54,457 research outputs found
The management of deshopping and its effects on services: a mass market case study
Purpose: Deshopping is the return of products, after they have fulfilled the purpose
for which they were borrowed. Previous research indicates that deshopping is a
prevalent and growing consumer behaviour. This paper examines deshopping from a
retail perspective. It is a case study of interviews conducted with a mass-market
retailer, to investigate their awareness and management of this behaviour.
Methodology: This paper is a case study of nine interviews conducted with different
levels of staff at a mass-market retailer in their flagship London store, to investigate
their awareness and management of deshopping.
Findings: The findings demonstrate the beliefs, attitudes and emotions of the
different levels of employees towards deshopping and demonstrates their attempts to
manage deshopping and combat the negative affects of this on customer service.
Research limitations: The limitation of this research is that it is only conducted with
one high street retailer. However, it is important to highlight that this is a large
womenswear retailer which is highly representative of other retailers within the
sector. There is little detail given regarding the retailer itself or their fundamentals of
the actual Customer Service Policy, this is due to the confidentiality agreement
between the researcher and retailer. It is important to acknowledge the sensitivity of
this type research to retailers who are reluctant to have this information publicised. It
is also important to acknowledge that many retailers have not made any attempts to
manage this behaviour by restricting their returns policy. So this research case study is
conducted with a retailer that is actively introducing change to manage this behaviour.
Practical implications: The research concludes with the implications of deshopping
and its management and makes recommendations on how to reduce deshopping whilst
maintaining customer service for the genuine consumer.
Originality/value of the paper: This is the first case study with a mass market
retailer highlighting their approaches towards managing deshopping whilst trying to
maintain customer service
A study of the high frequency limitations of series resonant converters
A transformer induced oscillation in series resonant (SR) converters is studied. It may occur in the discontinuous current mode. The source of the oscillation is an unexpected resonant circuit formed by normal resonance components in series with the magnetizing inductance of the output transformers. The methods for achieving cyclic stability are: to use a half bridge SR converter where q0.5. Q should be as close to 1.0 as possible. If 0.5q1.0, the instability will be avoided if psi2/3q-1/3. The second objective was to investigate a power field effect transistor (FET) version of the SR converter capable of operating at frequencies above 100 KHz, to study component stress and losses at various frequencies
Distinguishing low frequency mutations from RT-PCR and sequence errors in viral deep sequencing data
There is a high prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with left bundle branch block (LBBB); however there are many other causes for this electrocardiographic abnormality. Non-invasive assessment of these patients remains difficult, and all commonly used modalities exhibit several drawbacks. This often leads to these patients undergoing invasive coronary angiography which may not have been necessary. In this review, we examine the uses and limitations of commonly performed non-invasive tests for diagnosis of CAD in patients with LBBB
Dielectric molding apparatus Patent
Dielectric apparatus for heating, fusing, and hardening of organic matrix to form plastic material into shaped produc
Investigating intra-host and intra-herd sequence diversity of foot-and-mouth disease virus
Due to the poor-fidelity of the enzymes involved in RNA genome replication, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) virus samples comprise of unique polymorphic populations. In this study, deep sequencing was utilised to characterise the diversity of FMD virus (FMDV) populations in 6 infected cattle present on a single farm during the series of outbreaks in the UK in 2007. A novel RT–PCR method was developed to amplify a 7.6 kb nucleotide fragment encompassing the polyprotein coding region of the FMDV genome. Illumina sequencing of each sample identified the fine polymorphic structures at each nucleotide position, from consensus level changes to variants present at a 0.24% frequency. These data were used to investigate population dynamics of FMDV at both herd and host levels, evaluate the impact of host on the viral swarm structure and to identify transmission links with viruses recovered from other farms in the same series of outbreaks. In 7 samples, from 6 different animals, a total of 5 consensus level variants were identified, in addition to 104 sub-consensus variants of which 22 were shared between 2 or more animals. Further analysis revealed differences in swarm structures from samples derived from the same animal suggesting the presence of distinct viral populations evolving independently at different lesion sites within the same infected animal
LRG-BEASTS III: Ground-based transmission spectrum of the gas giant orbiting the cool dwarf WASP-80
We have performed ground-based transmission spectroscopy of the hot Jupiter
orbiting the cool dwarf WASP-80 using the ACAM instrument on the William
Herschel Telescope (WHT) as part of the LRG-BEASTS programme. This is the third
paper of a ground-based transmission spectroscopy survey of hot Jupiters using
low-resolution grism spectrographs. We observed two transits of the planet and
have constructed transmission spectra spanning a wavelength range of
4640-8840A. Our transmission spectrum is inconsistent with a previously claimed
detection of potassium in WASP-80b's atmosphere, and is instead most consistent
with a haze. We also do not see evidence for sodium absorption at a resolution
of 100A.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Doing it differently: Engaging interview participants with imaginative variation
Imaginative variation was identified by Husserl (1936/1970) as a phenomenological technique for the purpose of elucidating the manner in which phenomena appear to consciousness. Briefly, by engaging in the phenomenological reduction and using imaginative variation, phenomenologists are able to describe the experience of consciousness, having stepped outside of the natural attitude through the epochē. Imaginative variation is a stage aimed at explicating the structures of experience, and is best described as a mental experiment. Features of the experience are imaginatively altered in order to view the phenomenon under investigation from varying perspectives. Husserl argued that this process will reveal the essences of an experience, as only those aspects that are invariant to the experience of the phenomenon will not be able to change through the variation.
Often in qualitative research interviews, participants struggle to articulate or verbalise their experiences. The purpose of this article is to detail a radical and novel way of using imaginative variation with interview participants, by asking the participants to engage with imaginative variation, in order to produce a rich and insightful experiential account of a phenomenon. We will discuss how the first author successfully used imaginative variation in this way in her study of the erotic experience of bondage, discipline, dominance & submission, and sadism & masochism (BDSM), before considering the usefulness of this technique when applied to areas of study beyond sexuality
Is there further evidence for spatial variation of fundamental constants?
The detection of a spatial variation of the fine-structure constant, alpha,
based on study of quasar absorption systems has recently been reported. The
physics that causes this alpha-variation should have other observable
manifestations, and this motivates us to look for complementary astrophysical
effects. In this paper we propose a method to test whether spatial variation of
fundamental constants existed during the epoch of big bang nucleosynthesis.
Using existing measurements of primordial deuterium abundance we find very weak
indications that such a signature might exist, but the paucity of measurements
precludes any firm conclusion. We also examine existing quasar absorption
spectra data that are sensitive to variation of the electron-to-proton mass
ratio, mu, and x = (alpha^2 mu g_p) for spatial variation.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
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