Applying a "hypocrisy" strategy to improve food safety practices in restaurants

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of hypocrisy approach on improving restaurant employees' handwashing behavior and glove behaviors by using the completely randomized design (CRD) and also to provide recommendations on food safety trainings. Participants in this study were categorized into four groups based on the interventions assigned to them, including promoting food safety flyers and self-check survey. Attitudes and behavioral intention of conducting correct handwashing and glove practices were measured through implicit attitude measure, direct attitude measure and behavioral intention measure. The one-way ANCOVA was used to analyze and compare results among four groups. Results on this study showed that the "hypocrisy" strategy can influence participants' implicit attitudes towards handwashing and glove use behaviors and intentions of using gloves, which improved restaurant employees' food safety practices. In addition, the educational level, restaurant type and working positions were found to impact some outcome variables. Based on findings, some interventions guided by the "hypocrisy" strategy could be used to improve food safety practices in American restaurantsby Yidan HuangIncludes bibliographical reference

How Self-Construals Affect Responses to Anthropomorphic Brands, With a Focus on the Three-Factor Relationship Between the Brand, the Gift-Giver and the Recipient

The universal mantra, “The customer is our king,” has led to considerable focus on the servant-anthropomorphized brand. However, does your “king” want to be served as a “king”? This research aims to examine how anthropomorphic brand role, self-construals and consumer responses to brands interact. In this study, four sequential experiments show that consumers with an interdependent self-construal are likely to respond more favorably toward anthropomorphic brands playing superior ‘master’ roles than toward those playing subordinate ‘servant’ roles. Here we distinguish between two types of superior role (master and mentor) based on behavior and communications. We also explore the underlying psychological mechanism of followership, as demonstrated through blind followership of someone in a master role and rational followership of someone in a mentor role. Additionally, when a third-party (recipient) is involved in the relationship between a consumer and a brand, the giver–recipient relationship moderates the relationship between an anthropomorphised brand role and self-construals

Genomic survey, expression profile and co-expression network analysis of OsWD40 family in rice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>WD40 proteins represent a large family in eukaryotes, which have been involved in a broad spectrum of crucial functions. Systematic characterization and co-expression analysis of <it>OsWD40 </it>genes enable us to understand the networks of the WD40 proteins and their biological processes and gene functions in rice.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this study, we identify and analyze 200 potential <it>OsWD40 </it>genes in rice, describing their gene structures, genome localizations, and evolutionary relationship of each member. Expression profiles covering the whole life cycle in rice has revealed that transcripts of <it>OsWD40 </it>were accumulated differentially during vegetative and reproductive development and preferentially up or down-regulated in different tissues. Under phytohormone treatments, 25 <it>OsWD40 </it>genes were differentially expressed with treatments of one or more of the phytohormone NAA, KT, or GA3 in rice seedlings. We also used a combined analysis of expression correlation and Gene Ontology annotation to infer the biological role of the <it>OsWD40 </it>genes in rice. The results suggested that <it>OsWD40 </it>genes may perform their diverse functions by complex network, thus were predictive for understanding their biological pathways. The analysis also revealed that <it>OsWD40 </it>genes might interact with each other to take part in metabolic pathways, suggesting a more complex feedback network.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>All of these analyses suggest that the functions of <it>OsWD40 </it>genes are diversified, which provide useful references for selecting candidate genes for further functional studies.</p

A Simple Model for Elastic-Plastic Contact of Granular Geomaterials

We propose a simple elastic-plastic contact model by considering the interaction of two spheres in the normal direction, for use in discrete element method (DEM) simulations of geomaterials. This model has been developed by using the finite element method (FEM) and nonlinear fitting methods, in the form of power-law relation of the dimensionless normal force and displacement. Only four parameters are needed for each loading-unloading contact process between two spheres, which are relevant to material properties evaluated by FEM simulations. Within the given range of material properties, those four parameters can be quickly accessed by interpolating the data appended or by regression functions supplied. Instead of the Von Mises (V-M) yield criterion, the Drucker-Prager (D-P) criterion is used to describe the yield behavior of contacting spheres in this model. The D-P criterion takes the effects of confining pressure, the intermediate principal stress, and strain rate into consideration; thus, this model can be used for DEM simulation of geomaterials as well as other granular materials with pressure sensitivity

Numerical Simulation of Aerodynamic Noise of Soundproof Enclosure of Air Compressor Unit

During the operation of the air compressor unit, the suction and exhaust process of the air compressor and the operation of other equipment will cause air flow pulsation, which is often accompanied by the generation of air compressor noise. Numerical simulation method, as an important means to study the flow field characteristics and noise characteristics of air compressors, has been widely used in recent years. This article takes the noise enclosure of a certain air compressor unit as the research object, and use numerical simulation method to study the air intake part of the enclosure. The influence of inlet louver and suction deflector on the aerodynamic performance of air compressor noise enclosure was analyzed, and the influence of different inlet louver structures and different suction deflector structures on noise was compared. This paper uses the broadband noise model to predict the distribution of air flow pulsation noise. In order to quantitatively study the noise, the FW-H model based on Lighthill\u27s acoustic analogy method was used for the aerodynamic noise simulation, and the frequency response of the aerodynamic noise of air compressor was obtained

Control of astrocyte progenitor specification, migration and maturation by Nkx6.1 homeodomain transcription factor.

Although astrocytes are the most abundant cell type in the central nervous system (CNS), little is known about their molecular specification and differentiation. It has previously been reported that transcription factor Nkx6.1 is expressed in neuroepithelial cells that give rise to astrocyte precursors in the ventral spinal cord. In the present study, we systematically investigated the function of Nkx6.1 in astrocyte development using both conventional and conditional Nkx6.1 mutant mice. At early postnatal stages, Nkx6.1 was expressed in a subpopulation of astrocytes in the ventral spinal cord. In the conventional Nkx6.1KO spinal cord, the initial specification of astrocyte progenitors was affected by the mutation, and subsequent migration and differentiation were disrupted in newborn mice. In addition, the development of VA2 subtype astrocytes was also inhibited in the white matter. Further studies with Nkx6.1 conditional mutants revealed significantly delayed differentiation and disorganized arrangement of fibrous astrocytes in the ventral white matter. Together, our studies indicate that Nkx6.1 plays a vital role in astrocyte specification and differentiation in the ventral spinal cord

Rapid Method for Detecting Pathogenic Aeromonas caviae in Fish using Monoclonal Antibodies on Test Strips

Abstract Aeromonas caviae is a pathogenic bacteria that causes disease in a variety of animals, especially fish. In this study, we prepared strips of monoclonal antibody (mAb), conjugated to colloidal gold, as a rapid diagnostic method for detecting antigens to A. caviae. BALB/c mice, an albino, laboratory-bred strain of the House Mouse from which a number of common substrains are derived, were divided into two groups. One group was immunized with 25 μg formalin-killed Aeromonas caviae; the second group with 50 μg. Hybridoma cell lines that consistently secrete mAbs against A. caviae were obtained by cell fusion. Two strains of hybridomas (3F3 and 2C9C3) were screened. Subtypes of the two mAbs were IgG 1 and IgM, confirmed by indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Titers of 3F3 and 2C9C3 mAb in ascite fluid were 1:10 6 and 1:10

Protein Kinase G-I Deficiency Induces Pulmonary Hypertension through Rho A/Rho Kinase Activation

Protein kinase G (PKG) plays an important role in the regulation of vascular smooth cell contractility and is a critical mediator of nitric oxide signaling, which regulates cardiovascular homeostasis. PKG-I–knockout (Prkg1−/−) mice exhibit impaired nitric oxide/cGMP-dependent vasorelaxation and systemic hypertension. However, it remains unknown whether PKG-I deficiency induces pulmonary hypertension. In this study, we characterized the hypertensive pulmonary phenotypes in Prkg1−/− mice and delineated the underlying molecular basis. We observed a significant increase in right ventricular systolic pressure in Prkg1−/− mice in the absence of systemic hypertension and left-sided heart dysfunction. In addition, we observed marked muscularization of distal pulmonary vessels in Prkg1−/− mice. Microangiography revealed impaired integrity of the pulmonary vasculature in Prkg1−/− mice. Mechanistically, PKG-I–mediated phosphorylation of Rho A Ser188 was markedly decreased, and the resultant Rho A activation was significantly increased in Prkg1−/− lung tissues, which resulted in Rho kinase activation. The i.t. administration of fasudil, a Rho kinase inhibitor, reversed the hypertensive pulmonary phenotype in Prkg1−/− mice. Taken together, these data show that PKG-I deficiency induces pulmonary hypertension through Rho A/Rho kinase activation–mediated vasoconstriction and pulmonary vascular remodeling