Fast-Food Franchises: An Alternative Menu for Hotel/Casinos

In their discussion - Fast-Food Franchises: An Alternative Menu for Hotel/Casinos - by Skip Swerdlow, Assistant Professor of Finance, Larry Strate, Assistant Professor of Business Law, and Francis X. Brown, Assistant Professor of Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, their preview reads: Hotel/casino food service operations are adding some non-traditional fare to their daily offerings in the form of fast-food franchises. The authors review aspects of franchising and cite some new Las Vegas food ideas.” The authors offer that the statewide food and beverage figures, according to the Nevada Gaming Abstract of 1985, exceeded $1.24 billion. Most of that figure was generated in traditional coffee shops, gourmet dining rooms, and buffets. With that kind of food and beverage figure solidly on the table, it was inevitable that fast-food franchises would move into casinos to garner a share of the proceeds. In a March 1986 review of franchising, Restaurant Business reported the following statistics: “Over 60 percent of all restaurants are franchisee owned. This relationship is also paralleled in dollar sales, which has exceeded $53 billion.” “Restaurant franchising expansion has grown at an annual rate of 12 percent per year for the past five years.” The beginning of the article is dedicated to describing, in general, the franchise phenomenon; growth has been spectacular the authors inform you. “The franchise concept has provided an easy method of going into business for the entrepreneur with minimal business experience, but a desire to work hard to make a profit,” say professors Swerdlow, Strate, and Brown. Lured by tourist traffic, and the floundering Chapter 11 afflicted, Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Burger King saw an attractive opportunity for an experiment in non-traditional outlet placement, say the authors. Although innately transient, the tourist numbers were way too significant to ignore. That tourist traffic, the authors say, is ‘round-the-clock. Added to that figure is the 2000-3000 average employee count for many of the casinos on the ‘Vegas strip. Not surprisingly, the project began to look very appealing to both Burger King and the Riviera Hotel/Casino, the authors report. In the final analysis, the project did work out well; very well indeed. So it is written, “The successful operation of the Burger King in the Riviera has sparked interest by other existing hotel/casino operations and fast-food restaurant chains. Burger King's operation, like so many other industry leadership decisions, provides impetus for healthy competition in a market that is burgeoning not only because of expansion that recognizes traditional population growth, but because of bold moves that search for customers in non-traditional areas.” The authors provide an Appendix listing Las Vegas hotel/casino properties and the restaurants they contain.

O papel do centro histórico na cidade: um estudo comparativo entre João Pessoa e Tours

In the contemporary scene, it is conspicuous that the patrimony and the culture have assumed privileged positions in urban policies, presenting themselves as instruments for transforming and shaping the aspect of cities. In the plot line of such glowing trend, the competitiveness among cities has drawn more attention, for at present such urban centers garner an image that makes them suitable for economic purposes, thus more likely to attract investments and tourists. In the spotlight of such stage, the cities become notable actors, directed by policies of urban rehabilitation. In such plot line, the historical centers gain more visibility and are converted into venues for staging the spectacle of everyday life. Overlapped in this process of producing images, the phenomenon of gentrification recrudesces. Thus, the discussion threaded about the patrimony gains strength in urban studies, keeping a close relationship with the ways of perceiving the cities nowadays. This work is based on the principle that the historical centers are engendered and fond by urban policies, working as transforming instruments of city perceptions and living. In that sense, the way how the historic center and the valuation assessed to old buildings are comprehended by the inhabitants is largely guided by urban policies that outline a sellable image of the city. In the light of such elaborations, an ethnographic research was made with focus on two different contexts, namely: the historic centers of João Pessoa (Brazil) and Tours (France). It was done in a comparative perspective, for it allows us to trace the main specificities of each situation in order to highlight the similarities and distinctions about the two regions mentioned above. The research aimed at apprehending how the pair redevelopment-abandonment engendered by the urban policies influence on the process of revaluation of historical centers by dwellers and to what extent there are convergences regarding such kinds of interventions, as an object of policies of urban and touristic development in Brazil and France. In order to make this work – besides the abundant bibliographic review carried out in libraries of several universities and institutions in Brazil and France – dwellers, merchants, teachers, representative people of public agencies and former residents of the historic centers of both cities were interviewed. In Tours, immigrants/Portuguese descendants were interviewed, point that greatly contributed to the understanding of the historic center before Vieux Tours renewal and restoration. Moreover a rich research on Archives and Public Agencies was done, as well as investigations on newspaper and articles on the Internet. Thus, in the context of the ethnography in historic centers, it was possible to notice that both realities reveal similarities in a comparative analytical framework

(Tables S1,2) Stable isotopes in muscle tissue of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from various regions of the Arctic

The relative contribution of regional contamination versus dietary differences to geographic variation in polar bear (Ursus maritimus) contaminant levels is unknown. Dietary variation between Alaska, Canada, East Greenland, and Svalbard subpopulations was assessed by muscle nitrogen and carbon stable isotope (d15N, d13C) and adipose fatty acid (FA) signatures relative to their main prey (ringed seals). Western and southern Hudson Bay signatures were characterized by depleted d15N and d13C, lower proportions of C20 and C22 monounsaturated FAs and higher proportions of C18 and longer chain polyunsaturated FAs. East Greenland and Svalbard signatures were reversed relative to Hudson Bay. Alaskan and Canadian Arctic signatures were intermediate. Between-subpopulation dietary differences predominated over interannual, seasonal, sex, or age variation. Among various brominated and chlorinated contaminants, diet signatures significantly explained variation in adipose levels of polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants (14-15%) and legacy PCBs (18-21%). However, dietary influence was contaminant class-specific, since only low or nonsignificant proportions of variation in organochlorine pesticide (e.g., chlordane) levels were explained by diet. Hudson Bay diet signatures were associated with lower PCB and PBDE levels, whereas East Greenland and Svalbard signatures were associated with higher levels. Understanding diet/food web factors is important to accurately interpret contaminant trends, particularly in a changing Arctic.

Imagem do corpo, perturbações alimentares e traços de personalidade

Este estudo tem como objetivo investigar a relação entre a imagem do corpo, perturbações alimentares e traços de personalidade. 254 estudantes do ensino superior, 191 raparigas (Idade média = 21,53) e 63 rapazes (Idade média = 22,87) responderam a: Questionário sobre a Imagem do Corpo (Bruchon-Schweitzer, 1992), Eating Disorder lnventory (Garner, Olmstead & Polivy, 1983) e o NEO-FFI-20 (Bertoquini & Ribeiro, 2006). Os resultados obtidos revelaram uma correlação positiva entre a imagem corporal e o comportamento alimentar. As dimensões de personalidade Extroversão e Conscienciosidade estão correlacionadas positivamente com a imagem corporal, enquanto que a dimensão Abertura à Experiência correlaciona-se de modo negativo com a imagem corporal e com o comportamento alimentar. /ABSTRACT: This study aims to investigate the relationship between body image, eating disorders and personality traits. 254 higher education students, 191 girls (mean age = 21.53) and 63 boys (mean age = 22.87) answered: Questionnaire on Body lmage (Bruchon-Schweitzer, 1992), Eating Disorder lnventory (Garner, Olmstead & Polivy, 1983) and the NEO-FFI-20 (Bertoquini & Ribeiro, 2006). The results revealed a positive correlation between body image and eating behaviors. The personality dimensions Extraversion and Conscientiousness was positively correlated with body image, while the dimension Openness to Experience correlated negatively with body image and eating behavior.

Future of medical engagement

Although it has long been recognised that doctors play a crucial role in the effectiveness and efficiency of health organisations, patient experience and clinical outcomes, over the past 20 years the topic of medical engagement has started to garner significant international attention. Australia currently lags behind other countries in its heedfulness to, and evidence base for, medical engagement. This Perspective piece explores the link between medical engagement and health system performance and identifies some key questions that need to be addressed in Australia if we are to drive more effective engagement.

Small states and the promotion of their foreign policy agenda in the international scenario: Trinidad and Tobago and the Kyoto Protocol

Este estudio de caso busca identificar los elementos del portafolio de política exterior de Trinidad y Tobago que le permitieron promover exitosamente sus intereses en el Protocolo de Kioto. Al hacer esto, este texto analizará las limitaciones de Trinidad y Tobago en términos de vulnerabilidades de localización, burocracia y recursos. Posteriormente, una revisión del portafolio de política exterior de este Estado ilustrará el uso de estrategias de creación de capacidades y de organización como lo son el contacto con actores institucionales y no gubernamentales, la formación de coaliciones y estrategias argumentativas, entre otras. Finalmente, este artículo concluirá que dichas acciones permitieron la promoción de la agenda de política exterior de Trinidad y Tobago a través de la creación de hojas de ruta y la coordinación de la incertidumbre con el Protocolo de Kioto. Para hacer esto, este trabajo se concentrará en examinar conceptos como vulnerabilidad y priorización, asimismo contrastando diferentes artículos académicos en la materia junto con documentos oficiales de Trinidad y Tobago.