The Expansionist View of Systematic Testimonial Injustice: South Asian Context

In this paper, I offer an expansionist view of the Frickerian central case of testimonial injustice, citing examples from the South Asian context. To defend this expansionist position, I provide an argument in three parts. First, I argue that credibility deficit and credibility excess are entangled with each other in such a way that often, one produces the other. Secondly, I contend that we should not say that systematic testimonial injustice is a consequence of credibility deficit only because of the entanglement between them. I also contend that for being the central case of testimonial injustice, identity prejudice should not be necessarily negative; it can be positive as well. Propounding a twofold condition of the status of a knower, the last part claims that testimonial injustice occurs when one of the two conditions remains unmet

The Motivation Problem, Future Generations, and the Idea of “Leaving the Earth No Worse”

The author examines the problem of motivation about future generations. He argues that though many philosophers think that direct motivations are problematic for future generations only, they are not unproblematic for the current generations too, and that the motivation problem can be solved if we consider the idea of “leaving the earth no worse.” He also shows why such an idea should be promoted and can motivate us to work in the best interests of current and future generations. The author also contends that prioritizing the idea of “leaving the earth no worse” is not exclusively anthropocentric

Capital Flight and Exchange Restrictions

Many less-industrialized countries (LIC\u27s) maintain exchange restrictions in order to ration foreign exchange. This is the only way to support an overvalued domestic currency without exhausting foreign exchange reserves. Such rationing allows authorities to restrict unwanted imports (generally speaking, any imports which compete with domestic industries), and also to monitor foreign investments. But some investment flows can be hidden from this monitoring system, just as the trade in smuggled goods is hidden. Foreign investments can be purchased with foreign currency acquired without the knowledge of domestic monetary authorities- for example, foreign currency purchased on a black market, or export receipts hidden by underinvoicing. In this paper, capital flows which are undeclared in their country of origin will be referred to as capital flight. As capital flight is not recorded, it is difficult to measure. Governments of LIC\u27s generally view capital flight as income accruing to residents which is secretly being spirited abroad in order to escape domestic taxes, and try to curtail it by imposing capital controls - exchange restrictions which hamper all outward capital flows. This paper will analyze the effects of some common capital controls on capital flight. In this paper, capital flight is defined as the sum of all unrecorded capital outflows from a country which are financed by its private residents. However, past researchers have not agreed on the definition of this term; hence, it has been used very loosely

Measurements and Monte-Carlo simulations of the particle self-shielding effect of B4C grains in neutron shielding concrete

A combined measurement and Monte-Carlo simulation study was carried out in order to characterize the particle self-shielding effect of B4C grains in neutron shielding concrete. Several batches of a specialized neutron shielding concrete, with varying B4C grain sizes, were exposed to a 2 {\AA} neutron beam at the R2D2 test beamline at the Institute for Energy Technology located in Kjeller, Norway. The direct and scattered neutrons were detected with a neutron detector placed behind the concrete blocks and the results were compared to Geant4 simulations. The particle self-shielding effect was included in the Geant4 simulations by calculating effective neutron cross-sections during the Monte-Carlo simulation process. It is shown that this method well reproduces the measured results. Our results show that shielding calculations for low-energy neutrons using such materials would lead to an underestimate of the shielding required for a certain design scenario if the particle self-shielding effect is not included in the calculations.Comment: This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Micro-credit, Trust, and Social Solidarity in Bangladesh: A Socio-philosophical Analysis

Drèze and Sen are not entirely right in their apparent glorification of the roles of nongovernmental organizations in Bangladesh in An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions because they leave out and/or de-emphasize some important issues, especially those that are related to the problematic trusting relationship between nongovernmental organizations in Bangladesh and rural poor women. Nongovernmental organizations’ use of trust disturbs social solidarity in rural Bangladesh mainly because of their massive supervision mechanism that they undertake to sustain the so-called trusting relationship between them and their debtors. The massive supervision mechanism damages social solidarity also because it creates a tension between local norms and nongovernmental organizations’ neoliberalist values of “discipline, efficiency and competitiveness,” which nongovernmental organizations try to inject into villagers by their numerous social engineering programs, which are state’s responsibility. Nongovernmental organization monitoring has some psychological impacts on their clients that also contribute to shaking social solidarity. The absence of a proper trusting relationship between nongovernmental organizations and rural poor women reduces the capabilities of the latter as a result of which Drèze and Sen’s glorification of Bangladeshi nongovernmental organizations and Sen’s capabilities approach are in tension. However, there are strategies that Bangladeshi nongovernmental organizations should employ to address the issues raised due to their massive supervision mechanism

Brain Computer Interface based Robot Design for Physically Disabled Person

There are number of physically handicapped people. Some of them are using different technologies to move around. The proposed work implements a robot which is controlled using human brain attention.Here brain signals analyzes using electrode sensor that monitors the eye blinks and attention level. Brain wave sensor that detects these EEG signals is transmitting through Bluetooth medium. Level analyzer unit (LAU) i.e. computer system will receive the raw signals and process using MATLAB platform. According to human attention level robot will move. ARM controller is used to design robot

Effect of the C-bridge length on the ultraviolet-resistance of oxycarbosilane low-k films

The ultra-violet (UV) and vacuum ultra-violet (VUV) resistance of bridging alkylene groups in organosilica films has been investigated. Similar to the Si-CH3 (methyl) bonds, the Si-CH2-Si (methylene) bonds are not affected by 5.6 eV irradiation. On the other hand, the concentration of the Si-CH2-CH2-Si (ethylene) groups decreases during such UV exposure. More significant difference in alkylene reduction is observed when the films are exposed to VUV (7.2 eV). The ethylene groups are depleted by more than 75% while only about 40% methylene and methyl groups loss is observed. The different sensitivity of bridging groups to VUV light should be taken into account during the development of curing and plasma etch processes of low-k materials based on periodic mesoporous organosilicas and oxycarbosilanes. The experimental results are qualitatively supported by ab-initio quantum-chemical calculations