Informed Consent for the Human Research Subject with a Neurologic Disorder.

The doctrine of informed consent sits at the intersection of law, ethics, and neuroscience, posing unique challenges for human subject research involving neurological patients. These challenges are compounded by the variegated nature of both neurological injury and the law governing research consent. This article provides a framework for investigators likely to encounter subjects with some degree of neurological impairment, whose capacity to consent requires scrupulous assessment prior to enrollment in research trials. We consider several researches and disease contexts-from emergency epilepsy research to long-term dementia research-and clarify the ethical and legal principles governing consent for participation in each. We additionally explore empirical research on consent capacity and survey several areas of emerging ethical import that will require the attention of investigators in decades to come

Quid Pro Quo: Builders, Politicians, and Election Finance in India- Working Paper 276

In developing countries where elections are costly and accountability mechanisms weak, politicians often turn to illicit means of financing campaigns. This paper examines one such channel of illicit campaign finance: India’s real estate sector. Politicians and builders allegedly engage in a quid pro quo, whereby the former park their illicit assets with the latter, and the latter rely on the former for favorable dispensation. At election time, however, builders need to re-route funds to politicians as a form of indirect election finance. One observable implication is that the demand for cement, the indispensible raw material used in the sector, should contract during elections since builders need to inject funds into campaigns. Using a novel monthly-level data set, we demonstrate that cement consumption does exhibit a political business cycle consistent with our hypothesis. Additional tests provide confidence in the robustness and interpretation of our findings.elections, election finance, corruption, political economy, India

Matched Filtering of Numerical Relativity Templates of Spinning Binary Black Holes

Tremendous progress has been made towards the solution of the binary-black-hole problem in numerical relativity. The waveforms produced by numerical relativity will play a role in gravitational wave detection as either test-beds for analytic template banks or as template banks themselves. As the parameter space explored by numerical relativity expands, the importance of quantifying the effect that each parameter has on first the detection of gravitational waves and then the parameter estimation of their sources increases. In light of this, we present a study of equal-mass, spinning binary-black-hole evolutions through matched filtering techniques commonly used in data analysis. We study how the match between two numerical waveforms varies with numerical resolution, initial angular momentum of the black holes and the inclination angle between the source and the detector. This study is limited by the fact that the spinning black-hole-binaries are oriented axially and the waveforms only contain approximately two and a half orbits before merger. We find that for detection purposes, spinning black holes require the inclusion of the higher harmonics in addition to the dominant mode, a condition that becomes more important as the black-hole-spins increase. In addition, we conduct a preliminary investigation of how well a template of fixed spin and inclination angle can detect target templates of arbitrary spin and inclination for the axial case considered here

Neutron diffraction and Raman studies of the incorporation of sulfate in silicate glasses

The oxidation state, coordination and local environment of sulphur in alkali silicate (R2O-SiO2; R= Na, Li) and alkali-alkaline earth silicate (Na2O-MO-SiO2; M= Ca, Ba) glasses have been investigated using neutron diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. With analyses of both the individual total neutron correlation functions, and of suitable doped-undoped differences, the S-O bonds and (O-O)S correlations were clearly isolated from the other overlapping correlations due to Si-O and (O-O)Si distances in the SiO4 tetrahedra, and the modifier-oxygen (R-O and M-O) distances. Clear evidence was obtained that the sulphur is present as SO4 2- groups, confirmed by the observation in the Raman spectra of the symmetric S-O stretch mode of SO4 2- groups. The modifier-oxygen bond length distributions were deconvoluted from the neutron correlation functions by fitting. The Na-O and Li-O bond length distributions were clearly asymmetric, whereas no evidence was obtained for asymmetry of the Ca-O and Ba-O distributions. A consideration of the bonding shows that the oxygen atoms in the SO4 2- groups do not participate in the silicate network, and as such constitute a third type of oxygen, ‘non-network oxygen’, in addition to the bridging and non-bridging oxygens that are bonded to silicon atoms. Thus each individual sulphate group is surrounded by a shell of modifier, and is not connected directly to the silicate network. The addition of SO3 to the glass leads to a conversion of oxygen atoms within the silicate network from non-bridging to bridging, so that there is a repolymerisation of the silicate network. There is evidence that SO3 doping leads to changes in the form of the distribution of Na-O bond lengths, with a reduction in the fitted short bond coordination number, and an increase in the fitted long bond coordination number, and this is consistent with a repolymerisation of the silicate network. In contrast, there is no evidence that SO3 doping leads to a change in the distribution of Li-O bond lengths, with a total Li-O coordination number consistently in excess of four

THE MAHATMA OF COMMUNICATION

Communication of any type has its root in the person’s personality and psyche. Person’s practices, philosophy and beliefs and clarity of means and ends affect his/ her communication style, use of words etc. Communication for Gandhi was the output of lot of thought process combined with experience and experiment and his words would come out with utmost clarity and conviction in an understandable language. If we want to see Gandhi from two sides they are as simple as the man himself: action and communication and communication and action. He was an enormous communicator and his communication ranged from individual to mass communication, from speeches to discussions, from writing to body language and from symbols to silence.  This communication made him reach out to the rich and the poor, to the metros and hamlets, to the illiterate and the celebrities and intellectuals. The enormity of the reach of his communication and the penetration cannot be fathomed easily. In this article there is humble try to analyse Gandhi’s communication style and manner, the impact of his communication and what lessons can be gained from his method of communication

Modi's Reform Agenda: Change You Can Believe In? Asia Policy Brief 2015/04, November 2015

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered office with a historic political mandate. For the first time in thirty years, a single party won a majority of seats in the lower house of Parliament (Lok Sabha). However, Modi faces skyhigh expectations to fulfill his campaign promises of getting India’s economy back on track. Eighteen months into his government’s term and in the wake of electoral defeats in the states of Delhi and Bihar, questions are being raised about its economic performance. While the Modi government has stabilized India’s macroeconomy and announced a series of incremental economic reforms, more sweeping changes have fallen victim to India’s nettlesome domestic politics, including roadblocks within the ruling alliance

Using Photovoice to Explore Racial Microaggressions Experienced by Doctoral Students of Color

Racial microaggressions are prevalent in academia and negatively impact the engagement and well-being of students of color. Despite this, little is known regarding the experiences of doctoral students with racial microaggressions in counselor education (CE) programs. The purpose of this study was to better understand the impact of racial microaggressions on doctoral students of color in CE programs. The study utilized Photovoice methodology, which incorporated pictures, captured by participants, to highlight the racial microaggressions experienced by six doctoral students of color in CE programs. Themes expressed by participants included Struggle, Racism, Sacrificing Ourselves, and Advocacy as central to their experience of racial microaggressions. Recommendations for counselor educators include validation, mentoring, training, and diversification of counselor education curriculum

Oral bisacodyl is effective and safe for short term treatment of chronic constipation

A clinical decision report using Kamm MA, Mueller-Lissner S, Wald A, Richter E, Swallow R, Gessner U. Oral bisacodyl is effective and well-tolerated in patients with chronic constipation. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2011;9(7):577-583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2011.03.026 to evaluate potential long term treatment with oral Bisacodyl in a patient with a history of chronic constipation and recent non-surgical treatment of ischemic colitis

The Evolution, Innovation and Escalation in Liberal Education in India: Role of Private Universities

Liberal Studies as a concept was already successful in the Western countries especially the US. It is already on the path of success and sustainability in Indian education scenario as well. During the last few decades, the people and the government saw the rise of Indian corporate houses, their competency and liberalisation in industry succeeded liberalisation in the education sector also. Liberal Studies is the speedily moving and widely accepted model of education in India today. The article focuses on the success of Liberal Studies owing to the active involvement of the private institutes, their endeavours, their initiatives to make a difference. The study has focused on twelve institutes of national repute most of which were founded in the twenty-first century who have brought liberal education to a new height with various experiments and endeavours. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.431856

Cross-Layer Pathfinding for Off-Chip Interconnects

Off-chip interconnects for integrated circuits (ICs) today induce a diverse design space, spanning many different applications that require transmission of data at various bandwidths, latencies and link lengths. Off-chip interconnect design solutions are also variously sensitive to system performance, power and cost metrics, while also having a strong impact on these metrics. The costs associated with off-chip interconnects include die area, package (PKG) and printed circuit board (PCB) area, technology and bill of materials (BOM). Choices made regarding off-chip interconnects are fundamental to product definition, architecture, design implementation and technology enablement. Given their cross-layer impact, it is imperative that a cross-layer approach be employed to architect and analyze off-chip interconnects up front, so that a top-down design flow can comprehend the cross-layer impacts and correctly assess the system performance, power and cost tradeoffs for off-chip interconnects. Chip architects are not exposed to all the tradeoffs at the physical and circuit implementation or technology layers, and often lack the tools to accurately assess off-chip interconnects. Furthermore, the collaterals needed for a detailed analysis are often lacking when the chip is architected; these include circuit design and layout, PKG and PCB layout, and physical floorplan and implementation. To address the need for a framework that enables architects to assess the system-level impact of off-chip interconnects, this thesis presents power-area-timing (PAT) models for off-chip interconnects, optimization and planning tools with the appropriate abstraction using these PAT models, and die/PKG/PCB co-design methods that help expose the off-chip interconnect cross-layer metrics to the die/PKG/PCB design flows. Together, these models, tools and methods enable cross-layer optimization that allows for a top-down definition and exploration of the design space and helps converge on the correct off-chip interconnect implementation and technology choice. The tools presented cover off-chip memory interfaces for mobile and server products, silicon photonic interfaces, 2.5D silicon interposers and 3D through-silicon vias (TSVs). The goal of the cross-layer framework is to assess the key metrics of the interconnect (such as timing, latency, active/idle/sleep power, and area/cost) at an appropriate level of abstraction by being able to do this across layers of the design flow. In additional to signal interconnect, this thesis also explores the need for such cross-layer pathfinding for power distribution networks (PDN), where the system-on-chip (SoC) floorplan and pinmap must be optimized before the collateral layouts for PDN analysis are ready. Altogether, the developed cross-layer pathfinding methodology for off-chip interconnects enables more rapid and thorough exploration of a vast design space of off-chip parallel and serial links, inter-die and inter-chiplet links and silicon photonics. Such exploration will pave the way for off-chip interconnect technology enablement that is optimized for system needs. The basis of the framework can be extended to cover other interconnect technology as well, since it fundamentally relates to system-level metrics that are common to all off-chip interconnects