Hyperbolic discounting in analyzing investment in groundwater irrigation in India

Researchers are often confronted with the choice of discount rate as well as the method of discounting for estimating the amortized cost of long-term investment in agriculture including groundwater irrigation. The obvious choice is to use the opportunity cost of capital, which is the prevailing interest rate of around 9 percent (compounded – exponential basis), charged on longterm agriculture loans. However, using the ‘exponential’ basis does not provide a realistic amortized cost of irrigation as it over estimates the value of investment due to ‘exponential’ basis as demonstrated above. In order to obtain an empirical estimate of this interest rate, using field data from farmers three dry agro-climatic zones of Karnataka (Shamsundar (1996), Sripadmini (2001), Chaitra (2002), Rajendra (2003)) nominal investment per irrigation well is considered (Table 3). The nominal investments were deflated using the index number of wholesale prices (1993-94 base year). Considering nominal and real growth in investment per irrigation well between the 1980’s and 2000’s in the three agro-climatic zones of Karnataka, using the exponential discounting, the nominal investment per well is found to be increasing between 3.7 and 5.7 percent. This shows that the amortization of groundwater investment cannot exceed say six percent. The real (exponential rate of) interest is computed by deflating the initial year investment and the terminal year investment per irrigation well using the 1993-94 as base all India wholesale price index numbers. It is found that in real terms the investment per well is falling between –2.5 percent and –0.17 percent.(Table 3). The fall in real investment is due to increased competition by rig owners in offering almost uniform rate of drilling over the years in several aquifers of Karnataka. For instance the price of drilling has been between Rs. 35 and Rs. 50 per feet between 1985 and 2005 for shallow bore wells. The phenomenon may not be very different in other states of peninsular India. A comparison of nominal investment in terminal year and the estimated cost of well in 2005 indicates that in EASTREN DRY ZONE the nominal interest rate is 3.7 percent, the real interest rate is –0.17 percent and the investment per well in 2002 (terminal year) being Rs. 53,478 and in 2005 (current year) being Rs. 59578 are comparable. But in CENTRAL DRY ZONE, while the nominal investment per well in 2000 is Rs. 45,000, the estimated investment in 2005 is Rs. 59,193, which is an unrealistically high exponential growth obtained by compounding the initial investment of Rs. 18,480 from 1984 to 2005. Similarly in EASTREN DRY ZONE, while the actual investment per well in 2000 is Rs. 75,095, the estimated investment per well in 2005 works to Rs. 97,702, which is again unrealistic. As the real interest rate is negative in irrigation wells, this could be one of the reasons for mushrooming of irrigation wells in Karnataka, since this makes investment affordable across different classes of farmers. Thus this analysis has two messages. One, that the nominal interest rate which has to be considered for amortizing investment on irrigation well can be around 3 to 6 percent, and that the real investment per well is falling.hyperbolic discounting, groundwater, exponential, Environmental Economics and Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, D9, Q25, M4,

Efficacy evaluation of antidepressant drugs utilized at tertiary care centre in North Karnataka in psychiatric outpatient department

Background: Depression is the major psychotic disorder affecting 9.5% of population worldwide. Present study investigates the prescribing patterns of different antidepressants evaluating their efficacy.Methods: This was a prospective, observational study which was conducted in the out-patient department of Psychiatry and Pharmacology in Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences, Kalaburagi. A total of 200 cases were enrolled for the present study. Statistical analysis for efficacy was done using Wilcoxson’s signed rank test.Results: Predominantly, females suffered from depression when compared to male counterparts. In our study, monotherapy was practiced more frequently than polytherapy with 2 or more drugs. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Escitalopram was found out to be the most widely used antidepressant drug.Conclusions: Among antidepressant medications, SSRIs are preferred over others because of their better side effect profile

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic (wave 2) and associated lockdown on wound care and the resultant increase in the number of amputations

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unparalleled impact on the socio-economic and healthcare structure of the entire world, including India. The risk of major amputations has increased during the COVID-19 lockdown.Aim of the study was to conduct a single-centered study on the prevalence of major amputations during the pre-pandemic and pandemic period to evaluate the indirect effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on people with lower limb cellulites and wounds. This study also emphasizes on the importance of easy and routine access to foot-care specialist.Methods: The data of patients attending the outpatient and emergency room of general surgery in K. R. Hospital with complaints of cellulites/wounds/ulcers during the months of March to July was evaluated. The number of amputations done during same time period was analyzed.Results: The patients attending outpatient department (OPD) during the lockdown had a fall, while cases and amputations immediately after lockdown had increased.Conclusions: The findings of the present study, reiterate the role of preventive actions in wound care and stress on the importance awareness of complications if such wounds are ignored

On Water Quality Aspects of Manchanabele Reservoir Catchment and Command Area (karnataka)

Reservoirs and lakes occupy a prominent place in the history of irrigation in South India. Tanks are considered to be useful life saving mechanism in the water scarcity areas which are categorized as Arid and Semi-arid zones. The lakes and reservoirs, all over the country without exception, are in varying degrees of environmental degradation. The degradation is due to encroachments, eutrophication (due to the inflow of domestic and industrial effluents) and siltation. There has been a quantum jump in population during the last century without corresponding expansion of civic facilities resulting in deterioration of lakes and reservoirs, especially in urban and semi urban areas becoming sinks for the contaminants. The degradation of reservoir and lake catchments due to deforestation, stone quarrying, sand mining, extensive agricultural use, consequent erosion and increased silt flows have vitiated the quality of water stored in reservoirs and lakes. Infrastructure development, housing projects, and inflow of untreated wastewater into the water bodies have resulted in deterioration of urban and rural lakes and reservoirs. The paper discusses the physico-chemical and bacteriological studies carried out on surface and ground water in the reservoir catchment and the command areas .The results of analyses of water samples reveal that water is polluted at certain locations. The presence of total –Coliform and Faecal-Coliform in ground water and reservoir and lake water at certain locations indicates that water is polluted with waste water. The nitrate level varies between 0.6ppm to 135.8ppm, and exceeds the drinking water standards at 10 locations in the catchment and command area. The suitability of water for irrigation is evaluated based on SAR, %Na, RSC and Salinity hazards. Most of the samples fall in the suitable range for irrigation purpose. The inflow of urban runoff into the surface water bodies has resulted in pollution of reservoir and ground water at certain locations. The paper also discusses the measures proposed to reduce pollution levels in the reservoir, its catchment and command area

Jet Formation in the magnetospheres of supermassive black holes: analytic solutions describing energy loss through Blandford-Znajek processes

In this paper, we provide exact solutions for the extraction of energy from a rotating black hole via both the electromagnetic Poynting flux and matter currents. By appropriate choice of a radially independent poloidal function $\Lambda(\theta)$, we find solutions where the dominant outward energy flux is along the polar axis, consistent with a jet-like collimated outflow, but also with a weaker flux of energy along the equatorial plane. Unlike all the previously obtained solutions (Blandford & Znajek (1977), Menon & Dermer (2005)), the magnetosphere is free of magnetic monopoles everywhere

Rapid Detection of Staphylococcus aureus Using Graphene Oxide Coated Screen-Printed Sensor Strips

340–343Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is the most common reason behind bacterial infections in humans. They cause a wide array of infections on skin, bone and joint medical implants and blood stream. In order to mitigate these infections, detecting the presence of this bacterium is of prime importance. This paper explores a new rapid detection technique to identify S aureus bacteria. A screen-printed sensor coated with graphene oxide was used as an identification platform. Graphene oxide was synthesized using modified Hummer’s method and was characterized using X-ray Diffractometer and Scanning Electron Microscope. The developed sensors showed significant decrease in the bulk resistance with the increase in bacterial concentrations. The developed sensors were subjected to selectivity, repeatability and reusability tests and showed good results

Generic quantum walk using a coin-embedded shift operator

The study of quantum walk processes has been widely divided into two standard variants, the discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW) and the continuous-time quantum walk (CTQW). The connection between the two variants has been established by considering the limiting value of the coin operation parameter in the DTQW, and the coin degree of freedom was shown to be unnecessary [26]. But the coin degree of freedom is an additional resource which can be exploited to control the dynamics of the QW process. In this paper we present a generic quantum walk model using a quantum coin-embedded unitary shift operation $U_{C}$. The standard version of the DTQW and the CTQW can be conveniently retrieved from this generic model, retaining the features of the coin degree of freedom in both variants.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, Publishe

Quantum walker as a probe for its coin parameter

In discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW) the walker's coin space entangles with the position space after the very first step of the evolution. This phenomenon may be exploited to obtain the value of the coin parameter $\theta$ by performing measurements on the sole position space of the walker. In this paper, we evaluate the ultimate quantum limits to precision for this class of estimation protocols, and use this result to assess measurement schemes having limited access to the position space of the walker in one dimension. We find that the quantum Fisher information (QFI) of the walker's position space $H_w(\theta)$ increases with $\theta$ and with time which, in turn, may be seen as a metrological resource. We also find a difference in the QFI of {\em bounded} and {\em unbounded} DTQWs, and provide an interpretation of the different behaviors in terms of interference in the position space. Finally, we compare $H_w(\theta)$ to the full QFI $H_f(\theta)$, i.e., the QFI of the walkers position plus coin state, and find that their ratio is dependent on $\theta$, but saturates to a constant value, meaning that the walker may probe its coin parameter quite faithfully.Comment: 10 Pages, 11 figures, published versio

Disordered quantum walk-induced localization of a Bose-Einstein condensate

We present an approach to induce localization of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional lattice under the influence of unitary quantum walk evolution using disordered quantum coin operation. We introduce a discrete-time quantum walk model in which the interference effect is modified to diffuse or strongly localize the probability distribution of the particle by assigning a different set of coin parameters picked randomly for each step of the walk, respectively. Spatial localization of the particle/state is explained by comparing the variance of the probability distribution of the quantum walk in position space using disordered coin operation to that of the walk using an identical coin operation for each step. Due to the high degree of control over quantum coin operation and most of the system parameters, ultracold atoms in an optical lattice offer opportunities to implement a disordered quantum walk that is unitary and induces localization. Here we present a scheme to use a Bose-Einstein condensate that can be evolved to the superposition of its internal states in an optical lattice and control the dynamics of atoms to observe localization. This approach can be adopted to any other physical system in which controlled disordered quantum walk can be implemented.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, published versio

Role of probiotics in prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm neonates

Background: Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is one of the common emergencies in preterm neonates which are associated with high morbidity and mortality despite recent advances in neonatal care. Probiotics may be one of the most effective therapies for the prevention of NEC. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the role of probiotics in reducing the incidence of NEC in preterm newborns. Methods: This was a prospective randomized control study conducted at tertiary care teaching hospital. A total of 140 preterm newborns of gestation ≤34 weeks of age were enroled in the final analysis. The recruited newborns were randomized into intervention group and control group by simple random sampling method. The intervention group was fed probiotics mixed with expressed breast milk, and the control group was fed with milk alone. Result: The incidence of NEC in probiotics group was significantly lower than in the control group (2.86% vs. 11.43%), (p=0.04). Although there were no significant differences in the initial presentation of NEC between the two groups, those in the study group who developed NEC had less severe disease, based on Bell’s staging criteria. There was no significant difference in terms of age in diagnosis of NEC and in age at which birth weight is gained between the two groups. However, there was a statistically significant difference in duration of hospital stay (15.62±2.84 vs. 23.54±3.43 days; p<0.001) and time to reach full feed (15.82±3.15 vs. 20.22±2.14; p<0.001). There was no significant difference in incidence of overall mortality (p=0.209; relative risk [RR] 0.25, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.029–2.18) and sepsis rate (p=0.673; RR 1.15, 95% CI: 0.593–2.243) between the two groups. Conclusion: Probiotics supplementation reduced the incidence and severity of NEC in the preterm neonates. This resulted in shorter duration of hospital stay and faster achievement of full oral feeds