Dual pillars of hotel restaurant food quality satisfaction and brand loyalty

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of service quality (physical quality and staff behaviour) and brand equity (brand quality, brand awareness and brand image) on hotel restaurant food quality satisfaction and brand loyalty among international and local travellers in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 354 valid questionnaires were collected to assess the measurement and structural model for reflective latent constructs using the two steps of covariance-based structural equation modelling. Findings: The research findings suggest that while travellers’ nationality moderates the path between physical quality, staff behaviour and brand image on food quality satisfaction, it does not moderate the relationship between brand quality and brand awareness on food quality satisfaction. This finding further suggests that towards enhancing service quality and brand equity on food quality satisfaction and brand loyalty, managers should understand the important distinctions between international and local travellers. Originality/value: Previous studies have mostly examined the impact of brand equity and service quality towards tourist satisfaction and very few studies have examined the impact of restaurant service quality and brand equity on consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty specifically among international and local travellers. This is one of the first few studies providing empirical evidence and discussions in this area

Investigation of presence, distribution and flight period of oak leaf roller moth, Tortrix viridana (Lep.: Tortricidae) using pheromone traps in Kurdistan province

Forests cover about 5,200,000 hectares of the west of Iran, from which 500,000 hectares are located in Kurdistan province. One of the most important pests in the oak forests of this province is oak leaf roller moth, Tortrix viridana L. (Lep.: Tortricidae). This pest significantly damages the oak forest each year. Using pheromone trap is one of the suitable methods for monitoring of this pest. In this work, distribution and flight period of the pest were studied by pheromone traps during two years. Fifteen regions were trapped at the equal distances (40 km) from Kamyaran (south west of Kurdistan province) to Baneh (north west of Kurdistan province) to investigate the presence and distribution of this moth. Also, a region located between Sanandaj and Marivan was selected to study the flight period. Some traps were established in this region and checked every two days. Investigation of pest distribution showed that oak leaf roller moth was present all over the sites from Kamyaran to Baneh. Different populations of moth were trapped in all over the sites. The highest population was trapped in Colit region (mid-west of Kurdistan province). The study of flight period showed that first moths were trapped on May, 16th and the peak of the flight took place on May, 21st and finally the last moths were trapped on June, 24th. Therefore, adults activated during 40 days; mating and oviposition occurred during this period. Incubation period lasted 9 months and activation of larvae was coincident with flashing of foliar buds

An investigation on resistance of 19 common bean genotypes to two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae (Acari: Tetranychidae), in three regions of Iran

Two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, is one of the important pests of common bean that causes serious damage to agricultural crops. In this study, nineteen common bean genotypes were evaluated for resistance to the two-spotted spider mite. The trial was carried out at field conditions of Karaj, Brojerd and Khomein. One week after mite infestation, the total number of female and eggs were counted for two times. Also, mite damage feeding was evaluated with a 1-6 scale. Khomein had the fewest infested mean and relative resistance of many genotypes was failed in comparison to susceptible standard genotype (Akhtar) at Khomein. So they should be eliminated in alternative breeding programs. Nevertheless, only Ks41128 that had good relative resistance at other regions had the most relative resistance at Khomein. Subsequently, we propose Ks41128 as the most resistance and also the most stable genotypes

Length polymorphism at the Glu-A3 and Glu-D3 in wild relatives of wheat

Low molecular weight glutenin subunits are important components of wheat seed storage protein, and play a significant in determining the end-use quality characteristics of wheat varieties. Allelic variation of the LMW-GS is associated with the significant differences of dough quality in bread and durum wheat, and has been widely evaluated at protein level in wheat and its relatives. In this study seven specific primers, specifically amplify genes located at the Glu-A3 and Glu-D3 loci, were employed to assay the length variation of LMW-GS genes in the A and D-genomes of diploid wheats. A total of 86 accessions of diploid wheats, including 10 accessions of T. boeoticum and 76 accessions of Ae. tauschii , were investigated. Seven alleles were detected in accessions of T. boeoticum ( Glu-A3 locus) by two pairs of specific primers and eighteen alleles were detected in accessions of Ae. tauschii ( Glu-D3 locus) by five pairs of specific primers. A higher level of allelic variation of LMW-GS was found in accession T. boeoticum and Ae. tauschii with Nei’s genetic variation index (H) of 0.82 and 0.92, respectively. This allelic variation could be used as valuable source for the enrichment of genetic variations and the alteration of flour-processing properties of the cultivated wheat

Effect of cross section reduction on the mechanical properties of aluminium tubes drawn with variable wall thickness

Variable thickness tube drawing is a new process for the production of high performance tubes. In this study, experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of cross section reduction on the microstructure and mechanical properties of variable thickness aluminium tubes drawn using two different position controlled mandrel techniques. Various tubes with three different outer diameters were subjected to cold drawing at room temperature from 11 percent to 41percent cross section reduction. The local mechanical properties were determined from tensile tests carried out on specimens cut from different positions in the tubes parallel to their axes. The distributions of the Vickers hardness over the surfaces at 0 deg and 90 deg to the drawing direction were examined. It was found that the microhardness, yield strength, and ultimate tensile of the deformed samples increase and the corresponding elongation decreases with the increase of cross section reduction. Also, the anisotropy in microstructure and mechanical properties is more significant with increasing of cross section reduction. The evolution of mechanical properties of drawn tubes versus cross section reduction depends on the mandrel shapes and initial tube outer diameter. This study helps to further understand the microstructure and mechanical properties evolutions during tube drawing process with variable thickness.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Global optimisation of the production of complex aluminium tubes by the hydroforming process

With the recent development of analysis software products, designers and engineers are able to design more complex parts to obtain better performance in the final products. In this study, the tube hydroforming process, including preceding processes, i.e. variable thickness tube drawing and two-step bending, are globally optimised to obtain parts without any problems like bursting or un-filled zones at the end of the forming processes. Unlike most previous studies which searched for an optimum hydroforming process by changing two hydroforming parameters, i.e. axial load feeding and internal pressure, in this study, the distribution of initial tube wall thickness and the variation of thickness due to bending steps will be taken into account in a global optimisation algorithm. The developed algorithm is a general-purpose algorithm that can encompass different processes and change various parameters in each process to be able to reach the global objective. The case study used was a part that needs two-step variable thickness tube drawing, and two bending steps before hydroforming. To verify the numerical results in each forming stage and at the end of all forming processes, extensive experiments were performed, and acceptable agreements were observed.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Application of a new procedure for the optimization of variable thickness drawing of aluminium tubes

The application of aluminium tubes, especially with variation of thickness, in the structures of various transportation devices like cars and bicycles makes it a point of interest for various designers. In this paper, the variable thickness tube drawing process was studied with a newly developed procedure to evaluate the effect of tools geometries on the maximum possible tube deformation. The procedure applies the desired variation in the design variables (die angle, mandrel angle, and die fillet radius) and the required adjustments and changes in the geometries with the aid of an in-house code automatically. Based on the optimized results, a die and a mandrel were built to verify numerical results in variable thickness tube drawing. The numerical results were compared with the experiments in the prototype machine, which was designed by this group, and acceptable agreements were observed.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Perspectives for the application of variable thickness aluminium tubes in hydroforming of complex tubes

Tubular products have very important applications in various areas especially in the transportation industries. For instance, in the structure of cars there are various tubular products like roof headers, engine cradles, roof rails and frame rails with complex geometries which most of them need multiple steps like tube drawing, tube bending and hydroforming for their production. Based on the recent studies by this group, it was proven that in most of the structural tubular parts in the cars it was not necessary to have constant thickness along the axial direction of tube and it will be considered as overdesign and the overall weight of structures can be reduced considerably by using variable thickness tubes. In this paper, the variable thickness tube drawing and its applications in the tube bending and hydroforming applications were studied. The results showed that this process can have important role in reduction of defective parts in the production of complex tubes by the tube hydroforming method. However especial considerations should be taken into account in the design of thickness distribution along axial direction of these kinds of tubes to avoid problems in the drawing step and as well in the bending and hydroforming steps. \ua9 (2011) Trans Tech Publications.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye