An alternative fit to Belle mass spectra for DD, D*D* and Lambda_C Lambda_c

Peaks observed by Belle in DD at 3.878 GeV and in D*D* at 4.156 GeV may be fitted by phase space multiplied by a form factor with an RMS radius of interaction 0.63 fm. The peak observed in Lambda_C Lambda_C at 4.63 GeV may be explained by Y(4660), multiplied by a corresponding form factor with RMS radius 0.94 fm.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figures Shorted version, conclusions unchange

Determinants of Travel Intentions to a eighboring Destination

The primary purposes of this study were to collect information on neighboring travelers’ past visits and determinants of future intentions for an overnight pleasure trip. Data was collected on a wide variety of travel behaviors. The study is based on a telephone survey of 3,688 residents of ew Brunswick ( B) and ova Scotia ( S), two sister Provinces to Prince Edward Island, a major Canadian tourist destination. The results reveal 51.9% have visited PEI within the past five years, 36.7% have visited PEI more than five years ago, and 11.4% have never visited PEI. Linear logistic regression analysis revealed that all three groups had a positive reaction to at least one form of advertising used. In all cases, if the potential visitor recalled and/or responded to an advertisement for PEI, they were much more likely to revisit than those who did not

Appealing to Different Appetites? A Comparative Analysis of Visitors and Residents to a Culinary Festival

This study presents a comparative analysis of visitors and local residents attending selected events at a month-long culinary festival. The primary purposes of this study were to compare the motivations, spending behaviours, and satisfaction levels of these two groups. Consideration was also given to the information sources used to learn about the Festival Findings are based on an on-line survey of festival attendees; in total 460 surveys were collected and used. Research findings highlighted differences between visitor and resident groups with respect to motivations for attending a culinary events, spending behaviours and information sources used. An examination of satisfaction rating revealed significant variance across individual events. These results offer valuable insights for culinary festival organizers and marketers, who may wish to consider the differing motivations and information sources used by these two groups when developing advertising campaigns and on-site food and shopping experiences

Sensitivity of polycrystal plasticity to slip system kinematic hardening laws for Al 7075-T6

The prediction of formation and early growth of microstructurally small fatigue cracks requires use of constitutive models that accurately estimate local states of stress, strain, and cyclic plastic strain. However, few research efforts have attempted to systematically consider the sensitivity of overall cyclic stress-strain hysteresis and higher order mean stress relaxation and plastic strain ratcheting responses introduced by the slip system back-stress formulation in crystal plasticity, even for face centered cubic (FCC) crystal systems. This paper explores the performance of two slip system level kinematic hardening models using a finite element crystal plasticity implementation as a User Material Subroutine (UMAT) within ABAQUS (Abaqus unified FEA, 2016) [1], with fully implicit numerical integration. The two kinematic hardening formulations aim to reproduce the cyclic deformation of polycrystalline Al 7075-T6 in terms of both macroscopic cyclic stress-strain hysteresis loop shape, as well as ratcheting and mean stress relaxation under strain- or stress-controlled loading with mean strain or stress, respectively. The first formulation is an Armstrong-Frederick type hardening-dynamic recovery law for evolution of the back stress [2]. This approach is capable of reproducing observed deformation under completely reversed uniaxial loading conditions, but overpredicts the rate of cyclic ratcheting and associated mean stress relaxation. The second formulation corresponds to a multiple back stress Ohno-Wang type hardening law [3] with nonlinear dynamic recovery. The adoption of this back stress evolution law greatly improves the capability to model experimental results for polycrystalline specimens subjected to cycling with mean stress or strain. The relation of such nonlinear dynamic recovery effects are related to slip system interactions with dislocation substructures

ATP Reception and Chemosensory Adaptation in \u3c/i\u3eTetrahymena thermophila\u3c/i\u3e

Micromolar concentrations of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and its non-hydrolyzable analog β- γ -methylene ATP are both effective depolarizing chemorepellents in Tetrahymena thermophila. Chemorepellent behavior consists of repeated bouts of backward swimming (avoidance reactions) that can easily be quantified to provide a convenient bioassay for purinergic reception studies. Chemosensory adaptation occurs following prolonged exposure (10 min) to the repellents, and cells regain normal swimming behavior. Adaptation is specific since cells that are behaviorally adapted to either ATP or β- γ -methylene ATP still retain full responsiveness to the chemorepellents GTP and lysozyme. However, cross adaptation occurs between ATP and β- γ -methylene ATP, suggesting that they involve the same receptor. Behavioral sensitivity to both ATP and β- γ -methylene ATP is increased by the addition of Na+, but addition of either Ca2+ or Mg2+ dramatically decreases the response to ATP. These ionic effects are correlated with in vivo ATP hydrolysis, suggesting that divalent ions decrease purinergic sensitivity by activating a Ca2+- or Mg2+-dependent ecto-ATPase to hydrolyze the ATP signal. In vivo [32P]ATP binding studies and Scatchard analysis suggest that the behavioral adaptation is due to a decrease in the number of surface binding sites, as represented by decreased Bmax values. All these changes are reversible (de-adaptation) after 12 min in a repellent-free buffer. Electrophysiological analysis showed that both β- γ -methylene ATP (10 micromol l-1) and ATP (500 micromol l-1) elicited sustained, reversible depolarizations while GTP (10 micromol l-1) produced a transient depolarization, suggesting that the chemosensory response pathways for ATP and GTP reception may differ. There may be separate ATP and GTP receptors since ATP and GTP responses do not cross-adapt and ‘cold’ (unlabeled) GTP is not a good inhibitor of [32P]ATP binding. These results suggests that T. thermophila possess high-affinity surface receptors for ATP that are down-regulated during chemosensory adaptation. These ATP receptors may act as chemorepellent receptors to enable T. thermophila to recognize recently lysed cells and avoid a possibly deleterious situation. This is the simplest eukaryotic organism to show an electrophysiological response to external ATP

Influencing the Intentions to Visit a Destination: The Case of Potential First-Time and Repeat Visitors

This study presents a model hypothesizing that intention to travel is influenced directly by two major elements of tourism marketing: responses to advertising and the respondent’s use of the official tourism website for a destination. To test the model, data from two Web-based surveys concerning travel to Prince Edward Island (PEI) in 2008 were used: a survey of travel intentions and a follow-up conversion survey. There are four important findings. First, the intention to travel is directly influenced by two major elements of tourism marketing: responses to advertising and the respondent’s use of the official tourism website. Second, actual visitation is influenced directly by travel intentions and indirectly by responses to advertising and potential visitor’s use and reaction to the official website. Third, there is a clear difference in terms of the influences on intentions to visit a destination between potential or actual first-time and repeat visitors. For firsttime visitors, advertising recall was the most powerful predictor of intention to visit PEI; for repeat visitors it was the number of times the respondent visited the website. Fourth, the results of this paper clearly indicate that generating intention to visit leads to actual visits

Using Travel Activities to Segment the Market for Travel: The Case of First-Time Visitors

The main purpose of the study is to examine the relevance and significance of market segmentation based on the activities visitors engage in while at a destination. In doing so, the paper attempts to segment first-time pleasure travellers and profile the market by tiprelated characteristics. This paper is based on a subset of 1,104 first-time visitors to Prince Edward Island (PEI) in main season (July and August 2007). This study found that three distinct segments of first-time visitors exist: “culture-seeking,” “active,” and “other interest” tourists. In addition, the study identifies that cultural themes are an important factor for a significant portion of tourists visiting PEI and demonstrates that these culture-seekers are valuable in terms of their economic contribution to the destination and cultural/social interaction with communitie

Adverse infusion reactions to rituximab in systemic lupus erythematosus: a retrospective analysis

Background To undertake a retrospective review of patients with SLE who had received Rituximab in order to determine the rates and associated patient characteristics of clinically significant adverse infusion reactions. Methods A descriptive analysis was undertaken of each infusion reaction, which was then assessed using the clinical information available to hypothesise on the possible underlying mechanism(s). Results Records of 136 SLE patients previously treated with 481 individual infusions of Rituximab were reviewed. A total of 22 patients (17.6%) had 28 (5.8% of total infusions) documented clinically significant adverse infusion reactions. Average age at first Rituximab infusion in patients without a reaction was 37 years (range 16–73) compared with 30 years (range 18–56) in those with a reaction. A high proportion of men (18.2%) experienced an infusion reaction. Severity and type of reaction varied. 6.4% of those who had a reaction were not retreated. Conclusions While Rituximab remains an important tool in the treatment of SLE it is important to be aware that rates of infusion reactions may be more significant in SLE than in other diseases. A prospective study is required to better characterise the reactions