34,209 research outputs found

    Análisis de la calidad del servicio que prestan las entidades bancarias y su repercusión en la satisfacción del cliente y la lealtad hacia la entidad

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    p. 79-107El objetivo de la investigación se ha encuadrado en determinar las percepciones de calidad que tienen los clientes sobre su entidad bancaria. Para ello, para contrastar el modelo se han utilizado ecuaciones estructurales por medio de mínimos cuadrados parciales conocido como PLS (Partial Least Square). El objetivo concreto ha sido analizar los factores que determinan la calidad del servicio que perciben los clientes de las entidades bancarias, entre los que se encuentran: i) aspecto operativo, ii) aspecto físico, iii) nuevas tecnologías, y iv) aspecto humano. Una vez determinada la fiabilidad y validez de la escala, se procedió a verificar las tres hipótesis de la investigación. La primera hipótesis del modelo examina cada una de las relaciones de estos factores con la calidad del servicio, del que se resalta la gran influencia de los aspectos operativos en la percepción de la calidad. La segunda hipótesis demuestra que la calidad del servicio es un antecedente de la satisfacción del cliente. Y una tercera hipótesis verifica que la satisfacción del cliente tiene influencia en la lealtad del cliente hacia la entidad.S

    Sponsorship image and value creation in E-sports

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    .E-sports games can drive the sports industry forward and sponsorship is the best way to engage consumers of this new sport. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of sponsorship image and consumer participation in co-creation consumption activities on fans’ sponsorship response (represented by the variables interest, purchase intention and word of mouth) in e-sports. Four antecedent variables build sponsorship image (i.e., ubiquity of sport, sincerity of sponsor, attitude to sponsor and team identification). A quantitative approach is used for the purposes of this study. Some 445 questionnaires were filled in by fans who watch e-sports in Spain; these are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The outcomes show that sponsor antecedents are crucial factors if a sponsor wants to change their sponsorship image and influence sponsorship response, and that it is also possible to use participation to improve responsesS

    Study on the concordance between different SNP‐genotyping platforms in sheep

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    .Different SNP genotyping technologies are commonly used in multiple studies to perform QTL detection, genotype imputation, and genomic predictions. Therefore, genotyping errors cannot be ignored, as they can reduce the accuracy of different procedures applied in genomic selection, such as genomic imputation, genomic predictions, and false-positive results in genome-wide association studies. Currently, whole-genome resequencing (WGR) also offers the potential for variant calling analysis and high-throughput genotyping. WGR might overshadow array-based genotyping technologies due to the larger amount and precision of the genomic information provided; however, its comparatively higher price per individual still limits its use in larger populations. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the accuracy of the two most popular SNP-chip technologies, namely, Affymetrix and Illumina, for high-throughput genotyping in sheep considering high-coverage WGR datasets as references. Analyses were performed using two reference sheep genome assemblies, the popular Oar_v3.1 reference genome and the latest available version Oar_rambouillet_v1.0. Our results demonstrate that the genotypes from both platforms are suggested to have high concordance rates with the genotypes determined from reference WGR datasets (96.59% and 99.51% for Affymetrix and Illumina technologies, respectively). The concordance results provided in the current study can pinpoint low reproducible markers across multiple platforms used for sheep genotyping data. Comparing results using two reference genome assemblies also informs how genome assembly quality can influence genotype concordance rates among different genotyping platforms. Moreover, we describe an efficient pipeline to test the reliability of markers included in sheep SNP-chip panels against WGR datasets available on public databases. This pipeline may be helpful for discarding low-reliability markers before exploiting genomic information for gene mapping analyses or genomic predictionS

    Identification of Hindbrain Neural Substrates for Motor Initiation in the hatchling Xenopus laevis Tadpole

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    Animal survival profoundly depends on the ability to detect stimuli in the environment, process them and respond accordingly. In this respect, motor responses to a sensory stimulation evolved into a variety of coordinated movements, which involve the control of brain centres over spinal locomotor circuits. The hatchling Xenopus tadpole, even in its embryonic stage, is able to detect external sensory information and to swim away if the stimulus is considered noxious. To do so, the tadpole relies on well-known ascending sensory pathway, which carries the sensory information to the brain. When the stimulus is strong enough, descending interneurons are activated, leading to the excitation of spinal CPG neurons, which causes the undulatory movement of swimming. However, the activation of descending interneurons that marks the initiation of motor response appears after a long delay from the sensory stimulation. Furthermore, the long-latency response is variable in time, as observed in the slow-summating excitation measured in descending interneurons. These two features, i.e. long-latency and variability, cannot be explained by the firing time and pattern of the ascending sensory pathway of the Xenopus tadpole. Therefore, a novel neuronal population has been proposed to lie in the hindbrain of the tadpole, and being able to 'hold' the sensory information, thus accounting for the long and variable delay of swim initiation. In this work, the role of the hindbrain in the maintenance of the long and variable response to trunk skin stimulation is investigated in the Xenopustadpole at developmental stage 37/38. A multifaceted approach has been used to unravel the neuronal mechanisms underlying the delayed motor response, including behavioural experiments, electrophysiology analysis of fictive swimming, hindbrain extracellular recordings and imaging experiments. Two novel neuronal populations have been identified in the tadpole's hindbrain, which exhibit activation patterns compatible with the role of delaying the excitation of the spinal locomotor circuit. Future work on cellular properties and synaptic connections of these newly discovered populations might shed light on the mechanism of descending control active at embryonic stage. Identifying supraspinal neuronal populations in an embryonic organism could aid in understanding mechanisms of descending motor control in more complex vertebrates

    Interactive Sonic Environments: Sonic artwork via gameplay experience

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    The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of video-game technology in the design and implementation of interactive sonic centric artworks, the purpose of which is to create and contribute to the discourse and understanding of its effectiveness in electro-acoustic composition highlighting the creative process. Key research questions include: How can the language of electro-acoustic music be placed in a new framework derived from videogame aesthetics and technology? What new creative processes need to be considered when using this medium? Moreover, what aspects of 'play' should be considered when designing the systems? The findings of this study assert that composers and sonic art practitioners need little or no coding knowledge to create exciting applications and the myriad of options available to the composer when using video-game technology is limited only by imagination. Through a cyclic process of planning, building, testing and playing these applications the project revealed advantages and unique sonic opportunities in comparison to other sonic art installations. A portfolio of selected original compositions, both fixed and open are presented by the author to complement this study. The commentary serves to place the work in context with other practitioners in the field and to provide compositional approaches that have been taken

    Balancing the urban stomach: public health, food selling and consumption in London, c. 1558-1640

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    Until recently, public health histories have been predominantly shaped by medical and scientific perspectives, to the neglect of their wider social, economic and political contexts. These medically-minded studies have tended to present broad, sweeping narratives of health policy's explicit successes or failures, often focusing on extraordinary periods of epidemic disease viewed from a national context. This approach is problematic, particularly in studies of public health practice prior to 1800. Before the rise of modern scientific medicine, public health policies were more often influenced by shared social, cultural, economic and religious values which favoured maintaining hierarchy, stability and concern for 'the common good'. These values have frequently been overlooked by modern researchers. This has yielded pessimistic assessments of contemporary sanitation, implying that local authorities did not care about or prioritise the health of populations. Overly medicalised perspectives have further restricted historians' investigation and use of source material, their interpretation of multifaceted and sometimes contested cultural practices such as fasting, and their examination of habitual - and not just extraordinary - health actions. These perspectives have encouraged a focus on reactive - rather than preventative - measures. This thesis contributes to a growing body of research that expands our restrictive understandings of pre-modern public health. It focuses on how public health practices were regulated, monitored and expanded in later Tudor and early Stuart London, with a particular focus on consumption and food-selling. Acknowledging the fundamental public health value of maintaining urban foodways, it investigates how contemporaries sought to manage consumption, food production waste, and vending practices in the early modern City's wards and parishes. It delineates the practical and political distinctions between food and medicine, broadly investigates the activities, reputations of and correlations between London's guild and itinerant food vendors and licensed and irregular medical practitioners, traces the directions in which different kinds of public health policy filtered up or down, and explores how policies were enacted at a national and local level. Finally, it compares and contrasts habitual and extraordinary public health regulations, with a particular focus on how perceptions of and actual food shortages, paired with the omnipresent threat of disease, impacted broader aspects of civic life

    South Yorkshire low carbon energy supply chains: insulation sector summary

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    Mobility of public researchers, scientific knowledge transfer, and the firm's innovation process

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    The present study provides evidence on the mobility effects of researchers from the public R&D system with regard to firm´s innovation process. This issue is particularly novel and important as these researchers contribute to the production and transfer of knowledge previously developed and accumulated in the public R&D system. The findings confirm that scientific knowledge which public researchers provide has a positive influence on both inputs and outputs of the firms’ innovation process. The fact that firms have access to additional knowledge which is complementary to that they already hold represents a spur for exploiting and applying this new knowledge. The firms in this study continually increased their in-house R&D investments. As a result of these investments firms create new knowledge of a unique and valuable type. The study draws two important conclusions geared to providing a greater efficiency in human resource management and to improve the design of technology policies

    Impacto de la estrategia de diversificación en el resultado empresarial: ¿influye el estilo de comportamiento del CEO que diversifica?

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    pp. 111-132El presente trabajo analiza la relación diversificación-resultados en las empresas españolas durante un período caracterizado por importantes cambios en el entorno competitivo e institucional. Además, examina si dicha relación difiere significativamente en función del estilo de comportamiento del CEO que diversifica. Para ello se sustenta en el marco teórico Agencia-Stewardship (Davis, Schoorman y Donaldson, 1997, 2004), que establece que los CEOs pueden actuar como agentes o como servidores. Mientras los CEOs como agentes son sujetos egoístas que se comportan oportunistamente, los CEOs como servidores son individuos colectivistas que actúan proorganizativamente. Tras aplicar el método de Heckman sobre una muestra de empresas españolas, los hallazgos obtenidos revelan que en este nuevo contexto la diversificación ha influido positivamente sobre los resultados empresariales, y que dicha influencia se ha visto reforzada cuando la estrategia ha sido dirigida e implantada por un CEO inclinado a actuar como servidor.S

    Biophysical Processes Determining the Connectivity of the Alboran Sea Fish Populations

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    This chapter revises biogeophysical issues of connectivity processes for fish populations in the Alboran Sea—Strait of Gibraltar—Gulf of Cadiz area. Connectivity of early life history stages between distant spawning grounds is crucial to incorporate vital developmental rates that condition survival probabilities at critical ontogenic stages. Hydrodynamics is pivotal to the process and most particular for pelagic species originating from adult fish adapted to recurrent patterns. Therefore, special focus has been placed on the hydrodynamics of the region, particularly on the Alboran Sea where the swift and energetic eastward-flowing Atlantic Jet entering the basin from the Strait of Gibraltar determines the surface circulation patterns. The Jet establishes an obvious zonal west-to-east connectivity, prevents the one in the opposite east-to-west direction and works as a hydrodynamic barrier that hampers the north-to-south connectivity. The chapter addresses these processes, discusses possible mechanisms to achieve connectivity between north and south shores, which have to overcome the hydrodynamic barrier, and assesses the feasibility of east-to-west connectivity by means of intermediate-depth currents. Implications on the populations and ecosystems of the Alboran Sea and on the three main harvested species potentially affected by hydrodynamic connectivity in the basin (European hake, the sardine, and the blackspot seabream) are also commented.Preprin
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