Powder Metallurgy & its Application to Non-Ferrous Metals

The paper introduces the subject of powder metallurgy based on the studies of bond which exists between two atomically smooth surfaces when brought close together. After dealing with the theoretical principles and practical results of sintering homogeneous as well as heterogeneous powders,the applications of powder metallurgical technique to non-ferrous metals and alloys are discussed at length. -Recent notable developments in powder metallurgy, in the field of heat-resistant metallic compositions, essentially of non-ferrous compositions, are dealt along with other developments such as the modern liquid disintegrator method for making metals and alloys into powder and infiltration technique. The paper deals with cermets and latest carbide compositions. The paper concludes with a reference to the possibilities of applying powder metallurgical techniques to Indian nonferrous industries

An Analysis of Farmers’ Perception and Awareness towards Crop Insurance as a Tool for Risk Management in Tamil Nadu

To insulate farmers against risks in agriculture, government has launched several schemes such as National Agricultural Insurance Scheme and weather index based crop insurance schemes. But their coverage seems to be limited among the farmers primarily due to lack of full information. This paper has reported the results of a survey of 600 farmers conducted to assess their perception about various facets of crop insurance schemes. The Probit and Tobit models have been employed to analyse the factors affecting awareness among the farmers. Crop diversification index has also been used to examine the farmers’ adjustment mechanism against risks. The survey has revealed that most farmers (65%) are aware of risk mitigation measures of the government. But, only half of the farmers have been found aware about the crop insurance schemes/products. This implies that there is need to disseminate information about insurance schemes across the target groups. Further, it has been shown that factors such as gross cropped area, income from other than agricultural sources, presence of risk in farming, number of workers in the farm family, satisfaction with the premium rate and affordability of the insurance premium amount significantly and positively influence the adoption of insurance and premium paid by the farmers. The study has clearly brought out the urgency of developing more innovative products, having minimum human interventions.Crop insurance, Risk management, Crop diversification index, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q14, Q18,

Exploratory Analysis of Highly Heterogeneous Document Collections

We present an effective multifaceted system for exploratory analysis of highly heterogeneous document collections. Our system is based on intelligently tagging individual documents in a purely automated fashion and exploiting these tags in a powerful faceted browsing framework. Tagging strategies employed include both unsupervised and supervised approaches based on machine learning and natural language processing. As one of our key tagging strategies, we introduce the KERA algorithm (Keyword Extraction for Reports and Articles). KERA extracts topic-representative terms from individual documents in a purely unsupervised fashion and is revealed to be significantly more effective than state-of-the-art methods. Finally, we evaluate our system in its ability to help users locate documents pertaining to military critical technologies buried deep in a large heterogeneous sea of information.Comment: 9 pages; KDD 2013: 19th ACM SIGKDD Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Minin

Quinoxaline: Z′ = 1 form

A new Z′ = 1 crystal structure of quinoxaline (or 1,4-diaza­naphthalene), C8H6N2, with one-fifth the volume of the earlier known Z′ = 5 structure was obtained by means of an in situ cryocrystallization technique

Chemical approaches to the re-structuring of proteins

Methodologies for protein re-structuring have been developed enabling site specific side chain modification to either coded or non-coded residues. Procedures for the modification of the protein profile by attachment of either pendants or structural motifs have been delineated. Selectivity has been demonstrated on the basis of modulation of the -CH2- spacer, which interposes the functional group and the peptide backbone

Therapeutic and Traditional Uses of Mangrove Plants

Mangrove plants are specialized timbered plants growing in the swamps of tidal coastal areas and stream deltas of tropical and subtropical parts of the world. They have been utilized for medicinal and traditional purposes by the coastal folks over the years. A large number of mangrove plants grows natural and exploited especially, for use in indigenous pharmaceutical houses. Several mangroves genus produce expensive drugs which have high export potential. The utilization of plants and plant products as medicines could be traced as far back as the commencement of human civilization. Mangrove plants have been used in folklore medicines and extracts from mangrove species have prove inhibitory activity against human, animal and plant pathogens. Traditionally, the mangroves have been exploited for firewood and charcoal. Exploit has been found for mangroves in the manufacture of dwellings, furniture, boats and fishing gear, tannins for dyeing and leather production. The mangroves afford food and wide variety of traditional products and artefacts for the mangrove dwellers. The present review deals with the pharmacological activity, medicinal, traditional and produce bioactive compounds of mangrove medicinal plants. Keywords: Mangroves, Medicinal, Pharmacological, Recourses, Traditional

Numerical calculations on the new approach to the cascade theory - I

In the new approach to the cascade theory suggested by Alladi Ramakrishnan and one of us (S. K. S.), we deal with the number of electrons produced between 0 and t in a soft cascade, each of these electrons having an energy greater than E at the point of its production as contrasted with the usual approach where we are interested in the number of electrons with energy greater than E at t. We present here numerical calculations of the mean numbers on the basis of the new approach

Re-entrant spin glass and magnetoresistance in Co_{0.2}Zn_{0.8}Fe_{1.6}Ti_{0.4}O_4 spinel oxide

We have investigated the static and dynamic response of magnetic clusters in Co_{0.2}Zn_{0.8}Fe_{1.6}Ti_{0.4}O_4 spinel oxide, where a sequence of magnetic phase transitions, i.e., paramagnetic (PM) to ferromagnetic at T_{C} $\leq$ 270K and ferromagnetic to canted spin glass state at T_f$$\leq$ 125K is observed

Evaluating Biological Productivity in Intercropping Systems with Production Possibility Curves

Drawing on the notion of production possibility curves from economics literature, an analytical procedure for evaluating trade-offs in biological productivity in intercropping experiments is presented. Yield trade-offs between species are evaluated by plotting the normalized yields of the two competing crops on a graph using data from intercropping trials on groundnuts/Pennisetum americanum/sorghum/pigeonpeas and Leucaena/sorghum/pigeonpeas. The resulting shape of the curve passing through the scatter of mean treatment-yield observations indicates the nature of the relationship between the crops: complementary, if the curve is convex; competitive, if concave; and independent, where the competitive ability of both species is the same, if the estimated relationship is a straight line between the sole crop yields (treatments for which the LER, the Land Equivalent Ratio, is one). A 'global' index of biological productivity is defined as the ratio of the area under the curve to the area under the straight line joining the sole crop yields. The procedure for the index's computation is described, the index estimated over a range of intercropping situations, and its implications for experimental research and extension are discussed. The proposed index is similar to the LER in its interpretation but overcomes some of the weaknesses of the LE