Asian Carp Population Status and Reproductive Potential in Illinois River Tributaries

Large floodplain rivers are among the most complex natural systems characterized by exchange between the river and its floodplain. Information regarding fishes in main channel habitats is abundant, however much less understanding extends into their tributaries. Tributaries of large rivers provide critical habitats for main channel fishes, important for foraging, spawning, and refuge. In addition to native diversity, large rivers are host to multiple exotic species invasions, threatening biodiversity, ecosystem function, and habitat quality. Two notorious invaders are Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and Bighead Carp (H. nobilis), collectively Asian Carp, presenting an imminent threat of invasion to the Great Lakes. Reproduction in lentic systems such as the Great Lakes is unlikely, however, a knowledge gap remains regarding their use of small rivers and tributaries, a large network of which is associated with the Great Lakes. This study sought to quantify invasive Asian Carp population characteristics and reproductive abilities in tributaries of the Illinois River, a highly invaded system artificially connected to Lake Michigan. To accomplish this, I sampled five Illinois River tributaries: Salt Creek, the Mackinaw, Kankakee, Sangamon, and Spoon Rivers during 2013-2014 for larval fish and adult Asian Carp, as well as the Illinois River main channel. I compared relative density, size structure, relative weight, reproductive condition, age structure, mortality, and growth of Asian Carp among the Illinois River and its tributaries. Relatively high abundances of Silver Carp were encountered in the main channel and all tributaries sampled except for the Kankakee River. Silver carp were found to temporally increase in size and age, but no differences were observed in condition. Reproductive condition of Silver Carp followed temporal hydrography, with peaks in gonad fullness and stage following peaks in discharge. In addition to adult population dynamics, I also examined spatial and temporal distributions, community assemblages, and size structure of eggs and larval fish. Peak abundances of eggs and larval fish followed peaks in discharge during May-June in each tributary, indicating that the fish in these systems are behaving like fluvial specialists in terms of spawning activity. Ten different families were sampled; clupeids and cyprinids were the most abundant taxa. Significant temporal and spatial effects (p \u3c 0.05) of community assemblages were driven by secchi depth and water temperature, respectively. Post gas bladder emergent larvae of Asian Carp species were sampled in high abundance in the Spoon and Mackinaw Rivers, representing over 80% of our sample. Asian Carp were first sampled in late May with peak densities in July. My study suggests Illinois River tributaries are important habitats for early life stages of multiple fish species and contribute to the diversity of fishes in the main channel habitats. Understanding population characteristics of Asian Carps and larval fish community dynamics in small North American rivers helps bridge the knowledge gap and advance future efforts for the control of these species

Companies that do better by their customers also do better in the stock market

Many firms don't understand the value of satisfied customers or don't collect their data correctly, write Claes Fornell, Forrest Morgeson and Tomas Hul

In Which Model Do We Trust and When? Comparing the Explanatory and Predictive Abilities of Models of E-Government Trust

With the growth in digital provision of government services (i.e., e-government), a substantial quantity of recent research has focused on models of satisfaction and trust with public sector services. Although few would deny the relevance of the satisfaction-trust relationship, there is little agreement about how to optimally model these relationships. In this paper, we compare an assortment of conceptual models of the e-government citizen satisfaction-trust relationship, drawn from service-quality and expectancy-disconfirmation paradigms for their ability to explain trust, their parsimony, and their in-sample and out-of-sample predictive abilities. We use survey data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) measuring citizen e-government experiences. Our findings suggest that while expectancy-disconfirmation model does well for explanation, service-quality model is better suited for prediction of citizen trust. Overall, the service-quality model also offers the best compromise between predictive accuracy and explanatory power. These findings offer new insights for researchers, government agencies, and practitioners

How Does Customer Service Offshoring Impact Customer Satisfaction?

Information technology (IT) plays a vital role in customer relationship management (CRM), because CRM processes include the collection and analysis of customer information, firms use technology tools to interact with customers, and IT created the conditions under which firms can offshore CRM processes. Customers have negative perceptions toward offshoring, which suggests that firms might be reluctant to offshore IT-enabled CRM processes. However, firms have significantly increased offshoring for CRM processes, presenting a conundrum. Why would firms increase offshoring for CRM processes if there could be a risk to customer satisfaction? This paper helps to resolve the conundrum by studying the impact of CRM sourcing on customer satisfaction with the firm’s products and services, as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction IndexTM. We analyze data for 150 North American firms and business units over a nine-year period. Front office offshore outsourcing and front office onshore outsourcing are both negatively associated with customer satisfaction, which suggests that negative customer perceptions may be due to the firm boundary dimension rather than the geographic location dimension. Front office offshore outsourcing is not statistically significant for services firms, which suggests that customers are more accepting of offshore providers in a service setting. Over time, the coefficient for back office offshore outsourcing has become more positive, which suggests that firms may expect to see a similar improvement for front office offshore outsourcing in the future. Our empirical results provide a basis to understand why firms have increased IT-enabled CRM offshoring despite short-term risks to customer satisfaction

Statistics programs for the Apple II Plus microcomputer.

http://archive.org/details/statisticsprogra00morgNANAN

So Just How Satisfied Are Millennials with Their Hotel Experience?

The millennial generation is emerging as a powerful economic force across all economic segments, including lodging. With millennials being the largest generation of consumers, it is important to understand their satisfaction in important areas across two hotel segments as defined by price. We drew the data from the highly regarded American Customer Satisfaction Index. As this cohort increases in purchasing power, hotel brands are enhancing their offerings to better engage this segment. Thus, in an increasingly competitive lodging sector, it is important to examine drivers that influence this generation’s hotel experience. Our study focused on these drivers in two price segments. This report presents the findings and offers guidance to hotel management that can help them increase millennials’ satisfaction with their hotel experience

Reconciling Democracy and Bureaucracy: Towards a Deliberative-Democratic Model of Bureaucratic Accountability

Beginning in the advent of the modern discipline of public administration, and in some ways considerably earlier, one of the questions most troubling political thinkers and political scientists has been: Holding both as values, how can we reconcile the tension between bureaucracy and democracy? This question, addressing what is often termed the "bureaucracy-democracy paradox," has taken a variety of forms, varying as a result of both particular definitions of democracy and competing perspectives on the proper understanding of bureaucratic power. Rooted in the discipline of democratic theory and guided by its traditions, this dissertation intervenes in this discussion, and asks four logically interrelated questions instrumental to a satisfactory resolution of this tension. First, given the diversity of perspectives surrounding the concept "democracy," is there an essential definition of this concept and model of democracy we might rely on, one that informs both the norm and the reality of contemporary democracy, and if so, how does this model help guide us in identifying and resolving the tension between contemporary bureaucracy and democracy? Having identified this model and located one "most pressing" tension in processes of bureaucratic rulemaking, this dissertation proceeds to identify democratic modes of control, oversight and accountability of bureaucracy as critical to resolving this tension, and in the process asks: how effective are extant democratic modes of accountability and oversight within contemporary democracies, and thus how well-preserved is our model of democracy? Third, having found reasons to question the effectiveness of extant modes of control, oversight and accountability, it is next asked: what alternative forms of democratic control are available that might better support our democratic institutions and traditions? Finally, turning to a normative model of democracy popularized over the last few decades - the deliberative theory of democracy - as one useful alternative, this dissertation concludes by asking: is there a case that might evidence both the empirical plausibility and the normative desirability of deliberative democracy as an alternative model of control within a bureaucratic rulemaking context, and thus support this prescription as a viable one for resolving the enduring tension between bureaucracy and democracy

Explaining Affective Linkages in Teams: Individual Differences in Susceptibility to Contagion and Individualism–Collectivism

To expand on the understanding of how affective states are linked within teams, the authors describe a longitudinal study examining the linkages between team members' affective states over time. In a naturalistic team performance setting, they found evidence that the average affective state of the other team members was related to an individual team member's affect over time, even after controlling for team performance. In addition, they found that these affective linkages were moderated by individual differences in susceptibility to emotional contagion and collectivistic tendencies such that the strength of the linkage was stronger for those high in susceptibility and those with collectivistic tendencies. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © 2007 American Psychological Association