A Bottom Up Procedure for Text Line Segmentation of Latin Script

In this paper we present a bottom up procedure for segmentation of text lines written or printed in the Latin script. The proposed method uses a combination of image morphology, feature extraction and Gaussian mixture model to perform this task. The experimental results show the validity of the procedure.Comment: Accepted and presented at the IEEE conference "International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI) 2017

Risk in Output Growth of Oilseeds in the Rajasthan State: A Policy Perspective

Today, India is one of the largest producers of oilseeds in the world and this sector occupies an important position in the agricultural economy. Rajasthan state occupies a prominent place in the oilseeds production of India. The important oilseed crops of the Rajasthan state are groundnut, soyabean, rapeseed & mustard, sesamum and taramira. The growth pattern of these crops in the state has been prone to risk over time and across the agro-climatic regions because of the rainfall behaviour, prolonged drought-periods, limited water-resources and facilities available in the state Under such a situation, growth performances of these crops are subjected to high degree of risks in the sector. Therefore, it is important to describe the growth pattern of area, production and productivity, factors affecting acreage allocation under crops and magnitude of instability as well as its sources in major oilseeds crops of Rajasthan state. The fluctuating yield has been seen for almost all the oilseeds crops. However, the area and yield instability of the mustard crop has been found declining overtime plausibly because of increase in irrigation facilities, location-specific technologies and better input management. However, this needs to be further strengthened for improvement in the overall agricultural scenario. The acreage of the crops has been found to be governed by both price and non-price factors. Hence, price incentive alone has not been found to be the sufficient in bringing the desirable change in the cropping pattern as well production of crops. Hence, a policy for better implementation of support price system, development of consistently performing varieties and further enhancement of irrigation facilities will go a long way to ensure stability in the Rajasthan agriculture. To compel the large yield variability, it is advisable to the farmers to avail benefits of crop insurance scheme.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Is Futures Market Mitigating Price Risk: An Exploration of Wheat and Maize Market

Instability of commodity prices has always been a major concern of the producers as well as the consumers in an agriculture-dominated country like India. Farmers in a bid to avert the price risk often tend to go for distress sale and thereby reduce the potential returns. In order to cope up with this problem, futures trading has emerged as a viable option for providing a greater degree of assurance on the price front. Thus, futures markets serve as a risk -shifting function. In the present study, an attempt has been made to look into the mechanism of movement of spot and futures prices for two important food crops in Indian agriculture. The Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test has been used for both the crops to check the stationarity of the time series data. Most of the series have been observed to follow the stationary pattern at the first difference. The cointegration test has been attempted to find out whether there exists a longrun relationship between spot and futures prices of various contract months for maize and wheat crops. However, there exists a short run disequilibrium between these two. It has been observed that the futures contract behave in an expected manner and there exists a mechanism for long-run equilibrium in the maize as well as wheat crops. This phenomenon of price convergence for both maize and wheat crops clearly states that the farmers are mitigating price risk as spot prices and future prices converges.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Antibacterial activity of rice bran oil

Edible oils are widely used. These edible oils have unimaginable medicinal and Pharmaceuticals properties. The oils possessing antimicrobial activity can be employed against human pathogens. Investigations into the antimicrobial activities, mode of action and potential uses of oils have regained momentum. There appears to be a revival in the use of traditional approaches for protecting livestock and food substances from pathogens, pest and spoilage in developing countries. The aim of the present investigation is to assess the anti-bacterial activity of the rice bran oil, so that the intake of rice bran oil might promote human health by preventing bacterial pathogenesis. The bacterial cultures are supplied with rice bran oil (commercially available in the market) and culture conditions are maintained as the normal protocol. The studies reveal antibacterial effect. And inhibition is of permanent nature as petridishes are not found to be infected with any other colony for 5 continuous days

Comparative study of enzyme dehydrogenase activity in Cicer arietinum and Arachis hypogea

Viability of seeds can be determined by the dehydrogenase activity of the constituent cells. Enzyme activity can be seen both inside and outside the cell. Dehydrogenase activity can be observed by the formation of formazan compound, a red dye, from 2, 3, 5, Triphenyl Tetrazolium Chloride (TTC). Dehydrogenase can catalyze the reaction. Initially red colour is observed in the seed tissues and gradually the whole solution turns red. Change in colour of the solution is observed with respect to time. A comparative study is conducted between Cicer arietinum(chick pea) and Arachis hypogea( ground nut). Higher enzyme content is reported in chickpea as the reaction is completed in 18 hours, as compared to groundnut where the reaction takes 48 hours to complete. It is seen that the content of enzyme and rapid leaching of formazan is responsible for the process

Spinal Anesthesia for Transurethral Resection of Prostate: Levobupivacaine with or without Fentanyl

Background: The aim of the present study was to compare the characteristics of spinal blocks produced by low dose levobupivacaine (0.5%) and compare it when combined with fentanyl in transurethral resection of prostate. Methods: With Institutional ethical committee clearance a prospective, randomized, double-blinded study conducted. After obtaining informed written consent a total of 140 patients scheduled for elective TURP were randomly allocated into one of the two groups of 70 patients each. Following a spinal tap, patients in Levobupivacaine Group(L) received 1.5 ml of 0.5% isobaric levobupivacaine and in Levobupivacaine - Fentanyl Group (LF) received 1 ml of 0.5% isobaric levobupivacaine with fentanyl 25 μg (0.5 ml) intrathecally. The characteristics of sensory and motor block, hemodynamic data, side effects, patient and surgeon satisfaction were recorded. Results: There were no significant differences between the two groups for patient demographic, intraoperative hemodynamic parameters, side effects and satisfaction. The highest level of sensory block was T9 in the Group L, and T8 in the Group LF (p = 0.001). Duration of motor block was shorter in Group LF than in Group L (154.76 ± 16.39 minutes in Group L; 136.23 ± 9.06 minutes in Group LF) (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Both regimes are effective, and the addition of fentanyl to levobupivacaine may offers prolong duration of sensory block and postoperative analgesia and the advantage of shorter duration of motor block, thus it may be used as an alternative to pure levobupivacaine solution in spinal anaesthesia, for transurethral resections

An Experimental Study of Odometer as a Navigation aid for Land Vehicle Application

Strap-down inertial navigation system (SINS) shall provide position, velocity, and orientation information with reference to a pre-defined reference frame. The SINS shall have excellent accuracy over a short duration and is highly self-contained. However, the errors in navigation solutions build up exponentially with time and make the system output very unstable. In order to mitigate these errors, there is a need for a damping mechanism through external aiding sensors. In this article, one such approach is proposed to improve navigation accuracy for land vehicles in the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) denied environment. The design and implementation of an odometer are carried out with the use of inductive proximity sensors and a mounting assembly to attach the odometer to one of the non-steering wheels of a vehicle. The odometer gives the pulse-high and pulse-low output with reference to the rotation of the wheel to which it is attached. Vehicle ground velocity is derived through sensed output pulses processed through quadrature decoder circuitry. Odometer measurements along with non-holonomic constraints (NHC) are used for minimizing velocity and position errors in SINS using an extended Kalman Filter (EKF) technique. Field trials are carried out to validate the proposed scheme of hybrid navigation with odometer design and experimental results are presented with a positioning accuracy of 0.05 % of distance travelled (DT)