Intermittency and roughening in the failure of brittle heterogeneous materials

Stress enhancement in the vicinity of brittle cracks makes the macro-scale failure properties extremely sensitive to the micro-scale material disorder. Therefore: (i) Fracturing systems often display a jerky dynamics, so-called crackling noise, with seemingly random sudden energy release spanning over a broad range of scales, reminiscent of earthquakes; (ii) Fracture surfaces exhibit roughness at scales much larger than that of material micro-structure. Here, I provide a critical review of experiments and simulations performed in this context, highlighting the existence of universal scaling features, independent of both the material and the loading conditions, reminiscent of critical phenomena. I finally discuss recent stochastic descriptions of crack growth in brittle disordered media that seem to capture qualitatively - and sometimes quantitatively - these scaling features.Comment: 38 pages, invited review for J. Phys. D cluster issue on "Fracture: from the Atomic to the Geophysics Scale

Rural Credit in India in Peril

This review article uses the contributions in this important book “Financial Liberalization and Rural Credit in India” to look at the policies surrounding rural credit in India, its links with the macro-context and the situation on the ground in the post-reform period.Development banking, rural credit, financial liberalization, informalization, micro-credit, credit-deposit ratio, cooperatives.

Corporate Entrepreneurship of Emerging Market Firms: current research and future directions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) of emerging market firms (EMFs) and provide direction for future research on the topic. Design/methodology/approach – The authors specifically review the recent literature between the years 2000 and 2019 on CE with the keywords “corporate entrepreneurship,” “emerging economies” and “emerging countries” published in the Australian Business Deans Council list journals. The authors review the existing literature about CE in emerging markets, summarize current achievements and present an agenda for future research. Findings – Based on the review, the authors categorized the macro and micro contexts of CE and summarized the current articles on CE in emerging markets within each macro and micro context. The authors conclude that despite the abundance of research on CE that investigates the three prongs of CE in terms of innovation, strategic renewal and new venturing in developed market contexts, there is a scarcity of literature that focuses on CE in emerging markets from a holistic perspective. Originality/value – While there is an abundance of literature review on CE in general in terms of the drivers of the construct, the contexts contributing to it and the outcomes, the reviews are lacking about CE specifically within the context of emerging markets. Emerging markets vary from developed markets institutionally, economically, culturally, socially and technologically. However, the questions of how these differences impact the CE activities, as it relates to innovation, venturing and strategic renewal in EMFs, and how these differences provide incentives or hinder the activities that contribute to CE remain mostly unanswered. This paper reviewed the research on CE and emerging market contexts from 2000 to present. It targets to provide a better understanding of the current achievement on this topic and what to be done in the future

Presenting Unemployment in Principles Classes: Micro and Macro Perspectives

The interpretation of unemployment can differ, depending on whether it is presented in a micro or macro context. Instead of glossing over these different perspectives, instructors can expound on them as a means to reinforce basic graphical analysis, to introduce or review the distinction between stocks and flows, and to discuss policy issues related to unemployment, the measurement of unemployment and the labor market.unemployment, labor market, minimum wage, stocks and flows

The Challenge of Modelling Galactic Disks

Detailed models of galactic disk formation and evolution require knowledge about the initial conditions under which disk galaxies form, the boundary conditions that affect their secular evolution and the micro-physical processes that drive the multi-phase interstellar medium and regulate the star formation history. Unfortunately, up to now, most of these ingredients are still poorly understood. The challenge therefore is to, despite this caveat, construct realistic models of galactic disks with predictive power. This short review will summarize some problems related to numerical simulations of galactic disk formation and evolution.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, invited contribution: IAU Symposium 254 on "The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Context

Financial Structures and Egalitarian Economic Policy

Written in 1995 and published in the New Left Review, this Working Paper remains highly relevant to the current financial crisis. Pollin grapples with how we can maintain the pursuit of egalitarianism in the context of globalization. He considers how we may harness financial institutions and activities to promote renewed egalitarian policy, by bringing dramatic increases in the democratic control over financial markets and the allocation of credit. He proposes ways to do so without sacrificing the basic sources of micro efficiency and macro coordination and stability that are necessary for any viable economic strategy.

STATE � OF � ART OF INDIAN COMPETITIVENESS

Competitiveness makes or mars performance of firms, industries, nations in the current hyper competitive global market. India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world in recent years. One after another study, is projecting that India would be a leading economy in 21st century. This research work is an attempt to study the competitiveness of India. It looks at both macro and micro aspects. To have a macro perspective, it studies the performance of Indian economy in two prominent indices of competitiveness. India has improved its rankings in the competitiveness indices. To have a micro perspective, it undertakes a literature review on the subject in Indian context. The findings are mixed and the firms, industry and the country need to put in efforts for improving its competitiveness. The findings are mixed on the impact of liberalisation on competitiveness. It identifies government level issues and firm level issues for competitiveness.India, competitiveness, liberalization, globalization, global competitiveness

The Micro Political Economy of Gains by Unorganised Workers in India

This review of literature looks at the micro-political mechanisms through which unorganised labour makes gains in wages and conditions of work, in a context of real wage rises since about 2005 and the ubiquity of informal labour contracts. It examines the micro level impact of demand and supply factors, the pressures on employers to concede to demands and the various methods used by labour to push its positions

Cosmological Probes for Supersymmetry

The multi-parameter character of supersymmetric dark-matter models implies the combination of their experimental studies with astrophysical and cosmological probes. The physics of the early Universe provides nontrivial effects of non-equilibrium particles and primordial cosmological structures. Primordial black holes (PBHs) are a profound signature of such structures that may arise as a cosmological consequence of supersymmetric (SUSY) models. SUSY-based mechanisms of baryosynthesis can lead to the possibility of antimatter domains in a baryon asymmetric Universe. In the context of cosmoparticle physics, which studies the fundamental relationship of the micro- and macro-worlds, the development of SUSY illustrates the main principles of this approach, as the physical basis of the modern cosmology provides cross-disciplinary tests in physical and astronomical studies.Comment: Invited review to the special issue "Supersymmetry and Dark matter" (ed. D.Cline) of the Symmetry journal. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:0801.0116, arXiv:1311.246