Entrepreneurial Intentions of Tourism Students: An Integrated Structural Model Approach

Abstract Tourism and entrepreneurship have mutually established a fertile ground for developing destinations economy notably creating job opportunities and innovation in tourism and hospitality industry. The present investigation aims to examine constructs ability of Krueger’s (2009) model, an empirically untested integrated model of entrepreneurial intention, in explaining tourism students’ intention of starting up a business. The statistical population consisted of undergraduate and graduate Iranian tourism management students as potential group of entrepreneurs. Using the SEM- PLS method, the current study’s findings contribute to the improvement of entrepreneurial intentions models literature by examining an untested integrated and structural model in the field. The study findings reveal that there is a statistically significant relationship between entrepreneurial intention and the antecedents except the perceived social norms. Also, the findings provide policymakers, academics and tourism practitioners insights into how to cultivate tourism students’ entrepreneurial thinking. Keywords: Entrepreneurial intention, Tourism students, Intentions model, SEM-PLS

Assessment of Clindamycin and Erythromycin Resistance, and Inducible Clindamycin Resistance in Streptococcus Group B Isolated from Urinary Samples of Outpatient Women in Tehran

Background: Streptococcus group B (GBS) or Streptococcus agalactiae is typically associated with neonatal disease and infection in pregnant women. Mortality of GBS sepsis in neonates is over 50% and is particularly high in preterm infants. GBS also causes invasive infection in pregnant and non-pregnant women including urinary tract infection (UTI). Penicillin-derived antibiotics remained as choice drugs for treatment of GBS infection; however, Erythromycin and Clindamycin are useful in cases of allergic to Penicillin. The aim of this study was to investigate the resistance to Erythromycin and Clindamycin, especially inducible Clindamycin resistance, in GBS isolated from urinary samples of women who attended medical offices in Tehran, Iran.Materials and Methods: This study was conducted on 5000 urine samples from Jan. 2011 to Oct. 2012 that 104 GBS were isolated. The isolates were identified as GBS using laboratory criteria. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was done by Erythromycin disk 15µg and Clindamycin disk 2µg for observation inducible resistant D-zone test by double-disk diffusion method with Erythromycin and adjacent Clindamycin.Results: Among the 5000 urine samples 104 (2.08%) were Beta hemolytic GBS. Of the 104 isolated GBS, 22 (21.2%) were resistance, 24 (23%) were intermediate, and 58 (55.8%) were susceptible to Erythromycin; however, 24 (23%) were resistance, 5 (4.8%) were intermediate, and 75 (72.2%) were susceptible to Clindamycin. Of the 22 Erythromycin-resistant isolates, 10 (9.5% in total GBS isolated) displayed the D zone; it means they have inducible Erythromycin resistant to Clindamycin.Conclusion: Various studies in other countries report lower rates of inducible Clindamycin resistance; it indicates the use of more macrolides in the treatment of UTI

Stimulatory effect of methyl jasmonate and squalestatin on phenolic metabolism through induction of LOX activity in cell suspension culture of yew

Cell suspension cultures of Taxus baccata were treated with 2 elicitor compounds, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and squalestatin (S), individually and in combination for 7 days to determine if they mediated the enhancement of biosynthesis of endogenous jasmonate through induction of lipoxygenase (LOX) activity. Total phenolic compounds, total flavonoids, total antioxidants, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), and LOX activities in 5-month-old yew cell cultures were studied. Our results showed that MeJA and S could stimulate production of phenol derivatives in cell suspension cultures of T. baccata. In parallel to the induction of phenolic production in elicited cells, results showed that activities of PAL and PPO enzymes and total antioxidants significantly increased in Taxus cells in response to MeJA and S. Maximal activities of lipoxygenase were obtained 48 h after treatment with MeJA (100 mu M), S (0.1 mu M), and the combination of the 2 elicitors. Results showed that MeJA and S are effective elicitors for increasing phenolic production in Taxus cell suspension cultures, likely through increasing LOX activity followed by an increase in endogenous jasmonate

Squalestatin-induced production of taxol and baccatin in cell suspension culture of yew (Taxus baccata L.)

Various elicitors have already been reported to enhance the production of taxol and related taxanes. In this study, effects of a fungal metabolite, squalestatin, on production of taxol and baccatin III were studied. Expressions of 4 key involved genes, ts, dbat, bapt, and dbtnbt, in suspension cultures of Taxus baccata were also detected using qPCR. Results showed that application of squalestatin significantly increased taxol and baccatin III yields. Increased expressions of the genes were in accordance with measures of taxol and baccatin accumulations in cells and medium. Production of H2O2 has significant positive correlations with both gene expression and taxanes, indicating that the increase in H2O2 might be involved in the upregulation of the taxane production in yew under squalestatin treatment. Our results suggest that H2O2 is a key signaling component in the stimulation of taxane production in T. baccata cells induced by squalestatin

Optimizing Hardware Simulation and Realization of Discrete Cosine Transform Using VHDL Hardware Description Language

Discrete cosine transform (DCT) is the fundamental part of JPEG compressor and is one of the most widely used conversion technique in digital signal processing (DSP) and image compression. Due to importance of the discrete cosine transform in JPEG standard, an algorithm is proposed that is in parallel structure thus intensify hardware implementation speed of discrete cosine transform and JPEG compression procedure. The proposed method is implemented by utilizing VHDL hardware description language in structural format and follows optimal programming tips by which, low hardware resource utilization, low latency, high throughput and high clock rate are achieved. Inputs are 8-bit long, 4 separate units are considered and CSA and CLA adders are used to realize discrete cosine transform. Working frequency for this implementation is 100 MHz and each stage delay is 10ns which is optimum in comparison with other methods. This proposed method can be easily utilized in any hardware applications such as JPEG compressor, image/signal processing and etc. by minimum change in design parameters. Also, it can be used as a hard-core in embedded systems, system on chips (SOC), system on programmable chips (SOPC) and network on chips (NOC)

Understanding entrepreneurial intentions: A developed integrated structural model approach

The primary objective of this study is to develop the pioneering version of Krueger’s (2009) integrated model of entrepreneurial intention (EI) and to empirically test the new model in explaining individuals’ intentions of entrepreneurial activities. The data were collected by the self-reported in-person and electronic questionnaires from a population of tourism students from several universities in Iran. The results of partial least squares estimations indicate that desirability is the main determinant of entrepreneurial goal intention (EGI), followed by self-efficacy, feasibility, opportunity, attitude, and collective-efficacy, while social norms do not influence EGI. Also, EGI strongly influences entrepreneurial implementation intention. Concerning the modification effect, the impact of perceived opportunity on EGI tends to increase when an individual has a high propensity to act. The findings provide policy makers with important insights into how to nurture tourism students’ EIs through educational programs

Optimized Production Assessment, Compartmental Modeling and Dosimetric Evaluation of 177Lu- PSMA-617 for Clinical Trials

177Lu-PSMA-617 was prepared at the optimized conditions (95°C, 15-18 µg peptide, 35-40 min; solid phase purification) using 177Lu obtained from 176Lu(n, γ)177Lu reaction(>98%, ITLC, HPLC, S.A. 22-24 TBq/mM) followed by stability (up to 48 h), biodistribution studies (up to 168 h), planar imaging, compartmental modeling and dosimetry estimations via Sparks’s extrapolation method in human organs. Kidney is the critical organ with the dose of 0.067 mGy/MBq and the radiopharmaceutical can be safely used in trials considering the human dose

Isolation of Bacteria with Antifungal Activity against the Phytopathogenic Fungi Stenocarpella maydis and Stenocarpella macrospora

Stenocarpella maydis and Stenocarpella macrospora are the causal agents of ear rot in corn, which is one of the most destructive diseases in this crop worldwide. These fungi are important mycotoxin producers that cause different pathologies in farmed animals and represent an important risk for humans. In this work, 160 strains were isolated from soil of corn crops of which 10 showed antifungal activity against these phytopathogens, which, were identified as: Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas spp., Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Pantoea agglomerans by sequencing of 16S rRNA gene and the phylogenetic analysis. From cultures of each strain, extracellular filtrates were obtained and assayed to determine antifungal activity. The best filtrates were obtained in the stationary phase of B. subtilis cultures that were stable to the temperature and extreme pH values; in addition they did not show a cytotoxicity effect against brine shrimp and inhibited germination of conidia. The bacteria described in this work have the potential to be used in the control of white ear rot disease