Monsoon trawl ban and its effects on the livelihood of trawl labourers: the case with Versova fishing village in Maharashtra

Indian fisheries sector in view of its potential contribution to national income, nutritional security, employment opportunities, social objectives and export earnings, plays an important role in the socio-economic development of the country. Fisheries sector contributes 4.3% to the agricultural GDP and export earnings are presently valued at over INR 68 billion from a volume of 460,000 tons. In addition, it provides direct and indirect employment and dependency for over seven million people in the country. With an estimated production potential of 8.4 million tons, the present level of production in the country is 5.9 million tons with almost equal contribution from both marine and inland sectors. The estimated fisheries potential from the Indian exclusive economic zone was found to be 3.9 million tons. But in spite of the increased efforts in fish production, the catch stagnates around 2.9 million tons. The stagnation in catches, mainly due to the over exploitation of dwindling marine resources, forced the government to impart some management measures to regulate the fishery and for the sustenance of the marine resources. The monsoon trawl ban in fisheries was one of the major reforms, which had created a substantial increase in fish production in the past few years. The ban on trawling during monsoon season was introduced in Maharashtra, after a series of studies, from 1992 for a period of 65 days from 10 June to 15 August or Naralipoornima, whichever is earlier. A notable increase in production from the marine sector of the country occurred in the post-ban period. Nevertheless, it had created problems in employment, poverty and income distribution of fishermen during the ban period and was always a matter of unrest between mechanized and traditional sectors of fishing. The aim of this study was to understand the impact of the ban on monsoon trawling in employment pattern, poverty and income distribution of fishermen along the coast of Maharashtra. The study was conducted at the Versova fishing village, Mumbai, and provides reflections on the possible impact of monsoon ban in the livelihood and standard of living of the fishermen in the state.

ANALYSIS OF ANGULAR OVERLAP PARAMETERS FOR THE LAOXEU3+ (X = CL, BR, I) SERIES

The Angular Overlap Model (AOM) is applied to the LaOX:Eu3+(X = Cl, Br, I) series involving sigma, pi, delta and phi effects based on the experimental energy levels. The calculations are made in two cases. (1) Consider oxygen and halogen having the same bond-length. (2) Consider the real structure. In both cases, the results show that for sigma-bonding parameters, the values of e(sigma) decrease with increasing charge number of halogen, i.e. Cl- > Br- > I-, this indicates that the bonding ability also decreases with this order. The absolute values of each parameter are much larger than zero-therefore they all must be included in a practical analysis. In the second case, the values of the e(pi) parameter are negative, which means a ''back-bonding'' is formed, and this is profitable for the formation of sigma-bonding, usually referred to as ''synergic effect''.

ANALYSIS OF ANGULAR OVERLAP PARAMETERS FOR EU3+ - LN2O2S (LN = LU, Y, GD, LA) CRYSTAL SERIES

The angular overlap model (AOM) is applied to 4f6 electron systems. The crystal field parameters are interpreted and covalency between 4f electrons and ligands is investigated based on the experimental energy levels. For Eu3+:Ln2O2S (Ln = Lu, Y, Gd, La) crystal series, we adopt two computational schemes. First of all, we assume that the distances to all ligands are equal, and then the distances to all ligands are divided into two groups, namely, oxygens as one group, sulfurs as the other. Of course, much information about covalency will be obtained from the latter case. Obviously, our results show that the covalency of Ln-O bonding is stronger than that of Ln-S bonding in line with much shorter bondlength for the former than that for the latter. The two schemes yield the same results, that is, for sigma and pi bonding, ligands are strong donors as well as sigma, pi effects are dominant over delta, phi effects.

The role of late medieval English monasteries as expressions of patronal authority : Some case studies

St?ber, Karen. 'The role of late medieval English monasteries as expressions of patronal authority: some case studies', in: 'The Use and Abuse of Sacred Places in Late Medieval Towns, Medievalia Lovaniensia, Series I, Studia XXXVIII', (Leuven: Leuven University Press), pp.189-207, 2006 RAE2008

The Impact of AIDS on Government Service Delivery: The Case of the Zambia Wildlife Authority

Background: The loss of working-aged adults to HIV/AIDS has been shown to increase the costs of labor to the private sector in Africa. There is little corresponding evidence for the public sector. This study evaluated the impact of AIDS on the capacity of a government agency, the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA), to patrol Zambia’s national parks. Methods: Data were collected from ZAWA on workforce characteristics, recent mortality, costs, and the number of days spent on patrol between 2003 and 2005 by a sample of 76 current patrol officers (reference subjects) and 11 patrol officers who died of AIDS or suspected AIDS (index subjects). An estimate was made of the impact of AIDS on service delivery capacity and labor costs and the potential net benefits of providing treatment. Results: Reference subjects spent an average of 197.4 days on patrol per year. After adjusting for age, years of service, and worksite, index subjects spent 62.8 days on patrol in their last year of service (68% decrease, p<0.0001), 96.8 days on patrol in their second to last year of service (51% decrease, p<0.0001), and 123.7 days on patrol in their third to last year of service (37% decrease, p<0.0001). For each employee who died, ZAWA lost an additional 111 person-days for management, funeral attendance, vacancy, and recruitment and training of a replacement, resulting in a total productivity loss per death of 2.0 person-years. Each AIDS-related death also imposed budgetary costs for care, benefits, recruitment, and training equivalent to 3.3 years’ annual compensation. In 2005, AIDS reduced service delivery capacity by 6.2% and increased labor costs by 9.7%. If antiretroviral therapy could be provided for $500/patient/year, net savings to ZAWA would approach $285,000/year. Conclusion: AIDS is constraining ZAWA’s ability to protect Zambia’s wildlife and parks. Impacts on this government agency are substantially larger than have been observed in the private sector. Provision of ART would result in net budgetary savings to ZAWA and greatly increase its service delivery capacity.

Participation by place-based community organisations in local development: case studies from East Cork

The past two decades have witnessed concerted efforts by theorists and policy-makers to place civil society at the centre of social, economic and environmental development processes. To this end, policies grounded in a Third Way approach have sought to forge stronger linkages between the state and voluntary community-based organisations. Concepts such as active citizenship, social capital, partnership and sustainability have underpinned this political philosophy, which reflects a movement in development theory and political science away from notions of state-led development and unfettered neo-liberalism. In the Irish context, a series of initiatives have given expression to this new policy agenda, the foremost amongst them the publication of a White Paper in 2000. New local governance structures and development schemes have multiplied since the early 1990s, while the physical planning system has also been modified. All this has taken place against the backdrop of unprecedented economic development and social change precipitated by the ‘Celtic Tiger’.This thesis examines the interaction between community organisations, state institutions and other actors in development processes in East Cork. It focuses upon place-based community organisations, who seek to represent the interests of their particular localities. A case study approach is employed to explore the realpolitik of local development and to gauge the extent to which grassroots community organisations wield influence in determining the development of their communities. The study concludes that the transfer of decision-making power to community organisations has been more illusory than real and that, in practical terms, such groups remain marginal in the circuits of power. However, the situation of community organisations operating in different geographical locales cannot be reduced to an overarching theoretical logic. The case studies show that the modus operandi of community groups varies considerably and can be influenced by specific local geographies, events and personalities.

Policy impacts on Vietnam stock markets: a case of anomalies and disequilibria 2000-2006

Vietnam launched its first-ever stock market, named as Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center (HSTC) on July 20, 2000. This is one of pioneering works on HSTC, which finds empirical evidences for the following: Anomalies of the HSTC stock returns through clusters of limit-hits, limit-hit sequences; Strong herd effect toward extreme positive returns of the market portfolio;The specification of ARMA-GARCH helps capture fairly well issues such as serial correlations and fat-tailed for the stabilized period. By using further information and policy dummy variables, it is justifiable that policy decisions on technicalities of trading can have influential impacts on the move of risk level, through conditional variance behaviors of HSTC stock returns. Policies on trading and disclosure practices have had profound impacts on Vietnam Stock Market (VSM). The over-using of policy tools can harm the market and investing mentality. Price limits become increasingly irrelevant and prevent the market from self-adjusting to equilibrium. These results on VSM have not been reported before in the literature on Vietnam’s financial markets. Given the policy implications, we suggest that the Vietnamese authorities re-think the use of price limit and give more freedom to market participants.

Developing Quantitative Methodologies for the Digital Humanities: A Case Study of 20th Century American Commentary on Russian Literature

Using scientific methods in the humanities is at the forefront of objective literary analysis. However, processing big data is particularly complex when the subject matter is qualitative rather than numerical. Large volumes of text require specialized tools to produce quantifiable data from ideas and sentiments. Our team researched the extent to which tools such as Weka and MALLET can test hypotheses about qualitative information. We examined the claim that literary commentary exists within political environments and used US periodical articles concerning Russian literature in the early twentieth century as a case study. These tools generated useful quantitative data that allowed us to run stepwise binary logistic regressions. These statistical tests allowed for time series experiments using sea change and emergency models of history, as well as classification experiments with regard to author characteristics, social issues, and sentiment expressed. Both types of experiments supported our claim with varying degrees, but more importantly served as a definitive demonstration that digitally enhanced quantitative forms of analysis can apply to qualitative data. Our findings set the foundation for further experiments in the emerging field of digital humanities.