Negocios bancarios en el límite: la crisis de las hipotecas basura y la novela de R. K. Narayan, The Financial Expert

According to Umberto Eco, «every story tells a story that has already been told» (Eco, 1985: 19). In this context, The Financial Expert, a novel written by R. K. Narayan in 1952 shares interesting analogies with significant events and persons in the postmodern world of finance during the last twenty years or so. Narayan’s understanding of the world of finance echoes recent phenomena like the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008, the Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff, a swindler during the 1990s, the Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis, etc. This paper traces analogies among them and thus opens up a fascinating world of intersections and cross-references. In this intricate world, the present and the past, the real and the fictional, the existing and the evolving – all interact with each other; and the pathways thus created invite our attention to the recurring economic phenomenon of bubble formation and its eventual burst. This paper rests on the premise that the exploration of the deeply-rooted analogical relationship between various texts can make the understanding of the world of finance more comprehensible.Según Umberto Eco (1985: 19), «todas las historias cuentan una historia que ya ha sido contada». The Financial Expert, escrita en 1952 por R. K. Narayan, presenta interesantes analogías con acontecimientos y personas significativas en el mundo financiero posmoderno de los últimos veinte años. El conocimiento del mundo financiero por parte de Narayan resuena con los recientes fenómenos de la bancarrota de Lehman Brothers el 15 de septiembre de 2008, el esquema Ponzi del estafador durante los años 1990, Bernard Madoff, la crisis de las hipotecas basura, etc. Este artículo explora las analogías entre tales hechos para descubrir un fascinante mundo de intersecciones y referencias cruzadas. En ese complejo mundo, el presente y el pasado, lo real y lo ficticio, lo existente y lo emergente, interactúan, invitándonos a reflexionar sobre el fenómeno recurrente de la formación y estallido de las burbujas financieras. El análisis de la profunda relación entre textos diferentes puede ayudar en la comprensión del mundo financier

Mode of Operation and Performance of Contract Farming of Cottonseed in Haryana

The quality of cottonseed matters most for the successful product development. The quality cottonseed production is monitored by the Haryana State Seed Certification Agency in the state. The study has reviewed the prevailing contract cotton farming models; has studied mode of operation of cotton contractual arrangements; has analyzed the production matrix, growth and contributions; and has discerned and quantified variations in intensive structure of public and private seed firms. It has used both primary and secondary data. Appropriate statistical tools, viz. exponential growth model, index, etc., have been used to study the data. All categories of farmers have been brought together under the management of private seed agency for production of cottonseed of a single variety on a large homogeneous block. Contract cotton farming has fully vetted the legal agreements with their growers. The public and private agencies pay incentive price to farmers which is higher than the prevailing market price. Farmers of private agency are free from the intricacies of input and output markets, receive all technology and technical know-how and have facilities for production and consumption loans, whereas farmers of public agency are trailed far behind in terms of these benefits. Private agency has flourished at the expanse of public agency since contract cotton is incentivised by private contractors under flexible and farmerfriendly production regime. The latest production technology, strong capital and management base of private seed agency have left the public agency behind in the competitive race. The study has concluded that favourable changes in socio-economic and legal framework of government policies have to be encouraged for the active participation of private sector in cottonseed business and contract cottonseed farming has emerged as a viable alternative farming in the post-WTO regime.Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management,

Study of Leopard Menace, Food Habits and Habitat Parameters in Mandi District, Himachal Pradesh

Not availabl

Effect of process parameters and VC content on structural and mechanical properties of WC-20Co nano composites

58-66The effect of process parameters and vanadium carbide on hardness, toughness and structural properties of the tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC-Co) nanocomposite has been investigated using micro-hardness tester, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with attached energy dispersive spectroscopy, respectively. To suppress grain growth, a high percentage (upto 10 wt. %) of vanadium carbide (VC) has been taken as a grain growth inhibitor as well as a hardener. WC-20Co composite with 7.5 wt% VC, heat treated at 1100 °C holding time for 2 hours, possesses high hardness (1687 HV) when the volume fraction of tungsten carbide (WC) and Co6W6C phases have been taken in the ratio of 2:1. High hardness and toughness have been obtained at 1100 °C for 2 h heat-treated sample. High VC content with 8 h holding time has increased the porosity in the samples

Developing Model for Fuel Consumption Optimization in Aviation Industry

The contribution of aviation to society and economy is undisputedly significant. The aviation industry drives economic and social progress by contributing prominently to tourism, commerce and improved quality of life. Identifying the amount of fuel consumed by an aircraft while moving in both airspace and ground networks is critical to air transport economics. Aviation fuel is a major operating cost parameter of the aviation industry and at the same time it is prone to various constraints. This article aims to develop a model for fuel consumption of aviation product. The paper tailors the information for the fuel consumption optimization in terms of information development, information evaluation and information refinement. The information is evaluated and refined using statistical package R and Factor Analysis which is further validated with neural networking. The study explores three primary dimensions which are finally summarized into 23 influencing variables in contrast to 96 variables available in literature. The 23 variables explored in this study should be considered as highly influencing variables for fuel consumption which will contribute significantly towards fuel optimization. Keywords: Fuel Consumption, Civil Aviation Industry, Neural Networking, Optimizatio

Mefenamic acid and diclofenac in the treatment of menorrhagia and dysmenorrhea in dysfunctional uterine bleeding: a randomized comparative study

Background: There is a perception that Mefenamic Acid should be the preferred NSAID for menorrhagia. However, there are insufficient evidences to prove this. Further RCTs are required to compare individual NSAIDs.Purposes of the study were to assess and compare the efficacy of mefenamic acid and diclofenac in control of menorrhagia in patients with DUB, to assess and compare their analgesic effects in dysmenorrhea associated with DUB and to study their adverse effects.Methods: Sixty-eight patients were randomized into either Mefenamic Acid (n=34) or Diclofenac (n=34) group. Efficacy variables (Pictorial Blood loss Assessment Chart quantification, Number of pads used, Number of days of menstrual bleeding, Visual Analog Scale score) and adverse effects were recorded over three menstrual cycles.Results: The median reduction of menorrhagia with Mefenamic Acid was 43.39% (Range: 2.86% to 94.4%) and for Diclofenac was 57.5% (Range: 9.9% to 93.58%). The Diclofenac group showed a statistically significant decrease in median bleeding volume, median number of pads used and median number of days of bleeding compared to the Mefenamic Acid group (p<0.05, CI = 95%) but did not show a statistically significant decrease in median VAS score compared to the Mefenamic Acid group. Adverse effects with both groups were mild.Conclusions: Mefenamic Acid and Diclofenac individually managed to significantly reduce excessive bleeding compared to baseline. Diclofenac fared better than Mefenamic Acid in terms of control of excessive menstrual bleeding. Both these agents were able to reduce the menstrual pain and on comparison, were found to be equi-efficacious

Banking on the Brink: The Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis and R. K. Narayan’s Novel The Financial Expert

According to Umberto Eco, «every story tells a story that has already been told» (Eco, 1985: 19). In this context, The Financial Expert, a novel writtenby R. K. Narayan in 1952 shares interesting analogies with significant events and persons in the postmodern world of finance during the last twenty years or so. Narayan’s understanding of the world of finance echoes recent phenomena like the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008, the Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff, a swindler during the 1990s, the Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis, etc. This paper traces analogies among them and thus opens up a fascinating world of intersections and cross-references. In this intricate world, the present and the past, the real and the fictional, the existing and the evolving – all interact with each other; and the pathways thus created invite our attention to the recurring economic phenomenon of bubble formation and its eventual burst. This paper rests on the premise that the exploration of the deeply-rooted analogical relationship between various texts can make the understanding of the world of finance more comprehensible

Banking on the Brink: The Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis and R. K. Narayan’s Novel The Financial Expert

According to Umberto Eco, «every story tells a story that has already been told» (Eco, 1985: 19). In this context, The Financial Expert, a novel written by R. K. Narayan in 1952 shares interesting analogies with significant events and persons in the postmodern world of finance during the last twenty years or so. Narayan’s understanding of the world of finance echoes recent phenomena like the bankruptcy of the Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008, the Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff, a swindler during the 1990s, the Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis, etc. This paper traces analogies among them and thus opens up a fascinating world of intersections and cross-references. In this intricate world, the present and the past, the real and the fictional, the existing and the evolving – all interact with each other; and the pathways thus created invite our attention to the recurring economic phenomenon of bubble formation and its eventual burst. This paper rests on the premise that the exploration of the deeply-rooted analogical relationship between various texts can make the understanding of the world of finance more comprehensible

An efficient gravitational search decision forest approach for fingerprint recognition

Fingerprint based human identification is one of the authentic biometric recognition systems due to the permanence and uniqueness of the finger impressions. There is the extensive usage of fingerprint recognition in personalized electronic devices, security systems, banking, forensic labs, and especially in law enforcement agencies. Although the existing systems can recognize fingerprints, they lack in case of poor quality and latent fingerprints. The latent fingerprints are captured by law enforcement agencies during the crime scene to find the criminal. Consequently, it is essential to develop a novel system that can efficiently recognize both complete and latent fingerprints. The current work proposes an efficient Gravitational Search Decision Forest (GSDF) method, which is a combination of the gravitational search algorithm (GSA) and the random forest (RF) method. In the proposed GSDF approach, the mass agent of GSA determines the solution by constructing decision trees in accordance with the random forest hypothesis. The recognition of the fingerprints is accomplished by mass agents in the form of a final generated decision forest from the set of hypothesis space as the mass agents can create multiple hypotheses using random proportional rules. The experiments for fingerprint recognition are conducted for both the latent fingerprints (NIST SD27 dataset) and the complete fingerprints (FVC2004 dataset). The effectiveness of the proposed GSDF approach is analyzed by evaluating the results with machine learning classifiers (random forest, decision tree, back propagation neural networks, and k-nearest neighbor) as well. The comparative analysis of the proposed approach and incorporated machine learning classifiers indicates the outperformed performance of the proposed approach. 

Review article on Viruddha Ahara

Ahara (food) is the prime need for the sustaining of life. Ayurveda explained about Trividha Upasthambha (sub-pillars of body) and Ahara (food) is one of the important pillars for healthy living being. For healthy living Ayurveda emphasizes on consuming right kind of diet which provide health and nutrition. The diet which disturbs the balance among the body elements is called Viruddha Ahara (Incompatible diet). Consuming two food items together or a particular type of diet may tend to toxicity; it is termed as incompatible diet. Even incompatible diet should be considered similar to Gara Visha (Artificial poison). Viruddha (Incompatible diet) means substances which when consumed cause for aggravations of Doshas but do not expel them out of the body and bring about abnormalities in Dhatu (tissues of the body). The incompatible diet could be considered similar to poison and artificial poisoning if taken simultaneously and continuously. Due to western lifestyle there is extensive exposure to toxins. The present article deals with the review of Viruddha Ahara (Incompatible diet) referred in context of Viruddha Aaharajanit Vyadhis (Incompatible food induced diseases) and its prevention in Brihattrayi