From Service to Experience: Understanding and Defining the Hospitality Business

Failure adequately to define or understand hospitality as a commercial phenomenon has created a fragmented academic environment and a schizophrenia in the industry that has the potential to limit its development as a global industry. This article suggests that, by redefining hospitality as behaviour and experience, a new perspective emerges that has exciting implications for the management of hospitality businesses. A framework to describe hospitality in the commercial domain is proposed. This framework suggests a focus on the host–guest relationship, generosity, theatre and performance, ‘lots of little surprises’, and the security of strangers – a focus that provides guests with experiences that are personal, memorable and add value to their lives

Future engineers: the intrinsic technology motivation of secondary school pupils

The supply of students motivated to study engineering in higher education is critical to the sector. Results are presented from the ‘Mindsets STEM Enhancement Project’. Fifty-seven new resources packs, designed to improve STEM education in Design and Technology, were given to schools across London. A modified Intrinsic Motivation Inventory questionnaire measured pupils’ (n = 458) motivation towards technology. The results show that although pupils have positive reactions to the technology content within Design and Technology lessons, the type of STEM resources and lessons created through the project had made no significant difference on pupils’ interest/enjoyment towards technology. This suggests standalone resources do not improve pupil motivation. The impact of this work to engineering higher education is that the existing levels and the inability to improve pupil motivation in technology at school could be a factor affecting the pursuit of a technology or engineering related education or career

London Schools Excellence Fund: Final Report: Enhancing the teaching of STEM through Design and Technology

London Schools Excellence Fund: Final Report: Enhancing the teaching of STEM through Design and Technolog

ISPIDER Central: an integrated database web-server for proteomics

Despite the growing volumes of proteomic data, integration of the underlying results remains problematic owing to differences in formats, data captured, protein accessions and services available from the individual repositories. To address this, we present the ISPIDER Central Proteomic Database search (http://www.ispider.manchester.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ProteomicSearch.pl), an integration service offering novel search capabilities over leading, mature, proteomic repositories including PRoteomics IDEntifications database (PRIDE), PepSeeker, PeptideAtlas and the Global Proteome Machine. It enables users to search for proteins and peptides that have been characterised in mass spectrometry-based proteomics experiments from different groups, stored in different databases, and view the collated results with specialist viewers/clients. In order to overcome limitations imposed by the great variability in protein accessions used by individual laboratories, the European Bioinformatics Institute's Protein Identifier Cross-Reference (PICR) service is used to resolve accessions from different sequence repositories. Custom-built clients allow users to view peptide/protein identifications in different contexts from multiple experiments and repositories, as well as integration with the Dasty2 client supporting any annotations available from Distributed Annotation System servers. Further information on the protein hits may also be added via external web services able to take a protein as input. This web server offers the first truly integrated access to proteomics repositories and provides a unique service to biologists interested in mass spectrometry-based proteomics

Behavioral mechanisms and morphological symptoms of zombie ants dying from fungal infection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Parasites that manipulate host behavior can provide prominent examples of extended phenotypes: parasite genomes controlling host behavior. Here we focus on one of the most dramatic examples of behavioral manipulation, the death grip of ants infected by <it>Ophiocordyceps </it>fungi. We studied the interaction between <it>O. unilateralis s.l</it>. and its host ant <it>Camponotus leonardi </it>in a Thai rainforest, where infected ants descend from their canopy nests down to understory vegetation to bite into abaxial leaf veins before dying. Host mortality is concentrated in patches (graveyards) where ants die on sapling leaves <it>ca</it>. 25 cm above the soil surface where conditions for parasite development are optimal. Here we address whether the sequence of ant behaviors leading to the final death grip can also be interpreted as parasite adaptations and describe some of the morphological changes inside the heads of infected workers that mediate the expression of the death grip phenotype.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that infected ants behave as zombies and display predictable stereotypical behaviors of random rather than directional walking, and of repeated convulsions that make them fall down and thus precludes returning to the canopy. Transitions from erratic wandering to death grips on a leaf vein were abrupt and synchronized around solar noon. We show that the mandibles of ants penetrate deeply into vein tissue and that this is accompanied by extensive atrophy of the mandibular muscles. This lock-jaw means the ant will remain attached to the leaf after death. We further present histological data to show that a high density of single celled stages of the parasite within the head capsule of dying ants are likely to be responsible for this muscular atrophy.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Extended phenotypes in ants induced by fungal infections are a complex example of behavioral manipulation requiring coordinated changes of host behavior and morphology. Future work should address the genetic basis of such extended phenotypes.</p

How will organic carbon stocks in mineral soils evolve under future climate? Global projections using RothC for a range of climate change scenarios

We use a soil carbon (C) model (RothC), driven by a range of climate models for a range of climate scenarios to examine the impacts of future climate on global soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. The results suggest an overall global increase in SOC stocks by 2100 under all scenarios, but with a different extent of increase among the climate model and emissions scenarios. The impacts of projected land use changes are also simulated, but have relatively minor impacts at the global scale. Whether soils gain or lose SOC depends upon the balance between C inputs and decomposition. Changes in net primary production (NPP) change C inputs to the soil, whilst decomposition usually increases under warmer temperatures, but can also be slowed by decreased soil moisture. Underlying the global trend of increasing SOC under future climate is a complex pattern of regional SOC change. SOC losses are projected to occur in northern latitudes where higher SOC decomposition rates due to higher temperatures are not balanced by increased NPP, whereas in tropical regions, NPP increases override losses due to higher SOC decomposition. The spatial heterogeneity in the response of SOC to changing climate shows how delicately balanced the competing gain and loss processes are, with subtle changes in temperature, moisture, soil type and land use, interacting to determine whether SOC increases or decreases in the future. Our results suggest that we should stop looking for a single answer regarding whether SOC stocks will increase or decrease under future climate, since there is no single answer. Instead, we should focus on improving our prediction of the factors that determine the size and direction of change, and the land management practices that can be implemented to protect and enhance SOC stocks

Applying Laser Cutting Techniques Through Horology for Teaching Effective STEM in Design and Technology

This paper explores the pedagogy underpinning the use of laser manufacturing methods for the teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at key stage 3 design and technology. Clock making (horology) has been a popular project in design and technology (D&T) found in many schools, typically it focuses on aesthetical design elements. This paper describes a new project, which has been developed to enhance the STEM content of a horology project through advanced utilisation of laser cutting machinery. It allows pupils to produce their own products from self-made mechanical timing mechanisms. The central aim is to strengthen the application of the underlying technology of mechanisms and the manufacturing capability of laser cutting technology in D&T. Trials with schools have shown success in gaining pupils’ interest in STEM and provided feedback to improve the project. It has highlighted limits when delivering the engineering and maths content with teachers from nontechnology backgrounds. The paper discusses this limitation through subject pedagogy, categorisation of teacher knowledge, and teaching effectiveness through experiential and problem-based learning approaches