For better or for worse: Shaping the hospitality industry through robotics and artificial intelligence

Contemporary technological applications are widely in use in the public sector; transportation, law enforcement, armed forces, and health care industries have long adopted robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). Our daily lives have been shaped through the digital transformation and, as such, this development has also impacted the hospitality industry. By exploring the practical implications, the authors outline motivations of organisations, and highlight shortcomings due to the current level of technology adoption. In line with this, a trade-off between convenience and limiting freedom of choice is contrasted with varying regional acceptance levels by users. Further, the adoption of advanced technology as far-reaching as social robots has implications on a strategic and human resources level; human-robot interaction (HRI) in a professional setting comes with changing job tasks, and a general-skill-focused human workforce and therefore requires adapted policies and strategies. Undoubtedly, the future is here, and rather than fearing the change the authors recommend using technological advancements and its possibilities through an informed choice.Keywords: acceptance, artificial intelligence (AI), hospitality industry, human–robot interaction (HRI), robotics, technological development, strategic human resource management (HRM

Effet de l'implantation d'une ligne directrice des pratiques exemplaires en évaluation de la douleur auprès de patients ayant subi une chirurgie de la hanche

La gestion de la douleur n'est pas optimale. Des observations en phase postopératoire démontrent qu'il existe des écarts importants entre la pratique exemplaire reposant sur des données probantes et la pratique actuelle qui n'est pas associée à un guide de pratique. L'Association des infirmières et infirmiers autorisés de l'Ontario (AIIAO, 2002) propose une Ligne directrice des pratiques exemplaires (LDPE) en gestion de la douleur incluant l'évaluation et le soulagement ainsi qu'un modèle de mise en place de cette ligne directrice. Le but de cette étude est d'évaluer l'effet de l'implantation d'une LDPE en évaluation de la douleur auprès de patients ayant subi une chirurgie de la hanche. Un devis quasi expérimental à séries temporelles interrompues multiples a été utilisé avec mesures avant et après l'intervention de recherche auprès d'un groupe contrôle (n=17) et expérimental (n=17). L'intervention de recherche, réalisée dans un contexte de changement, comprenait une activité de formation et de mentorat. Des mesures ont été prises auprès des patients du groupe contrôle et expérimental sur l'intensité de la douleur (Journal quotidien de la douleur) aux jours 2, 4 et 6 postopératoires. Parallèlement, la documentation de l'évaluation de la douleur au dossier clinique a été relevée aux mêmes jours. Enfin, auprès du personnel soignant, les connaissances sur la gestion de la douleur (Toronto) ont été recueillies avant l'intervention de recherche soit au début de la formation et après, une fois la période de mentorat complétée. Les résultats ne démontrent pas de différence significative chez les patients quant au soulagement. La documentation de l'évaluation de la douleur n'est pas plus fréquente après l'intervention de recherche. De plus, il n'y a pas de différence significative chez le personnel soignant en lien avec les connaissances, en regard de la douleur avant et après la formation. L'implantation de la LDPE n'a pas atteint les résultats escomptés notamment en raison de certains changements organisationnels imprévus. Ainsi, malgré des résultats mitigés, il est primordial de poursuivre l'implantation de cette pratique exemplaire avec une approche andragogique en prenant en considération le contexte organisationnel

Stakeholder strategies for service: conceptualising user-focused service in nursing home care

© 2014 Taylor & Francis. In the context of the demographic imperative of the worldwide ageing population, this paper proposes a framework to understand the dimensions for service quality in stakeholder perceptions of elderly nursing home care. Using extant theory on service quality and satisfaction, we explore, through semi-structured interviews, the expectations and experience of service from the perspectives of residents, family/friends and service managers. Our conceptualisation has resonance with generic notions of service quality: responsiveness, tangibles, assurance and empathy. However, systems orientation is an additional important element of experience. Expectations included issues concerning the room, care comparable to home and service outcome (returning home)

Service quality in nursing homes. A construct, measurement and performance model to increase client focus.

This thesis is concerned with the quality of care for the elderly in nursing homes, responding to a critical social and demographic imperative. The aim of this study is to provide a service quality construct for nursing homes to increase client focus and satisfaction. The research is underpinned by the service quality literature. It utilises the SERVQUAL construct to explore the nature of service quality in nursing homes through semi-structured interviews with nursing home residents and resident's families. A service quality scale was constructed comprising six dimensions and 27 scale items capturing service delivery in nursing homes. This scale was purified through a survey of residents and family members (n=263). Through exploratory factor analysis, six importance and four experience factors were identified. Regression analysis was used to identify relationships between the factors, service quality and satisfaction. The results indicate that importance does not predict perceived quality, though experience of responsiveness and hospitality and courtesy and personal approach are indicators of service quality. Furthermore, quality emerges as a predictor of satisfaction. From these outcomes, a service quality construct was developed which comprises of service marketing and service quality dimensions. This thesis contributes to the construction of the concept of service quality in nursing homes, its dimensionality and thus the precursors of satisfaction. These have considerable implications for the management of nursing home services.homes, its dimensionality and thus the precursors of satisfaction. These have considerable implications for the management of nursing home services.Sodexo the Netherland

The Effect of Somatosensory Input on Word Recognition in Typical Children and Those With Speech Sound Disorder

Purpose: Recent work suggests that speech perception is influenced by the somatosensory system and that oral sensorimotor disruption has specific effects on the perception of speech both in infants who have not yet begun to talk and in older children and adults with ample speech production experience; however, we do not know how such disruptions affect children with speech sound disorder (SSD). Response to disruption of would-be articulators during speech perception could reveal how sensorimotor linkages work for both typical and atypical speech and language development. Such linkages are crucial to advancing our knowledge on how both typically developing and atypically developing children produce and perceive speech. Method: Using a looking-while-listening task, we explored the impact of a sensorimotor restrictor on the recognition of words whose onsets involve late-developing sounds (s, ʃ) for both children with typical development (TD) and their peers with SSD. Results: Children with SSD showed a decrement in performance when they held a restrictor in their mouths during the task, but this was not the case for children with TD. This effect on performance was only observed for the specific speech sounds blocked by the would-be articulators. Conclusion: We argue that these findings provide evidence for altered perceptual motor pathways in children with SSD. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.2180944

Gut microbiota facilitates dietary heme-induced epithelial hyperproliferation by opening the mucus barrier in colon

Colorectal cancer risk is associated with diets high in red meat. Heme, the pigment of red meat, induces cytotoxicity of colonic contents and elicits epithelial damage and compensatory hyperproliferation, leading to hyperplasia. Here we explore the possible causal role of the gut microbiota in heme-induced hyperproliferation. To this end, mice were fed a purified control or heme diet (0.5 μmol/g heme) with or without broad-spectrum antibiotics for 14 d. Heme-induced hyperproliferation was shown to depend on the presence of the gut microbiota, because hyperproliferation was completely eliminated by antibiotics, although heme-induced luminal cytotoxicity was sustained in these mice. Colon mucosa transcriptomics revealed that antibiotics block heme-induced differential expression of oncogenes, tumor suppressors, and cell turnover genes, implying that antibiotic treatment prevented the heme-dependent cytotoxic micelles to reach the epithelium. Our results indicate that this occurs because antibiotics reinforce the mucus barrier by eliminating sulfide-producing bacteria and mucin-degrading bacteria (e.g., Akkermansia). Sulfide potently reduces disulfide bonds and can drive mucin denaturation and microbial access to the mucus layer. This reduction results in formation of trisulfides that can be detected in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, trisulfides can serve as a novel marker of colonic mucolysis and thus as a proxy for mucus barrier reduction. In feces, antibiotics drastically decreased trisulfides but increased mucin polymers that can be lysed by sulfide. We conclude that the gut microbiota is required for heme-induced epithelial hyperproliferation and hyperplasia because of the capacity to reduce mucus barrier function

A model‐based motion capture marker location refinement approach using inverse kinematics from dynamic trials

Marker‐based motion capture techniques are commonly used to measure human body kinematics. These techniques require an accurate mapping from physical marker position to model marker position. Traditional methods utilize a manual process to achieve marker positions that result in accurate tracking. In this work, we present an optimization algorithm for model marker placement to minimize marker tracking error during inverse kinematics analysis of dynamic human motion. The algorithm sequentially adjusts model marker locations in 3‐D relative to the underlying rigid segment. Inverse kinematics is performed for a dynamic motion capture trial to calculate the tracking error each time a marker position is changed. The increase or decrease of the tracking error determines the search direction and number of increments for each marker coordinate. A final marker placement for the model is reached when the total search interval size for every coordinate falls below a user‐defined threshold. Individual marker coordinates can be locked in place to prevent the algorithm from overcorrecting for data artifacts such as soft tissue artifact. This approach was used to refine model marker placements for eight able‐bodied subjects performing walking trials at three stride frequencies. Across all subjects and stride frequencies, root mean square (RMS) tracking error decreased by 38.4% and RMS tracking error variance decreased by 53.7% on average. The resulting joint kinematics were in agreement with expected values from the literature. This approach results in realistic kinematics with marker tracking errors well below accepted thresholds while removing variance in the model‐building procedure introduced by individual human tendencies.A new approach for refining human musculoskeletal models algorithmically adjusts motion capture marker locations based on inverse kinematics solutions of dynamic trials. The approach was applied to gait trials from eight able‐bodied subjects and was demonstrated to (a) reduce inverse kinematics marker tracking error overall, (b) reduce inter‐subject tracking error variability, and (c) produce normal walking kinematics for able‐bodied persons.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153769/1/cnm3283_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153769/2/cnm3283.pd