Comparison of Country/Economies at Stage of Development with Movement in Rankings of Countries on Global Competitiveness

With close to 200 countries in the world today, these countries are at various stages of development from less developed to more develop; these stages are often labeled in a rising numerical sequence such as Stage 1 to 3. Countries in the world compete in a global economy to benefit their domestic firms and citizens. As countries move to a higher stage of economic development they offer more global competitiveness for global businesses seeking new markets for sales, offshore outsourcing, and investments. “The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests.” (www.weforum.org). Since 2004, The World Economic Forum annually releases a Global Competitiveness Report which includes the Global Competitiveness Index. The Global Competitiveness Report places nations into five stages of development. In the 2009 report, the Global Competitiveness Report placed nations into one of five categories of stages of development from Stage 1 (lower) to Stage 3 (highest): Stage 1 with 38 countries, Transition from Stage 1 to Stage 2 with 18 countries, Stage 2 with 26 countries, Transition from Stage 2 to Stage 3 with 14 countries, and Stage 3 with 37 countries. “The Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) tracks the performance of close to 140 countries on 12 pillars of competitiveness. It assesses the factors and institutions identified by empirical and theoretical research as determining improvements in productivity, which in turn is the main determinant of long-term growth and an essential factor in economic growth and prosperity. The Global Competitiveness Report hence seeks to help decision makers understand the complex and multifaceted nature of the development challenge; to design better policies, based on public-private collaboration; and to take action to restore confidence in the possibilities of continued economic progress.” (www.webforum. org) The GCI went through a major revision starting with the 2009 report and prior year rankings were excluded from this analysis due to these methodological changes. This study presents an analysis of the rankings of 119 nations on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) from 2009 to 2018 that focuses upon five categories of nations for each stage of development: overall ranking significant gainer nations (defined as a gain of 20 or more in ranking), overall ranking moderate gainer nations (defined as a gain of 10 to 19 in ranking) those nations that are relatively stable in ranking (defined as a change in ranking from no change to a gain or loss of no more than 9), overall ranking moderate decliner nations (defined as a decline of 10 to 19 in rank), overall ranking significant decliner nations (defined as a decline of 20 or more in rank) the percentage in each category, and conclusions. This study incorporates an analysis of rank correlation for the rankings in 2009 and 2018 at each stage of development. The study concludes that for the 119 countries analyzed despite a range of +37 to -55 in global competitiveness index ranking for particular countries, there is not much average movement change for the five stages of development. The lowest average change (-0.2000) was for Stage 1 countries and the highest average change was for Stage 2 countries (-2.2083) and the highest average change gains were for Transition 1 to 2 stage countries (+1.3750). Analysis of rank correlations by development stage also supported these conclusions. As leaders of nations seek to improve their nation’s rankings on the Global Competitiveness Index, they will have to anticipate that it will not be easy to achieve over a short period of time

Influence of Liquid Height on Pool Boiling Heat Transfer

As technology advances due to continuous research, devices are becoming more compact, efficient, and powerful. Therefore, heat rejection from such devices becomes ever so critical to maximizing their potential. Compared to other heat extraction methods, boiling provides one of the highest heat transfer coefficients. The heat extraction due to the boiling process is limited to the Critical Heat Flux (CHF). At CHF, an insulating layer of escaping bubbles forms upon the surface to prevent boiling continuity. Subsequently, the surface temperature increases uncontrollably, leading to a system failure. Hence, the elevation of CHF is critical to boiling enhancement. Improvements to the heat transfer process can be made with either surface manipulation or liquid manipulation. Based on previous studies, it is found that the removal of bubbles from the heater surface is critical to enhancing performance. Therefore, it is hypothesized that if a bubble can be encouraged to reach liquid-gas the interface quickly, gains in the boiling performance can be achieved. Due to the vapor bubble\u27s movement in liquid bulk, it becomes critical to understand the influence of liquid height on pool boiling for enhancement. While pool boiling enhancement using heating surface modification is extensively studied and documented, there is a research gap between understanding the effect of liquid height at high heat fluxes. Thus, this study tries to evaluate the influence of liquid height on pool boiling performance at higher heat fluxes and identify the underlying bubble movement mechanism. It is observed that as CHF increases with liquid height. Moreover, it is observed that bubble movement is more effortless at low liquid height resulting in higher HTC. On the other hand, larger liquid height provides improved rewetting of the surface resulting in higher CHF. Upon analysis of high-speed recording of the escaping bubbles, it was observed that the maximum heat transfer coefficient is observed when the liquid height is about four times the height of the departing bubble diameter

An Investigation to Review the Impact of Dividend on Share Prices of Indian Companies

Not availabl

Nonlinear dynamics of large amplitude dust acoustic shocks and solitary pulses in dusty plasmas

We present a fully nonlinear theory for dust acoustic (DA) shocks and DA solitary pulses in a strongly coupled dusty plasma, which have been recently observed experimentally by Heinrich et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 115002 (2009)], Teng et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 245005 (2009)], and Bandyopadhyay et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 065006 (2008)]. For this purpose, we use a generalized hydrodynamic model for the strongly coupled dust grains, accounting for arbitrary large amplitude dust number density compressions and potential distributions associated with fully nonlinear nonstationary DA waves. Time-dependent numerical solutions of our nonlinear model compare favorably well with the recent experimental works (mentioned above) that have reported the formation of large amplitude non-stationary DA shocks and DA solitary pulses in low-temperature dusty plasma discharges.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. To be published in Physical Review

Winter and summer simulations with the GLAS climate model

The GLAS climate model is a general circulation model based on the primitive equations in sigma coordinates on a global domain in the presence of orography. The model incorporates parameterizations of the effects of radiation, convection, large scale latent heat release, turbulent and boundary layer fluxes, and ground hydrology. Winter and summer simulations were carried out with this model, and the resulting data are compared to observations

Kinetic theory of electromagnetic ion waves in relativistic plasmas

A kinetic theory for electromagnetic ion waves in a cold relativistic plasma is derived. The kinetic equation for the broadband electromagnetic ion waves is coupled to the slow density response via an acoustic equation driven by ponderomotive force like term linear in the electromagnetic field amplitude. The modulational instability growth rate is derived for an arbitrary spectrum of waves. The monochromatic and random phase cases are studied.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Physics of Plasma

Exact Solution of Return Hysteresis Loops in One Dimensional Random Field Ising Model at Zero Temperature

Minor hysteresis loops within the main loop are obtained analytically and exactly in the one-dimensional ferromagnetic random field Ising-model at zero temperature. Numerical simulations of the model show excellent agreement with the analytical results

Performance of Coloured Bell Pepper in Naturally-Ventilated Polyhouse under Mid-Hill Conditions of Himachal Pradesh

Bell pepper is highly susceptible to water stagnation and excess moisture. Therefore, cultivation of this vegetable under protected structures can prove to be a boon, ensuring higher yields and quality produce. Farmers are mainly concentrating on cultivation of coloured varieties, viz., Orobelle and Bomby, under these structures. Therefore, on-farm trials were laid out during the year 2007 in farmers' fields, with six hybrids of bell pepper (Orobelle, Bomby, Mahabharath, Tanvi, Tanvi Plus and US-26) replicated thrice in RBD at four locations. The aim was to provide a suitable substitute for the existing varieties. On studies revealed that Tanvi (yellow-fruited) and Tanvi Plus (red-fruited) were the best yielders when compared to varieties being grown by the farmers. Average plant height ranged from 100 to 160cm, fruit weight ranged from 205 to 280g/fruit and number of marketable fruits per plant varied from 11 to 23. Yield and (Benefit:Cost) B:C ratio for the two best hybrids, i.e., Tanvi and Tanvi Plus were 140.5t&127.3t ha-1, and 2.37&2.06, respectively

Nonlinear thermo-elastic buckling characteristics of cross-ply laminated joined conical–cylindrical shells

AbstractHere, the nonlinear thermo-elastic buckling/post-buckling characteristics of laminated circular conical–cylindrical/conical–cylindrical–conical joined shells subjected to uniform temperature rise are studied employing semi-analytical finite element approach. The nonlinear governing equations, considering geometric nonlinearity based on von Karman’s assumption for moderately large deformation, are solved using Newton–Raphson iteration procedure coupled with displacement control method to trace the pre-buckling/post-buckling equilibrium path. The presence of asymmetric perturbation in the form of small magnitude load spatially proportional to the linear buckling mode shape is assumed to initiate the bifurcation of the shell deformation. The study is carried out to highlight the influences of semi-cone angle, material properties and number of circumferential waves on the nonlinear thermo-elastic response of the different joined shell systems