Olympics and Rule 40: A Critical Examination

The most awaited event in the world of sports has given rise to a controversy, following the recent amendment in the form of the much discussed, Rule 40, of the Olympic Charter. This move has been criticized due its various drawbacks. In the wake of the same, an attempt has been made to critically examine the situation, considering the aspects of commercial marketing, intellectual property attributes relating to the event, rights of athletes and most importantly the effective implementation of this rule. In the London Olympics, rule 40 had secured a mention due to the protests initiated by athletes, on various public platforms. In furtherance of a critical evaluation, controversies have been summarized and examined. In the effort to depict the failed attempts at bringing about a harmonious balance between rights of athletes and getaways available to the independent sponsors, possible impacts in various dimensions have been addressed. The recent advertisement campaign of Nike, which holds the potential of initiating proceedings against an Indian hockey player, Rani Rampal, has also been assessed. The article concludes with highlighting a crucial need for considering the controversies emerging because of Rule 40

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

Expression of heterologous oxalate decarboxylase in HEK293 cells confers protection against oxalate induced oxidative stress as a therapeutic approach for calcium oxalate stone disease

Oxalates stimulate alterations in renal epithelial cells and thereby induce calcium oxalate (CaOx) stone formation. Bacillus subtilis YvrK gene encodes for oxalate decarboxylase (OxdC) which degrades oxalate to formate and CO2. The present work is aimed to clone the oxdC gene in a mammalian expression vector pcDNA and transfect into Human Embryonic Kidney 293 (HEK293) cells and evaluate the oxdC expression, cell survival rate and oxalate degrading efficiency. The results indicate cell survival rate of HEK293/pcDNAOXDC cells pre-incubated with oxalate was enhanced by 28%. HEK293/pcDNAOXDC cells expressing OxdC treated with oxalate, significantly restored antioxidant activity, mitochondrial membrane potential and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation compared with HEK293/pcDNA. Apoptotic marker caspase 3 downregulation illustrates HEK293/pcDNAOXDC cells were able to survive under oxalate-mediated oxidative stress. The findings suggest HEK293 cells expressing oxdC capable of degrading oxalate protect cells from oxidative damage and thus serve as a therapeutic option for prevention of CaOx stone disease

Oral administration of oxalate-enriched spinach extract as an improved methodology for the induction of dietary hyperoxaluric nephrocalcinosis in experimental rats

<p>Experimental induction of hyperoxaluria by ethylene glycol (EG) administration is disapproved as it causes metabolic acidosis while the oral administration of chemically synthesized potassium oxalate (KOx) diet does not mimic our natural system. Since existing models comprise limitations, this study is aimed to develop an improved model for the induction of dietary hyperoxaluria, and nephrocalcinosis in experimental rats by administration of naturally available oxalate rich diet. Male albino Wistar rats were divided into five groups. Group I, control; group II rats received 0.75% EG, group III rats fed with 5% KOx diet and group IV and V rats were administered with spinach extract of 250 and 500 mg soluble oxalate/day respectively, for 28 d. Urine and serum biochemistry were analyzed. After the experimental period, rats were sacrificed, liver and kidney tissue homogenates were used for antioxidant and lipid peroxidation assay. Relative change in expression of kidney injury molecule-1 (<i>KIM-1</i>) and crystal modulators genes in kidney tissues were evaluated. Tissue damage was assessed by histology studies of liver and kidney. Experimental group rats developed hyperoxaluria and crystalluria. Urine parameters, serum biochemistry, antioxidant profile, lipid peroxidation levels and gene expression analysis of experimental group II and III rats reflected acute kidney damage compared to group V rats. Histopathology results showed moderate hyperplasia in liver and severe interstitial inflammation in kidneys of group II and III than group V rats. Ingestion of naturally available oxalate enriched spinach extract successfully induced dietary hyperoxaluria and nephrocalcinosis in rats with minimal kidney damage.</p

Group Diversity and the Impacts on Female Participants: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Income Generating Networks in India

Abstract Community networks, such as credit associations and income generating groups, help pool resources and information among the rural poor. Often, women are targeted through all-female, socially homogeneous groups to foster greater communication and confidence among members. Using a new data set collected by the author from a quasi-experimental survey of women participating in World Bank income generating networks in India, this paper finds that women in mixed-gender groups have actually achieved improved influence and participation in household economic decisions as compared to participants overall, targeted nonparticipants, and control respondents. These outcomes include greater individual savings relative to household savings, economic reach within the village in terms of increased net loans to other village members, and greater participation over a range of household decisions since program implentation. In particular, I show that these impacts occur through non-monetary mechanisms (greater potential for learning through exposure to a wider skills set, for example). Heterogeneity in sub-castes or communities within the group, however, has negative or insignificant impacts on different respondent outcomes. Endogeneity of program targeting is resolved by surveying exogenously nontargeted villages. To address potential endogeneity in the composition of participants&apos; networks, overall participation is instrumented by whether a program official randomly visited the respondent at the onset of the program. Share of men in the group is instrumented by the agricultural season in which the program entered the village, impacting men&apos;s availability to participate. Finally, since women&apos;s household behavior in this region is largely determined by their own caste, village size is small, and permanent migration is rare, the share of different sub-castes in the network is instrumented by the number of households in the respondent&apos;s ten-household neighborhood that are from different sub-castes

Abstracts of Scientifica 2022

This book contains the abstracts of the papers presented at Scientifica 2022, Organized by the Sancheti Institute College of Physiotherapy, Pune, Maharashtra, India, held on 12–13 March 2022. This conference helps bring researchers together across the globe on one platform to help benefit the young researchers. There were six invited talks from different fields of Physiotherapy and seven panel discussions including over thirty speakers across the globe which made the conference interesting due to the diversity of topics covered during the conference. Conference Title:  Scientifica 2022Conference Date: 12–13 March 2022Conference Location: Sancheti Institute College of PhysiotherapyConference Organizer: Sancheti Institute College of Physiotherapy, Pune, Maharashtra, Indi