Assessment of Kisan Mobile Advisory (KMA) Service for Dissemination of Agriculture Information in Mehsana District; Gujarat

Introduction of information and communication (ICT) in the field of Agriculture has brought many changes in traditional methods of extension. It enables the dissemination of requisite information at the right time to the right people. The revolution in ICT has made access to the information easy and cost effective to the rural masses in general and farming community in particular. Kisan Mobile Sandesh (KMS) or Kisan Mobile Advisory Services (KMAS) is one among several methods of ICTs working successfully for dissemination of latest information. KMAS is best on the liner model of communication, which involve four major component of communication process viz. Sender, Message, Channel and Receiver, Mobile phones, Short Message Service (sms) are important tools and can be used by the KVK specialist. The extension functionary is the user of the information while farmers are implementer at field level. Kisan Mobile Advisory Service was launched for sending information through SMS in Mehsana District through Krishi Vigyan Kendra during January 2014. The content of messages were typed in Gujarati language and information related to crop production, crop protection, vegetable and fruit production, spice crops, dairy farming, weather forecasting, post harvest management and other agricultural and allied related information sent to end users. To evaluate the sending information and usefulness of information, the present study was constitutes, survey of 80 farmers, 10 in-service personnel and 10 input suppliers of district during 2014-15. Result of survey shows that messages were highly understandable for large majority 42.50 % of the members of farmer’s category. It was highly understandable for 80 % and 50 % KMA member of in-service personnel and input supplier category respectively. Messages were needful and timely for 67.50% of KMA member of farmer’s category and about 70% and 50% for in-service personnel and input supplier, respectively. As far as applicability of message is concerned, the messages were fully applicable for about 44 % of KMA member of farmer’s category whereas medium and partially applicable were reported by 17.50 % and 22.50 % of members, respectively. It was also found that messages were fully applicable for in-service personnel (60 %) and input supplier (50 %). Majority of the framers 72.50 % were conveyed the messages minimum to one another farmers in social system. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15075

Phase transitions driven by L\'evy stable noise: exact solutions and stability analysis of nonlinear fractional Fokker-Planck equations

Phase transitions and effects of external noise on many body systems are one of the main topics in physics. In mean field coupled nonlinear dynamical stochastic systems driven by Brownian noise, various types of phase transitions including nonequilibrium ones may appear. A Brownian motion is a special case of L\'evy motion and the stochastic process based on the latter is an alternative choice for studying cooperative phenomena in various fields. Recently, fractional Fokker-Planck equations associated with L\'evy noise have attracted much attention and behaviors of systems with double-well potential subjected to L\'evy noise have been studied intensively. However, most of such studies have resorted to numerical computation. We construct an {\it analytically solvable model} to study the occurrence of phase transitions driven by L\'evy stable noise.Comment: submitted to EP

Independent Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operation of Unmanned Systems with Distributed Onboard Services

This paper presents the development of ICAROUS-2 (Independent Configurable Architecture for Reliable Operation of Unmanned Systems with Distributed Onboard Services), the second generation of a software architecture that integrates several algorithms as distributed onboard services to enable robust autonomous UAS applications. In particular, the ICAROUS architecture defines a framework to perform detect and avoid, geofencing, path monitoring, path planning, and autonomous decision making to ensure safety and mission progress. Most of the core algorithms implemented in ICAROUS are formally verified using an interactive theorem prover. These algorithms are composed together using a plan execution engine, whose operational semantics is formally specified. A description of the integrated architecture, services currently available, and flight test results highlighting the capability of ICAROUS are presented

Potts Flux Tube Model at Nonzero Chemical Potential

We model the deconfinement phase transition in quantum chromodynamics at nonzero baryon number density and large quark mass by extending the flux tube model (three-state, three-dimensional Potts model) to nonzero chemical potential. In a direct numerical simulation we confirm mean-field-theory predictions that the deconfinement transition does not occur in a baryon-rich environment.Comment: 14 pp RevTeX, 10 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev D. (Corrected some typographical errors.

Spatial Numerical Range in Non-unital, Normed algebras and their Unitizations

Let $(A, \|\cdot\|)$ be any normed algebra (not necessarily complete nor unital). Let $a \in A$ and let $V_A(a)$ denote the spatial numerical range of $a$ in $(A, \|\cdot\|)$. Let $A_e = A + {\mathbb C} 1$ be the unitization of $A$. If $A$ is faithful, then we get two norms on $A_e$; namely, the operator norm $\|\cdot\|_{op}$ and the $\ell^1$-norm $\|\cdot\|_1$. Let $A^{op} = (A, \|\cdot\|_{op})$, $A_e^{op} = (A_e, \|\cdot\|_{op})$, and $A_e^1 = (A_e, \|\cdot\|_1)$. We can calculate the spatial numerical range of $a$ in all these three normed algebras. Because the spatial numerical range highly depend on the identity as well as on the completeness and the regularity of the norm, they are different. In this paper, we study the relations among them. Most of the results proved in \cite{BoDu:71, BoDu:73} will become corollaries of our results. We shall also show that the completeness and regularity of the norm is not required in \cite[Theorem 2.3]{GaHu:89}.Comment: 8 page

A pilot survey of junior doctors’ attitudes and awareness around medication review: time to change our educational approach?

© 2015, BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved.Objectives Our aim was to explore junior doctors attitudes and awareness around concepts related to medication review, in order to find ways to change the culture for reviewing, altering and stopping inappropriate or unnecessary medicines. Having already demonstrated the value of team working with senior doctors and pharmacists and the use of a medication review tool, we are now looking to engage first year clinicians and undergraduates in the process. Method An online survey about medication review was distributed among all 42 foundation year one (FY1) doctors at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in November 2014. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis. Results Twenty doctors completed the survey (48%). Of those, 17 believed that it was the pharmacists duty to review medicines; and 15 of 20 stated the general practitioner (GP). Sixteen of 20 stated that they would consult a senior doctor first before stopping medication. Eighteen of 20 considered the GP and consultant to be responsible for alterations, rather than themselves. Sixteen of 20 respondents were not aware of the availability of a medication review tool. Seventeen of 20 felt that more support from senior staff would help them become involved with medication review. Conclusions Junior doctors report feeling uncomfortable altering mediations without consulting a senior first. They appear to be building confidence with prescribing in their first year but not about the medication review process or questioning the drugs already prescribed. Consideration should be given to what we have termed a bottom-up educational approach to provide early experience of and change the culture around medication review, to include the education of undergraduate and foundation doctors and pharmacists

On the convexity of spatial numetical range in normed algebras

In this article, we address the following question: Is it true that the spatial numerical range (SNR) $V_A(a)$ of an element $a$ in a normed algebra $(A, \|\cdot\|)$ is always convex? If the normed algebra is unital, then it is convex \cite[Theorem 3, P.16]{BoDu:71}. In non-unital case, we believe that the problem is still open and its answer seems to be negative. In search of such a normed algebra, we have proved that the SNR $V_A(a)$ is convex in several non-unital Banach algebras.Comment: 9 page

Life Test Based on Progressively Group-Censored Samples From Exponential Distribution With Periodic Change in Failure Rate

A life test experiment based on progressively group censored sample with periodic change in the failure rate of an exponential distribution is considered. Estimates of the two failure rates under different conditions of usage of an item together with their asymptotic standard error are obtained by the method of maximum likelihood. A numerical example is given using the data available in the form of grouped observations under two conditions of usage during alternate time intervals of fixed lengths T/Sub1 and T/Sub2