Purpose – In this paper the authors present a study that uses Twitter to identify critical elements of customer service in the airline industry. The goal of the study was to uncover customer opinions about services by monitoring and analyzing public Twitter commentaries. The purpose of this paper is to identify elements of customer service that provide positive experiences to customers as well as to identify service processed and features that require further improvements. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employed the approach of sentiment analysis as part of the netnography study. The authors processed 67,953 publicly shared tweets to identify customer sentiments about services of four airline companies. Sentiment analysis was conducted using the lexicon approach and vector-space model for assessing the polarity of Twitter posts. Findings – By analyzing Twitter posts for their sentiment polarity the authors were able to identify areas of customer service that caused customer satisfaction, dissatisfaction as well as delight. Positive sentiments were linked mostly to online and mobile check-in services, favorable prices, and flight experiences. Negative sentiments revealed problems with usability of companies’ web sites, flight delays and lost luggage. Evidence of delightful experiences was recorded among services provided in airport lounges. Originality/value – Paper demonstrates how sentiment analysis of Twitter feeds can be used in research on customer service experiences, as an alternative to Kano and SERVQUAL models.

There is growing evidence for the involvement of Y-complex nucleoporins (Y-Nups) in cellular processes beyond the inner core of nuclear pores of eukaryotes. To comprehensively assess the range of possible functions of Y-Nups, we delimit their structural and functional properties by high-specificity sequence profiles and tissue-specific expression patterns. Our analysis establishes the presence of Y-Nups across eukaryotes with novel composite domain architectures, supporting new moonlighting functions in DNA repair, RNA processing, signaling and mitotic control. Y-Nups associated with a select subset of the discovered domains are found to be under tight coordinated regulation across diverse human and mouse cell types and tissues, strongly implying that they function in conjunction with the nuclear pore. Collectively, our results unearth an expanded network of Y-Nup interactions, thus supporting the emerging view of the Y-complex as a dynamic protein assembly with diverse functional roles in the cell.

The Covid-19 pandemic has required nonpharmaceutical interventions, primarily physical distancing, personal hygiene and face mask use, to limit community transmission, irrespective of seasons. In fact, the seasonality attributes of this pandemic remain one of its biggest unknowns. Early studies based on past experience from respiratory diseases focused on temperature or humidity, with disappointing results. Our hypothesis that ultraviolet (UV) radiation levels might be a factor and a more appropriate parameter has emerged as an alternative to assess seasonality and exploit it for public health policies. Using geographical, socioeconomic and epidemiological criteria, we selected twelve North-equatorial-South countries with similar characteristics. We then obtained UV levels, mobility and Covid-19 daily incidence rates for nearly the entire 2020. Using machine learning, we demonstrated that UV radiation strongly associated with incidence rates, more so than mobility did, indicating that UV is a key seasonality indicator for Covid-19, irrespective of the initial conditions of the epidemic. Our findings can inform the implementation of public health emergency measures, partly based on seasons in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as the pandemic unfolds into 2021.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread across the world during early 2020, with unforeseen consequences. Beyond social measures and biomedical research, it is important to assess the seasonality of the epidemic to inform strategies, with limited available data in the short period of time between the March equinox and the June solstice. While the effect of multiple factors is being investigated, little attention has been paid to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, a key parameter of seasonal forcing. We review the effects of UV radiation, proposing it as a potential element of seasonality, and provide evidence from the current literature and scant, yet revealing, observations. Explicit consideration should be given to UV radiation for the seasonality of Covid-19 at high latitudes and altitudes, based on the SARS and MERS epidemics and coronavirus diseases, and not just the ‘warmer days’ of summer.