Fresh thinking in services marketing: Contemporary, cutting-edge and creative thoughts

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight and promote fresh thinking in services marketing research. Design/methodology/approach The topic of the special issue was deliberately chosen to encourage fresh ideas and concepts that will move the discipline forward. The accepted papers have been categorised for ease and convenience of reading by scholars and practitioners, with a short commentary on each category. Findings There is a wealth of forward-thinking by service(s) marketing researchers that bodes well for the future of the sub-discipline. Research limitations/implications The special issue does not address fresh thinking in all areas of services marketing research. Other potential areas for fresh thinking are identified. Originality/value New thinking in a scholarly field is necessary to propel the discipline forward.

Potential uses of Bayesian networks as tools for synthesis of systematic reviews of complex interventions

Bayesian networks (BNs) are tools for representing expert knowledge or evidence. They are especially useful for synthesising evidence or belief concerning a complex intervention, assessing the sensitivity of outcomes to different situations or contextual frameworks and framing decision problems that involve alternative types of intervention. Bayesian networks are useful extensions to logic maps when initiating a review or to facilitate synthesis and bridge the gap between evidence acquisition and decision-making. Formal elicitation techniques allow development of BNs on the basis of expert opinion. Such applications are useful alternatives to ‘empty’ reviews, which identify knowledge gaps but fail to support decision-making. Where review evidence exists, it can inform the development of a BN. We illustrate the construction of a BN using a motivating example that demonstrates how BNs can ensure coherence, transparently structure the problem addressed by a complex intervention and assess sensitivity to context, all of which are critical components of robust reviews of complex interventions. We suggest that BNs should be utilised to routinely synthesise reviews of complex interventions or empty reviews where decisions must be made despite poor evidence.

Collaborative learning from distributed places and spaces: Exploring the use of virtual collaborative tools for local and global student teamwork projects

Educating responsive graduates. Graduate competencies include reliability, communication skills and ability to work in teams. Students using Collaborative technologies adapt to a new working environment, working in teams and using collaborative technologies for learning. Collaborative Technologies were used not simply for delivery of learning but innovatively to supplement and enrich research-based learning, providing a space for active engagement and interaction with resources and team. This promotes the development of responsive ‘intellectual producers’, able to effectively communicate, collaborate and negotiate in complex work environments. Exploiting technologies. Students use ‘new’ technologies to work collaboratively, allowing them to experience the reality of distributed workplaces incorporating both flexibility and ‘real’ time responsiveness. Students are responsible and accountable for individual and group work contributions in a highly transparent and readily accessible workspace. This experience provides a model of an effective learning tool. Navigating uncertainty and complexity. Collaborative technologies allows students to develop critical thinking and reflective skills as they develop a group product. In this forum students build resilience by taking ownership and managing group work, and navigating the uncertainties and complexities of group dynamics as they constructively and professionally engage in team dialogue and learn to focus on the goal of the team task.

Development of molecular tools for the improvement of transgene expression in sugar cane

Biotechnology has the potential to improve sugar cane, one of the world's major crops for food and fuel. This research describes the detailed characterisation of introns and their potential for enhancing transgene expression in sugar cane via intron-mediated enhancement (IME). IME is a phenomenon whereby an intron enhances gene expression from a promoter. Current knowledge on the mechanism of IME or its potential for enhancing gene expression in sugar cane is limited. A better understanding of the factors responsible for IME will help develop new molecular tools that facilitate high levels of constitutive and tissue-specific gene expression in this crop.

Pedagogical tools designed to promote engagement and active learning in the biomedical sciences and allied health disciplines

Perceiving students, science students especially, as mere consumers of facts and information belies the importance of a need to engage them with the principles underlying those facts and is counter-intuitive to the facilitation of knowledge and understanding. Traditional didactic lecture approaches need a re-think if student classroom engagement and active learning are to be valued over fact memorisation and fact recall. In our undergraduate biomedical science programs across Years 1, 2 and 3 in the Faculty of Health at QUT, we have developed an authentic learning model with an embedded suite of pedagogical strategies that foster classroom engagement and allow for active learning in the sub-discipline area of medical bacteriology. The suite of pedagogical tools we have developed have been designed to enable their translation, with appropriate fine-tuning, to most biomedical and allied health discipline teaching and learning contexts. Indeed, aspects of the pedagogy have been successfully translated to the nursing microbiology study stream at QUT. The aims underpinning the pedagogy are for our students to: (1) Connect scientific theory with scientific practice in a more direct and authentic way, (2) Construct factual knowledge and facilitate a deeper understanding, and (3) Develop and refine their higher order flexible thinking and problem solving skills, both semi-independently and independently. The mindset and role of the teaching staff is critical to this approach since for the strategy to be successful tertiary teachers need to abandon traditional instructional modalities based on one-way information delivery. Face-to-face classroom interactions between students and lecturer enable realisation of pedagogical aims (1), (2) and (3). The strategy we have adopted encourages teachers to view themselves more as expert guides in what is very much a student-focused process of scientific exploration and learning. Specific pedagogical strategies embedded in the authentic learning model we have developed include: (i) interactive lecture-tutorial hybrids or lectorials featuring teacher role-plays as well as class-level question-and-answer sessions, (ii) inclusion of “dry” laboratory activities during lectorials to prepare students for the wet laboratory to follow, (iii) real-world problem-solving exercises conducted during both lectorials and wet laboratory sessions, and (iv) designing class activities and formative assessments that probe a student’s higher order flexible thinking skills. Flexible thinking in this context encompasses analytical, critical, deductive, scientific and professional thinking modes. The strategic approach outlined above is designed to provide multiple opportunities for students to apply principles flexibly according to a given situation or context, to adapt methods of inquiry strategically, to go beyond mechanical application of formulaic approaches, and to as much as possible self-appraise their own thinking and problem solving. The pedagogical tools have been developed within both workplace (real world) and theoretical frameworks. The philosophical core of the pedagogy is a coherent pathway of teaching and learning which we, and many of our students, believe is more conducive to student engagement and active learning in the classroom. Qualitative and quantitative data derived from online and hardcopy evaluations, solicited and unsolicited student and graduate feedback, anecdotal evidence as well as peer review indicate that: (i) our students are engaging with the pedagogy, (ii) a constructivist, authentic-learning approach promotes active learning, and (iii) students are better prepared for workplace transition.

Trait components provide tools to dissect the genetic susceptibility of migraine

The commonly used "end diagnosis" phenotype that is adopted in linkage and association studies of complex traits is likely to represent an oversimplified model of the genetic background of a disease. This is also likely to be the case for common types of migraine, for which no convincingly associated genetic variants have been reported. In headache disorders, most genetic studies have used end diagnoses of the International Headache Society (IHS) classification as phenotypes. Here, we introduce an alternative strategy; we use trait components--individual clinical symptoms of migraine--to determine affection status in genomewide linkage analyses of migraine-affected families. We identified linkage between several traits and markers on chromosome 4q24 (highest LOD score under locus heterogeneity [HLOD] 4.52), a locus we previously reported to be linked to the end diagnosis migraine with aura. The pulsation trait identified a novel locus on 17p13 (HLOD 4.65). Additionally, a trait combination phenotype (IHS full criteria) revealed a locus on 18q12 (HLOD 3.29), and the age at onset trait revealed a locus on 4q28 (HLOD 2.99). Furthermore, suggestive or nearly suggestive evidence of linkage to four additional loci was observed with the traits phonophobia (10q22) and aggravation by physical exercise (12q21, 15q14, and Xp21), and, interestingly, these loci have been linked to migraine in previous studies. Our findings suggest that the use of symptom components of migraine instead of the end diagnosis provides a useful tool in stratifying the sample for genetic studies.

Validating adult and paediatric nutrition screening and assessment tools in Vietnamese language in two acute hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Despite being commonly prevalent in acute care hospitals worldwide, malnutrition often goes unidentified and untreated due to a lack in the implementation of a nutrition care pathway. The aim of this study was to validate nutrition screening and assessment tools in Vietnamese language. After converting into Vietnamese, Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) were used to identify malnutrition in the adult setting; and the Paediatric Nutrition Screening Tool (PNST) and paediatric Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA) were used in the paediatric setting in two acute care hospitals in Vietnam. This cross-sectional observational study sampled 123 adults (median age 78 years [39–96 years], 63% males) and 105 children (median age 20 months [2–100 months], 66% males). In adults, nutrition risk and malnutrition were identified in 29% and 45% of the cohort respectively. Nutrition risk and malnutrition were identified in 71% and 43% of the paediatric cohort respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the screening tools were: 62% and 99% for the MST compared to the SGA; 89% and 42% for the PNST compared to the SGNA. This study provides a stepping stone to the potential use of evidence-based nutrition screening and assessment tools in Vietnamese language within the adult and paediatric Vietnamese acute care setting. Further work is required into integrating a complete nutrition care pathway within the acute care setting in Vietnamese hospitals.

Web 2.0 technology: Social learning tools in higher education in Saudi Arabia

Information and communication technology (ICT) has created opportunities for students' online interaction in higher education throughout the world. Limited research has been done in this area in Saudi Arabia. This study investigated university students' engagement and perceptions of online collaborative learning using Social Learning Tools (SLTs). In addition, it explored the quality of knowledge construction that occurred in this environment. A mixed methods case study approach was adopted, and the data was gathered from undergraduate students (n=43) who were enrolled in a 15-week course at a Saudi university. The results showed that while the students had positive perceptions towards SLTs and their engagement, data gathered from their work also showed little evidence of high levels of knowledge construction.

Tools for compositional data with a total

Compositional data analysis usually deals with relative information between parts where the total (abundances, mass, amount, etc.) is unknown or uninformative. This article addresses the question of what to do when the total is known and is of interest. Tools used in this case are reviewed and analysed, in particular the relationship between the positive orthant of D-dimensional real space, the product space of the real line times the D-part simplex, and their Euclidean space structures. The first alternative corresponds to data analysis taking logarithms on each component, and the second one to treat a log-transformed total jointly with a composition describing the distribution of component amounts. Real data about total abundances of phytoplankton in an Australian river motivated the present study and are used for illustration.

Simulation and modelling tools for quantitative safety assessments of unmanned aircraft systems and operations

This paper presents two simple simulation and modelling tools designed to aid in the safety assessment required for unmanned aircraft operations within unsegregated airspace. First, a fast pair-wise encounter generator is derived to simulate the See and Avoid environment. The utility of the encounter generator is demonstrated through the development of a hybrid database and a statistical performance evaluation of an autonomous See and Avoid decision and control strategy. Second, an unmanned aircraft mission generator is derived to help visualise the impact of multiple persistent unmanned operations on existing air traffic. The utility of the mission generator is demonstrated through an example analysis of a mixed airspace environment using real traffic data in Australia. These simulation and modelling approaches constitute a useful and extensible set of analysis tools, that can be leveraged to help explore some of the more fundamental and challenging problems facing civilian unmanned aircraft system integration.

Tribological properties of γ-Y2Si2O7 ceramic against AISI 52100 steel and Si3N4 ceramic counterparts

Reciprocating ball-on-flat dry sliding friction and wear experiments have been conducted on singlephase γ-Y2Si2O7 ceramic flats in contact with AISI 52100 bearing steel and Si3N4 ceramic balls at 5-15N normal loads in an ambient environment. The kinetic friction coefficients of γ-Y2Si2O7 varied in the range over 0.53-0.63 against AISI 52100 steel and between 0.51-0.56 against Si3N4 ceramic. We found thatwear occurred predominantly during the running-in period and it almost ceased at the steady friction stage. The wear rates of γ-Y2Si2O7 were in the order of 10-4mm3/(N m). Besides, wear debris strongly influenced the friction and wear processes. The strong chemical affinity between γ-Y2Si2O7 and AISI 52100 balls led to a thick transfer layer formed on both contact surfaces of the flat and counterpart ball, which changed the direct sliding between the ball and the flat into a shearing within the transfer layer. For the γ-Y2Si2O7/Si3N4 pair, a thin silica hydrate lubricant tribofilm presented above the compressed debris entrapped in the worn track and contact ball surface. This transfer layer and the tribofilm separated the sliding couple from direct contact and contributed to the low friction coefficient and wear rate.

Mechanical properties and damage tolerance of Y2SiO5

Y2SiO5 has potential applications as functional-structural ceramic and environmental/thermal barrier coating material. As an important grain-boundary phase in the sintered Si3N4, it also influences the mechanical and dielectric performances of the host material. In this paper, we present the mechanical properties of Y2SiO5 including elastic moduli, hardness, strength and fracture toughness, and try to understand the mechanical features from the viewpoint of crystal structure. Y2SiO5 has low shear modulus, low hardness, as well as high capacity for dispersing mechanical damage energy and for resisting crack penetration. Particularly, it can be machined by cemented carbides tools. The crystal structure characteristics of Y2SiO5 suggest the low-energy weakly bonded atomic planes crossed only by the easily breaking Y-O bonds as well as the rotatable rigid SiO4 tetrahedra are the origins of low shear deformation, good damage tolerance and good machinability of this material. TEM observations also demonstrate that the mechanical damage energy was dispersed in the form of the micro-cleavages, stacking faults and twins along these weakly bonded atomic planes, which allows the "microscale-plasticity" for Y2SiO5.

Statistical tools for analyzing water quality data

Water quality data are often collected at different sites over time to improve water quality management. Water quality data usually exhibit the following characteristics: non-normal distribution, presence of outliers, missing values, values below detection limits (censored), and serial dependence. It is essential to apply appropriate statistical methodology when analyzing water quality data to draw valid conclusions and hence provide useful advice in water management. In this chapter, we will provide and demonstrate various statistical tools for analyzing such water quality data, and will also introduce how to use a statistical software R to analyze water quality data by various statistical methods. A dataset collected from the Susquehanna River Basin will be used to demonstrate various statistical methods provided in this chapter. The dataset can be downloaded from website http://www.srbc.net/programs/CBP/nutrientprogram.htm.

Scheduling tools to reduce the cost of cane railway transport

Cane railway systems provide empty bins for harvesters to fill and full bins of cane for the factory to process. These operations need to be conducted in a timely fashion to minimise delays to harvesters and the factory and to minimise the cut-to-crush delay, while also minimising the cost of providing this service. A range of tools has been provided over the years to assist in this process. This paper reviews the objectives of the cane transport system and the tools available to achieve those objectives. The facilities within these tools to assist in the control of costs are highlighted.