Factors Influencing the Adoption of New Information Technology in College and University Foodservices

The purpose of this study was to identify determinants for the adoption of new information technology (IT) applications in the context of college and university foodservices. A total of 207 voting delegates of the National Association of College and University Food Services (NACUFS) participated in this study. The approach to empirically test the relationships in the research model and the hypotheses was a self-administered cross-sectional survey methodology. The questionnaire was developed through literature review, focus group findings, and from questionnaires utilized in similar studies. With respect to the factors affecting the adoption behavior, the study examined a series of relationships that previously had either been posited with little proof or had created ambiguity in response to the foodservice professionals' actual needs and perceptions. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), factor analysis with VARIMAX rotation, multiple regression analysis, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test research hypotheses. Findings and Conclusions: This study investigated the technology adoption behavior related to individual perceptions and organizational environments. First, this study identified a demonstrated relatively considerable gap between the perceived importance and satisfaction level of selected information technology applications. In particular, this study showed that individual perceptions of technology, technology motivations, and technology inhibitors played a significant role in forming the college and university foodservice administrators' behavioral intentions to adopt new information technologies. The results of a series of one-way ANOVA indicated that there were significant differences in the technology dimensions among foodservice administrators with different demographic profiles and technology characteristics.School of Hotel and Restaurant Administratio

Reliability of clinical examination methods for postoperative pain after primary root canal treatment

Background/purpose: Clinical test results may have lower reliability due to the varying range of test stimulation or patient subjectiveness. This study aimed to verify a reliable clinical test method by comparing pain intensity levels of a tooth at rest, during function, and after the clinical tests of percussion and chewing.Materials and methods: A total of 36 asymptomatic necrotic teeth that required root canal treatment, one in each patient, were included. All treatment procedures were performed in a single visit by an experienced endodontist. Patients were asked to mark their pain levels on a vertical visual analog scale (VAS) while the relevant tooth was at rest and during function 24 h after the treatment. In addition, patients marked their pain levels after the clinical tests of percussion and chewing. Finally, the pain levels were compared using Pearson's correlation for the reliability of the test methods at a significance level of 95%.Results: The postoperative pain levels measured during the clinical tests and functions were significantly higher than the pain levels at rest (P < 0.05). The pain levels after percussion tests were significantly higher than that during the function and chewing tests (P < 0.05). Pain intensity during the function was simulated with a higher correlation when using the chewing strip method rather than the percussion method.Conclusion: The bite test using the chewing strips as a pain intensity assessment can mimic the actual postoperative pain experience, whereas the percussion test fails to provide the accuracy of this pain experience

Effect of Seyoeum on Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease of High-Fat Diet-Fed C57BL/6 Mice

Background. This study was performed to evaluate the effect of Seyoeum (SYE), a novel herbal meal replacement, on insulin resistance and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in obese mice fed with a high-fat diet (HFD). Methods. SYE contained six kinds of herbal powder such as Coix lacryma-jobi, Oryza sativa, Sesamum indicum, Glycine max, Liriope platyphylla, and Dioscorea batatas. Male C57BL/6 mice were divided into four groups: normal chow (NC), HFD, SYE, and HFD plus SYE (HFD + SYE). The mice in groups other than NC were fed HFD for 9 weeks to induce obesity and then were fed each diet for 6 weeks. Clinical markers related to obesity, diabetes, and NAFLD were examined and gene expressions related to inflammation and insulin receptor were determined. Results. Compared with HFD group, body weight, serum glucose, serum insulin, HOMA-IR, total cholesterol, triglyceride, epididymal fat pad weight, liver weight, and inflammatory gene expression were significantly reduced in SYE group. Insulin receptor gene expression increased in SYE group. Conclusions. Based on these results, we conclude that SYE improved obesity and insulin resistance in high-fat fed obese mice. Our findings suggest that SYE could be a beneficial meal replacement through these antiobesity and anti-insulin resistance effects

Are urothelial carcinomas of the upper urinary tract a distinct entity from urothelial carcinomas of the urinary bladder? Behavior of urothelial carcinoma after radical surgery with respect to anatomical location: a case control study

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.Abstract Background To compare the prognosis of upper urinary tract (UUT)-urothelial carcinoma (UC) and UC of the bladder (UCB) by pathological staging in patients treated with radical surgeries. Methods The study population comprised 335 and 302 consecutive radical surgery cases performed between 1991 and 2010 for UUT-UC and UCB, respectively. Five-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates were analyzed. The median follow-up period of all subjects was 59.3 months (range, 0.1–261.0 months). Results No difference was observed in median patient age, distribution of pathologic T stage, or rates of positive surgical margin between the two groups. The UUT-UC group had significantly more frequent hydronephrosis than the USB group (48.1% vs. 20.2%, p < 0.001). However, the UUT-UC group showed significantly less frequent grade III tumors (28.1% vs. 58.6%, p < 0.001), lymphovascular invasion (18.8% vs. 35.8%, p < 0.001), and associated carcinoma in situ (9.0% vs. 21.9%, p < 0.001) than the UCB group. Five year RFS rates in the UUT-UC and UCB groups were 77.0% and 75.9%, respectively (p = 0.546). No significant difference in RFS rate was observed between pathological T stage subgroups. Five year CSS rates in the UUT-UC and UCB groups were 76.1% and 76.2%, respectively (p = 0.462). No significant difference was observed in CSS rate between the pathologic T stage subgroups. Conclusions UUT-UC and UCB showed comparable prognosis at identical stages. However, our results should be verified in a prospective study due to the retrospective study design in this study

Lymph node density as a prognostic variable in node-positive bladder cancer: a meta-analysis

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.Abstract Background Although lymph node (LN) status and the LN burden determine the outcome of bladder cancer patients treated with cystectomy, compelling arguments have been made for the incorporation of LN density into the current staging system. Here, we investigate the relationship between LN density and clinical outcome in patients with LN-positive disease, following radical cystectomy for bladder cancer. Methods PubMed, SCOPUS, the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library were searched to identify relevant published literature. Results Fourteen studies were included in the meta-analysis, with a total number of 3311 patients. Of these 14 publications, 6 studies, (533 patients), 10 studies (2966 patients), and 5 studies (1108 patients) investigated the prognostic association of LN density with disease-free survival (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and overall survival (OS), respectively. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) for DFS was 1.45 (95 % confidence interval [CI], 1.10–1.91) without heterogeneity (I2 = 0 %, p = 0.52). Higher LN density was significantly associated with poor DSS (pooled HR, 1.53; 95 % CI, 1.23–1.89). However, significant heterogeneity was found between studies (I2 = 66 %, p = 0.002). The pooled HR for OS was statistically significant (pooled HR, 1.45; 95 % CI, 1.11–1.90) without heterogeneity (I2 = 42 %, p = 0.14). The results of the Begg and Egger tests suggested that publication bias was not evident in this meta-analysis. Conclusions The data from this meta-analysis indicate that LN density is an independent predictor of clinical outcome in LN-positive patients. LN density may be useful in future staging systems, thus allowing better prognostic classification of LN-positive bladder cancer

Elevated Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio Predicts Poor Prognosis in Non-muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer Patients: Initial Intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin Treatment After Transurethral Resection of Bladder Tumor Setting

The objective of this study was to investigate pretreatment systemic inflammatory response (SIR) markers in patients who underwent initial intravesical treatment for high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). A total of 385 patients who underwent initial intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin treatment after transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURB) were included. We analyzed the relationship between oncological outcomes and ratios of SIR markers, including neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (dNLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR). Each SIR marker was used for analysis. Their cut-off values were determined through receiver operation characteristics curves analysis. Patients were divided into two groups according to pretreatment NLR (&lt;1.5 vs. ≥1.5), dNLR (&lt;1.2 vs. ≥1.2), and PLR values (171&lt; vs. ≥171). Patients with NLR ≥ 1.5 and dNLR ≥ 1.2 were associated with poor prognosis in terms of overall survival and cause-specific survival. However, no serum SIR marker was associated with prognosis in recurrence-free survival or progression-free survival. Cox multivariate analysis revealed that age, NLR, dNLR, hemoglobin, and pathologic T stage were significant factors predicting overall survival. Age, NLR, and pathologic T stage were significant factors predicting cancer-specific survival, NLR and tumor number were the most important predictors of bladder preserving survival. NLR before treatment was correlated with both oncological outcomes and survival outcome in NMIBC patients undergoing initial intravesical BCG treatment after TURB. Increased NLR reflects a poor prognosis of these outcomes

Shaping and enhancing airport lounge experiences: the application of brand personality and image congruity theories

Purpose: In consideration of the lack of research regarding airline lounge customers’ behavior, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among brand personality, self-congruity, functional congruity, positive emotion, customer satisfaction and revisit intentions in airline lounges. Design/methodology/approach: On the basis of theoretical associations among study constructs, a conceptual model was proposed and tested using the data collected from airline lounge patrons through an online survey. Findings: The empirical results showed that brand personality was positively related to self-congruity. Self-congruity was significantly associated with positive emotions and functional congruity. In addition, functional congruity was significantly associated with positive emotions. This result also indicated that positive emotion significantly influenced customer satisfaction. The mediation tests showed that both self-congruity and functional congruity significantly affected customer satisfaction through positive emotion. Customer satisfaction was a significant predictor of revisit intentions within the context of airline lounges. Practical implications: Overall, these results help airline lounge operators understand lounge travelers who become more demanding with regard to brand personality, self-congruity and functional congruity. Originality/value: This research was the first to test the effectiveness of image congruity theory in the domain of airline lounges. Our findings contribute to the body of knowledge on customer behaviors in airline lounges and image congruity

The role of brand personality, self-congruity, and sensory experience in elucidating sky lounge users’ behavior

This study attempted to develop an integrated model linking brand personality, self-image congruity, hedonic and utilitarian values, and behavioral intentions in the sky lounge context. Our results indicated that brand personality was significantly related to self-image congruity, which in turn influenced hedonic and utilitarian values. While hedonic value significantly affected intentions to revisit and recommend, utilitarian value significantly influenced intention to recommend. Moreover, self-image congruity and values played a significant mediating role. Furthermore, the links from hedonic value to intentions to revisit and recommend, and from utilitarian value to intention to revisit were significantly moderated by sensory experience