Current Opportunity Research Articles

Marketing travel services to senior consumers

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the profiles of current senior travelers using accurate segmentation criteria based on ageing and behavioral tourism variables, shown to be useful in gerontology, marketing and tourism marketing literature.Design/methodology/approachA self‐complete questionnaire was administered to a work status‐based quota sample of 300 senior consumers (retired people aged 50‐76). Using behavioral variables, cluster analysis was performed. The clusters were then profiled using a discriminant analysis, involving demographic, ageing, and also some behavioral variables not included in the initial analysis. Finally, the current tourism offers were studied, considering the segments characteristics revealed.FindingsFour distinct segments have been identified. Each segment differs considerably from one another on a set of variables, including consumer behaviors variables.Research implicationsThis paper fills a research gap, outlined by several previous researchers in the senior consumer field, by identifying the current travel motivations of seniors and the role of subjective ages in the consumption of tourism.Practical implicationsThe paper provides dedicated tools to better understand the senior market. It also provides practical guidance for tourism companies to improve their current offer, better target and better satisfy each senior segment.Originality/valueThis research provides the first known tourism French senior market segmentation. It also reveals an interesting (discriminant) segmentation variable for the senior market: the discrepancy age, which has until now been neglected in senior studies. Finally, it addresses an issue linked to one of the major current opportunity markets, i.e. the senior market, for one of the most important service industries, i.e. the tourism industry.

The Real Option Model of Opportunity Cost in River Basin Ecological Compensation

One of the key issues of river basin ecological compensation is the compensation standard. The opportunity cost has the character of uncertainty. The character of opportunity cost in river basin ecological compensation standard was studied on base of economics theory. The current opportunity cost accounting method didn’t consider the uncertainty of opportunity cost. The real option model of opportunity cost in river basin ecological compensation was set up based on the binomial expression real-option model. The Xin 'an river basin was applied for the model and tested the feasibility of the real option model.

Las relaciones externas de América Latina en 1985

In early 1986, there is an opportunity to improve relations between the US and Latin America, but it may be short-lived. Political leaders in most of the countries of Latin America are implementing pragmatic and moderate foreign and economic policies that are compatible with long-term US interests and are willing to cooperate with Washington. They may, however, be forced to change their approach if they are unable to provide some relief from the distressing economic problems facing the region. Washington has yet to take decisive action to ease Latin America's debt burden. We maintain that if the current opportunity to work for Inter-American cooperation is not taken advantage of, the economic and social crisis in Latin America will probably worsen.

Male fiddler crabs prefer conspecific females during simultaneous, but not sequential, mate choice

Mate choice is potentially beneficial whenever prospective mates vary in quality, but when mates are encountered sequentially the cost of rejecting a current mating opportunity affects the net benefit of choosiness by lowering the mating rate. There is, however, no reduction in mating rate when choosing among potential mates that are encountered simultaneously. In general, mating with a heterospecific is costly as the resultant offspring are of low fitness. It is often argued that males, unlike females, will court and even mate with heterospecifics because the lost opportunity cost is minimal if they rarely encounter potential mates. In the fiddler crab Uca mjoebergi, we show that, in a natural situation, where females arrived sequentially males were equally likely to court conspecifics and heterospecifics. Females were released individually into the population, and nearly every male they passed performed a courtship waving display whether the female was conspecific or heterospecific. Taken alone, this result implies that males exhibit no species discrimination. However, in an experimental setting where males simultaneously viewed a conspecific and a heterospecific female, males waved faster and for longer at conspecific females, and attempted to mate more often with conspecifics. This indicates that U. mjoebergi males can discriminate between conspecific and heterospecific females and prefer to court conspecifics when given a choice. We used mate choice among rather than within species (to maximize variation in mate quality) to illustrate the need to distinguish between simultaneous and sequential mate choice when quantifying mating preferences.

Reflection on the Experiences of US and European Automobile Industry to Hubei’s Future Development

Surpassing the US in car sales in 2009. China has, since the world financial crisis, been showing big potential while US automobiles industry under complete depression. Green car, which has long been popular in European countries such as Belgium, has therefore become a key for the revival of the world car industry. As one of the three major automobile bases in China, how can Hubei benefit from the current challenge and development opportunity in the pro-crisis era?Key words: Saving and new energy vehicles; US automobile; decay; European “green” plastics; Hubei; development

Green Reconstruction: Laying a Firm Foundation for Haiti's Recovery

of this tragic earthquake, the question to put before Haiti and the community of nations is not whether to build back green but, rather, what possible justification could there be to shortchange the Haitian people by locking in wasteful, unhealthy, and unsustainable practices when smarter solutions exist?” The answer is self-evident, but the urgency of the disaster response, along with improper accounting of the real costs and benefits of reconstruction decisions, could easily stand in the way of realizing the current opportunity. Haiti has a strong interest in a reconstruction process that not only rebuilds critical infrastructure to address pressing short-term needs and a simmering humanitarian crisis, but also lays the foundation for long-term growth, develops local economic assets, and improves access to vital services. The global community has a clear obligation to ensure that the reconstruction of Haiti’s infrastructure increases economic resilience by adding value to existing indigenous assets and reducing vulnerability to external shocks, whether from natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes, or man-made crises like spiking energy prices and declining agricultural productivity.

Why Has China Succeeded - And Why it Will Continue to Do So

The key factor underlying China’s fast development during the last 50 years is its ability to master and accumulate new and more complex capabilities, reflected in the increase in diversification and sophistication of its export basket. This accumulation was policy induced and not the result of the market, and began before 1979. Despite its many policy mistakes, if China had not proceeded this way, in all likelihood it would be a much poorer country today. During the last 50 years, China has acquired revealed comparative advantage in the export of both labor-intensive products (following its factor abundance) and sophisticated products, although the latter does not indicate that there was leapfrogging. Analysis of China’s current export opportunity set indicates that it is exceptionally well positioned (especially taking into account its income per capita) to continue learning and gaining revealed comparative advantage in the export of more sophisticated products. Given adequate policies, carefully thought-out and implemented reforms, and skillful management of constraints and risks, China has the potential to continue thriving. This does not mean, however, that high growth will continue indefinitely.

Male mate choice: why sequential choice can make its evolution difficult

Male reproductive success is typically mate limited, which implies that males should rarely be choosy. On the other hand, females often vary greatly in their fecundity or other determinants of male reproductive success. There are two coexisting threads in the current literature on male mate choice: a number of studies emphasize that male mate choice has been underappreciated in the past, while another set reminds us that it nevertheless evolves less easily than female choice. Here we show that when mate choice is sequential rather than simultaneous (which is often the case for the mate-limited sex), male mate choice may fail to evolve even if there is large variation among fitness prospects offered by various females, and when mating is very costly. Our model is inspired by the mating system of the sexually cannibalistic praying mantid Pseudomantis albofimbriata. Males of this species do not stop approaching females that have turned to face them even though this female behaviour greatly increases the risk of being cannibalized. We show that low mate availability can override the effect of all other factors that select for male mate choice: rejecting a current mating opportunity in the hope of better future opportunities is then not easily selected for. We conclude that studies of mate choice should examine why individuals refuse to take advantage of every opportunity, instead of merely focusing on the fact that some opportunities are better than others. Our results also call for more rigorous empirical tests of mate choice.

Oral Poster 6

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to test a home built, easily portable laparoscopic trainer with a realistic, mobile camera for resident training. We sought to compare outcomes after an instructor training session vs. an online self study instructional video. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A box trainer was built using a suitcase, spy camera with LED light source mounted in a metal tube, and a camera receiver with wireless connection to a small TV screen, for under $200. All materials including laparoscopic graspers and knot pushers fit inside the suitcase for transport. Residents were given five tasks to complete on their own including passing a pipe cleaner through hooks, placing washers on pegs, unwrapping an aluminum foil ball, tracing a maze, and extracorporeal knot tying. They were randomized to direct instruction on the use of the trainer (controls) vs. self study using a video posted on YouTube. Self reported timed results for each task were compared, stratified by level of training. They also completed a questionnaire on realistic feel, technical problems with box trainer, comfort with trainer, need for the trainer and surgical applicability of the trainer using a Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). RESULTS: The apparatus is presented in figure 1. Eighteen residents were randomized to a 25 minute session with an instructor or to the video. There was no difference in outcomes in timed performance for each task between the two groups as presented in Table 1. There was a relationship between increasing PGY level and performance, suggesting validity of the tasks. Control and video groups reported no differences in technical problems with equipment (1.7 vs 2.7, P = 0.9),comfort with trainer (4.9 vs 4.8, P = 0.66), realistic simulation of surgical feel(4.6 vs 4.6, P = 1.0), applicability of tasks (4.9 vs 4.6, P = 0.13), and current opportunity for practice(2.3 vs 2.1, P = 0.61). CONCLUSION: A homemade, realistic laparoscopic simulator can be inexpensively built and used for resident training at home with self instruction with good results. This can favorably impact time available for practice of laparoscopic skills and demands on faculty and finances.

Energy Price Regulation in India: The Case of Natural Gas Sector

Energy price regulation is an important policy issue in the context of any developing nation, including India. The prices are controlled by the government, and these pricing mechanisms have resulted in distorted market structure. It is believed that the existing pricing policy for Natural Gas in India has constrained the growth of natural gas market in India, leading to a large unmet demand, primarily from the heavily subsidized power and fertilizer sector. This paper is an attempt to analyze the policy issue of natural gas pricing in India, using Kingdon’s Multiple Policy Stream Model. According to this multiple streams approach, the developments in the policy making process can be explained by the efforts of policy entrepreneurs to successful capitalize on the occasional “policy windows” by coupling elements in three different streams: problems, policies, and politics (Kingdon, 2003). The paper focuses on the developments in gas pricing policy in India, identifying the problem, policy, and political streams, and the ways in which key political entrepreneurs have coupled the streams at critical times is past, thereby illustrating the possibility of a current opportunity for taking a regulatory initiative on natural gas pricing.

Building a business to close the efficiency gap: the Swedish ESCO Experience

Energy service companies (ESCOs) are often portrayed as important change agents in capturing the opportunity to curb energy demand and mitigate climate change through increased efficiency. Yet, the literature in this area is limited. While many studies analyze economic and environmental savings from energy efficiency programs, far less attention has been devoted to evaluating managerial and other challenges for ESCOs to transform the “efficiency gap” into a viable business. Sweden presents an interesting case study given its early experience in energy market reform as well as the rapid growth in recent years of its ESCO market. By conducting in-depth interviews with ESCOs operating in Sweden, this research addresses the following: (1) current market opportunity analysis, including how Swedish market conditions shape firms' business strategies, (2) business characteristics and service functions, with attention to perceptions regarding which market segments are considered compelling, and (3) how policy might expand the size and attractiveness of additional sectors/market segments. This analysis is informed by additional discussions with policymaker, agencies, authorities, and customers. The insights garnered are important as Member States prepare to implement the Directive on Energy End-use Efficiency and Energy Services. Despite rapid growth, ongoing challenges remain for ESCOs. Government still has a role in education, policy, and residential sector solutions. Greater details and data on the energy savings produced by ESCO projects are needed. Future research could address best practices for reporting data from ESCO projects. Moreover, with additional data on ESCO projects, studies could benchmark these results with other international programs to promote energy efficiency.

Too Much of a Good Thing Is Wonderful

Too Much of a Good Thing Is Wonderful

Dealing with missed opportunities: Action vs. state orientation moderates inaction inertia

Inaction inertia refers to the effect that missing a more attractive opportunity decreases the likelihood to act on an attractive current opportunity in the same domain. We studied the influence of how people cope with negative decision outcomes (i.e., action vs. state orientation) on this inaction inertia effect. Experiment 1 used an experimental induction of action vs. state orientation and confirmed our prediction that state oriented people showed more inaction inertia than action oriented people. Experiment 2 replicated these results with a measure of chronic action orientation and showed a mediating effect of valuation of the current opportunity. Experiment 3 showed that temporal segregation of the current from the missed opportunity decreased inaction inertia effects for state oriented, but not for action oriented people. We discuss the implications of these results for the inaction inertia and action vs. state orientation literatures.

Seasonal modulation of reproductive effort during early pregnancy in humans

Life history theory predicts that early pregnancy presents a relatively low cost, uncontested opportunity for a woman to terminate investment in a current reproductive opportunity if a conceptus is of poor quality and/or maternal status or environmental conditions are not propitious for a successful birth. We tested this hypothesis in rural Bolivian women experiencing substantial seasonal variation in workload and food resources. Significant risk factors for early pregnancy loss (EPL) included agropastoralism versus other economic strategies, conception during the most arduous seasons versus other seasons, and increasing maternal age. Anovulation rate (AR) was higher during the most arduous seasons and in older women. Breastfeeding and indicators of social status and living conditions did not significantly influence either risk of EPL or AR. Averaged over the year, anovulation occurred in about 1/4 of the cycles and EPL occurred in about 1/3 of the conceptions. This is the first evidence of seasonality of EPL in a non-industrialized population, and the first to demonstrate a relationship between economic activities and EPL. These findings suggest that both anovulation and EPL are potential mechanisms for modulating reproductive effort; such "failures" may also be nonadaptive consequences of conditions hostile to a successful pregnancy. In either case, variation in EPL risk associated with different subsistence activities can be expected to influence fertility levels and birth seasonality in both contemporary and past human populations. These consequences of variability in the risk of EPL can impact efforts to understand the sources of variation in reproductive success.

Mapping Meritocracy: Intersecting Gender, Poverty and Higher Educational Opportunity Structures

Widening participation in higher education can be a force for democratization. It can also map on to elite practices and contribute to further differentiation of social groups. Those with social capital are often able to decode and access new educational opportunities. Those without it can remain untouched by initiatives to facilitate their entry into the privileges that higher education can offer. This article is based on our ESRC/DFID-funded research project on Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard (www.sussex.ac.uk/education/wideningparticipation). Meritocratic discourse infers that individual achievement is the most important principle determining access and success in higher education. The project is statistically and discursively deconstructing merit. We are mapping meritocracy in order to identify if the most marginalized communities are being included in the widening participation agenda. In this article, we demonstrate how current opportunity structures reflect traditional beliefs about meritocracy and reproduce privilege and exclusion. We argue that when gender is intersected with socio-economic status, participation rates of poorer women are seen to be extremely low in both African countries.

Network pharmacology: the next paradigm in drug discovery

The dominant paradigm in drug discovery is the concept of designing maximally selective ligands to act on individual drug targets. However, many effective drugs act via modulation of multiple proteins rather than single targets. Advances in systems biology are revealing a phenotypic robustness and a network structure that strongly suggests that exquisitely selective compounds, compared with multitarget drugs, may exhibit lower than desired clinical efficacy. This new appreciation of the role of polypharmacology has significant implications for tackling the two major sources of attrition in drug development--efficacy and toxicity. Integrating network biology and polypharmacology holds the promise of expanding the current opportunity space for druggable targets. However, the rational design of polypharmacology faces considerable challenges in the need for new methods to validate target combinations and optimize multiple structure-activity relationships while maintaining drug-like properties. Advances in these areas are creating the foundation of the next paradigm in drug discovery: network pharmacology.

Multiple options in the past and the present: The impact on inaction inertia

AbstractInaction inertia is the effect that people do not act on an attractive opportunity only because they previously missed a more attractive opportunity. We investigated the effect of the presence of alternative options on the occurrence of this effect. We hypothesized and found that the likelihood to act on a current opportunity increases when evaluated in the context of another current option compared to when it is presented separately (Experiments 1 and 2). Likelihood of action decreases when the missed opportunity is presented next to another missed opportunity (Experiment 3). We conclude that when multiple options are currently present, the impact of the missed opportunity as a point of reference decreases, and that when multiple options are missed, the impact of these missed opportunities as a point of reference increases. These results are discussed in light of the literatures about inaction inertia and multiple options. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Temporal horizons of cigarette satiety: determining the window of time over which recent smoking influences motivation to smoke

One of the hallmarks of drug addiction is a limitation of the temporal horizon of events that affect the behavior of drug users. The purpose of this experiment was to examine the time period over which smoking was influenced by an earlier opportunity to smoke. Baseline sessions measured how much was smoked in a current opportunity when it was preceded by a 2-h wait time in which no smoking was allowed. After the baseline phase, we examined the effects of temporal distance when an earlier opportunity to smoke (upon completion of a fixed ratio 100) preceded current smoking (upon completion of a progressive ratio). Temporal distance between these two opportunities to smoke was varied from 0 to 120 min. We found that current smoking for the group was reduced from baseline levels when the temporal distance was 0 min. At temporal distances ranging from 30 to 90 min, the individual's smoking returned to levels that were similar to baseline. Breakpoints were also a function of earlier smoking, and latencies to first puff of the session followed a similar trend. These findings provide evidence of the limited temporal horizons related to smoking bouts of smokers and may provide a useful measure for metabolism differences across populations. In addition, we suggest that the quantitative description of satiety provided by our procedures may validate drug replacement therapies involved in cessation treatments.

Models of chronic disease management in primary care for patients with mild‐to‐moderate asthma or COPD: a narrative review

To review the literature for any promising strategies for the primary care management of mild-to-moderate asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in adults. Using "MeSH" terms for COPD, asthma and primary health care, we conducted an extensive literature search for relevant meta-analyses, systematic reviews, narrative reviews, reports and individual studies. Grey literature was also included. We chose a narrative review approach because of substantial heterogeneity of study designs in the literature. 1119 articles of potential relevance were retained, of which 246 were included in our review. There was insufficient evidence to determine whether general practitioners with a special interest (GPwSI) in respiratory care improved the diagnosis and management of mild-to-moderate COPD. An asthma service involving GPwSI increased respiratory drug costs but reduced the costs for less specific drugs. No clear benefit has been shown for practice nurse-run asthma clinics in primary care compared with usual care in altering asthma morbidity, quality of life, lung function or medication use. Evidence to determine the effectiveness of practice nurse-run COPD clinics could not be found. Self-management education, GP review and action plans may produce short-term benefits for asthma patients, particularly those with moderate-to-severe disease, but the evidence for a similar approach to patients with mild-to-moderate COPD is equivocal. There has been poor uptake of respiratory clinical guidelines relevant to primary care - partly because most guidelines are based on moderate-to-severe disease. Spirometry programs in primary care are useful for differential diagnosis of asthma and COPD. Spirometry may alter the management of mild asthma, but there is a lack of evidence that it alters the management of COPD in primary care. The role of primary health care in management of mild-to-moderate asthma and COPD requires further investigation using randomised controlled trials.

High Schools Have Got it Bad for Higher Ed — And That Ain't Good

Will every child entering kindergarten eventually become a college professor? Of course not. Then why, Ms. Wilensky asks, is our entire education system geared toward preparing the few who will pursue academic careers? She finds the answer in the inordinate influence of college entrance requirements on K-12 schooling, an influence sustained by the values of our society's dominant culture. IN THE last few years, education reformers have been proposing that high school graduation requirements align with the requirements for college entrance and that high schools organize themselves to ensure that all of their graduates are successful in college, without remediation, if they choose to attend. This strategy takes today's colleges and universities as the given of our education system and implies that the educational problems in need of major reform are to be found in the K-12 sector. But recent research shows there is reason to be highly skeptical of this view. Colleges fail to graduate large numbers of the students they enroll,(1) and recent data on the literacy of college students in their last year of school indicate that only 31% of them are proficient, compared to 15% of all adults.(2) In the face of such data, we should not assume that the structures, practices, and expectations of colleges and universities are sacred. I want to put forward here the view that colleges and universities are a major part of the educational problem we need to solve and, more specifically, that they exercise a detrimental effect on other elements of the system through the powerful influence exerted by traditional college entrance requirements. This is by no means the only problem facing our education system, but I suggest that, if we fail to deal with it, we cannot hope to truly prepare all our students for the 21st century. If, as I will argue below, it is the hyper-academic focus of college entrance requirements that leads to the success of only a few, the outright failure of others, and the low achievement of many in our K-12 system, then further tightening the alignment between colleges and public schooling can only make things worse. And by keeping our attention focused on what has seemed to work in the past rather than on what is needed for the future, we run the further risk of missing a current political opportunity to actually remake the landscape of education in a way that will prepare students for the new demands of the globalized economy and interdependent world. I begin by looking at the way that the entire K-12 system is skewed toward meeting the needs of those students headed for selective colleges and universities and the way less successful students are funneled into watered-down versions of a college-preparatory curriculum. Next I explore the origin of the college entrance requirements that have been driving this system and examine how the K-12 focus on skills that lead to success in college, coupled with the political influence of powerful parents, contributes significantly to the very failures that we want to remedy. Finally, I conclude by offering some suggestions for a way forward, though not a prescriptive plan. My goal is to widen the lens of reform to bring attention to the ways in which higher education is a part of the problem of the K-12 system and so needs to be a part of the solution. Only when we have identified all the elements of the system that produces our current reality, and only when all the players in that system own their responsibility and begin to look at ways to change, will it be possible to educate all our children for the complex, challenging, and dynamic future we know they are facing. THE TAIL IS WAGGING THE DOG Much of K-12 education is structured to pursue one goal that is rarely mentioned: the preparation of some students for admission to selective colleges. If you doubt this, visit any community in the United States when the local school board is asked to consider changes in scheduling, curriculum, school calendar, class rank, selection of valedictorian, or graduation requirements that might affect the curriculum vitae of that community's highest-performing students. …