Dynamics of caste-based deprivation in child under-nutrition in India

Nutritional deprivation among Indian children is one of the parameters of underdevelopment mentioned in development discourse in recent times. And such deprivation is more often associated with well known socio-economic indicators of deprivation; prominent among them is caste, which ranks the society into a hierarchy in terms of benefit and welfare. Though caste dimension has been frequently considered as a category of understanding deprivation, it is rare to find explicit disadvantage of caste in what is said as transforming capabilities into functioning. While caste disadvantage in any outcome shows a systematic pattern, it is never made clear as to what is the dynamics of this disadvantage in terms of characteristics bearing an association with a given outcome. This paper makes an attempt in illustrating the dynamics of caste-based deprivation considering the case of child under-nutrition. It essentially demonstrates the patterns of differentials in nutrition according to other potential correlates of under-nutrition within SC/ST and others and comments on the limits of translating a given set of capabilities in to functioning/outcome (child nutrition here). It finds that while deprivation gap according to potential correlates is higher in general compared with SC/STs, there is clear demonstration of differential translation of capabilities like education, residential status, work status into outcome like nutrition among the SC/STs vis-à-vis the others. The results are also confirmed with application of a logit model. The study uses the data from National Family Health Survey report (NFHS-2, 1998- 99) for the purpose of this illustration. Key Words: Health, Under-nutrition, Child Under-nutrition, Caste, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, Inequality, Deprivation, India JEL Classification:- I 12, I 3

Identification of Real-Time Maglev Plant using Long-Short Term Memory network based Deep learning Technique

Deep neural network has emerged as one of the most effective networks for modeling of highly non-linear complex real-time systems. The Long-Short Term Memory network (LSTM) which is a one of the variants of Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) has been proposed for the identification of a highly nonlinear Maglev plant. The comparative analysis of its performance is carried out with the Functional Link Artificial Neural Network- Least Mean Square (FLANN-LMS), FLANN-Particle Swarm Optimization (FLANN-PSO), FLANN-Teaching Learning Based Optimization (FLANN-TLBO) and FLANN-Black Widow Optimization (FLANN-BWO) algorithm. The proposed LSTM model is a feed forward neural network trained by a simple iterative method called the ADAM algorithm. The obtained results indicate that the proposed network has better performance than the other competitive networks in terms of the MSE, CPU time and convergence rate. To validate the dominance of the proposed network, a statistical tests, i.e. the Friedman test, is also applied.

Identification of Real-Time Maglev Plant using Long-Short Term Memory Network based Deep Learning Technique

1101-1105Deep neural network has emerged as one of the most effective networks for modeling of highly non-linear complex real-time systems. The long-short term memory network (LSTM) which is a one of the variants of recurrent neural network (RNN) has been proposed for the identification of a highly nonlinear Maglev plant. The comparative analysis of its performance is carried out with the functional link artificial neural network- least mean square (FLANN-LMS), FLANN-particle swarm optimization (FLANN-PSO), FLANN-teaching learning based optimization (FLANN-TLBO) and FLANN-black widow optimization (FLANN-BWO) algorithm. The proposed LSTM model is a feed forward neural network trained by a simple iterative method called the ADAM algorithm. The obtained results indicate that the proposed network has better performance than the other competitive networks in terms of the MSE, CPU time and convergence rate. To validate the dominance of the proposed network, a statistical tests, i.e. the Friedman test, is also applied

A Circular Adaptive Median Filter for Salt and Pepper Noise Suppression from MRI Images

An adaptive median filter with a circular kernel, named as circular adaptive median filter (CAMF) is proposed in this article, for denoising of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images corrupted by salt and pepper noise of varying noise densities. An adaptive operation is incorporated in the proposed filter by varying the size of the circular kernel according to the requirement. The effectiveness of the CAMF is compared with six other competitive networks, i.e., conic adaptive median filter (CoAMF), decision based filter (DBF), modified switching median filter (MSWM), recursive adaptive modified filter (RAMF), plus adaptive median filter (PAMF), and cross adaptive median filter (CrAMF). The performance of all the models is analyzed using peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and computational time. Moreover, a non-parametric statistical test is conducted to illustrate the pair wise comparison of other filter with the proposed one. It is observed that the proposed approach has demonstrated superior performance with respect to the two performance measures

A Circular Adaptive Median Filter for Salt and Pepper Noise Suppression from MRI Images

941-944An adaptive median filter with a circular kernel, named as circular adaptive median filter (CAMF) is proposed in this article, for denoising of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images corrupted by salt and pepper noise of varying noise densities. An adaptive operation is incorporated in the proposed filter by varying the size of the circular kernel according to the requirement. The effectiveness of the CAMF is compared with six other competitive networks, i.e., conic adaptive median filter (CoAMF), decision based filter (DBF), modified switching median filter (MSWM), recursive adaptive modified filter (RAMF), plus adaptive median filter (PAMF), and cross adaptive median filter (CrAMF). The performance of all the models is analyzed using peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and computational time. Moreover, a non-parametric statistical test is conducted to illustrate the pair wise comparison of other filter with the proposed one. It is observed that the proposed approach has demonstrated superior performance with respect to the two performance measures

Dynamics of Caste-based Deprivation in Child Under-Nutrition in India

This paper makes an attempt at illustrating the dynamics of caste-based deprivation considering the case of child under-nutrition. It essentially demonstrates the patterns of differentials in nutrition according to other potential correlates of under-nutrition within SC/ST and others and comments on the limits of translating a given set of capabilities in to functioning/outcome (child nutrition here). It finds that while deprivation gap according to potential correlates is higher in general compared with SC/STs, there is clear demonstration of differential translation of capabilities like education, residential status, work status into outcome like nutrition among the SC/STs vis-à-vis the others. The results are also confirmed with application of a logit model. The study uses the data from National Family Health Survey report (NFHS-2, 1998- 99) for the purpose of this illustration. [CDS Working Paper 380], Under-nutrition, Child Under-nutrition, Caste,Health Studies, Economics, Sociology

Nutritional Deprivation Among Indian Pre-School Children: Does Rural-Urban Disparity Matter ?

The rural-urban disparities are a reality in developing countries like India. Post reform, there are lot of empirical studies which has focused on this aspect of development experience in India. The vast majority of Indians continues to live in rural areas, despite the phenomenal rise of urban population across states. This work focuses on a particular aspect of such rural-urban difference, namely nutritional status of children.[GIDR WP NO. 178]Undernutrition; India; Rural-urban disparity; Pre-school children , Anthropometric measures

Right to Food Security Bill: Challenges and Opportunities

The financial implications of the food security bill can be questioned. But the Bill proposes to protect the citizens from hunger and improve the nutritional intake of women and children.food security bill, children, women, NSS, NFHS, nutritional, food grains, PDS, public distribution System, ICDS, anganwadi, BPL, APL, households, ratio cards, health, education, food, Self-Help Group (SHG), undernourishment, pregnant,

On comparison of nutritional deprivation: an illustration using Foster Greer Thorbecke criterion

This is an illustrative note on application of Foster Greer Thorbecke (FGT) criterion to measurement and comparison of undernourishment among children. Given the semblance between head-count measure of poverty and measuring undernourishment among children, there arises a need for application of FGT criterion in assessment of undernourishment as well. This not only helps in assessing intensity and inequality aspect but also can adjust the head count accounting for both to make a valid comparison on levels of undernourishment across situations.

COVID‐19 vaccines and their underbelly: Are we going the right way?

Abstract Background Historically, a critical aetiological agent of health concern stays till eternity after its discovery, so shall it be with the COVID‐19 outbreak. It has transformed human life to a ‘new normal’ with huge tolls on the social, psychological, intellectual and financial spheres. Aim This perspective aimed to collate numerous reported COVID‐19 vaccine‐associated adverse events and the predisposing factors. It focussed on the efficacy of mix‐n‐match (cocktail) vaccines to effectively counter COVID‐19 infection to facilitate future research and possible interventions. Material and Methods Databases like Scopus, Pubmed and the Web‐of‐science were searched for published literature on ‘adverse events associated with COVID‐19 vaccine’. The reports and updates from health agencies like the WHO and CDC were also considered for the purpose. The details with respect to the adverse events associated with COVID‐19 vaccination and the predisposing factors were compiled to obtain insights and suggest possible future directions in vaccine research. Results India stood strong to manage its health resources in time and turned into a dominant global vaccine supplier at a time when healthcare infrastructure of many countries was still significantly challenged. Developing indigenous vaccines and the vaccination drive in India were its major achievements during the second and the subsequent COVID‐19 waves. The fully indigenous Covaxin vaccine, primarily as an emergency intervention, was successfully rapidly launched. Similar such vaccines for emergency use were developed elsewhere as well. However, all of these reached the marketplace with a ‘emergency use only’ tag, without formal clinical trials and other associated formalities to validate and verify them as these would require much longer incubation time before they are available for human use. Discussion Many adverse events associated with either the first or the second/booster vaccination doses were reported. Evidently, these associated adverse events were considered as ‘usually rare’ or were often underreported. Without the additional financial or ethical burden on the vaccine companies, fortunately, the Phase IV (human) clinical trials of their manufactured vaccines are occurring by default as the human population receives these under the tag ‘emergency use’. Thus, focused and collaborative strategies to unveil the molecular mechanisms in vaccine‐related adverse events in a time‐bound manner are suggested. Conclusion Reliable data particularly on the safety of children is lacking as majority of the current over‐the‐counter COVID‐19 vaccines were for emergency use. Many of these were still in their Phase III and Phase IV trials. The need for a mutant‐proof, next‐gen COVID‐19 vaccine in the face of vaccine‐associated adverse events is opined