University of the Assumption

This chapter investigates the mediating effects of customer satisfaction on the link between consumer return on investment (ROI) and dining experience with behavioral intention. The respondents of the study were 257 customers composed of university students, teaching, and non-teaching personnel identified through the intercept method. A predictive research design and partial least squares path modeling were utilized to test the research hypotheses. Analysis of the data showed that consumer ROI significantly and positively affects customer satisfaction. Food quality and physical environment were also found to predict customer satisfaction. Moreover, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions were found to be significantly and positively related. Mediation analysis further revealed that customer satisfaction has an indirect influence on the link between customer ROI and dining experience (food quality and physical environment) and behavioral intentions.

The use of smart devices to collect urban mobility data is becoming increasingly common in Brazil's major metropolitan areas, making studies into the usability of devices more common for conducting case studies and research. The aim of this paper is therefore to identify the main difficulties in the process of installing and projecting data collection in the field project carried out in the municipality of Campos dos Goytacazes. A descriptive analysis was carried out on a sample of the devices being used in the project in order to assess behaviors and trends through the information obtained. Through this analysis it was possible to identify some factors that influenced the installation, such as the resistance of bus and van operators, and the functioning of the devices. It was identified that the functionality of the devices may be associated with the type of charging used in the vehicle (invehicle or USB) and that the devices that emitted the most data were also those that showed no problems with the LoRa antenna. Thus, the functionality of the devices can be guaranteed despite the challenges encountered in the processes.

In a world where heterosexism dominates, homosexuality is perceived as sinful and inappropriate. Nonetheless, the media, through its proper and positive portrayal of gay men’s lives in Boys’ Love (BL) Series, has contributed in alleviating such prejudicial attitudes toward sexual minorities among its homophobic audience. Thus, this qualitative research study utilizing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) aimed to relive the stories of self-confessed homophobic heterosexual young adult males who were exposed to at least two (2) positively-represented, non-restricted Thai BL series. Accordingly, ten self- confessed homophobic young adults who engaged in explicit and/or implicit homophobic behaviors in the past, and are at present high-grade nonhomophobic were purposively selected to individually take part in a semi structured in-depth interview. Subsequently, member checking was employed to validate the credibility of participants' responses, and truthful critique and support were obtained through critical friend technique. Findings of the study revealed that BL series’ positive portrayal of gay men and homosexuality, and its lesson-filled stories provided awareness about gay men’s realities which led to the shift in homophobic young adult’s beliefs.

<p>The pandemic has brought us into a life of uncertainty and unexpected deaths in families. Filipinos are known to have close family ties which impacted their bereavement. Utilizing grounded theory, this qualitative research study aimed to propose a theory to describe the coping of the bereaved. Specifically, it explored (1) initial reaction and anticipatory grief; (2) compound difficulties; and (3) coping of the participants. Twenty young adults were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling. A semi-structured interview was carried out and the data were processed in cool and warm analysis. Four phases were identified: (1) the anguish phase which represents the negative and positive emotions felt by the participants. (2) Bethink phase which involves contemplation and reflection. (3) The laying ground phase mirrors the participants' discovery and engagement with their coping strategies. And (4) the existing phase where they show that they are still in the process of coping but denote meaning-making and acceptance of loss. The ABLE Theory, an acronym derived from the first letters of the four phases, is useful in understanding the experiences of the bereaved to better equip the community and mental help professionals in dealing with similar concerns of individuals during a public health crisis.</p>

It’s evident that architecture is persevering and not on its way to disappearing, but is once again an exceptional presence, an exception to the rule. Architects are invited today to redefine themselves as curators of the city. Once again, it is about expanding our spectrum of skills and tools, which has always been extensive which are in jeopardy, it’s no coincidence that when this happened architecture became more specialized. For a long time architecture has presented itself as something ‘un-scaleble’. Large volumes have the same shape and apparently same details as small objects. The issue is related to the urban problem: against dramatic changes in city scale, artifacts decide to be immeasurable. The main tool that a designer needs to acquire in their years of development is the capacity to have critical thought.

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The business world cannot ignore the changes brought about which have transformed the current definition of devel-opment as a task that promotes solidarity, respect for nature and commitment to human beings. Companies that do not present to society positive social results will have an always greater competitive disadvantage, since they losetheir raison d’etre as facilitators for achieving the general welfare. from this perspective, it is necessary to initiate and / or strengthen policies, objectives and business strategies that enable SMEs to address adequately the interests of its stakeholders within a sustainable context. Consequently, this study aims to de-sign a model of social balance for SMEs, to identify the fac-tors and actions that promote good business practices and develop a strategic plan for corporate social responsibility. The methodological design was divided into three stages: conceptual foundations of social reporting and CSR, analy-sis of existing models and identification of theanalysis unit or population of 1020 companies in the northern sector of Bogota and a unit of work for 26, which were identified as the most representative ones, according to the formulatedcriteria. As instruments of data collection, pilot survey, the structured survey and interviews were used. A diagnostic, evaluative and monitoring model of social balance for SMEs was designed, which permits to qualify good corporate prac-tice through performance, labor, social and environmental indicators, with the purpose of formulating a Strategic Plan of Social Responsibility for the company.

This paper investigates the asymptotic size properties of a two-stage test in the linear instrumental variables model when in the first stage a Hausman (1978) specification test is used as a pretest of exogeneity of a regressor. In the second stage, a simple hypothesis about a component of the structural parameter vector is tested, using a t-statistic that is based on either the ordinary least squares (OLS) or the two-stage least squares estimator (2SLS), depending on the outcome of the Hausman pretest. The asymptotic size of the two-stage test is derived in a model where weak instruments are ruled out by imposing a positive lower bound on the strength of the instruments. The asymptotic size equals 1 for empirically relevant choices of the parameter space. The size distortion is caused by a discontinuity of the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic in the correlation parameter between the structural and reduced form error terms. The Hausman pretest does not have sufficient power against correlations that are local to zero while the OLS-based t-statistic takes on large values for such nonzero correlations. Instead of using the two-stage procedure, the recommendation then is to use a t-statistic based on the 2SLS estimator or, if weak instruments are a concern, the conditional likelihood ratio test by Moreira (2003).

Se realizo un estudio de relacion entre el area foliar individual y medidas lineares de la hoja de aliso (Alnus acuminata H.B.K) familia Betulaceae, magle (Escallonia pendula Pers.) familia (Escalloniaceae) y roble (Quercus humboldtii Bompland) familia Fagaceae, en condiciones de campo. El objetivo de este estudio fue comparar la eficacia de los modelos lineales, producto de mediciones directas no destructivas del area de la hoja, para luego realizar una validacion, a partir de un nuevo conjunto de datos, en condiciones diferentes. El analisis de regresion del area en funcion del largo de la hoja (Lh), del ancho maximo de la hoja (Ah) y del producto del largo por el ancho (LhxAh) condujo a proponer modelos que pueden ser usados para la estimacion apropiada del area foliar individual de la hoja. Para todas las especies, el mejor modelo fue de forma AF = a + b(LhxAh), con coeficientes de determinacion superiores a 0,95. En la validacion de los modelos, se encontro que la relacion entre el area de la hoja media y el area estimada, mediante la respectiva ecuacion, fue significante al nivel de 0,1% y el r2 fue de 0,99 en todos los casos. Se concluye, que los modelos lineales encontrados para estimar el area foliar de A. acuminata, E. pendula y Q. humboldtii pueden ser usados en estudios biologicos, agronomicos, ecofisiologicos, ambientales y forestales, con alto grado de precision y rapidez

The possibility of forming and consolidating academic work groups in the university context is a fundamental task. The development of communities and social capi-tal allows to increase the potential production of these groups, being therefore essential to understand the dy-namics of those categories to determine if its structure makes working groups possible. The objective of this research consisted in understanding the community di-mensions and the social capital as dynamic elements of a work group in the Health-Environment nucleus within a University in Bogota, Colombia. By means of a quali-tative approach survey of hermeneutic type, 15 profes-sors from the Health Science area were interviewed, five additional qualitative interviews (two within the original group, three outside) were conducted with professors, who had investigated and written papers on this theme. A collective activity of inquiry, participative observation through the methodology of focal group, whose objective was to understand the dynamics of inter-action between professors of the Health Science Area of the university and to review the academic work produced by the edu-cational participants of the investigation, was realized. Nothing seems to indicate that the communitarian dimensions and the social capital are elements which promote a work group in the nucleus health-atmosphere within the institution. Nevertheless, the explanation of this fact is not in the mentioned nucleus, but in the low levels of development of the community dimensions such as cognitive and structural dominions inherent to social capital.