Vertical distribution of molluscs in the intertidal area in and around Mumbai, India

Vertical distribution of intertidal molluscs in and around Mumbai had been studied. Each species has an upper and lower limit of distribution along the vertical intertidal gradient and are concentrated at particular levels or zones where they find optimum living conditions. Zonation of the intertidal area with reference to molluscs at rocky shores of TIFR, Bandstand and NCPA has similarities. However, there is no similarity in zonation among rocky, sandy and muddy shores. Rocky intertidal zones are more diverse and dense in terms of molluscs. The mid and lower littoral zones have rich diversity. The upper littoral zone at some sites, especially Girgaon chowpatty is totally devoid of molluscs due to anthropogenic activities. Gafrarium divaricatum, Nerita oryzarum, N. polita and Neritina crepidularia have established themselves in all three marked zones, indicating their power to adjust with the wide fluctuations in surrounding environmental conditions.

Perovskite-Like Mixed Oxides (LaSrMn1-x Ni (x) O4+delta, 0 a parts per thousand currency sign x a parts per thousand currency sign 1) as Catalyst for Catalytic NO Decomposition: TPD and TPR Studies

Catalytic NO decomposition on LaSrMn1-x Ni (x) O4+delta (0 a parts per thousand currency sign x a parts per thousand currency sign 1) is investigated. The activity of NO decomposition increases dramatically after the substitution of Ni for Mn, but decreases when Mn is completely replaced by Ni (x = 1.0). The optimum value is at x = 0.8. These indicate that the catalytic performance of the samples is contributed by the synergistic effect of Mn and Ni. O-2-TPD and H-2-TPR experiments are carried out to explain the change of activity. The former indicates that only when oxygen vacancy is created, could the catalyst show enhanced activity for NO decomposition; the latter suggests that the best activity is obtained from catalyst with the most matched redox potentials (in this work, the biggest Delta T and Delta E values).

A comprehensive aerosol spray method for the rapid photocatalytic grid area analysis of semiconductor photocatalyst thin films

Indicator inks, previously shown to be capable of rapidly assessing photocatalytic activity via a novel photo-reductive mechanism, were simply applied via an aerosol spray onto commercially available pieces of Activ (TM) self-cleaning glass. Ink layers could be applied with high evenness of spread, with as little deviation as 5% upon UV-visible spectroscopic assessment of 25 equally distributed positions over a 10 cm x 10 cm glass cut. The inks were comprised of either a resazurin (Rz) or dichloroindophenol (DCIP) redox dye with a glycerol sacrificial electron donor in an aqueous hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) polymer media. The photo-reduction reaction under UVA light of a single spot was monitored by UV-vis spectroscopy and digital images attained from a flat-bed scanner in tandem for both inks. The photo-reduction of Rz ink underwent a two-step kinetic process, whereby the blue redox dye was initially reduced to a pink intermediate resorufin (Rf) and subsequently reduced to a bleached form of the dye. In contrast, a simple one-step kinetic process was observed for the reduction of the light blue redox dye DCIP to its bleached intermediates. Changes in red-green-blue colour extracted from digital images of the inks were inversely proportional to the changes seen at corresponding wavelengths via UV-visible absorption spectroscopy and wholly indicative of the reaction kinetics. The photocatalytic activity areas of cuts of Activ (TM) glass, 10 cm x 10 cm in size, were assessed using both Rz and DCIP indicator inks evenly sprayed over the films: firstly using UVA lamp light to activate the underlying Activ (TM) film (1.75 mW cm(-2)) and secondly under solar conditions (2.06 +/- 0.14 mW cm(-2)). The photo-reduction reactions were monitored solely by flat-bed digital scanning. Red-green-blue values of a generated 14 x 14 grid (196 positions) that covered the entire area of each film image were extracted using a Custom-built program entitled RGB Extractor(C). A homogenous degradation over the 196 positions analysed for both Rz (Red colour deviation = 19% UVA, 8% Solar: Green colour deviation = 17% UVA, 12% Solar) and DCIP (Red colour deviation = 22% UVA, 16% Solar) inks was seen in both UVA and solar experiments, demonstrating the consistency of the self-cleaning titania layer on Activ (TM). The method presented provides a good solution for the high-throughput photocatalytic screening of a number of homogenous photocatalytically active materials simultaneously or numerous positions on a single film; both useful in assessing the homogeneity of a film or determining the best combination of reaction components to produce the optimum performance photocatalytic film. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Simulating the impacts of global warming on wheat in China using a large area crop model

Temperature is one of the most prominent environmental factors that determine plant growth, devel- opment, and yield. Cool and moist conditions are most favorable for wheat. Wheat is likely to be highly vulnerable to further warming because currently the temperature is already close to or above optimum. In this study, the impacts of warming and extreme high temperature stress on wheat yield over China were investigated by using the general large area model (GLAM) for annual crops. The results showed that each 1±C rise in daily mean temperature would reduce the average wheat yield in China by about 4.6%{5.7% mainly due to the shorter growth duration, except for a small increase in yield at some grid cells. When the maximum temperature exceeded 30.5±C, the simulated grain-set fraction declined from 1 at 30.5±C to close to 0 at about 36±C. When the total grain-set was lower than the critical fractional grain-set (0.575{0.6), harvest index and potential grain yield were reduced. In order to reduce the negative impacts of warming, it is crucial to take serious actions to adapt to the climate change, for example, by shifting sowing date, adjusting crop distribution and structure, breeding heat-resistant varieties, and improving the monitoring, forecasting, and early warning of extreme climate events.

The grass-free lawn: management and species choice for optimum ground cover and plant diversity

In Britain, managed grass lawns provide the most traditional and widespread of garden and landscape practices in use today. Grass lawns are coming under increasing challenge as they tend to support a low level of biodiversity and can require substantial additional inputs to maintain. Here we apply a novel approach to the traditional monocultural lawnscape by replacing grasses entirely with clonal perennial forbs. We monitored changes in plant coverage and species composition over a two year period and here we report the results of a study comparing plant origin native, non-native and mixed) and mowing regime. This allows us to assess the viability of this construct as an alternative to traditional grass lawns. Grass-free lawns provided a similar level of plant cover to grass lawns. Both the mowing regime and the combination of species used affected this outcome, with native plant species seen to have the highest survival rates, and mowing at 4cm to produce the greatest amount of ground coverage and plant species diversity within grass-free lawns. Grass-free lawns required over 50% less mowing than a traditionally managed grass lawn. Observations suggest that plant forms that exhibited: a) a relatively fast growth rate, b) a relatively large individual leaf area, and c) an average leaf height substantially above the cut to be applied, were unsuitable for use in grass-free lawns. With an equivalent level of ground coverage to grass lawns, increased plant diversity and a reduced need for mowing, the grass-free lawn can be seen as a species diverse, lower input and potentially highly ornamental alternative to the traditional lawn format.

Optimum design and analysis study of stand-alone residential solar PV microgrid

Today’s power system network has become more complex and it has more responsibilities and challenges to provide secure, reliable and quality energysupply to the communities. A small entity of electrical network known as Microgrid (MG) is more popular nowadays to enhance reliablity and secure level of energy supply, in case of any energy crisis in the utility network. The MG can also provide clean energy supply by integrating renewable energy sources effectively. TheMG with small scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power system is more suitable to provide reliable and clean energy supply for remote or urban communities in residential level. This paper presents the basic analysis study of stand-alone solar photovoltaic (PV) MG power system which has been developed with the aid of Matlab - Simulink software, on the basis of residential load profile and solar exposure level in a particular area of Geelong, Victoria State. The simulation result depicts the control behavior of MG power system with optimum sizing of PV (4.385 kW)and battery storage (480Ah/48V) facility, fulfills daily energy needs in residential load level. This study provides a good platform to develop an effective and reliable stand-alone MG power system for the remote communities in the near future.

Adsorption kinetics and optimum conditions for Cr(VI) removal by activated carbon prepared from luffa sponge

Activated carbon (AC) prepared from luffa sponge was firstly used as an adsorbent to remove Cr(VI) from aqueous solution. The Cr(VI) adsorption behaviors of AC under different conditions, including initial Cr(VI) concentration, quantity of AC, solution pH, and temperature were investigated. The optimal conditions for adsorption of Cr(VI) by AC were pH = 1, initial Cr(VI) concentration = 80 mg/L, T = 303 K, and AC content = 1.6 g/L. The adsorption kinetics could be described by the pseudo-second-order model. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to investigate the sorption mechanism. Some functional groups such as C–O and O–H were formed on the carbon surface, which could then react with Cr(VI). The surface structure of AC before and after adsorption was analyzed by scanning electronic microscopy. Adsorbed ions choked some of the pores in AC after adsorption. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area and average pore size of the AC were 834.13 m2/g and 5.17 nm, respectively. The maximum adsorption of Cr(VI) by AC was 149.06 mg/g, which makes AC prepared from luffa sponge promising for removing Cr(VI) from wastewater.

Optimum design of microirrigation systems in sloping lands

When an area to be irrigated has a high slope gradient in the manifold line direction, an option is to use a tapered pipeline to economize on pipe costs and to keep pressure head variations within desired limits. The objective of this paper is to develop a linear optimization model to design a microirrigation system with tapered, downhill manifold lines, minimizing the equivalent annual cost of the hydraulic network and the annual pumping cost, and maximizing the emission uniformity previously established to the subunit. The input data are irrigation system layout, cost of all hydraulic network components, and electricity price. The output data are equivalent annual cost, pipeline diameter in each line of the system, pressure head in each node, and total operating pressure head. To illustrate its capability, the model is applied in a citrus orchard in Sao, Paulo State, Brazil, considering slopes of 3, 6, and 9%. The model proved to be efficient in the design of the irrigation system in terms of the emission uniformity desired.

Automatic landslide recognition through Optimum-Path Forest

In this paper we shed light over the problem of landslide automatic recognition using supervised classification, and we also introduced the OPF classifier in this context. We employed two images acquired from Geoeye-MS satellite at March-2010 in the northwest (high steep areas) and north sides (pipeline area) covering the area of Duque de Caxias city, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. The landslide recognition rate has been assessed through a cross-validation with 10 runnings. In regard to the classifiers, we have used OPF against SVM with Radial Basis Function for kernel mapping and a Bayesian classifier. We can conclude that OPF, Bayes and SVM achieved high recognition rates, being OPF the fastest approach. © 2012 IEEE.

A path- and label-cost propagation approach to speedup the training of the optimum-path forest classifier

In general, pattern recognition techniques require a high computational burden for learning the discriminating functions that are responsible to separate samples from distinct classes. As such, there are several studies that make effort to employ machine learning algorithms in the context of big data classification problems. The research on this area ranges from Graphics Processing Units-based implementations to mathematical optimizations, being the main drawback of the former approaches to be dependent on the graphic video card. Here, we propose an architecture-independent optimization approach for the optimum-path forest (OPF) classifier, that is designed using a theoretical formulation that relates the minimum spanning tree with the minimum spanning forest generated by the OPF over the training dataset. The experiments have shown that the approach proposed can be faster than the traditional one in five public datasets, being also as accurate as the original OPF. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

Development of a technique for achieving an optimum BSFC for LAF engine

The reserves of gasoline and diesel fuels are ever decreasing, which plays an important role in the technological development of automobiles. Numerous countries, especially the United States, wish to slowly decrease their fuel dependence on other countries by producing in house renewable fuels like biodiesels or ethanol. Therefore, the new automobile engines have to successfully run on a variety of fuels without significant changes to their designs. The current study focuses on assessing the potential of ethanol fuels to improve the performance of 'flex-fuel SI engines,' which literally means 'engines that are flexible in their fuel requirement.' Another important area within spark ignition (SI) engine research is the implementation of new technologies like Variable Valve Timing (VVT) or Variable Compression Ratio (VCR) to improve engine performance. These technologies add more complexity to the original system by adding extra degrees of freedom. Therefore, the potential of these technologies has to be evaluated before they are installed in any SI engine. The current study focuses on evaluating the advantages and drawbacks of these technologies, primarily from an engine brake efficiency perspective. The results show a significant improvement in engine efficiency with the use of VVT and VCR together. Spark ignition engines always operate at a lower compression ratio as compared to compression ignition (CI) engines primarily due to knock constraints. Therefore, even if the use of a higher compression ratio would result in a significant improvement in SI engine efficiency, the engine may still operate at a lower compression ratio due to knock limitations. Ethanol fuels extend the knock limit making the use of higher compression ratios possible. Hence, the current study focuses on using VVT, VCR, and ethanol-gasoline blends to improve overall engine performance. The results show that these technologies promise definite engine performance improvements provided both their positive and negative potentials have been evaluated prior to installation.

Revised composite depth scale, Fe content and orbital tuning of Middle Eocene Climate Optimum samples from ODP Site 207-1260

A high-resolution stratigraphy is essential toward deciphering climate variability in detail and understanding causality arguments of events in earth history. Because the highly dynamic middle to late Eocene provides a suitable testing ground for carbon cycle models for a waning warm world, an accurate time scale is needed to decode climate-driving mechanisms. Here we present new results from ODP Site 1260 (Leg 207) which covers a unique expanded middle Eocene section (magnetochrons C18r to C20r, late Lutetian to early Bartonian) of the tropical western Atlantic including the chron C19r transient hyperthermal event and the Middle Eocene Climate Optimum (MECO). To establish a detailed cyclostratigraphy we acquired a distinctive iron intensity records by XRF scanning Site 1260 cores. We revise the shipboard composite section, establish a cyclostratigraphy and use the exceptional eccentricity modulated precession cycles for orbital tuning. The new astrochronology revises the age of magnetic polarity chrons C19n to C20n, validates the position of very long eccentricity minima at 40.2 and 43.0 Ma in the orbital solutions, and extends the Astronomically Tuned Geological Time Scale back to 44 Ma. For the first time the new data provide clear evidence for an orbital pacing of the chron C19r event and a likely involvement of the very long eccentricity cycle contributing to the evolution of the MECO.