26,154 research outputs found
Exploring the UK high street retail experience: is the service encounter still valued?
Purpose: The relationship between service quality, the service encounter and the retail experience is explored within a changing UK retail environment.
Design: Data was gathered from forty customers and twenty staff of an established UK health and beauty retailer with a long standing reputation for personal customer service. A qualitative analysis was applied using both a service quality and a customer value template.
Findings: Customers focused more on the utilitarian features of the service experience and less on âextraordinaryâ aspects, but service staff still perceived that the customer encounter remained a key requisite for successful service delivery.
Research implications: Recent environmental developments - involving customers, markets and retail platform structures - are challenging traditional service expectations.
Practical Implications: Retailers may need to reassess the role of the service encounter as part of their on-going value proposition.
Originality/value: There has been limited research to date on the perception of shoppers to the service encounter in a changing retail environment and to the evolving notions of effort and convenience
The Connection between Supernova Remnants and the Galactic Magnetic Field: A Global Radio Study of the Axisymmetric Sample
The study of supernova remnants (SNRs) is fundamental to understanding the
chemical enrichment and magnetism in galaxies, including our own Milky Way. In
an effort to understand the connection between the morphology of SNRs and the
Galactic magnetic field (GMF), we have examined the radio images of all known
SNRs in our Galaxy and compiled a large sample that have an "axisymmetric"
morphology, which we define to mean SNRs with a "bilateral" or "barrel"-shaped
morphology, in addition to one-sided shells. We selected the cleanest examples
and model each of these at their appropriate Galactic position using two GMF
models, those of Jansson & Farrar (2012a), which includes a vertical halo
component, and Sun et al. (2008) that is oriented entirely parallel to the
plane. Since the magnitude and relative orientation of the magnetic field
changes with distance from the sun, we analyse a range of distances, from 0.5
to 10 kpc in each case. Using a physically motivated model of a SNR expanding
into the ambient GMF, we find the models using Jansson & Farrar (2012a) are
able to reproduce observed morphologies of many SNRs in our sample. These
results strongly support the presence of an off-plane, vertical component to
the GMF, and the importance of the Galactic field on SNR morphology. Our
approach also provides a potential new method for determining distances to
SNRs, or conversely, distances to features in the large-scale GMF if SNR
distances are known.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures plus one 5-page appendix figure, 3 tables,
accepted to A&
XMM-Newton, Chandra, and CGPS observations of the Supernova Remnants G85.4+0.7 and G85.9-0.6
We present an XMM-Newton detection of two low radio surface brightness SNRs,
G85.4+0.7 and G85.9-0.6, discovered with the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey
(CGPS). High-resolution XMM-Newton images revealing the morphology of the
diffuse emission, as well as discrete point sources, are presented and
correlated with radio and Chandra images. The new data also permit a
spectroscopic analysis of the diffuse emission regions, and a spectroscopic and
timing analysis of the point sources. Distances have been determined from HI
and CO data to be 3.5 +/- 1.0 kpc for SNR G85.4+0.7 and 4.8 +/- 1.6 kpc for SNR
G85.9-0.6. The SNR G85.4+0.7 is found to have a temperature of ~12-13 MK and a
0.5-2.5 keV luminosity of ~1-4 x 10^33 D(3.5)^2 erg/s (where D(3.5) is the
distance in units of 3.5 kpc), with an electron density n_e of
~0.07-0.16(fD(3.5))^-1/2 cm^-3 (where f is the volume filling factor), and a
shock age of ~9-49(fD(3.5))^1/2 kyr. The SNR G85.9-0.6 is found to have a
temperature of ~15-19 MK and a 0.5-2.5 keV luminosity of ~1-4 x 10^34 D(4.8)^2
erg/s (where D(4.8) is the distance in units of 4.8 kpc), with an electron
density n_e of ~0.04-0.10(fD(4.8))^-1/2 cm^-3 and a shock age of
~12-42(fD(4.8))^1/2 kyr. Based on the data presented here, none of the point
sources appears to be the neutron star associated with either SNR.Comment: 30 pages using emulateapj, 16 figures with quality reduced for
astro-ph only. The original version with high-resolution figures can be
downloaded from:
http://www.physics.umanitoba.ca/~samar/astro-ph/G85s-ms09102007.pdf To appear
in ApJ (Jan 20 2008 issue, v673, n1
Gravitational waves in general relativity: XIV. Bondi expansions and the ``polyhomogeneity'' of \Scri
The structure of polyhomogeneous space-times (i.e., space-times with metrics
which admit an expansion in terms of ) constructed by a
Bondi--Sachs type method is analysed. The occurrence of some log terms in an
asymptotic expansion of the metric is related to the non--vanishing of the Weyl
tensor at Scri. Various quantities of interest, including the Bondi mass loss
formula, the peeling--off of the Riemann tensor and the Newman--Penrose
constants of motion are re-examined in this context.Comment: LaTeX, 28pp, CMA-MR14-9
Optical implementation of systolic array processing
Algorithms for matrix vector multiplication are implemented using acousto-optic cells for multiplication and input data transfer and using charge coupled devices detector arrays for accumulation and output of the results. No two dimensional matrix mask is required; matrix changes are implemented electronically. A system for multiplying a 50 component nonnegative real vector by a 50 by 50 nonnegative real matrix is described. Modifications for bipolar real and complex valued processing are possible, as are extensions to matrix-matrix multiplication and multiplication of a vector by multiple matrices
The clinical pharmacology of intranasal l-methamphetamine.
BackgroundWe studied the pharmacology of l-methamphetamine, the less abused isomer, when used as a nasal decongestant.Methods12 subjects self-administered l-methamphetamine from a nonprescription inhaler at the recommended dose (16 inhalations over 6 hours) then at 2 and 4 (32 and 64 inhalations) times this dose. In a separate session intravenous phenylephrine (200 microg) and l-methamphetamine (5 mg) were given to define alpha agonist pharmacology and bioavailability. Physiological, cardiovascular, pharmacokinetic, and subjective effects were measured.ResultsPlasma l-methamphetamine levels were often below the level of quantification so bioavailability was estimated by comparing urinary excretion of the intravenous and inhaled doses, yielding delivered dose estimates of 74.0 +/- 56.1, 124.7 +/- 106.6, and 268.1 +/- 220.5 microg for ascending exposures (mean 4.2 +/- 3.3 microg/inhalation). Physiological changes were minimal and not dose-dependent. Small decreases in stroke volume and cardiac output suggesting mild cardiodepression were seen.ConclusionInhaled l-methamphetamine delivered from a non-prescription product produced minimal effects but may be a cardiodepressant
Quantum quench in 1D: Coherent inhomogeneity amplification and 'supersolitons'
We study a quantum quench in a 1D system possessing Luttinger liquid (LL) and
Mott insulating ground states before and after the quench, respectively. We
show that the quench induces power law amplification in time of any particle
density inhomogeneity in the initial LL ground state. The scaling exponent is
set by the fractionalization of the LL quasiparticle number relative to the
insulator. As an illustration, we consider the traveling density waves launched
from an initial localized density bump. While these waves exhibit a particular
rigid shape, their amplitudes grow without bound.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Corner transfer matrix renormalization group method for two-dimensional self-avoiding walks and other O(n) models
We present an extension of the corner transfer matrix renormalisation group
(CTMRG) method to O(n) invariant models, with particular interest in the
self-avoiding walk class of models (O(n=0)). The method is illustrated using an
interacting self-avoiding walk model. Based on the efficiency and versatility
when compared to other available numerical methods, we present CTMRG as the
method of choice for two-dimensional self-avoiding walk problems.Comment: 4 pages 7 figures Substantial rewrite of previous version to include
calculations of critical points and exponents. Final version accepted for
publication in PRE (Rapid Communications
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