Entrepreneurship and Institutional Environment: Perspectives from the Review of Literature

The present study reveals how entrepreneurship and institutional environment has been addressed in the past theoretically and empirically. Main premise is to provide a broad overview of the existing studies on entrepreneurship and institutional environment throughout the world; show its development and movement over the past decades and fuse its findings on the basis of the insights gained from the review of the related literature. A methodical search was conducted in the leading journals of entrepreneurship. A total of 103 articles and research papers were reviewed. This methodical literature review not only increases the lucidity of the available literature but unveils significant areas for future research as well. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Institutional environment

Assessment of user preference to information resources in agricultural libraries in north India

Through a survey, this study assesses the preference of users with regard to print and electronic information resources in agricultural libraries of north India and to identify the preferred mode of access thereof. The required data were collected, employing questionnaires and through telephonic surveys. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used for analysing the data. The level of association between the user preference and the corresponding variable was derived throughChi Squared (χ2) Test. It is found that the users of agricultural libraries in north India use information resources almost equally both in print and electronic forms, although online resources are favored over print as they are ‘easy to search and retrieve’, ‘easy and quick to access’ and ‘more up-to-date’ than their print counterparts

High Capacity Data Embedding using joint Intermediate Significant Bit (ISB) and Least Significant Bit (LSB) Technique

The success of the Internet, coupled with availability of relatively inexpensive digital devices has created an environment in which it has become very easy to obtain, replicate and distribute digital content without any loss in quality. In such a scenario, data hiding has received significant attention from the research community round the globe, as it has been found useful in various areas like copyright protection, copy control, fingerprinting, content authentication and information security. Least Significant Bit based data hiding techniques have been used as effective means to hide the data to be secured, but they are less robust in nature. This paper presents a high capacity data hiding technique in which the data to be secured is embedded in Intermediate Significant Bits in addition to Least Significant Bits of cover image. The data to be embedded is broken down in data blocks of variable length and each block is embedded in the cover media in such a way that highest length data vector is embedded in lower order bit plane and vice-versa. This work shows attractive results with respect to imperceptibility and capacity when compared with a few reported techniques. Key Words: Intermediate Significant Bit, Embedding, Imperceptibility, Least Significant Bit.

Randomized, Standard Controlled Study Evaluating the Efficacy and Safety of Habb-e-Waja‘al-Mafāṣil in Managing Cervical Spondylosis

Background and Objectives Cervical Spondylosis is a degenerative disease of intervertebral discs and adjacent vertebral bodies of the cervical region due to wear and tear changes. Neck pain, with radiculopathy, and stiffness comprises the prime features of cervical spondylosis demanding the immediate attention and respite. Despite the advancement in pharmacological, nonpharmacological and surgical interventions, the management remains unsatisfactory due to high cost, adverse effects and unusual eventualities. Hence a clinical trial was done to evaluate the efficacy of herbal formulation, Habb-e-Waja‘al-Mafāṣil (HWM), in managing cervical spondylosis (Waja‘al-‘Unuq). Methods The study is an open-labeled, randomized and standard controlled trial. Sixty diagnosed patients of age group 20 to 70 years were randomly allocated, using a computer generated chart, in test group (n=30) receiving HWM (3gm), and the control group (n=30) receiving ibuprofen 1200mg/day, orally in divided doses. The severity score of clinical symptoms and signs; pain, stiffness, swelling, restriction of movement and radiological findings were analyzed at baseline and at 30 days. Results Both HWM and ibuprofen significantly reduced the severity score of pain, stiffness, swelling, and restriction of movement (p=<0.001) associated with cervical spondylosis after completion of treatment protocol. However, no change was observed in radiological findings in either group (p=1). Comparison to control group no significant result was noticed in test group statistically (p=>0.05), except for “restriction of movement” (p=<0.05). Conclusion The herbal formulation, HWM, is equally effective to conventional treatment in managing cervical spondylosis. Therefore, HWM can be prescribed as safe and cost effective alternative treatment for cervical spondylosis

RELAXIN: A MAGICAL THERAPY FOR HEALTHY HEART

Relaxin (a peptide hormone) has emerged as a cardioprotective agent and plays a vital role in normal cardiac function. By activation a complex network of signaling cascade, relaxin is responsible for creating a healthy environment for heart functioning. Under pathological conditions, such as cardiomyopathy and heart failure, expression level of relaxin is increased dramatically to protect heart. By promoting angiogenesis, vasodilatation, improving ischemia/reperfusion injury and remodeling, relaxin has emerged as a magical agent to address cardiac abnormalities. Over the past 3 decades, various cardioprotection strategies are in use to deal with cardiac diseases, however till date no effective therapy is in clinical practice. Relaxin has emerged as a novel therapeutic agent to have beneficial action during various pathological conditions. In this review, we have discussed different cardioprotective roles of relaxin that marks it, as an effective agent to tackle heart related diseases.Â

Web Based Services Provided by University Libraries of BRICS Nations: A Comparative Study

The developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) and their subsequent absorption in library and information science (LIS) have forced information professionals to change the way they are functioning at present. Because of their popularity with the users, an overwhelming attention is being given to the web-based information services in libraries .The web 2.0 technologies have rapidly gained huge popularity and as such, the university libraries, being the heart of the highest seats of learning, need to equip themselves with all the possible web based, i.e. web 2.0 and allied services. The present study made an endeavour to study the various web 2.0 and allied web based services offered by select university libraries of BRICS nations. This study shows that the web based services in the university libraries of BRICS nations are quite better. The findings show that India and china universities are far behind as compared to Brazil, Russia and South Africa in employability of web 2.0 tools in librarie

Data Hiding in Color Images: A High Capacity Data Hiding Technique for Covert Communication

A high capacity data hiding technique using color images as cover medium and referred to as 4R-4G-4B technique has been investigated and presented in this paper. The color image is firstly divided into its constituent bit planes followed by data embedding. To thwart the adversary different embedding algorithms have been used for embedding data in Red, Green and Blue planes. Additional layer of security to the embedded data is added by embedding secret data at the pseudorandom locations determined by Main Address Vector (MAV) and Complementary Address Vector (CAV). The comparison of our method with an existing technique shows that proposed technique is capable of providing better quality stego-images even if the embedded data is slightly more. A 2.7dB increase in PSNR in case of proposed technique substantiates the argument

On the Realization of Non-Linear Pseudo-Noise Generator for various Signal Processing and Communication Applications

In digital communication systems and digital signal processing, the design of pseudo-noise (PN) sequences having good correlation properties has been one of the most important development steps. Its well-known application areas include spread spectrum communications, Multiuser Communications, Digital Signal Processing for reduction of power spectral density, mitigation of Multiple Access Interference (MAI) and improvement of signal to noise ratio (SNR) respectively. In this paper a performance of non- linear PN code generator for interference rejection improvement of signal to noise ratio in signal processing applications have been studied.  The signal of interest can be considered to be a digitally controlled wide band digital chaotic signal, which has been implemented by conventional PN code generators.  The proposed technique can be used as an alternative code for improvement in signal to noise ratio, interference rejection, spreading code for various signal processing and communication applications.  The proposed scheme has been implemented using matlab as a simulation tool.  Power spectral density, auto-correlation and cross-correlation property have been thoroughly studied and has been compared with conventional scheme and are presented in the paper. Keywords: PN Code Generator, Spread Spectrum Modulation, Auto-correlation, Cross-correlation, Power Spectral Density

TARGETING HIF-1 PATHWAY: A THERAPEUTIC APPROACH TO KILL CANCER CELLS

Tumorous growth often faces hypoxic (low oxygen tension) conditions and the adaptations of these cells to hypoxic conditions determine their survival. The cancer cells respond to hypoxia by altering the expression of different genes and Hypoxia-Inducible Factor (HIF)-1 is one of it. HIF-1 is a transcriptional factor that response to hypoxia (low oxygen tension) conditions quickly. Expression of HIF-1 gene is essential for increase in vascularization of hypoxic region such as tumor and thus aid in proliferation and survival of cancerous cells. Moreover, HIF-1 signaling in cancer cells has a diverse influence on the metastatic cascade. Targeting HIF-1 is therefore one of the most promising approach to treat cancer. In this review, we have focused on the potential of targeting HIF-1 pathway as therapeutic intervention to treat cancer. Key words: HIF-1 Pathway, Cancer, Hypoxia-Inducibl