Vacaspati: A Diverse Corpus of Bangla Literature

Bangla (or Bengali) is the fifth most spoken language globally; yet, the state-of-the-art NLP in Bangla is lagging for even simple tasks such as lemmatization, POS tagging, etc. This is partly due to lack of a varied quality corpus. To alleviate this need, we build Vacaspati, a diverse corpus of Bangla literature. The literary works are collected from various websites; only those works that are publicly available without copyright violations or restrictions are collected. We believe that published literature captures the features of a language much better than newspapers, blogs or social media posts which tend to follow only a certain literary pattern and, therefore, miss out on language variety. Our corpus Vacaspati is varied from multiple aspects, including type of composition, topic, author, time, space, etc. It contains more than 11 million sentences and 115 million words. We also built a word embedding model, Vac-FT, using FastText from Vacaspati as well as trained an Electra model, Vac-BERT, using the corpus. Vac-BERT has far fewer parameters and requires only a fraction of resources compared to other state-of-the-art transformer models and yet performs either better or similar on various downstream tasks. On multiple downstream tasks, Vac-FT outperforms other FastText-based models. We also demonstrate the efficacy of Vacaspati as a corpus by showing that similar models built from other corpora are not as effective. The models are available at https://bangla.iitk.ac.in/

Adoption and impact of integrated Striga and soil fertility management strategy in Mali

The possibility to vary the energy matrix, thus reducing the dependency on fossil fuels, has amplified the acceptance of biomass as an alternative fuel. Despite being a cheap and renewable option of waste from agriculture and forestry activities, the use of these materials has barriers due to its low density and low energetic efficiency, which can raise the costs of its utilization. Biomass densification has drawn attention due to its advantage in comparison to in natura biomass due to its better physical and combustion characteristics. Work has been carried out in this areas namely in the densification (briquettes) forestry wastes, kiwi and vine punning waste and their respectively elementary characterization. In a subsequent step, this work also presents the study of the thermal performance and combustion hygiene of the different briquettes produced in a burning hot water boiler. The thermal efficiency was determined by the direct method and it was found that the boiler thermal performance was quite similar for the different types of fuel tested and did not depend on the fuel feeding rate

Las caras cambiantes de las mujeres en la India, a través de las lentes de arte y artistas activistas

Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología, leída el 22-07-2020The aim of this thesis is to study the changing status of women in India through their representation and practices in art. To evaluate how art practices of Indian women might be addressing empowerment, promoting socio-economic and progressive cultures. I base my arguments on the premise that art has the power to transform societies, as affirmed by Ernst Fischer in his essay The Necessity of Art.7This thesis attempts to analyse the impact of privileged and rural artists practices, their feminist and humanist concerns. The study was inspired by two pioneering exhibitions. Tiger by the Tail! Women Artists of India Transforming Culture, held at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University, Boston;8 almost coincidental with Global Feminisms in the Brooklyn museum...El objetivo principal de esta tesis es estudiar los cambios en la situación de la mujer en India a través de su representación en el arte y sus prácticas artísticas. Examino cómo podrían abordar cuestiones de empoderamiento, promover mejoras socioeconómicas y culturas progresistas. Parte de la premisa del poder del arte para forjar avances en las sociedades, tal como recoge Ernst Fischer en su ensayo The Necessity of Art.1Analizo el impacto del trabajo de las artistas privilegiadas y rurales, y sus preocupaciones feministas y humanistas. Esta investigación empezó con dos exposiciones pioneras...Fac. de Ciencias Políticas y SociologíaTRUEunpu

Healthcare and the oppression of sexual and gender diverse communities in Bangladesh : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the School of Social Work, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Since Bangladeshi society is socio-culturally and religiously conservative, sexual and gender diverse communities live with stigma, violence, and discrimination. One form of discrimination lies in the healthcare system. The purpose of this study is to investigate the healthcare experiences of these communities to depict the oppression they face, and to understand the continuing influence of colonialism and patriarchy that maintain this oppression. To investigate this, healthcare is argued as either a human right from the social justice point of view or a tool for oppression for marginalised communities. The methodology used is phenomenological to examine the lived healthcare experiences of the participants. To collect data, I used qualitative methods including participant interviews, a focus group discussion, and key informant interviews. I worked as a volunteer with one local agency that works with sexual and gender diverse communities in Bangladesh. Volunteering helped to build networks and recruit participants. Thematic methods are used for data analysis and full ethics approval is obtained from Massey University, New Zealand. The participants live in a repressive environment with stigma, harassment, limited education and employment opportunities, lack of family support, mental health issues, and inadequate health support. They frequently experience — depending on their disclosure — humiliation, neglect, insults, and discrimination in healthcare settings. Lack of awareness and an unsupportive attitude from government representatives and institutions further contribute to their oppression. Although healthcare, in theory, is regarded as a human right, it is not fairly and equally provided for marginalised communities and thus cannot be claimed as a universal human right. Discriminatory healthcare experiences, stigma, colonial law, and sexual assaults imply that colonial values and patriarchy have an influence on the overall oppression of these communities. The most significant contribution of this study is to expose the patriarchal nature of Bangladeshi society as a legacy of the British Regime. This study offers methodological insights into how to conduct research in politically sensitive environments, which is another unique contribution to methodological knowledge. As a result of this research, it is clear that the Bangladeshi government needs to change its attitude, acknowledge the existence of these communities, and take initiatives to provide equal healthcare facilities for all

Proceedings of International Virtual Seminar on Recent Trends in Life Sciences and Biotechnology: Strategies to Combat COVID-19, Zoonoses and Other Communicable Diseases

Proceedings of International Virtual Seminar on Recent Trends in Life Sciences and Biotechnology: Strategies to Combat COVID-19, Zoonoses and Other Communicable Diseases. Rakesh Book Service, New Delhi. 460p (ISBN: 978-93-84998-83-7)

Marketing systems’ analysis in intercultural tension contexts: implications for sustainable prosperity of Syrian refugees in Lebanon

Forcibly displaced populations are increasing and are inevitably changing market landscapes in host societies. Lebanon remains the country with the highest number of refugees per capita after Syrians had to take refuge because of the war that started in 2011. National public debates and international reports on how to fairly and effectively welcome refugees in host countries have proliferated, however research at the intersection of marketing fields and development is insufficient. Macromarketing lies in a privileged position to address the complex socioeconomic phenomena vis-à-vis the inclusion of refugees in host societies, taking into account the well-being of all actors and stakeholders, from consumers, businesses, NGOs, and governments. Within such a complex network of actors, interests, and international conundrums, social dilemmas and fears can lead to animosity towards the newly arrived community. This thesis will explore the reasons behind Lebanese consumers’ animosity towards Syrian refugee employees, as well as the disposition of macrofactors in the Lebanese marketing system to facilitate or hinder refugee inclusion

Religious Individualisation

This volume brings together key findings of the research project ‘Religious Individualisation in Historical Perspective’ at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies. Combining a wide range of disciplinary approaches, methods and theories, the volume assembles over 50 contributions that explore and compare processes of religious individualisation in Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe from antiquity to the recent past