The effect of religious tourism experiences on personal values

For humans, happiness can be a consequence of positive behaviours and regarded as their ultimate goal (Seligman, 2004). Since the late 1990s, happiness has been a prominent topic in the field of positive psychology, which seeks, from a psychological perspective, to understand how to make people happier and help them lead more satisfactory lives (Peterson et al., 2005; Seligman, 2004). According to Authentic Happiness Theory (AHT), developed by positive psychologist Martin Seligman (2004), seeking life satisfaction is a long-lasting life concept. As the understanding of tourism experience has evolved to see it as a life-changing event for profound intra-transformation of a person, religious experience during pilgrimage has been investigated to understand the holistic phenomenon of religious tourism (Andriotis, 2009; Belhassen et al., 2008). The experience of oneself in a sacred place is considered the key element that religious tourists seek during their visits to religious tourism destinations. During their visits to religious sites, they have particular experiences that can be mainly provided in these places through psychological and emotional changes. Moreover, religion has a significant impact on life satisfaction and happiness (Headey et al., 2010). This study applies AHT to religious tourism experiences and extends the model to the emotional aspect. This study aims to investigate the impact of religious tourism experiences on two personal values and focuses on the mediating role of emotional connection between religious tourism experience and personal values. For this study’s empirical analysis, religious tourists who answered that religion was important for their travel in Rome/Vatican City were asked to participate in a survey process. This study proves that religious tourism experiences affect happiness and self-satisfaction / fulfilment

On the Galilean invariance of some dispersive wave equations

Surface water waves in ideal fluids have been typically modeled by asymptotic approximations of the full Euler equations. Some of these simplified models lose relevant properties of the full water wave problem. One of them is the Galilean symmetry, which is not present in important models such as the BBM equation and the Peregrine (Classical Boussinesq) system. In this paper we propose a mechanism to modify the above mentioned classical models and derive new, Galilean invariant models. We present some properties of the new equations, with special emphasis on the computation and interaction of their solitary-wave solutions. The comparison with full Euler solutions shows the relevance of the preservation of Galilean invariance for the description of water waves.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables, 71 references. Other author papers can be downloaded at http://www.denys-dutykh.com

Flavor SU(3) analysis of charmless B->PP decays

We perform a global fits to charmless $B \to PP$ decays which independently constrain the $(\bar\rho,\bar\eta)$ vertex of the unitarity triangle. The fitted amplitudes and phase are used to predict the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of all decay modes, including those of the $B_s$ system. Different schemes of SU(3) breaking in decay amplitude sizes are analyzed. The possibility of having a new physics contribution to $K \pi$ decays is also discussed.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figs. Talk given at EPS-HEP07 To appear in the proceedings, Reference adde

B-Meson Observables in the Maximally CP-Violating MSSM with Minimal Flavour Violation

Additional sources of CP violation in the MSSM may affect B-meson mixings and decays, even in scenarios with minimal flavour violation (MFV). We formulate the maximally CP-violating and minimally flavour-violating (MCPMFV) variant of the MSSM, which has 19 parameters, including 6 phases that violate CP. We then develop a manifestly flavour-covariant effective Lagrangian formalism for calculating Higgs-mediated FCNC observables in the MSSM at large tan(beta), and analyze within the MCPMFV framework FCNC and other processes involving B mesons. We include a new class of dominant subleading contributions due to non-decoupling effects of the third-generation quarks. We present illustrative numerical results that include effects of the CP-odd MCPMFV parameters on Higgs and sparticle masses, the B_s and B_d mass differences, and on the decays B_s --> mu+ mu-, B_u --> tau nu and b --> s gamma. We use these results to derive illustrative constraints on the MCPMFV parameters imposed by D0, CDF, BELLE and BABAR measurements of B mesons, demonstrating how a potentially observable contribution to the CP asymmetry in the b --> s gamma decay may arise in the MSSM with MCPMFV.Comment: 47 pages, 8 eps figures, comments and references added, accepted for publication in Physical Review D, Eq.(3.2) correcte

Luxurious or economical ? ::an identification of tourists’ preferred hotel attributes using best–worst scaling (BWS)

This article explores consumer tendencies to opt for luxury or economy hotels by identifying their most and least important selection attributes. The researchers investigate how sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics influence traveler assessments of hotel attributes. In explaining consumer hotel selection preferences, the researchers used an unconditional method—best–worst scaling (BWS). Based on an analysis of responses from 397 luxury hotel customers and 351 economy hotel customers in the United States, it was found that the two groups perceive hotel attributes differently. Differentials were also identified on the basis of gender, income, and frequency of purchase. While acknowledging that the task is complex, there is an urgent need to identify the factors influencing hotel selection, because hoteliers need to attract new markets and also balance this by retaining existing patrons. The findings extend existing literature by applying BWS to the identification of hotel selection attributes

New physics search in the LHCb era

We present theoretical and experimental preparations for an indirect search for new physics using the rare decay $\bar B_d \to \bar K^* l^+ l^-$. We design new observables with very small theoretical uncertainties and good experimental resolution.Comment: Based on invited talks given at the Second Workshop on Theory, Phenomenology and Experiments in Heavy Flavour Physics, 16th-19th of June, Capri, Italy and at the Fifth International Workshop on the CKM Unitarity, Triangle, 9th-13th of September, Rome, Italy; 8 pages, 12 figures, latex, changes: typos in (8) and (15) correcte

B -> K pi Puzzle and New Sources of CP Violation in Supersymmetry

The difference between the CP asymmetries of the $B^0 \to K^+ \pi^-$ and $B^+ \to K^+ \pi^0$ decays has been recently confirmed with an evidence larger than $5\sigma$'s. We discuss it as a possible signal of new physics associated with new (large) CP violation in the electroweak penguin contributions. We propose a supersymmetry breaking scheme where such new sources of CP violation occur in the flavor non-universal trilinear scalar couplings.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Predictors of patient non-attendance at Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services demonstration sites

© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Background Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) services have increased the number of people with common mental health disorders receiving psychological therapy in England, but concerns remain about how equitably these services are accessed.Method Using cohort patient data (N=363) collected as part of the independent evaluation of the two demonstration sites, logistic regression was utilised to identify socio-demographic, clinical and service factors predictive of IAPT non-attendance.Results Significant predictors of IAPT first session non-attendance by patients were: lower non-risk score on the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM); more frequent thoughts of "being better off dead" (derived from the CORE-OM); either a very recent onset of common mental health disorder (1 month or less) or a long term condition (more than 2 years); and site.Limitations The small sample and low response rate are limitations, as the sample may not be representative of all those referred to IAPT services. The predictive power of the logistic regression model is limited and suggests other variables not available in the dataset may also be important predictors.Conclusions The clinical characteristics of risk to self, severity of emotional distress, and illness duration, along with site, were more predictive of IAPT non-attendance than socio-demographic characteristics. Further testing of the relationship between these variables and IAPT non-attendance is recommended. Clinicians should monitor IAPT uptake in those they refer and implement strategies to increase their engagement with services, particularly when referring people presenting with suicidal ideation or more chronic illness

Kelvin Probe Studies of Cesium Telluride Photocathode for AWA Photoinjector

Cesium telluride is an important photocathode as an electron source for particle accelerators. It has a relatively high quantum efficiency (>1%), is sufficiently robust in a photoinjector, and has a long lifetime. This photocathode is grown in-house for a new Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) beamline to produce high charge per bunch (~50 nC) in a long bunch train. Here, we present a study of the work function of cesium telluride photocathode using the Kelvin Probe technique. The study includes an investigation of the correlation between the quantum efficiency and the work function, the effect of photocathode aging, the effect of UV exposure on the work function, and the evolution of the work function during and after photocathode rejuvenation via heating.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Possible evidence for the breakdown of the CKM-paradigm of CP-violation

Using primarily experimental inputs for S(B -> psi Ks), Delta M_Bs, Delta M_Bd, BR(B -> tau nu) and epsilon_K along with necessary inputs from the lattice, we find that the measured value of sin(2 beta) is smaller than expectations of the Standard Model by as much as 3.3 sigma, and also that the measured value of the BR(B -> tau nu) seems to be less than the predicted value by about 2.8 sigma. However, through a critical study we show that most likely the dominant source of these deviations is in B_d(s) mixings and in sin(2 beta) and less so in B -> tau nu, and also that the bulk of the problem persists even if input from epsilon_K is not used. The fact that kaon mixing and epsilon_K are not the dominant source of the deviation from the Standard Model has the very important consequence that model independent considerations imply that the scale of the relevant new CP-violating physics is below O(2 TeV), thus suggesting that direct signals of the new particle(s) may well be accessible in collider experiments at the LHC and perhaps even at the Tevatron.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures. Added another fit and some more discussion showing that BR(B->tau nu) comes out in good agreement with predictions of the SM if the measured value of sin2beta is not used as an input. References adde