$ or Dollars: Effects of Menu-price Formats on Restaurant Checks

Empirical research on menu design and price presentation has focused primarily on menus’ effects on consumers’ attitudes, and not necessarily on actual purchase behavior. This study examines how customers reacted to menus’ price formatting in terms of actual sales, as measured by check totals for lunch at St. Andrew’s, the restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, New York. Price formats tested in the study were a dollars and cents numerical format with a dollar sign ($00.00), a numerical format without a dollar sign (00.), and scripted or written-out prices (zero dollars). While the numerical manipulation did not significantly affect total spending when compared to such non-menu factors as party size or length of time at the table, the price formats did show noticeable differences. Contrary to expectations, guests given the numeral-only menu spent significantly more than those who received a menu with prices showing a dollar sign or those whose menus had prices written out in words. Psychological theory, by contrast, predicted that the scripted format would draw higher sales. Although these findings may apply only to lunch at this particular restaurant, they indicate that menu-price formats do influence customers’ spending, both in terms of total check and spending per cover

Preventing Teen Relationship Abuse and Sexual Assault through Bystander Training: Intervention Outcomes for School Personnel

The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of exposure to Bringing in the Bystander—High School Curriculum (BITB-HSC) on school personnel, which included a seven session classroom curriculum for ninth through twelfth graders (student curriculum), a bystander training workshop for school personnel (school personnel workshop), and reading materials (handout). We examined how exposure to these various BITB-HSC intervention components was associated with school personnel’s knowledge and bystander efficacy, intentions, and barriers specific to student relationship abuse (RA) and sexual assault (SA). Participants were 488 school personnel from 12 high schools in upper New England who completed the 4-month follow-up survey that assessed for intervention exposure (284 participants completed both the baseline and follow-up survey). Whereas 53% of participants were exposed to no intervention components, the other half of the sample were exposed to a combination of intervention components. Higher baseline knowledge and reactive bystander intentions were associated with subsequent exposure to both the student curriculum and the handout, and fewer barriers to bystander action predicted exposure to the school personnel workshop. Exposure to the school personnel workshop, student curriculum, and handout was associated with subsequent greater knowledge, exposure to the student curriculum predicted reactive bystander intentions, and exposure to the handout predicted higher reactive bystander intentions and bystander efficacy. Findings suggest that despite challenges with engagement, exposure to the BITB-HSC components may be a useful tool in improving school personnel’s responses to RA and SA among high school students

Centralized cytogenetic analysis of pediatric acute leukemia: results of an italian collaborative experience

Background and Objective. Cytogenetic analysis of acute leukemia yields important information which has been demonstrated to be correlated to patient survival. A reference laboratory was created in order to perform karyotype analysis on all cases of acute leukemia enrolled in the AIEOP (Associazione Italiana Emato-Oncologia Pediatrica) protocols. Methods. From January 1990 to December 1995, 1115 samples of children with ALL or AML were sent in for cytogenetic analysis. The results of cell cultures were screened in the Reference Laboratory and then the fixed metaphases were sent to one of the six cytogenetic laboratories for analysis. Results. The leukemic karyotypes of 556 patients were successfully analyzed. An abnormal clone was detected in 49% of cases of ALL and in 66% of AML. In ALL the most frequent abnormality was 9p rearrangement. Other recurrent abnormalities were t(9;22), t(4;11) and t(1;19). In AML t(8;21), t(15;17) and 11q23 rearrangement were the most frequent structural abnormalities. These findings are similar to the results obtained in other multicenter studies using a similar approach. Interpretation and Conclusions. Our data confirm the feasibility of performing cytogenetic analysis in a centralized laboratory on mailed samples of bone marrow and/or peripheral blood; this is very important considering that cytogenetic analysis of neoplastic tissue requires a special laboratory and expert staff

Sonar detection and monitoring of sunken heavy fuel oil on the seafloor

Abstract The oil products transported at sea that have the potential to become suspended in the water column and sink after weathering or mixing with sediment are quite numerous: asphalt, carbon black oil, bunker C, fuel oil n°5 and 6. In many incidents and accidents part of the spilled heavy oil product has actually sunk and has been difficult to track because of the lack of means of detection. To compensate this gap, a comprehensive sonar experiment has been performed through the use of a large seawater tank on the bottom of which several patches of three different heavy fuel oils have been laid on top of a sandy layer. In this facility several kinds of sonar have been tested as for their response according to their frequency, resolution and type (side scan sonar, multibeam/panoramic sonar, 3D acoustic camera). The results proved to be very valuable according to the acoustic specificity of the products involved. Indeed the acoustic properties are similar to those of the seawater when considering density and sound speed; however the attenuation is much more important and its variation has been measured from 100 kHz to 500 kHz preliminary to the testing. The results of the sonar experiment that have been obtained do confirm the capability of current sonars to detect heavy oil patches over sand seafloors, and should make it possible to select the most adequate survey strategy according to the oil patches dimensions and thickness and to the environmental conditions

The diagnosis of BCR/ABL-negative chronic myeloproliferative diseases (CMPD): a comprehensive approach based on morphology, cytogenetics, and molecular markers

Recent years showed significant progress in the molecular characterization of the chronic myeloproliferative disorders (CMPD) which are classified according to the WHO classification of 2001 as polycythemia vera (PV), chronic idiopathic myelofibrosis (CIMF), essential thrombocythemia (ET), CMPD/unclassifiable (CMPD-U), chronic neutrophilic leukemia, and chronic eosinophilic leukemia (CEL)/hypereosinophilic syndrome, all to be delineated from BCR/ABL-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). After 2001, the detection of the high frequency of the JAK2V617F mutation in PV, CIMF, and ET, and of the FIP1L1–PDGFRA fusion gene in CEL further added important information in the diagnosis of CMPD. These findings also enhanced the importance of tyrosine kinase mutations in CMPD and paved the way to a more detailed classification and to an improved definition of prognosis using also novel minimal residual disease (MRD) markers. Simultaneously, the broadening of therapeutic strategies in the CMPD, e.g., due to reduced intensity conditioning in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and the introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in CML, in CEL, and in other ABL and PDGRFB rearrangements, increased the demands to diagnostics. Therefore, today, a multimodal diagnostic approach combining cytomorphology, cytogenetics, and individual molecular methods is needed in BCR/ABL-negative CMPD. A stringent diagnostic algorithm for characterization, choice of treatment, and monitoring of MRD will be proposed in this review