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,

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,

Block Outlier Methods for Malicious User Detection in Cooperative Spectrum Sensing

Block outlier detection methods, based on Tietjen-Moore (TM) and Shapiro-Wilk (SW) tests, are proposed to detect and suppress spectrum sensing data falsification (SSDF) attacks by malicious users in cooperative spectrum sensing. First, we consider basic and statistical SSDF attacks, where the malicious users attack independently. Then we propose a new SSDF attack, which involves cooperation among malicious users by masking. In practice, the number of malicious users is unknown. Thus, it is necessary to estimate the number of malicious users, which is found using clustering and largest gap method. However, we show using Monte Carlo simulations that, these methods fail to estimate the exact number of malicious users when they cooperate. To overcome this, we propose a modified largest gap method.Comment: Accepted in Proceedings of 79th IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference-Spring (VTC-Spring), May 2014, Seoul, South Kore

Comparative study of intrathecal fentanyl, tramadol, clonidine mixed with bupivacaine for peri and post operative pain relief in lower limb and lower abdominal surgery

Background: Pain relief is of paramount importance in patients undergoing surgery during perioperative and post-operative period. After effective pain relief a smoother post-operative period and early discharge from the hospital is anticipated. Intrathecal and epidural narcotics have been widely used to relieve pain and provide post-operative analgesia. Here three drugs tramadol, fentanyl, and clonidine used as adjuvant with bupivacaine in intrathecal injection for post-operative pain relief and comparative study had been done.Methods: After the study protocol was approved by the Ethical clearance committee of the DMCH, Laheriasarai, Bihar. Study design was prospective, randomized and double-blind techniques. A group of 80 patients undergoing lower abdominal and lower limb surgery were included in the study. Every patient was fully explained about the anaesthesia and surgical procedure before inclusion in the study. The patients were in the (25-65) years age group and belonged to the American Society of Anaesthesiologist (ASA) physical status class I-II and scheduled for lower abdominal and lower limbs surgery were randomly allocated to four groups with equal number: group B [Bupivacaine (35)% 3 cc + 0.4 cc normal saline], group BT [Bupivacaine (5)% 3 cc + 25 mg tramadol], BC [Bupivacaine (0.5)% 3 c.c + 30 μg clonidine], BF [Bupivacaine (0.5)% 3 c.c + 20 μg fentanyl]. All additive drugs used intrathecally were preservative free. All intrathecal punctures were performed in the lateral (Right or Left) position with a (25G) Quinke needle, using the midline approach at the L3-L4 intervertebral space.Results: The study revealed that administration of additives in group BC and group BF did prolong analgesia. In group B, duration of analgesia and mean duration of rescue analgesic requirement was (3.57±0.45) hrs. For group BC it was (9.47±0.85) hrs, for group BF (7.6±1.14) hrs, for group BT (3.72±0.42) hrs.Conclusions:Addition of adjuvants (Fentanyl, Clonidine) to intrathecal bupivacaine for perioperative pain relief does prolong postoperative analgesia and improves the intraoperative quality of analgesia than bupivacaine alone.Background: Pain relief is of paramount importance in patients undergoing surgery during perioperative and post-operative period. After effective pain relief a smoother post-operative period and early discharge from the hospital is anticipated. Intrathecal and epidural narcotics have been widely used to relieve pain and provide post-operative analgesia. Here three drugs tramadol, fentanyl, and clonidine used as adjuvant with bupivacaine in intrathecal injection for post-operative pain relief and comparative study had been done.Methods: After the study protocol was approved by the Ethical clearance committee of the DMCH, Laheriasarai, Bihar. Study design was prospective, randomized and double-blind techniques. A group of 80 patients undergoing lower abdominal and lower limb surgery were included in the study. Every patient was fully explained about the anaesthesia and surgical procedure before inclusion in the study. The patients were in the (25-65) years age group and belonged to the American Society of Anaesthesiologist (ASA) physical status class I-II and scheduled for lower abdominal and lower limbs surgery were randomly allocated to four groups with equal number: group B [Bupivacaine (35)% 3 cc + 0.4 cc normal saline], group BT [Bupivacaine (5)% 3 cc + 25 mg tramadol], BC [Bupivacaine (0.5)% 3 c.c + 30 μg clonidine], BF [Bupivacaine (0.5)% 3 c.c + 20 μg fentanyl]. All additive drugs used intrathecally were preservative free. All intrathecal punctures were performed in the lateral (Right or Left) position with a (25G) Quinke needle, using the midline approach at the L3-L4 intervertebral space.Results: The study revealed that administration of additives in group BC and group BF did prolong analgesia. In group B, duration of analgesia and mean duration of rescue analgesic requirement was (3.57±0.45) hrs. For group BC it was (9.47±0.85) hrs, for group BF (7.6±1.14) hrs, for group BT (3.72±0.42) hrs.Conclusions: Addition of adjuvants (Fentanyl, Clonidine) to intrathecal bupivacaine for perioperative pain relief does prolong postoperative analgesia and improves the intraoperative quality of analgesia than bupivacaine alone

Effect of Implantation Temperature on the Layer Exfoliation of H-implanted Germanium

This work describes the influence of implantation temperature on the layer exfoliation of the H-implanted Ge substrate. For the implantation at RT, post-implantation annealing showed large exfoliated regions over the sample surface. Two depths of the exfoliated regions were observed with average values of about 654 and 856 nm from the top of the H-implanted surface. In the H-implanted Ge at 300 °C, exfoliation occurred in the as-implanted state in the form of surface craters. The average depth of these craters was measured to be about 890 nm from the surface. Simulation results showed that the depth of the exfoliated regions was either located near to the damage peak or away from the H-peak depending upon the implantation temperature. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3099

An engineering study to investigate the methane hydrate resource potential associated with the Barrow gas fields in Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2008"Previous studies on the Barrow Gas Fields (BGF) in Alaska have suggested that accumulations of natural gas hydrates could exist within these reservoirs. In consideration of future energy challenges, and the potential of gas hydrates in meeting them, a comprehensive engineering study was undertaken to investigate the BGF for hydrates, and to recommend an optimal plan for future field development. The methane hydrate resource potential of the BGF, viz. the East Barrow (EB), South Barrow (SB), and Walakpa (WAL) gas pools, was analyzed by developing gas hydrate stability models. Material balance studies were performed on the EB gas field to understand the reservoir drive mechanisms. Gas-water relative permeability experiments were conducted on a hydrate-saturated consolidated core sample, by maintaining the EB reservoir conditions, to model two-phase fluid flow behavior. Finally, field-scale dynamic reservoir simulation models were developed for the EB and WAL gas fields. Production history data were matched, reservoir drive mechanisms were confirmed, free gas and hydrate resources were quantified, hydrate dissociation patterns were examined, optimum locations for drilling infill wells were identified, and future production scenarios were simulated. Findings from this work indicate that BGF are associated with hydrates that are constantly recharging the gas reservoir by dissociation"--Leaf iiiU.S. Department of Energy, North Slope Borough, Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska, Petroleum Development Laborator

Microbial metabolites in nutrition, healthcare and agriculture

Microorganisms are a promising source of an enormous number of natural products, which have made significant contribution to almost each sphere of human, plant and veterinary life. Natural compounds obtained from microorganisms have proved their value in nutrition, agriculture and healthcare. Primary metabolites, such as amino acids, enzymes, vitamins, organic acids and alcohol are used as nutritional supplements as well as in the production of industrial commodities through biotransformation. Whereas, secondary metabolites are organic compounds that are largely obtained by extraction from plants or tissues. They are primarily used in the biopharmaceutical industry due to their capability to reduce infectious diseases in human beings and animals and thus increase the life expectancy. Additionally, microorganisms and their products inevitably play a significant role in sustainable agriculture development

Characterization of a native plasmid from Bacillus subtilis with special focus on its regulatory circuit for conjugation

Tesis doctoral inédita leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología Molecular. Fecha de lectura: 24-06-2014Spreading of antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria is a major problem for human Health as well as in veterinarian world. Bacteria can exchange antibiotic resistance genes by Different processes, collectively called Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT). One of the processes Of HGT is conjugationin which genetic material (DNA) is transferred from a donor cell to a Recipient cell. Conjugation, which is widespread among both Gram-negative and Gram- positive Bacteria is mediated by conjugation system present on plasmids and/or! by integrative conjugative elements (ICEs). Plasmids are autonomously replicating units present in many bacteria besides their chromosome. Conjugation systems present on various plasmids from Gram-negative bacteria have been studied in considerable detail. Much less is known, however, about conjugation !systems present!on plasmids from Gram- Positive bacteria. A major goal of my thesis studies was to increase ou understandingabout Conjugation systems and Its regulation in Gram-positive bacteria. We chose the! Native plasmid pLS20 from! Bacillus subtilis for several reasons. First; B. subtilis, itself a GRAS organism, is related to pathogens or fastidious bacteria, 2nd, is one of bes ! studied organisms, 3rd, its natural competence facilitates genetic manipulation, and 4th, B.subtilis is gut commensal. The first part of this thesis describes an in-silico analysis of pLS20cat, which we have Sequenced to completeness.pLS20cat has a size of 65,774 bps. It contains almost 100 ORFs, Which we have grouped into five different modules. One of the modules concerns a putative conjugation operon, which flanks a rap-phr cassette. Many rap-phr cassettes have been identified on the genome of B.( subtilis and other bacilli. In addition, they are present on several rolling-circle and theta replicating plasmids of Bacilli. Most of the rap-phr cassettes analyzed have been shown to affect differentiation processes like sporulation, competence and biofilm formation. A detailed analysis of the rap-phr cassette of pLS20cat is described in the third part of this thesis. We found that the presence of pLS20cat strongly inhibits transformation efficiencies Of its host. The second part of this thesis describes the identification and functional analysis of the pLS20cat-located gene responsible for competence inhibition. Thus, we found that ORF64 is responsible for competence inhibition and we named the gene rokLS20. We also unraveled the mechanism of how RokLS20 inhibits competence. RokLS20 is a DNA binding protein that preferentially binds to the comK promoter thereby repressing expression of the key transcriptional activator of the competence genes, ComK. A functional RokLS20IGFP fusion protein coIlocalized with the bacterial nucleoid in an irregular pattern similar to that described for the RokBs168 homologue that is encoded by the host. Screening the sequences present in available databases resulted in the identification of several additional! rok paralogues. Based on their homology, 20 rok genes were divided into twogroups. The third part of the thesis describes the regulatory circuit of pLS20cat conjugation. Our results show that the conjugation genes of pLS20cat are not induced by recipient produced pheromones, demonstrating that the conjugation genes of pLS20cat are fundamentally different regulated to those present on the Gram-positive enterococcal plasmids pAD1 and pCF10. Our results show that conjugation is in a!default! “OFF” state. Conjugation is activated by RapLS20, which is an anti-repressor and hence relieves RcoLS20-mediated repression. Finally,the phrLS20 encodes for the signaling peptide Phr*LS20 that !is responsible for inhibiting the activity of RapLS20 and decide the timing for conjugation

The Impact of Blockchain on the Healthcare Environment

Bitcoin was the first electronic payment system to truly exploit the power of blockchain technology. There is currently the problem of health information inequality and health information leakage. Physicians should conduct essential routine work that wastes hu-man and financial resources and delays treatment processes. Blockchain provides a trust-free and cost-reducing solution to manage and secure valuable health information. The aim of this study is to discuss research into blockchain healthcare applications. It addresses the management of medical data, as well as the sharing of medical infor-mation, the sharing of images, and the management of logs. We also discuss papers that overlap with other fields, such as the Internet of Things, information management, drug monitoring along their supply chain, and aspects of security and privacy. Finally, we analyze and compare the research papers in the medical area and also summarize the strategies used in healthcare with their pros and cons

Homotopy perturbation method to space–time fractional solidification in a finite slab

AbstractA mathematical model describing the space and time fractional solidification of fluid initially at its freezing temperature contained in a finite slab under the constant wall temperature is presented. The approximate analytical solution of this problem is obtained by the homotopy perturbation method. The results thus obtained are compared with exact solution of integer order (β=1,α=2) and are good agreement. The problem has been studied in detail by considering different order time and space fractional derivatives. The temperature distribution and the moving interface position for different fractional order space and time derivatives are shown graphically. The model and the solution are the generalization of the previous works and include them as special cases