A stochastic frontier and corrected Ordinary Least Square models of determining technical efficiency of canal irrigated paddy farms in Tamil Nadu

A comparative study between Stochastic frontier production function and corrected Ordinary Least Square (OLS) were estimated to determine technical efficiency in paddy production. Further, the study has assessed the effect of farm specific socio economic factors affecting the technical efficiency. This study was conducted in Cauvery delta zone of seven taluks about canal irrigation. The number of farmers in canal irrigated region about 109 from seven taluks is considered. The data were obtained from the cost of cultivation scheme of Tamil Nadu centre. The results of Cobb Douglas stochastic production function indicated that fertilizer, seed, pesticide and machine hours significantly influenced yield of paddy. The results also indicated that it will be highly profitable to increase the use of seed, and need to rationalize the labour use and pesticide usage. The effect of qualitative variable namely age and education of the farmer would indicate that the older farmers technical efficiency become less compared to the younger farmer, and also implying that investments on human capital take away their participation from agriculture. As a comparative study in general, COLS produced the lowest mean technical efficiency with 85 percent while the Stochastic frontier analysis produced the highest mean technical efficiency with 90 per cent

Trade opportunities between the East Asian-Six and the European Union

Six East Asian countries (EA6) --Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand-- together with Hong Kong (which is not included in this study because of its "China connection") have led the economic growth of the developing countries since the 1960s. Their domestic economic policies supported macroeconomic stability and rapidly growing trade which led to their integration in the world economy. Political objectives were paramount in the formation of the European Economic Community (1958) which consisted initially of Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It was also hoped that European integration would result in economic benefits from specialisation according to comparative advantage, from the exploitation of economies of scale and increased competition. West European countries enjoyed buoyant economic growth in the 1950s and 1960s but their economies slowed in the 1970s. Meanwhile, membership of the European Community expanded in the 1970s and 1980s to twelve countries. Integration efforts intensified with the Single European Market and plans for an Economic and Monetary Union. These steps were still primarily politically motivated but supported by arguments that they would promote faster economic growth. Trade links between the European Community/European Union (EU) and the EA6 countries are weak compared to trade links between the EA6 and the United States or the EA6 and Japan. This thesis argues that a major reason for the low intensity ofEU-EA6 trade in manufactures lies in the trade regime of the EU. While the EA6 have non-discriminatory trade policies, the ED's trade policies form a pyramid of preferences that disadvantages the EA6 countries. In addition, the EA6 have become frequent targets for contingent protection and other discriminatory nontariff barriers in the EU. A computable general equilibrium model is used to investigate the extent to which a continuation of the EU' s discriminatory trade policies could maintain, or even increase, the bias against trade with the EA6; the model also examines the effects these policies have on GDP in both regions. The Europe Agreements between the EU and Central and East European countries are modelled as a key example of the preferential nature of the EU' s trade policy. This approach is contrasted with hypothetical, non-discriminatory trade reforms in the EU. The effects of further EA6 unilateral, non-discriminatory trade liberalisation on their trade with the EU and on the GDP in both regions are also evaluated. Model results show how the Europe Agreements disadvantage the EA6 in the EU market. Uruguay Round tariff cuts are shown to lessen the impact of the Europe Agreements to some extent. Unilateral tariff cuts by the EA6 are much more effective in counteracting the negative impact of the Europe Agreements on their market shares in the EU. Even greater benefits could be generated if the EU switches to unilateral, non-discriminatory liberalisation. This study underlines the key role of the newly established World Trade Organisation in the promotion of multilateral trade liberalisation and increased economic growth in the OECD and EA6 countries

Platinum(iv) azido complexes undergo copper-free click reactions with alkynes

We report our investigations into the first examples of copper-free 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition (click) reactions of electrophiles with a PtIV azido complex. The Pt-IV azido complex trans, trans, trans-[PtIV(py)2(N3)2(OH)2] (1) was reactive towards dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate (DMAD) (2), diethyl acetylenedicarboxylate DEACD (3), N-[(1R,8S,9s)-bicyclo[6.1.0]non-4-yn-9-ylmethyloxycarbonyl]-1,8-diamino-3,6-dioxaoctane (BCN) (11) and dibenzocyclooctyne-amine (DBCO) (12) resulting in formation of the corresponding mono (a) and bis-substituted (b) complexes. Complexes of 2 undergo further reactions between the Pt centre and the carbonyl group to form 2a′ and 2b′. This is not seen for the products of the corresponding PtII azido complex trans-[Pt(py)2(N3)2] with acetylene 2. Novel complexes 2a′, 2b′, 11a and 11b have been characterised by multinuclear NMR, IR and UV-vis spectroscopy and ESI-MS. These reactions represent new synthetic routes to novel Pt(IV) complexes

A High Secured Steganalysis using QVDHC Model

Data compression plays a vital role in data security as it saves memory, transfer speed is high, easy to handle and secure. Mainly the compression techniques are categorized into two types. They are lossless, lossy data compression. The data format will be an audio, image, text or video. The main objective is to save memory of using these techniques is to save memory and to preserve data confidentiality, integrity. In this paper, a hybrid approach was proposed which combines Quotient Value Difference (QVD) with Huffman coding. These two methods are more efficient, simple to implement and provides better security to the data. The secret message is encoded using Huffman coding, while the cover image is compressed using QVD. Then the encoded data is embedded into cover image and transferred over the network to receiver. At the receiver end, the data is decompressed to obtain original message. The proposed method shows high level performance when compared to other existing methods with better quality and minimum error

A comparison of extreme value theory approaches for determining value at risk

This paper compares a number of different extreme value models for determining the value at risk (VaR) of three LIFFE futures contracts. A semi-nonparametric approach is also proposed, where the tail events are modeled using the generalised Pareto distribution, and normal market conditions are captured by the empirical distribution function. The value at risk estimates from this approach are compared with those of standard nonparametric extreme value tail estimation approaches, with a small sample bias-corrected extreme value approach, and with those calculated from bootstrapping the unconditional density and bootstrapping from a GARCH(1,1) model. The results indicate that, for a holdout sample, the proposed semi-nonparametric extreme value approach yields superior results to other methods, but the small sample tail index technique is also accurate

Secure Communication Model for Dynamic Task Offloading in Multi-Cloud Environment

As the data is increasing day-by-day, the mobile device storage space is not sufficient to store the complete information and also the computation capacity also is a limited resource which is not sufficient for performing all the required computations. Hence, cloud computing technology is used to overcome these limitations of the mobile device. But security is the main concern in the cloud server. Hence, secure communication model for dynamic task offloading in multi-cloud environment is proposed in this paper. Cloudlet also is used in this model. Triple DES with 2 keys is used during the communication process between the mobile device and cloudlet. Triple DES with 3 keys is used by the cloudlet while offloading the data to cloud server. AES is used by the mobile device while offloading the data to the cloud server. Computation time, communication time, average running time, and energy consumed by the mobile device are the parameters which are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed system, SCM_DTO. The performance of the proposed system, SCM_DTO is compared with ECDH-SAHE and is proved to be performing better

Feasibility test of agricultural residues through characterization for utilization in plasma gasification

Agricultural residues were characterized to determine their feasibility as feedstock for plasma gasification. Husk, stalk, straw and shell were selected for the study and proximate analysis, elemental composition analysis, thermal value analysis were carried out using standard procedures. Producer gas generated from these bio-residues is well suited for plasma gasification process where the working temperature is between 1200-2000ºC. These substances have moisture content in the range of 5-12%, and volatile matter content of 58-70%, offering good burning characteristics and conversion to electricity. The fixed carbon content of 13 to 20% contributes significantly to its calorific value. The average calorific value of selected agricultural residues (18.27 MJ/kg) was higher than the calorific value of feedstock (12 to 16 MJ/kg) used in plasma gasification, thus reinforcing their suitability further. It was found that selected agricultural residues could be adopted and promising fuel for plasma generation and deserve further development as a sustainable and renewable alternative

Priority Medicines for Maternal and Child Health: A Global Survey of National Essential Medicines Lists

BACKGROUND: In April 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a list of "priority medicines" for maternal and child health based on 1) the global burden of disease and 2) evidence of efficacy and safety. The objective of this study was to examine the occurrence of these priority medicines on national essential medicines lists. METHODS AND FINDINGS: All essential medicines lists published since 1999 were selected from the WHO website collection. The most-up-to date list for each country was then selected, resulting in 89 unique country lists. Each list was evaluated for inclusion of medicines (chemical entity, concentration, and dosage form) on the Priority Medicines List. There was global variation in the listing of the Priority Medicines. The most frequently listed medicine was paracetamol, on 94% (84/89) of lists. Sodium chloride, gentamicin and oral rehydration solution were on 93% (83/89) of lists. The least frequently listed medicine was the children's antimalarial rectal artesunate, on 8% of lists (7/89); artesunate injection was on 16% (14/89) of lists. Pediatric artemisinin combination therapy, as dispersible tablets or flexible oral solid dosage form, appeared on 36% (32/89) of lists. Procaine benzylpenicillin, for treatment of pediatric pneumonia and neonatal sepsis, was on 50% (45/89) of the lists. Zinc, for treatment of diarrhoea in children, was included on only 15% (13/89) of lists. For prevention and treatment of postpartum hemorrhage in women, oxytocin was more prevalent on the lists than misoprostol; they were included on 55 (62%) and 31 (35%) of lists, respectively. Cefixime, for treatment of uncomplicated anogenital gonococcal infection in woman was on 26% (23/89) of lists. Magnesium sulfate injection for treatment of severe pre-eclampsia and eclampsia was on 50% (45/89) of the lists. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that countries need to urgently amend their lists to provide all priority medicines as part of the efforts to improve maternal and child health