Electronic Channels of Distribution: Challenges and Solutions for Hotel Operators

This paper addresses the issues of hotel operators identifying effective means of allocating rooms through various electronic channels of distribution. Relying upon the theory of coercive isomorphism, a think tank was constructed to identify and define electronic channels of distribution currently being utilized in the hotel industry. Through two full-day focus groups consisting of key hotel executives and industry practitioners, distribution channels were identified as were challenges and solutions associated with each.

High-performance liquid chromatography measurement of carotenoids in human serum, etoposide in pig cerebrospinal fluid and measurement of the aggregation of xanthophylls in aqueous solutions

The present study measured a chemotherapy drug, etoposide, in pig cerebrospinal fluid after intraventricular administrations were made directly into the fourth ventricle of the brain; cytotoxic concentrations for a twenty-four hour period after infusions. The analytical method developed validates the potential treatment of malignant brain tumors. The increase in serum carotenoid concentration in 30 healthy individuals was measured after supplementation with lutein. HPLC analysis of serum levels of carotenoids showed an increase in the concentration of lutein and a constant concentration of other major serum carotenoids. An initial attempt to measure the enthalpy of aggregation of xanthophylls was conducted by using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. The enthalpy of lutein aggregation and AH range of zeaxanthin disordering of aggregation are reported. Monomethyl ether of lutein did not aggregate in any of the aqueous solutions.

2003 Habitat Maps derived from Grey Nurse Shark (GNS) Project of Wolf Rock, Double Island Point, Queensland, Australia

Surveying habitats critical to the survival of grey nurse sharks in South-East Queensland has mapped critical habitats, gathered species inventories and developed protocols for ecological monitoring of critical habitats in southern Queensland. This information has assisted stakeholders with habitat definition and effective management. In 2002 members of UniDive applied successfully for World Wide Fund for Nature, Threatened Species Network funds to map the critical Grey Nurse Shark Habitats in south east Queensland. UniDive members used the funding to survey, from the boats of local dive operators, Wolf Rock at Double Island Point, Gotham, Cherub's Cave, Henderson's Rock and China Wall at North Moreton and Flat Rock at Point Look Out during 2002 and 2003. These sites are situated along the south east Queensland coast and are known to be key Grey Nurse Shark aggregation sites. During the project UniDive members were trained in mapping and survey techniques that include identification of fish, invertebrates and substrate types. Training was conducted by experts from the University of Queensland (Centre of Marine Studies, Biophysical Remote Sensing) and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service who are also UniDive members. The monitoring methods (see methods) are based upon results of the UniDive Coastcare project from 2002, the international established Reef Check program and research conducted by Biophysical Remote Sensing and the Centre of Marine Studies. Habitats were mapped using a combination of towed GPS photo transects, aerial photography, bathymetry surveys and expert knowledge. This data provides georeferenced information regarding the major features of each of Sites mapped including Wolf Rock

The spectra of linear fractional composition operators on weighted Dirichlet spaces

We completely determine the spectra of composition operators induced by linear fractional self-maps of the unit disc acting on weighted Dirichlet spaces; extending earlier results by Higdon [8] and answering the open questions in this context.

Fractal analysis of the effect of particle aggregation distribution on thermal conductivity of nanofluids

This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41572116), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan) (No. CUG160602).

Rota’s universal operators and invariant subspaces in Hilbert spaces

A Hilbert space operator is called universal (in the sense of Rota) if every operator on the Hilbert space is similar to a multiple of the restriction of the universal operator to one of its invariant subspaces. We exhibit an analytic Toeplitz operator whose adjoint is universal in the sense of Rota and commutes with a quasi-nilpotent injective compact operator with dense range. In articular, this new universal operator invites an approach to the Invariant Subspace Problem that uses properties of operators that commute with the universal operator.

Emergence of additional visible range photoluminescence due to aggregation of cyanine dye:astraphloxin on carbon nanotubes dispersed with anionic surfactant

Self-organization of organic molecules with carbon nanomaterials leads to formation of functionalized molecular nano-complexes with advanced features. We present a study of physical and chemical properties of carbon nanotube-surfactant-indocarbocyanine dye (astraphloxin) in water focusing on aggregation of the dye and resonant energy transfer from the dye to the nanotubes. Self-assembly of astraphloxin is evidenced in absorbance and photoluminescence depending dramatically on the concentrations of both the dye and surfactant in the mixtures. We observed an appearance of new photoluminescence peaks in visible range from the dye aggregates. The aggregates characterized with red shifted photoluminescence peaks at 595, 635 and 675 nm are formed mainly due to the presence of surfactant at the premicellar concentration. The energy transfer from the dye to the nanotubes amplifying near-infrared photoluminescence from the nanotubes is not affected by the aggregation of astraphloxin molecules providing important knowledge for further development of advanced molecular nano-complexes. The aggregation with the turned-on peaks and the energy transfer with amplified photoluminescence create powerful tools of visualization and/or detection of the nanotubes in visible and near-infrared spectral range, respectively, boosting its possible applications in sensors, energy generation/storage, and healthcare.

Geometry of Dirac Operators

Let $M$ be a compact, oriented, even dimensional Riemannian manifold and let $S$ be a Clifford bundle over $M$ with Dirac operator $D$. Then \[ \textsc{Atiyah Singer: } \quad \text{Ind } \mathsf{D}= \int_M \hat{\mathcal{A}}(TM)\wedge \text{ch}(\mathcal{V}) \] where $\mathcal{V} =\text{Hom}_{\mathbb{C}l(TM)}(\slashed{\mathsf{S}},S)$. We prove the above statement with the means of the heat kernel of the heat semigroup $e^{-tD^2}$. The first outstanding result is the McKean-Singer theorem that describes the index in terms of the supertrace of the heat kernel. The trace of heat kernel is obtained from local geometric information. Moreover, if we use the asymptotic expansion of the kernel we will see that in the computation of the index only one term matters. The Berezin formula tells us that the supertrace is nothing but the coefficient of the Clifford top part, and at the end, Getzler calculus enables us to find the integral of these top parts in terms of characteristic classes.

Spectrally isometric elementary operators

We present criteria for unital elementary operators (of small length) on unital semisimple Banach algebras to be spectral isometries. The surjective ones among them turn out to be algebra automorphisms.

More elementary operators that are spectrally bounded

We discuss some necessary and some sufficient conditions for an elementary operator x↦∑ⁿ_i=1a_ixb_i on a Banach algebra A to be spectrally bounded. In the case of length three, we obtain a complete characterisation when A acts irreducibly on a Banach space of dimension greater than three.

Locally quasi-nilpotent elementary operators

Let A be a unital dense algebra of linear mappings on a complex vector space X. Let φ = Σⁿ _i=1 M_ai,_bi be a locally quasi-nilpotent elementary operator of length n on A. We show that, if {a1, . . . , an} is locally linearly independent, then the local dimension of V (φ) = span{b_ia_j : 1 ≤ i, j ≤ n} is at most n(n−1) 2 . If ldim V (φ) = n(n−1) 2 , then there exists a representation of φ as φ = Σⁿ _i=1 M_ui,_vi with v_iu_j = 0 for i ≥ j. Moreover, we give a complete characterization of locally quasinilpotent elementary operators of length 3.

Elementary operators-still not elementary?

Properties of elementary operators, that is, finite sums of two-sided multiplications on a Banach algebra, have been studied under a vast variety of aspects by numerous authors. In this paper we review recent advances in a new direction that seems not to have been explored before: the question when an elementary operator is spectrally bounded or spectrally isometric. As with other investigations, a number of subtleties occur which show that elementary operators are still not elementary to handle.

Enzyme-induced Aggregation of Plasmonic Nanoparticles for the Development of Label-free and Ultrasensitive Detection of Bacterial DNA

Sensitive detection of pathogens is critical to ensure the safety of food supplies and to prevent bacterial disease infection and outbreak at the first onset. While conventional techniques such as cell culture, ELISA, PCR, etc. have been used as the predominant detection workhorses, they are however limited by either time-consuming procedure, complicated sample pre-treatment, expensive analysis and operation, or inability to be implemented at point-of-care testing. Here, we present our recently developed assay exploiting enzyme-induced aggregation of plasmonic gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for label-free and ultrasensitive detection of bacterial DNA. In the experiments, AuNPs are first functionalized with specific, single-stranded RNA probes so that they exhibit high stability in solution even under high electrolytic condition thus exhibiting red color. When bacterial DNA is present in a sample, a DNA-RNA heteroduplex will be formed and subsequently prone to the RNase H cleavage on the RNA probe, allowing the DNA to liberate and hybridize with another RNA strand. This continuously happens until all of the RNA strands are cleaved, leaving the nanoparticles ‘unprotected’. The addition of NaCl will cause the ‘unprotected’ nanoparticles to aggregate, initiating a colour change from red to blue. The reaction is performed in a multi-well plate format, and the distinct colour signal can be discriminated by naked eye or simple optical spectroscopy. As a result, bacterial DNA as low as pM could be unambiguously detected, suggesting that the enzyme-induced aggregation of AuNPs assay is very easy to perform and sensitive, it will significantly benefit to development of fast and ultrasensitive methods that can be used for disease detection and diagnosis.

Non-Gaussian distribution of collective operators in quantum spin chains

We numerically analyse the behavior of the full distribution of collective observables in quantum spin chains. While most of previous studies of quantum critical phenomena are limited to the first moments, here we demonstrate how quantum fluctuations at criticality lead to highly non-Gaussian distributions. Interestingly, we show that the distributions for different system sizes collapse on thesame curve after scaling for a wide range of transitions: first and second order quantum transitions and transitions of the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless type. We propose and analyse the feasibility of an experimental reconstruction of the distribution using light–matter interfaces for atoms in optical lattices or in optical resonators.

Orbits of semigroups of truncated convolution operators

We prove that a semigroup generated by finitely many truncated convolution operators on $L_p[0, 1]$ with 1 ≤ p < ∞ is non-supercyclic. On the other hand, there is a truncated convolution operator, which possesses irregular vectors.