The link between fiscal deficit and inflation: do public sector wages matter?

This paper investigates the validity of the hypothesis that suggests there is a link between fiscal deficits and inflation in developing countries and further explores this link in the absence of public sector wage expenditure. Sri Lanka, a developing country with a persistent fiscal deficit, a large public sector and increasing inflation, has been chosen for the empirical study. An auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is employed in the analysis, using annual data from 1959 to 2008. The results suggest that, in the long run, a one percentage point increase in the ratio of the fiscal deficit to narrow money is associated with about an 11 percentage point increase in inflation. This link becomes weaker in the absence of the public sector wage expenditure. The overall inference is that inflation is not only a monetary phenomenon in Sri Lanka and public sector wage expenditure is a key factor in explaining the deficit-inflation relationship

Joint admission and association in vehicular networks

Abstract. To support vehicle to everything (V2X) communication which is an integral part of intelligent transportation systems (ITS), fifth generation (5G) communication systems will need to employ diverse range of technologies, which will ultimately lead to automated driving, improved traffic safety, improved traffic efficiency and infotainment.~V2X is considered as one of the most challenging applications of 5G, because it requires ultra reliable and low latency communication (URLLC) for safety critical applications and high data rates in many scenarios under mobility. Vehicles which can communicate with a base station or road side unit (RSU) are primary vehicles, which can act as relays to secondary vehicles which are out of coverage from the network. Therefore vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication are employed to provide coverage for out of coverage vehicles. In this study joint problem of admission control for primary vehicles and user association for secondary vehicles in a singe cell downlink vehicular network is considered. The objective is to maximize the number of admitted primary vehicles, while associating all secondary vehicles. We consider the underlying communication system is based on millimeter wave communication at 60 GHz and we cast the optimization problem as an ℓ₀ minimization problem. This problem is known to be combinatorial and NP-hard. Hence, we propose a sub optimal, two stage algorithm to solve it. We compare the performance of proposed algorithm against the exhaustive search algorithm. From simulation results it can be observed, although the proposed algorithm is a sub optimal algorithm it gives optimal performance with improved efficiency. Hence, the proposed algorithm is able to determine the optimal association for vehicles which are out of coverage and optimal admission for vehicles which are in coverage

Organizational aspects of irrigation management at Dewahuwa tank during Yala 1986

Irrigation effects / Economic aspects / Irrigation practices / Water distribution / Agricultural production / Diversification / Sri Lanka

Organizational aspects of improved irrigation management: An experiment in Dewahuwa Tank, Sri Lanka

Irrigation management / Organizations / Tank irrigation / Farmer-agency interactions / Water allocation / Rotation / Diversification / Crops / Sri Lanka / Dewahuwa

Leaf scorch decline of coconut

What is recognised as "leaf scorch decline" of coconut is a disorder the cause of which unknown. It occurs in the Gonapinuwela-Baddegama Elpitiya area, in the southern procince of Ceylon. The most characteristic symptoms of "leaf scorch decline" are a necrosis on the leaves root decay and reduction in nut production. Fusarium spp. and Celindrocarpon sp. appear to be associated with root decay. Present investigations suggest that the disorder is more privelant in areas where the soil affords a physical barrier to root penetration and where the soil is badly drained. This paper gives and account of the work carried to for

Determination of Stellar Parameters through the Use of All Available Flux Data and Model Spectral Energy Distributions

Basic stellar atmospheric parameters, such as effective temperature, surface gravity, and metallicity plays a vital role in the characterization of various stellar populations in the Milky Way. The Stellar parameters can be measured by adopting one or more observational techniques, such as spectroscopy, photometry, interferometry, etc. Finding new and innovative ways to combine these observational data to derive reliable stellar parameters and to use them to characterize some of the stellar populations in our galaxy is the main goal of this thesis. Our initial work, based on the spectroscopic and photometric data available in literature, had the objective of calibrating the stellar parameters from a range of available flux observations from far-UV to far-IR. Much effort has been made to estimate probability distributions of the stellar parameters using Bayesian inference, rather than point estimates. We applied these techniques to blue straggler stars (BSSs) in the galactic field, which are thought to be a product of mass transfer mechanism associated with binary stars. Using photometry available in SDSS and GALEX surveys we identified 85 stars with UV excess in their spectral energy distribution (SED) : indication of a hot white dwarf companion to BSS. To determine the parameter distributions (mass, temperature and age) of the WD companions, we developed algorithms that could fit binary model atmospheres to the observed SED. The WD mass distribution peaks at 0.4M , suggests the primary formation channel of field BSSs is Case-B mass transfer, i.e. when the donor star is in red giant phase of its evolution. Based on stellar evolutionary models, we estimate the lower limit of binary mass transfer efficiency β ~ 0.5. Next, we have focused on the Canis Major overdensity (CMO), a substructure located at low galactic latitude in the Milky Way, where the interstellar reddening (E(B-V )) due to dust is significantly high. In this study we estimated the reddening, metallicity distribution and kinematics of the CMO using a sample of red clump (RC) stars. The averageE(B-V)(~0.19)is consistent with that measured from Schlegel maps (Schlegal et.al. 1998). The overall metallicity and kinematic distribution is in agreement with the previous estimates of the disk stars. But the measured mean alpha element abundance is relatively larger with respect to the expected value for disk stars

Milk allergen increases intestinal immune cells in association with neuroinflammation and behavioral changes

Cow’s milk allergy (CMA) CMA h as been associated with neurological disorders. How allergic inflammatory signals from the gut reach the brain is unclear.https://commons.und.edu/bms-pp/1006/thumbnail.jp

Dietary whey protein increases brain leukocytes in mice regardless of their hypersensitivity status

Cow’s milk allergy (CMA) often manifests as milder reactions and may be linked to neurological problems. Previously, we demonstrated that C57BL/6J mice sensitized to a bovine whey allergen, β-lactoglobulin (BLG, Bos d 5), moderately increased BLG-specific IgE levels and exhibited behavioral changes without severe allergic reactions. When these non-anaphylactic CMA mice were placed on a whey-protein (WP)-containing diet for 2 weeks to simulate continuous dairy consumption, we found neuropathology indicative of neuroinflammation and cortical demyelination. Since immune cells migrate to the central nervous system (CNS) and promote neuroinflammation in demyelinating conditions such as multiple sclerosis, we hypothesized that the number of leukocytes would increase in BLG-sensitized mouse brains to orchestrate neuropathology. To test this hypothesis, we used flow cytometry to determine the number and phenotypes of leukocytes in the brains of naïve, sham, and BLG-sensitized mice after the 2 weeks of the WP diet. The frequencies of cells expressing common leukocyte marker CD45, pan T cell marker CD3, cytotoxic T cell marker CD8, integrin CD11b, myeloid cell marker CD14, and co-stimulatory marker CD86 significantly increased, regardless of the sensitization status. The percentages of these cells were low in mice that never received WP. This result indicated that WP diet consumption alone increased CNS leukocyte populations. Additional immunophenotyping is needed to determine whether the identified cells can be differentiated among the experimental groups. Detailed characterization of CNS leukocyte phenotypes and dynamics will help elucidate the mechanism of CMA-induced neuroinflammation and cortical demyelination.https://commons.und.edu/bms-pp/1001/thumbnail.jp

Leukocytes as mediators of gut-brain communication

Food allergies ▪ Reactions range from mild/delayed to severe/rapid. ▪ People with mild allergic reactions have increased re-exposure risks. ▪ Cow’s milk allergy tends to manifest with milder allergic reactions. Cow’s milk allergy (CMA) ▪ CMA has been associated with behavioral and neurological disorders. ▪ How allergic inflammatory signals from the gut reach the brain is unclearhttps://commons.und.edu/bms-pp/1005/thumbnail.jp