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Structure and Functions of Gesture Sequences in Wild Bonnet Macaques (Macaca radiata)
Get PDFCompositionality, a hallmark of human language, involves generating novel meaning by combining existing units. Nonhuman primates (mostly apes) are known to combine gestural units in non-random ways, but they do not make novel meaning with these combinations. What could, however, be the functional roles of these gesture sequences and whether they bear any significance to language evolution is still unclear. Moreover, studies on gesture-sequences in non-ape primate species is almost non-existent. Here, we investigated for the first time, the structure and functions of gesture sequences in the naturally occurring communication of wild bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata), using analyses akin to ape gesture studies (Genty & Byrne, 2010; Hobaiter & Byrne, 2011). Bonnet macaque gesture sequences exhibit non-random combinations of gestures and non-gesture units – certain gestures are significantly more common in sequences, they associate preferentially with specific other components and certain components are more likely to appear either at the beginning or at the end of a sequence. Interplay of these sequences form distinct gestural clusters, corresponding to affiliative/play and agonistic contexts. Although, the overall functions of bonnet macaque gesture sequences remain obscure, as in apes, we found that gesture sequences were specifically used as a persistence strategy, after the initial single gestures have failed to initiate and sustain social interactions. We discuss our findings in the light of a possibility that primate gesture sequences, coordinating the flow of social interactions, may be evolutionary precursors to pragmatic gestures in human language
AI,Consciousness and The New Humanism: Fundamental Reflections on Minds and Machines
No full textThis edited volume presents perspectives from computer science, information theory, neuroscience and brain imaging, aesthetics, social sciences, psychiatry, and philosophy to answer frontier questions related to artificial intelligence and human experience. Can a machine think, believe, aspire and be purposeful as a human? What is the place in the machine world for hope, meaning and transformative enlightenment that inspires human existence? How, or are, the minds of machines different from that of humans and other species? These questions are responded to along with questions in the intersection of health, intelligence and the brain. It highlights the place of consciousness by attempting to respond to questions with the help of fundamental reflections on human existence, its life-purposes and machine intelligence. The volume is a must-read for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary researchers in humanities and social sciences and philosophy of science who wish to understand the future of AI and society
Inequality and Intervention: The left behind in migration Vol.4 (NIAS/SSc/IHD/U/RR/08/2024)
No full textMale Circular Migration, Rural-Urban and Gender Dynamics, and Food Security in India (MiFOOD Paper No.28)
Get PDFThis paper examines the ways in which male circular migration as a household livelihood strategy affects food access among rural households in India. Circular male labor migration is the dominant form of labor mobility in many parts of India. This migration pattern creates important rural-urban linkages through income transfers and alters the gender power relations within the migrant-sending households. Drawing on empirical research in Siwan district in the eastern state of Bihar, this paper analyzes the influence of these dynamics of migration on household food security, with the larger objective of bridging the divide that currently exists between migration and food security agendas in global development research and practice
Impact of Land-Use Pattern on Particulate Matter Pollution in a Mega-City in India
No full textUrbanization is an inevitable attribute associated with modern civilization and development. However, rapid urbanization has led to increase in particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution in several Indian cities. Here, we study Bengaluru, where the city has expanded by 62% from 2001 (457 km2) to 2019 (741 km2), and consequently the PM2.5 is mostly above the limit (40 ug/m3), except for the monsoon season. As the high ambient PM2.5 concentration has an adverse effect on public health, monitoring PM2.5 is key for air quality management. However, the sparse and non-uniform distribution of air quality monitoring stations (AQMSs) poses a hindrance in assessing the air quality in Bengaluru. Therefore, the present study uses satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD), land use, and road density maps together with meteorological parameters to model spatio-temporal PM2.5 levels in Bengaluru using general linear mixed effects regression (GLME) model. The chosen predictors explain about 62% variance in PM2.5. When tenfold cross-validation was performed, relative root mean square error (rRMSE) and relative mean bias error (rMBE) are 37.42% and 19.174%, respectively
Quantifying effects of long-range transport of NO2 over Delhi using back trajectories and satellite data
No full textExposure to air pollution is a leading public health risk factor in India, especially over densely populated Delhi and the surrounding Indo-Gangetic Plain. During the post-monsoon seasons, the prevailing north-westerly winds are known to influence aerosol pollution events in Delhi by advecting pollutants from agricultural fires as well as from local sources. Here we investigate the year-round impact of meteorology on gaseous nitrogen oxides (). We use bottom-up NOx emission inventories (anthropogenic and fire) and high-resolution satellite measurement based tropospheric column NO2 (TCNO2) data, from S5P aboard TROPOMI, alongside a back-trajectory model (ROTRAJ) to investigate the balance of local and external sources influencing air pollution changes in Delhi, with a focus on different emissions sectors. Our analysis shows that accumulated emissions (i.e. integrated along the trajectory path, allowing for chemical loss) are highest under westerly, north-westerly and northerly flow during pre-monsoon (February–May) and post-monsoon (October–February) seasons. According to this analysis, during the pre-monsoon season, the highest accumulated satellite TCNO2 trajectories come from the east and north-west of Delhi. TCNO2 is elevated within Delhi and the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) to the east of city. The accumulated NOx emission trajectories indicate that the transport and industry sectors together account for more than 80 % of the total accumulated emissions, which are dominated by local sources (>70 %) under easterly winds and north-westerly winds. The high accumulated emissions estimated during the pre-monsoon season under north-westerly wind directions are likely to be driven by high NOx emissions locally and in nearby regions (since NOx lifetime is reduced and the boundary layer is relatively deeper in this season). During the post-monsoon season the highest accumulated satellite TCNO2 trajectories are advected from Punjab and Haryana, where satellite TCNO2 is elevated, indicating the potential for the long-range transport of agricultural burning emissions to Delhi. However, accumulated NOx emissions indicate local (70 %) emissions from the transport sector are the largest contributor to the total accumulated emissions. High local emissions, coupled with a relatively long NOx atmospheric lifetime and shallow boundary layer, aid the build-up of emissions locally and along the trajectory path. This indicates the possibility that fire emissions datasets may not capture emissions from agricultural waste burning in the north-west sufficiently to accurately quantify their influence on Delhi air quality (AQ). Analysis of daily ground-based NO2 observations indicates that high-pollution episodes (>90th percentile) occur predominantly in the post-monsoon season, and more than 75 % of high-pollution events are primarily caused by local sources. But there is also a considerable influence from non-local (30 %) emissions from the transport sector during the post-monsoon season. Overall, we find that in the post-monsoon season, there is substantial accumulation of high local NOx emissions from the transport sector (70 % of total emissions, 70 % local), alongside the import of NOx pollution into Delhi (30 % non-local). This work indicates that both high local NOx emissions from the transport sector and the advection of highly polluted air originating from outside Delhi are of concern for the population. As a result, air quality mitigation strategies need to be adopted not only in Delhi but in the surrounding regions to successfully control this issue. In addition, our analysis suggests that the largest benefits to Delhi NOx air quality would be seen with targeted reductions in emissions from the transport and agricultural waste burning sectors, particularly during the post-monsoon season
Autonomous Weapon System: Debating Legal–Ethical Consideration and Meaningful Human Control Challenges in the Military Environment
No full textThe human experience of warfare is changing with the introduction of AI in the field of advance weapon technology. Particularly, in the last five years, autonomous weapon system (AWS) has generated intense debate globally over the potential benefit and potential problems associated with these systems. Military planners understand that AWS can perform the most difficult and complex tasks, with or without human interference and, therefore, can significantly reduce military casualties and save costs. These systems act as force multipliers to counter security threats. On the other hand, political pundits and public intellectuals opine that AWS, without human control, can lead to highly problematic ethical and legal consequences, and some even claiming that it is unethical to allow machines control the life and death of a human being. Several prominent public intellectuals, including influential figures like Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called for banning of “offensive autonomous weapons beyond meaningful human control”. But on the contrary, the militaries believe that the AWS can perform better without human control and follow legal and ethical rules better than soldiers. The debate over the AWS is a continuous one. This chapter will look into the emergence of AWS, its future potential and how it will impact future war scenarios, focussing thereby on the debate over the ethical–legal use of AWS and the viewpoints of military planners
Insights on the distribution, catch and release and public sentiment towards recreational angling of mahseers—A study of YouTube videos from India
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Rural-urban transition and food security in India
Get PDFAs a growing proportion of world's population lives in cities and towns, food security is increasingly acquiring an urban character. The locus of food security research and policy agendas has correspondingly expanded from rural areas to include urban centres in recent years. However, the dominant discourse on urbanization-food security relationship appears to be shaped by perspectives from the Global North and large cities, and disregards urbanization-food security nexus in small towns of the Global South. This paper aims to correct this bias. With a focus on India where urbanization is increasingly concentrated in small, former rural regions, this paper looks at the food security implications of country's rural-urban transition and advances a conceptual framework to understand the food security impacts of peripheral urbanization