6,645 research outputs found
Recommendation for consideration in the development of Nepal's Irrigation Master Plan. Part 1 - Management of irrigation systems for effective O & M and resource mobilization; Part 2 - Farmer managed irrigation systems. Occasional paper
Irrigation management / Farmer managed irrigation systems / Resource management / Agricultural production / Nepal
String Cosmology in Anisotropic Bianchi-II Space-time
The present study deals with a spatially homogeneous and anisotropic
Bianchi-II cosmological model representing massive strings. The energy-momentum
tensor, as formulated by Letelier (1983), has been used to construct a massive
string cosmological model for which the expansion scalar is proportional to one
of the components of shear tensor. The Einstein's field equations have been
solved by applying a variation law for generalized Hubble's parameter that
yields a constant value of deceleration parameter in Bianchi-II space-time. A
comparative study of accelerating and decelerating modes of the evolution of
universe has been carried out in the presence of string scenario. The study
reveals that massive strings dominate the early Universe. The strings
eventually disappear from the Universe for sufficiently large times, which is
in agreement with the current astronomical observations.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures (To appear in Mod. Phys. Lett. A) In this
version, the cosmic string has been directed along z-direction and the
resultant field equations have been solved exactl
Sampling rare fluctuations of height in the Oslo ricepile model
We have studied large deviations of the height of the pile from its mean
value in the Oslo ricepile model. We sampled these very rare events with
probabilities of order by Monte Carlo simulations using importance
sampling. These simulations check our qualitative arguement [Phys. Rev. E, {\bf
73}, 021303, 2006] that in steady state of the Oslo ricepile model, the
probability of large negative height fluctuations about
the mean varies as as with
held fixed, and .Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure
Is 4U 0114+65 an eclipsing HMXB?
We present the pulsation and spectral characteristics of the HMXB 4U 0114+65
during a \emph{Suzaku} observation covering the part of the orbit that included
the previously known low intensity emission of the source (dip) and the egress
from this state. This dip has been interpreted in previous works as an X-ray
eclipse. Notably, in this Suzaku observation, the count rate during and outside
the dip vary by a factor of only 2-4 at odds with the eclipses of other HMXBs,
where the intensity drops upto two orders of magnitude. The orbital intensity
profile of 4U 0114+65 is characterized by a narrow dip in the RXTE-ASM (2-12
\rm{keV}) light curve and a shallower one in the Swift-BAT (15-50 \rm{keV}),
which is different from eclipse ingress/egress behaviour of other HMXBs. The
time-resolved spectral analysis reveal moderate absorption column density
(N - 2-20 atoms ) and a relatively low
equivalent width ( 30 \rm{eV} \& 12 \rm{eV} of the iron K and
K lines respectively) as opposed to the typical X-ray spectra of HMXBs
during eclipse where the equivalent width is 1 \rm{keV}. Both XIS and
PIN data show clear pulsations during the dip, which we have further confirmed
using the entire archival data of the IBIS/ISGRI and JEM-X instruments onboard
\emph{INTEGRAL}. The results we presented question the previous interpretation
of the dip in the light curve of 4U 0114+65 as an X-ray eclipse. We thus
discuss alternative interpretations of the periodic dip in the light curve of
4U 0114+65.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, Accepted in MNRA
From farmers' fields to data fields and back: A Synthesis of Participatory Information Systems for Irrigation and other Resources: Proceedings of an International Workshop held at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur, Nepal, 21-26 March 1993
Irrigation / Forestry / Natural resources / Farmer participation / Participatory rural appraisal / Rapid rural appraisal / GIS / Data collection / Databases / Field tests / Farmers' associations / Training / Water rights / Water law / Institutions / Non-governmental organizations / India / Nepal
Processing & Characterization of UHMWPE-CSP (Coconut Shell Powder) Composite
The stringent environmental considerations like deforestation have led to a thinking to replace wood with various synthetic materials, such as polymer composites. In
this paper, an attempt has been made to reinforce coconut shell. powders (CSP) in a ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). Prepared by powder metallurgy
route, these composites have been evaluated for its mechanical properties and compared with pure UHMWPE (0 vol% CSP). With increasing addition of reinforcement,
the impact strength decreases marginally upto 20 vol% after which there is a sharp W. But the compressive strength has not decreased much even after 30 vol% of
CSP. An optimum loading of 20 vol% is found to be beneficial for better properties
A snapshot of Central Bank (two year) forecasting: a mixed picture
Central Banks normally adjust monetary policy so that inflation hits the Inflation Target (IT) within two years. Since a central bank must believe its policy stance is appropriate to achieve this goal, its inflation forecast at the two-year horizon should generally be close to target. We examine whether this has held for three main Central Banks, Bank of England, ECB and Fed. During the IT period, there have been two crisis periods, The Great Financial Crisis (GFC), and then Covid/Ukraine. We examine how the two-year forecasts differed depending on whether we were in a crisis, or more normal, period. Although over the whole IT period, up until 2022, both forecasts and outcomes were commendably close to target, we found that this was due to a sizeable forecast underestimate of the effects of policy and inherent resilience to revive inflation after each crisis hit, largely offset by an overestimate of the effect of monetary policy to restore inflation to target during more normal times. We attribute such latter overestimation to an unwarranted belief in forward looking, ‘well anchored’, expectations amongst households and firms, and to a failure to recognise the underlying disinflationary trends, especially in 2010-2019. We outline a novel means for assessing whether these latter trends were primarily demand driven, e.g. secular stagnation, or supply shocks, a labour supply surge. Finally, we examine how forecasts for the uncertainty of outcomes and relative risk (skew) to the central forecast have developed by examining the Bank of England’s fan chart, again at the two-year horizon
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