Strategies to mitigate secondary salinization in the Indus Basin of Pakistan: a selective review

Salinity control / Water table / River basins / Irrigation management / Water quality / Irrigation practices / Drainage / Sodic soils / Pakistan

Modelling and control of chaotic processes through their Bifurcation Diagrams generated with the help of Recurrent Neural Network models: Part 1—simulation studies

Many real-world processes tend to be chaotic and also do not lead to satisfactory analytical modelling. It has been shown here that for such chaotic processes represented through short chaotic noisy time-series, a multi-input and multi-output recurrent neural networks model can be built which is capable of capturing the process trends and predicting the future values from any given starting condition. It is further shown that this capability can be achieved by the Recurrent Neural Network model when it is trained to very low value of mean squared error. Such a model can then be used for constructing the Bifurcation Diagram of the process leading to determination of desirable operating conditions. Further, this multi-input and multi-output model makes the process accessible for control using open-loop/closed-loop approaches or bifurcation control etc. All these studies have been carried out using a low dimensional discrete chaotic system of Hénon Map as a representative of some real-world processes

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) for climate regulation in UK farmlands

This thesis aims to investigate the design of payments for ecosystem services (PES) for climate regulation service provided by agriculture. The research provides a better understanding of how agroecosystems can contribute towards meeting the UK’s targets to reduce GHG emissions. The research comprised of three main stages. Stage 1 explicitly models the effect of climate change on land use change decisions and its subsequent effect on climate regulatory service provided by agriculture, under high and low emission scenarios defined by the UK Climate Impacts Programme for the period 2004-2060. This includes a comprehensive study of the contribution of the UK farmlands towards GHG emissions, from both changes in carbon stocks and changes in annual flows as a result of predicted land use change due to climate change. Stage 2 evaluates PES scheme design for farmers’ willingness to contribute towards enhancing the climate regulation as an environmental service. This stage employed Choice Experiment to elicit farmers’ choices for two potential payment scenarios, designed for both arable and livestock farmers. It was found, in general, that farmers have a strong aversion to drastic changes in land use management; however, flexibility in certain scheme attributes and appropriate compensations can help to attract farmers. Stage 3 includes a carbon abatement cost analysis for the two potential schemes and provides spatial pattern of the carbon costs through PES schemes across UK. Marginal Abatement Carbon Costs were estimated by calculating the price of reductions in carbon emissions as a result of the adoption of alternative payment schemes. Furthermore, spatial analysis was conducted to provide a linkage between the cost of carbon mitigation and spatial attributes to identify the most cost-effective areas that can be preferentially targeted through the implementation of PES schemes. Overall the thesis confirms that although the agriculture sector contributes to the annual emissions of the UK, it has the potential to contribute towards the mitigation of these emissions as well and highlights the scope of PES schemes for achieving emission reductions. Overall, it assesses the effect of scheme design and socioeconomic characteristics on the effectiveness of a scheme, in terms of its uptake by land managers. It also informs the policy makers about the abatement potential and cost-effectiveness of schemes specifically targeting arable and livestock farms

Nutritional value of Pleurotus (Flabellatus) Djamor (R-22) cultivated on sawdusts of different woods

The sawdust of different woods were investigat ed for the cultivation of exotic strain of Pleurotus (flabellatus) djamor (R-22) to find out the efficiency of different nutrients including protein, fat, crude fiber, ash, dry matter and moisture. Among all type of nutrients, protein, fat, cr ude fiber, ash, dry matter and moisture of Pleurotus ostreatus on sawdust of different woods were observed. Protein was observed on cont rol treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (21.89), (21.64), (21.34), (21.16), (21.03) and (20.75) % respectively. Fat was observed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mi xed sawdust, simbal and kail (0.80), (0.53), (0 .41), (0.33), (0.24) and (0.11)% respectively. Crude fiber was observed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (8.92), (8.45), (8.17), (7.96), (7.70) and (7.32) % respectively. Ash was observ ed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (7.65), (6.75), (6 .47), (6.39), (6.33) and (6.23%) respectively. Dry matter was observed on control treatment (cotton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (6.47), (6.27), (6.13), (6.01), (5.87) and (5.67) % respectively. Moisture was observed on control treatment (c otton waste, kikar, mango, mixed sawdust, simbal and kail (84.55), (81.20), (79.85), (76.26), (74.35) and (71.14) % respectively. Oyster mushroom showed relatively more contents on control treatment cotton waste as compared to other substrates. The maximum protein, fat, crude fiber, ash, dry matter and moisture contents in Pleurotus (flabellatus) djamor (R-22) was obtained on Kikar sawdust .The lowest contents was obtained on kail sawdust

Modelling of Metallurgical Processes Using Chaos Theory and Hybrid Computational Intelligence

The main objective of the present work is to develop a framework for modelling and controlling of a real world multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) continuously drifting metallurgical process, which is shown to be a complex system. A small change in the properties of the charge composition may lead to entirely different outcome of the process. The newly emerging paradigm of soft-computing or Hybrid Computational Intelligence Systems approach which is based on neural networks, fuzzy sets, genetic algorithms and chaos theory has been applied to tackle this problem In this framework first a feed-forward neuro-model has been developed based on the data collected from a working Submerged Arc Furnace (SAF). Then the process is analysed for the existence of the chaos with the chaos theory (calculating indices like embedding dimension, Lyapunov exponent etc). After that an effort is made to evolve a fuzzy logic controller for the dynamical process using combination of genetic algorithms and the neural networks based forward model to predict the system’s behaviour or conditions in advance and to further suggest modifications to be made to achieve the desired results

Efficient Density Matrix Renormalization Group algorithm to study Y-Junctions with integer and half-integer spin

An efficient density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) algorithm is presented and applied to Y-junctions, systems with three arms of $n$ sites that meet at a central site. The accuracy is comparable to DMRG of chains. As in chains, new sites are always bonded to the most recently added sites and the superblock Hamiltonian contains only new or once renormalized operators. Junctions of up to $N = 3n + 1 \approx 500$ sites are studied with antiferromagnetic (AF) Heisenberg exchange $J$ between nearest-neighbor spins $S$ or electron transfer $t$ between nearest neighbors in half-filled Hubbard models. Exchange or electron transfer is exclusively between sites in two sublattices with $N_A \ne N_B$. The ground state (GS) and spin densities $\rho_r =$ at site $r$ are quite different for junctions with $S$ = 1/2, 1, 3/2 and 2. The GS has finite total spin $S_G = 2S (S)$ for even (odd) $N$ and for $M_G =S_G$ in the $S_G$ spin manifold, $\rho_r > 0 (< 0)$ at sites of the larger (smaller) sublattice. $S$ = 1/2 junctions have delocalized states and decreasing spin densities with increasing $N$. $S$ = 1 junctions have four localized $S_z = 1/2$ states at the end of each arm and centered on the junction, consistent with localized states in $S$ = 1 chains with finite Haldane gap. The GS of $S$ = 3/2 or 2 junctions of up to 500 spins is a spin density wave (SDW) with increased amplitude at the ends of arms or near the junction. Quantum fluctuations completely suppress AF order in $S$ = 1/2 or 1 junctions, as well as in half-filled Hubbard junctions, but reduce rather than suppress AF order in $S$ = 3/2 or 2 junctions.Comment: 11 pages, 11 Figures and submitted to PR

Peran Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri dalam Mengelola, Merawat dan Menyimpan Benda Sitaan Negara dan Barang Rampasan Negara

Berdasarkan visi dan misi Direktorat Jenderal Pemasyarakatan Kementerian Hukum dan Hak Asasi Manusia Republik Indonesia yang pada hakekatnya berusaha memantapkan dan megoptimalkan operasionalisasi pengelolaan barang sitaan dan barang rampasan negara di Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara dalam penegakan hukum dan perlindungan Hak Asas ManusiaTujuan penelitian untuk mengetahui pelaksanaan pengelolaan, perawatan dan penyimpanan benda sitaan negara dan barang rampasan negara di Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri dan Untuk mengetahui Kendala-kendala yang timbul dalam pelaksanaan pengelolaan, perawatan dan penyimpanan benda sitaan negara dan barang rampasan negara di Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri serta upaya penyelesaiannya.Jenis penelitian yang digunakan penulis adalah penelitian hukum empiris Jenis penelitian diatas digunakan mengingat bahwa permasalahan yang diteliti berkisar pada peraturan Perundangan yaitu hubungan peraturan yang satu dengan yang lainnya serta kaitannya dengan penerapannya dalam praktek. Lokasi penelitan penulis mengambil lokasi penelitian yang berada Di Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri dengan alamat Jalan. Ir. Sutami II Wonogiri Jawa Tengah. Berdasarkan penelitian ini diperoleh hasil bahwa pelaksanaan pengelolaan,merawat dan menyimpan benda sitaan maupun barang rampasan negara di Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri meliputi sejak sebuah barang masuk ke dalam Rupbasan yaitu pertama barang tersebut diterima barang tersebut dicatat dalam buku pendaftaran sebagai persiapan administrasi dan dokumentasi. Kedua, setelah selesai didaftarkan tahap berikutnya adalah penelitian basan dan baran. Setelah melalui proses administrasi, basan dan baran akan dikelola dan disimpan di Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri. Kendala-kendala yang timbul adalah dari segi kesiapan personel Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri yang masih terbatas sumber daya manusianya yang dipandang dari sudut kualitas maupun kuantitasnya. Dan juga keterbatasan sarana prasarana dalam menunjang fungsi Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri, Saran yang dapat disampaikan adalah mengenai peranan dan arti penting Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri sebagai tempat penyimpanan benda sitaan negara dan barang rampasan negara. Meningkatkan sinergi yang baik antara Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri dengan instansi terkait dalam pelaksanaan penyimpanan benda sitaan agar fungsi Rumah Penyimpanan Benda Sitaan Negara Wonogiri dapat berjalan secara optimal dan profesional