Social Interactions

Prepared for Annual Reviews of Economics.

Cyprus' image—a sun and sea destination—as a detrimental factor to seasonal fluctuations. Exploration into motivational factors for holidaying in Cyprus

Cyprus is established as a summer destination. To aid the destination in developing its winter season as well, this research uses a qualitative inductive approach to explore the tourists’ current image of the island and their motivations of visiting it. The research indicates that the current image, which essentially portrays Cyprus as a sun-and-sea destination is thought to dissuade tourists from perceiving the island as a year-round destination. Nonetheless, increasing the pull factors of the destination through the development of unique special interest products can help in extending the tourism season as well as broaden its narrow image

MRI monitoring of lesions created at temperature below the boiling point and of lesions created above the boiling point using high intensity focused ultrasound

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was utilized to monitor lesions created at temperature below the boiling point and lesions created at temperature above the boiling point using High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) in freshly excised kidney, liver and brain and in vivo rabbit kidney and brain. T2-weighted fast spin echo (FSE) was proven as an excellent MRI sequence that can detect lesions with temperature above the boiling point in kidney. This advantage is attributed to the significant difference in signal intensity between the cavity and the thermal lesion. In liver the MRI sequence of Proton Density is recommended to detect lesions above boiling. In brain T1-W FSE was the optimum pulse sequence to detect lesions of either type. In order to monitor the temperature elevation during a HIFU exposure, T1-weighted fast spoiled gradient (FSPGR) was used. The shape of the focal temperature distribution was uniform with the absence of boiling, whereas with an exposure affected by boiling, the temperature distribution could be of irregular shape, demonstrating the drastic effects taking place during boiling. In order to confirm that boiling occurred, the temperature was estimated using the widely used method of Proton Resonance Frequency (PRF) shift

Penetration of high intensity focused ultrasound in vitro and in vivo rabbit brain using MR imaging

In this paper magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is investigated for monitoring the penetration of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ex vivo and in vivo rabbit brain. A single element spherically focused transducer of 5 cm diameter, focusing at 10 cm and operating at 2 MHz was used. A prototype MRI- compatible positioning device is described. MRI images were taken using fast spin echo (FSE). The length of the lesions in vivo rabbit brain was much higher than the length ex vivo, proving that the penetration in the ex vivo brain is limited by reflection due to trapped bubbles in the blood vessels

Wired for Her Face? Male Attentional Bias for Female Faces

Under conditions of inattention or deficits in orienting attention, special classes of stimuli (e.g. faces, bodies) are more likely to be perceived than other stimuli. This suggests that biologically salient visual stimuli automatically recruit attention, even when they are task-irrelevant or ignored. Here we report results from a behavioral experiment with female and male subjects and two magnetoencephalography (MEG) experiments with male subjects only, in which we investigated attentional capture with face and hand stimuli. In both the behavioral and MEG experiments, subjects were required to count the number of gender-specific targets from either face or hand categories within a block of stimuli. In the behavioral experiment, we found that male subjects were significantly more accurate in response to female than male face target blocks. There was no corresponding effect found in response to hand target blocks. Female subjects did not show a gender-based difference in response to face or hand target blocks. MEG results indicated that the male subjects’ responses to face stimuli in primary visual cortex (V1) and the face-selective part of the fusiform gyrus (FG) were reduced when male face stimuli were not relevant to the task, whereas female faces maintained a strong response in these areas in both task-relevant and task-irrelevant conditions. These results suggest that within the male brain, female face stimuli are more resilient to suppression than male faces, once attention is drawn to the part of the visual field where the face appears

Spin 1 inversion: a Majorana tensor force for deuteron alpha scattering

We demonstrate, for the first time, successful S-matrix to potential inversion for spin one projectiles with non-diagonal $S^j_{ll'}$ yielding a $T_{\rm R}$ interaction. The method is a generalization of the iterative-perturbative, IP, method. We present a test case indicating the degree of uniqueness of the potential. The method is adapted, using established procedures, into direct observable to potential inversion, fitting $\sigma$, ${\rm i}T_{11}$, $T_{20}$, $T_{21}$ and $T_{22}$ for d + alpha scattering over a range of energies near 10 MeV. The $T_{\rm R}$ interaction which we find is very different from that proposed elsewhere, both real and imaginary parts being very different for odd and even parity channels.Comment: 7 pages Revtex, 4 ps figure

Plugging a hole and lightening the burden: A process evaluation of a practice education team

Aim: To investigate the perceptions of clinical and senior managers about the role of Practice Educators employed in one acute hospital in the UK. Background: Producing nurses who are fit for practice, purpose and academic award is a key issue for nurse education partnership providers in the UK. Various new models for practice learning support structures and new roles within health care institutions have been established. To sustain funding and policy support for these models, there is a need for evaluation research. Design: A process evaluation methodology was employed to determine the current value of a practice education team and to provide information to guide future direction. Methods: Data were collected through semi-structured telephone interviews using a previously designed schedule. All senior nurse managers (N=5) and a purposive sample of clinical managers (n=13) who had personal experience of and perceptions about the role of practice educators provided the data. Interview notes were transcribed, coded and a thematic framework devised to present the results. Results: A number of key themes emerged including: qualities needed for being a successful practice educator; visibility and presence of practice educators; providing a link with the university; ‘plugging a hole’ in supporting learning needs; providing relief to practitioners in dealing with ‘the burden of students’; alleviating the ‘plight of students’; and effects on student attrition. Conclusions: Findings provided evidence for the continued funding of the practice educator role with improvements to be made in dealing with stakeholder expectations and outcomes. Relevance to clinical practice: In the UK, there still remain concerns about the fitness for practice of newly registered nurses, prompting a recent national consultation by the professional regulating body. Despite fiscal pressures, recommendations for further strengthening of all systems that will support the quality of practice learning may continue to sustain practice learning support roles

Entanglement between Demand and Supply in Markets with Bandwagon Goods

Whenever customers' choices (e.g. to buy or not a given good) depend on others choices (cases coined 'positive externalities' or 'bandwagon effect' in the economic literature), the demand may be multiply valued: for a same posted price, there is either a small number of buyers, or a large one -- in which case one says that the customers coordinate. This leads to a dilemma for the seller: should he sell at a high price, targeting a small number of buyers, or at low price targeting a large number of buyers? In this paper we show that the interaction between demand and supply is even more complex than expected, leading to what we call the curse of coordination: the pricing strategy for the seller which aimed at maximizing his profit corresponds to posting a price which, not only assumes that the customers will coordinate, but also lies very near the critical price value at which such high demand no more exists. This is obtained by the detailed mathematical analysis of a particular model formally related to the Random Field Ising Model and to a model introduced in social sciences by T C Schelling in the 70's.Comment: Updated version, accepted for publication, Journal of Statistical Physics, online Dec 201

Improved dd+4^4He potentials by inversion, the tensor force and validity of the double folding model

Improved potential solutions are presented for the inverse scattering problem for $d$+$^4$He data. The input for the inversions includes both the data of recent phase shift analyses and phase shifts from RGM coupled-channel calculations based on the NN Minnesota force. The combined calculations provide a more reliable estimate of the odd-even splitting of the potentials than previously found, suggesting a rather moderate role for this splitting in deuteron-nucleus scattering generally. The approximate parity-independence of the deuteron optical potentials is shown to arise from the nontrivial interference between antisymmetrization and channel coupling to the deuteron breakup channels. A further comparison of the empirical potentials established here and the double folding potential derived from the M3Y effective NN force (with the appropriate normalisation factor) reveals strong similarities. This result supports the application of the double folding model, combined with a small Majorana component, to the description even of such a loosely bound projectile as the deuteron. In turn, support is given for the application of iterative-perturbative inversion in combination with the double folding model to study fine details of the nucleus-nucleus potential. A $d$-$^4$He tensor potential is also derived to reproduce correctly the negative $^6$Li quadrupole moment and the D-state asymptotic constant.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, in Revte