Public and private expenditures on human capital accumulation in India

We study a model of human capital driven growth, where the parent's human capital serves as a productive input in the child's human capital production only when that of the former exceeds a minimum level required to intellectually contribute to the child's learning. Private and public expenditures on education enter in the child's human capital production function, and are allowed to vary in terms of substitutability and relative productivity. Households receive income from labor and face both labor and consumption taxes. The government receives consumption tax revenues and a proportion of income tax revenues and spends these revenues on public education. We simulate the model to a state in India and experimentally increase public education spending through various tax instruments. We find: (i) large changes in education funding have very small effects on growth and on the evolution of income inequality; (ii) raising the consumption tax generates about as much economic growth as realizing an increase in the center-state transfer from the federal level, and (iii) financing this increase in public spending through the labor tax increases economic growth by less than utilizing the consumption tax; however, it reduces inequality by more than utilizing the consumption tax. Hence, there is growth-inequality trade-off

Modeling 21st century project teams: docking workflow and knowledge network computational models

This paper reports on an attempt to integrate and extend two established computational organizational models\u2014SimVision\uae and Blanche\u2014to examine the co-evolution of workflow and knowledge networks in 21st century project teams. Traditionally, workflow in project teams has been modeled as sets of sequential and/or parallel activities each assigned to a responsible participant, organized in a fixed structure. In the spirit of Jay Galbraith\u2019s (1973) information processing view of organizations, exceptions\u2014situations in which participants lack the required knowledge to complete a task\u2014are referred up the hierarchy for resolution. However, recent developments in digital technologies have created the possibility to design project teams that are more flexible, self-organizing structures, in which exceptions can be resolved much more flexibly through knowledge networks that extend beyond the project or even the company boundaries. In addition to seeking resolution to exceptions up the hierarchy, members of project teams may be motivated to retrieve the necessary expertise from other knowledgeable members in the project team. Further, they may also retrieve information from non-human agents, such as knowledge repositories or databases, available to the project team. Theories, such as Transactive Memory, Public Goods, Social Exchange and Proximity may guide their choice of retrieving information from a specific project team member or database. This paper reports on a \u201cdocked\u201d computational model that can be used to generate and test hypotheses about the co-evolution of workflow and knowledge networks of these 21st century project teams in terms of their knowledge distribution and performance. The two computational models being docked are SimVision (Jin & Levitt, 1999) which has sophisticated processes to model organizations executing project-oriented workflows, and Blanche (Hyatt, Contractor, & Jones, 1997), a multiagent computational network environment, which models multitheoretical mechanisms for the retrieval and allocation of information in knowledge networks involving human and non-human agents. This paper was supported in part by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation for the project \u201cCo-Evolution of Knowledge Networks and 21st Century Organizational Forms (IIS- 9980109)

Gravitational collapse with tachyon field and barotropic fluid

A particular class of space-time, with a tachyon field, \phi, and a barotropic fluid constituting the matter content, is considered herein as a model for gravitational collapse. For simplicity, the tachyon potential is assumed to be of inverse square form i.e., V(\phi) \sim \phi^{-2}. Our purpose, by making use of the specific kinematical features of the tachyon, which are rather different from a standard scalar field, is to establish the several types of asymptotic behavior that our matter content induces. Employing a dynamical system analysis, complemented by a thorough numerical study, we find classical solutions corresponding to a naked singularity or a black hole formation. In particular, there is a subset where the fluid and tachyon participate in an interesting tracking behaviour, depending sensitively on the initial conditions for the energy densities of the tachyon field and barotropic fluid. Two other classes of solutions are present, corresponding respectively, to either a tachyon or a barotropic fluid regime. Which of these emerges as dominant, will depend on the choice of the barotropic parameter, \gamma. Furthermore, these collapsing scenarios both have as final state the formation of a black hole.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures. v3: minor changes. Final version to appear in GR

Role of ABA Signaling in Regulation of Stem Sugar Metabolism and Transport under Post- Flowering Drought Stress in Sweet Sorghum

Sugar remobilization from vegetative to reproductive tissues is an important process that determines grain yield in crops. Sweet sorghum stems store sugar and introgression of Stay green1 (Stg 1) locus from the grain sorghum genotype B35 into the sweet sorghum genotype S35 was previously shown to bring about a 2-fold higher stem sugar accumulation in the near-isogenic line (NIL) S35SG06040. We hypothesized that remobilization of stem sugar augments grain yield on exposure to drought stress and that the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) has a role to play in this process. ABA levels were three times higher in the NIL as compared to those in S35 on drought stress exposure. Remobilization of stem sugars in the NIL was evident by the observed decrease in reducing sugar content in the stem but not in the peduncle in response to prolonged drought stress exposure. Drought-induced expression of some ABA response factors (ABFs) as well as invertase and sucrose transporter genes was seen to be higher in the NIL as compared to S35. An over-representation of ABA-responsive elements (ABREs) and sugar signaling motifs in the differentially expressed genes indicated the involvement of ABA and sugar signaling in regulation of their expression. Two ABF genes located on the Stg1 locus showed single nucleotide polymorphism, which possibly accounted for their differential regulation in S35 and the NIL. The results suggest that ABA signaling plays an important role in post-flowering drought-induced remobilization of sugars to the reproductive sinks

Ethical and methodological issues in engaging young people living in poverty with participatory research methods

This paper discusses the methodological and ethical issues arising from a project that focused on conducting a qualitative study using participatory techniques with children and young people living in disadvantage. The main aim of the study was to explore the impact of poverty on children and young people's access to public and private services. The paper is based on the author's perspective of the first stage of the fieldwork from the project. It discusses the ethical implications of involving children and young people in the research process, in particular issues relating to access and recruitment, the role of young people's advisory groups, use of visual data and collection of data in young people's homes. The paper also identifies some strategies for addressing the difficulties encountered in relation to each of these aspects and it considers the benefits of adopting participatory methods when conducting research with children and young people

Naked Singularity Formation In f(R) Gravity

We study the gravitational collapse of a star with barotropic equation of state $p=w\rho$ in the context of $f({\mathcal R})$ theories of gravity. Utilizing the metric formalism, we rewrite the field equations as those of Brans-Dicke theory with vanishing coupling parameter. By choosing the functionality of Ricci scalar as $f({\mathcal R})=\alpha{\mathcal R}^{m}$, we show that for an appropriate initial value of the energy density, if $\alpha$ and $m$ satisfy certain conditions, the resulting singularity would be naked, violating the cosmic censorship conjecture. These conditions are the ratio of the mass function to the area radius of the collapsing ball, negativity of the effective pressure, and the time behavior of the Kretschmann scalar. Also, as long as parameter $\alpha$ obeys certain conditions, the satisfaction of the weak energy condition is guaranteed by the collapsing configuration.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, to appear in GR

An impact and feasibility evaluation of a 6 week (9 hour) active play intervention on fathers' engagement with their preschool children: A feasibility study

Research has demonstrated the benefits of father involvement with their children and a link between uninvolved fatherhood and societal problems. Children’s Centres (n=15) received 6 x 90 minute active play sessions designed to foster six aspects of parental engagement. Fathers’ engagement and attitudes to child PA were measured pre- and post-intervention via questionnaire. Acceptability of the intervention was explored through participant and staff focus groups. Results showed no effect on overall time fathers spent with their child during the week (t (36) = 0.178, p = 0.860) and the weekend (t (36) =1.166, p = 0.252). Qualitative results demonstrated the sessions provided opportunities for fathers to spend quality time with their children. Parenting self-efficacy increased across the subscale control, t (36) = -2.97, p = 0.04. Fathers increased awareness of their role in motivating their child to play (z = -2.46, p = 0.01). Further longitudinal research is recommended. Key Words: fathers’ engagement; childcare settings; parenting programmes; active play; parenting self-efficac

Accumulation of stem sugar and its remobilisation in response to drought stress in a sweet sorghum genotype and its near-isogenic lines carrying different stay-green loci

Near isogenic lines (NILs) of sweet sorghum genotype S35 into which individual stay green loci were introgressed, were used to understand the contribution of Stay green loci to stem sugar accumulation and its remobilization under drought stress exposure. Sugar and starch content, activities of sugar metabolism enzymes and levels of their expression were studied in the 3rd (source) leaf from panicle and the 5th (sugar storing) internode of the three lines, in irrigated plants and in plants exposed to a brief drought exposure at the panicle emergence stage. Annotation of genes in the respective Stay green loci introgressed in the NILs was carried out using bioinformatics tools. The leaves of NILs accumulated more photoassimilates and the internodes accumulated more sugar, as compared to the parent S35 line. Drought stress exposure led to a decrease in the starch and sugar levels in leaves of all three lines, while an increase in sugar levels was observed in internodes of the NILs. Sugar fluxes were accompanied by alterations in the activities of sugar metabolizing enzymes as well as the expression of genes related to sugar metabolism and transport. Remobilization of sugars from the stem internodes was apparent in the NILs when subjected to drought stress, since the peduncle, which supports the panicle, showed an increase in the sugar content, even when photoassimation in source leaves was reduced. Several genes related to carbohydrate metabolism were located in the Stay green loci, which probably contributed to variation in the parameters studied

Modelling of the effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W divertor of JET

Effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W target of JET ITER-Like Wall was studied with multi-scale calculations. Plasma input parameters were taken from ELMy H-mode plasma experiment. The energetic intra-ELM fuel particles get implanted and create near-surface defects up to depths of few tens of nm, which act as the main fuel trapping sites during ELMs. Clustering of implantation-induced vacancies were found to take place. The incoming flux of inter-ELM plasma particles increases the different filling levels of trapped fuel in defects. The temperature increase of the W target during the pulse increases the fuel detrapping rate. The inter-ELM fuel particle flux refills the partially emptied trapping sites and fills new sites. This leads to a competing effect on the retention and release rates of the implanted particles. At high temperatures the main retention appeared in larger vacancy clusters due to increased clustering rate

Genital ulcer severity score and genital health quality of life in Behçet's disease

Background: Behçet's Disease (BD) is a chronic auto-inflammatory, multisystem relapsing/remitting disorder of unknown aetiology. Oro-genital ulceration is a key feature of the disease and has a major impact on the patients' quality of life. Other clinical manifestations include ocular inflammation, rheumatologic and skin involvement, while CNS and vascular complications can lead to considerable morbidity. The availability of a valid monitoring tool for BD activity is crucial in evaluating the impact of the disease on daily life activity. The aims of this study were to validate a novel tool for monitoring genital ulceration severity in BD and to assess the impact of genital ulcers on the Genital Health Quality of Life (GHQoL). Methods: Genital Ulcer Severity Score (GUSS) was developed using six genital ulcer characteristics: number, size, duration, ulcer-free period, pain and site. A total of 207 BD patients were examined, (137 females: mean age∈±∈SD: 39.83∈±∈13.42 and 70 males: mean age∈±∈SD: 39.98∈±∈11.95) from the multidisciplinary Behçet's Centre of Excellence at Barts Health NHS Trust. GUSS was used in conjunction with Behçet's Disease Current Activity Form (BDCAF). Results: The over-all score of GUSS showed a strong correlation with all genital ulcer characteristics, and the strongest correlation was with the pain domain (r∈=∈0.936; P∈2: 0.600; P∈<∈0.0001). Conclusions: This study established the practicality of GUSS as a severity monitoring tool for BD genital ulcers and validated its use in 207 patients. Genital ulcers of BD have a considerable impact on the patients GHQoL