases is trivial, but learning effective classifiers requires a representative set of non-obvious labeled examples, which are hard to obtain. We employ efficient Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithms in order to find non-obvious examples from obvious ones, enlarging the training-set and improving the classifiers iteratively. Our classifiers employ association rules, being thus incrementally updated as the EM process iterates, making our algorithms time-efficient. Experiments show that: (1) replicas are fully eliminated at a false-positive rate lower than 0.005, incurring in + 19% reduction in the number of duplicate URLs, (2) reduction increases to + 21% by using our site-level algorithms in conjunction with existing URL-level algorithms, and (3) our classifiers are more than two orders of magnitude faster than semi-supervised alternative solutions.

What does expert opinion in guidelines mean? a meta-epidemiological study

Guidelines often use the term expert opinion (EO) to qualify recommendations. We sought to identify the rationale and evidence type in EO recommendations. We searched multiple databases and websites for...

The Requirement Model for Improved OpenID Single Sign-On (SSO) Authentication to Thwart Phishing Attack

The problem of password memorability among users has led to the introduction of Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication. It enables users to login using a set of username and password which then allows an access into multiple websites without the hassle of repeating the same usernames and passwords. One of the most common SSO protocol is OpenID which is said to offer flexibility and security. Unfortunately, the existing OpenID model is prone to phishing attack whereby there is a lack of mechanism to ensure the authenticity of the OpenID provider. This scenario complicates the situation especially when there exists tools to generate phishing attacks are easily available without requiring much technical expertise. Moreover, users awareness are claimed to be insufficient to rely on since statistics of phishing attacks are shown to be increasing. Thus, this research attempts to propose page token as a mechanism to thwart phishing attack. This research produced and evaluated an improved requirement model that incorporates the page token as proposed mechanism. The outcomes show promising result towards the effort of thwarting phishing attacks.

Online Purchase Paths and Conversion Dynamics across Multiple Websites

Low transportation costs online allow shoppers to visit multiple e-commerce sites for a purchase decision. This research investigates online shoppers’ visit and purchase behaviors across competing websites. To consider that shoppers’ longitudinal cross-site visit data may consist of several unobserved shopping episodes, we propose a modeling approach to probabilistically clustering and relating online visits to latent shopping episodes, based on the temporal patterns of the visit events. The inferences are then used to examine shoppers’ visit-to-purchase behavior across websites. Using Internet clickstream data on individual-level browsing and transaction records at major air travel sites, we find that online shoppers’ cross-site visit patterns tend to be clustered and the purchase propensity is significantly higher at later visits within a visit cluster, compared to earlier visits. As our results suggest the possibility that visit clusters can serve as a reasonable proxy for shopping episodes, we look further into shoppers’ website choice and purchase behaviors within a cluster. We discuss how the cluster-based analysis can help managers tailor online marketing and advertising strategies based on shoppers’ cross-site visit and purchase patterns.

FunnelCloud: a cloud-based system for exploring tornado events

ABSTRACTRecent research has shown an increase in the number of extreme tornado outbreaks per year. The characterization of the spatio-temporal pattern of tornado events is therefore a critical task in the analysis of meteorological data. Currently, there are a large number of available meteorological datasets that can be used for such analysis. However, much of these data are distributed across multiple websites and are not accessible in a central location. This poses a significant challenge for a scientist who is interested in exploring meteorological patterns associated with tornado events. This paper presents a novel system which uses cloud-based technology for integrating, storing, exploring, analyzing, and visualizing meteorological data associated with tornado outbreaks. The system employs a novel NoSQL database schema and web services architecture for data integration and provides a user friendly interface that allows scientists to explore the spatio-temporal pattern of tornado events. Furthermore, scientists can use this interface to analyze the relationship between different meteorological variables and properties of tornado outbreaks using a number of spatio-temporal statistical and data mining methods. The efficacy of the system is demonstrated on a use case centered on the analysis of climatic indicators of large spatio-temporally clustered tornado outbreaks.

Relevancy of free online software and websites in detection of plagiarism

Background and Aim: Plagiarism is disgraceful to authors and opposed in the scientific community. Before submitting articles to journals, authors should check whether the article is unintentionally plagiarized or not. However, online premium plagiarism checking service may not be accessible to many authors. For those authors, there are many websites which offer plagiarism detection service free of cost. The aim of the study was to assess the efficacy of those websites in the detection of plagiarism. Methods: A paragraph of text with 2 verbatim plagiarized sentences, 2 inadequately paraphrased sentences, and 2 perceived unique sentences was used as a tool. This paragraph was checked for plagiarism in 23 popular websites. Results showed by websites were recorded and analyzed. Chi‑square test with α = 0.05 was used to compare the proportion of websites. Results: Among 23 websites, only 4 websites (17.39%) detected plagiarism above the expected level. Thirteen (56.52%) websites showed result of 0% plagiarism for the paragraph. Verbatim plagiarism was detected by 6 websites (26.09%) where only 1 website could detect inadequate paraphrasing. Conclusion: The majority of websites offering free plagiarism checking service failed to detect plagiarized content effectively. The level of detected plagiarism differs in the different website for same content. Hence, checking the manuscript in multiple websites would provide relatively better screening result for plagiarism.

Internet financial reporting practices in India: A study of selected Indian companies

Corporate disclosure plays an important role in the fulfilment of financial accounting objectives. Companies have started the use of the internet, to disclose or communicate all necessary information, to inform present and potential investors and other stakeholders, with regard to company information. The paper attempts to investigate the level of internet financial reporting practices of Indian companies, towards disclosure of financial and non-financial information, on their web sites. The paper also studies the influence of company characteristics on their disclosure score. The result shows that there is positive association between company size and profitability, with internet financial reporting practices of the companies. It is also observed that there is great deal of variation in content and presentation of the information, disclosed on the web sites and terminology used for describing the information. The paper reveals that no consistent pattern could be used, to access multiple websites, by different users.

Encouraging patient empowerment in a general hospital using e-Health

Contribution and responsibility of patients in the area of patient safety is encouraged by the Dutch government.Technology has provided the means to give the patient better access to health care information. The role of the patient is changing. In the past health care providers had a more paternal approach (the patient does exactly what(ever) the doctor says), whereas nowadays the doctor and patient make decisions together. Furthermore, people are starting to organize their own health care. Health care providers offer expertise and support instead of making decisions for the patients. (VWS,2014)As an answer to this different approach, the Jeroen Bosch Hospital has developed several actions.Joost van de Mortel (2013) made it clear with a qualitative research (N=13) the hospital (community) is open to the application of patient empowerment and already applies it, consciously or subconsciously. Despite the good intentions, there are misconceptions regarding patient empowerment that obstruct proper application. In the organization the structure, applied systems and the lack of a management model in which patient empowerment is central, prevent full implementation of patient empowerment.In a consecutive study Jean Marc Reinold (2014) made an inventory which functionalities in a patient portal (“An online gateway that gives the patient control in gathering and sharing information about their health through multiple websites and / or functionalities”) would contribute to ‘patient empowerment’.Besides an extensive literature review, the researcher has gathered information by means of a questionnaire (168 patients, a 95% reliable sample), focus group discussion with 7 patients and the result of a Digi panel inquiry (50% of the 150 panel members i.c. patients responded) of the Jeroen Bosch Hospital (JBZ).The research made clear the patients want to have direct access to their complete medical record, including lab results, research results and imagery. The function ‘inspection of medical records’ makes it possible to take more control of their own treatment (patient empowerment). Besides seeing their medical records the patients of the JBZ want to be able to make several (combined) appointments themselves and to have the possibility of email correspondence with their own doctor. The real empowering ability of a patient portal has to do with the attitude of the doctor and his patient to move towards dialogue and cooperation.This means that in addition to the practical development and implementation of the portal, now in progress after the deployment of the Electronic Patient File (EPF), the strategic reasons for the use of the portal need to be promoted and spread within the organization.To implement the portal successfully within the organization some misunderstandings among the staff has to be resolved:- the abilities of the patients regarding eHealth are sufficient in general and still developing,- the exact content of the patient portal (test-results, images, diagnosis/reports, treatment plan) by using a demo,- the influence on the work processes and financial consequences .Further staff training and a helpdesk should facilitate the implementation.Direct active involvement in the development and implementation of the patient portal of motivated patients will contribute to increasing support and will have a positive marketing effect.Use of e-Health and patient empowerment is a powerful combination. Technology and most patients are ready, a lot of professionals in health care in the Netherlands are positive on patient empowerment and are using e-Health fragmented.Barriers to implement are merely the absence of a clear policy of the organization, the organizational structure, the systems, the skills and attitude of a minority of the professionals and the adjustment of the system of financial compensation (a negotiation with the insurance companies is necessary to compensate digital interaction with the patient).In a presentation the impact and outcomes of several actions to improve patient empowerment and e-Health (project Digital Working) within the Jeroen Bosch Hospital and developments on the implementation of eHealth in the Netherlands can be shared.

Shadow Attacks Based on Password Reuses: A Quantitative Empirical Analysis

With the proliferation of websites, the security level of password-protected accounts is no longer purely determined by individual ones. Users may register multiple accounts on the same site or across multiple sites, and these passwords from the same users are likely to be the same or similar. As a result, an adversary can compromise the account of a user on a web forum, then guess the accounts of the same user in sensitive accounts, e.g. , online banking services, whose accounts could have the same or even stronger passwords. We name this attack as the shadow attack on passwords. To understand the situation, we examined the state-of-the-art Intra-Site Password Reuses (ISPR) and Cross-Site Password Reuses (CSPR) based on the leaked passwords from the biggest Internet user group ( i.e. , 668 million members in China). With a collection of about 70 million real-world web passwords across four large websites in China, we obtained around 4.6 million distinct users who have multiple accounts on the same site or across different sites. We found that for the users with multiple accounts in a single website, $59.72$ percent reused their passwords and for the users with multiple accounts on multiple websites, $33.16 \pm 8.91$ percent reused their passwords across websites. For the users that have multiple accounts but different passwords, the set of passwords of the same user exhibits patterns that can help password guessing: a leaked weak password reveals partial information of a strong one, which degrades the strength of the strong one. Given the aforementioned findings, we conducted an experiment and achieved a 39.38 percent improvement of guessing success rate with John the Ripper guessing tool. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to provide a large-scale, empirical, and quantitative measurement of web password reuses, especially ISPR, and shed light on the severity of such threat in the real world.

Using social media to challenge unwarranted clinical variation in the treatment of chronic noncancer pain: the "Brainman" story.

There is a substantial clinical variation in the contemporary treatment of chronic noncancer pain reflecting different explanatory models and treatment emphasis. Hunter Integrated Pain Service and collaborators developed three key messaging videos outlining the foundations of chronic pain treatment, thus challenging unwarranted clinical variation and calling for greater therapeutic consistency. The videos were released on YouTube as a low-cost public health intervention. Each video used an evidenced informed script appropriate for low literacy and a cartoonist to provide matching images. The whole-person approach emphasized the role of the nervous system and active self-management approaches over passively received medical treatments. The first video was launched on YouTube in August 2011 and made freely available through a Creative Commons license. Multisource feedback led to refinement of key messages using a broader advisory group. Two further videos were launched on a dedicated YouTube channel in October 2014 and circulated through varied professional and consumer networks. All videos were widely viewed on YouTube, utilized by diverse health care organizations, and independently translated into multiple languages. They were embedded in multiple health-related websites. The first video “Understanding pain in less than 5 minutes” is known to have been translated into 15 languages by other health care organizations. The subsequent two videos (Brainman stops his opioids, and Brainman chooses) were translated into German and subtitled in French and Japanese. When the organization hosting the first video ceased operation in 2015 due to changes in primary health care funding, the video had received >700,000 views. Each of the three videos continues to receive ~1,500 views per month on YouTube. Release of evidence-informed key messages via YouTube is a simple method of challenging clinical variation and providing education about chronic pain across the health care system and community.

Profile of Public Health Leadership.

Public health leaders play pivotal roles in ensuring the population health for our nation. Since 2000, the number of schools of public health has almost doubled. The scholarly credentials for leaders of public health in academic and practice are important, as they make decisions that shape the future public health workforce and important public health policies. This research brief describes the educational degrees of deans of schools of public health and state health directors, as well as their demographic profiles, providing important information for future public health leadership planning. Data were extracted from a database containing information obtained from multiple Web sites including academic institution Web sites and state government Web sites. Variables describe 2 sets of public health leaders: academic deans of schools of public health and state health directors. Deans of schools of public health were 73% males and 27% females; the PhD degree was held by 40% deans, and the MD degree by 33% deans. Seventy percent of deans obtained their terminal degree more than 35 years ago. State health directors were 60% males and 40% females. Sixty percent of state health directors had an MD degree, 4% a PhD degree, and 26% no terminal degree at all. Sixty-four percent of state health directors received their terminal degree more than 25 years ago. In addition to terminal degrees, 56% of deans and 40% of state health directors held MPH degrees. The findings call into question competencies needed by future public health professionals and leadership and the need to clarify further the level of public health training and degree type that should be required for leadership qualifications in public health.

Report of the 2015 Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Practice Survey

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Workforce on Congenital Heart Surgery (CHS) undertook a third subspecialty Practice Survey (2005, 2010, 2015) to obtain contemporary data. A search for potential participants was conducted using multiple directories and websites. The survey instrument was widely distributed electronically. All surgeons listing congenital or pediatric cardiac surgery among interests were targeted. There were a total of 213 respondents: 177 (83%) were practicing congenital heart surgeons (median age 50 years; range, 34 to 80 years; 93% men), 9 (4%) were CHS trainees, 17 (8%) were retired congenital heart surgeons, and 10 (5%) were others. For practicing surgeons, mean duration of postgraduate training was 10 ± 2 years and 151 (85%) were CHS-board certified. Median practice duration for congenital heart surgeons was 15 years (less than 1 to 42 years). Work hours per week were greater than 70 for 74 (42%) surgeons, 103 (58%) work at a freestanding children's hospital, and 113 (64%) have full academic appointments. Caseload for 47 (27%) surgeons was less than 100 cases/year and 42 (24%) performed greater than 200 cases/year. For practicing surgeons, anticipated median retirement age was 66 years (range, 55to 83 years), 31 (18%) estimated ≤5 years to retirement, and 163 (92%) were extremely or very satisfied in their career. These data provide contemporary insights regarding the CHS workforce in North America and should help facilitate rational plans to address the needs of an expanding patient population.

Not your regular high: cardiac dysrhythmias caused by loperamide

Objective: Loperamide, a non-prescription anti-diarrheal agent, is a peripheral mu-opioid receptor agonist that is excluded from the blood-brain barrier by p-glycoprotein at therapeutic doses. Overdoses of loperamide penetrate the central nervous system (CNS), leading to abuse. We report cardiac conduction abnormalities and dysrhythmias after ingestion of a recreational supra-therapeutic dose of loperamide confirmed with an elevated blood loperamide concentration. Case details: A 48-year-old woman with a history of alcohol and benzodiazepine abuse presented to the emergency department (ED) with somnolence, weakness and slurred speech. She was taking 20 to 40 tablets of 2 mg loperamide 1–2 times/day for weeks along with clonazepam and whiskey. Vital signs were: blood pressure (BP), 124/90 mmHg; heart rate (HR), 88/min; respiratory rate(RR), 20/min; T, 36.9 °C; O2 saturation 100% on room air (RA). Glucose was 6.4 mmol/L. Electrocardiogram (ECG) had a ventricular rate of 58/min, QRS 164 ms, QT 582 ms with no discernable p-waves. Lactate was 3.5 mmol/L and potassium was 6.2 mEq/L. Labs were notable for an anion gap of 20 mEq/L, ethanol of 3.9 mmol/L, creatinine of 2.3 mg/dL and loperamide concentration of 210 ng/mL (average therapeutic plasma concentration 1.2 ng/mL). She became hypotensive, but responded to fluids. Following treatment for hyperkalemia with calcium, insulin, dextrose, and hypertonic sodium bicarbonate a repeat ECG had a ventricular rate of 66/min, QRS 156 ms, and QT 576 ms. Magnesium was given and pacer pads were placed. During the infusion of magnesium, her BP fell to 92/58 mmHg with a HR of 54/min, RR 14/min, O2 saturation of 97% on RA so the infusion was stopped. The ECG after the magnesium infusion had a ventricular rate of 51/min, QRS of 134 ms, and QT 614 ms. In the ICU she had multiple runs of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia that did not require therapy. Over the next 48 h she improved and was transferred to a floor bed. On day four of hospitalization the patient left against medical advice. At that time, her ECG showed sinus tachycardia with a heart rate 114/min, QRS 82 ms, QT 334 ms. Discussion: Loperamide produces both QRS and QT prolongation at supra-therapeutic dosing. A blood loperamide concentration of 210 ng/mL is among the highest concentrations reported. Supra-therapeutic dosing of loperamide is promoted on multiple drug-use websites and online forums as a treatment for opioid withdrawal, as well as for euphoric effects. With the current epidemic of prescription opioid abuse, toxicity related to loperamide, an opioid agonist that is readily available without a prescription is occurring more frequently. It is important for clinicians to be aware of the potentially life-threatening toxicity related to loperamide abuse in order to provide proper diagnosis, management and patient education.

An investigation of SOAR study strategies for learning from multiple online resources

This mixed-methods study investigated the effects of the SOAR study strategy for learning from multiple online resources. SOAR includes the components of selection, organization, association, and regulation. Past research confirmed that college students who study provided or partially provided SOAR materials achieved more than those using their preferred study methods when learning from a single printed (Jairam & Kiewra, 2009) or computer-based (Jairam & Kiewra, 2010) text. The present study was the first to investigate SOAR when college students create their own study materials and must learn from multiple online resources. In the present study, one hundred and thirty-four college students were assigned randomly to the preferred strategy control group or the SOAR strategy experimental group. Following a pre-survey and online training in their respective study strategy, both groups were directed to use their trained strategy to study scientific material available on multiple websites. Following the study period, participants were tested on the online material and then completed a post-survey. Qualitative analyses of pre-survey responses (before training) indicated that participants from both groups commonly use note taking, summarization, and memorization strategies to study online resources. Qualitative analyses of post-survey responses (after training) indicated that the preferred strategies control group used these same strategies to study the experimental material, whereas the SOAR-trained group used SOAR strategies. These qualitative data fit with quantitative data showing that (a) both groups created study materials reflective of their strategy training (preferred or SOAR); (b) SOAR strategy studiers achieved more than preferred strategy studiers on fact, relationship, and concept achievement items; and (c) SOAR-trained studiers had more positive attitudes about their trained methods than preferred-trained studiers.

Regulators of Androgen Action Resource: a one-stop shop for the comprehensive study of androgen receptor action.

Androgen receptor (AR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor that is the main target for treatment of non-organ-confined prostate cancer (CaP). Failure of life-prolonging AR-targeting androgen deprivation therapy is due to flexibility in steroidogenic pathways that control intracrine androgen levels and variability in the AR transcriptional output. Androgen biosynthesis enzymes, androgen transporters and AR-associated coregulators are attractive novel CaP treatment targets. These proteins, however, are characterized by multiple transcript variants and isoforms, are subject to genomic alterations, and are differentially expressed among CaPs. Determining their therapeutic potential requires evaluation of extensive, diverse datasets that are dispersed over multiple databases, websites and literature reports. Mining and integrating these datasets are cumbersome, time-consuming tasks and provide only snapshots of relevant information. To overcome this impediment to effective, efficient study of AR and potential drug targets, we developed the Regulators of Androgen Action Resource (RAAR), a non-redundant, curated and user-friendly searchable web interface. RAAR centralizes information on gene function, clinical relevance, and resources for 55 genes that encode proteins involved in biosynthesis, metabolism and transport of androgens and for 274 AR-associated coregulator genes. Data in RAAR are organized in two levels: (i) Information pertaining to production of androgens is contained in a ‘pre-receptor level’ database, and coregulator gene information is provided in a ‘post-receptor level’ database, and (ii) an ‘other resources’ database contains links to additional databases that are complementary to and useful to pursue further the information provided in RAAR. For each of its 329 entries, RAAR provides access to more than 20 well-curated publicly available databases, and thus, access to thousands of data points. Hyperlinks provide direct access to gene-specific entries in the respective database(s). RAAR is a novel, freely available resource that provides fast, reliable and easy access to integrated information that is needed to develop alternative CaP therapies.Database URL: http://www.lerner.ccf.org/cancerbio/heemers/RAAR/search/

A Modified Model for Hotel Website Functionality Evaluation

ABSTRACTHarnessing a mathematical computation approach to analyze data solicited from 354 website stakeholders (including 200 hotel customers, 83 hotel managers, and 71 hotel website designers), this study presents an up-to-date and robust evaluation model for assessing the functionality of hotel websites. The modified model was also empirically used to assess the functionality performance of the websites of all the hotels in Hong Kong. Results from the non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests revealed a difference in performance, with higher star rating hotels performing better than those with a lower star rating. As one of the first attempts to incorporate the perceptions of multiple website stakeholders into hotel website evaluation, this study provides hoteliers with practical advice on website development.

Hotel Overbooking and Cooperation with Third-Party Websites

Hotels cooperate with third-party websites to enhance their competitive position and attain sustainable development in the era of e-commerce. Furthermore, hotel managers overbook to hedge against last-minute cancellations and customer no-shows. This paper discusses pricing and overbooking strategies of a hotel in the context of cooperation with multiple third-party websites and analyzes how these strategies influence the cooperation process. The increase in profits resulting from the overbooking strategy is also examined. A model of a Stackelberg game between the hotel and third-party websites and a Nash game among the third-party websites are developed to analyze the process. Results indicate that the compensation coefficient has a slight influence on hotel pricing strategy, but causes a sharp decrease in overbooking level. As the hotel demands to lessen the probability of denying under higher compensation rate, the third-party websites would exert less sales effort to reduce the demand of online customers. Results also show that under a given market demand, hotel effort only serves to redistribute market shares among the hotel and third-party websites, without influencing hotel pricing and overbooking decisions. Specifically, the market shares of the third-party websites decrease in the effort level of the hotel resulting from an increase in the hotel market share. Finally, in the numerical example where one hotel and two websites are analyzed, hotel overbooking strategy improves hotel profit by 4.20%, whereas profit improvements for Websites 1 and 2 are as high as 5.26% and 5.21%, respectively. Managerial implications of the study are also provided.

Customized Travel Planner using MapReduce and Approximation Algorithm

It is fun to travel but painful to arrange the trip. When travelers start off planning they need flights, accommodation and attractions. Which scattered across multiple websites on the internet? Traveler spends time scouting each of them for the best deals, and gets the attraction reviews from established planners in the market. It will be always good if traveler gives specified designations and time he wants to spend for the trip and some platform will automatically did everything for traveler with added bonus of optimal and customized itineraries. This system is designed for such travelers to design customized itineraries which will be optimal and consist of Point-Of-Interest (POI) selected by traveler, rather than go and visit the traditional and static trip plans by many travel agencies. This system is two-stage processing system for cost effective and optimal results. First is preprocessing stage works offline uses parallel processing engine as MapReduce to precompute Single-Day Itineraries. In further stage which is online the precomputed itineraries are combined to give multiday itineraries. These itineraries produced are optimal as per travelers selected Point-OfInterest (POI).Here Greedy Approximation Algorithm is used to combine the single day itineraries. In this way TeamOrienteering-Problem (TOP) is transferred to Set-Packing Problem another NP-complete problem.