Department of History

Ashoka University is a private university located in Sonipat, Haryana, India, focusing on liberal arts and sciences. It was established in 2014.&nbsp;It is guided by an academic council of academics and scholars from around the world. The council sets the university&#39;s academic standard, advising on matters of curriculum, faculty hiring and research.&nbsp;

Ashoka University offers a full-time 3 (+ 1) year undergraduate programme. The University comprises of&nbsp;2500 plus students, with a mix of both national and international students.&nbsp; &nbsp;

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Ashoka University

Background: WHO, UNODC, and UNAIDS recommend a comprehensive package for prevention, treatment, and care of HIV among people who inject drugs (PWID). We describe the uptake of services and the cost of implementing a comprehensive package for HIV prevention, treatment, and care services in Delhi, India. Methods: A cohort of 3774 PWID were enrolled for a prospective HIV incidence study and provided the comprehensive package: HIV and hepatitis testing and counseling, hepatitis B (HB) vaccination, syndromic management of sexually transmitted infections, clean needles-syringes, condoms, abscess care, and education. Supplementary services comprising tea and snacks, bathing facilities, and medical consultations were also provided. PWID were referred to government services for antiretroviral therapy (ART), TB care, opioid substitution therapy, and drug dependence treatment/rehabilitation. Results: The project spent USD 1,067,629.88 over 36 months of project implementation: 1.7% on capital costs, 3.9% on participant recruitment, 26.7% for project management, 49.9% on provision of services, and 17.8% on supplementary services. Provision of HIV prevention and care services cost the project USD 140.41/PWID/year. 95.3% PWID were tested for HIV. Of the HIV-positive clients, only 17.8% registered for ART services after repeated followup. Reasons for not seeking ART services included not feeling sick, need for multiple visits to the clinic, and long waiting times. 61.8% of the PWID underwent HB testing. Of the 2106 PWID eligible for HB vaccination, 81% initiated the vaccination schedule, but only 29% completed all three doses, despite intensive follow-up by outreach workers. PWID took an average of 8 clean needles-syringes/PWID/year over the project duration, with a mid-project high of 16 needles-syringes/PWID/year. PWID continued to also procure needles from other sources, such as chemists. One hundred five PWID were referred to OST services and 267 for rehabilitation services. Conclusions: A comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment, and care package is challenging to implement. Extensive efforts are needed to ensure the uptake of and retention in services for PWID; peer educators and outreach workers are required on a continuous basis. Services need to be tailored to client needs, considering clinic timing and distance from hotspots. Programs may consider provision of ART services at selected drop-in centers to increase uptake. © The Author(s). 2017.

World University root node

Department of Economics

Fulltext

Harm Reduction Journal

Service utilization and cost of implementing a comprehensive HIV prevention and care program among people who inject drugs in Delhi, India

2016 Annual Competitiveness and Growth Slowdown Analysis for Sub-national Economies of India

Comments on “growth slowdown analysis by income thresholds for India’s sub-national economies”

In a departure from most studies, this paper examines in a multivariate context the influence of both the exchange rate and structural factors on China's trade balance vis-à-vis selected partner countries. Structural change is proxied by the evolution of the labour skill composition of trade. The empirical findings indicate that China's large trade surplus cannot be attributed to exchange rate policy alone. The large persistent trade surplus also reflects improvement in non-price competitiveness arising from the fact that China's exports are rising up the skill ladder and imports are moving down the skill ladder. © 2017 Association for Comparative Economic Studies. All rights reserved.

Comparative Economic Studies

The Impact of the Exchange Rate and Trade Composition on China's Trade Balance Vis-à-Vis Selected Partner Countries

The chapter looks at positions taken in the self versus no-self debate between Buddhism and the Brahmanical traditions. Section 1 identifies key issues in the debate between Nyāya and Buddhism. Section 2 introduces the Śaiva Siddhānta view, honouring its self-representation as falling in the middle ground between Nyāya and Buddhism. Section 3 argues that this self-representation is misleading, that Śaiva Siddhānta’s position is just as extreme as Nyāya’s, and then diagnoses this polarization of the debate as resulting from a shared presupposition. Section 4 identifies some better candidates for the middle ground - Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṃsā, Jainism, Personalist Buddhism (pudgalavāda) and ‘Buddhism without momentariness’ - and explicates their views by placing them on a spectrum. © 2018 selection and editorial matter, Purushottama Bilimoria; individual chapters, the contributors.

Department of Philosophy

History of Indian Philosophy

A spectrum of metaphysical positions concerning the existence or non- existence of a self: Nyāya, śaiva siddhānta, mīmāṃsā, jainism and buddhism

NVMe is emerging as the standard protocol for communicating with high performance storage devices over the PCIe interface, independent of the underlying storage technology. Being a relatively new standard, there is a distinct lack of tools that can help in evaluating contemporary and future storage solutions built on NVMe. In this paper, we provide the design and analysis of FlexDrive, a software defined, comprehensive, fully customizable emulation framework that builds on the NVMe protocol. FlexDrive provides a number of knobs that allow system architects and capacity planning engineers to quickly evaluate performance implications of a wide variety of storage solutions, including a number of 'what-if' scenarios. We validate FlexDrive against commercially available NVMe SSDs and demonstrate near-perfect correlation. Furthermore, using multiple case studies we show that FlexDrive is able to emulate the performance of a number of existing SSDs as well as extrapolate to future storage devices.

Department of Computer Science

Proceedings - 18th IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications, 14th IEEE International Conference on Smart City and 2nd IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Systems, HPCC/SmartCity/DSS 2016

FlexDrive: A framework to explore NVMe storage solutions

The time spent by an application can broadly be classified into two main categories - user mode and kernel mode. In order to optimize applications from a performance perspective, it is critical to know the code regions where they spend the bulk of their time. With datacenter applications becoming more I/O intensive and storage devices attaining higher performance with each generation, the contribution of the Linux kernel stack to overall performance is increasing to an all time high. These trends make it imperative to observe and visualize kernel behavior and performance in order to effectively optimize it for specific use cases. To that end, in this paper, we present KOVA: Kernel Overhead Visualization and Analysis framework that builds on top of existing kernel tracers to provide comprehensive insights into Linux kernel behavior.

2016 IEEE 35th International Performance Computing and Communications Conference, IPCCC 2016

KOVA : A tool for kernel visualization and analysis

This paper investigates a certain puzzling argument concerning number expressions and their meanings, the Easy Argument for Numbers. After finding faults with previous views, I offer a new take on what’s ultimately wrong with the Argument: it equivocates. I develop a semantics for number expressions which relates various of their uses, including those relevant to the Easy Argument, via type-shifting. By marrying Romero ’s (Linguist Philos 28(6):687–737, 2005) analysis of specificational clauses with Scontras ’ (The semantics of measurement, 2014) semantics for Degree Nouns, I show how to extend Landman ’s (Indefinites and the type of sets, Blackwell, Oxford, 2004) Adjectival Theory to numerical specificational clauses. The resulting semantics can explain various contrasts observed by Moltmann (Philos Stud 162:499–536, 2013a), but only if Scontras’ contention that degrees and numbers are sortally distinct is correct. At the same time, the Easy Argument can establish its intended conclusion only if numbers and degrees are mistakenly assumed to be identical. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Linguistics and Philosophy

Numbers and Cardinalities: What’s Really Wrong with the Easy Argument for Numbers?

Nonheme iron complexes bearing tetradentate N-atom-donor ligands with cis labile sites show great promise for chemoselective aliphatic C-H hydroxylation. However, several challenges still limit their widespread application. We report a mechanism-guided development of a peroxidase mimicking iron complex based on the bTAML macrocyclic ligand framework (Fe-bTAML: biuret-modified tetraamido macrocyclic ligand) as a catalyst to perform selective oxidation of unactivated 3° bonds with unprecedented regioselectivity (3°:2° of 110:1 for adamantane oxidation), high stereoretention (99%) and turnover numbers (TONs) up to 300 using mCPBA as the oxidant. Ligand decomposition pathways involving acid-induced demetalation were identified and this led to the development of more robust and efficient Fe-bTAML complexes that catalyzed chemoselective C-H oxidation. Mechanistic studies, which include correlation of the product formed with the FeV(O) reactive intermediates generated during the reaction, indicate that the major pathway involves the cleavage of C-H bonds by FeV(O). When these oxidations were performed in the presence of air, the yield of the oxidized product doubled, but the stereoretention remained unchanged. On the basis of 18O labeling and other mechanistic studies, we propose a mechanism that involves the dual activation of mCPBA and O2 by Fe-bTAML, leading to formation of the FeV(O) intermediate. This high-valent iron oxo remains the active intermediate for most of the reaction, resulting in high regio- and stereoselectivity during product formation.

Department of Chemistry

Inorganic Chemistry

Selective C-H Bond Oxidation Catalyzed by the Fe-bTAML Complex: Mechanistic Implications

Rudrangshu Mukherjee places the 'soldier-peasant' at the forefront of the Revolt. Violence has rarely been described with so much realism and subtlety. The imaginative use of primary source materials adds clarity to accounts such as the massacre in Satichaura Ghat and the trial of Mangal Pandey. The layers of complexity that defined the relationship between the rulers and the subjugated are also exposed. © 2018 Rudrangshu Mukherjee and Social Science Press. All rights reserved.

The Year of Blood: Essays on the Revolt of 1857

The year of blood: Essays on the revolt of 1857

A hallmark of tissue ageing is the irreversible oxidative modification of its proteins. We show that single proteins, kept unfolded and extended by a mechanical force, undergo accelerated ageing in times scales of minutes to days. A protein forced to be continuously unfolded completely loses its ability to contract by folding, becoming a labile polymer. Ageing rates vary among different proteins, but in all cases they lose their mechanical integrity. Random oxidative modification of cryptic side chains exposed by mechanical unfolding can be slowed by the addition of antioxidants such as ascorbic acid, or accelerated by oxidants. By contrast, proteins kept in the folded state and probed over week-long experiments show greatly reduced rates of ageing. We demonstrate a novel approach whereby protein ageing can be greatly accelerated: the constant unfolding of a protein for hours to days is equivalent to decades of exposure to free radicals under physiological conditions. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim