Economics of Rice Production in Pyuthan District of Nepal

A research was conducted at Pyuthan district in order to access the profitability of rice production in Pyuthan during the summer season of 2018-2019. Altogether of 70 respondents were selected randomly and surveyed with semi-structured interview schedule. The results revealed that the average land holding was 0.45 hectare, and the average rice cultivation area was 0.34 hectare. On the basis of average rice cultivation area, farmers were categorized as small (39) and large (31). The cost and return was calculated among both the category. t- test was used to compare the mean costs of inputs between small and large farmers. Cost for agronomic operations was found far higher (more than 70%) in both the category in compared to the cost of inputs. Contribution of rice grains and straw to overall return was 72.65% and 27.35% respectively. Benefit Cost ratio was found greater among large farmers. The average B:C ratio was 1.51, which was fairly higher than 1.14 in Dang district indicating the investment of rice production is expected to deliver a positive net return to the farmers of the study area. In a nutshell, rice cultivation is an important enterprise that should be encouraged, considering the fact that it is a major staple crop

Economics of rice production in Pyuthan district of Nepal

A research was conducted at Pyuthan district in order to access the profitability of rice production in Pyuthan during the summer season of 2018-2019. Altogether of 70 respondents were selected randomly and surveyed with semi-structured interview schedule. The results revealed that the average land holding was 0.45 hectare, and the average rice cultivation area was 0.34 hectare. On the basis of average rice cultivation area, farmers were categorized as small (39) and large (31). The cost and return was calculated among both the category. t- test was used to compare the mean costs of inputs between small and large farmers. Cost for agronomic operations was found far higher (more than 70%) in both the category in compared to the cost of inputs. Contribution of rice grains and straw to overall return was 72.65% and 27.35% respectively. Benefit Cost ratio was found greater among large farmers. The average B:C ratio was 1.51, which was fairly higher than 1.14 in Dang district indicating the investment of rice production is expected to deliver a positive net return to the farmers of the study area. In a nutshell, rice cultivation is an important enterprise that should be encouraged, considering the fact that it is a major staple crop

Bounded-rate multi-mode systems based motion planning

Bounded-rate multi-mode systems are hybrid systems that can switch among a finite set of modes. Its dynamics is specified by a finite number of real-valued variables with mode-dependent rates that can vary within given bounded sets. Given an arbitrary piecewise linear trajectory, we study the problem of following the trajectory with arbitrary precision, using motion primitives given as bounded-rate multi-mode systems. We give an algorithm to solve the problem and show that the problem is co-NP complete. We further prove that the problem can be solved in polynomial time for multi-mode systems with fixed dimension. We study the problem with dwell-time requirement and show the decidability of the problem under certain positivity restriction on the rate vectors. Finally, we show that introducing structure to the multi-mode systems leads to undecidability, even when using only a single clock variable.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures, HSCC - 201

RJK Observations of the Optical Afterglow of GRB 991216

We present near-infrared and optical observations of the afterglow to the Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) 991216 obtained with the F. L. Whipple Observatory 1.2-m telescope and the University of Hawaii 2.2-m telescope. The observations range from 15 hours to 3.8 days after the burst. The temporal behavior of the data is well described by a single power-law decay with index -1.36 +/-0.04, independent of wavelength. The optical spectral energy distribution, corrected for significant Galactic reddening of E(B-V)=0.626, is well fitted by a single power-law with index -0.58 +/- 0.08. Combining the IR/optical observations with a Chandra X-ray measurement gives a spectral index of -0.8 +/- 0.1 in the synchrotron cooling regime. A comparison between the spectral and temporal power-law indices suggest that a jet is a better match to the observations than a simple spherical shock.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal, 12 pages, 4 postscript figure

Performance Analysis of Two Receiver Arrangements for Wireless Battery Charging System

Two different arrangements for Wireless Battery Charging Systems (WBCSs) with a series-parallel resonant topology have been analyzed in this paper. The first arrangement charges the battery by controlling the receiver-side rectifier current and voltage without a chopper, while the second arrangement charges it with a chopper while keeping the chopper input voltage constant. The comparison of these two arrangements is made based on their performance on various figures of merit, such as the sizing factor of both the supply voltage source and receiver coil, overall system efficiency, power-transfer ratio, receiver efficiency, and cost estimation. Later, the simulated study is verified by the experimental setup designed to charge the electric vehicle

Rapid UBVRI Follow-up of the Highly Collimated Optical Afterglow of GRB010222

(Abridged) We present the earliest optical observations of the optical counterpart to the GRB 010222, obtained with the FLWO 1.2-m telescope in UBVRI passbands, starting 3.64 hours after the burst. We also present late R-band observations of the afterglow obtained with the 1.8-m VATT ~25 days after the burst. The temporal analysis of our data joined with published data indicates a steepening decay, independent of wavelength, asymptotically approaching t^{-0.80+/-0.05} at early times (t << 1 day) and t^{-1.30+/-0.05} at late times, with a sharp break at t_b=0.72+/-0.1 days. This is the second earliest observed break of any afterglow (after GRB 980519), which clearly indicates the importance of rapid multi-band follow-up for GRB afterglow research. The optical spectral energy distribution, corrected for small Galactic reddening, can be fit fairly well by a single power-law with a slope of -1.07+/-0.09. However, when we fit using our BVRI data only, we obtain a shallower slope of -0.88+/- 0.1, in excellent agreement with the slope derived from our low-resolution spectrum (-0.89 +/- 0.03). The spectral slope and light curve decay slopes we derive are not consistent with a jet model despite the presence of a temporal break. Significant host dust extinction with a star-burst reddening law would flatten the spectral index to match jet predictions and still be consistent with the observed spectral energy distribution. We derive an opening angle of 2.1 deg, smaller than any listed in the recent compilation of Frail et al. The total beamed energy corrected for the jet geometry is 4x10^50 erg, very close to the ``standard'' value of 5x10^50 erg found by Frail et al. for a number of other bursts with light-curve breaks.Comment: revised version (minor changes only) to be published in the ApJ Part 1, 12 pages, 4 figures; all data used for the fits and our CCD frames available at ftp://cfa-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/kstanek/GRB010222/ and through WWW at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/oir/Research/GRB

Classification of Targets Using Statistical Features from Range FFT of mmWave FMCW Radars

publishedVersio

On the optical and X-ray afterglows of gamma ray bursts

We severely criticize the consuetudinary analysis of the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in the conical-ejection fireball scenarios. We argue that, instead, recent observations imply that the long-duration GRBs and their afterglows are produced by highly relativistic jets of cannonballs (CBs) emitted in supernova explosions. The CBs are heated by their collision with the supernova shell. The GRB is the boosted surface radiation the CBs emit as they reach the transparent outskirts of the shell. The exiting CBs further decelerate by sweeping up interstellar matter (ISM). The early X-ray afterglow is dominated by thermal bremsstrahlung from the cooling CBs, the optical afterglow by synchrotron radiation from the ISM electrons swept up by the CBs. We show that this model fits simply and remarkably well all the measured optical afterglows of the 15 GRBs with known redshift, including that of GRB 990123, for which unusually prompt data are available. We demonstrate that GRB 980425 was a normal GRB produced by SN1998bw, with standard X-ray and optical afterglows. We find that the very peculiar afterglow of GRB 970508 can be explained if its CBs encountered a significant jump in density as they moved through the ISM. The afterglows of the nearest 8 of the known-redshift GRBs show various degrees of evidence for an association with a supernova akin to SN1998bw. In all other cases such an association, even if present, would have been undetectable with the best current photometric sensitivities. This gives strong support to the proposition that most, maybe all, of the long-duration GRBs are associated with supernovae. Though our emphasis is on optical afterglows, we also provide an excellent description of X-ray afterglows.Comment: Includes fits to the and X-ray and optical afterglows of all GRBs with known redshift prior to July 2001 and an alternative interpretation of the peculiar X-ray and optical afterglows of GRB 970508. In press in Astronomy and Astrophysic