ISLAMIC FINANCE-AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT Islamic finance is one of the most rapidly growing segments of the global financial system however in many countries it is still at its embryonic stage. There are only three million Muslims in UK and it is the hub of Islamic finance as compared to India which has a Muslim population of 160 million. This paper provides with an introduction on Islamic finance/banking and how it can be accommodated with the conventional system and how they can be run parallel to each other. It also gives examples of companies like Taurus Mutual Fund which launched the first actively Managed Equity Oriented Sharia compliant diversified fund. Islamic Finance will be a challenge for all Banks to understand and accommodate the needs of such clients, regulators to formulate policies and procedures for Islamic finance and academicians to produce trained work force in this area. India being a developing country has a lot of scope for growth and Islamic finance can be one of the ways for India to gain a brighter future

A machine learning model for identifying cyclic alternating patterns in the sleeping brain

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record the electrical signals in the brain. Recognizing the EEG patterns in the sleeping brain gives insights into the understanding of sleeping disorders. The dataset under consideration contains EEG data points associated with various physiological conditions. This study attempts to generalize the detection of particular patterns associated with the Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep cycle of the brain using a machine learning model. The proposed model uses additional feature engineering to incorporate sequential information for training a classifier to predict the occurrence of Cyclic Alternating Pattern (CAP) sequences in the sleep cycle, which are often associated with sleep disorders.Comment: Presented at HackAuton, Auton Lab, Carnegie Mellon University. Problem credits: Philip

To Study The Efficacy Of Reciprocating Single File System And Multifile Rotary Systems In Elimination Of Root Canal Bacteria And Endotoxins

AIM: To study the efficacy of reciprocating single file system and multifile rotary systems in elimination of root canal bacteria and endotoxins. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Forty permanent single rooted mandibular premolars with straight canals inoculated with Escherichia Coli suspension for 21 days were selected for the study. Teeth were randomly divided into four groups (n=10) according to instrumentation system: Grp. A–Reciproc (VDW); Grp. B–WaveOne (Dentsply Maillefer); Grp. C–MTwo (VDW); and Grp. D–K3( Sybron Endo); Bacterial and endotoxin samples were collected with a sterile paper point before instrumentation  and after instrumentation. Culture methods estimated the colony-forming units (CFU) and the Limulus Amebocyte Lysate test was used for quantification of endotoxins. Results so obtained were calculated and statistically analysed.  RESULT: Results at S1 concluded that bacteria and endotoxins were found in all of the investigated root canals. After instrumentation all systems were associated with the significant reduction of the bacterial load and endotoxins respectively: Grp. A– Reciproc (88.25% and 89.10%); Grp. B– WaveOne (83.53% and 80.59%); Grp. C– MTwo(79.41% and 75.84%) and Grp. D– K3 (67% and 74.4%). Statistically no difference was found amongst the instrumentation systems regarding bacteria and endotoxin elimination (P <0.05).  CONCLUSION: The reciprocating single file, Reciproc and WaveOne were as effective as the multifile rotary systems for the eradication of bacteria and endotoxins from root canals

Pom1 gradient buffering through intermolecular auto-phosphorylation.

Concentration gradients provide spatial information for tissue patterning and cell organization, and their robustness under natural fluctuations is an evolutionary advantage. In rod-shaped Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells, the DYRK-family kinase Pom1 gradients control cell division timing and placement. Upon dephosphorylation by a Tea4-phosphatase complex, Pom1 associates with the plasma membrane at cell poles, where it diffuses and detaches upon auto-phosphorylation. Here, we demonstrate that Pom1 auto-phosphorylates intermolecularly, both in vitro and in vivo, which confers robustness to the gradient. Quantitative imaging reveals this robustness through two system's properties: The Pom1 gradient amplitude is inversely correlated with its decay length and is buffered against fluctuations in Tea4 levels. A theoretical model of Pom1 gradient formation through intermolecular auto-phosphorylation predicts both properties qualitatively and quantitatively. This provides a telling example where gradient robustness through super-linear decay, a principle hypothesized a decade ago, is achieved through autocatalysis. Concentration-dependent autocatalysis may be a widely used simple feedback to buffer biological activities

Comparison of Small Gut and Whole Gut Microbiota of First-Degree Relatives With Adult Celiac Disease Patients and Controls

Recent studies on celiac disease (CeD) have reported alterations in the gut microbiome. Whether this alteration in the microbial community is the cause or effect of the disease is not well understood, especially in adult onset of disease. The first-degree relatives (FDRs) of CeD patients may provide an opportunity to study gut microbiome in pre-disease state as FDRs are genetically susceptible to CeD. By using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we observed that ecosystem level diversity measures were not significantly different between the disease condition (CeD), pre-disease (FDR) and control subjects. However, differences were observed at the level of amplicon sequence variant (ASV), suggesting alterations in specific ASVs between pre-disease and diseased condition. Duodenal biopsies showed higher differences in ASVs compared to fecal samples indicating larger disruption of the microbiota at the disease site. The duodenal microbiota of FDR was characterized by significant abundance of ASVs belonging to Parvimonas, Granulicatella, Gemella, Bifidobacterium, Anaerostipes, and Actinomyces genera. The duodenal microbiota of CeD was characterized by higher abundance of ASVs from genera Megasphaera and Helicobacter compared to the FDR microbiota. The CeD and FDR fecal microbiota had reduced abundance of ASVs classified as Akkermansia and Dorea when compared to control group microbiota. In addition, predicted functional metagenome showed reduced ability of gluten degradation by CeD fecal microbiota in comparison to FDRs and controls. The findings of the present study demonstrate differences in ASVs and predicts reduced ability of CeD fecal microbiota to degrade gluten compared to the FDR fecal microbiota. Further research is required to investigate the strain level and active functional profiles of FDR and CeD microbiota to better understand the role of gut microbiome in pathophysiology of CeD

The United States COVID-19 Forecast Hub dataset

Academic researchers, government agencies, industry groups, and individuals have produced forecasts at an unprecedented scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. To leverage these forecasts, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with an academic research lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to create the US COVID-19 Forecast Hub. Launched in April 2020, the Forecast Hub is a dataset with point and probabilistic forecasts of incident cases, incident hospitalizations, incident deaths, and cumulative deaths due to COVID-19 at county, state, and national, levels in the United States. Included forecasts represent a variety of modeling approaches, data sources, and assumptions regarding the spread of COVID-19. The goal of this dataset is to establish a standardized and comparable set of short-term forecasts from modeling teams. These data can be used to develop ensemble models, communicate forecasts to the public, create visualizations, compare models, and inform policies regarding COVID-19 mitigation. These open-source data are available via download from GitHub, through an online API, and through R packages

Implementing Dynamic Authority Based Search Using Binrank Algorithm

ABSTRACT: Various algorithms such as ObjectRank and PageRank, the latter created by Larry Page and used in Google Search Engine, were highly expensive as they required a PageRank-style iterative computation over the full graph. BinRank, a hybrid algorithm proposed uses an index of pre-computed results for some/or all keywords being used by the user. It approximates ObjectRank result by materializing a relatively smaller subsets of data graphs, which are generated by partitioning all the terms in the corpus based on their co-occurrence. BinRank can achieve sub-second query execution time without affecting the quality of the search results

Racial Differences in the Prevalence and Outcomes of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients Hospitalized With Heart Failure

Previous research has shown that roughly 15% to 30% of those with heart failure (HF) develop atrial fibrillation (AF). Although studies have shown variations in the incidence of AF in patients with HF, there has been no evidence of mortality differences by race. The purpose of this study was to assess AF prevalence and inhospital mortality in patients with HF among different racial groups in the United States. Using the National Inpatient Sample registry, the largest publicly available all-payer inpatient care database representing >95% of the US inpatient population, we analyzed subjects hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of HF from 2001 to 2011 (n = 11,485,673) using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition (ICD 9) codes 428.0-0.1, 428.20-0.23, 428.30-0.33, 428.40-0.43, and 428.9; patients with AF were identified using the ICD 9 code 427.31. We assessed prevalence and mortality among racial groups. Using logistic regression, we examined odds of mortality adjusted for demographics and co-morbidity using Elixhauser co-morbidity index. We also examined utilization of procedures by race. Of the 11,485,673 patients hospitalized with HF in our study, 3,939,129 (34%) had AF. Patients with HF and AF had greater inhospital mortality compared with those without AF (4.6% vs 3.3% respectively, p <0.0001). Additionally, black, Hispanic, Asian, and white patients with HF and AF had a 24%, 17%, 13%, and 6% higher mortality, respectively, than if they did not have AF. Among patients with HF and AF, minority racial groups had underutilization of catheter ablation and cardioversion compared with white patients. In conclusion, minority patients with HF and AF had a disproportionately higher risk of inpatient death compared with white patients with HF. We also found a significant underutilization of cardioversion and catheter ablation in minority racial groups compared with white patients

Racial Differences in the Prevalence and Outcomes of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients Hospitalized With Heart Failure

Previous research has shown that roughly 15% to 30% of those with heart failure (HF) develop atrial fibrillation (AF). Although studies have shown variations in the incidence of AF in patients with HF, there has been no evidence of mortality differences by race. The purpose of this study was to assess AF prevalence and inhospital mortality in patients with HF among different racial groups in the United States. Using the National Inpatient Sample registry, the largest publicly available all-payer inpatient care database representing >95% of the US inpatient population, we analyzed subjects hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of HF from 2001 to 2011 (n = 11,485,673) using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition (ICD 9) codes 428.0-0.1, 428.20-0.23, 428.30-0.33, 428.40-0.43, and 428.9; patients with AF were identified using the ICD 9 code 427.31. We assessed prevalence and mortality among racial groups. Using logistic regression, we examined odds of mortality adjusted for demographics and co-morbidity using Elixhauser co-morbidity index. We also examined utilization of procedures by race. Of the 11,485,673 patients hospitalized with HF in our study, 3,939,129 (34%) had AF. Patients with HF and AF had greater inhospital mortality compared with those without AF (4.6% vs 3.3% respectively, p <0.0001). Additionally, black, Hispanic, Asian, and white patients with HF and AF had a 24%, 17%, 13%, and 6% higher mortality, respectively, than if they did not have AF. Among patients with HF and AF, minority racial groups had underutilization of catheter ablation and cardioversion compared with white patients. In conclusion, minority patients with HF and AF had a disproportionately higher risk of inpatient death compared with white patients with HF. We also found a significant underutilization of cardioversion and catheter ablation in minority racial groups compared with white patients