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Purpose - The research aimed to investigate customers’ satisfaction and adaptations to service robots in various operational areas in a hotel. Although few hotels have introduced service robots in Africa, their creation is still in the initial stage and present challenges. The research objectives were to investigate customers’ satisfaction with service robots in a hotel and to determine customers’ adaptations to service robots in various hotel operational areas. Methodology - The study adopted an explanatory sequential mixed-method research approach. An online survey was used to collect quantitative data from hotel customers, while interviews were used to determine the customers’ adaptations and validate the quantitative results amongst hotel management. Findings - Customers are adapting well to service robots; however, they have mixed feelings about the presence of these robots in hotels. While they enjoy interacting with service robots in the hotel’s reception and additional services, amongst others, they still question the services that these robots provide. Originality - This study also contributes to the literature, managerial contributions, limitations, and recommendations for future research. Results from this research may help hotel managers to understand how the hospitality and tourism industries will have to adapt to customers’ satisfaction and adaptability towards robots in hotels.

Precise delineation of the instrument landing system (ILS) localizer operational protection area is essential for maintaining navigation signal integrity and ensuring safe aircraft approaches. This study investigates the definition and evolution of operational protection area by synthesizing national standards and ICAO Annex 10 requirements. By employing computational electromagnetic simulations with the A380-800 model, we analyze the multipath interference generated by the aircraft and assess the impact of varying aircraft attitudes on signal stability. The findings provide quantitative data that supplement ICAO Annex 10 guidelines and offer a practical engineering demonstration for complex airport environments. Additionally, the study proposes optimized methodologies for site protection and delineation, providing valuable references for airport planning and operational management.

The path planning of anti-ship missile should be considered both cruising in safety and striking in quick, which is an intractable problem. In particular, it is difficult to consider the safety of each missile path in the path planning of multiple missiles. To solve this problem, the “AREA Algorithm” is presented to divide the relative relations of areas：relative security area of the threat areas and fast-attack area of target approaching. Specifically，it is a way to achieve area division through the relationship between the target and the center of the operational area. The Voronoi diagram topology network, Dijkstra algorithm and binary tree algorithm have been used in the above process as well. Finally, Simulations have verified the feasibility and obvious advantages of “AREA Algorithm” compared with the single algorithm, and the tactical meaning in path planning of multiple missiles.

Ports are strategic hubs of the logistic chain and are likely to be exposed to natural hazard events. Variation of metocean agents derived from climate change, such as sea level rise or changes in the magnitude, frequency, duration, and direction of storms, can modify the infrastructural and operational vulnerability of port areas and activities, demanding the development of adaptation or mitigation strategies. In this context, the present paper is aimed to propose a downscaling methodology for addressing local effects at port scale. In addition, based on previously identifying and defining the Areas of Operational Interest (AOIs) inside ports, an approach towards the evaluation of operational vulnerability is offered. The whole process is applied, as a practical case, to the Port of Gijón (Spain) for different General Circulation Models (GCMs), concentration scenarios, and time horizons. The results highlight, in line with other publications, that inter-model differences are, so far, more significant than intra-model differences from dissimilar time horizons or concentration scenarios.

This study describes the design and performance evaluation of a bidirectional isolated dc–dc converter with an extended dual-phase-shift (EDPS) scheme. The operation principle and equivalent circuits with consideration of the deadband are presented. The deadband effect with EDPS is different from the conventional phase-shift (CPS) scheme, and the corresponding compensation coefficient is determined. Different operation modes are identified with respect to phase-shift angles of EDPS and load conditions. The safe operational area is also analysed with the comparison of different operation modes. The output voltage and output power characteristics with open-loop or closed-loop operation are discussed. The average theoretical 48.5% reduction in the output voltage ripple using EDPS has been achieved. The average reduction in inductor peak and rms with EDPS are statistically calculated as 37.8 and 26.8%. The measured efficiency has improved from 68.1% using CPS to 81.9% using EDPS for low-power application.

The Microfinance Poverty Assessment Tool was developed as a much-needed tool to increase transparency on the depth of outreach of microfinance institutions (MFIs). It is intended to assist donors and investors to integrate a poverty focus into their appraisals and funding of financial institutions through a more precise understanding of the clients served by these institutions. Used in conjunction with an institutional appraisal of financial sustainability, governance, management, staff and systems, a poverty assessment allows for a more holistic understanding of an MFI. The Microfinance Poverty Assessment Tool provides accurate data on the poverty levels of MFI clients relative to people living in the same community. It uses a more standardized, globally applicable, and rigorous set of indicators than those used by conventional microfinance targeting tools. The tool employs principal component analysis to construct a multidimensional poverty index that allows the poverty outreach of MFIs to be compared within and across countries. Originally field tested in four countries on three continents, it has subsequently been applied by microfinance donors and MFI networks in numerous other countries. Although the Microfinance Poverty Assessment Tool was designed for microfinance, the tool can also be used to measure the poverty levels of clients of other development programs. “The survey collects data on internationally standardized indicators, but is adapted–with the staff of MFI–to take into account the local context. The combination of international standardization (allowing for comparison), with local adaptations (allowing for appropriate and useful indicators), is key to the success of the tool.”.\"- Anton Simanowitz, Imp-Act ProgrammeInstitute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) observations are widely used in emergency response for flood mapping and monitoring. However, the current operational services are mainly focused on flood in rural areas and flooded urban areas are less considered. In practice, urban flood mapping is challenging due to the complicated backscattering mechanisms in urban environments and in addition to SAR intensity other information is required. This paper introduces an unsupervised method for flood detection in urban areas by synergistically using SAR intensity and interferometric coherence under the Bayesian network fusion framework. It leverages multi-temporal intensity and coherence conjunctively to extract flood information of varying flooded landscapes. The proposed method is tested on the Houston (US) 2017 flood event with Sentinel-1 data and Joso (Japan) 2015 flood event with ALOS-2/PALSAR-2 data. The flood maps produced by the fusion of intensity and coherence and intensity alone are validated by comparison against high-resolution aerial photographs. The results show an overall accuracy of 94.5% (93.7%) and a kappa coefficient of 0.68 (0.60) for the Houston case, and an overall accuracy of 89.6% (86.0%) and a kappa coefficient of 0.72 (0.61) for the Joso case with the fusion of intensity and coherence (only intensity). The experiments demonstrate that coherence provides valuable information in addition to intensity in urban flood mapping and the proposed method could be a useful tool for urban flood mapping tasks.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, an area almost the size of Japan, has a new network of no-take areas that significantly improves the protection of biodiversity. The new marine park zoning implements, in a quantitative manner, many of the theoretical design principles discussed in the literature. For example, the new network of no-take areas has at least 20% protection per “bioregion,” minimum levels of protection for all known habitats and special or unique features, and minimum sizes for no-take areas of at least 10 or 20 km across at the smallest diameter. Overall, more than 33% of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is now in no-take areas (previously 4.5%). The steps taken leading to this outcome were to clarify to the interested public why the existing level of protection was inadequate; detail the conservation objectives of establishing new no-take areas; work with relevant and independent experts to define, and contribute to, the best scientific process to deliver on the objectives; describe the biodiversity (e.g., map bioregions); define operational principles needed to achieve the objectives; invite community input on all of the above; gather and layer the data gathered in round-table discussions; report the degree of achievement of principles for various options of no-take areas; and determine how to address negative impacts. Some of the key success factors in this case have global relevance and include focusing initial communication on the problem to be addressed; applying the precautionary principle; using independent experts; facilitating input to decision making; conducting extensive and participatory consultation; having an existing marine park that encompassed much of the ecosystem; having legislative power under federal law; developing high-level support; ensuring agency priority and ownership; and being able to address the issue of displaced fishers.

Telehealth services have the potential to improve access to care, especially in rural or urban areas with scarce health care resources. Despite the potential benefits, telehealth has not been fully adopted by health centers. This study examined factors associated with and barriers to telehealth use by federally funded health centers. We analyzed data for 2016 from the Uniform Data System using a mixed-methods approach. Our findings suggest that rural location, operational factors, patient demographic characteristics, and reimbursement policies influence health centers' decisions about using telehealth. Cost, reimbursement, and technical issues were described as major barriers. Medicaid reimbursement policies promoting live video and store-and-forward services were associated with a greater likelihood of telehealth adoption. Many health centers were implementing telehealth or exploring its use. Our findings identified areas that policy makers can address to achieve greater telehealth adoption by health centers.