The hedging practices survey took place towards the end of 2015 in the final few months prior to Solvency II regulations coming into force. At the point of completing the survey we would expect that companies would have largely transitioned their hedging approaches to work in a Solvency II environment. There may be some cases where further changes were planned but not implemented at the point of completing the survey. Further, as familiarity with working under the new regulations increases, approaches are expected to continue to develop over time. The working party hopes that this report is useful in summarising industry attitudes at this point in time and as a comparator in future years. Before launching the survey we did have several conjectures of what we may expect to see in the results. Some proved true, for some it was difficult to glean any strong conclusion from the data, and there were one or two where results countered what we expected to see.

A field experiment was carried out at the farm of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi to quantify the effect of elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) and different levels of N fertiliser application on nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from soil under maize. The experiment included five treatments: 60 kg N ha−1 under ambient CO2 (385 ppm) in open plots, 120 kg N ha−1 under ambient CO2 (385 ppm) in open plots, 160 kg N ha−1 under ambient CO2 (385 ppm) in open plots, 120 kg N ha−1 under ambient CO2 (385 ppm) in open top chambers (OTC) and 120 kg N ha−1 under elevated CO2 (500 ± 50 ppm) in the OTC. Peaks of N2O flux were observed after every dose of N application. Cumulative N2O emission was 13% lower under ambient CO2 as compared to the elevated CO2 concentrations. There was an increase in CO2 emissions with application of N from 60 kg ha−1 to 160 kg ha−1. Higher yield and root biomass was observed under higher N treatment (160 kg N ha−1). There was no significant increase in maize yield under elevated CO2 as compared to ambient CO2. The carbon emitted was more than the carbon fixed under elevated CO2 as compared to ambient CO2 levels. The carbon efficiency ratio (C fixed/C emitted) was highest in ambient CO2 treatment in the OTC.

Ganjam is an important sheep breed in the Orissa State in the eastern region of India. They are reared mainly for meat. The present study was conducted to characterize the Ganjam breed both phenotypically and genotypically at the DNA level using microsatellite markers. A survey was conducted in the breeding tract to study the habitat, body biometry, management practices and reproductive and productive performance of Ganjam sheep. A total of 604 animals were studied for morphological characteristics. The animals are medium sized with hairy fleece. Their coat colour varies from brown to dark tan. The average flock size is 35. Measurements were recorded for body weight, body length, height at withers, chest girth, ear length and horn length in 366 adult animals. A set of 25 microsatellite markers was used to assess the genetic variability in 50 DNA samples extracted from randomly collected blood samples of unrelated Ganjam sheep across their breeding tract. A total of 137 alleles were identified across the 25 markers. The allele diversity (5.48), mean observed heterozygosity (0.623) and gene diversity (0.685) estimates elucidated substantial genetic diversity within the Ganjam breed. The Mode Shift Test implied that a reduction in the effective population size or a recent genetic bottleneck was very unlikely in this indigenous breed of sheep. The within population inbreeding estimate values for the investigated population (0.087) showed a low rate of inbreeding.

A total of 675 stdrains of Salmonella bareilly received from different parts of India and France during 1959–92 were phage typed using six bacteriophages. Overall ttypability achieved was 90·8% with 23 distinctphage types excluding a group of untypable strains. Phage types have been defined in octal code. Simpson's coefficient was applied for diversity index having a value of 0·839. This system was found to be reproducible, stable and epidemiologically useful.

The gravitational instability of a two-component plasma has been studied here to include simultaneously the effects of neutral gas friction, finite ion Larmor radius, magnetic resistivity and Hall currents. The viscosities of the two components of the plasma have also been taken into account. The mode of the transverse as well as the longitudinal wave propagation have been discussed. The dispersion relations have been obtained for both these cases and numerical calculations have been performed to obtain the dependence of the growth rate of the gravitationally unstable mode on the various physical parameters involved. For the transverse mode of propagation, it is found that the growth rate of the unstable mode increases with magnetic resistivity and with the ratio of the densities of two components. The influence of the magnetic resistivity is, therefore, destabilizing on this mode of wave propagation. The viscosities of the two components are found to have a stabilizing influence on the growth rate in this case since it is found that the increase of hte viscosity effects reduces the growth rate. For the longitudinal mode also it is found that the effects of viscosities as well as that of neutral gas friction are stabilizing. The magnetic resistivity does not affect the growth rate since the equation determining the growth rate is found to be independent of this effect.

Gold eyelid implantation is widely considered the procedure of choice to reanimate the upper eyelid in paralytic lagophthalmos. Commercially supplied implants are not readily available in all places and are sometimes cumbersome to import.

The films of 1-(3-hydroxypropylamino)-9,10-anthraquinone (1) obtained by Hot Wall Epitaxy technique (HWE) have been studied for their morphological and electrical properties. The films were deposited on to the glass substrate at different temperatures kept at pressure of ~1.33 × 10−3 Pa. The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra show the polycrystalline nature of the films. The crystallanity of the films increases with the increase in film deposition temperature. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) shows that the molecules of 1 undergo uniform aggregation to form blade type crystallites with width 5.2–11.8 μm and length 32.6–90 μm at substrate temperature 348 K. The conduction in these films is ohmic in nature and both the increase in substrate temperature during film deposition and increase in absolute temperature of the films during conductivity measurement resulted in increased conductivity. The band gap lies in the range 1.25–1.44 eV

We have used ultra-small-angle scattering (USANS) and fluorescence microscopy to show the existence of large-scale structure in attractive colloidal glasses composed of block polyelectrolyte micelles. Our systems display evidence of surface scattering, with the scattered intensity I at low scattering vector q scaling as I ∼ qx with x in the range –3 to –4. We believe this is due to surface scattering from large, highly polydisperse aggregates with rough interfaces. USANS may provide an ideal way to distinguish fractal colloidal gels and colloidal glasses.

We report rheological data on hydrogels formed from triblock copolymers of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). We are able to create gels with elastic moduli greater than 10,000 Pa, which is an order of magnitude higher than previously achieved with related physically associated gels of similar chemistry. Moreover, the value of the elastic modulus strongly depends on PLLA block length, offering a mechanism to control the mechanical properties as desired for particular applications. Additionally, we have developed protocols for using these materials for cell encapsulation and present preliminary cell viability studies for encapsulated human liver cells (HepG2 cell line). Our results have implications for the design of new materials for soft tissue engineering, where native tissues have moduli in the kPa range.

An atomic force microscope (AFM) allows molecular resolution imaging of hydrated specimens. However, it is often limited in providing identity of the imaged structures, especially in a complex system such as a cellular membrane. Cell surface macromolecules such as ion channels and receptors serve as the interface between the cytoplasm and the extracellular region and toward which many regulatory signals are directed. Their density, distribution and clustering are key spatial features influencing effective and proper physiological responses. We used a method that uses AFM “force-volume maps” to identify and map regional distribution as well as ligand-, or antibody-induced real-time clustering of receptors on the cell surface. This technique also allows simultaneous imaging of the resultant changes in cellular micromechanical properties, such as elasticity and cytoskeletal reorganization of the cell. As an appropriate physiological sample, we have examined spatial distribution and real-time clustering of VEGFR, the receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor which is an important angiogenic factor in human and animal tissues.

We have used AFM probes conjugated with anti-VEGFR-antibody (anti-Flk-1 antibody) to examine binding (or unbinding) forces between VEGF-R2 (Flk-1) in both in vitro as well as in live endothelial cells. A quantal set of binding and unbinding forces was measured between the antibody conjugated to the AFM tip and purified VEGFRs adsorbed on to a mica surface (Fig 1). The unbinding force varied between 60 and 240 pN and was a multiple of discrete quantized strength of approximately 60 pN (Figure 1B).

Most outbreaks of viral hepatitis in India are caused by hepatitis E. This report describes an outbreak of hepatitis B in a rural population in Haryana state in 1997. At least 54 cases of jaundice occurred in Dhottar village (population 3096) during a period of 8 months; 18 (33·3%) of them died. Virtually all fatal cases were adults and tested positive for HBsAg (other markers not done). About 88% (21/24) of surviving cases had acute or persistent HBV/HCV infections; 54% (13/24) had acute hepatitis B. Many other villages reported sporadic cases and deaths. Data were pooled from these villages for analysis of risk factors. Acute hepatitis B cases had received injections before illness more frequently (11/19) than those found negative for acute or persistent HBV/HCV infections (3/17) (P = 0·01). Although a few cases had other risk factors, these were equally prevalent in two groups. The results linked the outbreak to the use of unnecessary therapeutic injections.

In Rajahmundry town in India, 234 community cases of jaundice were interviewed for risk factors of viral hepatitis B and tested for markers of hepatitis A–E. About 41% and 1·7% of them were positive for anti-HBc and anti-HCV respectively. Of 83 cases who were tested within 3 months of onset of jaundice, 5 (6%), 11 (13·3%), 1 (1·2%), 5 (6%) and 16 (19·3%) were found to have acute viral hepatitis A–E, respectively. The aetiology of the remaining 60% (50/83) of cases of jaundice could not be established. Thirty-one percent (26/83) were already positive for anti-HBc before they developed jaundice. History of therapeutic injections before the onset of jaundice was significantly higher in cases of hepatitis B (P = 0·01) or B–D (P = 0·04) than in cases of hepatitis A and E together. Other potential risk factors of hepatitis B transmission were equally prevalent in two groups. Subsequent studies showed that the majority of injections given were unnecessary (74%, 95% CI 66–82%) and were administered by both qualified and unqualified doctors.