Developing and Validating a Model of Tourism Brand Equity

Advertising and advertising media is a huge industry that stimulates all other industries whether it is in the primary, secondary or tertiary sector. Advertising plays a very important role in the service sector as it gives to tangibles the attribute of service that will create positive attitude towards service and decrease the perceived risk concerned with promoting tourism through advertising. Ministry of India launches many campaigns to make India a strong brand in tourism. A huge budget is kept aside for promoting Indian tourism at domestic as well as in the international level. Whenever money is invested, its result becomes too crucial to measure for two reasons- first the effect of invested money and second, money works as magnet for more money and so how effectively this money performs this magnetic function also becomes important. There are a number of measures to evaluate the above said performance but this paper focuses on the specific measure of advertising that is called communication effect or also known as brand equity. Here a scale is designed and validated for measuring the communication effect of advertising and it is done with the help of first and second order confirmatory factor analysis. The result shows that a good model with some modifications in the proposed model was developed and validated that consists of five dimensions and forty-four items after removing two items from the proposed model. This scale has been validated to measure the brand equity of tourism as a brand. This model has a good model fit and fulfill all reliability and validity conditions

Total Synthesis and Antimicrobial Activity of a Natural Cycloheptapeptide of Marine Origin

The present study deals with the first total synthesis of the proline-rich cyclopolypeptide stylisin 2 via a solution phase technique by coupling of the Boc-l-Pro-l-Ile-l-Pro-OH tripeptide unit with the l-Phe-l-Pro-l-Pro-l-Tyr-OMe tetrapeptide unit, followed by cyclization of the resulting linear heptapeptide fragment. The chemical structure of the finally synthesized peptide was elucidated by FTIR, 1H/13C-NMR and FAB MS spectral data, as well as elemental analyses. The newly synthesized peptide was subjected to antimicrobial screening against eight pathogenic microbes and found to exhibit potent antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Candida albicans, in addition to moderate antidermatophyte activity against pathogenic Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Microsporum audouinii when compared to standard drugs—gatifloxacin and griseofulvin

Synthesis and biological evaluation of a novel series of 2-(2'-isopropyl-5'-methylphenoxy)acetyl amino acids and dipeptides

A series of new 2-(2'-isopropyl-5'-methylphenoxy)acetyl amino acids and peptides have been synthesized by coupling the 2-(2'-isopropyl-5'-methylphenoxy)acetic acid with amino acid methyl esters/dipeptides using DCC as coupling agent and TEA as base. The structures were elucidated by elemental analyses as well as FTIR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and MS spectral data. The newly synthesized compounds were also evaluated for antibacterial and antifungal activities. Compounds (2, 6 and 15) were found to exhibit potent antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus and compounds (13, 14 and 16) were found to be potent antifungal agents against pathogenic Candida albicans.KEY WORDS: Phenoxy acetic acid, Amino acids, Dipeptides, Antibacterial activity, Antifungal activity.Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2006, 20(2), 235-245

Toward the Synthesis and Biological Screening of a Cyclotetrapeptide from Marine Bacteria

The first synthesis of a naturally occurring tetrapeptide cyclo-(isoleucyl-prolyl-leucyl- alanyl) has been achieved using a solution-phase technique via coupling of dipeptide segments Boc-l-Pro-l-Leu-OH and l-Ala-l-Ile-OMe. Deprotection of the linear tetrapeptide unit and its subsequent cyclization gave a cyclopeptide, identical in all aspects to the naturally occurring compound. Bioactivity results indicated the antifungal and antihelmintic potential of the synthesized peptide against pathogenic dermatophytes and earthworms

Prva potpuna sinteza i biološko vrednovanje himenamida E

A new potent bioactive, proline-rich cyclic heptapeptide hymenamide E (13) was synthesized using the solution phase technique by cyclization of the linear peptide Boc-Phe-Pro-Thr-Thr-Pro-Tyr-Phe-OMe (12) after proper deprotection at carboxyl and amino terminals. Linear peptide segment was prepared by coupling the tripeptide unit Boc-Phe-Pro-Thr-OH (10a) with the tetrapeptide unit Thr-Pro-Tyr-Phe-OMe (11a) using dicyclohexylcarbodiimide as the coupling agent and N-methylmorpholine as the base. Structures of all new compounds were characterized by IR, 1H NMR spectral data as well as elemental analyses. In addition, the structure of compound 13 was verified by 13C NMR, fast atom bombardment mass spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. The newly synthesized cyclopeptide was screened for its antibacterial, antifungal and anthelmintic activities against eight pathogenic microbes and two earthworm species. Compound 13 showed potent antifungal activity against Candida albicans and Ganoderma species comparable to that of griseofulvin as a reference drug and potent anthelmintic activity against earthworms Megascoplex konkanensis and Eudrilus species in comparison to piperazine citrate.Novi biološki aktivni ciklički heptapeptid himenamid E (13) sintetiziran je ciklizacijom linearnog peptida Boc-Phe-Pro-Thr-Thr-Pro-Tyr-Phe-OMe (12) nakon uklanjanja zaštitnih skupina sa C-terminalnih i N-terminalnih aminokiselina. Linearni peptidni segment pripravljen je spajanjem tripeptidne jedinice Boc-Phe-Pro-Thr-OH (10a) s tetrapeptidnom jedinicom Thr-Pro-Tyr-Phe-OMe (11a) u prisutnosti dicikloheksilkarbodiimida i N-metilmorfolina kao baze. Strukture novih spojeva potvrđene su IR i 1H NMR spektroskopijom i elementarnom analizom, a struktura spoja 13 i 13C NMR, spektroskopijom masa i diferencijalnom pretražnom kalorimetrijom. Novosintetizirani ciklopeptid testiran je na antibakterijsko, antifungalno i anthelmintičko djelovanje na osam patogenih mikroorganizama i dva parazita. Spoj 13 snažno djeluje antifungalno na gljivice Candida albicans i vrste Ganoderma i anthelmintički na nametnike Megascoplex konkanensis i vrste Eudrilus. Kao poredbene ljekovite tvari uporabljeni su grizeofulvin i piperazin citrat

Total Synthesis and Antimicrobial Activity of a Natural Cycloheptapeptide of Marine-Origin

Abstract: The present study deals with the first total synthesis of the proline-rich cyclopolypeptide stylisin 2 via a solution phase technique by coupling of the Boc-L-Pro-L-Ile-L-Pro-OH tripeptide unit with the L-Phe-L-Pro-L-Pro-L-Tyr-OMe tetrapeptide unit, followed by cyclization of the resulting linear heptapeptide fragment. The chemical structure of the finally synthesized peptide was elucidated by FTIR, 1 H/ 13 C-NMR and FAB MS spectral data, as well as elemental analyses. The newly synthesized peptide was subjected to antimicrobial screening against eight pathogenic microbes and found to exhibit potent antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Candida albicans, in addition to moderate antidermatophyte activity against pathogenic Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Microsporum audouinii when compared to standard drugs-gatifloxacin and griseofulvin

Role of Serine/Threonine Kinase 11 (STK11) or liver kinase B1 (LKB1) Gene in Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome

Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is a well-described inherited syndrome, characterized by the development of gastrointestinal polyps and characteristic mucocutaneous freckling. PJS is an autosomal prevailing disease, due to genetic mutation on chromosome 19p, manifested by restricted mucocutaneous melanosis in association with gastrointestinal (GI) polyposis. The gene for PJS has recently been shown to be a serine/threonine kinase, known as LKB1 or STK11, which maps to chromosome subband 19p13.3. This gene has a putative coding region of 1302 bp, divided into nine exons, and acts as a tumor suppressor in the hamartomatous polyps of PJS patients and in the other neoplasms that develop in PJS patients. It is probable that these neoplasms develop from hamartomas, but it remains possible that the LKB1 or STK11 locus plays a role in a different genetic pathway of tumor growth in the cancers of PJS patients. This article focuses on the role of LKB1 or STK11 gene expression in PJS and related cancers

Synthesis, Characterization and Antimicrobial Studies on Some Newer Imidazole Analogs

A novel series of 3,5-diiodo-4-(2-methyl-1H-imidazol-5-yl)benzoic acid analogs of amino acids, dipeptides and tripeptides was synthesized by using dicyclohexylcarbodiimide and diisopropylcarbodiimide (DCC/DIPC) as coupling agents and triethylamine (TEA) as base. Structures of all the newly synthesized compounds were confirmed by elemental analysis and IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and mass spectral data. Imidazolopeptides were investigated for their antimicrobial activity and some of newly synthesized compounds 2c, 2d, 2h and their hydrolyzed analogs 3b, 3d exhibited potent bioactivity against pathogenic fungi Candida albicans and dermatophytes Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Microsporum audouinii with MIC values of 12.5-6 μg/ml, as compared to the reference drug - griseofulvin. In addition, moderate activity against gram negative bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae was also observed for synthesized imidazolopeptides