A study of Corporate Governance Practices of Corporate Sector in India

Dynamic environment has put forth many challenges for today’s human being; even a common person wants to prove him or herself with the greatest efficiency in present era. Competition is multiplying every day and that has given birth to number of good or bad aspects. Some want to survive in Cutthroat competition by applying unethical practices, while some wants to enjoy healthy competition through ethical and transparent activities. The reaction of both the aspects are obviously, represent in their action positive for the positive action and negative for negative actions. Good governance is the expectations of every stakeholder, specially, shareholder. Governance is related with the controlling of the activity and controlling of the corporate sector can be termed as corporate governance. But the implementation of ‘Corporate Governance’ is not that much simple as its meaning. It is very wide subject and it includes lot of discussion. No doubt corporate governance is recently emerged concept and has taken the attention of each and every country, investors and corporate executives. Corporate governance is the practice, which requires transparency, accountability and good performance from the corporate executives. It has, its strong base from the internal management of company, to the shareholders’ value as well as corporate social responsibility. Reasons for selecting corporate level units which are functioning in India is to find out whether corporate governance is actually being practiced by the corporate level executives or not

Osteonecrosis in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: a national questionnaire study

Objectives: To establish prevalence, management and long-term outcomes of osteonecrosis (ON) in young people diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) between 2003 and 2011. Design, setting, participants: This study assessed ON in 3113 patients aged 1–24 years who participated in the UK national leukaemia study UKALL 2003. UKALL 2003 recruited patients in 40 UK hospitals between 2003 and 2011 and included patients between ages 1 and 25 diagnosed with ALL. Results: 170 patients were diagnosed with ON, giving a prevalence of 5.5%. The multivariable analysis showed that the risk of ON was highest for children aged between 10 and 20 years (ages 10–15 years, OR 23.7, 95% CI 14.8 to 38.0; ages 16–20 years, OR 22.5, 95% CI 12.7 to 39.8, compared with age <10 years). Among ethnic groups, Asian patients had the highest risk of ON (OR 1.92, 95% CI 1.1 to 3.6, compared with White patients). Eighty-five per cent of patients with ON had multifocal ON. Thirty-eight per cent of patients with ON required surgery and 19% of patients with ON required a hip replacement. Fifteen per cent of patients who had surgery still describe significant disability or use of a wheelchair. Conclusions: ON has considerable morbidity for patients being treated for ALL, with a high burden of surgery. Age and ethnicity were found to be the most significant risk factors for development of ON, with Asian patients and patients aged 10–20 years at diagnosis of ALL at greatest risk. These results will help risk stratify patients at diagnosis of ALL, and help tailor future prospective studies in this area

Pilot scale studies on the beneficiation of complex sulphides by flotation column

Experiments using pilot size flotation Column as cleaner cell were conducted to evolve a suitable flow sheet for the production of bulk sulphide concentrates of Cu-Pb-Zn. The flotalion circuit consisting of roughing, scavenging, and two stage cleaning by conventional flotation machines was compared with the circuit where two stage cleaning operation was replaced with single stage cleaning by flotation column. It is clearly demonstrated that a single stage cleaning by flotation column is more efficient and sufficient to obtain bulk concentrate suitable for further processing. Of the two types of sparger systems used viz, TURBO and MICROCEL, the former was found to be better to achieve high quality concentrate

Circuit simplification by adopting flotation columns.

Pilot scale studics on the beneficiation of low-grade fluorspar and copper-lead-zinc ore were investigated using flotation columns. Acidspar concentrates suitable for HF production can be produced by adopting two-stage column cleaning in place of multi-stage cleaning by conventional flotation cells. A three-column canfiguration in the place of four-stage cleaning in acidspar circuit and four in metspar circuit was suggested. Similarly, it was demonstrated that a single stage cleaning by flotation column was found to be sufficient in the plnce of two-stage cleaning by conventional flotation cells to obtain bulk concentrates of Cu-Pb-Zn

Post-flight Analysis and Design Improvement in Command Guidance System for a Short-range Surface-to-air Missile System

A short-range missile with command-to line-of-sight and three-beam guidance has been considered in this paper. The earlier command guidance system (CGS) design shows unacceptablyhigh-low-frequency weave-mode oscillations, leading to high latax and body rate oscillations, even for benign, low-speed non-manoeuvring target engagements. For successful targetengagements with the three-beam guidance, missile is to be handed over from wide-to-medium receiver beam, and finally, from medium-to-the most accurate narrow receiver beam, depending on the angular error wrt line-of-sight as early as possible. Due to large amplitude oscillation in the earlier CGS design, the handing over of the missile to narrow receiver beam, and in many cases, to the medium receiver beam, itself could not take place, leading to failure of guidance. In this paper, the cause for this undesirable high magnitude weave-mode oscillation has been analysed in detail. After establishing this, saturation aspects of the earlier CGS design; a simple implementable CGS re-design was carried out to reduce this saturation aspect drastically for preserving almost full-phase advance effects of the linear new analogue compensators designed to give the required stability margins of guidance loop

A Systems Approach To Assess Trade Dependencies in U.S. Food–Energy–Water Nexus

We present a network model of the United States (U.S.) interstate food transfers to analyze the trade dependency with respect to participating regions and embodied irrigation impacts from a food–energy–water (FEW) nexus perspective. To this end, we utilize systems analysis methods including the pointwise mutual information (PMI) measure to provide an indication of interdependencies by estimating probability of trade between states. PMI compares observed trade with a benchmark of what is statistically expected given the structure and flow in the network. This helps assess whether dependencies arising from empirically observed trade occur due to chance or preferential attachment. The implications of PMI values are demonstrated by using Texas as an example, the largest importer in the U.S. grain transfer network. We find that strong dependencies exist not only just with states (Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska) providing high volume of transfer to Texas but also with states that have comparatively lower trade (New Mexico). This is due to New Mexico’s reliance on Texas as an important revenue source compared to its other connections. For Texas, import interdependencies arise from geographical proximity to trade. As these states primarily rely on the commonly shared High Plains aquifer for irrigation, overreliance poses a risk for water shortage for food supply in Texas. PMI values also indicate the capacity to trade more (the states are less reliant on each other than expected), and therefore provide an indication of where the trade could be shifted to avoid groundwater scarcity. However, some of the identified states rely on GHG emission intensive fossil fuels such as diesel and gasoline for irrigation, highlighting a potential tradeoff between crop water footprint and switching to lower emissions pumping fuels

Development of a semi-automated method for measuring urinary iodine and its application in epidemiological studies in Brazilian schoolchildren

In this study we developed a semi-automated method for the measurement of urinary iodine using firstly ammonium persulfate for digestion of urine followed by estimation of iodine content in the Sandell-Kolthoff reaction, in which iodine acts as a catalyst for the reduction of cerium. This method was validated in the 3rd Brazilian National Survey of iodine deficiency in 1994. We studied 16,803 casual urine samples from schoolchildren of 401 cities and found 4 moderately-deficient towns (Almas, Arraias, and Parana, in the State of Tocantins, and Cocos, in the State of Bahia), and 116 mildly-deficient. This work suggests that despite the salt iodization program, there was some iodine-deficient areas in Brazil in 1994. Recent surveys, involving less cities, are indicating an excess of iodine ingestion. Therefore, in a country of continental dimensions and very heterogeneous in terms of public health, periodical evaluations are necessary to monitor the real situation of iodine nutrition in Brazil. the method developed in this paper is suitable for these surveys.Univ Estadual Maringa, Dept Med, Ctr Ciencias Saude, Maringa, Parana, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Mol Endocrinol Lab, Disciplina Endocrinol, Dept Med,Escola Paulista Med, BR-04032029 São Paulo, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Mol Endocrinol Lab, Disciplina Endocrinol, Dept Med,Escola Paulista Med, BR-04032029 São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Effect of previous utilization and out-of-pocket expenditure on subsequent utilization of a state led public-private partnership scheme "Chiranjeevi Yojana" to promote facility births in Gujarat, India

Background: In Gujarat, India, a state led public private partnership scheme to promote facility birth named Chiranjeevi Yojana (CY) was implemented in 2005. Institutional birth is provided free of cost at accredited private health facilities to women from socially disadvantaged groups (eligible women). CY has contributed in increasing facility birth and providing substantially subsidized (but not totally free) birth care; however, the retention of mothers in this scheme in subsequent child birth is unknown. Therefore, we conducted a study aimed to determine the effect of previous utilization of the scheme and previous out of pocket expenditure on subsequent child birth among multiparous eligible women in Gujarat.Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of multiparous eligible women (after excluding abortions and births at public facility). A structured questionnaire was administered by trained research assistant to those with recent delivery between Jan and Jul 2013. Outcome of interest was CY utilization in subsequent child birth (Jan–Jul 2013). Explanatory variables included socio-demographic characteristics (including category of eligibility), pregnancy related characteristics in previous child birth, before Jan 2013, (including CY utilization, out of pocket expenditure) and type of child birth in subsequent birth. A poisson regression model was used to assess the association of factors with CY utilization in subsequent child birth.Results: Of 997 multiparous eligible women, 289 (29%) utilized and 708 (71%) did not utilize CY in their previous child birth. Of those who utilized CY (n = 289), 182 (63%) subsequently utilized CY and 33 (11%) gave birth at home; whereas those who did not utilize CY (n = 708) had four times higher risk (40% vs. 11%) of subsequent child birth at home. In multivariable models, previous utilization of the scheme was significantly associated with subsequent utilization (adjusted Relative Risk (aRR): 2.7; 95% CI: 2.2–3.3), however previous out of pocket expenditure was not found to be associated with retention in the CY scheme.Conclusion: Women with previous CY utilization were largely retained; therefore, steps to increase uptake of CY are expected to increase retention of mothers within CY in their subsequent child birth. To understand the reasons for subsequent child birth at home despite previous CY utilization and previous zero/minimal out of pocket expenditure, future research in the form of systematic qualitative enquiry is recommended

Arthropod EVs Mediate Dengue Virus Transmission Through Interaction With a Tetraspanin Domain Containing Glycoprotein Tsp29Fb

Dengue virus (DENV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes dengue fever in humans, worldwide. Using in vitro cell lines derived from Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, the primary vectors of DENV, we report that DENV2/DENV3-infected cells secrete extracellular vesicles (EVs), including exosomes, containing infectious viral RNA and proteins. A full-length DENV2 genome, detected in arthropod EVs, was infectious to naïve mosquito and mammalian cells, including human-skin keratinocytes and blood endothelial cells. Cryo-electron microscopy showed mosquito EVs with a size range from 30 to 250 nm. Treatments with RNase A, Triton X-100, and 4G2 antibody-bead binding assays showed that infectious DENV2-RNA and proteins are contained inside EVs. Viral plaque formation and dilution assays also showed securely contained infectious viral RNA and proteins in EVs are transmitted to human cells. Up-regulated HSP70 upon DENV2 infection showed no role in viral replication and transmission through EVs. In addition, qRT-PCR and immunoblotting results revealed that DENV2 up-regulates expression of a mosquito tetraspanin-domain–containing glycoprotein, designated as Tsp29Fb, in A. aegypti mosquitoes, cells, and EVs. RNAi-mediated silencing and antibody blocking of Tsp29Fb resulted in reduced DENV2 loads in both mosquito cells and EVs. Immunoprecipitation showed Tsp29Fb to directly interact with DENV2 E-protein. Furthermore, treatment with GW4869 (exosome-release inhibitor) affected viral burden, direct interaction of Tsp29Fb with E-protein and EV-mediated transmission of viral RNA and proteins to naïve human cells. In summary, we report a very important finding on EV-mediated transmission of DENV2 from arthropod to mammalian cells through interactions with an arthropod EVs-enriched marker Tsp29Fb