Does Higher Startup Intention Leads to Higher Growth Performance? An Analysis into Factors Impacting Growth Performance of Indian Startups

Startup growth performance captures the process of going from a concept to scaling up operations, dealing with obstacles, and accomplishing major indicators of success. Resilience, adaptability, and strategic vision are necessary for the dynamic journey that is achieving startup growth performance. Entrepreneur’s startup intentions act as a beacon, influencing their strategic choices for business establishment. It establishes the standard for how the startup overcomes obstacles, evolves to the expectations of the market, and adapts its offerings which makes startup intentions a key factor for the growth performances of startups.  The current study examines the impact of startup intentions, expected returns and intention for equity usage on the growth performances of Indian startups using Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). PLS-SEM can be used for handling complex models with numbers of variables and indicators, making predictions, and conducting exploratory research. In addition, PLS-SEM does not require assumptions related to normal distribution of data. The structural model assessment shows that startup intention (STARTUP_INT) and intention to use equity (INT_EQT) has positive significant association with growth performances (GWTH_PER). Moreover, intention to use equity was found to be significant mediator in startup intention and growth performance relationship. However, there was negative and significant correlation between expected return (EXP_RTN) and growth performance of startups. The findings have crucial implications for entrepreneurs and policy makers, which can enhance Indian startup ecosystem

Relationship between Wheat Yield and Yield Attributing Character at Late Sowing Condition

Correlation coefficient and path analysis were computed between yield and yield attributing trait among twenty genotypes of wheat. The research was conducted during winter season of 2020/2021 in the agronomic field of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Bhairahawa, Nepal to identify the traits which influence the positive and negative relation to grain yield. Twenty genotypes of wheat were sown on 24th December 2020 on alpha lattice design with two replications. It has been found that under heat stress, DTB, DTH, DTM, CLC, PH, NGPS show a non-significant positive correlation with GY. Similarly ET shows a highly significant positive correlation to GY. However, SL, SW, TKW have a non-significant negative correlation with GY. In path analysis, DTM and ET have a positive direct effect on GY and DTH, SL, CLC and NGPS have an indirect effect on GY. Hence, the ET and DTM can be used to select wheat genotype for breeding purpose and studies to improve yield of genotypes under heat stress condition

Evaluation of Yield Attributing Trait of Spring Wheat Genotypes Under Normal and Late Sowing Condition

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is the third most important cereal crop in Nepal after rice and maize. The research is carried out during the winter season in agronomic field of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Bhairahawa, Nepal. Sowing is carried out 28th November 2020 and 24th December 2020 on alpha lattice design with two replication of twenty wheat genotype under normal and late sowing respectively. In the late sowing condition, all genotype's performance is reduced as compared to normal sowing. Under late sown condition, high temperatures reduced the days to booting (15.64%), days to heading (14.97%), days to maturity (14.16%), chlorophyll content (15.99%), plant height (8.59%), spike length (7.03%), number of spikelet per spike (9.21%), number of grain per spike (10.6%), spike weight (15.32%), effective tiller/m2 (9.92%), thousand kernel weight (10.3%) and grain yield (22.5%). NL 1420 presented higher 4118 kg/ha and 3310.5 kg/ha yield respectively and BL 4407 presented early maturity 119.2 DAS and 100.6 DAS respectively in normal sowing and late sowing condition. In a combined environment, maximum grain yield is recorded in NL1420. The result suggested that the tolerant line against the late sowing condition can be used as genetic resource for crop improvement and promote for grain yield

Invasions of the oropharynx: microbiome of healthy and infected respiratory tissue

Research aiming to understand pathogens in infection is shifting rapidly towards considering not only the individual pathogen but the whole microbial community. Therefore, understanding microbial communities through exploring the key questions in community ecology, such as the relationship between diversity and stability, are relevant here also. Research has made considerable progress in characterising microbial communities of different body sites but the human oropharynx microbiome is still among the less well known despite its importance in hosting various commensal bacteria and being an important entry site for pathogenic intrusion. Determining the healthy oropharynx microbiome will allow comparison to various disease scenarios and the attributes that change a community from a healthy to diseased state. This thesis represents the most comprehensive survey of looking at the longitudinal bacterial community structure in the oropharynx. Here, analysis was done on the bacterial oropharynx microbiome composition, its natural fluctuations and stability, and relating these to the changes that occur to the microbiome before, during and after an infection. This involved initial swabbing of the oropharynx of eighteen baseline-healthy, non-smoking participants weekly for a total period of 9 months and sequencing the V1-V2 region of the 16S rRNA gene using Illumina MiSeq sequencing. This would determine the community make up that is representative of a healthy state. This was then directly compared to oropharyngeal samples taken weekly from 12 smokers within the same age range for a total period of 6 months to observe the community differences between smokers and non-smokers. Looking at the healthy participants (non-smokers) alone, the key taxa recovered were Firmicutes at phylum level and Streptococcus, Prevotella and Veillonella at genus level; these were the most abundant taxa in healthy samples. There was variation in taxa within and between participants, but this variability in microbial community structure occurred more at genus and OTU level. Variability was influenced by changes in health status, although environmental factors were also likely to play a role even though they were not investigated here. Disturbances to the oropharynx microbiome were shown in participants that had cold-related symptoms (negative for viruses) and antibiotic treatment. These communities had decreased diversity (as opposed to high diversity healthy communities) and changes in abundances of certain taxa. However, participants recovered quickly from these disturbances (within one week after the disturbance) in that the microbiome returned to a state similar in community composition prior to the disturbance. This showed the oropharynx microbiome of baseline-healthy participants to be relatively resilient and stable as samples from the same participants were similar on a weekly basis. Looking at smokers, they had distinct changes in the bacterial community of the oropharynx in comparison to non-smoking healthy participants. This included changes in abundance of taxa with increased Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria at phylum level and Streptococcus at genus level and increased abundances in pathogenic microorganisms such as S. pneumoniae which overall affected the functions associated with the bacterial community. These communities also appeared stable (regardless of having an altered state) in that samples from smoking participants were also similar on a weekly basis, but interestingly, were only disrupted during antibiotic treatment and not during an infection from samples with cold related symptoms. Therefore this thesis provides insight into the oropharynx microbiome of healthy participants (non-smokers) and smokers. It examines the stability and resilience of the oropharynx microbiome during specific scenarios and identifies the key and important taxa in a healthy and unhealthy community. By continuing to develop this research it may be possible to identify, treat and restore respiratory diseases by examining the oropharynx microbiome through identification of taxa and functions

Evaluation of the mutagenic potential of propoxur and methyl parathion using polytene chromosomes of Anopheles stephensi

The mutagenicity of two pesticides, propoxur and methyl parathion was evaluated by using polytene chromosomes of Anopheles stephensi. The results were based on the frequency of various structural aberrations encountered in the polytene chromosomes of the larvae treated with LC20 of propoxur and methyl parathion separately. Propoxur induced a total of 67 aberrations as against 15 in the controls while methyl parathion induced 53 aberrations as against 13 in the controls. These aberrations were dominated by inversions, translocations, deletions, ectopic pairing, asynapses, breaks, fusions and induced puffing. The frequency of propoxur induced aberrations was highest in chromosome 3R followed by 2R, 3L, 2L and X-chromosome. Methyl parathion induced highest number of aberrations in 2R followed by 2L, 3R, 3L and X-chromosomes. This study suggests that larval polytene chromosomes are sensitive indicators of pesticide genotoxicity in which both propoxur and methyl parathion are significantly chromotoxic for the genome of a mosquito taken as an experimental insect

On the q−derivatives of a new sequence of operators

In this paper we obtain moment estimates for a new sequence of q−operators very recently introduced by Aral and Gupta [1]. We obtain degree of approximation by the q−derivatives of these operators. We show that for a fixed q, these operators do not possess simultaneous approximation properties

SEROVAR PROFILE AND DETECTION OF INVA VIRULENCE GENE AMONG NON-TYPHOIDAL SALMONELLAE SEROVARS ISOLATED FROM ACUTE GASTROENTERITIS CASES IN COASTAL KARNATAKA, SOUTHERN INDIA

  Objective: Non-typhoidal salmonellosis is one of the leading zoonosis in the world caused by non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS). Invasive infections with NTS serovars occurs due to the presence of virulence genes like invA along with the immunosuppressive conditions of the patient. The study was conducted to isolate and identify the NTS serovars and their antimicrobial resistance profile from patients with diarrhea and also to detect the virulence marker – invA gene among these NTS serovars.Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2015 to December 2016 at the Enteric Diseases Division, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. 1218 fecal specimens were collected from patients with diarrhea and before antibiotic treatment. NTS serovars were identified, serotyped and then screened for the presence of invA virulence gene.Results: A total of 33 (2.7%) NTS was isolated. Salmonella typhimurium (33.34%) was predominant followed by Salmonella oslo (30.3%). Out of 33 NTS, invA was positive for 28 isolates (84.8%) of which 25 (89.3%) patients were febrile which was statistically significant (p=0.000).Conclusion: Non-typhoidal salmonellosis is an emerging global infection among immunocompromised patients. Our study showed an association between the invA gene and febrile illness among the patients suffering. Thus, this study highlights the importance of invA as a significant marker for bloodstream invasion

Relative efficiency of sulphur sources at varying rate in aerobic rice (Oryza sativa)-wheat (Triticum aestivum) cropping system

A field experiment was conducted during 2010-11 and 2011-12 at the research farm of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi to study the effect of sulphur fertilization on productivity, economics and nutrient use efficiencies of aerobic rice (Oryza sativa L.)-wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cropping system.The results revealed that aerobic rice and wheat both responded to sulphur significantly. Sulphur fertilization in aerobic rice through gypsum @ 30 and 60 kg S/ha and phosphogypsum @ 30 and 60 kg S/ha increased the rice equivalent yield of system by 7.8, 10.6, 7.0 and 9.8 %, respectively, over control (no sulphur in rice). The values for per cent increase in rice equivalent yield of systems was 8.4 and 11.6% for 15 and 30 kg S/ha, respectively, when applied to wheat over the control treatment in wheat. Significant response of S applied to rice was found only up to 30 kg S/ha, except 30 kg S/ha applied through phosphogypsum during 2010-11. In wheat, significant response of S was found only up to 15 kg S/ha during second year. During first year of rice-wheat cropping system, economic optimum dose (EOD) of sulphur was 30 kg S/ha through gypsum to rice and 15 kg elemental S/ha to succeeding wheat, while during second year only 30 kg S/ha through either of the sources to rice was found sufficient for both the crops. The apparent sulphur balances and available sulphur in soil were more in higher doses of S application to both the crops. The partial factor productivity, agronomic efficiency and crop recovery of applied S were highest with application of 30 kg S/ha in aerobic rice and 15 kg S/ha in succeeding wheat during both the years of experimentation