Addressing educational disparity : using district level education development indices for equitable resource allocations in India

The challenge of development work in the social sector in India today is one of bridging huge disparities across regions of the country, gender and social groups. Unless national and state policies specifically target resources to address these disparities, achieving higher level outcomes in an inclusive manner, which is the real goal for human development in education and health, will be a distant dream. This paper takes up the case of the Indian government’s Elementary Education for All Mission to understand how this flagship program relates investments to spatial and social disparities. For identifying the most deprived districts in terms of educational inputs, outputs and overall development, the authors estimate district level education development indices for 2003-2004. The contribution of the largest investment program is measured by"per child allocations"and expenditures at the state and district levels for 2005-2006. An analysis of comparing the ratio of allocations to expenditures with the ratio of district level indices to sub-dimensional indices shows that there is an apparent disconnect between the"real investment needs"of the districts, reflected in their level of educational development and the actual allocations made on an annual basis. The analysis shows that although all districts received more funds for investing in elementary education programs, the most disadvantaged and needy districts received proportionately more funds, which helped these districts to bridge access and infrastructure gaps and appoint more teachers. Benchmarking sector development by spatial entities helps not only in monitoring the outcomes, but also in targeting planning and funding to reduce disparities.Primary Education,Education For All,Gender and Education,Access&Equity in Basic Education,

Extended hydrodynamic theory of the peak and minimum pool boiling heat fluxes

The hydrodynamic theory of the extreme pool boiling heat fluxes is expanded to embrace a variety of problems that have not previously been analyzed. These problems include the prediction of the peak heat flux on a variety of finite heaters, the influence of viscosity on the Taylor and Helmoltz instability mechanisms with application to film boiling and to the peak heat flux in viscous liquids, the formalization of the analogy between high-current-density electrolysis and boiling, and the description of boiling in the low-gravity limit. The predictions are verified with a large number of new data

First Estimates of Nonleptonic Bc→ATB_c \to AT Weak Decays

We obtain the first estimates of branching ratios for the weak decays of $B_c$ meson decaying to two orbitally excited mesons namely, axial-vector meson ($A$) and tensor meson ($T$), in the final state. We calculate $B_c \to T$ transition form factors using the Isgur-Scora-Grinstein-Wise II framework and consequently predict branching ratios of $B_c \to AT$ decays in Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa favored and suppressed modes.Comment: 17 page

Sita says sorry: considering the culture of victim blaming in India

Neha Dhir explores the trend of victim blaming in incidents of violence against women through her satirical essay. She highlights how high-level politicians have repeatedly indicated that women bear some, if not all, the responsibility if they are assaulted, contributing to the culture which has resulted in India being ranked the fourth most dangerous place for women

Study of flow of granular solids through horizontal orifices

A granular material is a conglomeration of discrete macroscopic particles. They have properties different from those commonly associated with solids, liquid and gases. The science of granular media has a long history with much engineering literature devoted to understanding how to deal with these materials. Many of our industries rely on transporting and storing granular materials. These include the pharmaceutical industries that rely on the processing of various powders and pills, agricultural and the food processing industry where various seeds, grains, and foodstuffs are transported and manipulated. The construction-based industries are also included. Flow rate of granular solids through various sizes and shapes of orifice is necessary so as to properly size the opening for flow control during transfer of materials. The flow rate is key to calculate the kinematic parameters and velocity profile of the solids in the column. In the past most of the work upon the flow rates of granular solids have been the by-product of research into pressure distribution in hoppers or bins. In this study, the variable of importance influencing the mass rate like orifice diameter, particle diameter, particle density and angle of repose are studied and an empirical equation is suggested relating them all

Branching ratios of BcB_c Meson Decaying to Vector and Axial-Vector Mesons

We investigate the weak decays of $B_c$ mesons in Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa favored and suppressed modes. We present a detailed analysis of the $B_c$ meson decaying to vector meson (V) and axial-vector meson (A) in the final state. We also give the form factors involving $B_c \to A$ transition in the Isgur-Scora-Grinstein-Wise II framework and consequently, predict the branching ratios of $B_c \to V A$ and $AA$ decays.Comment: 26 Pages, Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D(2013