Credibility and staff conduct make or break bank customer service quality

Service quality is assessed by customers along the dimensions of staff conduct, credibility, communication, and access to teller services. Credibility and staff conduct emerge as the highest loading first-order factors. This highlights the significance of rectifying mistakes while keeping customers informed, and employing branch staff that are responsive and civilized in their conduct. Discovery of a valid second-order factor, namely, overall customer service quality, underscores the importance of providing quality service across all its dimensions. For example, if the bank fails to rectify mistakes and keep customers informed but excels in all other dimensions, its overall customer service quality can still be rated poorly.

Assessing ecological impacts of shrimp and sewage effluent: Biological indicators with standard water quality analyses

Despite evidence linking shrimp farming to several cases of environmental degradation, there remains a lack of ecologically meaningful information about the impacts of effluent on receiving waters. The aim of this study was to determine the biological impact of shrimp farm effluent, and to compare and distinguish its impacts from treated sewage effluent. Analyses included standard water quality/sediment parameters, as well as biological indicators including tissue nitrogen (N) content, stable isotope ratio of nitrogen (delta N-15) and amino acid composition of inhabitant seagrasses, mangroves and macroalgae. The study area consisted of two tidal creeks, one receiving effluent from a sewage treatment plant and the other from an intensive shrimp farm. The creeks discharged into the western side of Moreton Bay, a sub-tropical coastal embayment on the east coast of Australia. Characterization of water quality revealed significant differences between the creeks, and with unimpacted eastern Moreton Bay. The sewage creek had higher concentrations of dissolved nutrients (predominantly NO3-/NO2- and PO43-, compared to NH4+ in the shrimp creek). In contrast, the shrimp creek was more turbid and had higher phytoplankton productivity. Beyond 750 m from the creek mouths, water quality parameters were indistinguishable from eastern Moreton Bay values. Biological indicators detected significant impacts up to 4 km beyond the creek mouths (reference site). Elevated plant delta N-15 values ranged from 10.4-19.6 parts per thousand at the site of sewage discharge to 2.9-4.5 parts per thousand at the reference site. The free amino acid concentration and composition of seagrass and macroalgae was used to distinguish between the uptake of sewage and shrimp derived N. Proline (seagrass) and serine (macroalgae) were high in sewage impacted plants and glutamine (seagrass) and alanine (macroalgae) were high in plants impacted by shrimp effluent. The delta N-15 isotopic signatures and free amino acid composition of inhabitant flora indicated that sewage N extended further from the creek mouths than shrimp N. The combination of physical/chemical and biological indicators used in this study was effective in distinguishing the composition and subsequent impacts of aquaculture and sewage effluent on the receiving waters. (C) 2001 Academic Press.

Ripening and quality responses of avocado, custard apple, mango and papaya fruit to 1-methylcyclopropene

The potential for the ethylene binding inhibitor, 1-methylcyclopropene, to delay ripening of 'Hass' avocado, 'African Pride' custard apple, 'Kensington Pride' mango and 'Solo' papaya was examined. Fruit were gassed with 25 muL/L 1-methylcyclopropene for 14 h at 20 degreesC, followed by treatment with 100 muL/L ethylene for 24 h, and then ripened at 20 degreesC. Ethylene treatment alone generally halved the number of days for fruit to reach the ripe stage, compared with untreated fruit. 1-Methylcyclopropene treatment alone increased the number of days to ripening by 4.4 days (40% increase), 3.4 days (58%), 5.1 days (37%) and 15.6 days (325%) for avocado, custard apple, mango and papaya, respectively, compared with untreated fruit. Applying 1-methylcyclopropene to the fruit before ethylene prevented the accelerated ripening normally associated with ethylene treatment, so that the number of days to ripening for fruit treated with 1-methylcyclopropene plus ethylene was similar to the number of days to ripening for fruit treated with 1-methylcyclopropene alone. 1-Methylcyclopropene treatment was associated with slightly higher severity of external blemishes in papaya and custard apple, slightly higher rots severity in avocado, custard apple and papaya, and at least double the severity of stem rots in mango, relative to fruit not treated with 1-methylcyclopropene. Thus, 1-methylcyclopropene treatment has the potential to reduce the risk of premature ripening of avocado, custard apple, mango and papaya fruit due to accidental exposure to ethylene. However, additional precautions may be necessary to reduce disease severity associated with 1-methylcyclopropene treatment.

Quality Assurance Through a Continuous Curriculum Review (CCR) Strategy: Reflections on a Pilot Project

Institutional research can be defined as "the activity in which the research effort of an academic institution is directed at the solution of its own problems and to the enhancement of its own performance" (Woodward, 1993, p. 113). This paper describes and reflects on an attempt at the University of Queensland to address the need for course quality appraisal for improvement. The strategy, Continuous Curriculum Review (CCR) is simply an attempt to trial and promote regular comprehensive data collection for developing 'snapshot' views of whole curricula so that decisions about what to change and what to change first can be made in an empirically defensible and timely manner. The strategy and reporting protocols that were developed are described, and the costs and benefits of engaging in this kind of data gathering exercise for quality assurance and quality enhancement purposes are discussed.

The nutritive value of Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) when treated with CaO, NaOH or a microbial inoculant and offered to dairy heifers as big-bale silage

A series of laboratory and animal studies examined the use of chemical and biological agents to enhance the digestibility of Rhodes grass (grass) cut at 60 (young) and 100 (mature) days of regrowth and ensiled as big round bales. The treatments included an untreated control (C), a microbial inoculant (I), NaOH, CaO and NaOH plus inoculant (NaOH + I). Inoculant was grown anaerobically, using a starter culture of rumen fluid from cattle given Rhodes grass. Treatments C, 1, NaOH, NaOH + I, were offered separately to twelve dairy heifers, in a 3 X 4 randomized complete block design, repeated twice for each grass silage. C and I had substantial mould growth, compared with no visible mould in NaOH or NaOH + 1. CaO treatment was effective in preventing mould growth, but had little effect on the chemical composition and in sacco digestibility of mature grass silage. NaOH reduced NDF content and increased in sacco digestibility (P < 0.05) but not the in vivo digestibility (P > 0.05) of both mature- and young-grass silage. The effects of other treatments on nutritive value were non-significant at both stages of maturity. NaOH increased the intake of mature-grass silage by 24-26% (P < 0.05), but had little effect on the intake of young-grass silage (P > 0.05). Treatment I consistently reduced grass silage intake (P < 005) for young-grass silage. The findings of these studies show that treating mature Rhodes grass with NaOH will improve its nutritive value and reduce mould growth in conserved herbage. However none of the treatments in this study had any consistently positive effects on the in vivo nutritive value or storage quality of young-grass silage.

Effect of leucaena supplementation level, and provision of urea, on utilisation by sheep of Rhodes grass hay

Tarramba leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala cv. Tarramba) foliage had per kilogram dry matter, 169 g protein and 29.8 g condensed tannins. Its value as a supplement, given either with or without urea, to sheep given a low-quality Callide Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana cv. Callide) hay was studied. Six rumen fistulated sheep (mean +/- s.d. liveweight, 34 +/- 1.4 kg) were used to compare 6 dietary treatments in an incomplete latin square design. Rhodes grass hay was given ad libitum either alone, or with urea 7 g/day (U), or with leucaena 150 g/day (L150), or leucaena with urea (L150U), or leucaena 300 g/day (L300), or leucaena with urea (L300U). Digestible organic matter intake was increased significantly by leucaena supplementation although digestibility of the whole diet did not alter. Rumen fluid ammonia-N was not altered by leucaena supplementation, but was increased by urea. This suggests that Tarramba foliage protein has some resistance to ruminal degradation. Liquid and solids passage rates were not affected by the treatments. Microbial nitrogen supply to the intestine (g/day), and the efficiency of microbial nitrogen synthesis (g/kg organic matter apparently digested in the rumen), were increased by leucaena supplementation (P