A Strategic Approach To Managing Customer Service Quality

Service quality is an essential strategy for success and survival in today's competitive environment. Earlier discussions emphasized what service quality meant to customers and how to develop strategies to meet customer expectations. More recently, the focus has shifted to understanding the impact of service quality on profit and other financial outcomes of the organization. Lowering customer defection rates can be profitable to companies, at the same time lowering employee turnover and improving their satisfaction and loyalty can also reduce customer defection and maintain or increase profits. The purpose of this paper is to put forth an argument that to measure customer service quality is not only an important strategic approach, but is a critical and intertwined link to organizational commitment, communication, and employee satisfaction by improving and maintaining high standards of consistent service quality delivery. This strategic approach pulls together many previously tested models into a single workable assessment and feedback tool, with a particular focus on employee training, by establishing a strategic and measurable benchmarking index for continual monitoring and operational improvement

Sept restrictions regardant la ressemblance

La ressemblance, je dirais, est sournoise. Et s’il est perfide d’associer la ressemblance à la perfidie, c’est encore mieux. Toujours prête à résoudre des problèmes philosophiques et à proposer ses services, la ressemblance est une hypocrite, une imposture, une arnaque. Si elle a, certes, ses lieux et ses usages, on la trouve plus souvent là où elle ne devrait pas être, s’attribuant des pouvoirs qu’elle ne possède pas. Aucune des restrictions que j’appliquerai ici à l’encontre de la ressembla..

Meno kalbos

Publikuojamoje N. Goodmano knygos ištraukoje aprašomos meno kalbos, t. y. kuo ir kaip pasireiškia menas. Viena iš meno kalbų yra žymėjimas: tai – vaizdavimo šerdis, kuri nėra priklausoma nuo panašumo. Kopijavimo modeliu pagrįsta vaizdavimo teorija nesugeba apibrėžti tai, kas kopijuojama. Aprašoma fikcijos, vaizdavimas, išradingumas, realizmas. Neapibrėžto žymėjimo atvejai traktuojami taip pat kaip nulinio žymėjimo atvejai. Atvaizdai yra paveikslai, funkcionuojantys panašiai kaip aprašai. Paveikslas, kaip ir bet koks kitas žymeklis, visuomet gal kelti du klausimus: ką jis vaizduoja (ar aprašo) ir kokios rūšies atvaizdas (ar aprašas) jis yra. Vaizduodamas paveikslas nurodo tam tikrą objektų klasę, kartu priklausydamas tam tikrai paveikslų klasei ar klasėms. Efektyvus aprašymas ir vaizdavimas reikalauja išradingumo. Klasifikacija implikuoja pasirinkimą, o taikydami žymeklį ne tik pavadiname, bet ir atliekame klasifikavimą. Objektas bei jo aspektai priklauso nuo organizavimo, o visi žymekliai yra organizavimo priemonės. Realistinis vaizdavimas priklauso ne nuo imitavimo, iliuzijos sudarymo ar informacijos, bet nuo įtaigos

Simulating planet migration in globally evolving disks

Numerical simulations of planet-disk interactions are usually performed with hydro-codes that -- because they consider only an annulus of the disk, over a 2D grid -- can not take into account the global evolution of the disk. However, the latter governs planetary migration of type II, so that the accuracy of the planetary evolution can be questioned. To develop an algorithm that models the local planet-disk interactions together with the global viscous evolution of the disk, we surround the usual 2D grid with a 1D grid ranging over the real extension of the disk. The 1D and 2D grids are coupled at their common boundaries via ghost rings, paying particular attention to the fluxes at the interface, especially the flux of angular momentum carried by waves. The computation is done in the frame centered on the center of mass to ensure angular momentum conservation. The global evolution of the disk and the local planet-disk interactions are both well described and the feedback of one on the other can be studied with this algorithm, for a negligible additional computing cost with respect to usual algorithms.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&

On the uniqueness of diffeomorphism symmetry in Conformal Field Theory

A Moebius covariant net of von Neumann algebras on S^1 is diffeomorphism covariant if its Moebius symmetry extends to diffeomorphism symmetry. We prove that in case the net is either a Virasoro net or any at least 4-regular net such an extension is unique: the local algebras together with the Moebius symmetry (equivalently: the local algebras together with the vacuum vector) completely determine it. We draw the two following conclusions for such theories. (1) The value of the central charge c is an invariant and hence the Virasoro nets for different values of c are not isomorphic as Moebius covariant nets. (2) A vacuum preserving internal symmetry always commutes with the diffeomorphism symmetries. We further use our result to give a large class of new examples of nets (even strongly additive ones), which are not diffeomorphism covariant; i.e. which do not admit an extension of the symmetry to Diff^+(S^1).Comment: 25 pages, LaTe

Arte y autenticidad

Las falsificaciones de las obras de arte presentan un desagradable problemapara el coleccionista, el curador y el historiador del arte, quienes debeninvertir a menudo enormes cantidades de tiempo y energía para determinarsi algún objeto en particular es auténtico. Pero el problema teórico quesuscitan es aún más difícil. La obstinada pregunta acerca de si hay una diferenciaestética entre una falsificación engañosa y una obra original constituyeun desafío para la premisa fundamental de la que dependen la función mismadel coleccionista, del museo y del historiador del arte. Un filósofo del arteque sea sorprendido sin una respuesta a este interrogante se encuentra enuna posición tan poco deseable como la de un curador de pintura que tomeun Van Meegeren por un Vermeer

A Weakly nonlinear theory for spiral density waves excited by accretion disc turbulence

We develop an analytic theory to describe spiral density waves propagating in a shearing disc in the weakly nonlinear regime. Such waves are generically found to be excited in simulations of turbulent accretion disks, in particular if said turbulence arises from the magneto-rotational instability (MRI). We derive a modified Burgers equation governing their dynamics, which includes the effects of nonlinear steepening, dispersion, and a bulk viscosity to support shocks. We solve this equation approximately to obtain nonlinear sawtooth solutions that are asymptotically valid at late times. In this limit, the presence of shocks is found to cause the wave amplitude to decrease with time as 1/t^2. The validity of the analytic description is confirmed by direct numerical solution of the full nonlinear equations of motion. The asymptotic forms of the wave profiles of the state variables are also found to occur in MRI simulations indicating that dissipation due to shocks plays a significant role apart from any effects arising from direct coupling to the turbulence

Health Care Delivery Practices in Huntington's Disease Specialty Clinics : An International Survey

The CHDI Foundation, Inc. funds Enroll-HD and the activities of the Enroll-HD Care Improvement Committee, including the present survey. We would like to acknowledge the Enroll-HD and REGISTRY administrative staff that assisted in the recruitment of sites and sites that completed the survey.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The influence of mothers' and fathers' parenting stress and depressive symptoms on own and partner's parent-child communication

This study examines how parenting stress and depressive symptoms experienced by mothers and fathers influence their own (actor effects) and the partner's (partner effects) parent–child communication. Based on the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, data from 196 families were analyzed, with both parents rating their parenting stress and depressive feelings, and parents as well as children rating the open parent–child communication. Actor effects were found between parenting stress and open parent–child communication, whereas partner effects were prominent between depressive symptoms and open parent–child communication. The results provide no evidence for gender differences in the strength of the pathways to open parent–child communication. Our findings demonstrate the need to include both parents in studies on parent–child communication to enhance our understanding of the mutual influence among family members