Going Coastal in South Carolina

Get all the information you need to enhance your coastal experience from one dynamic web page. Coastal environment: rip currents and beach advisories, weather and ozone forecast, tide tables and boating safety, fishing and shellfish harvesting, preservation and conservation and much more.

Communication across cultures? An intercultural approach to customer service in the hotel industry: a study with globally branded hotels in the United Kingdom

In a professional and business-social context such as that of global hotel brands in the United Kingdom, intercultural communication, contacts and relationships are found at the heart of daily operations and of customer service. A large part of the clientele base of hotels in the United Kingdom is formed by individuals who belong to different cultural groups that travel in the country either for leisure or business. At the same time, the global workforce which is recruited in the hotel industry in the United Kingdom is a reality here to stay. Global travelling and labor work mobility are phenomena which have been generated by changes which occur on a socio-economic, cultural and political level due to the phenomenon of globalization. The hotel industry is therefore well acquainted with the essence of different cultures either to be accommodated within hotel premises, as in the case of external customers, or of diversity management where different cultures are recruited in the hotel industry, as in the case of internal customers. This thesis derives from research conducted on eight different global hotel brands in the United Kingdom in particular, with reference to three, four and five star categories. The research aimed to answer the question of how hotels are organized in order to address issues of intercultural communication during customer service and if intercultural barriers arise during the intercultural interaction of hotel staff and global customers. So as to understand how global hotel brands operate the research carried out focused in three main areas relating to each hotel: organizational culture, customer service–customer care and intercultural issues. The study utilized qualitative interviews with hotel management staff and non-management staff from different cultural backgrounds, public space observations between customers and staff during check-in and checkout in the reception area and during dining at the café-bar and restaurant. Thematic analysis was also applied to the official web page of each hotel and to job advertisements to enhance the findings from the interviews and the observations. For the process of analysis of the data interpretive (hermeneutic) phenomenology of Martin Heidegger has been applied. Generally, it was found that hotel staff quite often feel perplexed by how to deal with and how to overcome, for instance, language barriers and religious issues and how to interpret non verbal behaviors or matters on food culture relating to the intercultural aspect of customer service. In addition, it was interesting to find that attention to excellent customer service on the part of hotel staff is a top organizational value and customer care is a priority. Despite that, the participating hotel brands appear to have not yet, realized how intercultural barriers can affect the daily operation of the hotel, the job performance and the psychology of hotel staff. Employees indicated that they were keen to receive diversity training, provided by their organizations, so as to learn about different cultural needs and expand their intercultural skills. The notion of diversity training in global hotel brands is based on the sense that one of the multiple aims of diversity management as a practice and policy in the workplace of hotels is the better understanding of intercultural differences. Therefore global hotel brands can consider diversity training as a practice which will benefit their hotel staff and clientele base at the same time. This can have a distinctive organizational advantage for organizational affairs in the hotel industry, with potential to influence the effectiveness and performance of hotels.

Trabajo infantil y problemas del comportamiento en menores trabajadores

Objetivo: Identificar la relación de los factores de riesgo ocupacional del trabajo infantil con los problemas de comportamiento en menores de edad trabajadores de una plaza de mercado en Colombia Materiales y métodos: Se realizó un estudio de corte transversal con 100 niños trabajadores de la plaza de Mercaneiva. Se aplicó un cuestionario para evaluar los factores ocupacionales en la población, evaluando aspectos sociodemográficos y condiciones laborales; para establecer la prevalencia de los problemas del comportamiento se utilizó el cuestionario sobre el comportamiento de niños niñas de 6-18 años (CBCL- 01). El análisis de los datos se realizó mediante SPSS versión 26, con un análisis estadístico cualitativo por medio de proporciones y tablas de frecuencia, se usaron además medidas de tendencia central y dispersión. Se hizo un análisis bivariado entre los problemas de comportamiento y los factores ocupacionales utilizando el coeficiente de Spearman. Resultados: Se determinaron 3 parámetros relacionados entre los factores ocupacionales y los problemas de conductas que fueron la edad mínima de admisión al empleo (8.2 ± 2.5 años, med=8), las extensas jornadas de trabajo (7.2 ± 3.1, med=7) y los años que lleva laborando (4.5± 2.6 años med=4). Los niños mostraron una diferencias significativa en los problemas de comportamiento (26.3± 9.9) más que las niñas (23.9±9.3) (p=0.023) y respecto a las conductas externalizadas fue mayor en el género masculino (p=0.001). El resultado de la prevalencia de los problemas de comportamiento demostró que el rango clínico se correlacionó significativamente con el comportamiento general (conductas internalizadas r= 0.735, p<0.001; conductas externalizadas r= 0.693, p<0.001; otros problemas r= 0.729, p<0.001) al hallar que el 76.0% de menores trabajadores están en un rango clínico. Conclusión: El empezar a trabajar a una edad temprana es un riesgo para presentar problemas de conducta. Los entes gubernamentales deben ser más activos y apropiarse de su rol para el restablecimiento de derechos y actuar en los resultados hallados en la investigación para que se continúe monitoreando mediante más estudios e intervenciones.

Mercadeo digital viajes Agentur

La empresa Agentur es una agencia de viajes con más de 60 años de experiencia que recientemente ha incursionado en las ventas on-line por medio de un portal web. Actualmente, la empresa no cuenta con un plan de mercadeo que le permita aumentar exponencialmente las ventas por este canal, por lo que el desempeño de este no ha sido el esperado. Debido a este problema es de suma importancia determinar ¿Cuáles son las estrategias de posicionamiento y mercadeo on-line que debe usar la empresa para aumentar las ventas por su portal web? Para realizar este plan de mercadeo, se utilizó la segmentación propuesta por la empresa AMADEUS, llamada “FUTURE TRAVELLER TRIBES 2030 UNDERSTANDING TOMORROW’S TRAVELLER” en las que se explora los diferentes tipos de personas que viajaran en el futuro dependiendo de sus hábitos de compra, personalidad y necesidades específicas.. A partir de esta segmentación, se escogieron los segmentos que más se ajustan a lo que ofrece la página web de Agentur, y se diseñó una estrategia de posicionamiento que le permitirá a la empresa llegar a sus consumidores potenciales y aumentar las ventas de su portal. Se realizó una investigación de cuáles eran las mejores estrategias de publicidad y mercadeo que se tenían que utilizar para llegar a cada segmento de forma individual además del costo que tendría esta estrategia, y de esta forma lograr el volumen de ventas que desea alcanzar la empresa con este portal.

Bonnita

Bonnita es una empresa que nace en el año 2015 en el mes de marzo, su actividad económica se clasifica bajo el código CIIU 4751, comercio al por menor de productos textiles en establecimientos especializados, actualmente cuenta con un establecimiento de comercio ubicado en el barrio Kennedy de la ciudad de Bogotá, la inversión realizada para esta empresa se realizo en su totalidad con recursos propios, los resultados obtenidos hasta el momento han llenado la expectativas de los inversionistas y en el mes de agosto del presente año se abrirá una nueva tienda que mejorara las utilidades de la empresa. Las tiendas Bonnita enfocan todo su modelo de negocio a crear una experiencia de compra para su segmento objetivo que son las mujeres entre los 18 y 40 años de edad, de estrato 2 – 3 medio - bajo, por medio de estrategias de merchandising propias, que generan una actitud diferente y mas impulsiva dentro de la tienda, utilizando elementos sensoriales y psicológicos que el consumidor no percibe pero influye en su decisión y manera de comprar, haciendo de esta más rentable para las tiendas Bonnita. El segmento objetivo es grande en la ciudad de Bogotá, los competidores más representativos del mercado emplean modelos de negocio diferentes y no existe un líder en este segmento ya que muchas de estas empresas diversifican con respecto al género al que enfocan sus esfuerzos, Bonnita se dirige únicamente a la mujer, la rotación de sus productos es rápida debido al manejo de inventarios justo a tiempo, lo que permite ser competitivos frente al precio y innovación en los productos.

Enterprise longevity in Colombian companies From a perspective of innovation and corporate social responsibility as a strategy

Hoy en día la Innovación y la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial son una herramienta clave para la perdurabilidad de una empresa a través del tiempo. Este es el caso de las organizaciones colombianas donde las decisiones de gerencia son enfocadas en el desarrollo de plataformas que soportan practicas sociales y éticas ya que estas incentivan a los trabajadores ofreciéndoles a sus clientes un mejor servicio y son necesarias para generar una estrategia de reputación, ganar fidelidad y credibilidad por parte de los consumidores. Crepes & Waffles es uno de los restaurantes colombianos más exitosos y que ha logrado mantenerse en el tiempo aún así en tiempos turbulentos. Su éxito se debe al uso de RSE en su estrategia, ellos crean innovación de valor en cada uno de sus platos al hacerlos diferentes, en el servicio al cliente y en los servicios y el buen trato que se le ofrece a los trabajadores. Por otro lado, Procolombia es una organización que promueve las exportaciones no tradicionales, la inversión extranjera y la marca país. Ellos al igual que Crepes & Waffles también se enfocan en la RSE y crea innovación de valor en sus procesos de orientar a las empresas a través de conferencias, seminarios, entrenamientos entre otras.

Interpretación de la construcción de un racismo de Estado : política inmigratoria de Angela Merkel en Alemania (2005-2014)

El objetivo de esta monografía es interpretar, desde la biopolítica, la construcción de un racismo de Estado en Alemania a través de la política inmigratoria bajo el mandato de Angela Merkel (2005-2014). Por medio de tres apartados se presenta de manera organizada la teoría de la biopolítica desarrollada por Michel Foucault, con sus postulados y conceptos principales, resaltando el concepto de racismo de Estado. También se enuncia de manera breve la historia de la inmigración en Alemania, su ley de inmigración actual y la ley de nacionalidad. De esta forma, se puede analizar que en Alemania se ha construido un racismo de Estado, desde la visión teórica de la biopolítica de Foucault, a través de la consolidación de la política inmigratoria vigente en dicho Estado (2005-2014), que reúne el tema de la migración internacional regular.

Un applicativo Web con tecnologia single-page AJAX, servizi REST e grafica X3D, per la configurazione di modelli CAD tridimensionali

In questa tesi è stato realizzato un sistema web-based, per la configurazione di modelli meccanici tridimensionali. L’intero software è basato su architettura multi-tier. Il back-end espone servizi RESTful che permettono l’interrogazione di una base di dati contenente l’anagrafica dei modelli e l’interazione con il CAD 3D SolidWorks. Il front-end è rappresentato da due pagine HTML ideate come SPA (Single Page Application), una per l’amministratore e l’altra per l’utente finale; esse sono responsabili delle chiamate asincrone verso i servizi, dell’aggiornamento automatico dell’interfaccia e dell’interazione con immagini tridimensionali.

The impact of users’ cognitive style on their navigational behaviors in web searching

User-Web interactions have emerged as an important area of research in the field of information science. In this study, we investigate the effects of users’ cognitive styles on their Web navigational styles and information processing strategies. We report results from the analyses of 594 minutes recorded Web search sessions of 18 participants engaged in 54 scenario-based search tasks. We use questionnaires, cognitive style test, Web session logs and think-aloud as the data collection instruments. We classify users’ cognitive styles as verbalisers and imagers based on Riding’s (1991) Cognitive Style Analysis test. Two classifications of navigational styles and three categories of information processing strategies are identified. Our study findings show that there exist relationships between users’ cognitive style, and their navigational styles and information processing strategies. Verbal users seem to display sporadic navigational styles, and adopt a scanning strategy to understand the content of the search result page, while imagery users follow a structured navigational style and reading approach. We develop a matrix and a model that depicts the relationships between users’ cognitive styles, and their navigational style and information processing strategies. We discuss how the findings from this study could help search engine designers to provide an adaptive navigation support to users.

Improving web database search incorporating users query information

The growing importance and need of data processing for information extraction is vital for Web databases. Due to the sheer size and volume of databases, retrieval of relevant information as needed by users has become a cumbersome process. Information seekers are faced by information overloading - too many result sets are returned for their queries. Moreover, too few or no results are returned if a specific query is asked. This paper proposes a ranking algorithm that gives higher preference to a user’s current search and also utilizes profile information in order to obtain the relevant results for a user’s query.

Automated gathering of Web information: An in-depth examination of agents interacting with search engines

The Web has become a worldwide repository of information which individuals, companies, and organizations utilize to solve or address various information problems. Many of these Web users utilize automated agents to gather this information for them. Some assume that this approach represents a more sophisticated method of searching. However, there is little research investigating how Web agents search for online information. In this research, we first provide a classification for information agent using stages of information gathering, gathering approaches, and agent architecture. We then examine an implementation of one of the resulting classifications in detail, investigating how agents search for information on Web search engines, including the session, query, term, duration and frequency of interactions. For this temporal study, we analyzed three data sets of queries and page views from agents interacting with the Excite and AltaVista search engines from 1997 to 2002, examining approximately 900,000 queries submitted by over 3,000 agents. Findings include: (1) agent sessions are extremely interactive, with sometimes hundreds of interactions per second (2) agent queries are comparable to human searchers, with little use of query operators, (3) Web agents are searching for a relatively limited variety of information, wherein only 18% of the terms used are unique, and (4) the duration of agent-Web search engine interaction typically spans several hours. We discuss the implications for Web information agents and search engines.

Assessment of function and clinical utility of alcohol and other drug web sites : an observational, qualitative study

Background The increasing popularity and use of the internet makes it an attractive option for providing health information and treatment, including alcohol/other drug use. There is limited research examining how people identify and access information about alcohol or other drug (AOD) use online, or how they assess the usefulness of the information presented. This study examined the strategies that individuals used to identify and navigate a range of AOD websites, along with the attitudes concerning presentation and content. Methods Members of the general community in Brisbane and Roma (Queensland, Australia) were invited to participate in a 30-minute search of the internet for sites related to AOD use, followed by a focus group discussion. Fifty one subjects participated in the study across nine focus groups. Results Participants spent a maximum of 6.5 minutes on any one website, and less if the user was under 25 years of age. Time spent was as little as 2 minutes if the website was not the first accessed. Participants recommended that AOD-related websites should have an engaging home or index page, which quickly and accurately portrayed the site’s objectives, and provided clear site navigation options. Website content should clearly match the title and description of the site that is used by internet search engines. Participants supported the development of a portal for AOD websites, suggesting that it would greatly facilitate access and navigation. Treatment programs delivered online were initially viewed with caution. This appeared to be due to limited understanding of what constituted online treatment, including its potential efficacy. Conclusions A range of recommendations arise from this study regarding the design and development of websites, particularly those related to AOD use. These include prudent use of text and information on any one webpage, the use of graphics and colours, and clear, uncluttered navigation options. Implications for future website development are discussed.

Web 2.0, social networking and the courts

In the last decade or so, we have witnessed the growth of web 2.0 technology and social networking platforms, and their rapid rise in popularity as methods of social interaction and communication. Yet, platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are not just online social phenomena, but can impact on the way the law and courts operate. This article highlights the issues that legal practitioners and courts need to be aware of in engaging with this technology, and suggests possible ways forward.

Stigmergy in Web 2.0 : a model for site dynamics

Building Web 2.0 sites does not necessarily ensure the success of the site. We aim to better understand what improves the success of a site by drawing insight from biologically inspired design patterns. Web 2.0 sites provide a mechanism for human interaction enabling powerful intercommunication between massive volumes of users. Early Web 2.0 site providers that were previously dominant are being succeeded by newer sites providing innovative social interaction mechanisms. Understanding what site traits contribute to this success drives research into Web sites mechanics using models to describe the associated social networking behaviour. Some of these models attempt to show how the volume of users provides a self-organising and self-contextualisation of content. One model describing coordinated environments is called stigmergy, a term originally describing coordinated insect behavior. This paper explores how exploiting stigmergy can provide a valuable mechanism for identifying and analysing online user behavior specifically when considering that user freedom of choice is restricted by the provided web site functionality. This will aid our building better collaborative Web sites improving the collaborative processes.