Texas Christian University

About: Texas Christian University is a education organization based out in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 3245 authors who have published 8258 publications receiving 282216 citations. The organization is also known as: TCU & Texas Christian University, TCU.

Total Quality Management and Internal Customers: Measuring Internal Service Quality

Abstract: An important tenet of Total Quality Management holds that each employee should treat other organization members with whom she interacts as valued customers. To know if such internal service efforts are successful, managers need a means by which internal service quality can be measured. This exploratory study of internal customers employs marketing research methods that, traditionally, have been applied to final consumers. The setting is the corporate purchasing department of Alcon Laboratories, Inc., a large pharmaceutical manufacturing firm. The ninety-seven participants were all internal customers of the corporate purchasing department. Their jobs ranged from RD and 2) Do they think they are getting it? In answer to the first question, we found six types of service requirements of purchasing’s internal customers. To answer t...

Review and summary of a silicon micromachined gas chromatography system

Abstract: A miniature gas chromatography (GC) system has been designed and fabricated using silicon micromachining and integrated circuit (IC) processing techniques. The silicon micromachined gas chromatography system (SMGCS) is composed of a miniature sample injector that incorporates a 10 /spl mu/I sample loop; a 0.9-m long, rectangular-shaped (300 /spl mu/m width and 10 /spl mu/m height) capillary column coated with a 0,2-/spl mu/m thick copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) stationary-phase; and a dual-detector scheme based upon a CuPc-coated chemiresistor and a commercially available, 125-/spl mu/m diameter thermal conductivity detector (TCD) bead. Silicon micromachining was employed to fabricate the interface between the sample injector and the GC column, the column itself, and the dual-detector cavity. A novel IC thin-film processing technique was developed to sublime the CuPc stationary-phase coating on the column walls that were micromachined in the host silicon wafer substrate and Pyrex cover plate, which were then electrostatically bonded together. The SMGCS can separate binary gas mixtures composed of parts-per-million (ppm) concentrations of ammonia (NH/sub 3/) and nitrogen dioxide (NO/sub 2/) when isothermally operated (55-80/spl deg/C). With a helium carrier gas and nitrogen diluent, a 10 /spl mu/I sample volume containing ammonia and nitrogen dioxide injected at 40 psi (2.8 /spl times/105 Pa) ran be separated in less than 30 min.

Global warming and state-corporate crime: the politicalization of global warming under the Bush administration

Abstract: Global warming is one of the most significant and difficult issues facing the world today. As result, researchers in a number of disciplines have directed their attention to addressing issues relevant to the study of and responses to global warming. This has been less true in the social sciences, and especially within specific social sciences such as criminology, in comparison to the physical sciences. Global warming does, however, have criminological and sociological relevance on several levels. This article examines one of those levels by exploring the politicalization of global warming under the Bush Administration, and addresses this issue as an example of state-corporate crime.

Nonlinear control of PEM fuel cells by exact linearization

Abstract: This paper presents a dynamic model of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEM FC) for the purpose of constructing a nonlinear control strategy for PEM FC by using the exact linearization approach. By introducing additional states and outputs, the original multiple-input single-output (MISO) nonlinear model of PEM FC is transformed into a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system so that the exact linearization approach can be directly utilized. Simulation results show that PEM fuel cells with nonlinear control have better transient and steady-state performances.

High-Technology Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies: Firm Informality and Contextualization of Resource-Based Theory

Abstract: High-technology entrepreneurship in emerging economies takes place in a context very different from that of developed economies. In large measure, this difference is due to greater resource constraints and higher levels of firm informality in emerging economies. In this study, we examine formal versus informal young high-technology ventures, assessing the extent to which firm informality moderates the relationship between technology investments and firm performance in an emerging economy. We find that technology investments are positively related to firm performance. Yet, firm informality positively moderates the relationship between resources and firm performance. The effect of resources tends to be contingent on the level of firm informality in an emerging economy. Greater resource constraints and higher levels of firm informality not only represent critical factors in emerging economies, but also are essential for contextualizing resource-based theory.