Technical Efficiency of Dryland and Irrigated Wheat Based on Stochastic Model

The technical efficiency and factors affecting efficiency of wheat farmers under dryland and irrigated conditions in the Jammu district of J &K state have been reported for the year 2006. The stochastic frontier production function has been used to determine the technical efficiency of these farmers. Technical efficiency has been found different under both the conditions. The estimated mean technical efficiency of wheat farmers under dry condition has been found to be 0.84, indicating 84 per cent efficiency in their use of production inputs, and for irrigated condition it has been found to be 0.88, that means the average output of wheat could be increased by 12 per cent by adopting technology properly. The value of γ under dry and irrigated conditions has indicated that about 99 per cent and 88 per cent of the differences between the observed and the maximum production frontier outputs are due to the factors, which are under farmers’ control. The estimated value of λ under dry and irrigated conditions are significantly different from zero, indicating a good fit and the correctness of the distributional assumptions specified. The value of λ has been more than one, implying the dominance of one-sided component Ui in Ei and thus indicated high degree of technical inefficiency. In other words, the inefficiency component was not dominated by the random factors. The variance ratio γ has showed that the farm-specific variability contributed more to the variation in yield, which means that variation in output from frontier is attributed to technical inefficiency. Some of the factors found to influence the level of technical efficiency are higher level of education in irrigated condition and larger number of male workers under dry conditions.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Plants Having an Enhanced Resistance to Necrotrophic Pathogens and Method of Making Same

A method for enhancing resistance to necrotrophic and/or hemibiotrophic pathogens by overexpressing glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase using an expression vector in a plant species. For example, the present method can be used to enhance resistance to C. higginsianum by overexpressing glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase in a plant such as Arabidopsis plant, using an expression vector in a plant

Pedestrian Dynamics: Mathematical Theory and Evacuation Control

Homeland security, transportation, and city planning depend upon well-designed evacuation routes. You can’t wait until the day of to realize your plan won’t work. Designing successful evacuation plans requires an in-depth understanding of models and control designs for the problems of traffic flow, construction and road closures, and the intangible human factors. Pedestrian Dynamics: Mathematical Theory and Evacuation Control clearly delineates the derivation of mathematical models for pedestrian dynamics and how to use them to design feedback controls for evacuations. The book includes: * Mathematical models derived from basic principles * Mathematical analysis of the model * Details of past work * MATLAB® code * 65 figures and 400 equations Unlike most works on traffic flow, this book examines the development of optimal methods to effectively control and improve pedestrian traffic flow. The work of a leading expert, it examines the differential equations applied to conservation laws encountered in the study of pedestrian dynamics and evacuation control problem. The author presents new pedestrian traffic models for multi-directional flow in two dimensions. He considers a range of control models in various simulations, including relaxed models and those concerned with direction and magnitude velocity commands. He also addresses questions of time, cost, and scalability. The book clearly demonstrates what the future challenges are and provides the tools to meet them

Existence of Solutions to a Class of Nonlinear Convergent Chattering-free Sliding Mode Control Systems

Sliding mode control is a nonlinear control technique, which is robust against some classes of uncertainties and disturbances. However, this control produces chattering which can cause instability due to unmodeled dynamics and can also cause damage to actuators or the plant. There are essentially two ways to counter the chattering phenomenon. One way is to use higher order sliding mode, and the other way is to add a boundary layer around the switching surface and use continuous control inside the boundary. The problem with the first method is that the derivative of a certain state variable is not available for measurement, and therefore methods have to be used to observe that variable. In the second method, it is important that the trajectories inside the boundary layer do not try to come outside the boundary after entering the boundary layer. Control laws producing chattering-free sliding mode using a boundary layer have been proposed and the existence of solutions to the system using these control laws are presente

Modeling, Analysis and Control of Fuzzy Systems

For the development of the field of fuzzy control systems, techniques for modeling fuzzy systems need to be developed, which makes analysis of the system and the design of control laws systematic. In this paper, a new model of fuzzy systems is proposed which is a variation of “Tagaki and Sugeno\u27s fuzzy model”. Analysis of this model in terms of stability, controllability, observability etc. Is much simpler. It also makes model-based control design easier, while retaining the derivations of connections of fuzzy blocks for piecewise continuous polynomial membership functions. Although the model is easier to analyze, it can represent highly nonlinear dynamics

Mapping Alimony: From Status To Contract And Beyond

[Excerpt] “With the introduction of no-fault divorce, one spouse could unilaterally petition for divorce, in most states, by demonstrating a period of separation or the impossibility of reconciliation. The possibility that a marriage can be dissolved without a showing of fault has obliterated the need to seek consent from the other spouse contesting it. This can preclude the need for a mutually designed financial arrangement. Courts now play a greater role in such financial arrangements and are more likely to conform such financial arrangements to statutory standards. From state to state, despite the prevalence of such conforming by courts, resulting arrangements can still be greatly inconsistent and uncertain. “Even when the couple negotiated, they were often limited by courts to trading off more predictable property for less predictable spousal support within the overall range of outcomes expected under the law.” Alimony is a corollary to the intimate relationship sanctioned by the state called marriage. Constructions of marriage and the meanings attributed to marital status are keys to helping scholars figure out whether and what duties of financial support do and should exist between spouses and others in intimate relationships. This article classifies alimony scholarship along two major axes: status to contract; and property to personhood. […]In Parts I and II, this article begins by examining both theories and analyzing them along the matrix between status and contract. Then, the article develops the second property to personhood matrix and the analyses of Ellman and Maine, mapping current alimony scholarship along the intersection of these two axes: status to contract; and property to personhood. Along the matrix from status to contract, there are arguments for and against alimony as a viable duty between ex-spouses in the future, either in support of the family generally, and in Part V in support of individual selfsufficiency, or women’s rehabilitation, or as compensation for loss incurred due to a contribution that is undervalued in the marketplace. This article’s outline of alimony scholarship includes an examination of Status Theorists, Communitarians, and Economists in Part IV; and Contract Theorists—who are labeled as Individualists and Contractarians—in Part VI. […] Therefore, at Part VII, this article juxtaposes the scholarship on alimony with this other intersecting property to personhood perspective. […] At Part VII.G, we see that significant in this overlap between status and property are the developments of no-fault divorce that highlight the possible oversight of abuse within marriage due to unequal power relationships between spouses. Also important is the attribution of marriage “status” through state-sanctioned union only to heterosexual couples. In this regard, the article reviews the judicial application of alimony type remedies in cohabitation, and in same-sex partnership. Parts VII and VIII seek to demonstrate that the current conception of marital status continues to restrict women’s property interests. Courts exclude market analyses of marital exchanges in the context of remarriage, and in the domain of bankruptcy. From common property to individual property, the limitations on women’s full capacity6 to own property is patent in the archaic view that a spouse’s remarriage (usually the ex-wife) leads to loss of the spousal support she was entitled to from the first marriage. The wife loses spousal support because she is treated as the property of her ex-husband until her remarriage. When she has a new husband to provide for her, she no longer needs support from her ex-husband. Similarly in the context of bankruptcy, an ex-spouse’s right to support is subordinate to other creditors’ rights to the patrimony of the debtor spouse. This legal rule denies the personhood and separate individuality of the husband and wife. The article analyzes this reality in relation to various areas of the law.

Production and Marketing Analysis of Knol-khol under Sub-Tropical Conditions of Jammu Region: A case study

The numbers of small farms are increasing over time mainly due to division and subdivision and sale and resale of farms. These small farms are inefficient for growing crops such as wheat, cotton, sugarcane and rice, since a lot of money resource is prerequisite for growing these crops. With such circumstances, crops that are short duration and fetch high returns are suitable for such farms. Such crops are vegetables that not only give high returns but they are also a cheap source of essential nutrients. The present study has analysed the cost and return analysis as well as technical efficiency of knol-khol producing farms of Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir state. Three districts Jammu, Udhampur and Samba are selected for the said study. DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) have been used for the estimating the technical efficiency. Farmers in the study area used purchased as well as home produced inputs. The costs of home produced inputs were calculated in monetary terms on the basis of opportunity cost principle i.e., the market price. The cost of cultivation is found to be Rs 7796.65 /acre (overall) with ` 7743.27/acre for Bhalwal block and ` 7850.02/acre for Marh block for Jammu district, in Samba district, the overall average was ` 6855.57/acre with ` 6416.38/acre for Vijaypur block and ` 7294.76 for Samba block and it was Rs 7999.68/acre (overall average), ` 8166.21/acre (Udhampur block) and ` 7833.15/acre (Chenani block) in Udhampur district. The gross returns were ` 25250.00/acre, ` 31500.00/acre, ` 27720.00/acre, ` 34560.00/acre, ` 27000.00/acre and ` 36300.00/acre for Bhalwal, Marh, Vijaypur, Samba, Udhampur and Chenani blocks whereas the overall average for Jammu, Samba and Udhampur districts were ` 28325.00/acre, ` 31050.00/acre and ` 31500.00/acre, respectively

Vehicle Control for Automated Highway Systems for Improved Lateral Maneuverability

In this paper, longitudinal and lateral vehicle control for automated highway systems (AHS) are studied together for their coupling effects. It is shown that longitudinal controllers which directly control the wheel slip are inherently more stable, especially during lateral maneuvers on very slippery road conditions, than longitudinal controllers which do not take wheel slip into account

Wide-area Incident Management System on the Internet

The incident management process consists of four sequential steps-incident detection, response, clearance and recovery. Each of these components comprises of a number of operations and coordinated decision-making between the agencies involved. The provision of computer based support tools for the personnel involved will help develop appropriate strategies and increase efficiency and expediency. Existing systems are developed on various traditional computing platforms. However, with the advent of World Wide Web and Internet based programming tools such as Java, it is now possible to develop platform independent decision support tools for the incident management agencies. Any agency will be able to use these Web based tools on a computer with a Java enabled browser. Thus, Web based tools offer an invaluable opportunity to develop next generation online decision support tools for real-time traffic management. The major objectives of this paper are: 1. to explore and demonstrate the applicability of Web-based tools for the development of online decision support systems for incident management and, 2. to develop and test a prototype incident management decision support system (DSS) which has most of the capabilities of similar UNIX based DSS. The paper briefly describes the implementation and development of a prototype wide-area incident management support system using Web-based tools. It also describes the implementation architecture and the individual functions of this prototype