Are We Any Closer to Understanding what is meant by Customer Orientation? The Hospital Experience

This paper presents a review of the concept of customer orientation and seeks to clarify current thinking. It identifies some key definitions within the development of this area and evaluates their contribution. The theory of customer orientation identifies a number of alternative definitions and approaches which are sometimes contradictory but often complementary. The divergent views appear to fall between the areas of management’s vision and customer centeredness. An in-depth field interviews are thus conducted to ascertain the understanding of the concept among healthcare practitioners alongside a field work on patients of public hospitals. The findings suggest that patient satisfaction is related somehow to the age and level of education of the patient and that, customer orientation does not absolutely result to patient satisfaction unless there is a dedicated effort at establishing the right modalities to its implementation. The study recommends the need for the development of the right mental attitude by medical staff in order to be able to treat all patients (irrespective of age and level of education) with genuine empathy, concern, respect, civility and friendliness. Originality/value: The study successfully develops a working definition to the concept of customer orientation in the health sector and establishes for the first time in patient satisfaction studies, a trend that suggests that some patients are giving priority in general patient care. Patient satisfaction studies are often used by healthcare organisations for service improvements and thus the findings established from this research will enable healthcare institutions to improve on their service delivery. Keywords: Customer Orientation, Patient Satisfaction, Public hospitals, Ghan

Assessing U.S. Agricultural Export Growth Under North American Free Trade Agreement: A Shift-Share Analysis

NAFTA is the first free-trade pact that has transformed and driven economic integration among the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The three NAFTA countries’ agricultural export performance in four major classified commodities was each analyzed prior to the implementation and active years of NAFTA by applying a dynamic shift share model to data from 1992 through 2018. The overall results show United States was found to be the overall beneficiary NAFTA among the participating countries. The U.S. led in the exports of all the four major classified agricultural commodities followed by Canada, and then, Mexico. The most highly exported commodity among the four by any of the member nations, was consumer-oriented products while agricultural-related, intermediate, and bulk commodities follow in that order

The Impact of Postures and Moving Directions in Fire Evacuation in a Low-Visibility Environment

Walking speed is a significant aspect of evacuation efficiency, and this speed varies during fire emergencies due to individual physical abilities. However, in evacuations, it is not always possible to keep an upright posture, hence atypical postures, such as stoop walking or crawling, may be required for survival. In this study, a novel 3D passive vision-aided inertial system (3D PVINS) for indoor positioning was used to track the movement of 20 volunteers during an evacuation in a low visibility environment. Participants’ walking speeds using trunk flexion, trunk–knee flexion, and upright postures were measured. The investigations were carried out under emergency and non-emergency scenarios in vertical and horizontal directions, respectively. Results show that different moving directions led to a roughly 43.90% speed reduction, while posture accounted for over 17%. Gender, one of the key categories in evacuation models, accounted for less than 10% of the differences in speed. The speeds of participants under emergency scenarios when compared to non-emergency scenarios was also found to increase by 53.92–60% when moving in the horizontal direction, and by about 48.28–50% when moving in the vertical direction and descending downstairs. Our results also support the social force theory of the warming-up period, as well as the effect of panic on the facilitating occupants’ moving speed

The spatial pattern of demand in the early market for electric vehicles: Evidence from the United Kingdom

This paper reports a spatial analysis of Electric Vehicle registrations across the local authorities of the United Kingdom during the early phase of market development. Spatial autocorrelation tests are applied in order to identify any spatial organisation in registrations rates and spatial regression models are specified to consider the effect of socioeconomic, household, and transport system characteristics over registrations. Specific attention is paid to the association between Electric Vehicle registrations and the presence of charging infrastructure to consider if registrations are affected by infrastructure in the immediate and intermediate vicinity. The results of the analysis suggest Electric Vehicle demand exhibits a moderate degree of spatial clustering, which indicates the emergence of lead and laggard markets, and that the spatial variation in Electric Vehicle uptake can be partially explained through other characteristics of the local authorities. Characteristics relating to education level, employment status, income level, population density, dwelling type, household size, car availability, and the presence of Hybrid Electric Vehicles are significant factors in explaining the rate of Electric Vehicle registrations. Moreover, the level of charge point infrastructure installed within a local authority is positively associated with EV demand. From a policy perspective, the results reported in this paper indicate that local conditions are likely to be important in the rate of Electric Vehicle adoption, which may be of use when considering the development of geographically targeted interventions to accelerate Electric Vehicle demand

Transformation of an Agulhas eddy near the continental slope

The transformation of Agulhas eddies near the continental slope of southern Africa and their subsequent self-propagation are analyzed in both observational data and numerical simulations. Self-propagation results from a net dipole moment of a generalized heton structure consisting of a surface-intensified anticyclonic eddy and deep cyclonic pattern. Such Agulhas vortical structures can form near the retroflection region and further north along the western coast of southern Africa. We analyze nonlinear topographic wave generation, vortex deformations, and filament production as an important part in water mass exchange. Self-propagating structures provide a conduit for exchange between the deeNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-0752346

Women empowerment and uptake of antenatal care services : A meta-analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys from 33 Sub-Saharan African countries

Background: Women empowerment has been linked to increased skilled antenatal care (ANC) service use. However, there is no evidence on the net effect of women empowerment on ANC in the Sub-saharan African (SSA) region. We aim to address the knowledge gap on whether or not women empowerment positively influences the uptake of ANC at the SSA regional level. Methods: We analyzed the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) datasets from 33 SSA countries. Following the DHS data analysis guideline, we measured women empowerment using two indicators. The first indicator is an index, which comprises decision-making on women’s own health, household purchase and visit to family or relatives whilst disagreeing statements that husband is justified in beating his wife constitutes the second indictor. We performed confounder-adjusted logistic regression analysis for the two indicators with ANC attendance in each of the 33 countries. Then, we pooled the adjusted Odds Ratios (OR) using the random effect model through the two-stage Individual Participant Data meta-analysis technique. Summary findings are reported in OR and corresponding 95 %CI and are presented in a forest plot. Results: Moderately empowered women had marginally higher odd of skilled ANC service across the SSA region (aOR = 1.19; 95 %CI: 1.03, 1.38, with a prediction interval of 0.58, 2.45). Conversely, being involved in the three decisions (aOR = 1.15; 95 %CI: 0.99, 1.33, with prediction interval 0.57, 2.31), and attitude towards wife-beating (aOR = 0.97; 95 %CI: 0.88, 1.06, with prediction interval of 0.63, 1.48) had no statistically significant relationship with ANC. Conclusions: Women empowerment did not predict the use of skilled ANC in the context of the SSA region. We recommend that further studies be conducted in order to understand how women empowerment affects skilled ANC service utilization in the region

A genetic linkage map of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L) combining SRAP and ISSR markers

Sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) and Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers are both simple and efficient maker systems adapted to many crops and for multiple purposes. In this studya genetic map based on SRAP and ISSR markers was constructed for cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) based on the segregations of SRAP and ISSR markers in 112 plants of F2 population derived from a crossbetween two cucumber inbred lines PW0832 and PW0801. In the investigation of polymorphisms with 50 ISSR primers and 132 SRAP primer combinations, 13 (26%) ISSR primers and 26 (20%) SRAP primer pairs were polymorphic generating a total of 109 polymorphic markers of which 48 were ISSR and 61 were SRAP. The average polymorphic bands were four for ISSR and two for SRAP. All the 109polymorphic markers were scored for segregation of which 86 satisfied the Mandelian segregation ratio of 3:1. These data were used to construct an integrated linkage map for cucumber consisting of 62 loci,distributed in seven linkage groups (LGs) spanning a total of 992.2 cM, with an average distance of 16.0 cM between two adjacent loci. These markers would be very useful tool for marker assisted selection incucumber breeding as well as for studies in quantitative traits

Assessment of psychological barriers to cervical cancer screening among women in Kumasi, Ghana using a mixed methods approach

Background: Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women in Ghana, West Africa. The cervical cancer mortality rate in Ghana is more than three times the global cervical cancer mortality rate. Pap tests and visual inspection with acetic acid wash are widely available throughout Ghana, yet less that 3% of Ghanaian women get a cervical cancer screening at regular intervals.Objective: This exploratory study was to identify psychological barriers to cervical cancer screening among Ghanaian women with and without cancer using a mixed methods approach.Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 49 Ghanaian women with cancer and 171 Ghanaian women who did not have cancer.Results: The results of the quantitative analysis indicated that cancer patients where not more likely to have greater knowledge of cancer signs and symptoms than women without cancer. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed several psychological barriers to cervical cancer screening including, common myths about cervical cancer, misconceptions about cervical cancer screening, the lack of spousal support for screening, cultural taboos regarding the gender of healthcare providers, and the stigmatization of women with cervical cancer.Conclusion: The results of this study can be used to inform the development of culturally relevant cervical cancer education interventions aimed at addressing the psychological barriers to cervical cancer screening perceived by Ghanaian women.Keywords: Cancer, developing countries, disease prevention, knowledge, qualitative methodsbr>African Health Sciences 2013; 13(4): 1054 - 106

Nutrition knowledge, cooking practices, and consumption of indigenous leafy vegetables among households in Sagnarigu Municipality, Ghana

This study assessed nutrition knowledge, cooking practices, and consumption of indigenous leafy vegetables (IGLVs) among households in the Sagnarigu Municipality, Ghana. A structured questionnaire was employed to collect data on socio-demographics, nutrition knowledge scores, cooking practices, and consumption of IGLVs in the Sagnarigu Municipality. The study was cross-sectional, with a multi-stage sampling to select 399 respondents responsible for preparing family meals. More than half of the respondents had a low nutrition knowledge of IGLVs. Respondents with basic education were 67% (OR = 0.410, 95% CI: 0.170–0.986, p = 0.047) less likely to have high nutrition knowledge of IGLVs than those with tertiary education. Most respondents (65.7%) chopped their IGLVs before washing, and almost all (90.2%) discarded stock after cooking. Concerning the consumption of IGLVs, almost all respondents’ households consumed kenaf and jute leaves representing 90.2% and 99.5% respectively. A few of the respondents indicated that availability, low cost and high nutrient content were significant drivers in the consumption of IGLVs (27.1%, 13.3% and 8.8%, respectively). Therefore, interventions by both the government and non-governmental organisations to increase nutrition knowledge and consumption of IGLVs should include strategies to promote the production, utilisation, and commercialisation of IGLVs, especially in the Northern Region