Policy Reform and Off-farm Labor Supply by Operators in the Delta Region: A

Off-farm employment has been an integral part of the emerging structure of production agriculture in the South. Government farm program payments, farm structure, and strong non-farm economy have important impact on labor allocation, farm and non-farm labor, decision of farm operators. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the determinants of off-farm labor supply for farm operators in the Delta States. Results show that off-farm work, educational level, presence of teenager, and farm tenure positive and significant impact on ff-farm labor supply by farm operators. On the other hand, farm size, household wealth, decoupled and couple farm program payments, and degree of farm diversification have a negative and significant impact on off-farm labor supply by farm operators. the semiparametreic functional formulation of the farm size and household wealth variables were found to perform better than the linear functional form.Off-farm labor supply, Delta region, Tobit, semiparametric, government farm program payments, education, Farm Management, Labor and Human Capital,

Study on structural, mechanical, electronic, vibrational, optical and thermo-dynamical behaviour of ZB Structured BeZ (Z=S, Se and Te) using ATK-DFT

The present research is a systematic computational study focused on structural, mechanical, electronic, vibrational, optical and thermo-dynamical properties of zinc-blende (B3) structured beryllium chalcogenides BeZ (Z=S, Se, Te) compounds using ATK-DFT method using PZ and PBEsol exchange and correlation potentials within the local density approximation (LDA) and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) respectively and their comparison. The k-point and energy cut-off values were tested and provided convergence in self-consistent calculations. The structural parameters such as lattice constant, bulk modulus, second order elastic constants (C11, C12, C44) and material properties (B, G, Y and σ) for these crystals are computed and discussed. To explain the electronic properties, electronic energy band structure, complex band structures, phonon band structure, phonon density of state and electron density distribution are plotted. The effect of pressure on elastic constant, material properties and phase transitions are also studied, including phase transition from ZB structure to NiAs appearing at 53 GPa, 49 GPa and 33 GPa for BeS, BeSe, and BeTe respectively

Active Brownian particles can mimic the pattern of the substrate

Active Brownian particles (ABPs) are termed out to be a successful way of modeling the moving microorganism on the substrate. In recent studies, it is shown that such organisms can sense the characteristics of the substrate. Motivated by such work, we studied the dynamics and the steady state of ABP moving on a substrate with space-dependent activity. On the substrate, some regions are marked as high in activity, and other regions are such that particles behave as passive Brownian particles. The system is studied in two dimensions with step, sigmoid, Gaussian and cone shape distribution of activity profile on the substrate. The whole interface of the activity profile is symmetrically divided into two regions. This lead to the flow of particles from the active region to the passive region. The final steady state of particle density profile, polarisation and flux very much follows the structure of the inhomogeneous activity and the density in high activity region is lower, maximum at the interface and nearly constant with mean density in the passive region. Further, the steady state density profile for various shapes and designs on two-dimensional substrates. Hence the collection of ABPs on an inhomogeneous substrate can mimic the inhomogeneity of the substrate

Dietary Inadequacy of Micronutrients in Adolescent Girls of Urban Varanasi: Call for Action

Background: Adolescent girls are vulnerable to dietary inadequacy in general and micronutrients (viz, Iron, Calcium, Vitamin A and C etc) inadequacy in particular due to variety of reasons including their own food preferences. Lack of protective foods in their diet can have serious consequences.Objective: To assess dietary inadequacy of micronutrients in urban adolescent girls and to pinpoint their correlates.Methodology: A community based cross sectional study was undertaken on 400 adolescent girls (10-19 years) of urban Varanasi, selected by adopting multistage sampling technique. Their socio-demographic and personal characteristics were obtained by interviewing parents or other responsible family member. Dietary intake of subjects was assessed by 24 hours recall oral questionnaire method and their micronutrients intake was computed by using nutritive value of Indian foods.Result: In case of 72.8%, 71.2%, 88.2% and 6.2% subjects calcium, iron, Vitamin A and Vitamin C intakes were <50% of Recommended Dietary Allowances. Taking 10-14 years as reference risk of less iron intake was more (AOR; 3.66 CI: 1.30-10.30) in subjects aged 18-19 years. When Scheduled Caste was taken as reference category, risk of less iron intake was more in subjects from other caste category (AOR; 2.91, CI: 1.07-7.91). In comparison to subjects having sibling <4 risk of less calcium intake was more (AOR; 4.37 CI: 1.10-17.39) in subjects having sibling >7.With reference to vegetarians, odds of less vitamin C intake was more in nonvegetarian (AOR=2.01: CI-1.10-3.65) and eggitarian (AOR=2.53: CI-1.03-6.19).Conclusion: Micronutrients deficiency in urban adolescents is quiet predominant and calls for community based interventions to streamline micronutrients supplementation and therapeutic strategies

Outcome of expectantly managed small-for-gestational-age pregnancies with normal Doppler parameters- a prospective cohort study

Background: SGA foetuses with normal Dopplers are not at risk of IUD. However, there is lack of consensus about timing of delivery of SGA foetuses. Clinicians commonly induce all SGA pregnancies at 37 weeks. Expectant management of SGA foetuses beyond 37 weeks is not well studied.Methods: We followed up women with clinically suspected growth restriction with foetal biometry, Doppler and biophysical profile. Pregnancies with foetal AC between 10th to 3rd centile with normal Dopplers were recruited in the study group. The women were allowed to go in spontaneous labor till 39+6/7 weeks or were induced at 39+6/7 weeks. The outcome of such cases was compared with controls who were induced at 37+0/7 weeks.Results: Spontaneous labor occurred in 42% subjects in study group whereas in control group all were induced. Mean gestation at delivery in the study group was increased (39.57±0.71 versus 37.0±0.0, p value <0.001). Almost 81% of the subjects in study group delivered after 39 weeks. The rate of caesarean section was significantly lower in study group (3% versus 22%, p value-0.024). Also, the risk of intrapartum foetal distress was lower in study group (3/36 versus 1/36).The mean birth weight in the study group was higher (2426.5±154.1 gm versus 2297.9±101.4 gm, p value <0.001.Conclusions: Expectant management of SGA pregnancies with normal Doppler parameters leads to a significant increase in gestational age at birth and the mean birth weight and a significant reduction in caesarean section rate.

A Generative Model For Zero Shot Learning Using Conditional Variational Autoencoders

Zero shot learning in Image Classification refers to the setting where images from some novel classes are absent in the training data but other information such as natural language descriptions or attribute vectors of the classes are available. This setting is important in the real world since one may not be able to obtain images of all the possible classes at training. While previous approaches have tried to model the relationship between the class attribute space and the image space via some kind of a transfer function in order to model the image space correspondingly to an unseen class, we take a different approach and try to generate the samples from the given attributes, using a conditional variational autoencoder, and use the generated samples for classification of the unseen classes. By extensive testing on four benchmark datasets, we show that our model outperforms the state of the art, particularly in the more realistic generalized setting, where the training classes can also appear at the test time along with the novel classes

Why Don't Farmers Adopt Precision Farming Technologies in Cotton Production?

We used the 2009 Southern Cotton Precision Farming Survey data collected from farmers in twelve U.S. states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia) to understand why farmers do not adopt seemingly profitable precision farming technology. Farmers provided cost, time constraint, satisfaction with the current practice and other as reasons for not adopting precision farming technology. Results from a multinomial logit regression model indicated that manure application on field, more formal education, larger farm size, participation in conservation easement or agricultural easement generally decreases the probability of nonadoption of precision agriculture in cotton production.precision agriculture, technology adoption, multinomial logit, Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, C25, Q16,

Velvet bean roots stimulates humoral and cell mediated immunity and offers protection against Cyclophosphamide induced myelosuppression.

The objective of the study was to investigate the immunomodulatory activity of roots of Mucuna pruriens on cellular and humoral immunity.  Extraction and phytochemical screening of the roots were performed using standard methods, HPTLC fingerprinting profiles of the methanol extract were developed on CAMAG system, to resolve components, Quantification of β-Sitosterol  was done by validated HPTLC method. Immunomodulatory activity of the extract was assessed by Cyclophosphamide-induced myelosuppression assay, Macrophage phagocytosis by Carbon clearance method, Humoral antibody response and Delayed type hypersensitivity reaction using SRBC as an antigen.  Oral administration of methanolic extract of Mucuna roots at 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg in mice dose dependently potentiated the delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction induced by sheep red blood cells.  It significantly enhanced the circulating antibody titre in response to SRBC and macrophage phagocytosis. Cyclophosphamide induced myelosuppression was counteracted in a dose dependent manner with increase in the levels of WBC compared to cyclophosphamide group.  The results of the present study suggests that the developed HPTLC fingerprint profiles of the major constituents in methanolic extract along with their Rf values would serve as a reference standard, methods developed for the quantification of L-dopa and  β-Sitosterol  can be used to ensure the identity and  quality of the plant and the results of the biological studies indicates that the roots of Mucuna pruriens  influenced both humoral and cell mediated immunity and offered protection against immunosuppression induced by cytotoxic agent Cyclophosphamide  holds promise as an immunomodulator.

Location Error Minimization with the Help of Run Time Coordinates Estimation Method

The energy is the limited resource of communication in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). The nodes proper functions in WSN are depend on the battery power. The each node in network are mobile and having different mobility speed. The topology in WSN is forming completely dynamic and change according to time instance. The signal strength of node/s is varying according to power capacity of nodes. The less energy of sensor nodes is shows weak signal strength that means having weak Received Signal Strength (RSS). If the signal strength of nodes are reduced that means the nodes have insufficient energy. In this research we proposed the Location based RSS scheme to improve energy utilization.  In this research we compare the performance of protocols like existing AIES-RSS and proposed Location based RSS. The performance of proposed scheme is better than AIES-RSS and the performance of proposed scheme is provides better routing performance in WSN as compare to AIES-RSS. If the RSS of any node in network is weak that means the nodes energy level is down. If the node/s having sufficient amount of energy then their signal strength is high. The Location records of sensor nodes are provides the information of location that’s why routing efficiency is improves and also the energy consumption is reduced. The proposed method is improves the energy utilization and also the residual energy cost is maximum after complete simulation. The proposed scheme is provides the strong connection by that the packet dropping and overhead is minimized. Keywords:- RSS, Routing, Location, AIES-RSS, Energy, proposed RSS, WSN