This paper provides Indian evidence on sub-national PPPs that point to considerable spatial price heterogeneity within the country, based on Indian National Sample Survey (NSS) data. The prices of ...various commodities have been generated from the household specific unit values obtained from the information on expenditures and quantities from the NSS unit records. This paper shows that the CPD model, proposed in the cross country context, can be adapted to the household context to estimate spatial prices in the intra country context. The proposed CPD based model is shown to be formally equivalent to certain well known fixed weight price indices under certain parametric configurations. The empirical contribution includes a systematic comparison between the spatial price indices from alternative models, namely the CPD and utility based models, and the result that the utility based methods point to a much greater extent of spatial price heterogeneity than is suggested by the CPD type models. The results also record the sensitivity of the spatial price indices to the choice of commodities in the utility based approach. The pairwise comparison of estimates suggests that commodity selection may be more important than model selection in its impact on the spatial price estimates, though the latter is important as well. The study provides estimates of rural–urban differentials in spatial price indices that suggest some interesting differences between the constituent states. The results make a strong case for further research on the topic of sub-national PPPs in the context of large heterogeneous countries.
Copulas are mathematical tools for modeling joint probability distributions. In the past 60 years they have become an essential analysis tool on classical computers in various fields. The recent ...finding that copulas can be expressed as maximally entangled quantum states has revealed a promising approach to practical quantum advantages: performing tasks faster, requiring less memory, or, as we show, yielding better predictions. Studying the scalability of this quantum approach as both the precision and the number of modeled variables increase is crucial for its adoption in real-world applications. In this paper, we successfully apply a Quantum Circuit Born Machine (QCBM) based approach to modeling 3- and 4-variable copulas on trapped ion quantum computers. We study the training of QCBMs with different levels of precision and circuit design on a simulator and a state-of-the-art trapped ion quantum computer. We observe decreased training efficacy due to the increased complexity in parameter optimization as the models scale up. To address this challenge, we introduce an annealing-inspired strategy that dramatically improves the training results. In our end-to-end tests, various configurations of the quantum models make a comparable or better prediction in risk aggregation tasks than the standard classical models.
A dual-band circularly polarized (CP) microstrip line fed slot antenna using a set of split ring resonators (SRRs) is proposed in this communication. Outer ring connected SRRs are placed on the back ...side of the slot to create the CP upper band. Diagonally opposite corners of the slot are truncated, which together with the SRRs give CP response in the lower band. The proposed dual-band CP antenna provides design flexibility to control the resonance frequency and sense of polarization at the dual bands, independently. The proposed antenna is designed to operate at 3.1 and 4.7 GHz, which is fabricated and tested. The experimental results show the -10-dB impedance bandwidths of 400 MHz in both the bands and the 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of 3.1% (from 3.05 to 3.15 GHz) and 4.2% (from 4.65 to 4.85 GHz) in lower and upper bands, respectively. Finally, a metallic cavity is used with the antenna to achieve a unidirectional radiation pattern with front-to-back ratio of more than 15 dB without affecting the impedance bandwidth and CP performance of the antenna.
The measurement of prices is an important area of research in economics since prices play a central role in welfare analysis and macroeconomic comparisons across time and space. While accurate ...figures on inflation and cost of living are required in temporal comparisons of standard of living in a country and in adjusting poverty lines over time, such information is also essential in spatial comparisons of prices within and across countries. This paper presents a review of the literature on various aspects of price comparisons through purchasing power parity.
Iron-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (fRGO)-coated sand was used for the adsorption of natural organic matter, such as fulvic acid (FA), from synthetic water. A novel synthesis route was ...achieved to prepare an fRGO nanocomposite. FTIR, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were applied to investigate the morphologies and structures of fRGO. Removal kinetics (pseudo-second order) and adsorption isotherms (Langmuir and Freundlich) were investigated in terms of adsorbed total organic carbon (TOC) of FA to evaluate the removal rate and adsorption capacity. The effects of pH of the FA solution and the adsorbent dose (0.5-2.5 mg g
−1
) of fRGO were further evaluated for the determination of a possible removal mechanism. A comparative study of the adsorption efficiency of fRGO and powder activated carbon (PAC) was also carried out, and the results indicated a higher FA adsorption efficacy for fRGO. The π-π interaction between the carbon atoms of FA and fRGO and electrostatic interaction between iron and functional radicals of FA were responsible for the removal.
Iron-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (fRGO)-coated sand was used for the adsorption of natural organic matter, such as fulvic acid (FA), from synthetic water.
Myo
-inositol oxygenase (MIOX), the only catabolic enzyme of the inositol pathway, catalyzes conversion of
myo
-inositol to D-GlcA (glucuronic acid). The present study encompasses bioinformatic ...analysis of
MIOX
gene across phylogenetically related plant lineages and representative animal groups. Comparative motif analysis of the
MIOX
gene(s) across various plant groups suggested existence of abiotic- stress related
cis
-acting elements such as, DRE, MYB, MYC, STRE, MeJa among others. A detailed analysis revealed a single isoform of
MIOX
gene, located in chromosome 6 of
indica
rice (
Oryza sativa
) with an open reading frame of 938 bp coding for 308 amino acids producing a protein of ~ 35 kD. Secondary structure prediction of the protein gave the predicted number of 144 alpha helices and 154 random coils. The three-dimensional structure suggested it to be a monomeric protein with a single domain. Bacterial overexpression of the protein, purification and enzyme assay showed optimal catalytic activity at pH 7.5–8 at an optimal temperature of 37 °C with Michaelis constant of 40.92 mM. The range of Km was determined as 22.74–28.7 mM and the range of Vmax was calculated as 3.51–3.6 µM/min, respectively. Four salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive rice cultivars displayed differential gene expression of
OsMIOX
at different time points in different tissues under salinity and drought stress as observed from qRT-PCR data, microarray results and protein expression profile in immunoblot analysis. Gel volumetric analysis confirmed a very high expression of
MIOX
in roots and leaves on 7th day following germination. Microarray data showed high expression of
MIOX
at all developmental stages including seedling growth and reproduction. These data suggest that OsMIOX might have a role to play in rice abiotic stress responses mediated through the
myo
-inositol oxidation pathway.
In this study, we employed two multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, namely the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and the Analytic Hierarchic Process ...(AHP), to determine the best management choice for the cultivation of wheat with a regime of conservation agriculture (CA) practices. By combining alternative tillage approaches, such as reduced tillage and zero tillage, with the quantity of crop residues and fertilizer application, we were able to develop the regime of CA practices. The performance of the regimes compared to the conventional ones was then evaluated using conflicting parameters relating to energy use, economics, agronomy, plant protection, and soil science. TOPSIS assigned a grade to each alternative based on how close it was to the ideal solution and how far away it was from the negative ideal solution. However, employing AHP, we determined the weights of each of the main and sub-parameters used for this study using pairwise comparison. With TOPSIS, we found ZERO1 (0% residue + 100% NPK) followed by ZERO4 (50%residue + 100% NPK), and ZERO2 (100% residue + 50% NPK) were the best performing tillage-based alternatives. To best optimize the performance of wheat crops under various CA regimes, TOPSIS assisted the decision-makers in distinguishing the effects of the parameters on the outcome and identifying the potential for maneuvering the weak links. The outcomes of this investigation could be used to improve management techniques for wheat production with CA practices for upscaling among the farmers.
In recent years, salient object detection (SOD) has achieved significant progress with the help of convolution neural network (CNN). Most of the state-of-the-art methods segment the salient object by ...either aggregating the multilevel features from the CNN module or introducing the refinement module along with the baseline network. However, these models suffer from simplicity bias, where neural networks converge to global minima using the simple feature and remain invariant to complex predictive features. Very few methods concentrate on the neurophysiological behaviour of visual attention. As per Gestalt psychology, humans tend to perceive the objects as a whole rather than focus on the discrete elements of that object. The law of Closure (closed contour) is one of the Gestalt axioms that states that if there is a discontinuity in the object’s contour, we perceive the object as continuous in a smooth pattern. This paper proposes a two-way learning network, where Closure-guided Attention Network (CGAN) and the Coarse Saliency Networks (CSN) jointly supervise the feature-channel to mitigate the simplicity bias. Furthermore, a channel-wise attention residual network is incorporated in the Closure Guided module to alleviate the scale-space problem and generate smooth object contour. Finally, the closure map from CGAN fused with the coarse saliency map of the Coarse Saliency Network generates a salient object. Experimental result on five benchmark datasets demonstrates the significant improvements in our approach over the state-of-the-art method.
PDF
