It gives me great pleasure to deliver the keynote address at the Asian Bond Conference organised jointly by the Thai Bond Dealing Centre (Thai BDC), Fixed Income Money Market Dealers Association of India (FIMMDA) and Primary Dealers Association of India (PDAI). It is a matter of significance that some of the major self-regulatory organisations (SROs) in the debt markets of Asia have taken this ...

The diversification of agriculture and the development of new crops are closely related. Although diversification is often justified by reference to practical experience, we know little about the theoretical basis for diversification or its causes and effects. Is it theoretically possible to feed the world on a fixed and unchangeable set of species and varieties? Empirical evidence suggests not...

Life-history theory predicts that small species will exhibit short life-spans and fast growth rates; however, previous studies indicate that a positive relationship between size and maximum age may not be universally applicable to coral reef fishes. Here, we investigate the growth and life-span of 5 small species of coral reef goby (family Gobiidae): Istigobius goldmanni, Asterropteryx semipunc...

BACKGROUND Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death is a common cause of loss of vision during glaucoma. Pattern electroretinogram (PERG) is an objective measure of the central retinal function that correlates with macular GCL thickness. The aim of this study is to determine possible relationships between the N95 amplitude of pattern electroretinogram (PERGamp) and macular ganglion cell/inner plexifor...

Vision-based hand pointing interactive systems always assume implicitly that users’ physical pointing accuracy is perfect. However, this may not be the case. We investigated the accuracy provided by users in three pointing strategies. Result showed that pointing inaccuracy can be as high as 239mm at 3 metres away and suggest that the line-up method provides the best accuracy

Under Council Directive 1999/74/EC, minimum space allowances per laying hen range from 550 cm(2) in unfurnished cages to 1111 cm(2) in alternative housing, and to 40,000 cm(2) outdoors for free-range hens. In official reports on the welfare of laying hens, there is recognition that knowledge of their space requirements is inadequate. This experiment studied expression of behaviour, including sp...

An original multiscale friction analysis is developed to characterize the interfacial phenomena during hot forging contact conditions in manufacture of wheels for railway industry. Hot upsetting sliding tests and roll-on-disc are performed reproduce tribological at meso micro-scale. Crushed embedded oxides found be present on sample's surfaces. Stick-slip occur due accumulation crushed oxides. ...

Background and aims: Needle stick injuries are a common and serious occupational hazard in the medical settings. So, this study was aimed to assess the incidence of needle stick injury among medical students at Tabriz Imam Reza Hospital in 2014. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study which its data was collected from 211 medical students in Tabriz Imam ...