Economic reform and Productivity Growth in Indian Paper and Paper Products Industry: A Nonparametric Analysis

This paper applied the Malmquist Productivity Index in order to estimate total factor productivity growth and its components (efficiency change and technological progress) in Indian paper and paper products industry during pre and post-reform period. The obtained estimates of TFP change at the aggregate and sectoral level, indicates that the net impact of economic reforms on the productivity growth of paper and paper products industry was negative. It was evident in the study that the negative TFP change was decreased (from -8.6% to -5.2%) in the post-reform period in paper and paper products industry at the aggregate level. It was found in this study that the technical efficiency change and the technical change was the deteriorating factor for productivity change in Indian paper and paper products industry. Among similar trends were observed at the sub-sectoral level also. Further, the results of this study suggest that specific policies should be implemented in order to improve efficiency as well as technical progress, thus ultimately facilitating long-run productivity growth.Indian Paper Industry; Economic Reforms; Productivity; Malmquist Index

Impact of non-coding RNAs in genetic disease and papillomavirus lifecycle

Non-coding RNAs are vital to several diverse biological processes. Untranslated regions of mRNAs (UTRs) and variability therein can often cause differential regulation of transcripts. This regulation is often effected by microRNAs (miRNAs), small non-coding RNAs that interacts with 3’UTRs to regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. Here we investigate the variation in the 3’UTR of SERPINA1 gene, mutations of which cause the often life-threatening Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (A1AD), and effects on miRNA. We screened 50 miRNA mimics and determined their overexpression does not affect secreted alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT). Additionally, we showed through the use of a poxvirus protein to degrade miRNAs that underexpression of miRNAs does not affect secreted AAT. Using luciferase reporters we determine that in cultured cells, there are no liver-specific trans-factors that act on the SERPINA1 3’UTR, of any length, to regulate gene expression. We sequenced the 3’UTRs from the largest cohort of of A1AD patients to date and determined that 3’UTR variation does not contribute to disease severity in patients with one form of A1AD, and that in a cell culture context, miRNAs do not regulate secreted AAT. We conclude that neither 3’UTR variation nor miRNAs affect wild-type secreted AAT. In addition to genetic disease, miRNAs regulate multiple aspects of the host-pathogen interface. Until now no widely accepted PV-encoded miRNAs have been described. We have developed miRNA Discovery by forced Genomic Expression (miDGE), a new wet bench approach to miRNA identification that screens numerous pathogen genomes in parallel. Using miDGE, we screened over 75 different PV genomes for the ability to code for miRNAs. We conclusively demonstrate a lack of PV miRNA expression in cancers associated with infections of several high risk HPVs. However, we identified five different miRNAs encoded by four different PVs (Human PVs 17, 37, 41 and Fringilla colebs (Fc) PV). We show that miRNAs from two PVs (HPV41 & FcPV) are able to regulate transcripts corresponding to the early region of the PV genome.. Combined, these findings identify the first canonical PV miRNAs and support that miRNAs of either host or viral origin are important regulators of the PV life cycle.Microbiolog

Temple Beyond Sanctuary: A personal study of hybridizing Indian music and Jazz

Temple Beyond Sanctuary is a suite of compositions written to utilize Carnatic music and its\u27 hybridization in a modern jazz context. This project studies the requisite devices that characterize Carnatic music, and explores the central attributes to its performance. These devices are then expanded upon by combining concepts from the jazz genre, adding upon like elements like improvisation, motivic development, and rhythmic complexity, but carefully contextualizing elements as authentic to each genre that are absent in one another, such as harmony or dissonance. Theses compositions are derived from personal stories of immigration, that the author has collected from his family, or personal experiences as an immigrant.https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-global-jazz/1085/thumbnail.jp

Economic reform and Productivity Growth in Indian Paper and Paper Products Industry: A Nonparametric Analysis

This paper applied the Malmquist Productivity Index in order to estimate total factor productivity growth and its components (efficiency change and technological progress) in Indian paper and paper products industry during pre and post-reform period. The obtained estimates of TFP change at the aggregate and sectoral level, indicates that the net impact of economic reforms on the productivity growth of paper and paper products industry was negative. It was evident in the study that the negative TFP change was decreased (from -8.6% to -5.2%) in the post-reform period in paper and paper products industry at the aggregate level. It was found in this study that the technical efficiency change and the technical change was the deteriorating factor for productivity change in Indian paper and paper products industry. Among similar trends were observed at the sub-sectoral level also. Further, the results of this study suggest that specific policies should be implemented in order to improve efficiency as well as technical progress, thus ultimately facilitating long-run productivity growth

Economic reform and Productivity Growth in Indian Paper and Paper Products Industry: A Nonparametric Analysis

This paper applied the Malmquist Productivity Index in order to estimate total factor productivity growth and its components (efficiency change and technological progress) in Indian paper and paper products industry during pre and post-reform period. The obtained estimates of TFP change at the aggregate and sectoral level, indicates that the net impact of economic reforms on the productivity growth of paper and paper products industry was negative. It was evident in the study that the negative TFP change was decreased (from -8.6% to -5.2%) in the post-reform period in paper and paper products industry at the aggregate level. It was found in this study that the technical efficiency change and the technical change was the deteriorating factor for productivity change in Indian paper and paper products industry. Among similar trends were observed at the sub-sectoral level also. Further, the results of this study suggest that specific policies should be implemented in order to improve efficiency as well as technical progress, thus ultimately facilitating long-run productivity growth

Psychological effects of isolation on antenatal women during COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Pregnancy is a time of increased vulnerability for the development of anxiety and depression. This study evaluated the psychological effect of isolation on antenatal women admitted with COVID-19 disease.Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted at Government medical college Kozhikode from 1 November 2020 to 31 January 2021. One hundred antenatal women with COVID-19 disease admitted in isolation ward in quarantine were randomly selected. Clinical and demographic data collected at the time of admission. After one week of admission, mental health assessment done using following mental health assessment tools. They were general anxiety disorder-7 (GAD-7), perinatal anxiety screening scale (PASS), patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9).Results: Out of the 100 women selected, 74 responded with the questionnaires. All of them were educated, 62% studied up to plus two. Majority from joint family contributed 68.9% and 85.1% were home makers. Mean age was 26 years. Primigravidae were 48.6% and mean BMI of 25.71 kg/m2. Commonest medical comorbidity was diabetes mellitus present in 28.4%. Mental health assessment done using 3 sets of questionnaires, PHQ-9, GAD-7 and PASS showed that women in our study did not have any increased risk of depression, general anxiety or perinatal anxiety. Infact they reported of feeling safer and more comfortable at the hospital compared to home.Conclusions: Present study showed that antenatal women with COVID-19 disease admitted in hospital did not have any increased risk of general anxiety, depression or perinatal anxiety.

Anomaly detection methods in autonomous robotic missions

Since 2015, there has been an increase in articles on anomaly detection in robotic systems, reflecting its growing importance in improving the robustness and reliability of the increasingly utilized autonomous robots. This review paper investigates the literature on the detection of anomalies in Autonomous Robotic Missions (ARMs). It reveals different perspectives on anomaly and juxtaposition to fault detection. To reach a consensus, we infer a unified understanding of anomalies that encapsulate their various characteristics observed in ARMs and propose a classification of anomalies in terms of spatial, temporal, and spatiotemporal elements based on their fundamental features. Further, the paper discusses the implications of the proposed unified understanding and classification in ARMs and provides future directions. We envisage a study surrounding the specific use of the term anomaly, and methods for their detection could contribute to and accelerate the research and development of a universal anomaly detection system for ARMs

Discovering ligands for a microRNA precursor with peptoid microarrays

We have screened peptoid microarrays to identify specific ligands for the RNA hairpin precursor of miR-21, a microRNA involved in cancer and heart disease. Microarrays were printed by spotting a library of 7680 N-substituted oligoglycines (peptoids) onto glass slides. Two compounds on the array specifically bind RNA having the sequence and predicted secondary structure of the miR-21 precursor hairpin and have specific affinity for the target in solution. Their binding induces a conformational change around the hairpin loop, and the most specific compound recognizes the loop sequence and a bulged uridine in the proximal duplex. Functional groups contributing affinity and specificity were identified, and by varying a critical methylpyridine group, a compound with a dissociation constant of 1.9 μM for the miR-21 precursor hairpin and a 20-fold discrimination against a closely-related hairpin was created. This work describes a systematic approach to discovery of ligands for specific pre-defined novel RNA structures. It demonstrates discovery of new ligands for an RNA for which no specific lead compounds were previously known by screening a microarray of small molecules