The Availability Heuristic, Intuitive Cost-Benefit Analysis, and Climate Change

Because risks are on all sides of social situations, it is not possible to be “precautionary” in general. The availability heuristic ensures that some risks stand out as particularly salient, whatever their actual magnitude. Taken together with intuitive cost-benefit balancing, the availability heuristic helps to explain differences across groups, cultures, and even nations in the assessment of precautions to reduce the risks associated with climate change. There are complex links among availability, social processes for the spreading of information, and predispositions. If the United States is to take a stronger stand against climate change, it is likely to be a result of available incidents that seem to show that climate change produces serious and tangible harm

Exploring innovation driven value creation in B2B service firms: The roles of the manager, employees, and customers in value creation

This study adopts the premise that innovation capability underpins a service firm's value creation ability and that management style, employee behaviors and marketing underpin its innovation capability. This study examines the role of managers and employees in the creation and delivery of superior value to customers via the firm's innovation capability. To test this premise the current study examines the role of transformational leadership (TFL) as an aspect of the service firm's management style in creating and delivering value to customers through its services. This study adopts a multi-level study, collecting data from managers, employees and customers of service firms in a Southeast-Asian country, Cambodia. The results show that a service firm's innovation capability has a positive effect on the firm's value offering (VO), the VO has a positive relationship with customer perceived value-in use (PVI), and PVI has a positive relationship with firm performance. This study also finds moderating effects of TFL on the relationship between service innovation capability and VO, and of service marketing capability on the relationship between VO and PVI respectively

Serum vitamin D levels, diabetes and cardio-metabolic risk factors in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians

Assesses levels of serum 25(OH)D in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and explores relationships between 25(OH)D and cardio-metabolic risk factors and diabetes. Abstract Background: Low levels of serum 25 – hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D), have been associated with development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD); however there are limited data on serum 25(OH)D in Indigenous Australians, a population at high risk for both diabetes and CVD. We aimed to assess levels of serum 25(OH)D in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and to explore relationships between 25(OH)D and cardio-metabolic risk factors and diabetes. Methods: 592 Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Australian participants of The eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) Study, a cross-sectional analysis of a cohort study performed in 2007 – 2011, from urban and remote centres within communities, primary care and tertiary hospitals across Northern Territory, Far North Queensland and Western Australia. Assessment of serum 25(OH)D, cardio-metabolic risk factors (central obesity, diabetes, hypertension, history of cardiovascular disease, current smoker, low HDL-cholesterol), and diabetes (by history or HbA1c ≥ 6.5%) was performed. Associations were explored between 25(OH)D and outcome measures of diabetes and number of cardio-metabolic risk factors. Results: The median (IQR) serum 25(OH)D was 60 (45 – 77) nmol/L, 31% had 25(OH)D <50 nmol/L. For participants with 25(OH)D < 50 vs ≥ 50 nmol/L, cardio-metabolic risk profile differed for: diabetes (54%, 36% p < 0.001), past history of cardiovascular disease (16%, 9%, p = 0.014), waist-hip ratio (0.98, 0.92, p < 0.001), urine albumin-creatinine ratio (2.7, 1.5 mg/mmol, p < 0.001). The OR (95% CI) for diabetes was 2.02 (1.03 – 3.95) for people in the lowest vs highest tertiles of 25(OH)D (<53 vs >72 nmol/L, respectively) after adjusting for known cardio-metabolic risk factors. Conclusion: The percentage of 25(OH)D levels <50 nmol/L was high among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians from Northern and Central Australia. Low 25(OH)D level was associated with adverse cardio-metabolic risk profile and was independently associated with diabetes. These findings require exploration in longitudinal studies

Tourism and the smartphone app: capabilities, emerging practice and scope in the travel domain.

Based on its advanced computing capabilities and ubiquity, the smartphone has rapidly been adopted as a tourism travel tool.With a growing number of users and a wide varietyof applications emerging, the smartphone is fundamentally altering our current use and understanding of the transport network and tourism travel. Based on a review of smartphone apps, this article evaluates the current functionalities used in the domestic tourism travel domain and highlights where the next major developments lie. Then, at a more conceptual level, the article analyses how the smartphone mediates tourism travel and the role it might play in more collaborative and dynamic travel decisions to facilitate sustainable travel. Some emerging research challenges are discussed

Prioritizing testing of organic compounds detected as gas phase air pollutants: structure-activity study for human contact allergens.

Organic compounds that are used or generated anthropogenically in large quantities in cities can be identified through their presence in the urban atmosphere and in air pollutant source emissions. Compounds identified by this method were screened to evaluate their potential to act as contact allergens. The CASE and MULTICASE computer programs, which are based on the detection of structure-activity relationships (SAR), were used to evaluate this potential. These relationships first are determined by comparing chemical structures to biological activity within a learning set comprised of 458 compounds, each of which had been tested experimentally in human trials for its sensitization potential. Using the information contained in this learning set, CASE and MULTICASE predicted the activity of 238 compounds found in the atmosphere for their ability to act as contact allergens. The analysis finds that 21 of 238 compounds are predicted to be active contact allergens (probability >0.5), with potencies ranging from mild to very strong. The compounds come from chemical classes that include chlorinated aromatics and chlorinated hydrocarbons, N-containing compounds, phenols, alkenes, and an S-containing compound. Using the measured airborne concentrations or emission rates of these compounds as an indication of the extent of their use, together with their predicted potencies, provides an efficient method to prioritize the experimental assessment of contact sensitization of untested organic compounds that can be detected as air pollutants

A Field-Based Approach for Determining ATOFMS Instrument Sensitivities to Ammonium and Nitrate

Aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ATOFMS) instruments measure the size and chemical composition of individual particles in real-time. ATOFMS chemical composition measurements are difficult to quantify, largely because the instrument sensitivities to different chemical species in mixed ambient aerosols are unknown. In this paper, we develop a field-based approach for determining ATOFMS instrument sensitivities to ammonium and nitrate in size-segregated atmospheric aerosols, using tandem ATOFMS-impactor sampling. ATOFMS measurements are compared with collocated impactor measurements taken at Riverside, CA, in September 1996, August 1997, and October 1997. This is the first comparison of ion signal intensities from a single-particle instrument with quantitative measurements of atmospheric aerosol chemical composition. The comparison reveals that ATOFMS instrument sensitivities to both NH_4^+ and NO_3^- decline with increasing particle aerodynamic diameter over a 0.32−1.8 μm calibration range. The stability of this particle size dependence is tested over the broad range of fine particle concentrations (PM_(1.8) = 17.6 ± 2.0−127.8 ± 1.8 μg m^(-3)), ambient temperatures (23−35 °C), and relative humidity conditions (21−69%), encountered during the field experiments. This paper describes a potentially generalizable methodology for increasing the temporal and size resolution of atmospheric aerosol chemical composition measurements, using tandem ATOFMS-impactor sampling