Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Restaurant: Recommendations Based on an Expert Interview

This study examines how the impact of the coronavirus spread on business operations in the restaurant business varies depending on the level of restaurants adaptability to the challenges encountered during the pandemic, using three dimensions (analysis of consumer demand problems, optimization of corporate strategy and use of the company’s innovative potential). Through in-depth interviews with eight key food service industry experts in St. Petersburg, Russia, this study describes and fleshes out the rapidly transforming challenge of identifying major market changes in the restaurant business during the pandemic. The analysis showed that chain restaurants with sufficient resources to deal with employee turnover, technology development, brand building and customer loyalty are more resilient to the challenges resulting from the impact of the coronavirus spread than similar food service companies. While the presence of serious problems associated with consumer demand, the optimization of the offered dishes format and service had a significant impact on the relationship between the impact of the coronavirus spread and the inability to adapt to the new reality of doing business. The results of the research can be useful for entrepreneurs and managers of chain restaurants who develop marketing strategies to establish or adjust management decisions to adapt catering companies during a pandemic

Floquet-Markov description of the parametrically driven, dissipative harmonic quantum oscillator

Using the parametrically driven harmonic oscillator as a working example, we study two different Markovian approaches to the quantum dynamics of a periodically driven system with dissipation. In the simpler approach, the driving enters the master equation for the reduced density operator only in the Hamiltonian term. An improved master equation is achieved by treating the entire driven system within the Floquet formalism and coupling it to the reservoir as a whole. The different ensuing evolution equations are compared in various representations, particularly as Fokker-Planck equations for the Wigner function. On all levels of approximation, these evolution equations retain the periodicity of the driving, so that their solutions have Floquet form and represent eigenfunctions of a non-unitary propagator over a single period of the driving. We discuss asymptotic states in the long-time limit as well as the conservative and the high-temperature limits. Numerical results obtained within the different Markov approximations are compared with the exact path-integral solution. The application of the improved Floquet-Markov scheme becomes increasingly important when considering stronger driving and lower temperatures.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figure

Дуоденэктомия с сохранением перипапиллярного лоскута: новый способ хирургического лечения при опухолевом поражении двенадцатиперстной кишки

Currently, with duodenal tumor lesion (duodenum), the possibility of performing economical operations that significantly improve the immediate results and quality of life of patients is increasingly being considered as an alternative to gastropancreatoduodenal resection. using the example of clinical observation, the article presents a new type of economical surgical intervention – duodenectomy with preservation of the peripapillary flap. The operation was performed in a patient with cancer of the resected stomach with a low spread of the tumor along the wall of the duodenum. At the control examination 9 months after the operation, the patient’s condition is satisfactory, without signs of impaired biliodynamics and passage of food through the intestinal tube. The proposed method differs from the existing prototype (papilloservative duodenectomy) by preserving the peripapillary flap of the duodenal wall.The insertion into the jejunum of not the fater papilla, but the surrounding wall of the duodenum eliminates its deformation and violation of patency and provides greater reliability of the formed suture, and the preservation of the small duodenal papilla with an additional pancreatic duct of Santorini can help reduce the frequency of postoperative pancreatitis and pancreonecrosis. In addition to cases of low lesions of the duodenum in gastric cancer, the method can be used in patients with non-epithelial and neuroendocrine tumors, as well as in secondary tumor invasion of the duodenum from the outside. The criterion limiting the performance of this type of operation is the distance from the edge of the tumor to the fater papilla less than 2.0–2.5 cm.Duodenectomy with preservation of the peripapillary flap can be considered as a way to improve the safety and quality of life in the surgical treatment of patients with a tumor lesion of the duodenum.В настоящее время при опухолевом поражении двенадцатиперстной кишки (дПк) в качестве альтернативы гастропанкреатодуоденальной резекции все чаще рассматривается возможность выполнения экономных операций, которые значительно улучшают непосредственные результаты и качество жизни больных.В статье на примере клинического наблюдения представлен новый вид экономного хирургического вмешательства – дуоденэктомия с сохранением перипапиллярного лоскута. Операция выполнена у больного раком резецированного желудка с низким распространением опухоли по стенке дПк. При контрольном обследовании через 9 мес после операции состояние пациента удовлетворительное, без признаков нарушения билиодинамики и прохождения пищи по кишечной трубке. Предлагаемый способ отличается от существующего прототипа (папиллосохраняющей дуоденэктомии) сохранением перипапиллярного лоскута стенки дПк. Вшивание в тощую кишку не фатерова сосочка, а окружающей его стенки дПк исключает его деформацию и нарушение проходимости и обеспечивает большую надежность формируемого шва, а сохранение малого дуоденального сосочка с дополнительным панкреатическим протоком Санторини может способствовать снижению частоты развития послеоперационных панкреатитов и панкреонекрозов. Помимо случаев низкого поражения дПк при раке желудка метод может применяться у больных с неэпителиальными и нейроэндокринными опухолями, а также при вторичной опухолевой инвазии дПк извне. критерием, ограничивающим выполнение операции подобного типа, является расстояние от края опухоли до фатерова сосочка дуоденэктомия с сохранением перипапиллярного лоскута может рассматриваться как способ повышения безопасности и качества жизни при хирургическом лечении больных с опухолевым поражением дПк

Adoptive immunotherapy beyond CAR T-cells

Adoptive cell immunotherapy (ACT) is a vibrant field of cancer treatment that began progressive development in the 1980s. One of the most prominent and promising examples is chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy for the treatment of B-cell hematologic malignancies. Despite success in the treatment of B-cell lymphomas and leukemia, CAR T-cell therapy remains mostly ineffective for solid tumors. This is due to several reasons, such as the heterogeneity of the cellular composition in solid tumors, the need for directed migration and penetration of CAR T-cells against the pressure gradient in the tumor stroma, and the immunosuppressive microenvironment. To substantially improve the clinical efficacy of ACT against solid tumors, researchers might need to look closer into recent developments in the other branches of adoptive immunotherapy, both traditional and innovative. In this review, we describe the variety of adoptive cell therapies beyond CAR T-cell technology, i.e., exploitation of alternative cell sources with a high therapeutic potential against solid tumors (e.g., CAR M-cells) or aiming to be universal allogeneic (e.g., CAR NK-cells, γδ T-cells), tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), and transgenic T-cell receptor (TCR) T-cell immunotherapies. In addition, we discuss the strategies for selection and validation of neoantigens to achieve efficiency and safety. We provide an overview of non-conventional TCRs and CARs, and address the problem of mispairing between the cognate and transgenic TCRs. Finally, we summarize existing and emerging approaches for manufacturing of the therapeutic cell products in traditional, semi-automated and fully automated Point-of-Care (PoC) systems