A Mind Genomics-Based Cartography to Assess the Effects of the COVID19 pandemic in the tourism industry

This study aims to understand what Albanians think about the tourism business and the likely impact of Covid-19 on tourism in Albania. A Mind Genomics-based cartography assessed the different aspects of tourism, with a response from 4800 people out of 7000 invited. Mind Genomics is a new science based on regression models, data mining and clustering techniques. Only 38% of Albanians are optimistic about summer vacations. Two mindsets of Albanian respondents emerged from the study. Around 52.5% of participants belong to the pessimistic mindset about having vacations at all. The remainder, 47.5% of participants belong to the “cautious” group; they would wait for a “reasonable” offer to decide

Examining the Impact of Summer Vacations on ESL Learners’ Retention in Reading Comprehension

Vacations affect students’ level of retention and their academic performance since students unwillingly bother to actively remain in touch with academic activities during vacations. This study aims to examine the impact of summer vacations on ESL learners’ retention in reading comprehension. Specifically, it investigated whether summer vacations affect ESL learners’ retention level in reading comprehension. A sample of 240 ESL learners of secondary schools from Southern Punjab, Pakistan was selected through convenient sampling method. Both males and females were addressed in the study. A comprehension test was designed in line with the revised Barrett’s taxonomy of reading comprehension based on the contents of the English textbook taught to secondary school grade X students. SPSS version 22 was employed to analyze the quantitative data. The analysis indicates that there was an impact of summer vacations on learners’ retention in reading comprehension. It also reveals that the learners acquired better scores in pre-test that was conducted before starting summer vacations as compared to the scores of post-test, which was given after summer vacations. A two-sample t-test reveals a significance difference between the performance of urban and rural learners and the learners studying in public and private schools as well. A significant gender difference was also found between the scores of pre-test and post-test. Based on the findings of the study, some implications and recommendations were furnished for ESL learners to improve their academic performance in reading comprehension by utilizing summer vacations effectively.

Pandemics, Health Behavior and Tourism

The current paper examines if respondents that take strict prevention measures against COVID-19, with higher monthly incomes and that have spent their summer vacations in Albania last year are significantly more likely to plan their summer vacations to Albania this summer relative to those that are neglecting prevention measures, have lower incomes and have not chosen Albania as their destination for summer vacations last year. The study employs a survey of 500 random respondents. A multivariate analysis indicated that scores of planning summer vacations were significantly associated with the present strict prevention behavior measures against COVID-19 indicating the existence of sufficient motivation for future behavior intentions. In contrasts, monthly income is not a predictor for planning summer vacations. Finally, the correlation is positive between respondent’s previous experience to touristic destinations in Albania last year and planning summer vacations this year. Hence, it is recommended a thoughtful examination of respondents’ health behaviors, needs, wants and collaboration in shaping the better future of public health that is a shared one.

“Probably in a Week Both My Volumes Will Go on Sale”. Anton V. Kartashev’s Letters to George I. Novitskii. 1958-1960

This publication completes the readers' acquaintance with letters written by the historian and professor of the St. Sergius Theological Institute in Paris A. V. Kartashev to his friend G. I. Novitsky, who lived in New York. The historian focused on preparing for the publication of his final works, “Essays on the History of the Russian Church” and “Ecumenical Councils”, which he wrote and dictated during the summer vacations. No less space in the letters was given by their author to traditional questions - about the financial condition of the institute and the peculiarities of training students in it, as well as about the relationship of its professors with the hierarchs of the West European Exarchate of Russian Parishes of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The text of the letters is brought into line with modern spelling standards while preserving some features of the author’s spelling of individual words and punctuation. Comments include data on newly mentioned persons, and information on re-meeting ones can be found in previous journal publications for 2016-2019.

“Suffrage ‘Owns’ City,” 1913–1915

The 1915 state referendum required leaders like Carrie Chapman Catt and Harriot Stanton Blatch to move beyond recruiting female allies and instead convince legislators and men with the ballot to support women’s rights. This chapter describes how activists quickly rallied their urban army to do so: public health nurses courted immigrant support, actresses used their celebrity to draw attention, socialites poured money into the treasury, and teachers forfeited their summer vacations for organizational work. City organizations, including the Woman Suffrage Party, pooled resources to form the Empire State Campaign Committee. Everyone recognized that winning the state’s forty-five Electoral College votes would be a pivotal step toward achieving a national amendment. However, obstacles remained. Organizers chafed at police restrictions, faced resistance at sporting events, and needed to relocate headquarters in an ever-changing rental marketplace. Ultimately, more than three hundred thousand men voted against women’s right to the franchise at the 1915 referendum, ensuring that polling places would remain distinctly male terrain in an increasingly heterosocial city.

Everyday living in Yugoslavia: A life beyond the realm of necessity

In the text author discusses the living standard of the daily and averaged Dasein living in Yugoslavia. Given that the article is written in a form of retrospective gaze from the perspective of a completely different economic, social and political regime the emphasis is put on those indicators that testify to the high living standards: consumption, housing and the availability to spend summer vacations in the sea resorts. These indicators are considered to be part of luxury from contemporary perspective. Through selected topics the author will also attempt to demonstrate a certain level of democracy within socialism which was also the emblematic feature of Yugoslavia?s socialism. Yugonostalgia, a term often associated with remembering life in Yugoslavia, should therefore be understood not as a romantic repentance, but as a projection of former social organization from the perspective of capitalist societies, in other words as the comparison of then and now.

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

I have fallen victim to a bait-and-switch scheme, one that I think is familiar to many academics. When first contemplating a life of the mind, I was essentially in search of an industry to fund my eclectic reading habits. The Academy welcomed me with the confident smile of a Ricky Roma. I was particularly enticed by the opportunity to talk (at length) about the books I had found while wandering in subbasements and forgotten annexes of research libraries, perusing used bookstores, or perhaps stopping at kiosks along the Seine during my lengthy summer vacations. That's not quite how it turned out. Instead, the only time I read a new book that isn't about talking steam engines or delinquent bunnies (and even then I often fall asleep before the final page) is because I have assigned it in a course. This is not what I expected, but it is satisfying nonetheless. Last fall I finished a number of good books just before teaching my classes.