Career development of women in the hotel industry: An Overview

This paper focuses on factors affecting career progression of women in the hotel industry as discussed by researchers in different geographical locations in the world and to investigate whether women are indeed blocked in the process of advancing in their career. It is also focused to explore the mechanism adopted by the hospitality companies to mitigate the issue related to women’s career progression. An in-depth study was carried to by reviewing twenty-two articles related to the hotel industry and twenty-eight articles related to hospitality industry. It was revealed that specific factors are common to the industry irrespective of the geographical locations such as networking, gender discrimination, segregation, long and irregular working hours and work and family balance. However, factors like cultural barriers, taking risks on non-linear assignments and significance of finding a sponsor were limited to individual countries. Irrespective of the economic and social developments of the countries concerned covering America, Europe, Australia, Africa, Middle Eastern countries, Far East Asia and South Asian regions, the issue of lack of women leaders in the hotel industry has been a significant issue. The Glass ceiling effect on career development for women was widely discussed and confirmed the existence in many countries irrespective of legal frameworks of equal opportunities. Few uncommon issues were also publicised in the study in the USA commenting few challenges and barriers such as the importance of having a sponsor, making lateral moves with new opportunities and being a ‘”token” in a male-dominated executive table

Collinear order in a frustrated three-dimensional spin-12\frac12 antiferromagnet Li2_2CuW2_2O8_8

Magnetic frustration in three dimensions (3D) manifests itself in the spin-$\frac12$ insulator Li$_2$CuW$_2$O$_8$. Density-functional band-structure calculations reveal a peculiar spin lattice built of triangular planes with frustrated interplane couplings. The saturation field of 29 T contrasts with the susceptibility maximum at 8.5 K and a relatively low N\'eel temperature $T_N\simeq 3.9$ K. Magnetic order below $T_N$ is collinear with the propagation vector $(0,\frac12,0)$ and an ordered moment of 0.65(4) $\mu_B$ according to neutron diffraction data. This reduced ordered moment together with the low maximum of the magnetic specific heat ($C^{\max}/R\simeq 0.35$) pinpoint strong magnetic frustration in 3D. Collinear magnetic order suggests that quantum fluctuations play crucial role in this system, where a non-collinear spiral state would be stabilized classically.Comment: published version with supplemental material merged into the tex

GANODERMA LUCIDUM-ORIENTAL MUSHROOM MEDIATED SYNTHESIS OF GOLD NANOPARTICLES CONJUGATED WITH DOXORUBICIN AND EVALUATION OF ITS ANTICANCER POTENTIAL ON HUMAN BREAST CANCER MCF-7/DOX CELLS

Objective: The present investigations are to mycosynthesis and characterization of gold nanoparticles conjugated with doxorubicin and evaluated anticancer activity.Methods: The characterization of the gold nanoparticles using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy. FTIR investigations were carried out to find and read the functional group responsible designed at the bioconversion of gold ions and crystalline arrangement of gold nanoparticles was detected in the XRD study. The gold nanoparticles conjugated with doxorubicin were treated against MCF-7-dox resisted breast cancer cells and observed the in vitro cytotoxicity by MTT assay, SCGE (Comet), Apoptosis and Mito-potential assay. Further more we determinate the mRNA expression of ABCB1 gene and cDNA was synthesized from the mRNA for amplification of the ABCB1 gene corresponding to the specific primer.Results: Surface Plasmon resonance showed the development of gold nanoparticles in UV–Visible spectra at 537 nm. The synthesized gold nanoparticles were polydisperse spherical and it was determined by EDAX and stabilized in the solution to the spherical shapes further confirmed by High-resolution transmission electron microscope analysis designate in the reading of 2–100 nm. The anticancer assays were given significant results and the mRNA expression of ABCB1 gene and cDNA was amplified as directly proportional to the expression of ABCB1 gene.Conclusion: We propose that gold nanoparticles synthesized and conjugated with doxorubicin from G. lucidum might be a significant resource of drug delivery for anti-cancer preparation that may advantage breast cancer treatment

Peritoneal Dialysis in Dengue Shock Syndrome May Be Detrimental

Dengue shock syndrome is the most severe form of Dengue that can be fatal. Nonresponders to standard therapy need intensive care. This paper outlines the clinical features, complications, and outcomes of Dengue Shock Syndrome not responding to standard therapies and needing supportive care in a tertiary referral intensive care unit of a developing country. Nearly one-third die within 3 days of admission to ICU. Peritoneal dialysis predicts the worst outcomes

Intelligent Bus Tracking and Implementation in FPGA

Traditional methods of operating and monitoring systems for vehicle tracking are a difficult task and are inefficient. This usually leads to missed or late arrivals to scheduled stops, improper use of company time and resources, unsafe driving habits, lack of adherence to assigned routes, inefficient dispatching, passenger’s dissatisfaction and low quality of service. Real time tracking is becoming more and more popular as devices utilizing the Global Positioning System (GPS) become more readily available. The proposed work is an attempt to design a tracking unit that uses the global positioning system to determine the precise location of an object, person or other asset to which it is attached. Using GSM technology, the exact position of the vehicle can be sent to the control station. This could be used as a useful innovation in traffic surveillance. Keywords:Vehicle tracking, Global System for Mobile (GSM), Global Positioning System (GPS), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)

An Influence of Thermally-Induced Micro-Cracking under Cooling Treatments: Mechanical Characteristics of Australian Granite

The aim of this study is to characterise the changes in mechanical properties and to provide a comprehensive micro-structural analysis of Harcourt granite over different pre-heating temperatures under two cooling treatments (1) rapid and (2) slow cooling. A series of uniaxial compression tests was conducted to evaluate the mechanical properties of granite specimens subjected to pre-heating to temperatures ranging from 25–1000◦C under both cooling conditions. An acoustic emission (AE) system was incorporated to identify the fracture propagation stress thresholds. Furthermore, the effect of loading and unloading behaviour on the elastic properties of Harcourt granite was evaluated at two locations prior to failure: (1) crack initiation and (2) crack damage. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses were conducted on heat-treated thin rock slices to observe the crack/fracture patterns and to quantify the extent of micro-cracking during intense heating followed by cooling. The results revealed that the thermal field induced in the Harcourt granite pore structure during heating up to 100◦C followed by cooling causes cracks to close, resulting in increased mechanical characteristics, in particular, material stiffness and strength. Thereafter, a decline in mechanical properties occurs with the increase of pre-heating temperatures from 100◦C to 800◦C. However, the thermal deterioration under rapid cooling is much higher than that under slow cooling, because rapid cooling appears to produce a significant amount of micro-cracking due to the irreversible thermal shock induced. Multiple stages of loading and unloading prior to failure degrade the elastic properties of Harcourt granite due to the damage accumulated through the coalescence of micro-cracks induced during compression loading. However, this degradation is insignificant for pre-heating temperatures over 400◦C, since the specimens are already damaged due to excessive thermal deterioration. Moreover, unloading after crack initiation tends to cause insignificant irreversible strains, whereas significant permanent strains occur during unloading after crack damage, and this appears to increase with the increase of pre-heating temperature over 400