Sen and the art of educational maintenance: evidencing a capability, as opposed to an effectiveness, approach to schooling

There are few more widely applied terms in common parlance than ‘capability’. It is used (inaccurately) to represent everything from the aspiration to provide opportunity to notions of innate academic ability, with everything in between claiming apostolic succession to Amartya Sen, who (with apologies to Aristotle) first developed the concept. This paper attempts to warrant an adaptation of Sen’s capability theory to schooling and schooling policy, and to proof his concepts in the new setting using research involving 100 pupils from 5 English secondary schools and a schedule of questions derived from the capability literature. The findings suggest that a capability approach can provide an alternative to the dominant Benthamite school effectiveness paradigm, and can offer a sound theoretical framework for understanding better the assumed relationship between schooling and well-being

Assessment of genetic divergence of Sesame seeds based on biochemical parameters

The assessment of genetic divergence plays a significant role to identify promising genotypes to initiate crossing programme for crop improvement. The sesame being a nutritious oil seed crop containing various biochemical constituents used as a good dietary choice. The biochemical analysis was done taking freshly harvested seeds of eight (8) parental genotypes and twenty one (21) advance lines. The studies revealed that all the genotypes differed significantly among themselves for all the biochemical parameters including moisture content, oil content, its iodine number and saponification value, both crude and soluble protein, some mineral matters – Ca, P, Mn, Zn, Cu & Fe and Carbohydrate and ascorbic acid content. Mahalanobis generalized genetic distance using D² statistics for the assessment of genetic divergence amongst 29 genotypes based on biochemical parameters. All the genotypes were grouped into eleven distinct clusters. Maximum intra cluster divergence was noted against cluster IX with advance lines having black coloured seeds as its constituents. With regard to inter-cluster distance values the cluster X was mostly divergent from all other clusters and cluster II as the less divergent one from the rest. Cluster X with parental genotype B-14 was identified as superior cluster for the biochemical parameters on the basis of securing higher position for maximum number of characters. Constitution pattern clustering was independent of eco-geographical isolation. Promising segregants with higher oil yielding potentially may yield from inter se mating of advance line 14 and HT-1 with T-12, R-9 or advance lines 10, 14, 20

Utilization of wetland ecosystem through fish-crop diversification for enhanced productivity and economic stability for fish-farm community of Indian sub-continent

This paper deals with a number of case studies that were undertaken during the last 8- 10 years in utilizing divergent æTalÆ wetland ecosystems (deep, semi-deep, temporary in a range of agro-ecological zones like NAZ, OAZ and Coastal Zone of the region) for the development of integrated management programmes using a range of approaches. These included (i) system approach (excavation & renovation, methodological approach), (ii) management (fish-crop management, inter & post-harvest care & processing, marketing), (iii) integrated natural resource management utilizing organic as well inorganic sources, and (iv) low-cost fish-feeds, based on fish-crop diversification. This paper also deals with some endangered indigenous fish species. The unique approach of watershed plans (bherri system), which were formulated for upright production systems, was economically successful. Economic indicators reveal there were comparative advantages of mixed farming systems compared to monoculture, exhibiting less than 2.5 fold gains even for resource poor fish farming families.Fishery management, Resource management

Experimental performance evaluation of NB-IoT

Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is gaining prominence as a key Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technology for IoT applications. Since it operates on licensed frequency spectrum it can provide guarantees to applications demanding Quality of Service (QoS). NB-IoT has emerged as a competitive rival for other LPWAN technologies such as LoRa and Sigfox, which work in the unlicensed frequency spectrum and are vulnerable to interference. Therefore, NB-IoT is the trivial fit for industries and other business companies that demand guaranteed services. In this paper the different features of the NB-IoT technology have been studied on the commercial Orange network in Belgium using the ublox SARA-N210 module [1] as the user equipment (UE). We focused on the device and network performance in terms of setup times, signal quality, throughput, latency, and reliability and studied the network dynamicity on signal strength. These observations are then compared with the theoretical defined limits of NB-IoT

Novel universality classes of coupled driven diffusive systems

Motivated by the phenomenologies of dynamic roughening of strings in random media and magnetohydrodynamics, we examine the universal properties of driven diffusive system with coupled fields. We demonstrate that cross-correlations between the fields lead to amplitude-ratios and scaling exponents varying continuosly with the strength of these cross-correlations. The implications of these results for experimentally relevant systems are discussed.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. E (Rapid Comm.) (2003

Combating Trafficking in Women and Children: A Review of International and National Legislation, Coordination Failures and Perverse Economic Incentives

Abstract In this review, we argue that the pattern of trafficking needs to be understood through the impact of legislative forces and human rights policies in place in the host countries of trafficking. Analyzing trafficking patterns solely through the lens of economic, labor market and demographic variables leaves a key question unanswered: how much of the incidence of trafficking into host countries is due to perverse incentives created for traffickers by the provision and enforcement of policies that grant human rights (such as amnesty) to trafficked victims? The reason why we focus on this particular policy is twofold. First, the role of amnesty in creating possible perverse incentives for traffickers is controversial and has not been explored in the literature. While economic and enforcement factors affecting the “market” for trafficked victims for commercial sexual exploitation through incentives for traffickers have received a fair amount of attention, the impact of legislation surrounding anti-trafficking activities in host countries on the incentives for traffickers remain an equally important but unexplored issue. Second, from a normative point of view, the role of amnesty for trafficked victims needs careful evaluation. We argue that while the policy of amnesty does protect the rights of trafficked victims in host countries, it cannot be viewed as a policy that deters traffickers, but as one that may in fact increase the incentive to select countries that offer amnesty as destination countries for victims

Spontaneous heavy cluster emission rates using microscopic potentials

The nuclear cluster radioactivities have been studied theoretically in the framework of a microscopic superasymmetric fission model (MSAFM). The nuclear interaction potentials required for binary cold fission processes are calculated by folding in the density distribution functions of the two fragments with a realistic effective interaction. The microscopic nuclear potential thus obtained has been used to calculate the action integral within the WKB approximation. The calculated half lives of the present MSAFM calculations are found to be in good agreement over a wide range of observed experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The inverse moment problem for convex polytopes

The goal of this paper is to present a general and novel approach for the reconstruction of any convex d-dimensional polytope P, from knowledge of its moments. In particular, we show that the vertices of an N-vertex polytope in R^d can be reconstructed from the knowledge of O(DN) axial moments (w.r.t. to an unknown polynomial measure od degree D) in d+1 distinct generic directions. Our approach is based on the collection of moment formulas due to Brion, Lawrence, Khovanskii-Pukhikov, and Barvinok that arise in the discrete geometry of polytopes, and what variously known as Prony's method, or Vandermonde factorization of finite rank Hankel matrices.Comment: LaTeX2e, 24 pages including 1 appendi

Dissipative collisions in 16^{16}O + 27^{27}Al at Elab_{lab}=116 MeV

The inclusive energy distributions of fragments (3$\leq$Z$\leq$7) emitted in the reaction $^{16}$O + $^{27}$Al at $E_{lab} =$116 MeV have been measured in the angular range $\theta_{lab}$= 15$^\circ$ - 115$^\circ$. A non-linear optimisation procedure using multiple Gaussian distribution functions has been proposed to extract the fusion-fission and deep inelastic components of the fragment emission from the experimental data. The angular distributions of the fragments, thus obtained, from the deep inelastic component are found to fall off faster than those from the fusion-fission component, indicating shorter life times of the emitting di-nuclear systems. The life times of the intermediate di-nuclear configurations have been estimated using a diffractive Regge-pole model. The life times thus extracted ($\sim 1 - 5\times 10^{-22}$ Sec.) are found to decrease with the increase in the fragment charge. Optimum Q-values are also found to increase with increasing charge transfer i.e. with the decrease in fragment charge.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl