Determinants of profitability of food industry in India

Profitability is the profit earning capacity, which is a crucial factor in contributing to the survival of firms. This paper is a maiden attempt at estimating the impact of size on profitability, considering the Žsizeʼ as the control variable. For this purpose, the selected firms are classified into three size categories as Žsmall,ʼ Žmedium,ʼ and Žlargeʼ based on the sales turnover. The results show that volatility and growth are the major predictorsin determining profitability in case of small size firms while growth is important in determining the profitability of medium size firms. Capital intensity has a significant positive coefficient with the profitability of large size firms. The overall result shows that the larger the size of the firm, the more the investment in long lived assets has helped to increase the profitability of the firm unlike the trend in cases of small size and medium size firms

Molecular basis for Clostridium perfringens spore resistance to heat and other environmental stress factors

Clostridium perfringens type A isolates producing enterotoxin (CPE) are an important cause of both food poisoning (FP) and non food borne gastrointestinal diseases (NFBGID) in both humans and animals. C. perfringens type A food poisoning is caused by isolates carrying the CPE encoding gene (cpe) on the chromosome while the NFBGID isolates carry cpe on a large plasmid. Recent studies indicate that the association between chromosomal cpe isolates and food poisoning is, in part, because spores of these isolates exhibit heat resistance which enhances their survival in incompletely cooked or inadequately warmed foods. The molecular basis for resistance of spores to heat and other environmental stress factors remains unknown. Since in Bacillus subtilis, small acid soluble spore proteins (SASPs) have been shown to play a major role in spore resistance to heat and other environmental factors, in the current study, we hypothesized that α/β-type SASPs in C. perfringens play a similar role. Results of this study showed that the SASP encoding genes, ssp1, 2 and 3 are present and expressed in food poisoning isolates of C. perfringens. Consistent with the results in B. subtilis, α/β-type SASPs in C. perfringens protect the spores by binding to spore DNA. A single C. perfringens ssp3 knock out mutant showed a slightly decreased spore heat resistance compared to wild type. Since there is no genetic tool available to make a triple ssp (ssp1,2 and 3) knock out mutant in C. perfringens, the antisense RNA strategy was used to down regulate the production of α/β-type SASPs in a food poisoning isolate. The strains with lower α/β-type SASP production had lower resistance to moist heat and UV radiation. These results support our hypothesis that C. perfringens α/β-type SASPs play a major role in spore resistance to heat and other environmental factors. The second hypothesis in this study was that the NFBGID isolates carrying cpe on a plasmid exhibit lower heat resistance than the FP isolates because these isolates produce less α/β-type SASPs. PCR and nucleotide sequencing analysis demonstrated that all three ssp genes are present in NFBGID isolates. Quantitative analysis of SASPs production demonstrated that NFBGID isolates produce similar levels of SASPs as the FP isolates. Further studies showed that the cpe plasmid does not encode any factors responsible for heat sensitivity in NFBGID isolates. The cpe plasmid cured strain of these isolates showed a similar heat resistance to that of the wild type strain carrying the cpe plasmid. However, it was observed that the dry heat resistance of the plasmid cpe isolates was similar to that of the chromosomal cpe isolates indicating that there might be additional factors (eg: spore water content) involved in spore resistance to dry heat. Future studies on identifying the genes encoding factors that affect spore water content should help in understanding the mechanism of resistance to dry heat. Collectively, these studies give an insight into the molecular basis for C. perfringens spore resistance to heat and other environmental factors. Further understanding of the mechanism of action of SASPs should help in designing and developing a preventive measure for C. perfringens type A food poisoning

DEVELOPMENT, CHARACTERIZATION AND EVALUATION OF SOFT ORAL EDIBLE GEL USING GELLAN GUM

Objective: The objective of present research work was to formulate and evaluate a novel oral edible gel dosage form using gellan gum as gelling agent and carvedilol as a model drug to ease the administration to dysphagic and geriatric patients. Methods: Oral edible gels were prepared using gelling agent low acetylated gellan gum and sodium citrate in different concentrations. The prepared edible gel formulations were evaluated for gelation time, appearance, texture, viscosity, pH, syneresis, drug-excipient compatibility studies by fourier transform infrared FTIR and percentage of drug release from the gel formulation. Results: Formulation containing gellan gum (0.4 % w/v) and sodium citrate (0.3 % w/v)) was found to be spoon thick†in consistency that is accepted for dysphagic patients as per national dysphagia diet task force. This formulation showed more than 95 % drug release within 12 min and found to be stable for 6 mo. All other parameters tested were optimal. Hence, this formulation was considered optimized. Conclusion: From this study, it can be concluded that the novel edible gel dosage form containing Carvedilol can be formulated and this dosage form may prove to be more efficacious in the treatment of hypertension in dysphagic patients

Semantic-Based Classification of Toxic Comments Using Ensemble Learning

A social media is rapidly expanding, and its anonymity feature completely supports free speech. Hate speech directed at anyone or any group because of their ethnicity, clan, religion, national or cultural their heritage, sex, disability, gender orientation, or other characteristics is a violation of their authority. Seriously encourages violence or hate crimes and causes social unrest by undermining peace, trustworthiness, and human rights, among other things. Identifying toxic remarks in social media conversation is a critical but difficult job. There are several difficulties in detecting toxic text remarks using a suitable and particular social media dataset and its high-performance, selected classifier. People nowadays share messages not only in person, but also in online settings such as social networking sites and online groups. As a result, all social media sites and apps, as well as all current communities in the digital world, require an identification and prevention system. Finding toxic social media remarks has proven critical for content screening. The identifying blocker in such a system would need to notice any bad online behavior and alert the prophylactic blocker to take appropriate action. The purpose of this research was to assess each text and find various kinds of toxicities such as profanity, threats, name-calling, and identity-based hatred. Jigsaw's designed Wikipedia remark collection is used for this

Vacuolating cytotoxin and variants in Atg16L1 that disrupt autophagy promote Helicobacter pylori infection in humans

Peer reviewedPreprin

Polymorphisms of a Collagen-Like Adhesin Contributes to Legionella pneumophila Adhesion, Biofilm Formation Capacity and Clinical Prevalence

Legionellosis is a severe respiratory illness caused by the inhalation of aerosolized water droplets contaminated with the opportunistic pathogen Legionella pneumophila. The ability of L. pneumophila to produce biofilms has been associated with its capacity to colonize and persist in human-made water reservoirs and distribution systems, which are the source of legionellosis outbreaks. Nevertheless, the factors that mediate L. pneumophila biofilm formation are largely unknown. In previous studies we reported that the adhesin Legionella collagen-like protein (Lcl), is required for auto-aggregation, attachment to multiple surfaces and the formation of biofilms. Lcl structure contains three distinguishable regions: An N-terminal region with a predicted signal sequence, a central region containing tandem collagen-like repeats (R-domain) and a C-terminal region (C-domain) with no significant homology to other known proteins. Lcl R-domain encodes tandem repeats of the collagenous tripeptide Gly-Xaa-Yaa (GXY), a motif that is key for the molecular organization of mammalian collagen and mediates the binding of collagenous proteins to different cellular and environmental ligands. Interestingly, Lcl is polymorphic in the number of GXY tandem repeats. In this study, we combined diverse biochemical, genetic, and cellular approaches to determine the role of Lcl domains and GXY repeats polymorphisms on the structural and functional properties of Lcl, as well as on bacterial attachment, aggregation and biofilm formation. Our results indicate that the R-domain is key for assembling Lcl collagenous triple-helices and has a more preponderate role over the C-domain in Lcl adhesin binding properties. We show that Lcl molecules oligomerize to form large supramolecular complexes to which both, R and C-domains are required. Furthermore, we found that the number of GXY tandem repeats encoded in Lcl R-domain correlates positively with the binding capabilities of Lcl and with the attachment and biofilm production capacity of L. pneumophila strains. Accordingly, the number of GXY tandem repeats in Lcl influences the clinical prevalence of L. pneumophila strains. Therefore, the number of Lcl tandem repeats could be considered as a potential predictor for virulence in L. pneumophila isolates

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI): a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Remote ischaemic conditioning with transient ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). We investigated whether remote ischaemic conditioning could reduce the incidence of cardiac death and hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. METHODS: We did an international investigator-initiated, prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI) at 33 centres across the UK, Denmark, Spain, and Serbia. Patients (age >18 years) with suspected STEMI and who were eligible for PPCI were randomly allocated (1:1, stratified by centre with a permuted block method) to receive standard treatment (including a sham simulated remote ischaemic conditioning intervention at UK sites only) or remote ischaemic conditioning treatment (intermittent ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of an automated cuff device) before PPCI. Investigators responsible for data collection and outcome assessment were masked to treatment allocation. The primary combined endpoint was cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02342522) and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 6, 2013, and March 31, 2018, 5401 patients were randomly allocated to either the control group (n=2701) or the remote ischaemic conditioning group (n=2700). After exclusion of patients upon hospital arrival or loss to follow-up, 2569 patients in the control group and 2546 in the intervention group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At 12 months post-PPCI, the Kaplan-Meier-estimated frequencies of cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure (the primary endpoint) were 220 (8·6%) patients in the control group and 239 (9·4%) in the remote ischaemic conditioning group (hazard ratio 1·10 [95% CI 0·91-1·32], p=0·32 for intervention versus control). No important unexpected adverse events or side effects of remote ischaemic conditioning were observed. INTERPRETATION: Remote ischaemic conditioning does not improve clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure) at 12 months in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, University College London Hospitals/University College London Biomedical Research Centre, Danish Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, TrygFonden

Welfare of emus during their handling and transport

Emu (Dromaius novahollandiae) are native to Australia, but they are commercially farmed in many countries, including Canada, the US, and India. Currently producers transport their emus over long distances for slaughter due to the lack of processing facilities. During such shipments, emus are exposed to stressful and adverse conditions, causing welfare concerns. This study was undertaken to suggest methods to improve the welfare of emus during their handling and transport. Reference intervals were established for hematological, serum biochemical variables, enzymes and electrolytes in adult male and female emus. Changes in the indices of stress and metabolic homeostasis were used to evaluate the physiological responses of emus to transport for six hours under warm and cool weather conditions. The activities of enzymes were significantly (P < 0.001) increased at slaughter, indicating muscle cell wall damage. Transport under warm weather resulted in significantly (P < 0.05) higher weight loss, hyperthermia, hyperglycaemia, plasma corticosterone and packed cell volume, and meat pH than cool weather. Meat drip loss after 24 hours storage was greater in emus which had greater weight loss after transport. Oral administration of nutrient supplements (electrolytes, dextrose, and amino acids) pre- and post-transport was effective in protecting against muscle damage and recovery of body weight losses during lairage, but had little effect on meat quality. The clinical findings were suggestive of the incidence of exertional rhabdomyolysis in emus. Meat quality studies revealed the incidence of stress myopathy and dark firm and dry conditions. The important behavior categories and unusual behavior in emus were identified and described. Handling time greater than 8 minutes significantly (P < 0.05) increased the concentrations of corticosterone, glucose and enzyme activities in emus. The significant increase (P < 0.05) in the time spent on stereotypies such as pacing, fence pecking and reduction in grooming after transport seemed to be their response to stress. This study provided insight into the physiological and behavioral responses of emus to transport stress and the efficacy of oral supplements in alleviating the same. Identification of non-invasive indicators of stress from this study would aid to improve the management and welfare of emus.Land and Food Systems, Faculty ofGraduat