Localisation of passenger experience through digital channels

International air transport is growing rapidly, with 2 million international passengers flying every day. Airlines must provide innovative and differentiated services, which are based on local culture and behaviours, and tailored to passengers’ needs and desires. However, behavioural studies in the airline industry are still absent from both academia and the field. Hence, this case study investigates the following research question: What are the opportunity areas to localise airline services in the Korean market, while maintaining the cultural identity of the airline as a crucial part of the travel experience? The main focus of this master’s thesis is a case study of a Finnish airline company targeting the Korean market. The study derives insights through the application of service design methods and tools based on a passenger-centric approach. In total, 21 insights were obtained from Korean travellers and the diverse internal stakeholders of the company in South Korea and Finland. The research reveals that understanding local behaviours should play a role in the design of international airline services, since travellers experience contrasts between Finnish and Korean culture. While the airline exhibits Finnish cultural elements, the targeted passengers have different mindsets and behaviours. The research findings suggest three potential themes: Nordic experience, communication and learning, and accessibility and visibility. Under those themes, the study creates 16 job stories highlighting strategic areas for Korean passengers as customers and 15 job stories for the cabin crew as the ‘enablers’. These strategic areas are prioritised and evaluated by managerial employees in the company through the jobs-to-be-done prioritisation matrix. As the outcome of the project, this study proposes strategic areas for localising passenger experiences in addition to business goals. The conclusion recommends that behavioural studies of various regional markets should be conducted individually because behaviours of passengers from different markets appear to be distinctive. However, the approach to crew training should be scaled and implemented nationally or regionally, depending on the market size. By further investigating the suggested strategic areas, the passenger experience of the target country could be improved, and consequently, more international customers onboarding could be acquired.Son, Jiyoun

Nutrient load inputs to the Cache la Poudre River watersheds

2013 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Nutrient (phosphorus and nitrogen) has been ranked as a leading source of water quality impairment of surface waters in the United States for the past two decades. Based on strong encouragement for developing in-stream nutrient numeric criteria by the Environmental Protection Agency of the U.S., the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment proposed the in-stream numeric total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) criteria as 2 mg TN L-1 and 0.16 mg TP L-1 for warm surface waters and 0.40 mg TN L-1 and 0.11 mg TP L-1 for cold surface waters. As a consequence, nutrient limits for point sources, the municipal wastewater treatment plants, have been proposed as annual averages of 0.7 mg TP L-1 and 5.7 mg total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) L-1 and quarterly averages of 1.0 mg TP L-1 and 9.0 mg TIN L-1 to achieve the in-stream standards. Rivers and streams, however, receive nutrient loads from point sources and nonpoint sources in a mixed land-use area and therefore nutrient reduction only at point sources is unlikely to result in improvements to the environment without nonpoint source controls. The objectives of this study were to monitor TP (Chapter 4.1) and TN (Chapter 4.2) concentrations and estimate loads along the Cache La Poudre River as it flows from the pristine upstream area through a mixture of agricultural and urban land uses, and compare the loads between point sources and nonpoint sources under various hydrologic conditions. Twelve and seven sampling events were completed between April 2010 and August 2011 for TP and TN, respectively. Point sources, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the study area, were the major sources of TP and TN during midrange and dry flow conditions, but nonpoint sources were more substantial under high flow conditions. Loading exceedance of TP from the proposed in-stream TP limit was observed for all hydrologic conditions, but the significance of the exceedance was drastically increased during high flow conditions (p<0.05). Contrary to expectations, significant loading exceedance of TN was observed only for lower flow conditions, and other sources dominated during events when exceedance of TN was observed. Nutrient loads increased in areas of greater anthropogenic influence (p < 0.05) and nonpoint source loads became significant in the areas with more agricultural activity (p < 0.05). We attempted to simulate TP and TN loads in the CLP River to determine whether the loads under different effluent conditions in the WWTPs would comply with the proposed in-stream limits (Chapter 4.3). The study shows that reducing nutrient load only at WWTPs will merely reduce nutrient load in the river and that the in-stream limits cannot be achieved without substantial reduction of nonpoint source loads (e.g., stormwater and agricultural runoff) and therefore other sources need to be considered in establishing the in-stream standard limits. An intense wildfire occurred in a forested area of Colorado in June 2012 while a study of the role of riverbed sediment in terms of phosphorus source under various hydrologic conditions was being conducted. River water and sediment samples were collected after the fire, and water quality and sediment properties of the post-fire samples were spatially and temporally compared with the pre-fire samples collected prior to the fire event (Chapter 4.4). Disturbance of water quality and soil properties by the fire were observed, but the magnitude of significance was relatively small without precipitation; however, in-stream TN and TP concentrations significantly increased in the upstream section after precipitation event. Large amounts of particulate P were introduced to the upstream section and impacts downstream were apparent. After precipitation event, soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) dominated dissolved P in the river replacing dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP), which was the main dissolved species before the fire event. In the riverbank, TP mass concentration increased significantly after fire with silt-clay and organic matter (OM) concentrations after precipitation. Riverbed TP mass concentrations decreased due to a reduced sorption capacity leading to a considerable P release from the sediments. The results indicate that fire-released P species will impact the downstream area of the watershed for a considerable time period as the bank erosion-sorption-desorption cycles in the watershed adjust to the fire-related loading

Two teacher educators’ approaches to developing preservice elementary teachers’ mathematics assessment literacy: Intentions, outcomes, and new learning

The purpose of this study was to examine and reflect on two teacher educators’ approaches to developing preservice elementary teachers’ mathematics assessment literacy. We explored the similarities and differences in preservice teachers’ conceptions of good assessment practices and their critique of assessment items. We found that we, as course instructors, had different assumptions pertaining to the role of preservice teachers in the development of assessment and offered different assessment-related course activities. Despite these differences, there were more similarities than differences between the two groups of the preservice teachers with regard to their overall perceptions about good assessment practices and their critique of assessment items. However, we also observed differences in the criteria they used in critiquing assessment items. Discussions and implications are presented in accordance with these findings as a means to improve our own teaching and student learning

Green benefits on educational buildings according to the LEED certification

Countries around the world are making efforts to develop and introduce green building certification systems to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As a result of these efforts, green certification systems are rapidly spreading. Consistent with this, certification systems are also being developed and research related to various technologies and regulations is ongoing. However, most research focuses on residential and commercial buildings and there is still a lack of scientific research on educational facilities. To fill the gap and support the former studies, this research statistically studies the economic effects of green certification systems on educational facilities. For this purpose, the benefits, i.g., building price and maintenance &amp; repair costs, were examined for universities in Canada that were admitted to the Canadian Educational Institution. As shown by the results of this study, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified buildings cost 49.9% more to build and had 25.6% lower maintenance and repair costs than non-LEED certified buildings

Revisiting Multiplication Area Models for Whole Numbers

We argue that there are two conceptually different area models for whole number multiplication: area-to-area model and lengths-to-area model depending on how multiplication operation is conceived: action on / change of an initial quantity, or operation / coordination of two quantities. These models complement each other to promote students’ conceptual understanding of whole number multiplication and help students extend their understanding of whole number multiplication to fraction multiplication

Revisiting Multiplication Area Models for Whole Numbers

We argue that there are two conceptually different area models for whole number multiplication: area-to-area model and lengths-to-area model depending on how multiplication operation is conceived: action on / change of an initial quantity, or operation / coordination of two quantities. These models complement each other to promote students’ conceptual understanding of whole number multiplication and help students extend their understanding of whole number multiplication to fraction multiplication

Lee Gi-Young on Buddhism and Modern Korean Buddhist Studies

This paper introduces Lee Gi-Young (李箕永, 1922-1996), Korea\u27s pre-eminent modern Buddhist scholar, who studied Buddhist research methodologies under Étienne Lamotte (1903-1983) at Leuven University in Belgium in the 1950s. Bul-Yeon reestablished research methodologies for Korean Buddhist studies in the modern era; he is the leading scholar on Won-hyo (元暁, 617-686), a famous high priest in the seventh century. Bul-Yeon devoted himself to the creative interpretation of the Sutras and practical Buddhist activities; "piety and seeking the truth," which is considered contrary to "historical empirical studies focusing on objectified literature," and yet which is fused in Bul-Yeon. The paper addresses the introspective nature of Buddhist studies today, the lack of practice and faith in Buddhism worldwide, and implications for Buddhist studies and the practices of Bul-Yeon Lee Gi-Young

A quantitative risk assessment development using risk indicators for predicting economic damages in construction sites of South Korea

The purpose of this study is to suggest a quantitative risk assessment approach for construction sites using risk indicators to predict economic damages. The frequency of damage in building construction has recently increased, and the associated costs have been increased as well. Although a request for a damage estimation model has been extended, the industry still lacks quantitative and comprehensive research that reveals the physical relationship between damage and risk indicators. To address that issue, we use an insurance company’s payouts from construction site claims in South Korea to reflect the real financial damage. We adopted a multiple regression method to define the risk indicators: geographic vulnerability, natural hazards, capability, and general project information. The results and findings of this research will be accepted as an essential guideline for developing a construction risk estimation model

Effects of Out-of-Stock, Return, and Cancellation Amount on Order Amount of Online Retailers

Despite the spectacular success for online retailers in the last few decades, some inherent weaknesses remain, including stock-out, returns, and order cancellations, which influence financial performance of online retailers. Despite understanding the importance of these undesirable sales situations, no existing study, to our knowledge, has investigated the extent to which each issue impacts on financial performance with actual transaction data of online fashion retailers. Thus, this study aims to examine the effect of undesirable sales situations (i.e., out-of-stock, returns, and order cancellations) on financial performance (in this study, order amount) of an online retailer. In addition, the effects of undesirable sales situations on financial performance will be examined by product category (i.e., accessories, casual, kids, men\u27s, sports, and women\u27s clothing). The model was tested with transaction data obtained from an online shopping mall in South Korea. The data included 371 brands in six categories, with 3,367 observations in total; after exclusions (i.e., brands with less than six months observation periods), 2,996 data sets were utilized for the data analysis. This study confirmed the effect of undesirable sales situations (out-of-stock and return amounts) on financial performance of an online retailer with transaction data. Additionally, this study verified that undesirable sales situations were moderated by fashion product category