Purpose-The paper aims to fill the gap in the literature in relation to the determinants of customer value within the research and development (R&D) industry and word-of-mouth. It investigates whether context specific variables, such as organizational type and contract length, change customer value evaluations and the value-intention to repurchaserecommend system. Design/methodology/approach-A survey of Australian customers of a research and development service organization was conducted. Structural equation modelling was used to develop a model investigating factors that affect customer value, intent to re-purchase, and word-of-mouth/recommendation. Findings-Relationship benefits, service benefits and sacrifice all had a significant influence on customer value. Efficient use of time is crucial for sacrifice evaluation. Relationship benefits were larger for government organizations than private organizations. Importance of value to recommend the organisation to others was higher for longer contracts and government customers. Research limitation/implications-Results show that R&D organizations need to concentrate on both the technical service/ science aspects and the relationship aspects in their contracts. Government institutions tended to emphasize the relationship benefits while private businesses considered service benefits, relationship benefits and sacrifice nearly equal in their determination of value. Intent to contract R&D organization for further work and the willingness to recommend it to others as a highly specialised and competent service provider seem to be higher for government customers and longer contracts. Originality/ Value-This paper investigates customer value in a little researched industry, R&D. The findings are relevant for similar professional business-to-business services.

Reading and understanding scientific literature is an essential skill for any scientist to learn. While students' scientific literacy can be improved by reading research articles, an article's technical language and structure can hinder students' understanding of the scientific material. Furthermore, many students struggle with interpreting graphs and other models of data commonly found in scientific literature. To introduce students to scientific literature and promote improved understanding of data and graphs, we developed a guided-inquiry activity adapted from a research article on snow chemistry and implemented it in a general chemistry laboratory course. Here, we describe how we adapted figures from the primary literature source and developed questions to scaffold the guided-inquiry activity. Results from semi-structured qualitative interviews suggest that students learn about snow chemistry processes and engage in scientific practices, including data analysis and interpretation, through this activity. This activity is applicable in other introductory science courses as educators can adapt most scientific articles into a guided-inquiry activity.

Changes in antimicrobial use during the pandemic in relation to long-term trends in utilization among different antimicrobial stewardship program models have not been fully characterized. We analyzed data from an integrated health system using joinpoint regression and found temporal fluctuations in prescribing as well as continuation of existing trends.

Strategies for efficient and reliable texture measurements have been explored using the Nanoscale Ordered Materials Diffractometer (NOMAD) at the Spallation Neutron Source located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). To test these strategies, the texture of an Al alloy was also investigated using another neutron diffraction instrument, a constant-wavelength neutron diffractometer (NRSF2) located at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, also at ORNL. Reasonable agreement was found across the two experimental methods, but differences in overall texture strength and the symmetry of some components were noted, depending on the data reduction and analysis method selected. On the basis of these results, potential improvements are identified which would enhance the texture measurement capability on NOMAD.