112 research outputs found
Internal Customer Service: The Potential for E-Service
This empirically based paper is concerned with the application of the notion of internal customer service, purchasing and procurement, to e-services. It contends that much of the recent research into e-business, and eservice in particular, has taken a primarily external customer focus. Reports suggest that the greatest potential of e-business comes from applications within and between businesses. The findings are based on data collected in an extensive research programme from interviews, cases and focus groups in 97 organisations. It has shown that contrary to views of the traditional purchasing and procurement functions, e-service improved customer perceptions of service through faster and easier service with speeder resolution of problems, improved process reliability with reduced mean time between failures together with overall cost reductions
Examining the contribution of internal customer service to improved e-procurement performance: A Case Study investigation
Much of the existing published research into the impact of electronic procurement has focused on the cost efficiency or implementation issues of its adoption. Issues relating to the significance of improved compliance on procurement performance were noted in our earlier paper [7], yet little if any research has so far set out to quantify the impact of electronic procurement on internal customers’ perceptions of service quality. This paper provides an examination of the impact of e-procurement adoption on internal users perceptions of service quality. Employing Johnston’s [15] 15 service quality criteria, we compared users perceptions of pre- and postelectronic procurement processes for two categories of supply: computer consumables and stationery. Using an online survey (appendix 1) a pilot study was conducted in a single organisation that has employed ‘supplyside’ electronic procurement for 18 months. We found that users expressed ‘delight’ in many aspects of the service provision relating to the design characteristics of the eprocurement system, but dissatisfaction with issues concerning the actual system delivery (particularly related to IT infrastructure and networks). This paper only provides early results from the pilot study, so further conclusions from our research must be deferred until a more significant sample of responses have been analysed
Supply chain management: an analytical framework for critical literature review.
Abstract There can be little dispute that supply chain management is an area of importance in the "eld of management research, yet there have been few literature reviews on this topic (Bechtel and Mulumudi, 1996, Proceedings of the 1996 NAPM Annual Academic Conference; Harland, 1996, British Journal of Management 7 (special issue), 63}80; Cooper et al., 1997). This paper sets out not to review the supply chain literature per se, but rather to contribute to a critical theory debate through the presentation and use of a framework for the categorisation of literature linked to supply chain management. The study is based on the analysis of a large number of publications on supply chain management (books, journal articles, and conference papers) using a Procite database from which the literature has been classi"ed according to two criteria: a content-and a methodology-oriented criterion
On the spectroastrometric separation of binary point-source fluxes
Spectroastrometry is a technique which has the potential to resolve flux
distributions on scales of milliarcseconds. In this study, we examine the
application of spectroastrometry to binary point sources which are spatially
unresolved due to the observational point spread function convolution. The
technique uses measurements with sub-pixel accuracy of the position centroid of
high signal-to-noise long-slit spectrum observations. With the objects in the
binary contributing fractionally more or less at different wavelengths
(particularly across spectral lines), the variation of the position centroid
with wavelength provides some information on the spatial distribution of the
flux. We examine the width of the flux distribution in the spatial direction,
and present its relation to the ratio of the fluxes of the two components of
the binary. Measurement of three observables (total flux, position centroid and
flux distribution width) at each wavelength allows a unique separation of the
total flux into its component parts even though the angular separation of the
binary is smaller than the observations' point-spread function. This is because
we have three relevant observables for three unknowns (the two fluxes, and the
angular separation of the binary), which therefore generates a closed problem.
This is a wholly different technique than conventional deconvolution methods,
which produce information on angular sizes of the sampling scale.
Spectroastrometry can produce information on smaller scales than conventional
deconvolution, and is successful in separating fluxes in a binary object with a
separation of less than one pixel. We present an analysis of the errors
involved in making binary object spectroastrometric measurements and the
separation method, and highlight necessary observing methodology.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Supply chain management: an analytical framework for critical literature review.
Abstract There can be little dispute that supply chain management is an area of importance in the "eld of management research, yet there have been few literature reviews on this topic (Bechtel and Mulumudi, 1996, Proceedings of the 1996 NAPM Annual Academic Conference; Harland, 1996, British Journal of Management 7 (special issue), 63}80; Cooper et al., 1997). This paper sets out not to review the supply chain literature per se, but rather to contribute to a critical theory debate through the presentation and use of a framework for the categorisation of literature linked to supply chain management. The study is based on the analysis of a large number of publications on supply chain management (books, journal articles, and conference papers) using a Procite database from which the literature has been classi"ed according to two criteria: a content-and a methodology-oriented criterion
Photometric Selection of Emission Line Galaxies, Clustering Analysis and a Search for the ISW effect
We investigate the use of simple colour cuts applied to the SDSS optical
imaging to perform photometric selections of emission line galaxies out to z<1.
From colour-cuts using the SDSS g, r and i bands, we obtain mean photometric
redshifts of z=0.32+-0.08, z=0.44+-0.12 and z=0.65+-0.21. We further calibrate
our high redshift selection using spectroscopic observations with the AAOmega
spectrograph on the 4m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), observing ~50-200
galaxy candidates in 4 separate fields. With just 1-hour of integration time
and with seeing of ~1.6", we successfully determined redshifts for ~65% of the
targeted candidates. We calculate the angular correlation functions of the
samples and find correlation lengths of r0=2.64 h-1 Mpc, r0=3.62 h-1 Mpc and
r0=5.88 h-1 Mpc for the low, mid and high redshift samples respectively.
Comparing these results with predicted dark matter clustering, we estimate the
bias parameter for each sample to be b=0.70, b=0.92 and b=1.46. We calculate
the 2-point redshift-space correlation function at z~0.6 and find a clustering
amplitude of s0=6.4 h-1 Mpc. Finally, we use our photometric sample to search
for the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe signal in the WMAP 5yr data. We cross-correlate
our three redshift samples with the WMAP W, V, Q and K bands and find an
overall trend for a positive signal similar to that expected from models.
However, the signal in each is relatively weak. Combining all three galaxy
samples we find a signal of wTg(<100')=0.20+-0.12 microK in the WMAP W-band, a
significance of 1.7sigma.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, submitted to MNRA
The influence of REM sleep and SWS on emotional memory consolidation in participants reporting depressive symptoms
Negative emotional memory bias is thought to play a causal role in the onset and maintenance of major depressive disorder. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep has been shown to selectively consolidate negative emotional memories in healthy participants, and is greater in quantity and density in depressed patients. Slow-Wave Sleep (SWS) is typically associated with the consolidation of non-emotional memories. However, the effects of REM sleep and SWS on emotional memory consolidation have not been investigated in participants reporting depressive symptoms. In this study, we recruited two groups of healthy participants; one reporting mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms, and another reporting minimal depressive symptoms (assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory; BDI-II). Using a within-subjects split-night design, we measured consolidation of positive, neutral and negative images across a 3 h retention interval rich in either REM sleep or SWS. We found a significant sleep condition x image valence interaction in participants reporting depressive symptoms [F (2, 20) = 4.73, p = .021], but not participants reporting minimal depressive symptoms [F (2, 22) = 0.17, p = .845]. Participants reporting depressive symptoms consolidated significantly more neutral memories during SWS, and marginally more negative memories during REM sleep, than those reporting minimal depressive symptoms [t (21) = 2.44, p = .023; t (21) = 1.96, p = .064, respectively]. Our preliminary results demonstrate that REM sleep and SWS have differential effects on the consolidation of emotional and neutral images in participants reporting depressive symptoms. Further studies including larger sample sizes are required to investigate whether REM sleep alterations promote the development of negative memory bias in major depressive disorder
A Consistent Comparison of Bias Models using Observational Data
We investigate five different models for the dark matter halo bias, ie., the
ratio of the fluctuations of mass tracers to those of the underlying mass, by
comparing their cosmological evolution using optical QSO and galaxy bias data
at different redshifts, consistently scaled to the WMAP7 cosmology. Under the
assumption that each halo hosts one extragalactic mass tracer, we use a
minimization procedure to determine the free parameters of the bias
models as well as to statistically quantify their ability to represent the
observational data. Using the Akaike information criterion we find that the
model that represents best the observational data is the Basilakos & Plionis
(2001; 2003) model with the tracer merger extension of Basilakos, Plionis &
Ragone-Figueroa (2008) model. The only other statistically equivalent model, as
indicated by the same criterion, is the Tinker et al. (2010) model. Finally, we
find an average, over the different models, dark matter halo mass that hosts
optical QSOs of: ,
while the corresponding value for optical galaxies is: .Comment: MNRAS in press, 12 pages, 6 color figures, 4 table
On merger bias and the clustering of quasars
We use the large catalogues of haloes available for the Millennium Simulation
to test whether recently merged haloes exhibit stronger large-scale clustering
than other haloes of the same mass. This effect could help to understand the
very strong clustering of quasars at high redshift. However, we find no
statistically significant excess bias for recently merged haloes over the
redshift range 2 < z < 5, with the most massive haloes showing an excess of at
most ~5%. We also consider galaxies extracted from a semianalytic model built
on the Millennium Simulation. At fixed stellar mass, we find an excess bias of
~ 20-30% for recently merged objects, decreasing with increasing stellar mass.
The fact that recently-merged galaxies are found in systematically more massive
haloes than other galaxies of the same stellar mass accounts for about half of
this signal, and perhaps more for high-mass galaxies. The weak merger bias of
massive systems suggests that objects of merger-driven nature, such as quasars,
do not cluster significantly differently than other objects of the same
characteristic mass. We discuss the implications of these results for the
interpretation of clustering data with respect to quasar duty cycles,
visibility times, and evolution in the black hole-host mass relation.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcom
The Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI)
We demonstrate a novel technology that combines the power of the multi-object
spectrograph with the spatial multiplex advantage of an integral field
spectrograph (IFS). The Sydney-AAO Multi-object IFS (SAMI) is a prototype
wide-field system at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) that allows 13
imaging fibre bundles ("hexabundles") to be deployed over a 1-degree diameter
field of view. Each hexabundle comprises 61 lightly-fused multimode fibres with
reduced cladding and yields a 75 percent filling factor. Each fibre core
diameter subtends 1.6 arcseconds on the sky and each hexabundle has a field of
view of 15 arcseconds diameter. The fibres are fed to the flexible AAOmega
double-beam spectrograph, which can be used at a range of spectral resolutions
(R=lambda/delta(lambda) ~ 1700-13000) over the optical spectrum (3700-9500A).
We present the first spectroscopic results obtained with SAMI for a sample of
galaxies at z~0.05. We discuss the prospects of implementing hexabundles at a
much higher multiplex over wider fields of view in order to carry out
spatially--resolved spectroscopic surveys of 10^4 to 10^5 galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures. Accepted by MNRA
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