267 research outputs found
Re-orientalism and Representation: Aman Sethi Talks About Delhi
No full textIn the (re)presentation of India by Indian authors writing in English there is an overlooked, long-standing tradition of sterling commentaries produced by social analysts. In the best of that tradition which blurs the divide between the literary and journalistic, Aman Sethi, in A Free Man (2012), crosses significant class boundaries to represent Delhi with disconcerting rawness through stories of its itinerant labourers. This article investigates whether Sethi’s innovative methods of data collection and modes of representation used to deconstruct the alterity of subaltern representation are able to resist re-orientalism and address the crisis of authenticity in Indian writing in English (IWE); or whether re-orientalism is inexorably reiterated as a result of the distance and difference in positionality between author and subject. Focusing on representation via the form of non-fiction narrative, it discusses the extent to which form and authorial intention to avoid strategic exoticism and staged marginality can circumvent the pitfalls of re-orientalism when representing the subaltern
“the struggle to be free”: A Conversation with Aman Sethi
No full textInternational audienceAman Sethi is an Indian journalist and the author of A Free Man (2011), a literary reportage on the lives of homeless daily wage workers in an Old Delhi labour market. In the following interview, Sethi looks back on A Free Man, a book he views as an attempt to try and capture the workers’ “struggle to be free” in an oppressive world, eleven years after its publication. He also reflects on his journalistic and creative practice both in this book and in earlier and later pieces. He insists on his keenness to experiment with new techniques for writing non-fiction and on the necessity to project oneself into spaces that differ from one’s own.Aman Sethi est un journaliste indien et l’auteur de A Free Man (2011), un reportage littéraire sur la vie de travailleurs journaliers sans-abri d’un marché de Old Delhi. Dans l’entretien qui suit, Sethi revient sur A Free Man, ouvrage dans lequel il tente de saisir la « lutte des travailleurs pour la liberté » au sein d’un monde d’oppression, onze années après sa publication. Il s’interroge également sur sa pratique journalistique et créative à la fois dans ce livre et dans des articles antérieurs et postérieurs. Il insiste sur sa volonté d’expérimenter et de développer de nouvelles techniques d’écriture non-fictionnelle et sur la nécessité de se projeter dans des espaces différents du sien
Food Security in South Asia : Issues and Opportunities
No full textFood security is defined as economic access to food along with food production and food availability. Agriculture in the SAR (South Asian Region) is caught in a low equilibrium trap with low productivity of staples, supply shortfalls, high prices, low returns to farmers and area diversification - all these factors can be a threat to food security. South Asia still has the highest number of people (423 millions) living on less than one dollar a day. The region has the highest concentration of undernourished (299 million) and poor people with about 40 per cent of the worlds hungry. Despite an annual 1.7 per cent reduction in the prevalence of undernourishment in the region in the past decade, the failure to reduce the absolute number of the undernourished remains a major cause for concern. Estimates by the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) indicate that by 2010, Asia will still account for about one-half of the worlds undernourished population, of which two-thirds will be from South Asia. Though SAARC countries have established a food bank to meet the needs of food security in the region, it has not been operational even during times of crisis. This is despite the felt need of member nations to evolve mechanisms to make the SAARC Food Security Reserve operational. It is against this background that this study has been undertaken. Conducted in collaboration with think-tanks from South Asian countries, it aims to identify issues relating to food security, the policy initiatives taken to tackle these issues, evaluate these policies and suggest measures to overcome identified constraints in order to improve the food security situation in the region.South Asia, food security, Safety Nets, Food Bank
Manufacturing Feature Recognition from Solid Models
No full textIndiscrete part manufacturing a product undergoes a finite number of machining and
assembly operations. When a finished design is passed to the manufacturing department,
detailed instructions are required to convert the work material (blank) from its initial form to final
form defined by an engineering drawing or product model. These detailed instructions required
are known as process plan. So once the process planning phase has been completed, actual
production of the part begins, according to instructions generated during the process planning. So
the interface between the design and manufacturing is process planning - Today computer aided
design (CAD) and computer aided manufacturing (CAM), have been implemented. Process
planning is the critical bridge between design and manufacturing. In CAD/CAM Integration,
computer aided process planning (CAPP) system plays a Key role between design and
manufacturing.
In a typical CAD/CAPP/CAM/ integration, there are two basic interfaces to be
established, CAD/CAPP interface and CAPP/CAM interface.
The former is accomplished by a "Feature Recognizer ", whereas the latter is achieved
by an "NC part programme Generator"
Informally, features are generic shapes or other characteristics of a part with which
engineers can associate knowledge useful for reasoning about the part. These are many
published, definitions of the concept of a feature. Even enough there definitions seem to be
dissimilar, they are consider features as entities which are of semantically higher level than the
pure geometric elements typically used in solid modeling systems. Features are generally be
classified into three categories; design features, machining feature and geometric features.
The geometric aspects of features are defined as volumes enveloped by a set of real and
imaginary faces. Geometric elements are solid primitives in CSG type solid models (blocks,
Cylinders, spheres, tore) or boundary elements used in B-Rep type solid models (faces, edges,
vortices)- Almost Universally, the concept of generic feature classes is used and models are built
from Instances of genetic features - The generic type may be organized into feature taxonomy,
often realized as a collection of classes with in inheritance of information according to the
principles of object-oriented programming. In the type - instance approach, feature instances are
represented in terms of various feature attributes, common attributes include the intrinsic
geometric attributes of shape corresponding to the feature (length, width, depth, radius), the
position and orientation of the feature with respect to some global coordinate frame, geometric
tolerances, material properties, references of the type.
A manufacturing feature is commonly defined as a collection of related geometric
elements which correspond to a particular manufacturing method or process, or which can be
used to reason about the suitable manufacturing method or processes for creating that geometry.
The Development of an automatic CAD/CAPP interface with the use of features has
generally been proposed within the following two main philosophies; First is Design the part with
solid modeling system and then manufacturing specific information is Retrieved from the
geometrical Representation of component alone is known as Automatic Feature Recognition or
Extraction.
Second approach is Design the part with a feature-based modeling system and thereby
incorporate manufacturing information in the model at the design stage is known as Feature
Based Modeling.
Automatic feature Recognition has been an active Research area in solid modeling for
many years and is considered as critical component for integration of computer-Aided design and
computer Aided Manufacturing(CAD/CAM).Advanced Computing methods used in feature
processing include the use of Expert systems and Artificial Intelligence(AI) techniques ,so these
techniques are also discussed in detail. This Thesis gives an overview of the state-of-the-art in
feature recognition research. Various Algorithmic approaches for feature Recognition: graph
based algorithm, volumetric decomposition techniques, and hint based geometric reasoning.
Each approach is discussed in detail with some assessments of the technology.Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Thapar University, Patiala
India’s Macroeconomic Performance and Policies since 2000
No full textThe paper reviews Indias macroeconomic performance and policies since 2000. The first section briefly summarizes key macroeconomic developments regarding economic growth, inflation, external balance, the fiscal situation and aggregate savings and investment. The second section considers some of the challenges posed to macroeconomic management in this period and the efficacy of the policy responses adopted. In particular, it analyses the progress in fiscal consolidation and the policies adopted to deal with the challenge of the unprecedented surge in external capital inflows into India. The final section outlines some of the major macro policy issues that need to be addressed in the years ahead, including : the resurgence of high fiscal deficits; the issues relating to external convertibility and exchange rate management; the role of the Reserve Bank of India in macroeconomic policy and coping with a weak international economic environment.economic growth, inflation, Fiscal Policy, savings and investment, Capital Inflows, exchange rate policy, central bank role
Tariff rates, tariff revenue, and tariff reform : some new facts
No full textThe ad valorem tariff rateson specific products and the ratio of tariff revenue to import value, the collected rate, are only tenuously related, contend the authors. Using tariff and revenue data (at the tariff code line level of detail) for three developing countries, the authors compare the statutory ad valorem tariff rates (official rates) with the ratio of tariff revenues to import values (collected rates). They document four facts: (1) the collected rate for any given item of the tariff code has almost no relationship to the official rate for that item; (2) the variation of collected rates around the official rate increases as the level of the official rate increases; (3) the collected rates increase much less, on average, than one-for-one with the official rates; and (4) above a certain level, collected rates do not increase at all despite increases in official rates. Collection rates appear to level off at roughly 50 percent. (In Kenya, collected rates are lower for high-tariff than for moderate-tariff items. Assigning lower rates for the high-tariff items would actually increase revenue on those items.) The implications of these findings are twofold for calculating general revenue. The rates are not the critical determinant of revenues. The revenue implications of large rate changes can be offset by modest changes in the system of exemptions, for example. The benefit of eliminating exemptions is primarily transparency. The costs of programs that provide import exemptions for, say, regional promotion, are often hidden in customs statistics. Secondly, if pressures that cause collected rates not to increase one-for-one with tariff rates will continue to be present in any tariff regime, then these must be factored into tariff reform design.TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Export Competitiveness,Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade and Regional Integration,Economic Theory&Research
Rent - seeking trade policy : a time series approach
No full textUsing a time-series approach, the author analyzes the relationship between the extent of rent-seeking trade policy and both political and economic variables. For rent-seeking trade policy, the indicator he uses is the number of foreign-trade regulations passed each year for the benefit of a single firm or industry. The author uses data from Uruguay for 1925-83. Uruguay, which experienced an impressive economic decline, is an outstanding example of a rent-seeking society. After being a wealthy economy in midcentury, it suffered almost complete stagnation, which led to social and policital disintegration by the end of the 1960s. Three decades of restrictive regulations on foreign trade had created a nearly closed economy by the end of the 1960s. It was worth analyzing whether policymakers'great receptiveness to demands for protection could account for Uruguay's decline. Over the period 1925-83, the author finds almost 4,000 laws, decrees, and administrative resolutions that create, maintain, or modify a foreign-trade regulation for the benefit of a single firm or industry. About half of them explicitly identify the petitioner - usually a firm or guild. Since the size of the Uruguayan economy changed over the period studied, the author scales the annual number of regulations by output or exports to measure the extent of rent-seeking trade policy. The author shows that the extent of rent-seeking trade policy increased with discretionary policies and under dictatorship. (In the period studied, there were two stages of democracy - until 1932 and from 1943-72 - and two stages of dictatorship.) He also shows that rent-seeking trade restrictions increased under import-substitution strategies and, more unexpectedly, under active export promotion. This suggests that discretionary power leads to wasteful distribution, whether it is used to support inward- or outward-oriented policies. Finally, the author analyzes the correlation between innovations in the trade policy indicator and innovations in the growth rates of output and exports, with a lag of up to 20 years. Surprisingly, he finds a positive correlation with output growth rates after two or three years. But the correlation becomes negative some years later, particularly in the case of exports. The short-run positive impact on growth rates, together with the surprisingly long time lag before the negative impact, may account for policymakers'receptiveness to demands for protection.Trade Policy,Achieving Shared Growth,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies
Disruption of brainstem monoaminergic fibre tracts in multiple sclerosis as a putative mechanism for cognitive fatigue:a fixel-based analysis
No full textIn multiple sclerosis (MS), monoaminergic systems are altered as a result of both inflammation-dependent reduced synthesis and direct structural damage. Aberrant monoaminergic neurotransmission is increasingly considered a major contributor to fatigue pathophysiology. In this study, we aimed to compare the integrity of the monoaminergic white matter fibre tracts projecting from brainstem nuclei in a group of patients with MS (n = 68) and healthy controls (n = 34), and to investigate its association with fatigue. Fibre tracts integrity was assessed with the novel fixel-based analysis that simultaneously estimates axonal density, by means of 'fibre density', and white matter atrophy, by means of fibre 'cross section'. We focused on ventral tegmental area, locus coeruleus, and raphe nuclei as the main source of dopaminergic, noradrenergic, and serotoninergic fibres within the brainstem, respectively. Fourteen tracts of interest projecting from these brainstem nuclei were reconstructed using diffusion tractography, and compared by means of the product of fibre-density and cross-section (FDC). Finally, correlations of monoaminergic axonal damage with the modified fatigue impact scale scores were evaluated in MS. Fixel-based analysis revealed significant axonal damage - as measured by FDC reduction - within selective monoaminergic fibre-tracts projecting from brainstem nuclei in MS patients, in comparison to healthy controls; particularly within the dopaminergic-mesolimbic pathway, the noradrenergic-projections to prefrontal cortex, and serotoninergic-projections to cerebellum. Moreover, we observed significant correlations between severity of cognitive fatigue and axonal damage within the mesocorticolimbic tracts projecting from ventral tegmental area, as well as within the locus coeruleus projections to prefrontal cortex, suggesting a potential contribution of dopaminergic and noradrenergic pathways to central fatigue in MS. Our findings support the hypothesis that axonal damage along monoaminergic pathways contributes to the reduction/dysfunction of monoamines in MS and add new information on the mechanisms by which monoaminergic systems contribute to MS pathogenesis and fatigue. This supports the need for further research into monoamines as therapeutic targets aiming to combat and alleviate fatigue in MS.© 2021 T. Carandini, M. Mancini, I. Bogdan, C. Rae, A. Barritt, A. Sethi, N. Harrison, W. Rashid, E. Scarpini, D. Galimberti, M. Bozzali, M. Cercignani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ </p
Optimal control theory applications to management science and economics
No full textThis fully revised 3rd edition offers an introduction to optimal control theory and its diverse applications in management and economics. It brings to students the concept of the maximum principle in continuous and discrete time by using dynamic programming and Kuhn-Tucker theory. While some mathematical background is needed, the emphasis of the book is not on mathematical rigor, but on modeling realistic situations faced in business and management. The book exploits optimal control theory to the functional areas of management science including finance, production and marketing and to economics of growth and of natural resources. In addition, this new edition features materials on stochastic Nash and Stackelberg differential games and an adverse selection model in the principal-agent framework. The book provides exercises for each chapter and answers to selected exercises to help deepen the understanding of the material presented. Also included are appendices comprised of supplementary material on the solution of differential equations, the calculus of variations and its relationships to the maximum principle, and special topics including the Kalman filter, certainty equivalence, singular control, a global saddle point theorem, Sethi-Skiba points, and distributed parameter systems. Optimal control methods are used to determine optimal ways to control a dynamic system. The theoretical work in this field serves as a foundation for the book, which the author has applied to business management problems developed from his research and classroom instruction. The new edition has been completely refined and brought up to date. Ultimately this should continue to be a valuable resource for graduate courses on applied optimal control theory, but also for financial and industrial engineers, economists, and operational researchers concerned with the application of dynamic optimization in their field
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