The Impact of Restaurant Atmospherics Towards Restaurant Patrons’ Behavioral Intention in Southern Province of Sri Lanka

This study investigated the impact of atmospherics on the behavioral intention of restaurant patrons in Galle and Matara Districts in Southern Province of Sri Lanka. Based on the review of extensive literature pertaining to the store atmospherics, researchers examined four store atmospheric variables as exterior, general interior and decorations, human variable (employees) and layout & design. The data were collected over Mall Intercept Survey technique by randomly administering structured questionnaires to 300 respondents in Galle and Matara districts. First ANOVA test was performed to measure the fitness of the model and simple regression analysis was conducted to investigate the impact of atmospheric variables on behavioral intention. The results of the regression analysis indicated that restaurant atmospherics have an impact on behavioral intention of restaurant patrons. Moreover, it indicated that interior atmospheric variable (Cleanliness, Lighting, Foods/Beverages) was the most significant atmospheric variable which determine the behavioral intention in restaurant industry. Keywords: Atmospheric variables, Behavioral intention, Patrons, Restaurants. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-1-02 Publication date: January 31st 2021

Phase transitions and ordering of confined dipolar fluids

We apply a modified mean-field density functional theory to determine the phase behavior of Stockmayer fluids in slitlike pores formed by two walls with identical substrate potentials. Based on the Carnahan-Starling equation of state, a fundamental-measure theory is employed to incorporate the effects of short-ranged hard sphere - like correlations while the long-ranged contributions to the fluid interaction potential are treated perturbatively. The liquid-vapor, ferromagnetic liquid - vapor, and ferromagnetic liquid - isotropic liquid first-order phase separations are investigated. The local orientational structure of the anisotropic and inhomogeneous ferromagnetic liquid phase is also studied. We discuss how the phase diagrams are shifted and distorted upon varying the pore width.Comment: 15 pages including 8 figure

Genetic variability of drought-avoidance root traits in the mini-core germplasm collection of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.).

Extensive and deep root systems have been recognized as one of the most important traits for improving chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) productivity under progressively receding soil moisture conditions. However, available information on the range of variation for root traits is still limited. Genetic variability for the root traits was investigated using a cylinder culture system during two consecutive growth seasons in the mini-core germplasm collection of ICRISAT plus several wild relatives of chickpea. The largest genetic variability was observed at 35 days after sowing for root length density (RLD) (heritability, h 2 = 0.51 and 0.54) across seasons, and followed by the ratio of plant dry weight to root length density with h 2 of 0.37 and 0.50 for first and second season, respectively. The root growth of chickpea wild relatives was relatively poor compared to C. arietinum, except in case of C. reticulatum. An outstanding genotype, ICC 8261, which had the largest RLD and one of the deepest root system, was identified in chickpea mini-core germplasm collection. The accession ICC 4958 which was previously characterized as a source for drought avoidance in chickpea was confirmed as one with the most prolific and deep root system, although many superior accessions were also identified. The chickpea landraces collected from the Mediterranean and the west Asian region showed a significantly larger RLD than those from the south Asian region. In addition, the landraces originating from central Asia (former Soviet Union), characterized by arid agro-climatic conditions, also showed relatively larger RLD. As these regions are under-represented in the chickpea collection, they might be interesting areas for further germplasm exploration to identify new landraces with large RLD. The information on the genetic variability of chickpea root traits provides valuable baseline knowledge for further progress on the selection and breeding for drought avoidance root traits in chickpea

Evaluation of basil extract ( Ocimum basilicum L.) on oxidative, anti-genotoxic and anti-inflammatory effects in human leukocytes cell cultures exposed to challenging agents

ABSTRACT Ocimum is one of the most important genera of the Lamiaceae family. Several studies about basil and its popular use reveal many characteristics of the herb, including its use as antioxidant, anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, anti-microbial, and cardiovascular agents, among others. In this paper, we evaluated genotoxic, oxidative, and anti-inflammatory parameters from the extract of Ocimum basilicum in different concentrations, using human leukocytes cultures exposed to challenging agents. Our results confirm that the O. basilicum extract acts as an antioxidant and effectively reverts or subjugates the effects of high oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide. These actions are attributed to its composition, which is rich in polyphenols and flavonoids as well as compounds such as rosmarinic acid, all of which have well-known antioxidant activity. We also show that our basil extract presents anti-inflammatory properties, the mechanism of which is a composed interaction between the inhibition of pro-inflammatory mediator and the stimulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines. Although pharmacodynamics studies are necessary to evaluate the activities in vivo, our results demonstrated that basil could act as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory and a possible alternative for medicinal treatment

Cataclysmic Variables from Sloan Digital Sky Survey – V the search for period bouncers continues

SDSS-V is carrying out a dedicated survey for white dwarfs, single, and in binaries, and we report the analysis of the spectroscopy of 118 cataclysmic variables (CVs) and CV candidates obtained during the final plug plate observations of SDSS. We identify eight new CVs, spectroscopically confirm 53 and refute 11 published CV candidates, and we report 21 new or improved orbital periods. The orbital period distribution of the SDSS-V CVs does not clearly exhibit a period gap. In common with previous studies, the distribution shows that spectroscopically identified CVs have a larger proportion of short-period systems compared to samples identified from photometric variability. Remarkably, despite a systematic search, we find very few period bouncers. We estimate the space density of period bouncers to be $\simeq 0.2\times 10^{-6}\, \mathrm{pc}^{-3}$, i.e. they represent only a few per cent of the total CV population. This suggests that during their final phase of evolution, CVs either destroy the donor, e.g. via a merger, or that they become detached and cease mass transfer.https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.13371First author draf

Studies on the pathogenesis of murine gamma-herpesvirus (MHV-68)

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