The adult intestine hosts a myriad of diverse bacterial species that reside mostly in the lower gut maintaining a symbiosis with the human habitat. In the current review, we describe the neoteric advancement in our comprehension of how the gut microbiota communicates with the skin as one of the main regulators in the gut-skin axis. We attempted to explore how this potential link affects skin differentiation and keratinization, its influence on modulating the cutaneous immune response in various diseases, and finally how to take advantage of this communication in the control of different skin conditions.

Candida auris, a new multidrug-resistant Candida spp. which is associated with invasive infection and high rates of mortality, has recently emerged. Here, we determined the virulence factors (germination, adherence, biofilm formation, phospholipase and proteinase production) of 16 C. auris isolates and their susceptibilities to 11 drugs belonging to different antifungal classes, including a novel orally bioavailable 1,3-β-d-glucan synthesis inhibitor (SCY-078). We also examined the effect of SCY-078 on the growth, ultrastructure, and biofilm-forming abilities of C. auris. Our data showed that while the tested strains did not germinate, they did produce phospholipase and proteinase in a strain-dependent manner and had a significantly reduced ability to adhere and form biofilms compared to that of Candida albicans (P = 0.01). C. auris isolates demonstrated reduced susceptibility to fluconazole and amphotericin B, while, in general, they were susceptible to the remaining drugs tested. SCY-078 had an MIC90 of 1 mg/liter against C. auris and caused complete inhibition of the growth of C. auris and C. albicans. Scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that SCY-078 interrupted C. auris cell division, with the organism forming abnormal fused fungal cells. Additionally, SCY-078 possessed potent antibiofilm activity, wherein treated biofilms demonstrated significantly reduced metabolic activity and a significantly reduced thickness compared to the untreated control (P < 0.05 for both comparisons). Our study shows that C. auris expresses several virulence determinants (albeit to a lesser extent than C. albicans) and is resistant to fluconazole and amphotericin B. SCY-078, the new orally bioavailable antifungal, had potent antifungal/antibiofilm activity against C. auris, indicating that further evaluation of this antifungal is warranted.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of leadership styles in the hospitality industry. It also demonstrates theories used in hospitality leadership styles research, identifies the main outcomes and highlights gaps for future research. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a comprehensive review of the 79 articles on leadership styles in the hospitality context spanning over 13 years (2008–2020) and extends the scope in distinctive means. Findings This review has demonstrated that leadership styles research in hospitality has made progress in the past 13 years; however, there are conceptual and empirical overlaps among different leadership styles in hospitality. There is a lack of research on antecedents and integrating theories in studies. This review has revealed that several leadership styles have not been rigorously examined in hospitality research with their outcomes. Research limitations/implications The search strategy used to find articles published in Web of Science about leadership styles in hospitality was restricted to title to boost the accuracy of the subsequent literature. Practical implications By following the guidance presented in this review, the authors expect to advance and maintain hospitality leadership research to provide substantive insights into the context of hospitality leadership over the coming years. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to undertake a comprehensive understanding of various leadership styles in the hospitality context. This study provides a comprehensive projected research agenda to demonstrate theoretical discourses and empirical research. Overall, this critical review presents a holistic idea of the focus of the prior studies and what should be highlighted in future studies.

Knowledge management has developed over the last era to become one of the most argued management concepts. Many Egyptian business establishments have started implementing knowledge management programs in their organizations. However, knowledge management in the hospitality industry has not accomplished the same scale of applications and empirical research as in other fields, particularly in the Egyptian hospitality industry. Consequently, this research aims at investigating knowledge management in the Egyptian hospitality industry and its correlation to hotel performance and innovation. Five-star, chain-affiliated hotels constitute this study's population, counting for 113 chain hotels. Among them, 101 valid questionnaires have been included in the data analysis. Findings revealed a strong and positive relationship between knowledge management and hotel performance. Likewise, findings indicated that there was a strong and positive relationship between knowledge management and hotel innovation.

Sustainability issues are becoming increasingly important in the hospitality sector during crisis times such as COVID‐19 and post‐pandemic. In order to synthesize the literature on sustainable practices in hospitality, we developed a systematic literature to illustrate the dominant sustainable practices in hospitality. We present a comprehensive review of the 48 articles on sustainable practices in hospitality through the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases; spanning over 2 years (2020–2021) pre‐and amid the COVID‐19 pandemic and extending the scope in distinctive ways. Our review has demonstrated that sustainable practices in hospitality have made progress in the years 2020 and 2021. However, there are conceptual and empirical overlaps among sustainable practices in hospitality. Additionally, hospitality sustainable practices research is restricted in research contexts. There is a lack of research on antecedents, outcomes, and integrating theories in studies. By following the guidance presented in this review, we expect to advance and maintain sustainable practices research to provide substantive insights over the coming years post‐COVID‐19. The current research is one of the first studies to systematically review sustainable practices in hospitality pre‐and amid the COVID‐19 pandemic. The research ends with a comprehensive research agenda and a framework to apprise future theoretical and empirical advances in the area.

Drawing on the Situational Crisis Communication theory (SCCT), this study recapitulates the initiatives, practices, and responses of the Egyptian government and chain-managed five-star hotels during the COVID-19 global health pandemic. Subjective and objective content analysis is employed in this study. Subjective content analysis is employed to examine newspapers, magazines, T.V channels, and official pages on Facebook to determine the initiatives and practices adopted by the Egyptian government. Objective content analysis is further used to determine the COVID-19 hospitality practices adopted by 22 chain-managed five-star hotels by examining their official websites. Thematic saturation was attained when observations and analyses exhibited no new themes. Findings indicated that the Egyptian government and chain-managed five-star hotels implemented a number of initiatives and practices focused on financial policies, health and hygiene, workforce and training, marketing, domestic tourism, booking flexibility, cancellation policies, community support, vacations, and contracts. This study contributes to crisis management research by being one of the first studies to explore governments and hotel operations practices and initiatives during the COVID-19 using Egypt as a case study. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications during and post the COVID-19.

Due to the significance of transformational leadership in the hospitality industry, and the imperative need of managers to communicate effectively with all employees in the work environment, this study aims to (1) shed light on the importance of transformational leadership in the hospitality industry; (2) study the implementation of transformational leadership for guest and non-guest contact employees in five-star hotels in Egypt, and (3) scrutinize the perception of transformational leadership and its effect on job stress and burnout. To our knowledge, this is the only study that has investigated this topic both in guest and non-guest contact departments in five-star hotels (113 hotels). A total of 327 valid questionnaires from 500 questionnaire distributed were used to conduct the data analysis (155 questionnaire represented guest contact department and 172 questionnaire represented non-guest contact department), giving a response rate of 65.4%. The findings revealed the perception of transformational leadership does not have significant variance, whether in guest contact department or in non-guest contact department. Although employees in guest contact department showed that their direct managers ''often'' implement transformational leadership, in nonguest contact department, they showed that their direct managers ''sometimes'' implement transformational leadership. The findings also revealed a significant and negative correlation between transformational leadership and job stress in five-star hotels. However, this negative relationship between transformational leadership and job stress is higher among guest contact employees than non-guest contact employees. Likewise, the statistical test revealed a significant and negative correlation between transformational leadership and job burnout in five-star hotels. But this negative relationship between transformational leadership and job stress is higher among guest contact employees than non-guest contact employees. The outcomes of this study raised major critical recommendations that have to be directed to top managerial level in the hospitality industry.