A study of the experiential service design process at a luxury hotel

This thesis explores the process of designing experiential services at a luxury hotel. These processes were surfaced by means of a methodology that used the principles of jazz improvisation. Due to similarities between experiential service design and elements in jazz improvisation, representing experiential service design through the jazz improvisation metaphor leads to a new framework for exploring the process of experiential service design that is iterative in nature. A gap in the service design literature is that experiential service design is not operationalized in organizational improvisation, and one contribution from this study will be to fill that gap. This study contributes to the field of knowledge by exposing a new perspective on how experiential services can be better designed by adapting some of the design tools from this luxury hotel; a second contribution is a recommendation for how the improvisational lens works as an investigative tool to research experiential organizations. In the process, some new dimensions to understanding complexity are contributed. The research process utilized qualitative research methods. Frank Barrett (1998) identified seven characteristics of jazz improvisation which I have used as a heuristic device: 1) provocative competence (i.e., deliberately creating disruption); 2) embracing errors as learning sources; 3) minimal structures that allow for maximum flexibility; 4) distributed task (i.e., an ongoing give and take); 5) reliance on retrospective sensemaking (organizational members as bricoleurs, making use of whatever is at hand); 6) hanging out (connecting through communities of practice); and 7) alternating between soloing and supporting. This research is grounded in the body of literature regarding complexity, organizational improvisation, service design and experience design. The role of heterogeneous minimal structures that are fluid and optimize uncertainty is central to this investigation. Themes such as sensemaking and the role of story, meaning-making, organizational actors' use of tangible and intangible design skills, and embracing ambiguity in efforts to design experiential services are explored throughout the dissertation. The anticipatory nature of experiential service design is a principle outcome from the data that is incorporated into the new conceptual framework highlighting a "posture of service"

Like or Dislike: The Emotional Toll of Being on Facebook

The current study examined the relationship between affect changes or lack thereof when one logs onto Facebook or Yahoo!. Facebook was specifically chosen for examination in the current study due to its widespread use, its vast effect on society, and its unique features that allow users to obtain information and have social interaction at the same time. Yahoo! served as a control due to the fact that it is a highly popular site that has similar features of Facebook without having the social functions. Both sites allow users to observe news that is pertinent and of interest to them and both are popular; the main difference between the two sites is the social component that Facebook can offer that Yahoo! is unable to offer users. Findings suggest that logging onto Facebook increases positive affect and joy, but this is short lived. After a period of time on the website negative affect and anger increase. Further research needs to be conducted in order to understand what activities on Facebook lead to more or less affect modulation and future studies are discussed

Calculation of clearances in twin screw compressors

Clearances between rotating and stationary parts in a screw compressor are set to ensure the efficient operation and allow for thermal deformation without unwanted contacts. The change in clearances is caused by both pressure and temperature changes within the machine. If clearances are too large, the increased leakage flows will reduce efficiency. However, if the nominal clearances are too small, contacts between the rotating and stationary parts can occur as a consequence of rotor and casing deformations. In order to determine the operational clearances, a numerical analysis of deformation of screw compressor rotors and casing has to be performed. This paper discusses how the temperature of rotor and casing surfaces calculated from the one-dimensional chamber model in the SCORG could be used as a boundary conditions for a steady state thermal and structural analysis of a screw compressor solid parts. Deformations of rotors and casing under temperature load were calculated using a commercial Finite Element Analysis code ANSYS. Operational clearance are estimated from these deformations and some recommendations for further work are proposed

Is it dangerous? The role of an emotional visual search strategy and threat‐relevant training in the detection of guns and knives

Counter‐terrorism strategies rely on the assumption that it is possible to increase threat detection by providing explicit verbal instructions to orient people's attention to dangerous objects and hostile behaviours in their environment. Nevertheless, whether verbal cues can be used to enhance threat detection performance under laboratory conditions is currently unclear. In Experiment 1, student participants were required to detect a picture of a dangerous or neutral object embedded within a visual search display on the basis of an emotional strategy ‘is it dangerous?’ or a semantic strategy ‘is it an object?’. The results showed a threat superiority effect that was enhanced by the emotional visual search strategy. In Experiment 2, whilst trainee police officers displayed a greater threat superiority effect than student controls, both groups benefitted from performing the task under the emotional than semantic visual search strategy. Manipulating situational threat levels (high vs. low) in the experimental instructions had no effect on visual search performance. The current findings provide new support for the language‐as‐context hypothesis. They are also consistent with a dual‐processing account of threat detection involving a verbally mediated route in working memory and the deployment of a visual template developed as a function of training

Post-traumatic stress disorder following patient assaults among staff members of mental health hospitals: a prospective longitudinal study

BACKGROUND: Violence by patients against staff members in mental health institutions has become an important challenge. Violent attacks may not only cause bodily injuries but can also have posttraumatic consequences with high rates of stress for mental health staff. This study prospectively assessed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in employees who were severely assaulted by patients in nine German state mental health institutions. METHODS: During the study period of six months 46 assaulted staff members were reported. Each staff member was interviewed three times after the violent incident, using the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), a widely used PTSD research tool, as well as the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist – Civilian (PCL-C). RESULTS: In the baseline assessment following an assault by a patient, eight subjects (17%) met the criteria for PTSD. After two and six months, three and four subjects respectively still met diagnosis criteria. CONCLUSION: A small minority of assaulted employees suffer from PTSD for several months after a patient assault

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Soldiers’ Experiences of Being Married and Serving in the British Army

© 2016, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. ABSTRACT: Research suggests certain aspects of military life, especially operational deployments, may negatively impact military marriages. However, much of this research is from the United States and uses deductive quantitative methods. Qualitative research investigating the lived experiences of forming and maintaining marriages was conducted with six male U.K. Army personnel. Semistructured interviews were analyzed, using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, identifying five themes, each representing different dilemmas the soldiers’ had to balance to maintain successful marriages and Army careers. These five themes are best understood as practical, emotional, and cultural dilemmas that can be alleviated with practical and emotional methods; such factors could be used to build resilience in soldier’s marriages. These possible resilience factors could shape the content of interventions to increase resiliency in military marriages

Anti-plasmodial polyvalent interactions in Artemisia annua L. aqueous extract – possible synergistic and resistance mechanisms

Artemisia annua hot water infusion (tea) has been used in in vitro experiments against P. falciparum malaria parasites to test potency relative to equivalent pure artemisinin. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometric analyses were employed to determine the metabolite profile of tea including the concentrations of artemisinin (47.5±0.8 mg L-1), dihydroartemisinic acid (70.0±0.3 mg L-1), arteannuin B (1.3±0.0 mg L-1), isovitexin (105.0±7.2 mg L-1) and a range of polyphenolic acids. The tea extract, purified compounds from the extract, and the combination of artemisinin with the purified compounds were tested against chloroquine sensitive and chloroquine resistant strains of P. falciparum using the DNA-intercalative SYBR Green I assay. The results of these in vitro tests and of isobologram analyses of combination effects showed mild to strong antagonistic interactions between artemisinin and the compounds (9-epi-artemisinin and artemisitene) extracted from A. annua with significant (IC50 <1 μM) anti-plasmodial activities for the combination range evaluated. Mono-caffeoylquinic acids, tri-caffeoylquinic acid, artemisinic acid and arteannuin B showed additive interaction while rosmarinic acid showed synergistic interaction with artemisinin in the chloroquine sensitive strain at a combination ratio of 1:3 (artemisinin to purified compound). In the chloroquine resistant parasite, using the same ratio, these compounds strongly antagonised artemisinin anti-plasmodial activity with the exception of arteannuin B, which was synergistic. This result would suggest a mechanism targeting parasite resistance defenses for arteannuin B’s potentiation of artemisinin

Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programs in sub-Saharan Africa from 2004 to 2010: need, the process, and prospects

As of 2010 sub-Saharan Africa had approximately 865 million inhabitants living with numerous public health challenges. Several public health initiatives [e.g., the United States (US) President&rsquo;s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the US President&rsquo;s Malaria Initiative] have been very successful at reducing mortality from priority diseases. A competently trained public health workforce that can operate multi-disease surveillance and response systems is necessary to build upon and sustain these successes and to address other public health problems. Sub-Saharan Africa appears to have weathered the recent global economic downturn remarkably well and its increasing middle class may soon demand stronger public health systems to protect communities. The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) program of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been the backbone of public health surveillance and response in the US during its 60 years of existence. EIS has been adapted internationally to create the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) in several countries. In the 1990s CDC and the Rockefeller Foundation collaborated with the Uganda and Zimbabwe ministries of health and local universities to create 2-year Public Health Schools Without Walls (PHSWOWs) which were based on the FETP model. In 2004 the FETP model was further adapted to create the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP) in Kenya to conduct joint competencybased training for field epidemiologists and public health laboratory scientists providing a master&rsquo;s degree to participants upon completion. The FELTP model has been implemented in several additional countries in sub-Saharan Africa. By the end of 2010 these 10 FELTPs and two PHSWOWs covered 613 million of the 865 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and had enrolled 743 public health professionals. We describe the process that we used to develop 10 FELTPs covering 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa from 2004 to 2010 as a strategy to develop a locally trained public health workforce that can operate multi-disease surveillance and response systems.Key words: Field epidemiology, laboratory management, multi-disease surveillance and response systems, public health workforce capacity buildin

Characterization of Recurrence Patterns and Outcomes of Medulloblastoma in Adults: The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Experience

BACKGROUND: Medulloblastoma in adults is rare and treatment decisions are largely driven from pediatric literature. We sought to characterize recurrent medulloblastoma in adults. METHODS: From a single-institution dataset of 200 adult patients diagnosed with medulloblastoma during 1978-2017, those with recurrence were analyzed for clinical features, treatment, and outcome. RESULTS: Of the 200 patients, 82 (41%) with median age of 29 years (18-59) had recurrence after a median follow-up time of 8.4 years (95% CI = 7.1, 10.3). Of these, 30 (37%) were standard-risk, 31 (38%) were high-risk, and 21 (26%) had unknown-risk diseases at the time of initial diagnosis. Forty-eight (58%) presented with recurrence outside the posterior fossa, of whom 35 (43%) had distant recurrence only. Median Progression-free survival (PFS) and OS from initial surgery were 33.5 and 62.4 months, respectively. Neither PFS nor OS from initial diagnosis differed between the standard-risk and high-risk groups in those who experience recurrence ( CONCLUSIONS: Recurrent medulloblastoma in adults has a poor prognosis irrespective of initial risk stratification. Recurrence commonly arises outside the posterior fossa years after initial diagnosis