Internal and external effects of quality on competitiveness: Applications for the hotel sector in Spain

The aim of this paper is to analyze — from a global perspective — the main relationships existing between service quality and businesses competitiveness. To this end, a simultaneous equations model is presented. This model enables distinguishing between the external and internal effects of quality on competitiveness, and empirically verifies a set of hypotheses of great significance for the hotel industry. The data used to empirically verify this model were gathered from hotels owned by a national hotel company in Spain. The client survey carried out by the hotel — in the form of questionnaires — was the basis for creating the service quality indicators and establishing their most relevant dimensions. The quality indicator was created for each hotel based using Structural Equation Modelling (S.E.M.). On the other hand, the economic and financial data pertaining to the hotels served to create competitiveness indicators for each of them. The sign and value of the coefficients estimated by the model presented lead to a series of conclusions regarding the complex sequence of direct and indirect causal relationships between quality and competitiveness. The estimation obtained was used to empirically verify a set of key hypotheses regarding the competitiveness of these hotels and to propose measures designed to improve it.

The cartographer Enrique d’Almonte, at the crossroads of Spanish colonialism in Asia and Africa

D’Almonte fue un cartógrafo civil, que realizó los mejores mapas de las colonias españolas del momento (exceptuando Cuba): tarea normalmente realizada por militares. La explicación está en sus destrezas como dibujante, en sus cualidades como explorador, en los rudimentarios pero eficientes métodos de medición y en los saberes geográficos que supo atesorar: lingüísticos, geológicos, botánicos y etnográficos. Sus expediciones y mapas sobre Filipinas entre 1880 y 1898 sorprendieron tanto al American Bureau of Mineralogy que lo calificó como “uno de los grandes exploradores del siglo XX”. Sus acciones y propuestas serían de gran utilidad para el dominio colonial que en ese momento buscaban las autoridades españolasD’Almonte was a civilian cartographer who made the best maps of the Spanish colonies of the moment (except for Cuba), a task usually carried out by the military. The reasons are his skills as a draftsman, his qualities as an explorer, the rudimentary but efficient methods of measurement he used and the broad linguistic, geological, botanical and ethnographic knowledge he was able to cumulate. His expeditions and maps of the Philippines between 1880 and 1898 surprised the American Bureau of Mineralogy so much that it called him “one of the great explorers of the twentieth century”. Their actions and proposals would result of much utility for the colonial domination that Spanish authorities were seeking to establis

Imagined territories and histories in conflict during the struggles for Western Sahara, 1956–1979

Political conflicts in the western fringe of the Saharan desert since the second half of the 1950s have involved actors using competing territorial imaginaries, which disagree on the question of sovereignty and who should hold it. As soon as newly independent Morocco claimed the then Spanish Sahara as part of a ‘Greater Morocco’, other nationalist projects such as the ‘Ensamble Mauritanien’, the ‘Spanish nation’ and the ‘Saharawi people’, incorporated the colony into their own imagined territories in incompatible ways. All of these geographical visions were justified by different interpretations of the history of the Atlantic Sahara. This article shows the role played by alternative conceptions of this space, and the histories that supported them, during the end of Spanish colonial rule and the beginning of Moroccan control. It also shows how new ideas of state sovereignty and political legitimacy within the regional and international context conditioned the competing territorial conceptions and discouraged any attempt to develop a non-nationalist imaginationThis work has received financial support from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (RþD Project HAR 2012- 36414

Internal and external effects of quality on competitiveness: Applications for the hotel sector in Spain

The aim of this paper is to analyze — from a global perspective — the main relationships existing between service quality and businesses competitiveness. To this end, a simultaneous equations model is presented. This model enables distinguishing between the external and internal effects of quality on competitiveness, and empirically verifies a set of hypotheses of great significance for the hotel industry. The data used to empirically verify this model were gathered from hotels owned by a national hotel company in Spain. The client survey carried out by the hotel — in the form of questionnaires — was the basis for creating the service quality indicators and establishing their most relevant dimensions. The quality indicator was created for each hotel based using Structural Equation Modelling (S.E.M.). On the other hand, the economic and financial data pertaining to the hotels served to create competitiveness indicators for each of them. The sign and value of the coefficients estimated by the model presented lead to a series of conclusions regarding the complex sequence of direct and indirect causal relationships between quality and competitiveness. The estimation obtained was used to empirically verify a set of key hypotheses regarding the competitiveness of these hotels and to propose measures designed to improve it

Sistema Contable en la Empresa Agropecuaria ‘‘Los Potrerillos’’ S.A del municipio de Jinotega, en el I semestre del año 2015.

En el presente Seminario de Graduación abordamos el Sistema Contable de las empresas de Matagalpa y Jinotega, con el fin de analizar el Sistema Contable de la Empresa Agropecuaria “Los Potrerillos S.A.” en el municipio de Jinotega en el I semestre del año 2015. Es de gran importancia que las empresas agropecuarias cuenten con un Sistema Contable para llevar un mejor registro de sus operaciones que ayuden en la elaboración de los Estados Financieros ya que estos sirven de fuente de información que permite conocer la situación financiera de la empresa, este facilita y agiliza la toma de decisiones de la entidad. Al concluir nuestro trabajo en estudio llegamos a las siguientes conclusiones: cuentan con todos los elementos del Sistema Contable a excepción de: El Instructivo de Cuentas, Manuales de Controles Internos, Manual Administrativo y el Manual de Procedimientos, llevan a cabo los siguientes procedimientos contables: Ingresos, Egresos y Costos de Producción, presentan fortalezas de tener un Catálogo de Cuentas adaptado a las necesidades de la empresa y debilidades de no poseer los Manuales de Control Interno y Administrativo, es por lo antes mencionado que proponemos la siguientes alternativas: que se elaboren Manuales de Controles Internos, Administrativos y de Procedimientos y que se debe considerar la carta tecnológica en el proceso productivo del ganado

The obtention of simian virus 40 recombinants carrying d(CG.GC)n, d(CA.GT)n and d(CT.GA)n sequences. Stability of the inserted simple repeating sequences

4 pages, 3 figures.-- PMID: 2820728 [PubMed].-- Available online Mar 3, 2005.A general strategy for the introduction of simple repeating DNA sequences into the simian virus 40 (SV40) has been developed. SV40 recombinants carrying d(CG · GC)5, d(CA · GT)30 or d(CT · GA)22 insertions at either the TaqI site (position 4739) or the HpaII site (position 346) were obtained and the stability of the inserted DNA sequences studied. The palindromic potentially Z-DNA-forming d(CG · GC)n sequence was found to be highly unstable when compared to either d(CA · GT)n or d(CT · GA)n.This work was supported by grants from the Comision Asesora de lnvestigacion Cientifica y Tecnica, the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientzficas (CSIC) and the Comissio Interdepertamental de Recerca i Innovacio Tecnologica. J. M. C. was a recipient of a doctoral fellowship from the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia. M. J. E. was supported by a fellowship from the Medical Research Council of Canada. A. R. C. was a postdoctoral fellow from the C. S. I. C.Peer reviewe

Procesos erosivos (tasas de erosión) en los deltas mediterráneos andaluces: herramientas de análisis espacial (DSAS) y evolución temporal (servicios OGC)

En la presente comunicación se pretende evaluar y cuantificar la erosión de las playas como proceso continuo a corto, medio y largo plazo en los principales deltas de la fachada mediterránea andaluza, así como observar en qué medida la actividad antrópica ha podido alterar sus condiciones naturales. Metodológicamente, se ha realizado una digitalización precisa de la línea de costa a escala 1:2.500 para los años 1956, 1979, 1984, 2001 y 2009 mediante el uso de los servicios OGC disponibles a través de la Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales de Andalucía. Los criterios de digitalización han seguido una estricta base ecológica para la identificación del indicador de línea de costa, a diferencia de otras líneas oficiales, lo que hace que cada tramo costero sea identificado por un proceso distinto, diferenciándose procedimientos independientes para las formaciones sedimentarias expuestas, las costas rocosas o las infraestructuras antrópicas del frente litoral. Los datos digitalizados se han adaptado al modelo de datos presentado e integrado en el gestor de datos Postgres/PostGis. Las tasas de evolución de los distintos tramos costeros se han obtenido mediante transectos con un espaciado de 50 metros utilizando el programa DSAS integrado en ArcGis 10. El análisis diacrónico que permite la alta disponibilidad de datos de referencia a través de servicios OGC ha permitido el seguimiento de los deltas y de la influencia de la actividad humana en él.Beach erosion evaluation and quantification as a short, medium and long-term process in several Andalusian Mediterranean deltas is presented in this paper.From the point of view of the methodology, a precise shoreline digitalization at a scale of 1:2.500 for years 1956, 1979, 1984, 2001 and 2009 has been performed by using OGC services, from the Andalusian Spatial Data Infrastructure. Digitalization criteria were supported by a strict ecological basis for shoreline rate identification, in such a way that each shoreline segment is identified by a different process, according to its nature: exposed sedimentary formations, rocky coasts or anthropic infrastructures on the coast. Digitalized data has been adapted to the data model presented and integrated in Postgres/PostGis database manager. Each shoreline segment evolution rates have been obtained by 50 meters spacing transects, using DSAS software integrated into ArcGis 10. The diachronic analysis, allowed by the availability of reference data through OGC services, has made possible monitoring the evolution of deltas and the influence of human action on it.Junta de Andalucía RNM-6207Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CSO2010-1580

Developing a practical guide for teaching histology: an evaluation of the didactic components

The Didactic Guide is a valuable tool complementing and making learning more dynamic. It is done using creative didactic strategies that simulate the presence of the tutor and generate a dialogue in order to offer students different possibilities to improve their understanding and self-discovery learning.This way the student is the protagonist of his own learning process. In this context, is highly important to consider the self discovery learning as a goal facilitating significant learning. The use of practical guides enables students to manage their own time, goals, techniques, contents and evaluation. In medical histology teaching several models of didactic guides could be use, and they normally include numerous activities, text, questionnaires, pictures, and drawings that may enhance the effectiveness of this tool in the learning process. In this work we have evaluated the usefulnes of different sections of a histology didactic guide in order to determine the key sections that enhance the learning process in human histology. For this purpose, a practical histology guide was designed with different sections: message text, theoretical text, objectives, drawings, pictures, clinical cases, games, blank spaces for self notes and drawing and final self evaluation questions. First, a simple questionnaire was applied in 90 students enrolled in histology practical seccions to analyze the student´s perceptions and preferences related to the histology guide. Finally, for all questionnaires average results and standard deviations were calculated for each option and all participants, as well for each gender, separately. Comparisons were done for drawings vs drawing blank spaces, teoric content vs notes blank space, drawings vs pictures and for each gender separately using Mann-Whitney non-parametrical test. Our findings revealed that visual strategies such as images and pictures were considered to be more useful for learning histology in the practical session. Similary, the students rated the self evaluation questions and blank spaces for self notes and drawing to be more attractive to the students. However, texts with theoretical information, messages, objectives, and clinical cases revealed to be less useful for the students in the learning process of medical histology. Moreover, statistically significant differences between theoretical content vs notes blank space was observed. All these results point out the importance of including pictures and drawings in the practical guide accompained of blank spaces that allow the development of creativity and autonomy that lead the students into a self discovery learning. Interestingly the students do not appreciate the presence of theoretical background in the practical guide as relevant information for their academic formation in the practical session

Partial Reconfiguration of Control Systems using Petri Nets Structural Redundancy

This paper deals with the partial reconfiguration of the discrete control systems due to resource failures using the structural redundancy of the global system model. The approach herein proposed introduces a new subclass of Interpreted Petri Nets (), named Interpreted Machines with Resources (), allowing representing both the behaviour of a system and the resource allocation. Based on this model, an efficient reconfiguration algorithm is proposed; it is based on finding the set of all redundant sequences using alternative resources. The advantages of this structural reconfiguration method are: (1) it provides minimal reconfiguration to the system control assuring the properties of the original control system, (2) since the model includes resource allocation, it can be applied to a variety of systems such as Business Processes, and FPGAs, among others, (3) it takes advantage of the implied features of Petri net models, such as structural analysis and graphical visualization of the system and control. The method is illustrated through a case study that deals with a manufacturing system controller, which includes both alternative resources and operation sequencesITESO, A.C.CINVESTA

Association between sleep-disordered breathing and breast cancer aggressiveness

Background Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) has been associated with cancer aggressiveness, but studies focused on specific tumors are lacking. In this pilot study we investigated whether SDB is associated with breast cancer (BC) aggressiveness. Methods 83 consecutive women <65 years diagnosed with primary BC underwent a home respiratory polygraphy. Markers of SDB severity included the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and the 4% oxygen desaturation index (ODI4). The Ki67 proliferation index, lack of hormone receptors (HR-), Nottingham Histological Grade (NHG), and tumor stage were used as markers of BC aggressiveness. The association between SDB and molecular subtypes of BC was also assessed. Results The mean (SD) age was 48.8 (8.8) years and body mass index was 27.4 (5.4) Kg/m2. 42 women (50.6%) were post-menopausal. The median (IQR) AHI was 5.1 (2–9.4), and ODI4 was 1.5 (0.5–5.8). The median (IQR) AHI did not differ between the groups with Ki67>28% and Ki6728% and Ki67<29% (51.2% vs 52.3%, p = 0.90), HR- and HR+ (58.3% vs 49.1%, p = 0.47), NHG categories (p = 0.89), different tumor stages (p = 0.71), or molecular subtypes (p = 0.73). These results did not change when the ODI4 was used instead of the AHI. Conclusion Our results do not support an association between the presence or severity of SDB and BC aggressiveness.Asociación de Neumología y Cirugía Torácica del Sur (NEUMOSUR) 1/201