Technological Capability, Employment Growth and Industrial Development: A Quantitative Anatomy of Indian Scenario

The recent spurt of economic growth in India has been described as ‘jobless growth’. In this paper an attempt has been made to examine the question of when industrial development provides required dynamism for generating desired employment opportunities for labour force and when it does not. An industrial technological capability based approach has been adopted to analyse the Indian Industrial development experience during the period 1980 to 2005, which is a quarter century time period. The main finding that emerged from the empirical evidence is that the medium-high-tech industries have shown dynamism in terms of generating employment growth. The labour market regulation view put forward by various scholars supporting the liberalisation policies could not stand the scrutiny of clear demarcation among job creating and job destroying industries under the same circumstances. The relationship between industrial technological capabilities and employment growth turns out to be ambiguous. This implies that weak technological capabilities adversely affect employment growth and heavy dependence on imported technological know-how from the developed countries is labour displacing. It is thus suggested that developing countries should invest both in institutions and industrial firms to develop technological development that suits to resource endowment, specificities of local conditions and suitable to the stage of industrial development. There is a dire need to explore alternative paths of industrial and technological capability development to sustain economic transformation process for achieving prosperity and reducing the time for catch-up development.Industrial development, jobless growth, technological capabilities, employment elasticities

The value of novelty in schizophrenia

Influential models of schizophrenia suggest that patients experience incoming stimuli as excessively novel and motivating, with important consequences for hallucinatory experience and delusional belief. However, whether schizophrenia patients exhibit excessive novelty value and whether this interferes with adaptive behaviour has not yet been formally tested. Here, we employed a three-armed bandit task to investigate this hypothesis. Schizophrenia patients and healthy controls were first familiarised with a group of images and then asked to repeatedly choose between familiar and unfamiliar images associated with different monetary reward probabilities. By fitting a reinforcement-learning model we were able to estimate the values attributed to familiar and unfamiliar images when first presented in the context of the decision-making task. In line with our hypothesis, we found increased preference for newly introduced images (irrespective of whether these were familiar or unfamiliar) in patients compared to healthy controls and this to correlate with severity of hallucinatory experience. In addition, we found a correlation between value assigned to novel images and task performance, suggesting that excessive novelty value may interfere with optimal learning in patients, putatively through the disruption of the mechanisms regulating exploration versus exploitation. Our results suggest excessive novelty value in patients, whereby even previously seen stimuli acquire higher value as the result of their exposure in a novel context – a form of ‘hyper novelty’ which may explain why patients are often attracted by familiar stimuli experienced as new

Bioregenerative algal architectures

Contemporary biospheres will be needed in terms of life support in the face of climatic consequences of the Anthropocene and to sustain future space travel. For life to flourish on Earth and beyond, key elements are required — including carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorous — which need to regenerate through physiochemical alliances and symbioses with other life forms. Bioregenerative systems are defined as artificial ecosystems, which are made up of intra-relationalities with various species including higher plants, microorganisms, and animals. In this paper, bioregenerative architectural habitats are considered a solution for a planet that faces substantial ecological damage and for the likelihood of multiplanetary inhabitation in future. Mutually beneficial systems incorporating working with microalgae in conjunction with bioreactor technologies could constitute a means of survival on a damaged planet or to help start multiplanetary colonies. This paper illustrates the potential of a non-anthropocentric, bioregenerative life support strategy working with various microalgae species. Past- and present-related bioregenerative systems are reviewed and future applications of microalgae enhancing a sympoietic alignment (collectively producing systems) of the human and nonhuman with microorganisms are considered. Future alliances with microalgae, Chlorella vulgaris, are proposed to work within bioregenerative systems on Earth and in space. This paper clarifies how the combination of technology, speculative architectural design and microalgae can enhance carbon dioxide mitigation, furthering gaseous exchange for life support, enabling human and nonhuman species to flourish in harsher environments on Earth and beyond low Earth orbit

Photographic Regenerative Interfaces

In the 21st century, photographic images are everywhere and are being further advanced with the progression in image-making through photographic technologies. The progressive and contemporary camera creates images that produce a ‘fantasy through product’. These images, once used in branding and communication, tell consumers a story, illustrating concepts that cannot be seen in ‘real’ images from the natural world. The constructed digital image is thus used as a ‘projection model’ furthering communication paradigms and design technologies. The digital photographic ‘regenerated’ image becomes an imaginative and technical communicative tool relaying a vision. The unaltered original raw image itself becomes an interface and is further modified to create new narratives—the itinerant image becomes an inextricable link between a brand and the consumer. Novel image production methods and methodologies are necessary for human advancement in terms of science and technology and are a useful tool for development approaching Industry 4.0. This paper analyses how photographic regenerative interfaces and image regeneration methods can expand visibility and affect the world through the interlinking and symbioses of images. It also analyses how the pre-existing raw image will soon be used as a design tool, leading to potential uses of photographic regenerative interfaces for novel applications

Gelatinous transformation of bone marrow: rare or underdiagnosed?

Gelatinous transformation of the bone marrow (GTBM) is a rare hematologic entity, which was first described by Paul Michael in 1930. GTBM is mostly associated with caloric intake/anorexia nervosa, although it also has been described accompanying other pathologic conditions, such as malignancy, systemic lupus erythematosus and HIV infections. Even though the diagnostic features of the hematopoietic tissue, such as hypoplasia, adipose cell atrophy, and deposition of a gelatinous substance in the bone marrow (which stains with Alcian blue at pH 2.5) are quite specific, the underlying pathogenic mechanisms remain poorly understood. Considering the evidence of reversibility—notably in cases of malnutrition and anorexia—this entity should be kept high on cards as a possible differential diagnosis of patients presenting with cytopenias and associated weight loss or starvation, especially in developing countries with nutritionally deprived populations. On an extensive review of the literature aimed at comprehensively addressing the evolution of the GTBM from the past century until now, we conclude that the lack of clinical suspicion and awareness regarding this pathologic entity has led to misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis

Consumers Perception towards the Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study of India

Corporate Social Responsibility is viewed as a comprehensive set of policies, practices and programs that are integrated into business operations, supply chains, and decision-making processes throughout the organization, wherever the organization does business and includes responsibility for current and past actions as well as future impacts. In the last twenty years, there has been a sea change in the nature of the triangular relationship between companies, the state and the society. No longer can firms continue to act as independent entities regardless of the interest of the general public. The evolution of the relationship between companies and society has been one of slow transformation from a hardcore business to a philanthropic. In the light of this background, the objective of this paper is to analyze the consumers expectations and perceptions towards the Corporate Social Responsibility. This paper tries to find out the gap between the expectations and perceptions of the consumers about the companies regarding their social responsibility and this paper also helps companies in understanding the expectations of consumers about the corporate social responsibility, so that companies can fulfill their duty in an appropriate manner. Key Words: Responsibility, Expectations, Perceptions, Policies, Consumer

Cancer treatment-related distress: evaluating the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions

This thesis is presented in two volumes. Volume I is the research component consisting of a literature review and empirical paper each concerned with the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions on cancer treatment-related distress and symptoms. Volume II is the written clinical component, comprising five Clinical Practice Reports. Volume I The literature review is a systematic evaluation and critique of empirical research published since 1990 to evaluate the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions on distress, symptoms and quality of life specifically in relation to cancer treatment. Thirty-one relevant studies were identified evaluating 38 different interventions. The review included an assessment of the quality of the interventions and study designs of included studies. Interventions were grouped into relaxation, cognitive-behavioural, hypnosis and supportive interventions. … The empirical paper presents a pilot study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a psychological preparation session on women’s distress prior to and following invasive internal radiotherapy treatment for gynaecological cancers. This brief intervention was found to prevent further deterioration in anxiety and depression prior to treatment. Significantly more patients in the control group were found to experience greater anxiety and depression prior to treatment compared to the intervention group. The limitations of this empirical study, suggestions for future research and clinical implications are also discussed

Local and global limits on visual processing in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia has been linked to impaired performance on a range of visual processing tasks (e.g. detection of coherent motion and contour detection). It has been proposed that this is due to a general inability to integrate visual information at a global level. To test this theory, we assessed the performance of people with schizophrenia on a battery of tasks designed to probe voluntary averaging in different visual domains. Twenty-three outpatients with schizophrenia (mean age: 40±8 years; 3 female) and 20 age-matched control participants (mean age 39±9 years; 3 female) performed a motion coherence task and three equivalent noise (averaging) tasks, the latter allowing independent quantification of local and global limits on visual processing of motion, orientation and size. All performance measures were indistinguishable between the two groups (ps>0.05, one-way ANCOVAs), with one exception: participants with schizophrenia pooled fewer estimates of local orientation than controls when estimating average orientation (p = 0.01, one-way ANCOVA). These data do not support the notion of a generalised visual integration deficit in schizophrenia. Instead, they suggest that distinct visual dimensions are differentially affected in schizophrenia, with a specific impairment in the integration of visual orientation information

Convergence or Divergence in the Manufacturing Sector Since 1980’s? Evidence from the Indian Sub Nationals

Purpose: The objective of this study was to divulges into understanding the inter-state disparities across the sixteen major Indian states in the registered manufacturing sector by analyzing it’s pattern and traversing over the years initiating  from 1980-1981 to 2015-2016.   Theoretical framework:  The Indian economic development pattern is not only unusual, but also rare, when one compares it to the economic development paths followed by other developing and developed countries. The countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and China achieved economic growth by initially giving priority to the manufacturing sector. It was after producing tangible outputs and generating innovations in the manufacturing sector that in the above mentioned countries, the services sector emerged as the biggest and leading sector in economic growth. The economic literature also shows a strong correlation between the growth of the manufacturing output and the growth of GDP (Thirlwall, A. P. 1983). The growth of the manufacturing sector sucks labour resources from other sectors where disguised unemployment exist; which contributes to the growth of the capital employed in the industry, while the productivity of other sectors is not adversely affected (N. Marconi et. al,2016) In other words, a strong and growing manufacturing sector is necessary for economic growth and development. However, in India the services sector emerged as the biggest and fast growing sector in the very beginning, and the manufacturing sector's contribution to economic growth has been relatively small.   Design/methodology/approach:   To bring about the pattern of the size of the manufacturing sector the data has been analyzed by tabulation, calculating averages, coefficients of variations, bar diagrams and line graphs so that a clear picture is exemplified. To look into the impact of geographical location the data has been divided into two regional schemes which have been analyzed using the dummy variable regression technique (ANOVA), and lastly to highlight if there exists convergence or divergence across the states over the aforementioned time period the technique of σ – convergence and β-convergence have been applied.   Findings:   The results of σ – convergence based on coefficient of variation clearly show that the size of manufacturing sector, in terms of both the indicators of size, diverged among states over 1980-1981 to 2015-2016 period. At least it is sure that no convergence occurred over this period. Furthermore, the results of the β-convergence based on growth rates of the two indicators give conflicting conclusions. The value of gross output per-capita indicated divergence over the reference period; but SDP share indicator suggested convergence over the same period. Taking both σ- convergence and β-convergence together, one may suggest that these do not indicate to any tendency towards convergence over this period. Therefore the objective of this paper was to analyse the change in the size of manufacturing sector across the states over the 1980-81 /2015-16 period on the basis of two indicators; share of manufacturing sector in SDP and value of gross manufacturing output per capita. The analysis revealed that the pattern changed somewhat over this period. Some states improved their ranking e.g. Gujarat and H.P. and ranking of some others worsened e.g. Maharashtra, Bihar etc. The analysis also revealed that there was no significant difference in the SDP share and value of gross output per capita of manufacturing sector between coastal / non coastal and northern/southern states. The analysis of convergence / divergence across the states over the 1980-81/ 2015-16 revealed that convergence did not occur; rather there was some tendency towards divergence.   Research, Practical & Social implications:  Future research should focus on the reducing the disparities among the Indian states via exploring other important variables in the manufacturing sector. It can be further extended by using panel data analysis. Also, Policy implication suggested for the laggard states has been to identify the caveats and implementation of policies for them should be at national level to bolster the overall growth of the manufacturing sector