Agricultural Globalization in Developing Countries: Rules, Rationales and Results

This paper aims to provide a descriptive and analytical account of the extent to which agriculture in the developing economies has become integrated with external markets. For most developing economies (DEs), the 1980s were a time of crisis when liberal reforms, including domestic and external liberalization of agriculture, were also initiated. This was followed by the coming into force of the Agreement on Agriculture under WTO aegis. The evidence on trade flows does indicate increased agricultural globalization in developing economies (DEs) following these regime shifts. But increased trade flows have not been accompanied by relative price convergence as between the DEs and the advanced economies (AEs) suggesting both that the policy shifts have been asymmetric and that significant parts of agricultural trade between North and South remain complementary rather than, as is often assumed, competitive. Moreover, the “fallacy of composition”, implicit in any global imposition of trade liberalization and not confined to primary products as such, also seems to have been at work for most of the period. At the same time, the threat of higher consumer prices (especially for the poor and vulnerable in both importing and exporting DEs) looms large. Its impact will be felt as and when production and export subsidies in the AEs are dismantled. Meanwhile, the regime shifts seem to have induced, on the one hand, excessive faith in the efficacy of agricultural prices to produce agricultural supply response and, on the other, reduced fiscal and organizational capacities to provide public agricultural inputs and services. These conclusions are consonant with a structuralist understanding of global trade and production possibilities that DEs confront.

Development in the Time of Globalization

The paper examines grounds on which a `second opinion’ to the Washington Consensus may be constructed using data for a sample of 123 rich and poor nations for the period from 1960 to 1995. The historical record makes abundantly clear that international inequality has increased not only over the long haul of the past two centuries but also in recent decades. Unequal development derives mainly from economic and political-economic forces internal to nations. Unregulated global market forces mostly follow this process rather than countering it. At the same time, the fragile internal development process is vulnerable to the disruptive forces of unrestricted openness. To be sure, access to global markets can be a powerful factor in development. But development success has hinged on selective and phased integration with world markets. This understanding clearly goes against the prevailing view that the growth benefits from globalization far outweigh the costs and that the main task for developing countries is to eliminate all impediments in the way of integrating their domestic economies with global trade and financial flows. It is not only economic growth as it relates to globalization that is at issue. The historical record also shows that the wealth of nations alone fails to account for variations in the levels of national poverty and inequality. Hence, we must also be concerned about whether increasing globalization restructures incentives in a direction that is conducive to reducing inequality and poverty. Apart from the purely economic mechanisms, this concern must extend also to the capacities for public action that globalization might weaken. The paper is animated by the belief that given the continuing primacy of the nation state, a modicum of national policy autonomy is vital to a politically sustainable economy, particularly in redressing endemic problems of poverty and inequality.

Planetary Nebulae with Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT): Far Ultra-violet halo around the Bow Tie nebula (NGC 40)

Context. NGC 40 is a planetary nebula with diffuse X-ray emission, suggesting an interaction of the high speed wind from WC8 central star (CS) with the nebula. It shows strong Civ 1550 {\AA} emission that cannot be explained by thermal processes alone. We present here the first map of this nebula in C IV emission, using broad band filters on the UVIT. Aims. To map the hot C IV emitting gas and its correspondence with soft X-ray (0.3-8 keV) emitting regions, in order to study the shock interaction with the nebula and the ISM. This also illustrates the potential of UVIT for nebular studies. Methods. Morphological study of images of the nebula obtained at an angular resolution of about 1.3" in four UVIT filter bands that include C IV 1550 {\AA} and C II] 2326 {\AA} lines and UV continuum. Comparisons with X-ray, optical, and IR images from literature. Results. The C II] 2326 {\AA} images show the core of the nebula with two lobes on either side of CS similar to [N II]. The C IV emission in the core shows similar morphology and extant as that of diffuse X-ray emission concentrated in nebular condensations. A surprising UVIT discovery is the presence of a large faint FUV halo in FUV Filter with {\lambda}eff of 1608 {\AA}. The UV halo is not present in any other UV filter. FUV halo is most likely due to UV fluorescence emission from the Lyman bands of H2 molecules. Unlike the optical and IR halo, FUV halo trails predominantly towards south-east side of the nebular core, opposite to the CS's proper motion direction. Conclusions. Morphological similarity of C IV 1550 {\AA} and X-ray emission in the core suggests that it results mostly from interaction of strong CS wind with the nebula. The FUV halo in NGC 40 highlights the existence of H2 molecules extensively in the regions even beyond the optical and IR halos.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication as a letter in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Planetary Nebulae with UVIT II: Revelations from FUV vision of Butterfly Nebula NGC 6302

The high excitation planetary nebula, NGC 6302, has been imaged in two far-ultraviolet (FUV) filters, F169M (Sapphire; {\lambda}$_{\rm eff}$: 1608 {\AA}) and F172M (Silica; {\lambda}$_{\rm eff}$: 1717 {\AA}) and two NUV filters, N219M (B15; {\lambda}$_{\rm eff}$: 2196 {\AA}) and N279N (N2; {\lambda}$_{\rm eff}$: 2792 {\AA}) with the Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT). The FUV F169M image shows faint emission lobes that extend to about 5 arcmin on either side of the central source. Faint orthogonal collimated jet-like structures are present on either side of the FUV lobes through the central source. These structures are not present in the two NUV filters nor in the FUV F172M filter. Optical and IR images of NGC 6302 show bright emission bipolar lobes in the east-west direction with a massive torus of molecular gas and dust seen as a dark lane in the north-south direction. The FUV lobes are much more extended and oriented at a position angle of 113{\deg}. They and the jet-like structures might be remnants of an earlier evolutionary phase, prior to the dramatic explosive event that triggered the Hubble type bipolar flows approximately 2200 years ago. The source of the FUV lobe and jet emission is not known, but is likely due to fluorescent emission from H$_2$ molecules. The cause of the difference in orientation of optical and FUV lobes is not clear and, we speculate, could be related to two binary interactions.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Redox chemistry of o- and m-hydroxycinnamic acids: a pulse radiolysis study

Radiation chemical reactions of •OH, O•-, N3• and e aq t- with o- and m-hydroxycinnamic acids were studied. The second-orderrateconstantsforthereaction of •OH with ortho and meta isomers in buffer solution at pH7 are 3.9± 0.2 × 109 and 4.4 ± 0.3 × 109 dm3 mol-1 s-1 respectively. At pH 3 the rate with the ortho isomer was halved (1.6 ± 0.4 × 109 dm3 mol-1 s-1) but it was unaffected in the case of meta isomer (k = 4.2± 0.6 × 109dm3mol-1 s-1). The rate constant in the reaction of N3 •with the ortho isomer is lower by an order of magnitude (k = 4.9 ± 0.4 × 108 dm3 mol-1s-1). The rates of the reaction of e aq t- with ortho and meta isomers were found to be diffusion controlled. The transient absorption spectrum measured in the •OH with o-hydroxycinnamic acid exhibited an absorption maximum at 360 nm and in meta isomer the spectrum was blue-shifted (330 nm) with a shoulder at 390 nm. A peak at 420 nm was observed in the reaction of Obb-with the o-isomer whereas the meta isomer has a maximum at 390 and a broad shoulder at 450 nm. In the reaction of the absorption peaks were centred at 370-380 nm in both the isomers. The underlying reaction mechanism is discussed

Studies on Bracing Member End Connections for Cold Formed Steel Sections

This paper is concentrated mainly on the behaviour of bracing end connections for cold formed steel lipped angle and lipped channel sections. For bracing members, only one flange is possible to connect with tower leg member or supporting member, which causes uneven distribution of stresses in the end section popularly known as shear lag effect. Tension tests have been carried out to simulate the bracing end connections. Special test rig has been assembled and end fittings fabricated such that the load will be applied as concentric load at the pulling end and on the other end load is transferred through the connected flange only. All the specimens have been instrumented with dial gauges, to study the deformations and one specimen is instrumented with strain gauges to study the strain variation. The failure load for tested joints has been calculated by using various International Standards and compared with the test results

Damage localization of closing cracks using a signal decomposition technique

Fatigue cracks are a common occurrence in engineering structures subjected to dynamic loading and need to identify at its earliest stage before it leads to catastrophic failure. The presence of fatigue-breathing crack or closing cracks is usually characterised by the presence of sub, super-harmonics, and inter-modulation in the response of the structure subjected to harmonic excitation. It should be mentioned here that the amplitude of nonlinear harmonics are of very less order in magnitude when compared to linear or excitation component. Further, these nonlinear components often get buried in noise as both are having matched (low) energy levels. The present work attempts to decompose the acceleration time history response using singular spectrum analysis and propose a strategy to extract the nonlinear components from the residual noisy time history component. A new damage index based on these extracted nonlinear features is also proposed for closing crack localization. The effectiveness of the proposed closing crack localization approach is illustrated using detailed numerical studies and validated with lab level experimentation on the simple beam-like structure. It can be concluded from the investigations that the proposed signal decomposition based damage localization technique can detect and locate more than one crack present in the structure

Kinetics and spectral properties of electron and <SUP>&#8226;</SUP>OH adducts of dimethylpyridines: a pulse radiolysis study

The reactions of e-aq, &#8226;OH&#8226;-, O&#8226;- and SO&#8226;-4 with 2,4-, 2,6- and 3,5-dimethylpyridines have been investigated in aqueous solution by pulse radiolysis with optical detection. Both e-aq and &#8226;OH radicals have high reactivity toward these compounds with k = 4-8&#215;109 dm3 mol-1 s-1. The rates of O&#8226; and SO&#8226;-4 reactions (1-3 &#215; 109 dm3 mol-1 s-1 were lower compared to the rate observed with the &#8226;OH radical. The transient absorption spectra obtained in the reaction of e-aq with three isomers exhibited a weak broad band around 340-410 nm. The absorption maxima of the intermediates formed in the &#8226;OH and SO&#8226;-4 reactions were centred around 320-330 nm (&#949;= 2450- 3500 dm3 mol-1 cm-1/ with an additional broad peak in the range 460-520 nm which are attributed to the corresponding &#8226;OH adducts. The spectra in the O&#8226;- reaction have absorption maxima between 300 and 320 nm and it reacts both by addition and H-abstraction from the CH3 group. A reaction mechanism consistent with the observed results is proposed