Quality of service in public transport based on customer satisfaction surveys: A review and assessment of methodological approaches

The growth of literature in the field of quality of service in the public transport (PT) sector shows increasing concern for a better understanding of the factors affecting service quality (SQ) in PT organizations and companies. A large variety of approaches to SQ has been developed in recent years owing to the complexity of the concept; the broad range of attributes required to evaluate SQ; and the imprecision, subjectivity and heterogeneous nature of the data used to analyse it. Most of these approaches are based on customer satisfaction surveys. This paper seeks to summarize the evolution of research and current thinking as it relates to the different methodological approaches for SQ evaluation in the PT sector over the years, and provides a discussion of future directions.This study is sponsored by the Conserjería de Innovación, Ciencia y Economía of the Junta de Andalucía (Spain) through the Excellence Research Project denominated “Q-METROBUS-Quality of service indicator for METROpolitan public BUS transport services”

Hitting the Ground Running: Group Simulations within Business School Cohorts

Within an ever more marketised Higher Education (HE) landscape, business students are focusing increasingly on the Graduate Premium, balancing the costs of their programmes against expected benefits such as facilitated entry into, and progression within, fulfilling and well remunerated business careers. As such, educators are charged with differentiating their programmes from those of other institutions, not only to attract more applicants, but also to give their graduates a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The use of simulations as a learning and assessment strategy within business schools is widespread and growing. The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the debate surrounding the use of such technology, identifying pedagogical benefits and potential limitations, and to critique how such technology may be harnessed to provide more transparent pathways to professionalism for today’s diverse and demanding students. In particular, it considers some of the key challenges experienced by students in using simulations, as they adapt to the new social and learning cultures

Next-generation genotyping of hypervariable loci in many individuals of a non-model species: technical and theoretical implications

BACKGROUND: Across species, diversity at the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is critical to disease resistance and population health; however, use of MHC diversity to quantify the genetic health of populations has been hampered by the extreme variation found in MHC genes. Next generation sequencing (NGS) technology generates sufficient data to genotype even the most diverse species, but workflows for distinguishing artifacts from alleles are still under development. We used NGS to evaluate the MHC diversity of over 300 captive and wild ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta: Primates: Mammalia). We modified a published workflow to address errors that arise from deep sequencing individuals and tested for evidence of selection at the most diverse MHC genes. RESULTS: In addition to evaluating the accuracy of 454 Titanium and Ion Torrent PGM for genotyping large populations at hypervariable genes, we suggested modifications to improve current methods of allele calling. Using these modifications, we genotyped 302 out of 319 individuals, obtaining an average sequencing depth of over 1000 reads per amplicon. We identified 55 MHC-DRB alleles, 51 of which were previously undescribed, and provide the first sequences of five additional MHC genes: DOA, DOB, DPA, DQA, and DRA. The additional five MHC genes had one or two alleles each with little sequence variation; however, the 55 MHC-DRB alleles showed a high dN/dS ratio and trans-species polymorphism, indicating a history of positive selection. Because each individual possessed 1–7 MHC-DRB alleles, we suggest that ring-tailed lemurs have four, putatively functional, MHC-DRB copies. CONCLUSIONS: In the future, accurate genotyping methods for NGS data will be critical to assessing genetic variation in non-model species. We recommend that future NGS studies increase the proportion of replicated samples, both within and across platforms, particularly for hypervariable genes like the MHC. Quantifying MHC diversity within non-model species is the first step to assessing the relationship of genetic diversity at functional loci to individual fitness and population viability. Owing to MHC-DRB diversity and copy number, ring-tailed lemurs may serve as an ideal model for estimating the interaction between genetic diversity, fitness, and environment, especially regarding endangered species. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-2503-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users