Measuring Resident Reactions to Community Tourism Development: A Pilot Study of a New Conceptual Framework

The objectives of this study are two-fold: 1) to propose an alternative framework for understanding resident reactions toward community tourism through the integration of two theories, The Reasoned Action and Social Exchange Theory; and 2) to reveal the relationships between the key concepts in the framework, that is, beliefs, attitude, subjective norm, intention, support, personal factors, and marketing stimuli. This study represents an addition to the existing literature in community tourism and can benefit scholars, business analysts, and decision makers by clarifying the underlying theoretical concepts that explain what residents’ perceptions are toward tourism and how they can be measured

Exotic fermion multiplets as a solution to baryon asymmetry, dark matter and neutrino masses

We propose an extension to the standard model where three exotic fermion 5-plets and one scalar 6-plet are added to the particle content. By demanding that all interactions are renormalizable and standard model gauge invariant, we show that the lightest exotic particle in this model can be a dark matter candidate as long as the new 6-plet scalar does not develop a nonzero vacuum expectation value. Furthermore, light neutrino masses are generated radiatively at one-loop while the baryon asymmetry is produced by the CP-violating decays of the second lightest exotic particle. We have demonstrated using concrete examples that there is a parameter space where a consistent solution to the problems of baryon asymmetry, dark matter and neutrino masses can be obtained.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures (REVTeX4.1), v2: some refs added, v3: typos corrected, Sec.VI.B, C modified, this version to appear in PR

Entrepreneurial Motives and Characteristics: An Analysis of Small Restaurant Owners

The purpose of this study was to gain information about the characteristics of small restaurant owners in China. The data for the study were hand-collected by survey questionnaires in four cities across three provinces in China. We found three main results. First, small restaurant entrepreneurs were characterized by one of three distinct motives in that they were autonomy seekers, family protectors, or profit seekers. Second, their funding sources were predominantly private rather than institutional. And third, the entrepreneurial business was the main source of the family’s income. These findings have implications for development programs, financing, and education in developing China’s restaurant industry. This study appears to be the first to investigate empirically entrepreneurial activity among small business owners in the Chinese restaurant industry.Keywords: entrepreneurship, small businesses in China, restaurant industryKeywords: entrepreneurship, small businesses in China, restaurant industr

Trimethoprim‐Sulfamethoxazole Activity and Pharmacodynamics against Glycopeptide‐Intermediate Staphylococcus aureus

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90392/1/phco.22.12.983.33599.pd

Greater Experience of Negative Non-Target Emotions by Patients with Neurodegenerative Diseases Is Related to Lower Emotional Well-Being in Caregivers.

BackgroundBehavioral symptoms in patients with neurodegenerative diseases can be particularly challenging for caregivers. Previously, we reported that patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) experienced emotions that were atypical or incongruent with a given situation (i.e., non-target emotions).AimWe tested the hypothesis that greater experience of non-target emotions by patients is associated with lower caregiver emotional well-being.Methods178 patients with FTD, AD, or other neurodegenerative diseases and 35 healthy individuals watched 3 films designed to induce amusement, sadness, and disgust, and then reported their emotions during the films. Caregivers of the patients reported their own emotional well-being on the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey.ResultsIn response to the amusement and sadness (but not disgust) films, greater experience of non-target emotions by patients was related to lower caregiver emotional well-being. These effects were specific to patients' experience of negative non-target emotions (i.e., not found for positive non-target emotions or for negative or positive target emotions).ConclusionThe findings reveal a previously unstudied patient behavior that is related to worse caregiver emotional well-being. Future research and clinical assessment may benefit from evaluating non-target emotions in patients

Rare B decays and Tevatron top-pair asymmetry

The recent Tevatron result on the top quark forward-backward asymmetry, which deviates from its standard model prediction by 3.4$\sigma$, has prompted many authors to build new models to account for this anomaly. Among the various proposals, we find that those mechanisms which produce $t\bar t$ via $t$- or $u$-channel can have a strong correlation to the rare B decays. We demonstrate this link by studying a model with a new charged gauge boson, $W'$. In terms of the current measurements on $B\to \pi K$ decays, we conclude that the branching ratio for $B^-\to \pi^- \bar K^0$ is affected most by the new effects. Furthermore, using the world average branching ratio for the exclusive B decays at $2\sigma$ level, we discuss the allowed values for the new parameters. Finally, we point out that the influence of the new physics effects on the direct CP asymmetry in B decays is insignificant.Comment: 15 page, 6 figures, typos corrected and references added, final version to appear journa

Data Management Applications for the Service Preparation Subsystem

These software applications provide intuitive User Interfaces (UIs) with a consistent look and feel for interaction with, and control of, the Service Preparation Subsystem (SPS). The elements of the UIs described here are the File Manager, Mission Manager, and Log Monitor applications. All UIs provide access to add/delete/update data entities in a complex database schema without requiring technical expertise on the part of the end users. These applications allow for safe, validated, catalogued input of data. Also, the software has been designed in multiple, coherent layers to promote ease of code maintenance and reuse in addition to reducing testing and accelerating maturity

Unexpected decline in tuberculosis cases coincident with economic recession -- United States, 2009

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Since 1953, through the cooperation of state and local health departments, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has collected information on incident cases of tuberculosis (TB) disease in the United States. In 2009, TB case rates declined -11.4%, compared to an average annual -3.8% decline since 2000. The unexpectedly large decline raised concerns that TB cases may have gone unreported. To address the unexpected decline, we examined trends from multiple sources on TB treatment initiation, medication sales, and laboratory and genotyping data on culture-positive TB.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed 142,174 incident TB cases reported to the U. S. National Tuberculosis Surveillance System (NTSS) during January 1, 2000-December 31, 2009; TB control program data from 59 public health reporting areas; self-reported data from 50 CDC-funded public health laboratories; monthly electronic prescription claims for new TB therapy prescriptions; and complete genotyping results available for NTSS cases. Accounting for prior trends using regression and time-series analyses, we calculated the deviation between observed and expected TB cases in 2009 according to patient and clinical characteristics, and assessed at what point in time the deviation occurred.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The overall deviation in TB cases in 2009 was -7.9%, with -994 fewer cases reported than expected (<it>P </it>< .001). We ruled out evidence of surveillance underreporting since declines were seen in states that used new software for case reporting in 2009 as well as states that did not, and we found no cases unreported to CDC in our examination of over 5400 individual line-listed reports in 11 areas. TB cases decreased substantially among both foreign-born and U.S.-born persons. The unexpected decline began in late 2008 or early 2009, and may have begun to reverse in late 2009. The decline was greater in terms of case counts among foreign-born than U.S.-born persons; among the foreign-born, the declines were greatest in terms of percentage deviation from expected among persons who had been in the United States less than 2 years. Among U.S.-born persons, the declines in percentage deviation from expected were greatest among homeless persons and substance users. Independent information systems (NTSS, TB prescription claims, and public health laboratories) reported similar patterns of declines. Genotyping data did not suggest sudden decreases in recent transmission.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our assessments show that the decline in reported TB was not an artifact of changes in surveillance methods; rather, similar declines were found through multiple data sources. While the steady decline of TB cases before 2009 suggests ongoing improvement in TB control, we were not able to identify any substantial change in TB control activities or TB transmission that would account for the abrupt decline in 2009. It is possible that other multiple causes coincident with economic recession in the United States, including decreased immigration and delayed access to medical care, could be related to TB declines. Our findings underscore important needs in addressing health disparities as we move towards TB elimination in the United States.</p

A Multiancestral Genome-Wide Exome Array Study of Alzheimer Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Importance Previous studies have indicated a heritable component of the etiology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). However, few have examined the contribution of low-frequency coding variants on a genome-wide level. Objective To identify low-frequency coding variants that affect susceptibility to AD, FTD, and PSP. Design, Setting, and Participants We used the Illumina HumanExome BeadChip array to genotype a large number of variants (most of which are low-frequency coding variants) in a cohort of patients with neurodegenerative disease (224 with AD, 168 with FTD, and 48 with PSP) and in 224 control individuals without dementia enrolled between 2005-2012 from multiple centers participating in the Genetic Investigation in Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease (GIFT) Study. An additional multiancestral replication cohort of 240 patients with AD and 240 controls without dementia was used to validate suggestive findings. Variant-level association testing and gene-based testing were performed. Main Outcomes and Measures Statistical association of genetic variants with clinical diagnosis of AD, FTD, and PSP. Results Genetic variants typed by the exome array explained 44%, 53%, and 57% of the total phenotypic variance of AD, FTD, and PSP, respectively. An association with the known AD gene ABCA7 was replicated in several ancestries (discovery P = .0049, European P = .041, African American P = .043, and Asian P = .027), suggesting that exonic variants within this gene modify AD susceptibility. In addition, 2 suggestive candidate genes, DYSF (P = 5.53 × 10−5) and PAXIP1 (P = 2.26 × 10−4), were highlighted in patients with AD and differentially expressed in AD brain. Corroborating evidence from other exome array studies and gene expression data points toward potential involvement of these genes in the pathogenesis of AD. Conclusions and Relevance Low-frequency coding variants with intermediate effect size may account for a significant fraction of the genetic susceptibility to AD and FTD. Furthermore, we found evidence that coding variants in the known susceptibility gene ABCA7, as well as candidate genes DYSF and PAXIP1, confer risk for AD