Economic Evaluation of Investments in Micro Irrigation Structures in Kandi Area of Punjab

Three types of micro irrigation structures, namely small dams (SD), lift irrigation structures (LIS) and Makowal type structures (MTS) were constructed by the Department of Soil and Water Conservation, Govt. of Punjab, Hoshiarpur division in the Kandi area of Punjab depending upon the availability of water at site, during the period 1990-91 to 1996-97. The impact evaluation has shown that the cultivated area has increased by 9.5 per cent, 3.2 per cent and 9.8 per cent and irrigated area by 600 per cent, 1038 per cent, and 253 per cent for SD (from 1991-92 to 2003-04), LIS (from 1993-94 to 2003-04) and MTS (from 1994-95 to 2003- 04), respectively in the selected villages of these structures. The income of irrigated hectare has been found higher at Rs 14478 than un-irrigated hectare. Discounted cash flow technique has revealed that the financial internal rate of returns are as high as 20.56 per cent, 38.54 per cent and 27.95 per cent for SD, LIS and MTS, respectively, which are highly satisfactory and encourage more public investments on such type of irrigation structures to enhance the income of Kandi farmers.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Creating An Integrated Opioid Policy For Multi-State Hospice Practices: Improving Opioid Compliance And Patient Safety

Abstract End of life (EOL) symptom management is the cornerstone of hospice care. Hospice patients, especially advanced cancer patients, have an increased need for pain and symptom management towards end of life. For those patients at EOL, opioids are the mainstay treatment to relieve intractable and breakthrough pain. Due to opioid regulatory changes over the past few years, there has been more confusion than clarity among the hospice & palliative care practitioners prescribing opioids for EOL pain management. Healthcare practices across the country are realigning their policies to the opioid prescription rule changes. It is imperative for hospice providers to translate federal and state opioid regulations into organizational policy to guide hospice & palliative care practice. The purpose of this project was to review, synthesize and reconcile federal, state, and local opioid regulations and create a system for a sustainable data base in order to develop and maintain opioid policies for implementation in multi-site hospice organization, across 35 states, to ensure ongoing compliance with opioid laws. The cyclic process of the KTA framework was used for the project that places creators and users within a system which is dynamic as well as adaptive, so that as the opioid regulations change, the policy and protocols will be modified and re-adopted. An umbrella opioid medication policy, and state specific guidance was developed. Results show that, 4 weeks after policy dissemination, 32 out of 35 states continued to maintain 100% clinician compliance with the umbrella opioid medication policy, and state specific guidance. There was a 50% reduction in opioid-related events. This DNP project has applicability to further compliant opioid practice in a variety of care settings nationwide. Keywords: End of life, Hospice, Opioid, Pain, Regulatory Compliance

Literature Review of PID Controller based on Various Soft Computing Techniques

This paper profound the various soft computing techniques like fuzzy logic, genetic algorithm, ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization used in controlling the parameters of PID Controller. Its widespread use and universal acceptability is allocated to its elementary operating algorithm, the relative ease with the controller effects can be adjusted, the broad range of applications where it has truly developed excellent control performances, and the familiarity with which it is deduced among researchers. In spite of its wide spread use, one of its short-comings is that there is no efficient tuning method for PID controller. Given this background, the main objective of this is to develop a tuning methodology that would be universally applicable to a range of well-liked process that occurs in the process control industry

Technical Efficiency in Crop Production: A Region-wise Analysis

The technical efficiency in crop production has been reported in different regions as well as in the state of Punjab to show how different regions have adopted the latest technology. Technical efficiency of individual farms has been estimated through stochastic frontier production function analysis. The production function estimates have pointed towards the presence of disguised unemployment in the sub-mountainous region of the Punjab state. The technical efficiency has shown a wide variation across regions. The average technical efficiency has been found maximum in the central region (90 per cent), followed by south-western and sub-mountainous regions. The main drivers of inefficiency have been identified as experience in agriculture and age of a farmer. The policy intervention to improve technical efficiency being not the same for all the regions, the study has observed that the state would benefit more if policy interventions are developed at the local level.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Technical Efficiency of Wheat Production in Punjab: A Regional Analysis

The study has analysed the technical efficiency in wheat production across different regions of the Punjab state. It is based on the cross sectional data collected from a random sample of 564 farm households comprising 58, 318, and 188 households from semi-hilly, central and south-western regions for the year 2005-06. The mean technical efficiency of wheat production has been found as 87 per cent, 94 per cent, 86 per cent and 87 per cent in semi-hilly, central, south-western and Punjab state as a whole, respectively. The results signify that farmers of the central region do not have much scope to increase productivity of wheat through technical efficiency improvement under the existing conditions of input-use and technology. In the semi-hilly and south-western regions, the yield of wheat can be improved to the extent of 13 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively through adoption of better practices of technology. Across different regions, wheat area has contributed positively and significantly, the coefficient being highest and only significant variable for the central region. The coefficient of expenditure on insecticides and pesticides has been found significant for the semi-hilly region, demanding boost in the expenditure on insecticides and pesticides to increase wheat production in this region. The coefficient of fertilizer nutrients has been observed positive and significant for the semi-hilly and south-western regions, indicating that there is scope for increasing production of wheat by enhancing the use of fertilizers in these regions. Further, the technical efficiencies are positively and significantly related to age, education and experience of a farmer and percentage area under the crop.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Consumer Reflections On Re-Purchase Interest Of Discount Sales “Buy One Get One Free” – The Case Of Malaysia

Strategi pemasaran promosi jualan telah menjadi penting untuk pengeluar dan pemasar. Kepentingannya telah meningkat dengan ketara sejak tahun-tahun dalam dunia perniagaan. The marketing strategies on sales promotions have become vital for manufacturers and marketers as its importance has been increasing significantly over the years in the business world

Wireless Security System with Password Protection

Home security is not minor issue because crime is increasing and everyone wants to take proper measures to prevent invasion [1]. In this paper, design and implement of a microcontroller based wireless security system with password protection have been presented and analyzed. Microcontrollers with other peripheral devices which include Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), Buzzer, Sensors, Encoder and RF Module are responsible for reliable operation of the proposed security system. In addition, the system is provided with a manual keypad which provides a password protection in order to provide extra security to the system. Assembly language is used as the programming language and Atmel is used to compile the code in order to design a program that controls the system along with maintaining all security functions

Viable bounce from non-minimal inflation

The fundamental difficulty in constructing a viable classical bouncing model is to evade the no-go theorem that states that, simultaneously maintaining the observational bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the non-Gaussian scalar spectrum is not possible. Furthermore, constructing the bouncing phase leads to numerous instabilities such as gradient, ghost, and so on. Most importantly, the model fails to be an attractor, in general, meaning that the solution heavily depends on the initial conditions, resulting in anisotropic (BKL) instability in the system. In this paper, using conformal transformation, we construct a classical bouncing model from a non-minimal slow-roll inflationary model. As a result of the conformal transformation, we show that the model is free of the above instabilities and that it leads to a smooth transition from bouncing to the traditional reheating scenario. We also look at the dynamical analysis of the system in the presence of a barotropic fluid and discover that there exists a wide range of model parameters that allow the model to avoid the BKL instability, making it a viable alternative to inflationary dynamics.Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures, minor modifications with a few citations adde

Unusual giant central cervical leiomyoma: surgical challenge

Leiomyomas are most common uterine and pelvic tumours. The most common anatomical location is uterus. Fibroids arising from cervix are rare tumours accounting for 2% of all fibroids. A cervical leiomyoma is commonly single and is either interstitial or subserous, rarely it becomes submucous and polypoidal. Here authors report a case of huge cervical fibroid in an unmarried lady who presented to us with complaint of heaviness in abdomen. On per abdomen examination a firm mass of 32 weeks size arising from pelvis with restricted mobility was noticed. Ultrasound showed 21*10.3*10 cm heterogenous mass in pelvis with evidence of internal vascularity. MRI was suggestive of fibroid arising from body of uterus. True cut biopsy of the lesion was taken which showed benign lesion. Decision for myomectomy or Hysterectomy (according to intraoperative findings) was taken. While doing the procedure, after accidental ligation of left ureter and injury to bladder, diagnosis of cervical fibroid was made. Hence pre-operative diagnosis of cervical fibroid is very important in order to avoid damage to bladder and ureters

Multiple urinary bladder calculi: a rare cause of irreducible uterovaginal prolapse

A case of irreducible prolapse with multiple bladder calculi in a 65-years-old multiparous, postmenopausal woman is reported. Inability to walk, constipation and urinary incontinence were her primary complaints. Routine ultrasound of the abdomen and pelvis failed to reveal multiple vesical calculi as the prolapse was lying outside the pelvis. However, targeted plain X-ray of the prolapsed mass showed multiple vesical calculi. The patient was managed with single-stage vaginal hysterectomy and laparotomy. First vaginal hysterectomy was done then prolapsed cystocele was reduced and extraperitoneal vesicolithotomy done. Currently, the patient is relieved of all symptoms. Management of an irreducible procidentia and a hard mass in the anterior compartment, as in this case, can be challenging and requires a diligent effort to confirm the diagnosis and to execute the appropriate surgical protocol to achieve optimal outcome with minimal intra- and post-operative complications