People's Education in India. Perspective of Jadavpur University

Folkeoplysning i Indien - belyst på baggrund af Jadavpur universitetets udgangspunktAf Asoke Bhattacharya og Tandra MitraForfatterne - henholdsvis direktør for og forsker på et forskningscenter i folkeoplysning på Jadavpur University, Calcutta - fortæller om mulighederne for at bruge den grundtvigske folkehøjskole i voksenundervisningen i Indien.Artiklen indledes med en fremstilling af, hvorledes Vest-Bengalen i årene omkring 1970 i lighed med den øvrige verden prægedes af voldsomme begivenheder, her i forbindelse med bestræbelser på at gennemføre jordreformer. Dette arbejde blev imidlertid ikke fulgt op af et forsøg på at komme analfabetismen til livs. Fra 1986 blev kampen mod analfabetisme imidlertid en national opgave i Indien, hvor undersøgelser pegede på, at landet i år 2000 ville have halvdelen af verdens analfabeter inden for sine grænser. I 1988 dannedes The National Literacy Mission og blev snart en stærk bevægelse. Et forbillede for hele Indien blev delstaten Kerala, hvor det lykkedes først et enkelt distrikt, siden hele delstaten at udrydde analfabetismen. Fra 1990 til 1994 nåede »operation Blackboard« ud i næsten hver krog af landet, men efter en årrække stagnerede projektet. I forbindelse med forsøgene på at videreføre kampen mod analfabetisme inden for rammerne af en handlingsplan har det nævnte forskningscenter Adult, Continuing and Extension Centre da arbejdet med opfølgningsprogrammer, der forbinder arbejdet med læsning med projekter, der har til hensigt at styrke udviklingsarbejdet i Vest-Bengalen. Konkret har der været tale om etablering af tre centre for mennesker, der har opnået læse- og skrivefærdighed. I den sammenhæng har man dels gjort den erfaring, at et sådant arbejde forudsætter et samarbejde, dels at den administrative struktur i landområdeme er for bureaukratisk til at kunne opfange de allerfattigstes forsøg på at udnytte læsefærdigheden i forbindelse med kooperativt arbejde.I denne situation inddrager forfatterne Grundtvigs uddannelsestanker og den rolle, de har spillet i det danske folks nyere historie. Det skildres, hvorledes Grundtvig taler om folkets og ikke elitens uddannelse, og hvorledes åndelig oplysning for Grundtvig udgør baggrunden for folkelig bevidstgørelse. Videre skildres den danske folkehøjskole som en eksamensfri skole i tæt kontakt med landbefolkningen og med andelsbevægelsen. Forfatterne fortsætter med at gøre rede for, hvorledes den grundtvigske folkehøjskolemodel kan forbindes med det såkaldte three-tier Panchayat system i Vest-Bengalen, der fremstår som et led i demokratiseringen af landdistrikterne. På dette systems første trin - landsbyniveauet - skal en grundskole for voksne oprettes, i hvilken kampen mod analfabetisme kombineres med samtaler og indlæring af praktiske færdigheder. På systemets andet trin oprettes folkehøjskoler, hvor national historie og kultur på lignende vis forbindes med erhvervsrettet undervisning og redegørelser for andelstanken. På tredje trin - distriktsniveauet – indrettes folkelige »Colleges«, hvor eleverne uddannes med henblik på senere at kunne virke som undervisere på folkehøjskolerne eller grundskolerne. Samtlige institutioner skal baseres på tætte kontakter til landbefolkningen, men også til en koordinerende komite, sammensat bl.a. af repræsentanter for administrationen.Konkret skal det nævnte Adult, Continuing and Extension Centre på Jadavpur Universitetet støtte projektet gennem oprettelse af The Grundtvig International Centre for Study and Research in Adult Education, der i samarbejde med bl.a. Center for Grundtvig-studier i Aarhus dels skal drive studier i den grundtvigske bevægelse og dens mulige betydning for Indien i dag, dels skal støtte folkeoplysningsarbejdet i kampen mod analfabetisme og de initiativer, der er knyttet til dette

A Systematic Search over Deep Convolutional Neural Network Architectures for Screening Chest Radiographs

Chest radiographs are primarily employed for the screening of pulmonary and cardio-/thoracic conditions. Being undertaken at primary healthcare centers, they require the presence of an on-premise reporting Radiologist, which is a challenge in low and middle income countries. This has inspired the development of machine learning based automation of the screening process. While recent efforts demonstrate a performance benchmark using an ensemble of deep convolutional neural networks (CNN), our systematic search over multiple standard CNN architectures identified single candidate CNN models whose classification performances were found to be at par with ensembles. Over 63 experiments spanning 400 hours, executed on a 11:3 FP32 TensorTFLOPS compute system, we found the Xception and ResNet-18 architectures to be consistent performers in identifying co-existing disease conditions with an average AUC of 0.87 across nine pathologies. We conclude on the reliability of the models by assessing their saliency maps generated using the randomized input sampling for explanation (RISE) method and qualitatively validating them against manual annotations locally sourced from an experienced Radiologist. We also draw a critical note on the limitations of the publicly available CheXpert dataset primarily on account of disparity in class distribution in training vs. testing sets, and unavailability of sufficient samples for few classes, which hampers quantitative reporting due to sample insufficiency.Comment: accepted in EMBC 2020, 4 pages+2 page Appendi

Simultaneous solution to B --> phi K CP Asymmetry and B --> eta(prime) K, eta K^* branching ratio anomalies from R-parity violation

The branching ratios for the neutral and charged B decay channels to $\eta' K$ and $\eta K^*$ are well above the Standard Model expectations. Moreover, the mixing-induced CP asymmetry in $B \to \phi K_S$ is incompatible to that found in $B\to J/\psi K_S$. We investigate whether a flavour-specific tree-level $b\to s \bar{s} s$ operator coming from R-parity violating supersymmetry can resolve both these discrepancies, without jeopardizing those results which are in agreement with the Standard Model. We found that it is possible to have a parameter space satisfying all these requirements, including that of a low strong phase difference compatible with the color transparency argument. Furthermore, we put a robust bound on the relevant coupling, which is two orders of magnitude better than the existing one.Comment: 15 pages, 4 postscript figures, some cosmetic changes, a few references added, version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Influence of rank and macerals on the burnout behaviour of pulverized Indian coal

The combustion behaviour of coal is significantly influenced by its rank and maceral and microlithotype compositions. Different macerals, due to their distinct and unique physical properties and chemical makeup, have different burning characteristics. This paper deals with the burning behaviour of coals of Indian origin by thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and in drop tube furnace (DTF) with particular emphasis on the role of macerals and their associations. Four coals of different rank and petrographic makeup, along with their two density fractions, with enriched vitrinite and inertinites, respectively,were studied in both TGA and DTF. The burnout behaviour was estimated from the chemical analyses of the char samples collected from the DTF. The burning characteristics of one of the coals deviate from the trend expected with the variations of rank. The behaviour of the density fractions in DTF was found to be different from that observed in TGA analyses. An attempt has been made to correlate the burnout with the petrographic macerals and microlithotypes present in the coals. The morphology of the residual chars indicates the contributions of the inertinites towards the formation of cenospheres and network types of reactive chars. The superior burning behaviour of the higher density inertinite-rich fractions over the raw coals and also some vitrinite-rich fractions indicate the better reactivity of the inertinites towards combustion

Chlorzoxazone, an SK-type potassium channel activator used in humans, reduces excessive alcohol intake in rats

Background Alcoholism imposes a tremendous social and economic burden. There are relatively few pharmacological treatments for alcoholism, with only moderate efficacy, and there is considerable interest in identifying additional therapeutic options. Alcohol exposure alters SK-type potassium channel (SK) function in limbic brain regions. Thus, positive SK modulators such as chlorzoxazone (CZX), a US Food and Drug Administration–approved centrally acting myorelaxant, might enhance SK function and decrease neuronal activity, resulting in reduced alcohol intake. Methods We examined whether CZX reduced alcohol consumption under two-bottle choice (20% alcohol and water) in rats with intermittent access to alcohol (IAA) or continuous access to alcohol (CAA). In addition, we used ex vivo electrophysiology to determine whether SK inhibition and activation can alter firing of nucleus accumbens (NAcb) core medium spiny neurons. Results Chlorzoxazone significantly and dose-dependently decreased alcohol but not water intake in IAA rats, with no effects in CAA rats. Chlorzoxazone also reduced alcohol preference in IAA but not CAA rats and reduced the tendency for rapid initial alcohol consumption in IAA rats. Chlorzoxazone reduction of IAA drinking was not explained by locomotor effects. Finally, NAcb core neurons ex vivo showed enhanced firing, reduced SK regulation of firing, and greater CZX inhibition of firing in IAA versus CAA rats. Conclusions The potent CZX-induced reduction of excessive IAA alcohol intake, with no effect on the more moderate intake in CAA rats, might reflect the greater CZX reduction in IAA NAcb core firing observed ex vivo. Thus, CZX could represent a novel and immediately accessible pharmacotherapeutic intervention for human alcoholism. Key Words: Alcohol intake; intermittent; neuro-adaptation; nucleus accumbens; SK potassium channe