Phenotypic plasticity can potentiate rapid evolutionary change

Using a computational model of string-like haploid genotypes, we verify the conjecture (J. Theor. Biol. 188 (1997) 153) that phenotypic plasticity can speed up evolution. The corresponding real-life situation was realized by Waddington in experiments carried out on the fruit fly Drosophila. Waddington found that after selecting for an environmentally induced trait over a number of generations, a new, true-breeding phenotype resulted that was absent in the starting population. The phenomenon, termed 'genetic assimilation', continues to attract interest because of the rapidity of the effect and because of its seemingly Lamarckian implications. By making use of a genetic algorithm-based approach developed previously, we show that conventional Darwinian selection acting on regulatory genes can account for genetic assimilation. The essential assumption in our model is that a structural gene can be in either of three allelic states. These correspond to its being (a) 'on' or 'off' constitutively or (b) in a plastic state in which the probability that it is 'on' or 'off' is influenced by regulatory loci in a dosage-dependent manner

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND INDIAN PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES: AN EVENT STUDY ANALYSIS

Although there is a plethora of studies which examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on India’s financial sector, we contribute by investigating the effect of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on stock returns of Indian pharmaceutical companies. By employing an event study methodology, our results indicate that the average returns of the pharmaceutical sector are positive during the COVID-19 phase although mixed evidence is found at the firm level. This finding is also robust to alternative model specifications.    Although there is a plethora of studies which examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on India’s financial sector, we contribute by investigating the effect of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on stock returns of Indian pharmaceutical companies. By employing an event study methodology, our results indicate that the average returns of the pharmaceutical sector are positive during the COVID-19 phase although mixed evidence is found at the firm level. This finding is also robust to alternative model specifications

Higher accuracy protein Multiple Sequence Alignment by Stochastic Algorithm

Multiple Sequence Alignment gives insight into evolutionary, structural and functional relationships among the proteins. Here, a novel Protein Alignment by Stochastic Algorithm (PASA) is developed. Evolutionary operators of a genetic algorithm, namely, mutation and selection are utilized in combining the output of two most important sequence alignment programs and then developing an optimized new algorithm. Efficiency of protein alignments is evaluated in terms of Total Column score which is equal to the number of correctly aligned columns between a test alignment and the reference alignment divided by the total number of columns in the reference alignment. The PASA optimizer achieves, on an average, significant better alignment over the well known individual bioinformatics tools. This PASA is statistically the most accurate protein alignment method today. It can have potential applications in drug discovery processes in the biotechnology industry

A clinical study of ectopic pregnancy in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Ectopic pregnancy is a life-threatening emergency commonly encountered by medical practitioner. Diagnosis is frequently missed and should be considered in any women in the reproductive age group with abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding. The aim of the study is to assess the incidence, clinical presentation, risk factors, methods of diagnosis, treatment, outcome and complications.Methods: This was a prospective study at S.C.B. Medical college from January to December 2017. Parameters like age, parity, gestational period, risk factors, clinical presentations, findings on ultrasonogram and at surgery with morbidities associated with diagnosed cases of ectopic pregnancy (n=93) were noted and analysed with SPSS-19 software.Results: Incidence of ectopic pregnancy was 18/1000 deliveries. Maximum cases were in age group of 21 to 30 years (54.8 %) and parous (76.3%). Common risk factors were having history of abortions (46.2%), previous tubal sterilization (24.7%), having one or more caesarean section (17.2%) and h/o infertility (16.1%). Most common symptom was pain abdomen (96.8%). Commonest site was ampullo-isthmic region of tube and rupture was the commonest mode of presentation. All underwent laparotomy and unilateral salpingectomy was done in 86 % of cases. It contributed to 3.27 % of total maternal deaths.Conclusions: Suspicion in high risk group can direct one to investigate and diagnose early, thereby reducing morbidity, mortality and improving the prospect of future fertility

Behaviour of Shallow Strip Foundation on Granular Soil Under Eccentrically Lnclined Load

Since the publication of Terzaghi’s theory on the ultimate bearing capacity of shallow foundations in 1943, results of numerous studies—both theoretical and experimental—by various investigators have been published. Most of the studies relate to the case of a vertical load applied centrally to the foundation. Meyerhof (1953) developed empirical procedures for estimating the ultimate bearing capacity of foundations subjected to eccentric and inclined loads. Based on the review of the existing literature on the bearing capacity of shallow foundations, it appears that limited attention has been paid to estimate the ultimate bearing capacity when the foundation is subjected to both eccentric and inclined load and the objective of present study stems from this paucity. Besides, only a few studies have been made to estimate the average settlement of embedded footings when subjected to eccentric load.In order to arrive at the objective and to quantify certain parameters, extensive laboratory model tests have been conducted to determine the ultimate bearing capacity of shallow strip foundation resting over sand bed and subjected to eccentric and inclined loads. The tests have been conducted on two types of sand i.e. dense sand and medium dense sand. The load inclination has been varied from 00 to 200 whereas the eccentricity varies from 0 to 0.15B (B = width of footing). Depth of the footing is varied from 0 to B. Traditionally,in all analysis of such problems; the line of load application is towards the center line of the footing. However, in this thesis, it is investigated for the two possible ways of load application i.e. (i) towards and (ii) away from the center line of the footing.Based on the model test results, an empirical non-dimensional reduction factor has been developed for each mode of load application. This reduction factor will compute the ultimate bearing capacity of footing subjected to eccentric and inclined load by knowing the ultimate bearing capacity of footings under centric vertical load at the same depth of footing. Similarly, neural network models have been developed under each mode of load application and combined mode of load application to compute reduction factor as described above. Finally, the developed equations are compared with the existing theories.vi In addition to bearing capacity, the settlement of eccentrically loaded embedded footings is investigated. Based on some of those laboratory test results as discussed above, an empirical procedure has been developed to estimate the average settlement of the foundation subjected to an average allowable eccentric load per unit area, where the applied load is vertical

Heat Transfer in Pulsatile Flow Through Square Microchannels With Wavy Walls

A three-dimensional numerical analysis is performed to understand the effect of axial wall conduction on conjugate heat transfer during single phase pulsatile flow in a square microchannel with wavy walls (wall faces are parallel to each other). A microchannel of inner width and height are 0.4 × 0.4 mm2 and length of 30 mm is considered for the numerical simulation. The wavelength and amplitude of the vertical wavy shaped channel wall are 12 mm and 0.2 mm respectively. The working fluid is taken as water which enters the channel at 300 K temperature and constant heat flux boundary condition is imposed on the entire bottom surface of the microchannel. All the remaining walls of the microchannel exposed to surrounding are kept insulated. The velocity at the inlet of channel is the combination of a fixed component of velocity and fluctuating component of velocity which varies sinusoidally, thus causing pulsatile velocity at the inlet (amplitude, A = 0.2) with variation of frequency from 2 Hz to 10 Hz. Simulations has been performed for constant flow Reynolds number (Re = 100) and wall thickness to inner radius ratio (δsf = 1) with varrying solid wall to fluid conductivity ratio (ksf from 0.344 to 715). It is observed that ksf play a key role to enhance heat transfer due to axial wall conduction. Change of pulsation frequency corresponds to Womersley number (Wo = 1.414, 2, 245, and 3.163) does not affect local Nu. From the numerical simulation, it is obtained that overall Nusselt number function of Re and thickness ratio (δsf) at particular Wo. Overall Nusselt number increases with ksf up to an optimum value then decreases due to the effect of axial wall conduction

Performance of Banking Sectors Due to Adoption of Information Technology (IT)

The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis on the relationship between InformationTechnology (IT) usage, CRM and performance of bank (state bank group) in Bhubaneswar,Odisha, India. Most of the banks in INDIA are geared for comprehensive banking solutionswith extensive branch networks. Empirical data collection was done in the year 2012 andanalyzed with the theoretical data. A sample of 18 branches was selected using the nonprobabilitysampling technique. Perceptions of branch managers, staff members andcustomers were collected using a survey method. All 18 branches selected are of anequivalent grade according to the grading set by the bank. Three different types ofquestionnaires were designed for branch managers, branch staff and customers. Bothstructured and semi structured questions were included in the questionnaires with 7 pointlikert scale. Using bivariate correlation and linear regression, data analysis was done. Thelinear relationship between variables was measured by using Pearson’s correlation coefficient.The analysis suggested that IT usage has a positive linear relationship with financialperformance and quality performance of bank branches. Bank performance was found to havea correlation with factors such as staff attitude towards IT usage, IT literacy level of bankstaff and scope and complexity of the IT applications

Clinical and investigational study for the aetiological evaluation of patients in nontraumatic altered sensorium and its outcome

Background: Apart from head injury many patients present to the tertiary care hospital in unconscious state, the etiology of which is obscure in most of the cases. The present study was conducted with on objective to provide insight into the clinical features and diagnostic methods to know the aetiology of patients with non-traumatic cases of altered sensorium and to study the outcome of these patients.Methods: This is an observational study on 100 patients of altered sensorium of non-traumatic origin during the period from October 2012 to September 2014 conducted in the Department of General Medicine, MKCG Medical College Hospital, Berhampur, Odisha, India. All patients were selected for the study based on the inclusion exclusion criteria. Detailed history, clinical evaluation, laboratory investigations like neuroimaging studies etc. were carried out. Statistical data analysis was done using Graph pad Prism 6 and Microsoft Excel. P value <0.0001 was considered statistically extremely significant.Results: Out of 100 patients of altered sensorium, 64 were males and 36 were females. All patients were in the age group of 19 to 89 years. Cerebrovascular accident was the most common aetiology of altered sensorium followed by metabolic encephalopathy and infection. Altered sensorium in patients with CVA carries a high mortality. Metabolic causes and younger age indicated a better prognosis, patients with low (Glasgow Coma Score) GCS score of 3 to 4 had poorer prognosis.Conclusions: The results suggest that clinical assessments yield accurate predictive information about the potential for recovery in cases of altered sensorium. So, this study concludes that empirically based estimates of prognosis in the neurologically severely ill provides great reassurance to those involved in a decision-making process, including patients’ families and physicians