Purpose This study aims to examine tourists’ heritage brand experience (HBE), cultural intelligence and destination loyalty and test whether these have an impact on the formation of consumer-based heritage destination brand equity (CBHDE). The mediating role of heritage destination loyalty (HDL) in this relationship was also examined. Design/methodology/approach The data used in the current study was collected from different heritage tourist destinations by using the survey questionnaire method. The proposed conceptual model was tested by applying structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings The SEM results reveal that tourists’ HBE, cultural intelligence and destination brand loyalty are positively related to CBHDE, thus implying the impact of these influences on CBHDE, which is mediated by heritage destination brand loyalty. Practical implications The results suggest that organizations operating in the heritage tourism and hospitality industry should pay greater attention to tourists experiences and cultural intelligence to achieve CBHDE. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to investigate CBHDE in the literature. As this work examines three important predictive variables in terms of CBHDE, this work can be considered an important addition to the existing knowledge on heritage tourism destination research.

Despite advances in the characterization of colorectal cancer (CRC), it still faces a poor prognosis. There is growing evidence that gut microbiota and their metabolites potentially contribute to the development of CRC. Thus, microbial dysbiosis and their metabolites associated with CRC, based on stool samples, may be used to advantage to provide an excellent opportunity to find possible biomarkers for the screening, early detection, prevention, and treatment of CRC. Using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing coupled with statistical analysis, this study analyzed the cause–effect shift of the microbial taxa and their metabolites that was associated with the fecal gut microbiota of 17 healthy controls, 21 polyps patients, and 21 cancer patients. The microbial taxonomic shift analysis revealed striking differences among the healthy control, polyps and cancer groups. At the phylum level, Synergistetes was reduced significantly in the polyps group compared to the healthy control and cancer group. Additionally, at the genus level and in association with the cancer group, a total of 12 genera were highly enriched in abundance. In contrast, only Oscillosprira was significantly higher in abundance in the healthy control group. Comparisons of the polyps and cancer groups showed a total of 18 significantly enriched genera. Among them, 78% of the genera associated with the cancer group were in higher abundance, whereas the remaining genera showed a higher abundance in the polyps group. Additionally, the comparison of healthy control and polyp groups showed six significantly abundant genera. More than 66% of these genera showed a reduced abundance in the polyps group than in healthy controls, whereas the remaining genera were highly abundant in the polyps group. Based on tumor presence and absence, the abundance of Olsenella and Lactobacillus at the genus level was significantly reduced in the patient group compared to healthy controls. The significant microbial function prediction revealed an increase in the abundance of metabolites in the polyps and cancer groups compared to healthy controls. A correlation analysis revealed a higher contribution of Dorea in the predicted functions. This study showed dysbiosis of gut microbiota at the taxonomic level and their metabolic functions among healthy subjects and in two stages of colorectal cancer, including adenoma and adenocarcinoma, which might serve as potential biomarkers for the early diagnosis and treatment of CRC.

Healthcare workers, who are in low-resource settings, are critically vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic. The increasing rate of coronavirus infection in a developing country such as Bangladesh caused the highest death rate of doctors among frontline service providers and resulted in fear and anxiety among healthcare workers. Even with

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This research was undertaken for the evaluation of soil erosion using the semi-distributed basin scale SWAT model for four subcatchments of the Dhrabi River Catchment (DRC), which is located in the Pothwar Plateau region. Two subcatchments (catchment-25 and -31) are characterized by gullies while the other two (catchment-27 and -32) are managed with terraced landuse system. The performance of the model was satisfactory with coefficient of determination (R 2 ) = 0.67 to 0.91 and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (E NS ) = 0.54 to 0.85 for both surface runoff and sediment yield during the calibration (2009)(2010) and validation (2011) periods. The P USLE factor was found to be the most sensitive parameter during model calibration.It was observed that all of the rainfall-runoff events occurred during the monsoon season (June to September). The estimated annual sediment loss ranged from 2.6 t/hm 2 to 31.1 t/hm 2 over the duration of the simulation period for the non-terraced catchments, in response to annual precipitation amounts that were between 194.8 mm to 579.3 mm. In contrast, the predicted annual sediment levels for the terraced catchments ranged from 0.52 t/hm 2 to 10.10 t/hm 2 due to similar precipitation amounts. The terraced catchments resulted in 4 to 5 times lower sediment yield as compared to non-terraced catchments. The results suggest that there is a huge potential for terraces to reduce soil erosion in the DRC specifically and Pothwar area generally, which have proven to be an efficient approach to establishing soil and water conservation structures in this region.