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In Artistic Reconfigurations of Rome Kaspar Thormod examines how visions of Rome manifest themselves in artworks produced by contemporary international artists who have stayed at the city's foreign academies.

This book is a history of the Soviet tours of European and American intellectuals, writers, bohemians, professionals, and political tourists who saw the “Soviet experiment” in the 1920s and 1930s. It provides a new framework for understanding the relationship between intellectuals and communism and the Soviet reception of foreign visitors, including the leading fellow-travelers who praised Stalin and Stalinism in the interwar period. The work is based on a far-reaching analysis of the declassified archives of agencies charged with crafting the international image of the first socialist society, including VOKS (the All-Union Society for Cultural Ties Abroad). The book brings this story into new focus as one of the great transnational encounters of the twentieth century. As many visitors were profoundly influenced by their Soviet tours, so too was the Soviet system itself: the experiences of building showcases and tutoring outsiders to perceive the future-in-the-making comprise a neglected international dimension to the emergence of Stalinism. Probing entanglements between far-left and far-right ideological extremes, the work pays special attention to the covert interaction between communism and fascism, including Soviet attempts to recruit German “National Bolsheviks” and fascist intellectuals. The unprecedented scope of Soviet efforts to mold foreign, particularly Western public opinion created a new chapter in the history of modern cultural diplomacy. Setting the revolutionary regime's innovations in the context of the entire history of foreign visitors in Russia, the book argues that Soviet mobilization for the international ideological contest directly paved the way for the cultural Cold War.

Knowledge about the health impacts of the absence of health insurance for migrants with precarious status (MPS) in Canada is scarce. MPS refer to immigrants with authorized but temporary legal status (i.e. temporary foreign workers, visitors, international students) and/or unauthorized status (out of legal status, i.e. undocumented). This is the first large empirical study that examines the social determinants of self-perceived health of MPS who are uninsured and residing in Montreal. Between June 2016 and September 2017, we performed a cross-sectional survey of uninsured migrants in Montreal, Quebec. Migrants without health insurance (18+) were sampled through venue-based recruitment, snowball strategy and media announcements. A questionnaire focusing on sociodemographic, socioeconomic and psychosocial characteristics, social determinants, health needs and access to health care, and health self-perception was administered to 806 individuals: 54.1% were recruited in urban spaces and 45.9% in a health clinic. 53.9% were categorized as having temporary legal status in Canada and 46% were without authorized status. Regions of birth were: Asia (5.2%), Caribbean (13.8%), Europe (7.3%), Latin America (35.8%), Middle East (21%), Sub-Saharan Africa (15.8%) and the United States (1.1%). The median age was 37 years (range:18-87). The proportion of respondents reporting negative (bad/fair) self-perception of health was 44.8%: 36.1% among migrants with authorized legal status and 54.4% among those with unauthorized status (statistically significant difference; p<0.001). Factors associated with negative self-perceived health were assessed using logistic regression. Those who were more likely to perceive their health as negative were those: with no diploma/primary/secondary education (age-adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 2.49 [95% CI 1.53-4.07, p<0.001] or with a college diploma (AOR: 2.41 [95% CI 1.38-4.20, p = 0.002); whose family income met their needs not at all/a little (AOR: 6.22 [95% CI 1.62-23.85], p = 0.008) or met their needs fairly (AOR: 4.70 [95% CI 1.21-18.27], p = 0.025); with no one whom they could ask for money (AOR: 1.60 [95% CI 1.05-2.46], p = 0.03); with perception of racism (AOR: 1.58 [95% CI 1.01-2.48], p = 0.045); with a feeling of psychological distress (AOR: 2.17 [95% CI 1.36-3.45], p = 0.001); with unmet health care needs (AOR: 3.45 [95% CI 2.05-5.82], p<0.001); or with a health issue in the past 12 months (AOR: 3.44 [95% CI 1.79-6.61], p<0.001). Some variables that are associated with negative self-perceived health varied according to gender: region of birth, lower formal education, having a family income that does not meet needs perfectly /very well, insalubrious housing, not knowing someone who could be asked for money, and having ever received a medical diagnosis. In our study, almost half of immigrants without health insurance perceived their health as negative, much higher than reports of negative self-perceived health in previous Canadian studies (8.5% among recent immigrants, 19.8% among long-term immigrants, and 10.6% among Canadian-born). Our study also suggests a high rate of unmet health care needs among migrants with precarious status, a situation that is correlated with poor self-perceived health. There is a need to put social policies in place to secure access to resources, health care and social services for all migrants, with or without authorized status.

We use aggregated and anonymized information based on international expenditures through corporate payment cards to map the network of global business travel. We combine this network with information on the industrial composition and export baskets of national economies. The business travel network helps to predict which economic activities will grow in a country, which new activities will develop and which old activities will be abandoned. In statistical terms, business travel has the most substantial impact among a range of bilateral relationships between countries, such as trade, foreign direct investments and migration. Moreover, our analysis suggests that this impact is causal: business travel from countries specializing in a specific industry causes growth in that economic activity in the destination country. Our interpretation of this is that business travel helps to diffuse knowledge, and we use our estimates to assess which countries contribute or benefit the most from the diffusion of knowledge through global business travel. Coscia et al. use a large dataset of business travel to show that, before they become competitive in new industries, countries receive visitors from places where that industry already thrives.

This study presents a digital ethnography of expats’ survival amid the Shanghai lockdown during the Omicron variant outbreak. This study drew insights from studies on resilience and secondary coping within the context of global migration to comprehend the diverse emotional challenges faced by expats in a series of lockdowns and persistent nucleic acid amplification tests. Thus, this study asks what the major emotional challenges expats faced and what sources of social support they could draw from citizens in their host country during the Shanghai lockdown. Accordingly, this study collected WeChat group conversations to draw empirical findings, promoted scholarly conversations about fundamental survival necessity, and traced the process for establishing intercultural collective resilience with citizens from their host country. Overall, this study emphasized the significance of host country members who can promote certain coping mechanisms for their visitors in the specific regional and geographical context of China.

Informal learning environments can be a fun and effective means of introducing visitors to a variety of topics in evolution. Our study examined 120 sixth-grade students’ conceptualisation of evolutionary ideas following three evolution-themed “Science Days” at ‘Nature Campus’—an informal learning environment in Central Israel comprised of a natural history museum, zoological and botanical gardens. The students visited Nature Campus in groups of twenty. After each science day, the students worked in teams of 4–5 to make a poster, based on five pictures representing topics from the learning environment. This poster-making process served as a knowledge integration activity, aimed at assisting students in organizing all the knowledge from each science day, and integrating it with knowledge from the previous science days. Observations of students’ discussions while making their posters and video recordings of the activities throughout the science days were used as a basis for conclusions regarding which events in the program were recalled as meaningful by the students. The ideas and concepts that arose during the students’ poster making process demonstrated knowledge drawn from multiple activities in which they had engaged on Nature Campus, reflecting an understanding of evolution-related concepts from the fields of paleontology and ecology. Our findings showed that concepts and ideas that were taught via hands-on, interactive, inquiry-based learning in an authentic environment were later featured most prominently in the students’ poster-making discussions.

We examined South Korea's destination image for Chinese tourists and compared the differences between visitors who had come to that destination because of exposure to movies or television dramas filmed at their destination (film tourists) and those who were nonfilm tourists. A survey of 311 Chinese tourists, consisting of film tourists (n = 132) and nonfilm tourists (n = 179) revealed that South Korea is perceived as a safe, friendly, and clean tourism destination, and that Chinese tourists feel happy and relaxed during their trip. We also found that Chinese tourists believe that Korea lacks food variety and historical attractions, and is not easy to get around. Moreover, we also found that there was a difference between film and nonfilm tourists in regard to cognitive image of the destination, in that film tourists had a more positive image than did nonfilm tourists. However, there was no significant difference in affective destination image between film and nonfilm tourists. Our findings contribute to understanding of Chinese tourists' perceptions and behaviors in regard to South Korea as a tourism destination. In addition, the implications for film and tourism destination marketers are discussed.

Background We developed a 41-item tool measuring cultural differences in healthcare as perceived by foreign patients visiting South Korea. Methods The tool was tested on 256 foreign patients who visited three tertiary hospitals in Seoul, South Korea. Content validity was explored by two physicians and eight nurses working in an international healthcare department. Structural validity was tested via exploratory factor analysis and by testing two hypotheses: (1) there are perceived cultural differences between the South Korean healthcare and those of foreign patients’ home countries (one-sample t-test); and, (2) Perceived cultural differences vary among language groups (analysis of variance). We also calculated Cronbach’s alpha. Results The content validity index of the tool was 0.97. Exploratory factor analysis identified seven significant factors: hospital care and services, food, the healthcare system, communication, the healthcare facility, religion, and cultural values. The overall Cronbach’s alpha for the tool was 0.96, indicating very high internal consistency. We found that foreign patients visiting South Korean hospitals perceived that the healthcare culture differed significantly from that of their home country. The perceived cultural differences varied significantly by language group. Conclusions Nurses can use our new tool to understand the cultural differences of foreign patients and provide them with culturally competent nursing care.

Tourism is a leisure-related social activity. People always choose their desired tourism destinations and types according to their interests, intentions, and preferences. This means that personality influences tourism consumers' behavior. We examined the impact of extraversion and sensation seeking on international tourism choices, based on data obtained from a large-scale survey of Taiwanese nationals aged 20 years and older. The results of our analysis confirmed the research hypotheses, that when compared to people with no international tourism experience, those with international tourism experience tend to have higher levels of extraversion and sensation seeking.