Understanding District Ecosystems: Implementation of Food, Agriculture and Nutrition Policies in Sabarkantha and Bijapur Districts (India)

Nutrition policies are shaped at a national and state level in India; however programmes are implemented by the district administration. This paper considers the implementation of nutrition programmes in two districts - Sabarkantha in Gujarat and Bijapur in Karnataka - drawing on a systems approach to (i) detail how policies and programmes related to nutrition are implemented through the district ecosystem; (ii) whether programmes are integrated and complementary, both within the state machine as well as with non-state programmes; and (iii) what the roles of state and non-state actors are in implementation. The paper evaluates policy implementation in a complex sector where integration is especially important, given the multiple and interacting pathways for supporting improved nutrition. This includes considering nutrition specific programmes, together with the underlying pathways highlighted - food production and agriculture; food access and food security; health, water, sanitation and hygiene; and women’s empowerment

Banking on Shared Value: How Banks Profit by Rethinking Their Purpose

This paper articulates a new role for banks in society using the lens of shared value. It is intended to help bank leaders, their partners, and industry regulators seize opportunities to create financial value while addressing unmet social and environmental needs at scale. The concepts included here apply across different types of banking, across different bank sizes, and across developed and emerging economies alike, although their implementation will naturally differ based on context

Framing Matters: The Influence of Group-Image Threat on Reactions To Affirmative Action Policies

Affirmative action (AA) attempts to rectify the institutional effects of prior employment discrimination toward minority groups. Although AA has played a large role in increasing workplace diversity, organizations may vary in their perspectives towards diversity itself, ranging from a sole focus on increasing diversity to appreciating the value diversity may add. Support for AA has been considered as a form of White identity management (Knowles, Lowery, Chow, & Unzueta, 2014) and is impacted by the extent to which White people experience group-image threat to their racial identity. Our findings suggest that the level of group-image threat experienced by White people impacts both their organizational trust and AA policy attitudes depending on whether the policy rationale was framed around rectifying past discrimination or highlighting the importance of diversity to the organization. These results have implications for how organizations can attract, maintain, and develop a workforce with White employees who value and support diversity

DESIGN, SYNTHESIS AND ANTIMICROBIAL EVALUATION OF SOME MANNICH BASE DERIVATIVE OF 2-(SUBTITUTED)-5-AMINO-THIADIAZOLES

Objective: The major objective of the present study was to design, synthesize some Mannich base derivative of 2-substituted-5-amino thiadiazoles with primary amines/phthalimide and formaldehyde anticipating effective as antimicrobial agents.Methods: The efficient syntheses of substituted thiadiazole were done simply by reaction of substituted benzoic acid with thiosemicarbazide in presence of only conc. sulphuric acid. The isolated products were further subjected for Mannich reaction and evaluated for antibacterial activity.Results: Three substituted thiadiazoles (BA-1 to BA-3) were synthesized by solvent less efficient synthesis and their Mannich base derivates were also prepared with phthalimide, p-nitro/methyl/chloro-aniline. All characterized products were screened for antibacterial and antifungal activities. Among these compounds having nitro group (3,7,13) showed maximum activity followed by phthalimide, chloro and methyl groups.Conclusion: Thiadiazole-Mannich bases derivatives exhibited better antimicrobial activities then their starting components (BA-1 to BA-3) indicated joining different pharmacophore in the same molecule have increased activity.Â

Late recovery of phrenic nerve palsy in a neonate: A case report

Hyperextension of the neck at birth can injure the phrenic nerve and/or brachial plexus usually at the point where the phrenic nerve crosses the brachial plexus. We present a case of the preterm baby, who had Erb’s palsy and diaphragmatic paralysis since birth after breech delivery. Persistent respiratory distress and chest X-ray gave a clue to diagnosis, which was confirmed on ultrasound. The baby recovered on the conservative approach at 2 months of life without surgical plication. This study describes that late spontaneous recovery up to 2 months is possible in a newborn with respiratory distress due to phrenic nerve palsy

FACILE SYNTHESIS, SPECTRAL STUDIES, DFT CALCULATIONS AND BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF NOVEL NI (II), CU (II), AND PD (II) COMPLEXES OF THIADIAZOLE ANALOGS

Objective: A facile synthesis of some novel Schiff base derivatives of 2-substituted-5-amino-thiadiazoles along with their Ni (II), Cu (II), and Pd (II) complexes were achieved by sonication and the conventional method. In addition to establish the structure by DFT studies and to explore antimicrobial and anticancer activities of these novel compounds.Methods: The precursor 2-substituted-5-amino-thiadiazoles (T1-T3), target ligands and their metal complexes were synthesized by ultra-sonication and conventional means. The isolated products were thoroughly characterized by physical and spectroscopic techniques including 1H-NMR, [13]C-NMR and IR spectroscopy. All characterized compounds were screened for antimicrobial activities using well diffusion method, and MTT assay was performed for cytotoxicity.Results: All novel compounds were synthesized by a green route i.e. ultra sonication and a noticeable improvement in yield with shorter reaction time than the conventional method were observed. The octahedral geometry was proposed for Ni (II)/Cu (II) complexes whereas square planar for Pd (II) complexes on the basis of the spectral techniques which were supported by DFT analysis by Gaussian03. On the analysis of antimicrobial activities, the compound T7 and T10 showed maximum antibacterial and antifungal activities respectively. However, compounds T25, T37, T31 found to be a potential cytotoxic compound with IC50 value 0.469, 0.865 and 1.131 μM respectively.Conclusion: Analysis of synthetic protocol, it could be concluded that ultra-sonication is the better method to synthesize these potential biological active moiety. On the whole Cu (II) and Ni (II) complexes showed promising activity towards all microorganisms while Pd (II) complex emerged an excellent moiety in carcinoma cell line

The New Role of Business in Global Education: How Companies Can Create Shared Value by Improving Education While Driving Shareholder Returns

This paper articulates the case for a renewed role for business in global education through the lens of shared value. It is intended to help business leaders and their partners seize opportunities to create economic value while addressing unmet needs in education at scale. The concepts we describe apply across industries and to developed and emerging economies alike, although their implementation will naturally differ based on contex

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE OF JAHAR MOHRA PISHTI: A POTENT CARDIO TONIC

In the era of science and sagacity every sighting needs proofs and confirmations of its authenticity and when it comes to a medicinal preparation, the qualms are a step higher. Thus establishing pharmacopeial standards for a potent cardiotonic like Jahar Mohra Pishti is the need of time. Till date no work has been performed on standard operating procedure or standardization of Jahar Mohra. So, various available data was collected for complete documentation in terms of chemical composition, crystal structure, physicochemical analysis, therapeutic activity and method of proper storage so as to draw a standard operating procedure for the formulation.Jahar Mohra is named as Naga Pashana in most of the classical text of Ayurveda. Chemical formula for Jahar Mohra was evaluated through results of XRD and was Hydrous Magnesium Silicate i.e. Mg3-xSi2O5(OH)4-2x which is a basic formula for Serpentine group of minerals. Three samples of Jahar Mohra Pishti were prepared as per Siddha Yoga Sangraha to set the Standard Operating Procedure. Raw material was purified with lukewarm demineralised water. The Pisthi was prepared by impregnating and triturating the powdered samples with Gulab Arka (Rose Water) for 14 times. Observations were recorded during each step and a conclusion was drawn

Scaling of information costs in firms

What a firm does is more revealing than how much it makes, but firms are often described with economic metrics. Here, we characterize what firms read, their information footprint, using a data set of hundreds of millions of records of news articles accessed by employees in millions of firms. We relate a firm's information footprint with economic variables, showing that the former grows superlinearly with the latter. This exaggerates the classic Zipf's law inequality in the economic size of firms and reveals an economy of scale with respect to information. Second, we discover that the reading habits of firms are of limited diversity. Firms above a certain size reduce the relative diversity of information they consume, indicating the sudden onset of a coordination cost. Third, we reconstruct the topic graph firms inhabit and propose a simple model of firm growth in this space. Firms adhere to a mixed strategy of local exploration and recurrent exploitation on the topic graph. This strategy is costly, and we predict that firms consume a prodigious amount of information over their lifetime because they cumulatively add to their information portfolio instead of diversifying. This shows that the costs of information and the structure of the space of ideas provide a useful but little explored perspective on firm growth

Optical and electrochemical dual channel sensing of Cu2 + using functionalized furo[2,3-d]pyrimidines-2,4[1H,3H]-diones

Owing to their easy accessibility and high degree of structural and functional diversity, many multicomponent reactions (MCRs) have been a rich source of conjugate π-systems, functionalised chromophores (or fluorophore) and redox active molecules. Despite their high explorative potential and practical benefits, only a few MCR products have been so far investigated for their metal sensing abilities. In the present report, two furopyrimidinones (FPys) based molecular systems have been synthesized by [4 + 1] cycloaddition based MCR sequence. Designed chemosensors displayed optic (absorption spectra) as well as electroanalytical (ion selective electrode) response toward Cu2 + ion in solution and membrane phase respectively (dual channel sensing). Different aspects of both the sensing phenomena such as selectivity, association constants, detection limit, membrane composition etc. were studied in detail using UV–Vis spectroscopy, NMR titration and cell assembly. Both the compounds showed excellent performance characteristics such as high selectivity, acceptable affinity and low detection limits (10− 7 M) in both sensing assays with potential utility in the area of sample monitoring