Total Factor Productivity Growth and Output Growth in Indian Electronics Industry in the Liberalization Era: An Empirical Examination

This paper analyses the efficiency and productivity growth of Electronics industry, which is considered one of the vibrant and rapidly growing manufacturing industry sub-sectors of India in the liberalization era since 1991. The main objective of the paper is to examine the extent and growth of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and its components namely, Technical Efficiency Change (TEC) and Technological Progress (TP) and its contribution to total output growth. In this study, the electronics industry is broadly classified into communication equipments, computer hardware, consumer electronics and other electronics, with the purpose of performing a comparative analysis of productivity growth for each of these sub-sectors for the time period 1993-2004. The paper found that the sub-sectors have improved in terms of economies of scale and contribution of capital.The change in technical efficiency and technological progress moved in reverse directions. Three of the four industry witnessed growth in the output primarily due to TFPG and the contribution of input growth to output growth had been negative/negligible, except for Computer hardware where contribution from both input growth and TFPG to output growth were prominent. The paper explored the possible reasons that addressed the issue of low technical efficiency and technological progress in the industry.

Tracking performance of an LMS-Linear Equalizer for fading channels

We consider a time varying wireless fading channel, equalized by an LMS linear equalizer. We study how well this equalizer tracks the optimal Wiener equalizer. We model the channel by an Auto-regressive (AR) process. Then the LMS equalizer and the AR process are jointly approximated by the solution of a system of ODEs (ordinary differential equations). Using these ODEs, the error between the LMS equalizer and the instantaneous Wiener filter is shown to decay exponentially/polynomially to zero unless the channel is marginally stable in which case the convergence may not hold.Using the same ODEs, we also show that the corresponding Mean Square Error (MSE) converges towards minimum MSE(MMSE) at the same rate for a stable channel. We further show that the difference between the MSE and the MMSE does not explode with time even when the channel is unstable. Finally we obtain an optimum step size for the linear equalizer in terms of the AR parameters, whenever the error decay is exponential.

Total Factor Productivity in Indian Electronic Sector after Liberalisation: Sources and Outcomes

This paper analyses the efficiency and productivity growth of the Electronic Sector of India in the liberalization era since 1991. The study gives an insight into the process of the growth of one of the most upcoming sector of this decade. This sector has experienced a vast structural change along with the changing economic structures in India after liberalisation. With the opening up of this sector to foreign market and incoming of multinational companies, the environment has become highly competitive. The law that operates is that of Darwin’s ‘Survival of the fittest’. Existing industries experience a continuous threat of exit due to entrance of new potential entrants. Thus, it becomes inevitable for the existing industries in this sector to improve productivity growth for their survival. It is thus important to analyze how the industries in this sector have performed over the years and what are the factors that have contributed to the overall output growth.

Variable Granularity Access Tracking Scheme for Improving the Performance of Software Transactional Memory

Software transactional memory (STM) has been proposed as a promising programming paradigm for shared memory multi-threaded programs as an alternative to conventional lock based synchronization primitives. Typical STM implementations employ a conflict detection scheme, which works with uniform access granularity, tracking shared data accesses either at word/cache line or at object level. It is well known that a single fixed access tracking granularity cannot meet the conflicting goals of reducing false conflicts without impacting concurrency adversely. A fine grained granularity while improving concurrency can have an adverse impact on performance due to lock aliasing, lock validation overheads, and additional cache pressure. On the other hand, a coarse grained granularity can impact performance due to reduced concurrency. Thus, in general, a fixed or uniform granularity access tracking (UGAT) scheme is application-unaware and rarely matches the access patterns of individual application or parts of an application, leading to sub-optimal performance for different parts of the application(s). In order to mitigate the disadvantages associated with UGAT scheme, we propose a Variable Granularity Access Tracking (VGAT) scheme in this paper. We propose a compiler based approach wherein the compiler uses inter-procedural whole program static analysis to select the access tracking granularity for different shared data structures of the application based on the application's data access pattern. We describe our prototype VGAT scheme, using TL2 as our STM implementation. Our experimental results reveal that VGAT-STM scheme can improve the application performance of STAMP benchmarks from 1.87% to up to 21.2%.

Tracking and Erosion of Silicone Rubber Nanocomposites under DC Voltages of both Polarities

In order to improve the tracking and erosion performance of outdoor polymeric silicone rubber (SR) insulators used in HV power transmission lines, micron sized inorganic fillers are usually added to the base SR matrix. In addition, insulators used in high voltage dc transmission lines are designed to have increased creepage distance to mitigate the tracking and erosion problems. ASTM D2303 standard gives a procedure for finding the tracking and erosion resistance of outdoor polymeric insulator weathershed material samples under laboratory conditions for ac voltages. In this paper, inclined plane (IP) tracking and erosion tests similar to ASTM D2303 were conducted under both positive and negative dc voltages for silicone rubber samples filled with micron and nano sized particles to understand the phenomena occurring during such tests. Micron sized Alumina Trihydrate (ATH) and nano sized alumina fillers were added to silicone rubber matrix to improve the resistance to tracking and erosion. The leakage current during the tests and the eroded mass at the end of the tests were monitored. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy dispersive Xray (EDX) studies were conducted to understand the filler dispersion and the changes in surface morphology in both nanocomposite and microcomposite samples. The results suggest that nanocomposites performed better than microcomposites even for a small filler loading (4%) for both positive and negative dc stresses. It was also seen that the tracking and erosion performance of silicone rubber is better under negative dc as compared to positive dc voltage. EDX studies showed migration of different ions onto the surface of the sample during the IP test under positive dc which has led to an inferior performance as compared to the performance under negative dc.

Inhibition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis RNA Polymerase by Binding of a Gre Factor Homo log to the Secondary Channel

Because of its essential nature, each step of transcription, viz., initiation, elongation, and termination, is subjected to elaborate regulation. A number of transcription factors modulate the rates of transcription at these different steps, and several inhibitors shut down the process. Many modulators, including small molecules and proteinaceous inhibitors, bind the RNA polymerase (RNAP) secondary channel to control transcription. We describe here the first small protein inhibitor of transcription in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Rv3788 is a homolog of the Gre factors that binds near the secondary channel of RNAP to inhibit transcription. The factor also affected the action of guanosine pentaphosphate (pppGpp) on transcription and abrogated Gre action, indicating its function in the modulation of the catalytic center of RNAP. Although it has a Gre factor-like domain organization with the conserved acidic residues in the N terminus and retains interaction with RNAP, the factor did not show any transcript cleavage stimulatory activity. Unlike Rv3788, another Gre homolog from Mycobacterium smegmatis, MSMEG_6292 did not exhibit transcription-inhibitory activities, hinting at the importance of the former in influencing the lifestyle of M. tuberculosis.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae NineTeen Complex (NTC)-associated Factor Bud31/Ycr063w Assembles on Precatalytic Spliceosomes and Improves First and Second Step Pre-mRNA Splicing Efficiency

Pre-mRNA splicing occurs in spliceosomes whose assembly and activation are critical for splice site selection and catalysis. The highly conserved NineTeen complex protein complex stabilizes various snRNA and protein interactions early in the spliceosome assembly pathway. Among several NineTeen complex-associated proteins is the nonessential protein Bud31/Ycr063w, which is also a component of the Cef1p subcomplex. A role for Bud31 in pre-mRNA splicing is implicated by virtue of its association with splicing factors, but its specific functions and spliceosome interactions are uncharacterized. Here, using in vitro splicing assays with extracts from a strain lacking Bud31, we illustrate its role in efficient progression to the first catalytic step and its requirement for the second catalytic step in reactions at higher temperatures. Immunoprecipitation of functional epitope-tagged Bud31 from in vitro reactions showed that its earliest association is with precatalytic B complex and that the interaction continues in catalytically active complexes with stably bound U2, U5, and U6 small nuclear ribonucleoproteins. In complementary experiments, wherein precatalytic spliceosomes are selected from splicing reactions, we detect the occurrence of Bud31. Cross-linking of proteins to pre-mRNAs with a site-specific 4-thio uridine residue at the -3 position of exon 1 was tested in reactions with WT and bud31 null extracts. The data suggest an altered interaction between a similar to 25-kDa protein and this exonic residue of pre-mRNAs in the arrested bud31 null spliceosomes. These results demonstrate the early spliceosomal association of Bud31 and provide plausible functions for this factor in stabilizing protein interactions with the pre-mRNA.

Object Tracking Using Motion Direction Detection

We present an algorithm for tracking objects in a video sequence, based on a novel approach for motion detection. We do not estimate the velocity �eld. In-stead we detect only the direction of motion at edge points and thus isolate sets of points which are moving coherently. We use a Hausdor� distance based matching algorithm to match point sets in local neighborhood and thus track objects in a video sequence. We show through some examples the e�ectiveness of the algo- rithm.

A Unique Modification of the Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 5A Shows the Presence of the Complete Hypusine Pathway in Leishmania donovani

Deoxyhypusine hydroxylase (DOHH) catalyzes the final step in the post-translational synthesis of an unusual amino acid hypusine (N-(sic)-(4-amino-2-hydroxybutyl) lysine), which is present on only one cellular protein, eukaryotic initiation factor 5A (eIF5A). We present here the molecular and structural basis of the function of DOHH from the protozoan parasite, Leishmania donovani, which causes visceral leishmaniasis. The L. donovani DOHH gene is 981 bp and encodes a putative polypeptide of 326 amino acids. DOHH is a HEAT-repeat protein with eight tandem repeats of alpha-helical pairs. Four conserved histidine-glutamate sequences have been identified that may act as metal coordination sites. A similar to 42 kDa recombinant protein with a His-tag was obtained by heterologous expression of DOHH in Escherichia coli. Purified recombinant DOHH effectively catalyzed the hydroxylation of the intermediate, eIF5A-deoxyhypusine (eIF5A-Dhp), in vitro. L. donovani DOHH (LdDOHH) showed similar to 40.6% sequence identity with its human homolog. The alignment of L. donovani DOHH with the human homolog shows that there are two significant insertions in the former, corresponding to the alignment positions 159-162 (four amino acid residues) and 174-183 (ten amino acid residues) which are present in the variable loop connecting the N- and C-terminal halves of the protein, the latter being present near the substrate binding site. Deletion of the ten-amino-acid-long insertion decreased LdDOHH activity to 14% of the wild type recombinant LdDOHH. Metal chelators like ciclopirox olamine (CPX) and mimosine significantly inhibited the growth of L. donovani and DOHH activity in vitro. These inhibitors were more effective against the parasite enzyme than the human enzyme. This report, for the first time, confirms the presence of a complete hypusine pathway in a kinetoplastid unlike eubacteria and archaea. The structural differences between the L. donovani DOHH and the human homolog may be exploited for structure based design of selective inhibitors against the parasite.

A tracking-based general framework to image halftoning

Existing approches to digital halftoning of image are based primarily on thresholding. We propose a general framework fot image halftoning whcrc some function uf the output halftone tracks another function of the input gray-tone.This appcoach is shown lo unify most existing algorithms and to provide useful insights. Further, the new intcrpretation allows us to remedy problems in existing aigorithrms such as the error dlffusion, and sohsequently to achieve halftones haavmg superior quality. The proposed method is very general nature is an advantage since it offers a wide choice of three Cilters and a update rule. An intercstmg product of this framework is that equally good, or better, half-tones are possible ro be obtained by thresholding a noise proccess instead of the image itself.

Development of a composite material with high magnetic permeability and low loss factor for high frequency application

A flexible composite suitable for MHz frequency application has been developed by combining Fe3O4 and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The loss factor and the permeability have been evaluated. At an optimum weight percentage of Fe3O4 in the PVA matrix, the frequency at which the loss factor gives a minimum shifts to the MHz region. The loss factor has been found to be lower by one order of magnitude at 70 MHz compared to the presently used nickel zinc ferrite. The Henkel plot and the Cole-Cole plot have been obtained for the understanding of the high magnetic permeability and the low loss factor. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3672867]

Luteinizing hormone regulates inhibin-alpha subunit expression through multiple signaling pathways involving steroidogenic factor-1 and beta-catenin in the macaque corpus luteum

We employed different experimental model systems to define the role of GATA4, beta-catenin, and steroidogenic factor (SF-1) transcriptional factors in the regulation of monkey luteal inhibin secretion. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reactions and western blotting analyses show high expression of inhibin-alpha, GATA4, and beta-catenin in corpus luteum (CL) of the mid-luteal phase. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor antagonist-induced luteolysis model suggested the significance of luteinizing hormone (LH) in regulating these transcriptional factors. Inducible cyclic AMP early repressor mRNA expression was detected in the CL and no change was observed in different stages of CL. Following amino acid sequence analysis, interaction between SF-1 and beta-catenin in mid-stage CL was verified by reciprocal co-immunoprecipitation experiments coupled to immunoblot analysis. Electrophoretic mobility shift analysis support the role of SF-1 in regulating luteal inhibin-alpha expression. Our results suggest a possible multiple crosstalk of Wnt, cAMP, and SF-1 in the regulation of luteal inhibin secretion.