Evaluating the Effect of Financial Knowledge on Investment Decisions of Investors from Gandhinagar District

In recent time, people don’t have enough money to invest because of high maintenance life style, still few people try to balance their life by investing their hard earned money. But while taking decision on investment, Investors consider different resources and information, mean while they forget to check their own knowledge on financial terms and wisdom on how to invest and where to invest. It is important to know the effect of financial knowledge on the choice of investment avenues in order to study the reliability of their investment decisions. The problem is to check whether the investment decisions are based upon simple investment tips and opinions of other investors or a rational analysis of risk and return associated with the various investment avenues. In this paper an attempt has been made to evaluate the effect of Financial Knowledge on investment decisions of 200 Investors from Gandhinagar District. The study is based upon primary data collected through a structured questionnaire administered to 100 rural and 100 urban investors, drawn through quota sampling according to their various occupation categories. It is hypothesized that investors take rational decisions based upon their financial knowledge

Lipodystrophy syndrome among HIV infected children on highly active antiretroviral therapy in northern India

Background: It is estimated that about 2.5 million people are living with HIV infection in India. Although antiretroviral drugs have been able to reduce the mortality, these drugs have serious side effects one of which is lipodystrophy syndrome. Most of the drugs used in HAART viz, protease inhibitors, stavudine and nevirapine are associated with lipodystrophy. Hence we conducted this study to assess the prevalence of lipodystrophy in HIV infected children on HAART and its associated risk factors.Materials and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on 80 HIV infected children aged 2-18 years of age who were on stavudine based HAART for .2 years. These children were assessed for presence of lipodystrophy, its metabolic complications and associated risk factors.Results: Lipodystrophy was observed in 33.7% of children with lipoatrophy being the commonest subtype followed by lipohypertrophy. Older age, increased duration of treatment and dyslipidaemia were found to be associated in patients with lipodystrophy than those without. On further multivariate analysis of independent risk factors only increased duration of treatment was significantly associated with lipodystrophy. No association was found with insulin resistance.Conclusion: We observed that lipodystrophy is a common finding in HIV patients treated with HAART for long duration.Key Words: lipodystrophy syndrome, lipoatrophy, HAART, HI

Thy-1 interaction with Fas in lipid rafts regulates fibroblast apoptosis and lung injury resolution.

Thy-1-negative lung fibroblasts are resistant to apoptosis. The mechanisms governing this process and its relevance to fibrotic remodeling remain poorly understood. By using either sorted or transfected lung fibroblasts, we found that Thy-1 expression is associated with downregulation of anti-apoptotic molecules Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, as well as increased levels of cleaved caspase-9. Addition of rhFasL and staurosporine, well-known apoptosis inducers, caused significantly increased cleaved caspase-3, -8, and PARP in Thy-1-transfected cells. Furthermore, rhFasL induced Fas translocation into lipid rafts and its colocalization with Thy-1. These in vitro results indicate that Thy-1, in a manner dependent upon its glycophosphatidylinositol anchor and lipid raft localization, regulates apoptosis in lung fibroblasts via Fas-, Bcl-, and caspase-dependent pathways. In vivo, Thy-1 deficient (Thy1-/-) mice displayed persistence of myofibroblasts in the resolution phase of bleomycin-induced fibrosis, associated with accumulation of collagen and failure of lung fibrosis resolution. Apoptosis of myofibroblasts is decreased in Thy1-/- mice in the resolution phase. Collectively, these findings provide new evidence regarding the role and mechanisms of Thy-1 in initiating myofibroblast apoptosis that heralds the termination of the reparative response to bleomycin-induced lung injury. Understanding the mechanisms regulating fibroblast survival/apoptosis should lead to novel therapeutic interventions for lung fibrosis