Supply Chain Management of Fresh Produce: Melons in Western China

The western part of China has a long history and reputation of growing a variety of quality melons largely due to its semi arid agronomic environment. In the past decade, the industry suffered from the interrelated issues of unreliable quality and intense price competition. Even though both the government and supply chain stakeholders are aware of the problems, there is a need to look at the issues from a supply chain perspective and new ways of managing the melon supply chains are to be explored. This paper analysed the melon supply chain in western China in the areas of logistical efficiency and supply chain relationship management. The results of the analysis offer insights for improving the efficiency of the melon supply chain and the competitiveness the industry. The results also shed lights for other supply chains of fresh produce in developing countries in general.melon, China, supply chain, value chain, Crop Production/Industries, Industrial Organization, O13, O5, Q13,

A Yeast Expressed RBD-Based SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Formulated With 3M-052-Alum Adjuvant Promotes Protective Efficacy in Non-Human Primates

Ongoing SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development is focused on identifying stable, cost-effective, and accessible candidates for global use, specifically in low and middle-income countries. Here, we report the efficacy of a rapidly scalable, novel yeast expressed SARS-CoV-2 specific receptor-binding domain (RBD) based vaccine in rhesus macaques. We formulated the RBD immunogen in alum, a licensed and an emerging alum adsorbed TLR-7/8 targeted, 3M-052-alum adjuvants. The RBD+3M-052-alum adjuvanted vaccine promoted better RBD binding and effector antibodies, higher CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies, improved Th1 biased CD4+T cell reactions, and increased CD8+ T cell responses when compared to the alum-alone adjuvanted vaccine. RBD+3M-052-alum induced a significant reduction of SARS-CoV-2 virus in respiratory tract upon challenge, accompanied by reduced lung inflammation when compared with unvaccinated controls. Anti-RBD antibody responses in vaccinated animals inversely correlated with viral load in nasal secretions and BAL. RBD+3M-052-alum blocked a post SARS-CoV-2 challenge increase in CD14+CD16++ intermediate blood monocytes, and Fractalkine, MCP-1, and TRAIL in the plasma. Decreased plasma analytes and intermediate monocyte frequencies correlated with reduced nasal and BAL viral loads. Lastly, RBD-specific plasma cells accumulated in the draining lymph nodes and not in the bone marrow, contrary to previous findings. Together, these data show that a yeast expressed, RBD-based vaccine+3M-052-alum provides robust immune responses and protection against SARS-CoV-2, making it a strong and scalable vaccine candidate

Managers' perceptions of environmental issues in Australian hotels

ThiS article describes a study carried out among management staff of Australian hotels relating to their perceptions of environmental issues and the environmental practices of their hotels. The issues surveyed included environmental accreditation, costs and financial benefits of environmental programs, customer attitudes, 'green' corporate images and staff orientation towards environmental practices. Out of the 165 questionnaires sent to hotel management staff, sixty-five returns were received with sixty usable for this study. The findings showed that hotel managers generally agreed that environmental accreditation could be a potential tool for improving practices in hotels since they did not see any automatic financial benefits being serving environmental practices. Hotel managers perceived customers as being ambivalent towards the environment. But, importantly, they saw being environmentally friendly as providing a good corporate image in the wider community. This may have served as a major motivation for many hotels to adopt environmentally sensitive prac~ices. In the selected areas of water and energy conservation and recycling, hotel managers indicated a high level ofinvolvement oftheir hotels. This finding, that practices generally exceeded perceptions, was supportive of the suspicion that a 'green' corporate reputation was more important than actual practices

The Impact Of Participation In Activities While On Vacation On Seniors\u27 Psychological Well-Being: A Path Model Application

This article extends earlier research regarding the relationships between senior travelers\u27 participation in activities while on vacation, their overall satisfaction with their travel experiences, and their psychological well-being. A path model was developed to depict the direct and indirect relationships between these variables by using a sample of senior tourists traveling on North American escorted tour itineraries. Whereas the direct effect accounted for 98% of the relationships between the senior tourists\u27levels of participation in activities and their psychological well-being, the indirect effect was negligible. The study concluded that senior tourists\u27activity levels were significantly related to their psychological well-being, but their satisfaction with the tours was not

Consumer preferences for rockmelons in Australia

On the demand side, consumer's decision choice for rockmelon is often compounded by a number of factors including quality, which is often not related to the visual characteristics observed in fruits such as bananas or mangoes. On the supply side, there is a general lack of understanding of consumer response towards rockmelon attributes in Australia and consequently, great fluctuations of demand and hence supply of the fruit. Thus, objectives of this study were to evaluate and compare analytical measures by instruments and sensory assessments by consumers based on sweetness levels (8–13 oBrix) of rockmelons. Results indicated that there was a large variation in texture, juiciness and flavour for each oBrix level. A significant correlation coefficient (r = 0.829) was obtained between analytical and sensory measures for sweetness. High organoleptic scores for flavour were noted among the higher sweetness levels. It is recommended that due to the change in consumer acceptability, marketing of rockmelons should not be solely based on oBrix levels; other attributes such as flavour, texture and juiciness should be utilized

Segmenting the market of West Australian senior tourists using an artificial neural network

Measuring perceptions of customers can be a major problem for marketers of tourism and travel services. Much of the problem is to determine which attributes carry most weight in the purchasing decision. Older travellers weigh many travel features before making their travel decisions. This paper presents a descriptive analysis of neural network methodology and provides a research technique that assesses the weighting of different attributes and uses an unsupervised neural network model to describe a consumer-product relationship. The development of this rich class of models was inspired by the neural architecture of the human brain. These models mathematically emulate the neurophysical structure and decision making of the human brain, and, from a statistical perspective, are closely related to generalised linear models. Artificial neural networks or neural networks are, however, nonlinear and do not require the same restrictive assumptions about the relationship between the independent variables and dependent variables. Using neural networks is one way to determine what trade-offs older travellers make as they decide their travel plans. The sample of this study is from a syndicated data source of 200 valid cases from Western Australia. From senior groups, active learner, relaxed family body, careful participants and elementary vacation were identified and discussed. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd

A Gap Analysis of Perceptions of Hotel Attributes by Marketing Managers and Older People in Australia

Surveys the perceptions of attributes of three‐ to five‐star hotels by marketing managers and by older people aged 60 and over who return to a satisfying hotel. The attributes studied were price, location, facilities, hotel restaurant, room furnishings, front‐desk efficiency and staff attitude. Usable data were analysed for 154 older consumers in Queensland, Australia, and 44 hotel marketing managers in Australia working at three‐ to five‐star hotels. Respondents’ ratings of a set of eight hotel attribute‐level scenarios were subjected to conjoint analysis in order to infer the relative importance of each attribute to both groups. Results show that both seniors and marketing managers considered hotel facilities to be the most important attribute, followed by room furnishings. The managerial implications for hotels and future research opportunities are also discussed.Griffith Business School, Department of MarketingNo Full Tex

Supply Chain Management of Fresh Produce: Melons in Western China

The western part of China has a long history and reputation of growing a variety of quality melons largely due to its semi arid agronomic environment. In the past decade, the industry suffered from the interrelated issues of unreliable quality and intense price competition. Even though both the government and supply chain stakeholders are aware of the problems, there is a need to look at the issues from a supply chain perspective and new ways of managing the melon supply chains are to be explored. This paper analysed the melon supply chain in western China in the areas of logistical efficiency and supply chain relationship management. The results of the analysis offer insights for improving the efficiency of the melon supply chain and the competitiveness the industry. The results also shed lights for other supply chains of fresh produce in developing countries in general