131 research outputs found
Terrorism, rugby, and hospitality: sheâll be right
In 2011, international attention was focussed on New Zealand, host of the Rugby World Cup (RWC 2011), which brought 133,200 visitors to New Zealand over a three-month period. This exploratory study, undertaken before the event, investigates the attitudes of hotel managers and staff as they prepared to host spectators, rugby teams, and media personnel. The aim of the study was to determine preparedness for an attack, and assess attitudes and approaches to risk management in relation to terrorism. Interview data collected from senior hospitality managers revealed a distinctly laissez faire approach to security, which is partly explained by Hofstede's (1984) low uncertainty avoidance category for New Zealand. This attitude is reputedly common in New Zealand, where it is proudly expressed as 'she'll be right'. It is hoped that this study will bring attention to the weak security measures in New Zealand, which would have been insufficient protection for life and property, had a serious terrorist attack been planned
Death by hospitality: beyond the call of duty
Hospitality staff are often very dedicated to their work, protecting guestsâ privacy even when circumstances are suspicious, and treating their wants and needs as paramount. In November 2008, several hotel staff were killed in India while protecting hotel guests from terrorists. This paper briefly overviews the circumstances of a death in which a hospitality employee went beyond the call of duty to protect guests. The implications of extreme dedication to service work are explored in terms of the duty of hospitality, along with the concept of sacrifice, particularly with respect to the exploitation of hospitality workers. Topics for further study are suggested, particularly that of identifying the essential characteristics of hospitality service workers. The concept of lifestyle labour is proposed, as this, in conjunction with the characteristics of âhospitality peopleâ, is thought to explain the dedication to service exhibited by many hospitality workers
Enjoyment, tolerance, or rejection: responses to sexuality in the workplace
Sexual harassment in hospitality workplaces is endemic, with more hospitality employees reporting incidences of harassment than in any other private sector industry. Various causes are proposed, but the sexualisation of hospitality labour, exacerbated by the blurred demarcation lines between flirtation, harassment and assault, seems the most likely. This paper explores the common features of sexually charged working environments, and presents qualitative data collected from hospitality workers, revealing a wide range of attitudes to sexual behaviour at work. A model is suggested to help managers and staff identify areas of disagreement about sexual behaviour, rather than merely imposing a proscriptive approach, which is neither achievable nor necessarily desirable. Recommendations for reducing harassment focus on the concept of choosing to either sanction or reject specific behaviours at work
A surrogate model for the economic evaluation of renewable hydrogen production from biomass feedstocks via supercritical water gasification
Supercritical water gasification is a promising technology for renewable hydrogen production from high moisture content biomass. This work produces a machine learning surrogate model to predict the Levelised Cost of Hydrogen over a range of biomass compositions, processing capacities, and geographic locations. The model is published to facilitate early-stage economic analysis (doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22811066). A process simulation using the Gibbs reactor provided the training data using 40 biomass compositions, five processing capacities (10â200 m3/h), and three geographic locations (China, Brazil, UK). The levelised costs ranged between 3.81 and 18.72 $/kgH2 across the considered parameter combinations. Heat and electricity integration resulted in low process emissions averaging 0.46 kgCO2eq/GJH2 (China and Brazil), and 0.37 kgCO2eq/GJH2 (UK). Artificial neural networks were most accurate when compared to random forests and support vector regression for the surrogate model during cross-validation, achieving an accuracy of MAPE: 0.99 on the test set
Reconciling the sustainable manufacturing of commodity chemicals with feasible technoeconomic outcomes assessing the investment case for heat integrated aerobic gas fermentation
The manufacturing industry must diverge from a âtake, make and wasteâ linear production paradigm towards more circular economies. Truly sustainable, circular economies are intrinsically tied to renewable resource flows, where vast quantities need to be available at a central
point of consumption. Abundant, renewable carbon feedstocks are often structurally complex and recalcitrant, requiring costly pretreatment to harness their potential fully. As such, the heat integration of supercritical water gasification (SCWG) and aerobic gas fermentation unlocks the promise
of renewable feedstocks such as lignin. This study models the technoeconomics and life cycle assessment (LCA) for the sustainable production of the commodity chemicals, isopropanol and acetone, from gasified Kraft black liquor. The investment case is underpinned by rigorous process modelling
informed by published continuous gas fermentation experimental data. Time series analyses support the price forecasts for the solvent products. Furthermore, a Monte Carlo simulation frames an uncertain boundary for the technoeconomic model. The technoeconomic assessment (TEA) demonstrates
that production of commodity chemicals priced at ~US$1000 per tonne is within reach of aerobic gas fermentation. In addition, owing to the sequestration of biogenic carbon into the solvent products, negative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are achieved within a cradle-to-gate LCA framework.
As such, the heat integrated aerobic gas fermentation platform has promise as a best-in-class technology for the production of a broad spectrum of renewable commodity chemicals.</jats:p
Oxidation resistance of graphene-coated Cu and Cu/Ni alloy
The ability to protect refined metals from reactive environments is vital to
many industrial and academic applications. Current solutions, however,
typically introduce several negative effects, including increased thickness and
changes in the metal physical properties. In this paper, we demonstrate for the
first time the ability of graphene films grown by chemical vapor deposition to
protect the surface of the metallic growth substrates of Cu and Cu/Ni alloy
from air oxidation. SEM, Raman spectroscopy, and XPS studies show that the
metal surface is well protected from oxidation even after heating at 200
\degree C in air for up to 4 hours. Our work further shows that graphene
provides effective resistance against hydrogen peroxide. This protection method
offers significant advantages and can be used on any metal that catalyzes
graphene growth
Operando and Postreaction Diffraction Imaging of the La-Sr/CaO Catalyst in the Oxidative Coupling of Methane Reaction
A LaâSr/CaO catalyst was studied operando
during the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) reaction
using the X-ray diffraction computed tomography technique.
Full-pattern Rietveld analysis was performed in order to track
the evolving solid-state chemistry during the temperature ramp,
OCM reaction, as well as after cooling to room temperature.
We observed a uniform distribution of the catalyst main
components: La2O3, CaOâSrO mixed oxide, and the hightemperature rhombohedral polymorph of SrCO3. These were
stable initially in the reaction; however, doubling the gas hourly
space velocity resulted in the decomposition of SrCO3 to SrO,
which subsequently led to the formation of a second CaOâSrO
mixed oxide. These two mixed CaOâSrO oxides differed in
terms of the extent of Sr incorporation into their unit cell. By applying Vegardâs law during the Rietveld refinement, it was
possible to create maps showing the spatial variation of Sr occupancy in the mixed CaOâSrO oxides. The formation of the Srdoped CaO species is expected to have an important role in this system through the enhancement of the lattice oxygen diffusion
as well as increased catalyst basicity
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