The eggs of marine crabs - an unexploited resource

Marine crabs belonging to the family Portunidae form bycatch of shrimp trawlers in India. They are sold at low prices and consumers discard eggs and consume the meat. The paper details the nutritional value of eggs of Portunus pelagicus

RAPID ANALYTICAL VERIFICATION OF HANDWRITTEN ALPHANUMERIC ADDRESS FIELDS

Microsoft, Motorola, Siemens, Hitachi, IAPR, NICI, IUF This paper presents a combination of fuzzy system and dynamic analytical model to deal with imprecise data derived from feature extraction in handwritten address images which are compared against postulated addresses for address verification. A dynamic building­number locator is able to locate and recognise the building­number, without knowing exactly where the building­number starts in the candidate address line. The overall system achieved a correct sorting rate of 72.9%, 27.1% rejection rate and 0.0% error rate on a blind test set of 450 cursive handwritten addresses.

Ending Inflation in the People's Republic of China: From Chairman Mao to the 21st Century

In the post-1978 reform period the People’s Republic of China experienced its most serious open inflationary problems since 1949-1950. This paper compares the 1949-1950 case to more recent Chinese attempts at inflation control and considers the role played by budget deficits, indexation and direct intervention in commodity markets. While inflationary problems subsided by the mid-1990s, continuing deficit-spending pressures and weaknesses in China’s banking system still pose a very real danger. The financial reforms undertaken in the late 1990s include initiatives directed at the bad debts accumulated in China’s banks by loss-making state enterprises.

Swiss monetary policy: central bank independence and stabilization goals

Banks and banking, Central - Switzerland ; Monetary policy - Switzerland ; Switzerland

Interaction between central bank behavior and fiscal policymaking: the case of the U.S

Monetary policy - United States ; Fiscal policy

Economics of Krishik Bandhu Drip Irrigation: An Empirical Analysis

The impact of Krishik Bandhu (KB) drip irrigation has been reported on productivities, incomes and benefit-cost ratios of sugarcane, banana, chilli and cotton in 51 villages of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh states. The crop productivities, incomes and benefit-cost ratios under drip irrigation method have been found far higher in all the crops and in all the selected regions of these three states compared to those under the conventional flood irrigation method. The KB drip irrigation technology has been found to be far superior than the flood irrigation method.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Adaptive traffic signal control using approximate dynamic programming

This paper presents a study on an adaptive traffic signal controller for real-time operation. The controller aims for three operational objectives: dynamic allocation of green time, automatic adjustment to control parameters, and fast revision of signal plans. The control algorithm is built on approximate dynamic programming (ADP). This approach substantially reduces computational burden by using an approximation to the value function of the dynamic programming and reinforcement learning to update the approximation. We investigate temporal-difference learning and perturbation learning as specific learning techniques for the ADP approach. We find in computer simulation that the ADP controllers achieve substantial reduction in vehicle delays in comparison with optimised fixed-time plans. Our results show that substantial benefits can be gained by increasing the frequency at which the signal plans are revised, which can be achieved conveniently using the ADP approach

Iterative student‐based testing of automated information‐handling exercises

The continuing rapid changes in how information is handled via computers means that training in computer‐based information handling must itself undergo continuous modification. The investigations reported here examine the use of student feedback to improve presentation of hands‐on exercises. Student responses appear to be reasonably consistent across both time and different student backgrounds. For the groups examined here, such factors as age and sex appear to have little effect on responses. The only significant factor is duration and extent of prior computer experience. Problems in hands‐on exercises noted by the students therefore tend to have a continuing applicability, which suggests the value of iterative feedback in the provision of such exercises

Nonequilibrium transport through a quantum dot weakly coupled to Luttinger liquids

We study the nonequlibrium transport through a quantum dot weakly coupled to Luttinger liquids (LL). A general current expression is derived by using nonequilibrium Green function method. Then a special case of the dot with only a single energy level is discussed. As a function of the dot's energy level, we find that the current as well as differential conductance is strongly renormalized by the interaction in the LL leads. In comparison with the system with Fermi liquid (FL) leads, the current is suppressed, consistent with the suppression of the electron tunneling density of states of the LL; and the outset of the resonant tunneling is shifted to higher bias voltages. Besides, the linear conductance obtained by Furusaki using master equation can be reproduced from our result.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Late

Student reaction to parallel hypertext and menu‐based interfaces

It is often necessary to consider the question of what sort of interface is most useful for retrieving information from a particular land of database. A small database of text‐based but multi‐faceted items is used here in order to compare ease and speed of retrieval from two commonly used combinations of interface — HyperCard on an Apple Macintosh and dBase III+ on a PC. For the restricted range of tasks employed here, the latter combination appears to be more acceptable to students with limited computer experience. However, in more general terms, the acceptability of an interface for information retrieval depends on what particular aspect of information retrieval is being emphasized, and what conceptual frameworks students bring to their tasks