Mechanisms linking employee affective delivery and customer behavioral intentions

Past empirical evidence has indicated that employee affective delivery can influence customer reactions (e.g., customer satisfaction, service quality evaluation). This study extends previous research by empirically examining mediating processes underlying the relationship between employee affective delivery and customer behavioral intentions. Data were collected from 352 employee-customer pairs in 169 retail shoe stores in Taiwan. Results showed that the influence of employee affective delivery on customers' willingness to return to the store and pass positive comments to friends was indirect through the mediating processes of customer in-store positive moods and perceived friendliness. The study also indicated that employee affective delivery influences customers' time spent in store, which, in turn, influences customer behavioral intentions.     

中国思想史中"身体观"研究的新视野

本文在评介日本中国“身体观”研究著作的基础上,提出了中国身体观研究的三个新视野：作为思维方法的“身体”、作为精神修养呈现的“身体”与作为展现场所的“身体”,并指出中国文化中身体之“内外交辉”的特质。     

Controllable electron-momentum filter in a δ-doped magnetically modulated semiconductor nanostructure

ABSTRACT

We have theoretically investigated the control of wave-vector filtering (WVF) by introducing δ-doping into a magnetically modulated nanostructure fabricated by depositing ferromagnetic stripes on top and bottom of a GaAs/Al_xGa_{1 ?x}As heterostructure. With the help of an improved transfer matrix method, the Schrödinger equation for electrons in this semiconductor nanostructure is solved exactly and the transmission efficient calculated numerically. We demonstrate that the WVF efficiency is associated closely with the weight and position of the δ-doping, which may be helpful for designing a controllable electron-momentum filter based on such a magnetically modulated semiconductor nanostructure.     

Amorphization of TiNi induced by high-pressure torsion

Using high-resolution electron microscopy, we investigated the initial stages of high-pressure-torsion-induced crystalline-to-amorphous transformation of TiNi. It is found that the deformation-induced amorphization initiated from dislocation core regions in the interior of grains and from grain boundaries. It is believed that both the energy stored in the dislocations and the energy stored in the grain boundaries contribute significantly to driving the crystalline-to-amorphous transformation.     

Core Knowledge and the Emergence of Symbols: The Case of Maps

Map reading is unique to humans but is present in people of diverse cultures, at ages as young as 4 years old. Here, we explore the nature and sources of this ability and ask both what geometric information young children use in maps and what nonsymbolic systems are associated with their map-reading performance. Four-year-old children were given two tests of map-based navigation (placing an object within a small three-dimensional [3D] surface layout at a position indicated on a two-dimensional [2D] map), one focused on distance relations and the other on angle relations. Children also were given two nonsymbolic tasks, testing their use of geometry for navigation (a reorientation task) and for visual form analysis (a deviant-detection task). Although children successfully performed both map tasks, their performance on the two map tasks was uncorrelated, providing evidence for distinct abilities to represent distance and angle on 2D maps of 3D surface layouts. In contrast, performance on each map task was associated with performance on one of the two nonsymbolic tasks: Map-based navigation by distance correlated with sensitivity to the shape of the environment in the reorientation task, whereas map-based navigation by angle correlated with sensitivity to the shapes of 2D forms and patterns in the deviant-detection task. These findings suggest links between one uniquely human, emerging symbolic ability, geometric map use, and two core systems of geometry.     

Remembering parts and wholes: Configural processing in face recollection

In two experiments, we examined the role of configural processing on states of awareness in face recognition. Configural processing was manipulated by presenting upright and inverted faces during study and test. After studying facial photographs of humans (Experiment 1) and horses (Experiment 2), participants provided a remember/know judgement for each recognised test face. In both experiments, disrupted configural processing had selective effects on states of awareness, so that inversion reduced remember, but not know, responses. Experiment 2 revealed disproportionate inversion effects in that the difference in remember responses between upright and inverted items was significant for human faces but not horses. These findings suggest that configural processing facilitates explicit recollection by providing a distinctive combination of nonsalient event attributes.     

The ambiguity of loss affects some,but not all autobiographical memories: redemption and contamination,agency and communion

ABSTRACT

Compared with clear-cut loss by death, ambiguous loss is defined as a loss that is not definite because the person is missing or mentally absent but physically present (e.g., through Alzheimer's disease). We expected the ambiguity of loss to show in psychologically more compromised loss memories and self-defining memories, but not in autobiographical memories in general. Thirty Chinese adults who had lost a parent through death, thirty whose parent had gone missing, and thirty who cared for a demented parent narrated their loss experiences and memories of sad and turning-point events as well as self-defining memories. Individuals with ambiguous loss narrated the loss and a self-defining memory with more contamination and fewer redemption sequences, and only the loss memory with fewer themes of agency and communion than individuals with definite loss, but not in memories of sad and turning point events. Effects of ambiguity of loss were independent of prolonged grief, which in turn independently predicted some of these effects. Thus the ambiguous quality of loss predicts effects on loss memories and self-defining memories independently of psychiatric symptoms.     

Contexts of a person's prior intentions facilitate observational learning in 2.5-year-old children

We examined whether contexts suggesting an actor's prior intentions facilitate observational learning in 2.5-year-olds. In Experiment 1, children observed an experimenter handle one box before proceeding to open a second box. In two prior intention conditions, children either watched the experimenter extract a toy from the first box or saw that the box had already been opened. In two no prior intention conditions, children watched the demonstration with only the second box or paired with irrelevant actions upon the first box. Children successfully opened the second box more often in the two prior intention conditions than in the two no prior intention conditions. Experiment 2 investigated stimulus generalization as another explanation for these results. A functionally different trap-tube task served as the pre-demonstration apparatus. Before watching the experimenter open the box, children either saw her extract a toy from the tube with a stick or observed the toy accidentally fall from the opening. In both cases, children opened the box at similar high rates. We discuss children's use of others’ prior intentions or observable outcomes in observational learning.     

The Young-Laplace equation associated with transverse shear stress within the surface layer of a solid

ABSTRACT

The Young-Laplace equation was firstly established based on a liquid film without shearing resistance. It is not valid for a solid. By taking into account the in-plane shearing and transverse shearing within a surface layer, we reconstruct the Young-Laplace equation for a solid. This new version shows that the equilibrium of a solid surface is determined by the bulk stress, the surface membrane stress and the transverse shear stress acting together. The transverse shear stress depends on the gradient of the Gaussian curvature of the surface and the strain. The intrinsic membrane stress and transverse shear stress cause residual stresses to appear in the interior of the solid. The intrinsic transverse shear stress occurs only in a non-spherical shaped body.     

Character Strengths and Deep Connections Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Spiritual and Secular Pathways to Resistance Among Volunteers

This study investigated a conceptual model with two pathways, altruism and perceived spiritual support, leading to resilience among student volunteers following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (H‐KR). Both strengths share the sense of deep connections. Parallel pathways with the two major constructs were estimated using structural equation modeling, adjusting for demographics and peritraumatic emotional reactions. The two indicators may have served as a protective mechanism for all volunteers despite differing racial/cultural backgrounds. The potential protection of these strength factors was mediated through optimism and hope. Resilience among minority volunteers was associated more with faith‐related strengths, as indicated in the relevant pathway that also contributed to their altruistic actions. The resilience of white volunteers, however, was directly associated with altruism, a strength that does depend heavily on religious beliefs. Further, the modification index suggested a direct path from race to depression.