Fruit and vegetable exports in the post-liberalization era: The Indian experience

The liberalization of agricultural trade brought about by the economic reforms of 1991, the subsequent WTO agreement and the proliferating Regional Trading Agreements have opened opportunities as well as challenges for India’s horticultural trade. This paper analyses the performance of horticultural exports from the country in terms of growth, instability, dynamics, diversification and stability with respect to commodities and markets and the constraints in terms of the Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) faced and delineates the opportunities and strategies required to be followed by the sector for a sustainable growth. The horticultural exports from the country have grown significantly in both quantity and value terms during the period from 1991 to 2016. The highest share in the exports of horticultural products from India was accounted by grapes for which the major markets were Netherlands, Russia, United Kingdom, UAE, Germany and Saudi Arabia. Among the vegetables, India accounted for about 9.4 per cent of share in world exports of onion and the main destinations were Bangladesh, Malaysia, UAE and Sri Lanka. The horticultural exports have shown increased commodity diversification as well as geographical diversification due to increased market access in developed countries. Even though the tariffs have come down there by increasing the exports, the NTMs, especially quality issues in connection with sanitary and phyto-sanitary regulations have increased in the post- liberalization era. Given the inherent potential and rising competiveness of the India’s horticultural sector, the removal of product specific constraints, especially production of commodities of international standards could definitely help in sustaining the growth of horticultural exports

A cross-sectional study to evaluate uploader-based quality and reliability of content on YouTube about endometriosis

Background: Endometriosis is characterized by the development and presence of endometrial glands and stroma outside of the uterine cavity. Reflux of endometrial tissue fragments, cells, and protein-rich fluid into the pelvis during menstruation is considered the most important mechanism for the development of endometriosis, which is termed reflux menstruation. This study aims to assess quality and reliability of information on YouTube related to endometriosis. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study of YouTube videos was conducted in April 2023. Videos related to endometriosis were searched by six authors, easy using one search term. Relevant videos in English or Hindi language of duration 1-20 minutes were included in the study. These were evaluated for type of uploader, popularity, type of content and lastly quality and reliability using global quality score (GQS) and DISCERN scores respectively. Results: The 67 relevant videos conveying Endometriosis related information had 21,620,808 views, 120,830 likes and 11,655 comments. Around 31 (46.3%) of videos uploaded were by doctors and health care organizations, outnumbering those uploaded by news channels 14 (20.9%), patients 5 (7.5%), and others 17 (25.4%). 59 (88.06%) of these videos described symptoms of endometriosis, and 67.1% presented the cause or etiology. A total of 47 (70.1%) of videos discussed information regarding treatment options. Conclusions: YouTube videos have a wide reach among audience. In this study it was found that there was no significant difference in the quality, reliability or video power index (VPI) of videos uploaded by different types of uploaders. It is important to ensure that content with high quality and reliability is available from qualified medical professionals and organizations; for viewers to understand their disease and take treatment decisions

Price behaviour of black pepper in Indian and international markets: a comparative analysis

Black pepper, being a trade dependent commodity, shows high degree of price fluctuations. The present study examined the price behavior of black pepper in the pre-liberalisation and postliberalisation periods. The study revealed that the variation in prices increased in the postliberalisation period. Seasonal nature was evident in prices and the harvesting period was found to be coinciding with the trough phase in the price cycle, while the off-season synchronized with the peak phase. The prices exhibited cyclical behavior and the periods of low prices endured longer than that of the price spikes. The occurrence and amplitude of random factors exhibited in the prices of black pepper were more in the pre-liberalisation period

Cardamom agro-environmental interrelationships analysis in Indian cardamom hills

The rainfall pattern seen in the Indian Cardamom Hills (ICH) has been extremely variable and complicated, with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) playing a crucial role in shaping this pattern. In light of this, more investigation is required through improved statistical analysis. During the study period, there was greater variability in rainfall and the frequency of rainy days. About 2,730 mm of rainfall was reported in 2018, while the lowest amount (1168.3 mm) was registered for 2016. The largest decrease in decadal rainfall (>65 mm) was given by the decade 1960–1969, followed by 1980–1989 (>40 mm) and 2010–2019 (>10 mm). In the last 60 years of study, there has been a reduction of rainy days by 5 days in the last decade (2000–2009), but in the following decade (2010–2019), it registered an increasing trend, which is only slightly <2 days. The highest increase in decadal rainy days was observed for the 1970–1979 period. The smallest decadal increase was reported for the last decade (2010–2019). Total sunshine hours were the highest (1527.47) for the lowest rainfall year of 2016, while the lowest value (1,279) was recorded for the highest rainfall year (2021). The rainfall characteristics of ICH are highly influenced by the global ENSO phenomenon, both positively and negatively, depending on the global El Nino and La Nina conditions. Correspondingly, below and above-average rainfall was recorded consecutively for 1963–1973, 2003–2016, and 1970–2002. Higher bright forenoon sun hours occurred only during SWM months, which also reported maximum disease intensity on cardamom. The year 2016 was regarded as a poorly distributed year, with the lowest rainfall and the highest bright afternoon sun hours during the winter and summer months (January-May). Over the last three decades, the production and productivity of cardamom have shown a steady increase along with the ongoing local climatic change. Many of our statistical tests resulted in important information in support of temporal climatic change and variability. Maintaining shade levels is essential to address the adverse effects of increasing surface air temperature coupled with the downward trend of the number of rainy days and elevated soil temperature levels

Perfect link routing for energy efficient forwarding in geographic routing

Geographic routing has been widely advocated for use with multihop ad hoc and sensor networks because of its scalability and use of only local information. These types of networks typically have lossy links where the instantaneous quality of a wireless link can vary significantly presenting a trade-off between hop length and link quality. In this paper we revisit the question of energy efficient geographic routing for such networks and argue in favour of Perfect Link Routing, an extreme form of blacklisting with a fall-back option. Existing research has favoured cost-based methods where all links are considered for routing. We argue, however, that a discontinuity exists between the cost of perfect links (those with virtually guaranteed delivery) and other links. This is based on a more careful use of acknowledgements which we suggest ought to be considered a function of individual links. Revisiting the original analysis we find that for energy efficiency, perfect links should be favoured except in low-density networks where such a scheme leads to very poor delivery rates. A hybrid approach is proposed which we call Perfect Link Routing and this method is shown to outperform alternatives for a number of ARQ schemes

Advanced Aero-Propulsive Mid-Lift-to-Drag Ratio Entry Vehicle for Future Exploration Missions

NASA is currently looking well into the future toward realizing Exploration mission possibilities to destinations including the Earth-Moon Lagrange points, Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) and the Moon. These are stepping stones to our ultimate destination Mars. New ideas will be required to conquer the significant challenges that await us, some just conceptions and others beginning to be realized. Bringing these ideas to fruition and enabling further expansion into space will require varying degrees of change, from engineering and integration approaches used in spacecraft design and operations, to high-level architectural capabilities bounded only by the limits of our ideas. The most profound change will be realized by paradigm change, thus enabling our ultimate goals to be achieved. Inherent to achieving these goals, higher entry, descent, and landing (EDL) performance has been identified as a high priority. Increased EDL performance will be enabled by highly-capable thermal protection systems (TPS), the ability to deliver larger and heavier payloads, increased surface access, and tighter landing footprints to accommodate multiple asset, single-site staging. In addition, realizing reduced cost access to space will demand more efficient approaches and reusable launch vehicle systems. Current operational spacecraft and launch vehicles do not incorporate the technologies required for these far-reaching missions and goals, nor what is needed to achieve the desired launch vehicle cost savings. To facilitate these missions and provide for safe and more reliable capabilities, NASA and its partners will need to make ideas reality by gaining knowledge through the design, development, manufacturing, implementation and flight testing of robotic and human spacecraft. To accomplish these goals, an approach is recommended for integrated development and implementation of three paradigm-shifting capabilities into an advanced entry vehicle system with additional application to launch vehicle stage return, thus making ideas reality. These paradigm shifts include the technology maturation of advanced flexible thermal protection materials onto mid lift-to-drag ratio entry vehicles, the development of integrated supersonic aero-propulsive maneuvering, and the implementation of advanced asymmetric launch shrouds. These paradigms have significant overlap with launch vehicle stage return already being developed by the Air Force and several commercial space efforts. Completing the realization of these combined paradigms holds the key to a high-performing entry vehicle system capability that fully leverages multiple technology benefits to accomplish NASA's Exploration missions to atmospheric planetary destinations

Factors accounting for the association between anxiety and depression, and eczema: the Hordaland health study (HUSK)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The association between anxiety and depression, and eczema is well known in the literature, but factors underlying this association remain unclear. Low levels of omega-3 fatty acids and female gender have been found to be associated with both depression and eczema. Somatization and health anxiety are known to be associated with anxiety and depression, further, somatization symptoms and health anxiety have also been found in several dermatological conditions. Accordingly, omega-3 fatty acid supplement, female gender, somatization and health anxiety are possible contributing factors in the association between anxiety and depression, and eczema. The aim of the study is to examine the relevance of proposed contributing factors for the association between anxiety and depression, and eczema, including, omega-3 fatty acid supplement, female gender, health anxiety and somatization.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Anxiety and depression was measured in the general population (n = 15715) employing the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Information on eczema, female gender, omega-3 fatty acid supplement, health anxiety and somatization was obtained by self-report.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Somatization and health anxiety accounted for more than half of the association between anxiety/depression, and eczema, while the other factors examined were of minor relevance for the association of interest.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We found no support for female gender and omega-3 fatty acid supplement as contributing factors in the association between anxiety/depression, and eczema. Somatization and health anxiety accounted for about half of the association between anxiety/depression, and eczema, somatization contributed most. The association between anxiety/depression, and eczema was insignificant after adjustment for somatization and health anxiety. Biological mechanisms underlying the mediating effect of somatization are yet to be revealed.</p

On the notion of home and the goals of palliative care

The notion of home is well known from our everyday experience, and plays a crucial role in all kinds of narratives about human life, but is hardly ever systematically dealt with in the philosophy of medicine and health care. This paper is based upon the intuitively positive connotation of the term “home.” By metaphorically describing the goal of palliative care as “the patient’s coming home,” it wants to contribute to a medical humanities approach of medicine. It is argued that this metaphor can enrich our understanding of the goals of palliative care and its proper objectives. Four interpretations of “home” and “coming home” are explored: (1) one’s own house or homelike environment, (2) one’s own body, (3) the psychosocial environment, and (4) the spiritual dimension, in particular, the origin of human existence. Thinking in terms of coming home implies a normative point of view. It represents central human values and refers not only to the medical-technical and care aspects of health care, but also to the moral context

In Situ Observations during Chemical Vapor Deposition of Hexagonal Boron Nitride on Polycrystalline Copper.

Using a combination of complementary in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, we study the fundamental mechanisms underlying the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) on polycrystalline Cu. The nucleation and growth of h-BN layers is found to occur isothermally, i.e., at constant elevated temperature, on the Cu surface during exposure to borazine. A Cu lattice expansion during borazine exposure and B precipitation from Cu upon cooling highlight that B is incorporated into the Cu bulk, i.e., that growth is not just surface-mediated. On this basis we suggest that B is taken up in the Cu catalyst while N is not (by relative amounts), indicating element-specific feeding mechanisms including the bulk of the catalyst. We further show that oxygen intercalation readily occurs under as-grown h-BN during ambient air exposure, as is common in further processing, and that this negatively affects the stability of h-BN on the catalyst. For extended air exposure Cu oxidation is observed, and upon re-heating in vacuum an oxygen-mediated disintegration of the h-BN film via volatile boron oxides occurs. Importantly, this disintegration is catalyst mediated, i.e., occurs at the catalyst/h-BN interface and depends on the level of oxygen fed to this interface. In turn, however, deliberate feeding of oxygen during h-BN deposition can positively affect control over film morphology. We discuss the implications of these observations in the context of corrosion protection and relate them to challenges in process integration and heterostructure CVD.P.R.K. acknowledges funding from the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust and the Lindemann Trust Fellowship. R.S.W. acknowledges a research fellowship from St. John’s College, Cambridge. S.H. acknowledges funding from ERC grant InsituNANO (no. 279342), EPSRC under grant GRAPHTED (project reference EP/K016636/1), Grant EP/H047565/1 and EU FP7 Work Programme under grant GRAFOL (project reference 285275). The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is acknowledged for provision of synchrotron radiation and assistance in using beamline BM20/ROBL. We acknowledge Helmholtz-Zentrum-Berlin Electron storage ring BESSY II for synchrotron radiation at the ISISS beamline and continuous support of our experiments.This is the final version. It was first published by ACS at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/cm502603