Effect of Liberalization on Institutional Agricultural Credit Flow and its Relationship with Average Cost of Cultivation in Indian Agriculture

This paper has examined (i) the nature and extent of inter-state disparities in per hectare flow of short-term institutional credit to agriculture, and (ii) its relationship with average cost of cultivation across states. It has covered all the six regions of the country comprising seventeen agriculturally most important states having about 96 per cent agricultural land in the country. It has revealed that inter-regional disparities in per hectare flow of institutional credit as measured through coefficient of variation (CV) had increased during the pre-liberalization period between 1980-81 and 1990-91. During the post-liberalization era (1991-92 to 2001-02), the inter-regional disparities have reduced. The per hectare institutional credit flow has shown that in most of the states across the country the coverage has increased though in different degrees during the post-liberalization stage over the pre-liberalization period. But, the coverage has still remained very low (below 20 per cent of cost of cultivation), except in the four states of southern region and Punjab and Himachal Pradesh in the northern region in 2001-02.Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries,

Adoption of JMM practices – A key to performance improvement of a local automotive industry

It is imperative for a manufacturing company all over the world to constantly look for ways to increase productivity and at the same time to lower cost to secure a competitive position. It is recognized that practices associated with Japanese Manufacturing Management (JMM) can yield a superior competitive advantage in terms of productivity, quality and provide overall successful business performance. This paper discusses the transfer of the best practices of the JMM locally and analyses the impact of adoption and adaptation of the management system as an in-depth case study conducted in a Malaysian automotive company. This study is to identify what are the changes in terms of the philosophy and practices undertaken by the company and ascertain the impact of the JMM on its manufacturing and financial performances. The elements of business performance from the viewpoint of manufacturing are based on safety, Parts Per Million (PPM), in-line Defect per Unit (DPU), First Time Quality (FTQ), cycle time, productivity, efficiency and stock level. The results show a positive impact to the automotive plant manufacturing performance. For example, safety index has reduced to 0 major accident occurrences. The PPM and In-line DPU have improved by 98% and 91% respectively whereas the FTQ has improved by 167%. Cycle time has reduced from 20 to 6 minutes and productivity increased up to 43% whilst the efficiency reached at 99.9%. The stock level was reduced from half month to 3 days after the adoption of the JMM. The revenue has increased up to 92%, the percentage of expenses has reduced from 11.04% to 3.06% giving an improvement of 72% whilst the net profit has increased from 5.33% to 8.15%. The Return of Asset (RoA) and Return of Equity (RoE) also showed slight improvement despite the effects from the restructuring exercise, Tsunami calamity and fluctuation in Japanese exchange rate

Is the SMART approach better than other treatment approaches for prevention of asthma exacerbations? A meta-analysis

Background and Aims. The combination of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) and long-acting β2 agonists (LABA) has been used as a single inhaler both for maintenance and reliever therapy in asthma, the SMART approach. The administration of additional CS with each reliever inhalation in response to symptoms is expected to provide better control of airway inflammation. The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the SMART approach versus other approaches in the management of asthma in preventing asthma exacerbations. Methods. We searched the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases for studies that have reported exacerbations in the SMART group versus the control group. We calculated the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) to assess the exacerbations in the two groups and pooled the results using a random-effects model. Results. Our search yielded eight studies. The use of SMART approach compared to fixed-dose ICS-LABA combination significantly decreased the odds of a severe exacerbation (OR 0.65; 95% CI, 0.53-0.80) and severe exacerbation requiring hospitalization/ER treatment (OR 0.69; 95% CI, 058- 0.83). The use of SMART approach compared to fixed-dose ICS also significantly decreased the odds of a severe exacerbation (OR 0.52; 95% CI, 0.45-0.61) and severe exacerbation requiring medical intervention (OR 0.52; 95% CI, 0.42-0.65). The occurrence of adverse events was similar in the two groups. There was some evidence of statistical heterogeneity. Conclusions. The SMART approach using formoterol- budesonide is superior in preventing exacerbations when compared to traditional therapy with fixed dose ICS or ICS-LABA combination without any increase in adverse events

Geo-spatial reporting for monitoring of household immunization coverage through mobile phones: Findings from a feasibility study

Background: The addition of Global Positioning System (GPS) to a mobile phone makes it a very powerful tool for surveillance and monitoring coverage of health programs. This technology enables transfer of data directly into computer applications and cross-references to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps, which enhances assessment of coverage and trends.Objective: Utilization of these systems in low and middle income countries is currently limited, particularly for immunization coverageassessments and polio vaccination campaigns. We piloted the use of this system and discussed its potential to improve the efficiency of field-based health providers and health managers for monitoring of the immunization program.Methods: Using 30×7 WHO sampling technique, a survey of children less than five years of age was conducted in random clusters of Karachi, Pakistan in three high risk towns where a polio case was detected in 2011. Center point of the cluster was calculated by the application on the mobile. Data and location coordinates were collected through a mobile phone. This data was linked with an automated mHealth based monitoring system for monitoring of Supplementary Immunization Activities (SIAs) in Karachi. After each SIA, a visual report was generated according to the coordinates collected from the survey.Result: A total of 3535 participants consented to answer to a baseline survey. We found that the mobile phones incorporated with GIS maps can improve efficiency of health providers through real-time reporting and replacing paper based questionnaire for collection of data at household level. Visual maps generated from the data and geospatial analysis can also give a better assessment of the immunizationcoverage and polio vaccination campaigns.Conclusion: The study supports a model system in resource constrained settings that allows routine capture of individual level data through GPS enabled mobile phone providing actionable information and geospatial maps to local public health managers, policy makers and study staff monitoring immunization coverage

Coronal Shock Waves, EUV Waves, and Their Relation to CMEs. III. Shock-Associated CME/EUV Wave in an Event with a Two-Component EUV Transient

On 17 January 2010, STEREO-B observed in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and white light a large-scale dome-shaped expanding coronal transient with perfectly connected off-limb and on-disk signatures. Veronig et al. (2010, ApJL 716, 57) concluded that the dome was formed by a weak shock wave. We have revealed two EUV components, one of which corresponded to this transient. All of its properties found from EUV, white light, and a metric type II burst match expectations for a freely expanding coronal shock wave including correspondence to the fast-mode speed distribution, while the transient sweeping over the solar surface had a speed typical of EUV waves. The shock wave was presumably excited by an abrupt filament eruption. Both a weak shock approximation and a power-law fit match kinematics of the transient near the Sun. Moreover, the power-law fit matches expansion of the CME leading edge up to 24 solar radii. The second, quasi-stationary EUV component near the dimming was presumably associated with a stretched CME structure; no indications of opening magnetic fields have been detected far from the eruption region.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures. Solar Physics, published online. The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

Street lighting poles top solar power generation for typical housing area in Kuwait

The need for energy is on the rise every year in Kuwait. Currently, largely, generation is fossil fuel-based consisting of power generating stations, transmission lines made from high pylons or towers, and distribution-all networked together in a complicated huge power system, the safe operation and stability of which demands for a generation a extra-bit larger than the consumers' demand. This paper presents a logical study as a solution to the increasing demand on electricity from Kuwaiti consumers from alternative source of solar. This study focuses on presenting a scenario of generating electricity from solar panels on top of street lighting poles in Kuwait. A detailed study has been conducted of street lighting poles types varying in sizes, lengths and the consumption of each lighting pole in Kuwait. This paper discusses the possibility of installing solar systems on all Street lighting poles; thus, the size of different solar systems has been calculated suitable to the length of each lighting pole. It will further highlight how to handle the shortage of generating electricity and cover a part of the growing demand using solar panels installed on street lighting poles. An allocated section of the city with installed streetlight poles solar panels make what is like a micro-grid which will prove helpful in meeting some of the energy demand. The resulting micro-solar system is connected directly with the electrical grid and through it; the generated electricity from the solar system will be injected into the electrical grid during the day without using storage batteries. This process, without batteries, allows avoiding extra costs in terms of purchase, installation and periodic maintenance for batteries

Nucleon axial and pseudoscalar form factors from the covariant Faddeev equation

We compute the axial and pseudoscalar form factors of the nucleon in the Dyson-Schwinger approach. To this end, we solve a covariant three-body Faddeev equation for the nucleon wave function and determine the matrix elements of the axialvector and pseudoscalar isotriplet currents. Our only input is a well-established and phenomenologically successful ansatz for the nonperturbative quark-gluon interaction. As a consequence of the axial Ward-Takahashi identity that is respected at the quark level, the Goldberger-Treiman relation is reproduced for all current-quark masses. We discuss the timelike pole structure of the quark-antiquark vertices that enters the nucleon matrix elements and determines the momentum dependence of the form factors. Our result for the axial charge underestimates the experimental value by 20-25% which might be a signal of missing pion-cloud contributions. The axial and pseudoscalar form factors agree with phenomenological and lattice data in the momentum range above Q^2 ~ 1...2 GeV^2.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Coronal Shock Waves, EUV waves, and Their Relation to CMEs. I. Reconciliation of "EIT waves", Type II Radio Bursts, and Leading Edges of CMEs

We show examples of excitation of coronal waves by flare-related abrupt eruptions of magnetic rope structures. The waves presumably rapidly steepened into shocks and freely propagated afterwards like decelerating blast waves that showed up as Moreton waves and EUV waves. We propose a simple quantitative description for such shock waves to reconcile their observed propagation with drift rates of metric type II bursts and kinematics of leading edges of coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Taking account of different plasma density falloffs for propagation of a wave up and along the solar surface, we demonstrate a close correspondence between drift rates of type II bursts and speeds of EUV waves, Moreton waves, and CMEs observed in a few known events.Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures. Solar Physics, published online. The final publication is available at http://www.springerlink.co

Two-loop HTL Thermodynamics with Quarks

We calculate the quark contribution to the free energy of a hot quark-gluon plasma to two-loop order using hard-thermal-loop (HTL) perturbation theory. All ultraviolet divergences can be absorbed into renormalizations of the vacuum energy and the HTL quark and gluon mass parameters. The quark and gluon HTL mass parameters are determined self-consistently by a variational prescription. Combining the quark contribution with the two-loop HTL perturbation theory free energy for pure-glue we obtain the total two-loop QCD free energy. Comparisons are made with lattice estimates of the free energy for N_f=2 and with exact numerical results obtained in the large-N_f limit.Comment: 33 pages, 6 figure

Large-scale Bright Fronts in the Solar Corona: A Review of "EIT waves"

``EIT waves" are large-scale coronal bright fronts (CBFs) that were first observed in 195 \AA\ images obtained using the Extreme-ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) onboard the \emph{Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)}. Commonly called ``EIT waves", CBFs typically appear as diffuse fronts that propagate pseudo-radially across the solar disk at velocities of 100--700 km s$^{-1}$ with front widths of 50-100 Mm. As their speed is greater than the quiet coronal sound speed ($c_s\leq$200 km s$^{-1}$) and comparable to the local Alfv\'{e}n speed ($v_A\leq$1000 km s$^{-1}$), they were initially interpreted as fast-mode magnetoacoustic waves ($v_{f}=(c_s^2 + v_A^2)^{1/2}$). Their propagation is now known to be modified by regions where the magnetosonic sound speed varies, such as active regions and coronal holes, but there is also evidence for stationary CBFs at coronal hole boundaries. The latter has led to the suggestion that they may be a manifestation of a processes such as Joule heating or magnetic reconnection, rather than a wave-related phenomena. While the general morphological and kinematic properties of CBFs and their association with coronal mass ejections have now been well described, there are many questions regarding their excitation and propagation. In particular, the theoretical interpretation of these enigmatic events as magnetohydrodynamic waves or due to changes in magnetic topology remains the topic of much debate.Comment: 34 pages, 19 figure