Assessing the role of forest resources in improving rural livelihoods in West Bengal of India

Forest resources play a vital role in supporting the livelihoods of rural communities residing in forest-rich areas.In India,a forest-rich country,a significant proportion of non-timber forest products(NTFPs)is consumed locally,supporting numerous rural communities relying on forests for essential resources,such as firewood,timber,and NTFPs.This study focuses on two forest-dominant districts in West Bengal of India,namely,Jhargram District and Paschim Medinipur District.Furthermore,this study aims to enhance the understanding of forest-dependent communities by comparing the standard of living among different village classes.Thus,we categorized villages into three classes based on the distance from home to forests,including inner villages,fringe villages,and outer villages.Through focus group discussions and household surveys,we explored the sources of local economy,income sources of household,and reasons for economic diversification in different village classes.The study findings confirm that substantial variations existed in the income sources and the standard of living in these villages.Forest income varied dramatically among the three village classes,with inner villages having greater forest income than fringe villages and outer villages.Meanwhile,households in outer villages depended on forests and engaged in diverse economic activities for their livelihoods.Compared with inner and fringe villages,households in outer villages derived a significant portion of their income from livestock.This discrepancy can be attributed to challenges,such as inadequate transportation,communication,and underdeveloped market chains in inner villages.Moreover,these findings emphasize the need to develop sustainable forest management practices,create alternative income-generation opportunities,and improve infrastructure and market access in inner villages,as well as promote economic diversification in outer villages.Through targeted policy measures,these forest-rich regions can achieve improved livelihoods,enhanced standard of living,and increased resilience for their communities.

Population Characteristics and Future Population Countermeasures for the Studied Counties in Tibet, China

Focusing on the 18 counties along “One River and Two Tributaries” region, and based on the data from China 3nl, 4th and 5th population censuses, this article has analyzed the time and spatial changing patterns of the population in this region. The analyses show that since the 3nl population census, total population, average age and total birth rate have all changed considerably: ① Total population has grown, fast, with most counties' annual average growth rate of more than 10. ② In terms of the region's average age, in 2000 the age in the 18 counties is younger than 30 years old. ③ Compared with the 3nl population census, labor force by the 5th census is much younger. ④ Countermeasures are proposed to control population by controlling birth rate as the result of the local resident's quality improvement by education.

A Realistic Interpretation of Quantum Wavefunctions as Temperature Dependent Vacuum Polarization Waves

We discuss in this paper a novel interpretation of Born rule as an approximated thermodynamic law which emerges from the interaction of a quantum system with a non-stationary thermal bath associated to vacuum fluctuations induced by external environment radiation. In particular we assume that vacuum polarization is a real non relativistic phenomena caused by hidden vacuum charge oscillations which diffuses heat energy in a dispersive and dissipative dielectric medium with a temperature dependent speed of propagation. We propose a model which couples vacuum wavefunctions to vacuum charge fluctuations and we deduce a temperature dependent running fine structure constant function proportional, at first approximation, to the squared of the effective electron charge and compatible with known experimental data. We interpret the vacuum symmetry breaking energy fluctuations induced in scattering experiments of particle physics and in laser assisted nuclear reactions as thermal quasi-monochromatic beams produced by the decay of hidden non equilibrium massive photons propagating with a variable light speed. We suggest, exploiting an old analogy between plasmons and pseudo Goldstone bosons, to interpret heat diffusion of this non relativistic polarized vacuum as a real De Broglie electromagnetic scalar wave associated to the radiation emitted by the hidden massive photons with acceleration proportional to vacuum Unruh like temperature. We predict a temperature dependent deviation from Coulomb law and a generalized dispersive law of these hidden unstable photons that could be revealed as not stationary coloured noise in experiments on anomalous heat diffusions associated to the decay of unstable accelerated pairs produced in nuclear physics experiments. We discuss then how our proposal of a temperature dependent non relativistic vacuum polarization might be applied to deduce a dynamic generalization of Born rule based on a realistic interpretation of quantum wavefunctions as averaged electromagnetic waves of hidden massive photons. Finally we suggest to test our time asymmetric model looking for very fast oscillating polarization thermal waves emitted during the not instantaneous wavefunction collapse and revealed as not stationary bulk heating effects in experiments on accelerated conductors and nanoconductors.

On studying extreme values and systematic risks with nonlinear time series models and tail dependence measures

This review paper discusses advances of statistical inference in modeling extreme observations from multiple sources and heterogeneous populations.The paper starts briefly reviewing classical univariate/multivariate extreme value theory,tail equivalence,and tail(in)dependence.New extreme value theory for heterogeneous populations is then introduced.Time series models for maxima and extreme observations are the focus of the review.These models naturally form a new system with similar structures.They can be used as alternatives to the widely used ARMA models and GARCH models.Applications of these time series models can be in many fields.The paper discusses two important applications:systematic risks and extreme co-movements/large scale contagions.