1,880 research outputs found
The Forman Christian College Monthly
No full textEwing NumberBatra, P. N.-Leading Editorial. pp. 2-3; Griswold, H. D.-Dr. Ewing's Life and Work in India. pp. 3-5; Farewell Address to Dr. J. C. R. Ewing. pp. 5-9; Wadhawa Ram-Figures I Move Among. pp. 9-11; Harbans Lall Datt-Essay-Poetry. pp. 11-12; Vir Bhan Kathuria-To the Freshers. pp. 13-14; Wit and Humour. pp. 14-17; Prem Sukh-Poetry-Riddles. pp. 18; Bhatty, M. S.-A Memorable Parting. pp. 19; Bhatty, M. S.-An Election Tournament. pp. 19-20; Batra, P. N.-Athletics. pp. 20-21; Fazal, C.-Exchanges. pp. 21-22; Book Reviews. pp. 22-24Rev. J. C. R. Ewing, Principal Emeritus and formerly Vice-Chancellor of the Punjab University. before content
Socio-economic determinants of Over-Indebtedness of Microfinance Borrowers: insights for Client Protection against modern financial challenges
No full textUnderstanding the socioeconomic challenges faced by poor and vulnerable populations is crucial, as these groups are disproportionately affected by financial instability, inequality, and limited access to finance. Over-indebtedness remains a pressing concern, as excessive borrowing can lead to financial distress, reduced well-being, and long-term economic instability among low-income borrowers. This research examines the issue of borrowers' over-indebtedness in Nepal's microfinance institutions from the standpoint of client protection against the backdrop of global socioeconomic challenges
such as rising inequality and increasing vulnerability of marginalized people. A questionnaire survey was administered among 180 MFI borrowers between August and September 2021, focusing on the sacrifices reported by borrowers as a result of their loans. Over-indebtedness is assessed using a subjective indicator based on reported loan-related sacrifices across 12 dimensions. These sacrifices are evaluated in terms of both acceptability and frequency. Using binary logistic regression, the study found that financial literacy, income level, multiple borrowing, and loan utilization are major predictors of over-indebtedness. The number of dependents in a household was found to be significant only in terms of acceptability, highlighting the role of family burden in financial distress. However, factors such as the type of business, the borrower’s age, and income volatility were not significant predictors of over-indebtedness. The findings suggest that financial literacy programs, improved income-generating opportunities, and responsible loan usage can mitigate over-indebtedness and promote sustainable financial inclusion. The results provide critical insights for microfinance institutions, policymakers, and regulators, emphasizing the need for strengthened client protection mechanisms. By addressing over-indebtedness, microfinance institutions can contribute to long-term financial stability and economic empowerment, ensuring that borrowers benefit from financial services without falling into debt traps. These findings contribute to the broader discourse on responsible microfinance practices, reinforcing the necessity for balanced policies that safeguard both financial inclusion and borrower well-being
Charge carrier dynamics in PffBT4T-2OD: PCBM organic solar cells
No full textWe investigate the charge carrier dynamics of inverted organic solar cells (OSCs) based on PffBT4T-2OD: PCBM and PTB7: PCBM - the two leading systems among the OSCs based on polymer-fullerene bulk-heterojunction - to elucidate the origin of their performance difference. Transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS) and photo-electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (photo-EIS) were employed to unravel the photo-physics that govern the cell operation of these two highly efficient bulk heterojunction OSCs. While photo-EIS indicates that the two systems under study exhibit similar behavior in terms of recombination, TAS results reveal that PffBT4T-2OD: PCBM systems not only have higher charge generation rate but also more efficient charge transfer than PTB7: PCBM systems, leading to the power conversion efficiency of PffBT4T-2OD: PCBM-based OSCs (9.16%) that is higher than that of PTB7: PCBM-based OSCs (6.44%).
Growth and Poverty. The case of México
No full textAlthough poverty levels have been diminishing in Mexico since the late 90’s, several regions still show high levels of poverty which are extremely high in some rural areas. The paper addresses the issue of the linkages between sectoral growth (urban/rural) and poverty levels by applying Ravallion and Datt (1996) reduced equation´s approach to regional data for Mexico. Poverty levels in rural and urban areas are thus linked to the performance of agricultural and non agricultural growth. Although the data cover only 8 years, following Deaton (1994) we make use, for the first time to these data to the best of our knowledge, of their spatial variation to get enough degrees of freedom. The main finding of the paper was that, although both types of growth impacted negatively on poverty levels in Mexico, rural growth seems to have had substantially higher power in improving consumption per capita for the poorest among the poor people. Urban growth affected mostly urban poverty whereas rural growth affected principally rural poverty. The only inter-sector linkage found was the one that connects rural growth with urban poverty for those people above the food-poverty line but below the moderate poverty line. Exploring plausible channels, we have found that whilerural growth enhances equality of income distribution at total and urban levels, urban growth does exactly the opposite increasing inequality in rural areas. We further explored labor market issues and found that rural growth impacted positively on labor demand for unskilled workers. We have also explored the issue of the impact of rural/urban growth on relative food prices, although no impact was found here. The share of agriculture in total income is relatively more important for poor people in rural areas, and most of the food-poor people live in rural areas. This may be at the root of our findingsEconomic growth, poverty, inequality, agriculture,
Deformation and Aerodynamic Performance of a Ram-Air Wing
No full textRam-air wings form an ever increasing market of soft fabric, air inflated wings. They are primairily used in air sports such as parachuting, paragliding and kiting. Ram-air kites may also be used for electric power generation by letting the kite pull a cable from a drum that is connected to a generator. An example if this principle is the Laddermill concept. But since ram-air wings are flexible by nature they will deform and depart from their intended design shape when they are loaded by aerodynamic forces. These deformations generally affect the performance of the wings adversely. Kites with a higher lift-to-drag ratio on the Laddermill could mean a direct increase of the energy produced per square meter of kite. Besides this benefit for the Laddermill there is a huge, world-wide market of parachuting, paragliding and kiting that can benefit from more research and a better understanding of the deformation and aerodynamic performance of ram-air wings. The goals of this thesis are to be able to point out where a ram-air kite departs from the intended design shape, to investigate how well the kite performs, to understand how the deformations affect the airflow and to make suggestions for possible improvements of the design. Since little has been published about these subjects this report will most of all form a basis for further research. This report presents a method to analyse the shape and the aerodynamics of a ram-air kite. The kite is tested in the windtunnel. Its 3D shape is captured using two techniques: photogrammetry and laser scanning. Using the geometry data the structural deformation of the wing is dissected. With computational fluid dynamics the aerodynamics of the deformed shape is analyzed. An extra result of this study is the comparison of photogrammetry and laser scanning in terms of their suitability to capture the 3D shape of the ram-air kite. A number of interesting deformations and flow features were found on the ram-air wing: - Theoretically the bumps (ballooning) and grooves on a ram-air wing hinder the spanwise flow on a 3-dimensional wing, but in practise this effect is only visible on small parts of the upper surface. - The pull of the suspension lines on the under surface and the internal construction of the wing make the upper surface of the wing deform. This results in a decrease of the upper surface curvature, especially near the nose. This curvature decrease causes a loss of lift of at least 5%. - Because the flat, 2-dimensional fabric is inflated into a 3-dimensional shape the fabric wrinkles. The wrinkles continue from the top and bottom surface into the ribs that internally connect and support the top and bottom surface. On average these wrinkles shorten the ribs in chordwise direction by 3.5%. This decreases the surface area of the wing and it makes the ribs effectively thicker. Many more details became visible with the thorough analysis of the wing’s shape. The conclusion is that the performance of the ram-air wing can be improved by changing these details. The photogrammetry measuring technique gave better results than laser scanning and is very suitable tool to make these details visible. It allows a designer to identify where the real flying shape deviates from the design shape. This can help kite designers and designers of other ram-air wings to reverse-Aerospace Engineerin
Great Expectatrics: Great Papers, Great Journals, Great Econometrics
No full textThe paper discusses alternative Research Assessment Measures (RAM), with an emphasis on the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The various ISI RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily are defined and analysed, including the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, and PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors). The ISI RAM data are analysed for 8 leading econometrics journals and 4 leading statistics journals. The application to econometrics can be used as a template for other areas in economics, for other scientific disciplines, and as a benchmark for newer journals in a range of disciplines. In addition to evaluating high quality research in leading econometrics journals, the paper also compares econometrics and statistics, alternative RAM, highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM criteria, finds that several ISI RAM capture similar performance characteristics for the leading econometrics and statistics journals while the new PI-BETA criterion is not highly correlated with any of the other ISI RAM, and hence conveys additional information regarding ISI RAM, highlights major research areas in leading journals in econometrics, and discusses some likely future uses of RAM.Research assessment measures, impact factors, Immediacy, Eigenfactor score, Article influence, h-index, C3PO, Zinfluence, PI-BETA
Scientometric portrait of Ram Gopal Rastogi
No full textPublication productivity of Indian scientist (R.G. Rastogi) has been documented.
Scientometric analysis of 312 papers by Ram Gopal Rastogi published during 1954 to 1992 in various domains: (a) Luni -solar activity and quiet -time E & F- region (57); (b) Equatorial electric field and low and mid latitude iof:osphere (78); (c) Ionospheric E- region irregularities (19); (dj Ionospheric F- region irregularities (32); and (e) Magnetic disturbance effects on the equatorial low and mid latitude ionosphere (23) were analysed. Interdomainery contents and of the number of papers: a+b were 36; b+c and b+d were 20 each; b+e were 16;. c+e were 5; a+e were 3; d+e were 2; and a+d had only one publication. Highest collaborations were with H. Chandra (61), M.R. Deshpande (42), and G. Sethia (19) out of his total 97 collaborators. His highest productivity was during 1978 with 28 papers followed by 19 papers during 1977. The core journals preferred by him for publishing papers were: Indian Journal of Radio & Space Physics, India, and Journal of Atomic & Terrestrial Physics, UK (59 each), followed by Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences, India (34). Most prolific title keywords with their frequencies were: Ionosphere (92); Equatorial (61); F-region (53); Equatorial electrojet region (40), and Magnetic equator (30)
Great Expectatrics: Great Papers, Great Journals, Great Econometrics
No full textThe paper discusses alternative Research Assessment Measures (RAM), with an emphasis on the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The various ISI RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily are defined and analysed, including the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, and PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors). The ISI RAM data are analysed for 8 leading econometrics journals and 4 leading statistics journals. The application to econometrics can be used as a template for other areas in economics, for other scientific disciplines, and as a benchmark for newer journals in a range of disciplines. In addition to evaluating high quality research in leading econometrics journals, the paper also compares econometrics and statistics, alternative RAM, highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM criteria, finds that several ISI RAM capture similar performance characteristics for the leading econometrics and statistics journals while the new PI-BETA criterion is not highly correlated with any of the other ISI RAM, and hence conveys additional information regarding ISI RAM, highlights major research areas in leading journals in econometrics, and discusses some likely future uses of RAM.Research assessment measures; impact factors; Immediacy; Eigenfactor score; Article influence; h-index; C3PO; Zinfluence; PI-BETA
- …
