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The Role of Risk, Image and Satisfaction on Destination Loyalty: Perspectives from International Medical Tourists toward Thailand as a Medical Tourism Destination
Due to the limited literature in the medical tourism industry, this study aims to develop and evaluate a framework for establishing a medical tourist’s loyalty by using three main determinants, namely risk, image and satisfaction predicting medical tourists’ intention to revisit a destination as well as intention to recommend the destination to others. A quantitative survey will be designed to assess the interrelations of these factors on destination loyalty. Data will be collected from a sample of medical tourists visiting Thailand specifically for medical care
Damage index for stone monuments
Precise diagnosis is required for characterisation, interpretation, rating and prediction of the
weathering damages at stone monuments and is vital for remedy of stone damages and sustainable monument preservation. Quantitative rating of damages represents an important scientific contribution to reliable damage diagnosis at stone monuments. Damage indices are introduced as new tool for scientific quantification and rating of stone damages. Application of damage indices improves stone damage diagnosis and is very suitable for evaluation and certification of preservation measures and for long-term survey and maintenance of stone
monuments. Importance and use of damage indices are presented for monuments in Germany, Malta, Jordan, Egypt and Brazil.peer-reviewe
Spettacoli festivi e manifestazioni effimere nella Valletta Barocca, 1566-1798
In this paper, the author describes baroque feasts and festivities in relation to the city of Valletta. Such feasts include the election of a new Grand Master, the laying of the first stone of Valletta, the celebration of Carnival, to religious feasts held throughout the streets of the city itself.peer-reviewe
Multiple shifts and fractional integration in the us and uk unemployment rates
This paper analyses the long-run behaviour of the US and UK unemployment rates by testing for possibly fractional orders of integration and multiple shifts using a sample of over 100 annual observations. The results show that the orders of integration are higher than 0 in both series, which implies long memory. If we assume that the underlying disturbances are white noise, the values are higher than 0.5, i.e., nonstationary. However, if the disturbances are autocorrelated, the orders of integration are in the interval (0, 0.5), implying stationarity and mean-reverting behaviour. Moreover, when multiple shifts are taken into account, unemployment is more persistent in the US than in the UK, implying the need for stronger policy action in the former to bring unemployment back to its original level
Anti-proliferative, apoptotic induction, and anti-migration effects of hemi-synthetic 1′S-1′-acetoxychavicol acetate analogs on MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells
Nine analogs of 1′S-1′-acetoxychavicol acetate (ACA) were hemi-synthesized and evaluated for their anticancer activities against seven human cancer cell lines. The aim of this study was to investigate the anti-proliferative, apoptotic, and anti-migration effects of these compounds and to explore the plausible underlying mechanisms of action. We found that ACA and all nine analogs were non toxic to human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs) used as normal control cells, and only ACA, 1′-acetoxyeugenol acetate (AEA), and 1′-acetoxy-3,5-dimethoxychavicol acetate (AMCA) inhibited the growth of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value of 30.0 μM based on 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay results, and were selected for further investigation. DNA fragmentation assays showed that these three compounds markedly induced apoptosis of MDA-MB-231 cells. Western blot analysis revealed increased expression levels of cleaved PARP, p53, and Bax, while decreased expression levels of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL were seen after treatment, indicating that apoptosis was induced via the mitochondrial pathway. Moreover, ACA, AEA, and AMCA effectively inhibited the migration of MDA-MB-231 cells. They also downregulated the expression levels of pFAK/FAK and pAkt/Akt via the integrin β1-mediated signaling pathway. Collectively, ACA and its hemi-synthetic analogs, AEA and AMCA are seen as potential anticancer agents following their abilities to suppress growth, induce apoptosis, and inhibit migration of breast cancer cells
The Mass Function of Newly Formed Stars (Review)
The topic of the stellar "original mass function" has a nearly 50 year
history,dating to the publication in 1955 of Salpeter's seminal paper. In this
review I discuss the many more recent results that have emerged on the initial
mass function (IMF), as it is now called, from studies over the last decade of
resolved populations in star forming regions and young open clusters.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure; to appear in "The Dense Instellar Medium in
Galaxies -- 4'th Cologne-Bonn-Zermatt-Symposium" editted by S. Pfalzner, C.
Kramer, C. Straubmeier and A. Heithausen, Springer-Verlag (2004
Cost-effectiveness of chuna manual therapy and usual care, compared with usual care only for people with neck pain following traffic accidents: a multicenter randomized controlled trial
This is the first cost-effectiveness analysis of Chuna manual therapy (CMT) plus usual Korean traditional medicine for traffic accident victims using a randomized controlled trial. A total of 132 participants were equally allocated to the intervention group receiving 6–11 sessions of CMT plus usual Korean traditional medicine care for three weeks or usual care including acupuncture, cupping, herbal medicine, moxibustion, and traditional physiotherapy at three hospitals. At 12 weeks, from a healthcare perspective, the intervention group had significantly higher costs (mean (SD), 618 (318); difference, 15 to 1077 (1081) vs. −69; 95% CI, 377; p = 0.761). The intervention group dominated, with significantly higher QALYs gained at lower overall cost with a 72% chance of being cost-effective. From a societal perspective, the intervention was cost-saving for individuals who had neck pain after car accidents, although it was not cost-effective from the healthcare perspective ($40,038 per QALY gained). Findings support use of CMT as an integrated care treatment for whiplash from a societal perspective. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to determine cost-effectiveness in other cultural contexts
Exploring Design Options for Modern Streetcar along West 7th Street
Reports completed by students enrolled in ARCH 3250 and LA 3002, taught by James Wheeler and Dr. Kristine Miller in Spring 2019.This project was completed as part of the 2018-2019 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with Ramsey County. The Riverview Corridor is a proposed modern streetcar line along a 12-mile route that will connect the Union Depot in downtown Saint Paul and the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport and the Mall of America, as well as the neighborhoods in between. Concerns have been raised about the streetcar’s impact on on-street parking, disruption to businesses during construction, pedestrian/bike safety, aesthetics, noise, and long-term impacts on the affordability of housing and commercial-retail space along the corridor. Ramsey County project lead Frank Alarcon worked with students in James Wheeler and Kristine Miller’s ARCH 3250/LA 3002: Community Design Studio to examine these and other stakeholder concerns, as well as opportunities made possible by the introduction of modern streetcar along West 7th Street, and identify potential design options or solutions. The student's final report is available.This project was supported by the Resilient Communities Project (RCP), a program at the University of Minnesota whose mission is to connect communities in Minnesota with U of MN faculty and students to advance community resilience through collaborative, course-based projects. RCP is a program of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA). More information at http://www.rcp.umn.edu
An improvement of the BeppoSAX LECS and MECS positioning accuracy
We present a study of the source positioning accuracy of the LECS and MECS
instruments on-board BeppoSAX. From the analysis of a sample of archival images
we find that a systematic error, which depends on the spacecraft roll angle and
has an amplitude of ~17'' for the LECS and ~27'' for the MECS, affects the sky
coordinates derived from both instruments. The error is due to a residual
misalignment of the two instruments with respect to the spacecraft Z axis
arisen from the presence of attitude inaccuracies in the observations used to
calibrate the pointing direction of LECS and MECS optical axes. Analytical
formulae to correct LECS and MECS sky coordinates are derived. After the
coordinate correction the 90% confidence level error radii are 16'' and 17''
for LECS and MECS respectively, improving by a factor of ~2 the source location
accuracy of the two instruments. The positioning accuracy improvement presented
here can significantly enhance the follow-up studies at other wavelengths of
the X-ray sources observed with LECS and MECS instruments.Comment: 8 LaTeX pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy &
Astrophysic
Orbital parameters of supergiant fast X-ray transients
Supergiant fast X-ray transient (SFXT) is a new class of the high mass X-ray
binary that shows short X-ray flares. The physical mechanism of SFXT short
flares is still open for discussion. The accretion process of dense clumps in
stellar wind onto neutron star (NS) has been proposed as the origin of such
short flares. In order to examine the applicability of the clumpy wind
scenario, we focus on the accretion mode that depends on orbital parameters.
Our goal is to impose restrictions on the orbital parameters of SFXT. Assuming
a simple analytic model of clumpy wind, we investigate the condition where the
size of accretion cylinder overcomes the clump size. The allowed parameter
region for SFXT is restricted in a relatively narrow window in diagram. Binary systems with large eccentricities (e \ga 0.4) and moderate
orbital periods ( d) are prone to show periodic X-ray
outbursts which are characteristic for SFXT. We confirm that systems with a
long orbital period of more than 100 days cannot produce bright X-ray flares in
the simple clumpy wind scenario.Comment: 6 pages, accepted for publication in A&
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