Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate linkage among productivity, quality, and business performance in home-based brassware units in India. Design/methodology/approach This study involved action research of home-based brassware units applying procedures for three-stage least-squares (3SLS) regression analysis, with data obtained through questionnaire survey based on convenience sampling. Findings This study has supported the established belief that quality leads to productivity, and subsequently productivity leads to better business performance for home-based brassware units in India. The consistent and logical result of this study using 3SLS regression analysis has provided empirical understanding of the appropriate linkage among productivity, quality, and business performance. Research limitations/implications This study has limitations of findings, as it studied the home-based brassware units in the Indian context only. Practical implications This study implies that marketable home-based brassware products are to be produced by taking into account boundaries of production within the framework of goals and value created by motivation and dependability for monitoring the business performance. Identifying an appropriate linkage among productivity, quality, and business performance may project a holistic evaluation of the policy development related to home-based brassware units. Originality/value This is an original study to test empirical linkages among productivity, quality, and business performance using 3SLS regression analysis particularly for home-based brassware units in India.

Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by a spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi ZS7. This spirochete is most often spread by ticks. Single antibiotic therapy is sufficient for containment of the early stage progression of the disease but combinational therapy is more preferred in later stages. Research is in progress for the development of drugs against the pathogen, but till date no vaccines have been developed to effect the late stage infections. There is a rapid rise in the cases of antibiotic-resistant population which is more than 10% of the total infected individuals. In such condition vaccine becomes the sole alternative for prevention. Therefore effective treatment includes antibiotic combination and combination of antigenic surfaces (for vaccine preparation). Thus, a comprehensive list of drug targets unique to the microorganisms is often necessary. Availability of Borrelia burgdorferi ZS7 proteome has enabled insilico analysis of protein sequences for the identification of drug targets and vaccine targets. In this study, 272 essential proteins were identified out of which 42 proteins were unique to the microorganism. The study identified 15 membrane localized drug targets. Amongst these 15, molecular modeling and structure validation of the five membrane localized drug target proteins could only be achieved because of the low sequence identity of the remaining proteins with RCSB structures. These 3D structures can be further characterized by invitro and invivo studies for the development of novel vaccine epitopes and novel antibiotic therapy against Borrelia burgdorferi.

Lubricants are used in rolling process mainly to reduce the friction. Thus, the measurement of friction can give the idea about the performance of a lubricant. However, the measurement of friction by no means is an easy task. In the past, various methods have been employed for measuring the friction in rolling. Some of these methods require damaging of the surface of the rolls. The methods based on the measurement of roll force, roll torque and the slip can be easily used, but their reliability is dependent on reliability of measuring devices and the mathematical model. A possible way of measuring the average coefficient of friction in rolling is to measure the exit temperature of the strip. It can be easily done by means of temperature sensors. In this work, an inverse method of estimating the approximate value of friction coefficient is proposed based on the exit temperature measurement. The inverse model makes use of a direct model of temperature determination, which is based on finite element analysis and analytical models available in the literature. For a given exit temperature, the inverse model searches the appropriate value of friction coefficient using golden section search algorithm. The methodology is tested by carrying out a number of numerical experiments on the cold strip rolling. Some preliminary experiments have been conducted. It is planned to carry out more experiments in future. Although the direct model used in this work is highly approximate, the entire methodology displays its high potentiality in an industrial setting. In any case, the methodology can compare two lubricants with respect to their ability to reduce the coefficient of friction, even if the estimated coefficient of friction may be approximate.

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This paper examines the effect of sulphur on yield and quality of oilseed Brassica spp. Sulphur is a crucial nutrient for rapeseed since it is linked to productivity and a number of quality characteristics. It is necessary for the production of protein along with nitrogen and contains considerably higher sulfur-containing amino acids in rapeseed than in other crop plants. Brassicas also need sulphur in order to produce the sulfur-containing chemicals called glucosinolates. Rapeseed has a higher sulphur requirement than other crops, with 20-30 kg S ha-1 removed in the seed, whereas cereals remove only 5-15 kg ha-1. As a result, oilseed rape is especially vulnerable to sulphur shortages. Sulphur is required for the production of chlorophyll within the plant, and deficiency symptoms begin with a slight paling of the leaves and progress to interveinal chlorosis.