Application of fairness theory to service failures and service recovery

This article presents a fairness theory-based conceptual framework for studying and managing consumers’ emotions during service recovery attempts. The conceptual framework highlights the central role played by counterfactual thinking and accountability. Findings from five focus groups are also presented to lend further support to the conceptual framework. Essentially, the article argues that a service failure event triggers an emotional response in the consumer, and from here the consumer commences an assessment of the situation, considering procedural justice, interactional justice, and distributive justice elements, while engaging in counterfactual thinking and apportioning accountability. More specifically, the customer assesses whether the service provider could and should have done something more to remedy the problem and how the customer would have felt had these actions been taken. The authors argue that during this process situational effort is taken into account when assessing accountability. When service providers do not appear to exhibit an appropriate level of effort, consumers attribute this to the service provider not caring. This in turn leads to the customer feeling more negative emotions, such as anger and frustration. Managerial implications of the study are discussed.

Determination of regional flow by use of intravascular PET tracers: Microvascular theory and experimental validation for pig livers

Today, the standard approach for the kinetic analysis of dynamic PET studies is compartment models, in which the tracer and its metabolites are confined to a few well-mixed compartments. We examine whether the standard model is suitable for modern PET data or whether theories including more physiologic realism can advance the interpretation of dynamic PET data. A more detailed microvascular theory is developed for intravascular tracers in single-capillary and multiple-capillary systems. The microvascular models, which account for concentration gradients in capillaries, are validated and compared with the standard model in a pig liver study. Methods: Eight pigs underwent a 5-min dynamic PET study after O-15-carbon monoxide inhalation. Throughout each experiment, hepatic arterial blood and portal venous blood were sampled, and flow was measured with transit-time flow meters. The hepatic dual-inlet concentration was calculated as the flow-weighted inlet concentration. Dynamic PET data were analyzed with a traditional single-compartment model and 2 microvascular models. Results: Microvascular models provided a better fit of the tissue activity of an intravascular tracer than did the compartment model. In particular, the early dynamic phase after a tracer bolus injection was much improved. The regional hepatic blood flow estimates provided by the microvascular models (1.3 +/- 0.3 mL min(-1) mL(-1) for the single-capillary model and 1.14 +/- 0.14 min(-1) mL(-1) for the multiple-capillary model) (mean +/- SEM mL of blood min(-1) mL of liver tissue(-1)) were in agreement with the total blood flow measured by flow meters and normalized to liver weight (1.03 +/- 0.12 mL min(-1) mL(-1)). Conclusion: Compared with the standard compartment model, the 2 microvascular models provide a superior description of tissue activity after an intravascular tracer bolus injection. The microvascular models include only parameters with a clear-cut physiologic interpretation and are applicable to capillary beds in any organ. In this study, the microvascular models were validated for the liver and provided quantitative regional flow estimates in agreement with flow measurements.

Impulse-response function of splanchnic circulation with model-independent constraints: theory and experimental validation

Modeling physiological processes using tracer kinetic methods requires knowledge of the time course of the tracer concentration in blood supplying the organ. For liver studies, however, inaccessibility of the portal vein makes direct measurement of the hepatic dual-input function impossible in humans. We want to develop a method to predict the portal venous time-activity curve from measurements of an arterial time-activity curve. An impulse-response function based on a continuous distribution of washout constants is developed and validated for the gut. Experiments with simultaneous blood sampling in aorta and portal vein were made in 13 anesthetized pigs following inhalation of intravascular [O-15] CO or injections of diffusible 3-O[ C-11] methylglucose (MG). The parameters of the impulse-response function have a physiological interpretation in terms of the distribution of washout constants and are mathematically equivalent to the mean transit time ( T) and standard deviation of transit times. The results include estimates of mean transit times from the aorta to the portal vein in pigs: (T) over bar = 0.35 +/- 0.05 min for CO and 1.7 +/- 0.1 min for MG. The prediction of the portal venous time-activity curve benefits from constraining the regression fits by parameters estimated independently. This is strong evidence for the physiological relevance of the impulse-response function, which includes asymptotically, and thereby justifies kinetically, a useful and simple power law. Similarity between our parameter estimates in pigs and parameter estimates in normal humans suggests that the proposed model can be adapted for use in humans.

Phylogeny and classification of the Digenea (Platyhelminthes : Trematoda)

Complete small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (ssrDNA) and partial (D1-D3) large subunit ribosomal RNA gene (lsrDNA) sequences were used to estimate the phylogeny of the Digenea via maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference. Here we contribute 80 new ssrDNA and 124 new lsrDNA sequences. Fully complementary data sets of the two genes were assembled from newly generated and previously published sequences and comprised 163 digenean taxa representing 77 nominal families and seven aspidogastrean outgroup taxa representing three families. Analyses were conducted on the genes independently as well as combined and separate analyses including only the higher plagiorchiidan taxa were performed using a reduced-taxon alignment including additional characters that could not be otherwise unambiguously aligned. The combined data analyses yielded the most strongly supported results and differences between the two methods of analysis were primarily in their degree of resolution. The Bayesian analysis including all taxa and characters, and incorporating a model of nucleotide substitution (general-time-reversible with among-site rate heterogeneity), was considered the best estimate of the phylogeny and was used to evaluate their classification and evolution. In broad terms, the Digenea forms a dichotomy that is split between a lineage leading to the Brachylaimoidea, Diplostomoidea and Schistosomatoidea (collectively the Diplostomida nomen novum (nom. nov.)) and the remainder of the Digenea (the Plagiorchiida), in which the Bivesiculata nom. nov. and Transversotremata nom. nov. form the two most basal lineages, followed by the Hemiurata. The remainder of the Plagiorchiida forms a large number of independent lineages leading to the crown clade Xiphidiata nom. nov. that comprises the Allocreadioidea, Gorgoderoidea, Microphalloidea and Plagiorchioidea, which are united by the presence of a penetrating stylet in their cercariae. Although a majority of families and to a lesser degree, superfamilies are supported as currently defined, the traditional divisions of the Echinostomida, Plagiorchiida and Strigeida were found to comprise non-natural assemblages. Therefore, the membership of established higher taxa are emended, new taxa erected and a revised, phylogenetically based classification proposed and discussed in light of ontogeny, morphology and taxonomic history. (C) 2003 Australian Society for Parasitology Inc. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

gl(2 vertical bar 2) current superalgebra and non-unitary conformal field theory

Motivated by application of current superalgebras in the study of disordered systems such as the random XY and Dirac models, we investigate gl(2\2) current superalgebra at general level k. We construct its free field representation and corresponding Sugawara energy-momentum tensor in the non-standard basis. Three screen currents of the first kind are also presented. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The mouse secretome: functional classification of the proteins secreted into the extracellular environment

We have developed a computational strategy to identify the set of soluble proteins secreted into the extracellular environment of a cell. Within the protein sequences predominantly derived from the RIKEN representative transcript and protein set, we identified 2033 unique soluble proteins that are potentially secreted from the cell. These proteins contain a signal peptide required for entry into the secretory pathway and lack any transmembrane domains or intracellular localization signals. This class of proteins, which we have termed the mouse secretome, included >500 novel proteins and 92 proteins

Numerical study of hydrogenic effective mass theory for an impurity P donor in Si in the presence of an electric field and interfaces

In this paper we examine the effects of varying several experimental parameters in the Kane quantum computer architecture: A-gate voltage, the qubit depth below the silicon oxide barrier, and the back gate depth to explore how these variables affect the electron density of the donor electron. In particular, we calculate the resonance frequency of the donor nuclei as a function of these parameters. To do this we calculated the donor electron wave function variationally using an effective-mass Hamiltonian approach, using a basis of deformed hydrogenic orbitals. This approach was then extended to include the electric-field Hamiltonian and the silicon host geometry. We found that the phosphorous donor electron wave function was very sensitive to all the experimental variables studied in our work, and thus to optimize the operation of these devices it is necessary to control all parameters varied in this paper.

Climate of fear in organisational settings: Construct definition, measurement and a test of theory

This paper reports a study that explored a new construct: climate of fear. We hypothesised that climate of fear would vary across work sites within organisations, but not across organisations. This is in contrast a to measures of organisational culture, which were expected to vary both within and across organisations. To test our hypotheses, we developed a new 13-item measure of perceived fear in organisations and tested it in 20 sites across two organisations (N = 209). Culture variables measured were innovative leadership culture, and communication culture. Results were that climate of fear did vary across sites in both organisations, while differences across organisations were not significant, as we anticipated. Organisational culture, however, varied between the organisations, and within one of the organisations. The climate of fear scale exhibited acceptable psychometric properties.

Dynamic stability of laminated FGM plates based on higher-order shear deformation theory

This paper conducts a dynamic stability analysis of symmetrically laminated FGM rectangular plates with general out-of-plane supporting conditions, subjected to a uniaxial periodic in-plane load and undergoing uniform temperature change. Theoretical formulations are based on Reddy's third-order shear deformation plate theory, and account for the temperature dependence of material properties. A semi-analytical Galerkin-differential quadrature approach is employed to convert the governing equations into a linear system of Mathieu-Hill equations from which the boundary points on the unstable regions are determined by Bolotin's method. Free vibration and bifurcation buckling are also discussed as subset problems. Numerical results are presented in both dimensionless tabular and graphical forms for laminated plates with FGM layers made of silicon nitride and stainless steel. The influences of various parameters such as material composition, layer thickness ratio, temperature change, static load level, boundary constraints on the dynamic stability, buckling and vibration frequencies are examined in detail through parametric studies.

Opening windows into the mind: mothers' preferences for mental state explanations and children's theory of mind

A new questionnaire, the Maternal Mental State Input Inventory (MMSII) was created to measure mothers' preferences for introducing and elaborating on mental states in conversation with their young children. In two studies, the questionnaire was given to mothers of young children, and the children's theory of mind (ToM) development was assessed with standard tasks. In both studies, the questionnaire exhibited good internal reliability, and significant correlations emerged between mothers' self-reported preferences for elaborated, explanatory talk about the mental states and children's theory of mind performance. Further, mothers' conversational preferences, as measured by the MMSII, were the best predictors of children's theory of mind development when relevant control variables were included in the analyses. These results converge with naturalistic observational research that has demonstrated links between mothers' conversational styles and their children's theory of mind. They go further in suggesting that mothers' tendencies toward elaborated, explanatory talk about a range of mental states is particularly beneficial to children's theory of mind development. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Phase equilibria and surface tension of pure fluids using a molecular layer structure theory (MLST) model

This paper presents a new model based on thermodynamic and molecular interaction between molecules to describe the vapour-liquid phase equilibria and surface tension of pure component. The model assumes that the bulk fluid can be characterised as set of parallel layers. Because of this molecular structure, we coin the model as the molecular layer structure theory (MLST). Each layer has two energetic components. One is the interaction energy of one molecule of that layer with all surrounding layers. The other component is the intra-layer Helmholtz free energy, which accounts for the internal energy and the entropy of that layer. The equilibrium between two separating phases is derived from the minimum of the grand potential, and the surface tension is calculated as the excess of the Helmholtz energy of the system. We test this model with a number of components, argon, krypton, ethane, n-butane, iso-butane, ethylene and sulphur hexafluoride, and the results are very satisfactory. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.