Influence of Mediation on Estate Planning Decisions: Evidence from Indian Survey Data

Background: Intestate death can lead to the distribution of assets against the personal wishes of the deceased and is a problem in India, as 80% of Indians die without making a last will. Following the concepts of decision theory (i.e., the theory of choice), stewardship theory, agency theory, and signaling theory, the purpose of this study is to examine the influence of meditation on estate planning decisions. This study also seeks to extend previous findings on the influence of religious beliefs on the estate planning decisions of Canadians to that of Indians. Methods: Employed and self-employed individuals from India were surveyed regarding their perceptions of meditation and estate planning decisions. Results: The survey indicates that mediation positively influences the estate planning decisions while individuals who practice meditation have greater preferences for estate planning compared with those who do not. The findings suggest that individual assets, family size, and education positively influence the estate planning decisions of Indians. Conclusion: Reported meditation, individual assets, family size, location, education, and gender are positively correlated with the estate planning decisions of Indians

Ground state and constrained domain walls in Gd/Fe multilayers

The magnetic ground state of antiferromagnetically coupled Gd/Fe multilayers and the evolution of in-plane domain walls is modelled with micromagnetics. The twisted state is characterised by a rapid decrease of the interface angle with increasing magnetic field. We found that for certain ratios M(Fe):M(Gd), the twisted state is already present at low fields. However, the magnetic ground state is not only determined by the ratio M(Fe):M(Gd) but also by the thicknesses of the layers, that is the total moments of the layer. The dependence of the magnetic ground state is explained by the amount of overlap of the domain walls at the interface. Thicker layers suppress the Fe aligned and the Gd aligned state in favour of the twisted state. Whereas ultrathin layers exclude the twisted state, since wider domain walls can not form in these ultrathin layers

Children’s Engagement with Exploitative Work in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Despite decades of interventions aiming to reduce child labour, children’s engagement with exploitative work remains widespread, particularly in South Asia. Emerging evidence about cash transfer programmes point towards their potential for reducing children’s engagement with work, but knowledge is scarce in terms of their impact on exploitative work and in urban settings. One component of the CLARISSA programme is to trial an innovative ‘cash plus’ intervention and to learn about its potential for reducing children’s harmful and hazardous work in two slum areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This Working Paper presents findings from a small-scale qualitative study that was undertaken in late 2019, aiming to inform the design of the cash plus intervention. Findings point towards the potential for cash transfers to reduce the need for children to engage in exploitative work and highlight key considerations for design and delivery, including mode and frequency of delivery and engagement with local leaders and community representatives.FCD

Socially Responsible Investment, Internal Financing Sources And Access To Bank Financing: Evidence From Indian Survey Data

We investigated the association between socially responsible investment, internal fnancing sources, and access to bank fnancing in the production industry of India. Using a survey research design, owners of small production frms were asked about their perceptions regarding socially responsible investment, internal fnancing sources, and access to bank fnancing. We found that socially responsible investment and internal fnancing sources help owners of small production frms improve access to bank fnancing. This study contributes to the literature on the relationship between socially responsible investment, internal fnancing sources, and access to bank fnancing. The fndings may be useful for fnancial managers, production frm owners, investors, consultants, and other stakeholder

Factors Affecting Ethical Sources of External Debt Financing for Indian Agribusiness Firms

Majority of the Indian farmers are financially constrained and pay very high interest rate to private moneylenders which has a negative impact on the survivability and growth of agribusiness firms. Because of less strict debt financing requirements farmers become prey to predatory lenders from private lending institutions that are not controlled by the central bank and may not behave in an ethical way. The study investigates factors affecting ethical sources of external debt financing by taking a sample of Indian agribusiness firms. Owners of agribusiness firms were interviewed through personal visits and telephone calls regarding the factors affecting ethical sources of external debt financing. The findings show that several factors affect ethical sources of external debt financing for agribusiness firms in India. This study contributes to the literature on the factors that affect ethical sources of external debt financing. This study also provides recommendations to improve access to ethical sources of external debt financing. The findings may be useful for agribusiness owners (farmers), financial managers, investors, agribusiness management consultants, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders

Skin cancer in essential thrombocythaemia and polycythaemia vera patients treated with hydroxycarbamide

Funding Information This research was supported by NHS Grampian Endowment Fund (grant number: EA4075).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

How to Set Up, Manage, and Study a UBI+ Experiment The Case of the ‘WorkFREE’ Project in Hyderabad, India

WorkFREE is a collaborative research project led by the University of Bath,UK in partnership with the Montfort Social Institute (MSI) and the IndiaNetwork for Basic Income (INBI). It is funded by the European ResearchCouncil (ERC). The project brings together civil society institutions, academics,and activists from India and the UK to pilot and study a unique interventionthat we call ‘UBI+’ in four slum communities (‘bastis’) in Hyderabad, India. Thepilot combines universal basic income (UBI) and needs-focused, participatorycommunity organising to support people to increase their power to meet theirneeds. All residents in the said bastis, (approximately 1250 people across 350households) receive monthly unconditional cash transfers for 18 months. Inaddition, the community organising support wraps around the cash over aperiod of 24 months. The project studies the impact on peoples’ lives –including their relationships, their work, and their wellbeing – and seeks toassess the prospects of UBI+ as a future social policy. WorkFREE is the firstmajor UBI experiment to take place in urban India, and one of the first in theworld to work with entire communities as opposed to selected individualswithin those communities. Full project information can be found on theproject’s website here. The rest of this ‘Process Document’ will outline thecomplex, challenging, nitty-gritty practicalities involved in project design,implementation, and management, with a view to supporting future would-bepiloters embarking on similar journeys. We structure the report around threebroad temporal phases

Structural, magnetic, and electrical properties of Bi1-xLaxMnO3 (x=0.0, 0.1, and 0.2) solid solutions

Possible ferromagnetic and ferroelectric orders in ceramic Bi1–xLaxMnO3 (x = 0.0, 0.1, and 0.2) samples prepared under 3–6 GPa pressure have been investigated. Rietveld fits to powder neutron diffraction data show that BiMnO3 and Bi0.9La0.1MnO3 adopt a monoclinic C2/c perovskite superstructure whereas Bi0.8La0.2MnO3 has orthorhombic Pnma symmetry. Both structural analysis and Curie–Weiss fits to magnetic susceptibility data show that high spin d4 Mn3+ is present with no significant Bi deficiency or Mn4+ content apparent. La substitution suppresses the magnetic Curie temperature of the monoclinic phase from 105 K for x = 0 to 94 K at x = 0.1, but the x = 0.2 material shows antiferromagnetic order similar to that of LaMnO3. Impedance spectroscopy and dielectric measurements on the x = 0.1 and 0.2 materials show modest bulk permittivity values (45–80) down to 50 K, and there is no strong evidence for ferroelectric behavior. The two samples have thermally activated conductivities with activation energies of 0.21–0.24 eV.PostprintPeer reviewe

Multicaloric materials and effects

Multicaloric materials show thermal changes that can be driven simultaneously or sequentially by more than one type of external field, and the resulting multicaloric effects can be large in multiferroic materials. The use of more than one driving field can permit access to larger thermal changes, with smaller field magnitudes, over wider ranges of operating temperature, while manipulating hysteresis. The thermodynamics behind multicaloric effects is well established, but only a small number of multicaloric effects have been experimentally studied to date. Here we describe the fundamentals of multicaloric effects, and discuss the performance of representative multicaloric materials. Exploiting multicaloric effects could aid the future development of cooling devices, where key challenges include energy efficiency and operating temperature span