WEB ACCESSIBILITY IN THE AUSTRIAN HOTEL SECTOR

This contribution aims to provide an analysis of the current state of web accessibility in the tourism industry with the focus on the Austrian hotel sector. The results of the conducted study verify previous research, showing that tourism organizations considerably lack awareness of web accessibility. A three dimensional hotel categorization model on accessibility is introduced to encompass the complexity of accessibility in the hotel sector. This model can be used to evaluate the current state of hotel accessibility and may therefore provide a valuable tool for further benchmarking activities

IL-10 Induced by mTNF Crosslinking-Mediated Reverse Signaling in a Whole Blood Assay Is Predictive of Response to TNFi Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis

(1) Background: To date, the response of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to the various biologic DMARD available cannot be predicted due to a lack of reliable biomarkers. Based on our preliminary work on tmTNF reverse signaling, we developed a whole-blood assay measuring tmTNF crosslinking-induced IL-10 production to predict the response to TNF inhibitor (TNFi) therapy. (2) Methods: This prospective study included patients with active RA. Depending on the clinical judgment of the attending rheumatologist, either therapy with a TNF or JAK inhibitor was initiated. Clinical parameters and blood samples were obtained at baseline and after 8 weeks of therapy. The blood samples were collected using a newly developed whole-blood assay based on the principle of tmTNF reverse signalling. Subsequently, IL-10 was measured via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique. (3) Results: 63 patients with RA were enrolled. In fifteen patients, TNFi therapy was initiated, while eight patients started a JAKi treatment. The cross-sectional analysis of all patients showed a positive correlation between tmTNF crosslinking-induced IL-10 and parameters of disease activity (CRP [r = 0.4091, p = 0.0009], DAS28 [r = 0.3303, p = 0.0082]) at baseline. In the TNFi treatment study, IL-10 was found to be significantly higher in EULAR responders than in non-responders (p = 0.0033). After initiation of JAKi treatment, in contrast, IL-10 induction was not linked to response. Longitudinal analysis of the TNFi-treated patients revealed IL-10 to decrease in responders (p = 0.04), but not in non-responders after 8 weeks of therapy. Of importance, the IL-10 production at baseline correlated inversely with TNFi response determined by DDAS28 in patients with TNFi treatment (r = 0.5299, p = 0.0422) while no such link was observed under JAKi therapy (p = 0.22). Receiver operation characteristics (ROC) analysis demonstrated a high performance of tmTNF/crosslinking-induced IL-10 in predicting a TNFi therapy response according to the EULAR criteria (AUC = 0.9286, 95% Confidence interval 0.7825–1.000, p = 0.0055). (4) Conclusions: In this pilot investigation, we demonstrated the feasibility of a whole-blood assay measuring tmTNFinduced IL-10 to predict clinical response to TNF inhibitor treatment. This approach might support rheumatologists in their decision for an individually tailored RA therapy

Business impacts of web accessibility in the Austrian hotel sector

Diese Magisterarbeit behandelt die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen von barrierefreiem Web im Tourismus Bereich und fokussiert dabei insbesondere auf die österreichische Hotelbranche. Ein Literatur Review gibt vorerst einen Überblick über die gegenwärtige Situation von barrierefreiem Web und barrierefreiem Tourismus. Ferner werden mit Hilfe von statistikbasierten Schätzungen wirtschaftliche Auswirkungen von barrierefreiem Tourismus in der österreichischen Hotelbranche ermittelt. Um die Komplexität der Barrierefreiheit in der Tourismusbranche adäquat darstellen zu können, wird ein drei-dimensionales Hotelkategorisierungsmodell entwickelt, mit Hilfe dessen die Evaluierung des Status quo eines Hotels im Hinblick auf Barrierefreiheit vorgenommen werden kann. Darüber hinaus ist dieses Kategorisierungsmodell für weiterführende Benchmarking Aktivitäten einsetzbar. Eine Fallstudien-Analyse vereint quantitative und qualitative Forschungsmethoden und untersucht die betriebswirtschaftlichen Effekte von barrierefreiem Web in der Hotel Branche. Ergebnisse zeigen, dass derzeit nur ein Bruchteil der österreichischen Hotels über eine barrierefreie Webseite verfügt, obwohl durch die Implementierung von Barrierefreiheit zusätzliche Investitionen entfallen würden sowie Vorteile für alle Kunden generiert werden könnten. Die im Zuge dieser Magisterarbeit durchgeführten Studien bekräftigen bisherige Forschungsergebnisse, welche das fehlende Bewusstsein von Tourismus Akteuren in Bezug auf barrierefreies Web als Hauptgrund für die mangelnde Implementierung identifizierten. Ferner kann festgestellt werden, dass Reisende mit Beeinträchtigungen eine wirtschaftlich signifikante Touristengruppe darstellen und in ihren Eigenschaften sehr loyal und zunehmend mobil sind.This contribution aims to investigate the business impacts of web accessibility in the tourism industry with the focus on the Austrian hotel sector. Case study research methods are used for the research. The results of the conducted studies verify previous research, showing that tourism stakeholders considerably lack awareness of web accessibility. The literature review on web accessibility and accessible tourism gives an overview on the current status. Estimations based on statistical data are used to assess the economical impact of accessible tourism in the Austrian hotel sector. A three dimensional hotel categorization model on accessibility is introduced to encompass the complexity of accessibility in the hotel sector. It can be used to evaluate the status quo of hotel accessibility and may therefore provide a valuable tool for further benchmarking activities. Quantitative and qualitative studies are used to assess the implications of web accessibility in the hotel sector in praxis. The study on the accessibility of the Austrian hotel web pages shows that currently only a fraction has implemented web accessibility. The conducted in-depth interviews reveal that implementing web accessibility doesn’t require additional investment and has advantages for all costumers. The interviews also confirm the results of previous studies: travelers with disabilities can represent a significant guest group, are very loyal to the place their like and they are increasingly mobile, this groups of travelers is ever more important. Additionally, this study confirmed that accessibility has to be promoted, so people with disabilities can find these hotels

TENNIS EPIDEMIOLOGY

INTRODUCTION: Some epidemiological studies (Brizuela, 1996; Ferrandis, 1997; Caine et al., 1996) show that the location, frequency and type of injuries depends on the type of practice. This study was aimed at analyzing the distribution of injuries in body areas, and the dependence of these injuries on the characteristics of the players, footwear and sports surface in tennis. METHODS: A review study was made by means of personal interviews in the courts of 5 tennis clubs in the area of Valencia. A total of 205 questionnaires were compiled, so the maximum sampling error is about 6.9% for a sample size of 4,000 players. In these questionnaires there were personal, technical and epidemiological data, as well as descriptive characteristics of the footwear and surface. It was found that 60% of the injuries were located in the lower limbs, 30% in upper limbs and 10% in the spine. The most often injured anatomical area was the ankle, followed by the wrist, elbow and knee. The extrinsic risk factors detected were the number of weekly hours of practice and the type of surface, while the intrinsic risk factors determined were the type of foot, and in the case of ankle injuries, gender. RESULTS: The greatest number of injuries were located in the lower limbs, ankle injuries being the most frequent. Such injuries depend on the characteristics of the court surface; however, no dependence on footwear characteristics was found, possibly due to the exclusively descriptive data collected. REFERENCES: Brizuela, G. (1996). Aportaciones al diseño de calzado para la práctica del baloncesto: Análisis biomecánico de la influencia del calzado sobre el salto vertical y sobre el rendimiento. Aspectos epidemiológicos. PhD thesis, Valencia. Caine, C.G.; Caine, D.J.; Lindner, K.J. (1996). The epidemiologic approach to sports injuries. Epidemiology of sports injuries. Human Kinetics. Ferrandis, R. (1997). Criterios biomecánicos de diseño del calzado deportivo. Aportaciones al estudio cinético y cinemático del calzado para carrera urbana. PhD thesis, Valencia

The Vitamin A Derivative All-Trans Retinoic Acid Repairs Amyloid-β-Induced Double-Strand Breaks in Neural Cells and in the Murine Neocortex.

The amyloid-β peptide or Aβ is the key player in the amyloid-cascade hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease. Aβ appears to trigger cell death but also production of double-strand breaks (DSBs) in aging and Alzheimer's disease. All-trans retinoic acid (RA), a derivative of vitamin A, was already known for its neuroprotective effects against the amyloid cascade. It diminishes, for instance, the production of Aβ peptides and their oligomerisation. In the present work we investigated the possible implication of RA receptor (RAR) in repair of Aβ-induced DSBs. We demonstrated that RA, as well as RAR agonist Am80, but not AGN 193109 antagonist, repair Aβ-induced DSBs in SH-SY5Y cells and an astrocytic cell line as well as in the murine cortical tissue of young and aged mice. The nonhomologous end joining pathway and the Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated kinase were shown to be involved in RA-mediated DSBs repair in the SH-SY5Y cells. Our data suggest that RA, besides increasing cell viability in the cortex of young and even of aged mice, might also result in targeted DNA repair of genes important for cell or synaptic maintenance. This phenomenon would remain functional up to a point when Aβ increase and RA decrease probably lead to a pathological state

Error-Prone Translesion DNA Synthesis by Escherichia coli DNA Polymerase IV (DinB) on Templates Containing 1,2-dihydro-2-oxoadenine

Escherichia coli DNA polymerase IV (Pol IV) is involved in bypass replication of damaged bases in DNA. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated continuously during normal metabolism and as a result of exogenous stress such as ionizing radiation. ROS induce various kinds of base damage in DNA. It is important to examine whether Pol IV is able to bypass oxidatively damaged bases. In this study, recombinant Pol IV was incubated with oligonucleotides containing thymine glycol (dTg), 5-formyluracil (5-fodU), 5-hydroxymethyluracil (5-hmdU), 7,8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8-oxodG) and 1,2-dihydro-2-oxoadenine (2-oxodA). Primer extension assays revealed that Pol IV preferred to insert dATP opposite 5-fodU and 5-hmdU, while it inefficiently inserted nucleotides opposite dTg. Pol IV inserted dCTP and dATP opposite 8-oxodG, while the ability was low. It inserted dCTP more effectively than dTTP opposite 2-oxodA. Pol IV's ability to bypass these lesions decreased in the order: 2-oxodA > 5-fodU~5-hmdU > 8-oxodG > dTg. The fact that Pol IV preferred to insert dCTP opposite 2-oxodA suggests the mutagenic potential of 2-oxodA leading to A:T→G:C transitions. Hydrogen peroxide caused an ~2-fold increase in A:T→G:C mutations in E. coli, while the increase was significantly greater in E. coli overexpressing Pol IV. These results indicate that Pol IV may be involved in ROS-enhanced A:T→G:C mutations

The Phenolics and Antioxidant Properties of Black and Purple versus White Eggplant Cultivars

The total phenolic content, anthocyanins, phenolic acids, antioxidant capacity and α-amylase inhibitory activity of black (Aydin Siyahi), purple (Kadife Kemer) and white (Trabzon Kadife) eggplants grown in Turkey were subjected to a comparative investigation. The black cultivar exhibited the highest total phenolic (17,193 and 6552 mg gallic acid equivalent/kg fw), flavonoid (3019 and 1160 quercetin equivalent/kg fw) and anthocyanin (1686 and 6167 g delphinidin-3-O-glucoside equivalent/kg fw) contents in crude extracts of the peel and pulp. The majority of the caffeic acid was identified in the ester (2830 mg/kg fw) and ester-bound (2594 mg/kg fw) forms in the peel of ‘Kadife Kemer’ and in the glycoside form (611.9 mg/kg fw) in ‘Aydin Siyahi’, as well as in the pulp of these two eggplants. ‘Kadife Kemer’ (purple eggplant) contained the majority of the chlorogenic acid in free form (27.55 mg/kg fw), compared to ‘Aydin Siyahi’ in the ester (7.82 mg/kg fw), glycoside (294.1 mg/kg dw) and ester-bound (2.41 mg/kg fw) forms. The eggplant cultivars (peel and pulp, mg/kg fw) exhibited a relatively high delphinidin-3-O-rutinoside concentration in the peel of ‘Aydin Siyahi’ (avg. 1162), followed by ‘Kadife Kemer’ (avg. 336.6), and ‘Trabzon Kadife’ (avg. 215.1). The crude phenolic extracts of the eggplants exhibited the highest antioxidant capacity values (peel and pulp, µmoL Trolox equivalent/kg fw) of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH, 8156 and 2335) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC, 37,887 and 17,648). The overall results indicate that black and purple eggplants are the cultivars with greater potential benefits in terms of their phenolics and antioxidant values than the white eggplant

The rare top quark decays t→cVt\to cV in the topcolor-assisted technicolor model

We consider the rare top quark decays in the framework of topcolor-assisted technicolor (TC2) model. We find that the contributions of top-pions and top-Higgs predicted by the TC2 model can enhance the SM branching ratios by as much as 6-9 orders of magnitude. i.e., in the most case, the orders of magnitude of branching ratios are $Br(t\to c g)\sim 10^{-5}$, $Br(t\to c Z)\sim 10^{-5}$, $Br(t\to c \gamma)\sim 10^{-7}$. With the reasonable values of the parameters in TC2 model, such rare top quark decays may be testable in the future experiments. So, rare top quark decays provide us a unique way to test TC2 model.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Potential of smoke-water and one of its active compounds (karrikinolide, KAR1) on the phytochemical and antioxidant activity of Eucomis autumnalis

CITATION: Aremu, A. O., et al. 2019. Potential of smoke-water and one of its active compounds (karrikinolide, KAR1) on the phytochemical and antioxidant activity of Eucomis autumnalis. Antioxidants, 8(12):611-626, doi:10.3390/antiox8120611The original publication is available at https://www.mdpi.com/journal/antioxidantsEucomis autumnalis (Mill.) Chitt. subspecies autumnalis is a popular African plant that is susceptible to population decline because the bulbs are widely utilized for diverse medicinal purposes. As a result, approaches to ensure the sustainability of the plants are essential. In the current study, the influence of smoke-water (SW) and karrikinolide (KAR1 isolated from SW extract) on the phytochemicals and antioxidant activity of in vitro and greenhouse-acclimatized Eucomis autumnalis subspecies autumnalis were evaluated. Leaf explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with SW (1:500, 1:1000 and 1:1500 v/v dilutions) or KAR1 (10−7, 10−8 and 10−9 M) and grown for ten weeks. In vitro regenerants were subsequently acclimatized in the greenhouse for four months. Bioactive phytochemicals in different treatments were analyzed using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC-MS/MS), while antioxidant potential was evaluated using two chemical tests namely: DPPH and the β-carotene model. Smoke-water and KAR1 generally influenced the quantity and types of phytochemicals in in vitro regenerants and acclimatized plants. In addition to eucomic acid, 15 phenolic acids and flavonoids were quantified; however, some were specific to either the in vitro regenerants or greenhouse-acclimatized plants. The majority of the phenolic acids and flavonoids were generally higher in in vitro regenerants than in acclimatized plants. Evidence from the chemical tests indicated an increase in antioxidant activity of SW and KAR1-treated regenerants and acclimatized plants. Overall, these findings unravel the value of SW and KAR1 as potential elicitors for bioactive phytochemicals with therapeutic activity in plants facilitated via in vitro culture systems. In addition, it affords an efficient means to ensure the sustainability of the investigated plant. Nevertheless, further studies focusing on the use of other types of antioxidant test systems (including in vivo model) and the carry-over effect of the application of SW and KAR1 for a longer duration will be pertinent. In addition, the safety of the resultant plant extracts and their pharmacological efficacy in clinical relevance systems is required.National Research Foundationhttps://www.mdpi.com/2076-3921/8/12/611/htmPublisher's versio