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Introduction Every person’s preference for future consumption over present consumption, their expectations for future income, and to some extent the interest rate, all have an impact on how much they save. The amount of money it safeguards directly relates to the financial progress. Savings are responsible for boosting of economy in the country. People may invest their savings and build wealth through options such as fixed deposit, mutual funds, stocks, bonds, properties and gold and silver. Diversification of investment help the savings to grow and may lead to greater the amount of capital available for investment. Money does not have any increment unless if it is invested in some proposals. Investment decision differ from one investor to other depending upon their risk bearing based on long term or short term. Gold is the most valuable asset in the economy. Gold may be baptized a hedge against inflation or reservoir for future use or substitute for the currency notes which are used as a means of transfer or exchange. Gold to the investors in recent years has been important mainly because of rise in prices due to inflation. It has been used more for speculation rather than for a long-term investment and for quick profits. Gold is popularly known as ‘yellow metal’ can be invested into either in the form of Gold jewelry, Gold bars, Gold coins, Gold ETF (exchange-traded fund), GSB (Gold Sovereign bonds) and GDS (Gold Deposit Schemes). Applicable Factors to be considered on Gold Investment Options available in gold investment Gold bullion market activities Exchange value Demand and Supply of gold Higher risk protection other than investment options Future security E-Gold Reliability of schemes Actions of (ETF) electronic-traded funds International factors on Gold The worldwide spot price of gold is a factor in determining the metal value of gold because the majority of the gold in any nation is imported. The London bullion market is where the spot price is set. The price of gold will increase if the spot price does, for some reason. Additionally, other global circumstances, such as war and peace, which influence the movement of gold prices globally also have an impact on domestic gold prices. Demand and Supply decides the price of Gold Demand and supply principles direct the pricing of all goods in an economy and gold is no exception. The price of gold will increase, it affect the demand too. This behavior of investors can be seen during holidays, wedding season, or following a successful good monsoons that benefits the rural population. The amount of government reserves in the country has an impact on the gold supply. The price of gold will grow if demand remains constant and the Central Bank sometimes purchases additional gold since it is accepted as an equal to foreign commercial money for the issuing of new currency notes. Adjusting risk in Investment portfolio When other securities markets crash, diversifying an investing portfolio also helps when we include gold as investment option. In challenging market circumstances, gold is crucial for recovering losses. An investor can modify the risk-to-return ratio in their investment portfolio with the use of gold investments. As a result, investing in gold is a wise choice, but there are certain considerations to make before. The main benefit of investing in a liquid asset like gold is its price stability. Compared to other assets, it is simpler to convert into cash. Reselling is therefore a crucial component for which appropriate measures should be made to guarantee that the investment realizes the highest resale value when necessary. Conclusion Gold investments are known to protect against inflation and economic uncertainty. Gold is one of the alternative investment strategies that plays a significant role in an investor’s portfolio. In fact, gold investors now believe that investing in gold has a significant impact on economic growth. In the decision to invest in gold, sentiment is the influenced factor, while safety is the heavily influenced factor. Gold investors place safety first, followed by risk management, mortgage instruments, liquidity, trustworthiness, assured return, market dynamics, and sentiments, as their lowest priorities. Reference Bishesh Thapa (2020), Factors Influencing Investment Decisions in Gold , Journal of Business and Social Sciences Research, Issue-2,Vol-5, Dec2020,pp-62 Gowri Nair, and Pavithra, (2015), “A study on investment behavior with special reference to Kollam corporation”, Global Journal for Research Analysis, Vol.4, Issue:8, August, pp.194 https://www.livemint.com/market/commodities/five-factors-affecting-gold-prices S Amudhan, J Poornima, S Senthil Kumar,  “A study on individual investors satisfaction level of existing investment schemes in Salem districts”, South Asian Journal of Marketing & Management Research , Issue-3, Vol-6, 2016 pp.31 Dr. S Senthil Kumar is currently working as Assistant Professor in Finance and Management, Skyline University, Nigeria. His qualifications are MBA, M.Com, M.Phil, MS, and PhD. You can join the conversation on facebook @SkylineUniversityNG and on twitter @SkylineUNigeria

Many people who had a past history of COVID-19 infection are now presenting with cognitive problems with attention, concentration, and memory loss [1]. The doctors are now referring to these problems as COVID-associated ‘Brain Fog.’ Though Brain fog is not a medical or scientific term; it is used by individuals to describe how they feel when their thinking becomes sluggish. The fogginess of the brain is a frequently reported symptom these days, and can be best described as: Cloudy thinking Inability to concentrate the way that one earlier could Lapses in memory Losing train of thought such as forgetting in mid-sentence what you were planning to say, or asking the other person “what was I saying?” frequently Getting distracted easily, with the feeling that the mind is refusing to focus Poor motivation, sluggishness, fuzziness Remember the sickly feeling that we all experience when we are recovering from flu or any illness, jet-lagged or on an anti-allergic medication that makes us fuzzy for a few hours. I am sure that we all have experienced this feeling at some point of time in our life. However, never do these symptoms become so aggravated to get noticed on a daily basis affecting the quality of life and work. Most of the time the sickly feeling disappears once we recover from illness or get adjusted to the new time zone or the side effects of the medication just wear off [2]. However, if this uneasy feeling persists for a long time and disturbs the daily routine then one may be possibly suffering from ‘Brain Fog.’ Reporting of Brain Fog has gone up significantly since the COVID pandemic. It is included as one of the features of long COVID or Post-COVID Syndrome. ‘Chemo brain’ or ‘Chemo Fog’ is a condition in which a cancer patient experiences sluggishness, fuzziness, and a low feeling after receiving chemotherapy. This is because of the inflammation of neurons due to chemotherapy. It is now known that the COVID virus may cause inflammation or swelling of several organs and tissues. The main brunt has been on the lungs but the involvement of other organs was also there that included the brain [3]. Many COVID patients complained of loss of smell as one of their symptoms. This indicates that there may be mild brain inflammation produced by the COVID infection, which may be the cause of ‘Brain Fog.’ According to medical experts, the best way to deal with the problem of ‘Brain Fog’ is to perform an aerobic exercise like walking. While there is no established ‘dose’ of exercise to improve brain health, it’s generally recommended that one can walk 30 minutes a day, five days a week. Maintain a healthy diet that includes fruits, vegetables, nuts and beans, and whole grains. And completely abstain from alcohol and drugs. A normal sleep routine of 7-8 hours every day. The body can heal itself when we sleep at night. Sleep deprivation is one of the main reasons for many mental illness.   Brain Fog may however also happen in people who have not had COVID infection. If the symptoms persist then one should consult a doctor and investigate the blood glucose level, blood pressure, hemoglobin, vitamin B12, and vitamin D levels. One should also look out for hormonal changes, especially irregular periods or thyroid dysfunction. Fogginess of the brain can also be an early symptom of dementia. It is believed that COVID-induced ‘Brain Fog’ will improve gradually and most will gain back their brain’s vitality. However, if the symptoms persist then one should consult a qualified medical expert.     References: Choudhuri G. Coping with Brain Fog. November 7, 2022. https://tinyurl.com/y7pwtwm2 Budson A E. What is COVID-19 brain fog — and how can you clear it? March 8, 2021, Harvard Health Blog. https://tinyurl.com/4tzkwkzn Fernández-Castañeda, A., Lu, P., Geraghty, A. C., Song, E., et al. (2022). Mild respiratory COVID can cause multi-lineage neural cell and myelin dysregulation. Cell, 185(14), 2452–2468.e16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.008 Dr. Sanjoy Kumar Pal is a Professor of Biology in Skyline University Nigeria. He has a PhD. in Animal Genetics from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, India. You can join the conversation on facebook @SkylineUniversityNG and on twitter @SkylineUNigeria

Biomolecules are made in the living system and some of the Biomolecules which find applications are made in the laboratory/industry. Biomolecules can be synthesized by using pure chemical methods (synthetic) or pure biological methods or sometimes, a mixture of both chemical and Biological Procedure (semi-synthetic). Biomolecules which are available in the natural environment have been engineered by using synthetic, semisynthetic or pure biological methods which are usually called genetic engineering. But a very novel biological method using the concept of evolution had been developed by scientist Frances Hamilton Arnold, Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) which is called as Directed Evolution (DE) for the engineering of Protein molecules (Protein Engineering). Development of this technology has been awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018. Directed evolution is an iteration of the natural evolution cycle in a laboratory (Evolution in vitro). Three processes occurred in a natural Evolution: variation between replicators and the variation causes fitness differences upon which selection acts, and accumulated variation is heritable. In DE, a single gene is evolved by iterative rounds of error-prone mutagenesis, screening, followed by amplification. Rounds of these steps are typically repeated, using the best variant from one round as the template for the next to achieve stepwise improvements. The likelihood of success in a directed evolution experiment is directly related to the total library size, as evaluating more mutants increases the chances of finding one with the desired properties (1). An example of directed evolution with comparison to natural evolution. The inner cycle indicates the 3 stages of the directed evolution cycle with the natural process being mimicked in brackets. The outer circle demonstrates steps in a typical experiment. The red symbols indicate functional variants, the pale symbols indicate variants with reduced function. Directed evolution is frequently used for protein engineering as an alternative to rational design, but can also be used to investigate fundamental questions of enzyme evolution (1). References:(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directed_evolution.(2) https://sciencebriefss.com/dictionary/directed-evolution Dr. Susanta Pahari is a Professor of Biochemistry in Skyline University Nigeria. He has a PhD. in Biochemistry from University of Calcutta, India. You can join the conversation on facebook @SkylineUniversityNG and on twitter @SkylineUNigeria