Improving online food ordering and delivery service quality by managing customer expectations: evidence from Italy

Purpose: Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, many restaurants and catering businesses have introduced or improved online food ordering and delivery services (OFODSs). This study aims to identify service quality expectations about OFODSs, to examine their content and to suggest management strategies to meet these expectations. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a qualitative method, four focus groups were conducted amongst Italian users of OFODSs. Findings: The results reveal three dimensions of expectations, each comprising two categories that can be set along a continuum: (1) basicness of expectations (ranging from implicit to explicit), (2) accuracy of expectations (ranging from fuzzy to precise) and (3) attainability of expectations (ranging from realistic to unrealistic). Content may refer to technical, social, economic, legal and technological aspects. To meet customer expectations, the following strategies are suggested: customer reassurance, flexibility, continuous improvement, customer education, adaptation to customers' requirements and monitoring of exceptions. Practical implications: This study provides specific activities in which restaurants and catering businesses could invest to enact the management strategies that emerged from the analysis. Originality/value: This paper proposes a new classification of expectations and framework for improving OFODS quality by managing customer expectations. © 2023, Angelo Bonfanti, Chiara Rossato, Vania Vigolo and Alfonso Vargas-Sánchez.

[Telematic attention in a neuropediatrics consultation during the COVID-19 alarm state. Cross-sectional study and satisfaction survey]. / Valoración de la atención telemática en una consulta de Neuropediatría durante el estado de alarma por COVID-19. Estudio transversal y encuesta de satisfacción.

INTRODUCTION: Crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus limit face-to-face consultation to the minimum necessary, this was a change toward telephone activity. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the experience of a neuropediatric consultation, INRPC, and satisfaction survey with the telephone consultation during COVID-19 crisis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Observational, cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study of healthcare activity, as well as user satisfaction, during the State of Alarm in a neuropediatric consultation in a regional referral hospital. To measure satisfaction, a survey is conducted with parents and guardians. RESULTS: 416 children were attended by telephone. Most frequent diagnoses: neurodevelopmental disorder (27.8%), isolated ADD/ADHD (26.8%), and epilepsy (9.2%). 32.2% responded to the survey: 66.6% prior satisfaction. Global satisfaction with telephone consultation 59.9%; 77% would return to make the telephone consultation. CONCLUSIONS: User satisfaction with the telephone consultation, in a crisis situation, is similar to that perceived with the face-to-face consultation. 32% respond to the survey, and 60% are satisfied.

Apply the M/M/C Model of Queuing Theory in a Service System Based on FlexSim Simulation in the Post-COVID

The study includes a literature review, modeling and simulation concepts, applications, FlexSim characterization, and the M/M/C model, i.e., multiple channels. Customer service processes with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been affected by dissimilar reasons among them the distancing that causes queues to become longer and the set of operations to be carried out with the same personnel, being this a not so satisfactory experience for the customer. The article addresses key concepts related to the use of FlexSim software within a simulation model in a service process where decisions can be made based on the study of queuing theory. After performing the Poisson goodness-of-fit test, it was determined that the distribution of hourly queue arrivals does meet a Poisson-type distribution since its Chi-square test reaches a value of 0.92 which is well above the coefficient of 0.5. Therefore, the exact probability of finding n arrivals during a given time T can be found, if the process is random, as is the case of the cooperative. The average number of customers in the queue waiting to be served, gives a reduction from 1.04 to 0.14 customers, so it is understood that, if the increase of servers in the cooperative were applied, this would cause queues to be generated in the system, since its L_q is 0.14 customers. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The International Education Index: A global approach to education policy analysis, performance and sustainable development

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world struggled to address growing educational inequalities and fulfil the commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4, which seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. The pandemic has exacerbated these inequalities and changed how education functions, moving to online and hybrid methods. The challenges in global education highlighted and worsened by the pandemic make it necessary to re-evaluate education systems and the policies in place to support access, quality and equal opportunity. This article focuses on analysing education policies at a national level. It tests a pilot policy analysis tool, the International Education Index (IEI), developed as a starting point to begin this reconsideration and create an accessible and comprehensive way to evaluate national education systems to inform decision-making and policies in the new context. This research uses Ireland and Northern Ireland to test the IEI pilot tool. The IEI consists of 54 questions across nine indicators, including institutional frameworks, education strategies, digital skills and infrastructure, twenty-first century skills, access to basic social services, adherence to international standards, legal frameworks, data gathering and availability and international partnerships. Countries can score 108 points to be categorised as having developed, emerging or nascent national education systems. Ireland scored 94 and Northern Ireland 81, indicating that they have developed national education systems.

COVID-19-related loneliness, social isolation and burden in informal caregivers worldwide

Background: Informal caregivers may experience high levels burden. Prior to COVID-19, loneliness and social isolation, and especially the discordance between them, were recognized for rapid aging-related cognitive decline. The COVID-19 has significantly increased social isolation and loneliness in caregivers. Thus, we aimed to explore the variables that were associated with higher care burden among all caregivers and only among caregivers for people living with dementia, and whether the increased burden could be associated with a discrepancy between loneliness and social isolation. Method(s): 'Comparing Loneliness and Isolation in COVID-19' was an online global survey of over 20,000 respondents, including 5243 caregivers across 50 countries with enduring brain or/and physical health conditions. We first used a multilevel modelling to identify risk factors associated with higher burden. Then, we defined profiles of discrepancy between loneliness and social isolation, based on the differences between standardized score on a scale of loneliness and of social connectedness and estimated the association between the discrepancy and higher burden. Result(s): In our sample, 74% of caregivers were female, 44% were caring for people with dementia, and 22% for people with multiple conditions, including dementia. The most prevalent age group was 60-69 years old. Factors significantly associated with higher care burden were being female, having poorer financial situation, worse mental health during the pandemic, caring for people with dementia or intellectual disabilities, caring in the same home, being diagnosed with COVID, and changes of care abilities. 40% of caregivers consistently reported high level of loneliness and social isolation, 38% reported consistent lower levels of both, and two groups reported discordance (low levels of loneliness and high social isolation in 13%;high levels of loneliness and mild social isolation in 12%). The latter group was at the highest risk of self-reported increased and intense care burden. Conclusion(s): This represents the largest, most widespread survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on caregivers of people with long-term conditions to date and reflects the importance of capturing the nuances in the relationship between loneliness and social isolation in caregivers. It will be an important resource for support agencies and to inform policy. Copyright © 2022 the Alzheimer's Association.

Using cooperative learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Evaluation and impact on Secondary Education

The Covid-19 pandemic has meant a remarkable change in the education system. The adaptations in the way of teaching have led to some methodologies taking precedence over others. Cooperative Learning requires interpersonal relationships and therefore it is expected that it has been affected by the pandemic. This article analyses 177 secondary classrooms and observes that CL is not sufficiently established but that its use is sensitive to the subject, the age of the teacher and the type of classroom. © GKA Ediciones, authors.

Emotional Education Program: "Aventurémonos en Familia” A strategy for the promotion of mental health, family functionality and the prevention of violence

"Aventurémonos en Familia Program” aims to generate a space for the recognition, regulation and emotional recovery of early childhood, children, teenagers and their families in the midst of the crisis presented by Covid-19, and who are immersed in contexts of violence. This is an emotional education program, its objective is promoting mental health and family functionality. In the program was implemented a mixed research with 159 caregivers and 139 children in Córdoba, Atlántico and Sucre, Colombia. The results show that the participants have improvements family functionality and the emotional skills of the family members. © GKA Ediciones, authors.

Design and Implementation of an Interactive Photoplethysmography and Galvanic Skin Response Based Gamepad

Mental disorders in the young adult population are becoming more frequent, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to the need to find new ways to adapt to therapeutic methods, offering greater attractiveness for this age range, and in many studies, it has been reported that this can be achieved thanks to video games. In this work, a controller design for video games that allows to obtain some of the most relevant biological signals of the relationship between the physiological state and the mental state of the user is proposed. An accessible and non-invasive instrument was built, in the form of a video game controller, to make measurements of heart rate and the galvanic response of the skin, two physiological variables that play a vital role in determining a person’s emotional state, that allows, in turn, to play video games that are designed to be able to perform actions based on the measurements of biosignals, such as modifying the difficulty, improving the user experience, etc. Making use of two biosignal sensors (photoplethysmography and galvanic skin response), the controller is developed to offer non-invasive biofeedback while playing computer video games, which provides an effective approach to developing interactive and customizable diagnostic and therapeutic psychological tools. This work, which involves the unification of various ideas and fields, could mean an advance in the field of the development of digital alternatives for therapies related to mental health, as well as a tool that allows a greater approach on the part of the community to which it is focused. This may mean that, in future developments, there is greater cohesion and a greater boom in treatments for people considered young adults. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Topic Discovery About Economy During COVID-19 Pandemic from Spanish Tweets

Automatic topic discovery from natural language texts has been a challenging and widely studied problem. The ability to discover the topics present in a collection of text documents is essential for information systems. Topic discovery has been used to obtain a compact representation of documents for grouping, classification, and retrieval. Some tasks that can benefit from topic discovery: recommendation systems, tracking misinformation, writing summaries, and text clustering. However, topic discovery from Spanish texts has been somewhat neglected. For this reason, this work proposes analyzing the behavior of topic discovery tasks in texts in Spanish, specifically in tweets about the Mexican economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, under three different approaches. A comparison was conducted, achieving promising results because the topic coherence metric indicates coherent topics. The highest score of 1.22 was obtained using PLSA with 50 topics, concluding that the topics encompassed the study domain. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Social Networks In The Emotions Of Schoolchildren During The Covid 19 Pandemic

In 2020, the year of the pandemic caused by the covid-19 disease, it was determined that education be taught remotely or virtually, causing students to spend more time connected to the internet, which was not used exclusively in their academic activity. ;but they also gave it a personal use. The objective was to analyze the impact of social networks on the emotions of schoolchildren during the covid 19 pandemic. The methodology was a qualitative approach with a phenomenological design, using the survey and instrument as a technique, a semi-structured interview that was applied to four teachers from different curricular areas: mathematics, communication, social sciences and physical education;two psychologists, four parents and four students. The triangulation of the surveys allowed us to conclude that, indeed, the impact of social networks on emotions during the pandemic could be perceived.

Strategies for developing preparedness and building legacy – learning from the experience of building Health System Resilience in Ireland : Stephen Thomas

Health system resilience to shocks is perhaps the biggest global challenge facing health systems in the 21st Century. Health systems face an increasing prevalence and likelihood of a broad range of shocks (including economic crises, pandemics, climate-related events, political upheavals, mass migration, conflicts and cyberterrorism) that can each undermine the ability of a health system to function well. In particular, the twin processes of dealing with the legacy of a health system shock and preparing for the next shock are distinct but related challenges that face policy makers today. In this presentation the authors will present key findings on improving preparedness and building a constructive legacy drawing from: • the results of a recent systematic review on how health system resilience has been measured in high income countries over the last twenty years;• the results of a recent realist review exploring the legacy of the economic crisis for the resilience of the response of the health system to COVID-19, and • analysis of interviews with Irish policy makers, managers and analysts as they reflect on the different shocks encountered by the Irish system over the last fourteen years. Triangulating these findings, the authors will reflect on the merits and challenges of measuring resilience and what the focus should be moving forward. Key strategies and approaches will be outlined to best prepare a system for a shock and to leave a positive legacy for the future.

Exploratory factorial model of innovation in the Covid-19 era

The objective of the study was to explore the dimensions of innovation in a public university in central Mexico during anti-COVID-19 policies of distancing and confinement of people. A cross-sectional, exploratory, psychometric and correlational research was carried out with a sample of 186, considering their professional practices and social service in public health institutions. The results show a structure of efficiency, usefulness and use. In relation to the state of the art, the structure of acceptance of the technology is corroborated, although in the pandemic scenario the dissolution of the second and third factors is appreciated, as well as the prevalence of the third factor. Copyright © 2022, Anka Publishers. All rights reserved.

Mediating factorial model of entrepreneurship in the COVID-19 era

The pandemic caused by SARS CoV-2 and the disease COVID-19 have linked tourism with local entrepreneurship. It is a phenomenon in which political, economic and social actors converge to reactivate the local economy. In this line, the objective of this work was to validate an entrepreneurship scale, considering four dimensions: trust, opportunity, optimization and innovation. An exploratory, cross-sectional and psychometric study was carried out with a sample of 100 coffee growers from central Mexico. Four factors were established that explained 32% of the variance, suggesting the contrast in another sample. In relation to the state of the art, the scope of the study is discussed. Copyright © 2022, Anka Publishers. All rights reserved.

SARS-CoV-2-associated myositis

We describe the case of a 9-year-old patient who presented with inability to walk due to lower extrem-ity pain in the follow-up of infection by SARS-CoV-2. Since the manifestations and findings of the examination were compatible with myositis, a blood test was performed that evinced elevation of cre-atine phosphokinase. The patient had a favourable outcome with symptomatic treatment. In the context of this case, we conducted a literature review of paediatric cases of myositis associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. © 2022, Spanish Association of Primary Care Pediatrics. All rights reserved.

VIRTUAL COURSE OF INFOTECHNOLOGY IN TIMES OF COVID-19: AN EXPERIENCE IN THE MASTER’S DEGREE IN MANAGEMENT

Covid-19 has made many universities turn to virtual education, although they do not have it conceived within their educational model. The objective of this research is to evaluate the results achieved in the virtual course of Infotechnology of the Master in Management, of the University of Granma, taught in times of pandemic. A quantitative approach was used, an exploratory-descriptive investigation, with a non-experimental design. The sample consisted of 24 students. The main results highlight an adequate technological scenario that allows you to connect and carry out your investigative activities. 95.83% of the subjects report having received support from the facilitators from a technical and academic point of view. The Chi square test confirms that the quality of the course positively influences the level of acquisition of new knowledge and skills in the search and management of information, by students. It is concluded that the study developed allowed to show the effectiveness of the course in the presence of the health situation, being able to determine that it is feasible to continue with the online training actions of the master’s degree. © 2022, University of Cienfuegos, Carlos Rafael Rodriguez. All rights reserved.

Analysis of vaccination strategy against COVID-19 in Spain. The scientific basics (may 2022)

After about a year and a half (at the moment these lines are being written) since the start of the massive vaccination campaign in which, thanks to the high coverage achieved in all groups eligible for vaccination, it has been possible to significantly reduce the morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19, it is important to review the scientific basics that have supported the recommendations implemented to date and those that could be adopted in the near future taking into consideration the epidemiological situation. The objective of this article is, therefore, to address the foundations of some of the technical decisions proposed by the Committee on Programme and Registry of Vaccinations (National Immunization Technical Advisory Group in Spain) and the Technical Working Group on Vaccination against COVID-19. Throughout the eleven updates of the Vaccination Strategy against COVID-19 in Spain, several issues pose intense debate as the vaccination intervals between doses, the convenience of using different types of vaccines, the use of heterologous schemes of vaccination, the benefits of hybrid immunity and the use of a fourth dose (second booster dose) for se-lected populations. All this without forgetting essential aspects of safety of vaccines. This article is divided into the following sections: Vaccination intervals;Heterologous or mixed scheme;Hybrid immunity (vaccination after infection and infection after vaccination [breakthrough]);Second booster dose.