Abstract Nanocarbon is a promising type of biomaterial for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Fluorescent nanodiamond (FND) containing nitrogen-vacancy centers as built-in fluorophores is a new ...addition to the nanocarbon family. Here, we study the long-term stability and biocompatibility of 100-nm FNDs in rats through intraperitoneal injection over 5 months and develop the potential application of this biomaterial for sentinel lymph node mapping in a mouse model. From both in vivo and ex vivo fluorescence imaging as well as transmission electron microscopy, we found that the intradermally administered FND particles can be drained from the injection sites by macrophages and selectively accumulated in the axillary lymph nodes of the treated mice. Our measurements of water consumption, fodder consumption, body weight, and organ index showed no significant difference between control and FND-treated groups of the rats. Histopathological analysis of various tissues and organs indicated that FNDs are non-toxic even when a large quantity, up to 75 mg/kg body weight, of the particles was administered intraperitoneally to the living animals. With the properties of wide-ranging biocompatibility and perfect chemical and photophysical stability, FND is well suited for use as a contrast agent for long-term in vivo imaging.
The impact of updating or renewing a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy is an important topic in the CSR literature stream for market researchers and practitioners alike. Using ...Starbucks as a case study, this paper explores the impact of a CSR renewal strategy on customer loyalty, examining the importance and relevance of CSR renewal strategy, brand reputation, and customer-company identification. Three laboratory experiments are used to test the hypotheses of the mediating role of customer-company identification and moderating role of brand reputation on the CSR renewal strategy effect. This study finds that renewing the CSR strategy can increase customer loyalty by increasing customer-company identification. However, this only happens for a strong brand like Starbucks. For a firm with a weak brand, leaving its CSR efforts unchanged has a stronger effect on increasing customer loyalty than renewing or updating its CSR strategy. Implications on CSR renewal strategy in hospitality are discussed.
•For Starbucks a CSR renewal strategy has a positive effect on customer loyalty.•Customer-company identification (CCI) is a moderator.•The effect of a CSR renewal strategy on customer loyalty is mediated by CCI.•For virtual brand a CSR non-renewal strategy has a positive effect on CCI.•Brand reputation moderates the effect of the CSR renewal strategy on CCI.
Biomedical imaging allows
studies of organisms, providing valuable information of biological processes at both cellular and tissue levels. Nanodiamonds have recently emerged as a new type of probe ...for fluorescence imaging and contrast agent for magnetic resonance and photoacoustic imaging. Composed of sp
-carbon atoms, diamond is chemically inert and inherently biocompatible. Uniquely, its matrix can host a variety of optically and magnetically active defects suited for bioimaging applications. Since the first production of fluorescent nanodiamonds in 2005, a large number of experiments have demonstrated that fluorescent nanodiamonds are useful as photostable markers and nanoscale sensors in living cells and organisms. In this review, we focus our discussion on the recent advancements of nanodiamond-enabled biomedical imaging for preclinical applications.
Cellular fate of nanoparticles is vital to application of nanoparticles to cell imaging, bio-sensing, drug delivery, suppression of drug resistance, gene delivery, and cytotoxicity analysis. However, ...the current studies on cellular fate of nanoparticles have been controversial due to complications of interplay between many possible factors. By well-controlled experiments, we demonstrated unambiguously that the morphology of nanoparticles independently determined their cellular fate. We found that nanoparticles with sharp shapes, regardless of their surface chemistry, size, or composition, could pierce the membranes of endosomes that carried them into the cells and escape to the cytoplasm, which in turn significantly reduced the cellular excretion rate of the nanoparticles. Such features of sharp-shaped nanoparticles are essential for drug delivery, gene delivery, subcellular targeting, and long-term tracking. This work opens up a controllable, purely geometrical and hence safe, degree of freedom for manipulating nanoparticle-cell interaction, with numerous applications in medicine, bio-imaging, and bio-sensing.
Microorganisms can be used for enhancing flavors or metabolizing functional compounds. The fermented-food-derived bacterial strains comprising
,
, and
mixed with
and
were used to ferment goji berry (
...L.) juice in this study. The fermentation abilities and antioxidant capacities of different mixtures of multiple strains in goji juice were compared. The results showed that the lactic acid contents increased 9.24-16.69 times from 25.30 ± 0.71 mg/100 mL in goji juice fermented using the SLV (
,
, and
), SZP (
,
, and
), and SZVP (
,
,
, and
) mixtures, and the protein contents increased 1.31-2.11 times from 39.23 ± 0.67 mg/100 mL. In addition, their contents of volatile compounds increased with positive effects on aroma in the fermented juices. Conversion of the free and bound forms of phenolic acids and flavonoids in juice was influenced by fermentation, and the antioxidant capacity improved significantly. Fermentation enhanced the contents of lactic acid, proteins, volatile compounds, and phenols. The antioxidant capacity was strongly correlated with the phenolic composition.
Aerogel fiber, with the characteristics of ultra-low density, ultra-high porosity, and high specific surface area, is the most potential candidate for manufacturing wearable thermal insulation ...material. However, aerogel fibers generally show weak mechanical properties and complex preparation processes. Herein, through firstly preparing a cellulose acetate/polyacrylic acid (CA/PAA) hollow fiber using coaxial wet-spinning followed by injecting the silk fibroin (SF) solution into the hollow fiber, the CA/PAA-wrapped SF aerogel fibers toward textile thermal insulation were successfully constructed after freeze-drying. The sheath (CA/PAA hollow fiber) possesses a multiscale porous structure, including micropores (11.37 ± 4.01 μm), sub-micron pores (217.47 ± 46.16 nm), as well as nanopores on the inner (44.00 ± 21.65 nm) and outer (36.43 ± 17.55 nm) surfaces, which is crucial to the formation of a SF aerogel core. Furthermore, the porous CA/PAA-wrapped SF aerogel fibers have many advantages, such as low density (0.21 g/cm
), high porosity (86%), high strength at break (2.6 ± 0.4 MPa), as well as potential continuous and large-scale production. The delicate structure of multiscale porous sheath and ultra-low-density SF aerogel core synergistically inhibit air circulation and limit convective heat transfer. Meanwhile, the high porosity of aerogel fibers weakens heat transfer and the SF aerogel cellular walls prevent infrared radiation. The results show that the mat composed of these aerogel fibers exhibits excellent thermal insulating properties with a wide working temperature from -20 to 100 °C. Therefore, this SF-based aerogel fiber can be considered as a practical option for high performance thermal insulation.
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce the psychological variable of “social distance” and use SEM to analyze the relationship between tourism service providers’ physical attractiveness (SPPA) and ...tourists’ perceptions of social distance, stereotypes and service quality.
Design/methodology/approach
The data collectors were instructed to convenience sampling tourists in Guangzhou Chimelong Tourist Resort, the biggest resort in South China and 334 valid questionnaires were collected. This study used CFA to confirm the measurement model and to check the reliability and validity of the constructs. Using Mplus 7.0, SEM was performed to test the hypotheses of this study.
Findings
The study found that tourism SPPA can improve tourists’ stereotype perception by reducing the social distance between tourists and service providers, which ultimately improves service quality. This study also found that only warmth perception can significantly improve the service quality evaluation of tourists, with competence perception having no significant effect.
Originality/value
This study focused on the SPPA in tourism services, expanding the research on tourism service management and on the effect of physical attractiveness; enriched the stereotype content model and behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes map by clarifying the mediating role of social distance and stereotypes; found different roles played by the competence and warmth stereotype in the enhancement effect; helped find an insightful strategy to improve service quality by recruiting and training employees intentionally.
旅游服务人员的外貌吸引力与顾客服务质量评价：热情与能力同等重要吗？
目的
本文的目的在于利用结构方程模型验证旅游服务人员的外貌吸引力、旅游者感知社会距离与服务质量感知之间的关系, 并为如何提升旅游服务质量提出建议。
设计/方法学/方法
研究使用方便抽样的方式在广州长隆旅游度假区共回收有效问卷334份。本文使用Mplus 7.0对研究模型进行了检验。
结果
研究结果表明, 旅游服务人员的外貌吸引力可以通过拉近其与旅游者之间的社会距离, 从而能够提升旅游者对其的热情和能力刻板印象, 进而提升旅游者服务质量感知。本文还发现热情和能力刻板印象的重要性有所不同, 只有后者能够显著提升旅游者服务质量感知。
创意/价值
第一, 本研究从一线旅游服务人员的外貌吸引力因素视角, 推进了旅游服务管理和外貌刻板印象的相关研究。第二, 本文还通过厘清社会距离和刻板印象的中介作用, 丰富了SCM和BIAS map理论。第三, 本文发现了热情和能力刻板印象在提升服务质量感知过程中的不同作用。
关键词：外貌吸引力, 社会距离, 刻板印象, SCM, BIAS map, 服务质量
文章类型： 研究型论文
El atractivo físico de los prestadores de servicios turísticos y la evaluación de la calidad del servicio de los clientes: ¿qué es más importante, la calidez o las competencias?
Objetivo
El objetivo de este artículo es introducir la variable psicológica del “distanciamiento social” y utilizar un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales para analizar la relación entre el atractivo físico de los prestadores de servicios turísticos y la percepción de los turistas sobre el distanciamiento social, estereotipos y la calidad del servicio.
Diseño/Metodología/Enfoque
Los recopiladores de datos recibieron instrucciones de tomar muestras de turistas a conveniencia en el centro turístico de Guangzhou Chimelong, el centro turístico más grande del sur de China. Se recolectaron 334 cuestionarios válidos. Este estudio utilizó el AFC para confirmar el modelo de medición y verificar la confiabilidad y validez de los constructos. Para probar las hipótesis de este estudio, se elaboró un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales utilizando Mplus 7.0.
Resultados
En este estudio se encontró que el atractivo físico de los prestadores de servicios turísticos puede mejorar los estereotipos de los turistas, reduciendo el distanciamiento social entre los turistas y los prestadores de servicios y a la vez, en última instancia, formar una mayor calidad del servicio. En este estudio también se encontró que, en dos estereotipos, la percepción de la calidez y de las competencias, solo el último puede mejorar significativamente la evaluación de la calidad del servicio por parte de los turistas. No existe una relación significativa entre la percepción de la calidez y la evaluación de la calidad del servicio.
Originalidad/Valor
En primer lugar, este estudio se enfocó en el atractivo físico del personal de primera línea que presta los servicios turísticos, ampliando la investigación a la gestión de los servicios de turismo y el efecto del atractivo físico. En segundo lugar, este estudio enriqueció el SMC y el mapa BIAS al aclarar el rol mediador del distanciamiento social y los estereotipos. En tercer lugar, en este estudio se encontraron los diferentes roles que juegan el estereotipo de las competencias y el de la calidez en la relación entre el atractivo físico y la calidad del servicio.
Palabras clave
Atractivo físico, distanciamiento social, estereotipos, SMC, mapa BIAS, calidad del servicio
The post-synthetic modification of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) is an effective strategy for preparing new materials that exhibit superior performance compared to their parental ZIFs. ...Herein, we quantitatively transformed the aldehyde group of ZIF-90 into mono- and bis-Schiff bases, and the resulting compounds ZIF-90-I–ZIF-90-III still retained the crystallinity and their parental structures. Importantly, ZIF-90-III with the highest amount of mono-Schiff base showed the maximum iodine uptake capacities of 6600 mg g
−1
and 1826 mg g
−1
for iodine vapor and iodine/cyclohexane solution, respectively, which are 1.5- and 3.4-fold as much as that of ZIF-90, being among the highest reported to date for metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). Noteworthily, activation energies for iodine adsorption of ZIF-90 and its post-synthetic derivatives were speculated experimentally, which was firstly investigated for MOFs. Meanwhile, adsorption kinetics, iodine species during iodine adsorption process and the related theoretical calculations were also studied in detail.
Display omitted
•The fermented and unfermented goji berry juices attenuated dextran sodium sulfate induced colitis.•The probiotics-fermented goji berry juice treatment (FGJ, 20 mL/kg/d) prevented ...histological damage.•FGJ enhanced intestinal integrity and modulated inflammatory cytokines in serum and colon.•The key gut bacteria at the phylums, family and genus level were regulated by FGJ.
This study administered the goji juice (20 mL/kg/d) fermented by Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus reuteri and Streptococcus thermophilus or unfermented juice for male mice for 30 days, then the effects on dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis were investigated. The results shown that intaking fermented or unfermented goji juice decreased the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) in serum and colon, while increased the levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH). Additionally, intaking fermented or unfermented goji juices decreased intestinal permeability, and modulated gut microbiota at the phylums, family and genus level in ulcerative colitis mice. It is worth noting that the probiotics-fermented goji juice showed better anti-inflammatory effects than unfermented goji juice. These results demonstrated that probiotics-fermentation enhanced the anti-ulcerative colitis function of goji berry juice by regulating oxidative stress and inflammation markers and modulating gut microbiota.
Femoral neck fractures in older adult patients are a major concern and often necessitate surgical intervention. This study compared the clinical outcomes of 2 surgical techniques: the femoral neck ...system (FNS) and cannulated compression screws (CCSs).
A total of 40 female patients (mean age 73.50 ± 11.55 years) with femoral neck fractures of Pauwels classification type II and receiving surgical fixation between 2020 and 2022 were enrolled. The patients were categorized into an FNS group (n = 12) or a CCS group (n = 28), and surgical duration, intraoperative blood loss, length of hospital stay, and incidence of postoperative adverse events were analyzed.
No significant intergroup differences in demographic characteristics were discovered. The mean surgical duration for all patients was 52.88 ± 22.19 min, with no significant difference between the groups. However, the FNS group experienced significantly higher intraoperative blood loss (P = 0.002) and longer hospital stay (P = 0.023) than did the CCS group. The incidence of osteonecrosis was higher in the CCS group, whereas the incidence of nonunion or malunion was higher in the FNS group. The surgical method did not appear to be a significant risk factor. The main risk factor for revision surgery was longer duration until the first adverse event (P = 0.015).
The FNS does not appear to provide superior surgical outcomes compared with CCSs in older adult women with Pauwels classification type II femoral neck fractures. A longer duration between surgical fixation and the first adverse event before stabilization of the fracture site may be a risk factor for revision surgery.
PDF
