POMS initiatives for promoting practice-driven research and research-influenced practice

The Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) and Production and Operations Management (POM) have developed new initiatives with these objectives: (1) to disseminate managerial insights of articles published in POM to practitioners, MBA students, and participants in executive development programs; (2) to solicit descriptions of current and emerging problems from practitioners and share them with academics; and (3) to recognize academic research based on direct work with practitioners

Are X-Chrome Lenses An Occupational Succor for the Colour Vision Defectives?

Purpose: To understand total visual experience of a colour vision defective, this study evaluated responses with X-Chrome lenses on three most prevalent colour vision testing techniques.Methods: The colour vision responses were assessed at baseline and after wearing X-Chrom lenses on Ishihara’s plates, Edridge Green Lantern and anomaloscope of 51 defective males in the age range of 13-41 years in a non-randomized intervention study.Results: While red and orange lenses gave better results on Ishihara’s plates in terms of SS increase in mean number of plates read (p=0.03) and on anomaloscope by shift of Aq values towards normal range (not SS, p=0.44) but green lenses increased mean number of colours seen on Edridge Green Lantern (p=0.03).Conclusions: The red and orange lenses absorb shorter wavelengths of light facilitating red-green blinds to improve on techniques testing red/green defect i.e. Ishihara’s and anomaloscope. However, green lenses may have improved hue discrimination on Edridge Green Lantern

Potentially fatal tricuspid valve aspergilloma detected after laparoscopic abdominal surgery

Fungal endocarditis accounts for 1.3-6% of all cases of infective endocarditis. The most common causative organism is Candida, followed by Aspergillus and other mould fungi. Aspergillus endocarditis is usually associated with high morbidity and mortality. Establishing a definitive and timely diagnosis remains difficult and there are many reports of undetected aspergillomas leading to fatalities in the perioperative period. We present a case report of preoperatively undiagnosed large mobile tricuspid valve aspergilloma obstructing the right ventricular inlet, diagnosed incidentally on the second postoperative day after laparoscopic pancreatic abscess drainage. The patient was successfully managed with emergency open-heart surgery and systemic antifungal agents in the postoperative period.Keywords: Infective endocarditis, aspergilloma, tricuspid valu

Nutritional assessment of mutants of Calocybe indica produced by protoplast mutagenesis

Mushrooms are rich source of protein, minerals and antioxidants. Nutritive value of mushrooms differs not only among genus but also among species. Nutritional content of mushrooms are being constantly reported. In present study, emphasis is laid on effect of mutational study on nutritional parameters of mushroom. A total of seven mutants of Calocybe indica obtained through physical and chemical mutagenic treatment were subjected to nutritional evaluation. Five mutants (CMU-5, CMN-9, CMN-11, CMN-2 and CMB-4) indicated higher protein content while ash content was also found more for all the mutants except CMN-9. Tocopherol content was also higher for all the mutants except CMN-3. ?-carotene was more from 2 mutants, CMU-2 and CMN-9. Lycopene content was better in CMU-2, CMN-9, CME-2 and CMB-4 while ascorbic acid content for CMU-2 and CMN-3 was better than that of the parent. Fat content was found to be significantly low only in mutant CMN-9 (1.24g/100g). CMN-9, mutant obtained through NTG treatment, was found better than the parent, Ci-3, not only in protein content but also in amount of vitamin A, C and E. It is indicated from the study that mutagenesis which leads to genotypic variation has effect on biochemical aspects as well. Therefore, various genetic manipulations can be exploited for nutritional enhancement aspects which need to be emphasized keeping in view the need of food quality in today’s scenario

A comparative study to determine the clinical efficacy of Ramipril versus combination of Ramipril and Telmisartan in reducing microalbuminuria associated with grade 2 hypertension

Inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system causes a reduction in urinary protein excretion. It is uncertain whether Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) are equally effective antiproteinuric agents as Angiotensin converting Enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, or whether the combination of ACE inhibitors with ARBs is preferable to ACE inhibitor alone? Microalbuminuria is a prognostic marker for cardiovascular and renal risk. The objective of the study was to compare the clinical efficacy of Ramipril alone versus combination of Ramipril and Telmisartan by assessing the fall in B.P. and the improvement in the degree of microalbuminuria in stage II hypertensive patients. 60 patients of stage II hypertension without having any other cause of microalbuminuria were selected as subjects for the present study and were randomly distributed in to 2 groups- Group A included 30 patients who were given Ramipril 5 mg/ day and Group B included the same number of patients who were given a combination of Ramipril 5 mg/day and Telmisartan 40 mg/day. Baseline parameters included were measurement of Systolic, diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure; microalbuminuria, blood urea, serum creatinine and serum potassium estimations. The drugs under trial were given for 20 weeks. Microalbuminuria was determined at 0 and 20 weeks. The mean percentage fall in microalbuminuria and mean arterial pressure were statistically highly significant (p<0.0001) with combination of Ramipril and Telmisartan (Group B) in comparison to Ramipril (Group A) alone. A highly significant (p‹ 0.0001) mean percentage increase in potassium level was observed in group B at the end of 20 weeks. The side effects were less observed in the combination group. Thus to conclude the combination of Ramipril and Telmisartan provides superior blood pressure (BP) lowering and target organ protection than Ramipril alone, hence the combination of Ramipril and Telmisartan is a better choice to treat and to prevent the progression of the disease.Keywords: Hypertension; Microalbuminuria; Ramipril; Telmisarta

Model-based iterative reconstruction in paediatric head computed tomography : a pilot study on dose reduction in children

Purpose: To evaluate the potential of model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) on dose reduction and image quality in children undergoing computed tomography (CT) head examinations. Material and methods: This prospective study was approved by the institutional ethics committee. A total of 88 children (age range of 5 to 16 years) with a history of seizures underwent contrast-enhanced CT scan. Forty-one children underwent CT study according to the MBIR technique, while 47 children underwent CT of the head with the non-MBIR protocol. Images were reviewed by 2 blinded paediatric radiologists in a random order. Mean dose-length product, CT dose index (CTDI) volume, and mean effective dose were recorded for both groups. Image quality, image noise, and diagnostic acceptability of 2 image sets were also recorded. Results: In the MBIR group, the mean dose-length product was reduced by 79.8%; the mean CTDI volume was reduced by 88.5%, while the mean effective dose was reduced by 81% when compared to the non-MBIR group. No significant difference was seen in diagnostic acceptability, image noise, and image quality between the 2 groups. Conclusions: MBIR technique is highly effective in reducing radiation dose in paediatric head CT examinations without any significant difference in image quality, image noise, and diagnostic acceptability

Corporate social sustainability in supply chains: a thematic analysis of the literature

This paper maps out different research strands using thematic analysis on the literature pertaining to large companies’ efforts on social sustainability in their supply chains. The data corpus for this thematic analysis is a broad sample of the literature with articles from different journals and employing different research methodologies. Each of the high-level themes is identified at a level high enough to apply to research into not only social but also economic or environmental sustainability. These eight themes – stakeholder pressure; governance; contingencies; practices; partnerships; barriers and enablers; performance; and optimisation for performance improvement and trade-off – are then woven into a thematic map. We call this map the ‘4P’ model as it suggests that pressure and partnerships influence practices, which in turn impact performance. Researchers can use this thematic classification not only to position their research within the social sustainability literature but also to integrate research on economic, environmental and social sustainability

A COMPETENT MAC SCHEME DESIGNED USING A UNIQUE DNA-BRNG KEY AND A NOVEL HASH ALGORITHM

The current communication sector demands security over anything else. Considering the confidential data transmission and involvement of technology in everyday payment modes, many schemes have been employed in order to achieve this goal. Authentication and integrity form the base of a secure system, and various research techniques have been employed for primarily prevention and secondarily detection of data modification. MAC serves the best purpose when it comes to retention of integrity, and its efficiency is increased on pairing it up with a secret key. In this paper, a new message authentication code (MAC) is proposed based on feature extraction of the user's DNA and Bernoulli Random Number Generator’s sequence used as key along with a novel hash algorithm. This scheme ensures integrity and the evaluation is done on the basis of NIST test suite for random numbers, which evaluates the outputs by calculating their P value which has to be greater than 0.01 and strict avalanche criteria. Further the performance of the proposed algorithm is analyzed by comparing it with other existing HMAC schemes available and evaluating its behavior towards various network attacks. The proposed scheme has strong security attributes since it involves the fusion of unique biological characteristics along with technical aspects thus making it applicable for data sensitive environments

DGAT1 and ABCG2 polymorphism in Indian cattle (Bos indicus) and buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) breeds

BACKGROUND: Indian cattle (Bos indicus) and riverine buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) give a poor yield of milk but it has a high fat and protein percentage compared to taurine cattle. The identification of QTLs (Quantitative Trait Loci) on BTA14 and BTA6 and its subsequent fine mapping has led to identification of two non conservative mutations affecting milk production and composition. Our objective was to estimate the frequency of K232A (DGAT1 – diacylglycerol – acyltransferase 1) and Y581S (ABCG2 – ATP binding cassette sub family G member 2) polymorphisms in diverse cattle and buffalo breeds of India having large variation in terms of milk production. RESULTS: We screened the reported missense mutations in six cattle and five buffalo breeds. The DGAT1(K )and ABCG2(Y )alleles were found to be fixed in Indian cattle and buffalo breeds studied. CONCLUSION: This study provides an indirect evidence that all the Indian cattle and buffalo breeds have fixed alleles with respect to DGAT1 and ABCG2 genes reported to be responsible for higher milk fat yield, higher fat and protein percent