35 research outputs found
Fluid flow analysis behind heliostat using LES and RANS: A step towards optimized field design in desert regions
No full textThe conflict between theory and practice in caring for children: field narrative of a social worker
No full textEvery child is vulnerable just by virtue of being so, but upon entering the juvenile justice system, this vulnerability is aggravated due to a myriad of reasons such as violence, abuse and neglect, amongst others. This is the plight of 5% of the total population of children in India as per government statistics from 2018. With this in mind, where do we stand at protecting these children, giving them the needed care, support, resources and guidance and ensuring their protection and development once they are declared as children in need of the system's care and protection and sent to live in a child care institution? This paper attempts to bring to light, through the experiences of a social worker in India, the present day conditions of the children and the staff in these homes, focusing on the gap between what exists in theory in the law, the increase in the intensity of the trauma that the children experience in a place that is solely built with the purpose of taking care of them, the practical gaps in implementing laws and policies and hopes to provide suggestions to improve these conditions. The author works as a training coordinator with a leading child and youth care organisation based in Delhi and is currently implementing a state level project to support transitions from care and aftercare to care leavers
The conflict between theory and practice in caring for children : field narrative of a social worker
No full textEvery child is vulnerable just by virtue of being so, but upon entering the juvenile justice system, this vulnerability is aggravated due to a myriad of reasons such as violence, abuse and neglect, amongst others. This is the plight of 5% of the total population of children in India as per government statistics from 2018. With this in mind, where do we stand at protecting these children, giving them the needed care, support, resources and guidance and ensuring their protection and development once they are declared as children in need of the system's care and protection and sent to live in a child care institution? This paper attempts to bring to light, through the experiences of a social worker in India, the present day conditions of the children and the staff in these homes, focusing on the gap between what exists in theory in the law, the increase in the intensity of the trauma that the children experience in a place that is solely built with the purpose of taking care of them, the practical gaps in implementing laws and policies and hopes to provide suggestions to improve these conditions. The author works as a training coordinator with a leading child and youth care organisation based in Delhi and is currently implementing a state level project to support transitions from care and aftercare to care leavers
Early and current socio-economic position and cardiometabolic risk factors in the Indian Migration Study.
No full textAIMS: The aim of this study is to estimate the associations of early and current socio-economic position (SEP) on adult cardiometabolic risk factors in the Indian Migration Study (N = 7,067). METHODS AND RESULTS: Linear mixed models were used to estimate associations between early and current SEP and cardiometabolic risk factors: systolic blood pressure (SBP), body fat and Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA) score. In males, high current SEP was associated with higher SBP. In both genders, high early and current SEP were associated with higher body fat, current SEP dominating the associations. High early SEP was associated with higher HOMA score in males only, and the effect size halved after adjustment for current SEP. High current SEP was associated with higher HOMA score more strongly in males than in females. CONCLUSION: Higher SEP, more importantly in adulthood than childhood, was associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in an Indian population. The relationship between SEP over the life course and urbanization should be considered in the Indian context when public health interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease are planned
To What Extent did the Buddha Define a Natural System?: Insights from Bowen's Natural System Theory of the Family
No full textIn this theoretical study the author examines the function of valid scientific theory in professional psychology. The author does so by comparing the Bowen theory with the theory of human behavior contained in the practice of vipassanā mediation as taught by Satya Narayan Goenka. A modified metaethnography methodology was used to infer paradigmatic guidelines for natural systems research on human behavior from the Bowen literature. These guidelines were used to determine compatibility of “vipassanā theory” with this natural systems paradigm. The study represents an exhaustive population study of pertinent sources from each body of literature. The findings suggest that the vipassanā tradition reviewed contains a natural system theory as opposed to a system of religious belief. Both theories propose that the way a problem is conceptualized determines the actions taken to solve it. Both, therefore, suggest that problems pertaining to living systems, including emotional dysfunction, are most effectively addressed through an effort at objective theoretical research that applies equally to client and clinician. Both theories contrast this attitude of research with mainstream attitudes primarily oriented around clinical intervention and efficacy studies. For clinical psychology as a science, this suggests a current overemphasis on control of human behavior and an underemphasis on prediction through the development of falsifiable theory. Both theories also suggest that such research proceeds optimally when client and clinician apply principles of natural science to their own functioning, particularly in the context of interpersonal relationship. The study concludes with suggested theoretical contributions from vipassanā theory to the natural sciences
Impact of Incidental Aesthetics on Consumer Evaluations
No full textThis doctoral dissertation investigates the impact of incidental aesthetics on consumer perceptions. The author refers to incidental aesthetics in two dimensions. One is in the aesthetic properties of product context that is not directly related to its functional performance. And second is in the aesthetic attributes found in unexpected sources defined as ordinary objects, places, and people. Drawing on theories from aesthetics, psychology, and consumer behavior, this dissertation examines in two manuscripts how and why incidental aesthetics influence consumer evaluations. The first paper, 'Welded Together: How Responses to Incidental, Nondiagnostic Sensory Context (Mis)Guide Simultaneous Product Evaluations,' studies how evaluations of incidental aesthetics from a sensory experience with nondiagnostic product contextual cues are merged with the evaluations of the target product. The second paper, 'Consumer Attentiveness to Beauty in the Ordinary,' examines an understudied dimension of beauty. The construct of attentiveness to beauty in the ordinary is defined as the degree to which individuals mindfully identify and formulate an aesthetic judgment of common visual elements and integrate this mindset into their daily experiences. The authors develop a four-item Attentiveness to Beauty in the Ordinary Scale to measure the construct. Using a mixed-methods approach, combining a series of laboratory experiments and field studies from a diverse sample of consumers (Npaper1 = 49,435; Npaper2 = 2,051), the authors show in the first paper that unappealing (appealing) incidental sensory experiences lead to lower (higher) product evaluations, including perceived quality and purchase intention. The effect emerges when the incidental evaluation pertains to a dimension closely related to the product dimension being evaluated. In the second paper, the findings provide evidence of validity and reliability of the Attentiveness to Beauty in the Ordinary Scale, situate the scale in a network of related constructs such as appreciation of beauty, engagement with beauty, dispositional awe, voluntary simplicity, materialism, mindfulness, and subjective happiness, and demonstrate the predictive value of the scale for consumer perceptions and behavior. Specifically, people high (vs. low) in ordinary beauty attentiveness are less discriminating in aesthetic evaluations of ordinary elements, find higher product quality in naturally-aesthetic packaging, are less persuaded by endorsers' attractiveness, and are more likely to buy imperfect produce. This dissertation contributes to the literature on aesthetics and sensory marketing by revealing that aesthetic experiences that are not intentionally designed or not expected but naturally occur in consumption environments have a significant impact on consumer evaluations. The results have practical implications for marketers and designers, who can leverage the power of incidental aesthetics in marketing strategies to enhance product perceptions.Doctor of PhilosophyThis dissertation explores, across two papers, how natural aesthetic qualities found in things, people, places, or in product contexts, referred to as incidental aesthetics, can influence our perceptions and evaluations of products. In the first paper, the authors find a novel effect in which consumers "merge" aesthetic evaluations of incidental product context that do not affect the functionality of the product (e.g., bad/good music on headphones) with product evaluations they make at the same time (e.g., bad/good quality headphones). This effect occurs because people spontaneously mix the evaluation of the context (e.g., music sound) with the evaluation of a closely related product attribute (e.g., sound quality). In the second paper, the authors define attentiveness to beauty in the ordinary as a disposition that some people have of being more open to finding beauty when it is not expected (i.e., incidental aesthetics) and therefore seeing beauty more frequently in everyday situations than other people. The authors create a scale to measure this individual disposition and find that 1) people with high (vs. low) attentiveness to ordinary beauty see less of a difference in the beauty of elements high and low in aesthetics, 2) find higher product quality in naturally-aesthetic packaging, 3) are less persuaded by the attractiveness of an endorser in an advertisement, and 4) are more likely to buy aesthetically imperfect produce. Adding to existing research, the findings of both papers provide new insights into the impact of incidental aesthetics in consumption settings. Surprisingly, even when aesthetic experiences are not intentionally designed or expected to be found, they can still play a significant role in shaping consumer behavior. These findings have practical implications for marketers, who should consider the incidental aesthetics of their products and contexts to create a more positive experience for consumers, leading to higher product perceptions. Overall, this research suggests that the power of aesthetics in influencing behavior extends beyond what consumers consciously perceive or expect to find
B Cell–deficient Mice Display Markedly Enhanced Resistance to the Intracellular Bacterium Brucella abortus
No full textBackground. Brucella species are facultative intracellular bacteria that cause lifelong infections in humans and livestock. Methods. Here we evaluated the contribution of B cells in control of murine brucellosis in the more susceptible BALB/c and the more resistant C57BL/6 mice by infecting B cell-deficient mice. Results. Strikingly, in the absence of B cells in both C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice, 99% and 99.5% of the infection found in wild type mice was cleared, respectively. This augmented clearance was not reversed in either strain by passive transfer of immune serum. In C57BL/6 mice, the clearance of infection coincided with an increase in interferon γ (IFN-γ)- producing CD4 and CD8 T cells and a reduction in interleukin 10 (IL-10)-producing cells. In BALB/c mice, this clearance was IFN-γ- dependent, as B cell/IFN-γ dual knockout mice were unable to clear the infection, and was inversely related to the levels of transforming growth factor β (TGF-β). Furthermore, B cells were found to produce TGF-β and IL-10 during early stages of infection in BALB/c wild-type and C57BL/6 wild-type mice, respectively. Conclusions. Thus, we demonstrate that the establishment of the high plateau phase of infection is dependent on non-antibody-mediated B cell effector mechanisms, including B regulatory functions, during murine brucellosis. © The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved
Dieulafoy's lesion in children
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Bonuses, Credit Rating Agencies and the Credit Crunch
No full textThe payment of bonuses can bring big benefits. But harm, too, can result. In the financial sector, this is especially true, above all when they are related to noisy indicators of performance over brief periods. This paper starts by exploring these ideas, then proceeds to examine credit rating agencies and their role in the 2007 credit crunch. It emphasizes the paucity of long term high frequency financial data to quantify tail event risks, the failure to apply analysis of fundamentals in financial and housing markets, and rewards structures to individual players that reinforced myopia as three key components of the crisis.bonuses; credit crunch; credit rating agencies.
Estimating DSGE Models under Partial Information
No full textMost DSGE models and methods make inappropriate asymmetric information assumptions. They assume that all economic agents have full access to measurement of all variables and past shocks, whereas the econometricians have no access to this. An alternative assumption is that there is symmetry, in that the information set available to both agents and econometricians is incomplete. The reality lies somewhere between the two, because agents are likely to be subject to idiosyncratic shocks which they can observe, but are unable to observe other agents’ idiosyncratic shocks, as well as being unable to observe certain economy-wide shocks; however such assumptions generally lead to models that have no closed-form solution. This research aims to compare the two alternatives - the asymmetric case,as commonly used in the literature, and the symmetric case, which uses the partial information solution of Pearlman et al. (1986) using standard EU datasets. We use Bayesian MCMC methods, with log-likelihoods accounting for partial information.The work then extends the data to allow for a greater variety of measurements, and evaluates the effect on estimates, along the lines of work by Boivin and Giannoni (2005).partial information, DSGE models, Bayesian maximum likelihood.
