Nexus of Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation in India Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) Approach

Environmental Pollution is an important issue in the process of Economic Growth. The deterioration of environment begins to have direct impact on the quality of human life, or even a threat to the survival of human being. This paper is aimed at investigating whether there exists the famous inverted U shape relationship between per capita GDP and CO2 emissions as hypothesized by Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC).  For this purpose time series data for aforesaid factors along with FDI and Population density has been taken for the period 1991-2014 from the World Development Indicators.  The findings of the paper revealed that there is 'U' shaped relationship between per capita CO2 emissions and per capita GDP. The paper concludes that, at Indian condition the EKC hypothesis has failed to explain the inverted relationship between per capita CO2 emission and GDP. Keywords: Co-integration, Granger Causality, EKC and India

Bentonite Clay Modified Concrete

Replacing cement with pozzolanic materials to some extent in construction is found to be one of the sustainable approaches in the construction industry. Pozzolanic materials of industrial origin like fly ash and Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag will have to be replaced with natural pozzolanic materials once the world moves towards renewable energy sources. Bentonite is one such pozzolanic clay material that is rich in SiO2 content. A little research was made to assess the performance of bentonite modified concrete. Based on those, an improvement in the fresh, hardened, durability properties was reported. This chapter presents the current scenario on the development of bentonite modified concrete. It also reviews the literature about the physical & chemical properties of bentonite, bentonite blended cement mortar, bentonite modified cement concrete, and reinforced concrete. The history and development of Bentonite modified concrete were also briefly presented in this chapter

RF BiST för att detektera IQ-imbalanser avseende överhörningseffekter för avancerade antennsystem

Internet of Things (IoT) is a network constituted by uniquely identifiable commodity objects or devices equipped with some sensing system. To achieve high data rates required for IoT devices, a modern wireless communication system, known as Advanced Antenna Systems(AAS), leads to significant improvement, by increasing not only the data rate but also spectrum efficiency and the channel capacity. A certain type of analog signal distortions, i.e. the in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) imbalances can severely damage the performance of the RF transceivers. The IQ imbalances refer to gain mismatch, phase mismatch, DC offset in the I and Q branches. IQ Imbalances affect the efficiency and performance of the Radio Frequency (RF) Transceivers, present in the AAS. Hence a need for test architectures arises. In this thesis an existing BiST circuitry for one transmission chain is chosen, implemented and further extended to multiple transmission chains (up to 4). As the number of transmission chains increase, mutual coupling phenomenon leading to crosstalk effects are to be considered. Along with designed test signal, this BiST circuitry enables us to detect the transmitter impairment with low computational complexity. In this thesis work 3 different cases have been implemented which are – one antenna setup, 2x1 antenna array setup and 4x1 antenna array setup. The first case has one transmission chain. We have utilized the Generalized Memory Polynomial (GMP) power amplifier model, and the BiST circuitry, called as Self-Mixing Envelope Detector method is implemented in Matlab. In the case of 2x1 Antenna array, implementation is partly carried out using the RF equipment for the signal generation stage, power amplifier stage, crosstalk effects (mutual coupling), and BiST circuitry stage, which was previously implemented in Matlab is utilized. The 4x1 antenna array setup, just like the one antenna setup, is entirely implemented in Matlab. Additionally, the coupling coefficients are extracted to model the mutual coupling phenomenon. In the one antenna setup & the 4x1 antenna array setup, the RMSE% of IQ imbalances are calculated. In the 2x1 antenna array setup, gain mismatch, phase mismatch, both the DC offsets are measured up to a certain accuracy. The results obtained in all the three cases advocate that this method, successfully detect the IQ impairments present in the advanced antenna system, even when the crosstalk effects are considered.Internet of Things (IoT) is network constituted by day-to-day objects equipped with some sensing system. These objects can also communicate with other objects for data exchange, wirelessly. This calls for a need of better wireless communication systems. New techniques using the 4G (Long-Term Evolution) have been developed to solve this problem, known as Advanced Antenna System (AAS). This new technique includes packing a large number of antennas in a small area, enabling the transmission of signals of the same frequency, at the same time. Closely packing the antennas, causes a phenomenon called as mutual coupling leading to crosstalk effects in the Radio Frequency(RF) system. Effect on an antenna due to the adjacent antenna is called mutual coupling and it leads to crosstalk effects. Due to the crosstalk effects the functioning of the antenna changes. AAS consists of multiple RF transmission chains, each transmission chain is made of an in-phase (I) and a quadrature-phase (Q) branch. In reality, there is always some imbalances present between I and Q branches of the RF transceivers. The I & Q imbalances can severely damage the performance of RF transceivers. These occur due to finite tolerances of the hardware components used in the RF transceivers. These spurious effects are mainly due to amplitude & phase mismatches, and dc offsets between respective IQ branches and therefore known as IQ imbalances. These IQ imbalances are one of the most detrimental imperfections in the performance of an RF transceivers. Hence a need for a test architecture arises. Testing a circuit requires the application of a test stimulus and the comparison of the actual circuit response with the correct response. If the system internally does this process and gives us a result which enables us to determine if the system is faulty or not, then it is referred to as a Built-In Self Test method of testing, commonly abbreviated as BiST. When this technique of testing is applied to an RF system, it is called RF BiST. In this thesis, using an RF BiST method, we detect the IQ imbalances, considering crosstalk effects for Advanced Antenna System

Application of AIDS model to analyse the farm household food demand elasticity: Evidence from panel data

This study examines the responsiveness of major food commodities consumption expenditures to changes in total consumption expenditures and to changes in the price of those food commodities. The study uses LA-AIDS to derive farm household food demand elasticity using farm household panel data. The results revealed that, food consumption patterns and demand elasticities were quite different across farm size groups. The estimated income elasticities for food commodities showed that, elasticities were lowest for cereals groups and highest for high valued nutritious horticultural and livestock food products. The analysis of price and income effects based on the estimated demand system has recommended that with increase in food prices, the demand for staple food may not be affected adversely but, that of high-value food commodities is likely to be affected negatively. If increase in food commodity prices are ignored for an extended period of time, there will be adverse impact on the food diversification and resuming the cereal based consumption resulting in under-nourishment. The policy makers should take appropriate policy strategies for different farm size groups. It is better to distribute subsidized nutritive food and milch animals to achieve the food and nutritional security instead of providing financial benefit to farm households

Nutritional Status and Dietary Diversity of Households in Vijayapura district of Karnataka

The recommendation to eat diverse types of foodstuffs is an internationally accepted recommendation for a healthy life. In this way, the study was conducted to assess the nutritional status and dietary diversity of the 160 rural and urban households in Vijayapur district of Karnataka using 24 hours recall method with a view to understanding the heterogeneity in food habits, quality of diet intake and the socioeconomic and demographic determinants of the dietary diversity in study area. There was significant disparity among the rural and urban areas in terms of food intake level across the income groups. The MPC consumption was higher in rural areas as compare to urban areas. However, the energy intake was higher in urban areas as against rural areas, since consumption of high value nutritious foods. By overall, the intake of energy and other nutrients was lower than ICMR- Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). Dietary diversity result indicates, urban households consume more diversed food items as compare to rural households. From a policy perspective, it is therefore important to focus interventions on improving dietary diversity and nutrition security with proper understanding of the socio-economic setting of the target area and its population