Stakeholder approach to the segmentation of the short haul business air travel market

The marketing literature deals inadequately with markets which show characteristics of both consumer and industrial markets. In this work such markets are called hybrid markets. The research attempts to find an appropriate research approach for the short haul business related air travel market, which has hybrid market characteristics. Recent studies of the business travel market (Stephenson and Fox, 1987, Toh and Hu. 1988 and 1990) have investigated corporate and traveller attitude towards frequent flier programmes (see Glossary). However, as yet the airline marketing literature has not investigated the role the purchasing organisation (the employer of the traveller) has to play in a decision to purchase business related air travel. Market segmentation is selected as a suitable tool to investigate the business travel market. However, a review of the literature on segmentation for both consumer and industrial products reveals that an approach suited to the characteristics of this market is not available. Consequently a two stage research approach for hybrid markets is developed. A case study of nine companies in the first stage of the research is used to develop an understanding of corporate involvement in the purchase of business air travel, and identifies three key stakeholder groups in the purchase. They are the traveller, the travel organiser, and the "organisation". The second stage of the research collects data on the stakeholders. Traveller data on the importance of product elements in the purchase are used in a benefit segmentation of the market. The attitude data from 827 business travellers is analysed by factor analysis to identify six principal purchase benefits. These six benefits account for 60.6% of the variance in the data. Six factor scores for each respondent are calculated and then investigated by ak means iterative partitioning cluster analysis. A robust three cluster solution is discovered; i. e. three benefit segments are present in the short haul business travel market, based on traveller attitude. Cross-validation tests are carried out to test the stability of this solution. The three segments are investigated to evaluate the influence in the purchase decision of other organisational stakeholders. Differences between segments are found in the travel policy of the employing organisation, class of travel allowed to travellers, and purchase behaviour. The research indicates that for hybrid markets such as business travel, the role of the employing organisation may be important in purchase decisions. Consequently, it is recommended that future reserach should assess corporate involvement in purchases of products that have both consumer and industrial elements. The evaluation of the influences of various stakeholder groups in purchase decisions in hybrid markets may reveal previously overlooked marketing opportunities.The Institute of Marine Studies, University of Plymouth; Air UK Ltd

A macro-environment approach to civil aviation strategic planning

Air transport is considered a cyclical industry sensitive to the macro-environment in which it operates. As aviation policy makers and regulators strategically plan for their future, they need to consider the systematic and synergistic effects of common factors which comprise the operating environment of the industry׳s organisations. Thus, during the process of aviation systems planning governments should perceive the generic conditions which exist in the economy as a whole as equally important to air transport exclusive conditions. This paper highlights the significant impact of the national macro-environment factors on a country׳s air transport sector and it suggests including these elements within the context of civil aviation strategic planning. Country level data is collected on seventeen input variables versus four output variables on a sample of 52 countries. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is used to identify the descriptors with significant impact on air transport output, namely: passenger traffic, aviation total contribution to GDP, aviation total contribution to employment and air connectivity levels. The identified significant drivers are found to create an enabling environment that determines the capacity of an economy and society to benefit from the air transport system׳s productivity. The results call upon aviation policy makers and regulators to assess the national macro-environment forces during the situation analysis part of the strategic planning process. The identified operating environment conditions act as a framework for providing clear policy orientations and for facilitating the identification of areas where policy intervention could improve air transport sector׳s performance. A well-defined aviation strategy allows aviation policy makers to identify and address nation wide strategic issues and provides aviation industry׳s stake holders with guidelines to help maintain and enhance their competitive position in both domestic and global markets

Towards realizing best-in-class civil aviation strategy scenarios

Developed and less developed countries follow different approaches during the formulation of aviation strategic plans. Additionally, there exists no pre-defined framework to guide developing countries in formulating civil aviation strategies matching their macro-environment and competitiveness levels while addressing their future vision for growth or sustainability. Instead, civil aviation planning over-look these priorities and is often dictated by local political pressures, and mostly influenced by uncoordinated foreign aid assistance. Hence, developing countries use dissimilar and un-structured approaches to reach what is known as "civil aviation master plan" or "draft civil aviation policy". Recognizing that a problem exists in the mechanism for civil aviation planning in this part of the world, research is encouraged to highlight this substantial topic. This paper uses a scenario-based approach to study the roles played by the macro-environment and industry-level performance in realizing best-fit national civil aviation strategies. The goals are achieved through utilizing a two-stage performance benchmarking technique named Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) on country level data on a sample of 52 countries in different stages of development, followed by truncated regression. Results of the best performing countries-in terms of output efficiency, indicate that the country's macro-environment and air transport sector's performance serve as guidelines to identify aviation policy elements that are considered to impact efficiency. The regression results indicate that a more liberal air services approach is said to be of positive influence on efficiency levels. Further, we show that private airports are more efficient, while public airports are even less efficient than those with mixed ownership/management model. Hence, policy makers are encouraged to adopt an efficient peer analysis approach based on influential policy elements to bridge performance gaps, achieve better operating capacity, direct and prioritize investments in the civil aviation sector

Left ventricular outcomes following multivessel PCI vs. infarct artery-only PCI in patients with acute STEMI: the Glasgow PRAMI CMR sub-study

No abstract available

Infarct size and left ventricular remodelling after preventive percutaneous coronary intervention

Objective: We hypothesised that, compared with culprit-only primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), additional preventive PCI in selected patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction with multivessel disease would not be associated with iatrogenic myocardial infarction, and would be associated with reductions in left ventricular (LV) volumes in the longer term. Methods: In the preventive angioplasty in myocardial infarction trial (PRAMI; ISRCTN73028481), cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) was prespecified in two centres and performed (median, IQR) 3 (1, 5) and 209 (189, 957) days after primary PCI. Results: From 219 enrolled patients in two sites, 84% underwent CMR. 42 (50%) were randomised to culprit-artery-only PCI and 42 (50%) were randomised to preventive PCI. Follow-up CMR scans were available in 72 (86%) patients. There were two (4.8%) cases of procedure-related myocardial infarction in the preventive PCI group. The culprit-artery-only group had a higher proportion of anterior myocardial infarctions (MIs) (55% vs 24%). Infarct sizes (% LV mass) at baseline and follow-up were similar. At follow-up, there was no difference in LV ejection fraction (%, median (IQR), (culprit-artery-only PCI vs preventive PCI) 51.7 (42.9, 60.2) vs 54.4 (49.3, 62.8), p=0.23), LV end-diastolic volume (mL/m2, 69.3 (59.4, 79.9) vs 66.1 (54.7, 73.7), p=0.48) and LV end-systolic volume (mL/m2, 31.8 (24.4, 43.0) vs 30.7 (23.0, 36.3), p=0.20). Non-culprit angiographic lesions had low-risk Syntax scores and 47% had non-complex characteristics. Conclusions: Compared with culprit-only PCI, non-infarct-artery MI in the preventive PCI strategy was uncommon and LV volumes and ejection fraction were similar

Assessment of objective quality measures for speech intelligibility estimation

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the accuracy of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and 6 other well-reported objective quality measures for the task of estimating speech intelligibility. It is believed to be the first assessment of such a range of measures side-by-side and in the context of intelligibility. A total of 39 degradation conditions including those from a newly proposed low bit rate (0.3 to 1.5kbps) codec and a noise suppression system are considered. They provide real and varied scenarios to assess the measures. The objective scores are compared to subjective listening scores, and their correlation used to assess the approach. All tests are conducted on the European standard Aurora 2 corpus. Experiments show that ASR and perceptual estimation of speech quality (PESQ) are potentially reliable estimators of intelligibility with subjective correlation as high as 0.99 and 0.96 respectively. Furthermore, ASR gives a trend corresponding to that of subjective intelligibility assessment for the different configurations of the new codec, while most others fail

Internal charge behaviour of nanocomposites

The incorporation of 23 nm titanium dioxide nanoparticles into an epoxy matrix to form a nanocomposite structure is described. It is shown that the use of nanometric particles results in a substantial change in the behaviour of the composite, which can be traced to the mitigation of internal charge when a comparison is made with conventional TiO2 fillers. A variety of diagnostic techniques (including dielectric spectroscopy, electroluminescence, thermally stimulated current, photoluminescence) have been used to augment pulsed electro-acoustic space charge measurement to provide a basis for understanding the underlying physics of the phenomenon. It would appear that, when the size of the inclusions becomes small enough, they act co-operatively with the host structure and cease to exhibit interfacial properties leading to Maxwell-Wagner polarization. It is postulated that the particles are surrounded by high charge concentrations in the Gouy-Chapman-Stern layer. Since nanoparticles have very high specific areas, these regions allow limited charge percolation through nano-filled dielectrics. The practical consequences of this have also been explored in terms of the electric strength exhibited. It would appear that there was a window in which real advantages accrue from the nano-formulated material. An optimum loading of about 10% (by weight) is indicated

Biophysical and Economic Implications for Agriculture of +1.5 and +2.0C Global Warming Using AgMIP Coordinated Global and Regional Assessments

This study presents results of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) Coordinated Global and Regional Assessments (CGRA) of +1.5 and +2.0 C global warming above pre-industrial conditions. This first CGRA application provides multi-discipline, multi-scale, and multi-model perspectives to elucidate major challenges for the agricultural sector caused by direct biophysical impacts of climate changes as well as ramifications of associated mitigation strategies. Agriculture in both target climate stabilizations is characterized by differential impacts across regions and farming systems, with tropical maize (Zea mays) experiencing the largest losses while soy (Glycine max) mostly benefits. The result is upward pressure on prices and area expansion for maize and wheat (Triticum), while soy prices and area decline (results for rice, Oryza sativa, are mixed). An example global mitigation strategy encouraging bioenergy expansion is more disruptive to land use and crop prices than the climate change impacts alone, even in the +2.0 C World which has a larger climate signal and lower mitigation requirement than the +1.5 C World. Coordinated assessments reveal that direct biophysical and economic impacts can be substantially larger for regional farming systems than global production changes. Regional farmers can buffer negative effects or take advantage of new opportunities via mitigation incentives and farm management technologies. Primary uncertainties in the CGRA framework include the extent of CO2 benefits for diverse agricultural systems in crop models, as simulations without CO2 benefits show widespread production losses that raise prices and expand agricultural are

Posttransplant MRD and T-cell chimerism status predict outcomes in patients who received allografts for AML/MDS

Allogeneic stem-cell transplant allows for the delivery of curative graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia/myelodysplasia (AML/MDS). Surveillance of T-cell chimerism, measurable residual disease (MRD) and blast HLA-DR expression may inform whether GVL effectiveness is reduced. We report here the prognostic impact of these biomarkers in patients allografted for AML/MDS. One hundred eighty-seven patients from FIGARO, a randomized trial of reduced-intensity conditioning regimens in AML/MDS, were alive and relapse-free at the first MRD time-point and provided monitoring samples for flow cytometric MRD and T-cell chimerism, requested to month+12. Twenty-nine (15.5%) patients had at least 1 MRD-positive result posttransplant. MRD-positivity was associated with reduced overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio [HR], 2.18; P = .0028) as a time-varying Cox variable and remained significant irrespective of pretransplant MRD status in multivariate analyses (P < .001). Ninety-four patients had sequential MRD with T-cell chimerism results at months+3/+6. Patients with full donor T-cell chimerism (FDTC) had an improved OS as compared with patients with mixed donor T-cell chimerism (MDTC) (adjusted HR=0.4; P = .0019). In patients with MDTC (month+3 or +6), MRD-positivity was associated with a decreased 2-year OS (34.3%) vs MRD-negativity (71.4%) (P = .001). In contrast, in the group with FDTC, MRD was infrequent and did not affect the outcome. Among patients with posttransplant MRD-positivity, decreased HLA-DR expression on blasts significantly reduced OS, supporting this as a mechanism for GVL escape. In conclusion, posttransplant MRD is an important predictor of the outcome in patients allografted for AML/MDS and is most informative when combined with T-cell chimerism results, underlining the importance of a GVL effect in AML/MDS