Discounting Works in the Hotel Industry: A Structural Approach to Understanding Why

This case study provides an empirical assessment of the relationship between discounting hotel room rates and hotel financial performance. The dynamics of the lodging industry are accounted for through the adoption of an error correction model. Recent research suggests that the use of discounting room rates may not be an effective pricing strategy as it results in increased occupancy rates at decreased average daily rates, thereby reducing a common financial performance indicator – revenue per available room (revPAR). The recommendation made to hotel managers, then, is to avoid discounting and instead adopt an average rate. This study generates opposing findings and reveals that discounting may be a practical short-term pricing solution that may compensate for market disequilibria. The results suggest that using statistical residuals rather than room rate averages may more accurately forecast appropriate hotel room rates and balance supply and demand. Thus, the recommendation of adopting average room rates may provide incorrect implications for managers in the short run

Towards Learning ‘Self’ and Emotional Knowledge in Social and Cultural Human-Agent Interactions

Original article can be found at: http://www.igi-global.com/articles/details.asp?ID=35052 Copyright IGI. Posted by permission of the publisher.This article presents research towards the development of a virtual learning environment (VLE) inhabited by intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) and modeling a scenario of inter-cultural interactions. The ultimate aim of this VLE is to allow users to reflect upon and learn about intercultural communication and collaboration. Rather than predefining the interactions among the virtual agents and scripting the possible interactions afforded by this environment, we pursue a bottomup approach whereby inter-cultural communication emerges from interactions with and among autonomous agents and the user(s). The intelligent virtual agents that are inhabiting this environment are expected to be able to broaden their knowledge about the world and other agents, which may be of different cultural backgrounds, through interactions. This work is part of a collaborative effort within a European research project called eCIRCUS. Specifically, this article focuses on our continuing research concerned with emotional knowledge learning in autobiographic social agents.Peer reviewe

On the Observability of Meso- and Macro-scopic Quantum Coherence of Domain Walls in Magnetic Insulators

Results are presented of a numerical calculation of the tunneling gap for a domain wall moving in the double well potential of a pair of voids in a magnetic insulator. Both symmetric and asymmetric double well potentials are considered. It is found that, even in the absence of dissipation, the prospects for observing quantum coherence on a meso- or macro-scopic scale appears unlikely.Comment: 15 pages, Plain LaTex, UBC TP-93-1

Phase transition between quantum and classical regimes for the escape rate of a biaxial spin system

Employing the method of mapping the spin problem onto a particle one, we have derived the particle Hamiltonian for a biaxial spin system with a transverse or longitudinal magnetic field. Using the Hamiltonian and introducing the parameter $p (\equiv (U_{max}-E)/(U_{max}-U_{min}))$ where $U_{max}$ (U_{min}) corresponds to the top (bottom) of the potential and $E$ is the energy of the particle, we have studied the first- or second-order transition around the crossover temperature between thermal and quantum regimes for the escape rate, depending on the anisotropy constant and the external magnetic field. It is shown that the phase boundary separating the first- and second-order transition and its crossover temperature are greatly influenced by the transverse anisotropy constant as well as the transverse or longitudinal magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages + 3 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Instanton picture of the spin tunneling in the Lipkin model

A consistent theory of the ground state energy and its splitting due to the process of tunneling for the Lipkin model is presented. For the functional integral in terms of the spin coherent states for the partition function of the model we accurately calculate the trivial and the instanton saddle point contributions. We show that such calculation has to be perfomed very accurately taking into account the discrete nature of the functional integral. Such accurate consideration leads to finite corrections to a naive continous consideration. We present comparison with numerical calculation of the ground state energy and the tunneling splitting and with the results obtained by the quasiclassical method and get excellent agreement.Comment: REVTEX, 32 pages, 3 figure

Magnon Exchange Mechanism of Ferromagnetic Superconductivity

The magnon exchange mechanism of ferromagnetic superconductivity (FM-superconductivity) was developed to explain in a natural way the fact that the superconductivity in $UGe_2$, $ZrZn_2$ and $URhGe$ is confined to the ferromagnetic phase.The order parameter is a spin anti-parallel component of a spin-1 triplet with zero spin projection. The transverse spin fluctuations are pair forming and the longitudinal ones are pair breaking. In the present paper, a superconducting solution, based on the magnon exchange mechanism, is obtained which closely matches the experiments with $ZrZn_2$ and $URhGe$. The onset of superconductivity leads to the appearance of complicated Fermi surfaces in the spin up and spin down momentum distribution functions. Each of them consist of two pieces, but they are simple-connected and can be made very small by varying the microscopic parameters. As a result, it is obtained that the specific heat depends on the temperature linearly, at low temperature, and the coefficient $\gamma=\frac {C}{T}$ is smaller in the superconducting phase than in the ferromagnetic one. The absence of a quantum transition from ferromagnetism to ferromagnetic superconductivity in a weak ferromagnets $ZrZn_2$ and $URhGe$ is explained accounting for the contribution of magnon self-interaction to the spin fluctuations' parameters. It is shown that in the presence of an external magnetic field the system undergoes a first order quantum phase transition.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

Nonadiabatic Landau Zener tunneling in Fe_8 molecular nanomagnets

The Landau Zener method allows to measure very small tunnel splittings \Delta in molecular clusters Fe_8. The observed oscillations of \Delta as a function of the magnetic field applied along the hard anisotropy axis are explained in terms of topological quantum interference of two tunnel paths of opposite windings. Studies of the temperature dependence of the Landau Zener transition rate P gives access to the topological quantum interference between exited spin levels. The influence of nuclear spins is demonstrated by comparing P of the standard Fe_8 sample with two isotopically substituted samples. The need of a generalized Landau Zener transition rate theory is shown.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Ward identity and optical-conductivity sum rule in the d-density wave state

We consider the role of the Ward identity in dealing with the transport properties of an interacting system forming a d-wave modulated charge-density wave or staggered flux phase. In particular, we address this issue from the point of view of the restricted optical-conductivity sum rule. Our aim is to provide a controlled approximation for the current-current correlation function which allows us also to determine analytically the corresponding sum rule. By analyzing the role of the vertex functions in both the microscopic interacting model and in the effective mean-field Hamiltonian, we propose a non-standard low-energy sum-rule for this system. We also discuss the possible applicability of these results for the description of cuprate superconductors in the pseudogap regime.Comment: Revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

The Relationship Between Minority Business Enterprises and Corporate Purchasing Personnel: Perceptions from Both Sides of the Table

This paper addresses the nature of the difficulties MBEs face when conducting business with large companies through MBE purchasing programs. Data collected from MBEs and purchasing personnel were analyzed with logistic regression to demonstrate that MBEs and their corporate purchasing counterparts have different perceptions across human, environmental, and organizational dimensions of transaction cost economics. These differences help to explain the problems: (1) that MBEs have in selling to large companies and the problems that MBEs and purchasing personnel have in implementing MBE purchasing programs; (2) of reaching agreement in the marketplace; and, (3) of collectively pursuing the economic development of the minority business community. We offer recommendations for improving the relationship between these parties