Face masks as sources of cross-contamination during food preparation

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, mask-wearing has become a common practice in the foodservice industry to prevent the spread of respiratory diseases. Like kitchen utensils, a mask may serve as a vehicle for cross-contamination of pathogens during food handling. The objective of this study was to quantify cross-contamination between tasks of handling contaminated chicken and chopping lettuce. Chicken breasts were inoculated with a high or a low level of nonpathogenic Escherichia coli surrogates (ca. 6 or 4 log CFU/ml) and sliced for 1, 5, or 10 min. During slicing, duplicate, single-use medical masks were touched each minute. One mask was immediately sampled, but the second mask was used to contaminate lettuce by touching the mask each minute while chopping the lettuce for 5 min. E. coli were enumerated from the second mask and lettuce. Masks touched while slicing both high- and low-inoculated chicken showed significant contamination (0.8-4.9 log CFU/cm2) after each slicing scenario of 1, 5, or 10 min (P > 0.05). Lettuce was significantly contaminated regardless of inoculation level (1.0-3.2 log CFU/g). Slicing time was a significant factor in some cases (P < 0.05), whereas inoculation level was not (P > 0.05). Data indicate masks can be a source of cross-contamination if not replaced appropriately.

Service-Dominant Logic and Service Management 4.0

Contemporary service environments characterized by advanced technologies augmenting customer-frontline interactions present significant changes in the working environment of service managers. The COVID-19 pandemic further transformed the way of doing business in the service industry. This chapter explicates how complex contemporary service environments can be better understood, when applying service-dominant (S-D) logic informed strategies and methodologies that promote value cocreation processes and the engagement of broad sets of actors. It points toward—what we coin Service Management 4.0—a possible future for service management that embraces human-centered technologies, smart (cyber-physical) service ecosystems, inclusive and nature-positive service. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

An Intent-driven DaaS Management Framework to Enhance User Quality of Experience

Desktop as a Service (DaaS) has become widely used by enterprises. In 2020, the use of DaaS increased dramatically due to the demand to work remotely from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The DaaS market is expected to continue growing rapidly [1]. The quality of experience (QoE) of a DaaS service has been one of the main factors to enhance DaaS user satisfaction. To ensure user QoE, the amount of cloud computation resources for a DaaS service must be appropriately designed. We propose an Intent-driven DaaS Management (IDM) framework to autonomously determine the cloud-resource-amount configurations for a given DaaS QoE requirement. IDM enables autonomous resource design by ing the knowledge about the dependency between DaaS workload, resource configuration, and performance from previous DaaS performance log data. To ensure the IDM framework's applicability to actual DaaS services, we analyzed five main challenges in applying the IDM framework to actual DaaS services: identifying the resource-design objective, quantifying DaaS QoE, addressing low log data availability, designing performance-inference models, and addressing low resource variations in the log data. We addressed these challenges through detailed designing of IDM modules. The effectiveness of the IDM framework was assessed from the aspects of DaaS performance-inference precision, DaaS resource design, and time and human-resource cost reduction. © 2022 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.

The impacts of cultural intelligence and emotional labor on the job satisfaction of luxury hotel employees

Within luxury hotels targeting multinational segments, frontline service staff are essential to creating unique, personalized experiences for high-value, discerning clientele. Performing emotional labor and utilizing cultural intelligence are key to ensuring exceptional cross-cultural service encounters, but which also create additional pressures for frontline staff. This study aims to assess the impacts of a comprehensive range of emotional labor and cultural intelligence (CQ) on employees' job satisfaction. Cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, emotive dissonance, and expression of naturally felt emotions were shown to influence job satisfaction. Moreover, the study engaged senior executives from luxury hotels to further discuss the survey results. This approach helped the researchers and practitioners to (re)contextualize the study's key findings, which were used to reflect on managers' understanding of cultural intelligence, emotional labor and job satisfaction. The discussions highlighted how these issues were incorporated in luxury hotels' human resource practices in general and especially during the COVID-19 crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

A national survey to evaluate the effectiveness of public communication in COVID-19 management

Institutional communication is a central lever of government actions, it facilitates the relationship between institutions and citizens. In this context, the tools of institutional communication acquire strategic value. With the COVID-19 epoch, the level of attention on institutional communication dynamics highlights a change in public sector and its opening towards a new managerial approach, which involves organizational, cultural, communicational and IT modernization processes. In this context this scientific contribution intends to evaluate the relations between institutions and citizens in the Institutional Communication and COVID-19 report. Copyright © FrancoAngeli.

Impact of COVID-19 on foodservice operations within urban Kansas childcare centers

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to identify the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic affected foodservice operations within urban Kansas childcare centers. METHODS: Three COVID-19-related questions were added to an online survey of Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) participating childcare centers located throughout Kansas. Responses were collected from July through August, 2020. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of open-ended responses were used to identify common concerns. RESULTS: Seventy-nine of the 138 childcare centers invited to complete the COVID-19-related questions responded (57.2% participation rate). The majority (n=56, 70.1%) reported decreased enrollment, whereas a small number (n=9, 11.4%) reported an increase. Approximately twothirds of the centers (n=49, 62.0%) reported foodservice operation modifications owing to COVID-19-related challenges. Three overarching themes were discovered within the centers' responses: (a) procurement challenges including decreased availability and increased cost of foods, (b) changes in meal service including shifting to disposable tableware and ceasing familystyle meal service, and (c) menu and production changes in response to enrollment changes and product availability issues. APPLICATION TO CHILD NUTRITION PROFESSIONALS: Future consideration for CACFP participants include shifting to more shelf-stable foods when faced with food availability issues and utilizing more cost-effective food purchasing options, which might be attained through group purchasing organizations. Well-developed emergency plans such as emergency menus should include plans for procurement challenges. Resources and training to increase understanding and knowledge of CACFP meal pattern guidelines may make menu changes based on availability easier or less challenging. Best practice guidelines, such as family-style meals, may have to take health and safety measures into consideration. As centers continue to experience COVID-19-related issues and plan for a "return to normal", child nutrition professionals can fulfill an important role in helping centers adapt their foodservice operations to meet the challenge.

UPMRC: rewriting the success story of Lucknow Metro during Covid-19 crisis

Learning outcomes: After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to understand the following aspects:▪ how good strategic planning can convert a crisis into an opportunity;▪ importance of service excellence and customer satisfaction through customer delight and customer feedback;and▪ utilisation of resources and excellent time management strategies. Case overview/synopsis: This case discusses how vital teamwork and motivated leadership can convert a crisis such as Covid-19 into an opportunity. This case study talks about Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC), a metro rail corporation working to develop metro trains in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The case discusses how challenging it was for the metro rail corporation to transform its processes in a short period and deal with the crisis on major fronts such as facilities maintenance, human resource management, ensuring safety and security of its staff and riders, motivation of staff, service quality and maintaining all operational aspects. The case discusses how UPMRC is a leader on all fronts and has excelled in its operational work. It talks about what challenges the lockdown and unlocking phase posed in front of the leadership and how teamwork, dedication to exemplary service quality and customer satisfaction gave the team the strength to make changes that improved their processes and helped them overcome the crisis.The case starts with a discussion of metro rail inception and incorporation of UPMRC and then how this newly formed metro has to face the challenges of pre-lockdown period where the team worked very hard for sanitisation and safety. The lockdown created a completely different set of challenges related to the facilities and the entire metro train systems, which was a difficult situation to deal because of restrictions and other challenges. However, the team dealt with situations with strength and strategic planning, leading to better managed processes and staff. The unlocking phase also gave many challenges that the team handled with a lot of care and efficiency. Complexity academic level: This case is suitable for post-graduate-level courses on services marketing, service operations management, general management, crisis management and strategic management. Participants can use the case to develop an understanding of strategic planning and management.This case can also be used in the executive education program for managers to encourage them to think through challenges faced by metro rail corporations. Supplementary materials: Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject Code: CSS 10: Public Sector Management. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Simulation of Multi Server Queue System with Non Poisson Distribution of Antigen Rapid Test in Terminal i Juanda Surabaya Airport Area

Introduction: The lack of perception in determining service distribution of the queue system cause inefficiency of service. Therefore, this study aims to analyze and simulate the queue system of antigen rapid test in Terminal I Juanda Surabaya Airport area. Methods: This study used an observational design on antigen rapid test customers. It was conducted for three days consecutively in a week namely Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, while the data collected include customer arrival time and duration for each service. Furthermore, a total of eight variables were analyzed using Minitab and Matlab software. Results: The applied queue model was FIFO and the highest customer arrival rate was found in the registration and sample-taking services with 30 customers per hour. The highest means of service and waiting durations, as well as customer queue and average time spent for a service, was observed in the result-taking service with values of 19.26 minutes per customer, 9.27 minutes per customer, 167 customers per hour, and 28.53 minutes per customer. The highest idle service probability was found in the registration service with 0.76% per hour, while the highest chance of one customer being on the queue was observed in the result-taking service with 57.18% per hour, and the overall waiting time for service was 38.01 minutes. Conclusion: Simulation of queue system was suitably obtained with real-life conditions, the management needs to add channel at the result-taking service to minimize the waiting time. Each addition of one channel will decrease waiting time by 6.13 minutes. © 2022 UPM Press. All rights reserved.

Analysis of the service of a higher education institution in times of pandemic using the SERVPERF model

This article presents the analysis of the result of the application of the SERVPERF model that allows knowing the perception of the service of the users of the student attention management model of the Private Technical University of Loja. The method used is empirical through the use of a Likert scale, reliability and factorial analysis of the proposed items, which were collected through a survey of students. The results found allowed knowing the student's perception and the validity of the instrument used, which reflects the relationship with the results of other similar studies. The evaluation of the experience is the most relevant result according to the model and the least is found in response times.

Thriving in the post-Covid-19 era: a new normality for libraries' service offering

Purpose Social distancing and physical closure triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic put the libraries' viability under stress. Although the spread of the pandemic enacted a new normality for library management, little is known about the ingredients that are needed in the recipe for increased libraries' attractiveness. The article addresses the current gap in the scientific knowledge, unveiling what libraries can do to thrive in the post-Covid-19 era. Design/methodology/approach Secondary data were collected from the census study accomplished in 2020 by the Italian Institute of Statistics on a large sample (n = 3,531) of libraries operating across Italy. Three regression models were run to obtain evidence of the factors affecting the capability of small-, medium- and large-sized libraries to attract users amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings Digitization did not significantly add to the attractiveness of libraries. Users appreciated the enrichment of loan services: more specifically, enabling people to access loan services online boosted the libraries' attractiveness. Furthermore, virtual reading groups, online laboratories and social networking improved the libraries' ability to attract users. Medium-sized libraries involved in literacy promotion reported a larger number of users. Practical implications Libraries should reframe their encounter with the audience sticking to a cyber-physical perspective, exploiting digital tools to establish a continuous exchange with users and engage them in a service experience which is aimed at individual and collective empowerment. Originality/value The article advances the understanding of the new normality heralded by the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, it illuminates avenues for further development to shed light on the libraries' ability to thrive in the post-pandemic era.

Improvement and evaluation of the financial (accounting) services quality in the era of SARS-COV-2

The changes brought about by the spread of COVID-19 require from entrepreneurs a new approach to the way they manage their businesses. Accounting offices are also facing a major challenge these days. In addition to the constant changes in tax regulations and the implementation of many new provisions concerning anti-crisis shields, the way of customer service in accounting offices has also changed as they had to adapt to the new reality. The aim of this article is to present the importance of improving the quality of accounting services in the pandemic era. The first part of the paper includes the scope of services and theoretical aspects of customer service in accounting offices in the era of SARS-CoV-2 as well as the characteristics of the concept of quality. Subsequently, the results of an anonymous survey conducted among entrepreneurs who are clients of accounting offices are presented, which contributed to the formulation of conclusions on the significance of customer service quality in accounting offices. The article highlights the significant changes in the way tasks are performed in accounting firms and financial departments. Among the modern methods of providing accounting services, two have been selected which (according to the respondents) will significantly effect on the service providing quality (in particular by limiting personal contact of contractors).

Securing future healthcare environments in a post-COVID-19 world: moving from frameworks to prototypes.

The deployment of Internet of Things platforms as well as the use of mobile and wireless technologies to support healthcare environments have enormous potential to transform healthcare. This has also led to a desire to make eHealth and mHealth part of national healthcare systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the requirement to do this to reduce the number of patients needing to attend hospitals and General Practitioner surgeries. This direction, however, has resulted in a renewed need to look at security of future healthcare platforms including information and data security as well as network and cyber-physical security. There have been security frameworks that were developed to address such issues. However, it is necessary to develop a security framework with a combination of security mechanisms that can be used to provide all the essential security requirements for healthcare systems. In addition, there is now a need to move from frameworks to prototypes which is the focus of this paper. Several security frameworks for eHealth and mHealth are first examined. This leads to a new reference model from which an implementation framework is developed using new mechanisms such as Capabilities, Secure Remote Procedure Calls, and a Service Management Framework. The prototype is then evaluated against practical security requirements.

Analysis of the service of a higher education institution in times of pandemic using the SERVPERF model

This article presents the analysis of the result of the application of the SERVPERF model that allows knowing the perception of the service of the users of the student attention management model of the Private Technical University of Loja. The method used is empirical through the use of a Likert scale, reliability and factorial analysis of the proposed items, which were collected through a survey of students. The results found allowed knowing the student's perception and the validity of the instrument used, which reflects the relationship with the results of other similar studies. The evaluation of the experience is the most relevant result according to the model and the least is found in response times. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

A Decision-Making System for emergency service design and management during pandemic COVID-19

The emergency response system has a record for being a shaky production system. The emergency response system is a dynamic environment due to the variability of the public's needs, which has an influence on the required people and available resources. When a pandemic like COVID-19 occurs, emergency services will be faced with exponential growth in activities and an overpopulation of departments. In this paper, the study focused on the coupling of simulation and optimization, With the goal of lowering total trip expenses and rearrangement costs, we proposed a novel approach employing a Multi-Agent (MA) Decision Making System (DMS). © 2022 IEEE.

How do macro-environmental factors impact customer experience? A refined typology, integrative framework, and implications: 宏观环境因素如何影响客户体验？精炼的分类，综合框架及意义

In increasingly turbulent times shaped by macro-environmental shifts, the complexity of customer experience has radically intensified. Augmenting this complexity, myriad contingency factors are involved in customer experience delivery. Therefore, scholars have called for the development of a comprehensive view of the extent to which customer experience literature has viewed and studied the roles of macro-environmental factors, and an integrative understanding of how customer experience can be affected by different macro-environmental factors. To this end, this study (1) differentiates the concept of macro-environmental factors;(2) summarizes extant knowledge by conducting a systematic literature review via qualitative and quantitative analysis to identify relevant research gaps;and (3) grounded in the service-dominant logic service ecosystem perspective, develops an integrative framework that integrates a holistic, novel view and understanding of the dynamic relationship between customer experience and macro-environmental factors while accounting for different contingency factors of lower environmental factors (meso and micro). Using the COVID-19 crisis, we vividly illustrate the real-life applicability of the integrative framework we develop. The study broadens the scope of customer experience research, offers actionable ideas for business managers in a turbulent environment, and puts forth a research agenda identifying key research lines for advancing the customer experience research field. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Extension brief: providing educational support during a public health emergency

This article briefly describes a series of extension materials created by LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant to assist different sectors of the community to respond to public health concerns associated with COVID-19. The materials created included a series of fact sheets on a variety of issues, including food delivery and take-out, fishing safety information and seafood processing plants. In addition, a series of six posters was developed to create awareness of social distancing among store employees and customers. Two fact sheets were created for the seafood industry. "Fishing Safety and Information During a Public Health Emergency" highlights the health of people working on the boats, the proper use of disinfectants, and considerations when fishers sell their catch directly to consumers. The other fact sheet is "Public Health Emergency Response for Seafood Processing Plants During COVID-19," which provides guidance on the risks associated for processing plants during the pandemic, how to identify high-risk areas, and how to control and prevent the transmission of the virus among employees and visitors. The goal is to minimize person-to-person contact in the plant and during processing. To help create awareness on the control and prevention of the transmission of COVID-19, graphics and videos are available on the LSU AgCenter website for sharing through social media.

Leadership During a Pandemic: A Lexical Analysis.

To manage pandemics, like COVID-19, leadership can enable health services to weather the storm. Yet there is limited clarity on how leadership manifested and was discussed in the literature during COVID-19. This can have considerable public health implications given the importance of leadership in the health sector. This article addresses this missed opportunity by examining the literature on leadership during a pandemic. Following a systematic search of nine academic databases in May 2021, 1,747 publications were screened. Following this, a lexical analysis of the results section was conducted, sourced from a corpus of publications across myriad journals. The results found a prevalence of references to "leader" as a sole actor, risking the perpetuation of a view that critical decisions emanate from a singular source. Moreover, "leadership" was a concept disconnected from the fray of frontline workers, patients, and teams. This suggests a strong need for more diverse vocabularies and conceptions that reflect the "messiness" of leadership as it takes shape in relation to the challenges and uncertainties of COVID-19. There is a considerable opportunity to advance scholarship on leadership via further empirical studies that help to clarify different approaches to lead teams and organizations during a pandemic.

AN INTEGRATIVE AGILE ITSM FRAMEWORK OF TENETS AND PRACTICES - ITS DESIGN AND EXPLORATORY UTILIZATION

The modern business environment and global covid-19 pandemic effects have led to any relevant business organizational activity, like e-commerce, to rely on on-premise and cloud information technology (IT) services. To deliver high-quality IT services, plan-driven IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks and standards have been used in business organizations in the last two decades. Nowadays, new and claimed agile ITSM frameworks and standards have emerged but there is a scarcity of studies on their extent of agility coverage. This research addresses this knowledge gap. First, we elaborated a plausible Integrative Agile ITSM Framework of Tenets and Practices from a selective review of the main related SwE and ITSM literature. Second, we populated the integrative framework with all available evidence about the agile tenets and practices reported in the official publications of the new five ITSM frameworks and standards. Third, we explored its utilization with a Panel of ITSM Experts for ranking how much the new five ITSM frameworks and standards fit the integrative framework. Exploratory results revealed high concordance among experts to qualify ITIL v4 and VeriSM as agile, and FitSM, and the two ISO/IEC standards as lightweight but not agile. This research contributes to the ITSM literature with an Integrative Agile ITSM Framework of Tenets and Practices, and the ITSM practice with an exploratory evaluation from ITSM experts on the adherence to it from the new five ITSM frameworks and standards. Given the critical dependence of any business activity on IT services, further theoretical and empirical research is worthy to be pursued.

Project Design and Management of Optimized Self-Protection Plans: A Case Study for Spanish Public Buildings

Featured ApplicationA novel methodology for project management applicable for self-protection plans for public buildings based on the best practices of technologies, systems, and methods.Self-protection plans are the fundamental tool established to prevent and control the risks that threaten people and assets. In turn, they are essential to provide an adequate response to possible emergency situations that may occur in public or private buildings, facilities, or events. In this context, current and future challenges advocate increasing the usefulness, versatility, and adaptability of self-protection plans. For this purpose, this paper aims to develop a conceptual model for the project management of self-protection plans with a lifecycle approach. The research provides results concerning guidelines, aspects, and potential regulations, technologies, tools, methodologies, and maintenance frameworks to be followed for any building in different project phases. The methodology followed has consisted of a process in stages, with literature review and a conceptual development to obtain an adaptable model to any public building. The adaptability of the framework relies on the definition of potential methods, information systems, and technologies that can support any phase during the Self-Protection Plan life cycle. Moreover, it was applied in a specific environment, such as in public buildings under the Spanish regulation using the most common tools and applications available. Results proved that although it is possible to make a base model applicable to any publicly owned building, there is an extensive and precise subsequent work of adaptation to specific cases in which the applicable legal framework makes this task challenging. Finally, the results obtained have allowed us to reflect on future research needs.