1,976 research outputs found
Organic Production of Tuberous Vegetables: Agronomic, Nutritional and Economic Benefits
Global awareness of health and environmental issues has stimulated interest in alternative Agricultural systems like organic farming. Elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius) and yams (Dioscorea spp.) are ethnic starchy vegetables with high energy, nutritive and medicinal values. Field experiments were conducted at the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, India, during 2004-2011 to assess the agronomic, nutritional and economic advantages of organic farming over conventional system in these crops. Organic farming resulted in 10-20% higher yield over conventional practice in these crops. A net profit of Rs 2,15,776 ha-1, which was 28% higher over chemical based farming was obtained under organic management in elephant foot yam. Elite and local varieties responded equally well to organic and conventional farming in elephant foot yam. White yam, greater yam and lesser yam responded similarly to both the systems, with slightly higher yield under organic practice. Soil physico-chemical properties and microbial count were also improved under organic management. Organic farming scored significantly higher soil quality index (1.93) than conventional practice (1.46). The soil quality index was driven by water holding capacity, pH and available Zn followed by soil organic matter. Tuber quality was improved with higher dry matter, starch, crude protein and lower oxalate contents. Cost effective technologies were field validated
Sensor Control for Information Gain in Dynamic, Sparse and Partially Observed Environments
We present an approach for autonomous sensor control for information
gathering under partially observable, dynamic and sparsely sampled
environments. We consider the problem of controlling a sensor that makes
partial observations in some space of interest such that it maximizes
information about entities present in that space. We describe our approach for
the task of Radio-Frequency (RF) spectrum monitoring, where the goal is to
search for and track unknown, dynamic signals in the environment. To this end,
we develop and demonstrate enhancements of the Deep Anticipatory Network (DAN)
Reinforcement Learning (RL) framework that uses prediction and information-gain
rewards to learn information-maximization policies in reward-sparse
environments. We also extend this problem to situations in which taking samples
from the actual RF spectrum/field is limited and expensive, and propose a
model-based version of the original RL algorithm that fine-tunes the controller
using a model of the environment that is iteratively improved from limited
samples taken from the RF field. Our approach was thoroughly validated by
testing against baseline expert-designed controllers in simulated RF
environments of different complexity, using different rewards schemes and
evaluation metrics. The results show that our system outperforms the standard
DAN architecture and is more flexible and robust than several hand-coded
agents. We also show that our approach is adaptable to non-stationary
environments where the agent has to learn to adapt to changes from the emitting
sources.Comment: 13 page
Beyond Strong Coupling in a Massively Multimode Cavity
The study of light-matter interaction has seen a resurgence in recent years,
stimulated by highly controllable, precise, and modular experiments in cavity
quantum electrodynamics (QED). The achievement of strong coupling, where the
coupling between a single atom and fundamental cavity mode exceeds the decay
rates, was a major milestone that opened the doors to a multitude of new
investigations. Here we introduce multimode strong coupling (MMSC), where the
coupling is comparable to the free spectral range (FSR) of the cavity, i.e. the
rate at which a qubit can absorb a photon from the cavity is comparable to the
round trip transit rate of a photon in the cavity. We realize, via the circuit
QED architecture, the first experiment accessing the MMSC regime, and report
remarkably widespread and structured resonance fluorescence, whose origin
extends beyond cavity enhancement of sidebands. Our results capture complex
multimode, multiphoton processes, and the emergence of ultranarrow linewidths.
Beyond the novel phenomena presented here, MMSC opens a major new direction in
the exploration of light-matter interactions.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. References added, typos correcte
Spin-phonon coupling in multiferroic RCrO (R-Y, Lu, Gd, Eu, Sm): A Raman study
Raman study on a select few orthochromites, RCrO (R = Y, Lu, Gd, Eu and
Sm) shows that the phonon behavior at TN in compounds with magnetic R-ion (Gd
and Sm) is remarkably different from that of non-magnetic R-ion (Y, Lu and Eu).
While anomalies in most of the observed phonon frequencies in all these
compounds may result from the distortion of CrO octahedra due to size
effect and magnetostriction arising from Cr-ordering, the anomalous behavior of
their linewidths observed at TN for the compounds with only magnetic R-ion
suggests spin-phonon coupling. The presence of spin-phonon coupling and the
anomalies in the low frequency modes related to R-ion motion in orthochromites
(R = Gd and Sm) support the suggestion that the coupling between 4f-3d moments
play important role in inducing switchable electric polarization.Comment: 6 pages (two column format), 7 figures; The updated version of the
manuscript can be found at Euro. Phys. Lett. 101, 17008 (2013
Polymer Bound Photobase Generators And Photoacid Generators For Pitch Division Lithography
The semiconductor industry is pursuing several process options that provide pathways to printing images smaller than the theoretical resolution limit of 193 nm projection scanners. These processes include double patterning, side wall deposition and pitch division. Pitch doubling lithography (PDL), the achievement of pitch division by addition of a photobase generator (PBG) to typical 193 nm resist formulations was recently presented. 1 Controlling the net acid concentration as a function of dose by incorporating both a photoacid generator (PAG) and a PBG in the resist formulation imparts a resist dissolution rate response modulation at twice the frequency of the aerial image. Simulation and patterning of 45 nm half pitch L/S patterns produced using a 90 nm half pitch mask were reported. 2 Pitch division was achieved, but the line edge roughness of the resulting images did not meet the current standard. To reduce line edge roughness, polymer bound PBGs and polymer bound PAGs were investigated in the PDL resist formulations. The synthesis, purification, analysis, and functional performance of various polymers containing PBG or PAG monomers are described herein. Both polymer bound PBG with monomeric PAG and polymer bound PAG with monomeric PBG showed a PDL response. The performance of the polymer bound formulations is compared to the same formulations with small molecule analogs of PAG and PBG.Chemical Engineerin
INNOVATION ADOPTION AND PERFORMANCE: EXAMINING THE ANTECEDENTS AND PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS OF EXTERNALLY GENERATED INNOVATIONS IN THE US HOSPITAL INDUSTRY
The adoption and diffusion of innovation has long been recognized as essential to the realization of technology’s benefits for organizations and society. Despite this recognition, new technologies can often take decades to spread within and across industries. This dissertation explores the impact of the diffusion of innovations on organizational performance by examining the factors that shape the rate of technological adoption and the ways in which new technologies can shape higher order organizational processes. The first section considers the role of the competitive environment and demand requirements in determining how organizations react to the adoption of a focal process innovation by nearby competitors. The second essay examines how the adoption of innovation can shape performance through higher order processes such as organizational learning. Using data on the US Hospital Industry from 2005 to 2017, I develop and test a series of hypotheses to explore the ways in which the adoption and diffusion of innovation can shape organizational performance.Doctor of Philosoph
Lattice Boltzmann simulations of low-Reynolds-number flows past fluidized spheres : effect of inhomogeneities on the drag force
This work is supported by a grant from the ExxonMobil Research & Engineering Co., and by a fellowship awarded to G.J.R. by the National Science Foundation (DGE-1148900).Peer reviewedPostprin
Slit2 guides both precrossing and postcrossing callosal axons at the midline in vivo
Commissural axons generally cross the midline only once. In the Drosophila nerve cord and mouse spinal cord, commissural axons are guided by Slit only after they cross the midline, where Slit prevents these axons from recrossing the midline. In the developing corpus callosum, Slit2 expressed by the glial wedge guides callosal axons before they cross the midline, as they approach the corticoseptal boundary. These data highlighted a potential difference between the role of Slit2 in guiding commissural axons in the brain compared with the spinal cord. Here, we investigate whether Slit2 also guides callosal axons after they cross the midline. Because such questions cannot be addressed in conventional gene knock-out animals, we used in utero injections of antisense oligonucleotides to specifically deplete Slit2 on only one side of the brain. We used this technique together with a novel in vitro assay of hemisected brain slices to specifically analyze postcrossing callosal axons. We find that in the brain, unlike the spinal cord, Slit2 mediates both precrossing and postcrossing axonal guidance. Depletion of Slit2 on one side of the brain causes axons to defasciculate and, in some cases, to aberrantly enter the septum. Because these axons do not recross the midline, we conclude that the principle function of Slit2 at the cortical midline maybe to channel the axons along the correct path and possibly repel them away from the midline. We find no evidence that Slit2 prevents axons from recrossing the midline in the brain
Does gravitational wave propagate in the five dimensional space-time with Kaluza-Klein monopole?
The behavior of small perturbations around the Kaluza-Klein monopole in the
five dimensional space-time is investigated. The fact that the odd parity
gravitational wave does not propagate in the five dimensional space-time with
Kaluza-Klein monopole is found provided that the gravitational wave is constant
in the fifth direction.Comment: 10 @ages, LATE
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