843 research outputs found
How Can Psychological Contagion Effect Be Attenuated? The Role of Boundary Effect on Menu Design
Psychological effects can be greatly influential for the foodservice industry, especially in menu design. Presenting dish pictures is a common practice on menus, but because of the psychological contagion effect, this practice could decrease consumers’ evaluations of dishes, sometimes without the awareness of consumers, let alone restaurant managers. This research aims to explore the potential threats of a psychological contagion by considering how dishes that make consumers feel uncomfortable can affect their evaluations of dishes located nearby. It further examines how a psychological contagion can be attenuated when a visual boundary is placed between a discomfiting dish and a target dish. The results demonstrate the occurrence of psychological contagion in menu design. The interaction between psychological contagions and visual boundaries suggest that the psychological contagion can be attenuated through visual boundaries
A three-dimensional multidimensional gas-kinetic scheme for the Navier-Stokes equations under gravitational fields
This paper extends the gas-kinetic scheme for one-dimensional inviscid
shallow water equations (J. Comput. Phys. 178 (2002), pp. 533-562) to
multidimensional gas dynamic equations under gravitational fields. Four
important issues in the construction of a well-balanced scheme for gas dynamic
equations are addressed. First, the inclusion of the gravitational source term
into the flux function is necessary. Second, to achieve second-order accuracy
of a well-balanced scheme, the Chapman-Enskog expansion of the Boltzmann
equation with the inclusion of the external force term is used. Third, to avoid
artificial heating in an isolated system under a gravitational field, the
source term treatment inside each cell has to be evaluated consistently with
the flux evaluation at the cell interface. Fourth, the multidimensional
approach with the inclusion of tangential gradients in two-dimensional and
three-dimensional cases becomes important in order to maintain the accuracy of
the scheme. Many numerical examples are used to validate the above issues,
which include the comparison between the solutions from the current scheme and
the Strang splitting method. The methodology developed in this paper can also
be applied to other systems, such as semi-conductor device simulations under
electric fields.Comment: The name of first author was misspelled as C.T.Tian in the published
paper. 35 pages,9 figure
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Pooling techniques for bioassay screening
Pooling techniques commonly are used to increase the throughput of samples used for screening purposes. While the advantages of such techniques are increased analytical efficiency and cost savings, the sensitivity of measurements decreases because it is inversely proportional to the number of samples in the pools. Consequently, uncertainties in estimates of dose and risk which are based on the results of pooled samples increase as the number of samples in the pools increases in all applications. However, sensitivities may not be seriously degraded, for example, in urinalysis, if the samples in the pools are of known time duration, or if the fraction of some attribute of the grab urine samples to that in a 24-hour composite is known (e.g., mass, specific gravity, creatinine, or volume, per 24-h interval). This paper presents square and cube pooling schemes that greatly increase throughput and can considerably reduce analytical costs (on a sample basis). The benefit-cost ratios for 5{times}5 square and 5{times}5{times}5 cube pooling schemes are 2.5 and 8.3, respectively. Three-dimensional and higher arrayed pooling schemes would result in even greater economies; however, significant improvements in analytical sensitivity are required to achieve these advantages. These are various other considerations for designing a pooling scheme, where the number of dimensions and of samples in the optimum array are influenced by: (1) the minimal detectable amount (MDA) of the analytical processes, (2) the screening dose-rate requirements, (3) the maximum masses or volumes of the composite samples that can be analyzed, (4) the information already available from results of composite analysis, and (5) the ability of an analytical system to guard against both false negative and false positive results. Many of these are beyond the scope of this paper but are being evaluated
Superradiance of low density Frenkel excitons in a crystal slab of three-level atoms: Quantum interference effect
We systematically study the fluorescence of low density Frenkel excitons in a
crystal slab containing V-type three-level atoms. Based on symmetric
quasi-spin realization of SU(3) in large limit, the two-mode exciton
operators are invoked to depict various collective excitations of the
collection of these V-type atoms starting from their ground state. By making
use of the rotating wave approximation, the light intensity of radiation for
the single lattice layer is investigated in detail. As a quantum coherence
effect, the quantum beat phenomenon is discussed in detail for different
initial excitonic states. We also test the above results analytically without
the consideration of the rotating wave approximation and the self-interaction
of radiance field is also included.Comment: 18pages, 17 figures. Resubmit to Phys. Rev.
Approach to the semiconductor cavity QED in high-Q regimes with q-deformed boson
The high density Frenkel exciton which interacts with a single mode
microcavity field is dealed with in the framework of the q-deformed boson. It
is shown that the q-defomation of bosonic commutation relations is satisfied
naturally by the exciton operators when the low density limit is deviated. An
analytical expression of the physical spectrum for the exciton is given by
using of the dressed states of the cavity field and the exciton. We also give
the numerical study and compare the theoretical results with the experimental
resultsComment: 6 pages, 2 figure
Ground state of a polydisperse electrorheological solid: Beyond the dipole approximation
The ground state of an electrorheological (ER) fluid has been studied based
on our recently proposed dipole-induced dipole (DID) model. We obtained an
analytic expression of the interaction between chains of particles which are of
the same or different dielectric constants. The effects of dielectric constants
on the structure formation in monodisperse and polydisperse electrorheological
fluids are studied in a wide range of dielectric contrasts between the
particles and the base fluid. Our results showed that the established
body-centered tetragonal ground state in monodisperse ER fluids may become
unstable due to a polydispersity in the particle dielectric constants. While
our results agree with that of the fully multipole theory, the DID model is
much simpler, which offers a basis for computer simulations in polydisperse ER
fluids.Comment: Accepted for publications by Phys. Rev.
Pellino-1 regulates the responses of the airway to viral infection
Exposure to respiratory pathogens is a leading cause of exacerbations of airway diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Pellino-1 is an E3 ubiquitin ligase known to regulate virally-induced inflammation. We wished to determine the role of Pellino-1 in the host response to respiratory viruses in health and disease. Pellino-1 expression was examined in bronchial sections from patients with GOLD stage two COPD and healthy controls. Primary bronchial epithelial cells (PBECs) in which Pellino-1 expression had been knocked down were extracellularly challenged with the TLR3 agonist poly(I:C). C57BL/6 Peli1−/− mice and wild type littermates were subjected to intranasal infection with clinically-relevant respiratory viruses: rhinovirus (RV1B) and influenza A. We found that Pellino-1 is expressed in the airways of normal subjects and those with COPD, and that Pellino-1 regulates TLR3 signaling and responses to airways viruses. In particular we observed that knockout of Pellino-1 in the murine lung resulted in increased production of proinflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNFα upon viral infection, accompanied by enhanced recruitment of immune cells to the airways, without any change in viral replication. Pellino-1 therefore regulates inflammatory airway responses without altering replication of respiratory viruses
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The effect of aspirin and eicosapentaenoic acid on urinary biomarkers of prostaglandin E2 synthesis and platelet activation in participants of the seAFOod polyp prevention trial
Urinary prostaglandin (PG) E metabolite (PGE-M) and 11-dehydro (d)-thromboxane (TX) B2 are biomarkers of cyclooxygenase-dependent prostanoid synthesis. We investigated (1) the effect of aspirin 300 mg daily and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) 2000 mg daily, alone and in combination, on urinary biomarker levels and, (2) whether urinary biomarker levels predicted colorectal polyp risk, during participation in the seAFOod polyp prevention trial. Urinary PGE-M and 11-d-TXB2 were measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The relationship between urinary biomarker levels and colorectal polyp outcomes was investigated using negative binomial (polyp number) and logistic (% with one or more polyps) regression models. Despite wide temporal variability in PGE-M and 11-d-TXB2 levels within individuals, both aspirin and, to a lesser extent, EPA decreased levels of both biomarkers (74% [P ≤ .001] and 8% [P ≤ .05] reduction in median 11-d-TXB2 values, respectively). In the placebo group, a high (quartile [Q] 2-4) baseline 11-d-TXB2 level predicted increased polyp number (incidence rate ratio [IRR] [95% CI] 2.26 [1.11,4.58]) and risk (odds ratio [95% CI] 3.56 [1.09,11.63]). A low (Q1) on-treatment 11-d-TXB2 level predicted reduced colorectal polyp number compared to placebo (IRR 0.34 [0.12,0.93] for combination aspirin and EPA treatment) compared to high on-treatment 11-d-TXB2 values (0.61 [0.34,1.11]). Aspirin and EPA both inhibit PGE-M and 11-d-TXB2 synthesis in keeping with shared in vivo cyclooxygenase inhibition. Colorectal polyp risk and treatment response prediction by 11-d-TXB2 is consistent with a role for platelet activation during early colorectal carcinogenesis. The use of urinary 11-d-TXB2 measurement for a precision approach to colorectal cancer risk prediction and chemoprevention requires prospective evaluation
Coherent electron-phonon coupling and polaron-like transport in molecular wires
We present a technique to calculate the transport properties through
one-dimensional models of molecular wires. The calculations include inelastic
electron scattering due to electron-lattice interaction. The coupling between
the electron and the lattice is crucial to determine the transport properties
in one-dimensional systems subject to Peierls transition since it drives the
transition itself. The electron-phonon coupling is treated as a quantum
coherent process, in the sense that no random dephasing due to electron-phonon
interactions is introduced in the scattering wave functions. We show that
charge carrier injection, even in the tunneling regime, induces lattice
distortions localized around the tunneling electron. The transport in the
molecular wire is due to polaron-like propagation. We show typical examples of
the lattice distortions induced by charge injection into the wire. In the
tunneling regime, the electron transmission is strongly enhanced in comparison
with the case of elastic scattering through the undistorted molecular wire. We
also show that although lattice fluctuations modify the electron transmission
through the wire, the modifications are qualitatively different from those
obtained by the quantum electron-phonon inelastic scattering technique. Our
results should hold in principle for other one-dimensional atomic-scale wires
subject to Peierls transitions.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B (to
appear march 2001
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