A SERVQUAL approach to identifying the influences of service quality on leasing market segment in the German financial sector

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the nature of the relationship between service quality and desired customer behaviours in the leasing market using an appropriate service quality measurement model. We take a step further by recognising the possible differences in influence of service quality in private and corporate customers, and those business dealings with low, medium and high lease values. Design/methodology/approach: We use deduction method to test the SERVQUAL in the German leasing market and the relationship between customer satisfaction and desired behavioural outcomes. The developed questionnaire is based on the 22 item scale of the SERVQUAL approach. Samples are selected based on convenience sampling. Findings: We found differences in the levels of inflence by SERVQUAL dimensions on corporate and private customers as well as among those customers with different leasing contract values. From the regression analyses, it is clear that 'assurance' from the leasing company is the most common SERVQUAL dimension that has significant impact on overall service quality perceptions and obtaining customers satisfaction and loyalty (behavioural outcomes). Originality/Value: We recognised that all financial services are not created equally to meet customer demands. Hence, the customer expectations of service quality from these services will be different. We contributed to the marketing literature by studying customer perceptions of service quality by specifying financing aspects of financial services, i.e. leasing. We further contributed to the literature of SERVQUAL model in financial services by dividing customers into two different types of customers and those with diverse leasing contract values. We found that priorities given on service quality dimensions by them are different. These concepts were never considered in the literature. This also implies that future studies on financial services marketing need to recognise such differences in the research

Folding factors and partners for the intrinsically disordered protein Micro-Exon Gene 14 (MEG-14)

The micro-exon genes (MEG) of Schistosoma mansoni, a parasite responsible for the second most widely spread tropical disease, code for small secreted proteins with sequences unique to the Schistosoma genera. Bioinformatics analyses suggest the soluble domain of the MEG-14 protein will be largely disordered, and using synchrotron radiation circular dichroism spectroscopy, its secondary structure was shown to be essentially completely unfolded in aqueous solution. It does, however, show a strong propensity to fold into more ordered structures under a wide range of conditions. Partial folding was produced by increasing temperature (in a reversible process), contrary to the behavior of most soluble proteins. Furthermore, significant folding was observed in the presence of negatively charged lipids and detergents, but not in zwitterionic or neutral lipids or detergents. Absorption onto a surface followed by dehydration stimulated it to fold into a helical structure, as it did when the aqueous solution was replaced by nonaqueous solvents. Hydration of the dehydrated folded protein was accompanied by complete unfolding. These results support the identification of MEG-14 as a classic intrinsically disordered protein, and open the possibility of its interaction/folding with different partners and factors being related to multifunctional roles and states within the host

MULTIPLE HIGH CURRENT BUNCHES IN PEP-II

Operation with colliding beams at PEP-II has progressed remarkably well with over half the design specific luminosity and 5:2 10 32 cm,2s,1 in multiple bunches demonstrated during the last commissioning period before installation of the BABAR detector. Further luminosity increases are anticipated as the vertical beam size is reduced and beam currents are raised towards design values. At high currents interesting multibunch dynamics, which depend strongly on current distribution, have been observed during single-beam commissioning studies. Transverse beam instabilities nominally controlled using bunch-by-bunch feedback were observed to be significantly suppressed, in the absence of feedback, with beams in collision.

Оценка надежности высоконадежных систем с учетом ЗИП

Предложены приближенные верхние и нижние оценки коэффициента готовности высоконадежной восстанавливаемой системы со структурной избыточностью. Полученные расчетные соотношения могут использоваться для оценки надежности высоконадежных систем с учетом различных стратегий пополнения ЗИП

Maxwell Duality, Lorentz Invariance, and Topological Phase

We discuss the Maxwell electromagnetic duality relations between the Aharonov-Bohm, Aharonov-Casher, and He-McKellar-Wilkens topological phases, which allows a unified description of all three phenomena. We also elucidate Lorentz transformations that allow these effects to be understood in an intuitive fashion in the rest frame of the moving quantum particle. Finally, we propose two experimental schemes for measuring the He-McKellar-Wilkens phase.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Uptake Mechanism of ApoE-Modified Nanoparticles on Brain Capillary Endothelial Cells as a Blood-Brain Barrier Model

Background: The blood-brain barrier (BBB) represents an insurmountable obstacle for most drugs thus obstructing an effective treatment of many brain diseases. One solution for overcoming this barrier is a transport by binding of these drugs to surface-modified nanoparticles. Especially apolipoprotein E (ApoE) appears to play a major role in the nanoparticle-mediated drug transport across the BBB. However, at present the underlying mechanism is incompletely understood. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, the uptake of the ApoE-modified nanoparticles into the brain capillary endothelial cells was investigated to differentiate between active and passive uptake mechanism by flow cytometry and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Furthermore, different in vitro co-incubation experiments were performed with competing ligands of the respective receptor. Conclusions/Significance: This study confirms an active endocytotic uptake mechanism and shows the involvement of low density lipoprotein receptor family members, notably the low density lipoprotein receptor related protein, on the uptake of the ApoE-modified nanoparticles into the brain capillary endothelial cells. This knowledge of the uptake mechanism of ApoE-modified nanoparticles enables future developments to rationally create very specific and effective carriers to overcome the blood-brain barrier

Mineralogical and geochemical analysis of Fe-phases in drill-cores from the Triassic Stuttgart Formation at Ketzin CO₂ storage site before CO₂ arrival

Reactive iron (Fe) oxides and sheet silicate-bound Fe in reservoir rocks may affect the subsurface storage of CO2 through several processes by changing the capacity to buffer the acidification by CO2 and the permeability of the reservoir rock: (1) the reduction of three-valent Fe in anoxic environments can lead to an increase in pH, (2) under sulphidic conditions, Fe may drive sulphur cycling and lead to the formation of pyrite, and (3) the leaching of Fe from sheet silicates may affect silicate diagenesis. In order to evaluate the importance of Fe-reduction on the CO2 reservoir, we analysed the Fe geochemistry in drill-cores from the Triassic Stuttgart Formation (Schilfsandstein) recovered from the monitoring well at the CO2 test injection site near Ketzin, Germany. The reservoir rock is a porous, poorly to moderately cohesive fluvial sandstone containing up to 2–4 wt% reactive Fe. Based on a sequential extraction, most Fe falls into the dithionite-extractable Fe-fraction and Fe bound to sheet silicates, whereby some Fe in the dithionite-extractable Fe-fraction may have been leached from illite and smectite. Illite and smectite were detected in core samples by X-ray diffraction and confirmed as the main Fe-containing mineral phases by X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Chlorite is also present, but likely does not contribute much to the high amount of Fe in the silicate-bound fraction. The organic carbon content of the reservoir rock is extremely low (<0.3 wt%), thus likely limiting microbial Fe-reduction or sulphate reduction despite relatively high concentrations of reactive Fe-mineral phases in the reservoir rock and sulphate in the reservoir fluid. Both processes could, however, be fuelled by organic matter that is mobilized by the flow of supercritical CO2 or introduced with the drilling fluid. Over long time periods, a potential way of liberating additional reactive Fe could occur through weathering of silicates due to acidification by CO2