Technological Change and Modernisation in the Fishing Sector: The Question of Sustainability

Department of Applied Economics, Cochin University of Science And Technology.

Studies on the technological aspects and economic efficiency of trawl gear operating along the Cochin coast

Trawling, despite being heavily energy expensive, still continues to be the most energy expensive fishing method particularly so in View of the export oriented nature of the Indian seafood industry. This study therefore aims at analyzing the efficiency of trawls operation from Cochin, an important fishing center along the southwest coast of India. The analysis is made along two perspectives - economic and technological. Even though technological efficiency complement economic efficiency, in the fishing parlance, parameters like the size composition of the catch, selectivity factors, etc., will have a direct bearing on the technological qualities of the trawl, and which parameters will have a significant impact on the effective exploitation of a fishery stock. Whereas the technological analysis aims at improving the efficiency with regard to the effective utilization of fuel and fishery stocks, economic analysis ascertains the present status of the trawling operations from the commercial angle.

Technological Changes and its Impact on Rubber Plantation Industry in Kerala An Econometric Study

The present study describes in detail the major technological advances in the rubber-growing industry in the lastfour decades. The major technological changes experienced in the rubber plantation industry during the period are the introduction of 'high yielding-planting materials, scientific application of fertilisers, use of pesticides, tapping during rainy season using‘rain guards, use of. yield stimulants and improved tapping methods School of Management Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Development and parametric studies of pulsed nitrogen and d-switched nd:glass lasers and some of their applications

Laser engineering is an area in which developments in the existing design concepts and technology appear at an alarming rate. Now—a-days, emphasis has shifted from innovation to cost reduction and system improvement. To a major extent, these studies are aimed at attaining larger power densities, higher system efficiency and identification of new lasing media and new lasing wavelengths. Todate researchers have put to use all the ditferent Forms of matter as lasing material. Laser action was observed For the first time in a gaseous system - the He-Ne system. This was Followed by a variety of solidstate and gas laser systems. Uarious organic dyes dissolved in suitable solvents were found to lase when pumped optically. Broad band emission characteristics of these dye molecules made wavelength tuning possible using optical devices. Laser action was also observed in certain p-n junctions of semiconductor materials and some of these systems are also tunable. The recent addition to this list was the observation of laser action from certain laser produced plasmas. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the design and Fabrication techniques of pulsed Nitrogen lasers and high power Nd: Glass laserso Attempt was also made to put the systems developed into certain related experiments

“Effects of monospecific and mixed algal diets on survival, development and biochemical composition of Penaeus monodon larvae”

The main objective of the present work is to acquire information regarding the growth responses of P. monodon larvae (from PZ1 upto PL1) to various mono specific and mixed diets. Evaluate the nutritional quality of selected species of micro algae viz. Chaetoceros calcitrans, Dunaliella salina, Isochrysis galbana and Nannochloropsis salina, larvae at three cell concentrations 10x104 cells/ml, 25x104 cells/ml and 50x104 cells/ml. The P. monodon larvae were transported, at the Nauplius stage, to the laboratory. The larvae were stocked at density of 150 larvae per litre in 5 litre FRP tanks with 3 litres of sea water. The algal cell density given to the larvae varied. The larval stages were fed with increasing densities of algae to evaluate the relationship between the food densities, ingestion rates, development and growth of the larvae. The water quality parameters, the percentage of survival rate, the growth estimation and the algal cell count were done. Each experiment was carried out in triplicate with a control group of larvae fed with Chaetoceros calcitrans. For the estimation standard procedures were used.to P. monodon

Development and Investigations of Mobile Antennas for less Radiation Hazards

Antennas, the key element in wireless communication devices had undergone amazing developments especially in the direction of compactness and safety aspects. In the last two decades, the use of the cellular phones has become the most popular mode of communication across the globe. At the same time, the concerns about the radiation effects have increased in the general public. The main concern of this thesis is to develop a mobile antenna which gives reduced RF interference to the user. The reduction of the power absorbed by the user can tremendously avoid any possible health hazards. The radiation characteristic of a monopole antenna is modified with good radiation characteristics suitable for a mobile handset. The modification is implemented by using different resonating structures which provides reduced radiation along one direction. The direction of less radiation can be changed by modifying the planar antenna structure to a ground folded antenna. This modified structure with excellent radiation characteristic is suitable for modern wireless handheld devices with less user RF interference. Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) is an important parameter for mobile handset. The SAR is estimated for the newly developed antenna for different conditions and discussed in this thesis.

Development and Deployment of Wireless Sensor Network in Paddy Fields of Kuttanad

The evolution of wireless sensor network technology has enabled us to develop advanced systems for real time monitoring. In the present scenario wireless sensor networks are increasingly being used for precision agriculture. The advantages of using wireless sensor networks in agriculture are distributed data collection and monitoring, monitor and control of climate, irrigation and nutrient supply. Hence decreasing the cost of production and increasing the efficiency of production. This paper describes the development and deployment of wireless sensor network for crop monitoring in the paddy fields of Kuttanad, a region of Kerala, the southern state of India.

The Development and Promotion of ETDs in Kerala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) have become an important component of library service in all countries. Many Indian higher education institutions are actively engaged in the process of introducing ETDs. This study describes the development of ETD projects in Kerala. This paper examines the ETD project of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) and Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU)

Design, Development and Realization of Quadratic Volterra Filters for Selected Applications

The basic concepts of digital signal processing are taught to the students in engineering and science. The focus of the course is on linear, time invariant systems. The question as to what happens when the system is governed by a quadratic or cubic equation remains unanswered in the vast majority of literature on signal processing. Light has been shed on this problem when John V Mathews and Giovanni L Sicuranza published the book Polynomial Signal Processing. This book opened up an unseen vista of polynomial systems for signal and image processing. The book presented the theory and implementations of both adaptive and non-adaptive FIR and IIR quadratic systems which offer improved performance than conventional linear systems. The theory of quadratic systems presents a pristine and virgin area of research that offers computationally intensive work. Once the area of research is selected, the next issue is the choice of the software tool to carry out the work. Conventional languages like C and C++ are easily eliminated as they are not interpreted and lack good quality plotting libraries. MATLAB is proved to be very slow and so do SCILAB and Octave. The search for a language for scientific computing that was as fast as C, but with a good quality plotting library, ended up in Python, a distant relative of LISP. It proved to be ideal for scientific computing. An account of the use of Python, its scientific computing package scipy and the plotting library pylab is given in the appendix Initially, work is focused on designing predictors that exploit the polynomial nonlinearities inherent in speech generation mechanisms. Soon, the work got diverted into medical image processing which offered more potential to exploit by the use of quadratic methods. The major focus in this area is on quadratic edge detection methods for retinal images and fingerprints as well as de-noising raw MRI signals

Development and microwave characterization of selected biocompatible materials and conducting polymers

The 20th century witnessed the extensive use of microwaves in industrial, scientific and medical fields. The major hindrance to many developments in the ISM field is the lack of knowledge about the effect of microwaves on materials used in various applications. The study of the interaction of microwaves with materials demanded the knowledge of the dielectric properties of these materials. However, the dielectric properties of many of these materials are still unknown or less studied. This thesis is an effort to shed light into the dielectric properties of some materials which are used in medical, scientific and industrial fields. Microwave phantoms are those materials used in microwave simulation applications. Effort has been taken to develop and characterize low cost, eco-friendly phantoms from Biomaterials and Bioceramics. The interaction of microwaves with living tissues paved way to the development of materials for electromagnetic shielding. Materials with good conductivity/absorption properties could be used for EMI shielding applications. Conducting polymer materials are developed and characterized in this context. The materials which are developed and analyzed in this thesis are Biomaterials, Bioceramics and Conducting polymers. The use of materials of biological origin in scientific and medical applications provides an eco-friendly pathway. The microwave characterization of the materials were done using cavity material perturbation method. Low cost and ecofriendly biomaterial films were developed from Arrowroot and Chitosan. The developed films could be used in applications such as microwave phantom material, capsule material in pharmaceutical applications, trans-dermal patch material and eco-friendly Band-Aids. Bioceramics with better bioresorption and biocompatibility were synthesized. Bioceramics such as Hydroxyapatite, Beta tricalcium phosphate and Biphasic Calcium Phosphate were studied. The prepared bioceramics could be used as phantom material representing Collagen, Bone marrow, Human abdominal wall fat and Human chest fat. Conducting polymers- based on Polyaniline, are developed and characterized. The developed materials can be used in electromagnetic shielding applications such as in anechoic chambers, transmission cables etc

Development and Validation of Bacterial Consortia for Bioremediation of Detritus in Aquaculture Systems

Cochin University Of Science And Technology

Low-Cost Micromechanically Tunable Optical Devices: Strained Resonator Engineering, Technological Implementation and Characterization

The rapid growth of the optical communication branches and the enormous demand for more bandwidth require novel networks such as dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM). These networks enable higher bitrate transmission using the existing optical fibers. Micromechanically tunable optical microcavity devices like VCSELs, Fabry-Pérot filters and photodetectors are core components of these novel DWDM systems. Several air-gap based tunable devices were successfully implemented in the last years. Even though these concepts are very promising, two main disadvantages are still remaining. On the one hand, the high fabrication and integration cost and on the other hand the undesired adverse buckling of the suspended membranes. This thesis addresses these two problems and consists of two main parts: • PECVD dielectric material investigation and stress control resulting in membranes shape engineering. • Implementation and characterization of novel tunable optical devices with tailored shapes of the suspended membranes. For this purposes, low-cost PECVD technology is investigated and developed in detail. The macro- and microstress of silicon nitride and silicon dioxide are controlled over a wide range. Furthermore, the effect of stress on the optical and mechanical properties of the suspended membranes and on the microcavities is evaluated. Various membrane shapes (concave, convex and planar) with several radii of curvature are fabricated. Using this resonator shape engineering, microcavity devices such as non tunable and tunable Fabry-Pérot filters, VCSELs and PIN photodetectors are succesfully implemented. The fabricated Fabry-Pérot filters cover a spectral range of over 200nm and show resonance linewidths down to 1.5nm. By varying the stress distribution across the vertical direction within a DBR, the shape and the radius of curvature of the top membrane are explicitely tailored. By adjusting the incoming light beam waist to the curvature, the fundamental resonant mode is supported and the higher order ones are suppressed. For instance, a tunable VCSEL with 26 nm tuning range, 400µW maximal output power, 47nm free spectral range and over 57dB side mode suppresion ratio (SMSR) is demonstrated. Other technologies, such as introducing light emitting organic materials in microcavities are also investigated.

Profile simulations of gas chopping etching processes : model development and comparison with experiments

The progress in microsystem technology or nano technology places extended requirements to the fabrication processes. The trend is moving towards structuring within the nanometer scale on the one hand, and towards fabrication of structures with high aspect ratio (ratio of vertical vs. lateral dimensions) and large depths in the 100 µm scale on the other hand. Current procedures for the microstructuring of silicon are wet chemical etching and dry or plasma etching. A modern plasma etching technique for the structuring of silicon is the so-called "gas chopping" etching technique (also called "time-multiplexed etching"). In this etching technique, passivation cycles, which prevent lateral underetching of sidewalls, and etching cycles, which etch preferably in the vertical direction because of the sidewall passivation, are constantly alternated during the complete etching process. To do this, a CHF3/CH4 plasma, which generates CF monomeres is employed during the passivation cycle, and a SF6/Ar, which generates fluorine radicals and ions plasma is employed during the etching cycle. Depending on the requirements on the etched profile, the durations of the individual passivation and etching cycles are in the range of a few seconds up to several minutes. The profiles achieved with this etching process crucially depend on the flow of reactants, i.e. CF monomeres during the passivation cycle, and ions and fluorine radicals during the etching cycle, to the bottom of the profile, especially for profiles with high aspect ratio. With regard to the predictability of the etching processes, knowledge of the fundamental effects taking place during a gas chopping etching process, and their impact onto the resulting profile is required. For this purpose in the context of this work, a model for the description of the profile evolution of such etching processes is proposed, which considers the reactions (etching or deposition) at the sample surface on a phenomenological basis. Furthermore, the reactant transport inside the etching trench is modelled, based on angular distribution functions and on absorption probabilities at the sidewalls and bottom of the trench. A comparison of the simulated profiles with corresponding experimental profiles reveals that the proposed model reproduces the experimental profiles, if the angular distribution functions and absorption probabilities employed in the model is in agreement with data found in the literature. Therefor the model developed in the context of this work is an adequate description of the effects taking place during a gas chopping plasma etching process.

Sustainable development and biodiversity

Das Tondokument ist die Rede von Vandana Shiva / Indien, die sie am 22.5.2008 im Giesshaus der Universität Kassel zum Thema Biodiversität und Nachhaltigkeit im Kontext urbaner Gärten gehalten hat. Diese Veranstaltung war ein Teil der "Tagung Gärten als Alltagskultur im internationalen Vergleich", veranstaltet von Doris Gstach, Heidrun Hubenthal und Maria Spitthöver. Das Tondokument wurde von Klaus Schaake aufgezeichnet und erstmals veröffentlicht am 23.5.2008 bei der Onlinezeitung www.kassel-zeitung.de