Nutrient Mobility in Chalakudy River,Typified With Riparian Buffer Zone and Its Adjoining Estuary:Spatiotemporal Manifestation

This study was aimed at to characterize the spatio-temporal trends in the distributional characteristics of various species of nitrogen and phosphorus as well as to elucidate the factors and processes aflecting these nutrients in the dissolved, particulate and sedimentary phases of a river estuarine system. The main area of study is Chalakudy river in Kerala, which is a fresh water system originating from Anamalai hills and ending at Arabian Sea. Its basin is between I00 05 ’ to I00 35’ North latitude and 76” 15 ’ to 760 55’ East longitude. Being a riparian bufler zone, the dynamics of nutrient mobility tend to be more complex and variable in this river-estuarine system.The diflerent species of nitrogen estimated from the filtrate were nitrite-N, nitrateN, ammonia-N, urea-N, total nitrogen and residual nitrogen. The diflerent forms of phosphorus estimated from the filtrate were phosphate-P, total-P and residualP. Pre weighed sediments as well as particulate matter were analysed for quantijying nitrite-N, nitrate-N, ammonia-N and urea-N. Total nitrogen was estimated after digestion with potassium persulfate. Fractionation of phosphorus in sediment/particulate matter was performed by applying sequential extraction procedure. The dijferent forms of phosphorus thus estimated were loosely bound (exchangeable) P, Fe/Al bound P, polyphosphates, Ca bound P and refractory P. Sedimental total P was also measured directly by applying digestion method.The analyses carried out in this bimonthly annual survey have revealed specific information on the latent factors influencing the water quality pattern ofthe river. There was dependence among the chemical components of the river sediment and suspended matter, reflecting the water quality. A period of profound environmental change occurred and changes in various species had been noted in association with seasonal variations in the waterway, especially following enhanced river runoff during the monsoon. The results also successfully represented the distribution trend of nutrients during the rainy as well as dry season. Thus, the information gathered in this work will also be beneficial for those interested or involved in river management, conservation, regulation and policy making in regional and national levels.

Paper industry in Kerala: An evaluation of labour absorption,capacity utilisation, and environmental pollution

Paper industry is one of the oldest and largest industries in Kerala. Despite the developments in the industry in terms of growth in output , value added and employment generation, many of the units face grave problems. Irrespective of the size of the plant, the problems of the industry are general in nature. The problems are galore in the supply, not the demand side. Amomg the problems, the important ones are: raw material scarcity, energy deficiency and obsolete technology. Further, the industry is subject to many controls by the Government — price control, product control and raw materials control — which result in the dwindling of profits and investments. Equally important are the reservations against the industry for polluting the environment byeffluent disposal on the one hand and affecting ecological balance by depleting the existing forest on the other. Apart from the large, medium and small pulp and paper mills, there are about 30 hand made paper units in Kerala which can be categorised as village and cottage industry. Almost all of these units began at the initiative and support of Khadi and Village Industries Commission. The primary purpose of these units is employment generation, and not profit making. Currently many of these units are in the red and many others are on the verge of closure. Therefore, a separate analysis of the growth performance, and problems and prospects of the hand made paper industry has also been attempted. It is analysed separately because of the very small size of the hand made paper units

Design and Development of Compact Chipless RFID Tags with High Data Encoding Capacity

The main objective of this thesis is to develop a compact chipless RFID tag with high data encoding capacity. The design and development of chipless RFID tag based on multiresonator and multiscatterer methods are presented first. An RFID tag using using SIR capable of 79bits is proposed. The thesis also deals with some of the properties of SIR like harmonic separation, independent control on resonant modes and the capability to change the electrical length. A chipless RFID reader working in a frequency band of 2.36GHz to 2.54GHz has been designed to show the feasibility of the RFID system. For a practical system, a new approach based on UWB Impulse Radar (UWB IR) technology is employed and the decoding methods from noisy backscattered signal are successfully demonstrated. The thesis also proposes a simple calibration procedure, which is able to decode the backscattered signal up to a distance of 80cm with 1mW output power.

Evaluation of Stress Reducing Capacity of Selected Anaesthetics for the Live Transportation of Green Chromide Etroplus suratensis

Transport of live aquatic organisms which is more than a century old, perhaps started in the 1870's (Norris et al, 1960). Live fish transportation is an essential practice in aquaculture particularly in rural areas of developing countries representing the only means of supplying fry to small scale aqua culturists (Taylor and Ross, 1988). Very often, large numbers of fry, fingerlings, juveniles and adult fish are being transported from the hatchery to fish farms, fish farms to market, processors and consumers. Live fish command large economic importance in the fresh fish market than dead and iced fish. Medina Pizzali (2001) observed that live fish in the Kolkata market was usually sold at higher prices than dead fish and most consumers were prepared to pay premium prices for live fish, which is considered as the best guarantee of freshness, quality, and intrinsic characteristics of its flesh (better texture and delicate flavour) in comparison with fresh/chilled seafood. Various government and private agencies undertake transport of live fish for commercial live fish market or for artificial propagation of game