Small business management and environmental engagement

Small firms in tourism are characterised by informal approaches to management, allowing their owners to meet a variety of often overlapping business and personal goals. Environmental certification schemes generally require members to subscribe to formal environmental management systems (EMS), even when aimed at small business operators. This paper examines in detail the managerial approaches of a small group of owner-managers who are operating within the approximately 3000-member Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) available in theUKand Ireland. The findings suggest that the type of environmental practices adopted most willingly reflect the formality of management within the business and the owner-managers’ various backgrounds, values, reasons to be in business, expectations from acting and their understanding of the “environment”. It finds that the “Plan-Do-Check-Review” approach of most EMS does not easily relate to the complex motivations and needs of the world of small business. The paper concludes that environmental engagement is more likely to be fostered if owner-managers’ managerial approaches and assumptions are better understood and that shared visions for environmental engagement are encouraged through informed dialogue. Both economic benefits and the fostering of “feel good” factors should be stressed if small tourism businesses are to adopt EMS programmes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Improving the Control of the Cement Making Process by Applying Multivariate Classical Least Squares Calibration

Multivariate calibration techniques allow the control of chemical processes by estimating sample properties in a non-destructive, fast and consequently cheap way, which would otherwise require destructive, time-consuming or costly testing. This paper deals with the classical least squares (CLS) which is applied for improving the control of the calcium aluminate cement making process. The CLS has been successful since its performance has been verified through the prediction of samples different from those used to calibrate the model. The multivariate treatment of the data provided by two instrumental methods, wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) and reflection colorimetry (RC) allows for rapid and accuratedetermination of the Fe2O3/FeO ratio in CAC. Rapid  determination of the Fe2O3 content provides a better controlof the kiln, producing higher quality calcium aluminatecement. As both WDXRF and RC methods are currently routinely applied in cement factories as continuous controls of the cement making process, no extra equipment is necessary

Burnout in Healthcare Professionals in Oncology

Healthcare professionals working with cancer patients have considerable risk for burnout. Nevertheless we know not enough about the burnout prevalence in oncological healthcare in Spain. This study aimed at estimating burnout levels of oncology professionals and at assessing satisfaction and work difficulties. 115 professionals answered the Maslach Burnout Inventory, a satisfaction questionnaire, and questions about difficulties and improvements. Results revealed a considerable number of professionals with burnout showing physicians a higher level than nurses. Burnout was negatively related to aspects of work satisfaction. Difficulties were work overload, communication and emotional aspects with patients and colleagues. Improvements dealt with organizational and individual aspects. Results are useful for prevention and intervention programs. Future research should analyze the work situation and personal factors

Thermophilic co-digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid wastes with FOG wastes from a sewage treatment plant : reactor performance and microbial community monitoring

Working at thermophilic conditions instead of mesophilic, and also the addition of a co-substrate, are both ways to intend to improve the anaerobic digestion of the source-collected organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (SC-OFMSW). Addition of sewage treatment plant fat, oil and grease wastes (STP-FOGW), that are nowadays sent to landfill, would represent an opportunity to recover a wasted methane potential and, moreover, improve the whole process. In this study, after a first period feeding only SC-OFMSW, a co-digestion step was performed maintaining thermophilic conditions. During the co-digestion period enhancements in biogas production (52 %) and methane yield (38 %) were achieved. In addition, monitoring of microbial structure by using PCR-DGGE and cloning techniques showed that bacterial community profiles clustered in two distinct groups, before and after the extended contact with STP-FOGW, being more affected by the STP-FOGW addition than the archaeal one.The financial support from Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) and European Community fund FEDER, trough Program COMPETE, in the ambit of the Project FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-007087 (PTDC/BIO/69745/2006) and from Xarxa de Referencia en Biotecnologia (Generalitat de Catalunya) is gratefully acknowledged. Lucia Martin thanks Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona for a pre-doctoral fellowship

Palliative Oncological Patients with Insomnia: Concerns of the Patients and Their Relatives' Perception

Insomnia is one of the most frequent symptoms and usually generates significant stress in 60% of patients with advanced cancer. Worries from the patients' and relatives' perspective are crucial to improve the patients' quality of life but have received limited attention. The aims were to identify the concerns of patients with insomnia in the terminal illness stage in a palliative care unit and the relatives' perception, and to compare both. Here, 63 patients and 53 relatives answered a questionnaire about worries in the personal, spiritual, family-related and economic area, as well as a quality-of-life uniscale. The results showed that the relatives' most frequent concern was "Having lived life to the fullest" (100%), and the most intense was "The possible suffering during the process" (9.2/10). The patients' most expressed concern was: "Having unfinished business" (100%), and the most intense was "Suffering during the process" (9.3/10). Quality of life showed an average value of 6.95 out of 10. Relatives only coincided significantly in: "Not knowing what happens after death" (r = 0.600; p = 0.000). These results bring visibility to concerns during the final stage of oncological palliative patients with insomnia from the patients' and relatives' perspective. Knowing both is useful for professionals to foster the well-being for a short, yet very important, period for patients, relatives and the caregiving team

Un estudio sobre la comprensión de las nociones físicas de la mecánica newtoniana: el caso del centro de masa

Se describe la comprensión del centro de masa a partir de un estudio de caso. La descripción se apoya en el análisis de la producción de un grupo de estudiantes universitarios cuando resuelven algunas tareas planteadas en una muestra representativa de contextos, un contexto mecánico estático y otro dinámico, en los que el centro de masa es importante para su resolución. En el estudio de las concepciones se utilizan y se adaptan algunas herramientas teóricas del enfoque ontosemiótico tales como el de configuración de objetos matemáticos de tipo epistémico y cognitivo. La comparación entre la configuración epistémica, organizada por un docente, y las configuraciones cognitivas de los discentes, muestra que el contexto estático deberá incluir situaciones en las que se favorezca el proceso de idealización, que el uso competente de dicha noción en una tarea concreta provee al alumno de un conocimiento parcial y, por otro lado, que la transferencia del conocimiento de un contexto a otro no es inmediata, pues los alumnos no consideran la complejidad del contexto dinámico

MicroRNA-222 Regulates Melanoma Plasticity

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive and highly resistant tumors. Cell plasticity in melanoma is one of the main culprits behind its metastatic capabilities. The detailed molecular mechanisms controlling melanoma plasticity are still not completely understood. Here we combine mathematical models of phenotypic switching with experiments on IgR39 human melanoma cells to identify possible key targets to impair phenotypic switching. Our mathematical model shows that a cancer stem cell subpopulation within the tumor prevents phenotypic switching of the other cancer cells. Experiments reveal that hsa-mir-222 is a key factor enabling this process. Our results shed new light on melanoma plasticity, providing a potential target and guidance for therapeutic studies