Relative Success Research Articles

THE USE OF EYE TRACKING AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN ASSESSING THE HOTELS WEBSITE DESIGN AESTHETIC ELEMENT: THE CASE OF ALGERIAN HOTELS WEBSITES

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the aesthetic quality of Algerian hotel websites and their ability to create a positive first impression, which is crucial for user engagement. The research focuses on identifying design strengths and weaknesses to propose actionable improvements for enhancing user experience. Theoretical Framework: The study integrates Eye Tracking (ET) technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze visual engagement and design aesthetics. Marriott Bonvoy®'s website serves as a benchmark, providing a standard for effective aesthetic design. Method: A content analysis was conducted on four Algerian hotel websites based in Constantine, utilizing ET-generated heatmaps and AI-derived visual indices, such as clarity scores, to evaluate design performance. Results and Discussion: The analysis revealed that Marriott Bonvoy® demonstrated superior aesthetic design, followed by the local three-star El Bey Hotel, which outperformed other local websites in design quality. Despite its relative success, El Bey and the other hotels exhibited areas requiring improvement, highlighting gaps in visual hierarchy, layout coherence, and clarity. Research Implications: The findings emphasize the need for Algerian hotel managers to prioritize design aesthetics as a key component of their digital strategy. Implementing the suggested improvements could enhance user experience and competitiveness in the hospitality sector. Originality/Value: This study uniquely combines ET and AI to evaluate website design in the Algerian hospitality context, providing actionable insights for improving digital engagement. It contributes to the growing body of research on user-centered web design in emerging markets.

Assessing immigration policy success in Australia

AbstractImmigration is an area of public policy ripe for potential characterisation as either policy success or failure. Given that it is a complex area of policy, it is often politicised, and there are different stakeholders with varying views of what constitutes ‘success’ and ‘failure’. All these factors suggest that a policy's success or failure will in some instances change over time and can be open to subjective opinion. In this article, we focus on particular aspects of this story—how the temporal dimension of determining policy success and failure can influence our assessment of policies. We assess one policy that has been evaluated as a success, particularly in a global context: Australia's selection of skilled immigrants and the subsequent incorporation of these migrants as permanent residents. We then consider a policy area that is more accurately considered a policy failure—namely, the historical management of asylum seeker backlogs and its effects upon the occasional misuse of certain visa processes by visa applicants—and we outline how this issue grew over time. This supports the fundamental argument that the assessment of success and failure is temporal in nature and that the endurance of policy is crucial in determining its characterisation. Furthermore, deviation from the original policy intent over time will be an additional measure of policy failure, and this will vary according to implementation challenges.Points for practitioners The assessment of policy as ‘successful’ or a ‘failure’ is temporal in nature. It is hard to be successful over the long term. The quality of data available to policy‐makers will influence the ways in which the relative success of policy is adjudged. Administrative datasets can provide more detailed insights for policy evaluation than shorter term surveys. Qualitative studies are of value in adjudging success. Immigration is a policy domain where the evaluation of success will depend upon the perspective of relative stakeholders as there are strongly affected interests in this area with differing views on what constitutes ‘success’. Immigration policy success shifts over time, dependent upon the interaction with other policy areas such as border protection, enforcement policies and their funding, as well as higher education policy.

Writing travel and the genealogical imagination: Afghan Kyrgyz migrations in contemporary perspective

ABSTRACT The current ‘repatriation’ programme initiated by the Kyrgyz Republic presents a timely occasion to reflect on the ambivalence of predicating migration in ethnic terms through descent and territorial ascription. Instead, this paper looks at the way Afghan Kyrgyz migrants mobilize and modulate genealogical and territorial registers and the later fulfilment or frustration of their aspirations. A focus on the current ‘repatriation’ programme is doubly interesting here because it taps into broader questions of citizenship, autochthony, and the securing of durable rights and duties and secondly, because the programme’s realization casts ambivalence to the pre-eminence of ethnic ascription in both the experience of migration and migration research. It argues that migrants’ relative success in moving back and forth between places of ‘departure’ and ‘arrival’ (in the programme’s own terms) complexifies the expected linearity of their ‘repatriation’ and implied definitive resettlement.

Where are the working class in the British film industry? Data from the British Film Institute

A range of research, including analyses of quantitative data, has demonstrated the existence of inequalities for women and people of colour in the screen sector’s workforce. There has been less data collection in relation to class inequalities, and therefore less analysis of this aspect of the workforce. This paper considers this historic absence of data relating to class and considers a new source of data. Analysis of applicants to the British Film Institute’s Film Fund provides new insight into class inequalities and how they intersect with other demographic categories. This analysis demonstrates the classed patterns of application and success in relation to funding for screen industries in the UK, with the dominance of those from middle class origins throughout each stage of funding. Intersectional analysis of these inequalities shows which groups, at the intersection of class, race and gender, are more likely to receive funding. Drawing on Nwonka’s groundbreaking work on race and data in the screen sector, the paper concludes by highlighting the limitations of solely ‘data-driven’ responses to screen- and creative-sector inequalities, and the need for broader considerations of the structural factors in play.

The Dynamics of Authorial Forgetting: The Case of James Robertson

Abstract James Robertson (1713 – 95) was born in Dublin but spent most of his life in England. By profession a comic actor associated for two decades with the York Theatre, in 1770 he published anonymously a relatively large volume of poetry (239 pages), with the title Poems, Consisting of Tales, Fables, Epigrams, &c. &c. By Nobody. His attribution of his poetry to Nobody was playful, but, in an irony of history, it has turned out to be prophetic. Despite the relative success of this volume — it went through three additional editions in his lifetime — and despite a surprising amount of contemporary recognition both as a player and as a poet, he has now totally disappeared from literary history. I suggest how and why he lost his place in the canon and what value there is in reading his work today, especially as a signpost of the relative persistence of Augustan satire (Pope, Swift, and others) beyond the death of Pope in 1744.

Real-world outcomes and predictors of failure of gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy in a large glaucoma cohort: a multicenter study

This retrospective, comparative, multicenter study aimed to evaluate the real-world outcomes and predictors of failure of Gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) at 12 months in glaucoma patients. Predictors of failure of absolute success in bilateral cases (422 eyes of 308 patients) included pre-operative intraocular pressure (IOP; IRR = 1.02; p = 0.01), and pre-operative mean deviation (IRR = 0.98; p = 0.007). The significant predictors of failure of relative success included binocularity (IRR = 4.05; p = 0.001) and pre-operative IOP (IRR = 1.04; p = 0.022). Only one eye per patient (308 eyes) was included in the second analysis. IOP reduced from 21.84 ± 7.96 mmHg to 11.97 ± 2.89 mmHg at 12 months; the number of hypotensive eye drop medications decreased from 3.07 ± 1.04 to 1.06 ± 1.08 (p < 0.001 for both). The pre-operative IOP was a predictive factor for failure of absolute (IRR = 1.02; p = 0.026) and relative successes (IRR = 1.05; p = 0.014). The preoperative number of hypotensive medications only affected absolute success (IRR = 1.25; p = 0.004). The Kaplan–Meier graph revealed relative and absolute success in 88.9% and 43.9% of cases, respectively. In conclusion, GATT is a safe and effective treatment option for diverse forms of open-angle glaucoma with varying severity. Pre-operative number of medications and IOP, race, and the outcomes of the contralateral eye (if applicable) were identified as predictors of failure of the procedure.

Vocational education and training in Latin America

This article arises from the need to understand the development of Vocational Education and Training (VET) systems in different socioeconomic contexts, focusing on four Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Colombia) and the German case, to understand the current state and the differentiated dynamics of VET and its institutional structure. The German case – and its relative success in terms of articulation between training for work and business – constituted it as a reference for the evaluation of this type of institutions, which in the case of Latin America have not been unfamiliar with the policies of structural reforms based on the Washington Consensus (in some cases, they were privatised). The article is divided into three sections, which explain how vocational training programs work from a brief historical context, describing their operational structure, the legal framework from which they operate, the sources of funding, the main vocational training institutions, and their relationship with economic dynamics.

Investigating the Role of Non-Governmental Organisations in Green Energy Innovations and Sustainable Practice in Lagos State, Nigeria

This paper investigates the role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in green energy and sustainable practices provision in Lagos State, Nigeria. Given the huge energy deficit in the state and its impacts on the socioeconomic dynamics of the state, the study, dwelling on the blending of theoretical assumptions of stakeholder theory and Ecological Modernization Theory and qualitative research design found that NGOs are central to the efforts of Lagos State government in promotion of renewable energy adoption and other sustainable practices. Data for the study was collected through in-depth interviews with 15 NGOs working in the area of green energy and sustainability practices. The study found that NGOs have recorded relative success stories in green energy innovation and continue to be strategic partners to government and other sustainability stakeholders in mobilizing the grassroots for green energy adoption. It concludes that the efforts of NGOs in green energy innovations and sustainability practices adoption are fraught with challenges, including financial inadequacy, bureaucratic delays, and low cooperation from communities, among others. The recommends that the government and other stakeholders, among others, should strengthen their support towards the activities of NGOs in green energy adoption to reduce carbon footprints and enhance the socioeconomic dynamics of the states. This study emphasises the strategic roles NGOs can play in helping the government achieve its energy transition and sustainability goals in Lagos State. Keywords: Non-Governmental Organisations, Green Energy Innovation, Sustainability Practices, Energy Transition, Lagos State

Understanding Visual Perception.

Visual perception can be thought of in two fundamentally different ways: (1) that what we see is determined by circuitry for detecting and representing object features and conditions in the physical world or (2) that what we see is determined empirically by neural associations based on the relative success of accumulated trial-and-error behavior. The evidence reviewed here indicates that the qualities we perceive are determined empirically. The reasons for this way of seeing are discussed.

Values in the Valence Election: Fragmentation and the 2024 General Election

AbstractThe 2024 general election delivered a verdict on an unpopular Conservative government, a valence election where the key motivation was to remove a government seen as failing. But this is not a full account of the voting choices of the British public. The rise of ‘second dimension’ politics and the associated value positions within the public have driven a fragmentation of the electorate. This, combined with multiparty competition, leads to complex patterns of party support across the electorate. This fragmentation explains the volatility in recent elections and the relative success of ‘third’ parties and independent candidates. It explains why, in a valence election, there was not a simple transfer of votes between alternative governing parties. This fragmentation poses electoral and policy challenges for all political parties and will have important implications for British politics over the next parliamentary cycle and beyond.

The Radical Right Goes Global (and Local)

Twenty years ago, there were around 80 million people—mostly Italians—living in a democracy where right-wing populists governed nationally. By 2020, that number had grown to 2.5 billion with right-wing populists in power in the largest (India), second largest (United States), fourth largest (Brazil), and sixth largest (Philippines) democracies in the world. As Cecilia Lero writes, “countries in the Global South, and the Philippines and Brazil in particular, have not had recent large waves of immigration or notable demographic shifts and have experienced real income growth across all classes over the past 15 years” (110). Thus, the rise of right-wing populists like Rodrigo Duterte and Jair Bolsonaro in “two countries previously considered relative success stories of democratization in their region” is puzzling and one of the key themes of Right-Wing Populism in Latin American and Beyond, edited by Anthony Pereira. Although half of the contributors are based in Brazil, and nearly all work in the country, the volume is truly comparative, as populism in Columbia, Peru, Italy, India, the Philippines, the United States, and Venezuela is covered in some depth. Substantive themes include right-wing populist responses to COVID—including “medical populism” and the creation of a transnational “Hydroxychloroquine Alliance”—along with standard chapters on theory, political economy, and institutions. It is one of the first books to chart the largest change in right-wing populism over the last decade: its rise to governance in democracies in the Global South.

A Narrative Review of the Impact of Public Family Planning Policies and Programs on the Contraceptive Transition in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

AbstractIn this paper, I provide a narrative review of the literature addressing the contribution of public family planning programs and policies to the contraceptive transition in low‐ and middle‐income countries. I address the long‐running debate between economists and demographers who examine the relative contribution of preferences compared to programs to fertility decline, but I steer the paper towards a deeper discussion of the kinds of programs that have been effective in shaping contraceptive use (not necessarily fertility). I will discuss why public family planning programs and policies are needed, and the differing motivations of governments, implementers, and program designers are also discussed. Specific country‐level policy examples are given for Peru, Rwanda, and Vietnam to illustrate how public programs affected contractive use in these cases. A variety of programs are reviewed for relative success (e.g., mass media, or postpartum family planning programs). The success (and failure) stories highlight the need to be attentive to context and external validity when scaling up or adapting programs to national‐level policies. The review highlights the types of programs and policies that have been successful and the context in which the successes occurred.

A ‘solution to an ongoing TV problem’: the rebooted limited series as quality TV format

ABSTRACT The current trend of the seasonally rebooted ‘limited series’ in U.S. television has found much acclaim, in large part owing to the ways it capitalizes on many of the advantages of both the ‘quality’ anthology series and the ‘quality’ miniseries, while nonetheless maintaining some of the production efficiencies and viewer loyalties of the continuing character series. In this way, the rebooted limited series functions as a sort of quality ‘hedge’—taking risks in some areas while being insulated from failure in others. Even with the format’s relative success, however, the industry continues to grapple with how to define and understand the limited series. These types of programs, such as American Horror Story (FX, 2011–) and True Detective (HBO, 2014–), reveal the slipperiness of format terminology in the context of rapid change. As the role of the limited series continues to evolve within the American television landscape, the format can potentially serve as one platform for examining how the industry has managed risk in the now-waning era of ‘peak TV’.

“Come as you are”: Reconsidering the need for complex quality control when gridding crowd‐sourced weather data

AbstractRecording hourly‐mean in situ observations of surface air temperature is a core task of most National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs). Now, suppose that a user is looking for a best estimate of past or present air temperature at a user‐specified location. Can crowd‐sourced weather data help a NMHS to serve this need? In this work, we provide a quantitative answer to this question by computing the cross‐validation root‐mean‐squared error for 1704 individual time slices of observed air‐temperature data in the Netherlands over the year 2023. We consider two baseline services: (i) providing station data as a basis for nearest‐neighbour approximation, a service widely used in legal disputes, insurance claim evaluations, etc., and (ii) providing a gridded dataset, a technically more advanced current service. Our results indicate that service (i) is not expected to be improved by including crowd‐sourced data—for example, the observed relative success rate is 14%—while service (ii) is expected to be improved by multi‐fidelity blending with crowd‐sourced data—for example, the observed relative success rate is 91%. Furthermore, our observations indicate that state‐of‐the‐art, well‐tuned quality control of the crowd‐sourced data (i.e., removing 85% of the data) can—in some of the metrics—lead to improvements of the expected performance of service (i), but—in all metrics—degrades the expected performance of service (ii) significantly. We then continue with a sensitivity study of 96 individual time slices of synthetic air‐temperature data to further understand and nuance these conclusions. Zooming out to the larger perspective, when considering the need for quality control, our results indicate that, for service (i), fewer crowd‐sourced data is better, while, for service (ii), more crowd‐sourced data is better.

Neurological Surgery Manpower Training and Density in Islamic Republic of Iran: A Population Study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Significant disparities in worldwide neurosurgical training and workforce distribution are prominent primarily in low-income and middle-income countries. Although Iran is considered a lower middle–income country, neurosurgical density and distribution in Iran has surpassed the recommended ratio of 1 neurosurgeon for every 100 000 population. The objective was to determine neurological surgery density and distribution in Iran and the factors significant in the relative success in training and allocation of neurosurgeons in Iran. METHODS: Review of PubMed and administration of site surveys of multiple data sources including Neurosurgical Society of Iran, Iranian Board of Neurological Surgery, Medical Council of Islamic Republic of Iran, Universities of Medical Sciences in Iran, and Ministry of Health and Higher Education of Iran. RESULTS: Over the 72-year period from 1952 to 2024, 1200 neurosurgeons have been trained and distributed in 31 provinces in Iran, attaining a ratio of 1.4/100 000 population. All but 40 neurosurgeons were trained after 1981, which coincided with the Iran-Iraq War. Decentralization of medical and neurosurgical residency training programs, resolving the immediate need for neurosurgeons managing penetrating traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries during the 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq War, and active participation of legislative and executive branches of government in solving health care disparities were major factors in meeting the needs of the country. At the present time, more than 555 neurosurgeons are practicing in Tehran Province, a proportion of 3.8 neurosurgeons for every 100 000 population, which indicates an element of disparity in density distribution across Iranian land. CONCLUSION: Legislative initiatives and government support of public health care delivery and decentralization of medical and residency training programs after the Iran-Iraq War and introduction of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education are considered the main reasons for the relative success in meeting the neurosurgical demand and manpower density. Still, further adjustment of distribution of manpower is needed.

The COVID-19 lockdown paradox: democratic support during democratic restrictions

Abstract Previous research has shown that positive perceptions of government performance are linked to higher levels of citizens’ support for democracy. However, the policy response to the COVID-19 crisis presented a unique paradox as relative success in preventing the virus spread depended on expanding executive powers, often at the cost of individual freedoms. Exploring this paradox, we investigate whether the link between perceptions of government performance and support for democracy holds in a situation where positive performance essentially means a restriction of freedoms. Using original survey data from seven European countries, we show that notwithstanding the democratic sacrifices, people with positive evaluations of the government’s response are more likely to maintain support for the democratic system. Nevertheless, people weighed responses to the health domain more heavily than to the economic domain, suggesting that the output legitimacy – democratic support link varies across domain-specific evaluations.

Physicians’ Obligation to Disclose Comparative Surgical Outcomes: Distinctive Features of Facial Feminization Surgery

Physicians are expected to ensure that patients are meaningfully informed and have voluntarily consented prior to engaging in any medical interventions upon a competent patient with decisional capacity. One aspect of informed consent is the disclosure of information that a reasonable patient might require to make a knowledgeable decision. A potential exception to this principle arises regarding the disclosure of a surgeon’s degree of skill compared to that of their competitors. Whether or not a surgeon has an ethical obligation to disclose relative success rates becomes even more challenging with regard to facial feminization surgery (FFS) for transgender women, where the success of outcomes is highly subjective. This essay explores legal and ethical considerations regarding the disclosure of comparative surgical outcomes for patients pursuing FFS.

The Dynamic Post COVID-19 World and Inflation: is Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Effective?

Nigeria had relative success in tackling the Covid-19 and its attendant economic consequences. A complementary mix of superior monetary and fiscal policy interventions saw support for the real sector, as well as growth and strengthening for the financial sector. The monetary authorities used several mediums to inject funds into the economy, while the financial sector was the channel through which huge sums were injected into the economy. These interventions however came with their fair share of woes, as they were carried out against the backdrop of rising inflation and unemployment levels. The unique nature of the Nigerian economy saw policy interventions targeted at stabilizing the economy, yield less than satisfactory outcomes. Currently, Nigeria faces the lagged impact of monetary and fiscal Covid-19 interventions in persistent high double digit inflation rates. The fall in global oil supply and world food prices necessitated by the Ukraine-Russian war have not helped the situation. These global events have had far reaching impacts on the Nigeria economy via the shortfall in supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) products, food shortages, and resultant exchange rate pressures. The domestic economy has not been without its fair share of events that have resulted in a spike in inflation rates. The persistent security issues in the north and other parts of Nigeria, did not serve as an obstacle to people mobilization and the high spending during the 2023 elections. Declining government revenues, the rising public debt and its servicing, while inimical in their own stead, have catalyzed the pressure on the exchange rate. Against these backdrop, the monetary authority’s decision to institute a currency redesign and cashless policy has left people confused as to what actually is their short- and long-term goals/objectives, the effectiveness of policy to achieve said goals, as well as their readiness to tailor policy to changing global events/trends. The study will seek to examine monetary authority responses to curb inflation and achieve economic stability.

Collaborations between health services and educational institutions to develop research capacity in health services and health service staff: a systematic scoping review

BackgroundParticipation of health service staff in research improves health outcomes and adherence to clinical guidelines. To increase research participation, many health services seek to build research capacity which adds to the development of individual and organisational skills and abilities in order to conduct health research. Numerous approaches to research capacity building have been trialed with inter- and intra-institutional, or university-health service collaborative approaches being frequently described strategies. University-health service research collaborations have potential for high impact and mutual benefit, by harnessing respective strengths across both organisations. However, the range and scope of research capacity building approaches, including their relative value and success have not been consolidated. The aim of this review was to examine and describe the collaborative strategies employed by health services in conjunction with educational partners to enhance the research capability of health service staff.MethodsThe scoping review framework by Arksey and O’Malley was used to inform the review method. A systematic search was conducted of four major databases: Medline, CINAHL, Embase, and Cochrane, focusing on publications after 1995. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were established through iterative team discussions. The two-stage screening process and data extraction was managed in Covidence. Collaboration, Research Capacity, Health Services, and Health workforce were the primary concepts, contexts and populations guiding the search.ResultsOf the 1462 studies identified, 61 were selected for the review. These studies reported on partnerships between universities and health services with a specific focus on building research capacity of health service staff. Studies predominantly hailed from Australia, USA, UK, and Canada. Collaboration approaches varied and leveraged different activities to build research capacity included training, mentoring, shared funding, and networking. Training partnerships emerging as the most prevalent. Findings emphasised the importance of localisation in approaches, with some studies indicating the intrinsic value of such collaborations for both partners involved. Despite the emphasis on individual interventions like training and mentoring, team-level interventions were notably scarce.ConclusionThis review highlights the diverse range of approaches in research capacity building collaborations between health services and educational partners. It advocates for a shared understanding of goals, highlighting the critical nature of relationship-building and the pivotal role of sustainable infrastructure in long-term collaboration success. Future directions should consider the tangible impacts of these models on clinical outcomes.

Serial 'deep-sampling' PCR of fragmented DNA reveals the wide range of Trypanosoma cruzi burden among chronically infected hosts and allows accurate monitoring of parasite load following treatment.

Infection with the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi is generally well-controlled by host immune responses, but appears to be rarely eliminated. The resulting persistent, low-level infection results in cumulative tissue damage with the greatest impact generally in the heart in the form of chagasic cardiomyopathy. The relative success in immune control of T. cruzi infection usually averts acute phase death but has the negative consequence that the low-level presence of T. cruzi in hosts is challenging to detect unequivocally. Thus, it is difficult to identify those who are actively infected and, as well, problematic to gauge the impact of treatment, particularly in the evaluation of the relative efficacy of new drugs. In this study we employ DNA fragmentation and high numbers of replicate PCR reaction ('deep-sampling') to extend the quantitative range of detecting T. cruzi in blood by at least 3 orders of magnitude relative to current protocols. When combined with sampling blood at multiple time points, deep sampling of fragmented DNA allowed for detection of T. cruzi in all infected hosts in multiple host species. In addition, we provide evidence for a number of characteristics not previously rigorously quantified in the population of hosts with naturally acquired T. cruzi infection, including, a > 6-log variation between chronically infected individuals in the stable parasite levels, a continuing decline in parasite load during the second and third years of infection in some hosts, and the potential for parasite load to change dramatically when health conditions change. Although requiring strict adherence to contamination-prevention protocols and significant resources, deep-sampling PCR provides an important new tool for assessing new therapies and for addressing long-standing questions in T. cruzi infection and Chagas disease.