Souvenir shopping in Switzerland: A qualitative analysis of travel blogs and its implications for the souvenir trade

Tourism shopping represents an impressive investment by tourists in terms of the time and money involved. In an inductive approach based on case-studies, travel blog entries of tourists who had recently visited Switzerland were analysed, leading to a theoretical proposition and to pragmatic, reality-driven suggestions for the souvenir business. The notion of ‘Expert tourist’ emerged as an overarching theme. Depending on the tourists’ own judgment about how good or bad they are at being expert tourists, their perception about souvenirs and subsequently their souvenir buying preferences vary greatly. This needs to be taken into account by the souvenir trade

Consumers Reactions to Tesco's market entry in Taiwan - a comparison with the UK experience

The purpose of this paper is to research consumer response to retail branding models in Taiwan by means of exploratory qualitative research comparing Tesco’s retail branding in the UK and Taiwan in order to find out the level of consumer acceptance of Tesco in Taiwan as a new market entrant. From the consumers’ viewpoint, Taiwanese Tesco’s retail corporate images, store positioning and retail branding process are not understood or clearly differentiated and identified by local consumers. This was a big problem for grocery shoppers and should therefore be considered as one of the key factors in Tesco`s withdrawal from the Taiwan market. It demonstrates the consumer acceptance issues even a strong retail brand faces transferring its brand to a new market with consumers unfamiliar with its retail brand proposition

Studies on the bound nucleotide of muscle fibrils

The possibility was investigated that phosphorus uptake from ATP or uptake of ATP molecules by the muscle proteins occurs during contraction and relaxation of rabbit myofibrils. It was found that the phosphorus content was the same in myofibrils contracted with ATP and the control myofibrils although phosphorylation of actin, if it occurred, may not have been detectable. An examination by paper chromatography of the UV-absorbing substances in washed frog and rabbit myofibrils revealed the presence of the adenine nucleotides, IMP, hypoxanthine, and adenine. ADP gave the most intense UV-absorbing spot and was presumably derived from F-actin. An oligo- or polynucleotide, possibly derived from RNA, and a green pigment, were also found. The adenine nucleotides in HCl and HC10 extracts of washed frog myofibrils were estimated. Approximately 2.90 - 3.10 umoles/gm. dry weight of adenine nucleotides were present, most of which was ADP. Considerably more ATP was found in the HCl extracts than was present in the HC1O4 extracts, in which most of the nucleotide was ADP. The concentration of ATP in the HC1 extracts was observed to alter after neutralization in association with a change in the ADP content. It is suggested that a phosphokinase is present in the HC1 extracts, but not in the HC10 extracts, which becomes active after neutralization and synthesises the ATP from ADP and an unidentified substance XP. A higher ATP/ADP ratio was found in the HCl extract from control myofibrils than in the extract from myofibrils contracted with ATP.When a frog muscle homogenate was washed with successive small volumes of water, the myofibrils swelled and structural protein passed into solution, to a much greater extent when conditions favoured relaxation than contraction of the fibrils. The extracted protein was precipitated by Mgions and contained adenine nucleotide. It was concluded to be a form of actomyosin containing F-actin in a low state of polymerisation. A theory of contraction is suggested which is consistent with these observations.<p

‘Antique Fiction’ and the Forgotten Legacies of Ancient Rome in Wilkie Collins’s Antonina'

This article examines the treatment and uses of ancient Rome in Wilkie Collins’s first published novel, Antonina (1850). It suggests that the novel, which has been almost entirely overlooked by modern scholarship, represents a significant departure from earlier, more negative receptions of Rome in the cultural and political discourses of the early nineteenth century, as well as in the ‘antique fictions’ of the period. Rather, Antonina represents a shift towards a more enthusiastic adoption of the Roman past as a framework for glorifying the racial and cultural credentials of the British imperialist. Set during the sack of Rome by Alaric and the Goths in 410, the novel’s romantic pairing of the Roman maiden Antonina and the Gothic warrior Hermanric serves to mythologize the origins of a British readership who would be heirs to Roman culture and empire as well as Gothic martial virtue

Victorian entertainments : "we are amused" : an exhibit illustrating Victorian entertainment.

Midwest Victorian Studies Association. Meeting (2007)published or submitted for publicationnot peer reviewe

Costs and effects of two public sector delivery channels for long-lasting insecticidal nets in Uganda.

BACKGROUND: In Uganda, long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN) have been predominantly delivered through two public sector channels: targeted campaigns or routine antenatal care (ANC) services. Their combination in a mixed-model strategy is being advocated to quickly increase LLIN coverage and maintain it over time, but there is little evidence on the efficiency of each system. This study evaluated the two delivery channels regarding LLIN retention and use, and estimated the associated costs, to contribute towards the evidence-base on LLIN delivery channels in Uganda. METHODS: Household surveys were conducted 5-7 months after LLIN distribution, combining questionnaires with visual verification of LLIN presence. Focus groups and interviews were conducted to further investigate determinants of LLIN retention and use. Campaign distribution was evaluated in Jinja and Adjumani while ANC distribution was evaluated only in the latter district. Costs were calculated from the provider perspective through retrospective analysis of expenditure data, and effects were estimated as cost per LLIN delivered and cost per treated-net-year (TNY). These effects were calculated for the total number of LLINs delivered and for those retained and used. RESULTS: After 5-7 months, over 90% of LLINs were still owned by recipients, and between 74% (Jinja) and 99% (ANC Adjumani) were being used. Costing results showed that delivery was cheapest for the campaign in Jinja and highest for the ANC channel, with economic delivery cost per net retained and used of USD 1.10 and USD 2.31, respectively. Financial delivery costs for the two channels were similar in the same location, USD 1.04 for campaign or USD 1.07 for ANC delivery in Adjumani, but differed between locations (USD 0.67 for campaign delivery in Jinja). Economic cost for ANC distribution were considerably higher (USD 2.27) compared to campaign costs (USD 1.23) in Adjumani. CONCLUSIONS: Targeted campaigns and routine ANC services can both achieve high LLIN retention and use among the target population. The comparatively higher economic cost of delivery through ANC facilities was at least partially due to the relatively short time this system had been in existence. Further studies comparing the cost of well-established ANC delivery with LLIN campaigns and other delivery channels are thus encouraged

Generation of folk song melodies using Bayes transforms

The paper introduces the `Bayes transform', a mathematical procedure for putting data into a hierarchical representation. Applicable to any type of data, the procedure yields interesting results when applied to sequences. In this case, the representation obtained implicitly models the repetition hierarchy of the source. There are then natural applications to music. Derivation of Bayes transforms can be the means of determining the repetition hierarchy of note sequences (melodies) in an empirical and domain-general way. The paper investigates application of this approach to Folk Song, examining the results that can be obtained by treating such transforms as generative models

Dimer statistics on the M\"obius strip and the Klein bottle

Closed-form expressions are obtained for the generating function of close-packed dimers on a $2M \times 2N$ simple quartic lattice embedded on a M\"obius strip and a Klein bottle. Finite-size corrections are also analyzed and compared with those under cylindrical and free boundary conditions. Particularly, it is found that, for large lattices of the same size and with a square symmetry, the number of dimer configurations on a M\"obius strip is 70.2% of that on a cylinder. We also establish two identities relating dimer generating functions for M\"obius strips and cylinders.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figs included, accepted by Phys. Lett.