Agriculture as a source of fuel prospects and impacts, 2007 to 2017

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

EVALUATING THE IMPACTS OF AN INCREASE IN FUEL-ETHANOL DEMAND ON AGRICULTURE AND THE ECONOMY

Fuel ethanol demand is projected to increase because of proposed ban on methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) in gasoline, renewable fuels standard, and the revised eight-hour ozone standards. In this paper, several scenarios of increased fuel ethanol demand and its effects on crop and feed prices, farm income and state finances under current tax-subsidy structure, are analyzed using a multi-sector econometric model AGMOD.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Taxonomy of fishes of the family Balistidae in India

Exploitation of marine living resources for food is an age-old practice but this exploitation was largely restricted to near shore regions in the sea. The improvements in the capabilities of exploitation during the past half a century have helped in increasing harvests of living resources from the coastal waters as well as deeper regions of the sea. The rapid increase in the human population and the consequent increased demand for protein-rich seafood, have led to the exploitation of marine fisheries resources to their optimum levels in most cases. Fisheries resources being renewable, managing them on a sound scientific basis is essential to harvest maximum sustainable economic yields on a continual basis, year after year. The basis for such a management is knowledge of the dynamics of every species that contribute to the fishery. The tropical seas, however, unlike their counterparts in the temperate regions, are inhabited by a large number of species. In many cases the species live together sharing the same habitat and food. Several families are represented by several genera and several closely resembling species and any non-selective (or the least selective) gear exploits a large number of species in one haul

The effects of behavior and attitudes on drop-off recycling activities

To reduce the amount of waste entering landfills, policymakers and governments have implemented various recycling and waste reduction programs such as source reduction, curbside recycling and drop-off recycling programs. The success of a recycling program largely depends on household participation and sorting activities. A better understanding of recycling behavior will help us aid the design and improve the effectiveness of recycling policies. This paper studies the profile of people who utilize drop-off recycling sites and analyzes the factors influencing their site usage. The results show that the usage of drop-off recycling sites is influenced by demographic factors such as age, education, income and household size. Attitudinal factors are also found to affect site usage. Recyclers tend to use the drop-off sites more when they feel that recycling is a convenient activity and when they are more familiar with the sites

Assessment of role of genetic polymorphisms in XRCC1, XRCC2 and XRCC3 genes in cervical cancer susceptibility from a rural population: a hospital based case-control study from Maharashtra, India

Background: Cervical cancer is a major concern of health risk, moreover the leading cause of cancer causing deaths in women of rural parts of India. This study was aimed to assess the risk of cervical cancer development in association with polymorphisms in X-Ray Cross Complementing Group (XRCC1, XRCC2 and XRCC3) genes in the rural population of south-western Maharashtra. We focused to determine the frequency of polymorphisms in DNA repair genes including XRCC1 at codon (cd) 194, cd 280, cd 399, XRCC2 at cd 188 and XRCC3 at cd 241 and their plausible role in cervical cancer risk from rural parts of India.Methods: This study included 350 proven cases with cervical cancer and 400 age and sex matched controls. We used polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) to analyze the association XRCC1, XRCC2 and XRCC3 gene polymorphisms with cervical cancer development in women of South-Western Maharashtra.Results: The result from our study showed that allele frequencies of selected genes were not statistically different between the groups for XRCC1 Trp194, XRCC2 His188 and XRCC3 Met241. XRCC1 His280 (OR= 4.36; 95% CI= (3.20-5.95); p= <0.0001) and XRCC1 Gln399 (OR= 2.99; 95% CI= (1.60-5.56); p= <0.0001) genotypes significantly increased the risk of cervical cancer.Conclusions: This study indicates that polymorphisms in cd 280 of exon 9 and cd 399 of exon 10 of XRCC1 gene could play a role in modifying genetic susceptibility of individuals towards cervical cancer among women from rural Maharashtra. This case-control study suggest that selected DNA repair genes represent genetic determinants in cervical carcinogenesis along with other risk factors in the rural Indian population

Report of the Task Force on Enhancing technology use in agriculture insurance

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) is a flagship scheme of the Government of India to provide insurance coverage and financial support to farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crops, unsown area and damage to harvest produce as a result of natural calamities, pests and diseases to stabilise the income of farmers, and to encourage them to adopt modern agricultural practices. The scheme is a considerable improvement over all previous insurance schemes in India and is heavily subsidised by the state and central governments. The scheme aims to cover 50 percent of the farming households within next 3 years. During its implementation in the last one season, several challenges relating to enrolment, yield estimation, loss assessment, and claim settlement were reported by farmers, insurance companies as well as the state governments. It was also noted that several technological opportunities existed for possibly leveraging support to the Indian crop insurance program for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness. NITI Aayog of the Government of India, therefore, constituted a Task Force to deliberate on this subject and identify such potential opportunities. This report summarises the recommendations of the Task Force. The Task Force constituted to address the issue of technology support to crop insurance comprised the following 5 sub-groups: (1) Remote Sensing & Drones; (2) Decision Support Systems, Crop Modelling & Integrated Approaches; (3) IT/ICT in Insurance; (4) Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs); and (5) Technologies for Livestock and Aquaculture Insurance. Each sub-group had several discussions with experts in the respective areas, and submitted draft reports. More than 100 experts related to professional research agencies, insurance industry, banks, and the government contributed to these discussions. Technological options available in the country and abroad were considered by all groups. The Task Force together with the sub-groups then deliberated on key issues and formulated its recommendations as presented in this report. During the discussions it was realised that there were many administrative and institutional issues that needed to be addressed in PMFBY. However, the focus of the Task Force was on its main mandate, technology use in crop insurance. We hope these recommendations would help the Indian crop insurance sector take full advantage of the technological options suggested so as to increase its efficacy and effectiveness leading to reduced agrarian distress in the country

Theoretical study of Oldroyd-b visco-elastic fluid flow through curved pipes with slip effects in polymer flow processing

The characteristics of the flow field of both viscous and viscoelastic fluids passing through a curved pipe with a Navier slip boundary condition have been investigated analytically in the present study. The Oldroyd-B constitutive equation is employed to simulate realistic transport of dilute polymeric solutions in curved channels. In order to linearize the momentum and constitutive equations, a perturbation method is used in which the ratio of radius of cross section to the radius of channel curvature is employed as the perturbation parameter. The intensity of secondary and main flows is mainly affected by the hoop stress and it is demonstrated in the present study that both the Weissenberg number (the ratio of elastic force to viscous force) and slip coefficient play major roles in determining the strengths of both flows. It is also shown that as a result of an increment in slip coefficient, the position of maximum velocity markedly migrates away from the pipe center towards the outer side of curvature. Furthermore, results corresponding to Navier slip scenarios exhibit non-uniform distributions in both the main and lateral components of velocity near the wall which can notably vary from the inner side of curvature to the outer side. The present solution is also important in polymeric flow processing systems because of experimental evidence indicating that the no-slip condition can fail for these flows, which is of relevance to chemical engineers

Measuring progress from 1990 to 2017 and projecting attainment to 2030 of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals for 195 countries and territories: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Background: Efforts to establish the 2015 baseline and monitor early implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight both great potential for and threats to improving health by 2030. To fully deliver on the SDG aim of “leaving no one behind”, it is increasingly important to examine the health-related SDGs beyond national-level estimates. As part of the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2017 (GBD 2017), we measured progress on 41 of 52 health-related SDG indicators and estimated the health-related SDG index for 195 countries and territories for the period 1990–2017, projected indicators to 2030, and analysed global attainment. Methods: We measured progress on 41 health-related SDG indicators from 1990 to 2017, an increase of four indicators since GBD 2016 (new indicators were health worker density, sexual violence by non-intimate partners, population census status, and prevalence of physical and sexual violence [reported separately]). We also improved the measurement of several previously reported indicators. We constructed national-level estimates and, for a subset of health-related SDGs, examined indicator-level differences by sex and Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile. We also did subnational assessments of performance for selected countries. To construct the health-related SDG index, we transformed the value for each indicator on a scale of 0–100, with 0 as the 2\ub75th percentile and 100 as the 97\ub75th percentile of 1000 draws calculated from 1990 to 2030, and took the geometric mean of the scaled indicators by target. To generate projections through 2030, we used a forecasting framework that drew estimates from the broader GBD study and used weighted averages of indicator-specific and country-specific annualised rates of change from 1990 to 2017 to inform future estimates. We assessed attainment of indicators with defined targets in two ways: first, using mean values projected for 2030, and then using the probability of attainment in 2030 calculated from 1000 draws. We also did a global attainment analysis of the feasibility of attaining SDG targets on the basis of past trends. Using 2015 global averages of indicators with defined SDG targets, we calculated the global annualised rates of change required from 2015 to 2030 to meet these targets, and then identified in what percentiles the required global annualised rates of change fell in the distribution of country-level rates of change from 1990 to 2015. We took the mean of these global percentile values across indicators and applied the past rate of change at this mean global percentile to all health-related SDG indicators, irrespective of target definition, to estimate the equivalent 2030 global average value and percentage change from 2015 to 2030 for each indicator. Findings: The global median health-related SDG index in 2017 was 59\ub74 (IQR 35\ub74–67\ub73), ranging from a low of 11\ub76 (95% uncertainty interval 9\ub76–14\ub70) to a high of 84\ub79 (83\ub71–86\ub77). SDG index values in countries assessed at the subnational level varied substantially, particularly in China and India, although scores in Japan and the UK were more homogeneous. Indicators also varied by SDI quintile and sex, with males having worse outcomes than females for non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality, alcohol use, and smoking, among others. Most countries were projected to have a higher health-related SDG index in 2030 than in 2017, while country-level probabilities of attainment by 2030 varied widely by indicator. Under-5 mortality, neonatal mortality, maternal mortality ratio, and malaria indicators had the most countries with at least 95% probability of target attainment. Other indicators, including NCD mortality and suicide mortality, had no countries projected to meet corresponding SDG targets on the basis of projected mean values for 2030 but showed some probability of attainment by 2030. For some indicators, including child malnutrition, several infectious diseases, and most violence measures, the annualised rates of change required to meet SDG targets far exceeded the pace of progress achieved by any country in the recent past. We found that applying the mean global annualised rate of change to indicators without defined targets would equate to about 19% and 22% reductions in global smoking and alcohol consumption, respectively; a 47% decline in adolescent birth rates; and a more than 85% increase in health worker density per 1000 population by 2030. Interpretation: The GBD study offers a unique, robust platform for monitoring the health-related SDGs across demographic and geographic dimensions. Our findings underscore the importance of increased collection and analysis of disaggregated data and highlight where more deliberate design or targeting of interventions could accelerate progress in attaining the SDGs. Current projections show that many health-related SDG indicators, NCDs, NCD-related risks, and violence-related indicators will require a concerted shift away from what might have driven past gains—curative interventions in the case of NCDs—towards multisectoral, prevention-oriented policy action and investments to achieve SDG aims. Notably, several targets, if they are to be met by 2030, demand a pace of progress that no country has achieved in the recent past. The future is fundamentally uncertain, and no model can fully predict what breakthroughs or events might alter the course of the SDGs. What is clear is that our actions—or inaction—today will ultimately dictate how close the world, collectively, can get to leaving no one behind by 2030