Technical Efficiency in North-Western Himalayan Region: A Study of Himachal Pradesh Agriculture

The technical efficiency of Himachal farmers, studied using the frontier production function, has been found to vary widely across cereal crops in the state. It has been found that the average yield of all the major cereal crops is below the national average, except the maize crop, which has been found in surplus in the state. Maize → wheat and paddy → wheat have been noted as the major crop rotations being followed in the study area. The analysis of cross sectional data has revealed inefficiency in terms of inputs application. The mean technical efficiencies have revealed that a considerable portion of frontier output is left untapped, it is 35-42 per cent in maize, 44-50 per cent in paddy and 61-67 per cent in wheat. The ratio of marginal value productivity (MVP) and marginal factor cost (MFC) has been found to be more than one in case of 50 per cent inputs for all the crops. However, the female labour for most of the crops has values less than one and with negative signs as most of the work (agricultural operations) in the hills is being performed by women. The results have indicated that there is a scope to increase the returns from wheat production by using more farmyard manure, chemical fertilizers, male labour, female labour and bullock labour in zone I. Similarly, in the case of maize (local) in zone I, the yield could be increased by increasing the use of more of farmyard manure, chemical fertilizers, male labour and seeds. The analysis has also revealed that a majority of the farmers operate at low level of efficiency due to practising of traditional cultivation methods. It is felt that there is a need to educate females in resource management, preferably through female extension workers.Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Fission of hyper-hyperdeformed 56^{56}Ni: a clustering analysis with in mean-field approaches

The structure of 56Ni is sudied by using the non-relativistic Skyrme Hartree-Fock and the relativistic Hartree approximation in an axially deformed cylindrical coordinate. We found several intrinsic excited states, including the spherical ground-state solution. Without including any extra $\alpha$-cluster correlations, the possible cluster configurations of the resonance states are analyzed, showing the multipleN=Z, $\alpha$-nucleus like, cluster structures for hyper-deformed states, but, contrary to the recent experimental possibility of a ternary fission decay, we predict a two cluster or symmetric fission configuration for the hyper-hyperdeformed stat

Pearl millet with higher stover yield and better forage quality: Identification of new germplasm and cultivars

Pearl millet is a source of both food grains for humans and dry fodder for their ruminant livestock in the semi-arid and arid tropics of Asia and Africa. Recently, pearl millet has occupied large areas during summer season in India and is also in great demand in central Asian countries for cultivation as forage crop, but very few cultivar options are available to farmers for this ecology. The objective of this study was to: 1) identify sources of higher stover yield and fodder quality traits, 2) initiate their utilization in breeding programs; and 3) identify OPVs and hybrids with higher stover yield and fodder quality. A set of 242 pearl millets from a minicore collection was evaluated for stover linked traits during summer and rainy seasons of 2013 at ICRISAT, Patancheru. Based on 2-season evaluation, about 10% best (21 accessions) having high fresh stover yield (23 to 38 tons ha-1) and dry stover yield (8 to 13 tons ha–1) at 85–90 days after planting were selected and further evaluated in the rainy season of 2014 along with checks at 6 locations in India. The dry stover yield of check OPVs varied from 15–21 tons ha–1, and in check hybrids from 16 tons (DFMH 30) to 19.7 tons ha–1 (Nutrifeed). IP 22269 had highest dry stover yield (19 tons ha–1), followed by IP 20577 (18 tons ha–1) and IP 20409 (16.6 tons ha–1) and total of 11 accessions had dry stover yield of >14 tons ha–1. These accessions were also evaluated at ICRISAT during rainy season of 2014 along with earlier identified OPVs/germplasm accessions and top-cross hybrids. The identified 21 accessions had a wide range of stover nitrogen content (0.88 to 1.24%), in vitro digestibility (39.8 to 45.4%), and metabolizable energy (ME) (5.3 to 6.4 MJ·kg–1). Twenty of these identified accessions had in vitro digestibility of >40 %; and IP 14294 had highest in vitro digestibility (45.4%) along with highest ME (6.4 MJ·kg–1). These identified accessions were subjected to inbreeding yielding about 270 early generation inbreds (S1s-S3s), which will further be used for deriving breeding lines for the development of new hybrids and OPVs with high stover yield and fodder quality. Also, based on 2-year (2013 and 2014) multilocation evaluation at 5 locations in each year for stover yield and at one location (ICRISAT) for stover quality traits, five OPVs/germplasm accessions having high stover yield in the range of 16.3 to 17.8 tons ha–1, and in vitro digestibility from 42 to 45%; and five top cross hybrids having dry stover yield of 13.6 to 15.9 tons ha–1, with in vitro digestibility from 38.9 to 42.6% were identified; though top cross hybrids matured about 10–15 days earlier than the OPVs

Roof above the head : A qualitative assessment of rural housing in India

The development of rural housing in a manner that results in adequate, quality shelter for inhabitants of Mahatma Gandhi’s “real India” is a challenge before the nation. What are the issues confronting rural housing development in India? The litany of its woes is endless. At first impression, rural housing is vulnerable to weaknesses in the delivery system for housing materials and services. Gradually, it dawns on the observer that the sector is deeply affected by the infrastructure deficit – roads, electricity supply, drinking water and sanitation. It has been bypassed by the numerous economic revolutions that have made India a vibrant economic superpower. For instance housing finance, which played a key role in the urban housing explosion, is conspicuous by its absence in the rural setting. Additionally, the limited mobility of rural households, the lack of vibrancy in the market for village properties and the marked volatility in agricultural incomes combine to dampen the prospects of this nebulous sector.Housing

Participatory evaluation of advanced potato (Solanum tuberosum) clones for water stress tolerance

An attempt was made to introduce potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) in hot arid water scarce zone of Western Rajasthan, India. Eight CIP-bred potato clones were evaluated along with two controls, viz. Kufri Pukhraj and Kufri Surya on farmer’s field at Jodhpur, Rajasthan under normal and moderate water stress regime during three winter crop seasons (2012-15). Pooled analysis revealed that CIP clone 397006.18 (34.0 tonnes/ha) out yielded Kufri Pukhraj (26.8 tonnes/ha) and Kufri Surya (20.2 tonnes/ha) for marketable tuber yield. This clone maintained yield under normal and deficit irrigation and attained 26.9% higher marketable yield under normal irrigations, which further improved by 31.3% under deficit water stress regime over the best control Kufri Pukhraj. This clone recorded highest tuber dry matter content (22.7%), statistically superior to both control Kufri Pukhraj (17.9%) and Kufri Surya (21.4%). Clone 397006.18 had highest mean drought tolerance index value (1.16) and least total weight loss under normal irrigation (4.9%) and water stress conditions (8.6%) up to 60 days of storage. Preference yield analysis by potato growers showed that they liked this clone most and its overall acceptability was fairly better for all organoleptic traits. Results of field study and participatory varietal selection indicated that clone 397006.18 performed better for tuber productivity under deficit water management, exhibited drought tolerance traits and achieved overall acceptance by the farmers in Western Rajasthan

Fabrication of Low-Roughness Au/Ti/ SiO2/Si Substrates for Nanopatterning of 16-Mercapto Hexadecanoic Acid (MHA) by Dip-Pen-Nanolithography

Silicon based low-roughness Au/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates were fabricated using standard IC fabrication processes. Evolution of surface roughness during substrate fabrication process was studied. Fabrication process steps, namely, thermal oxidation and e-beam evaporation for ultra-thin Ti(~ 5 nm)/Au(22 nm) films, were optimized to result in surface r.m.s roughness ~ 0.2 m and ~ 1.0 nm, after thermal oxidation and Ti/Au deposition steps respectively. Surface roughness was estimated by atomic force microscope (AFM) imaging and image analysis. Nano-patterning experiments using thiol based 16-MHA molecular-ink on fabricated substrates were carried out, under controlled environment conditions, by dip-pen-nanolithography (DPN) technique. Minimum line-width ~ 60 nm and circular dots radius ~ 175 nm were patterned. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/2779

The Glauber model and the heavy ion reaction cross section

We reexamine the Glauber model and calculate the total reaction cross section as a function of energy in the low and intermediate energy range, where many of the corrections in the model, are effective. The most significant effect in this energy range is by the modification of the trajectory due to the Coulomb field. The modification in the trajectory due to nuclear field is also taken into account in a self consistent way. The energy ranges in which particular corrections are effective, are quantified and it is found that when the center of mass energy of the system becomes 30 times the Coulomb barrier, none of the trajectory modification to the Glauber model is really required. The reaction cross sections for light and heavy systems, right from near coulomb barrier to intermediate energies have been calculated. The exact nuclear densities and free nucleon-nucleon (NN) cross sections have been used in the calculations. The center of mass correction which is important for light systems, has also been taken into account. There is an excellent agreement between the calculations with the modified Glauber model and the experimental data. This suggests that the heavy ion reactions in this energy range can be explained by the Glauber model in terms of free NN cross sections without incorporating any medium modification.Comment: RevTeX, 21 pages including 9 Postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

The STAR Photon Multiplicity Detector

Details concerning the design, fabrication and performance of STAR Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD) are presented. The PMD will cover the forward region, within the pseudorapidity range 2.3--3.5, behind the forward time projection chamber. It will measure the spatial distribution of photons in order to study collective flow, fluctuation and chiral symmetry restoration.Comment: 15 pages, including 11 figures; to appear in a special NIM volume dedicated to the accelerator and detectors at RHI

A batch-service queueing model with a discrete batch Markovian arrival process

Queueing systems with batch service have been investigated extensively during the past decades. However, nearly all the studied models share the common feature that an uncorrelated arrival process is considered, which is unrealistic in several real-life situations. In this paper, we study a discrete-time queueing model, with a server that only initiates service when the amount of customers in system (system content) reaches or exceeds a threshold. Correlation is taken into account by assuming a discrete batch Markovian arrival process (D-BMAP), i.e. the distribution of the number of customer arrivals per slot depends on a background state which is determined by a first-order Markov chain. We deduce the probability generating function of the system content at random slot marks and we examine the influence of correlation in the arrival process on the behavior of the system. We show that correlation merely has a small impact on the threshold that minimizes the mean system content. In addition, we demonstrate that correlation might have a significant influence on the system content and therefore has to be included in the model