Factors Affecting Wine Purchase Decisions and Presence of New York Wines in Upscale New York City Restaurants

Substantial industry and winery efforts in recent years have centered on improving access of New York wines into upscale restaurants in New York City (NYC), albeit with limited success. A survey of upscale restaurants and wine stores in NYC was conducted to identify important attributes influencing wine purchase decisions and to better understand the primary factors affecting the level of New York wines included on restaurant wine lists. Larger restaurants with higher entrée prices and a larger dependence on wine sales were shown to include fewer New York wines, while restaurants serving higher proportions of Riesling, Cabernet Franc, and domestic wines included more. A wine’s collective regional and varietal reputation was found to influence overall wine purchasing decisions, indicating that marketing efforts targeted on these attributes may be a beneficial strategy.Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

The Republic of the Spirit : Marital Love in Edith Wharton\u27s The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton\u27s concern with the institution of marriage was both a personal and an artistic one. Her own marriage ended in divorce after many years of trying to nurse her husband through repeated attacks or mental illness. This marriage, not the ideal as far as Mrs. Wharton was concerned, was one of companionship but one lacking spiritual and intellectual satisfaction. The attitude which Mrs.Wharton gradually developed toward her own marriage and its failure is apparent in her fiction. This thesis has analyzed Edith Wharton\u27s three major society novels, The House Mirth, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence, to reveal her conception of marriage as the ideal human relationship central to man\u27s social happiness, but not always achievable in organized society. Chapter I gives a brief introduction to this study of marriage in Mrs. Wharton\u27s novels and a survey of American attitudes toward marriage. But inherent in Mrs. Wharton\u27s view toward marital happiness lurks a paradox. That paradox 1s that although marriages which create a 11republ1c of the spirit in the love of 11soul-mates11 are held up as the ideal, they are most often unattainable. Society can prevent the attainment of this ideal; man himself can prevent his achievement of this ideal; and the conflict between conformity to tradition and trying to find personal happiness can also prevent the achievement of this ideal. Man is therefore caught in the inevitable conflict between his personal happiness and the preservation of civilized society. Tragedy is inevitable. Happiness is the almost unattainable ideal

MODELING PERCEPTIONS OF LOCALLY PRODUCED WINE AMONG RESTAURATEURS IN NEW YORK CITY

Poor perceived product quality, an inadequate sales force, and intense competition from wines produced elsewhere are common reasons cited for why New York wines have not achieved broad acceptance in the New York City (NYC) market. NYC restaurant owners, sommeliers, and chefs were surveyed regarding their perceptions and purchasing decisions of wines grown and bottled in New York State. Factor analysis was applied to examine the structure of interrelationships among key indicators of product perception, and an ordinal logistic regression model was used to identify the characteristics of restaurants that show a strong propensity to adopt local wines. The results indicate that a NYC restaurant’s type of cuisine does not affect its propensity to adopt local wine, nor does a restaurant’s desire to offer a large, geographically diverse wine list. The perceived collective reputation for a wine region’s excellence in one particular grape varietal was found to be the most significant factor in the probability of adoption of local wines in NYC. An important implication of these results is that being local is not enough, and New York winery stakeholders could establish a more prominent presence in NYC by emphasizing their collective reputation for particular grape varietals.product perception, restaurant, wine, sommeliers, local, collective reputation, New York, New York City, Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

Weightism in Healthcare and Educational Efforts to Reduce Bias in Pre-Health Students

Obesity is a multifaceted condition affecting physical, psychological, and social aspects of a person’s life and requires knowledgeable providers who can work with patients to effectively manage their condition. However, research suggests that healthcare providers are ill-equipped to treat overweight patients. Evaluations of weight bias among healthcare providers show levels similar to that of the general public and calls into question the training of future providers. Ample evidence regarding provider education reveals the system’s shortcomings for reducing weight bias. It suggests that students lack opportunities for prejudice reduction due to inadequate coverage in curriculum as well as modeling of discriminatory behavior by mentors. Therefore, overweight patients may feel stigmatized when encountering healthcare professionals. A survey of pre-health undergraduate students (n=66) at the University of South Dakota revealed that 51.5% have not had any type of prejudice reduction education and only 26.2% had covered the topic of weight bias. The results of this study confirm the lack of prejudice reduction efforts, specifically regarding weight, within the curriculum for pre-health students. With early intervention, it is hoped that students will recognize personal biases and provide effective and empathetic care to all

Introductory biology course reform: A tale of two courses

Over the past eight years we have undertaken iterative cycles of course reform in two introductory biology courses: Biology 111 and Biology 211. Our revisions of these formerly “traditional” lecture courses have included in-class case studies with and without peer facilitators and peer-facilitated small-group workshops. Based on analyses of overall pass rates, as well as pass rates by gender and by underrepresented minority (URM) status, we have found that there are differences in the effectiveness of alternative course models in the two courses. In Biol 111, required peer-facilitated workshops improved overall student performance, especially for URM and female students (Preszler, 2009). Here we report that similar workshops were not as successful in Biol 211, but that in-class case studies facilitated by peer instructors have improved student performance and reduced the performance gap. Clearly, what is the “best practice” for one course is not the best practice for the other

A large area detector for neutrons between 2 and 100 MeV

A neutron detector sensitive from 2 to 100 MeV is described. The detector is designed for high altitude balloon flight to measure the flux, energy and direction of albedo neutrons from the earth and to search for solar neutrons. A neutron scatter from a proton is required in each of two liquid scintillator tanks spaced 1 meter apart. The energy of the recoil proton in the first tank is obtained from pulse height analysis of the scintillator output. The energy of the recoil neutron is obtained from its time of flight between the tanks. The detector has been calibrated with 15.3 MeV neutrons and mu mesons. The minimum detectable flux is 10(-4) neutron/sq cm/sec at a counting rate of one per minute; the energy resolution is 12% at 15 MeV and 30% at 100 MeV. The angle between the incoming neutron and the recoil neutron is measured to + or - 10 deg

Cosmogenic Production as a Background in Searching for Rare Physics Processes

We revisit calculations of the cosmogenic production rates for several long-lived isotopes that are potential sources of background in searching for rare physics processes such as the detection of dark matter and neutrinoless double-beta decay. Using updated cosmic-ray neutron flux measurements, we use TALYS 1.0 to investigate the cosmogenic activation of stable isotopes of several detector targets and find that the cosmogenic isotopes produced inside the target materials and cryostat can result in large backgrounds for dark matter searches and neutrinoless double-beta decay. We use previously published low-background HPGe data to constrain the production of $^{3}H$ on the surface and the upper limit is consistent with our calculation. We note that cosmogenic production of several isotopes in various targets can generate potential backgrounds for dark matter detection and neutrinoless double-beta decay with a massive detector, thus great care should be taken to limit and/or deal with the cosmogenic activation of the targets.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, and 4 table