Relationship, Workload: A Study in Mickey and the Memsahib

Good relationship is an essence for happy and peaceful life as water is necessary for existence of living beings. Extensive workloads and lust for huge earnings compel many professionals, private and government employees to be stuck with their duties for extra hours in the cosmopolitan cities; aloof from their family, relatives and friends; with them they should spend some time to sustain good relationship but they have no time to do so. Contrary, confusion and doubt has penetrate in their minds that disturb many people and force human beings to stay in perturbed circumstances though proper discussion restore their relationship with family particularly. They should spare time at home to share their ups and downs with wife, mother, sisters, brothers and other relatives in the high-tech cities and towns. Therefore, an appreciable relationship has taken a resentful situation when Professor and Memsahib become incompetent and careless to maintain their life-bonding relationship in the Marathi play Mickey and the Memsahib that is written by Satish Alekar (1949-). Professor has been doing research on the mouse named Mickey; so he has a hectic life of taking care of the mouse, scrutinizing research papers that are generally submitted by his research scholars, preparing lectures in the university, maintaining official works because he has been playing role of HOD for years. Memsahib is an Associate Professor who is always busy in her works. They do not negotiate nor give sufficient time to each other that results loneliness, sadness and dilemma

How farmers in an Indian village used broadband to save onions, and their livelihood

In a country with around 300 million smartphones, data usage per smartphone has increased to 9.6GB per month. While Internet penetration in rural areas is still low, those who do have access to Internet are benefiting from it writes Arshad Perwez. Some to even save their crop of onions

Techniques for the Fast Simulation of Models of Highly dependable Systems

With the ever-increasing complexity and requirements of highly dependable systems, their evaluation during design and operation is becoming more crucial. Realistic models of such systems are often not amenable to analysis using conventional analytic or numerical methods. Therefore, analysts and designers turn to simulation to evaluate these models. However, accurate estimation of dependability measures of these models requires that the simulation frequently observes system failures, which are rare events in highly dependable systems. This renders ordinary Simulation impractical for evaluating such systems. To overcome this problem, simulation techniques based on importance sampling have been developed, and are very effective in certain settings. When importance sampling works well, simulation run lengths can be reduced by several orders of magnitude when estimating transient as well as steady-state dependability measures. This paper reviews some of the importance-sampling techniques that have been developed in recent years to estimate dependability measures efficiently in Markov and nonMarkov models of highly dependable system

Rethinking the Cape Town Property Developer: Understanding the local developer's perspective of the City of Cape Town Municipality and comparing this perspective to local Transit-Orientated Development policy constructs of the developer

Purpose – This dissertation investigated the degree to which the City of Cape Town understands a ‘notional' Cape Town property developer within the Transit-Orientated Development (“TOD”) context. This dissertation is not meant to draw a distinction between a right or wrong model of a local property developer, but to investigate what a richer model would look like using alternative economic perspectives that capture the multiplicity of reality and possible TOD policy implications. Design – A literature review was undertaken to understand institutional and behavioural economic frameworks, how each framework relates to the property market, and how to use the frameworks to assist in defining a developer. Further research was conducted to consider the property development process from the perspective of the Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) framework. The property developer as an actor within the property market was then deconstructed. Alternative approaches to local government involvement in the development industry and the developer's perspective on TOD was also explored. A qualitative, semi-structured localist interview was conducted with nine major developers operating in Cape Town. They were selected because they are likely to participate in catalytic TOD-type projects. The interview aimed to understand their world view and how their lived experience relates to the City of Cape Town municipality. Findings – There is a ‘definition gap' between how the City of Cape Town has defined a developer and the findings of this dissertation. Policy implies a developer has perfect decision-making qualities pursuing maximum profits, whereas this dissertation found that developers tend to be focussed on risk reduction and exhibit satisficing and loss-averse behaviour. There are also those who prefer to build and hold a portfolio of rental properties which are not defined in policy. This type of developer possesses a different outlook and investment behaviour than the one defined in the TOD Strategic Framework. The City of Cape Town does not appreciate its positioning within and its influence on local property market dynamics, as it relates to the ‘rules of the game'. Practical Implications – Without understanding these distinctions, developers may not necessarily, predictably and readily respond to any TOD incentives and levers as set out in the Framework, resulting in policy perpetuating the very spatial inequalities and status quo the City of Cape Town aims to redress

Death before Birth : Negotiating Reproduction, Female Infanticide and Sex Selective Abortion in Tamil Nadu, South India

This thesis deals with the cultural and political underpinnings of female infanticide and sex selective abortion in contemporary South India. Based on a fifteen months' ethnographic fieldwork in western parts of Salem district in Tamil Nadu, I explore the ideas and practices around deaths of (un)born children - particularly in the context of issues of gender-selective child survival, use and control over new reproductive technologies for sex selection, fertility and reproduction. Elucidating further the ethnographic contexts of state and non-state (primarily NGO) interventions in these deaths, the thesis examines the new forms of governance on issues that affect contemporary Tamil women. I discuss three different discourses by the government, by NGOs, and by the communities on the meaning and context of these deaths including the ways in which these meanings and ideas are reconceptualised and re-configured into a changing social and cultural context of birth. My thesis, therefore, contributes to the anthropology of reproduction. The underlying questions of the thesis are: Why has female infanticide, which was claimed to be effectively controlled in nineteenth century colonial India, appeared in post-colonial (South) India - in the form of both sex selective abortion and female infanticide - in communities and regions where it was previously claimed to be unknown? What effects could these social practices have on contemporary women' s positions and their developments and vice-versa? In answering these questions. the thesis makes a significant departure from previous anthropological studies on female infanticide in India in that it does not solely look into one single unit (village/s in this case), but uses a multi-sited approach, covering a wider geographical area, i.e .. parts of Salem, Dharmapuri, and Erode districts of Tamil Nadu. The thesis also shifts from the purely demographic approach to female infanticide in that it does not generate a new data set on female infanticide. Rather, it engages with the institutional responses and their rhetoric on female infanticide and sex selective abortion

Telugu Jews: Are the Dalits of coastal Andhra going caste-awry?

In the context of religious conversion movements of low castes in India, many Dalit groups have embraced Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and even Jainism in order to restore egalitarian traditions. However, their conversion to Judaism is relatively unheard of in the academia. This essay throws light on the nature of these conversions by looking at a section of Dalit population in the coastal Andhra, who embraced Judaism two decades ago by declaring their community to be the descendants of the Children of Ephraim – one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel

Simulating Tail Probabilities in GI/GI.1 Queues and Insurance Risk Processes with Subexponentail Distributions

This paper deals with estimating small tail probabilities of thesteady-state waiting time in a GI/GI/1 queue with heavy-tailed (subexponential) service times. The problem of estimating infinite horizon ruin probabilities in insurance risk processes with heavy-tailed claims can be transformed into the same framework. It is well-known that naive simulation is ineffective for estimating small probabilities and special fast simulation techniques like importance sampling, multilevel splitting, etc., have to be used. Though there exists a vast amount of literature on the rare event simulation of queuing systems and networks with light-tailed distributions, previous fast simulation techniques for queues with subexponential service times have been confined to the M/GI/1 queue. The general approach is to use the Pollaczek-Khintchine transformation to convert the problem into that of estimating the tail distribution of a geometric sum of independent subexponential random variables. However, no such useful transformation exists when one goes from Poisson arrivals to general interarrival-time distributions. We describe and evaluate an approach that is based on directly simulating the random walk associated with the waiting-time process of the GI/GI/1 queue, using a change of measure called delayed subexponential twisting -an importance sampling idea recently developed and found useful in the context of M/GI/1 heavy-tailed simulations

Forecasting of Pakistan's Net Electricity Energy Consumption on the Basis of Energy Pathway Scenarios

AbstractPower Sector pathways for Pakistan is developed in this paper to depict the future challenges & aspects associated with its forecasting and planning on basis of modeling tools. Major pathways will be taken for further study in predicting focus on energy source for power generation. Three scenarios (BAU, NC & GF) will be discussed over a 20 years period (2011 to 2030) and the results from these scenarios will highlight our focus on fossil fuels or either renewable for future endeavors. The result will provide the forecasting of power sector up to 2030 on basis of electric consumers growth, level of activities, final energy intensity, forecasted growth & other factors. Therefore, the overall result will indicate efficient factors for future evaluation of policies on energy planning. The result also provides the vision for other developing countries in the region to make strategy for renewable energy expansion on massive scale

A Study on Role of Mothers Education for the Psycho-Social and Cognitive Development in Children

The present evaluation of Early Head Start concerns the effects of household income and mother s education on child cognitive development A secondary data analysis is performed on the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation study public use file in which cognitive development is measured using the Bayley Mental Development Index and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Household income is measured as a percentage of the federal poverty level with households earning up to 100 percent of the poverty level annually considered low income Mother s education is determined by possession of a high school diploma Results of multiple and simultaneous linear regressions are presented Early Head Start is found to positively affect cognitive development among children whose mothers have earned a high school diploma while its effectiveness for low income households is less significant Implications for early childhood interventions are discussed as well as areas for future researc

Mindful Organizations: a Bibliometric Study to Provide Insights Into the Interplay Between Mindfulness and Psychological Capital in the Workplace

Purpose:  The purpose of this study is to identify the most productive researchers, institutions, and research trends in this area, in order to inform future research and practice.   Theoretical framework: The research on mindfulness and psychological capital has started during 2002 and now playing a crucial role in the organizations. Though there is a consolidated amount of research, no bibliometric analysis has been conducted in this area of research.   Design/methodology/approach: The data was extracted from Scopus database and analyzed using VOS viewer 1.6.17. The purpose of this study is to analyze 1,336 articles through a bibliometric review. The descriptive retrospective study was conducted using science mapping and bibliometric analysis.   Findings:  The results show exponential growth in mindfulness and psychological capital that has been done in the past five years and the authors, countries, journals in the scientific community that contributed to this research area. The research over two decades has been divided into three stages, highlighting the increase in its visibility and productivity in recent years, and analyzed according to the publications, citations, journals, articles, authors, keyword analysis, and geographical distribution of the published works.   Research, Practical & Social implications: This study provides an overview of the research in the area of positive psychology in the organizational context. This helps the researchers to understand the importance of mindfulness and psychological capital in organizations.   Originality/value: The value of the study is that it is the primary and original research in the area of mindfulness and psychological capital to conduct a bibliometric analysis and science mapping in this area of research