The quality of the physical environment and its association with activities and well-being among older people in residential care facilities

The physical environment can influence older people’s health and well-being, and is often mentioned as being an important factor for person-centred care. Due to high levels of frail health, many older people spend a majority of their time within care facilities and depend on the physical environment for support in their daily life. However, the quality of the physical environment is rarely evaluated, and knowledge is sparse in terms of how well the environment meets the needs of older people. This is partly due to the lack of valid and reliable instruments that could provide important information on environmental quality. Aim: The aim of this thesis was to study the quality of the physical environment in Swedish care facilities for older people, and how it relates to residents’ activities and well-being. Methods: The thesis comprises four papers where both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Study I involved the translation and adaptation of the Sheffield Care Environment Assessment Matrix (SCEAM) into a Swedish version (S-SCEAM). Several methods were used including forward and backward translation, test of validity via expert consultation and reliability tests. In Study II, S-SCEAM was used to assess the quality of the environment, and descriptive data were collected from 20 purposively sampled residential care facilities (RCFs). Study III was a comparative case study conducted at two RCFs using observations, interviews and S-SCEAM to examine how the physical environment relates to older people’s activities and interactions. In study IV, multilevel modeling was used to determine the association between the quality of the physical environment and the psychological and social well-being of older people living in RCFs. The data in the thesis were analysed using qualitative content analysis, and descriptive, bivariate and multilevel statistics. Results: A specific result was the production of the Swedish version of SCEAM. The instrument contains 210 items structured into eight domains reflecting the needs of older people. When using S-SCEAM, the results showed a substantial variation in the quality of the physical environment between and within RCFs. In general, private apartments and dining areas had high quality, whereas overall building layout and outdoor areas had lower quality. Also, older people’s safety was supported in the majority of facilities, whereas cognitive support and privacy had lower quality. Further, the results showed that environmental quality in terms of cognitive support was associated with residents’ social well-being. Specific environmental features, such as building design and space size, were also noted, through observation, as influencing residents’ activities, and several barriers were found that seemed to restrict residents’ full use of the environment. Conclusions: This thesis contributes to the growing evidence-based design field. The S-SCEAM can be used in future research on the association between the environment and people’s health and well-being. The instrument could also serve as a guide in the planning and design process of new RCFs.

SC revenue ruling #16-3

Restaurants in South Carolina have begun utilizing electronic tablet table top ordering and bill payment devices. The purpose and intended use of these devices is to streamline the ordering and bill payment processes by allowing restaurant patrons the ability to order food and beverages through a mobile menu and to pay for meals on demand. This advisory opinion reflects the Department’s official position regarding electronic “table top ordering devices” used by restaurants.

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.

Landscape strategies in Bronze Age Southwestern Cyprus (2500-1100 B.C.)

This thesis concerns the analysis of the socio-economic transformation of communities in Bronze Age southwestern Cyprus. Through the adoption of a dialectical perspective of analysis, individuals and environment are considered part of the same unity: they are cooperating agents in shaping society and culture. The Bronze Age is a period of intense transformation in the organization of local communities, made of a continuous renegotiation of the socio-economic roles and interactions. The archaeological record from this portion of the island allows one to go beyond the investigation of the complex and articulated transition from the EBA-MBA agro-pastoral and self-sufficient communities to the LBA centralized and trade-oriented urban-centres. Through a shifting of analytical scales, the emerging picture suggests major transformations in the individual-community-territory dialectical relations. A profound change in the materials conditions of social life, as well as in the superstructural realm, was particularly entailed by the dissolution of the relation to the earth, due to the emergence of new forms of land exploitation/ownership and to the shift of the settlement pattern in previously unknown areas. One of the key points of this thesis is the methodological challenge of working with legacy survey data as I re-analysed a diverse archaeological legacy, which is the result of more than fifty years of survey projects, rescue and research-oriented excavations, as well as casual discoveries. Source critique and data evaluation are essential requirements in an integrative and cross-disciplinary regional perspective, in the comprehensive processing of heterogeneous archaeological and environmental datasets. Through the estimation of data precision and certainty, I developed an effective - but simple - method to critically evaluate existing datasets and to inter-correlate them without losing their original complexity. This powerful method for data integration can be applied to similar datasets belonging to other regions and other periods as it originates from the evaluation of larger methodological and theoretical issues that are not limited to my spatial and temporal focus. As I argue in this thesis, diverse archaeological legacies can be efficiently re-analysed through an integrative and regional methodology. The adoption of a regional scale of analysis can provide an excellent perspective on the complexity of transformations in ancient societies, thus creating a fundamental bridge between the local stories and grand landscape narratives.

Responsabilidad social empresarial Crepes & Waffles

El presente estudio de caso documenta los planes y actividades relacionadas con el tema de Responsabilidad Social Empresarial que la multinacional colombiana Crepes & Waffles implementa en sus operaciones. El documento contiene una investigación que incluye antecedentes, análisis del sector, temas estadísticos y una entrevista.

El museo de la arepa

El Museo de la Arepa es un restaurante que estará ubicado en la localidad de La Candelaria en la ciudad de Bogotá, con un enfoque de autoservicio que ofrece arepas típicas colombianas en cinco variedades distintas, cada una de las cuales representa una región del país. Sera constituida a través de la Sociedad por Acciones Simplificada S.A.S. El proyecto nace de la iniciativa de dos familias y de sus gustos gastronómicos y tradiciones familiares. Queremos crear un espacio de ocio dedicado a la cultura y a la cocina y que resalte uno de los productos insignias, símbolo de nuestra identidad colombiana e icono de nuestra gastronomía: la arepa. Queremos convertirnos en la mejor opción para comer arepas en Bogotá y ofrecerle a nuestros comensales, además de un producto delicioso y de la mejor calidad, un lugar de esparcimiento diferente en el que se encuentren con el arte local de esta zona por medio de exposiciones de artistas urbanos, presentaciones musicales y de danza y una conceptualización tipo museo del lugar. Nos encontramos en una etapa de consolidación y se espera realizar la apertura del restaurante en enero de 2017. Actualmente, se está realizando la búsqueda del establecimiento donde nos ubicaremos en La Candelaria entre los barrios La Catedral y la Concordia.

5 Sentidos

5 Sentidos es un restaurante que se crea a partir de las expectativas que tienen las personas de encontrar un lugar novedoso, diferente y divertido, salido de lo común. Es un lugar fusión que contempla tanto de la gastronomía moderna como la clásica, donde se da cabida al público de experimentar el uso de todos sus sentidos en un recinto bañado de sorpresas desde el momento de cruzar la puerta, dando acogida a un gran sector demográfico el cual consideraba que no podía acceder a un sitio como este, para probar la magia culinaria que allí se ofrece. 5 Sentidos se aleja de la formalidad y elegancia de un sitio que se caracteriza por la comida que allí se ofrece para dar paso a la informalidad, donde las personas que allí acuden, son grupos de amigos o familiares que buscan encontrar un lugar casual y relajado. 5 Sentidos pretende inspirar a esas personas que consideran que hay cosas imposibles tanto de crear como de imaginar, para que se lancen a crear, hacer, construir; no construyan sueños, hagan sus sueños realidad.

In the box

In The Box surge como una idea de negocio que parte de la observación diaria con base en el ordenamiento del espacio público de la ciudad de Bogotá. La idea principal del proyecto se basa en el uso de espacios públicos que se encuentran de alguna manera en deterioro por parte de la administración distrital, con el fin de transformar estos espacios en lugares que los ciudadanos puedan aprovechar de una forma más adecuada. En este orden, In The Box propone la utilización de dichos espacios (zonas bajas de los puentes vehiculares) con el fin de ofrecer al cliente una experiencia gastronómica diferente, a través de la adaptación de un restaurante en un contenedor de carga marítima que podrá ser localizado en diferentes partes de la ciudad con base en el concepto on the go; Puesto que gran parte de los capitalinos se encuentran inmersos en una ardua rutina laboral la cual no permite en la mayoría de los casos el tiempo suficiente para ir a comer en un restaurante y obliga a acudir al consumo de productos de comida rápida.

Restaurante nómada – Trotamundos

El Restaurante Trotamundos SAS, será un camión de comida (Food Truck), especializado en la preparación y comercialización de comidas gourmet con matices internacionales, rápida, para llevar y sin complicaciones. Nuestras preparaciones girarán en torno a una experiencia basada en el consumo de carne de res con sabores de diferentes países, enfocándonos en jóvenes universitarios y profesionales como nuestro segmento de mercado, estos ubicados en las localidades de Chapinero, Teusaquillo y Usaquén. Para facilitar el acceso de nuestros clientes situados en zonas tan distantes de Bogotá, Trotamundos funcionará en un moderno camión con una cocina diseñada acorde con la actualidad legislativa exigida para los restaurantes tradicionales y con los más altos estándares de higiene y calidad en manejo de alimentos. En la actualidad en la ciudad de Bogotá funcionan aproximadamente 60 restaurantes móviles, los cuales presentan una amplia variedad de productos desde jugos y postres hasta platos fuertes, en donde predominan las comidas rápidas tales como pizzas y hamburguesas entre otros. Nuestro principal diferenciador sobre la competencia, será la opción de una comida completa, elaborada en tiempos competitivos y a un precio justo. Para facilitar el reconocimiento de nuestro negocio ante nuestro nicho de mercado utilizaremos un llamativo camión parecido a un baúl de viaje de los años 20, que se trasladará en las localidades de Bogotá previamente mencionadas; adicionalmente usaremos redes sociales y volanteo para potenciar la promoción de la experiencia de nuestro cliente.

Gastrodiplomacia como herramienta de política exterior. estudio de caso: Perú

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar la manera mediante la cual Perú ha incor- porado la gastrodiplomacia a su estrategia de diplomacia cultural como componente de su política exterior. Con el fin de cumplir este propósito, se va a defender que desde el 2008 el país Inca ha incorporado la gastrodiplomacia a su estrategia de diplomacia cultural em- pleando dos herramientas. Primero, a través de su Plan de Política Exterior Cultural, en donde se señalan objetivos claros en temas de gastronomía. En segundo lugar, con el uso de su marca país mediante la cual se promociona al Perú como un país atractivo gracias a su amplia oferta gastronómica. El trabajo es de carácter analítico y descriptivo ya que pretende entender la manera en la que Perú incorporó la gastrodiplomacia en su política exterior y describir esos objetivos y características de su Plan de Política Exterior Cultural y de su estrategia de marca país.

Impacto da agricultura intensiva de cana-de-açúcar sobre as propriedades do solo e da água subterrânea - estudo de caso em Ribeirão Preto - SP.

A agricultura brasileira tem se destacado, entre as demais, pelo uso indiscriminado de insumos, contribuindo sistematicamente para o desequilíbrio do agroecossistema. Nas áreas de cultivo intensivo, particularmente naquelas com a monocultura de cana-de-açúcar, e intensa a utilização de maquinas e agroquímicos que intervêm de maneira quantitativa e qualitativa nos meios biótico, físico e químico do agroecossistema. A avaliação do efeitos provocados pelas atividades agrícolas no próprio meio (fatores intrínsecos) e no meio externo (fatores extrínsecos) requer a aplicação de metodologia que estabeleça uma relação casual entre a ação "potencialmente poluidora" e a degradação efetivamente verificada. Nesse contexto, adotou-se uma microbacia de uso agrícola intensivo na região de Ribeirão Preto - SP, onde há facilidade de compatibilização das variáveis dentro do sistema, condição que permite a compreensão das interações dos elementos entre si e com o todo, servindo de modelo para estudo de áreas análogas. A região de Ribeirão Preto e abastecida com água proveniente de mananciais subterrâneos vulneráveis, como é o caso do aquífero Botucatu. Em decorrência desse fato, tornam-se relevantes os aspectos relacionados à qualidade da água dos lençóis subterrâneos e as práticas agrícolas adotadas na região. Um diagnóstico socioeconômico se constitui em ferramenta importante na caracterização dos sistema de produção em uso na área, podendo orientar as demais atividades de pesquisa, estabelecendo-se épocas de coletas de água e solo para analise. O presente trabalho pretende desenvolver metodologia de avaliação de impacto ambiental em microbacias, aplicando o conhecimento da realidade, e propor a adoção de medidas mitigadoras ou preventivas de contaminação e ainda a orientação de políticas públicas para o setor.