Author: Joyita Roy Chowdhury and Yashobanta Parida
Flood shocks and post-disaster recovery of households: An empirical analysis from rural Odisha, India
Publisher: International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2023
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This paper uses primary household survey data collected after the severe flooding that occurred in the Bhadrak region of Odisha in 2014. We contribute to the literature by examining the factors that enhance rural households’ disaster recovery capacities. We distinguish two main recovery outcomes: an income (economic) recovery and a housing structure (structural) recovery outcome. A Generalized Ordered Logit Model (GOLM) is employed where the recovery is determined by socioeconomic characteristics and coping mechanisms available to the households. The findings reveal that rural agricultural households adopted several measures in response to the flood. Migratory labor-based strategies significantly increased the likelihood of economic recovery one year after the disaster. Selling productive assets reduced the likelihood of recovery. Community-level coping strategies were not effective, as floods caused devastating effects on a large part of the village community. Poorer households were more constrained in their capacities to recover from disaster shock. However, there was evidence of community-level support in terms of labor exchange between households in close neighborhoods. Finally, the study finds that post-disaster public assistance was mainly provided to land-owning farmers rather than poor, landless agricultural households.
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Author: Debasis Rooj and Reshmi Sengupta
Macroprudential Policy and mortgage leverage decisions—Evidence from micro data
Publisher: Economic Analysis and Policy, 2023
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This paper examines the behavioral responses of mortgage loan borrowers to Macroprudential Policy (MPP) its transmission channel, and the lag effect. We also explore the effectiveness of lender-based instruments Using borrower-level loan data from an Indian bank with a national presence from 2010 to 2021, we find that MPP tightening leads to a decline in borrower leverage. The impact is primarily channeled through downpayment changes rather than the cost of housing. The heterogeneous analysis reveals that the relaxation in MPP norms to promote affordable housing has helped middle-income groups in their mortgage decisions. A disaggregated analysis shows that risk weights have a stronger impact than LTV limits and provisioning requirements, suggesting that banks are capital-conscious in their lending decisions. Overall, the findings stress that MPPs, especially the timely intervention concerning risk weights have been effective in managing the borrowing risk thereby ensuring stability in the mortgage market.
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Author: Debraj Bhattacharjee
Exploring the practicality of circular economy through its associates: A case analysis-based approach
Publisher: Journal of Cleaner Production, 2023
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Until now, much of the research on the circular economy (CE) has focused on the theoretical aspects of the diffusion and adoption (D&A) of CE. In the vast CE literature, comprehension of the practicality of implementation of CE through the D&A of CE Principles, R-Strategies, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an integrated manner with CE associates was missing. Therefore, this study attempts to analyse the integrated approach of D&A in CE practises using the lenses of CE associates. This study addresses the gap by examining CE enterprises featured in yearbooks from Young Global Leaders Circular Economy (YGL CE) published in 2018 and 2019. The study drew inspiration from previous research on the associates of CE and their interactions. The study explored the prominent CE Principles, R-strategies, and SDGs traced from YGL CE documented cases. Besides, we explored the significance and interactions of associates identified and documented in the CE theoretical review study of 2010–2019 literature, focusing on their practical applications. The study analysed qualitative case data from 102 CE enterprises using the lenses of CE associates. Additionally, the study ranked CE associates in the order of their adoption to help practitioners identify the most or least adopted, besides diffused associates, that could be incorporated into their business models to gain a competitive advantage by offering consumers a new value proposition with tweaking. Multiple qualitative and quantitative statistical tools were applied, including Content Analysis and Weighted Average Priority Ranking. Finally, the study revealed that SDG 12, sustainable consumption and production, is the most prominent SDG, while Reduction and Recycling are the most prominent R-Strategy and Circulating products besides materials (at their highest value) is the most prominently adopted CE principle among enterprises. The study, at last, illustrated a comprehensive operational framework based on emerging trends and significant CE associates that practitioners can imbibe to create an equitable ecosystem for the transition to CE with insufficiently considered slow-moving five R-strategies, four CE business actions, and Raw material, Risk, and Barrier management.
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Author: Mahdi Soleimani Farrokh and Vahideh Razmi
The effect of one session of progressive exhaustive run on the rapid response of serum cortisol and immunoglobulin a in elite athletes of fars province
Publisher: European Chemical Bulletin, 2023
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"The present study was designed and conducted to study the rapid response of serum cortisol and
immunoglobulin A to one session of the progressive exhaustive run. The participants in the study
were 45 athletes, including those in the super league handball team (21 men) and first-division
basketball league and second-division football league (23 women) in Fars province who took part in
the study voluntarily. To perform the exercise, each participant used a treadmill in one session of
the progressive exhaustive run, starting from the speed of four miles per hour. Then, the speed of
the machine was increased by one mile per hour every two minutes until the participant was not
able to continue the activity. For measuring the density of cortisol and IgA, serum samples were
collected at the time of rest and immediately after the activity. The statistic t-test for correlated
groups was used for comparing the density of cortisol and IgA before and after the activity, and the
statistic t-test for independent groups was used for comparing women and men. The findings
showed that the density of serum cortisol increased significantly in both women and men after one
session of maximum progressive activity. On the other hand, the density of serum IgA (P > 0.05)
did not change significantly in either group of women and men with the maximum progressive
activity. The findings of this research showed that one session of maximum progressive exercise
results in remarkable changes in the density of serum cortisol in elite athletes and causes a
significant increase in its density. It can be concluded that the response of cortisol to physical
activity is quicker than that of IgA."
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Author: Mochish K. S.
Pandemic, politics, and the safety of journalists: downward spiral of press freedom in India
Publisher: Review of Communication, 2023
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"According to the 2023 World Press Freedom Index rankings by the RSF, India ranks 161 out of 180 countries. One of the important indicators that the index bases the ranking on is the level of violence against the journalists and their overall safety. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian government cracked down on the press by reprimanding any form of dissent regarding their policies. This has resulted in journalists from various parts of the country being arrested, detained, and harassed. The much-debated Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 and Disaster Management Act, 2005 were implemented to invoke curbs to contain the spread of coronavirus in India. The paper examines the consequences of the infodemic on the safety of journalists in the context of declining press freedom in the country in the context of the aforementioned acts. The analysis of cases focuses on highlighting how the laws introduced to “contain” the spread of the virus has been used as a tool to gatekeep the truth regarding the implementation of coronavirus policies by way of stifling the voice of journalists. The analysis reveals how various legal, political, and economic factors contribute to the lack of safety of journalists in the country.
KEYWORDS: pandemicpress freedompoliticssafety of journalists"
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Author: Gayatri Kotbagi
Preventing and regulating psychoactive substance use among occasional and regular adolescents
Publisher: La Revue De L’Infirmiere, 2023
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The academic success and well-being of young people can be undermined by the use of psychoactive substances (PAS), which is particularly prevalent during adolescence, a period vulnerable to social influences. This article is aimed in particular at school and university preventive medicine nurses. It proposes intervention strategies for adolescents who regularly use such substances. Based on the scientific literature, the aim is to examine how psychological support, coupled with a program of adapted physical activity, could limit the use of APS, a factor in academic failure and health risks.
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Author: Gayatri Kotbagi
Preventing and regulating psychoactive substance use among occasional and regular adolescents
Publisher: La Revue De L’Infirmiere, 2023
Abstract
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The academic success and well-being of young people can be undermined by the use of psychoactive substances (PAS), which is particularly prevalent during adolescence, a period vulnerable to social influences. This article is aimed in particular at school and university preventive medicine nurses. It proposes intervention strategies for adolescents who regularly use such substances. Based on the scientific literature, the aim is to examine how psychological support, coupled with a program of adapted physical activity, could limit the use of APS, a factor in academic failure and health risks.
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Author: Jayaraman Valadi
PandoraGAN: Generating Antiviral Peptides Using Generative Adversarial Network
Publisher: SN Computer Science, 2023
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The continuous increase in pathogenic viruses and the intensive laboratory research emphasizes the need for cost- and time-efficient drug development. This accelerates research for alternate drug candidates like antiviral peptides (AVP) that have therapeutic and prophylactic potential and gaining attention in recent times. However, diversity in their sequences, limited and non-uniform characterization often limit their applications. Isolating newer peptide backbones with required characteristics is a cumbersome process with many design–test–build cycles. Advanced deep learning approaches such as generative adversarial networks (GAN) can be helpful to expedite the initial stage of developing novel peptide drugs. In this study, we developed PandoraGAN that uses a manually curated training dataset of 130 highly active peptides that include peptides from known databases (such as AVPdb) and literature to generate novel antiviral peptides. The underlying architecture in PandoraGAN is able to learn a good representation of the implicit properties of antiviral peptides. The generated sequences from PandoraGAN are validated based on physico-chemical properties. They are also compared with the training dataset statistically using Pearson’s correlation and Mann–Whitney U-test. We, therefore, confirm that PandoraGAN is capable of generating a novel antiviral peptide backbone showing similar properties to that of the known highly active antiviral peptides. This approach exhibits a potential to discover novel patterns of AVP which may have not been seen earlier with traditional methods. To our knowledge, this is the first ever use of GAN models for antiviral peptides across the viral spectrum.
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Author: Debasis Rooj and Rituparna Kaushik
Impact of technological change on growth trajectory of India: a multivariate-BVAR analysis
Publisher: Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 2023
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This paper examines the impact of technological change on Indian economic growth using the Bayesian Vector Auto-Regressive (BVAR) methodology. We use a comprehensive annual time series dataset covering the period of 1980 to 2019 on real economic activity, gross fixed capital formation, and employment. Technological innovation is measured by the number of patents filed by resident Indians. Technological innovation positively impacts both economic growth and gross fixed capital formation. Our findings indicate that increasing the number of patents leads to higher investment, which drives India's economic growth. However, our results also point towards the possible negative influence of technological innovation on the aggregate employment scenario in India. Our main findings are robust to alternative identification strategies and variable transformation. The asymmetric analysis also corroborates the positive influence of patents on driving investment and economic growth in India.
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Author: Ragini Mohite
Yeats 2015 and the Crowdsourced Audio Archive: Pedagogical Possibilities for Poetry
Publisher: International Yeast Studies, 2023
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Yeats 2015 and the Crowdsourced Audio Archive: Pedagogical Possibilities for Poetry
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Author: Chiranjoy Chattopadhyay
Development of image-based fast defect recognition and localization network (FDRLNet) for steel surfaces
Publisher: Manufacturing Letters, 2023
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The utilization of vision-based systems for automated inspection and quality control tasks increased in recent years due to the adaptation of Industry 4.0 initiatives in manufacturing. Continuous steel production units extensively employ vision-based solutions to classify and localize surface defects. The inspection system must provide quick and reliable feedback about surface defect type (classification) and location (localization) utilizing images acquired from the camera. This paper presents a novel surface defect detector, Fast Defect Recognition and Localization Network (FDRLNet), for achieving accurate prediction abilities at higher inference speeds. The robustness of the proposed approach is validated by utilizing publicly available Northeastern University (NEU-DET) surface defect dataset. The prediction abilities are corroborated by comparing the mean Average Precision (mAP) and inference speed with other competitive approaches presented in the literature. It has been shown that the proposed approach has robust prediction abilities at higher inference speeds and can be implemented in real-time defect detection tasks.
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Author: Rakesh Chaturvedi
Cost of efficiency in trading perfect complements
Publisher: Economics Letters, 2023
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For trade involving perfect complements and fragmented ownership, lower bounds on the deficit cost of supporting efficiency is provided by first providing informative estimates for the generalized VCG mechanism, then doing so for all incentive-feasible direct mechanisms, and finally for all voluntary trading mechanisms.
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Author: Anuradha Batabyal
The Multifaceted Effects of Flavonoids on Neuroplasticity
Publisher: Brain Plasticity, 2023
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"There has been a significant increase in the incidence of multiple neurodegenerative and terminal diseases in the human population with life expectancy increasing in the current times.
This highlights the urgent need for a more comprehensive understanding of how different aspects of lifestyle, in particular diet, may affect neural functioning and consequently cognitive performance as well as in enhancing overall health. Flavonoids, found in a variety of fruits, vegetables, and derived beverages, provide a new avenue of research that shows a promising influence on different aspects of brain function. However, despite the promising evidence, most bioactive compounds lack strong clinical research efficacy. In the current scoping review, we highlight the effects of Flavonoids on cognition and neural plasticity across vertebrates and invertebrates with special emphasis on the studies conducted in the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, which has emerged to be a functionally dynamic model for studies on learning and memory. In conclusion, we suggest future research directions and discuss the social, cultural, and ethnic dependencies of bioactive compounds that influence how these compounds are used and accepted globally. Bridging the gap between preclinical and clinical studies about the effects of bioactive natural compounds on brain health will surely lead to lifestyle choices such as dietary Flavonoids being used complementarily rather than as replacements to classical drugs bringing about a healthier future."
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Author: Shweta Rana
Unravelling blood-based epigenetic mechanisms: the impact of hsa-miR-146a and histone H3 acetylation in lead-induced inflammation among occupational workers
Publisher: International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2023
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"Occupational and environmental exposure to lead (Pb) is a persistent health problem majorly in developing countries and has been implied to cause epigenetic alterations. Its effect on histone post-translational modifications is not explored in human population. MicroRNAs are epigenetic modulators reported to be differentially expressed under Pb exposure. The present study was targeted to find plausible association between the role of hsa-miR-146a and global histone (H3) acetylation in Pb-induced inflammation in occupationally exposed workers.
Materials and methods
A total of 100 occupationally exposed individuals working in different industries were recruited for the study and divided into 2 groups based on the median Pb levels [low Pb group (Pb 5 μg/dL)]. The Pb levels were measured in whole blood using atomic absorption spectrometry to confirm Pb exposure. Histone H3 acetylation and serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were measured using colorimetric methods and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. MicroRNA-146a expression was quantified using TaqMan assay.
Results
The median BLL of the study population was 5 μg/dL. BLL, IL-6, and Histone (H3) acetylation increased significantly with the duration of exposure. BLL level showed a significant positive correlation with IL-6 and histone H3 acetylation level. We also found that hsa-miR-146a exhibited significantly increased expression in the high Pb group compared to the low Pb group (Fold change: 2.56; P = 0.014). The linear regression model suggested that BLL has significantly predicted histone H3 acetylation, hsa-miR-146a, and IL-6 in the study subjects.
Conclusion
The finding that hsa-miR146a was significantly upregulated in individuals with high BLL and had a significant negative correlation with serum IL-6 suggests that Pb-induced oxidative stress likely activates H3 acetylation, which then releases inflammatory cytokines like IL-6."
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SCOPUS®
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Q2
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Q2
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Author: Andrea Phillott
Tried and tested: the role of evidence-based practices in sea turtle conservation
Publisher: Current Conservation, 2023
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Tried and tested: the role of evidence-based practices in sea turtle conservation
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Author: Andrea Phillott
Tried and tested: the role of evidence-based practices in sea turtle conservation
Publisher: Current Conservation, 2023
Abstract
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Tried and tested: the role of evidence-based practices in sea turtle conservation
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Author: Sasi Kiran R. M.
Cultural Appropriation and Aesthetic Transformation of Telangana Dhoom Dham
Publisher: Summerhill, 2023
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Cultural Appropriation and Aesthetic Transformation of Telangana Dhoom Dham
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Author: Anuradha Batabyal
Predator–prey systems as models for integrative research in biology: the value of a non-consumptive effects framework
Publisher: Journal of Experimental Biology, 2023
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Predator-prey interactions are a cornerstone of many ecological and evolutionary processes that influence various levels of biological organization, from individuals to ecosystems. Predators play a crucial role in shaping ecosystems through the consumption of prey species and non-consumptive effects. Non-consumptive effects (NCEs) can induce changes in prey behavior, including altered foraging strategies, habitat selection, life history and anti-predator responses. These defensive strategies have physiological consequences for prey, affecting their growth, reproduction and immune function to name a few. Numerous experimental studies have incorporated NCEs in investigating predator-prey dynamics in the past decade. Interestingly, predator-prey systems can also be used as experimental models to answer physiology, cognition and adaptability questions. In this Commentary, I highlight research that uses NCEs in predator-prey systems to provide novel insights into cognition, adaptation, epigenetic inheritance and aging. I discuss the evolution of instinct, anxiety and other cognitive disorders, the shaping of brain connectomes, stress-induced aging and the development of behavioral coping styles. I outline how studies can integrate the investigation of NCEs with advanced behavioral, genomic and neurological tools to provide novel insights into physiological and cognitive health.
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Author: Dinesh Shenoy
How do megaprojects build dynamic capabilities?
Publisher: Innovation and Development, 2023
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Governments around the world are increasingly using megaprojects to deliver services to communities. However, most megaprojects fail; they are delivered late, with significant cost overruns and/or diluted benefits. Researchers have suggested implementing open innovation (OI) to improve megaproject performance. However, implementing OI requires an organization to build new capabilities. This study contributes to the literature on megaprojects by adapting the dynamic capabilities concept to develop a theoretical framework for implementing OI. A combination of a literature review and expert judgement was used to extract twenty-nine elements that are the micro-foundations of the capability to implement OI in megaprojects. A grey number theory-based mathematical model was developed to measure and objectively monitor the OI implementation index (O3I) for megaprojects. This study presents a case study that indicates the ease of implementation of the developed model and its transferability to other megaprojects across domains. This study intersects three areas of inquiry: megaproject management, OI, and dynamic capabilities and makes two key contributions to the growing body of knowledge in megaproject management: (1) we adapt the dynamic capabilities concept to develop a framework to implement OI in megaprojects and (2) we develop a scale to qualitatively assess the level of OI implementation in an organization.
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Author: Dnyaneshwar Jadhav and Dinesh Shenoy
Measurement model for dynamic capabilities of an academic library (DCAL)
Publisher: Library & Information Science Research, 2023
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Environmental changes such as the evolving needs of society, advancements in technologies, and shifting learning paradigms have impacted the way academic libraries operate. Academic libraries must respond to environmental changes by acquiring new capabilities. Using the strategic management concept of dynamic capabilities, this study investigates the relationship between the dynamic capabilities of an academic library and its overall performance. This study uses the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique and develops a new model, the DCAL model, for academic libraries to build these new capabilities. The analysis of the DCAL model indicates a positive and significant relationship between the three core capabilities, searching, seizing, and transforming, and the overall performance of the academic library. This study also identifies activities, scouting for new technologies that can be adapted by academic libraries, piloting projects, analysing large amounts of data, balancing routine work with innovative work, and the need for academic librarians to build capabilities to perform those activities to succeed in their future roles.
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