Tapping Economies of Scale and Scope in Consumer Cooperation - A Case Analysis of Possible Cooperation among selected Cooperatives

Because of its narrow and negative perspective of safeguarding the interests of only poor consumers against unethical practices of the private traders, consumer cooperation in India seems to have failed, except probably in some isolated pockets. A number of social welfare functions like poverty alleviation and public distribution of essential items of consumption have been imposed on them at the cost of their basic economics. With the basic micro and macro-economic rationale for consumer cooperatives as a positive form of economic organization being lost sight of, they seem to be facing enormous problems both historically as well as currently in a era of economic liberalization. Their worries seem to have been compounded with the threat of impending competition from large private enterpriss - both domestic and foreign, which highlights the need for evolving strategies to rectivy their systemic weaknesses and tackling the competition head on. This case has attempted to document just such an initiative through a round table conference with several doyens of the consumer cooperative movement in India such as Warana Bazar and Amalsad Mandali as well as some fledging consumer cooperatives from West Bengal which are already in existence for some time or contemplating entry into this field. The roundtable conference organized in the spirit of Cooperation among Cooperatives attempted to evolve strategies to capture economies of scale and scope in order to take on the competition, as well as to facilitate dissemination of ideas and information across the country.

The First Multichroic Receiver and Results from ACTPol.

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is a unique and powerful tool for the study of cosmology and fundamental physics. The next frontier of CMB research is to extract the wealth of cosmological information available from its polarization. Accurate measurement of this polarization signal will enable us to probe inflation, provide an alternative means to measure the neutrino mass sum and number of neutrino species; improve our understanding of dark energy; explore the reionization history of our Universe; probe the large scale structure through gravitational lensing; and enable a multitude of other astrophysical studies. The polarized signatures of the early universe are extremely weak, dominated by foregrounds, and its measurement is susceptible to instrumental effects. Extracting the information contained in these faint signals requires instruments with high sensitivity, excellent control over systematic errors, and careful data analysis. The Atacama Cosmology Telescope Polarimeter (ACTPol) is a state-of-the-art experiment that measures CMB polarization over finer angular scales from the Atacama desert in Chile. In this thesis, I present an overview of this project and then describe my work on the project including development of a new polarization sensitive dichroic camera for ACTPol designed to increase the sensitivity of CMB telescopes and enable high precision measurements of CMB polarization; the development of novel metamaterial antireflection coatings for silicon lenses; diffraction from panel gaps; calibration of detector pass-bands; and a detailed description of my analysis of the polarization properties of extragalactic point sources discovered with the ACTPol data. I conclude with a discussion of the science of ACTPol, and the impact of my technical work on future CMB experiments.PHDPhysicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135767/1/dattar_1.pd

Energy current magnification in coupled oscillator loops

Motivated by studies on current magnification in quantum mesoscopic systems we consider sound and heat transmission in classical models of oscillator chains. A loop of coupled oscillators is connected to two leads through which one can either transmit monochromatic waves or white noise signal from heat baths. We look for the possibility of current magnification in this system due to some asymmetry introduced between the two arms in the loop. We find that current magnification is indeed obtained for particular frequency ranges. However the integrated current shows the effect only in the presence of a pinning potential for the atoms in the leads. We also study the effect of anharmonicity on current magnification.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Functional outcome of patients presenting with isolated medial condyle fractures of femur in a tertiary care hospital

Isolated medial condyle fractures of the femur with an intact lateral condyle are a rare entity. These fractures require prompt diagnosis and anatomical restoration of joint surface to prevent post traumatic arthritis. Till date no suitable implant is available for fixation of these fractures. In this study we have used 4.5 recon plates and CC screws to fix these fractures. We aim to study the functional outcome of these fractures in a group of patients fixed with the above implants. The study was conducted in a group of patients presenting with isolated medial condyle fractures of femur in a tertiary care hospital. An ORIF was done and fractures were fixed with recon plates and lag screws and various parameters were evaluated such as range of motion of knee, average time to weight bearing, Lysholm knee scores, pain perception etc 20 patients were evaluated in the age group of 20-70 in a 5 year period. Majority of the patients had a very good functional range of motion of the knee and nearly 75% achieved union by 12-16 weeks. 70% of the patients had a low VAS score. Overall early diagnosis and prompt anatomical restoration of joint surface in isolated medial condyle fractures of femur led to favourable range of motion of knee, early radiological healing and low VAS score

Methods for Measuring New-Physics Parameters in B Decays

Recently, it was argued that new-physics (NP) effects in B decays can be approximately parametrized in terms of a few quantities. As a result, CP violation in the $B$ system allows one not only to detect the presence of new physics (NP), but also to measure its parameters. This will allow a partial identification of the NP, before its production at high-energy colliders. In this paper, we examine three methods for measuring NP parameters. The first uses a technique involving both \btos and \btod penguin B decays. Depending on which pair of decays is used, the theoretical error is in the range 5--15%. The second involves a comparison of $B\to \pi K$ and $B\to\pi\pi$ decays. Although the theoretical error is large (\gsim 25%), the method can be performed now, with presently-available data. The third is via a time-dependent angular analysis of \bvv decays. In this case, there is no theoretical error, but the technique is experimentally challenging, and the method applies only to those NP models whose weak phase is universal to all NP operators. A reliable identification of the NP will involve the measurement of the NP parameters in many different ways, and with as many B decay modes as possible, so that it will be important to use all of these methods.Comment: 33 pages, latex, no figures. Appendix added. Analysis and conclusions unchange

CAMELS Rating System Analysis of Bangladesh Bank in Accordance with BRAC Bank Limited

This internship report is submitted in a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Business Administration,2012.Cataloged from PDF version of Internship report.Includes bibliographical references (page 48).The internship report is completely based on my internship program in BRAC Bank Limited. I have successfully completed my internship program from BRAC Bank Ltd. under Finance Division. It was twelve months long internship program which I started from 7th September, 2011 to 5th December, 2011. I did this internship program because it is a requirement for the BBA program in BRAC University. In my internship period, I worked in Regulatory Reporting of Finance Division. It was a great experience to me that I achieved much knowledge about the different types of banking reports. All employees of Regulatory Reporting were very helpful and they accept me cordially and prefer me as a part of their team member. My faculty advisor and the on-site supervisor helped me choose the topic- “CAMELS Rating System Analysis of Bangladesh Bank in Accordance with BRAC Bank Limited”. CAMELS Rating System is an international bank-rating system where bank supervisory authorities rate institutions according to six factors. It is encountered by six components named capital adequacy, asset quality, management competence, earnings, liquidity and sensitivity to market risk. It is used for banking companies to know about their financial condition, overall soundness of the banks, and predict different risk factors that may contribute to turn the bank into a problem. CAMEL first founded in 1979 and in 1996 CAMEL became CAMELS with the addition of a component grade for the Sensitivity of the bank to market risk. In Bangladesh, the five components of CAMEL have been used for evaluating the bank’s operations that reflect in a complete institution’s financial condition, compliance with banking regulations and statutes and overall operating soundness since the early nineties. In 2006, Bangladesh Bank has upgraded the CAMEL into CAMELS and included ‘Sensitivity to market risk’ or ‘S’ which make CAMEL into CAMELS. It has 1 through 5 rating for each of these components and a composite rating where the rating of 1 indicates strong performance or best rating, 2 reflects satisfactory performance, 3 represents performance that is flawed to some degree, 4 refers to marginal performance and is significantly below average and 5 is considered as unsatisfactory or worst rating. In Bangladesh, CAMELS rating is followed by all commercial as a recommendation of Bangladesh Bank. BRAC Bank Ltd. also makes report on CAMELS rating internally and externally. Bangladesh Bank evaluates CAMELS rating where BBL issue all necessary reports. BBL is a ‘B’ category bank in Bangladesh according to CAMELS rating system of Bangladesh Bank. It is in satisfactory position in 2010 by holding rating 2. Although it is in strong position in capital adequacy and earnings, but it is not in good position in asset quality, management quality and liquidity. So, it is ‘B’ category bank in Bangladesh. Now BBL is planning to include CAMELS’s new component named sensitivity to market in their CAMELS rating system which will make their rating system more efficient and effective. They do not yet use any quantitative factors to evaluate the new components of CAMELS rating system named sensitivity to market.Rahul Kanti DattaB. Business Administratio

Atmospheric Cold Plasma: A Brief Journey and Therapeutic Applications from Wound Healing to Cancer Biology

Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) has now become a well-known new edge technology in the field of biomedical science to agriculture and food technology. Ionized gas known as cold atmospheric plasma has recently been the subject of intense inquiry by scientists for its potential application for treatment in oncology and dentistry. Air, Helium, Argon, Nitrogen, and other gases can all be used to create Cold Atmospheric Plasma. Cold plasma can effectively and safely inactivate spores, bacteria, fungi, viruses, and small molecules and thereby improving wound healing, combating microbial infections, and treating skin conditions with great efficiency. Interestingly the in vitro and in vivo demonstration of CAP has shown promising applications in cancer healing and treatment. The most widely employed technique for producing and sustaining a low-temperature plasma for use in technological and scientific applications involves applying an electric field to a neutral gas. The non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure plasma jet (NAPPJ) and the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) have both been widely used in biomedical applications. This review aims to evaluate the emerging plasma technology - the basic science, technical aspects and provide insights of biomedical application in diverse area