602 research outputs found
Using traditional rituals in hospitality to gain value: A study on the impact of Feng Shui
Superstition and the rituals used to support such beliefs remain an important part of Chinese business society. With the advance of globalisation and the normalisation of many business practices this study explores the importance these rituals continue to play in the contemporary hospitality setting. The paper examines the prominence of Feng Shui in business today in a qualitative study using Chinese restaurants to explore associated business behaviours and perceived value of use. Findings from 20 phenomenological interviews from across four different Asian communities are discussed highlighting the core elements of this ritualistic practice. Results indicate that these practices continue to be used widely, have significant impact in managing the servicescape, and, influence the decisions and behaviours of proprietors. Feng Shui ritual plays an important role in the creation of value for business proprietors who practice it and a conceptual framework on how these rituals provide value is proposed
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Optimizing Cellulase Mixtures for Maximum Rate and Extent of Hydrolysis. Final Report
Pure Thomomonospora fusca and Trichoderma reesei cellulases and their mixtures were studied to determine the optimal set of cellulases for biomass hydrolysis. The objective was to reduce the cost of cellulase in order to help lower the overall processing cost of the enzymatic conversion of biomass cellulose to sugars, which can then be fermented into fuels and other energy-intensive chemicals. No cellulase mixture was obtained that was much better than the best commercially available preparations. However, the study has greatly increased knowledge of T. fusca cellulases, synergism, and cellulose binding, and provide evidence that future work will produce cellulases with higher activity in degrading crystalline cellulose. T. fusca cellulases may have good industrial potential because: (1) they are compatible with industrial processes that operate at elevated temperatures; (2) they retain 90% of their activity under neutral or basic conditions, which provides a great deal of flexibility in reactor design and operation; and (3) tools are now available to change specific amino acid residues in their catalytic domains and to assess how these changes influence catalysis. 74 refs
Hadron widths in mixed-phase matter
We derive classically an expression for a hadron width in a two-phase region
of hadron gas and quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The presence of QGP gives hadrons
larger widths than they would have in a pure hadron gas. We find that the
width observed in a central Au+Au collision at
GeV/nucleon is a few MeV greater than the width in a pure hadron gas. The part
of observed hadron widths due to QGP is approximately proportional to
.Comment: 8 pages, latex, no figures, KSUCNR-002-9
Large-scale Perturbations from the Waterfall Field in Hybrid Inflation
We estimate large-scale curvature perturbations from isocurvature
fluctuations in the waterfall field during hybrid inflation, in addition to the
usual inflaton field perturbations. The tachyonic instability at the end of
inflation leads to an explosive growth of super-Hubble scale perturbations, but
they retain the steep blue spectrum characteristic of vacuum fluctuations in a
massive field during inflation. The power spectrum thus peaks around the
Hubble-horizon scale at the end of inflation. We extend the usual delta-N
formalism to include the essential role of these small fluctuations when
estimating the large-scale curvature perturbation. The resulting curvature
perturbation due to fluctuations in the waterfall field is second-order and the
spectrum is expected to be of order 10^{-54} on cosmological scales.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; v2 comments added on application of delta-N
formalism including Hubble scale fluctuation
Cosmological CMBR dipole in open universes ?
The observed CMBR dipole is generally interpreted as a Doppler effect arising
from the motion of the Earth relative to the CMBR frame. An alternative
interpretation, proposed in the last years, is that the dipole results from
ultra-large scale isocurvature perturbations. We examine this idea in the
context of open cosmologies and show that the isocurvature interpretation is
not valid in an open universe, unless it is extremely close to a flat universe,
.Comment: 26 pages, Latex, 6 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
A Statistical Mechanical Problem in Schwarzschild Spacetime
We use Fermi coordinates to calculate the canonical partition function for an
ideal gas in a circular geodesic orbit in Schwarzschild spacetime. To test the
validity of the results we prove theorems for limiting cases. We recover the
Newtonian gas law subject only to tidal forces in the Newtonian limit.
Additionally we recover the special relativistic gas law as the radius of the
orbit increases to infinity. We also discuss how the method can be extended to
the non ideal gas case.Comment: Corrected an equation misprint, added four references, and brief
comments on the system's center of mass and the thermodynamic limi
Neutralizing antibodies against IFNâβ in multiple sclerosis: antagonization of IFNâβ mediated suppression of MMPs
Neutralizing antibodies (NAb) against interferonâβ (IFNâβ) develop in about a third of treated multiple sclerosis patients and are believed to reduce therapeutic efficacy of IFNâβ on clinical and MRI measures. The expression of the interferon acuteâresponse protein, myxovirus resistance protein A (MxA) is a sensitive measure of the biological activity of therapeutically applied IFNâβ and of its reduced bioavailability due to NAb. However, MxA may not be operative in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis or the therapeutic effect of IFNâβ. Instead, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are increased in brain tissue, CSF and blood circulation of multiple sclerosis patients and function as effector molecules in several steps of multiple sclerosis pathogenesis. One of the molecular mechanisms by which IFNâβ exerts its beneficial effect in multiple sclerosis is reduction of MMPâ9 expression and increase of its endogenous tissue inhibitor, TIMPâ1. Quantitative PCR measurements of MMPâ2 and MMPâ9, TIMPâ1 and TIMPâ2, and MxA were performed in peripheral mononuclear cells from clinically stable multiple sclerosis patients with relapsing remitting disease course after shortâterm and longâterm treatment with IFNâβ. IFNâβ therapy downâregulated the expression of MMPâ9 and abolished that of MMPâ2 in longâterm, but not shortâterm treated multiple sclerosis, while levels of MxA were increased in both instances. The presence of NAb reversed these effects, i.e. led to reduced MxA and increased MMPâ2/MMPâ9 expression levels compared with NAb- patients. In contrast, expression of TIMPs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells remained unaffected by IFNâβ therapy and the presence of NAb. While MxA is able to detect the biological action and reduced bioavailability of IFNâβ on the basis of single injections, only MMPâ9 shows quantitative correlation with the NAb titre. Together with evidence that an imbalance between MMP and TIMP expression is a crucial pathogenetic feature in multiple sclerosis, these findings support the concept of a significant role of NAb in reducing the therapeutic efficacy of IFNâ
Toward a Unified Magnetic Phase Diagram of the Cuprate Superconductors
We propose a unified magnetic phase diagram of cuprate superconductors. A new
feature of this phase diagram is a broad intermediate doping region of
quantum-critical, , behavior, characterized by temperature independent
and linear , where the spin waves are not completely
absorbed by the electron-hole continuum. The spin gap in the moderately doped
materials is related to the suppression of the low-energy spectral weight in
the quantum disordered, , regime. The crossover to the regime, where
T_1T/T_{\rm 2G}^2 \simeq \mbox{const}, occurs only in the fully doped
materials.Comment: 14 pages, REVTeX v2.1, PostScript file for 3 figures attached,
UIUC-P-93-06-04
AGN effect on cooling flow dynamics
We analyzed the feedback of AGN jets on cooling flow clusters using
three-dimensional AMR hydrodynamic simulations. We studied the interaction of
the jet with the intracluster medium and creation of low X-ray emission
cavities (Bubbles) in cluster plasma. The distribution of energy input by the
jet into the system was quantified in its different forms, i.e. internal,
kinetic and potential. We find that the energy associated with the bubbles, (pV
+ gamma pV/(gamma-1)), accounts for less than 10 percent of the jet energy.Comment: "Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Science
Trends in Collection of Microbiological Cultures Across Veterans Affairs Community Living Centers in the United States Over 8 Years
Objectives: To describe and evaluate changes in the collection of microbiological cultures across Veterans Affairs (VA) Community Living Centers (CLCs) nationally.
Design: Descriptive study.
Setting: 146 VA CLCs.
Participants: We identified both positive and negative microbiological cultures collected during VA CLC admissions from January 2010 through December 2017.
Measures: We measured the average annual percentage change (AAPC) in the rate of cultures collected per 1000 bed days and per admission, overall and stratified by culture type (ie, urine, blood, skin and soft tissue, and respiratory tract). AAPCs were also calculated for the proportion and rate of positive cultures collected, overall and stratified by culture type and organism (ie, Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella spp, Enterobacter spp, Morganella morganii, Citrobacter spp, Serratia marcescens, and Streptococcus pneumoniae). Joinpoint regression software was used to assess trends and estimate AAPCs and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
Results: Over 8 years, 355,329 cultures were collected. The rate of cultures collected per 1000 bed days of care decreased significantly by 6.0% per year (95% CI â8.7%, â3.2%). The proportion of positive cultures decreased by 0.9% (95% CI â1.4%, â0.4%). The most common culture types were urine (48.4%), followed by blood (27.7%). The rate of cultures collected per 1000 bed days of care decreased per year by 6.3% for urine, 5.0% for blood, 4.4% for skin and soft tissue, and 4.9% for respiratory tract. In 2010, S aureus was the most common organism identified, and in all subsequent years E coli was the most common.
Conclusion and implications: We identified a significant reduction in the number of cultures collected over time among VA CLCs. Our findings may be explained by decreases in the collection of unnecessary cultures in VA CLCs nationally due to increased antibiotic stewardship efforts targeting unnecessary culturing and antibiotic treatment
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