A comparative study on financial performance of hotel industry in Pakistan (Sarena Hotel & Marriott Hotel)

The aim of this research is to analyse the financial performance of two big names of Hotel industry of Pakistan (Serena Hotel and Marriott Hotel). Specifically, the study seeks to analyse both hotels using financial ratios. Firstly, a review of the literature on the financial performance of Hotel Industry and use of Ratio analysis is done in order to understand its use for analysis. Financial statements of Hotels are mainly used to conduct this research. Overall, the findings show that both hotels have performed better in 2012 than previous years. It is also seen that both hotels are not maintaining sufficient assets with respect to liabilities (Liquidity ratios). Serena’s profit margin ratio is higher than that of Marriott Hotel. Given the importance of understanding the ratio analysis with need to fill the niche of research on the topic in our country; this study is of great importance to both academia and practitioners in the Hotel Industry of Pakistan. Keywords: Financial Statements, Ratio analysis, Liquidity ratio, Profit margin rati

Quorum-quenching bacteria isolated from red sea sediments reduce biofilm formation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

© 2018 Rehman and Leiknes. Quorum sensing (QS) is the process by which bacteria communicate with each other through small signaling molecules such as N-acylhomoserine lactones (AHLs). Certain bacteria can degrade AHL molecules by a process called quorum quenching (QQ); therefore, QQ can be used to control bacterial infections and biofilm formation. In this study, we aimed to identify new species of bacteria with QQ activity. Red Sea sediments were collected either from the close vicinity of seagrass or from areas with no vegetation. We isolated 72 bacterial strains, which were tested for their ability to degrade/inactivate AHL molecules. Chromobacterium violaceum CV026-based bioassay was used for the initial screening of isolates with QQ activity. QQ activity was further quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. We found that these isolates could degrade AHL molecules of different acyl chain lengths as well as modifications. 16S-rRNA sequencing of positive QQ isolates showed that they belonged to three different genera. Specifically, two isolates belonged to the genus Erythrobacter; four, Labrenzia; and one, Bacterioplanes. The genome of one representative isolate from each genus was sequenced, and potential QQ enzymes, namely, lactonases and acylases, were identified. The ability of these isolates to degrade the 3OXOC12-AHLs produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 and hence inhibit biofilm formation was investigated. Our results showed that the isolate VG12 (genus Labrenzia) is better than other isolates at controlling biofilm formation by PAO1 and degradation of different AHL molecules. Time-course experiments to study AHL degradation showed that VG1 (genus Erythrobacter) could degrade AHLs faster than other isolates. Thus, QQ bacteria or enzymes can be used in combination with an antibacterial to overcome antibiotic resistance

Influence of nitrogen sources on production of &#946b-galactosidase by Aspergillus niger

The study was undertaken to enhance the production of b-galactosidase using five organic nitrogen sources with wheat bran as a substrate under solid state fermentation. The microbial source Aspergillus niger and its DG-resistant mutant that were grown in medium with initial pH of 5.5 in 250 ml flasks at 30°C for 144 h and sample was harvested after every 24 h and analysed for substrate consumption, cell mass formation and enzyme production. All the nitrogen sources, ammonium sulphate, corn steep liquor, diammonium phosphate, fish meal and urea showed significant results. However, higher values of enzyme activity of 168.0 and 371.15 IU/l/h, parent and mutant, respectively, was obtained from sample in which corn steep liquor was used as a nitrogen source as compared tocontrol (73.1 and 176.3 IU/l/h in parent and mutant, respectively). The effect of nitrogen sources was also found significant in both the organisms but higher in mutant organism (2.2 fold). It is concluded that enzyme production enhanced 2.7 fold by use of suitable production medium under optimum cultural conditions and that the mutant derivative of A. niger can be exploited for hyper production of this enzyme

Recent developments and perspectives in CdS-based photocatalysts for water splitting

Over the past few years, many approaches have been developed progressively to produce hydrogen (H2) from water under solar light irradiation. This process of fuel production is clean, potentially cost-effective, and environment-friendly. At present, however, current technologies are unable to meet the industrial requirements because of high cost, low photoresponse, and insufficient catalytic performance. Among water splitting photocatalysts, CdS is considered to be an interesting and important material owing to its low cost, prominent catalytic activity, high absorption in the visible spectrum, and the suitable positions of its conduction (CB) and valence (VB) bands. There are, however, some associated problems such as the rapid recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs and photocorrosion that have severely hampered its practical usage. The efficient conversion of water to H2 depends on the extent to which the charge carriers, especially the electrons, are first generated and then have sufficient life-time for their effective utilization. This review highlights work over the past several years to improve the photocatalytic efficiency and stability of CdS for H2 production from water

Prevalence of Parental refusal rate and its associated factors in routine immunization by using WHO Vaccine Hesitancy tool: A Cross sectional study at district Bannu, KP, Pakistan

Objective To determine the parents refusal rate, associated factors and the perceptions of refusal parents in routine immunization by using “WHO SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy survey tool”. Material and Methods A cross sectional survey was conducted by using multi stage cluster sampling at the remote district Bannu Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan from March 2019 to July 2019.A WHO validated questionaire was used. Our outcome variable was “Ever refusal from routine immunization (yes/No)”.logistic regression was run for association and multi regression was applied to see counfounders. Result Out of total 610 parents, the refusal rate was 170(27.9%).Mostly the mother of the children has no education 145(85.3%,P 0.03).Mother has no mobile but the father has 152(89.4%, p=<.001) higher frequency to have mobile. The refusal rate was high in those having secure food 88(51.8%) as compare to minimal 62(36.5%) and highly insecure food 20(11.8%,P=<.05).On multivariate logistic regression, those father who were employee (adjusted OR = 0.59; 95% CI 0.37 to 0.94; p = 0.02) and having higher education (adjusted OR = 0.21; 95% CI 0.08 to 0.50; p=<.001) were less likely to refuse to vaccinate their children while in contrast those having highly insecure food were more likely to refuse (adjusted OR = 2.2; 95% CI 1.0 to 0.50; p = 0.04) as compare to minimal insecure food (adjusted OR = 1.6; 95% CI 1.0 to 2.5; p = 0.02). Conclusion Refusal rate among parents was very high while those parents who’s can’t read or write and with no education, having mobile phone, unemployment and secure food were more to be associated with refusal

Brain Tumor Segmentation from Multi-Spectral MR Image Data Using Random Forest Classifier

The development of brain tumor segmentation techniques based on multi-spectral MR image data has relevant impact on the clinical practice via better diagnosis, radiotherapy planning and follow-up studies. This task is also very challenging due to the great variety of tumor appearances, the presence of several noise effects, and the differences in scanner sensitivity. This paper proposes an automatic procedure trained to distinguish gliomas from normal brain tissues in multi-spectral MRI data. The procedure is based on a random forest (RF) classifier, which uses 80 computed features beside the four observed ones, including morphological ones, gradients, and Gabor wavelet features. The intermediary segmentation outcome provided by the RF is fed to a twofold post-processing, which regularizes the shape of detected tumors and enhances the segmentation accuracy. The performance of the procedure was evaluated using the 274 records of the BraTS 2015 train data set. The achieved overall Dice scores between 85-86% represent highly accurate segmentation

Tunnelling Methods and Hawking's radiation: achievements and prospects

The aim of this work is to review the tunnelling method as an alternative description of the quantum radiation from black holes and cosmological horizons. The method is first formulated and discussed for the case of stationary black holes, then a foundation is provided in terms of analytic continuation throughout complex space-time. The two principal implementations of the tunnelling approach, which are the null geodesic method and the Hamilton-Jacobi method, are shown to be equivalent in the stationary case. The Hamilton-Jacobi method is then extended to cover spherically symmetric dynamical black holes, cosmological horizons and naked singularities. Prospects and achievements are discussed in the conclusions.Comment: Topical Review commissioned and accepted for publication by "Classical and Quantum Gravity". 101 pages; 6 figure

Dendritic Cells Transduced to Express Interleukin 4 Reduce Diabetes Onset in Both Normoglycemic and Prediabetic Nonobese Diabetic Mice

Background: We and others have previously demonstrated that treatment with bone marrow derived DC genetically modified to express IL-4 reduce disease pathology in mouse models of collagen-induced arthritis and delayed-type hypersensitivity. Moreover, treatment of normoglycemic NOD mice with bone marrow derived DC, genetically modified to express interleukin 4 (IL-4), reduces the onset of hyperglycemia in a significant number of animals. However, the mechanism(s) through which DC expressing IL-4 function to prevent autoimmune diabetes and whether this treatment can reverse disease in pre-diabetic NOD mice are unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings: DC were generated from the bone marrow of NOD mice and transduced with adenoviral vectors encoding soluble murine IL-4 (DC/sIL-4), a membrane-bound IL-4 construct, or empty vector control. Female NOD mice were segregated into normoglycemic (<150mg/dL) and prediabetic groups (between 150 and 250 mg/dL) on the basis of blood glucose measurements, and randomized for adoptive transfer of 106 DC via a single i.v. injection. A single injection of DC/sIL-4, when administered to normoglycemic 12-week old NOD mice, significantly reduced the number of mice that developed diabetes. Furthermore, DC/sIL-4, but not control DC, decreased the number of mice progressing to diabetes when given to prediabetic NOD mice 12-16 weeks of age. DC/sIL-4 treatment also significantly reduced islet mononuclear infiltration and increased the expression of FoxP3 in the pancreatic lymph nodes of a subset of treated animals. Furthermore, DC/sIL-4 treatment altered the antigen-specific Th2:Th1 cytokine profiles as determined by ELISPOT of splenocytes in treated animals. Conclusions: Adoptive transfer of DC transduced to express IL-4 into both normoglycemic and prediabetic NOD mice is an effective treatment for T1D. © 2010 Ruffner, Robbins

Antimicrobial potential of LEGUMES extracts against foodborne pathogens: A review

[EN] Background: Alternative protein sources are being investigated in response to increasing consumer demand for innovative and healthy food products of vegetable origin to replace non-sustainable animal exploitation. The Leguminosae family includes a wide variety of plants and nutritious seeds, very rich in protein with a high biological value, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Not only the seeds but also the aerial parts, pods, hulls and roots have proved to be natural sources of antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial compounds. Scope and approach: The present article overviews the antimicrobial potential of the most popular legumes worldwide against foodborne pathogens. Key findings and conclusions: According to the literature reviewed, soybean and chickpea are the two consumed legumes with the highest antimicrobial activity. Long-chain soy peptides (IKAFKEATKVDKVVVLWTA) have a high antimicrobial potential against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria at a concentration level of 37.2 ¿M. Also, a wide spectrum of proteins and peptides in raw chickpeas and processed extracts have exerted antimicrobial activity against foodborne pathogens when applied in the range 8¿64 ¿g/ml. These results open a new research line with good prospects regarding the development of a new generation of natural preservative ingredients and extracts to be included in novel formulated products. However, critical aspects, such as (i) the stability of antimicrobial activity during the shelf-life of newly formulated food products, and (ii) the microbial inactivation kinetics generated in novel matrices, should be covered prior to exploitation of legumes as sources of novel technological ingredients with antimicrobial potential.The present research work has been supported by funds provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) as the HELICOFOOD project, with reference AGL2014-53875-R. The post-doctoral contract of M.C. Pina-Pérez as Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación granted by the MINECO is also acknowledged.Pina Pérez, MC.; Ferrús Pérez, MA. (2018). Antimicrobial potential of LEGUMES extracts against foodborne pathogens: A review. Trends in Food Science & Technology. 72:114-124. doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2017.12.007S1141247