Dilution jet mixing

Schematics are given for test section configurations, orifice configurations, and the dilution jet mixing test rig used to collect a data base on mixing a single sided and a two sided row of jets with a confined cross flow. Parameters investigated include momentum ratio; nonuniform cross stream temperature and velocity profiles; cold/hot injection, and cross stream flow area convergence. Graphs show measured theta momentum distributions for: (1) in line and staggered orifice configurations; and (2) the profiled mainstream; and (3) flow area convergence

ASSESSING ECONOMIC RETURNS FROM FARMERS' RIGHTS

Many developing countries are attempting to address the inequities of plant breeders' rights by incorporating farmers' rights provisions in their Plant Variety Protection legislations to reward the role of farmers' as conservers and enhancers of agro-biodiversity. Developing countries expect to generate substantial revenues for biodiversity conservation or for community reward schemes through the application of farmers' rights provisions. This paper applies a patent-renewal model to assess the economic returns appropriated by plant breeders from new (protected) varieties in developed countries. The estimates confirm a widely held view in the literature that plant variety protection is a relatively weak form of IPR protection which allows plant breeders to appropriate only limited returns from their innovations. Consequently, the application of farmers' rights provisions in a manner akin to breeders' rights is unlikely to be a source of significant revenue to developing countries.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

DESIGNING DIETARY INTERVENTIONS:A REAPPRAISAL OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF DIETARY CHOICE IN THE UK

The facilitation of healthier dietary choices by consumers is one of the key elements of the UK Government’s food strategy. Designing and targeting dietary interventions requires a clear understanding of the determinants of dietary choice. Conventional analysis of the determinants of dietary choice has focused on mean response functions which may mask significant differences in the dietary behaviour of different segments of the population. In this paper we use a quantile regression approach to investigate how food consumption behaviour varies amongst UK households in different segments of the population, especially in the upper and lower quantiles characterised by healthy or unhealthy consumption patterns. We find that the effect of demographic determinants of dietary choice on households that exhibit less healthy consumption patterns differs significantly from that on households that make healthier consumption choices. A more nuanced understanding of the differences in the behavioural responses of households making less-healthy eating choices provides useful insights for the design and targeting of measures to promote healthier diets.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Diagonal Based Feature Extraction for Handwritten Alphabets Recognition System using Neural Network

An off-line handwritten alphabetical character recognition system using multilayer feed forward neural network is described in the paper. A new method, called, diagonal based feature extraction is introduced for extracting the features of the handwritten alphabets. Fifty data sets, each containing 26 alphabets written by various people, are used for training the neural network and 570 different handwritten alphabetical characters are used for testing. The proposed recognition system performs quite well yielding higher levels of recognition accuracy compared to the systems employing the conventional horizontal and vertical methods of feature extraction. This system will be suitable for converting handwritten documents into structural text form and recognizing handwritten names

Congruences and Canonical Forms for a Positive Matrix: Application to the Schweinler-Wigner Extremum Principle

It is shown that a $N\times N$ real symmetric [complex hermitian] positive definite matrix $V$ is congruent to a diagonal matrix modulo a pseudo-orthogonal [pseudo-unitary] matrix in $SO(m,n)$ [ $SU(m,n)$], for any choice of partition $N=m+n$. It is further shown that the method of proof in this context can easily be adapted to obtain a rather simple proof of Williamson's theorem which states that if $N$ is even then $V$ is congruent also to a diagonal matrix modulo a symplectic matrix in $Sp(N,{\cal R})$ [$Sp(N,{\cal C})$]. Applications of these results considered include a generalization of the Schweinler-Wigner method of `orthogonalization based on an extremum principle' to construct pseudo-orthogonal and symplectic bases from a given set of linearly independent vectors.Comment: 7 pages, latex, no figure

Domestic violence and dowry: evidence from a south Indian village

dowry; marriage; women; violence against women; women's status; men; social status; social implications; gender equality; India;