The Williams Scale of Attitude toward Paganism: development and application among British Pagans

This article builds on the tradition of attitudinal measures of religiosity established by Leslie Francis and colleagues with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity (and reflected in the Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Islam, the Katz-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Judaism, and the Santosh-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Hinduism) by introducing a new measure to assess the attitudinal disposition of Pagans. A battery of items was completed by 75 members of a Pagan Summer Camp. These items were reduced to produce a 21-item scale that measured aspects of Paganism concerned with: the God/Goddess, worshipping, prayer, and coven. The scale recorded an alpha coefficient of 0.93. Construct validity of the Williams Scale of Attitude toward Paganism was demonstrated by the clear association with measures of participation in private rituals

Coated silica nanoparticles in Nakhla iddingsite veins: implications for waterrock interaction within the Martian crust

No abstract available

Porosity Variations Between Fine Grained Rims and Matrix in a CM Chondrite by 3D Serial Sectioning

No abstract available

Transcriptional regulation of bacterial virulence gene expression by molecular oxygen and nitric oxide

© Jeffrey Green, Matthew D Rolfe, and Laura J Smith. Molecular oxygen (O2) and nitric oxide (NO) are diatomic gases that play major roles in infection. The host innate immune system generates reactive oxygen species and NO as bacteriocidal agents and both require O2 for their production. Furthermore, the ability to adapt to changes in O2 availability is crucial for many bacterial pathogens, as many niches within a host are hypoxic. Pathogenic bacteria have evolved transcriptional regulatory systems that perceive these gases and respond by reprogramming gene expression. Direct sensors possess iron-containing co-factors (iron-sulfur clusters, mononuclear iron, heme) or reactive cysteine thiols that react with O2 and/or NO. Indirect sensors perceive the physiological effects of O2 starvation. Thus, O2 and NO act as environmental cues that trigger the coordinated expression of virulence genes and metabolic adaptations necessary for survival within a host. Here, the mechanisms of signal perception by key O2and NO-responsive bacterial transcription factors and the effects on virulence gene expression are reviewed, followed by consideration of these aspects of gene regulation in two major pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mis-Steps in the Dance of Differences: Problems and Potentials in Cross-Cultural Job Interviews

With the proportion of immigrants in Canadian society increasing, knowledge of cultural differences is ever more critical. For tourism, parks, and other leisure organizations, as in most service organizations, recruiting the right employee is essential. Selecting and hiring the right people, at the right time, in the right place is a complex, stressful and costly undertaking for both the organization and the candidate. However, making the wrong hiring decision can result in even more problems. Interviewing is a key task in the hiring process, but interviewing in a cross-cultural environment requires skills that many employers lack. The proposed research will use a combination of interviews and relevant documentation (e.g., organizational policies), informed by a conceptual framework related to crosscultural communication. In particular, the paper will review current research on the problems and challenges related to the need for more sensitive cross-cultural communications by managers in tourism and leisure organizations. The paper concludes summarizing this research by offering some tentative strategies for avoiding misconceptions arising based on cultural unawareness

Tourism Innovation: Integrating Ginseng into Spa Development: A Case Study of Sunmore Ginseng Health Spa in Kamloops, BC, Canada

Although innovation research has built a solid ground in the realms of nature science and technology, for examples, innovation study in the field of engineering looks at the development of new processes; innovation study in the field of medicine focuses on the development of new devices, drugs and practices, it has not obtained its proper respect as a critical topic in social science, particularly in tourism research. Innovation study in tourism is surprisingly limited and still in a phase of infancy. The purpose of this study is to further explore the notion of innovation in the context of tourism based on earlier scholars’ research. To provide more practical and industrial insights into the understanding of how innovation works in tourism, our researchers conduct a case study of Sunmore Ginseng Health Spa to examine its application of the established innovation concepts and paradigms, as well as the fitness for Abernathy and Clark’s innovation model. Sunmore Ginseng Spa, a health spa in Canada, is located in Kamloops, BC. It is operated as a day spa. The spa is characterized by four functioned suites with the themes from Chinese ancient philosophy: Gold, Wood, Water and Fire. The services offered at Sunmore spa include Swedish massage, aromatherapy massage, reflexology, body wrap, salt glow, facials, and ginseng steaming and sauna. The study found Sunmore Ginseng Health Spa fits well the right upper quadrant of the model which is named ‘architectural innovation’. In line with the ‘experience economy’, Sunmore Ginseng Health Spa may also be considered a good example of ‘experience innovation’. In addition, the research also identified several emergent themes from tourism innovations such as service differentiation, ‘high-tech. and high- touch’, and experience innovation in the experience economy. Future research should further look into the main drivers of tourism innovation, the relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship, the development of innovation models for specific service sub-sectors, as well as the roles of innovation in the experience economy

Companion planting to attract pollinators increases the yield and quality of strawberry fruit in gardens and allotments

1. Global pollinator declines have led to concern that crop yields might fall as a result of a pollination deficit. Companion planting is a traditional practice thought to increase yield of insect pollinated crops by planting a co-flowering species next to the crop. 2. Using a combination of conventional researcher-led experiments and observational citizen scientist data, we tested the effectiveness of bee-friendly borage (Borago officinalis) as a companion plant to strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa). Insect visitors to the ‘Test’ (strawberry + borage) versus ‘Control’ (strawberry only) plants were observed, and strawberry fruit collected. Strawberries collected during the researcher-led experiment were also subject to fruit measurements and assessments of market quality. 3. Companion plants were found to significantly increase both yield and market quality of strawberries, suggesting an increase in insect pollination per plant. Test strawberries companion planted with borage produced an average of 35% more fruits, and 32% increased yield by weight. Test strawberry plants produced significantly more fruit of higher aesthetic quality when assessed by Marketing Standards for Strawberries. 4. Although there was no significant difference in the overall insect visits, when broken down by broad insect group there were significantly more flies visiting the test strawberries than controls. 5. These results could have implications for both gardeners and commercial growers. As consumers prefer a cosmetically perfect fruit, the production of fruit with increased aesthetics aids food waste reduction

Final Project Report: Wine Suitcase

The Wine Suitcase Project was proposed by Dr. Becker to address the problem of a lack of safe and secure transportation of wine during worldwide travel. Currently, there are some solutions, like wine bottle diapers (a special bag to put a wine bottle in and catch the liquid if the bottle breaks) and an expensive wine suitcase, but a protective, insulated and cost-effective wine travel suitcase would be of great help to the wine community. This past year, our team has worked to design and produce said suitcase. The major objectives of this design are that the suitcase has to keep the bottles below the critical temperature of 70°F and safe from breaking during travel and baggage handling. Specifically, the suitcase should be able to pass the International Safe Transit Association’s (ISTA) Test Procedure 2A for Packaged-Products 150 pounds or less and keep the wine below a temperature of 70 °F for up to 36 hours [1]. The bottles should be placed in the bag at a maximum of 65 °F initially. In order for the user to know if his/her wine has been above the 70 °F mark, the design should also include a notification system or temperature tracker. Finally, the suitcase should hold up to 12 bottles of 750 mL wine and come in at a total cost of less than $350 to be competitive against current suitcase designs. The suitcase also needs to be able to hold at least one case of wine (12 bottles) of various sizes. According to these objectives and requirements, a wine suitcase was designed and fabricated using a hard-shell suitcase, foam, insulation and a temperature sensor. Specifically, the hard-shell suitcase and the foam padding satisfied the safety requirement for the bottles and for the temperature stability requirement, the insulation was added as a layer between the foam and suitcase shell. Additionally, in order to communicate to the user what the temperature of the wine is inside the suitcase, the team added a handheld sensor device with Bluetooth capabilities. After fabrication, 7 tests were performed to evaluate the success of the design against the requirements: bottle physical protection test, bottle quantity test, bottle thermal protection test, weight of suitcase test, size of suitcase test, ThermoplusTM temperature sensor test and a heat transfer simulation test. The team was unable to perform the thermal protection test due to the displacement from San Antonio from COVID-19. Each of the other 6 tests were performed and resulted in a success and satisfied their appropriate requirement. The heat transfer simulation test was added after the displacement from COVID-19 to offset the inability to perform the thermal test in person. The thermal simulation test was run to focus on the most critical 15-minute time-frame of the travel journey where the suitcase may be held in direct sunlight. At all other times, the suitcase will be in the cargo hold or inside the air-conditioned airport. While the simulation is not the same as an in-person test, we can still use it as a good measure of the thermal protection capabilities of our design and were satisfied with the passing results. Overall, once the temperature sensor has been installed, we assert that the Wine Suitcase that was fabricated before displacement will be a fully functioning device that can safely transport wine due to the successes of our testing

The Leisure Of Learning: Students’ Perceptions Of Learntertainment’ As An Instructional Method

With present-day classrooms becoming increasingly diverse, educational institutions, teachers and university administrators are looking to teaching and learning strategies that provide for a variety of learning profiles and styles. Many educators start their class with a ‘big bang’- an interesting ice breaker- to raise excitement in their students, but due to the use of the lecture method, the interest in class soon regresses, and the attention of the learner begins to wane. This has the negative impact of affecting what is learned and the extent of knowledge gained as a result of the teaching-learning process. Consequently, learntertainment, a new teaching approach is being presented as an alternative to the lecture method. The purpose of this paper is identifying what the benefits of Learntertainment teaching strategies are and to explore students’ perception of Learntertainment. A qualitative approach is considered to be appropriate for this paper and will be based on Strauss and Corbin (1998) grounded theory modified slightly to incorporate constructivist grounded theory espoused by Charmaz (2000)

Towards an ecological network for the Carpathians

The Carpathian Biodiversity Information System (CBIS) and the proposal for an ecological network for the eastern part of the Carpathians are the two main outcomes of the project funded by the BBI Matra program of the Dutch government. This brochure presents information on how the CBIS was designed, and how the data stored can be retrieved and used. It also clarifies how the CBIS data were used to design the ecological network and, last but not least, it offers recommendations for the use of the proposed ecological network in supporting sustainable developmentin the Carpathians. Due to funding restrictions, the project focused on three east Carpathian countries: Romania, Serbia and Ukraine, which together host the largest area of the Carpathians (Fig. 2). Geographically, the Eastern Carpathians also include parts of the Carpathians located in Poland and Slovakia. Data collection in the Western Carpathians (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary) will be completed by 2010 and is funded by a parallel project