Economics and Marketing of Aromatic Rice - A Case Study of Chhattisgarh

In recent years there has been a serious concern among the farmers, scientists, policymakers and environmentalists regarding the continuous erosion of genetic biodiversity of rice cultivars in Chhattisgarh which has traditionally been known as bowl of scented rices in central India. In view of India’s potential competitiveness in aromatic rices in the international market, it is imperative to understand the dynamics of domestic trade in aromatic rice. In this study, marketing and price-spread patterns of aromatic rice in the state of Chhattisgarh have been examined. A few policy interventions have been suggested for promoting aromatic rices in the state.Crop Production/Industries, Marketing,

Development of textured defatted sunflower meal by extrusion using response surface methodology

Sunflower (PSH 569) was used to obtain textured defatted meal. Proximate analysis, water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), fat absorption capacities (FAC), foaming capacity (FC), and bulk density (BD) were determined. The objective of the study was the optimization of extrusion conditions for production of textured defatted sunflower meal using response surface methodology (RSM) by evaluating functional properties. It was dried, grinded, and sieved to eliminate hull and fibre. Numerical optimization provided eight solutions with desirability value varying from 0.81 to 0.82. Range of predicted values of FAC (80.96–90.49), WHC (1.95–2.12), WSI (3.22–3.36), WAI (2.84–3.08), bulk density (0.31–0.36), and foaming capacity (14.39–16.30) were used for numerical optimization. Best extrusion conditions were 16.36% feed moisture, 300 r.p.m. screw speed, and 149.40 °C barrel temperature. Textured sunflower defatted meal was prepared using the above optimized conditions

Implication of the PAMELA antiproton data for dark matter indirect detection at LHC

Since the PAMELA results on the "anomalously" high positron fraction and the lack of antiproton excess in our Galaxy, there has been a tremendous number of studies advocating new types of dark matter, with larger couplings to electrons than to quarks. This raises the question of the production of dark matter particles (and heavy associated coloured states) at LHC. Here, we explore a very simple benchmark dark matter model and show that, in spite of the agreement between the PAMELA antiproton measurements and the expected astrophysical secondary background, there is room for large couplings of a WIMP candidate to heavy quarks. Contrary to what could have been naively anticipated, the PAMELA pbar/p measurements do not challenge dark matter model building, as far as the quark sector is concerned. A quarkophillic species is therefore not forbidden.Owing to these large couplings, one would expect that a new production channel opens up at the LHC, through quark--quark and quark--gluon interactions. Alas, when the PDF of the quark is taken into account, prospects for a copious production fade away.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, captions of some figures modified, main conclusion unchange

EFFICACY OF ASCHYOTANA IN THE MANAGEMENT OF VATAJA ABHISHYANDA (ALLERGIC CONJUNCTIVITIS): AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Background: Inflammation of the conjunctiva due to allergy is known as allergic conjunctiva. It is also seen in the people suffering from allergic rhinitis and is affected by all age groups at least once in their lifetime. But older population and children are more prone for allergic conjunctivitis. Objectives: To evaluate the effect of Aschyotana karma or the therapy with Bilvadi eye drops in the management of Vataja abhishyanda (allergic conjunctivitis). Design: This was an observational study with random sampling. Forty subjects who fulfilled the eligibility criteria were included for the study. Patients with complaints of Allergic Conjunctivitis were selected from OPD of Department of Shalakya Tantra (Netra-Roga), R.G.G.P.G. Ayu. Hospital Paprola, Himachal Pradesh. These patients were administered Bilvadi aschyotana 2 eye drops 4to 5 times for 15 days and were assessed for itching, redness, burning sensation and photophobia before the treatment, on the 3rd day, once in a week and after the treatment.  Results: Aschyotana with Bilvadi eye drops in Vataja abhishyanda provided significant relief in itching 70.09%, redness 41.7%, burning sensation 47.6% and photophobia 53.3%. &nbsp

Structure and structure relaxation

A discrete--dynamics model, which is specified solely in terms of the system's equilibrium structure, is defined for the density correlators of a simple fluid. This model yields results for the evolution of glassy dynamics which are identical with the ones obtained from the mode-coupling theory for ideal liquid--glass transitions. The decay of density fluctuations outside the transient regime is shown to be given by a superposition of Debye processes. The concept of structural relaxation is given a precise meaning. It is proven that the long-time part of the mode-coupling-theory solutions is structural relaxation, while the transient motion merely determines an overall time scale for the glassy dynamics

Measurement of Magnetic Relaxation in the peak regime of V3Si

Magnetization relaxation measurements are carried out in the Peak effect regime of superconducting V3Si crystal, using Quantum Design SQUID magnetometer. Relaxation in the increasing field scan is logarithmic in time, consistent with the theory of flux creep. The relaxation on the decreasing field scan however exhibits athermal behavior which is predominantly governed by the flux avalanches triggered by the small external field perturbation experienced by the superconductor during measurement scan in an inhomogeneous field.Comment: PDF, 17 pages including 9 figure

New Device for Intrinsic Hand Muscle Strength Measurement: An Alternative to Strain Gauge Handheld Dynamometer

© The Author(s) 2017. An accurate measurement of intrinsic hand muscle strength (IHMS) is required by clinicians for effective clinical decision-making, diagnosis of certain diseases, and evaluation of the outcome of treatment. In practice, the clinicians use Intrins-o-meter and Rotterdam Intrinsic Hand Myometer for IHMS measurement. These are quite bulky, expensive, and possess poor interobserver reliability (37–52%) and sensitivity. The purpose of this study was to develop an alternative lightweight, accurate, cost-effective force measurement device with a simple electronic circuit and test its suitability for IHMS measurement. The device was constructed with ketjenblack/deproteinized natural rubber sensor, 1-MΩ potential divider, and Arduino Uno through the custom-written software. Then, the device was calibrated and tested for accuracy and repeatability within the force range of finger muscles (100 N). The 95% limit of agreement in accuracy from −1.95 N to 2.06 N for 10 to 100 N applied load and repeatability coefficient of ±1.91 N or 6.2% was achieved. Furthermore, the expenditure for the device construction was around US$ 53. For a practical demonstration, the device was tested among 16 participants for isometric strength measurement of the ulnar abductor and dorsal interossei. The results revealed that the performance of the device was suitable for IHMS measurement

Massive IIA flux compactifications and U-dualities

We attempt to find a rigorous formulation for the massive type IIA orientifold compactifications of string theory introduced in hep-th/0505160. An approximate double T-duality converts this background into IIA string theory on a twisted torus, but various arguments indicate that the back reaction of the orientifold on this geometry is large. In particular, an AdS calculation of the entropy suggests a scaling appropriate for N M2-branes, in a certain limit of the compactification, though not the one studied in hep-th/0505160. The M-theory lift of this specific regime is not 4 dimensional. We suggest that the generic limit of the background corresponds to a situation analogous to F-theory, where the string coupling is small in some regions of a compact geometry, and large in others, so that neither a long wavelength 11D SUGRA expansion, nor a world sheet expansion exists for these compactifications. We end with a speculation on the nature of the generic compactification.Comment: JHEP3 LaTeX - 34 pages - 3 figures; v2: Added references; v3: mistake in entropy scaling corrected, major changes in conclusions; v4: changed claims about original DeWolfe et al. setup, JHEP versio

Investigation of the Jahn-Teller Transition in TiF3 using Density Functional Theory

We use first principles density functional theory to calculate electronic and magnetic properties of TiF3 using the full potential linearized augmented plane wave method. The LDA approximation predicts a fully saturated ferromagnetic metal and finds degenerate energy minima for high and low symmetry structures. The experimentally observed Jahn-Teller phase transition at Tc=370K can not be driven by the electron-phonon interaction alone, which is usually described accurately by LDA. Electron correlations beyond LDA are essential to lift the degeneracy of the singly occupied Ti t2g orbital. Although the on-site Coulomb correlations are important, the direction of the t2g-level splitting is determined by the dipole-dipole interactions. The LDA+U functional predicts an aniferromagnetic insulator with an orbitally ordered ground state. The input parameters U=8.1 eV and J=0.9 eV for the Ti 3d orbital were found by varying the total charge on the TiF$_6^{2-}$ ion using the molecular NRLMOL code. We estimate the Heisenberg exchange constant for spin-1/2 on a cubic lattice to be approximately 24 K. The symmetry lowering energy in LDA+U is about 900 K per TiF3 formula unit.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.