Economic Analysis of Post-harvest Losses in Marketing of Vegetables in Uttarakhand

The study has examined the nature and extent of post-harvest losses in vegetable supply chain in the Kumaon division of Uttarakhand. Multistage cluster sampling has been used for selection of 80 vegetable growers, 40 farmers from the hilly region and 40 farmers from the bhabhar region. The sample has also included 25 market functionaries. Twelve major vegetables have been selected for the study. The maximum aggregate post-harvest losses have been found in tomato, followed by potato, brinjal, chilly, French bean and pea. The study has suggested that establishment of producer co-operatives to handle various activities relating to production and marketing of vegetables would help in reducing post-harvest losses.Post-harvest losses, Uttarakhand, Vegetable supply chain, Tomato, Potato, Brinjal, Chilly, French bean, Pea, Agricultural and Food Policy, Q13, Q12, Q18,

Von-Neumann Stability and Singularity Resolution in Loop Quantized Schwarzschild Black Hole

Though loop quantization of several spacetimes has exhibited existence of a bounce via an explicit evolution of states using numerical simulations, the question about the way central singularity is resolved in the black hole interior has remained open. The quantum Hamiltonian constraint in loop quantization turns out to be a finite difference equation whose stability is important to understand to gain insights on the viability of the underlying quantization and resulting physical implications. We take first steps towards addressing these issues for a loop quantization of the Schwarzschild interior recently given by Corichi and Singh. Von-Neumann stability analysis is performed using separability of solutions as well as a full two dimensional quantum difference equation. This results in a stability condition for black holes which have a very large mass compared to the Planck mass. For black holes of smaller masses evidence of numerical instability is found. In addition, stability analysis for macroscopic black holes leads to a constraint on the choice of the allowed states in numerical evolution. With the caveat of using kinematical norm, sharply peaked Gaussian states are evolved using the quantum difference equation and singularity resolution is obtained. A bounce is found for one of the triad variables, but for the other triad variable singularity resolution amounts to a non-singular passage through the zero volume. States are found to be peaked at the classical trajectory for a long time before and after the singularity resolution, and retain their semi-classical character across the zero volume. Our main result is that quantum bounce occurs in loop quantized Schwarzschild interior at least for macroscopic black holes.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures; Discussion of results expanded. To appear in CQ

Biodegradation of an Organic Compounds using Fluidized Bed Reactor

Fluidized beds reactors are used for different purposes; they are still used to produce gasoline and other fuels, along with many other chemicals. Many industrially produced polymers are made using FBR technology, such as rubber, vinyl chloride, polyethylene, and styrene’s. Various utilities also use Fluidized bed reactor for coal gasification, nuclear power plants, and water and waste treatment settings. Used in these applications, fluidized bed reactors allow for a cleaner, more efficient process than previous standard reactor technologies. In this paper a theoretical study about fluidized bed reactors arecarried out and also a fluidized bed reactor for three different reaction schemes (oxidation of benzene to form maleic anhydride, oxidation of naphthalene to form phthalic anhydride and oxidation of ethylene to form ethylene oxide) is designed. Costoptimization for multiple fluidized bed reactors with continuous transport of an immobilized enzyme is also studied and calculated