Visitor Monitoring Research Articles

The role of the pharmacist in the system of rational use of drugs for responsible self-treatment

Relevance. In the healthcare system of the Russian Federation, there is the use of drugs by the population without a physician’s appointment (including prescription leave), as well as violation of the principles of responsible self-medication. Under the current conditions, a pharmacist can play a key role in providing pharmaceutical care within the framework of responsible self-treatment and providing citizens with accessible information on the rational use of drugs.Objective. The study of the role of the pharmacist in the system of rational use of drugs by visitors of pharmacy organizations.Materials and methods. The study used methods of content analysis, sociological research (observation), comparative and mathematical statistical analysis. Regulatory documents regulating the activities of pharmacists were analyzed, as well as monitoring of pharmacy visitors who applied to a pharmacist in order to purchase drugs.Results. The professional standards of pharmacists contain requirements for ensuring or organizing the rational use of drugs by the population for the purpose of responsible self-treatment. The majority of pharmacy visitors (63.8%) purchase drugs bypassing a medical professional. A significant proportion of buyers (58.7%) do not know or approximately know what caused their poor health. At the same time, the proportion of pharmacy visitors who assume that they do not need to be prescribed by a medical professional is quite high and amounts to 41.3%.Conclusion. A low level of readiness of pharmacy visitors for the rational use of drugs has been established and the need for regular educational work on the part of pharmacists on responsible self-medication has been identified.

Recreational use of protected areas: spatiotemporal insights from the Wikiloc mobile app

ABSTRACT Managing the rising number of visitors to protected areas (PAs) without compromising their environmental goals is a critical challenge that requires a complete understanding of how and when visitors use these spaces. Georeferenced data from fitness-tracking apps can provide detailed information about the visitor’s spatiotemporal behaviour inside PAs, but its potential is still underexplored. This study uses georeferenced data, from Wikiloc, to analyse the visitors’ spatiotemporal behaviour in Alvão Natural Park, Portugal. Our findings show that: 52% of the visitors’ use is concentrated around the Fisgas de Ermelo Waterfall; photos’ hotspots coincide with the waterfalls and viewpoints facing them; 2% of the routes crossed a zone where recreational use is illegal; Spring (26%) and April (11%) receive the most visitors; 52% of routes are done on the weekends; 66% of visitors are inside the park during noon; start/end places are located near parking spaces; the most frequent times to start a route are between 08:00-13:00 hrs, ending between 13-18:00 hrs. A new method was developed to calculate daily visitor numbers without photo concentration bias. These results offer valuable insights that can aid in PAs’ environmental and recreational use management by quickly providing detailed and low-cost visitor monitoring data.

Pan traps: An effective tool for monitoring phenological changes in insect floral visitors and their relationship with floral resources in a coastal Mediterranean forest

Precise monitoring of insect floral visitors and their relationship with floral resources throughout the flowering season provides baseline information to help us understand long-term changes in plant-pollinator interactions and improve pollinator conservation strategies. Pan traps are one of the methods most used for monitoring insect floral visitors and several studies have already linked the abundance and richness of these floral visitors with floral resources. However, less research has been conducted into the effectiveness of pan traps for monitoring phenological changes in the floral visitor community with regard to floral resources. We used pan traps to study the species composition and the abundance of insect floral visitors and their relationship with flower richness in a coastal forest throughout the entire flowering season for two consecutive years. Captures were confirmed to be floral visitors through field survey studies. Pan traps were effective for revealing changes in the abundance and species composition of floral visitor communities during and between years that correlated with changes in floral richness and species composition. Changes in floral visitor abundance showed a different bias in their association with floral richness. Thus, while Hymenoptera and Diptera abundance tended to be negatively correlated with floral richness, Coleoptera abundance tended to be positively correlated, although such correlations could change from year to year. There were two significantly different groups of flowering plant and floral visitor species: one in spring and the other in summer. Each period was characterized by unique overlap between some floral visitors and their floral resources, suggesting that to monitor floral visitors effectively both communities need to be considered. Interestingly, the floral phenology in this coastal forest extended longer than that of more inland communities, so reliable monitoring of floral visitors throughout the floral season may help us to better understand the role of coastal plant communities in the stabilization of the pollinator networks of more inland communities. Overall, phenology patterns need to be taken into account for pan trapping to become an effective methodology for monitoring floral visitor communities, considering both intra-year (spring and summer communities) and inter-year variations.

Lobbying in social media as a new source of survey bias

Questionnaires are widely-used tools in empirical social science, including tourism research. The key premise of each quantitative survey is the representativeness of the investigated sample. Yet, the rapid development of information and communication technology forces social scientists to take new sources of biases into account. This paper describes the problem of lobbying in social media, initiated by survey participants themselves. We report a collective action of online communities which resulted in over-representation of the collective opinions of certain interest groups. The bias has been observed when analyzing data collected during a visitor monitoring study in a popular forest recreation destination: the Tricity Landscape Park in Poland. Two different methods: on-site survey (n = 994) and online survey (n = 1023) were used to collect data on local recreational preferences. A significant effect of lobbying in social media on online survey responses has been identified in the case of questions related to the forest management. Management implicationsOur study confirms significant differences between results obtained via on-site and online surveys.Cost-efficient distribution of online survey link via social media may cause biased results.Especially, distribution channels of online surveys related to problematic management issues need to be carefully chosen.In such cases, social media activity (link sharing, post assessment (e.g. likes or negative reactions) accompanying the discussion) need to be additionally monitored in order to detect uncontrolled lobbying of certain users’ opinions.

Impact of forestry on environment and human health: an evidence-based investigation.

There is an increasing interest in the health effects of the forest. Without active participation in forestry, conflicts between the various stakeholders are foreseeable. The impact of forests on human life is unforgettable, and everyone gets enormous benefits from trees and greenery. COVID-19 has caused many changes in human behavior, which needs much attention. Environmental change's impact is considered a better solution and influences human behavior. Scientists around the globe are conducting research experiments on trees and the effect of forestry on human health, which is increasing in terms of social, ecological, and economic services. Trees provide full support to enhance the quality of life and minimize air pollution. Forests must be noticed to get benefits (e.g., carbon storage, fruits, human health considerations, economic benefits, and biodiversity). This research aims to explain the area of forest and health from the perspective of Saudi Arabian forestry and develop strategic measures for the proactive design of this topic. The research entailed expert interviews with forestry representatives and a quantitative survey of medical students. Our findings show that implementing strategic measures, such as establishing a forest and health, improves health and eliminates air pollution. It shows many other establishment and planning strategies, such as the use of professional visitor monitoring, the development of product innovations, the use of digitalization, and the development of integrated forest management.

Find the one you like! Profiling Swiss parks with user generated content

The establishment of national parks originated from the desire to preserve scenic landscape areas of national or regional importance. With more recent diversification of protected area types and goals, obtaining knowledge on how parks are recreationally used has become more challenging for (local) policy makers and park managements, as there is a general lack of systematic and publicly available visitor monitoring data. We analyze recreational park use for 20 Swiss parks of national importance and develop park profiles, using user-generated content from Flickr. The 20 Swiss parks are described by 111,437 unique images taken by 6,468 unique users between 2007 and 2020. We fill an existing research gap by defining park use across three dimensions space, time and users, and combining these in our analyses. The park profiles provide information on diversity of recreational use and serve as a starting point for analyzing how the three dimensions contribute to this diversity. Our results show diverging park uses for the three dimensions indicating that park location matters, especially in terms of peri-urbanity and geographic region. Our method can be translated into European scale analyses, provided that different languages are considered. Park profiles are easy to communicate and easy to interpret tools for (local) policy-makers and park managers to segment the tourism market and develop new park marketing strategies to e.g. streamline visitation flows and reduce the negative impacts of outdoor recreation. In broader terms, our study serves as input for future recreation policy to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of protected areas Management implications•We offer insights into recreational park use in terms of users, space and time, particularly valuable for parks where monitoring visitation is vital (i.e. protected areas).•Park profiles provide easy to communicate and interpret extensible tools for (local) policy-makers and park managers.•Park profiles can be used for among others the development of new park marketing strategies catering preferences for differentiated user groups.•Since different recreational user groups differ in their recreational behavior and in turn their environmental impact, park profiles can help in streamlining visitors as a potentially effective management measure for increased park sustainability (e.g. biodiversity conservation).

Design and build a library visitor monitoring system based on microcontrollers

The system combines microcontroller technology and sensors to develop an effective solution for monitoring library visitors. By utilizing hardware such as motion sensors and microcontrollers , this system can automatically identify and track visitors entering and exiting the library. The microcontroller-based visitor monitoring aims to design and construct an automatic library visitor monitoring system based on visitor entries and exits. This library visitor monitoring tool uses Ultrasonic Sensors to detect human objects, with a microcontroller as its controller, an LCD for displaying visitor data and a buzzer as an indicator for visitor entry and exit. The system operates automatically by counting the number of people entering or exiting the library space using Ultrasonic Sensors with a microcontroller as its controller. The Ultrasonic Sensors are placed beside the library entrance and exit doors. So, if a visitor passes through either of these paths at a certain range, the Ultrasonic Sensor will provide information about the incoming and outging visitors.

A YOLO Algorithm-based Visitor Detection System for Small Retail Stores using Single Board Computer

In Indonesia, assistance for small enterprises has grown in recent years. However, a monitoring system is required to support these enterprises and ensure their expansion and survival. Using a single-board computer and the YOLO algorithm, we construct a visitor tracking system in this study to meet this demand. To capture objects and categorize them as human or non-human, we employ the YOLOv4-tiny model, which has a mAP of 89.21%. Human visitors are welcomed with the use of a speaker. A telegraph bot that notifies the owner of the retail establishment of the visitor's presence also makes the presumption as to whether the visitor is a potential customer or an intruder. Our research demonstrates that the created monitoring system effectively recognizes and categorizes visits, enabling retail store owners to make defensible choices regarding visitor interaction and security precautions. Small business owners can save personnel costs while still maintaining high levels of client engagement and security. The theoretical application of this research is the creation of a visitor monitoring system that is affordable and may be used in small enterprises, particularly in Indonesia. The practical ramifications of our research include the possibility for small retail business owners to boost profits by lowering labor expenses while raising customer satisfaction and security. The importance of our study lies in its role in creating a monitoring system that will support small enterprises and increase their sustainability.

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the popularity of protected areas for mountain biking and hiking in Australia: Insights from volunteered geographic information.

Rapid changes in visitation can be challenging to monitor and manage, as occurred with the COVID-19 pandemic. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mountain biking and hiking and factors predicting protected area popularity were examined across different parks. Visitation increased at different stages of the pandemic, with mountain bikers' preferring urban parks with networks of mountain bike trails while some hikers preferred more remote large parks. Managers can expand on traditional methods of visitor monitoring by using volunteered geographic information to monitor rapid and longer-term trends of visitation to protected areas.

Quantifying nationality bias in social media data on different platforms for visitor monitoring in Nikko National Park, Japan

Geotagged social media data have been used widely for visitor monitoring in protected areas. The data might, however, over or underestimate visitors from specific countries due to nationality bias, i.e., differences between nationality of actual visitors versus those visitors who post on social media. This study aimed to quantify nationality bias in social media data for visitor monitoring. We conducted a questionnaire survey in Nikko National Park, Japan. Questions covered the nationality of visitors and their usage of social media, and other visitor attributes and behavior. Foreign visitors had significantly different attributes and behaviors compared to Japanese. Non-Japanese Asian visitors were overrepresented in Instagram and Facebook data. In comparison, the X platform was more representative of all visitors. Nationality bias in different platforms needs more attention and further study in different areas.

Evaluation of GNSS-based Volunteered Geographic Information for assessing visitor spatial distribution within protected areas: A case study of the Bavarian Forest National Park, Germany

Systematic monitoring of recreational use in vulnerable ecosystems is crucial to balance human needs and site capacities. Recently, publicly available digital data, including Global Navigation Satellite System-based Volunteered Geographic Information, gained attention as a potential resource depicting visitor movement. However, there is a need to critically assess its reliability for visitor monitoring across countries, regions and available databases. Our research evaluates the usability of GNSS-based VGI-data obtained from three common platforms: GPSies, Outdooractive, and Komoot for assessing the spatial distribution of hikers in the Bavarian Forest National Park. A total sample of 1742 GNSS-tracks uploaded between 2013 and 2018 were compared across data platforms. Additionally, available systematic field counts, carried out between 2013 and 2014 (11 Eco-Counter sensors), were compared to GNSS-based VGI data uploaded within the corresponding period. The comparisons at individual and collective levels (route lengths, kernel density, optimized hotspot analysis along with fishnet-based counts of GNSS-tracks) showed similarities between VGI data platforms. Data obtained from GPSies and Outdooractive displayed a higher correlation with each other than with those obtained from Komoot. Also, for GPSies, there was a significant positive correlation between VGI-data and field count data. Data sample of Outdooractive and Komoot within the specified spatio-temporal frame was too small to compare with available field count data. We highlight the necessity of systematic validation of GNSS-based VGI data resources, being complementary rather than the primary data source in visitor monitoring and recreation planning. Also, systematic long-term visitor monitoring using other methods is crucial to assess the validity of novel data resources, such as GNSS-based VGI.

Optimizing the use of automatic counters to monitor visits to protected natural areas: the case study of Montsant Natural Park, Spain

ABSTRACT Natural parks are valuable protected natural areas (PNA) and can attract many visitors, thus increasing the pressure on ecosystems and contrasting with conservation objectives. This article focuses on Montsant Natural Park and describes a comprehensive method for monitoring visitors based on the optimized use of automatic counters called the Optimal Visitor Monitoring System (OVMS). This system ensures (i) greater reliability of the data collected, (ii) greater adaptability to the characteristics of the different areas, and (iii) better use of the data provided by the monitoring system. Data generated by the OVMS included visitor inflow by entrances, visitor inflow by months, and distribution of visitor inflow by trail or recreation area within the park. The OVMS is useful for monitoring visitors over years and identifying trends that can inform regulatory or management actions related to the public use of conservation lands.

Was it really different? COVID-19-pandemic period in long-term recreation monitoring - A case study from Polish forests.

The COVID -19 pandemic posed serious challenge for securing public health worldwide. Public health preparedness and restrictions put in place impacted many aspects of human life, including recreational activities and access to outdoor recreational destinations. Green spaces have become one of the few sources of resilience during the coronavirus crisis due to their restorative effects on psychophysical health and community well-being. The aim of this study is to analyse the impact of the COVID -19 pandemic on forest visitation. The results are based upon long-term visitor data acquired via pyroelectric sensors (Eco-Counter) in three forest districts located in Poland (Browsk, Gdansk & Kozienice Forest Districts). The analysis covers the period between January 01, 2019 and December 31, 2020 and the results confirm changes in recreational use in the studied forest areas during the pandemic compared to the preceding year. However, observed changes in forest visitation vary by pandemic period and study area. The ban on access to forest areas significantly reduced the number of forest visits in all studied areas. The number of visits to sub-urban forests (Gdansk Forest District) and to remote nature-based tourist destinations (Browsk Forest District) increased in the later pandemic periods, especially in the summer months of 2020, while it remained the same in a popular nearby recreation area: Kozienice Forest District. There were only minor temporal shifts in the distribution of weekly and daily visits. The results are important for public health preparedness planning in crisis situations and for provisioning conditions supporting societal health and well-being. Objective data on forest visits are necessary for successful management of forest areas and surrounding amenities. More cross-sector collaboration and public participation would be desirable to create sustainable, resilient, and liveable spaces for the society.Management Implications•Long-term visitation monitoring is crucial for successful management of outdoor recreation destinations and their catchment areas.•Objective numbers concerning forest visitation from the pre-pandemic and COVID-19 pandemic period allow observing trends and making fact-based management decisions during period of crisis.•Changes in the investigated three forest study areas in Poland were not homogenous, which implies the necessity of systematic visitor monitoring in multiple destinations, in order to cover different types of forest areas and also local diversity in recreational use.•More intersectoral, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary exchange would be desirable to better integrate existing on-site visitor monitoring data into decision making processes related to forest management, urban planning, transportation, tourism and public health.

Is travelling currently a risk? The impact of COVID-19 and war in Ukraine

The aim of the study is to examine how regular travellers’ behaviour and views regarding international travel have changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemics and the war in Ukraine. The study includes three research questions 1) how much is travel missed and how do pandemics affect international travel behaviour? 2) how do regular travellers view the danger associated with pandemics and the war in Ukraine? 3) to what extent are future travels perceived as risky? The research is based on statistical data on outgoing tourism and domestic visitor monitoring data analysis, and interviews with 33 regular Latvian travellers. The interviews were conducted during the first quarter of 2022. According to the findings, regular travellers currently feel a lack of excitement about planning trips or international travel experiences. Those who frequently travel for business report a lower level of longing for this experience. The habit of travelling locally has increased due to the lack of international alternatives during the pandemic with restrictions on global mobility. Regular travellers accept the inconveniences caused by the Covid-19 restrictions, but they were afraid and applied self-protection strategies, or even refused to travel entirely, during the first month of the war in Ukraine. Finally, regular travellers are not going to refrain from taking multiple journeys overseas or to Western European countries in the next six months but will avoid travels to zones of military conflict.

DESIGN OF A PROTOTYPE MONITORING SYSTEM FOR SCHOOL LIBRARY VISITORS USING RFID AND NODEMCU BASED ON THE INTERNET OF THINGS

Monitoring the identity of library visitors is a very important part. Usually to monitor students who are diligent in visiting the school library by providing books or guest books, the purpose of this study is to record the identity of students who visit the library electronically, in the study describes the monitoring system for library visitors with internet communication lines, database storage media by using descriptive method. The design of this system consists of a library card, RFID, Nodemcu, 2 x 16 LCD, and a web as an application used to process visitor identities or as a place to display information in real time. The web application design uses the programming language HyperText Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Forms (CSS), Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Content Management System (CMS) using a MySQL database while the test results show that this system can work well, with the The school library visitor monitoring system using internet-based RFID and nodemcu can make it easier for employees to view and process the identity of library visitors

A Contactless Visitor Access Monitoring System

This project presents a contactless visitor access monitoring in small premises which implemented deep learning model in face recognition, develop the graphical user interface (GUI) for new visitor registration and visitor identification. Five stages of monitoring process are designed in the contactless visitor access monitoring (CVAM) GUI, the first step is to give instructions to the admin user regarding the monitoring process, the second step is to perform face recognition, the third step is to scan the body temperature, the fourth step is to perform mask detection on the visitor, and the final stage is to record visitor access time. Another visitor registration (VisReg) GUI is designed to register new visitors into the system. In VisReg, admin user is required to pre-process face images with MTCNN technique and generate new classifier with a ResNet pre-trained model. The contactless visitor access monitoring process is demonstrated. The face recognition gives an accuracy of 82%, while the mask detection gives an accuracy of 95% when tested with the validation dataset. It can be concluded that the visitor monitoring process can be carried out in a contactless way to eliminate the close contact between the security officers, receptionist, and visitors.

Establishing a standard for park visitation analyses: Insights from Germany

Protected areas not only contribute to the protection of biological diversity but also offer spaces for outdoor recreation and tourism. As is well known, visitor monitoring is required for various reasons. The need to collect comparable visitation data in Germany's protected areas became clear with a first pilot study in 2001 at Berchtesgaden National Park. Since then, additional studies have estimated visitation using a standardized methodology. This article focuses on this methodology by examining how visitation is registered in protected areas in Germany, where a combination of censuses and structural surveys are used on selected survey days and at certain survey sites. Extrapolations of such raw data consider variations in visitor volume according to season, the day of the week, and weather conditions, while also integrating visitor segmentation and official statistical data. Differences in spatial structure are reflected in those visitor segments and outdoor activities. Parks near urban areas show a high share of day-visitors, while overnight tourism predominates in more remote areas, especially traditional tourist destinations. Using this method, initial studies calculated about 53 million visitor days per year in national parks, and over 65 million visitor days in biosphere reserves. In combination with alternative counting methods, such as automatic counters, long-term monitoring must be set up to operate permanently in order to meet international reporting obligations and verify the carrying capacity of protected areas.

VISITOR MONITORING IN PROTECTED AREAS: CONCEPTS, METHODS AND TRENDS

The objective of this paper is to present a systematic overview on methods used for visitor monitoring in recreational areas. Emphasis is given on quantitative methods such as direct observation, video observation, counting devices and registration books. The various approaches are discussed with regard to practical, legal and organisational aspects, such as costs, maintenance requirements, dependence on infrastructure, risk of vandalism or suitability for remote and ecologically sensitive locations. As visitor monitoring can also be regarded as an interference with the privacy of the persons being monitored, ethical aspects of the application of the various methods must also be addressed. This article reviews the possibilities of using visitor monitoring in the management of a protected area using the example of the Moravian Karst Protected Landscape Area (PLA). The Moravian Karst is the largest and most significant Karst area in the Czech Republic. The disadvantages of visitor monitoring in protected areas are analysed in the discussion part.

Methods to Decrease Carbon Emission at the University of Szeged

The implementation of innovations and technologies to decrease carbon emission is one of the main priorities that the University of Szeged is striving to achieve. Although, effective investments cannot be carried out without proper measurement systems in energy management and carbon emission monitoring. Understanding the importance of proper measurement, the University of Szeged has decided to calculate the whole carbon footprint of one of its main buildings, namely, the Study and Information Centre with the help of KÖVET association. The carbon evaluation uses data of 2019 and contains the direct and indirect carbon emission of building management, and of its employees’ and visitors’. This calculation will be the basis of further carbon reduction investments, protocols and events held for shaping the visitors’ and employees’ consciousness. In parallel with the evaluation, the University of Szeged has made some huge steps to decrease carbon emission factors. For instance, a newly installed visitor monitoring system regulates the electricity usage of ventilation in the most used areas of the Study and Information Centre based on the actual number of visitors present in the building. Furthermore, from April 2020, five electric cars substitute the most driven cars of the University in urban areas, rapidly decreasing the direct carbon emission in the city.

Visitor Counting and Monitoring in Forests Using Camera Traps: A Case Study from Bavaria (Southern Germany)

A variety of counting methods exist to analyze visitor numbers of outdoor settings such as national parks, recreation areas and urban green spaces, with sensor-based approaches being the most frequently applied. In this paper, we describe the application and practicality of camera traps originally designed for wildlife monitoring for visitor management purposes. The focus of the work is on the practicality of trigger camera traps and data collection for visitor monitoring from a more practice- and management-oriented perspective. Camera traps can provide interesting in-depth and detailed information about recreationists and are flexible and suitable for various uses; however, assessing the visual data manually requires significant staff and working time. To deal with the large amounts of data gathered for numbers of passersby and recreation activities, correlation factors between passersby and pictures were determined, so that the number of passersby related to the number of pictures taken per day or per other time unit could be established. In focusing on using the camera traps and assessing the generated data, it became clear that more studies have to be conducted to compare different methods of visitor monitoring and their accuracy in different outdoor environments.