879 research outputs found
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Antecedents of Effective Environmental Management in a Hotel Setting: A Test of the Value-Belief-Norm Theory
The purpose of this quantitative study is to test the validity of a behavioral theory in the context of environmental hotel management. The lack of theoretical consideration in previous studies on environmental attitudes of hotel/resort managers warrants an investigation of a theory with the potential to better explain behaviors that support the goals of environment management systems. The goal of this research was to document the values, beliefs, personal norms, and environmental management support behaviors of managers in a hospitality setting to test the behavioral theory. Data were collected from a sample of hotel and resort managers in the Phoenix metropolitan area by using a survey of well-documented items from previous research on the theory. Results suggest the theory is successful in explaining environmental management support behaviors. Implications for practitioners as well as researchers are discusse
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The Influence of Mindfulness on Touristsâ Emotions, Satisfaction and Destination Loyalty in Fiji
Positive tourist experiences are crucial for the continued success of tourist destinations around the world. In the literature, mindfulness theory has emerged as a vehicle for studying the factors that influence tourist experiences (e.g. Moscardo, 1996). The purpose of this study is to test an adapted mindfulness model using data from a survey of tourists in Fiji. Hypothesized relationships were examined between: (1) the antecedent concepts to mindfulness (novelty seeking motivation and mindful oriented services) and mindfulness, (2) mindfulness and touristsâ emotions, and (3) the influence of touristsâ emotions on touristsâ satisfaction and destination loyalty. The results indicate a good fit of survey results with the adapted model. In addition to furthering the literature on mindfulness theory, the results of this study have implications for tourism development and marketing. Future researchers should seek to replicate the model in other unique destinations and settings
Coexistence of Quantum Theory and Special Relativity in signaling scenarios
The coexistence between Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity is usually
formulated in terms of the no-signaling condition. Several authors have even
suggested that this condition should be included between the basic postulates
of Quantum Theory. However, there are several scenarios where signaling is, in
principle, possible: based on previous results and the analysis of the relation
between unitarity and signaling we present an example of a two-particle
interferometric arrangement for which the dynamics is, in principle, compatible
with superluminal transmission of information. This type of non-locality is not
in the line of Bell's theorem, but closer in spirit to the one-particle
acausality studied by Hegerfeldt and others. We analyze in this paper the
meaning of this non-locality and how to preserve the coexistence of the two
fundamental theories in this signaling scenario.Comment: See also the comment by G C Hegerfeldt in the online version of the
journal, including more reference
The phase-space structure of a dark-matter halo: Implications for dark-matter direct detection experiments
We study the phase-space structure of a dark-matter halo formed in a high
resolution simulation of a Lambda CDM cosmology. Our goal is to quantify how
much substructure is left over from the inhomogeneous growth of the halo, and
how it may affect the signal in experiments aimed at detecting the dark matter
particles directly. If we focus on the equivalent of ``Solar vicinity'', we
find that the dark-matter is smoothly distributed in space. The probability of
detecting particles bound within dense lumps of individual mass less than 10^7
M_\sun h^{-1} is small, less than 10^{-2}. The velocity ellipsoid in the Solar
neighbourhood deviates only slightly from a multivariate Gaussian, and can be
thought of as a superposition of thousands of kinematically cold streams. The
motions of the most energetic particles are, however, strongly clumped and
highly anisotropic. We conclude that experiments may safely assume a smooth
multivariate Gaussian distribution to represent the kinematics of dark-matter
particles in the Solar neighbourhood. Experiments sensitive to the direction of
motion of the incident particles could exploit the expected anisotropy to learn
about the recent merging history of our Galaxy.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, Phys. Rev. D in press. Postscript version with
high resolution figures available from
http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~ahelmi/research/lcdm_dm.html; some changes in
the text; constraints on the effect of bound dark-matter lumps revised;
remaining conclusions unchange
Maze solvers demystified and some other thoughts
There is a growing interest towards implementation of maze solving in
spatially-extended physical, chemical and living systems. Several reports of
prototypes attracted great publicity, e.g. maze solving with slime mould and
epithelial cells, maze navigating droplets. We show that most prototypes
utilise one of two phenomena: a shortest path in a maze is a path of the least
resistance for fluid and current flow, and a shortest path is a path of the
steepest gradient of chemoattractants. We discuss that substrates with
so-called maze-solving capabilities simply trace flow currents or chemical
diffusion gradients. We illustrate our thoughts with a model of flow and
experiments with slime mould. The chapter ends with a discussion of experiments
on maze solving with plant roots and leeches which show limitations of the
chemical diffusion maze-solving approach.Comment: This is a preliminary version of the chapter to be published in
Adamatzky A. (Ed.) Shortest path solvers. From software to wetware. Springer,
201
Reassuring and managing patients with concerns about swine flu: Qualitative interviews with callers to NHS Direct
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>During the early stages of the 2009 swine flu (influenza H1N1) outbreak, the large majority of patients who contacted the health services about the illness did not have it. In the UK, the NHS Direct telephone service was used by many of these patients. We used qualitative interviews to identify the main reasons why people approached NHS Direct with concerns about swine flu and to identify aspects of their contact which were reassuring, using a framework approach.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>33 patients participated in semi-structured interviews. All patients had telephoned NHS Direct between 11 and 14 May with concerns about swine flu and had been assessed as being unlikely to have the illness.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Reasons for seeking advice about swine flu included: the presence of unexpectedly severe flu-like symptoms; uncertainties about how one can catch swine flu; concern about giving it to others; pressure from friends or employers; and seeking 'peace of mind.' Most participants found speaking to NHS Direct reassuring or useful. Helpful aspects included: having swine flu ruled out; receiving an alternative explanation for symptoms; clarification on how swine flu is transmitted; and the perceived credibility of NHS Direct. No-one reported anything that had increased their anxiety and only one participant subsequently sought additional advice about swine flu from elsewhere.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Future major incidents involving other forms of chemical, biological or radiological hazards may also cause large numbers of unexposed people to seek health advice. Our data suggest that providing telephone triage and information is helpful in such instances, particularly where advice can be given via a trusted, pre-existing service.</p
The fine-grained phase-space structure of Cold Dark Matter halos
We present a new and completely general technique for calculating the
fine-grained phase-space structure of dark matter throughout the Galactic halo.
Our goal is to understand this structure on the scales relevant for direct and
indirect detection experiments. Our method is based on evaluating the geodesic
deviation equation along the trajectories of individual DM particles. It
requires no assumptions about the symmetry or stationarity of the halo
formation process. In this paper we study general static potentials which
exhibit more complex behaviour than the separable potentials studied
previously. For ellipsoidal logarithmic potentials with a core, phase mixing is
sensitive to the resonance structure, as indicated by the number of independent
orbital frequencies. Regions of chaotic mixing can be identified by the very
rapid decrease in the real space density of the associated dark matter streams.
We also study the evolution of stream density in ellipsoidal NFW halos with
radially varying isopotential shape, showing that if such a model is applied to
the Galactic halo, at least streams are expected near the Sun. The most
novel aspect of our approach is that general non-static systems can be studied
through implementation in a cosmological N-body code. Such an implementation
allows a robust and accurate evaluation of the enhancements in annihilation
radiation due to fine-scale structure such as caustics. We embed the scheme in
the current state-of-the-art code GADGET-3 and present tests which demonstrate
that N-body discreteness effects can be kept under control in realistic
configurations.Comment: 20 pages, 24 figures, submitted to MNRA
Healthcare designersâ use of prescriptive and performance-based approaches
In the UK, healthcare built environment design is guided by a series of long-established design standards and guidance issued by the Department of Health. More recently, healthcare design focus has broadened to encompass new approaches, supported by large bodies of credible research evidence. It is therefore timely to rethink how healthcare design standards and guidance should be best expressed to suit âdesignerly waysâ of using evidence, to improve their use and effectiveness in practice. This research explored how designers use performance and prescriptive approaches during the healthcare design process. Three in-depth healthcare built environment case studies were used to explore how designers employed such approaches during the design of selected exemplar design elements. Results show that design elements in the pre and conceptual design phases significantly employed performance-based approaches, and due to project-unique circumstances, prescriptive solutions were often significantly modified based on performance criteria. For design elements in the detailed and technical design phases, there was a significant use of solutions based on prescriptive approaches, whilst performance-based criteria were used to evaluate design solutions. This research proposes a performance-based, specification-driven healthcare design with supplementary prescriptive specifications provided for optimum healthcare environment design
Metal production in M33: space and time variations
Nearby galaxies are ideal places to study in detail metallicity gradients and
their time evolution. We consider chemical abundances of a new sample of \hii\
regions complemented with previous literature data-sets. We compare \hii\
region and PN abundances obtained with a common set of observations taken at
MMT. With an updated theoretical model, we follow the time evolution of the
baryonic components and chemical abundances in the disk of M33, assuming that
the galaxy is accreting gas from an external reservoir. Supported by a uniform
sample of nebular spectroscopic observations, we conclude that: {\em i}) the
metallicity distribution in M33 is very complex, showing a central depression
in metallicity probably due to observational bias; {\em ii}) the metallicity
gradient in the disk of M33 has a slope of -0.037 0.009 dex kpc in
the whole radial range up to 8 kpc, and -0.044 0.009 dex kpc
excluding the central kpc; {\em iii}) there is a small evolution of the slope
with time from the epoch of PN progenitor formation to the present-time.}Comment: A&A accepted, 15 Pags, 13 Figs, language correctio
Planetary nebulae in M33: probes of AGB nucleosynthesis and ISM abundances
We have obtained deep optical spectrophotometry of 16 planetary nebulae in
M33, mostly located in the central two kpc of the galaxy, with the Subaru and
Keck telescopes. We have derived electron temperatures and chemical abundances
from the detection of the [OIII]4363 line for the whole sample. We have found
one object with an extreme nitrogen abundance, 12+log(N/H)=9.20, accompanied by
a large helium content. After combining our data with those available in the
literature for PNe and HII regions, we have examined the behavior of nitrogen,
neon, oxygen and argon in relation to each other, and as a function of
galactocentric distance. We confirm the good correlation between Ne/H and O/H
for PNe in M33. Ar/H is also found to correlate with O/H. This strengthens the
idea that at the metallicity of the bright PNe analyzed in M33, which is
similar to that found in the LMC, these elements have not been significantly
modified during the dredge-up processes that take place during the AGB phase of
their progenitor stars. We find no significant oxygen abundance offset between
PNe and HII regions at any given galactocentric distance, despite the fact that
these objects represent different age groups in the evolution of the galaxy.
Combining the results from PNe and HII regions, we obtain a representative
slope of the ISM alpha-element (O, Ar, Ne) abundance gradient in M33 of -0.025
+/- 0.006 dex/kpc. Both PNe and HII regions display a large abundance
dispersion at any given distance from the galactic center. We find that the N/O
ratio in PNe is enhanced, relative to the HII regions, by approximately 0.8
dex.Comment: 21 pages, 20 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
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