Sea Level Variations during the Late Quaternary and Coastal Evolution along the Northern Kerala, South West of India

In the present investigation, an attempt is made to document various episodes of transgression and regression during the late Quaternary period from the study of coastal and shelf sequences extending from the inland across the beach to the shelf domain. Shore parallel beach ridges with alternating swales and occurrence of strand line deposits on the shelf make the northern Kerala coast an ideal natural laboratory for documenting the morpho-dynamic response of the coast to the changing sea level. The objectives of the study are lithographic reconstruction of environments of deposition from the coastal plain and shelf sequences; documentation of episodes of transgression and regression by studying different coastal plain sequences and shelf deposits and evolve a comprehensive picture of late Quaternary coastal evolution and sea level changes along the northern Kerala coast by collating morphological, lithological and geochronological evidences from the coastal plain and shelf sequences. The present study is confined to two shore-normal east-west trending transects, Viz. Punjavi and Onakkunnu, in the northern Kerala coast.

Salinity Intrusion and Seasonal Water Quality Variations in the Tidal Canals of Cochin

The study conducted on the salinity intrusion and seasonal water quality variations in the tidal canals of cochin. The main objectives are, salinity intrusion profile, water quality variation of the surface water of the canals,hierarchical utility of the water bodies and to understand the non-conservative components in the water body. The parameters monitored werepH,temperature,alkalinity,conductivity,DO(dissolvedoxygen),COD(chemical oxygen demand),BOD(biochemical oxygen demand0,chloride, total hardness, calcium hardness, dissolved phosphate, nitrate, total iron, sulphate, turbidity, total coliform and SUVA at 254nm. The tidal canals of GCDA were found to be creeks extending to the interior, canals inter connecting parts of the estuary or canals with seasonally broken segments. Based on utility the canals could be classified as: canals heavely polluted and very saline,canals polluted by urban waste , canals having fresh water for most part of the year and not much polluted, fresh water bodies heavily polluted. During the rainy months carbon fixation by plankton is nonexistent,and during the dry months Chitrapuzha becomes a sink of phosphate. The study indicated abiotic subrouts for dissolved phosphate and revealed the potential pitfalls in LOICZ modeling exercise on sewage ladentidal canals. It was also found that all canals except for the canals of West cochin and chittoorpuzha have fresh water for some part of the year. The water quality index in the durable fresh water stretches was found to be of below average category.

Tailoring the microwave dielectric properties of BaRE2Ti4O12 and BaRE2Ti5O14 ceramics bycompositional variations

Ceramic dielectric resonators in the BaO-RE2O3-TiO2 (RE=rare earth) system have been prepared by the conventional solid state ceramic route. The dielectric properties have been tailored by substitution of different rare earth oxides and by bismuth oxide addition. The dielectric constants increased with Bi addition whereas the Q decreased. The temperature coeffecient of the resonant frequency improved with bismuth addition.

Tailoring the Microwave Dielectric Properties of BaRE2Ti4012 and BaRE2Ti5014 Ceramics by Compositional Variations

Ceramic dielectric resonators in the BaO-RE2O3-TiO2 (RE = rare earth) system have been prepared by the conventional solid state ceramic route. The dielectric properties have been tailored by substitution of different rare earth oxides and by bismuth oxide addition. The dielectric constants increased with Bi addition whereas the 0 decreased. The temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency improved with bismuth addition

Loss characterization in rhodamine 6G doped polymer film waveguide by side illumination fluorescence

We report the position dependent tuning of fluorescence emission from rhodamine 6G doped polymethylmethacrylate film waveguide using a side illumination technique. The transmitted fluorescence as a function of the distance from the point of illumination is measured by translating the waveguide horizontally across a monochromatic light source. This technique has been utilized to characterize the optical loss in dye doped waveguides. We observe that the optical loss coefficients for shorter and longer distances of propagation through the dye doped waveguide are different. At longer distance of propagation a decrease in optical loss coefficient is observed

Variations on the infaunal polychaetes due to bottom trawling along the inshore waters of Kerala (south-west coast of India)

Variations of the infaunal polychates populations due to bottom trawling were studied during December 2000 to November 2002 at depth ranging from 0-50 m along Cochin-Munambam area (Kerala, long. 76degree10'94" to 75degree 56' and lat.9degree58' to 10degree10'), in the southwest coast of India.Infaunal polychaetes from the sediment samples were collected both before and after experimental trawling in order to assess the variations on their abundance (no.m-2),biomass(g.m-2) and diversity due to bottom trawling .Highest variations in polychaetes were recorded at station 9 in May 2002 where polychaete abundance increased to 20710 no.m-2 after trawling from 2787 no.m-2 before trawling.Biomass showed highest variations at station 3 in December 2000 where biomass increased from 7.16g.m-2 recorded before trawling to 34.53 g.m-2 in the samples collected after trawling .Multivariate community analysis carried out based on both species abundance and biomass of plychaetes also confirm the wide variations in the similarities of the stations comparing both before and after trawling

Ecobiogeography, Spatial and Temporal Variations of Microzooplankton Along the East Coast of India

In the present study an attempt has been made to understand the microzooplankton community along the easr coast of India. Most of the earlier studies projected Bay of Bengal as an oligotrophic system where phytoplankton growth is limited by a number of factors among which nutrients are the foremost. Hence it is logical to consider that the most of the primary production in the Bay of Bengal could be contributed by small sized phytoplankton harnessing the available resources, which in turn can be utilized effiency by the microzooplankton only. Hence microzooplankton could play in transferring primary organic carbon to higher tropic levels in this region.

Studies on the Quality of Rainwater at Various Land Use Locations and Variations by Interaction with Domestic Rainwater Harvesting Systems

The present study focused on the quality of rainwater at various land use locations and its variations on interaction with various domestic rainwater harvesting systems.Sampling sites were selected based upon the land use pattern of the locations and were classified as rural, urban, industrial and sub urban. Rainwater samples were collected from the south west monsoon of May 2007 to north east monsoon of October 2008, from four sampling sites namely Kothamangalam, Emakulam, Eloor and Kalamassery, in Ernakulam district of the State of Kerala, which characterized typical rural, urban, industrial and suburban locations respectively. Rain water samples at various stages of harvesting were also collected. The samples were analyzed according to standard procedures and their physico-chemical and microbiological parameters were determined. The variations of the chemical composition of the rainwater collected were studied using statistical methods. It was observed that 17.5%, 30%, 45.8% and 12.1% of rainwater samples collected at rural, urban, industrial and suburban locations respectively had pH less than 5.6, which is considered as the pH of cloud water at equilibrium with atmospheric CO,.Nearly 46% of the rainwater samples were in acidic range in the industrial location while it was only 17% in the rural location. Multivariate statistical analysls was done using Principal Component Analysis, and the sources that inf1uence the composition of rainwater at each locations were identified .which clearly indicated that the quality of rain water is site specific and represents the atmospheric characteristics of the free fall The quality of harvested rainwater showed significant variations at different stages of harvesting due to deposition of dust from the roof catchment surface, leaching of cement constituents etc. Except the micro biological quality, the harvested rainwater satisfied the Indian Standard guide lines for drinking water. Studies conducted on the leaching of cement constituents in water concluded that tanks made with ordinary portland cement and portland pozzolana cement could be safely used for storage of rain water.

Characterization of rhodamine 6G doped polymer optical fiber by side illumination fluorescence

The length-dependent tuning of the fluorescence spectra of a dye doped polymer fiber is reported. The fiber is pumped sideways and the fluorescence is measured from one of the ends. The excitation of a finite length of dye doped fiber is done by a diode pumped solid state laser at a wavelength of 532 nm. The fluorescence emission is measured at various positions of the fiber starting from a position closer to the pumping region and then progressing toward the other end of the fiber. We observe that the optical loss coefficients for shorter and longer distances of propagation through the dye doped fiber are different. At longer distances of propagation, a decrease in optical loss coefficient is observed. The fluorescence peaks exhibit a redshift of 12 nm from 589 to 610 nm as the point of illumination progresses toward the detector end. This is attributed to the self-absorption and re-emission of the laser dye in the fiber.

Side illumination fluorescence emission characteristics from a dye doped polymer optical fiber under two-photon excitation.

Two-photon excited (TPE) side illumination fluorescence studies in a Rh6G-RhB dye mixture doped polymer optical fiber (POF) and the effect of energy transfer on the attenuation coefficient is reported. The dye doped POF is pumped sideways using 800 nm, 70 fs laser pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser, and the TPE fluorescence emission is collected from the end of the fiber for different propagation distances. The fluorescence intensity of RhB doped POF is enhanced in the presence of Rh6G as a result of energy transfer from Rh6G to RhB. Because of the reabsorption and reemission process in dye molecules, an effective energy transfer is observed from the shorter wavelength part of the fluorescence spectrum to the longer wavelength part as the propagation distance is increased in dye doped POF. An energy transfer coefficient is found to be higher at shorter propagation distances compared to longer distances. A TPE fluorescence signal is used to characterize the optical attenuation coefficient in dye doped POF. The attenuation coefficient decreases at longer propagation distances due to the reabsorption and reemission process taking place within the dye doped fiber as the propagation distance is increased.

Strategies for Inverse Profiling of Two Dimensional Dielectric Scatterers Using Electromagnetic Illumination

Electromagnetic tomography has been applied to problems in nondestructive evolution, ground-penetrating radar, synthetic aperture radar, target identification, electrical well logging, medical imaging etc. The problem of electromagnetic tomography involves the estimation of cross sectional distribution dielectric permittivity, conductivity etc based on measurement of the scattered fields. The inverse scattering problem of electromagnetic imaging is highly non linear and ill posed, and is liable to get trapped in local minima. The iterative solution techniques employed for computing the inverse scattering problem of electromagnetic imaging are highly computation intensive. Thus the solution to electromagnetic imaging problem is beset with convergence and computational issues. The attempt of this thesis is to develop methods suitable for improving the convergence and reduce the total computations for tomographic imaging of two dimensional dielectric cylinders illuminated by TM polarized waves, where the scattering problem is defmed using scalar equations. A multi resolution frequency hopping approach was proposed as opposed to the conventional frequency hopping approach employed to image large inhomogeneous scatterers. The strategy was tested on both synthetic and experimental data and gave results that were better localized and also accelerated the iterative procedure employed for the imaging. A Degree of Symmetry formulation was introduced to locate the scatterer in the investigation domain when the scatterer cross section was circular. The investigation domain could thus be reduced which reduced the degrees of freedom of the inverse scattering process. Thus the entire measured scattered data was available for the optimization of fewer numbers of pixels. This resulted in better and more robust reconstructions of the scatterer cross sectional profile. The Degree of Symmetry formulation could also be applied to the practical problem of limited angle tomography, as in the case of a buried pipeline, where the ill posedness is much larger. The formulation was also tested using experimental data generated from an experimental setup that was designed. The experimental results confirmed the practical applicability of the formulation.

A Study on Variations in Industrial Electricity Tariff & Regulatory Intervention in kerala State

Department of Applied Economics, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Studies on storm surges and sea level variations along the east coast of india

It became so usual for the east coast of India to face at least IO to 15 cyclones every year, out of which 3 to 4 may reach the deep depression stage. As a result the east coast of India experiences frequent heavy damages of varying intensities due to storm surges and it is also not unusual to experience a calamitous deluge once in a decade or so. Loss of life and damages can be minimized only if the magnitude of the surge could be predicted at least a day in advance. Therefore, an attempt to study the storm surges generated by the cyclones that strike the east coast of India and. suggest a method of predicting them through nomogram is made