Agri-Entrepreneural Behaviour of King Chilli Growers Under Dimapur District, Nagaland

The present study was conducted with the objective to find out the socio economic profile, agri-entrepreneural behaviour and attitude of king chilli growers in Dimapur district of Nagaland and find out the constraints faced by the respondents and to obtain their suggestions. A total of one hundred twenty farmers were selected from 4 villages using proportionate random sampling procedure. Data was collected by using interview method using pre-structure D interview schedule and analyzed using appropriate statistical tools. The study revealed that majority of the respondents belonged to middle aged group, had medium level of annual income with medium size of land holding. Majority of them had medium year of farming experience and medium level of extension contact. On analyzing the entrepreneural behaviour level, highest number of respondents i.e. 65.83% were having medium level of entrepreneural behaviour followed by 25 % having high and 9.16% having low levels. In respect of correlation analysis between entrepreneural behaviour level and socio- economic profile of respondents it shows that annual income, extension contact, mass media exposure and social contact are positively significant. Whereas, age, education, family type, family size, type of house, land holding, and farming experience are non-significant. In respect of the correlation analysis, the annual income, extension contact, mass media exposure and social contact were positively significant at 0.05 % level related to attitude of the people whereas age, education, family type, family size, type of house, land holding, and farming experience were found to be non-significantly related to attitude of the respondents towards king chilli production respectively.

EFFECTIVENESS OF AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMMES ON TELEVISION AS PERCEIVED BY TELEVIEWING FARMERS IN CHITTOOR DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

The present study was undertaken with the main objective of assessing the effectiveness of agricultural programmes of different channels as perceived by the televiewing farmers. Before and After research design was followed in the present investigation. The study was conducted in Tirupathi mandal, Chittoor district which were selected purposively. The data were collected randomly by talking personally interview of 120 televiewers. The data was collected by personal interview method through structured interview schedule. Majority of the respondents were middle aged, had medium level of education, medium farming experience, medium land holding, medium level of extension contact, mass media exposure, economic orientation, achievement motivation and innovativeness. Majority of the respondents had perception of televiewing farmers of different channels with respect to components of effectiveness, namely understandability, usefulness, demonstration mode of presentation, entertainment and relevancy of pictures. “Time duration is not sufficient”, “Telecast time is not convenient”, “Telecast programmes are useful to the farming community” and “Telecast programme are drawing attention of the farmers to bring awareness on new technology” were the major reactions of the respondents. Telecast time need to be changed from 6:00am-7.00am and 7.00pm-9.00pm, all programmes should be telecasted should be telecasted daily, information on the schedule of the topics to be telecasted in the telecasted in the consecutive week should be advertised at the starting of the week, separate television channel is required to telecast agriculture related activities.

Predicting the Effectiveness of Endemic Infectious Disease Control Interventions: The Impact of Mass Action versus Network Model Structure

Background Analyses of the effectiveness of infectious disease control interventions often rely on dynamic transmission models to simulate intervention effects. We aim to understand how the choice of network or compartmental model can influence estimates of intervention effectiveness in the short and long term for an endemic disease with susceptible and infected states in which infection, once contracted, is lifelong. Methods We consider 4 disease models with different permutations of socially connected network versus unstructured contact (mass-action mixing) model and heterogeneous versus homogeneous disease risk. The models have susceptible and infected populations calibrated to the same long-term equilibrium disease prevalence. We consider a simple intervention with varying levels of coverage and efficacy that reduces transmission probabilities. We measure the rate of prevalence decline over the first 365 d after the intervention, long-term equilibrium prevalence, and long-term effective reproduction ratio at equilibrium. Results Prevalence declined up to 10% faster in homogeneous risk models than heterogeneous risk models. When the disease was not eradicated, the long-term equilibrium disease prevalence was higher in mass-action mixing models than in network models by 40% or more. This difference in long-term equilibrium prevalence between network versus mass-action mixing models was greater than that of heterogeneous versus homogeneous risk models (less than 30%); network models tended to have higher effective reproduction ratios than mass-action mixing models for given combinations of intervention coverage and efficacy. Conclusions For interventions with high efficacy and coverage, mass-action mixing models could provide a sufficient estimate of effectiveness, whereas for interventions with low efficacy and coverage, or interventions in which outcomes are measured over short time horizons, predictions from network and mass-action models diverge, highlighting the importance of sensitivity analyses on model structure. Highlights • We calibrate 4 models—socially connected network versus unstructured contact (mass-action mixing) model and heterogeneous versus homogeneous disease risk—to 10% preintervention disease prevalence. • We measure the short- and long-term intervention effectiveness of all models using the rate of prevalence decline, long-term equilibrium disease prevalence, and effective reproduction ratio. • Generally, in the short term, prevalence declined faster in the homogeneous risk models than in the heterogeneous risk models. • Generally, in the long term, equilibrium disease prevalence was higher in the mass-action mixing models than in the network models, and the effective reproduction ratio was higher in network models than in the mass-action mixing models.

SX Piscium: A near-contact mass-transferring binary with a possible brown dwarf companion

SX Psc is a short-period Algol-type eclipsing binary whose photometric analysis has long been ignored. Our photometric monitoring of this target covered from 2001 December to 2018 November. Aside from some curves observed at the primary eclipses, the complete four-color light curves in the BVRcIc band were also obtained. Photometric solutions were determined based on the Wilson–Devinney method. It is found that SX Psc is a semidetached binary where the inner Roche lobe of the secondary component has been filled. The filling factor for the primary is about 85% along with an inclination of ${89{^{\circ}_{.}}8}$, indicating that it is a near-contact total eclipsing binary system. Meanwhile, analysis of the O − C curve revealed that the orbital period is increasing continuously at a rate of dP/dt = 4.64(4) × 10−8 d yr−1. This is due to the mass transfers from the secondary to the primary component, which is in accord with the semidetached configuration of this binary star. With the assumption of conservative evolution, the mass transfer rate is estimated as $1.96\times 10^{-8}\, M_{\odot }$ yr−1. By deducting the long-term increasing trend in the O − C diagram, the high-precision data exhibits a cyclic variation, whereas it might be caused by the Applegate mechanism. Moreover, according to the light travel-time effect, there should be a candidate brown dwarf with a mass of no less than $m\,_3 = 0.067\, M_{\odot }$ orbiting the eclipsing binary. This is perhaps a unique case for an Algol-type binary accompanied by a substellar object.