Competition and Collusion in Grain Markets: Basmati Auctions in North India

Many small wholesale grain markets in India are characterized by large numbers of sellers, and a relatively small number of buyers, thereby lending the price formation process open to manipulation through collusion. Government intervention limits the extent of such manipulation by instituting regulated markets where the rules of exchange are clearly spelled out. The key institutional features of these markets are (a) sales through open ascending auctions; (b) the presence of "commission agents" representing both buyers and sellers. We present simple models of noncooperative and collusive behavior in auctions incorporating the above, and some more market specific, assumptions. We exploit data from a primary survey of a market for basmati paddy in North India. The main findings are (i) the collusive model explains the data better; (ii) the incentives of sellers and a subset of the large buyers are aligned; (iii) this, along with a Principal-Agent slack between millers and commission agents who buy for them, facilitates the form that collusion takes, and (iv) due to (ii) and (iii), the impact of collusion on market prices is not necessarily adverse. Insofar as the features of the market we study are common to grain markets in North India, we believe that these findings may be of much wider significance.

The Unsupportable Support Price: The Government in Paddy Auctions of Northern India

In most developing countries, there is an active debate on the changing role of the government in mediating market outcomes. In grain markets in India, this debate assumes a renewed significance, given the excessive accumulation of food stocks in recent years. For example, the wisdom of maintaining a 'high' Minimum Support Price has been called to question. Auction theory provides a powerful and hitherto unused tool not only for analysing the structure of grain markets and the process of price formation, but also for analysing implications of alternative government policies. Our results for a small, regulated market for parmal paddy in Northern India, where grain sales occur through the open ascending auction, suggest that (a) the government's inability to support the minimum price in the market has less to do with the poor quality of grain offered for sale, and more to do with a reluctance to accumulate stocks. (b) a lower but credibly-enforced minimum support price will not have the desired effect on government purchases. (c) a lowering of the percentage that millers are required to sell as levy to the government is consistent with a credible support price and effective management of stocks.

Millers, Commission Agents and Collusion in Grain Auction Markets: Evidence from Basmati Auctions in North India

This paper undertakes structural estimation of asymmetric auction models in a market for basmati, and detects the presence of a cartel consisting of a large (in market share) local miller and commission agents purchasing for large distant millers. The contracts between the distant millers and their commission agents help to explain the specific form that collusion takes. Simulations indicate that (i) the cartel gains considerably by colluding, over the competitive outcome; (ii) however, sellers (farmers) do not lose significantly under collusion when the commission agents bid; (iii) a knowledgeable auctioneer would choose much higher starting prices for auctions when commission agents bid, compared with the observed starting prices. The paper also shows that efficient collusion, the form of collusion commonly assumed in the literature, does not explain the data well.Auctions, Cartels, Agricultural Markets.

A Clinicopathological study and Treatment of Masses in Sinonasal Cavity

INTRODUCTION: Sinonasal malignancies, a highly heterogeneous group of cancers, account for less than one percentage of the cancers and less than three percentage of all digeastive system tumors. These lesions may originate from any of the histopathologic components of the sinonasal cavities, including Schneiderian mucosa, minor salivary glands, neural tissue, and lymphatics. 60% of these tumors arise in the maxilla, but twenty percentage come from cavity of nose, five percentage come from sinus of ethimoid, three percentage from the sinus of frontal, sinus of sphenoid. Squamous cell carcinomas are more common within the nasal cavity or maxillary sinus, whereas tumors of the ethmoid sinus and superior nasal vault are usually adenocarcinomas. Mucosal melanoma frequently originates within the nasal cavity, particularly along the lateral nasal side wall and inferior turbinates. Although traditional risk factors for sinonasal cancers have included exposure to nickel, wood dust, and tobacco, no predisposing factors are identified in most patients. Recent reports suggest that HPV promotes the development of some sinonasal squamous cancers. Thus the key to the diagnosis and management of sinonasal malignancies lies in the eliciting of proper history, clinical features and investigation protocol to detect the tumour at the early stage and provide the appropriate treatment for the patient,thereby increasing the survival rate. This study was conducted to assess the importance of detecting the clinical features, detecting the lesion through histopathology and imaging to arrive at the diagnosis at an earlier stage and evaluating the treatment protocol. AIMS OF STUDY In sinonasal tumours, 1. To correlate the symptoms, signs with the clinical staging. 2. To correlate the clinical features with the pathological staging. 3. To study the incidence of age and sex of the tumour. 4. To study the incidence of TNM staging and broder’s staging among the patients. 5. To correlate the histological diagnosis and treatment plan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was done in Government Rajaji Hospital,Madurai medical college, Madurai, from October 2010 to October 2012. Out of the patients who attended the outpatient department during the period, those with symptoms and signs suggestive of sinonasal masses were screened further. After thorough clinical examination, the patients were subjected to Endoscopy into the nasal cavity and computed tomography scan for the sinonasal area were performed. Those with histologically confirmed benign and malignant tumors were selected for the study. The total number of 50 patients were selected for the study and their surgical and non surgical outcomes were noted. CONCLUSION: The work up, management and follow up of sinonasal tumours is complicated by the multiple potential sites and stages of development. Various array of options of management of tumours are radical surgery alone, surgery followed by radiotherapy, chemoradiotherapy and stereotactic gamma knife surgery. This study was performed because of the high incidence of the sinonasal tumours in Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai. Combined modality approach was entitled for the patients under study which included otolaryngologist, radiotherapist, neurosurgeon, medical oncologist, surgical oncologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, radiologist, pathologist, dentist, nutritionist, social worker. This approach had an advantage of earlier diagnosis of the tumours, accurate delineation of the tumour, precise and appropriate treatment. All these factors improved the prognosis and thus extended the survival rate of the patients. The role of surgery followed by radiotherapy played a pivotal role in the stage I and stage II tumours where a complete cure was almost possible. The role of radiotherapy in stage III and stage IV played a good palliative role in inoperable cases. Complete tumour removal was very much possible both through open and endoscopic methods. The role of chemotherapy combine with radiotherapy was efficient in preventing recurrence and residual tumour rates. Induction chemotherapy followed by maintenance therapy reduced the side effects of chemotherapeutic agents, The goals of treatment can be attained by multidisplinary and multi modality approach

Impact of Tandem Repeats on the Scaling of Nucleotide Sequences

Techniques such as detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) and its extensions have been widely used to determine the nature of scaling in nucleotide sequences. In this brief communication we show that tandem repeats which are ubiquitous in nucleotide sequences can prevent reliable estimation of possible long-range correlations. Therefore, it is important to investigate the presence of tandem repeats prior to scaling exponent estimation.Comment: 14 Pages, 3 Figure

Convolution Neural Network Based Prediction for Eye Gaze Estimation

Levels of progress in progress have truly made it possible to get various kinds of biometric information from individuals, enabling bases on assessment of human conditions in cure, auto prospering, advancing, and various zones. These evaluations have particularly featured eye improvement as a convincing marker with respect to human conditions, and assessment on its applications is adequately being pursued. The contraptions as of now for the most part used for assessing eye overhauls rely on the video-oculography (VOG) procedure, wherein the course of look is outlined by managing eye pictures crushed a camera. Applying convolutional neural network (ConvNet) to the getting ready of eye pictures has been seemed to enable exact and unprecedented look assessment. Ordinary picture overseeing, in any case, is begun on execution using a PC, making it difficult to finish consistent look. We hence propose another eye picture overseeing framework that cycles look assessment and event disclosure starting with one fulfillment then onto the accompanying using a self-governing engineered lightweight ConvNet. This paper evaluates the course of action of the proposed lightweight ConvNet, the frameworks for learning and appraisal used, and the proposed methodology's ability to meanwhile see look heading and event occasion using a truly unassuming memory and at lower computational complex nature than standard ways of thinking

Microbiological study of cervical flora in preterm labour

Background: Preterm labour occurs due to various causative factors. Genital infections contribute significantly to the preterm labour. Ours is a prospective, observational study looking at the cervical microbiota involved in the preterm labour. The cervical flora contributing to the occurrence of preterm labour was studied. The results were analyzed based on the microbiological study of cervical swabs. The primary objectives of this study were to determine the association of cervical microbiota of pregnant women with spontaneous preterm delivery. To characterize the effect of cervical microbiota on birth gestation. The secondary objective of this study was to analyse the role of cervical microbiota and its relationship between social and behavioural factors.Methods: It is a prospective, observational study, which includes 193 patients, studied over a period of one and a half year. It was conducted at our tertiary care centre after the approval by ethics committee, and the results were analysed. As this is a purely observational study, management decisions of treating obstetrician were not interfered with. No additional cost, intervention or injury was caused to the study subject.Results: In our study, cervical swab culture shows growth in 2.07% which is statistically insignificant. Though, it was found that preterm labour is more common with leucocytosis, i.e. WBC > 11000 cmm, which is found to be statistically significant (p value = 0.023).Conclusions: In our study, we found that there was no significant association of cervical flora with preterm labour, though we found an association with leucocytosis

Lessons learned in promoting evidence-based public health: Perspectives from managers in state public health departments

Evidence-based public health (EBPH) practice, also called evidence-informed public health, can improve population health and reduce disease burden in populations. Organizational structures and processes can facilitate capacity-building for EBPH in public health agencies. This study involved 51 structured interviews with leaders and program managers in 12 state health department chronic disease prevention units to identify factors that facilitate the implementation of EBPH. Verbatim transcripts of the de-identified interviews were consensus coded in NVIVO qualitative software. Content analyses of coded texts were used to identify themes and illustrative quotes. Facilitator themes included leadership support within the chronic disease prevention unit and division, unit processes to enhance information sharing across program areas and recruitment and retention of qualified personnel, training and technical assistance to build skills, and the ability to provide support to external partners. Chronic disease prevention leaders\u27 role modeling of EBPH processes and expectations for staff to justify proposed plans and approaches were key aspects of leadership support. Leaders protected staff time in order to identify and digest evidence to address the common barrier of lack of time for EBPH. Funding uncertainties or budget cuts, lack of political will for EBPH, and staff turnover remained challenges. In conclusion, leadership support is a key facilitator of EBPH capacity building and practice. Section and division leaders in public health agencies with authority and skills can institute management practices to help staff learn and apply EBPH processes and spread EBPH with partners

MALIGNANT PERSISTENT PULMONARY HYPERTENSION – A CASE REPORT

Persistent pulmonary hypertension is a phenomenon with 2 in 1,000 live births. Persistent pulmonary hypertension involves defective lung parenchymal development, heart valvular defects, or may also be syndromic. It can also be idiopathic. The most common factor is improper clamping of the umbilical cord on parturition. This case report discusses the condition of a male neonate with severe tachypnea and hypoxia due to PPTH at birth. A male neonate born to anon consanguineous parents on the day of birth presented with severe tachypnea. It was normal vaginal delivery conducted in the ambulance. There was a delay in clamping the umbilical cord, it was clamped with an elastic rope. The neonate and the mother were rushed to the obstetric ward within the time duration of 20 min. The neonate presented with hypoxia, hypocalcemia, and severe tachypnea. The neonate was shifted to the intensive care unit and was supported with high flow oxygen 2 L/min. 2D echo was performed; there was no significant anomaly noted except tricuspid valvular regurgitation. The pulmonary pressure was recorded to be 76 mm/hg which gradually reduced to 26 mm/ hg on the 6th day after birth. Improper or impaired fall in pulmonary vasculature resistance that occurs after birth and increase of systemic vascular resistance is due to the removal of the placenta from circulation. Increased pulmonary vasculature with decreased or reversal of shut at the foramen ovale or ductus arteriosus leads to PPHTN. Proper clamping of the umbilical cord within 60 s becomes crucial. Delayed or improper clamping can lead to severe PPHTN