Customer emotions in service failure and recovery encounters

Emotions play a significant role in the workplace, and considerable attention has been given to the study of employee emotions. Customers also play a central function in organizations, but much less is known about customer emotions. This chapter reviews the growing literature on customer emotions in employee–customer interfaces with a focus on service failure and recovery encounters, where emotions are heightened. It highlights emerging themes and key findings, addresses the measurement, modeling, and management of customer emotions, and identifies future research streams. Attention is given to emotional contagion, relationships between affective and cognitive processes, customer anger, customer rage, and individual differences.

Influence of treadmill training on motor performance and organization of exploratory behavior in Meriones unguiculatus with unilateral ischemic stroke: Histological correlates in hippocampal CA1 region and the neostriatum

This study examined the effects of motor stimulation via treadmill on the behavior of male gerbils after external carotid ischemic brain lesion. The animals were assigned to five groups; ischemic with no stimulation (SIG), ischemic with stimulation (SIG 12/24/48/72 It after surgery), non-ischemic with no stimulation (CC), non-ischemic with stimulation (CE) and sham, surgery without occlusion with no stimulation (SH). All the animals were tested in the open-field (OF) and rotarod (RR), 4 days after surgery in order to evaluate exploratory behaviors and motor performance. Data were submitted to one-way variance (ANOVA) and Dunnett`s post hoc comparisons. SIG and SIG 12 groups showed a significant decrease in motor response (crossing) when compared to the control group (CC) (F = 20.65, P < 0.05) in the OF. SIG 12 group showed an increase in grooming behavior (F = 23.136, P < 0.05) and all ischemia groups (SIG, SIG 12/24/48/72) spent less time on the RR (F = 10.40, P < 0.05), when compared to the control group (CC). Histological analyses show extensive lesions in the hippocampus and neostriatum for all groups with ischemia (SIG, SIG 12/24/48/72), which are structures involved in the organization of motor behavior. Interestingly, the most pronounced damage was found in animals submitted to motor stimulation 12 h after ischemia which can be correlated to the increased number of grooming behavior showed by them in the OF. These findings suggest that motor stimulation through treadmill training improve motor behavior after ischemia, except when it starts 12h after surgery. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vitamin A deficiency among Brazilian school-aged children in a healthy child service

Background/Objectives: Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a world public health problem contributing to the increase in childhood morbidity and mortality in developing countries and severe deficiency of vitamin A may lead to xerophthalmia and blindness. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of VAD among Brazilian school-aged children attended at a primary health unit and to verify if some considered risk factor was associated with VAD in this group. Subjects/Methods: A descriptive prospective transverse study was conducted on 103 randomly selected children. A total of 54 boys and 49 girls aged 5.5-11 years had the relative dose-response (RDR) test performed on. Possible ocular alterations related to vitamin A and the status of anemia, serum zinc, some acute-phase proteins, and anthropometric situation were determinate by an analytic design. Results: No child presented xerophthalmia. Serum retinol values lower than 1.05 and 0.7 mu moll(-1), respectively were found in 26.2 and 5.8% of the children. The prevalence of hypovitaminosis detected by RDR test was 20.4%. The following variables and their relationship with VAD were evaluated: sex (P = 0.33; 95% confidence interval 0.61-4.34), weight and height (P >= 0.5), hemoglobin (P = 0.15), C-reactive protein (P = 0.56; 95% confidence interval 0.75-18.26), alpha-1-acid-glycoprotein (P = 0.56; 95% confidence interval 0.15-15.42) and serum zinc (P = 0.31). None of these variables was related to VAD. Conclusions: In this population, the prevalence of VAD detected could be considered a public health problem. School-aged children can be considered at risk for VAD mainly of a subclinical level, even without some associated risk factors.

The Genome Sequence of Taurine Cattle: A Window to Ruminant Biology and Evolution

To understand the biology and evolution of ruminants, the cattle genome was sequenced to about sevenfold coverage. The cattle genome contains a minimum of 22,000 genes, with a core set of 14,345 orthologs shared among seven mammalian species of which 1217 are absent or undetected in noneutherian (marsupial or monotreme) genomes. Cattle-specific evolutionary breakpoint regions in chromosomes have a higher density of segmental duplications, enrichment of repetitive elements, and species-specific variations in genes associated with lactation and immune responsiveness. Genes involved in metabolism are generally highly conserved, although five metabolic genes are deleted or extensively diverged from their human orthologs. The cattle genome sequence thus provides a resource for understanding mammalian evolution and accelerating livestock genetic improvement for milk and meat production.

Insulin Affects Tissue Organization and the Kinetics of Epithelial Cell Death in the Rat Ventral Prostate After Castration

Prostate growth and physiology are regulated by steroid hormones and modulated by multiple endocrine factors We investigated the action of insulin on the tissue organization and kinetics of epithelial cells in the rat ventral prostate (VP) in response to castration up to 120 hours after surgery by using an acute protocol of alloxan induced diabetes Diabetes caused a reduction in volume density (Vv(o)/) and volume of the epithelium The effects of castration on the epithelium were accelerated in the diabetic animals as determined by changes in V(o)/, and volume The smooth muscle cells became atrophic and apparently relaxed in response to castration in contrast to the spinous aspect observed in nondiabetic castrated rats Counting of apoptotic nuclei in the epithelium showed the classical apoptosis peak at 72 hours in nondiabetic rats and an advance of the apoptosis peak to 48 hours after castration in diabetic rats Insulin restored the time of the peak to 72 hours These results were confirmed after immunostaining for cleaved caspase 3 and suggest a survival and antiapoptotic effect on VP epithelial cells in both the presence and absence of androgen stimulation This idea is supported by the observation that insulin also reduced the overall rate of apoptosis at all experimental points analyzed before and after castration

HOME RANGE AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF MANED WOLVES IN THE BRAZILIAN GRASSLANDS

The maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is the largest canid in South America, weighing up to 30 kg, and exhibits an omnivorous diet based on fruits and small vertebrates. Maned wolves are considered to live in monogamous pairs defending a common territory, with mates living a largely solitary life, but these conclusions come from few studies with small samples. We captured maned wolves in Emas National Park, central Brazil, and monitored their use of space using radiotelemetry. Home-range size and overlap of 45 adults, and interactions between members of 5 pairs, were investigated. Home-range sizes of resident adults averaged 80.18 km(2) using the fixed kernel with 95% of the locations, and averaged 13.78 km(2) with 50% of the locations. Overlap of 95% ranges between male-male, female-female, or mixed dyads was similar, approximately 0.20, whereas 50% ranges of maned wolves showed less overlap overall but more tolerance for overlap with the opposite sex. Members of a pair were located alone more often than together, and even when located simultaneously maintained a mean distance of >0.5 km apart, independent of time of day. Results are in agreement with a spatial organization based on monogamous mating pairs with little intrapair sociality, but the latter needs to be investigated in more detail.