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Concerns customer service/quality in service sector organizations. Presents definitions and determinants of service quality together with a review of a number of research projects, completed in the Manchester School of Management, which focus on the measurement of service quality. Describes assessments which have been carried out in several industries, considering the opinions of managers, employees and external customers, and provides evidence of various service quality gaps. The final section comprises a discussion of some of the problems relating to the rating scales/measurement techniques used, and emphasizes the caution which is necessary in interpretation of research data. Concluding comments address the continuing research agenda.

The system of equations for fractional thermo-viscoelasticity is used to investigate two-dimensional bioheat transfer and heat-induced mechanical response in human skin tissue with rheological properties.

Laplace and Fourier’s transformations are used. The resulting formulation is applied to human skin tissue subjected to regional hyperthermia therapy for cancer treatment. The inversion process for Fourier and Laplace transforms is carried out using a numerical method based on Fourier series expansions.

Comparisons are made with the results anticipated through the coupled and generalized theories. The influences of volume materials properties and fractional order parameters for all the regarded fields are examined. The results indicate that volume relaxation parameters, as well as fractional order parameters, play a major role in all considered distributions.

Bio-thermo-mechanics includes bioheat transfer, biomechanics, burn injury and physiology. In clinical applications, knowledge of bio-thermo-mechanics in living tissues is very important. One can infer from the numerical results that, with a finite distance, the thermo-mechanical waves spread to skin tissue, removing the unrealistic predictions of the Pennes’ model.

Banks and other financial services providers are increasingly developing service quality initiatives. In this article some of the research literature on service quality is considered to include definitions, determinants and measurement of quality. Attention is also given to research applications which focus on management, employee and customer perspectives. In addition, a number of continuing service quality concerns are highlighted, relating to changing customer expectations, the need for an integrated approach to service quality and the development of service quality measurement tools.

This paper gives a review of the finite element techniques (FE) applied in the area of material processing. The latest trends in metal forming, non‐metal forming and powder metallurgy are briefly discussed. The range of applications of finite elements on the subjects is extremely wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore the aim of the paper is to give FE users only an encyclopaedic view of the different possibilities that exist today in the various fields mentioned above. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on finite element applications in material processing for the last five years, and more than 1100 references are listed.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the buoyancy flow, mass and heat transfer in coaxial duct under Soret and Dufour effect. The combined effects of the thermal-diffusion and diffusion-thermo coefficients, as well as the Schmidt number, on natural convection in a heated lower coaxial curve were explored using the proposed physical model. The Dufour and Soret effects are taken into consideration in the energy and concentration equations, respectively.

The dominating mathematical models are converted into a set of non-linear coupled partial differential equations, which are solved using a numerical approach. The controlling non-linear boundary value problem is numerically solved using the penalty finite element method with Galerkin’s weighted residual scheme over the entire variety of essential parameters.

It was observed that different parameters were tested such as heat generation or absorption coefficient, buoyancy ratio, Soret coefficient, Dufour coefficient, Lewis number and Rayleigh number. Effect of Rayleigh number, absorption/generation and Dufour coefficient on isotherm are significantly reported. For greater values of Lewis number, maximum mass transfer in duct in the form of molecular particles is produced. Buoyancy ratio parameter decreases the average rate of heat flow and increases its mass transfer.

The main originality of this work is to make an application of Soret and Dufour effects in a coaxial duct in the presence of source sink.

Quality in the service sector is of increasing concern to both academics and practitioners. Previously published material is reviewed and attention is focused on the importance of people and internal marketing in the changing environment of service industries, definitions and measurement of service quality, and the service quality/customer care programmes presently being developed and implemented.

The purpose of this paper is to reframe the debate about the tension between management control and employee empowerment by drawing on a theory of paradox. Reframing the problem in this way draws attention to the variety of ways in which organisations can attend to both control and empowerment simultaneously.

The authors undertake a conceptual examination of the relationship between empowerment and control using a paradox theory lens. First, the authors bring together two dimensions of empowerment – structural empowerment and psychological empowerment – and combine them to produce three new empowerment “scenarios”: illusory empowerment, obstructed empowerment and authentic empowerment. For each of these three scenarios, the central tenets of paradox theory are applied in order to explain the nature of the paradoxical tension, anticipated behavioural responses and the resulting challenges for ongoing management control.

The authors find that neither structural nor psychological empowerment alone can account for variation in behavioural responses to management control. The conceptual analysis highlights the interplay of socio-ideological control and systems of accountability in generating psychological empowerment and demonstrates that this does not come at a cost to management control but instead results in a reduction in the scale and scope of ongoing challenges.

This paper contributes a new theoretical perspective on the classic problem of tension between management control and employee empowerment. Rather than positioning control and empowerment either as a managerial choice or dialectic, the authors identify three different ways in which organisations can engage with both paradoxical elements simultaneously.

Heat transfer across the metal‐mould interface has been modelled by a generalized equation referred to as the Lewis‐Ransing Correlation. It has been shown that the spatial as well as temporal variation of the interfacial heat transfer coefficient can be optimally designed to achieve a desired solidification pattern. The technique has been validated on two practical examples achieving a complex solidification pattern.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the interaction between magnetotactic bacteria and Fe₃O₄–water nanofluid (NF) in a wavy enclosure in the presence of 2D natural convection flow.

Uniform magnetic field (MF), Brownian and thermophoresis effects are also contemplated. The dimensionless, time-dependent equations are governed by stream function, vorticity, energy, nanoparticle concentration and number of bacteria. Radial basis function-based finite difference method for the space derivatives and the second-order backward differentiation formula for the time derivatives are performed. Numerical outputs in view of isolines as well as average Nusselt number, average Sherwood number and flux density of microorganisms are presented.

Convective mass transfer rises if any of Lewis number, Peclet number, Rayleigh number, bioconvection Rayleigh number and Brownian motion parameter increases, and the flux density of microorganisms is an increasing function of Rayleigh number, bioconvection Rayleigh number, Peclet number, Brownian and thermophoresis parameters. The rise in buoyancy ratio parameter between 0.1 and 1 and the rise in Hartmann number between 0 and 50 reduce all outputs average Nusselt, average Sherwood numbers and flux density of microorganisms.

This study implies the importance of the presence of magnetotactic bacteria and magnetite nanoparticles inside a host fluid in view of heat transfer and fluid flow. The limitation is to check the efficiency on numerical aspect. Experimental observations would be more effective.

In practical point of view, in a heat transfer and fluid flow system involving magnetite nanoparticles, the inclusion of magnetotactic bacteria and MF effect provide control over fluid flow and heat transfer.

This is a scientific study. However, this idea may be extended to sustainable energy or biofuel studies, too. This means that a better world may create better social environment between people.

The presence of magnetotactic bacteria inside a Fe₃O₄–water NF under the effect of a MF is a good controller on fluid flow and heat transfer. Since the magnetotactic bacteria is fed by nanoparticles Fe₃O₄ which has strong magnetic property, varying nanoparticle concentration and Brownian and thermophoresis effects are first considered.

The importance of service quality as an indicator of customer satisfaction and organisational performance is widely acknowledged and has led to a major research thrust which has focused on a number of industries within the service sector. Some of the research relating to defining and measuring service quality is reviewed and a number of suggestions are made as to how measurement instruments such as SERVQUAL might be improved.