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Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the second largest pulse crop grown worldwide and ascochyta blight caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labr. is the most devastating disease of the crop in all chickpea growing areas across the continents. The pathogen A. rabiei is highly variable. The resistant sources available are not sufficient and new sources needs to be identified from time to time as resistance breakdown in existing chickpea varieties is very frequent due to fast evolution of new pathotypes of the pathogen. Therefore, this work was undertaken to evaluate the existing chickpea germplasm diversity conserved in Indian National Genebank against the disease under artificial epiphytotic conditions. An artificial standard inoculation procedure was followed for uniform spread of the pathogen. During the last five winter seasons from 2014–15 to 2018–19, a total of 1,970 accessions have been screened against the disease and promising accessions were identified and validated. Screening has resulted in identification of some promising chickpea accessions such as IC275447, IC117744, EC267301, IC248147 and EC220109 which have shown the disease resistance (disease severity score ≤3) in multiple seasons and locations. Promising accessions can serve as the potential donors in chickpea improvement programs. The frequency of resistant and moderately resistant type accessions was comparatively higher in accessions originated from Southwest Asian countries particularly Iran and Syria than the accessions originated from Indian sub-continent. Further large scale screening of chickpea germplasm originated from Southwest Asia may result in identifying new resistant sources for the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the impact of service quality on business performance in Qatar-based hotels. The study tests fifteen hypotheses built on existing theoretical models. The research adopts survey sampling method and uses the structural equation modeling approach. Empirical data were collected through the tourists of ten 5-star hotels in Qatar using the simple random sampling technique (n = 243). The findings revealed significant interrelations of tangibles, reliability, and empathy with financial, nonfinancial, and operational performance of the surveyed hotels. Responsiveness and assurance had a significant interrelation with nonfinancial performance and operational performance respectively. Based on the findings of this study, the paper discusses key managerial implications to improve specific dimensions of service quality for enhanced business performance. This paper has a special relevance for hotels in Qatar as they witness steady growth and seek avenues for improvement in service quality for a sustainable business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]