Circular economy : can it be an effective economic re-design?

Circular Economy recently has gained massive attention in terms of its implications across multiple industrial verticals. Various schools of thoughts like permaculture, cradle to cradle, industrial symbiosis have been associated with the Circular Economy, yet the application of circular practices is still relatively low. This research addresses the gaps between the theory and practice and analyses the reasons why there is the delay in its application. Moreover, the research also reflects on the understanding of Circular Economy with its circular business models and how those business models can tackle and address the challenges in the traditional linear production systems. Apart from this, the benefits for the key stakeholders in the economy i.e., corporations, governments and consumers have been identified and explained. Multiple case research methodology has been followed to understand the ground reality of the delay in the application of circular economy, four industrial verticals have been chosen and using a semi-structured interview process, various examples, strategies, opportunities and challenges have been understood and they form the analytical structure of the research. The research then uses the results from the case study to be interpreted by using the theory of absorptive capacity in an open innovation system and hence the results are analyzed accordingly, concluded with the understanding of technological, leadership, consumer behavior enabling factors and the monopoly played by corporations as a disabler. Moreover, the recommendations are directed towards the government enabling stricter EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) and post occupancy evaluation regulations.A Economia Circular tem ganho recentemente grande atenção em termos das suas implicações em vários setores industriais. Várias escolas de pensamento, como a permacultura, o gradle-to-gradle, a simbiose industrial, entre outros, têm sido associadas à Economia Circular, embora a implementação de práticas circulares ainda seja relativamente baixa. Esta pesquisa aborda as lacunas entre a teoria e prática, e analisa as principais razões que têm atrasado a sua implementação. A pesquisa reflete ainda o entendimento da Economia Circular com seus modelos de negócios circulares, e como esses modelos de negócios podem enfrentar os desafios dos tradicionais sistemas de produção linear. Além disso, foram também identificados e explicados os benefícios para os principais stakeholders na economia (corporações, governos e consumidores). Foi aplicada a metodologia de pesquisa de casos múltiplos para entender a realidade do atraso na implementação da economia circular: foram escolhidos quatro setores industriais, e, usando um processo de entrevista semi-estruturada, foram analisados vários exemplos, estratégias, oportunidades e desafios, que formam a estrutura analítica da pesquisa. A pesquisa usou os resultados do estudo de caso, interpretando-os com base na teoria da capacidade absortiva num sistema de inovação aberta. De seguida, os resultados foram analisados adequadamente, e concluídos com a compreensão de fatores tecnológicos, de liderança, de comportamento do consumidor e do monopólio pelas corporações como uma barreira. Além disso, as recomendações foram direcionadas para o Governo, permitindo uma aplicação mais rigorosa do EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) e regulamentos de avaliação pós-ocupação

Morphological changes in placenta in cases of oligohydramnios

Background: There are gross and microscopic changes in placenta and umbilical cord in complicated pregnancies. The objective of this study was to study pathological (gross and microscopic) changes in placenta, membrane and umbilical cord in cases with oligohydramnios and to study relationship between changes in placenta, membranes and umbilical cord with severity of oligohydramnios.Methods: A total of 50 patients were selected and their placentas were collected after delivery and sent to pathology department in 10 % formalin for histopathological examination. Patients were divided into three groups and the results were compared. Statistical calculations were performed using the SPSS 16.0. In order to detect differences between subjects students t-test was used for continuous variables, while, for categorical variables, the X2 test was used. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Atotal of 50 patients were studied for a period of one year and following observations were made, discoid shape placenta in 45 (90.0%), oval in 5 (10.0%), central attachment of umbilical cord in 16 cases (32.0%), eccentric in 33 (66.0%), marginal in 1 (2.0%) case following variables were compared and p value detected, placental maximum diameter (p <0.0001),placental minimum diameters (p = 0.041), mean of cord length (p <0.0001) placental weight (p = 0.273), placental thickness (p = 0.253), acute chorioamnionitis (p <0.0001), chronic chorioamnionitis (p<0.0001), focal squamous metaplasia (p <0.0001), bacterial colonies in subamnion (p <0.0001), meconium staining (p <0.0001), amnion nodosum (p < 0.0001), intra amniotic haemorrhage (p = 0.090), membranous deciduitis with chorioamnionitis (p = 0.081), focal haematoma (p = 0.010), acute inflammatory infiltrate in Wharton’s jelly (p = 0.012), single umbilical artery (p =0.010), intervillous fibrin deposition (p <0.0001), calcification (p<0.0001), chorangiosis (p <0.0001), syncytial knots (p <0.0001), avascular villi (p = 0.011), villous edema (p = 0.090) and infarct (p = 0.090).Conclusions: There are alterations in placental morphology associated with oligohydramnios hence placenta should be examined, which may be useful in predicting perinatal morbidity and mortality

Comparative evaluation of laparoscopic hysterectomy and non-descent vaginal hysterectomy in women with benign gynaecological disease

Background: Hysterectomy is one of the most frequently performed gynaecological operative procedure all over world, second most to caesarean section in United States. The aim of study was to compare the intraoperative and postoperative complications in patients undergoing non-descent vaginal hysterectomy (NDVH) and Laparoscopic hysterectomy (LH) for benign gynaecological disease.Methods: The prospective one-year study was conducted on 156 patients who required hysterectomy for benign gynaecological conditions. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 75 patients assigned to Group A (NDVH) and 75 to Group B (LH) and both groups were compared.Results: On comparing the two groups there was statistically significant decrease in the duration of surgery (p<0.01, t = 11.65), pain score (p<0.01, t = 2.75) and blood transfusion requirement (p = 0.03, χ2 = 4.80) in group A, while blood loss (p = 0.73, t = 0.33), uterine volume (p = 0.15, t = 1.43), time taken to ambulate (p = 0.06 , t = 0.21), duration of hospital stay (p = 0.07, t = 1.80), conversion to laparotomy (p = 0.13, χ2 = 2.56), febrile morbidity (p = 0.27, χ2 = 1.34), infection (p = 0.42, χ2 = 1.11) and visceral injury was found statistically insignificant.Conclusions: Vaginal hysterectomy is an easier technique with shorter duration of surgery and with minimal infrastructure required and for fixed uterus or huge adnexal mass laparoscopic hysterectomy (LH) should be preferred

Achieving Optimal Throughput and Near-Optimal Asymptotic Delay Performance in Multi-Channel Wireless Networks with Low Complexity: A Practical Greedy Scheduling Policy

In this paper, we focus on the scheduling problem in multi-channel wireless networks, e.g., the downlink of a single cell in fourth generation (4G) OFDM-based cellular networks. Our goal is to design practical scheduling policies that can achieve provably good performance in terms of both throughput and delay, at a low complexity. While a class of $O(n^{2.5} \log n)$-complexity hybrid scheduling policies are recently developed to guarantee both rate-function delay optimality (in the many-channel many-user asymptotic regime) and throughput optimality (in the general non-asymptotic setting), their practical complexity is typically high. To address this issue, we develop a simple greedy policy called Delay-based Server-Side-Greedy (D-SSG) with a \lower complexity $2n^2+2n$, and rigorously prove that D-SSG not only achieves throughput optimality, but also guarantees near-optimal asymptotic delay performance. Specifically, we show that the rate-function attained by D-SSG for any delay-violation threshold $b$, is no smaller than the maximum achievable rate-function by any scheduling policy for threshold $b-1$. Thus, we are able to achieve a reduction in complexity (from $O(n^{2.5} \log n)$ of the hybrid policies to $2n^2 + 2n$) with a minimal drop in the delay performance. More importantly, in practice, D-SSG generally has a substantially lower complexity than the hybrid policies that typically have a large constant factor hidden in the $O(\cdot)$ notation. Finally, we conduct numerical simulations to validate our theoretical results in various scenarios. The simulation results show that D-SSG not only guarantees a near-optimal rate-function, but also empirically is virtually indistinguishable from delay-optimal policies.Comment: Accepted for publication by the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, February 2014. A preliminary version of this work was presented at IEEE INFOCOM 2013, Turin, Italy, April 201

Vitamin D status in pregnant women and their newborns in a tertiary care hospital

Background: In the recent years there has been an increased understanding of the role that vitamin D plays in regulation of cell growth, calcium absorption and immunity and its impact on the developing fetus and maternal health is of significant concern. This study aims at evaluating the Vitamin D status in pregnant women and their newborns.Methods: A cross sectional study was done on 100 pregnant females according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. At the time of delivery, maternal blood was collected, and newborn samples were taken from newborn side of umbilical cord and sent for analysis.Results: The prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency has been found to be 85% of pregnant females and 91% of the newborns. Only 5% of pregnant females and 1% of the newborns showed Vitamin D sufficiency. Maternal and newborn vitamin D levels show a positive correlation. Mean maternal and newborn Vitamin D levels were found to be 16.78±7.04 ng/mL and 11.29±5.75 ng/ml.Conclusions: Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent among pregnant women in north India. Low maternal vitamin D levels lead to vitamin D deficiency in the newborns also

Does management of working capital enhance firm value? Empirical analysis of manufacturing enterprises in India

The long-term financial health of a corporation is assessed by its capacity to meet short-term financial commitments. Optimum working capital that maximizes enterprise value varies across companies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Indian manufacturing enterprises’ firm values are influenced by working capital management efficiency. The data are taken from 2016 to 2022 (a seven-year period) for 223 top BSE-listed manufacturing companies. Firm value (explained variable) is proxied using Tobin’s Q, and the constituents of working capital, which include the net trade cycle, inventory period, debtors’ collection period, and creditor payment period, are taken as explanatory variables. The study also controls for any differences in firm characteristics and economic conditions by employing firm size, age, current ratio, net profit ratio, sale growth and GDP growth rate. Balanced-panel data analysis is conducted by employing a two-step generalized method of moment technique. Net trade cycle, inventory period and debtors’ collection period are found to have a strong and significant positive impact on Tobin’s Q. The findings however did not report any evidence of the significant relationship between creditor payment period and Tobin’s Q. Additionally, the outcomes also evidenced that firm value is positively impacted by company size, net profit ratio, sales growth and GDP, whereas negatively affected by firm age. This paper suggests that manufacturing firms may potentially enhance their firm value by prolonging the net trade cycle, period of inventory and lengthening the credit period to customers till the level of attainment of an optimum working capital