Equity home bias—A global perspective from the shrunk frontier

Equity home bias research explicates the need for correct characterisation of benchmark (optimum) foreign equity investment weights required for the estimation of equity home bias. This paper improves upon the traditional mean–variance optimisation framework by utilising the Bayes–Stein shrinkage technique to obtain optimal equity weights and home bias estimates for 39 countries for the period, 2000–2009. A regression model estimated with system GMM identifies financial integration, trade openness (exposure), stock market capitalisation, idiosyncratic risk and Global Financial Crisis (GFC) as the significant determinants of equity home bias. Unlike earlier studies, the relationship between home bias and financial integration is found to be U-shaped

The beneficial role of N-acetylcysteine as an adjunctive drug in treatment of COVID-19 patients in a tertiary care hospital in India: an observational study

Background: N-acetyl cysteine, a mucolytic agent, demonstrates free radical scavenging and anti-inflammatory properties, and prevents endothelial dysfunction by inhibition of NF-KB and formation of no adducts. This has a potential role to tackle cytokine storms, endothelial dysfunction and prothrombotic state observed in COVID-19 manifestations like ARDS and Multi organ dysfunction.Methods: Institution based descriptive cross sectional study, 164 patients from laboratory confirmed RT PCR positive COVID-19 patients, in the study period from 27th May 2020 to 10th August 2020, were assessed, in medical college Kolkata, a dedicated COVID-19 care facility.Results: It was observed that moderate-severe patients who received N-acetyl cysteine along with standard therapy had average hospital stay duration of 12 days, higher rate of discharge, average duration of oxygen therapy of 8 days, less number of deaths and reduced transfer to critical care facilities.Conclusions: N-acetyl cysteine can be considered as an adjunctive therapy with standard protocol driven care, due to its beneficial anti-inflammatory and free radical scavenging properties

Pre-exposure hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis for COVID-19 in healthcare workers: a retrospective cohort

Background: While several trials are ongoing for treatment of Corona virus 2019 (COVID-19), scientific research on chemoprophylaxis is still lacking even though it has potential to flatten the curve allowing us time to complete research on vaccines.Methods: This retrospective cohort study explores the potential of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a pre- exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 among 106 health care workers (HCW) exposed to COVID-19 patients, at a tertiary care hospital in India where there was an abrupt cluster outbreak within on duty personnel. HCWs who had voluntarily taken HCQ prior to exposure were considered one cohort while those who had not were considered to be the Control group. All participants with a verifiable high-risk contact history were tested for COVID-19 by RT- PCR.Results: The two cohorts were comparable in terms of age, gender, co-morbidity and exposure. The primary outcome was incidence rates of RT-PCR positive COVID-19 infection among HCQ users and Controls.106 HCW were examined of whom 54 were HCQ users. The comparative analysis of incidence of infection between the two groups demonstrated that voluntary HCQ usage was associated with lesser likelihood of developing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (4 out of 54 HCW), compared to those who were not on it (20 out of 52 HCW), χ2=14.59, p<0.001. None of the HCQ users noted any serious adverse effects.Conclusions: The study demonstrated that voluntary pre- exposure HCQ prophylaxis by HCWs is associated with a statistically significant reduction in risk of SARS-CoV-2.

Screening prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in a region of the United Kingdom: a population-based birth-cohort study

We are extremely grateful to all the families who took part in this study, the midwives for their help in recruiting them, and the whole ALSPAC team, which includes interviewers, computer and laboratory technicians, clerical workers, research scientists, volunteers, managers, receptionists and nurses. This study was funded by a doctoral studentship from Cardiff University (awarded to CM). The UK Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust (Grant ref.: 102215/2/13/2) and the University of Bristol provide core support for the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Funding for the facial scan data was provided by Cardiff University.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Influence of native ureolytic microbial community on biocementation potential of Sporosarcina pasteurii

Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP)/Biocementation has emerged as a promising technique for soil engineering applications. There are chiefly two methods by which MICP is applied for field applications including biostimulation and bioaugmentation. Although bioaugmentation strategy using efficient ureolytic biocementing culture of Sporosarcina pasteurii is widely practiced, the impact of native ureolytic microbial communities (NUMC) on CaCO3 mineralisation via S. pasteurii has not been explored. In this paper, we investigated the effect of different concentrations of NUMC on MICP kinetics and biomineral properties in the presence and absence of S. pasteurii. Kinetic analysis showed that the biocementation potential of S. pasteurii is sixfold higher than NUMC and is not significantly impacted even when the concentration of the NUMC is eight times higher. Micrographic results revealed a quick rate of CaCO3 precipitation by S. pasteurii leading to generation of smaller CaCO3 crystals (5–40 µm), while slow rate of CaCO3 precipitation by NUMC led to creation of larger CaCO3 crystals (35–100 µm). Mineralogical results showed the predominance of calcite phase in both sets. The outcome of current study is crucial for tailor-made applications of MICP

Reliable State Machines: A Framework for Programming Reliable Cloud Services

Building reliable applications for the cloud is challenging because of unpredictable failures during a program\u27s execution. This paper presents a programming framework, called Reliable State Machines (RSMs), that offers fault-tolerance by construction. In our framework, an application comprises several (possibly distributed) RSMs that communicate with each other via messages, much in the style of actor-based programming. Each RSM is fault-tolerant by design, thereby offering the illusion of being "always-alive". An RSM is guaranteed to process each input request exactly once, as one would expect in a failure-free environment. The RSM runtime automatically takes care of persisting state and rehydrating it on a failover. We present the core syntax and semantics of RSMs, along with a formal proof of failure-transparency. We provide a .NET implementation of the RSM framework for deploying services to Microsoft Azure. We carry out an extensive performance evaluation on micro-benchmarks to show that one can build high-throughput applications with RSMs. We also present a case study where we rewrite a significant part of a production cloud service using RSMs. The resulting service has simpler code and exhibits production-grade performance

Signaling network map of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor

We thank the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India for research support to the Institute of Bioinformatics, Bangalore. We thank the “Infosys Foundation” for research support to the Institute of Bioinformatics. We thank UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) for generous grant support. SDY is a recipient of DST-INSPIRE Senior Research Fellowship from Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. AR and JA are recipients of Senior Research Fellowship from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India. RR is a recipient of Research Associateship from Department of Biotechnology, Government of India

“I'm always up against a brick wall with them”: Parents' experiences of accessing support for their child with a newly recognised developmental disorder

Three of the most prevalent developmental disorders (DDs) include autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). As part of a study screening for DDs in Greater Manchester, UK, a unique opportunity was taken to explore parents’ experiences of receiving reports about their child’s previously unrecognised DD. Six parents out of a possible 16 took part in interviews, which were analysed thematically. Findings revealed a number of barriers to accessing support for their child's additional needs, including resistance from school especially for quiet, well-behaved girls, and difficulty accessing assessment or referrals. There needs to be greater awareness of additional needs in children without externalising behaviours; the presence of gender-specific differences in presentation of DDs; and FASD as a commonly occurring DD. Ultimately, better support for these children would reduce the burden of unmet needs for the children, their families and wider services