Comparing tools for Service Quality Evaluation

Service quality evaluation is one of the main issues that have recently drawn managers' and researchers' attention. The definition of an evaluation standard not dependent on any particular service context has determined the popularity of many different quality tools. In this paper we show a comparative analysis of the affected tools that are widely used. These are summarized in an orientation map. Moreover we present some results of an experiment carried out with two of the major quality tools (SERVQUAL and QUALITOMETRO). The results identify good qualities as well as weaknesses for both tools. Possible improvement strategies are presente

What Do We Know About the Effects of Fiscal Policy Shocks? A Comparative Analysis

The empirical literature studying the effects of fiscal policy shocks using VAR models differs among two important dimensions: the identification scheme and the VAR specification. Not surprisingly the results obtained are often diverse. The aim of this paper is to test whether differences in the results can be explained by different VAR specifications and/or alternative identification strategies. To this end, we estimate a common reduced-form VAR model to which we apply the different identification approaches proposed in the literature. We find that, after controlling for specification issues, the recursive approach and the Blanchard-Perotti approach yield very similar results, while the fiscal dummy variable approach yields significantly different results.Fiscal Policy Shocks, VAR analysis

Spin Polarized Ground State for Interacting Electrons in Two Dimensions

We study numerically the ground state magnetization for clusters of interacting electrons in two dimensions in the regime where the single particle wavefunctions are localized by disorder. It is found that the Coulomb interaction leads to a spontaneous ground state magnetization. For a constant electronic density, the total spin increases linearly with the number of particles, suggesting a ferromagnetic ground state in the thermodynamic limit. The magnetization is suppressed when the single particle states become delocalized.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, 4 figure

Putting culture under the spotlight reveals universal information use for face recognition

Background: Eye movement strategies employed by humans to identify conspecifics are not universal. Westerners predominantly fixate the eyes during face recognition, whereas Easterners more the nose region, yet recognition accuracy is comparable. However, natural fixations do not unequivocally represent information extraction. So the question of whether humans universally use identical facial information to recognize faces remains unresolved. Methodology/Principal Findings: We monitored eye movements during face recognition of Western Caucasian (WC) and East Asian (EA) observers with a novel technique in face recognition that parametrically restricts information outside central vision. We used ‘Spotlights’ with Gaussian apertures of 2°, 5° or 8° dynamically centered on observers’ fixations. Strikingly, in constrained Spotlight conditions (2°, 5°) observers of both cultures actively fixated the same facial information: the eyes and mouth. When information from both eyes and mouth was simultaneously available when fixating the nose (8°), as expected EA observers shifted their fixations towards this region. Conclusions/Significance: Social experience and cultural factors shape the strategies used to extract information from faces, but these results suggest that external forces do not modulate information use. Human beings rely on identical facial information to recognize conspecifics, a universal law that might be dictated by the evolutionary constraints of nature and not nurture

Stabilization of quantum metastable states by dissipation

Normally, quantum fluctuations enhance the escape from metastable states in the presence of dissipation. Here we show that dissipation can enhance the stability of a quantum metastable system, consisting of a particle moving in a strongly asymmetric double well potential, interacting with a thermal bath. We find that the escape time from the metastable state has a nonmonotonic behavior versus the system-bath coupling and the temperature, producing a stabilizing effect.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Angular momentum and shapes of rotating quantum droplets.

ABSTRACT: Self-bound quantum droplets, resulting from the balance between attractive and repulsive forces between their atomic components, appear in different physical scenarios, the prototypes being liquid droplets made of superfluid Helium-4. Recently, a new kind of quantum droplets have been found using a bosonic mixture of ultracold atoms, whose stability results from the interplay between the inter-species attractive mean-field energy and the repulsive term representing a beyond-mean-field correction due to quantum fluctuations. Being a mixture of Bose-Einstein condensates, quantum droplets are likely superfluid. Thus, when they are set into rotation, the angular momentum can only be stored in the form of quantized vortices and/or capillary waves. In the case of superfluid Helium-4, the interplay between vortices and capillary waves results in droplet shapes surprisingly close to those of classical liquid droplets rotating with the same angular velocity. In the case of quantum droplets made of Bosonic mixtures, such interplay remains to be uncovered. The scope of this thesis is to theoretically study the stability and appearance of rotating self-bound nanodroplets made of Bosonic binary mixtures using numerical simulations based on Density Functional Theory, to unveil the interplay between the superfluid nature of the system and their shapes.ope

Rene Policistico e trapianto di rene: accesso alla lista d'attesa e post trapianto Risultati della ricerca:

Polycystic kidney disease and kidney transplantation: access to waiting list and post-transplant Autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the leading genetic cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) worldwide. The number of ADPKD patients who are listed for transplantation or receive a kidney transplant is continuously increasing over time. AIRP conducted a survey to investigate the ADPKD patient journey, meaning the personal experience and expectations of people regarding kidney transplantation as therapeutic option of end-stage renal failure. The survey was conducted on 381 people with ADPKD, using computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI). The results confirm that there are problems that need to be addressed before listing an ADPKD patient for a kidney transplantation, namely the patient's comorbidities, the complexity of pre-transplant assessments and the shortage of organs. Pre-emptive transplantation from cadaver donor is a rare event in our country but it is a valid option, especially in case of living donation. Immunosuppression is well tolerated in a high percentage of subjects, but a follow-up is necessary to monitor negative side effects. Despite these problems, the outcome of kidney transplantation is optimal in these patients. Also, the relationship between patients and Nephrologists and/or Transplant Centers is important to ensure a positive outcome

A proximity sensor for the measurement of the inter-foot distance in static and dynamic tasks

Measuring the base of support is of paramount importance in determining human stability during gait or balance tests. While wearable inertial sensors have been successfully employed to quantify numerous gait parameters (velocity, stride length, etc), they could not be used to estimate quantities related to the feet relative position. Thus, alternative technological solutions need to be investigated. Some attempts have been made by combining light intensity infrared or ultrasounds sensors with inertial measurement units. Lately, the Infrared Time-of-Flight technology (IR-ToF) has become popular for measuring distances. IR-ToF sensor measures the time an electromagnetic wave needs to travel a distance. The aim of this work was to investigate the feasibility of the use of an IR-ToF sensor for estimating the inter-foot distance (IFD) in both static and dynamic tasks. Very accurate IFD estimates were obtained during Static (MAE%=3.3%) and Oscillation (MAE%=4.1%) conditions, while larger errors during Gait trials (MAE%=19.8%)

A language-familiarity effect for speaker discrimination without comprehension

The influence of language familiarity upon speaker identification is well established, to such an extent that it has been argued that “Human voice recognition depends on language ability” [Perrachione TK, Del Tufo SN, Gabrieli JDE (2011) Science 333(6042):595]. However, 7-mo-old infants discriminate speakers of their mother tongue better than they do foreign speakers [Johnson EK, Westrek E, Nazzi T, Cutler A (2011) Dev Sci 14(5):1002–1011] despite their limited speech comprehension abilities, suggesting that speaker discrimination may rely on familiarity with the sound structure of one’s native language rather than the ability to comprehend speech. To test this hypothesis, we asked Chinese and English adult participants to rate speaker dissimilarity in pairs of sentences in English or Mandarin that were first time-reversed to render them unintelligible. Even in these conditions a language-familiarity effect was observed: Both Chinese and English listeners rated pairs of native-language speakers as more dissimilar than foreign-language speakers, despite their inability to understand the material. Our data indicate that the language familiarity effect is not based on comprehension but rather on familiarity with the phonology of one’s native language. This effect may stem from a mechanism analogous to the “other-race” effect in face recognition