Investigating factors influencing the customer’s choice of insurer when purchasing a new decoder device: a case of Multichoice Umhlanga.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Satellite decoders are devices that render a video service over satellite. They are vulnerable to failure like other electronic devices. When a Multichoice customers’ decoder goes faulty it results in the customer losing their primary service until their decoder is replaced. This results in customer frustration. Customers who have insurance in place usually get up and running quickly. Studies have been conducted regarding extended warranties (Su and Wang, 2016) and service contracts (Tong, Liu, Men and Cao, 2014) but there was no research relating to insurance for satellite decoders. By selling more decoder insurance the company can improve customer service levels and at the same time generate more revenue through insurance sales. To achieve this, the company would need to understand the factors influencing the customers’ choice of insurer for decoders. To determine the factors influencing the customers’ choice of insurer when purchasing a new decoder device, a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted. Convenience sampling was used to identify 20 customer service representatives from Multichoice. The findings showed that the insurance cost, decoder replacement cost and video subscription cost were factors that influenced the customers’ choice of insurer. Other key factors identified by participants were the process of claiming from insurance as well as the process of signing up for decoder insurance. There were expectations from customers that they would be able to upgrade their decoder when doing an insurance claim, but upgrades are not optional during insurance claims. In some cases, customers would not take insurance as the decoder comes with a one-year manufacturers’ warranty. Such customers often end up forgetting to take insurance before the manufacturers’ warranty expires resulting in lost insurance sales. It was recommended that in order to increase insurance sales, the customers identified by this study should be targeted. The company could look at rewards programmes to increase sales. More can be done with the marketing of the insurance. Customers should be offered insurance just before the manufacturer’s warranty expires. The process of signing up for insurance should be streamlined. And the company should consider adding an upgrade option when doing insurance claims

Developing Land Use Land Cover Maps for the Lower Mekong Basin to Aid Hydrologic Modeling and Basin Planning

This paper discusses research methodology to develop Land Use Land Cover (LULC) mapsfor the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) for basin planning, using both MODIS and Landsat satellitedata. The 2010 MODIS MOD09 and MYD09 8-day reflectance data was processed into monthlyNDVI maps with the Time Series Product Tool software package and then used to classify regionallycommon forest and agricultural LULC types. Dry season circa 2010 Landsat top of atmosphere reflectance mosaics were classified to map locally common LULC types. Unsupervised ISODATAclustering was used to derive most LULC classifications. MODIS and Landsat classifications werecombined with GIS methods to derive final 250-m LULC maps for Sub-basins (SBs) 18 of the LMB.The SB 7 LULC map with 14 classes was assessed for accuracy. This assessment compared randomlocations for sampled types on the SB 7 LULC map to geospatial reference data such as Landsat RGBs,MODIS NDVI phenologic profiles, high resolution satellite data, and Mekong River Commissiondata (e.g., crop calendars). The SB 7 LULC map showed an overall agreement to reference data of~81%. By grouping three deciduous forest classes into one, the overall agreement improved to ~87%.The project enabled updated regional LULC maps that included more detailed agriculture LULCtypes. LULC maps were supplied to project partners to improve use of Soil andWater AssessmentTool for modeling hydrology and water use, plus enhance LMB water and disaster managementin a region vulnerable to flooding, droughts, and anthropogenic change as part of basin planningand assessment

Epidemiological Risk Factors for Isolation of Ceftriaxone-Resistant versus -Susceptible Citrobacter freundii in Hospitalized Patients

Antimicrobial resistance is an emerging problem among nosocomial bacteria. Risk factors for the recovery of ceftriaxone-resistant (CRCF) or -susceptible (CSCF) Citrobacter freundii in clinical cultures from hospitalized patients were determined by using a case-case-control study design. CRCF was isolated from 43 patients (case group 1) and CSCF was isolated from 87 patients (case group 2) over a 3-year period. Risk factors for CRCF were exposure to imipenem (odds ratio [OR], 7.5; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2 to 45.4), broad-spectrum cephalosporins (OR, 6.9; 95% CI, 1.8 to 26.7), vancomycin (OR, 3.0; 95% CI, 1.2 to 7.4), or piperacillin-tazobactam (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.1 to 6.2), as well as hospital length of stay ≥1 week (OR, 3.6; 95% CI, 1.3 to 10.2) and intensive care unit (ICU) stay (OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.1 to 6.2). Risk factors for CSCF were peripheral vascular disease (OR, 23.2; 95% CI, 4.3 to 124.6), AIDS (OR, 9.5; 95% CI, 1.6 to 55.5), cerebrovascular disease (OR, 4.2; 95% CI, 1.6 to 10.8), and ICU stay (OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.8 to 5.4)