Identifying and managing risk in international construction projects

تزايد على مدار العقد الأخير ظهور مشاريع إنشائية كبيرة في دول أو مناطق تفتقر إلى المتخصصين وخبراء مقاولي البناء والموردين والاستشاريين. وتقوم الحكومات في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وأوروبا الشرقية والصين والهند والأسواق النامية باتخاذ خطوات لمعالجة العجز في البنية التحتية الوطنية، ومن ثم خلق مناطق جديدة يزدهر فيها الطلب على البناء. وعندما يترافق ذلك مع النمو الضعيف الذي تشهده الأسواق المتقدمة مثل المملكة المتحدة والولايات المتحدة وأوروبا الغربية والأسواق الخارجية فإنه يمثل فرص جاذبة لأعمال البناء على المستوى العالمي. وبالرغم من ذلك تتناثر الأخبار التحذيرية حول الأسواق الخارجية بسبب المقاولين والاستشاريين الدوليين الذين فشلوا في إدراك تعقيدات ومخاطر العمل في بيئة جديدة كما فشلوا أيضاً في الاستفادة من الفرص المتاحة. ومن خلال تحديد مستويات المخاطر وإجراء التحليلات المفصلة وتصنيف مخاطر الاختصاص ذات الصلة والتخفيف من حدتها يتمكن المشاركين في مشاريع البناء الدولية من زيادة احتمالات نجاح المشروع وطول عمره التجاري في الاختصاص الجديد. تحديد المخاطر وتقييمها ليس علماً بل هو فن، وبينما يوجد العديد من الأساليب المحتملة لهذه المسألة إلا أن استراتيجياتنا لتحديد مخاطر الاختصاص وتقييمها وتصنيفها والتخفيف من حدتها تقدم للأطراف الدولية الجديدة فرصاً جيدة للنجاح التجاريOver the last decade, major construction projects have increasingly arisen in countries or regions that lack specialist, expert construction contractors, suppliers and consultants. Steps are being taken by governments in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, China, India and developing markets to address national infrastructure deficits, and by so doing, are creating new regions of booming construction demand. When coupled with anaemic growth in developed markets such as the United Kingdom, the USA and Western Europe, foreign markets present attractive opportunities to the global construction industry. However, foreign markets are littered with the cautionary tales of international contractors and consultants that have failed to grasp the intricacies and risks of operating in a new environment and have failed to capitalise on the opportunities available. By identifying the classes of risks, and undertaking detailed analysis, ranking and mitigation of relevant jurisdictional risks, participants in international construction projects will increase the likelihood of project success and commercial longevity in the new jurisdiction. Risk identification and assessment is not a science but an art, and while there are many potential approaches to the issue, we propose that our strategies for identifying, assessing, ranking and mitigating jurisdictional risks offer new international players a good chance of commercial success

ELEMENTAL ANALYSIS OF AYURVEDIC DRUGS (BHASMAS) BY ATOMIC ABSORPTION SPECTROMETER

Objective: Ayurvedic drugs/bhasmas are very potent and promising drugs for the treatment of various ailments. Bhasmas are the multielement samples, and the present work deals the analysis of the concentration of metallic elements in three ayurvedic bhasmas of four different brands, to compare and know the quality of commercial bhasma in market. Methods: Commercially available abhraka bhasma (AB), mandoor bhasma (MB), and godanti bhasma (GB) in market from four different manufacturing companies were procured, and bhasma sample solution was prepared to analyze the elemental concentrations in bhasma; the solution is subjected to flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS) technique and determined elemental concentration in bhasmas of four different commercial brands. Results: FAAS analysis explores the presence of Mg, Al, K, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mo, and Cd elements’ concentration in three bhasmas/drugs by four manufacturers. AB is rich in Al and Fe following the other elements in low concentrations, MB is rich in Fe, Ca, Mn, Cu, K, and Al and other elements are present in less quantity, and GB is rich in Ca and all other elements were very less in quantity. Conclusion: FAAS analysis showed that there is a difference in quantity/concentration of elements present in bhasma, aluminum (Al) is found high in Patanjali brand bhasmas compared to other three brands, and the toxic metal cadmium (Cd) is found in Dhootapapeshwar mandoor bhasma (DMB) (0.0458 mg/l), except DMB, all bhasmas found free from toxic metals, which reveal that there is a variation in quality of bhasmas from different manufacturers, and the elements present in bhasmas are found to be in permissible range for human intakes. As the mineral elements are essential in human diet, if the amount of any elements becomes too high in body, then it can affect the functioning of other important minerals in body causing the severe health problems, so it is must, to balance all nutrients in human diet, either through food or medicines. Hence, the present analysis work focuses on the variation of concentrations of elements present in bhasma of different manufacturers, which will help in practitioners to compare and refer good quality bhasmas or drugs in terms of their ingredients/elements, which plays a major role in functioning of human body normally. Further work is necessary to carry out on bhasmas and ayurvedic formulations in order to get good of diet supplementation

Pre- and Post-WTO Changes in Oilseed Economy of Karnataka: A Case of Groundnut

The growth in exports, economics of production and global competitiveness of groundnut has been reported over the period of 20 years (1984-85 to 2004-05) in Karnataka by collecting data from various published sources. Techniques used for the analysis are growth functions, tabular function, nominal protection coefficient and domestic resource cost. The analysis of export trends of groundnut from 1985-86 to 2004-05 has shown that quantity of groundnut export has grown annually at a compound growth rate of 9.52 per cent, whereas the value of groundnut exported has grown at a much higher rate of 13.13 per cent. Structural changes in costs are due to changes in quantity and quality of inputs associated with the technological process and also due to their prices. Groundnut has shown competitive disadvantage during the pre-WTO period, as values of NPC and DRC are more than one. But, during the post-WTO period, the competitiveness has increased as is evident from the NPC and DRC values which turned out be less than one. The study has suggested to exploit the competitiveness of Karnataka in groundnut and other oilseed crops.International Relations/Trade,

Synthesis, characterization and molecular docking studies of novel S-substituted phenacyl-1,3,4-thiadiazole-thiol derivatives as antimicrobial agents

In the present study, synthesis and antimicrobial activity of 2,5-disubstituted 1,3,4-thiadiazole derivatives 5a-f are described. The structures of the newly synthesized compounds were confirmed by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass and elemental analysis. All compounds were screened for antitubercular and antimicrobial activity. Molecular modeling studies were performed to dock compounds into the ecKAS III binding site, which suggested probable inhibition mechanism. The results revealed that most of the compounds showed high to moderate biological activity against tested microorganisms

Interaction of c-Cbl with Myosin IIA Regulates Bleb Associated Macropinocytosis of Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus

KSHV is etiologically associated with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), an angioproliferative endothelial cell malignancy. Macropinocytosis is the predominant mode of in vitro entry of KSHV into its natural target cells, human dermal microvascular endothelial (HMVEC-d) cells. Although macropinocytosis is known to be a major route of entry for many viruses, the molecule(s) involved in the recruitment and integration of signaling early during macropinosome formation is less well studied. Here we demonstrate that tyrosine phosphorylation of the adaptor protein c-Cbl is required for KSHV induced membrane blebbing and macropinocytosis. KSHV induced the tyrosine phosphorylation of c-Cbl as early as 1 min post-infection and was recruited to the sites of bleb formation. Infection also led to an increase in the interaction of c-Cbl with PI3-K p85 in a time dependent manner. c-Cbl shRNA decreased the formation of KSHV induced membrane blebs and macropinocytosis as well as virus entry. Immunoprecipitation of c-Cbl followed by mass spectrometry identified the interaction of c-Cbl with a novel molecular partner, non-muscle myosin heavy chain IIA (myosin IIA), in bleb associated macropinocytosis. Phosphorylated c-Cbl colocalized with phospho-myosin light chain II in the interior of blebs of infected cells and this interaction was abolished by c-Cbl shRNA. Studies with the myosin II inhibitor blebbistatin demonstrated that myosin IIA is a biologically significant component of the c-Cbl signaling pathway and c-Cbl plays a new role in the recruitment of myosin IIA to the blebs during KSHV infection. Myosin II associates with actin in KSHV induced blebs and the absence of actin and myosin ubiquitination in c-Cbl ShRNA cells suggested that c-Cbl is also responsible for the ubiquitination of these proteins in the infected cells. This is the first study demonstrating the role of c-Cbl in viral entry as well as macropinocytosis, and provides the evidence that a signaling complex containing c-Cbl and myosin IIA plays a crucial role in blebbing and macropinocytosis during viral infection and suggests that targeting c-Cbl could lead to a block in KSHV infection

Single Input Multi Output Switched Boost Inverter for Small Scale Solar Distributed Generation

This paper presents switched boost inverter for small scale roof top solar electric power generation. The traditional converter like buck or boost converter produces only dc output voltages and inverter only produces ac voltages. But proposed converter produces both ac and dc simultaneously from single input DC. With thisfeature SBI has more advantages compare to the conventional DC- AC or DC-DC converter. It also exhibits better electromagnetic interface when compare to conventional VSI. The size and switching losses are less. This is single stage power converter which produces both AC and DC voltages. With this feature of SBI it is used to supply the power to the grid and also we can store the power in the batteries for emergency power backup. SBI is simulated using MUTLISIM software and tested with hardware implementation

Correlation of endoscopic disease severity with pediatric ulcerative colitis activity index score in children and young adults with ulcerative colitis

AIM: To investigate of pediatric ulcerative colitis activity index (PUCAI) in ulcerative colitis correlate with mucosal inflammation and endoscopic assessment of disease activity (Mayo endoscopic score). METHODS: We reviewed charts from ulcerative colitis patients who had undergone both colonoscopy over 3 years. Clinical assessment of disease severity within 35 d (either before or after) the colonoscopy were included. Patients were excluded if they had significant therapeutic interventions (such as the start of corticosteroids or immunosuppressive agents) between the colonoscopy and the clinical assessment. Mayo endoscopic score of the rectum and sigmoid were done by two gastroenterologists. Inter-observer variability in Mayo score was assessed. RESULTS: We identified 99 patients (53% female, 74% pancolitis) that met inclusion criteria. The indications for colonoscopy included ongoing disease activity (62%), consideration of medication change (10%), assessment of medication efficacy (14%), and cancer screening (14%). Based on PUCAI scores, 33% of patients were in remission, 39% had mild disease, 23% had moderate disease, and 4% had severe disease. There was moderate-substantial agreement between the two reviewers in assessing rectal Mayo scores (kappa = 0.54, 95%CI: 0.41-0.68). CONCLUSION: Endoscopic disease severity (Mayo score) assessed by reviewing photographs of pediatric colonoscopy has moderate inter-rater reliability, and agreement was less robust in assessing patients with mild disease activity. Endoscopic disease severity generally correlates with clinical disease severity as measured by PUCAI score. However, children with inflamed colons can have significant variation in their reported clinical symptoms. Thus, assessment of both clinical symptoms and endoscopic disease severity may be required in future clinical studies

NLRP3 inflammasome activation by mycobacterial ESAT-6 and dsRNA in intraocular tuberculosis

The molecular basis of intraocular tuberculosis (TB) is not well understood. In this study, we investigated the role of two constituents of viable Mycobacterium tuberculosis - Early Secreted Antigenic Target-6 (ESAT-6), and mycobacterial RNA- in inflammasome activation in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) - a key site of inflammation in intraocular TB. We found that ESAT-6 induced caspase-1 activation and inflammasome priming in mouse RPE cells, significantly more in wild-type than in Tlr2/3/4/7/9-/-, Myd88-/- and Nlrp3-/- RPE cells. Sub-retinal ESAT-6 injection resulted in greater RPE degeneration in wild-type than Nlrp3-/- mice. In human ocular TB tissue sections, NLRP3 staining was noted in retina as well as RPE. Mycobacterial RNA, specifically its double stranded component, also induced caspase-1 activation, and the double stranded RNA was immunolocalized to human ocular TB sections. Our observations suggest that inflammasome activation in RPE by viable M. tuberculosis could potentially contribute to human intraocular TB

Association of biotic factors with indigenous knowledge of farmers on rainfall predictions

Farmers use different factors (biotic and abiotic) around them to predict rainfall. Several Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) practices followed by farmers in different parts of the country are documented and published. ITKs collected from flood and drought prone areas of south India along with documented ITKs were analysed to know the biotic indicators used by farmers to predict rainfall. These biotic factors were classified as insects, birds and animals. Farmers use 19 types of insects, 17 types of birds and 10 types of animals as indicators to predict rainfall. Various behaviour types of these biotic factors are observed by farmers based on which they make decisions about possibility of rain occurring and in some cases the intensity of rain. These are grassroots innovations which are time tested and facilitated farmers to make their farming decisions