Time allocation between paid and unpaid work among men and women: an empirical study of Indian villages

The paper examines the time allocation between paid work (wage earning or self-employed work generally termed as employment work) and unpaid (domestic chores/care work generally termed as non-employment work) along with wage rates, imputed earnings, and occupational structure among men and women and according to different social groups to establish the extent to which the rural labour market is discriminated by sex and social group. The major objective of the paper is to show the differential in wage income between men and women in farm and non-farm activities. The paper also shows the division of time between employment and non-employment activities by men and women. The paper uses high-frequency data and applies econometric techniques to know the factors behind time allocation among different activities across gender. The study finds that males spend more hours on employment work and work at a higher wage rate than females. As a result, a vast monetary income gap between men and women is observed, even though women worked more hours if employment and non-employment activities are jointly taken into consideration. Time spent on employment work and non-employment (mainly domestic chores) has been found to vary significantly due to social identity, household wealth, land, income, education, and skill. The segregation of labour market by sex was evident in this study, with men shifting to non-farm occupations with greater monetary returns and continued dependence on women’s farm activities. Enhancing the ownership of land and other assets, encouraging women’s participation particularly among minorities, and improving health are some of the policy recommendations directed from this study to enhance participation in employment work and shifting towards higher wage income employment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Devising gender-responsive transport policies in South Asia: Gender & Development

Over time, the transport sector has grown more cognisant of gender differences in planning and policy. Yet, extant literature on transport shows that challenges, such as sexual harassment of women still prevail. The value of this study is its contribution towards gender-responsive transport policies with a focus on women by highlighting (1) the spectrum of barriers that prevent women’s mobility across origin to destination journeys; and (2) construction of safety by using interventions and tools available to them, namely technology, women-only solutions, and infrastructural design. The findings are based on data from in-depth interviews with women participants in two Indian cities–Delhi and Kolkata. Drawing from our research, key policy suggestions include framing interventions in a rights-based manner, institutionalising gender-disaggregated data to inform interventions, and sensitising institutions such as the law enforcement on gender equity and women’s rights to the city. This research would be especially beneficial for regions in and beyond South Asia sharing similar contexts

Understanding Timing Error Characteristics From Overclocked Systolic Multiply–Accumulate Arrays in FPGAs

Artificial Intelligence (AI) hardware accelerators have seen tremendous developments in recent years due to the rapid growth of AI in multiple fields. Many such accelerators comprise a Systolic Multiply–Accumulate Array (SMA) as its computational brain. In this paper, we investigate the faulty output characterization of an SMA in a real silicon FPGA board. Experiments were run on a single Zybo Z7-20 board to control for process variation at nominal voltage and in small batches to control for temperature. The FPGA is rated up to 800 MHz in the data sheet due to the max frequency of the PLL, but the design is written using Verilog for the FPGA and C++ for the processor and synthesized with a chosen constraint of a 125 MHz clock. We then operate the system at a frequency range of 125 MHz to 450 MHz for the FPGA and the nominal 667 MHz for the processor core to produce timing errors in the FPGA without affecting the processor. Our extensive experimental platform with a hardware–software ecosystem provides a methodological pathway that reveals fascinating characteristics of SMA behavior under an overclocked environment. While one may intuitively expect that timing errors resulting from overclocked hardware may produce a wide variation in output values, our post-silicon evaluation reveals a lack of variation in erroneous output values. We found an intriguing pattern where error output values are stable for a given input across a range of operating frequencies far exceeding the rated frequency of the FPGA

Challenges and Opportunities in Near-Threshold DNN Accelerators around Timing Errors

AI evolution is accelerating and Deep Neural Network (DNN) inference accelerators are at the forefront of ad hoc architectures that are evolving to support the immense throughput required for AI computation. However, much more energy efficient design paradigms are inevitable to realize the complete potential of AI evolution and curtail energy consumption. The Near-Threshold Computing (NTC) design paradigm can serve as the best candidate for providing the required energy efficiency. However, NTC operation is plagued with ample performance and reliability concerns arising from the timing errors. In this paper, we dive deep into DNN architecture to uncover some unique challenges and opportunities for operation in the NTC paradigm. By performing rigorous simulations in TPU systolic array, we reveal the severity of timing errors and its impact on inference accuracy at NTC. We analyze various attributes—such as data–delay relationship, delay disparity within arithmetic units, utilization pattern, hardware homogeneity, workload characteristics—and uncover unique localized and global techniques to deal with the timing errors in NTC

MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE POTENTIATES THE CONTRACTION OF THE VISCERAL SMOOTH MUSCLE OF DUODENUM BY AUGMENTING THE ACTIVITY OF INTRINSIC CHOLINERGIC EFFERENTS, INDUCING OXIDATIVE STRESS AND PROLIFERATING SMOOTH MUSCLE CELLS

Objective: The objective of the present study was to examine the effects of monosodium glutamate (MSG) on the contraction of visceral smooth muscle (VSM) of the duodenum in a rat model to understand the MSG-induced impairment of the function of the small intestine. Methods: Male albino rats of Charles Foster strain were exposed with MSG at three different dosages (632, 1264, and 2528 mg/kg BW/day) for 30-day duration. The records of the contraction of the duodenum were achieved with isotonic transducer (IT-2245) coupled with RMS-Polyrite D by our standard laboratory protocol. Results: We have observed potentiation of contraction of duodenum ex vivo dose-dependently in MSG exposed groups of rats compared to control. Furthermore, the enzymatic activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in VSM tissue homogenate and expression of AChE protein in fixed duodenal muscle cell layers have been decreased in a dosage response manner comparing to control rats. We have found a significant decrease in the activities of some antioxidant enzymes such as Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase, glutathione-s-transferase, and increase in the level of malondialdehyde in MSG exposed VSM tissue homogenate of the duodenum. We have also observed thickening of muscularis externa layer and increase in the number of muscle cells in circular and longitudinal muscle layers of the duodenal wall in transverse duodenal wall sections stained with eosin-hematoxylin. Conclusion: MSG potentiates the contraction of VSM of duodenum by augmenting the activity of intrinsic cholinergic efferents predominantly, and inducing oxidative stress and proliferating smooth muscle cells

First record of a Leucosid crab<em> Paranursia abbreviata</em> Bell, 1855 from Devi estuary, Odisha Coast, India

117-119A leucosid crab Paranursia abbreviata Bell, 1855 is recorded for the first time from Odisha albeit from coastal waters of the Indian peninsula after half a century. Present study is an effort towards documentation of the species from Odisha, indicative of a range extension between the Coromandal coast and Gulf of Martaban, Myanmar

Barreras naturales para las horquillas de replicación DNA en Schizosaccharomyces pombe

106 p.-35 fig.En la naturaleza, el crecimiento vegetativo de S. pombe es normalmente haploide. Sólo bajo condiciones ambientales adversas, como en condiciones de ayuno de fuentes nitrógeno, dos células de tipos de apareamiento contrarios, P (plus) y M (minus), conjugan y forman un cigoto diploide (Egel, 1989; Dalgaard y Klar, 2001). Para cada tipo de apareamiento, existen células denominadas switchable (s) y células unswitchable (u). Cada célula de S. pombe que acaba de adquirir un tipo de apareamiento concreto, da lugar a otra del tipo de apareamiento contrario tras dos divisiones mitóticas. Cuando una célula u se divide da lugar a dos células del mismo tipo de apareamiento que la célula parental, una de ellas s y la otra u. Cuando se divida, la célula s dará lugar a una célula u de tipo de apareamiento contrario a la parental y a otra célula s del mismo tipo de apareamiento que la parental (Miyata y Miyata, 1981; Egel y Eie, 1987; Klar, 1987, 1990). Aunque el mecanismo molecular responsable del cambio del tipo de apareamiento en S. pombe no se conoce aún en detalle, algunas de las claves han sido ya descifradas (ver Dalgaard y Klar, 2001 y apartado 1.4.2.). Una vez que producida la conjugación, los núcleos se fusionan y el cigoto diploide resultante sufre meiosis inmediatamente. El cigoto se convierte en una estructura de resistencia denominada asca, que contiene cuatro esporas haploides. Este proceso representa un ejemplo de diferenciación celular. Cuando las condiciones ambientales vuelven a ser favorables, las esporas son liberadas y pueden germinar, cerrándose de este modo el ciclo. Las poblaciones naturales de S. pombe, son homotálicas, es decir, están compuestas por células de los dos tipos de apareamiento y entran en diferenciación sexual bajo condiciones de estrés ambiental. En el laboratorio, a menudo se emplean estirpes heterotálicas, las cuales necesitan otra estirpe del tipo de apareamiento contrario para aparear. En el laboratorio se puede promover la entrada de los cigotos a la división mitótica y seleccionarlos usando mutaciones auxotróficas complementarias en el proceso de conjugación, obteniendo así estirpes diploides que, eventualmente, pueden inducirse a entrar en ciclo mitótico colocándolas en unas condiciones de cultivo adecuadas.Financiación del Proyecto SAF2001-1740; de la Beca del CSIC de Postgrado para la Formación y Especialización en Líneas de Investigación para el Sector Industrial con REF.: I3P-BPG2004 y del Proyecto BFU2004-00125/BMC.Peer reviewe

Evaluation of mustard genotypes [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern and Coss] for quantitative traits and character association of seed yield and yield components at sub Himalayan region of West Bengal (India)

Brassica juncea is an important industrial and commercial oilseed crop grown primarily in India. This study aimed to assess 56 genotypes of Indian mustard to quantify genetic diversity, which aids the breeder in identifying genetically divergent parents to evaluate the proportional contributions of various components towards overall divergence. All the 56 Indian mustard genotypes were tested in RBD with three replications for 2 consecutive years i.e. 2016-17 and 2017-18 during the rabi season. Observations were recorded for 11 yield and its attributing traits. The findings revealed that height up to first branching, aphid count, penetration force and seed yield per plant had maximum PCV and GCV signifying that genetic factors have a greater impact on the inflow of these traits. Height up to first branching, secondary branches per plant, primary branches per plant, siliquae per plant, aphid count and 1000 seed weight had strong heritability combined with GA as % of mean. These indicate that the traits were controlled by additive gene action. Seed yield per plant was significantly correlated with penetration force and siliquae per plant. As a result, it's reasonable to predict that improving these traits by selection, could lead to significant yield gains. Four of the eleven PCs had eigen values greater than 1.0, accounting for 69.94% of the variance. PC I, which explained 30.31% of the overall variance. Mahalanobis D2 statistics revealed considerable genetic diversity among the genotypes. 56 genotypes were distributed into 7 clusters. This is anticipated that genotypes within a cluster are almost genetically related to one another. Cluster VII and II showed maximum inter-cluster divergence. From a breeding perspective, a divergence analysis revealed that genotypes like SKJM-05, RNWR-09-3, RW-351, B-85, DRMR-4001, RGN-386, TM52 276 and SKM-1313 can be selected as genetically divergent parents for hybridization to obtain desirable segregants

Activation of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition and Altered β-Catenin Signaling in a Novel Indian Colorectal Carcinoma Cell Line

Colorectal cancer is the third major cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. The upward trend in incidence and mortality rates, poor sensitivity to conventional therapies and a dearth of early diagnostic parameters pose a huge challenge in the management of colorectal cancer in India. Due to the high level of genetic diversity present in the Indian population, unraveling the genetic contributions toward pathogenesis is key for understanding the etiology of colorectal cancer and in reversing this trend. We have established a novel cell line, MBC02, from an Indian colorectal cancer patient and have carried out extensive molecular characterization to unravel the pathological alterations in this cell line. In-depth molecular analysis of MBC02 revealed suppression of E-cadherin expression, concomitant with overexpression of EMT related molecules, which manifested in the form of highly migratory and invasive cells. Loss of membrane-tethered E-cadherin released β-catenin from the adherens junction resulting in its cytoplasmic and nuclear accumulation and consequently, upregulation of c-Myc. MBC02 also showed dramatic transcriptional upregulation of β-catenin. Remarkably, we observed significantly elevated proteasome activity that perhaps co-evolved to compensate for the unnaturally high mRNA level of β-catenin to regulate the increased protein load. In addition, there was substantial misregulation of other clinically relevant signaling pathways that have clinical relevance in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer. Our findings pave the way toward understanding the molecular differences that could define pathogenesis in cancers originating in the Indian population