An investigation of the relationships between service quality, customer satisfaction, perceived value and behavioural intentions

Customer satisfaction and service quality are two important concepts in the marketing literature. However, there has been some confusion about the conceptualisation and measurement of these two concepts and the nature of the relationship between them. The primary objective of this research was to develop a more thorough understanding of these concepts, and a model that could help to explain the links between them and their relationships with post-purchase behaviour. A preliminary theoretical model was developed, based on an exhaustive review of the literature. Following exploratory research, the model was revised by incorporating "Perceived Value" and "Perceived Sacrifice" to help explain customer's post-purchase behaviour. A longitudinal survey was conducted in the context of the restaurant industry, and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results provided evidence to support the main research hypotheses. However, the effect of "Normative Expectations" on "Encounter Quality" was insignificant, and "Perceived Value" had a direct effect on "Behavioural Intentions" despite expectations that such an effect would be mediated through "Customer Satisfaction". It was also found that "Normative Expectations" were relatively more stable than "Predictive Expectations". It is argued that the present research significantly contributes to the marketing literature, and in particular the role of perceived value in the formation of customers' post-purchase behaviour. Further research efforts in this area are warranted

Characterisation of Al corrosion and its impact on the mechanical performance of composite cement wasteforms by the acoustic emission technique

In this study acoustic emission (AE) non-destructive method was used to evaluate the mechanical performance of cementitious wasteforms with encapsulated Al waste. AE waves generated as a result of Al corrosion in small-size blast furnace slag/ordinary Portland cement wasteforms were recorded and analysed. The basic principles of the conventional parameter-based AE approach and signal-based analysis were combined to establish a relationship between recorded AE signals and different interactions between the Al and the encapsulating cement matrix. The AE technique was shown as a potential and valuable tool for a new area of application related to monitoring and inspection of the mechanical stability of cementitious wasteforms with encapsulated metallic wastes such as Al

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of clofazimine for treatment of cryptosporidiosis

Infection with Cryptosporidium spp. can cause severe diarrhea leading to long-term adverse impacts and even death in malnourished children and immunocompromised patients. The only FDA-approved drug for treating cryptosporidiosis, nitazoxanide, has limited efficacy in the populations impacted the most by the diarrheal disease, and safe, effective treatment options are urgently needed. Initially identified by a large-scale phenotypic screening campaign, the antimycobacterial therapeutic clofazimine demonstrated great promise in both in vitro and in vivo preclinical models of Cryptosporidium infection. Unfortunately, a Phase 2a clinical trial in HIV infected adults with cryptosporidiosis did not identify any clofazimine treatment effect on Cryptosporidium infection burden or clinical outcomes. To explore whether clofazimine's lack of efficacy in the Phase 2a trial may have been due to subtherapeutic clofazimine concentrations, a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling approach was undertaken to determine the relationship between clofazimine in vivo concentrations and treatment effects in multiple preclinical infection models. Exposure-response relationships were characterized using Emax and logistic models which allowed predictions of efficacious clofazimine concentrations for the control and reduction of disease burden. After establishing exposure-response relationships for clofazimine treatment of Cryptosporidium infection in our preclinical model studies, it was unmistakable that the clofazimine levels observed in the Phase 2a study participants were well below concentrations associated with anti-Cryptosporidium efficacy. Thus, despite a dosing regimen above the highest doses recommended for mycobacterial therapy, it is very likely the lack of treatment effect in the Phase 2a trial was at least partially due to clofazimine concentrations below those required for efficacy against cryptosporidiosis. It is unlikely that clofazimine will provide a remedy for the large number of cryptosporidiosis patients currently without a viable treatment option unless alternative, safe clofazimine formulations with improved oral absorption are developed

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Multi-omics analyses of radiation survivors identify radioprotective microbes and metabolites

Ionizing radiation causes acute radiation syndrome, which leads to hematopoietic, gastrointestinal, and cerebrovascular injuries. We investigated a population of mice that recovered from high-dose radiation to live normal life spans. These "elite-survivors" harbored distinct gut microbiota that developed after radiation and protected against radiation-induced damage and death in both germ-free and conventionally housed recipients. Elevated abundances of members of the bacterial taxa Lachnospiraceae and Enterococcaceae were associated with postradiation restoration of hematopoiesis and gastrointestinal repair. These bacteria were also found to be more abundant in leukemia patients undergoing radiotherapy, who also displayed milder gastrointestinal dysfunction. In our study in mice, metabolomics revealed increased fecal concentrations of microbially derived propionate and tryptophan metabolites in elite-survivors. The administration of these metabolites caused long-term radioprotection, mitigation of hematopoietic and gastrointestinal syndromes, and a reduction in proinflammatory responses

The Earth: Plasma Sources, Losses, and Transport Processes

This paper reviews the state of knowledge concerning the source of magnetospheric plasma at Earth. Source of plasma, its acceleration and transport throughout the system, its consequences on system dynamics, and its loss are all discussed. Both observational and modeling advances since the last time this subject was covered in detail (Hultqvist et al., Magnetospheric Plasma Sources and Losses, 1999) are addressed

Test beam performance measurements for the Phase I upgrade of the CMS pixel detector

A new pixel detector for the CMS experiment was built in order to cope with the instantaneous luminosities anticipated for the Phase I Upgrade of the LHC. The new CMS pixel detector provides four-hit tracking with a reduced material budget as well as new cooling and powering schemes. A new front-end readout chip mitigates buffering and bandwidth limitations, and allows operation at low comparator thresholds. In this paper, comprehensive test beam studies are presented, which have been conducted to verify the design and to quantify the performance of the new detector assemblies in terms of tracking efficiency and spatial resolution. Under optimal conditions, the tracking efficiency is (99.95 ± 0.05) %, while the intrinsic spatial resolutions are (4.80 ± 0.25) μm and (7.99 ± 0.21) μm along the 100 μm and 150 μm pixel pitch, respectively. The findings are compared to a detailed Monte Carlo simulation of the pixel detector and good agreement is found.Peer reviewe

Measurement of the mass difference between top quark and antiquark in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

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Search for leptophobic Z ' bosons decaying into four-lepton final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

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