Fractal dimension analysis of stock prices of selected resulting companies after mergers and acquisitions.

This study focuses on the short-run wealth of listed firms' shareholders. Currently, all of the resulting organizations offer competitive pricing tactics to create a superior environment for our ongoing establishment. Some time ago, it was noted that a merger occurred, although some functions and technology integration remained with the previous structure. In this paper, it has been discovered that merger and acquisition deals have an impact on the firm's value; in other words, we can view it as shareholders' wealth or unit depending on the stock price after the announcement of merger and acquisition deals in the short term. Furthermore, we focused on influencing variables on stock prices after the announcement of merger and acquisition transactions, which is measured as a percentage change in the stock prices of the listed resulting firms. Furthermore, this research is based on secondary data sources from reputable organizations. It primarily uses the NSE database and website to evaluate announcements and stock prices of the twenty-nine publicly traded companies. Markets respond to investors' emotions and market expertise. When acquirers have a strong market position, market capitalization rises in other segments. However, it is declining due to a lack of supportive finances. To determine the impact of merger and acquisition announcement deals on stock price changes, average abnormal return and cumulative average abnormal return with the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) (CAPM reaction to changes) were used to identify the acquiring company's stock price reaction. We investigated its impact on the fluctuation of share prices posted on stock exchanges using fractal interpolation functions. This is due to greater investment by acquirer businesses in target companies as well as investor expectations for specific stock market strongholds.

An Assessment of the Etiologies Associated With Acute Abdomen Subjected to Exploratory Laparotomy: A Study From a Rural Area of Himachal Pradesh.

Background The aim of this retrospective study is to establish a correlation between clinical features, surgical diagnosis, and the final diagnosis of laparotomies, as well as to establish the relationship between preoperative delay on the outcomes of surgery in the form of mortality and morbidity. Emergency surgery is high-risk in patients with acute abdomen with uncertain diagnosis. The results of surgery are remarkable and provide quick relief to the suffering and agony of patients with the dreadful condition of acute generalized peritonitis. Methodology Patients presenting with complaints of acute abdomen who needed laparotomy based on clinical judgment and investigations were included in this study. The study data were reviewed from April 2007 to January 2011 and March 2014 to February 2016 in a government hospital. Results A total of 174 patients with acute abdomen in whom there was an indication of laparotomy based on clinical judgment and radiological investigations were selected. Most patients had gastrointestinal perforation (n = 115) and acute intestinal obstruction (n = 23). The most important clinical features analyzed were abdominal tenderness (n = 160), guarding (n = 153), distention (n = 75), and tachycardia (n = 63). Conclusions Among the total patients, 150 underwent surgery within 24 hours of the presentation in the emergency and the remaining after 24 hours. The most common cause of laparotomy was a duodenal perforation in 79 patients and gastric perforation in 24 patients. A total of 114 patients developed no complications postoperatively. Among patients who developed postoperative complications, wound sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome were the most common. Mortality was noted in three patients.

Health risk assessment and metal contamination in fish, water and soil sediments in the East Kolkata Wetlands, India, Ramsar site.

East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) is an important site for fish culture in sewage-fed areas, which are major receivers of pollutants and wastages from Kolkata. EKW is internationally important as the Ramsar site was declared on Aug 2002 with an area of 125 km2. EKW is a natural water body where wastewater-fed natural aquaculture has been practiced for more than 70 years. It is ecologically vulnerable due to the discharge of toxic waste through sewage canals from cities. Assessing the EKW to understand the inflow and load of the toxic metal (s) in fish, water, and sediments samples is essential. The field (samples collection from 13 sites) and lab (determination of toxic level of metals) based research were carried out to assess metal toxicity and health risk assessment in EKW. The levels of eighteen metals (18), namely Chromium, Vanadium, Cobalt, Manganese, Copper, Nickel, Zinc, Silver, Molybdenum, Arsenic, Selenium, Tin, Gallium, Germanium, Strontium, Cadmium, Mercury, and Lead, were determined using Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in five fish tissues viz. muscle, liver, kidney, gill and brain, along with the water samples and soil sediments in 13 sampling sites. The bioaccumulation and concentration of metals in fish tissues, soil sediments, and water samples were well within the safe level concerning the recommendation of different national and international agencies except for a few metals in a few sampling sites like Cd, As, and Pb. The geoaccumulation index (Igeo) was also determined in the soil sediments, indicating moderate arsenic, selenium, and mercury contamination in a few sites. The contamination index in water was also determined in 13 sampling sites. The estimated daily intake (EDI), reference dose (RfD), target hazard quotient (THQ), slope factor and cancer risk of Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd, Pb and Hg from fish muscle were determined. Based on the results of the present investigation, it is concluded that fish consumption in the East Kolkata Wetland (EKW) is safe. The effects of bioaccumulation of metals in muscle tissue were well within the safe level for consumption as recommended by WHO/FAO.

COVID-19 and finance scholarship: A systematic and bibliometric analysis.

COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to global finances because of its unparalleled global scope, with both concomitant shocks as well as the likely altering of risk assessments and forecasts for the foreseeable future. As the effects of COVID-19 on financial markets and institutions have been widely addressed by various literature, we systematically synthesize this literature. Through a comprehensive search process, we extract and review 818 articles. Appling bibliometric methods, we explore the trends among various research constituents involved in the field. Using multi-dimensional scaling, we identify the intellectual structure of research in the domain and outline four distinct themes. We also identify the evolution and shifts in research within the short span of three years since the inception of COVID-19. Through detailed content analysis, various future research directions are proposed.

Mapping the venture capital and private equity research: a bibliometric review and future research agenda.

The fields of venture capital and private equity are rooted in financing research on capital budgeting and initial public offering (IPO). Both fields have grown considerably in recent times with a heterogenous set of themes being explored. This review presents an analysis of research in both fields. Using a large corpus from the Web of Science, this study used bibliometric analysis to present a comprehensive encapsulation of the fields' geographical focus, methodological choices, prominent themes, and future research directions. Noteworthily, the foundational themes in venture capital research are venture capital adoption and financing processes, venture capital roles in business, venture capital governance, venture capital syndication, and venture capital and creation of public organizations. In private equity research, style drift into venture capital emerges as a key theme alongside buyouts and privatization, and valuation and performance of private equity investment.

Financing is an important aspect of business that creates opportunities for investors and invested entities. Venture capital and private equity are two major vehicles of financing a business. While venture capital manifests as small investments that support the business operations of a large number of promising firms (more risky) in the early stage (startup), private equity transpires as large investments that support the business expansion of a small number of stable firms (less risky) in the later stage (scaleup). This study presents state-of-the-art insights into the current trends and future directions of venture capital and private equity using a bibliometric analysis of high-quality research on these forms of financing.

A Low-Cost Multi-Sensor Data Acquisition System for Fault Detection in Fused Deposition Modelling.

Fused deposition modelling (FDM)-based 3D printing is a trending technology in the era of Industry 4.0 that manufactures products in layer-by-layer form. It shows remarkable benefits such as rapid prototyping, cost-effectiveness, flexibility, and a sustainable manufacturing approach. Along with such advantages, a few defects occur in FDM products during the printing stage. Diagnosing defects occurring during 3D printing is a challenging task. Proper data acquisition and monitoring systems need to be developed for effective fault diagnosis. In this paper, the authors proposed a low-cost multi-sensor data acquisition system (DAQ) for detecting various faults in 3D printed products. The data acquisition system was developed using an Arduino micro-controller that collects real-time multi-sensor signals using vibration, current, and sound sensors. The different types of fault conditions are referred to introduce various defects in 3D products to analyze the effect of the fault conditions on the captured sensor data. Time and frequency domain analyses were performed on captured data to create feature vectors by selecting the chi-square method, and the most significant features were selected to train the CNN model. The K-means cluster algorithm was used for data clustering purposes, and the bell curve or normal distribution curve was used to define individual sensor threshold values under normal conditions. The CNN model was used to classify the normal and fault condition data, which gave an accuracy of around 94%, by evaluating the model performance based on recall, precision, and F1 score.

Past, present, and future of sustainable finance: insights from big data analytics through machine learning of scholarly research.

Sustainable finance is a rich field of research. Yet, existing reviews remain limited due to the piecemeal insights offered through a sub-set rather than the entire corpus of sustainable finance. To address this gap, this study aims to conduct a large-scale review that would provide a state-of-the-art overview of the performance and intellectual structure of sustainable finance. To do so, this study engages in a review of sustainable finance research using big data analytics through machine learning of scholarly research. In doing so, this study unpacks the most influential articles and top contributing journals, authors, institutions, and countries, as well as the methodological choices and research contexts for sustainable finance research. In addition, this study reveals insights into seven major themes of sustainable finance research, namely socially responsible investing, climate financing, green financing, impact investing, carbon financing, energy financing, and governance of sustainable financing and investing. To drive the field forward, this study proposes several suggestions for future sustainable finance research, which include developing and diffusing innovative sustainable financing instruments, magnifying and managing the profitability and returns of sustainable financing, making sustainable finance more sustainable, devising and unifying policies and frameworks for sustainable finance, tackling greenwashing of corporate sustainability reporting in sustainable finance, shining behavioral finance on sustainable finance, and leveraging the power of new-age technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, internet of things, and machine learning for sustainable finance.

Vulnerability of financial markets in India: The contagious effect of COVID-19.

This study aims to examine the impact of COVID-19 on financial markets, using emerging market data. Specifically, panel data regression is applied on 3200 observations for daily market returns during lockdown in India. The event study methodology is adopted to show abnormal returns registered in the lockdown period. A contrasting breakdown effect of COVID-19 on various Indian industries has been observed through sectoral analysis. The study also provides empirical evidence for lockdown measures taken by the government on stock market returns and post lockdown impact of COVID-19 on daily market returns for over 6550 observations.

Genetic evidence of shared ancestry among diverse ethno-linguistic human populations of Himachal Pradesh.

In Indian montane system, human populations often exhibit an unparallel social organization where inter-caste marriages are still not common. This attribute affects the demography and population genetic structure of the resident populations. Further, human populations residing in the mountains in India are poorly studied for their genetic make-up and allele distribution patterns. In the present study, we genotyped 594 unrelated individuals using PowerPlex® 21 System (Promega, USA) from eight different populations belonging to 12 districts of Himachal Pradesh which differed in ethnicity, language, geography and social organization. Altogether, we obtained 1415 alleles with a mean of 8.84 ± 0.26 alleles per locus and 0.80 mean observed heterozygosity. Locus Penta E showed the highest combined power of discrimination and was found most informative for forensic purposes. Interestingly, phylogenetic analysis grouped the populations of Rajputs, Scheduled castes and Brahmins into one cluster, which indicated a deep genetic admixture in the ancestral populations. This study documents the first-ever report on the population genetic assignment of various castes in Himachal Pradesh and unveils the facts of cryptic gene flow among the diverse castes in the northern hilly state of India. Our results showed a genetic relationship among the various ethno-linguistically diverse populations of India.

Socio-economic impact of first 21 days nationwide lockdown- 1 on the spread of SARS-COV-2 in India in relation to health.

On March 11, 2020 World Health Organization (WHO) declared corona virus disease (COVID-19) to be a pandemic disease, which is caused by a novel coronavirus "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS CoV- 2)" and till now it has affected about 213 countries. A nationwide lockdown was announced by the Honorable Prime Minister of India on 24th March 2020 for 21 days to prevent the spread of the COVID-19. Our nation, being a developing nation and emerging market, there was a vast socio-economic consequence of this lockdown. Our health care services were at the war front. Due to this step, there was a reduction in the rate of the spread of COVID- 19. Other health hazards due to pollution, road traffic accidents, crimes including robberies, rapes, murders, thefts, etc., were decreased substantially. People learned good hygiene and family bonding, which was further strengthened. Negatively affected sectors were trading companies, schools, and education, economy, stock markets, ongoing events in sports, politics, entertainment industry, transportation, and activities related to religious places, tourists, and hotels. Due to starvation, poor people were worst affected as they were daily bread earners though, the government tried to provide money and food. Finally, it was the primary care physician, termed "corona warriors," who suffered socially, economically, mentally, and physically. Despite all these hardships, the primary care physician learned the innovative way to help patients and ease their suffering with proper advice and awareness.

Assessment of genetic polymorphism at 20 autosomal STR loci in scheduled caste population of Himachal Pradesh.

In this study, we evaluated the genetic diversity indices and forensic parameters of scheduled caste population of Himachal Pradesh, India, at 20 autosomal STR loci. Altogether, 233 alleles were observed with an average of 11.65 ± 0.88 alleles per locus. In exception of locus D13S317, no loci deviated from Hardy Weinberg equilibrium. Locus Penta E was found to be the most polymorphic and discriminative loci. The combined power of discrimination and the combined power of exclusion were 1 and 0.999. Further, we established the phylogenetic relationship between the scheduled caste population of Himachal Pradesh and 14 other populations of India. We found 20 autosomal STR loci used in the present study were polymorphic and can be used in population genetic studies and forensic related case works.

Trade credit research before and after the global financial crisis of 2008 - A bibliometric overview.

This study presents an overview of the state-of-the-art in trade credit research by examining 1191 publications between 1955 and 2019. Applying bibliometrics and econometrics, the study compares the extant research across the three sub-domains of banking and finance, production and operations, and accounting. Findings suggest that the financial emergency in the global market had resulted in a watershed moment in trade credit research. About 69 % of the literature was found to have emerged after the global economic crisis of 2008. A network analysis grouped the trade credit articles into four major and four minor clusters. The banking and financing cluster exhibited the highest growth followed by the production and operation cluster while the perspectives of accounting are yet to gain traction. Conversely, reputation of the publishing hub, empirical studies, and the production and operational dimensions of the research positively and significantly influence citations. Alongside a thorough introspection, the study also provides new areas to direct the course of future research.

Role of particle size in assessment of physico-chemical properties and trace elements of Indian fly ash.

In this paper, the effect of particle size on the physico-chemical, mineralogical, and leaching behavior of Indian fly ash was studied. Experiments were carried out to study the leaching of different elements such as Mg, Cr, Zn, Pb, Mn, Fe, Cu, Co, Mo, and Ni from Indian fly ash. During the experiments, the liquid-to-solid (L/S) ratio of the fly ash was taken as 9/1, 8/2, 7/3, 3/2, 1/1, and 2/3. The effect of four different particle size ranges (below 53, 53-75, 75-106, and 106-150 µm) of fly ash was analyzed. The ASTMD-3987 method was used to analyze the presence of trace elements from fly ash. In the ASTM D-3987 method, distilled water was used for extraction of leachate. Fly ash slurry samples were agitated in a lubricating type temperature-controlled Remi orbital shaker for a time duration of 18 hours with speed of 100 revolutions per minute (rpm) at a temperature of 25ºC. Distilled water does not save cost as well as being easily available. The leaching test of trace elements from fly ash was investigated at different pH conditions in order to predict the environmental effect from the ash disposal on the groundwater quality. Results revealed that pH of slurry suspension increases with increase in particle size. The pH value of fly ash slurries was negligibly affected by the decrease in L/S ratio for all particle sizes. Fine particles of fly ash produce a more harmful effect as compared to the coarser range of fly ash particles.

Urban health: Needs urgent attention.

Urban population in our country has increased at an annual rate of 2.7% during the last decade and it is estimated that by 2031, there would be about 600 million people living in urban India. The fast pace of urbanization has come to stay with increasing proportion of urban poor and vulnerable with health indicators much worse than their rural counterparts. The need to provide health care to urban poor has been emphasized in the past in various health committees' reports and National 5-year Development Plans, but no significant dent was made to improve the urban health scenario of the country. The National Urban Health Mission launched in May 2013 provides us a concrete mechanism to address special health needs of urban population with focus on urban poor. There is a strong need to set up primary healthcare system in urban areas and systematically deal with urban health challenges in terms of vector-borne diseases, rising incidence of noncommunicable diseases, air pollution and acute respiratory infections, road traffic accidents, trauma, and injuries. The initiatives to address these challenges do not remain confined to health sector alone but also need to be supported by sectors other than health such as social welfare, women and child development, road transport and highways, school education, drinking water, and sanitation. We really need to address wider and social determinants of health to effectively improve the urban health scenario.

Abnormal Nuclear Variations in Response to Radiotherapy- As a Tool in Treatment Planning and Assessment of Prognosis.

INTRODUCTION: The treatment approaches for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) include single management with surgery, radiotherapy, along with chemotherapy or various combinations of these modalities. The estimation of radio sensitivity of individual tumours is essential for planning the optimum radiation schedule for each patient. Assessment of radiation induced histo morphological changes in the nucleus is a known marker of radiosensitivity. AIM: The aim of this study was to establish the relationship between nuclear changes with radiation dose and to investigate the prospect of utilizing them as an assay to predict tumour response to radiotherapy in oral cancers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study included 50 patients (age range of 30-65yrs) with histopathologically confirmed squamous cell carcinoma of oral mucosa and being treated by radiotherapy alone with a radiation dose schedule of 4, 14, 24 and 60 Gy respectively at 2(nd), 7(th), 12(th) and 30(th) day. From the included patients, smear of the buccal mucosa was collected and was air dried and fixed with methanol. The Nuclear changes of Micronucleus (MN), Nuclear Budding (NB) and Multinucleation (MNU) were evaluated under the bright field microscopy after staining with Giemsa and May-Grunwald's stain. RESULTS: Out of the 50, 37(74%) were males and 13(26%) were females (Ratio 3:1). The mean percentage increase of MN and MNU were found to be statistically significant (p=0.001) when compared with pre-treatment day. Similar findings were seen with NB, except between pretreatment and after 14 Gy (p-0.110). In the present study the measurement of relative increment index done in respect to all nuclear abnormalities show a sustained increase with increasing dosage of radiation. CONCLUSION: The present study, was undertaken to explore the possibility of establishing a relationship between the frequencies of nuclear abnormalities in patients with oral cancer with applied dosage and duration of radiotherapy. The progressive increase in Micronucleus and Multinucleation indices with increasing dose of radiation proves that these parameters can be used as indicators for assessing the response of tumour for radiotherapy. These parameters can be used as prognostic indicator in oral carcinoma cases undergoing radiotherapy.

Need assessment of enhancing the weightage of applied biochemistry in the undergraduate curriculum at MGIMS, sevagram.

In order to review the need assessment of enhancing the weightage of Applied Biochemistry in the undergraduate curriculum at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (MGIMS), Sevagram, a validated questionnaire was sent to 453 participants which include 387 undergraduate students, 11 interns, 23 postgraduate students, and 32 faculty members. A web-based data collection and analysis tool was designed for online questionnaire distribution, data collection, and analysis. Response rate was 100%. Most of the respondents agreed that the subject Biochemistry has relevance in clinical practice (81.24%) and applied based learning of Biochemistry by medical undergraduates would help in overall improvement in the health standards/patients care (83.44%). According to 65.12% respondents, most of the medical undergraduates read Biochemistry just for examination purpose only. Nearly half of the respondents agreed that minute details of biochemical reactions were not much useful in clinical practice (53.86%) and the vast majority of diagrammatic cycles memorized by the medical undergraduates had no relevance in clinical practice (51.21%), the decreased interest in learning the Applied Biochemistry was due to more amount of clinically irrelevant information taught to medical undergraduates (73.51%), there was a need to rethink for removing the diagrammatic biochemical cycles from curriculum for medical undergraduates (48.12%), the less learning of Applied Biochemistry or competencies would affect the clinical skills and knowledge of medical undergraduates (70.42%). The result of this study suggests that there is need for restructuring the Biochemistry curriculum with more clinical relevance. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 44:230-240, 2016.