TOWARDS A MODEL OF NEW SERVICE DEVELOPMENT FOR DIFFERENTIATED TOURISM SERVICES

As tourism services become increasingly competitive and the life expectancy of many services becomes shorter, there is a need to both develop new services and enhance existing services. The process for new service development remains a difficulty for most tourism firms and in particular for SME’s who may be deficient in the skills necessary for service development Pikkemaat & Peters (2005). The perceived difficulty in the creation of new services is due in no small part to the fragmented and limited nature of research on the subject (Stevens & Dimitriadis, 2005) and the contention that empirical studies have not yet reached consensus on a well formalised New Service Development (NSD) process (Menor et al., 2002).The purpose of this paper is to address this knowledge gap by identifying the activities and resources necessary to develop new services in a tourism context. It is the author’s assertion that the development of tourism services requires a model tailored to the specific characteristics of the sector. This paper proposes to develop a conceptual model of NSD which will include applicable components of existing NSD and New Product Development (NPD) models, but will also add new components to reflect the specific characteristics and challenges of NSD in the tourism industry. It is anticipated that the study will make a significant contribution to both academic knowledge and tourism practice by addressing deficiencies in both tourism and service development literature and will assist practitioners in appreciating the stages and factors that should be considered in developing differentiated new services. This mini case study’s primary aim was to build an understanding of the components of the experience concept at the Guinness Storehouse and to understand the process by which it was achieved. The following are a summary of the elements of the Storehouse experience concept: a scripted theme, authentic physical elements, a range of emotions including excitement, surprise, pleasure and personal control, tiered levels of knowledge transfer, sensory stimulation, brand connection & emotional engagement. The experience is supported by activities including the use of mobile elements, knowledgeable and engaging staff, the interactive use of mixed media, and the active solicitation of customer feedback

TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF EXPERIENCE CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT IN TOURISM SERVICE DESIGN (RIKON Group)

Despite the increasing importance placed on the delivery of memorable experiences in the tourism sector, there have been only limited attempts to comprehensively detail how experiences can be successfully conceptualised in practice. Based on a critical literature review of both experience and service concept development theory in conjunction with and the findings from case research, this paper will make a unique contribution to a very significant gap in experience design literature by presenting a conceptual model of the activities necessary for experience conceptualisation in a tourism context. Key Words: Tourism, experience, concept developmen

Development and clinical validation of Iso-IMRS: a novel diagnostic assay for P. falciparum malaria

In many countries targeting malaria elimination, persistent malaria infections can have parasite loads significantly below the lower limit of detection (LLOD) of standard diagnostic techniques, making them difficult to identify and treat. The most sensitive diagnostic methods involve amplification and detection of Plasmodium DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which requires expensive thermal cycling equipment and is difficult to deploy in resource-limited settings. Isothermal DNA amplification assays have been developed, but they require complex primer design, resulting in high nonspecific amplification, and show a decrease in sensitivity than PCR methods. Here, we have used a computational approach to design a novel isothermal amplification assay with a simple primer design to amplify P. falciparum DNA with analytical sensitivity comparable to PCR. We have identified short DNA sequences repeated throughout the parasite genome to be used as primers for DNA amplification and demonstrated that these primers can be used, without modification, to isothermally amplify P. falciparum parasite DNA via strand displacement amplification. Our novel assay shows a LLOD of ∼1 parasite/μL within a 30 min amplification time. The assay was demonstrated with clinical samples using patient blood and saliva. We further characterized the assay using direct amplicon next-generation sequencing and modified the assay to work with a visual readout. The technique developed here achieves similar analytical sensitivity to current gold standard PCR assays requiring a fraction of time and resources for PCR. This highly sensitive isothermal assay can be more easily adapted to field settings, making it a potentially useful tool for malaria elimination.Accepted manuscrip

Evaluation of a text supported weight maintenance programme ‘Lighten Up Plus’ following a weight reduction programme: randomised controlled trial

Background Many overweight people find it difficult to maintain weight loss after attending a weight reduction programme. Self-weighing and telephone support are known to be useful methods for self-monitoring for weight loss. We examined the effectiveness of an SMS-text messaging based weight maintenance programme to encourage regular self-weighing in adults who had completed a 12 week commercial weight loss programme. Methods Randomised controlled trial of 380 obese or overweight men and women. The intervention group (n=190) received a single maintenance support phone call and SMS-text based weight maintenance messages over 12 weeks to encourage regular self-weighing after completing their weight loss programme. The primary outcome was change in weight at nine months follow up. Results Our sample (N=380) had a mean age of 47.4 years (SD 13.4), mean baseline weight and BMI of 93.1kg (16.1) and 34.4 kg/m2 (5.0) respectively, as well as majority female (87.3%) and White British (80.0%). Using intention to treat analysis both groups regained weight at nine months follow up; the intervention group regained an average of 1.36 kg while the control group regained 1.81 kg. Adjusting for covariates resulted in a mean difference of 0.45 kg (95% CI -0.78, 1.67) favouring the intervention group at nine month follow up. Conclusions We found no evidence that an SMS based weight maintenance intervention encouraging adults to weigh themselves weekly prevented weight regain at three or nine months after completing a commercial weight loss programme. <br/

Digital engagement methods for earthquake and fire preparedness:a review

Natural or human-made hazards may occur at any time. Although one might assume that individuals plan in advance for such potentially damaging events, the existing literature indicates that most communities remain inadequately prepared. In the past, research in this area has focused on identifying the most effective ways to communicate risk and elicit preparedness by means of public hazard education campaigns and risk communication programmes. Today, web- and mobile-based technologies are offering new and far-reaching means to inform communities on how to prepare for or cope with extreme events, thus significantly contributing to community preparedness. Nonetheless, their practical efficacy in encouraging proactive hazard preparedness behaviours is not yet proven. Building on behaviour change interventions in the health field and looking in particular at earthquakes and fire hazards, the challenging RISK team has reviewed the currently active websites, Web, and mobile applications that provide information about earthquake and home fire preparedness. The review investigates the type of information provided, the modality of delivery, and the presence of behaviour change techniques in their design. The study proves that most of the digital resources focus on a single hazard and fail to provide context-sensitive information that targets specific groups of users. Furthermore, behaviour change techniques are rarely implemented in the design of these applications and their efficacy is rarely systematically evaluated. Recommendations for improving the design of Web- and mobile-based technologies are made so as to increase their effectiveness and uptake for a multi-hazard approach to earthquake and home fire preparedness

A critical appraisal of the social norms approach as an interventional strategy for health-related behavior and attitude change

© 2018 Dempsey, McAlaney and Bewick. The Social Norms Approach is a widely used intervention strategy for promoting positive health-related behaviors. The Approach operates on the premise that individuals misperceive their peers' behaviors and attitudes, with evidence of under- and over-estimations of behaviors and peer approval for a range of positive and negative behaviors respectively. The greater these misperceptions, the more likely an individual is to engage in negative behaviors such as consuming heavier amounts of alcohol and other substances and reduce positive behaviors such as eating healthily and using sun protection. However, there are many complexities associated with the use of social norms feedback in interventions and empirical studies. Many social norms interventions do not attempt to change misperceptions of social norms or measure changes in normative perceptions pre- and post-intervention. This has led to a conflation of generic social norms interventions with those that are explicitly testing the Approach's assumptions that it is misperceptions of peer norms which drive behavior. The aim of the present review was to provide a critical appraisal of the use of the Social Norms Approach as an intervention strategy for health-related behaviors, identify the current issues with its evidence base, highlight key opportunities and challenges facing the approach, and make recommendations for good practice when using the approach. There are three core challenges and areas for improved practice when using the Social Norms Approach. Firstly, improvements in the methodological rigor and clarity of reporting of 'social norms' research, ensuring that studies are testing the approach's assumption of the role of misperceptions on behaviors are differentiated from studies investigating other forms of 'social norms.' Secondly, the need for a more explicit, unified and testable theoretical model outlining the development of normative misperceptions which can be translated into interventional studies. Finally, a need for a more robust evaluation of social norms interventions in addition to randomized controlled trials, such as the inclusion of process evaluations, qualitative studies of participant experiences of social norms feedback, and alternative study designs better suited for real-world public health settings. Such improvements are required to ensure that the Social Norms Approach is adequately tested and evaluated

The values jury on trial: a model for public consultation

"Submitted for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy""October 2000"PhDBibliography: pages 212-228.Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2.Measuring values -- Chapter 3. The values jury trials -- Chapter 4. Results -- Chapter 5. Discussion -- Chapter 6. Summary and conclusions.The imprecision with which many of the traditional models of public consultation actually capture people’s concerns and preferences has encouraged research into alternate forums. Recently, attention has shifted to the more innovative so-called ‘deliberative institutions’. These are models of consultation that limit participation but focus on revealing the well-informed views of a relatively small number of constituent representatives, rather than relying on the less-informed views of the broader public. The principle objective of this thesis is to report on the results of a series of trials involving the application of one of these new deliberative models, the values jury. The values jury draws its name from the related model of public consultation, the citizens’ jury (CJ). It holds many of the characteristics of the CJ approach but it is also designed to reveal an additional vital factor, namely the intensity with which people hold values toward collective assets. A series of trials was conducted throughout New South Wales to establish the efficacy of the values jury model. The values jury draws its name from the related model of public consultation, the citizens’ jury (CJ). It holds many of the characteristics of the CJ approach but it is also designed to reveal an additional vital factor, namely the intensity with which people hold values toward collective assets. A series of trials was conducted throughout New South Wales to establish the efficacy of thevalues jury model. The principle focus was on revealing people’s preferences in the context of hypothetical threats to local environmental and related assets. A contingent valuation-style format for capturing values was incorporated into the process. In total 100 selected jurists representing four separate communities participated in the trials. As part of the trial process, participants were provided with a range of information, including a courtroom-style debate by expert advocates, about a specific environmental issue; the threat that continuing irrigation water usage poses to the sustainability of the Macquarie Marshes. Results confirmed that trade-off measures are identifiable with each irrigation-related job in the Valley being considered equivalent to 1.6 km² of increased wetland. Other topics of public concernwere also included to identify how well they could be incorporated into the values jury process. The model appears to be able to cope with a reasonable variety of such topics. As part of the trial review process, participants were asked to confirm their perceptions of the values jury in terms of its capacity to provide for the twin objectives of fair and competent discourse. Criteria based on Habermas’s theory of communicative action were used as the template for this assessment. Overall, the jurors’ responses were strongly affirmative for both objectives. This was the inaugural attempt at trialing the values jury process and the results indicate that the model holds considerable potential for use in a wide variety of applications, particularly where the quantum of stakeholder values is the focus of attention.Mode of access: World Wide Web.1 online resources (x, 277 pages) illustrations, maps, graphs, chart

Algebraic Structure of Quasicyclic Codes

We use Gröbner bases of modules as a tool in the construction and classification of quasiscyclic codes. Whereas previous studies have been mainly concerned with the 1-generator case, our results elucidate the structure of arbitrary quasicyclic codes and their duals. As an application we provide a complete characterisation of selfdual quasicyclic codes of index 2