A multi-factorial analysis of response to warfarin in a UK prospective cohort

Background Warfarin is the most widely used oral anticoagulant worldwide, but it has a narrow therapeutic index which necessitates constant monitoring of anticoagulation response. Previous genome-wide studies have focused on identifying factors explaining variance in stable dose, but have not explored the initial patient response to warfarin, and a wider range of clinical and biochemical factors affecting both initial and stable dosing with warfarin. Methods A prospective cohort of 711 patients starting warfarin was followed up for 6 months with analyses focusing on both non-genetic and genetic factors. The outcome measures used were mean weekly warfarin dose (MWD), stable mean weekly dose (SMWD) and international normalised ratio (INR) > 4 during the first week. Samples were genotyped on the Illumina Human610-Quad chip. Statistical analyses were performed using Plink and R. Results VKORC1 and CYP2C9 were the major genetic determinants of warfarin MWD and SMWD, with CYP4F2 having a smaller effect. Age, height, weight, cigarette smoking and interacting medications accounted for less than 20 % of the variance. Our multifactorial analysis explained 57.89 % and 56.97 % of the variation for MWD and SMWD, respectively. Genotypes for VKORC1 and CYP2C9*3, age, height and weight, as well as other clinical factors such as alcohol consumption, loading dose and concomitant drugs were important for the initial INR response to warfarin. In a small subset of patients for whom data were available, levels of the coagulation factors VII and IX (highly correlated) also played a role. Conclusion Our multifactorial analysis in a prospectively recruited cohort has shown that multiple factors, genetic and clinical, are important in determining the response to warfarin. VKORC1 and CYP2C9 genetic polymorphisms are the most important determinants of warfarin dosing, and it is highly unlikely that other common variants of clinical importance influencing warfarin dosage will be found. Both VKORC1 and CYP2C9*3 are important determinants of the initial INR response to warfarin. Other novel variants, which did not reach genome-wide significance, were identified for the different outcome measures, but need replication

Measuring the True Potential of Lifestyle Brands in India: A Firm-Level Scale for Existing and Potential Investors - (FL-LBSi)

It is evident that among more than 5000 Indian lifestyle brands, only a few brands are able to createtrue lifestyle brand image in their employees, investors, competitors, and consumer’s minds and thetrueness level of the majority of Indian lifestyle brands is still in question. The majority of developingand developed Indian lifestyle brands assume that the success of a lifestyle brand is measured basisthe revenue or profit they generate and are unaware of implicit long-term strategical benefits ofcreating a true lifestyle brand image in consumer’s minds. In India, the lifestyle category has alsobecome one of the most sought-after categories for many start-up entrepreneurs. Just because there isan evident gap for a certain lifestyle product category in the market and just attempting to fill such agap does not guarantee sustainable success. It is true that India is one of the countries with consumersbelonging to the widest range of Religions, Regions, Languages, Sub-Cultures and Economicbackgrounds which makes it very difficult for any lifestyle brand to own a true lifestyle brand imageat National level and makes it furthermore important for them to be more careful and efficient inensuring adaptation of right evaluation techniques and tools to regularly measure a brand’s the truepotential in attaining a sustainable profitable stage of its evolution. It is inevitable that both new andexisting lifestyle brands in India require investors to fund their journey of attaining the final stage ofevolution which is known as a sustainable profitable stage in addition to gaining true lifestyle brandimage among existing and potential employees, investors, competitors, and consumer’s minds.However, in the absence of any inputs driven measurement instruments, investors are in a quandaryto gauge, estimate and forecast the true potential of lifestyle brands in India before they make anyinvestment decisions and usually most of the investors follow traditional brand equity or valuationmethods which are mostly skewed toward output-driven measures. In this exhaustive empirical study,we have studied a few select lifestyle brands. investors and investments to identify 63 inputs basedsub-elements across 7 key elements and 3 dimensions to design a simple instrument named as FLLBSi, which would measure the true potential of a lifestyle brand in India irrespective of the brand’s current evolution stage/phase and age in the Indian retail market

Rational Distribution Channel Mix for Lifestyle Brands in India – An Empirical Study

Indian lifestyle brands need to understand the importance of their retailing distributionchannels in relation to their overall brand image, products / categories they offer, targetconsumer group and their implications on the overall brand profitability and consumerperceptions over the brand image rather applying standard thumb rules, assumptions andmisconceptions followed by other generalist brands or even short-term lucrative deals offeredby distribution channel partners. It is evident that only few Indian brands are able to createtrue lifestyle brand image in their employees, investors, competitors and consumers mind andtrueness level of majority of Indian lifestyle brands is still a question. Majority of developingand developed Indian lifestyle brands assume that the success of a lifestyle brand is measuredbasis the revenue or profit they generate through having presence across wider distributionchannels and are impatient / unaware of implicit long-term strategical benefits of creating atrue lifestyle brand image in consumers mind using a rational distribution channel mixstrategy. It is true that India is one of the countries with consumers belonging to the widestrange of Religions, Regions, Languages, Sub-Cultures and Economic backgrounds whichmakes it very difficult for any lifestyle brand to have their presence across the country throughvarious distribution channels as each one of them have their own pros and cons for the brand.This makes it furthermore important for lifestyle brands in India to be more careful andefficient in ensuring the adaptation of rational distribution channel mix. It is observed that themajority of Indian lifestyle brands believe they have adopted the right distribution channel mixand it is yielding the best possible revenue and profit. This belief / assumption always distractsthem from analysing the pros and cons of each distribution channel with respect to the overallbrand image and they rather spend most of their time in finding sales channels which are newor latent in nature to be added to the existing distribution channel mix. In this research, wehave analysed twelve months actual sales data across various distribution channels availablein India of few select lifestyle brands and drawn insights to recommend a rational distributionchannel mix for lifestyle brands in India

Decentralized Discounting Framework: Insights from an Experiment

Ever since the online retailing format has emerged in India, consumers now have wider options available for them to buy a product at a discounted price and notably, as online stores in India are following the product discounting as one of the key drivers for consumer acquisition, consumers’ perspective towards discount at brick-and-mortar store has changed. This change in consumers’ perspective has put the majority of brick-and-mortar retailers in India into a quandary and they are losing out their market share slowly to online retailers. In this research which is based on recommendations of empirical research previously carried out on the impact of changes in retailer and consumer perspective towards discount post emergence of online stores in India, we have carried out an experiment using decentralized discounting framework to investigate and recommend brick-and-mortar retailers on ideal decentralized discounting strategies to enable brick-and-mortar retailers to design appropriate sales promotions to gain a competitive advantage over online retailing on a discount component

Sales Personnel Training – An Integrated Framework for Indian Brick-and-Mortar Retailers

In brick-and-mortar retailing, sales personnel play the most important and complex rolewhereby they are the ones who are connected to consumers directly on a real-time basis.Besides, to this complexity retailers in India find it difficult to recruit well-trained salespersonnel who is an all-rounder. It is observed that majority of bricks-and-mortar retailers inIndia assume: (a) sales personnel in the store are required to assist consumers in finding theright product at the earliest; (b) consumers who walk into their stores have a clearunderstanding of their needs and based on their needs they enquire sales personnel in the storeabout a specific product/category/brand; (c) sales personnel attrition rate in stores is generallyhigher owing to lower pay scale; (d) product-specific training has to be given the highestpriority; (e) designing a common training program relevant to all types of sales personnel isdifficult, and most importantly; (f) existing training efforts have not yielded in any significantpositive impact on the store profitability. Such assumptions and misconceptions have createda predisposition and mindset in sales personnel and sales organization, and they believe thatthey are delivering the best results. In this exhaustive study, we have attempted to design anew sales personnel training framework that attempts to integrate a majority of the elementssuch as training content, trainee, trainer, training time frame in addition to firm-level andconsumer-level evaluation techniques. In this twelve months-long research work we haveanalyzed a select brick-and-mortar retailer’s existing training framework, designed a newintegrated sales personnel training framework, applied it toa select group of experimentalstores to derive insights from the experimentation and check validity and reliability of theproposed framework. Results have demonstrated that more than 35 percent of the consumersrepeat store visit rate could be determined by (a) store profitability that is a positive motivatorto sales personnel to perform better; (b) walk-in conversion rate that is directly affected by thesales pitch of sales personnel which is directly affected by the continuous training efforts; (c)sales personnel monetary incentive earnings that are directly affected by their performancethrough improved learnings; and (d) sales personnel attrition rate that is a result of overallsatisfaction of sales personnel

Organizing the Unorganized Lifestyle Retailers in India: An Integrated Framework

India is one of the largest countries with consumers belonging to the widest range of Religions,Regions, Languages, Sub-Cultures, Ethnicities, and Economic backgrounds which makes it difficultfor just a few organized lifestyle retailers to service divergent needs of such consumers. This makesit furthermore beneficial for unorganized lifestyle retailers spread across India in humongous numberswhich are predominantly owned and operated by the store owner and their family members to takesuch divergent consumer needs to their advantage as far as their survival is concerned. Unless theyattempt to adopt certain modifications and changes to their existing retailing model and store imagethis benefit will no longer be available to them in the long run. Organized lifestyle retailing in Indiais steadily growing its penetration into Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and this is putting unorganized lifestyleretailers in these cities in quandary. In this study, we have analysed twelve months actual data across,(a) unit economics; (b) returns on investment; (c) 94 business deployment factors; (d) 192 criticaleffective factors; and (e) qualitative factors of few select organized and unorganized lifestyle retailersin India thereby drawing inferences / insights to design and propose an integrated framework whichis (a) simple to understand; (b) easy to execute; and most importantly; (c) demanding minimaladditional capital investment and would possibly help unorganized lifestyle retailers in India to getorganize

Experimental Investigation of Cannibalisation by Introducing a Global Brand Abreast Existing Indian Store Brand

Globalization of consumer brands and liberalization of the Indian retail sectors are enabling consumers to conveniently purchase their aspirational Global brands. India being one of the fastdeveloping countries with world’s second largest population and the majority of the retail market being serviced by unorganized retailers, many Global consumer brands are trying to penetrate into the Indian retail market through various routes viz, exclusive branded outlets, franchising and licensing. Ever since the penetration of Global consumer brands have started, the majority of Indian retailers’ and consumers’ perspective towards their own private/store brands is expected to have changed. This change in perspective has put the majority of retailers in India into a quandary and they think that this is surely leading to cannibalization and thereto impacting the store profitability along with losing out their market share slowly to Global brands. In this research, authors have carried out an experiment by introducing a reputed Global apparel brand abreast an existing Indian store apparel brand/private label to investigate; (a) proof, (b) pattern, (c) magnitude, (d) significance, and (e) impact of cannibalization and transpired the outcomes of this experimentation into suggestions to enable brick-and-mortar retailers to design appropriate brand mix strategies

Retailing Performance Evaluation Scale for Indian Brick-and-Mortar Lifestyle Retailers (LSRS-b)

A majority of brick-and-mortar lifestyle retailers in India have adapted firm-level and output-drivenmeasures to evaluate their overall retailing performance in addition to not apportioning the centraloffice expenses incurred merely to run stores on to store’s profit and loss account. This output-drivenapproach is distracting them from focussing on input variables and efficiency that is inevitablyimperative if sustainable retail profit and returns on investment are expected. In this exhaustiveempirical study, we have studied a few select organized brick-and-mortar lifestyle retailers to identify64 variables that directly or indirectly determine the returns on investment of a lifestyle retailer, ofwhich we have chosen 16 input-driven variables to design the LSRS-b instrument in addition toensuring integration of variables that have a significantly positive association and determination withconsumer repeat visit rate, sales personnel consumer orientation, cash flow efficiency, revenuegeneration, profitability, returns on investment, and consumer-level performance evaluation. Basedon 24 months of data evaluated, we have found that these 16 input-driven variables have a significantdetermination of about 86.90 percent concerning the final output i.e., returns on investment (ROI)which is a strong indicator of the reliability of LSRS-b instrument in evaluating the overall retailingperformance of organized brick-and-mortar lifestyle retailers in India

Measuring the True Potential of Lifestyle Brands in India: A Consumer-Level Scale for Existing and Potential Investors(CL-LBSi)

It is evident that among more than 5000 Indian lifestyle brands, only a few brands have createdtrue lifestyle brand image in their employees, investors, competitors, and consumer’s minds,and the trueness level of a majority of Indian lifestyle brands is still in question. The majorityof developing and developed Indian lifestyle brands assume that the success of a lifestyle brandis measured basis the revenue or profit they generate and are unaware of implicit long-termstrategical benefits of creating a true lifestyle brand image in consumer’s minds. In India, thelifestyle category has also become one of the most sought-after categories for many start-upentrepreneurs. Just because there is an evident gap for a certain lifestyle product category inthe market and just attempting to fill such a gap does not guarantee sustainable success. Indiaindeed is one of the countries with consumers belonging to the widest range of Religions,Regions, Languages, Sub-Cultures and Economic backgrounds which makes it very difficultfor any lifestyle brand to own a true lifestyle brand image at National level and makes itfurthermore important for them to be more careful and efficient in ensuring adaptation of rightconsumer-level evaluation techniques and tools to regularly measure a brand’s the truepotential in attaining a sustainable profitable stage of its evolution. Both new and existinglifestyle brands in India inevitably require investors to fund their journey of attaining the finalstage of evolution which is known as a sustainable profitable stage. However, in the absenceof any inputs-driven consumer-level measurement instruments, investors are in a quandary togauge, estimate and forecast the true potential of lifestyle brands in India from the consumerpoint of view before they make any investment decisions and usually most of the investorsfollow traditional brand equity or valuation methods which are mostly skewed toward outputdriven measures and sometimes they are misleading. In this exhaustive empirical study, wehave studied a few select lifestyle brands, investors and investments to identify 68inputs-basedsub-elements across 4 key elements and 3 dimensions to design a simple consumer-levelinstrument named as CL-LBSi, which would measure the true potential of a lifestyle brand inIndia irrespective of the brand’s current age in the Indian retail market

Automatic Parallelization for Parallel Architectures Using Smith Waterman

Abstract- Gene sequencing problems are one of the predominant issues for researchers to come up with an optimized system model that could facilitate the optimum processing and efficiency without introducing overheads in terms of memory and time. This research is oriented towards developing such kind of system while taking into consideration of the dynamic programming approach called a Smith Waterman algorithm in its enhanced form decorated with other supporting and optimized techniques. This paper provides an introduction oriented knowledge transfer so as to provide a brief introduction of research domains, research gap and motivations, objective formulated and proposed systems to accomplish ultimate objectives. Keywords- Smith-Waterman (SW), Multiple-Instruction