Proteins with RNA Chaperone Activity: A World of Diverse Proteins with a Common Task—Impediment of RNA Misfolding

Proteins with RNA chaperone activity are ubiquitous proteins that play important roles in cellular mechanisms. They prevent RNA from misfolding by loosening misfolded structures without ATP consumption. RNA chaperone activity is studied in vitro and in vivo using oligonucleotide- or ribozyme-based assays. Due to their functional as well as structural diversity, a common chaperoning mechanism or universal motif has not yet been identified. A growing database of proteins with RNA chaperone activity has been established based on evaluation of chaperone activity via the described assays. Although the exact mechanism is not yet understood, it is more and more believed that disordered regions within proteins play an important role. This possible mechanism and which proteins were found to possess RNA chaperone activity are discussed here

Preservation, Management, and Stabilization Approaches at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin: An Analysis of the Evolution of Intervention Strategies

Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in Wisconsin, is an eight-hundred acre estate situated in a rural, rolling landscape. The site is significant because of its architectural character, as a collection of representative works spanning Wright’s entire career, as well as for its association with the Taliesin Fellowship, Wright’s elaborate and well-documented model for teaching and living. Taliesin is currently open for tours and also houses a resident community made up of students, their faculty, interns, and a few older members of the Fellowship, often referred to as Legacy Fellows. For preservationists and the site’s caretakers, Taliesin’s buildings pose a particularly thorny problem. Students and apprentices were responsible for much of Taliesin’s construction, and Wisconsin’s harsh climate often accelerates the material deterioration of wood details, structural elements, plaster, stucco, and cedar-shingle roofs. The research presented in this thesis lays out a chronology detailing how Taliesin has been managed and preserved since Frank Lloyd Wright’s death in 1959. Between 1959 and the late 1980s, the Taliesin Fellowship managed the site, maintaining and altering the buildings for continued use. In 1991, a preservation non-profit was founded by recommendation of a Governor’s Commission. This group, called Taliesin Preservation Commission, and later Taliesin Preservation Incorporated (TPC and TPI, respectively), was tasked with establishing a new public tour program and managing maintenance and preservation interventions on site. The second half of the thesis details three case studies areas that shed light on specific structural interventions, as a way to understand how these physical projects reflect the values of Taliesin’s residents and caretakers. The case studies are: Mr. Wright’s Bedroom Terrace, the Lower Court, and the combination of Mrs. Wright’s Bedroom and the Gold Room. Each was stabilized multiple times through Taliesin’s preservation history, calling into question the site’s long period of significance, quality of the original construction, continued use of these spaces, and the importance of material authenticity. By setting up a chronology of preservation work at Taliesin, one can evaluate how preservation work has evolved at this particular site. Hinging around the 1990s, interventions are planned with increasing standards for research and documentation. Under the guidance of TPI and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the nature of preservation projects has shifted to include more comprehensive and forward-thinking interventions. Additionally, there are also many ways that intervention strategies at Taliesin have stayed consistent through time. The earliest articulation of goals for public tours at Taliesin emphasized the interpretation of Wight’s concepts of organic architecture and, secondarily, how the buildings manifest these principles of design. Interventions account for common frameworks such as the Secretary of the Interior Standards, but often also stray from professional standards in an attempt to reconcile the building’s role as a historic object and the home of an existing community. A consistently small preservation team employs a deep knowledge of the site’s history and intimate familiarity with the buildings’ construction details, as well as a reverence for the buildings as designed by Wright. Taliesin’s working policy for preservation does not strictly adhere to formalized industry standards but has instead adapted to the needs of this specific building and community over time. Spaces within the buildings are selectively and iteratively restored, rehabilitated, preserved, or altered. A study of preservation approaches employed on site can inform our understanding of Taliesin as an educational tool; to be publicly interpreted, continuously updated as a residence, or fixed in time as an object meriting preservation

Immigration and educational spillovers: evidence from Sudeten German expellees in post-war Bavaria

This paper analyses long-term effects of forced WWII migration on educational outcomes. Specifically Sudeten German expellees in post-war Bavaria coming from highly industrialized Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) had strong preferences for higher secondary schooling, especially in form of a practical, business-related, and general education school. As a result they became actively engaged in the development of post-war middle track education (Realschule, Fachschule). Employing county-level data on student numbers and graduates of secondary education, empirical analysis including ordinary least squares, instrumental variable, and differences-in-differences models reveals that counties housing a higher share of Sudeten Germans after the war are significantly associated with higher educational development some 20 years later. An increase in the share of Sudeten Germans by 1 percentage point increases the share of children (graduates) in middle track education by at least 0.8 (0.1) percentage points, respectively. Calculations suggest that these effects are not mechanically caused by Sudeten Germans and their children demanding education, but are the actual result of educational spillovers to the local population

Discounting An Empirical Justification For Its Value In The Lodging Industry

The central focus of this study is to provide an empirical explanation regarding the efficacy of the managerial expectation formation process as it contributes to the understanding of discounting room rates as a rational strategic phenomenon in the lodging industry. The study assesses the nature of the relationship between discounting hotel room rates and hotel financial performance when considering the non-stationary conditions of a time series data set. The study was rooted in an operational based perspective with regard to the challenges presented by the perishable nature of room night sales - the loss of which may impact a manager’s fundamental responsibility: to generate maximum revenue from the existing hotel room capacity. Of critical importance to this study is whether the incremental use of discounting room rates could work to correct for temporal periods of decreased demand and thus increase shortterm hotel financial performance. There is limited research regarding the empirical relationship between discounting room rates and hotel financial performance, as well as the internal process that a hotel manager uses to determine an accurate room rate that corresponds to seasonal lodging market demand conditions. An empirical foundation for this practice is lacking in the extant hospitality literature. Literature reveals that, although the lodging industry commonly incorporates discounting as a pricing strategy, recent research implies that high occupancy levels at discounted room rates do not necessarily lead to an increase in hotel financial performance. The contrast then between what is practiced and the recommendations from pricing strategy studies has led to lack of consistent agreement in current lodging literature regarding how discounting of hotel room rates relates to hotel financial performance. This study is at the forefront in its use of the methodological procedures that support a theoretical framework iv capable of providing explanations regarding managers’ internal process of discounting as an effective pricing strategy that could compensate for times of decreased room demand. An econometric case study research design was used in conjunction with a cointegration analysis and an error correction model (none of which are otherwise appropriated as assessment tools in the lodging industry). These applications provide a means to understand the expectation formation process of managers’ room price setting strategies. They also assess the empirical nature of the relationship between the variables by accounting for the erratic variations of room demand over time as induced by random error fluctuations. A non-deterministic system was assumed and supported through the analysis of the stationarity conditions of the time series data set under investigation. The distinguishing characteristics of a dynamic system that are recognized as traits of the lodging industry are further supported by the theoretical framework of the rational expectations theory and the cobweb model. The results of the study are based on secondary financial data sets that were provided by a midscale independently owned leisure hotel in the Orlando, FL market and that is located on Walt Disney World property. The results of this study delineate from the current normative economic recommendation based on descriptive research that claims discounting hotel room rates does not increase hotel financial performance. The current study does not draw an association between the variables from the presupposition of a deterministic marketplace, nor does it recommend to managers to hold a constant average daily rate over time. Based on the findings of the statistical procedures performed and the theoretical framework, the study contends that previous research may have incorrectly modeled room price expectations; elected to use inappropriate statistical tests; and, therefore, may have entertained misleading conclusions regarding the relationship between discounting of hotel room rates and hotel financial performance. v Through use of an error correction model, the major findings of this study imply several concepts: that residuals may be treated as a variable within the study’s model in order to better understand the short run dynamics that may lead to equilibrium correcting room price positions over the long run of time; that discounting room rates works in the short run; and, that managers use a rational price setting strategy to set future room rates. All of the aforementioned concepts fall within accordance of the rational expectations theory. The study concludes that while the constant room rate adjustments observed in the lodging industry may display what appears to be a random structure that deviates from the expected systematic, or stable, financial performance of a hotel over time, the deviations in performance are actually a rhythmic synthesized process of market information from past and current times. Hence, hotel managers appear to be using a backward looking model to forwardly project optimal room rates to match uncertain consumer demand. The empirical assessment employed in this study supports this determination

Saba: \u27The Unspoiled Queen\u27

Bruce Zagers became Commissioner of Tourism, Public Entity, Saba in 2017. Dr. Kelly Semrad interviews him about his role, and the development of a new tourism master plan for the island

Cultural Tourism as an Endogenous Growth Strategy

The purpose of this study is to apply the cultural tourism typology that was forwarded by McKercher (2002) and to estimate the economic relevance of cultural tourism to the context of a small island destination tourist market. The application of this cultural tourism typology is used in order to determine if those typologies may be used to segment tourists thereby allowing researchers to determine the economic impact of different cultural tourist segments to tourism destinations’ economies. The study draws attention to some of the foundational issues that researchers face when attempting to quantify the economic impact of cultural tourists. The results of the study indicate that the McKercher’s typology may provide more refined results when incorporating the purpose of a trip; and, that cultural tourists may be a lucrative market for destinations to pursue given the results of an economic Input-Output Model

LGBTQ Tourism in San Juan, Puerto Rico: The Economic Impacts of the “Pink Dollar”

The objectives of this study are three-fold. First, the current study intends to estimate the amount of LGBTQ tourists visiting a Caribbean destination – San Juan, Puerto Rico. Second, the study will empirically determine the sociodemographic profile of LGBTQ tourists visiting San Juan, Puerto Rico. Finally, while some destination marketers assume that the LGBTQ market is a value added segment for destinations, the current study will facilitate a systematic forecasting tool with which to estimate the economic impact of the pink dollar in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Why Employees are Learving and Will Not Return to Work in the Hospitality Industry

An important new report by Rosen College researchers should be taken as a wakeup call for the tourism and hospitality industry in the U.S. following the COVID-19 pandemic