Three Essays on International Finance

There are three essays in this dissertation. The first essay provides information regarding tax havens and its role in portfolio equity flows. For a sample of 70 countries average portfolio flows received from tax haven countries is higher than average flows received from non tax haven countries. When countries increase personal tax rates, portfolio equity flows from tax haven countries increases as compared to non tax haven countries. These effects are consistent for countries belonging to emerging, frontier and developed markets and whether a given country has high or low corporate governance. The second essay looks at the impact of tax treaties on valuations, equity flows and cost of equity capital. We construct a dyadic time series for 64 countries finding that the existence of over 2500 bilateral double taxation treaties (DTTs) facilitates effeciencies of foreign portfolio investment (FPI) by reducing investors\u27 tax budens. Our analysis incoporates fixed effects, corporate and personal taxes and other control variables. Subsequent to countries\u27 signing DTTS, annual flows increase significnatly, investors\u27 benefits from tax savings, corporate equity valuation increases, and equity capital costs decline. Third essay looks at the impact of macro-economic uncertainty and stock index returns. Our resuls sugges that global GDP uncertainty is corrlated with country returns. More global macro uncertainty (GUN) is associated with higher country index returns. During non-crisis years, local macro uncertainty (CSUN) is uncorrelated with country returns. However CSUN is important for explaining market returns during extreme down markets. Thus macro uncertainty is a priced factor and differentation between country specific and global macro uncertainty is important. Lastly, we dcompose uncertainty into private and common components and study their effects

Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding and its determinants in first 6 months of life: A prospective study

Background: Exclusive breastfeeding for first 6 months of life is recommended under Infant and Young Child Feeding practices in India. The objective of present study was to estimate the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding during first 6 months of life of babies and to identify factors that interfere with the practice in the study area. Methods: A prospective cohort of 462 women who delivered at maternity unit of Government Medical College & Hospital, Rajkot, which is a tertiary care centre for the district, was studied. Data collection was done at hospital as well as during home visits of babies at 1, 3 and 6 months. Factors related to cessation of breastfeeding were analyzed using univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis. Results: All 462 mothers reported breastfeeding their newborns. Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding reported at 3 months was 97% which declined to 62% by 6 months of age of infants. Bivariate analysis revealed no significant association between interruption of exclusive breastfeeding before 6 months of age and various demographic, socioeconomic, maternal and infant characteristics. Multivariate analysis by logistic regression demonstrated no association between discontinuation of exclusive breastfeeding and socioeconomic status, maternal education and maternal age, number of antenatal visits, maternal employment and initiation of breastfeeding after delivery. Conclusion: Exclusive breastfeeding prevalence rate found higher than at national level indicating better feeding practices in these part of India. Also, factors classically considered as supportive for breastfeeding had shown no association with breastfeeding pattern in present study

FORMULATION DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF TEMOZOLOMIDE LOADED HYDROGENATED SOYA PHOSPHATIDYLCHOLINE LIPOSOMES FOR THE TREATMENT OF BRAIN CANCER

Objective: The objective of this study was to encapsulate temozolomide (TMZ) in the liposomal formulation for the treatment of glioblastoma. TMZis one of the most effective substances in vitro against cells derived from glioblastoma. However, it may not have a significant effect in vivo due topoor penetration in brain which may be attributed to the blood-brain-barrier. The main objective of this investigation is to develop a liposomal drugdelivery system which could improve the brain targeting, and solve the treatment-related problems.Methods: In this study, TMZ loaded liposomes were prepared by ethanol injection method. The characterization of formulated liposomes was carriedout by vesicle size, entrapment efficiency, surface morphology, and in vitro drug release study. The prepared liposomes were also evaluated for celluptake and cell cytotoxicity studies.Results: Particle size and entrapment efficiency were found to be 105.7±3.9 nm and 78.25±0.98%, respectively. 75% of the entrapped drug wasreleased in 24 hrs from the selected liposomal formulation. Cell uptake study reveals that hydrogenated soya phosphatidylcholine (HSPC) loaded TMZliposomes interact with the glioblastoma cells and kill the cancer cells effectively. Cytotoxicity assay confirms that drug loaded HSPC liposomes aremore efficient with respect to killing of glioblastoma cells as compared to plain drug.Conclusion: These results suggest that the TMZ loaded HSPC liposome may serve as a proficient targeted drug delivery system for the effectivemanagement of glioblastoma.Keywords: Temozolomide, Liposomes, Hydrogenated soya phosphatidylcholine, Cholesterol, Glioblastoma

PREPARATION, CHARACTERIZATION, AND OPTIMIZATION OF MEBENDAZOLE SPHERICAL AGGLOMERATES USING MODIFIED EVAPORATIVE PRECIPITATION IN AQUEOUS SOLUTION (EPAS)

Objective: Mebendazole is a popular benzimidazole class anthelmintic drug useful in the treatment of main infections of threadworms as well as other less common worm infections like whipworm, roundworm, and hookworm in adults and children over 2 y of age. It is poorly soluble in water resulting in poor absorption from the intestinal tract leading to a decrease in bioavailability. Moreover, Mebendazole has poor flowability due to the needle-shaped crystals. This work was carried out with the aim of increasing the flowability and solubility of Mebendazole. Methods: A 32 full factorial design was used to investigate the effect of the concentration of Mebendazole and the quantity of water as an external phase using evaporative precipitation into an aqueous solution. The prepared agglomerates were characterized for particle size distribution, shape, Hausner ratio, Carr’s index and % dissolved in 60 min (C60).   Results: The prepared agglomerates were found to be monodispersed. They also showed a decrease in the Hausner ration and Carr’s index, indicating improved flowability. Increase in C60 indicated that the agglomerates were found to have increased water solubility. Conclusion: Scanning Electron Microscopy showed that the agglomerates were spherical in shape. Fourier Transformed Infra-Red studies showed no chemical change in the prepared spherical agglomerates. Differential Scanning Calorimetry and X-ray diffraction studies showed an increase in amorphous characteristics of prepared spherical agglomerates. This method may be used for drugs with similar characteristics as Mebendazole

FORMULATION OPTIMIZATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF GANCICLOVIR LOADED DRY CHITOSAN NANOPARTICLES

ABSTRACTObjective: The objective of this work was to formulate, optimize, and characterize ganciclovir (GCV) loaded dry chitosan nanoparticles (CSNPs).Methods: The GCV loaded CSNPs was prepared by ionic gelation method. Box–Behnken design was employed to optimize the influence of independentprocess and formulation variables like drug to polymer ratio, concentration of sodium tripolyphosphate, and stirring time (min) on the dependentvariables such as particle size (PS) and drug encapsulation efficiency (% EE). The optimum conditions were determined by regression analysis of theoutput data.Results: The independent variables had interactive effects and they affected both the responses. The optimum formulation had PS within the range of100-120 nm and % EE between 85% and 86%. The prepared GCV loaded CSNPs were dried by fluidized bed drying method. Fourier transform infraredspectra showed there was no physicochemical interaction between GCV and CS. Powder X-ray diffraction study showed less intense crystalline peaksindicated that GCV may exist in the formulation as amorphous nanodispersion or molecular dispersion form. Differential scanning calorimetry studywas performed which indicated that the drug was molecularly dispersed inside the matrix of CS. Higuchi model was the best to fit the in vitro releasedata for the GCV loaded CSNPs.Conclusion: From the results, it can be concluded that the GCV loaded dry CSNPs were formulated, optimized, and characterized using desiredpharmacotechnical properties.Keywords: Chitosan nanoparticles, Box–Behnken design, Sodium tripolyphosphate, Ionic gelation

In situ synthesis of nanoclay filled polyethylene using polymer supported metallocene catalyst system

In situ ethylene polymerizations were performed using bis(cyclopentadiene)titanium dichloride supported on polyethersulfone as catalyst. The bis(cyclopentadiene)titanium dichloride supported on polyethersulfone catalyst activity estimated by ethylene polymerization was 360 kgPE/molTi/h. During polymerization the fillers used were montmorillionite nanoclays having surface modifications with 35-45 wt% dimethyl dialkyl(14-18)amine (FA) and 25-30 wt% trimethyl stearyl ammonium (FB). These fillers were pretreated with methylaluminoxine (MAO; cocatalyst) for better dispersion onto the polymer matrix. The formation of polyethylene within the whole matrix was confirmed by FTIR studies. It was found that the nature of nanofiller did not have any remarkable effect on the melting characteristics of the polymer. TGA study indicates that nanoclay FB filled polyethylene has higher thermal stability than nanoclay FA filled polyethylene. The melting temperature of the obtained polyethylenes was 142 ºC, which corresponds to that synthesized by the polyether sulfone supported catalyst

A Study on Google Classroom for Mobile Edification at University level by Using AHP Model for Initial Perceptions – A Case Study of Sankalchand Patel University

In India, many online teaching platforms are being used in universities, colleges, and schools at all levels in the context of COVID-19. This research provides an online teaching platform evaluation system in order to systematically investigate the elements that influence the selection of online teaching platforms. Following a review of a series of factors that have significant influences on the selection of online teaching platforms, eight major factors are identified. Based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process, a hierarchical structure model for online teaching platform selection is constructed. Based on the questionnaire, the rank was the same with both methods for the most preferred question and the least important question, which were derived from Performance Expectancy (PE) and Use Behaviour, respectively (UB). These findings revealed that both techniques produced the same rank for the five likert scale alternatives, with "Agree" being the most important and "Strongly disagree" being the least important. In specifically, the weights of the indicators are calculated and evaluated for each layer in order to achieve the overall ranking and, as a result, the optimal scheme. The following is the order of priority for assessment indicators of online teaching platforms, according to the findings: Google Classroom is useful in this course since it is simple to use and has all of the materials that are required to participate in Google Classroom (internet, Smartphone, laptop, etc.)

Isolation and Characterization of Bacterial Endophytes from Lycopersicon esculentum Plant and their Plant Growth Promoting Characteristics

The study was designed to isolate and characterize bacterial endophytes from root and stem of Lycopersicon esculentum plant which was collected form different region of Gujarat. Total 18 isolates of endophytic bacteria were selected in which, all the endophytic bacteria produced one or the other different characteristics involved in plant growth promotion. They either produced phytohormones like indole acetic acid, siderophore, protease, pectinase, organic acid showed antifungal activity, chromium tolerance and solubilized phosphate. Four of the strains among the 18 showed maximum positive results of plant growth promoting regulators (PGPR) test and among them best probable isolate was selected and thus its 16SrDNA was amplified and sequenced. Only HR7 endophyte of tomato turned out to be Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It’s a gram negative coccobacili, sporeforming motile bacilli and show maximum PGPR activity. The results of our present studies indicated that above strains might be endophytic and therefore, were associated with the plant growth. Keywords: Lycopersicon esculentum; endophytic bacteria; PGPR; IAA; 16SrDNA DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njb.v2i1.5679   Nepal Journal of Biotechnology Jan.2012, Vol.2(1): 37-5

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Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137766/1/hep29248.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137766/2/hep29248_am.pd