Inequalities, institutions, and forest commons

This paper contributes to a growing literature on the commons that examines the relationship between inequality and commons outcomes. Our analysis of evidence on forest commons outcomes in 228 cases from South Asia (India and Nepal), East Africa (Kenya and Uganda) and Latin America (Mexico and Bolivia) suggests that local governance and collective action matter in shaping how socioeconomic inequalities affect forest conditions. In particular, we find that both inter-group and intra-group economic inequalities have consistently negative effects on forest outcomes, but that effectively functioning local institutions for collective action dampen the negative effect of inter-group inequality on forest outcomes.     

Thermal and mass diffusion on MHD natural convective flow of a rarefied gas along vertical porous plate

The flow of an electrically conducting incompressible rarefied gas due to the combined buoyancy effects of thermal and mass diffusion past an infinite vertical porous plate with constant suction has been studied in the presence of uniform transverse magnetic field. The problem has been solved for velocity, temperature, and concentration fields. It has been observed that mean velocity and the mean temperature are affected by the Grashof numbersG ₁ andG ₂, the slip parameterh ₁, temperature jump coefficienth ₂, concentration jump coefficienth ₃ and magnetic field parameterM. The amplitude and the phase of skin-friction and the rate of heat transfer are affected by frequency in addition to the above parameters. They are shown graphically. The numerical values of the mean skin-friction and the mean rate of heat transfer are also tabulated.     

A rapid method of trace analysis of vanadium from phosphorites

N-m-Tolyl-o-methoxybenzohydroxamic acid (N-m-T-o-MBHA) was used for the simultaneous extraction and direct spectrophotometric determination of vanadium at microgram concentration from phosphorites. Vanadium (V) was extracted as a deep violet complex with 5 ml of 0.1N-m-T-o-mMBHA in chloroform. The extraction was quantitative and obeys Beer's law in the range of 0.05–15 μg/ml of vanadium at 550 nm and the molar absorptivity was 6.4 × 10³.This method is selective and vanadium could be determined in the presence of various ions.     

A Comparison of Near-Bed Acoustic Backscatter and Laser Diffraction Measurements of Suspended Sediments

As part of the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR, Arlington, VA) mine burial program, an experiment was conducted off the pier at Santa Cruz, CA, to measure the near-bed suspended sediment reference concentration under waves and currents. Two tripods were deployed to carry out the measurements; one consisting mainly of acoustical instrumentation and the other solely of optical instruments. The tripods were located within 15 m of one another on a sandy bed and measurements of the suspended sediment were made using acoustics and optics. Although the experiment was not primarily designed to conduct an intercomparison of acoustical and optical measurements, it was considered interesting to take advantage of the situation and to examine if these two techniques gave comparable results. In particular, measurements of particle size and concentration, obtained using a triple frequency acoustic backscatter system (ABS) have been compared with the commercially available laser miniature scattering and transmissometry instrument (MSCAT). It was found that the mean grain size estimated by the two methods was consistent; however, in contrast, the concentration time series showed differences, both in magnitude and form.     

Study of Cosmic-Ray Intensity Variations Associated with Anomalous,Long-Duration High-Speed Solar Wind Streams in 2003

High-speed solar wind streams (HSWS) were identified for solar cycles 22 and 23 (up to 2004). Preliminarily, HSWS were classified in three groups according to their continuous period of occurrence. In the declining phase of solar cycle 23, 2003 is found to be anomalous, showing a very large number of HSWS events of long duration (> ten days). We have studied the effect of HSWS on the cosmic-ray intensity as well as their relationship with geomagnetic disturbance index Ap on yearly, daily, and hourly bases. The yearly average of solar-wind speed was also found to be maximum in 2003. Being within the declining phase of solar activity, the occurrence of solar flares in 2003 is quite low. In particular during HSWS, no solar flares have been observed. Associations with cosmic-ray changes do not support the notion that the HSWS are usually effective in producing significant cosmic-ray decreases. Out of 12 HSWS events observed during the period 2002 (December) to 2003, four events of significant cosmic-ray decreases at all the stations have been selected for further analysis. The cosmic-ray intensity has been found to decrease during the first phase of the event (first five days of HSWS) at all three neutron-monitor stations situated at different latitudes with different cutoff rigidities. The rigidity spectra of observed decreases in cosmic-ray intensity for these four cases have been found to be significantly different than that of Fds (Forbush decrease). In two cases the spectra are softer, whereas in the other two they are harder than that of Fds. However, if the average of all four events is considered together then the spectra of the decrease in cosmic rays during HSWS exactly match that of Fds. Such a result implies that initially individual events should be considered, instead of combining them together, as was done earlier. The Ap index is also found to generally increase in the first phase of the event. However, the four events selected on the basis of cosmic-ray decrease are not always associated with enhanced values of the Ap index. As such, the significance of our study is that further detailed investigations for much longer periods and on an event-by-event basis is required to understand the effect of coronal-hole-associated HSWS.