Inflation is the generic feature of phantom field-not the big-rip

A class of solutions for phantom field corresponding to a generalized k-essence lagrangian has been presented, employing a simple method which provides the scope to explore many such. All the solutions having dynamical state parameter are found to touch the magic line w = -1, asymptotically. The solutions with constant equation of state can represent phantom, quitessence or an ordinary scalar field cosmologies depending on the choice of a couple of parameters of the theory. For w approximately equal to -1, quintessence and phantom models are indistinguishable through the Hubble parameter. Finally, inflation rather than big-rip has been found to be the generic feature of phantom cosmology.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Growth, yield and economic potential of rice (Oryza sativa) as influenced by different age of seedlings, cultivars and weed management under system of rice intensification

A field experiment was conducted to study the growth, yield and economic potential of rice as influenced by different age of seedlings, cultivars and weed management under system of rice intensification on sandy-clay-loam soil at Agricultural Research Farm of Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University during the two consecutive kharif (rainy) seasons of 2010 and 2011. The experiment was laid out in split-plot design with two ages of seedlings with two cultivars assigned to main plots and seven weed management treatments were allocated as sub- plot treatments has replicated thrice. Transplanting of younger age seedling (10 days) of PHB 71 recorded significantly higher growth attributes, viz. plant height, no. of green leaves/hill and dry matter accumulation with yield attributing characters. Similarly, ten days old seedlings of PHB 71 also produced significantly higher yield (grain and straw) that fetched maximum benefit in respect to gross return, net return and B: C ratio over old aged seedling (15 days) of NDR 359 during 2010 and 2011. Among weed management, cono-weeding 4 times at 10, 20, 30 and 40 days after transplanting (DAT) recorded significantly higher growth attributes, yield attributes and yield, but sequential application of pre and post-emergence herbicides, i e pretilachlor + bispyribac-Na was found economically feasible under SRI due to lesser labour requirement

Deviation From \Lambda CDM With Cosmic Strings Networks

In this work, we consider a network of cosmic strings to explain possible deviation from \Lambda CDM behaviour. We use different observational data to constrain the model and show that a small but non zero contribution from the string network is allowed by the observational data which can result in a reasonable departure from \Lambda CDM evolution. But by calculating the Bayesian Evidence, we show that the present data still strongly favour the concordance \Lambda CDM model irrespective of the choice of the prior.Comment: 15 Pages, Latex Style, 4 eps figures, Revised Version, Accepted for publication in European Physical Journal

Who will kill them first, Climate or Man?

It is evident that the variability of fish abundance in the sea has been increasing over time. This variability might be due to climate factors or anthropogenic factors such as fishing. Challenge of the modern fishery management is to distinguish between the two and take account of these sources of variability. As all of the marine fisheries resources of India are currently under exploitation, there is no control group available to distinguish climate effects from fishing effects. Here ,we are utilizing methods involving statistical controls for this purpose

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

Multidimensional Poverty and Child Survival in India

Background: Though the concept of multidimensional poverty has been acknowledged cutting across the disciplines (among economists, public health professionals, development thinkers, social scientists, policy makers and international organizations) and included in the development agenda, its measurement and application are still limited. Objectives and Methodology: Using unit data from the National Family and Health Survey 3, India, this paper measures poverty in multidimensional space and examine the linkages of multidimensional poverty with child survival. The multidimensional poverty is measured in the dimension of knowledge, health and wealth and the child survival is measured with respect to infant mortality and under-five mortality. Descriptive statistics, principal component analyses and the life table methods are used in the analyses. Results: The estimates of multidimensional poverty are robust and the inter-state differentials are large. While infant mortality rate and under-five mortality rate are disproportionately higher among the abject poor compared to the nonpoor, there are no significant differences in child survival among educationally, economically and health poor at the national level. State pattern in child survival among the education, economical and health poor are mixed. Conclusion: Use of multidimensional poverty measures help to identify abject poor who are unlikely to come out of poverty trap. The child survival is significantly lower among abject poor compared to moderate poor and non-poor. We urge t

Interactome and Gene Ontology provide congruent yet subtly different views of a eukaryotic cell

15 pages, 6 figures.-- 19604360 [PubMed]BACKGROUND: The characterization of the global functional structure of a cell is a major goal in bioinformatics and systems biology. Gene Ontology (GO) and the protein-protein interaction network offer alternative views of that structure. RESULTS: This study presents a comparison of the global structures of the Gene Ontology and the interactome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Sensitive, unsupervised methods of clustering applied to a large fraction of the proteome led to establish a GO-interactome correlation value of +0.47 for a general dataset that contains both high and low-confidence interactions and +0.58 for a smaller, high-confidence dataset. CONCLUSION: The structures of the yeast cell deduced from GO and interactome are substantially congruent. However, some significant differences were also detected, which may contribute to a better understanding of cell function and also to a refinement of the current ontologiesResearch supported by grant BIO2008-05067 (Programa Nacional de Biotecnología; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Spain), awarded to IM. AM was a FPI fellow from Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain).Peer reviewe

Determinants of intra-household food allocation between adults in South Asia - a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Nutrition interventions, often delivered at the household level, could increase their efficiency by channelling resources towards pregnant or lactating women, instead of leaving resources to be disproportionately allocated to traditionally favoured men. However, understanding of how to design targeted nutrition programs is limited by a lack of understanding of the factors affecting the intra-household allocation of food. METHODS: We systematically reviewed literature on the factors affecting the allocation of food to adults in South Asian households (in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) and developed a framework of food allocation determinants. Two reviewers independently searched and filtered results from PubMed, Web of Knowledge and Scopus databases by using pre-defined search terms and hand-searching the references from selected papers. Determinants were extracted, categorised into a framework, and narratively described. We used adapted Downs and Black and Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklists to assess the quality of evidence. RESULTS: Out of 6928 retrieved studies we found 60 relevant results. Recent, high quality evidence was limited and mainly from Bangladesh, India and Nepal. There were no results from Iran, Afghanistan, Maldives, or Bhutan. At the intra-household level, food allocation was determined by relative differences in household members' income, bargaining power, food behaviours, social status, tastes and preferences, and interpersonal relationships. Household-level determinants included wealth, food security, occupation, land ownership, household size, religion / ethnicity / caste, education, and nutrition knowledge. In general, the highest inequity occurred in households experiencing severe or unexpected food insecurity, and also in better-off, high caste households, whereas poorer, low caste but not severely food insecure households were more equitable. Food allocation also varied regionally and seasonally. CONCLUSION: Program benefits may be differentially distributed within households of different socioeconomic status, and targeting of nutrition programs might be improved by influencing determinants that are amenable to change, such as food security, women's employment, or nutrition knowledge. Longitudinal studies in different settings could unravel causal effects. Conclusions are not generalizable to the whole South Asian region, and research is needed in many countries