Integrated systems approach for enhancing resilience of arid farming systems in South Asia

This paper aims to share the methods and processes of designing resilient farming systems to improve livelihoods under the drylands in South-Asia. The study is based on 250 randomly selected farm households along the rainfall gradient from Jodhpur- Barmer-Jaisalmer districts in Western Rajasthan in India. Our analysis demonstrates that the dryland smallholder farming systems occur within diverse agro-ecological and socio-economic environments and develop different livelihood strategies driven by opportunities and constraints encountered. Multiple livelihood assets determine different land use patterns and agricultural management practices in dryland systems in south Asia. Well-designed household survey on socio-economic and agroecological variables and statistical approach helped capture the diversity of livelihood assets to categorize households into homogenous farm types. The follow up FDG’s with farmers and stakeholder were equally important to validate farm typologies and prioritization of interventions. Engaging the innovation platform for identification of potential innovation options and their prioritization at district level; involving farmers for each farm typology, and ex-ante assessment of promising options led to the on-farm assessment of farm type specific most appropriate interventions in the action villages. Landscape and community level options were prioritized with the village development committee and proactive farmers. The institutional platforms experimented at village to regional level has strengthened the capacity of the community/stakeholders to innovate to improve the farming systems resilience and economic viability. An ex-post assessment demonstrates significant increase in farming systems productivity, household income and development of value chains as well as sustainable management of natural resource including common pastures. This study contributes to the understanding of how research for development through integrated systems approach can contribute towards stabilizing farm incomes, sustainable intensification and smoothening livelihood of resource poor farmers in vulnerable dry regions

A rare case of unruptured live second trimester ovarian ectopic pregnancy

Ovarian ectopic pregnancy is an extreme rare entity in all the cases of ectopic pregnancies. Before, the end of first trimester, it usually ends with rupture. It is such a unique and rare presentation that only 3% of all ectopic pregnancies are reported due to an ovarian cause. In this case report, authors have presented a patient with ovarian ectopic pregnancy which was found unruptured, live at the second trimester. The patient presented with abdominal pain and after routine check-up and ultrasound abdomen, patient was taken for an emergency explorative laparotomy and the ovarian pregnancy was excised and sent for histopathological examination, the histopathological examination further confirmed the diagnosis of the same. In some researches it has been seen that ovarian pregnancies are rising, considering that, the findings of the report may help frame future diagnostic and treatment guidelines.

Integrated ecosystems approach for sustainable intensification of community based silvo-patoral systems in arid western Rajasthan, India: implications for upscaling

The common pastures in arid Rajasthan, India though are critically important for sustaining livestock dominant smallholder rural livelihoods and ecosystems services, but have been severely degraded due to several factors. Among others, the stakeholders’ perception of low returns on any investment of time or other resources for restoring these degraded common property resources (CPRs) is resulting into their continuous neglect. Generating sufficient on-farm evidence of enhanced biomass productivity and returns from CPRs employing integrated natural resource management and appropriate governance mechanisms are suggested strategies for enhancing community participation and influencing policies for their sustainable development. The present study aims to understand the key drivers of CPRs management and assess the potential of sustainable intensification of community silvo-pastoral systems for increased biomass production and returns in arid western Rajasthan, India. The study was undertaken in Jodhpur, Barmer and Jaisalmer districts across the annual rainfall gradient from 170 mm to 280 mm. The case-study analyses and the group-discussions were used as a starting point for facilitated community elaborations on how to adopt appropriate by-laws and identify opportunities and challenges of sustainable intensification of community pastures. Action-sites of 10 ha degraded common pastures were identified in each of the three communities to test silvo-pastoral rehabilitation options. Participatory Mozer-framework matrix accounted for local preferences and climate in selecting the plant species. The community was involved in in-situ and ex-situ water and soil conservation, species selection and monitoring, fencing, cut and carry systems and output sharing. The biomass assessment with respect to yield, species diversity, share of edible and non-edible species was carried out in pasture and control plots. The integrated ecosystems approach for rehabilitation of severely degraded community silvo-pastoral systems under arid region resulted in many-fold increase in biomass yield from 0.25-0.40 t/ha to 1.6–4.6 t/ha in the second year. The proportion of edible species increased from 15 -24% to 55 – 73%. The ex-ante analysis for a 10 year time horizon indicates payback period of about three years and over 30% IRR. Paper explores the potential to upscale the approach to at least one quarter of the common lands in west Rajasthan (1 m ha) producing about 2.5 million tons additional biomass. The study highlights the role of the structure and functions of the production system as well as social ecological system in designing appropriate NRM interventions, species selection, grazing system, market integration and institutional mechanisms

MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound Versus Radiofrequency Capsulotomy for Treatment-Refractory Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Cost-Effectiveness Threshold Analysis

Meta-analytic techniques support neuroablation as a promising therapy for treatment-refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This technique appears to offer a more favorable complication rate and higher utility than deep brain stimulation. Moreover, these pooled findings suggest that bilateral radiofrequency (RF) capsulotomy has marginally greater efficacy than stereotactic radiosurgery or cingulotomy. MR-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) capsulotomy is an emerging approach with a potentially more favorable profile than RF ablation and radiosurgery, with preliminary data suggesting safety and efficacy. As a clinical trial is being developed, our study examined the cost and clinical parameters necessary for MRgFUS capsulotomy to be a more cost-effective alternative to RF capsulotomy. A decision analytical model of MRgFUS with RF capsulotomy for OCD was performed using outcome parameters of percent surgical improvement in Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) score, complications, and side effects. The analysis compared measured societal costs, derived from Medicare reimbursement rates, and effectiveness, based on published RF data. Effectiveness was defined as the degree to which MRgFUS lowered Y-BOCS score. Given that MRgFUS is a new therapy for OCD with scant published data, theoretical risks of MRgFUS capsulotomy were derived from published essential tremor outcomes. Sensitivity analysis yielded cost, effectiveness, and complication rates as critical MRgFUS parameters defining the cost-effectiveness threshold. Literature search identified eight publications (162 subjects). The average reduction of preoperative Y-BOCS score was 56.6% after RF capsulotomy with a 22.6% improvement in utility, a measure of quality of life. Complications occurred in 16.2% of RF cases. In 1.42% of cases, complications were considered acute-perioperative and incurred additional hospitalization cost. The adverse events, including neurological and neurobehavioral changes, in the other 14.8% of cases did not incur further costs, although they impacted utility. Rollback analysis of RF capsulotomy yielded an expected effectiveness of 0.212 quality-adjusted life years/year at an average cost of $24,099. Compared to RF capsulotomy, MRgFUS was more cost-effective under a range of possible cost and complication rates. While further study will be required, MRgFUS lacks many of the inherent risks associated with more invasive modalities and has potential as a safe and cost-effective treatment for OCD

Salinity and Toxicological Studies of Waters of Rajasthan Desert

Detailed studies on quality of ground waters of Western Rajasthan have been carried out by analysing about 1500 water samples for presence of total dissolved solids (TDS) and other normal chemical constituents. 109 ground water samples were tested for presence of 8 toxic substances viz. As, Ba, Cd, Cr/sup +6/, Pb, Se, Ag, and CN and F and NO/sub 3/. About 9 percent of the waters conform to the normal standards of drinking water i.e. contain less than 500 mg/l TDS. None of the water points has been found to be contaminated with toxic substances. However, fluoride and nitrate were present in all the samples.A survey of water-borne diseases, kidney diseases and fluorosis carried out to establish the possible correlation between prevailing diseases and dissolved solids in waters indicate that 82 percent of the reported cases are due to water-borne diseases. The guinea-worm (Dracunculus medinensis) has been found in the surface waters and sulphate reducing bacteria (Desulphovibrio desulphuricans) in the brackish water

Institutional and technological options for sustainable intensification of community based Silvi-pasture systems in arid ecoregions

In arid ecoregion of Rajasthan, India, common pool resources (CPRs) like common pastures and village water bodies provide ecosystem services such as fodder, fuel, timber, water and medicinal plants which are crucial for the livelihoods in particular of the poor. In western Rajasthan livestock keeping is the most important and resilient component of the agricultural systems which strongly depends on common pastures. However, the grazing areas have become severely degraded making the rural poor more vulnerable. A number of efforts have been made to improve the management of and rehabilitate the community pastures (Conroy and Lobo, 2002; Agrawal, 2003). The success of such initiatives was unreliable and even the strong involvement of elected village councils (Panchayats) has not helped. Post-project sustainability of new management practices remains uncertain due to cumbersome social dynamics, neglect of institutional arrangements as well as an overemphasis on technical and externally controlled interventions (Jodha, 2001; Chaudhry et al., 2011; Mishra and Kumar, 2007). Previous empirical research using the social-ecological systems thinking and framework (Ostrom, 1990, 2007; Wade, 1998; Baland and Plateau, 1996) has helped to better understand CPR governance challenges. Nevertheless, there is still no clear answer to the question why common pasture management works out in some Rajasthan communities and fails in others

Assessment of Agricultural Technologies for Dryland Systems in South Asia: A Case Study of Western Rajasthan, India

Western Rajasthan accounts for 61% of the total hot arid zone in India (31.7 m ha). The rest of the arid area is spread over Gujarat (20%), Punjab and Haryana (9%), as well as small parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka (10%). The arid region receives <450 mm annual rainfall with 40-80% coefficient of variation. With evapotranspiration (ET) four to five-fold higher than rainfall, aridity, deficit water balance, and scarcity of water for drinking and other purposes are often severe. Natural resources such as water, land and vegetation are very fragile and partly non-resilient, and hence the area is prone to irreversible land degradation and desertification under excessive pressure from human and livestock populations. Arable cropping alone is not a dependable proposition in these drylands. Animal wealth provides sustainable support to livelihoods, but the sector is not yet well organized. Only one crop can be grown during a good rainfall year, and on average, a year of good harvest is normal during a cycle of five years, while two are expected to yield moderate crops and at least two failures are usual. The arid region offers limited scope for water harvesting and recycling, particularly at a watershed scale. There is better scope for integrated land resource development on the basis of village clusters, index catchments and dune-interdune complex

Challenges in QCD matter physics --The scientific programme of the Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sNN= 2.7--4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (μB&gt; 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation of state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2024, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter

Pion interferometry in Au+Au collisions at sqrt[sNN]=200GeV

We present a systematic analysis of two-pion interferometry in Au+Au collisions at sqrt[sNN]=200GeV using the STAR detector at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. We extract the Hanbury-Brown and Twiss radii and study their multiplicity, transverse momentum, and azimuthal angle dependence. The Gaussianness of the correlation function is studied. Estimates of the geometrical and dynamical structure of the freeze-out source are extracted by fits with blast-wave parametrizations. The expansion of the source and its relation with the initial energy density distribution is studied