Sources of major ions and processes affecting the geochemical and isotopic signatures of subsurface waters along a tropical river, Southwestern India

Systematic monitoring of subsurface hydrogeochemistry has been carried out for a period of one year in a humid tropical region along the Nethravati-Gurupur River. The major ion and stable isotope (delta O-18 and delta H-2) compositions are used to understand the hydrogeochemistry of groundwater and its interaction with surface water. In the study, it is observed that intense weathering of source rocks is the major source of chemical elements to the surface and subsurface waters. In addition, agricultural activities and atmospheric contributions also control the major ion chemistry of water in the study area. There is a clear seasonality in the groundwater chemistry, which is related to the recharge and discharge of the hydrological system. On a temporal scale, there is a decrease in major cation concentrations during the monsoon which is a result of dilution of sources from the weathering of rock minerals, and an increase in anion concentrations which is contributed by the atmosphere, accompanied by an increase in water level during the monsoon. The stable isotope composition indicates that groundwater in the basin is of meteoric origin and recharged directly from the local precipitation during the monsoonal season. Soon after the monsoon, groundwater and surface water mix in the subsurface region. The groundwater feeds the surface water during the lean river flow season.

Investigation on two magnon scattering processes in pulsed laser deposited epitaxial nickel zinc ferrite thin film

Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements are employed to evaluate the presence of the two magnon scattering contribution in the magnetic relaxation processes of the epitaxial nickel zinc ferrite thin films deposited using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on the (0 0 1) MgAl2O4 substrate. Furthermore, the reciprocal space mapping reveals the presence of microstructural defects which acts as an origin for the two magnon scattering process in this thin film. The relevance of this scattering process is further discussed for understanding the higher FMR linewidth in the in-plane configuration compared to the out-of-plane configuration. FMR measurements also reveal the presence of competing uniaxial and cubic anisotropy in the studied films.

Broadcast Control Mechanism for Positional Consensus in Multiagent Systems

In this paper, a strategy for controlling a group of agents to achieve positional consensus is presented. The problem is constrained by the requirement that every agent must be given the same control input through a broadcast communication mechanism. Although the control command is computed using state information in a global framework, the control input is implemented by the agents in a local coordinate frame. We propose a novel linear programming (LP) formulation that is computationally less intensive than earlier proposed methods. Moreover, a random perturbation input in the control command that helps the agents to come close to each other even for a large number of agents, which was not possible with an existing strategy in the literature, is introduced. The method is extended to achieve positional consensus at a prespecified location. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated through simulation results. A comparison between the LP approach and the existing second-order cone programming-based approach is also presented. The algorithm was successfully implemented on a robotic platform with three robots.

Risk-Sensitive Ergodic Control of Continuous Time Markov Processes With Denumerable State Space

In this article, we study risk-sensitive control problem with controlled continuous time Markov chain state dynamics. Using multiplicative dynamic programming principle along with the atomic structure of the state dynamics, we prove the existence and a characterization of optimal risk-sensitive control under geometric ergodicity of the state dynamics along with a smallness condition on the running cost.

The electronic, chemical and electrocatalytic processes and intermediates on iron oxide surfaces during photoelectrochemical water splitting

We re-assess experimental soft X-ray absorption spectra of the oxygen K-shell which we recorded operando from iron oxide during photoelectrochemical water splitting in KOH electrolyte. In particular, we refer to recently reported transitional electron hole states which originate within the charge carrier depletion layer of the iron oxide and on the iron oxide surface. For the latter we find that an intermediate oxy-peroxo species is formed on the iron oxide with increasing bias potential, which disappears upon further polarization of the electrode, concomitantly with the evolution and disappearance of the aforementioned surface state. The oxygen spectra contain also the spectroscopic signatures of the electrolyte water, the position of which changes with increasing bias potential towards lower X-ray energies, revealing the breaking and formation of hydrogen bonds in the water during the experiment. Combined with potential dependent impedance spectroscopy data we are able to sketch the molecular structure of chemical intermediates and their charge carrier dynamics. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Use of Sr isotopes as a tool to decipher the soil weathering processes in a tropical river catchment, southwestern India

River water composition (major ion and Sr-87/Sr-86 ratio) was monitored on a monthly basis over a period of three years from a mountainous river (Nethravati River) of southwestern India. The total dissolved solid (TDS) concentration is relatively low (46 mg L-1) with silica being the dominant contributor. The basin is characterised by lower dissolved Sr concentration (avg. 150 nmol L-1), with radiogenic Sr-87/Sr-86 isotopic ratios (avg. 0.72041 at outlet). The composition of Sr and Sr-87/Sr-86 and their correlation with silicate derived cations in the river basin reveal that their dominant source is from the radiogenic silicate rock minerals. Their composition in the stream is controlled by a combination of physical and chemical weathering occurring in the basin. The molar ratio of SiO2/Ca and Sr-87/Sr-86 isotopic ratio show strong seasonal variation in the river water, i.e., low SiO2/Ca ratio with radiogenic isotopes during non-monsoon and higher SiO2/Ca with less radiogenic isotopes during monsoon season. Whereas, the seasonal variation of Rb/Sr ratio in the stream water is not significant suggesting that change in the mineral phase being involved in the weathering reaction could be unlikely for the observed molar SiO2/Ca and Sr-87/Sr-86 isotope variation in river water. Therefore, the shift in the stream water chemical composition could be attributed to contribution of ground water which is in contact with the bedrock (weathering front) during non-monsoon and weathering of secondary soil minerals in the regolith layer during monsoon. The secondary soil mineral weathering leads to limited silicate cation and enhanced silica fluxes in the Nethravati river basin. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determinantal point processes in the plane from products of random matrices

We show that the density of eigenvalues for three classes of random matrix ensembles is determinantal. First we derive the density of eigenvalues of product of k independent n x n matrices with i.i.d. complex Gaussian entries with a few of matrices being inverted. In second example we calculate the same for (compatible) product of rectangular matrices with i.i.d. Gaussian entries and in last example we calculate for product of independent truncated unitary random matrices. We derive exact expressions for limiting expected empirical spectral distributions of above mentioned ensembles.

Case studies on the formation of chalcogenide self-assembled monolayers on surfaces and dissociative processes

This report examines the assembly of chalcogenide organic molecules on various surfaces, focusing on cases when chemisorption is accompanied by carbon-chalcogen atom-bond scission. In the case of alkane and benzyl chalcogenides, this induces formation of a chalcogenized interface layer. This process can occur during the initial stages of adsorption and then, after passivation of the surface, molecular adsorption can proceed. The characteristics of the chalcogenized interface layer can be significantly different from the metal layer and can affect various properties such as electron conduction. For chalcogenophenes, the carbon-chalcogen atombond breaking can lead to opening of the ring and adsorption of an alkene chalcogenide. Such a disruption of the pi-electron system affects charge transport along the chains. Awareness about these effects is of importance from the point of view of molecular electronics. We discuss some recent studies based on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy that shed light on these aspects for a series of such organic molecules.

Electron transfer amongst flavo- and hemo-proteins: diffusible species effect the relay processes, not protein-protein binding

Hitherto, electron transfer (ET) between redox proteins has been deemed to occur via donor-acceptor binding, and diffusible reactive species are considered as deleterious side-products in such systems. Herein, ET from cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR, an animal membrane flavoprotein) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP, a plant hemoprotein) to cytochrome c (Cyt c, a soluble animal hemoprotein) was probed under diverse conditions, using standard assays. ET in the CPR-Cyt c system was critically inhibited by cyanide and sub-equivalent levels of polar one-electron cyclers like copper ions, vitamin C/Trolox and superoxide dismutase. In the presence of lipids, inhibition was also afforded by amphipathic molecules vitamin E, palmitoyl-vitamin C and the membrane hemoprotein, cytochrome b(5). Such nonspecific inhibition (by diverse agents in both aqueous and lipid phases) indicated that electron transfer/relay was effected by small diffusible agents, whose lifetimes are shortened by the diverse radical scavengers. When CPR was retained in a dialysis membrane and Cyt c presented outside in free solution, ET was still observed. Further, HRP (taken at nM levels) catalyzed oxidation of a phenolic substrate was significantly inhibited upon the incorporation of sub-nM levels of Cyt c. The findings imply that CPR-Cyt c or HRP-Cyt c binding is not crucial for ET. Further, fundamental quantitative arguments (based on diffusion/collision) challenge the erstwhile protein-protein binding-assisted ET hypothesis. It is proven beyond reasonable doubt that mobile and diffusible electron carriers (ions and radicals) serve as ``redox-relay agents'' in the biological ET models/setup studied.