Cytoprotective effect of trimetazidine on 60 minutes of intestinal ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats

Trimetazidine (TMZ), a potent antioxidant agent, has been used to protect the myocardium, liver and kidney from ischemia reperfusion (IR) injury. We investigated the effect of TMZ, a cellular anti-ischemic agent and a free radical scavenger, on 60 min of warm intestinal IR injury in rats. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into three groups: a sham-operated group (no IR injury, n = 8), an ischemic control group (control, n = 8), and a TMZ- treated group (3 mg/kg, n = 8). Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, and mucosal damage were investigated after 120 min of reperfusion. MDA levels and MPO activity were more elevated and histopathological damage more severe in the control group than in the sham group (P < 0.05). MDA levels and MPO activity were lower and there was less histopathological damage in the TMZ group than in the control group (P < 0.05). Accumulation of lipid peroxidation products and neutrophils in mucosal tissues were significantly inhibited by TMZ treatment. We conclude that pretreatment of rats with TMZ before intestinal ischemia attenuates but does not prevent, histological damage

The impact of generation Y’s customer experience on emotions: online banking sector

Recently, banking sector focused on attracting Generation Y (individuals born between 1980 and 2000) because they have emerged as a huge force with growing spending power which will unavoidably rival with Baby Boomers’ market dominance. They try to attract them through a unique customer experience, especially the ability of differentiation. Using the Mehrabian & Russell’s model of stimulus (S) - organism (O) - response (R), this study developed the Generation Y customer experience framework that intends to explain their consumer emotional responses toward customer experience attributes in a bank through three aspects: pleasure, dominance, and arousal toward online banks. Empirical evidence, based on data from a survey suggests that the overall customer experience attributes in the bank had a positive relation with emotional responses in different ways. “Value for money”, “Getting things right the first time” and “Put the consumer first” emerged as the most important attributes for Generation Y in experiencing a bank.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Specifying the design for customer learning in the mixed reality experience

Peer reviewe

Combined artificial bee colony algorithm and machine learning techniques for prediction of online consumer repurchase intention

A novel paradigm in the service sector i.e. services through the web is a progressive mechanism for rendering offerings over diverse environments. Internet provides huge opportunities for companies to provide personalized online services to their customers. But prompt novel web services introduction may unfavorably affect the quality and user gratification. Subsequently, prediction of the consumer intention is of supreme importance in selecting the web services for an application. The aim of study is to predict online consumer repurchase intention and to achieve this objective a hybrid approach which a combination of machine learning techniques and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm has been used. The study is divided into three phases. Initially, shopping mall and consumer characteristic’s for repurchase intention has been identified through extensive literature review. Secondly, ABC has been used to determine the feature selection of consumers’ characteristics and shopping malls’ attributes (with > 0.1 threshold value) for the prediction model. Finally, validation using K-fold cross has been employed to measure the best classification model robustness. The classification models viz., Decision Trees (C5.0), AdaBoost, Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Neural Network (NN), are utilized for prediction of consumer purchase intention. Performance evaluation of identified models on training-testing partitions (70-30%) of the data set, shows that AdaBoost method outperforms other classification models with sensitivity and accuracy of 0.95 and 97.58% respectively, on testing data set. This study is a revolutionary attempt that considers both, shopping mall and consumer characteristics in examine the consumer purchase intention.N/

Coenzyme Q10 Reduces Ethanol-Induced Apoptosis in Corneal Fibroblasts

Dilute ethanol (EtOH) is a widely used agent to remove the corneal epithelium during the modern refractive surgery. The application of EtOH may cause the underlying corneal fibroblasts to undergo apoptosis. This study was designed to investigate the protective effect and potential mechanism of the respiratory chain coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), an electron transporter of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and a ubiquitous free radical scavenger, against EtOH-induced apoptosis of corneal fibroblasts. Corneal fibroblasts were pretreated with CoQ10 (10 µM) for 2 h, followed by exposure to different concentrations of EtOH (0.4, 2, 4, and 20%) for 20 s. After indicated incubation period (2–12 h), MTT assay was used to examine cell viability. Treated cells were further assessed by flow cytometry to identify apoptosis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the change in mitochondrial membrane potential were assessed using dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate/2′,7′-dichlorofluorescein (DCFH-DA/DCF) assays and flow-cytometric analysis of JC-1 staining, respectively. The activity and expression of caspases 2, 3, 8, and 9 were evaluated with a colorimetric assay and western blot analysis. We found that EtOH treatment significantly decreased the viability of corneal fibroblasts characterized by a higher percentage of apoptotic cells. CoQ10 could antagonize the apoptosis inducing effect of EtOH. The inhibition of cell apoptosis by CoQ10 was significant at 8 and 12 h after EtOH exposure. In EtOH-exposed corneal fibroblasts, CoQ10 pretreatment significantly reduced mitochondrial depolarization and ROS production at 30, 60, 90, and 120 min and inhibited the activation and expression of caspases 2 and 3 at 2 h after EtOH exposure. In summary, pretreatment with CoQ10 can inhibit mitochondrial depolarization, caspase activation, and cell apoptosis. These findings support the proposition that CoQ10 plays an antiapoptotic role in corneal fibroblasts after ethanol exposure

Melanosomes in pigmented epithelia maintain eye lens transparency during zebrafish embryonic development

Altered levels of trace elements are associated with increased oxidative stress that is eventually responsible for pathologic conditions. Oxidative stress has been proposed to be involved in eye diseases, including cataract formation. We visualized the distribution of metals and other trace elements in the eye of zebrafish embryos by micro X-ray fluorescence (mu-XRF) imaging. Many elements showed highest accumulation in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of the zebrafish embryo. Knockdown of the zebrafish brown locus homologues tyrp1a/b eliminated accumulation of these elements in the RPE, indicating that they are bound by mature melanosomes. Furthermore, albino (slc45a2) mutants, which completely lack melanosomes, developed abnormal lens reflections similar to the congenital cataract caused by mutation of the myosin chaperon Unc45b, and an in situ spin trapping assay revealed increased oxidative stress in the lens of albino mutants. Finally transplanting a wildtype lens into an albino mutant background resulted in cataract formation. These data suggest that melanosomes in pigment epithelial cells protect the lens from oxidative stress during embryonic development, likely by buffering trace elements.Peer reviewe

Coping with RM challenges in hospitality education

The success of the hospitality industry and development of RM as a profession depends on the quality of new candidates. However, formal hospitality and business education and training programs concerning pricing and RM are far from providing the maximum level of competency for an extensive RM career development. Therefore, the goal of this study is to determine the challenges of RM and to address the gaps in hospitality and tourism education. Further aims of the current research include suggesting some enhancements to RM curriculum. To answer research questions, an online survey was sent to 423 HSMAI members that are listed as revenue staff. A total of 34 RM challenges were identified. The most important RM challenges were (1) finding qualified revenue staff, (2) economic instability, (3) owner pressure on budget and prices, (4) unstable demand, and (5) competition. Formal RM education in tourism and hospitality might be improved under the light of the findings suggested in this study.Istanbul University Research Counci