Current industry approaches towards Marketing ROI an Empirical study

This paper is designed to understand current status of marketing measurement and accountability against marketing investment in today's competitive scenario and what are the standard methods are available to measure marketing performance measurement in financial aspects, as well as paper suggests a process for developing links between promotional marketing and its financial outcome. Key words: ROI, Marketing Promotion, Metrics, Branding, BTL

Sophistication in Service Exports and Economic Growth

Services can now be stored and traded digitally, and they are not subject to many of the trade barriers that physical exports have to overcome. Services are no longer exclusively an input for trade in goods, but have become a “final export” for direct consumption. It is important to note that services not only have become more tradable, but also can be increasingly unbundled: a single service activity in the global supply chain can now be fragmented and done separately at different geographic locations. This has led to a new channel of growth—what we call service export sophistication.Exports, service exports, outsourcing, trade, growth, india, trade barriers, unbundled, supply chain, sophistication, developing countires

Service export sophistication and economic growth

Can increasing sophistication in service exports lead to economic growth? Although services were historically produced primarily for domestic consumption, they are gradually becoming more productive, tradable and unbundled. The authors construct an index of"service exports sophistication"to document this phenomenon. Panel data estimations indicate a positive association between growth in per capita income and higher sophistication of service exports. The results also suggest that this phenomenon is growing in importance over time. Considering the limits of traditional industrialization in igniting global growth, the results provide an alternative channel.Economic Theory&Research,Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures,Commodities,Housing&Human Habitats,Banks&Banking Reform

INVESTIGATION OF COMPACTION BEHAVIOR OF PHARMACEUTICAL POWDERS: AN ELUCIDATION BASED ON PERCOLATION THEORY

Pharmaceutical product development has evolved from conventional empirical approach towards the more systematic and science based approach over the past decades. However, the process of tableting and compaction behavior of pharmaceutical powders is still ambiguous and not well understood. In the present study, a comprehensive attempt has been made to understand this complex and dynamic process of compaction of disordered pharmaceutical powders using percolation phenomenon. Commonly used pharmaceutical powder materials, spheres and their binary mixtures of different particle sizes, crystal structure and deformation behavior were compressed at varying compression loads at different relative densities. Mechanical strength of tablets, namely radial tensile strength, compressive strength and elastic modulus, were evaluated and studied according to the classical models of powder compaction and percolation phenomenon. It was found that percolation phenomenon has a significant effect on the compaction of powder materials and can be used to characterize deformation and bonding behavior of powder materials. A model developed on the fundamentals of percolation theory was found to predict the compactibility of disordered powder materials and their binary mixtures with higher accuracy compared to the established classical compaction models. Moreover, it was found that the developed model can predict the dilution capacity of excipients and can be used as a material-sparing tool in the initial formulation development of tablet dosage forms. It was also found that percolation theory can help to understand mechanics of tablet formation more clearly by establishing a relationship between compressibility and compactibility phenomena of powder materials. Further, a closer look at tableting process reveals that process of tableting closely mimics 3-dimensional correlated diffusive percolation phenomenon with a universal critical exponent value of q = 2 and percolation thresholds, ρc = 0.634 (z = 12) and 0.366 (z = 6) depending on the type of material used. Similar results were also observed in the case of powders compacted using an industrial scale rotary tablet press thus confirming that tableting of pharmaceutical powders is far from an equilibrium process depending upon the variability of time and space. Thus it can be concluded that comprehensive application of percolation theory can serve as a single effective tool in the study of compaction behavior of pharmaceutical powders and can be effectively used in the current quality by design (QbD) practice to establish robust design space for the formulation development of tablet dosage forms

Does CSR create shareholder wealth?

Only with good marketing, and for initiatives that benefit key stakeholders, write Saurabh Mishra and Sachin Mod

Radiation Biomarkers : Applications in Triage Management of Radiation Victims

Human exposure to ionizing radiation disrupts normal metabolic processes in cells and organs by inducing complex biological responses that interfere with gene and protein expression. Conventional dosimetry, monitoring of prodromal symptoms and peripheral lymphocyte counts are of limited value as organ- and tissue-specific biomarkers for personnel exposed to radiation, particularly, weeks or months after exposure. Analysis of metabolites generated in known stress-responsive pathways by molecular profiling helps to predict the physiological status of an individual in response to environmental or genetic perturbations. There is a need for research to rapidly determine an individual’s absorbed dose and its potential health effects after a potential radiological or nuclear event that could expose large portions of a population to ionizing radiation. Studies on biomarker identification after radiation exposure could contribute in biodosimetry, identifying individual dose absorbed, as well as biologic response, and administering immediate and proper medical care. In the recent scenario development of biomarker is major thrust area. In the present review paper articles related to gene biomarker, protein biomarker and metabolic biomarker are reviewed in order to sketch an overview on the recent advances related to developing an biomarker to assess the radiation induced toxicity

N protein from lambdoid phages transforms NusA into an antiterminator by modulating NusA-RNA polymerase flap domain interactions

Interaction of the lambdoid phage N protein with the bacterial transcription elongation factor NusA is the key component in the process of transcription antitermination. A convex surface of E. coli NusA-NTD, located opposite to its RNA polymerase-binding domain (the β-flap domain), directly interacts with N in the antitermination complex. We hypothesized that this N-NusA interaction induces allosteric effects on the NusA-RNAP interaction leading to transformation of NusA into a facilitator of the antitermination process. Here we showed that mutations in β-flap domain specifically defective for N antitermination exhibited altered NusA-nascent RNA interaction and have widened RNA exit channel indicating an intricate role of flap domain in the antitermination. The presence of N reoriented the RNAP binding surface of NusA-NTD, which changed its interaction pattern with the flap domain. These changes caused significant spatial rearrangement of the β-flap as well as the β′ dock domains to form a more constricted RNA exit channel in the N-modified Elongation Complex (EC), which might play key role in converting NusA into a facilitator of the N antitermination. We propose that in addition to affecting the RNA exit channel and the active center of the EC, β-flap domain rearrangement is also a mechanistic component in the N antitermination process

IN VITRO ANTHELMINTHIC ACTIVITY OF CALOTROPIS PROCERA (AIT.) R. BR. LEAVES

Objective: Helminthiasis affects over two billion people worldwide, particularly in the tropical region. A number of medicinal plants have been usedto treat parasitic infections in man and animals. In the present study, the anthelminthic potential of Calotropis procera (Ait.) R. Br. leaves extract wasevaluated.Methods: The ethanolic extract of Calotropis procera (Ait.) R. Br. leaves was separated into n-butanol and water fractions. The n-butanol fractionwas subjected to column chromatography. Ethanolic extract, n-butanol, and water fractions as well as n-hexane, chloroform, chloroform: methanol(9:1); chromatographic elutes of n-butanol fraction were evaluated for in-vitro anthelmintic activity using Indian earthworm Pheretima posthuma asa experimental models.Results: The results indicated that ethanolic extract, water fraction, n-hexane, and chloroform elutes showed better activity as compared to n-butanolfraction and chloroform: methanol (9:1) elute of Calotropis procera (Ait.) R. Br. leaves.Conclusion: The present investigation is the scientific validation of the anthelmintic activity of C. procera (Ait.) R. Br. leaves in view of its usage inethnoveterinary practice. It is suggested that further research is required for identification of active principles.Keywords: Calotropis procera, Chromatographic elutes, Pheretima posthuma, Anthelmintic activity