Sustaining by working at the bottom of the pyramid: a case of Indian rugs manufacturing company

The rural areas are highly sensitive to contemporary economic and social change phenomena, such as globalization as they are required to restructure and readjust, probably to a greater extent than the rest of society, and this imperils social cohesiveness1 in the small communities that are the warp and weft of rural areas. Thus to varying degrees, globalization is resisted by societies concerned with the social and environmental implications of large companies operating throughout the world. The present paper highlights the same through a company exporting rugs globally from rural India. The present work has potential inclusion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) concept in the small and medium sized enterprise by introducing the essentials of CSR conceptually and relating it with an Indian rug manufacturing company.Kaimo vietovės ypatingai jautrios pokyčiams, kuriuos sukėlė tokie šiuolaikiniai ekonominiai bei socialiniai reiškiniai kaip globalizacija. Susirūpinta dėl socialinės ir ekologinės didelių tarptautinių kompanijų veiklos pasekmių. Aplinkybės iš kaimo vietovių reikalauja restruktūrizacijos ir didesnio persitvarkymo nei iš likusios visuomenės. O tai kelia grėsmę mažų bendruomenių, kurios yra vietovės pagrindas, socialiniam sutelktumui. Skirtingos visuomenės, įžvelgusios pavojų ir susirūpinusios dėl socialinių ir ekologinių didžiųjų tarptautinių kompanijų veiklos padarinių, globalizacijai priešinasi skirtingai. Šiame straipsnyje analizuojamas Indijos atvejis, remiantis įmonių socialinės atsakomybės (ĮSO – CSR – corporate social responsibility) koncepcija. Mažos ir vidutinės įmonės taip pat įsitraukia į globalias tiekimo grandines ir taip gali prisidėti prie savojo krašto darnaus vystymosi. Konceptualiai pristatomus ĮSO pagrindus autorė sieja su Indijos specifika, pateikdama kilimų gamybos kompanijos pavyzdį

Study of inflammatory markers for COVID-19 in control population and in pregnant women: a systematic review

COVID-19 infection is an inflammatory state and has varied presentation ranging from mild to severe condition. The second wave of COVID-19 resulted in greater mortality and morbidity as compared to first wave both in general as well as in pregnant patient. As the progression of disease is rapid and fatal hence there is a need of reviewing relevant inflammatory markers for predicting the disease course and severity. The inflammatory markers considered are Interleukins, CRP, LDH, serum Ferritin, Neutrophil/ lymphocyte ratio and in some cases serum Procalcitonin. These markers are raised in other inflammatory conditions also and therefore the maximum predictability of various markers differs in different conditions. COVID-19 in pregnancy in itself is challenging as it alters the immunity and hemodynamic and therefore the value of these markers in pregnancy can affect the sensitivity and specificity in predicting the severity of the disease. This review will evaluate the role of inflammatory markers in general population as well as pregnancy with regards to their prognostication in assessing the disease severity

Effect of time interval from completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy to starting of adjuvant chemotherapy after interval debulking surgery on survival of patients with advanced ovarian cancer

Background: To find the effect of time interval between completion of neo adjuvant chemotherapy to the starting of adjuvant chemotherapy on the RFS and OS of patients with advanced ovarian cancers. Methods: It is a retrospective study of 170 patients with histopathological proven epithelial ovarian cancers who received full treatment (NACT+IDS+POAC) at Gujarat cancer Research Institute, Ahmedabad between 2010- 2016. They were assessed and followed up for maximum 5 year. The time interval was defined as period from the completion of NACT including Interval de-bulking surgery to initiation of chemotherapy. Results: Out of 170 patients, 86 patients (50.5%) received adjuvant chemotherapy within 44 days after neoadjuvant chemotherapy while 84 patients (49.4%) received it after 44 days. There was no significant difference in patient characteristics between these two groups. The shorter and longer TI was having recurrence in 40 (53.48%) and47 (55.55%) patients respectively. Whereas overall survival was 67.44% and 47.61% respectively. Conclusions: Our analysis showed that patients with longer time interval >44 days had poorer recurrence free survival and overall survival in comparison to lesser TI group

Therapeutic efficacy of artemether-lumefantrine in uncomplicated falciparum malaria in India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is the treatment of choice for uncomplicated falciparum malaria. Artemether-lumefantrine (AL), a fixed dose co-formulation, has recently been approved for marketing in India, although it is not included in the National Drug Policy for treatment of malaria. Efficacy of short course regimen (4 × 4 tablets of 20 mg artemether plus 120 mg lumefantrine over 48 h) was demonstrated in India in the year 2000. However, low cure rates in Thailand and better plasma lumefantrine concentration profile with a six-dose regimen over three days, led to the recommendation of higher dose globally. This is the first report on the therapeutic efficacy of the six-dose regimen of AL in Indian uncomplicated falciparum malaria patients. The data generated will help in keeping the alternative ACT ready for use in the National Programme as and when required.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>One hundred and twenty four subjects between two and fifty-five years of age living in two highly endemic areas of the country (Assam and Orissa) were enrolled for single arm, open label prospective study. The standard six-dose regimen of AL was administered over three days and was followed-up with clinical and parasitological evaluations over 28 days. Molecular markers <it>msp</it>-<it>1 </it>and <it>msp</it>-2 were used to differentiate the recrudescence and reinfection among the study subjects. In addition, polymorphism in <it>pfmdr</it>1 was also carried out in the samples obtained from patients before and after the treatment.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The PCR corrected cure rates were high at both the sites viz. 100% (n = 53) in Assam and 98.6% (n = 71) in Orissa. The only treatment failure case on D7 was a malnourished child. The drug was well tolerated with no adverse events. Patients had pre-treatment carriage of wild type codons at positions 86 (41.7%, n = 91) and 184 (91.3%, n = 91) of <it>pfmdr1 </it>gene.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>AL is safe and effective drug for the treatment of acute uncomplicated falciparum malaria in India. The polymorphism in <it>pfmdr</it>1 gene is not co-related with clinical outcome. However, treatment failure can also occur due to incomplete absorption of the drug as is suspected in one case of failure at D7 in the study. AL can be a viable alternative of artesunate plus sulphadoxine/pyrimethamine (AS + SP), however, the drug should be used rationally and efficacy needs to be monitored periodically.</p

A Booster Vaccine Expressing a Latency-Associated Antigen Augments BCG Induced Immunity and Confers Enhanced Protection against Tuberculosis

BACKGROUND: In spite of a consistent protection against tuberculosis (TB) in children, Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) fails to provide adequate protection against the disease in adults as well as against reactivation of latent infections or exogenous reinfections. It has been speculated that failure to generate adequate memory T cell response, elicitation of inadequate immune response against latency-associated antigens and inability to impart long-term immunity against M. tuberculosis infections are some of the key factors responsible for the limited efficiency of BCG in controlling TB. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study, we evaluated the ability of a DNA vaccine expressing α-crystallin--a key latency antigen of M. tuberculosis to boost the BCG induced immunity. 'BCG prime-DNA boost' regimen (B/D) confers robust protection in guinea pigs along with a reduced pathology in comparison to BCG vaccination (1.37 log(10) and 1.96 log(10) fewer bacilli in lungs and spleen, respectively; p<0.01). In addition, B/D regimen also confers enhanced protection in mice. Further, we show that B/D immunization in mice results in a heightened frequency of PPD and antigen specific multi-functional CD4 T cells (3(+)) simultaneously producing interferon (IFN)γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α and interleukin (IL)2. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results clearly indicate the superiority of α-crystallin based B/D regimen over BCG. Our study, also demonstrates that protection against TB is predictable by an increased frequency of 3(+) Th1 cells with superior effector functions. We anticipate that this study would significantly contribute towards the development of superior booster vaccines for BCG vaccinated individuals. In addition, this regimen can also be expected to reduce the risk of developing active TB due to reactivation of latent infection

Latency Antigen α-Crystallin Based Vaccination Imparts a Robust Protection against TB by Modulating the Dynamics of Pulmonary Cytokines

BACKGROUND: Efficient control of tuberculosis (TB) requires development of strategies that can enhance efficacy of the existing vaccine Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG). To date only a few studies have explored the potential of latency-associated antigens to augment the immunogenicity of BCG. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We evaluated the protective efficacy of a heterologous prime boost approach based on recombinant BCG and DNA vaccines targeting α-crystallin, a prominent latency antigen. We show that "rBCG prime-DNA boost" strategy (R/D) confers a markedly superior protection along with reduced pathology in comparison to BCG vaccination in guinea pigs (565 fold and 45 fold reduced CFU in lungs and spleen, respectively, in comparison to BCG vaccination). In addition, R/D regimen also confers enhanced protection in mice. Our results in guinea pig model show a distinct association of enhanced protection with an increased level of interleukin (IL)12 and a simultaneous increase in immuno-regulatory cytokines such as transforming growth factor (TGF)β and IL10 in lungs. The T cell effector functions, which could not be measured in guinea pigs due to technical limitations, were characterized in mice by multi-parameter flow cytometry. We show that R/D regimen elicits a heightened multi-functional CD4 Th1 cell response leading to enhanced protection. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results clearly indicate the superiority of α-crystallin based R/D regimen over BCG. Our observations from guinea pig studies indicate a crucial role of IL12, IL10 and TGFβ in vaccine-induced protection. Further, characterization of T cell responses in mice demonstrates that protection against TB is predictable by the frequency of CD4 T cells simultaneously producing interferon (IFN)γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α and IL2. We anticipate that this study will not only contribute toward the development of a superior alternative to BCG, but will also stimulate designing of TB vaccines based on latency antigens

Optimization of DNA extraction protocol for polymerase chain reaction based methods in phenolic and polysaccharide rich Sesamum indicum L

Abstract Molecular studies of plants rely on isolation of pure and high molecular weight genomic DNA. The chemotypic heterogeneity among species may not permit optimal DNA yields with a single protocol, and thus, even closely related species may require different isolation protocols. Sesamum, an oil yielding crop, contains high levels of polyphenols, polysaccharides and secondary metabolites. These metabolites can interfere with the DNA isolation methods affecting genomic DNA isolation and other downstream reactions such as restriction digestion, PCR etc. In this study, a simple, rapid and efficient method for leaf DNA extraction with slight modifications of CTAB method in Sesamum is optimized. The procedure involves homogenization of the plant leaf in extraction buffer, incubation at 60ºC, and extraction by different fixing solutions containing absolute alcohol, chloroform and EDTA without liquid nitrogen. The results showed that the extracted DNA quality and quantity were comparable to those isolated with liquid nitrogen as the λ 260 /λ 280 ratio with liquid nitrogen was in the range 0.5-1.74 and with other fixing solutions it was 0.28-1.36. Absolute alcohol showed best results as fixing solution. The extracted DNA can be used directly for PCR