Competing scales for measuring the perceived quality: a comparison between the Servqual and RSQ

Não há dúvida sobre a importância da qualidade de serviços como fator de sucesso empresarial, mas mensurar essa qualidade tem se mostrado um desafio quando se consideram diferentes contextos. Diante disso, o objetivo deste estudo foi testar duas escalas de mensuração da qualidade percebida de serviços. A comparação entre a escala Service Quality (Servqual) e a Retail Service Quality (RSQ), deu-se por meio de survey junto a 351 respondentes e utilizou como ambiente de pesquisa uma rede de home centers com lojas localizadas na cidade de São Paulo. Para analisar os dados obtidos, foram utilizadas as técnicas multivariadas de análise fatorial exploratória e confirmatória. Como resultado, as duas escalas demonstraram níveis aceitáveis de confiabilidade e validade. Entretanto, no teste de validade nomológica, a escala RSQ mostrou-se superior à escala Servqual, uma vez que a primeira foi capaz de explicar 43% da lealdade em relação ao varejista, enquanto a segunda explicou apenas 11%.There is no doubt about the importance of service quality as a factor of businesses' success, but to measure this quality has proved to be a challenge when one considers different environmental contexts. Given this, the main goal of this paper was to test two measurement scales of perceived service quality. The comparison between Service Quality scale (Servqual) and Retail Service Quality (RSQ) was conducted by means of a survey with 351 participants, clients of a home center stores chain located in the city of São Paulo. The data were analyzed using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. As a result, both scales demonstrated acceptable levels of reliability and validity. However, the RSQ demonstrated a better performance in the nomological test since it was able to explain 43% of the loyalty towards the retailer, while the Servqual scale explained only 11%

Optimising use of electronic health records to describe the presentation of rheumatoid arthritis in primary care: a strategy for developing code lists

Background Research using electronic health records (EHRs) relies heavily on coded clinical data. Due to variation in coding practices, it can be difficult to aggregate the codes for a condition in order to define cases. This paper describes a methodology to develop ‘indicator markers’ found in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA); these are a broader range of codes which may allow a probabilistic case definition to use in cases where no diagnostic code is yet recorded. Methods We examined EHRs of 5,843 patients in the General Practice Research Database, aged ≥30y, with a first coded diagnosis of RA between 2005 and 2008. Lists of indicator markers for RA were developed initially by panels of clinicians drawing up code-lists and then modified based on scrutiny of available data. The prevalence of indicator markers, and their temporal relationship to RA codes, was examined in patients from 3y before to 14d after recorded RA diagnosis. Findings Indicator markers were common throughout EHRs of RA patients, with 83.5% having 2 or more markers. 34% of patients received a disease-specific prescription before RA was coded; 42% had a referral to rheumatology, and 63% had a test for rheumatoid factor. 65% had at least one joint symptom or sign recorded and in 44% this was at least 6-months before recorded RA diagnosis. Conclusion Indicator markers of RA may be valuable for case definition in cases which do not yet have a diagnostic code. The clinical diagnosis of RA is likely to occur some months before it is coded, shown by markers frequently occurring ≥6 months before recorded diagnosis. It is difficult to differentiate delay in diagnosis from delay in recording. Information concealed in free text may be required for the accurate identification of patients and to assess the quality of care in general practice

Centrifugal force induced by relativistically rotating spheroids and cylinders

Starting from the gravitational potential of a Newtonian spheroidal shell we discuss electrically charged rotating prolate spheroidal shells in the Maxwell theory. In particular we consider two confocal charged shells which rotate oppositely in such a way that there is no magnetic field outside the outer shell. In the Einstein theory we solve the Ernst equations in the region where the long prolate spheroids are almost cylindrical; in equatorial regions the exact Lewis "rotating cylindrical" solution is so derived by a limiting procedure from a spatially bound system. In the second part we analyze two cylindrical shells rotating in opposite directions in such a way that the static Levi-Civita metric is produced outside and no angular momentum flux escapes to infinity. The rotation of the local inertial frames in flat space inside the inner cylinder is thus exhibited without any approximation or interpretational difficulties within this model. A test particle within the inner cylinder kept at rest with respect to axes that do not rotate as seen from infinity experiences a centrifugal force. Although the spacetime there is Minkowskian out to the inner cylinder nevertheless that space has been induced to rotate, so relative to the local inertial frame the particle is traversing a circular orbit.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure