Understanding Professional Service Delivery

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply concepts from organizational and social identity theories to theoretically consider different ways that professional service providers conceptualize their roles and deliver their knowledge. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is a conceptual discussion to advance the understanding of professional service delivery, within the realm of service-quality research. Findings: The field has yet to provide a clear understanding of what professional service delivery actually looks like. The paper offers propositions examining the process by which professionals identify with membership in their profession and firms that in turn, influence their expert-based self-concepts, the images they form of their clients as recipients of their knowledge, and ways they create the service exchange. The paper also considers the impact of professional and organizational identification on the types of clientele professionals may develop. Research limitations/implications: The paper adds depth to the understanding of the complex process of expert-based service delivery. The ideas presented in this paper have implications for research in service-quality, specifically in understanding how and why professionals approach their client-interactions. Practical implications: The ideas presented in this paper would be useful to professional service firms interested in understanding the role their firm’s identity plays in ways its professionals conduct their work and the types of clientele they wish to attract. Originality/value: The paper contributes to the service quality literature through conceptualizing professional service delivery. It represents a step in acknowledging the role of professional delivery in influencing service outcomes and in developing the theoretical rationale as to why different approaches exist

Multiple incursion pathways for Helicoverpa armigera in Brazil show its genetic diversity spreading in a connected world

The Old World cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera was first detected in Brazil with subsequent reports from Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and Uruguay. This pattern suggests that the H. armigera spread across the South American continent following incursions into northern/central Brazil, however, this hypothesis has not been tested. Here we compare northern and central Brazilian H. armigera mtDNA COI haplotypes with those from southern Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay. We infer spatial genetic and gene flow patterns of this dispersive pest in the agricultural landscape of South America. We show that the spatial distribution of H. armigera mtDNA haplotypes and its inferred gene flow patterns in the southwestern region of South America exhibited signatures inconsistent with a single incursion hypothesis. Simulations on spatial distribution patterns show that the detection of rare and/or the absence of dominant mtDNA haplotypes in southern H. armigera populations are inconsistent with genetic signatures observed in northern and central Brazil. Incursions of H. armigera into the New World are therefore likely to have involved independent events in northern/central Brazil, and southern Brazil/Uruguay-Argentina-Paraguay. This study demonstrates the significant biosecurity challenges facing the South American continent, and highlights alternate pathways for introductions of alien species into the New World

Time-resolved gas-phase kinetic and quantum chemical studies of the reaction of silylene with oxygen

Time-resolved kinetic studies of the reaction of silylene, SiH2, generated by laser flash photolysis of phenylsilane, have been carried out to obtain rate constants for its bimolecular reaction with O-2. The reaction was studied in the gas phase over the pressure range 1-100 Torr in SF6 bath gas, at five temperatures in the range 297-600 K. The second order rate constants at 10 Torr were fitted to the Arrhenius equation: log(k/cm(3) molecule(-1) s(-1)) = (-11.08 +/- 0.04) + (1.57 +/- 0.32 kJ mol(-1))/RT ln10 The decrease in rate constant values with increasing temperature, although systematic is very small. The rate constants showed slight increases in value with pressure at each temperature, but this was scarcely beyond experimental uncertainty. From estimates of Lennard-Jones collision rates, this reaction is occurring at ca. 1 in 20 collisions, almost independent of pressure and temperature. Ab initio calculations at the G3 level backed further by multi-configurational (MC) SCF calculations, augmented by second order perturbation theory (MRMP2), support a mechanism in which the initial adduct, H2SiOO, formed in the triplet state (T), undergoes intersystem crossing to the more stable singlet state (S) prior to further low energy isomerisation processes leading, via a sequence of steps, ultimately to dissociation products of which the lowest energy pair are H2O + SiO. The decomposition of the intermediate cyclo-siladioxirane, via O-O bond fission, plays an important role in the overall process. The bottleneck for the overall process appears to be the T -> S process in H2SiOO. This process has a small spin orbit coupling matrix element, consistent with an estimate of its rate constant of 1 x 10(9) s(-1) obtained with the aid of RRKM theory. This interpretation preserves the idea that, as in its reactions in general, SiH2 initially reacts at the encounter rate with O-2. The low values for the secondary reaction barriers on the potential energy surface account for the lack of an observed pressure dependence. Some comparisons are drawn with the reactions of CH2 + O-2 and SiCl2 + O-2

An Overview of the Main Environmental Issues Affecting Kisumu and Lake Victoria's Winam Gulf

This overview was produced in response to a request from the Mayor of Kisumu, who expressed the urgent need to deal with the deteriorating environment in and around the City and in the Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria. Researched and written by experts at the Earth Institute, the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) and the environmental team of the MDG Centre in Nairobi, it describes and analyses the current environmental condition in Kisumu and its surrounding catchment; discusses some of the factors contributing to the ongoing degradation, and proposes a set of recommendations for constructive action

An application of multimedia in teaching mechanical vibrations

An application of multimedia in teaching mechanical vibration

Development of a Master of Science programme in Automotive Systems Engineering

Development of a Master of Science programme in Automotive Systems Engineerin

Remote sensing of bubble clouds in seawater

We report on the influence of submerged bubble clouds on the remote sensing properties of water. We show that the optical effect of bubbles on radiative transfer and on the estimate of the ocean color is significant. We present a global map of the volume fraction of air in water derived from daily wind speed data. This map, together with the parameterization of the microphysical properties, shows the possible significance of bubble clouds on the albedo of incoming solar energyComment: 17 pages, 6 Postscript figures, see also http://atol.ucsd.edu/~pflatau publications for related papers. Q. J. Roy. Met. Soc. in press 200

Performance assessment of novel side firing safe tips for endodontic applications

During root canal or periodontal treatment, directing laser energy onto the walls of the root canal is essential for effective disinfection. This study assessed the performance of four different fiber modifications that have increased lateral emission, including three designs with safe tips to reduce irradiation directed toward the root apex. Free-running pulsed infrared lasers (Nd:YAG, Er:YAG, and Er, Cr:YSGG) and a diode laser (980 nm) were used in combination with plain ended (forward emitting) laser fibers; conical laser fibers, side firing honeycomb pattern fibers without a safe end; honeycomb fibers with silver coated ends, conical fibers with selectively abraded tips, and selectively abraded honeycomb fibers with silver coated tips (20 fibers for each laser type). Laser emissions forward and laterally were measured, and digital photographs and thermally sensitive paper used to record the emission profiles. Thermochromic dyes painted onto the root surface of an extracted tooth were used to explore the distribution of laser energy with different tips designs. All three safe tipped ends gave reduced emissions in the forward direction (range 17-59%), but had similar lateral emission characteristics. Fiber designs with reduced forward emission may be useful for various dental laser procedures. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3563637

Population structure and gene flow in the global pest, Helicoverpa armigera

Helicoverpa armigerais a major agricultural pest that is distributed across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australasia. This species is hypothesized to have spread to the Americas 1.5million years ago, founding a population that is at present, a distinct species,Helicoverpa zea. In 2013,H.armigerawas confirmed to have re-entered South America via Brazil and subsequently spread. The source of the recent incursion is unknown and population structure inH.armigerais poorly resolved, but a basic understanding would highlight potential biosecurity failures and determine the recent evolutionary history of region-specific lineages. Here, we integrate several end points derived from high-throughput sequencing to assess gene flow inH.armigeraandH.zeafrom populations across six continents. We first assemble mitochondrial genomes to demonstrate the phylogenetic relationship ofH.armigerawith other Heliothine species and the lack of distinction between populations. We subsequently usede novogenotyping-by-sequencing and whole-genome sequences aligned to bacterial artificial chromosomes, to assess levels of admixture. Primarily, we find that BrazilianH.armigeraare derived from diverse source populations, with strong signals of gene flow from European populations, as well as prevalent signals of Asian and African ancestry. We also demonstrate a potential field-caught hybrid betweenH.armigeraandH.zea,and are able to provide genomic support for the presence of theH.armigera confertasubspecies in Australasia. While structure among the bulk of populations remains unresolved, we present distinctions that are pertinent to future investigations as well as to the biosecurity threat posed byH.armigera

High-resolution radio continuum survey of M33 II. Thermal and nonthermal emission

We determine the variation in the nonthermal radio spectral index in the nearby spiral galaxy M33 at a linear resolution of 360 pc. We separate the thermal and nonthermal components of the radio continuum emission without the assumption of a constant nonthermal spectral index. Using the Spitzer FIR data at 70 and 160 $\mu$m and a standard dust model, we deredden the H$\alpha$ emission. The extinction corrected H$\alpha$ emission serves as a template for the thermal free-free radio emission. Subtracting from the observed 3.6 cm and 20 cm emission (Effelsberg and the VLA) this free-free emission, we obtain the nonthermal maps. A constant electron temperature used to obtain the thermal radio intensity seems appropriate for M~33 which, unlike the Milky Way, has a shallow metallicity gradient. For the first time, we derive the distribution of the nonthermal spectral index across a galaxy, M33. We detect strong nonthermal emission from the spiral arms and star-forming regions. Wavelet analysis shows that at 3.6 cm the nonthermal emission is dominated by contributions from star-forming regions, while it is smoothly distributed at 20 cm. For the whole galaxy, we obtain thermal fractions of 51% and 18% at 3.6 cm and 20 cm, respectively. The thermal emission is slightly stronger in the southern than in the northern half of the galaxy. We find a clear radial gradient of mean extinction in the galactic plane. The nonthermal spectral index map indicates that the relativistic electrons suffer energy-loss when diffusing from their origin in star-forming regions towards interarm regions and the outer parts of the galaxy. We also conclude that the radio emission is mostly nonthermal at R $>$ 5 kpc in M33.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomy and Astrophysics journa