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Advances in tourism research depend on the development and validation of measurement scales using appropriate psychometric techniques. However, scale development practice is dominated by classical test theory, despite its limitations. A Rasch analysis of international travel service performance scales across demographic, customer experience and service provider sub-groups is provided. Scales generally show high reliability, little disordering of the thresholds, and no substantive effects where multidimensionality is present. Some items exhibit limited discriminatory power, local dependence and measurement bias. Measurement invariance violations are prevalent in temporal dimensions where travelers exhibit diverse customer experience profiles. Employee knowledge and safety attributes appear organization-specific. Ethnicity impacts on relational aspects; response behavior regarding personal space is gender specific. Standardized safety-related scales may be inadvisable when comparisons across age and education cohorts are required. Accounting for measurement invariance influences the average location of groups on the latent continuum, and in some cases substantive mean difference results.

Social media facilitates more frequent, immediate, and larger-scale exposures of people affiliated with a group than was previously possible. However, little is known about how this occurs in the case of institutions’ brand pages and about its impact on existing member relationships. In examining the role perception about other users of a brand page plays on focal user identity construction, we found seeing other users demonstrating engagement behavior and recognizing similarity led to institutional identification through an increased perception of brand page sociability and identification with the page. Institutional distinctiveness also mediated the impact of other-user engagement behavior on member-institution relationships. These findings suggest traditional institutions can use social media to increase the visibility and accessibility of member-owned identity resources so as to facilitate opportunities for focal members to reinforce their self-concepts. Findings contribute to knowledge on the dynamic group processes enabled by the various engagement tools on brand pages.

Unstructured summary Respiratory point-of-care tests (POCT), detecting influenza A, influenza B and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), were implemented in response to recent RSV outbreaks at a regional haemato-oncology unit in Glasgow. We provide a descriptive study of pre- and post- POCT implementation, which suggests POCT reduce the time taken to receive results and increase diagnostic rates in outpatients. It is likely that the reduction in turn-around-time afforded by POCT also lead to a faster time to antiviral treatment, prompt isolation and a reduction in the number of hospital acquired infections.

The affordances of social media have enabled organisations and members to negotiate and co-create their identities. Despite the original conception of acculturation as a reciprocal process of cultural change, how an organisation adapts to the cultures of its members and how members react to these efforts remain under-researched. Drawing on theories of identity construction, this paper conceptualises two-way acculturation in social media and investigates the role of institutional efforts in building member relationships. We employed a mixed method consisting of a netnographic analysis of university Facebook pages and a quantitative survey with a sample of 410 students to examine how brand page identification and the institutional image (i.e., distinctiveness, prestige, and supportiveness) mediate the relationship between the social media marketing efforts and member-institution identification. The results show that, overall, content tactics (i.e., symbolic resource integration, hedonic quality, and utilitarian quality) and marketer traits (i.e., effort to foster member embeddedness and warmth) not only strengthen member engagement but also help shape an attractive identity of the institution that builds relationships. This paper advances our understanding of identity co-creation and acculturation in social media while also contributing a nuanced understanding of the effectiveness of various engagement tactics to theory and practice.

Co-operative and mutual enterprises (CMEs) are organisations in which buyers or suppliers are also the owners, shareholders and members of a community of purpose. Member heterogeneity and commitment have been reported in the literature, but the drivers of member commitment remain poorly understood. This paper proposes that members identify with their CME as patrons, investors, owners, and community members; wearing “Four Hats” (4Hs). A case study analysis of three Australian producer co-operatives examined directors and managers perceptions of factors influencing members’ commitment and delivery of a member value proposition. The 4Hs emerge as stable patterns and the cross-case analysis illustrates their strategic importance and link to member value proposition.

Managing customer engagement behavior (CEB) is a strategic priority for firms to build and sustain long-term customer-firm relationships. This research examines the different types of customer engagement behavior (i.e. augmenting CEB, co-developing CEB, influencing CEB and mobilizing CEB). The study also examines the relationship between service fairness, different forms of trust (cognitive and affective), value-in-use (ViU) and CEB. The research model was tested across two developed (USA and Australia) and two developing economies (India and China). Results suggest that CEB is a higher-order construct and its structure is consistent across the developed and developing markets. In terms of cross-cultural differences, service fairness has a stronger influence on affective trust in the developing economies as compared to developed economies. Findings indicate that to motivate customers in developed and developing markets to engage, service providers need to treat them fairly, build cognitive and affective trust and understand how they create value-in-use.

Issues of societal engagement in the energy system pervade both the study and the doing of energy policy. In both realms, narratives as persuasive ‘vehicles of meaning’ help us both to make sense of society’s role in past and current energy systems, and shape these roles in future energy systems. However, our eagerness to simplify complex histories and unwritten futures means that the narratives we create are often reliant on assumptions. This has implications for the degree to which narratives can find pragmatism, and thus be valuable, to a wide range of stakeholders. Drawing both on historic accounts of societal engagement in energy systems alongside emerging discourses around future energy systems, this paper offers several points of caution for the use of narratives of engagement. In terms of historic narratives, these relate to hindsight bias, predictability, and normative positioning, the combination of which depict histories of engagement as retrospectively obvious, and falsely suggest a controllability of past events. In terms of forward-looking narratives, while optimism and ambiguity play key roles in garnering interest in visions among stakeholders, they also mean that narratives vary in their relevance, and thus value to, different stakeholders. Fundamentally, narratives must find legitimacy in the actors they purport to recruit, and must thus simultaneously attend to regulative, normative and cognitive aspects of energy system engagement.

Energy systems around the world are changing, not only in terms of the technologies involved, but also with respect to economic, social, geographic and political dimensions. This perspective examines how four key trends: decarbonisation, decentralisation, digitalisation and democratisation – collectively packaged as the ‘four Ds’ of energy system transformation – are being discussed to describe energy system change. Rather than existing as concrete facts, I argue that such trends are important analytical frames, and highlight the role of their social construction in articulating and realising diverse energy futures. 266 unique actors from diverse communities and multiple geographies were found to have used the four Ds and other ‘D frames’. Content analysis illustrates how articulations of energy trends have been used in actors’ sense-making around the challenges, threats and opportunities presented by energy system change. I argue that many of these articulations can be understood in the context of increasing system complexity, and specifically, the need to rationalise technical, organisational and institutional logics of control. Given the importance of the sociology of trends in shaping energy futures, the paper concludes by raising some provocations for research and policy.

Summary Background Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes significant respiratory tract infection in immunosuppressed patients. Aim To describe two consecutive yearly outbreaks of RSV in our haemato-oncology ward. Methods Haematology patients presenting with respiratory symptoms were screened by polymerase chain reaction for viral respiratory pathogens using a saline gargle. Findings None of our patients had undergone bone marrow transplant but all had underlying haematological malignancies. Eight patients were affected in the first outbreak (mortality rate: 37.5%) and 12 patients were affected in the second (mortality rate: 8.3%). Extensive infection control measures were implemented in both outbreaks and were successful in preventing further cross-transmission. Conclusion There was significant learning from both outbreaks and actions implemented with the aim of reducing the likelihood and impact of future outbreaks.

Highlights • Oleate and low glucose hyperpolarize and inhibit GT1-7 and mouse GE neurons by activation of KATP. • Oleate inhibition of GT1-7 neuron activity is not mediated by AMPK or fatty acid oxidation. • Activation of KATP by oleate requires ATP hydrolysis but does not reduce the levels ATP or the ATP:ADP ratio. • GT1-7 hyperpolarization by oleate is not dependent on UCP2. • Oleate and low glucose depolarize a subpopulation of hypothalamic GI neurons., The unsaturated fatty acid, oleate exhibits anorexigenic properties reducing food intake and hepatic glucose output. However, its mechanism of action in the hypothalamus has not been fully determined. This study investigated the effects of oleate and glucose on GT1-7 mouse hypothalamic cells (a model of glucose-excited (GE) neurons) and mouse arcuate nucleus (ARC) neurons. Whole-cell and perforated patch-clamp recordings, immunoblotting and cell energy status measures were used to investigate oleate- and glucose-sensing properties of mouse hypothalamic neurons. Oleate or lowered glucose concentration caused hyperpolarization and inhibition of firing of GT1-7 cells by the activation of ATP-sensitive K+ channels (KATP). This effect of oleate was not dependent on fatty acid oxidation or raised AMP-activated protein kinase activity or prevented by the presence of the UCP2 inhibitor genipin. Oleate did not alter intracellular calcium, indicating that CD36/fatty acid translocase may not play a role. However, oleate activation of KATP may require ATP metabolism. The short-chain fatty acid octanoate was unable to replicate the actions of oleate on GT1-7 cells. Although oleate decreased GT1-7 cell mitochondrial membrane potential there was no change in total cellular ATP or ATP/ADP ratios. Perforated patch and whole-cell recordings from mouse hypothalamic slices demonstrated that oleate hyperpolarized a subpopulation of ARC GE neurons by KATP activation. Additionally, in a separate small population of ARC neurons, oleate application or lowered glucose concentration caused membrane depolarization. In conclusion, oleate induces KATP-dependent hyperpolarization and inhibition of firing of a subgroup of GE hypothalamic neurons without altering cellular energy charge.