Muğla University

Abstract Motivation: UniRef databases provide full-scale clustering of UniProtKB sequences and are utilized for a broad range of applications, particularly similarity-based functional annotation. Non-redundancy and intra-cluster homogeneity in UniRef were recently improved by adding a sequence length overlap threshold. Our hypothesis is that these improvements would enhance the speed and sensitivity of similarity searches and improve the consistency of annotation within clusters. Results: Intra-cluster molecular function consistency was examined by analysis of Gene Ontology terms. Results show that UniRef clusters bring together proteins of identical molecular function in more than 97% of the clusters, implying that clusters are useful for annotation and can also be used to detect annotation inconsistencies. To examine coverage in similarity results, BLASTP searches against UniRef50 followed by expansion of the hit lists with cluster members demonstrated advantages compared with searches against UniProtKB sequences; the searches are concise (∼7 times shorter hit list before expansion), faster (∼6 times) and more sensitive in detection of remote similarities (>96% recall at e-value <0.0001). Our results support the use of UniRef clusters as a comprehensive and scalable alternative to native sequence databases for similarity searches and reinforces its reliability for use in functional annotation. Availability and implementation: Web access and file download from UniProt website at http://www.uniprot.org/uniref and ftp://ftp.uniprot.org/pub/databases/uniprot/uniref. BLAST searches against UniRef are available at http://www.uniprot.org/blast/ Contact: huang@dbi.udel.edu

A number of research studies have investigated tourist satisfaction with mass tourism destinations, particularly during the peak (summer) season. However, there has been limited investigation of tourist satisfaction with off-season holiday destinations. This article reports the findings of a study to determine destination attributes critical to the over-all satisfaction levels of tourists visiting Mallorca, Spain, during the winter season. Their future holiday intentions also are investigated. Findings are analyzed, and implications and limitations are discussed.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a pivotal role in biological processes and continuous ROS production in normal cells is controlled by the appropriate regulation between the silver lining of low and high ROS concentration mediated effects. Interestingly, ROS also dynamically influences the tumor microenvironment and is known to initiate cancer angiogenesis, metastasis, and survival at different concentrations. At moderate concentration, ROS activates the cancer cell survival signaling cascade involving mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases 1/2 (MAPK/ERK1/2), p38, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and phosphoinositide-3-kinase/ protein kinase B (PI3K/Akt), which in turn activate the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). At high concentrations, ROS can cause cancer cell apoptosis. Hence, it critically depends upon the ROS levels, to either augment tumorigenesis or lead to apoptosis. The major issue is targeting the dual actions of ROS effectively with respect to the concentration bias, which needs to be monitored carefully to impede tumor angiogenesis and metastasis for ROS to serve as potential therapeutic targets exogenously/endogenously. Overall, additional research is required to comprehend the potential of ROS as an effective anti-tumor modality and therapeutic target for treating malignancies.

Destination image is commonly accepted as an important aspect in successful tourism development and destination marketing due to its impact on both supply- and demand-side aspects of marketing. Despite the ample amount of literature, a comprehensive conceptualization of destination image comprising its intricate relationships with several other factors on the supply and demand sides of the market has yet to emerge. In this study, a large body of literature on destination image and related concepts is reviewed and a comprehensive conceptualization of destination image is modeled. It was concluded that there are still many facets of this complex construct yet to be investigated empirically.

Abstract The primary objective of this paper is twofold: (i) to investigate the impact of perceived risk on the tendency to travel internationally; and (ii) to explore if there is any difference in the perception of risky places among three clusters segmented based on the Hofstede's uncertainty avoidance index. The sample population of the study consists of 1180 international travellers visiting Hong Kong in the fall of 2003. The research findings show that the majority of travellers are more likely to change their travel plans to a destination that has elevated risk while the minority reports they are more unlikely. These findings suggest that international travellers appear to be sensitive towards the occurrence of any type of risk in their evoked destinations. Differences were also observed from one continent to another in terms of the influence of perceived risks. The final note is that travellers from different national cultures may have varying degrees of the perceived risk. Implications both for theory and practitioners are also discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The destination image has received much attention for about three decades. Studies of various aspects of destination images increased in volume during the 1990s. Echtner and Ritchie's (1991) review of destination image literature resulted in several suggestions in terms of both the conceptualization and operationalization of destination image. This study looks at the evolutionary nature of tourism destination image studies from both theoretical and operational perspectives. Necessary adjustments in the methodological rigor and the focus of inquiry for destination image research are offered using Echtner and Ritchie's review as a guide. A review of literature about destination image and other pertinent concepts indicated that several of Echtner and Ritchie's recommendations have been followed, whereas others have not. Also, several other important conceptualization- and methodology-related issues identified in the destination image literature are addressed.

ABSTRACT The effect of silicon (Si) on physiological attributes and nutritional status of maize (Zea mays cv. DK 647 F1) under water stress was studied in a pot experiment. Treatments were (1) well watered (WW): 100% of FC (soil field capacity), (2) WW + Si1: 100% of FC + 1 mM Si, (3) WW + Si2: 100% of FC + 2 mM Si, (4) water stress (WS): 50% of FC, (5) WS + Si1: 50% of FC + 1 mM Si and (6) WS + Si2: 50% of FC + 2 mM Si. In the control treatment, plants were irrigated to field capacity (100% FC). Water stress was imposed by maintaining a moisture level equivalent to 50% of field capacity, whereas the well-watered pots (control) were maintained at full field capacity. Water stress was found to reduce the total dry matter (DM), chlorophyll content, and relative water content (RWC), but to increase proline accumulation and electrolyte leakage in maize plants. Both Si treatments largely improved the above physiological parameters, but levels remained significantly lower than the control (WW) values except for electrolyte leakage and root:shoot ratios, which were higher. Only root DM appeared to show very little variation in any of the treatments. The concentration of Si in the plants was increased by Si addition into the nutrient solution. Water stress reduced leaf calcium (Ca) and potassium (K) of maize plants, but addition of Si increased these nutrient levels; Ca levels were similar to WW under the high-Si treatment, but K was lower. Root Ca and K were both increased by WS; root Ca was further increased by high Si (WS + Si2 treatment). Addition of Si to the WS treatments did not change root K. Results indicate that while application of Si may be one approach to improve growth of this crop and increase its production in arid or semi-arid areas where water is at a premium, this technique would not fully substitute for an adequate water supply.

A review of the literature on branding in general, and on destination branding more specifically, raises several questions about the branding of tourist destinations. What is clear is that confusion exists in the concept of ‘brand’ in the tourist destination context. This panel study was designed to explore how experts perceive the meaning of destination branding and its main characteristics. Five propositions were developed and explored in regards to the lack of clear definition of destination brand, the confusion between brand and image, the lack of conception of similarities and differences between branding for consumer products and tourist destinations, the difficulty of identifying one symbol for countries, and the lack of commonly-known brands of tourist destinations. This article then proposes a model of branding and its ramifications in the tourism destination context, as well as providing several methodological, theoretical and practical implications.

The implementation of strategy, directly or indirectly, relates to all facets of management. Therefore, it is essential to follow a holistic approach when analyzing and evaluating complex issues of implementation. However, research in this area is still limited, and offers few practical propositions. Given this situation, this article proposes an implementation framework by identifying key elements/factors of implementation and categorizing them into different groups depending on their role and importance. The role and importance of each implementation factor, as well as its relationship with other factors, are explained. It is believed that the framework developed in this article can assist executives and researchers to better understand and evaluate complex factors of implementation and deal with challenges from a holistic perspective. Suggestions for practice and future research are also given.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of nomophobia (the fear of being out of mobile phone contact) among young adults in Turkey. The Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) was administered to 537 Turkish college students. The results revealed 42.6% of young adults had nomophobia, and their greatest fears were related to communication and information access. The study also found that gender and the duration of smartphone ownership had an effect on young adults’ nomophobic behaviors, whereas age and the duration of mobile phone ownership had no effect. Based on these results, implications, limitations, and further studies were discussed.

Proteins often have multiple functional states, which might not always be accommodated by a single fold. Lymphotactin (Ltn) adopts two distinct structures in equilibrium, one corresponding to the canonical chemokine fold consisting of a monomeric three-stranded beta-sheet and carboxyl-terminal helix. The second Ltn structure solved by NMR reveals a dimeric all-beta-sheet arrangement with no similarity to other known proteins. In physiological solution conditions, both structures are significantly populated and interconvert rapidly. Interconversion replaces long-range interactions that stabilize the chemokine fold with an entirely new set of tertiary and quaternary contacts. The chemokine-like Ltn conformation is a functional XCR1 agonist, but fails to bind heparin. In contrast, the alternative structure binds glycosaminoglycans with high affinity but fails to activate XCR1. Because each structural species displays only one of the two functional properties essential for activity in vivo, the conformational equilibrium is likely to be essential for the biological activity of lymphotactin. These results demonstrate that the functional repertoire and regulation of a single naturally occurring amino acid sequence can be expanded by access to a set of highly dissimilar native-state structures.

Platelet indices (PI) -- plateletcrit, mean platelet volume (MPV) and platelet distribution width (PDW) -- are a group of derived platelet parameters obtained as a part of the automatic complete blood count. Emerging evidence suggests that PIs may have diagnostic and prognostic value in certain diseases. This study aimed to summarize the current scientific knowledge on the potential role of PIs as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in patients having emergency, non-traumatic abdominal surgery. In December 2015, we searched Medline/PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar to identify all articles on PIs. Overall, considerable evidence suggests that PIs are altered with acute appendicitis. Although the role of PI in the differential diagnosis of acute abdomen remains uncertain, low MPV might be useful in acute appendicitis and acute mesenteric ischemia, with high MPV predicting poor prognosis in acute mesenteric ischemia. The current lack of consistency and technical standards in studies involving PIs should be regarded as a serious limitation to comparing these studies. Further large, multicentre prospective studies concurrently collecting data from different ethnicities and genders are needed before they can be used in routine clinical practice.

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the concept of push and pull satisfaction and relates it with a uni-dimensional measure of satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – A factor structure is derived, comprising push and pull satisfaction factors which are related to the level of overall satisfaction. The empirical study was performed in Lisbon, one of the main cultural cities in Europe. Findings – Results suggest that overall satisfaction reflects the tourist assessment of push and pull dimensions of satisfaction. Furthermore, results also demonstrate that satisfaction arose within the opportunity to experience the cultural and social specificities of a destination considering the appropriate facilities. Based on the study findings, implications for management and marketing are presented. Research limitations/implications – This study comprises various methodological limitations mainly concerning the sample size that was restricted to 323 cases as well as it only considers the cultural city of Lisbon. Thus, to improve and enhance the model, future works should consider a comparison between multiple cultural destinations. Future research may comprise a broader time window to undertake the possible variation of data. Practical implications – This study represents a step forward to understand and predict tourist behaviour. Tourism scholars and practitioners should be aware that there is a need to consider further studies to develop more effective measurement scales to assess the considered constructs. For instance, the suggested assessment of overall satisfaction can be better to measure overall satisfaction by considering the idea of equity theory. Originality/value – The study contributes to the literature in two major directions. First, the present study is one of few works that attempt to develop a scale to measure satisfaction issues through the use of an adaptation of push and pull motivations. Second, results demonstrate that all the factors present high loading values competing to explain overall satisfaction. Such empirical evidence has the value to propose that the functional attributes contribute to satisfy the most intrinsic desires of learning about a culture, art or even the famous traditional music Fado in a balance novelty. Thus, several attributes contributing to distinct factors are willing to be grouped under the same theoretical umbrella when tourists draw the evaluation of overall satisfaction, e.g. tangibles (entertainment) and intangibles (learn about music, art or museums).

The research described in this paper aimed to evaluate the extent to which academic performance is affected by student engagement (students’ involvement in school activities and commitment to the school’s mission and rules), academic self-efficacy (the students’ sense of their own capabilities), and academic motivation (the students’ desire to increase their academic performance). The results of the study, which was conducted with the participation of 578 middle and high school students, suggest that cognitive engagement, one of the sub-dimensions of school engagement, predicts academic performance; however, emotional and behavioral engagement does not predict academic performance. A sense of academic self-efficacy and academic motivation, however, do predict academic performance. Moreover, the sense of self-capability and related motivations of students, as well as the sense of the purpose for their learning are significant variables affecting their academic success.

BACKGROUND: There is heterogeneity in the names and anatomical descriptions of regional anesthetic techniques. This may have adverse consequences on education, research, and implementation into clinical practice. We aimed to produce standardized nomenclature for abdominal wall, paraspinal, and chest wall regional anesthetic techniques. METHODS: We conducted an international consensus study involving experts using a three-round Delphi method to produce a list of names and corresponding descriptions of anatomical targets. After long-list formulation by a Steering Committee, the first and second rounds involved anonymous electronic voting and commenting, with the third round involving a virtual round table discussion aiming to achieve consensus on items that had yet to achieve it. Novel names were presented where required for anatomical clarity and harmonization. Strong consensus was defined as ≥75% agreement and weak consensus as 50% to 74% agreement. RESULTS: Sixty expert Collaborators participated in this study. After three rounds and clarification, harmonization, and introduction of novel nomenclature, strong consensus was achieved for the names of 16 block names and weak consensus for four names. For anatomical descriptions, strong consensus was achieved for 19 blocks and weak consensus was achieved for one approach. Several areas requiring further research were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Harmonization and standardization of nomenclature may improve education, research, and ultimately patient care. We present the first international consensus on nomenclature and anatomical descriptions of blocks of the abdominal wall, chest wall, and paraspinal blocks. We recommend using the consensus results in academic and clinical practice.

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) offers important opportunities for the hospitality and tourism (HT) industry in the context of operations, design, marketing, destination management, human resources, revenue management, accounting and finance, strategic management, and beyond. However, the implementation of GAI in HT contexts comes with ethical, legal, social, and economic considerations that require careful reflection by HT firms. The purpose of this study is to offer a critical examination of the effects of GAI applications across a broad spectrum of stakeholders in the HT industry, in an effort to integrate practical and academic insights and foresights and drive academic research forward. Through the contributions of a purposeful selection of scholars, educators, and industry-practitioners, along the tenets of the stakeholder theory of the firm, this study highlights the potential challenges and opportunities of GAI and considers how academics can navigate the (research) complexities of this rapidly evolving technological phenomenon.

Purpose The literature considers the big five personality traits and entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) to be important individual-level factors that determine entrepreneurial intention. However, little is known about the profiles of personal characteristics of individuals who express a high level of entrepreneurial intention. The purpose of this paper is to carry out a comparative analysis of personal characteristics that contribute to new business start-up intention. Design/methodology/approach Using survey data from two samples, fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was performed to extract patterns of personal characteristics (i.e. the big five personality traits and ESE) that impact entrepreneurial intention. Findings The outcomes of the analyses demonstrate that a high level of entrepreneurial intention can be realized through multiple configurations of the big five personality traits and ESE. Practical implications This paper can inform practice on entrepreneurship education. Specifically, the paper includes implications for the development of ESE, and for understanding multiple configurations of personal characteristics that lead to a high level of entrepreneurial intention. Originality/value This paper addresses an identified need to understand how personal characteristics operate conjointly and among individuals.

Aims to develop an implementation framework. Further to a critical review of previous research, ten implementation variables were identified and a conceptual framework constructed. The implementation process of a strategic decision was investigated in two international hotel groups via in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews, observations and documentation analysis. The initial conceptual framework was found to be useful as it grouped key variables together and illustrated their roles when implementing strategic decisions. Three new variables, however, emerged from the findings; namely, multiple project implementation, organisational learning and working with external companies. A revised framework was then proposed and further explanations provided. Concludes by emphasising the importance of contextual variables in implementation and dispels the strategic management notion of “fit”.

The authors examined the links between two dimensions that have been useful in understanding cross-cultural differences and similarities, namely, individualism-collectivism (I-C) and value orientations. The authors examined the relations and parallels between the two variables by directly relating them and examining the patterns of relations that both have with a third variable, religiosity. Participants were 475 college students from the Philippines, the United States, and Turkey who responded to measures of horizontal and vertical I-C, value orientations, and religiosity. The authors found partial support for the parallels between I-C and value types, particularly for collectivism and conservative values. Moreover, religiosity was associated positively with conservative values and collectivism, across all three cultures. The authors found individualism to also relate to openness-to-change values, though the patterns were not as consistent as those that they found between collectivism and conservation. Differences and similarities emerged in links of I-C-values to religiosity across the three samples.

Abstract In recent years, policy‐makers have sought the development of appropriate tools to prevent and manage introductions of invasive species. However, these tools are not well suited for introductions of non‐target species that are unknowingly released alongside intentionally‐introduced species. The most compelling example of such invasion is arguably the topmouth gudgeon Pseudorasbora parva, a small cyprinid species originating from East Asia. A combination of sociological, economical and biological factors has fuelled their rapid invasion since the 1960s; 32 countries (from Central Asia to North Africa) have been invaded in less than 50 years. Based on a combination of monitoring surveys (2535 populations sampled) and literature reviews, this paper aims to quantify and characterise important invasion parameters, such as pathways of introduction, time between introduction and detection, lag phase and plasticity of life history traits. Every decade, five new countries have reported P. parva introduction, mainly resulting from the movement of Chinese carps for fish farming. The mean detection period after first introduction was 4 years, a duration insufficient to prevent their pan‐continental invasion. High phenotypic plasticity in fitness related traits such as growth, early maturity, fecundity, reproductive behaviour and the ability to cope with novel pathogens has predisposed P. parva to being a strong invader. The Pseudorasbora parva invasion has provided quantitative data for the development of 1) early warning systems across different spatial scales; 2) rapid eradication programmes prior to natural spread in open systems and 3) sound risk assessments with emphasis on plasticity of life history traits.