Investment-Linked Takaful Plan Patronage: Evidence From Malaysia

Investment-linked Takaful is a recent innovation introduced in Malaysia. This study focuses on Investment-linked takaful plan selection in Malaysia. We have used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from 143 respondents from the Klang Valley area. Data collected through the survey was analyzed through descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. Results indicate that fee payment and benefits play a significant role in Takaful operator selection while coverage and benefits affect the investment-linked product selection in Malaysia. This study is unique as it provides empirical evidence on the investment-linked takaful investment which is limited in supply. Results provided by this study can be useful for takaful operators in designing the most appropriate investment-linked product for attracting customers

Dyspnea Experience and Dyspnea Management in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Bangladesh

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate dyspnea experience and dyspnea management intervention used by Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients in Bangladesh.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. The symptom management model developed by Dodd et al. was used to guide the study. Data were collected from 140 COPD patients by using self-report questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data.Results: The patients perceived dyspnea difficulty within the past 24 hours and within the past 7 days at moderate level. The most used dyspnea management methods included bronchodilators, leaning forward position, and keeping still. The patients perceived bronchodilators as somewhat effective method and perceived leaning forward position as quite a bit effective method in reducing dyspnea.Conclusion: The study could guide nurses to promote dyspnea management intervention for COPD patients in Bangladesh, in order to enhance higher quality of life

Effect of Neemta 2100 toxicity on acetylcholinesterase and serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase enzymes in serum of fish, Oreochromis mossambicus

Acetylcholinesterase and serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase enzymes have been used as marker monitoring the effect of neem seed based pesticide Neemta 2100 on the fish, Oreochromis mossambicus. Fishes exposed to sublethal concentrations of Neemta 2100 for acute periods of 24 and 48 hours were sacrificed to determine enzyme activities in serum affected due to toxicity. Laboratory studies of in vivo exposure of this pesticide showed synergistic inhibitory effect during acute period of toxicity. Acetylcholinesterase was noticed as 6.25 µm substrate hydrolyzed/mg protein/hour and serum glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase was noticed as 36.71 µm substrate hydrolyzed/mg protein/hour in control fish serum. Significant decrease in GOT level in Neemta 2100 treated fishes after short term exposure indicated its severe toxicity to fish

Oxidative stress specifically downregulates survivin to promote breast tumour formation.

BackgroundBreast cancer, a heterogeneous disease has been broadly classified into oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) or oestrogen receptor negative (ER-) tumour types. Each of these tumours is dependent on specific signalling pathways for their progression. While high levels of survivin, an anti-apoptotic protein, increases aggressive behaviour in ER- breast tumours, oxidative stress (OS) promotes the progression of ER+ breast tumours. Mechanisms and molecular targets by which OS promotes tumourigenesis remain poorly understood.ResultsDETA-NONOate, a nitric oxide (NO)-donor induces OS in breast cancer cell lines by early re-localisation and downregulation of cellular survivin. Using in vivo models of HMLE(HRAS) xenografts and E2-induced breast tumours in ACI rats, we demonstrate that high OS downregulates survivin during initiation of tumourigenesis. Overexpression of survivin in HMLE(HRAS) cells led to a significant delay in tumour initiation and tumour volume in nude mice. This inverse relationship between survivin and OS was also observed in ER+ human breast tumours. We also demonstrate an upregulation of NADPH oxidase-1 (NOX1) and its activating protein p67, which are novel markers of OS in E2-induced tumours in ACI rats and as well as in ER+ human breast tumours.ConclusionOur data, therefore, suggest that downregulation of survivin could be an important early event by which OS initiates breast tumour formation

Economics analysis of tomato cultivation under poly house and open field conditions in Haryana, India

In the present paper an attempt has been made to study the comparative economics of tomato cultivation under poly house and open field conditions in Karnal district, Haryana. Production and marketing constraints under poly house cultivation have also been identified. The primary data for the agriculture year 2013-14 were collected by personal interviews of the selected farmers with the help of a specially designed schedule. Simple statistical tool like Averages and percentages were used to compare, contrast and interpret the results properly. The overall findings of the study reveal that the cost of cultivation of tomato under poly houses was higher by Rs. 206816.90/acre as com-pared to open field conditions. At the same time, the net returns under poly houses were higher by Rs. 51097.54/acre. Farmers realized 53.71 % higher yield of tomato under poly house as compared to open field conditions. The gross return, returns over variable cost and net return were also higher by 106.94 %, 160.70 % and 48.70 %, respectively in case of poly house as compared to open field conditions. The results of the study also revealed that the tomato cultivation under poly houses has significantly contributed to the yield

Mechanisms underlying firing in healthy and sick human motoneurons

International audienceIn an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Cambridge, Professor Sherrington introduced the terms " motor neurone " and " the final common path, " the latter term implying that all motor commands converge onto the motoneuron which integrates the incoming information and passes the net information to the muscle for contraction (Sherrington, 1904). The relative ease of access of the spinal motoneuron made it feasible to set up techniques for investigating the physiological, biophysical and molecular properties of these neurons. It became the most investigated neuron of the CNS in the twentieth century and the information gained from studies on motoneurons formed the basis for examining the other neurons of the CNS. Since the compound action potential of a muscle unit is strictly related one-to-one to the action potential arriving from the innervating motoneuron, the statistical analysis of muscle unit action potentials provides an investigator with an elegant way to probe the properties of motoneurons in behaving humans. In the following review the terms motoneuron and motor unit might be used interchangeably. Different aspects of human motoneuron investigations in health and disease are presented in 16 articles of this topic which are summarized below. An increase in the net excitatory synaptic input to the motoneuron pool results in an increase in the level of muscle contraction by recruitment of additional motor units (MUs) and an increase in firing rates of the already recruited units (Milner-Brown et al., 1973; Henneman et al., 1974). The principle of orderly recruitment of motoneurons by size was originally proposed by Henneman (1957) but was later questioned by other researchers presenting examples of selective, rather than orderly recruitment (e.g., Smith et al., 1980). These controversies are assessed by Bawa et al. (2014), and the opinion unifying the concept of orderly recruitment is presented. In humans, increases in firing rates of motor units have been shown to follow the " onion skin " pattern at lower levels of contraction, meaning that the lower-threshold motor units discharge with higher rates than higher-threshold ones. However, studies performed on the whole range of muscle forces indicated that for higher force levels the motor unit firing rate follows a " reverse onion skin " pattern. Hu et al. (2014) decided to approach this problem using small surface electrodes and step increases in force instead of the " ramp and hold " protocols used by previous authors. They showed that the " onion skin " pattern was preserved until 15% of maximal voluntary contraction, and from their results predict this pattern to be valid for the whole range of muscle forces, which is not supported by the previous published works. However, the reported rate saturation of the MUs discharging with higher rates implies that at the higher forces the " reverse onion skin " pattern may be expected. In another paper, Duchateau and Baudry (2014) show that during ballistic contractions the maximal discharge rates are higher than those observed in ramp contractions. It should be noted, however, that during ballistic contractions one deals with instantaneous rates, while during ramp and hold contractions one refers to tonic firing rates defined as the averag

An economic analysis of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cultivation in eastern zone of Haryana (India) under polyhouse and open field condition

The study was conducted in north zone of Haryana (India) state to find out the economic analysis of cucumber cultivation under polyhouse and open field condition. The primary data was collected by personal interview of the selected respondents with the help of well-designed and pre tested schedule. Simple statistical tools like average and percentage were used to calculate the economics of the crop. In the present study, it was found that the cost of cultivation of cucumber per acre under polyhouse was Rs. 283684.40 while in case of open field condition it was Rs. 98003.39. In case of production and net returns, it was higher per acre in polyhouse; 245.47 quintal and Rs. 97138.68, respectively. Present study concluded that yield and income of farmers can be increased with help of polyhouse technology in case of cucumber cultivation

Tannery effluent effect on the haematological parameters of freshwater fish, Channa punctatus

The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the tannery effluent toxicity stress symptoms in fish blood during a long term of exposure period. The effect of tannery effluent on various haematological parameters were evaluated exposing fresh water fish, C. punctatus to different concentration i.e., [Control, 5% Tannery effluent (TE), 10% TE and 20% TE] of tannery effluent. Exposed of fish to tannery effluent showed a significant decrease in the haemoglobin (Hb) content (9.16± 0.08), red blood cells (3.32 ± 0.12), packed cell volume (34.66 ± 0.33) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) values, whereas significant increase in the white blood cells (WBC), erythro-cyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and clotting time was recorded with increase in exposure periods as compared to control respectively. Hb, RBC and MCHC values showed fluctuating results. The haematological parameters were decreases from 15th days of exposure periods to 45th days of exposure period. The decrease in haematological parameters clearly indicates that the exposed fishes have become anemic due to tannery effluent exposure

Effect of controlled doping on electrical properties and permittivity of PTSA doped polyanilines and their EMI shielding performance

Emeraldine base (EB) has been protonated with different concentration of para-toluene sulfonic acid (PTSA) to form doped polyanilines (PANIs). These samples have been characterized by various techniques and a detailed correlation between dopant concentration and structural, thermal, electrical and electromagnetic properties has been established. The FTIR/UV-Visible and EPR spectra confirm the formation of polarons as proto-generated charge carriers whose concentration follows the dopant concentration trend. It was also observed that increase in doping level leads to systematic improvement of electrical conductivity (1.2x1(-9) to 5.3 S/cm) as well as complex permittivity (epsilon'similar to 5.5 & epsilon"-0.6 to epsilon'similar to 22.3 & epsilon"similar to 24.6) with parallel improvement of electromagnetic (EM) radiation blocking capacity from -3.8 dB (for EB) to -23.9 dB (for 1.0 M PTSA doped Sample). Further, the attenuation was found to be critically dependent on dopant concentration, complex permittivity and electrical conductivity revealing that both polarization as well as conduction is important for achieving high attenuation. It was also observed that reflection is main phenomenon at low doping level whereas absorption becomes increasingly important at higher doping levels and extends dominant contribution towards total attenuatio

Performance Improvement of Cloud Computing Data Centers Using Energy Efficient Task Scheduling Algorithms

Cloud computing is a technology that provides a platform for the sharing of resources such as software, infrastructure, application and other information. It brings a revolution in Information Technology industry by offering on-demand of resources. Clouds are basically virtualized datacenters and applications offered as services. Data center hosts hundreds or thousands of servers which comprised of software and hardware to respond the client request. A large amount of energy requires to perform the operation.. Cloud Computing is facing lot of challenges like Security of Data, Consumption of energy, Server Consolidation, etc. The research work focuses on the study of task scheduling management in a cloud environment. The main goal is to improve the performance (resource utilization and redeem the consumption of energy) in data centers. Energy-efficient scheduling of workloads helps to redeem the consumption of energy in data centers, thus helps in better USAge of resource. This is further reducing operational costs and provides benefits to the clients and also to cloud service provider. In this abstract of paper, the task scheduling in data centers have been compared. Cloudsim a toolkit for modeling and simulation of cloud computing environment has been used to implement and demonstrate the experimental results. The results aimed at analyzing the energy consumed in data centers and shows that by having reduce the consumption of energy the cloud productivity can be improved