Detecting Customer Queue “at-risk” Behaviors Based on Ethograms to Minimize Overall Service Dissatisfaction

Every service encounter corresponds to a “queue network” in which a system of waiting lines is connected to servers. We posit that each production service type (e.g., restaurant, airport) requires an adapted queue design in order to maximize attributes salient to customers (i.e., their primary elements of per-ceived value) in today’s globalized service environment. While the queues have been studied from many angles, a scientific contribution based on a human ethol-ogy approach proposing the early identification of “at-risk” behaviors to regulate queue dynamics seems to be novel. To remedy this shortcoming, the large-scale food distribution sector has been chosen for the application of a naturalistic ob-servation approach to describe in detail the behavior of customer queues. Sixteen immersion episodes were conducted in the months between May and June 2016. Using RQDA, we analyzed the immersion transcripts and identified typical cus-tomer queue behavioral patterns. Then, we developed an ethogram containing what we considered to be “at-risk” queue behaviors. This ethogram can ulti-mately be used as an anticipatory indicator in the context of feedforward man-agement controls. Feedforward control, as opposed to classical feedback con-trols, is based on the early detection of risks and the implementation of mitigation before damage occurs. While this approach requires human attention and exper-tise (which can be quite expensive and labor-intensive), there is also potential for human ethology to assist managers with supportive or complementary automa-tion. Indeed, the factual description of behaviors contained in our ethogram can easily be coded with modern technology like facial expression and body recog-nition technologies

Mismatch in microbial food webs: predators but not prey perform better in their local biotic and abiotic conditions

Understanding how trophic levels respond to changes in abiotic and biotic conditions is key for predicting how food webs will react to environmental perturbations. Different trophic levels may respond disproportionately to change, with lower levels more likely to react faster, as they typically consist of smaller-bodied species with higher reproductive rates. This response could cause a mismatch between trophic levels, in which predators and prey will respond differently to changing abiotic or biotic conditions. This mismatch between trophic levels could result in altered top-down and bottom-up control and changes in interaction strength. To determine the possibility of a mismatch, we conducted a reciprocal-transplant experiment involving Sarracenia purpurea food webs consisting of bacterial communities as prey and a subset of six morphologically similar protozoans as predators. We used a factorial design with four temperatures, four bacteria and protozoan biogeographic origins, replicated four times. This design allowed us to determine how predator and prey dynamics were altered by abiotic (temperature) conditions and biotic (predators paired with prey from either their local or non-local biogeographic origin) conditions. We found that prey reached higher densities in warmer temperature regardless of their temperature of origin. Conversely, predators achieved higher densities in the temperature condition and with the prey from their origin. These results confirm that predators perform better in abiotic and biotic conditions of their origin while their prey do not. This mismatch between trophic levels may be especially significant under climate change, potentially disrupting ecosystem functioning by disproportionately affecting top-down and bottom-up control

Putting the Customer Back in the Center of SOA with Service Design and User-Centered Design

This article introduces a methodology used for designing the online presence of a Swiss SME providing Cloud Services. The Web application used for the purchasing and administration, backed by a Service-Oriented Architec-ture (SOA), has been designed to be customer-centric using a combination of different techniques borrowed from the fields of ethnomethodology, service de-sign and user-centered design. The tools employed include service blueprint de-sign and affinity diagram analysis followed by prototyping and subsequent usa-bility evaluation. This collaborative methodology explained with the help of the applied research project use case is seen to yield excellent results in terms of customer-orientation

Peripheral administration of lactate produces antidepressant-like effects.

In addition to its role as metabolic substrate that can sustain neuronal function and viability, emerging evidence supports a role for l-lactate as an intercellular signaling molecule involved in synaptic plasticity. Clinical and basic research studies have shown that major depression and chronic stress are associated with alterations in structural and functional plasticity. These findings led us to investigate the role of l-lactate as a potential novel antidepressant. Here we show that peripheral administration of l-lactate produces antidepressant-like effects in different animal models of depression that respond to acute and chronic antidepressant treatment. The antidepressant-like effects of l-lactate are associated with increases in hippocampal lactate levels and with changes in the expression of target genes involved in serotonin receptor trafficking, astrocyte functions, neurogenesis, nitric oxide synthesis and cAMP signaling. Further elucidation of the mechanisms underlying the antidepressant effects of l-lactate may help to identify novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of depression

Mixing Behavioral and Technological Data in Mathematical Programming Framework

Optimisation models for energy environmental planning based on the concept of economic equilibria share a common flaw that stems from their neoclassic roots: hypothesis of a perfect information and hypothesis of perfect economic rationality. A way to circumvent this issue consists in soft-linking data from sociological surveys that determine technical coefficients for MARKAL model, creating a hybrid approach of coupling a deductive engineering model with typical inductive methods of social sciences. Behavioural changes are described as virtual technologies with usual technology attributes. The method is illustrated on a case of lighting bulbs. The goal of the approach is to build long term policies that are not solely based on technology progress but also taking into account social change

Mixing behavioral and technological data in mathematical programming framework

Optimisation models for energy environmental planning based on the concept of economic equilibria share a common flaw that stems from their neoclassic roots: hypothesis of a perfect information and hypothesis of perfect economic rationality. A way to circumvent this issue consists in soft-linking data from sociological surveys that determine technical coefficients for MARKAL model, creating a hybrid approach of coupling a deductive engineering model with typical inductive methods of social sciences. Behavioural changes are described as virtual technologies with usual technology attributes. The method is illustrated on a case of lighting bulbs. The goal of the approach is to build long term policies that are not solely based on technology progress but also taking into account social change