Health Issues and Psychological Dispositions: Some Highlights and Explanations

Human beings are complex systems and their illness may be caused by a multitude of factors, as just not a single factor such as a virus or bacterium. Health has to be seen not only from the medical model but must include the significant and integral aspects of human psychology. We cannot treat the mind and body as two entities. There is an assumption that 50 percent of mortality from the ten leading causes of death can be ascribed to behaviour. If this is so, then behaviour and lifestyle have a potentially major effect on longevity. Health psychology attempts to move away from a simple linear model of health and examines the combination of factors involved in illness – biological (e.g. a virus), psychological (e.g. behaviours, beliefs) and social (e.g. employment, socio-economic status, etc.). The biopsychosocial model of health and illness that was developed by Engel (1977, 1980) asserts and establishes this understanding. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.387397

Working with women to improve child and community eye health

In the slums and rural areas of India, visual impairment, blindness, and childhood blindness are usually more prevalent.In order to improve the eye health of children and the community in these areas, it is important to understand the influence women and mothers have over children’s eye health and the eye health of the community as a whole

Long Lost Lore of a ‘Land’ Called Home

I grew up in a household that crossed boundaries.And as a result, I faced relentless questions from my classmates, their parents, my neighbors, local shopkeepers, even pedestrians. Asking uncom-fortable questions tominority people like “why don’t you eat beef?” or “why don’t your men under-go circumcisions?” or “why do you give sambar to your lentil soup?”is normal in Bangladesh, where I live. I was taught to overlook these questions—to know them as rhetorical queries, to which there can be no sane reply. What justified the casual insults hurled at me as a representative of a minority

Comparative Multi Fractal De-trended Fluctuation Analysis of heavy ion interactions at a few GeV to a few hundred GeV

We have studied the multifractality of pion emission process in 16O-AgBr interactions at 2.1AGeV & 60AGeV, 12CAgBr &24Mg-AgBr interactions at 4.5AGeV and 32S-AgBr interactions at 200AGeV using Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MFDFA) method which is capable of extracting the actual multifractal property filtering out the average trend of fluctuation. The analysis revels that the pseudo rapidity distribution of the shower particles is multifractal in nature for all the interactions i.e. pion production mechanism has in built multi-scale self-similarity property. We have employed MFDFA method for randomly generated events for 32S-AgBr interactions at 200 AGeV. Comparison of expt. results with those obtained from randomly generated data set reveals that the source of multifractality in our data is the presence of long range correlation. Comparing the results obtained from different interactions, it may be concluded that strength of multifractality decreases with projectile mass for same projectile energy and for a particular projectile it increases with energy. The values of ordinary Hurst exponent suggest that there is long range correlation present in our data for all the interactions

Historical evolution of federal finances in India

The paper confirms that the provisions of fiscal federalism laid out in the Indian Constitution are connected to the legacy of the British rule in India. Applying historical analysis the author divides the period from the starting of British imperial administration in India to the enactment of Indian Constitution into five different phases on the basis of the evolution of Centre-Province financial relations. The principles of fiscal federalism in India gradually evolved from highly centralized fiscal governance during the initial period of the British rule until being manifested in the Constitution. Various parliamentary enactments, executive directions, committees and commissions as well as individual intervention contributed to this transformation. The paper further lays out the unique features of the Indian Constitution such as mutually exclusive tax domains and various mechanisms addressing fiscal imbalances due to the Government of India Act of 1935 enacted by the British Parliament. It concludes that while British authorities designed the system of fiscal administration in India after their preferences, the makers of the Indian Constitution preferred to retain the same provisions with minor variations in the Constitution of independent Indi

Experimental investigation of bio inspired flapping wings for MAV and NAV applications

The current investigation focuses on achieving a greater understanding on the aerodynamic phenomena that takes place during flapping flight and its application in the development of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) and Nano Air Vehicles (NAVs). Quantitative force measurements were made on the MAV model to understand its aerodynamic performance of flapping wings at different operational flight conditions. A comparative analysis was also made to understand the effects of wing membrane flexibility on the aerodynamic performance of an MAV. The results obtained from this study would help design a membrane based flapping wings which would have an optimum aerodynamic performance Dragonflies are considered to be some of the most agile and maneuverable insects known to man due to which they taken as an inspiration for the study of flapping wing NAVs. Piezoelectric fans were used to simulate the flapping motion of insect wings due to their ability to generate a high wing beat frequency. Flow measurement studies on the fans placed in a tandem wing configuration were carried out with the help of Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) by which quantitative flow field measurements were made. The PIV results provide a greater understanding of the vortex structures which were generated due to high frequency flapping motion of the wings

Informal Labours in Kolkata City: Migration from Undivided Bihar and Uttar Pradesh

Migration takes place due to various social, cultural, economic or political reasons. Previous Census reports of India show that employment-induced out-migration is a common feature of several states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and other states. In the case of Kolkata, informal labours have enormous employment opportunities in big business centres and small manufacturing units of the city. With the help of D-series Census Data of the years 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011, this study focuses on the migration pattern and the reasons for migration to Kolkata. Secondary data fails to give an idea about the migration pattern of non-Bengali informal labours in the city. Through intensive field survey, the present study tries to identify the dominance of non-Bengali single (without family) male labour migration and to explore the migration streams to the informal sectors of Kolkata. With the help of both secondary data on migration over different decades and by using the primary data, the article argues that non-Bengali migrants represent the informal labour community in Kolkata especially from undivided Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and the pattern of migration is mainly occupation-induced single male labour migration

Municipal Financing and Infrastructure: A Critical Analysis of the Cities in West Bengal

Cities, acting as engines of economic growth and generators of public finance for development, will usher in an urban revolution in the developing world. Such an urban revolution is sure to bring in opportunities to millions through the increasing level of urbanisation. This rising trend of urbanisation coupled with the increasing functional responsibilities of the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) has been creating serious problems for the provision and financing of urban infrastructure. The resource crunch at each level of government in general, and the local level in particular, has instigated the need for analysing the causes behind such adverse state of municipal finance. Against this background, this paper attempts to evaluate the state of municipal finance in West Bengal by performing a comparative analysis of relevant indices. Acknowledging the potential of municipal finances in improving the delivery of basic services, the present study uses secondary data to demonstrate that the higher availability of essential urban services is associated with higher levels of revenue generation. This study presents a spatial and town class-based pattern analysis of the finances of ULBs of West Bengal in terms of their financial base, its adequacy, and their revenue and expenditure performance. The main thrust of this study is to examine the patterns of finances in ULBs in West Bengal and to present a comparative picture thereof along with per capita analysis of revenue and expenditure components based on size categories of the ULBs