Tourism is not only affected by pandemics and epidemics but also contributes to their spread, affecting not only tourists but also the communities in their destinations. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a new crisis, challenging the travel industry more than ever before. Several studies have suggested that there will be long-term severe effects that could continue for an unspecified period of time across the world, both medically, socially and economically. Pandemics and Travel: COVID-19 Impacts in the Tourism Industry analyses the wider impacts of epidemics, diseases and virus outbreaks on tourism and mobility. Chapters examine a wide range of interrelated issues, including the concept of Health Risk and Tourism, the impacts of the recent COVID-19 crisis on tourism activity in several countries, and considers new challenges that the tourism industry will face in the post-COVID era. This book is essential reading for researchers seeking to understand the ongoing effects of pandemics on travel, tourism, hospitality and health industries.

This book provides glimpses into contemporary research in information systems & technology, learning, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and security and how it applies to the real world, but the ideas presented also span the domains of telehealth, computer vision, the role and use of mobile devices, brain-computer interfaces, virtual reality, language and image processing and big data analytics and applications. Great research arises from asking pertinent research questions. This book reveals some of the authors' "beautiful questions" and how they develop the subsequent "what if" and "how" questions, offering readers food for thought and whetting their appetite for further research by the same authors.

This book provides glimpses into contemporary research in information systems & technology, learning, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and security and how it applies to the real world, but the ideas presented also span the domains of telehealth, computer vision, the role and use of mobile devices, brain-computer interfaces, virtual reality, language and image processing and big data analytics and applications. Great research arises from asking pertinent research questions. This book reveals some of the authors' "beautiful questions" and how they develop the subsequent "what if" and "how" questions, offering readers food for thought and whetting their appetite for further research by the same authors.

The enhancement of the hydrophilicity of synthetic polymers is a key requirement for many applications ranging from electronics to functional textile manufacture. Until now, few studies about the functionalisation of polyamide 6.6 fabrics with enzymes have been published. This work is a significant step for the replacement of the chemical functionalisation by the enzymatic one. It is proved that enzymes, like cutinases or proteases, can be environmentally friendly tools for the surface hydrolysis of polyamide 6.6. The bulk properties of the polymers are not affected and the process can be controlled, in face of chemical methods which are based in an "all-or-nothing" mechanism. The practical evidences of enzymatic hydrolysis were achieved by developing specific methodologies, namely the determination of amines released to the bath treatment and at the surface of the treated fabrics. Despite the several difficulties felt through this work, the results represent a successful prolongation of some works already published in this area.