The Adoption of the Web as a Marketing Tool by Regional Tourism Associations (RTAs) in Australia

There is little doubt that the emergence of the Internet and World Wide Web has had a strong influence on marketing (Goldsmith, 1999). Through the interactive Web medium, relationship marketing and personalisation can be achieved relatively easily compared to traditional forms of media ( Goldsmith, 1999). In order to assist business to make the move online and to enable them to realise the benefits that the Internet and Web have to offer, Government’s around the globe are providing both education and support, in the form of government policy and financial support programs. However, the success of government funded programs depends largely on business uptake of such programs and their ability to leverage on the benefits stemming from the assistance provided . This paper presents the results of a recent study of the level of uptake of the web as a marketing tool by businesses in the Regional Tourism Industry sector in Australia. The results of the study show that this industry sector is at a relatively advanced stage of adoption of Web Marketing, indicating that to date, Government programs aimed at this industry sector have been successful in getting businesses online

A Longitudinal Study of the Use of the Web by Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs) in Australia

The information-intensive nature of the tourism and travel industry suggests an important role for Web technology in the promotion and marketing of tourist destinations. The rapid development of the Internet is also having profound impacts on the industry. In fact, travel and tourism has become the single largest category of products sold over the Internet (Tourism White Paper, 2007). With reports of travel purchases and reservations being one of the fastest growing segments of the Internet community it is no surprise that the number of tourism operators on the Web has increased considerably over the past few years. This paper presents the results of a study of the use of Web technologies by Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs) in the Australian tourism industry over an eight year period from 2000 to 2008. The Extended Model of Internet Commerce Adoption (eMICA) (Burgess and Cooper, 2000) was used to assess the web sites of RTOs to determine the extent of adoption of web technologies for destination marketing. A significant finding of this study is the number of RTOs sites offering Stage 3 functionality (transaction processing). The results of the study add further support to the premise of the model, that is, in developing commercial websites, businesses in this industry sector typically start simply by establishing a presence on the Web and build on functionality over time, as their experience and expertise in the use of Internet technologies increases

Exploring end-user perceptions towards mandated deployment of PDA-based health information systems within Ambulatory Care

The impact of many well intentioned technology integration projects has not always been viewed favourably. In fact, many projects are destined to fail from the outset by not considering fundamental IT system inves tment risks (technical failure, data failure, user failure, organizational failure) [Lyytinen & Hirschiem, 1987]. With any new technology ‘an element of uncertainty exists in the minds of decision makers with respect to the successful adoption of them’ [Bagozzi et al, 1992]. Uncertainty towards adopting new technologies is not solely the domain of decision makers. Apart from chief technology and information officers, system administrators and help desk personnel, those who ultimately feel the greatest impac t and transformation upon work practices from any newly adopted technology application or process are end-users. In mandated technology integration environments, impressions may exist whereby any form of consultative input from end-users is inherently removed, leaving end-users disillusioned with the mandated technology. This research uses an adapted version of Kline’s Groupware Adoption Scale [Kline, 2001] in a preliminary study to ascertain end-user perceptions towards the proposed mandated implementation of a PDA-based point-of-care information system (ePOC) in The Ambulatory Care Team (TACT), Northern Illawarra, South Eastern Sydney Illawarra Health Service

Directional wetting in anisotropic inverse opals

Porous materials display interesting transport phenomena due to the restricted motion of fluids within the nano- to micro-scale voids. Here, we investigate how liquid wetting in highly ordered inverse opals is affected by anisotropy in pore geometry. We compare samples with different degrees of pore asphericity and find different wetting patterns depending on the pore shape. Highly anisotropic structures are infiltrated more easily than their isotropic counterparts. Further, the wetting of anisotropic inverse opals is directional, with liquids filling from the side more easily. This effect is supported by percolation simulations as well as direct observations of wetting using time-resolved optical microscopy

Directional Wetting in Anisotropic Inverse Opals

Porous materials display interesting transport phenomena due to the restricted motion of fluids within the nano- to micro-scale voids. Here, we investigate how liquid wetting in highly ordered inverse opals is affected by anisotropy in pore geometry. We compare samples with different degrees of pore asphericity and find different wetting patterns depending on the pore shape. Highly anisotropic structures are infiltrated more easily than their isotropic counterparts. Further, the wetting of anisotropic inverse opals is directional, with liquids filling from the side more easily. This effect is supported by percolation simulations as well as direct observations of wetting using time-resolved optical microscopy.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog

Bridging the Divide:The adjustment and decision-making experiences of people with dementia living with a recent diagnosis of cancer and its impact on family carers

The risk of living with dementia and, separately, cancer, increases exponentially with age. However, to date, there is a paucity of research investigating the experiences of people living with both these conditions. This study used semi-structured interviews to explore the decision-making and treatment options for people who live with both dementia and cancer. In total, ten people living with both dementia and cancer (aged 39–93 years) and nine family carers were interviewed. Braun and Clarke's approach to thematic analysis was used together with framework matrices to organise the data. In this article four sequential and descriptive themes are presented. ‘Reaching a diagnosis of cancer’ describes the vital role that family carers play in encouraging the person with dementia to seek an explanation for their presenting (undiagnosed cancer) symptoms to their general practitioner. ‘Adjusting to the cancer diagnosis when living with dementia’ outlines a variety of emotional and practical responses to receiving news of the diagnosis. ‘Weighing up the cancer treatment options’ highlights the different decisions and circumstances that family carers and people living with both dementia and cancer are faced with post-diagnosis. ‘Undergoing cancer treatment’ shares the finding that cancer treatment decision-making was not straightforward and that people living with both dementia and cancer would often forget about their cancer and what procedures they had been through

Tunable anisotropy in inverse opals and emerging optical properties

Using self-assembly, nanoscale materials can be fabricated from the bottom up. Opals and inverse opals are examples of self-assembled nanomaterials made from crystallizing colloidal particles. As self-assembly requires a high level of control, it is challenging to use building blocks with anisotropic geometry to form complex opals, which limits the realizable structures. Typically, spherical colloids are employed as building blocks, leading to symmetric, isotropic superstructures. However, a significantly richer palette of directionally dependent properties are expected if less symmetric, anisotropic structures can be created, especially originating from the assembly of regular, spherical particles. Here we show a simple method to introduce anisotropy into inverse opals by subjecting them to a post-assembly thermal treatment that results in directional shrinkage of the silica matrix caused by condensation of partially hydrated sol-gel silica structures. In this way, we can tailor the shape of the pores, and the anisotropy of the final inverse opal preserves the order and uniformity of the self-assembled structure, while completely avoiding the need to synthesize complex oval-shaped particles and crystallize them into such target geometries. Detailed X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy studies clearly identify increasing degrees of sol-gel condensation in confinement as a mechanism for the structure change. A computer simulation of structure changes resulting from the condensation-induced shrinkage further confirmed this mechanism. As an example of property changes induced by the introduction of anisotropy, we characterized the optical spectra of the anisotropic inverse opals and found that the optical properties can be controlled in a precise way using calcination temperature

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy