India: the next superpower?: corruption in India

The momentum of last year’s hunger strike by the anti-corruption campaigner Kisan ‘Anna’ Hazare currently sees India’s parliament wrestling with the formation of a national corruption ombudsman. Hazare’s campaign rests upon the proposition that the democratic ideals with which the Indian state was formed in 1947 are all too often subverted by the self-interest of public servants. Hazare’s supporters argue that this process has two primary effects. First, corruption allows wealthier citizens to access resources and preferential state treatment to which they are not entitled. Second, corruption constitutes a drain on the coffers of many ordinary Indians, in the form of demands for bribes by state functionaries, without which their services cannot necessarily be procured

Contra-rotating marine current turbines : single point tethered floating system - stabilty and performance

The Energy Systems Research Unit within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Strathclyde has developed a novel contra-rotating tidal turbine (CoRMaT). A series of tank and sea tests have led to the development and deployment of a small stand-alone next generation tidal turbine. Novel aspects of this turbine include its single point compliant mooring system, direct drive open to sea permanent magnet generator, and two contra-rotating sets of rotor blades. The sea testing of the turbine off the west coast of Scotland in the Sound of Islay is described; the resulting stability of a single-point tethered device and power quality from the direct drive generator is reported and evaluated. It is noted that reasonably good moored turbine stability within a real tidal stream can be achieved with careful design; however even quite small instabilities have an effect on the output electrical power quality. Finally, the power take-off and delivery options for a 250kW production prototype are described and assessed

Corruption is both a symptom of the basic structures of capitalism, and a technology that supports them

As leaders gather in London for a landmark Anti-Corruption Summit hosted by David Cameron, Andrew Sanchez draws on his research in India to argue the project to eliminate criminal practices that flourish at the margins of capitalist economies is based upon a fundamental misconception. He writes that far from operating at the fringes of the state and economy, corrupt actors are usually enmeshed within the very structures of capitalism. This post forms part of our cross-blog Anti-Corruption series. Read further posts here

Transformation and the Satisfaction of Work

This article suggests a new conceptual framework for understanding why some types of work are experienced in more satisfying ways than others. The analysis is based on research in an Indian scrap metal yard, where work entails disassembling things that other people no longer want. In spite of the demanding conditions of the labor and the social stigma attached to it, employees express satisfaction with the work process. This observation raises questions about theories of labor, which see satisfaction as arising from work that is creative, skilled, and task-based. The article argues that transformation is a social process that should be used as the primary analytic for explaining work satisfaction. Theories of creativity, skill, and task are secondary analytics that describe subsets of transformative action

Sexual intercourse among adolescents in Santiago, Chile: a study of individual and parenting factors

OBJECTIVE: To examine a range of individual, parenting, and family factors associated with sexual intercourse among a community sample of youth and their families in Santiago, Chile. METHODS: Data were taken from the first wave of the Santiago Longitudinal Study conducted in January 2008–November 2009. Participants were 766 youth (mean age = 14.03 years, 51% male) from municipalities of low-to mid-socioeconomic status. Variables included emotional and behavioral subscales from the Child Behavior Checklist’s Youth Self Report, parental monitoring, family involvement, parental control and autonomy, relationship with each parent, and sexual activity. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine the odds of sexual intercourse initiation. RESULTS: Seventy (9.14%) youth reported having had sex in their lifetime; the average age of first sexual intercourse among this group was 13.5 years (Standard Deviation [SD] = 1.74) for males and 14.08 (SD = 1.40) for females. Having sex was inversely associated with withdrawn-depressed symptoms (Odds Ratio [OR] = 0.84, Confidence Interval [CI] = 0.72–0.97), but positively associated with somatic complaints (OR = 1.20, CI = 1.04–1.38) and rule breaking behavior (OR = 1.21, CI = 1.08–1.36), after adjusting for demographic and other individual and parenting variables. The majority (80%) of the youth who had had sex reported using protection at the time of last intercourse. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the role that mental health problems—some of them not commonly associated with onset of sexual activity—may play in a youth’s decision to have sex. The potential protective effects of several parenting and family characteristics disappeared with youth age and youth behavioral problems.R01 HD033487 - NICHD NIH HHS; R01 DA021181 - NIDA NIH HHS; DA021181 - NIDA NIH HH

Managing Utility Properties: Fire Risk Awareness and Mitigation

Southern California Edison is concerned with fire and the danger it poses to its equipment and employees, and their current strategies are becoming outdated. To help solve this problem, this project developed a web application that allows the user to identify the areas that might be influenced by a fire instance, retrieve information about assets in the danger zone, and display the assets and their risk levels. With this tool, the emergency response teams can more accurately decide what areas are most in need of assistance in a timely fashion. By increasing their efficiency of disaster management, lives and money can be saved

A contra-rotating marine current turbine on a flexible mooring : development of a scaled prototype

The contra-rotating marine current turbine concept developed by the Energy Systems Research Unit at the University of Strathclyde is aimed at extracting energy in a wide range of water depths by 'flying' a neutrally-buoyant device from a flexible, tensioned mooring. After successful proof of concept turbine trials, the development programme has moved on to investigate the performance of a scaled prototype of the complete system incorporating the turbine, submersible contra-rotating generator and mooring. The turbine/generator assembly has been tested in a towing tank, and the entire system is now undergoing sea trials. An investigation into turbine wake development (an area in which it is hoped that the contra-rotating turbine will have uniquely beneficial properties) has recently begun. Small single-rotor model turbines have been deployed in a flume. Trends observed so far are in accordance with those observed by other researchers

A Random Walk in a Random Environment

In this dissertation we consider a model of a random walk, (Zn}, on R(1) where the distribution of (Zn} is dependent on a stochastic process (Yn} and is given by gy(z) where Yn-1 = y . Conditions on the environmental process (Yn} are given for which transience or recurrence of the random walk (Zn} can be detennined. The probability of n absorption and mean time problems are solved when (Yn} is a finite Markov chain and (Zn} is a classical random walk on the integer lattice

Contra-rotating marine current turbines : performance in field trials and power train developments

Development of a novel contra-rotating marine current turbine has been continuing at the University of Strathclyde. Continuous monitoring of blade bending loads during trials has enabled an investigation of blade-blade and blade-structure interactions. The former are a particular concern with a contra-rotating turbine, but there is now evidence to suggest that in normal operation these are relatively small. By contrast, blade-structure effects are clearly visible. A turbine complete with single-point mooring and submersible contra-rotating generator is presently being prepared for sea trials. Details of the machine and the test programme are described

The association of at-risk, problem, and pathological gambling with substance use, depression, and arrest history

We examined at-risk, problem, or pathological gambling co-occurrence with frequency of past-year alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use; depressive symptoms; and arrest history. Data included the responses of over 3,000 individuals who participated in a 2006 telephone survey designed to understand the extent of at-risk, problem, and pathological gambling; comorbidity levels with substance use; mental health; and social problems among Southwestern U.S. residents. Data were analyzed with multinomial and bivariate logistic regression. Respondents at risk for problem gambling were more likely to use alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana than those respondents not at risk. Pathological gamblers were no more or less likely to consume alcohol or tobacco than were non-gamblers or those not at risk. A dose-response relationship existed between degree of gambling problems and depressive symptoms and arrest history. Interventions for at-risk or problem gamblers need to include substance use treatment, and the phenomenon of low levels of substance use among pathological gamblers needs further exploration