救灾与救国:二十世纪三十年代澳洲华人之中国情怀

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From customer orientation to customer satisfaction: The gap between theory and practice

The classical quality management theory suggests that different quality improvement practices have a similar positive effect on overall operational efficiency, leading to customer satisfaction. Based on a study of 225 organizations in the electronics industry in Hong Kong, we find that individual quality improvement practice has a specific effect on operational performance, rather than equally improving the overall operational efficiency. Our investigations indicate that customer orientation practices primarily affect time-based efficiency, while process improvement efforts help cost-related performance. On the other hand, emphasizing process-control systems leads to customer satisfaction directly without necessarily improving operations. While supporting the basic assertions of the classical quality management theory, these findings reveal that several problems exist in the practice of quality management in industry, and suggest that a re-direction of several quality management practices seems necessary. This research refines the understanding of quality management by explicating the specific effect of customer orientation and process management on organizational performance.published_or_final_versio

From customer orientation to customer satisfaction : the gap between theory and practice

2003-2004 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Impact of diatom-diazotroph associations on carbon export in the Amazon River plume

Offshore tropical river plumes are associated with areas of high N-2 fixation (diazotrophy) and biological carbon drawdown. Episodic blooms of the diatom Hemiaulus hauckii and its diazotrophic cyanobacterial symbiont Richelia intracellularis are believed to dominate that carbon drawdown, but the mechanism is not well understood. We report primary productivity associated with blooms of these diatom-diazotroph assemblages (DDAs) in the offshore plume of the Amazon River using simultaneous measurements of O-2/Ar ratios and the triple-isotope composition of dissolved O-2. In these blooms, we observe peaks in net community productivity, but relatively small changes in gross primary productivity, suggesting that DDA blooms increase the ecosystem carbon export ratio more than twofold. These events of enhanced export efficiency lead to biological uptake of dissolved inorganic carbon and silicate, whose longer mixed-layer residence times otherwise obscure the differential impact of DDAs. The shorter-term rate estimates presented here are consistent with the results derived from longer-term geochemical tracers, confirming that DDAs drive a significant biological CO2 pump in tropical oceans

Longitudinal predictors of Chinese word reading and spelling among elementary grade students.

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Reading and spelling Chinese among beginning readers: What skills make a difference?

The contributions of six important reading-related skills (phonological awareness, rapid naming, orthographic skills, morphological awareness, listening comprehension, and syntactic skills) to Chinese word and text reading were examined among 290 Chinese first graders in Hong Kong. Rapid naming, but not phonological awareness, was a significant predictor of Chinese word reading and writing to dictation (i.e., spelling) in the context of orthographic skills and morphological awareness. Commonality analyses suggested that orthographic skills and morphological awareness each contributed significant amount of unique variance to Chinese word reading and spelling. Syntactic skills accounted for significant amount of unique variance in reading comprehension at both sentence and passage levels after controlling for the effects of word reading and the other skills, but listening comprehension did not. A model on the interrelationships among the reading-related skills and Chinese reading at both word and text levels was proposed. © 2011 Society for the Scientific Study of Reading.postprin

Reading and spelling Chinese among beginning readers: What skills make a difference?

The contributions of six important reading-related skills (phonological awareness, rapid naming, orthographic skills, morphological awareness, listening comprehension, and syntactic skills) to Chinese word and text reading were examined among 290 Chinese first graders in Hong Kong. Rapid naming, but not phonological awareness, was a significant predictor of Chinese word reading and writing to dictation (i.e., spelling) in the context of orthographic skills and morphological awareness. Commonality analyses suggested that orthographic skills and morphological awareness each contributed significant amount of unique variance to Chinese word reading and spelling. Syntactic skills accounted for significant amount of unique variance in reading comprehension at both sentence and passage levels after controlling for the effects of word reading and the other skills, but listening comprehension did not. A model on the interrelationships among the reading-related skills and Chinese reading at both word and text levels was proposed. © 2011 Society for the Scientific Study of Reading.postprin

Performance of Ultrasensitive Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Detecting Asymptomatic Plasmodium falciparum.

Proposed interventions for eliminating drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria include the targeting of asymptomatic carriers through screening and treatment. We report on the diagnostic performance of the recently developed ultrasensitive rapid diagnostic test (uRDT) compared with screening with conventional RDTs (cRDT) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) under field conditions in Cambodia in a total of 2,729 individuals. The P. falciparum positivity by quantitative PCR (qPCR) was 3.8% (26/678) in those screened during active case detection and 0.5% (10/2,051) in the cross-sectional survey. Compared with qPCR, the sensitivity of the uRDTs was 53.8% (95% CI: 33.4-73.4%) when used in active case detection and 60.0% (95% CI: 26.2-87.8%) in the cross-sectional survey. The uRDTs did not show a significant improvement in diagnostic performance over cRDTs when used for active case detection and for a malaria prevalence survey in the context of this low-transmission setting

Performance of the VITEK MS matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry system for rapid bacterial identification in two diagnostic centres in China

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) MS systems was not officially launched for diagnostic use in clinical microbiology laboratories in China until 2012. Here, we report the findings from the first large-scale evaluation study of VITEK MS for routine bacterial identification in two major diagnostic centres in Beijing and Hong Kong. A total of 2266 unique isolates representing 56 genera and 127 species were analysed, and results were compared to those obtained by VITEK 2. Any discrepancies were resolved by 16S rRNA sequencing. Overall, VITEK MS provided correct identification for 2246 (99.1%) isolates, including 2193 (96.8%) with correct species-level identifications and 53 (2.3%) matched at the genus level only. VITEK MS surpassed VITEK 2 consistently in species-level identification of important pathogens, including non-Enterobacteriaceae Gram-negative bacilli (94.7 versus 92%), staphylococci (99.7 versus 92.4%), streptococci (92.6 versus 79.4%), enterococci (98.8 versus 92.6%) and Clostridium spp. (97.3 versus 55.5%). The findings demonstrated that VITEK MS is highly accurate and reliable for routine bacterial identification in clinical settings in China. © 2015 The Authors.postprin

Malaria and the mobile and migrant population in Cambodia: a population movement framework to inform strategies for malaria control and elimination.

BACKGROUND: The relationships between human population movement (HPM) and health are a concern at global level. In the case of malaria, those links are crucial in relation to the spread of drug resistant parasites and to the elimination of malaria in the Greater Mekong sub-Region (GMS) and beyond. The mobile and migrant populations (MMP) who are involved in forest related activities are both at high risk of being infected with malaria and at risk of receiving late and sub-standard treatment due to poor access to health services. In Cambodia, in 2012, the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP) identified, as a key objective, the development of a specific strategy for MMPs in order to address these challenges. A population movement framework (PMF) for malaria was developed and operationalized in order to contribute to this strategy. METHODS: A review of the published and unpublished literature was conducted. Based on a synthesis of the results, information was presented and discussed with experienced researchers and programme managers in the Cambodian NMCP and led to the development and refinement of a PMF for malaria. The framework was "tested" for face and content validity with national experts through a workshop approach. RESULTS: In the literature, HPM has been described using various spatial and temporal dimensions both in the context of the spread of anti-malarial drug resistance, and in the context of malaria elimination and previous classifications have categorized MMPs in Cambodia and the GMS through using a number of different criteria. Building on these previous models, the PMF was developed and then refined and populated with in-depth information relevant to Cambodia collected from social science research and field experiences in Cambodia. The framework comprises of the PMF itself, MMP activity profiles and a Malaria Risk Index which is a summation of three related indices: a vulnerability index, an exposure index and an access index which allow a qualitative ranking of malaria risk in the MMP population. Application of currently available data to the framework illustrates that the highest risk population are those highly mobile populations engaged in forest work. CONCLUSION: This paper describes the process of defining MMPs in Cambodia, identifying the different activities and related risks to appropriately target and tailor interventions to the highest risk groups. The framework has been used to develop more targeted behaviour change and outreach interventions for MMPs in Cambodia and its utility and effectiveness will be evaluated as part of those interventions