CSR Reporting Practices in Indian Private Sector Banks

Non-Financial Reporting or Sustainability reporting is a tool to collect and present sustainability data to stakeholders. In the 21st century Corporate Social Responsibility is being used to judge the corporate performance and CSR disclosures fall under Non-financial reporting or sustainability reporting. GRI is a global initiative to standardize Non-Financial Reporting which institutions across the globe are adopting, the guidelines are for voluntary use by organizations for reporting on the economic, social and environmental dimensions of their activities, products and services. Keeping in view the importance of banking sector in the economy and the growing importance of sustainability reporting this descriptive and analytical paper aims to analyze and discuss the sustainability reporting practices of Private banking sector in India. For this study secondary information from the annual reports of new private banks in India (banks which came into operation from 1991) for the past 5 years will be collected and analysed using appropriate tool of analysis. Purposive sampling will be used. The results of the study will throw better light on the reporting practices followed

Beamforming in Cognitive Radio Networks

Cognitive radio is a wireless communication technology which adds intelligence to the existing wireless communication scenario. This concept arises due to the heavy occupancy of frequency spectrum below 3 GHz which is caused by the ever growing demand for wireless services by the customers. This problem has placed a heavy burden to the resource allocation policy maker to accommodate between the demand and the available spectrum resources. In this paper, we address the problem of resource allocation in the context of cognitive radio networks (CRN).With the deployment of K antennas at the cognitive base station(CBS), an efficient transmit beamforming technique is proposed to maximize the Signal to noise ratio. We also used the smart antenna beamforming technique to enhance the error rate performance of the system. We simulated the result using MATLAB 7.5 and finally we analyzed the results for two cases, one when adaptive beamforming is used in the proposed system and second when adaptive beamforming is not used in the proposed system

Active surveillance of adverse drug reactions in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in a tertiary care teaching hospital

Background: Drugs used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis show significant toxicity and morbidity. The objective of the study was to evaluate the nature and incidence of adverse drug reaction in patients with rheumatoid arthritis on anti-rheumatic drugs and to assess the causality and severity of the documented adverse drug reactions.Methods: The prospective observational study was done for two months in rheumatology outpatient department. All patients were interviewed for basic details, treatment history and adverse drug reactions and were recorded. Causality assessment and severity assessment of the recorded adverse drug reactions were done.Results: About 283 patients attended the rheumatology out-patient department during the two months period out of which 57 patients had one or more adverse drug reaction. The incidence of adverse drug reaction observed in rheumatology out-patient department to anti rheumatic drug was 20.14%. A total of 145 adverse drug reactions were noted in 57 patients. The most common adverse drug reaction reported was epigastric pain (6.89%) followed by headache and dyslipidemia (6.25%). The most common system associated with adverse drug reaction was gastrointestinal system (29.66%) followed by central nervous system and cardiovascular system (15.86%). Reported adverse drug reactions were assessed for causality and maximum belonged to probable (66.9%). Severity assessment revealed that most of the adverse drug reactions were mild (74.48%) in nature.Conclusions: Active surveillance for adverse drug reactions to anti rheumatic drug in patients with rheumatoid arthritis will allow early detection of adverse drug reactions and timely intervention to provide maximum benefit to the patients

Transcervical Foley’s Catheter Versus Transcervical Foley’s Catheter Aided by Instaripe for Induction of Labour: A Comparative study

INTRODUCTION: Labor is a process through which the fetus moves from the intrauterine to the extra uterine environment. The progress of Medicine in general and of Obstetrics in particular has allowed for more high risk pregnancies to evolve to term or close to term, with maternal or fetal pregnancy interruption before the onset of spontaneous labor. This associated to the fact that vaginal delivery has become the best choice for women and health professionals has created the growing need to induce labor in women with unripe cervices. Induction refers to the process whereby uterine contractions are initiated by medical or surgical means before the onset of spontaneous labor. If the cervix is unfavorable, a successful vaginal birth is less likely. Therefore, in the face of a situation indicating pregnancy interruption it is fundamental to assess the cervix conditions to predict induction success. Out of all the scoring systems available, Bishop’s scoring is the commonly used one, which helps to delineate those patients who are more likely to have successful induction. The duration of labor is inversely correlated with the Modified Bishop score; a score that exceeds 6 describes the patient most likely to achieve a successful vaginal birth. Modified Bishop scores of less than 6 usually require that a cervical ripening method be used before other methods. AIM OF THE STUDY: To compare the efficacy of foley’s catheter induction aided by Panicker’s cervical ripening device with normal foley’s catheter induction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 100 antenatal cases who were admitted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Madurai medical college, for delivery and who met the inclusion criteria were recruited. STUDY DESIGN: Comparative, Prospective Study. SETTING: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Madurai Medical College, Madurai. INTERVENTIONS: These patients were randomized into two groups with 50 patients in each group. In one group, cervical induction was done by inserting a 16 French Foley catheter and inflating the balloon with 60ml of sterile water. In the other group, foley’s catheter was inserted into the endocervical canal, after inserting it through instaripe device. In the second group, after inflating the balloon, the ripening device is slowly introduced into the vagina after lubricating with xylocaine jelly, to press on to the cervix. Primary and secondary outcome measures were then recorded and analysed. Primary and Secondary outcomes: Primary outcomes like cervical score improvement, induction delivery interval, and secondary outcomes like neonatal APGAR score were evaluated. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference in the mean induction delivery interval between the groups, which was 35.74 hours in the Foleys group while it was 29.04 hours in the Instaripe group (p value 0.001). CONCLUSION: It can be said that the induction delivery interval can be shortened if Instaripe device is used to aid Foleys catheter to provide sustained traction. There were no significant maternal and fetal adverse effects in either group. However, more randomized controlled trial are required to make conclusive recommendations for its use

An Efficient Subcarrier and Power Allocation Scheme for OFDM based Cognitive Radio Networks Considering Channel Sensing Errors

Cognitive radio plays a major role in today’s wireless communications and solves the spectrum scarcity problem by efficiently utilizing the vacant spectrum. Most CR systems employ OFDM as a modulation technique because of its flexibility in allocating spectrum resources. Allocation of vacant spectrum to the secondary users introduces interference to the primary users. In this paper, subcarrier and power allocation for OFDM based cognitive radio network for joint overlay and underlay spectrum access mechanism (JOUSAM) with channel sensing error is proposed. For such a CR systems, the transmission rate is maximized for a given power budget, while keeping the interference level of the primary user below a certain threshold. The numerical results show that the proposed scheme achieves higher transmission rate when compared to system without considering sensing error

SURVEY ON SIMULATION AND EMULATION TOOLS IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK

Abstract: Sensor networks are dense wireless networks of small, low-cost sensors which collect and propagate environmental data. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) assist monitoring and controlling of physical environments from remote location with better accuracy. They have applications in a variety of fields such as environmental monitoring, military applications, and water or waste water monitoring and health care applications. Sensor nodes have various energy and computational constraints because of their economical nature and adhoc method of deployment. The objective of this involvement is to present expositive review content on currently available experimental tools used for most emerging field. Currently due to high cost of sensor nodes, the most researches in wireless sensor networks area is performed by using the experimental tools in various institutes and research centre's before implementing real one. Also the facts gathered from these experimental tools can be realistic and convenient. So, the experimental tools provide the better option for studying the behavior of WSNs before and after implanting the physical one

Knowledge and awareness of cervical cancer prevention and HPV vaccination among medical and nursing students in a tertiary care hospital

Background: This study was done to assess the level of knowledge and awareness about cervical cancer and its prevention among medical and nursing students. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted during 2022 in a tertiary care hospital in Chennai. The study included 407 subjects; 224 medical students, and 183 nursing students and consent was obtained from each participant prior to the study. A questionnaire survey was used to assess their knowledge on cervical cancer and its prevention. Results: Out of the 407 participants, 95.5% of the medical students and 30.6% of the nursing students knew that HPV virus causes cervical cancer. Medical students had more knowledge on risk factors. 84.38% of medical students and 43.72% of nursing students were aware that vaccine is available for the prevention of cervical cancer. Overall nursing students had limited knowledge on cervical cancer and its prevention. 51.79% of the medical students and 27.87% of the nursing students acquired their knowledge about HPV vaccine through social media. The uptake of HPV vaccine was very low among both medical and nursing students. Conclusions: The results of our study demonstrate that there is a need for creating more awareness about cervical cancer and its prevention among medical and nursing students

ABHD5 frameshift deletion in Golden Retrievers with ichthyosis.

Ichthyoses are hereditary skin disorders characterized by the formation of scales and defects in the outermost layer of the epidermis. In dogs, at least six different breed-specific ichthyoses including a relatively common PNPLA1-related autosomal recessive ichthyosis in Golden Retrievers are known. In this study, we investigated 14 Golden Retrievers with scales that were not homozygous for the mutant PNPLA1 allele suggesting a genetically distinct new form of ichthyosis. Histopathological examinations showed lamellar, orthokeratotic hyperkeratosis, and mildly hyperplastic epidermis that led to the diagnosis of a nonepidermolytic ichthyosis. Combined linkage and homozygosity mapping in 14 cases and 30 nonaffected family members delimited a critical interval of ∼12.7 Mb on chromosome 23. Whole-genome sequencing of an affected dog revealed a single protein-changing variant within this region that was not present in 795 control genomes. The identified variant is a 14 bp deletion in the ABHD5 gene (c.1006_1019del), leading to a frameshift and altering the last 14 codons p.(Asp336Serfs*6). The genotypes at this variant showed perfect cosegregation with the ichthyosis phenotype in a large family comprising 14 cases and 72 controls. ABHD5 encodes an acyltransferase required for lipid metabolism. In humans, variants in ABHD5 cause Chanarin-Dorfman syndrome, a neutral lipid storage disease with ichthyosis. Our data in dogs together with the knowledge on the effects of ABHD5 variants in humans strongly suggest ABHD5:c.1006_1019del as candidate causative genetic variant for a new canine form of ichthyosis, which we propose to designate as Golden Retriever ichthyosis type 2 (ICH2)