Developing a business strategy to increase customer loyalty for Q variety stores

Q Variety Stores started as a small $2 shop in 2012, and now it has expanded to eight branches and one franchise all over New Zealand. As the business grows, Q Variety Stores is also facing more increased competition from its peers in the industry. Recent research acknowledged customer loyalty as one of the most significant factors for the success of an organisation, because it can bring many benefits and retain existing customers. Therefore, this research aims to investigate strategies to improve customer loyalty for Q Variety Stores. The author conducted a questionnaire to customers in eight branches to get feedback and provided a specific loyalty programme in the survey for customers’ feedback. A key finding shows that Q Variety Stores already have had some loyal customers, but there is still room for improvement. The questionnaire also revealed that customers’ acceptance of the hypothetical loyalty programme is low, but most of them are fond of some other mature customer loyalty programmes with other suppliers. It is concluded that a loyalty programme that won’t cost customers a lot may work at Q Variety Stores, and it should provide customers with the benefits that actually meet their needs

Diffractive-Like (or Parametric-Resonance-Like?) Enhancement of the Earth (Day-Night) Effect for Solar Neutrinos Crossing the Earth Core

It is shown that the strong enhancement of the Earth (day-night) effect for solar neutrinos crossing the Earth core in the case of the small mixing angle MSW electron neutrino to muon (tau) neutrino transition solution of the solar neutrino problem is due to a new resonance effect in the solar neutrino transitions in the Earth and not just to the MSW effect in the core. The effect is in many respects similar to the electron paramagnetic resonance. The conditions for existence of this new resonance effect are discussed. They include specific constraints on the neutrino oscillation lengths in the Earth mantle and in the Earth core, thus the resonance is a ``neutrino oscillation length resonance''. The effect exhibits strong dependence on the neutrino energy. Analytic expression for the probability accounting for the solar neutrino transitions in the Earth, which provides a high precision description of the transitions, including the new resonance effect, is derived. The implications of our results for the searches of the day-night asymmetry in the solar neutrino experiments are briefly discussed. The new resonance effect is operative also in the muon neutrino to electron neutrino (electron neutrino to muon neutrino) transitions of atmospheric neutrinos crossing the Earth core.Comment: 20 pages, 2 Postscript figures, LATEX; version published in Phys. Lett. B434 (1998) 321; includes also the corrections published as Erratum in Phys. Lett. B444 (1998) 58

Effective Dynamic Range in Measurements with Flash Analog-to-Digital Convertor

Flash Analog to Digital Convertor (FADC) is frequently used in nuclear and particle physics experiments, often as the major component in big multi-channel systems. The large data volume makes the optimization of operating parameters necessary. This article reports a study of a method to extend the dynamic range of an 8-bit FADC from the nominal $\rm{2^8}$ value. By comparing the integrated pulse area with that of a reference profile, good energy reconstruction and event identification can be achieved on saturated events from CsI(Tl) crystal scintillators. The effective dynamic range can be extended by at least 4 more bits. The algorithm is generic and is expected to be applicable to other detector systems with FADC readout.Comment: 19 pages, 1 table, 10 figure

Three-Neutrino Mixing and Combined Vacuum Oscillations and MSW Transitions of Solar Neutrinos

Assuming three flavour neutrino mixing takes place in vacuum, we investigate the possibility that the solar nu_e take part in MSW transitions in the Sun due to Delta m^2_{31} from 10^{-7} eV^2 to 10^{-4} eV^2, followed by long wave length vacuum oscillations on the way to the Earth, triggered by Delta m^2_{21} (or Delta m^2_{32}) from 10^{-12} eV^2 to 10^{-10} eV^2, Delta m^2_{31} and Delta m^2_{21} (Delta m^2_{32}) being the corresponding neutrino mass squared differences. The solar nu_e survival probability is shown to be described in this case by a simple analytic expression. Depending on whether the vacuum oscillations are due to Delta m^2_{21} or Delta m^2_{32} there are two very different types of interplay between the MSW transitions and the vacuum oscillations of the solar nu_e. Performing an analysis of the most recently published solar neutrino data we have found several qualitatively new solutions of the solar neutrino problem of the hybrid MSW transitions + vacuum oscillations type. The solutions differ in the way the pp, 7Be and 8B neutrino fluxes are affected by the transitions in the Sun and the oscillations in vacuum. The specific features of the new solutions are discussed.Comment: 37 pages Latex, 16 Postscript Figure

The sign of the day-night asymmetry for solar neutrinos

A qualitative understanding of the day-night asymmetry for solar neutrinos is provided. The greater night flux in nu_e is seen to be a consequence of the fact that the matter effect in the sun and that in the earth have the same sign. It is shown in the adiabatic approximation for the sun that for all values of the mixing angle theta_V between 0 and pi/2, the night flux of neutrinos is greater than the day flux. Only for small values of theta_V where the adiabatic approximation badly fails does the sign of the day-night asymmetry reverse.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, typos corrected and references adde

CP-violating Majorana phases, lepton-conserving processes and final state interactions

The CP-violating phases associated with Majorana neutrinos can give rise to CP-violating effects even in processes that conserve total Lepton number, such as \mu -> eee+, \mu + e -> e + e and others. After explaining the reasons that make this happen, we consider the calculation of the rates for the process of the form \ell_a + \ell_b -> \ell_a + \ell_c, and its conjugate \bar\ell_a + \bar\ell_b -> \bar\ell_a + \bar\ell_c, where \ell_a, \ell_b and \ell_c denote charged leptons of different flavors. In the context of the Standard Model with Majorana neutrinos, we show that the difference in the rates depends on such phases. Our calculations illustrate in detail the mechanics that operate behind the scene, and set the stage for carrying out the analogous, more complicated (as we explain), calculations for other processes such as \mu -> eee+ and its conjugate.Comment: Latex, axodraw, 24 page

Multi-neutron transfer coupling in sub-barrier 32S+90,96Zr fusion reactions

The role of neutron transfers is investigated in the fusion process below the Coulomb barrier by analyzing 32S+90Zr and 32S+96Zr as benchmark reactions. A full coupled-channel calculation of the fusion excitation functions has been performed for both systems by using multi-neutron transfer coupling for the more neutron-rich reaction. The enhancement of fusion cross sections for 32S+96Zr is well reproduced at sub-barrier energies by NTFus code calculations including the coupling of the neutron-transfer channels following the Zagrebaev semiclassical model. We found similar effects for 40Ca+90Zr and 40Ca+96Zr fusion excitation functions.Comment: Minor corrections, 11 pages, 4 figures, Fusion11 Conference, Saint Malo, France, 2-6 mai 201

Design and Setup of the Micro-Turboexpander Transcritical CO2 System

As the potential Eco-friendly refrigerant, CO2 regains more and more attentions. It has various advantages over conventional refrigerants, such as non-flammability, non-toxicity, high volumetric refrigerant capacity and excellent heat transfer properties. Because the heat rejection temperature in a transcritical CO2 heat pump or a transcritical CO2 refrigeration system is higher than the critical temperature of CO2, the transcritical vapor compression cycle becomes the best choice for transcritical CO2 systems. However, the relative low COP caused by the throttle valve limited the further development. The replacement of a throttle valve with a turboexpander, an ejector or a vortex tube is leading to the way for improving the COP of a transcritical CO2 system. With the advantages of high efficiency, high compactness, high reliability and long-life time, turboexpanders have been widely used in gas lique faction devices (below 120K) and most of the reverse Brayton refrigeration systems. It is also one of the most ideal expansion devices for transcritical CO2 systems. However, its applications are limited by the difficulties of high pressure and super high rotating speed operation. With the development of manufacturing technology and gas bearing technology, it becomes possible to use turboexpanders in transcriticalCO2 systems. In this paper, two turboexpanders with 10 mm radial reaction turbine wheel and 9 mm rotor diameter were designed for the 15 kW transcritical CO2 refrigeration system, and the rotating speed is about 200 krpm.The proposed turboexpanders outlet states are CO2 two-phase flow and subcooled CO2 liquid flow, respectively. This study will lay a foundation for the application of turboexpanders in transcritical CO2 systems

Optimal packetisation of MPEG-4 using RTP over mobile networks

The introduction of third-generation wireless networks should result in real-time mobile video communications becoming a reality. Delivery of such video is likely to be facilitated by the realtime transport protocol (RTP). Careful packetisation of the video data is necessary to ensure the optimal trade-off between channel utilisation and error robustness. Theoretical analyses for two basic schemes of MPEG-4 data encapsulation within RTP packets are presented. Simulations over a GPRS (general packet radio service) network are used to validate the analysis of the most efficient scheme. Finally, a motion adaptive system for deriving MPEG-4 video packet sizes is presented. Further simulations demonstrate the benefits of the adaptive system

Limitations of light delay and storage times in EIT experiments with condensates

We investigate the limitations arising from atomic collisions on the storage and delay times of probe pulses in EIT experiments. We find that the atomic collisions can be described by an effective decay rate that limits storage and delay times. We calculate the momentum and temperature dependence of the decay rate and find that it is necessary to excite atoms at a particular momentum depending on temperature and spacing of the energy levels involved in order to minimize the decoherence effects of atomic collisions.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 4 figures. Send correspondence to [email protected]