The Effect of Public Healthcare Service Quality on Residents’ Satisfaction in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Case of Ajman Emirate

The quality of healthcare services is becoming a major concern in all countries, through improving performance to maximize the population health, effectively and efficiently, by doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, for the right person and having the best possible results, through well-managed hospitals and clinics. The purpose of this paper is to identify and measure Ajman residents’ satisfaction on healthcare service, using data of a sample of 1035 households, randomly selected from a total of 95,531 households, who were permanently residing in the Emirate of Ajman and having prior experience in availing any healthcare service. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 and AMOS version 22. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis showed an acceptable model fit used to measure residents’ satisfaction. Findings showed that in the government sector only reliability and empathy correlated positively with healthcare service quality, which also had a strong, positive correlation with residents’ satisfaction, while tangible, assurance and responsiveness were not sufficiently correlated to healthcare service quality. On the other hand, for private sector, except for responsiveness and tangible dimensions, reliability, assurance, and empathy correlated positively with healthcare service quality, which also had a strong, positive correlation with residents’ satisfaction. This study used healthcare service quality dimensions, namely, tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy, to determine the residents’ satisfaction within the public hospitals and to provide an empirical contribution to understanding the factors associated with public satisfaction and healthcare systems. According to the survey results, Ajman residents were satisfied 82% on Quality Dimension, 77% on Empathy Dimension, 80% on both Assurance and responsiveness Dimensions, 89% on Reliability Dimension and 88% on Tangible Dimension. Moreover, Statistical analysis revealed that, each of Tangible Dimension, Healthcare Service Quality Dimension and Empathy Dimension, is positively correlated with Healthcare Service Quality. Likewise, Healthcare Service Quality, is also positively correlated with residents’ satisfaction. But Reliability, Responsiveness, and Assurance Dimensions, are not positively correlated with Healthcare Service Quality.

Residents＇ Satisfaction with the Public Housing Unit Features and Its Implications in China

This paper studied the residents＇ level of satisfaction in public housing units in Shenyang of China which aimed to identify how each housing unit feature correlates with the residents＇ overall satisfaction and implication on policy and design. The discussion is based on a questionnaire survey conducted in 2011. This research concluded that more residents were satisfied with the housing unit features than those who were dissatisfied, while some remarkable differences could be observed if comparative analysis between two different public housing types in China were studied. The affordable housing residents are generally more satisfied with housing unit features than those living in low-rent housing. The most dissatisfying feature is the living room, followed by unit size and the floor plan. Additionally, the living room and the floor plans were features which were highly and positively correlated to the residents＇ overall satisfaction of housing unit features. Consequently, improving the living room size and the design of housing unit floor plans would clearly be beneficial to alleviating residents＇ dissatisfaction to the housing units.

Residents’ Satisfaction Assessment of Outdoor Residential Spaces;A Local Study in an Urban Compact Form in Sana’a, Yemen—Winter Period

This paper studies the thermal performance of outdoor residential spaces in the old part—historical part—of Sana’a city in the winter period and its impact on the residents’ satisfaction who occupied the buildings which overlook these spaces and use them on a pedestrian comfort basis. The analysis was carried out through the results of field measurements which study the temperature, relative humidity, and the air movement inside the selected outdoor spaces in the period of winter (2 months) data recorded through the devices used and compared with those obtained from the General Authority of Meteorology and Aviation—Meteorology Sector. Despite the passage of years, the author remained occupied with the opinion of the people whose homes overlook those outdoors spaces and what is their opinion of their performance. Therefore, an assessment was conducted in November 2020 to know the opinion of the people about the performance of these outdoor spaces and to compare the results of the field measurements with the results of the assessment. The measurements were conducted by using data-loggers that spread in some outdoor spaces in 7 spaces in old city of Sana’a and in its modern extension during the winter period which is the time of concern of this work. The measurements showed that the outdoor residential spaces in the old city of Sana’a are represented an advantage for winter climate over that of the modern city, so the focus in this paper was on that outdoors with the question of the users of the outdoor spaces in the old city only to clarify their satisfaction with it and whether it has succeeded as well from their point of view. Results presented in this paper are important to consider the relationship between the climatical performance of outdoor spaces and the comfort of the residents in the urban environment and give implications for urban planners and architects to improve the climate-based design methodology towards sustainable developments.

Residents'satisfaction of Beijing new regulations for domestic waste classification based on binary logistic regression:A case study of Daxing District

On the first anniversary of the implementation of the new regulations of Beijing Municipality on the management of domestic waste,to understand residents’views on the waste classification policy,the project conducted relevant investigation of the satisfaction of residents with the domestic waste classification policy in Daxing District of Beijing,China.Based on the analysis of the survey,this study uses the binary logistic regression model to explore the residents’satisfaction with the new domestic waste classification policy in Beijing and its influencing factors.The data from 398 valid questionnaires involve the demographic characteristics of residents,residents’cognition and views on Beijing municipal solid waste classification policy,and residents’satisfaction with Beijing domestic waste classification policy.The data show that the comprehensive satisfaction level of residents with the domestic waste classification policy in Beijing is quite high,up to 84.7%.Among them,the satisfaction level of residents with the details of the classification standards,the allocation of garbage cans,the publicity and supervision of the policy,incentive measures and the implementation process and effect of the policy is very high,exceeding 80%or even more than 90%.Through binary logistic regression analysis,we come to the conclusion that six factors significantly affect residents’satisfaction with Beijing municipal solid waste classification policy,such as residents’monthly income,household daily average domestic waste production,publicity of waste classification policy,supervisors’better understanding of waste classification standards,guidance of waste delivery by community classification supervisors,and convenience of waste classification process.

Robust Optimization of Municipal Solid Waste Collection and Transportation with Uncertain Waste Output: A Case Study

Garbage collection is an important issue in urban environmental management.With the increased awareness of urban residents regarding safety,environmental protection,and health in recent years,it is necessary to logically organize municipal solid waste collection and transportation routes while also considering economic and social benefits.This article focuses on the optimization of the waste transportation routes of garbage trucks.With the objective of minimizing transportation costs and maximizing resident satisfaction,we establish a robust optimization model for the multi-trip collection and transportation of municipal solid waste in an uncertain environment.Resident satisfaction is defined as the penalty cost against a time window constraint.The Bertsimas robust optimization method is applied to characterize the uncertainty,and the decision-making scheme of the receiving route is used to adapt to waste volume changes.We conduct a case study based on real-world data for municipal solid waste collection and transportation in the Dongcheng District of Beijing,China.The solution is validated using the CPLEX program,and the validity of the model is verified.In addition,a sensitivity analysis of related parameters is conducted to study the impacts of variations in work hour limits and time windows on the total cost and service levels,as well as their relationships with the level of robustness.This could help decision-makers make reasonable choices based on actual conditions and to balance reductions in total cost with service level improvements.