The Competitive Causes and Consequences of Customer Satisfaction

We conduct two studies to test three hypotheses: (1) Competition increases a firm's customer satisfaction; (2) Rivals' customer satisfaction increases a firm's customer satisfaction; (3) Rivals' customer satisfaction reduces a firm's sales. First, we use store-level customer satisfaction data from a supermarket chain. Next, we consider a range of industries, using brand-level customer satisfaction ratings from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Results from both studies provide support for the latter two hypotheses, while we only find support for the first hypothesis in the second study.Customer Satisfaction, Food retailing, Competitive Strategy, Consumer/Household Economics,

A valence bond liquid on the honeycomb lattice

The honeycomb lattice material Li2RuO3 undergoes a dimerization of Ru4+ cations on cooling below 270C, where the magnetic susceptibility vanishes. We use density functional theory calculations to show that this reflects the formation of a 'valence bond crystal', with a strong bond disproportionation. On warming, x-ray diffraction shows that discrete three-fold symmetry is regained on average, and the dimerization apparently disappears. In contrast, local structural measurements using high-energy x-rays, show that disordered dimers survive at the nanoscale up to at least 650C. The high temperature phase of Li2RuO3 is thus an example of a valence bond liquid, where thermal fluctuations drive resonance between different dimer coverages, a classic analogue of the resonating valence bond state often discussed in connection with high T$_c$ cuprates.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, References correcte

Evaluation of Various Methods for Determining Bulk Compositions of Chondrules and Other Objects in Petrographic Thin Sections

Studies of many objects in petrographic thin section, such as melt inclusions in igneous rocks, chondrules and Ca-Al rich inclusions in chondritic meteorites, or clasts in lunar and other breccias, require or can benefit from knowledge of their bulk compositions. Given the scarcity of these materials, the reluctance of curators to provide more abundant material, and the extreme difficulty of cleanly separating such objects from their rock matrices, geochemical and cosmochemical studies need the ability to determine their bulk compositions from in situ methods, such as defocused beam analysis, or quantitative chemical mapping by electron beam methods

A Survey of Monte Carlo Tree Search Methods

Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) is a recently proposed search method that combines the precision of tree search with the generality of random sampling. It has received considerable interest due to its spectacular success in the difficult problem of computer Go, but has also proved beneficial in a range of other domains. This paper is a survey of the literature to date, intended to provide a snapshot of the state of the art after the first five years of MCTS research. We outline the core algorithm's derivation, impart some structure on the many variations and enhancements that have been proposed, and summarize the results from the key game and nongame domains to which MCTS methods have been applied. A number of open research questions indicate that the field is ripe for future work

Nucleotide sequence of the luxA gene of Vibrio harveyi and the complete amino acid sequence of the alpha subunit of bacterial luciferase

The nucleotide sequence of the 1.85-kilobase EcoRI fragment from Vibrio harveyi that was cloned using a mixed-sequence synthetic oligonucleotide probe (Cohn, D. H., Ogden, R. C., Abelson, J. N., Baldwin, T. O., Nealson, K. H., Simon, M. I., and Mileham, A. J. (1983) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 80, 120-123) has been determined. The alpha subunit-coding region (luxA) was found to begin at base number 707 and end at base number 1771. The alpha subunit has a calculated molecular weight of 40,108 and comprises a total of 355 amino acid residues. There are 34 base pairs separating the start of the alpha subunit structural gene and a 669-base open reading frame extending from the proximal EcoRI site. At the 3' end of the luxA coding region there are 26 bases between the end of the structural gene and the start of the luxB structural gene. Approximately two-thirds of the alpha subunit was sequenced by protein chemical techniques. The amino acid sequence implied by the DNA sequence, with few exceptions, confirmed the chemically determined sequence. Regions of the alpha subunit thought to comprise the active center were found to reside in two discrete and relatively basic regions, one from around residues 100-115 and the second from around residues 280-295

Diversitat isoenzimàtica de la flora vascular silvestre dels Països Catalans

Els Països Catalans presenten una elevada diversitat florística, amb més de 4.500 tàxons i una taxa mitjana d'endemicitat al voltant del 5 %. En el present estudi s'ha dut a terme una síntesi de les dades publicades fins a la data referides a diversitat genètica isoenzimàtica en tàxons endèmics o aquells amb poblacions situades dins els Països Catalans. Dels 36 tàxons analitzats, se'n desprenen uns nivells relativament elevats de variabilitat genètica (P = 28,85 %, A = 1,46, He = 0,112 per als tàxons diploides), encara que amb un percentatge prou important (al voltant del 6 %) d'al·lels rars per població, unes taxes elevades de consanguinitat (FIS = 0,245) i una divergència genètica entre poblacions prou significativa (GST = 0,248). Les causes d'aquests patrons, juntament amb la seva relació amb diferents característiques biològiques i ecològiques dels tàxons catalans, s'analitzen detingudament.The Catalan Countries exhibit a high floristic diversity, with more than 4.500 taxa and a mean rate of endemism of about 5 %. Here we present a synthesis of the literature concerning allozyme genetic diversity in endemic taxa or in those with populations located within the Catalan Countries. From 36 taxa examined, relatively high levels of genetic variability have been detected (P = 28,85 %, A = 1,46, He = 0,112 for diploid taxa), although with a substantial percentage (around 6 %) of rare alleles per population, high rates of imbreeding (FIS = 0,245), and a significant genetic divergence among populations (GST = 0,248). The causes of those patterns, together with their relationship with different biological and ecological traits of these Catalan taxa, have been analyzed in detail.diversidad florística, con más de 4.500 taxones y una tasa media de endemicidad de aproximadamente el 5 %. En el presente estudio se ha llevado a cabo una síntesis de los datos publicados hasta la fecha referidos a diversidad genética isoenzimática en taxones endémicos o en aquellos con poblaciones situadas dentro de los Países Catalanes. De los 36 taxones analizados, se constatan unos niveles relativamente elevados de variabilidad genética (P = 28,85 %, A = 1,46, He = 0,112 para los taxones diploides), aunque con un porcentaje notable (cerca del 6 %) de alelos raros por población, unas tasas elevadas de consanguinidad (FIS = 0,245) y una divergencia genética entre poblaciones bastante significativa (GST = 0,248). Las causas de estos patrones, junto con su relación con diferentes características biológicas y ecológicas de los taxones catalanes, se analizan detalladamente

DCDB: an updated on-line database of chromosome numbers of tribe Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae)

Version 2.0, Updated 23/IV/2016A new version of the earlier chromosome database of tribe Delphinieae Warming (Simon, J., M. Bosch, J. Molero & C. Blanché 1999, A conspect of chromosome numbers in tribe Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae). Biodiversity Electronic Publications, 1 [Available online at http://hdl.handle.net/2445/95875]) is presented, after an accurate extensive literature and Internet survey, by adding the chromosome counts for the genera Aconitum L. (including Gymnaconitum (Stapf) Wei Wang & Z. D. Chen), Delphinium L. (including Staphisagria Spach), Consolida (DC.) S.F. Gray and Aconitella Spach., accumulated in the last 17 years. The Delphinieae Chromosome Database (DCDB) provides the most complete current available information on chromosome numbers of Delphinieae, will be yearly updated and easily available by a system searchable through international platforms as CCDB (Rice et al., 2015), to be useful for general building of cytotaxonomical databases and for specific research ongoing projects of systematics of Ranunculaceae

A conspect of chromosome numbers in tribe Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae)

A literature survey of chromosome number counts was made for the tribe Delphinieae, which includes the genera Aconitum, Delphinium, Consolida, and Aconitella. 1097 reports are presented corresponding to 327 species, representing about 40 % of the total species number of the tribe. The basic number is universally x = 8 and ploidy levels found are 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, and 8x. Some disploidy cases have been described, although this phenomenon is very rare within the tribe. Poliploidy is more frequent in perennial taxa (Aconitum and Delphinium) whereas in annuals disploidy takes more importance. In 13 species more than one different chromosome number has been reported and 54 species showed different ploidy levels. Our objective was to provide a complete information on chromosome numbers of Delphinieae species and to point out gaps that need to be addressed.PB91-268 and AMB97-375 from DGICYT (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain