The Kandhkelgaon Story: a bold bid by women in Kandhkelgaon Village, Saintala Block, Bolangir District, to break out of their poverty trap

One third of the people on earth who are described as living in absolute poverty are found today in India. “These people,” says Mr B K Satpathy, “are caught in a poverty trap’.” “Poverty trap?” we ask. “These are creative weavers; their cloth has a distinctive style, but those who supply their thread also take away and sell the cloth, paying just a small labor cost for each saree. If they are skilled and work hard this amounts to only 25-30 rupees (60-70 US cents) per day.” Under this arrangement, weaving does not provide enough to live on, and people are seeking ways to escape their entrapment in poverty. (Pdf contains 6 pages)

Institutional quality and foreign direct investment inflows : evidence from cross-country data with policy implication

Purpose: The study examines the impact of institutional quality on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows for emerging economies from South Asiain the period 2002-2016. Other economic factors such as globalisation, financial development, and GDP are also considered. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study uses Im-Pesaran-Shin (IPS) panel unit root test to check stationarity property. It uses cross dependency (CD) and cross-sectional augments IPS tests to check cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity across the group countries. Next, it uses panel ARDL-PMG tests to check the existence of long-relationship among variables. Then, we apply the panel Granger causality test to check the direction of causality. Finally, for the robustness of results, we use the Pedroni co-integration technique. Findings: The study finds the existence of a long-run relationship between institutional quality and FDI inflows. Other economic factors such as globalization and financial development show long-run and strong causality with FDI inflows. However, the short-run unidirectional causality from institutional quality to FDI inflows is not found for all the countries. Finally, institutional quality strongly causes FDI inflows provided paired with either globalisation or financial development. Practical Implications: Institutional quality increases the FDI inflows. Therefore, policymakers should focus on institutional quality along with globalization and financial development for higher inflows of FDI in emerging countries. Originality/Value: The study considers institutional quality as one of the inputs for FDI inflows in selected emerging economies from South Asia. Further, it creates an institutional quality index for the emerging countries to examine the impact on FDI inflows.peer-reviewe

Wear studies of Al-Si alloys

There are many properties of Aluminium-Silicon alloys such as high wear resistance, light weight, low coefficient of thermal expansion and high strength to weight ratio, that makes it suitable for many industries. In recent years, it has gained huge acceptance in automotive industries, as its use results in fuel saving, hence cost saving. These advancements make the study of properties of Al-Si alloys important. In the present study, wear behavior of Al-Si alloys were studied. Aluminium containing 10 weight % of Silicon was synthesized using casting method. The microstructure showed the presence of Proeutectic silicon. Wear behaviour was studied by using computerized pin on disc wear testing machine. The abrasion of the alloy increased as sliding distance and time increased. The crack morphology of the worn surfaces were analysed using stereo microscope

Pulmonary function and fuel use: A population survey

BACKGROUND: In the backdrop of conflicting reports (some studies reported adverse outcomes of biomass fuel use whereas few studies reported absence of any association between adverse health effect and fuel use, may be due to presence of large number of confounding variables) on the respiratory health effects of biomass fuel use, this cross sectional survey was undertaken to understand the role of fuel use on pulmonary function. METHOD: This study was conducted in a village of western India involving 369 randomly selected adult subjects (165 male and 204 female). All the subjects were interviewed and were subjected to pulmonary function test. Analysis of covariance was performed to compare the levels of different pulmonary function test parameters in relation to different fuel use taking care of the role of possible confounding factors. RESULTS: This study showed that biomass fuel use (especially wood) is an important factor for deterioration of pulmonary function (particularly in female). FEV(1 )(p < .05), FEV(1 )% (p < .01), PEFR (p < .05) and FEF(25–75 )(p < .01) values were significantly lower in biomass fuel using females than nonusers. Comparison of only biomass fuel use vs. only LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) use and only wood vs. only LPG use has showed that LPG is a safer fuel so far as deterioration of pulmonary function is concerned. This study observes some deterioration of pulmonary function in the male subjects also, who came from biomass fuel using families. CONCLUSION: This study concluded that traditional biomass fuels like wood have adverse effects on pulmonary function

On Spatial Consensus Formation: Is the Sznajd Model Different from a Voter Model?

In this paper, we investigate the so-called ``Sznajd Model'' (SM) in one dimension, which is a simple cellular automata approach to consensus formation among two opposite opinions (described by spin up or down). To elucidate the SM dynamics, we first provide results of computer simulations for the spatio-temporal evolution of the opinion distribution $L(t)$, the evolution of magnetization $m(t)$, the distribution of decision times $P(\tau)$ and relaxation times $P(\mu)$. In the main part of the paper, it is shown that the SM can be completely reformulated in terms of a linear VM, where the transition rates towards a given opinion are directly proportional to frequency of the respective opinion of the second-nearest neighbors (no matter what the nearest neighbors are). So, the SM dynamics can be reduced to one rule, ``Just follow your second-nearest neighbor''. The equivalence is demonstrated by extensive computer simulations that show the same behavior between SM and VM in terms of $L(t)$, $m(t)$, $P(\tau)$, $P(\mu)$, and the final attractor statistics. The reformulation of the SM in terms of a VM involves a new parameter $\sigma$, to bias between anti- and ferromagnetic decisions in the case of frustration. We show that $\sigma$ plays a crucial role in explaining the phase transition observed in SM. We further explore the role of synchronous versus asynchronous update rules on the intermediate dynamics and the final attractors. Compared to the original SM, we find three additional attractors, two of them related to an asymmetric coexistence between the opposite opinions.Comment: 22 pages, 20 figures. For related publications see http://www.ais.fraunhofer.de/~fran

PERFORMANCE OF SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULE THROUGH COMBINED AIR AND WATER COOLING IN WARM AND HUMID CLIMATIC CONDITION OF INDIA

A study was conducted to evaluate the performance of solar photovoltaic module through combined air and water cooling arrangements in warm and humid climatic condition i.e. in Odisha in India during winter and summer months. Solar photovoltaic system requires neither fuel nor produces any pollutant resulting into its increased importance in today’s energy sector. The electrical output from a solar panel is a function of its efficiency and some other controlling parameters which affects the same. One of the major parameters controlling the efficiency of the panel is the temperature as it goes on increasing while using the panel in the sun. About 31 % of the incident solar radiation on the panel is converted into the useful energy and the rest part is stored in its back side causing the rise of temperature and adversely affecting its output. The stored thermal energy is of no use and decreases the durability of the in-built components of the panel due to the impact of severe thermal stresses on them resulting into reduction in its life span and conversion capability. The simplest way to enhance the efficiency of the panel is to incorporate the various cooling arrangements such as air cooling, water cooling and combined air and water cooling and assessing their effectiveness without any cooling arrangement. From the studies, it was observed that the efficiencies of solar panel were enhanced in the range of 8-11 %, 12-15% and 16-20% in air, water and combined air and water cooling respectively compared to without cooling in a clear day

Application development for multicore processor

With multicore processors now in every computer, server, and embedded device, the need for cost-effective, reliable parallel software has never been greater. The efficiency of single core processors does not match the necessary levels for the development of applications