Nature-Based Tourism Businesses in Colorado: Interpreting Environmental Ethics and Responsible Behavior

Tourism businesses operate from a primarily economic-centric point of view, but nature-based tourism businesses are also acutely aware of the need to sustain the natural resource that attracts the client to their outdoor recreation service. A preliminary qualitative inquiry reveals how nature-based tourism organizations in Colorado view themselves as operating from environmentally ethical positions, what specific actions they take to minimize negative environmental impacts, and how they educate their clients about resource conservation. Findings indicate that too often companies fail to realize opportunities in which they can encourage meaningful bonds between people and nature through the use of education and environmental interpretation. Education is seen more as a means to equip tourists with skills pertaining to a certain sport/activity, rather than as a way to enrich the total experience. Due to the industry’s reliance upon natural resources, a higher level of resource interpretation should be encouraged, promoting natural resource conservation

Mechanical properties and the electronic structure of transition of metal alloys

This interdiscipline research program was undertaken in an effort to investigate the relationship between the mechanical strength of Mo based alloys with their electronic structure. Electronic properties of these alloys were examined through optical studies, and the classical solid solution strengthening mechanisms were considered, based on size and molecular differences to determine if these mechanisms could explain the hardness data

The magneto-optical Faraday effect in spin liquid candidates

We propose an experiment to use the magneto-optical Faraday effect to probe the dynamic Hall conductivity of spin liquid candidates. Theory predicts that an external magnetic field will generate an internal gauge field. If the source of conductivity is in spinons with a Fermi surface, a finite Faraday rotation angle is expected. We predict the angle to scale as the square of the frequency rather than display the standard cyclotron resonance pattern. Furthermore, the Faraday effect should be able to distinguish the ground state of the spin liquid, as we predict no rotation for massless Dirac spinons. We give a semiquantitative estimate for the magnitude of the effect and find that it should be experimentally feasible to detect in both $\kappa$-(ET)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$ and, if the spinons form a Fermi surface, Herbertsmithite. We also comment on the magneto-optical Kerr effect and show that the imaginary part of the Kerr angle may be measurable.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Results and conjectures on simultaneous core partitions

An n-core partition is an integer partition whose Young diagram contains no hook lengths equal to n. We consider partitions that are simultaneously a-core and b-core for two relatively prime integers a and b. These are related to abacus diagrams and the combinatorics of the affine symmetric group (type A). We observe that self-conjugate simultaneous core partitions correspond to the combinatorics of type C, and use abacus diagrams to unite the discussion of these two sets of objects. In particular, we prove that (2n)- and (2mn+1)-core partitions correspond naturally to dominant alcoves in the m-Shi arrangement of type C_n, generalizing a result of Fishel--Vazirani for type A. We also introduce a major statistic on simultaneous n- and (n+1)-core partitions and on self-conjugate simultaneous (2n)- and (2n+1)-core partitions that yield q-analogues of the Coxeter-Catalan numbers of type A and type C. We present related conjectures and open questions on the average size of a simultaneous core partition, q-analogs of generalized Catalan numbers, and generalizations to other Coxeter groups. We also discuss connections with the cyclic sieving phenomenon and q,t-Catalan numbers.Comment: 17 pages; to appear in the European Journal of Combinatoric

Racial-Ethnic Harm and Healing: Comparative National Mechanisms for Social Remorse and Repair

Today a sharp divide exists between Americans. Although they agree that racial harm occurred in this country’s history, they disagree about the extent of harm to be acknowledged and the means of repair to achieve justice and social healing. The United States’ history of (attempted) racial reconciliation includes initiatives by white Christians since the 1950s that formally acknowledged the sin of racism but mostly lacked corresponding political activism. The tensions and divergences between attitudinal and structural approaches to interracial cooperation that existed a half-century ago persist today. This article seeks to provide a broader, global perspective to the United States’ racial reconciliation by comparison with Rwanda and South Africa. These two countries have pursued formal expressions of remorse and acts of repair with social–healing benefits that could potentially be applied in the United States

The Role Of Α-Synuclein In Brain Lipid Metabolism And Inflammation

Alpha-synuclein (Snca) is a small cytosolic protein that is ubiquitously expressed in the nervous system and comprises 0.5-1% of all cytosolic protein, but its biological function is poorly understood. Although Snca function has been studied in lipid metabolism, the function of Snca in brain lipid metabolism under inflammatory conditions is yet to be elucidated. We utilized several model systems including primary cultured astrocytes and microglia, Snca deficient and mutant knock-in mice, and a radiolabeled free fatty acid steady state-kinetic mouse model to determine Snca role in neuroinflammation. Herein, we have determined several major roles of Snca during inflammation: (i) dBcAMP treatment increases 20:4n-6 uptake in astrocytes and this increase appears to be due to increased expression of long chain acyl-CoA synthetases 3 and -4 coupled with a reduction in acyl-CoA hydrolase expression in the presence of reduced Snca expression. (ii) Snca deficient mice have higher basal brain 2-arachidonyl glycerol (2-AG) levels compared to wildtype and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation further exacerbated 2-AG synthesis.(iii) In primary microglia, LPS-treatment reduced released 2-AG into medium concomitantly with reduced Snca expression and Snca deficient microglia had a delayed response to LPS stimuli. This supports the hypothesis that Snca expression is linked to 2-AG release in primary microglia and may contribute to regulating the phagocytic phenotype.(iv) Using Snca gene-ablated mice, we determined the impact of Snca on brain 20:4n-6 metabolism during LPS-induced inflammatory response in vivo using an established steady-state kinetic model. In Snca deficient mouse brain, 20:4n-6 uptake was significantly increased 1.3-fold. In the organic fraction, tracer entering into Snca deficient mouse total brain phospholipids was significantly increased 1.4-fold, accounted for by increased incorporation into choline glycerophospholipids and phosphatidylinositol. In the neutral lipid fraction, 20:4n-6 incorporation into diacylglycerol of Snca deficient mice was significantly reduced by 75%. Hence, under inflammatory conditions where 20:4n-6 release is enhanced, Snca has a crucial role in modulating 20:4n-6 metabolism, and the absence of Snca results in increased uptake and incorporation into lipid pools associated with enhanced lipid-mediated signaling during neuroinflammatory response. Herein, we focus on the role of Snca in downstream eicosanoid biosynthesis, inflammatory mediators, and lipid signaling molecules linking Snca to inflammatory response elucidating a key step in neuroinflammation

Metabolomics Defines Human Immune Response to Influenza Vaccination

Influenza represents a major and ongoing public health hazard. Current collaborative efforts are aimed at creating a “universal flu vaccine” with the goal of both improving responses to vaccination and increasing the breadth of protection across multiple strains and clades from a single vaccine. As an intermediate step to these goals, current work is focused on evaluating the systemic host response to vaccination in both normal and high-risk populations, such as in obesity which has been linked to poor responses to vaccination. We therefore employed a metabolomics approach using a time-course (n=5 time points) of response to human vaccination to influenza from before vaccination (pre) to 90 days following vaccination. We analyzed both urine and plasma from a cohort of subjects (n=158) designed to evenly sample across age, sex, BMI, and other demographic factors, stratifying their response to vaccination as “High”, “Low”, or “None” based on their measured seroconversion by hemagglutination assay (HAI) from plasma samples at day 28 post vaccination. Overall, we putatively identified 20,692 distinct named small molecules structures across the 790 samples analyzed with the aim of finding metabolite correlates of vaccine response, as well as prognostic and diagnostic markers from before and after vaccination respectively. Notably, subjects classified as obese (BMI \u3e 30) “None” responders were unbiasedly differentiated from obese “High” responders in a hierarchical clustering analysis with 321 statistically significantly significant diagnostic markers in urine 3 days post vaccination (n=45). Considering the comparison of predictive, pre-vaccination samples, a metabolic pathway analysis of the differential markers between “High” and “None” subjects indicates a link to Histidine metabolism and Coenzyme Q10 metabolism. Ongoing efforts are aimed at validating these putative markers in a Ferret model of influenza infection as well as in independent cohorts of human seasonal vaccination and human challenge studies with authentic virus

Customary International Humanitarian Law and Multinational Military Operations in Malaysia

The International Committee of the Red Cross published a study in 2005 identifying rules of customary international law applicable to armed conflict and theoretically binding on all nations. This study found that customary state practice has come to encompass and in some cases exceed protections contained in the Additional Protocols of 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, regardless of their applicability to a given conflict. These findings may impact the domestic law enforcement practices of states not parties to Additional Protocol II, which regulates non-international armed conflict. Furthermore, the study may have indirect effects on military cooperation and legal reform worldwide. By strengthening the legal criticism of domestic laws not compliant with international humanitarian law, the study directly challenges non-party states seeking to obtain unqualified military assistance during internal conflicts. However, this same effect will lend support to increased observance of international humanitarian law as intervening states’ militaries apply pressure to realize compliance with customary international law. This comment identifies these implications by considering a hypothetical future counter-insurgency in Malaysia in which the United States offers military assistance to the Malaysian government