Policy-driven approach to demand management from space cooling and water heating appliances: insights from a primary survey of urban Bengaluru, India

Appliances that provide thermal comfort services like space cooling and water heating have high energy demands and significant seasonal variation in usage. Ownership and usage of these appliances increase rapidly with income. Given the significant impact of these appliances on electricity demand, it is key to analyse their ownership and usage. A well-designed policy and standards framework can help transition households as well as manufacturers towards a higher efficiency ecosystem, and significantly lower electricity demand growth rates. In this study, we analyse ownership and usage patterns of these appliances using data from a primary survey of Bengaluru, India. We suggest some passive demand-side management frameworks based on current policies implemented for these appliance categories

ROLE OF SUBSTANCE P IN PANCREATITIS AND ASSOCIATED DISEASES

Substance P (SP) is a neuropeptide that has its place in the tachykinin family and helps in the transmission of neurogenic signals. SP is also a neuromodulator that plays a crucial part in pain during inflammatory processes. It is produced by the capsaicin-sensitive unmyelinated C fibers sensory neurons by the central and peripheral nervous systems. Substance P is known as a critical primary responder to most of the extreme stimuli, i.e., specifically those with the ability to destabilize the biological integrity. Hence, SP can be considered as an instantaneous system for defense, stress, healing, etc. SP is known to perform a vital role in neurogenic inflammation and the pathophysiology of acute pancreatitis. Out of these, neurogenic inflammation is responsible for acute interstitial pancreatitis as a result of oedema. SP binds itself to the G-protein coupled neurokinin-1 receptor and causes plasma leakage, cell proliferation, and invasion resulting in pancreatic cancer. SP along with comparable neuropeptides seems to be crucial targets with the capability of satisfying several unfulfilled medical requisites. This review article mainly focuses on compiling the available evidence to show that SP could be a novel therapeutic target for pancreatic diseases, and more exploration into the SP signaling pathways is the call of the hour

Foreign Venture Capital Firms in a Cross-Border Context: Empirical Insights from India

Syndication or co-investment is a potent way of pooling resources among peer Venture Capital (VC) firms. This is even more vital for Foreign VC firms (FVCFs) when investing in destinations that are geographically distant from their countries of origin. Although FVCFs are relatively abundantly endowed in terms of financial capital, they are distinctly disadvantaged in terms of their social capital when investing in geographies that are distinctly different in terms of their institutions, norms, and culture from their own. One of the ways in which FVCFs overcome this impediment is by investing in human resources that serve as a bridge between their financial and social capital. Accordingly, the primary aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the resources of FVCFs and their syndication intensity. Using the technique of logistic regression, we arrive at several interesting findings. FVCFs with a greater proportion of investment executives with prior founding experience in India and those with lower proportions of professionals of Indian origin demonstrate lower syndication intensity. Similarly, the syndication intensity diminishes with the increase in size of the investing team. FVCFs with greater fund size demonstrate a lower need for syndication. Greater endowment of social capital as proxied by the age of the VC firm is seen to enhance the syndication intensity

Ventura Capital Industry in India - Determinants of Successful exits from Funded Companies

Venture Capital (VC) has emerged as one of the primary conduits of funding emerging businesses in India over the past decade. Although, the number of VC-funded start-ups have grown manifold, the exits by the VC firms from these funded investee companies have lagged behind. This is a worrying trend as failure to get timely and profitable exits is likely to impact the commitment on the part of these VC firms to allocate additional funds to India in the future.This in turn, can seriously impair the growth prospects of high-tech start-up industry here which has been majorly supported by VC so far. This paper delves into the factors amenable to successful exits for the VC firms investing in India. Our study, based on secondary data analysis of 72 prominent VC firms in India throws up several interesting findings. We find that investment-stage and technology focus of the VC firm are vital factors determining its exit success. Moreover, the ownership pattern of the VC firm, its investing experience and most importantly its proclivity to co-invest with other peer VC firms significantly impact the exit performance

Gene-Specific-Candidate-Driven Study to decipher Genetic Predisposition to Rotavirus Infection

Recent report of WHO shows 113000 children in India succumb to death due to Rotavirus diarrhea. Lack of knowledge about pathogenesis of virus has led to lack of therapy for severely infected patients. Previous studies have found that, animal rotavirus requires sialyl glycan moieties on cell surface for pathogenesis. Present study states that human rotaviruses also follows same path and this specificity of virus leads to host genetic predisposition for the infection as well as the disease. Two hundred children less than 5 years of age clinically suspected of viral diarrhea were screened for rotavirus infection. EDTA blood was processed for analyzing DNA sequences of various fucosyltransferase genes. Lewis antigens which are secretory form of ABO Histo Blood Group Antigens were correlated with the genotype of patient. Genetics of HBGA secretion, particularly, basis of Leb expression manifested by fucosyltransferase-2 enzyme was studied in healthy individuals and was compared in cases of rotavirus positive and negative diarrhea. Positive clinical isolates with various genotypes were purified from stool samples and gene for VP4 - surface spike protein was sequenced. Using Bioinformatics interphase, three dimensional protein structures were modeled and their functional domains were analyzed. All these modeled proteins were docked with Leb HBGA (Lewis-b Histo Blood Group Antigens) using molecular docking software. In present study, to investigate possible association of the rotavirus with host genome, we screened highly suspected genes involved in expression of glycoproteins on enterocytes. This study performed for prevalent Indian strains of rotaviruses provides possible evidence that, VP8 domain of VP4 spike protein utilizes Leb surface antigen for attachment and entry to enterocytes in the intestine. The FUT2 and FUT3 gene has been found to show significant association with the rotavirus infection hence can serve as a biomarker for genetic predisposition to Rotavirus diarrhea. Knowledge of molecular biology of the Rotavirus pathogenesis may open up new paths for vaccines and therapy. Data presented here is first of its kind which deciphers Host-Rotavirus interaction by parallel experiments of epidemiological study and In Silico study