Background and problem: In Croatia, the hotel industry has undergone difficult and unstable conditions since the 90s. Since 2001, however the results in the sector has improved due to increased investment in the renovation of facilities and construction of new hotels. Purpose: The study aims to examine hotel operations on the Makarska Riviera on the basis of tourist business perspective, and examine its quality, service and accessibility. Method: In this study we used a qualitative approach. The survey was conducted through structured interviews and a non-participant observation. Result and conclusions: Satisfied and fulfilled employees, in turn that the hotels will have satisfied customers and may have profitable operations. Many hotels aim at constantly working to improve profitability and customer satisfaction. When measuring customer satisfaction, many hotel owners felt that the service is good and that they have received a good response from their guests. The hotels that were observed were nice and clean inside and out. A majority of the hotels were renovated and looked fashionable in and out with fine furnishings in the lobby and restaurant. Availability was good in both the plant itself and around it. All hotels were located near the beach, town center and bus stops. The people interviewed believe that accessibility to and from the hotels, airport is good with a well developed infrastructure. In conclusion, we note that the Makarska hotel operations in general maintains its facilities and, overall, a good quality standard and service. Most hotels are well planned and are strategically located. Hotel operators in general are continually working to improve quality through training their staff and follow up of their customers' perceived expectations.

Purpose: From an activity-perspective examine the meaning of housing accessibility and older persons´ perception of participation. Method: Systematic literature review of articles searched in the databases, Medline, Pubmed, Ahmed, Cinahl, Scopus and Google Scholar. Search on individual keywords, and in various combinations of the words home environment, home modification, occupational therapy, aging, accessibility and participation. Nine scientific articles were examined. Results: The articles were published between 2005 and 2009. Housing accessibility is important for a better well-being and independence in daily activities of elderly persons. Older persons´ participation and perceived satisfaction with participation, become lower with reduced ability to perform daily activities. Conclusion: Interventions designed to increase accessibility in the home environment may be important for older persons´ well-being. Interventions should be preceded by careful assessment of what is important for the individual as older persons´ perception of participation are individual and change over time.Further knowledge on this subject is needed, particularly studies with participants in very old age and poor health.

Current accounts of self-control are highly individualistic. When individuals succeed at exerting self-control, we assume that they possess some positive internal characteristic that explans their success. Similarly, when individuals do not succeed, we blame their failure on an internal flaw. Yet many factors may influence the likelihood that an individual will exert self-control, including not only internal characteristics of individuals but also external factors. In this dissertation, I develop a framework for understanding the multiple sources of influence on individuals' state self-control that groups these factors into three categories: social, personal, and environmental. Further, I detail the multiple mechanisms by which the factors in the Social, Personal, and Environmental Control of Self (SPECS) model may influence self-control. Specifically, I examine the potential role of regulatory accessibility as a mechanism of influence on state self-control. In Study 1, I show that individuals who think about a friend with good self-control demonstrate increased performance on a persistence task than do participants who think about a friend with bad self-control. In Study 2, I replicate this effect, showing increased inhibitory capacity among individuals who wrote about a friend with good self-control compared to a control group, and decreased inhibitory capacity among individuals who wrote about a friend with bad self-control. In Study 3, I show that regulatory exertion increases among individuals subliminally primed with the name of a friend with good self-control and that regulatory exertion decreases among indivdiuals primed with the name of a friend with bad self-control. These findings support my hypothesis that models of self-control should account for sources of influence external to the individual, as well as explore the multiple pathways by which regulatory exertion is influenced. These findings support my hypothesis that social factors influence regulatory exertion, or state self-control. Further, they provide evidence that state self-control is influenced not only by regulatory capacity, but also by other mechanisms, including regulatory accessibility. Further research following the SPECS model will investigate the combined influence of social and environmental influences on self-control and the indirect influences of personal characteristics, such as trait self-control, on regulatory exertion. / Dissertation

Recent consumer surveys and demographic analyses indicate a growing demand for pedestrian and transit designed development. This thesis presents an analysis of office rents in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area of Ontario, Canada. The effects of building quality, accessibility, and location are explored with a specific focus on the influences of walkability, public transit and private transit accessibility. The theoretical background of this research is related to the hedonic methodology, which is extensively used for explaining transaction price or rental price variations of real property. Cross sectional data of the Toronto CMA office market from the year 2010 is utilized for the hedonic price estimation. The hedonic price function is specified in the log linear form and is estimated with linear regression in SPSS. The analysis of over 2,000 asking rental rates reveals that buildings with high Walkscores and excellent accessibility to public transit and transportation infrastructure command significantly higher rents as compared to buildings with fewer nearby amenities and accessibility. The walkability findings are the first of their kind for Toronto and Canadian office markets and in line with results documented for the US office market and European office market.

No description available.

ABSTRACT During the last decades, environmental impacts have increased significantly, much due to the great traffic flows within cities. Therefore, to reduce these impacts and encourage a healthy way of living, it has in recent years become vital to generate safer and more sustainable and flexible modes of transportation. In order to do so, authorities and physical planners must work together to find viable solutions to incorporate in the infrastructure and offer alternative transport modes – such as walking, cycling and public transportation.  The purpose of this thesis is to examine the development of the cycling infrastructure in the city of Västerås and whether it is possible to expand bicycle commuting alongside public transportation. The thesis consequently aims to study how different physical planners within Västerås municipality work with traffic related questions. The thesis is based on interviews with relevant physical planners, data from scientific literature and different strategy documents intended for Västerås municipality.  The results are based on a thematic coding system to analyse specific categories frequently mentioned during the interviews. These results have later been put into context with related literature regarding sustainable cycling infrastructure.  The results show that there is a common goal for traffic planning within the municipality, even if the authorities express different actions concerning its development.

Abstract: This study examines how differential accessibility to regional markets and natural resources affects smallholder livelihoods in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon, particularly in terms of household income diversification or specialization. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods were applied to semi-structured smallholder household (N = 319) and community leader interview data collected in 40 communities in 2006-2007, in addition to change detection performed on Landsat satellite imagery (1987, 1993, and 2001). First, the dissertation explores changes in smallholder land use patterns across the study region during a period of profound macroeconomic changes and continual urbanization, finding that overall land use trends of agricultural abandonment reflected national reductions in agrarian subsidies. Second, based on interview data, household processes of income diversification and specialization were analyzed in two sections of the study area, the Itaya and Nanay basins. In the Itaya Basin, it was observed that smallholder livelihood specialization was aided by road development increasing transportation accessibility to important regional markets. In the more isolated Nanay Basin, livelihood choices were found to be influenced by processes of livelihood displacement caused by conservation efforts, in addition to remoteness and river seasonality. This study concludes by reflecting on the importance of the spatial relations of access to resources and markets in the region and in similar places in the developing tropics. This kind of information can help make national and regional policy decisions on such issues such as conservation, agrarian credits, road development, which may differentially affect smallholder livelihoods and their environments. / text

Evolutionary rates vary vastly across intraspecific genes and the determinants of these rates is of central concern to the field of comparative genomics. Tradition has held that preservation of protein function conserved the sequence, however mounting evidence implicates the biophysical properties of proteins themselves as the elements that constrain sequence evolution. Of these properties, the exposure of a residue to solvent is the most prevalent determinant of its evolutionary rate due to pressures to maintain proper synthesis and folding of the structure. In this work, we have developed a model that considers the microenvironment of a residue in the estimation of its evolutionary rate. By working within the structural context of a protein's residues, we show that our model is better able to capture the overall evolutionary trends affecting conservation of both the coding sequences and the protein structures from a genomic level down to individual genes. / text

published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

Background Inadequate access to medicine is a key public health issue. It violates the basic human right, and impedes economics development and social progress. Differential pricing means to charge according to variant ability to pay for the same products. Since differential pricing has been successfully used into many business sectors, its adoption in pharmaceutical industry seems to be necessary and feasible to help improve access to medicine for developing countries. Objective This project is to review the effect of “differential pricing “in pharmaceutical industry and to discuss its current situation and future development. Methodology A literature review was conducted on this topic. Keywords of “(Tiered OR differential OR segment*) AND (price*) AND (developing countries) AND (pharmacy OR drug OR medicine OR vaccine)” were used in databases of Pubmed, Medline and Google scholar for relevant studies and reports on differential pricing in pharmaceutical or vaccine markets. Result A total of 16 papers were included into this systematic review. In theory, differential pricing is a “win-win” solution with the ability to reconcile both static and dynamic costs. In practice, differential pricing works to help improve access, however, lower tiered price for patent drugs is still more expensive than generic drugs in most cases. Conclusion Differential pricing strategy has the potential to improve access to medicine. However it is still in an infancy stage, there are still lots of spaces for further improvement. Except for pricing policies, other mutual supportive policies also need to obtain a better access to medicine in developing countries. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health