Impacts of Irrigation and Drainage Development Projects in Pakistan: Farmers’ Perceptions

Using well-designed sample, anecdotal evidence from farmers of a recently completed irrigation and drainage project in Bhawalnagar Pakistan, valuable impact indicators could be assessed. The case study suggests that although this simple and quick method is not a substitute for the detailed scientific survey, yet it can be handy, sufficient, and could be usefully used at a nominal cost as a supplementary method. The parameters approached were the depth to water-table, crop yields, cropping pattern, abandoned lands, water distribution, and seepage reduction, etc. The results showed that some of these, including the depth to water-table, seepage reduction, and cropping pattern compared well with previous technical studies, while some others did not. The physical interventions of the project under quick evaluation comprised concrete lining of about 170 kms of the distributary canals and 352 kms of surface drains. The paper concludes that the farmers’ perceptions, when carefully designed and analysed, offer substantial feedback for remedial actions and for planning future projects.

Determinants of current account in the EU: the relation between internal and external balances in the new members

This paper considers the major determinants of the current account in the new members of the EU. It examines the long-run and short-run impact of real exchange rate, investment, private and public savings on current account. The bounds testing autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration is used and the results indicate that twin deficit exists; in another words, government budget deficit shocks have led to deficit in current accounts in Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia for the considered period. At the same time, empirical evidence was found that private savings, investment and real exchange rate are key variables as well, causing changes in the current account in the long-run as well as in the short-run. Finally, stability tests were applied to the model indicating no evidence of any structural instability in the model of these countries.Twin deficit, current account balance, budget deficit, EU.

Determinants of increased real prices of livestock in Balochistan

The real prices of livestock in Balochistan have been increasing dramatically over the last decade and still there is no sign for them to recede. There is no study that accounts for determinants of this rise in the real prices of livestock in Balochistan. The purpose of this research was to find out the determinants for the increasing real prices of livestock. The research was mainly conducted in Balochistan including rural and urban areas of Quetta, Mastung and Kuchlaq. Twenty-nine farmers, livestock experts, government agencies and vets were selected as the respondents to gather data using questioning technique. In addition, some of the data was also obtained from the report of SMEDA. Judgemental sampling was used as the method for data collection from the respondents. The data thus collected was descriptively analysed. The study found that the determinants for the rise in the real prices of livestock included shortage of production/supply, high risk of raising animals, smuggling of livestock across the boarders, lack of government support and low level of technological use

Current account and relative prices: cointegration in the presence of structural breaks in emerging economies

The aim of this study is to examine the long-run relationship between the current account and relative prices such as terms of trade and real exchange rate for the emerging economies. These variables have been exposed to large fluctuations for more than the last two decades nearly in all emerging economies. Therefore, structural breaks have to be taken into account in estimations. Therefore, the recent panel cointegration method developed by Westerlund (2006) was applied to the current account model allowing for structural breaks. The estimations of unit root tests proposed by Levin et al. (2002), Im et al. (2003) and by Hadri (2000) provided the evidence of the unit root existence in our series. The Hansen’s (1992) stability test illustrated the instability exist in series except for the cases of India and Turkey. The Westerlund (2006) cointegration test estimations detected multiple structural shifts in every panel case; however, the hypothesis of cointegration in the panel could not be accepted by the Lagrange Multiplier statistics.Current account; Terms of trade; Panel cointegration; Structural breaks

Processing and microstructure of Nb-1 percent Zr-0.1 percent C alloy sheet

A systematic study was carried out to evaluate the effects of processing on the microstructure of Nb-1 wt. pct. Zr-0.1 wt. pct. C alloy sheet. The samples were fabricated by cold rolling different sheet bars that were single-, double- or triple-extruded at 1900 K. Heat treatment consisted on one- or two-step annealing of different samples at temperatures ranging from 1350 to 1850 K. The assessment of the effects of processing on microstructure involved characterization of the precipitates including the type, crystal structure, chemistry and distribution within the material as well as an examination of the grain structure. A combination of various analytical and metallographic techniques were used on both the sheet samples and the residue extracted from them. The results show that the relatively coarse orthorhombic Nb2C carbides in the as-rolled samples transformed to rather fine cubic monocarbides of Nb and Zr with varying Zr/Nb ratios upon subsequent heat treatment. The relative amount of the cubic carbides and the Zr/Nb ratio increased with increasing number of extrusions prior to cold rolling. Furthermore, the size and the aspect ratio of the grains appear to be strong functions of the processing history of the material. These and other results obtained will be presented with the emphasis on a possible relationship between processing and microstructure

Directional flow of solitons with asymmetric potential wells: Soliton diode

We study the flow of bright solitons through two asymmetric potential wells. The scattering of a soliton by certain type of single potential wells, e.g., Gaussian or Rosen-Morse, is distinguished by a critical velocity above which solitons can transmit almost completely and below which solitons can reflect nearly perfectly. For two such wells in series with certain parameter combinations, we find that there is an appreciable velocity range for which solitons can propagate in one direction only. Our study shows that this directional propagation or diode behavior is due to a combined effect of the sharp transition in the transport coefficients at the critical velocity and a slight reduction in the center-of-mass speed of the soliton while it travels across a potential well.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Theory of elementary particles

Imperial Users onl

Determinants of increased real prices of livestock in Balochistan

The real prices of livestock in Balochistan have been increasing dramatically over the last decade and still there is no sign for them to recede. There is no study that accounts for determinants of this rise in the real prices of livestock in Balochistan. The purpose of this research was to find out the determinants for the increasing real prices of livestock. The research was mainly conducted in Balochistan including rural and urban areas of Quetta, Mastung and Kuchlaq. Twenty-nine farmers, livestock experts, government agencies and vets were selected as the respondents to gather data using questioning technique. In addition, some of the data was also obtained from the report of SMEDA. Judgemental sampling was used as the method for data collection from the respondents. The data thus collected was descriptively analysed. The study found that the determinants for the rise in the real prices of livestock included shortage of production/supply, high risk of raising animals, smuggling of livestock across the boarders, lack of government support and low level of technological use.real prices; livestock; Balochistan