India: Subsidy State or Developmental State?

India does not fit easily into existing models of thought on the nature of a state and defies ease of understanding. Though India is most often considered to be a subsidy state, I show in this thesis the notion of the subsidy state does not capture the true nature of the Indian state. Chapter two of the paper looks at various models of understanding the nature of the Indian state and draw out three essential features: competing interest groups, how economic liberalization facilitates corruption and works against India’s aim of equalizing the capabilities and freedoms of all its citizens, and the role of the Indian state in development and how the failure to engage its citizens in the process has resulted in the current system. Chapter three looks at subsidies and cash transfers, discussing the problem of targeting and the design of programs. The fourth chapter, I share the methodology I used to categorize 581 centrally sponsored schemes. I did this to be able to disaggregate centrally sponsored schemes. For each scheme, I identified the state associated with each scheme, the target groups (intended beneficiaries) of each scheme, the types of benefits delivered, whether the receipt of the benefits were conditional or not, and the relevant policy areas of each scheme. I concluded that a closer look at the Indian state reveals that India may actually be more accurately identified as a developmental state which facilitates the enhancement of its citizens’ capabilities and freedoms

Big Data Analysis Using Amazon Web Services and Support Vector Machines

This writing project aims to apply the supervised machine learning technique known as Support Vector Machines to a large labeled data set, to attempt to classify an unlabeled data set using the result of training on the labeled data set, and hence perform an analysis of the various results obtained using different Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute instances, sizes of input data set, and different parameters or kernels of the SVM tool. The given data set is relatively large for SVM and the tool being used, known as libsvm, having approximately 1.3 million training examples and 341 attributes with binary classification labels i.e., true (+1) and false (-1). By using the open source tool and deploying it to the cloud, we make use of the computing power available, to get the best possible results for classification. We eventually give a detailed analysis of the performance of all the experiments conducted, and draw conclusions from these results

DEVELOPMENT AND IN VITRO EXAMINATION OF MATERIALS FOR OSSEOINTEGRATION

Bone is a connective tissue with nanosized particles of carbonated apatitic calcium phosphate dispersed in a hydrated collagen matrix. With the ageing of the baby boomer population, an increasing number of people sustain bone fractures and defects. Hence, efforts are underway to develop materials to hasten the healing and repairing of such defects. These materials are termed as artificial bone substitutes. This study represents innovative techniques for development of bone implant materials and improving the existing substitute materials. Emphasis was on three different kinds of materials: Metals (titanium and alloys), Ceramics (calcium phosphates), and Polymers (collagen). The bioactivity of titanium and alloys, resorptivity of calcium phosphates and biocompatibility of collagen were the major issues with these materials. These issues are appropriately addressed in this dissertation. For titanium and alloys, biomimetic coating methodology was developed for uniformly and evenly coating 3-D titanium structures. Cracks were observed in these coatings and a protocol was developed to form crack-free biomimetic coatings. In calcium phosphates, increasing the resorption rate of HA (hydroxyapatite) and decreasing the resorption rate of beta-TCP (beta-tricalcium phosphate) were studied. HA-based ceramics were synthesized with Na+ and CO32- ions dopings, and development of biphasic mixtures of HA-TCP and HA-Rhenanite was performed. Similarly, beta-TCP ceramics were synthesized with Zn2+ ion doping and development of TCP-HA biphasic mixtures was performed. In case of collagen, a biomimetic coating process was developed that decreased the time to coat the collagen substrates and also increased biocompatibility, as determined by the response of mouse osteoblasts

Application of Irreversible Thermodynamics to Transport Processes in Binary Electrolyte Solutions

Theory of irreversible thermodynamics has been applied to isothermal transport processes in binary electrolyte solutions. Relations are presented which express the commonly measureable transport quantities in terms of Onsager transport and inverse frictional Rik coefficients. Relations for Lik and Rik coefficients are presented in terms of the experimental quantities, ti, A and Dv. Equivalent conductances of rubidium and caesium chlorides and diffusion coefficients of rubidium chloride have been measured in the concentration range 0-3M. These have been combine with the remaining transport, activity and density data which existed in the literature and the Lik and Rik coefficients obtained. Literature from 1930 to 1970 has been surveyed for transport numbers, equivalent conductances, diffusion and activity coefficients for 1:1, 1:2, 2:1 and 2:2 electrolyte solutions in aqueous media. Results, for twenty eight systems for which data was also complete, have been calculated as a basis of comparison. The relative sizes of these coefficients have been discussed in terms of ion solvation and water structure. An interpretation of the physical significance of frictional coefficients is developed for completely dissociated as well as associated 1:1 electrolytes. Association in alkali metal chlorides potassium and silver nitrate solutions has been studied by the conductance theories of Pitts and Fuoss. Abnormalities in rubidium-chloride and caesium-chloride interactions have been ascribed to ion association and the true interionic friction coefficient calculated and compared with those for the completely dissociated alkali metal chlorides. The correction reduces the inter- ionic friction from its apparent value calculated on a stoi-cheiometric basis and places the salts in a rational order. The significance of q12, the degree of coupling between mobile species, has been developed as a suitable parameter for comparison of a variety of electrolytes of different valence types

A randomized placebo controlled trial of metformin alone and metformin plus fixed dose combination of cyproterone acetate and ethinyl estradiol in hirsute women with polycystic ovarian syndrome

Background: Polycystic ovarian syndrome is a common endocrine disorder seen in reproductive age group. Hirsutism, oligomennorhea and infertility being the most common chief complaint. Oral contraceptives have shown their efficacy in hirsute females. Metformin, an insulin sensitizer, have also shown some beneficial effects in improving metabolic abnormalities. Aim of this study is to compare the efficacy of metformin alone and metformin with fixed dose combination of cyproterone acetate and ethinyl estradiol in hirsute women with PCOS.Methods: 60 females of PCOS with chief complaint of hirsutism were enrolled. Patients were randomized to either metformin and Diane -35 (35 microgram ethinyl estradiol plus 2mg cyproterone acetate) or metformin and placebo for 9 months. Ferriman Gallwey score and body mass index was calculated at baseline, 3months, 6months and 9 months. FSH/LH/Prolactin/Testosterone/Fasting glucose and Fasting insulin levels were measured at the baseline and at the end of treatment.Results: Majority of females enrolled in the study were in third decade of life. Metformin and Diane- 35 showed higher reduction in Ferriman Gallwey score but Body mass index was reduced in both the groups. There was no significant difference seen between the groups with respect to biochemical profile.Conclusions: This data show that a combination of metformin and contraceptive pill may be more effective in treating hirsutism than metformin alone. Beneficial effects of therapy were seen in relation to BMI as well. Hence, combination therapy is better therapeutic option for treating hirsutism in PCOS.

A Note on Implementing Recurrence Quantification Analysis for Network Anomaly Detection

This paper deal with the network anomaly detection, based on the analysis of non-stationary properties that occur in the aggregated IP traffic flows. We use recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), a mathematical nonlinear technique to achieve this task. The objective is to model the standard network traffic and report any deviation from it. We create a baseline from which we derive the RQA parameters. Using these parameters we explore the hidden recurrence patterns in the network traffic. Further, the detection is analysed using the support vector machine to classify the deviations from the regular traffic. Experiments are conducted on Vellore Institute of Technology University campus network traffic data to validate the model.Defence Science Journal, 2012, 62(2), pp.112-116, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.62.117