Regional Inequality in India: A Fresh Look

There are concerns that regional inequality in India has increased after the economic reforms of 1991. This concern is supported by various statistical analyses. In this paper, we show that the conclusions are sensitive to what measures of attainment are used. In particular, human development indices do not show the same increase in regional inequality. Furthermore, looking at consumption and credit indicators for regions disaggregated below the state level also suggests that inequality trends may not be as bad as suggested by State Domestic Product data, although the greater strength of the economies of the western and southern states emerges in our results. Finally, we briefly discuss policy implications within the context of India’s evolving federal polity.regional inequality, federalism, human development

Machine tool spindle bearing diagnostics under operating conditions

Bearing diagnostics provide valuable information related to a bearing’s health and facilitate Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) for rotary machines. This is an effective method to decrease unnecessary cost and downtime resulting from unanticipated machine spindle failure. Defective signatures can be extracted from the corresponding vibration signals through both the time and frequency domain signal processing procedures. However, techniques to effectively evaluate bearing damage severity from these extracted features are still a significant challenge, because the relationship between the bearing damage severity and the extracted feature is not well understood. Moreover, previous methods are mostly tested under constant loading conditions, and are not suitable for bearing diagnostics during machining operations. In this thesis, a time-domain-based bearing defect size estimation method is proposed for the inner and outer race defects. This new approach is built on the bearing system nonlinear dynamic model and the Hertzian contact defect size estimation model. The new defect size estimation model is independent of the contact force between ball and raceway, and all the required information for defect estimation can be obtained from the vibration signal. The signal processing method is developed to automatically extract the time information from the vibration signal for defect size estimation. Statistical analysis is performed on the time information and the results support the proposed bearing models. A test system designed for CNC-based bearing diagnostics was fabricated to validate the new method. Experiments in the speed range 500-3000 rpm were performed under both no-cutting and cutting conditions with different feed rates. Experiment results are consistent under different operational conditions (speeds/feeds), and they are agreeable to both the bearing system dynamic model and the defect estimation model. The estimation results are close to the true defect size with relative error of approximately 10%, validating the proposed method.Ph.D

Intelligent and Accessible Data Flow Architectures for Manufacturing System Optimization

Part 1: Collaborative NetworksInternational audienceMany traditional data acquisition (DAQ) systems are expensive and inadaptable – most rely on traditional closed-source platforms – thus limiting their usefulness for machine tool diagnostics, process control and optimization. In this study, three different intelligent data flow architectures are designed and demonstrated based on consumer grade off-the-shelf hardware and software. These architectures allow data flow between both open- and closed-source platforms through multiple wired and wireless communication protocols. The proposed architectures are also evaluated for machine tool diagnostics and monitoring of multiple machine tools in manufacturing systems. To realize cloud-based manufacturing, real time sensor data are collected and displayed on remote interfaces, smart devices and a cloud/global data platform via the Internet. Findings reveal that such cyber physical system (CPS)-based manufacturing systems can effectively be used for real time process control and optimization

AttentionViz: A Global View of Transformer Attention

Transformer models are revolutionizing machine learning, but their inner workings remain mysterious. In this work, we present a new visualization technique designed to help researchers understand the self-attention mechanism in transformers that allows these models to learn rich, contextual relationships between elements of a sequence. The main idea behind our method is to visualize a joint embedding of the query and key vectors used by transformer models to compute attention. Unlike previous attention visualization techniques, our approach enables the analysis of global patterns across multiple input sequences. We create an interactive visualization tool, AttentionViz, based on these joint query-key embeddings, and use it to study attention mechanisms in both language and vision transformers. We demonstrate the utility of our approach in improving model understanding and offering new insights about query-key interactions through several application scenarios and expert feedback.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figure

Light environment control for reducing energy loss and increasing crop yield in plant factories

Energy utilization for plant lighting is one of the primary constraints of the development of plant factories. Most researchers overlook the impact of energy attenuation during the propagation process on energy efficiency utilization, and the redistribution process of energy lacks corresponding theoretical guidance. Based on the expansion of Bouguer’s law, a new strategy of environmental control is proposed to solve this problem by interfering the form of energy propagation and redistributing the energy. Through the method of environment control, we establish two different environments (by changing surface reflectance): high-reflection environment and high-absorption environment (resembling an unbounded space). Near the leaf canopy in the high-reflection environment, the photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) and illumination intensity are 116.15 μmol∙m−2∙s−1 and 7069 lx, respectively. In contrast, in the high-absorption environment, the values are significantly lower: 30.59 μmol∙m−2∙s−1 for the PPFD and 1815 lx for the illumination intensity. The results of further plant growth experiments show that the average weight and leaf number growth of lettuces increased by 4.12 and 3.22 times, respectively, in high-reflection environment. The growing status of plants is also better in the high-reflection environment compared with the high-absorption environment. The strategy of environmental control provides a new direction to reduce energy loss and increase crop yield in plant factories

Cellular senescence: A potential mode of circular RNAs regulating prostate cancer

Abstract Cellular senescence is a state characterized by permanent cell cycle stoppage, which has long been viewed as a protective mechanism against neoplasia. However, accumulating evidence reveal that cellular senescence variously stimulates tumorigenesis and malignant progression in certain contexts. Senescence‐associated secretory phenotype (SASP) is a crucial feature of senescent cells and the main way they function. Prostate cancer (PCa) is apparently an age‐related tumor with a high prevalence in the elderly. With the aggravation of population aging the morbidity of PCa continues to rise. And with the progress of the disease, most patients eventually develop castration‐resistant PCa (CRPC) or drug resistance, which poses a challenge for the treatment of PCa and aggravates the burden on patients and society. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a class of endogenous noncoding RNAs formed by back‐splicing of pre‐mRNAs. Characterized by special covalently closed circular structure, they play important regulatory roles in various tumors. Numerous studies have revealed that circRNAs can regulate PCa and cellular senescence in diverse ways. This review explores a potential mode that circRNAs regulate PCa, reveales a significant mechanism of tumorigenesis and progression for PCa, suggesting a new strategy for PCa research

Volume-targeted ventilation vs pressure-controlled ventilation for very low birthweight infants: a protocol of a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background Mechanical ventilation (MV) is essential in the management of critically ill neonates, especially preterm infants. However, inappropriate or prolonged use of invasive MV may result in ventilator-associated lung injury. A systemic review comparing pressure control ventilation (PCV) with volume-targeted ventilation mode (VTV) approved that VTV reduces the incidence of death or bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in neonates; however, this study did not analyze subgroups of very low birthweight (VLBW) infants. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the use of VTV and PCV in VLBW infants and to provide clinical evidence for reducing mortality and complications of MV in VLBW infants. Method A single-center randomized controlled trial will be performed. All eligible infants will be randomized and assigned to either VTV or PCV group with 1:1 ratio using sealed envelopes. Death or BPD at 36 weeks’ postmenstrual age will be used as the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes include BPD, death, length of invasive MV, noninvasive mechanical ventilation, and oxygen use, length of hospital stay, failure of conventional MV, rate of using high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) as rescue therapy, rate of reintubation within 48 h, and hospital expenses. Discussion Systemic review suggested that VTV decreases the incidence of death or BPD in neonates compared to PLV; however, this study did not specifically analyze subgroups of VLBW infants. We designed this single-center randomized controlled trials (RCT) to add a significant contribution regarding the benefits of VTV for VLBW patients

YAP promotes the healing of ischemic wounds by reducing ferroptosis in skin fibroblasts through inhibition of ferritinophagy

The impaired healing of chronic wounds is often attributed to the ischemic and hypoxic microenvironment, leading to increased cell death. Ferroptosis, a novel form of cell death unveiled in recent years, could potentially be linked with the process of wound healing. In this study, we explored the significance and mechanism of ferroptosis in ischemic wounds. Using transmission electron microscopy, Western blot, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, and glutathione (GSH) assay, we observed that the death of primary mouse skin fibroblasts induced by oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) was associated with ferroptosis. Specifically, we observed elevated intracellular Fe2+ and lipid peroxidation levels and decreased GSH levels in vitro, indicative of ferroptosis. Importantly, we found that ferroptosis in OGD-treated skin fibroblasts was dependent on autophagy, as the autophagy inhibitor chloroquine phosphate (CHQ) significantly reduced ferroptosis induced by OGD. Moreover, our study revealed that NCOA4-mediated ferritinophagy significantly contributed to the occurrence of ferroptosis induced by OGD in skin fibroblasts. Additionally, we identified the involvement of YAP in the regulation of ferritinophagy, with YAP suppressing NCOA4 expression in OGD-treated skin fibroblasts, thereby reducing ferroptosis. Furthermore, in ischemic wound models in mice, both inhibitors of ferroptosis and autophagy promoted wound healing, while a YAP inhibitor, verteporfin, delayed wound healing. In conclusion, these findings indicate that ferroptosis, regulated by YAP through ferritinophagy inhibition, presents a novel mechanism responsible for the delayed healing of ischemic wounds. Understanding this process could offer promising therapeutic targets to improve wound healing in ischemic conditions