Good practices in the management of tourist agencies

The purpose of this article is to identify good practices and opportunities to provide a competitive advantage to the tour operator business in the contemporary business environment. Specific proposals are made for their achievement, related to the diversification of the offered product and the adding of additional user value; changes in the management of this type of specific activity; automating business processes; designing additional activities; image building, etc. There are also issues, in this paper, related to the application of modern information systems in the management of the activities of the travel agencies. Attention is focused on cloud systems and software services, which, in addition to helping to improve their processes, also provide the opportunity to redistribute resources to manage creative and intellectual processes related to the production of a travel product (packages, excursion routes, etc.) and its placement

State and development of the cruise industry

The turbulent and dynamic development of the cruise industry provokes serious interest due to a number of factors, including the creation of a huge number of jobs in the tourism sphere, the introduction of a new model in tourist trips, the promotion of destinations, the role of innovations in the development of cruise tourism. The aim of the article is to track the state and the development of the cruise industry, to highlight its specific features, to study the demand and supply patterns in this field, and to highlight the trends in this area. By factoring analysis, situational analysis, comparative analysis and synthesis, answers are sought to questions related to its prospects for growth and its impact on the development of tourism

State and development of electronic business in tourism

This article analyze basic characteristics, peculiarities and tendencies in the development of e-business. In the article are systematized stages and principles in the development of e-business. Based on the study of the dynamics of e-commerce in tourism, are presented specifi c recommendations for its management in tourism companies. It is argued that with the development of e-business and e-commerce, tourism companies could successfully develop a personalized e-business strategy, could select and manage customer relationship and analyze quickly business situations and forecast their development

Antioxidant and Antitumor Potential of Micropropagated Balkan Endemic <i>Sideritis scardica</i> Griseb

Sideritis scardica Griseb. is a critically endangered Balkan endemic species, known for its antioxidant, neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties. The aim of the present study was to detail an efficient protocol for the micropropagation of S. scardica. In vitro cultures were initiated from the shoot tips of 40 days-old in vivo seedlings and the effects of different plant growth regulator treatments were examined. A Murashige and Skoog nutrient medium (MS) containing 1 mg/L zeatin and 0.1 mg/L indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) proved to be the most efficient for shoot multiplication as it produced quality, vigorous shoots with a mean number of six shoots per explant. For the first time, the antioxidant and antitumor activities of extracts from in vitro-obtained plants were evaluated. In vitro cultivated plants grown in the field revealed a higher total polyphenol content (3929.1 ± 112.2 mg GAE/100 g vs. 3563.5 ± 52.8 mg GAE/100 g) and higher ORAC antioxidant activity (1211.6 ± 27.3 µmol TE/g vs. 939.9 ± 52.4 µmol TE/g) than in situ cultivated plants. A comparison of the antitumor activities of extracts from in vitro propagated shoots, field-grown in vitro-obtained plants and in situ plants on HeLa (cervical adenocarcinoma), HT-29 (colorectal adenocarcinoma) and MCF-7 (breast cancer) human cancer cell lines showed that in vitro propagated shoots had a significant concentration-dependent cytotoxic effect on the cervical adenocarcinoma cell line HeLa, while the field-grown in vitro-obtained and in situ-collected samples induced the highest reduction in the viability of the mammary carcinoma cell line MCF-7. In both cases, the cells of the control non-tumor cell line, BALB/3T3, were significantly less affected. The results showed that the in vitro multiplication protocol ensured the obtainment of numerous plants with antioxidant and antitumor potential

Measurement of simplified template cross sections of the Higgs boson produced in association with W or Z bosons in the H → bb decay channel in proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV

Differential cross sections are measured for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with vector bosons (W, Z) and decaying to a pair of b quarks. Measurements are performed within the framework of the simplified template cross sections. The analysis relies on the leptonic decays of theW and Z bosons, resulting in final states with 0, 1, or 2 electrons or muons. The Higgs boson candidates are either reconstructed from pairs of resolved b-tagged jets, or from single large-radius jets containing the particles arising from two b quarks. Proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment in 2016-2018 and corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 138 fb(-1), are analyzed. The inclusive signal strength, defined as the product of the observed production cross section and branching fraction relative to the standard model expectation, combining all analysis categories, is found to be mu = 1.15(-0.20)(+0.22). This corresponds to an observed (expected) significance of 6.3 (5.6) standard deviations.LPHE-L