Indexing human development in India : Indicators, scaling and composition

The paper analyses methodological issues concerning selection of indicators, making them scale-free and construction of composite indices within the framework of measuring human development. It reviews the existing literature in the area and highlights the key areas of concern from the viewpoint of methodology of aggregation. It discusses the implications of the assumptions underlying different techniques, currently being used in India, in the context of an empirical exercise of constructing an index of human development at state level. It examines the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques and proposes improvements therein for bringing them closer to empirical reality and thereby increasing their acceptability among the planners and policy-makers. The study suggests that exercises at determining the levels of human development at the state or district level by official agencies like the Planning Commission, concerned ministries or an international agency must enjoy large acceptability so that these can be used in policy-making. Agreements must be obtained in terms of choice of indicators, scaling, methodology of composition, etc. Establishing certain degree of uniformity in methodology through deliberations in a committee at the highest level (as was done in case of measuring poverty) will accord credence to the results and help clear the uncertainty and inconclusiveness that characterise the current debate.Human DevelopmentHuman Development Index

Supertranslations at timelike infinity

We propose a definition of asymptotic flatness at timelike infinity in four spacetime dimensions. We present a detailed study of the asymptotic equations of motion and the action of supertranslations on asymptotic fields. We show that the Lee-Wald symplectic form Ω(g, δ1g, δ2g) does not get contributions from future timelike infinity with our boundary conditions. As a result, the “future charges” can be computed on any two-dimensional surface surrounding the sources at timelike infinity. We present expressions for supertranslation and Lorentz charges

On the Implementation of Unified Arithmetic on Binary Huff Curves

Unified formula for computing elliptic curve point addition and doubling are considered to be resistant against simple power-analysis attack. A new elliptic curve formula known as unified binary Huff curve in this regard has appeared into the literature in 2011. This paper is devoted to analyzing the applicability of this elliptic curve in practice. Our paper has two contributions.We provide an efficient implementation of the unified Huff formula in projective coordinates on FPGA. Secondly, we point out its side-channel vulnerability and show the results of an actual attack. It is claimed that the formula is unified and there will be no power consumption difference when computing point addition and point doubling operations, observable with simple power analysis (SPA). In this paper, we contradict their claim showing actual SPA results on a FPGA platform and propose a modified arithmetic and its suitable implementation technique to overcome the vulnerability

A Unified Cryptoprocessor for Lattice-based Signature and Key-exchange

We propose design methodologies for building a compact, unified and programmable cryptoprocessor architecture that computes post-quantum key agreement and digital signature. Synergies in the two types of cryptographic primitives are used to make the cryptoprocessor compact. As a case study, the cryptoprocessor architecture has been optimized targeting the signature scheme \u27CRYSTALS-Dilithium\u27 and the key encapsulation mechanism (KEM) \u27Saber\u27, both finalists in the NIST’s post-quantum cryptography standardization project. The programmable cryptoprocessor executes key generations, encapsulations, decapsulations, signature generations, and signature verifications for all the security levels of Dilithium and Saber. On a Xilinx Ultrascale+ FPGA, the proposed cryptoprocessor consumes 18,406 LUTs, 9,323 FFs, 4 DSPs, and 24 BRAMs. It achieves 200 MHz clock frequency and finishes CCA-secure key-generation/encapsulation/decapsulation operations for LightSaber in 29.6/40.4/ 58.3$\mu$s; for Saber in 54.9/69.7/94.9$\mu$s; and for FireSaber in 87.6/108.0/139.4$\mu$s, respectively. It finishes key-generation/sign/verify operations for Dilithium-2 in 70.9/151.6/75.2$\mu$s; for Dilithium-3 in 114.7/237/127.6$\mu$s; and for Dilithium-5 in 194.2/342.1/228.9$\mu$s, respectively, for the best-case scenario. On UMC 65nm library for ASIC the latency is improved by a factor of two due to a 2$\times$ increase in clock frequency

A diVIsive Shuffling Approach (VIStA) for gene expression analysis to identify subtypes in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Background: An important step toward understanding the biological mechanisms underlying a complex disease is a refined understanding of its clinical heterogeneity. Relating clinical and molecular differences may allow us to define more specific subtypes of patients that respond differently to therapeutic interventions. Results: We developed a novel unbiased method called diVIsive Shuffling Approach (VIStA) that identifies subgroups of patients by maximizing the difference in their gene expression patterns. We tested our algorithm on 140 subjects with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and found four distinct, biologically and clinically meaningful combinations of clinical characteristics that are associated with large gene expression differences. The dominant characteristic in these combinations was the severity of airflow limitation. Other frequently identified measures included emphysema, fibrinogen levels, phlegm, BMI and age. A pathway analysis of the differentially expressed genes in the identified subtypes suggests that VIStA is capable of capturing specific molecular signatures within in each group. Conclusions: The introduced methodology allowed us to identify combinations of clinical characteristics that correspond to clear gene expression differences. The resulting subtypes for COPD contribute to a better understanding of its heterogeneity

A divisive Shuffling Approach (VIStA) for gene expression analysis to identify subtypes in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

An important step toward understanding the biological mechanisms underlying a complex disease is a refined understanding of its clinical heterogeneity. Relating clinical and molecular differences may allow us to define more specific subtypes of patients that respond differently to therapeutic interventions. Results We developed a novel unbiased method called diVIsive Shuffling Approach (VIStA) that identifies subgroups of patients by maximizing the difference in their gene expression patterns. We tested our algorithm on 140 subjects with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and found four distinct, biologically and clinically meaningful combinations of clinical characteristics that are associated with large gene expression differences. The dominant characteristic in these combinations was the severity of airflow limitation. Other frequently identified measures included emphysema, fibrinogen levels, phlegm, BMI and age. A pathway analysis of the differentially expressed genes in the identified subtypes suggests that VIStA is capable of capturing specific molecular signatures within in each group. Conclusions The introduced methodology allowed us to identify combinations of clinical characteristics that correspond to clear gene expression differences. The resulting subtypes for COPD contribute to a better understanding of its heterogeneity