Physical, chemical, and biological characterization of water year types in the San Francisco Bay estuary [abstract]

EXTRACT (SEE PDF FOR FULL ABSTRACT): Twenty-three years of physical, chemical, and biological data were used to characterize conditions associated with wet, normal, dry, and critical water year types in the upper San Francisco Bay estuary.

Limnological studies of a freshwater tropical impoundment : Powai Lake. 1: Morphometry and physical features

Powai Lake, an impoundment, came into existence in 1891 when the riverlet Dhanisar was dammed to conserve rainwater for drinking purpose. However, the water was found to be unpotable and the lake was leased out to the Angling Association, Bombay, exclusively for angling and sports. The lake is located about 27 km in the northeast of Bombay city at a height of 55m above MSL. It is rainfed with an average rainfall of 2,400 mm. The maximum waterspread area is 220 ha with a maximum capacity of 8.11 million m super(3) in the peak monsoon period when the water overflows the dam. There is no drawdown from the lake. Fluctuation in the water level is mainly due to evaporation and percolation. Transparency is low mainly due to suspended organic particles. There is hardly any difference in the water temperatures of surface and bottom, hence the annual heat budget is low at 2,818 cal m super(-2).

Studies on phenolase enzymes in prawns. Pt. 1. The distribution and physical properties of phenolases in Penaeid prawns

The distribution of phenolases in certain species of Penaeid prawns has been studied. Attempts were made to locate the regions of maximum enzyme activity in the prawns. The relative dopase activity has been examined in extracts from head, tail, shell with cuticles and muscle. The head juice and tail extracts were found to register very high order of enzyme activity. Metapenaeus affinis, Metapenaeus monoceros and Penaeus indicus record comparatively higher enzyme activity than Parapenaeopsis stylifera and Metapenaeus dobsoni, no definite relationship has been found between the relative activity of the enzyme and size grade at least in one species examined. Experiments were done to determine the pH optima of the enzyme and the influence of pH on its deactivation. Exposure to higher temperatures up to 55°c was shown to activate the crude enzyme considerably. The possible implications of the observations have been discussed.

Postmortem changes in hilsa fish. Pt. 2. Studies on physical and bacteriological changes in iced and frozen stored hilsa fish (Tenualosa ilisha Ham.)

Studies were conducted to evaluate the quality of hilsa fish during icing and freezing storage at -20°C by determining organoleptic and bacteriological aspects. The fishes stored in ice were organoleptically in acceptable condition 2 for 20 days. The bacterial load in muscles of 4 days ice stored fish was 2.5x10² CFU/g which gradually increased up to 1.8x10⁵ CFU/g after 20 days when the fishes were organoleptically in acceptable condition. The keeping qualities of different days of ice stored fishes were also evaluated during their subsequent frozen storage at -20°C. Both 4 and 7 days of ice stored fishes were organoleptically in acceptable condition up to 48 weeks but the highest degree of freshness was found for fish stored in ice for 4 days before freezing at -20°C. The result indicates that the longer is the duration of ice storage before freezing, the shorter is the shelf life of the fish. The initial bacterial load prior to freezing of the 4 and 7 days of ice stored samples were 2.5x10³ CFU/g and 3.8x10⁴ CFU/g, respectively which reduced to 2.21x10² CFU/g and 2.38x10² CFU/g, respectively at the end of the 24 weeks of frozen storage. However, after 40 weeks the bacterial load in the frozen stored sample fell below the detection level.

Studies on the post-mortem changes in shrimp and prawn during ice storage. Pt. 1. Organoleptic and physical changes

The organoleptic characteristics such as appearance, textural condition, colour and odour indicated that the M. rosenbergii stored in ice for 5-6 days was acceptable for processing in the industry while P. monodon under similar ice storage condition was acceptable for 8-9 days. In both species, samples stored in headless condition in ice had longer shelf life than that of stored in head-on condition. Physical changes were evaluated by determining expressible moisture and breaking strength of sample of muscles. The expressible moisture increased continuously in both samples with the lapse of storage period. The expressible moisture increased up to around 44% in 4-5 days of ice stored M. rosenbergii muscle while it was around 40% in 8-9 days ice stored P. monodon. At the end of 9 days of ice storage, the expressible moisture content in M. rosenbergii increased up to 60%, while it was up to 47% in P. monodon after 11 days of ice storage. The breaking strength declined from 0. 78 kg/cm² to 0.53 kg/cm² in tiger shrimp after 8 days of ice storage, while in case of immediately killed prawn, the breaking strength of muscle was 0.8 kg/cm² which declined to 0.43 to 0.35 kg/cm².

Physical soil characteristics of waterlogged and saline lands of five districts of Haryana, India

Physical characteristics of waterlogged and saline soils of five districts, namely Rohtak, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Sonipat and Jhajjar, of Haryana were studied to evaluate the aquaculture potential. The soil samples from 76 sites were procured and analysed for pH, electrical conductivity, soil particles and water retention capacity, since the knowledge of these parameters is essential for the preliminary evaluation of a site for aqua-farming. Six soil types were identified and clay-loam was observed to be the maximum at 45 (59.21%) sites, followed by silty-clay loam at 14 (18.42%), sandy-clay loam at six (7.89%), silty-loam at four (5.26%), sandy-loam at four (5.26%) and loam at three (3.94%) sites. The pH of soil indicated moderate to high alkaline conditions ranging between 8.01and 9.00 at 53 (69.73%) sites, 9.01 and 10.00 at 17 (22.36%) sites, and low between 7.01 and 8.00 at six (7.89%) sites. The electrical conductivity was found to range between <1 and 10 mmho cmˉ¹ with the value of <1.0 mmho cmˉ¹ at 36 (47.36%) sites. The water retention capacity was observed mostly to be moderate. The paper describes the interrelationship between these parameters with reference to the suitability for aqua-farming.

Physical properties of some novel nematic bimesogens for the flexoelectric effect

In a chiral nematic liquid crystal, the flexoelectric effect consists of a fast and linear coupling with an applied electric field. One difficulty to overcome is the unwinding of the helix that occurs at higher fields due to dielectric coupling. The use of bimesogens, which possess very low molecular dielectric anisotropy can improve flexoelectric characteristics. New bimesogen compounds have recently been synthesised that exhibit switching angles of 45° for applied fields of about 9 V.μm-1. In this paper, results from dielectric, electro-optic and dynamic light scattering measurements are reported for the new bimesogenic mixture. The dielectric anisotropy Δε changes sign with temperature and its values range between -0.2 and 0.3 for the temperature range studied. For Δε weakly positive, no electric field Freedericksz transition could be induced but Williams domains are observed instead. The large decrease in the bend elastic constant to viscosity coefficient ratio is attributed to a large increase in the bend viscosity coefficient. © 2001 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Gordon and Breach Science Publishers imprint, a member of the Taylor & Francis Group.

Physical variables, nutrient status and primary productivity of Kyoga Basin lakes of Lemwa, Omunuo, Gawa, Adois and Owapet

The review report on Kyoga basin lakes (NAFIRRI 2007) described Kyoga basin lakes as important natural resource for the communities within the basin and the surrounding areas. Fisheries of the basin provide a source of protein, income, and employment to generally poor communities in the area. The lakes also generate revenue to the local Governments within the catchment. This indicates that the fisheries of Kyoga basin lakes are a key instrument in poverty eradication and food security. The lakes also act as a source of water for domestic, agricultural and transport purposes. Some of the Kyoga small lakes harbour fish species, which have disappeared from the main lakes Victoria and Kyoga and are therefore important for biodiversity conservation

Numerical simulation of the growth of ZnO nanostructures in a tube furnace by physical vapour deposition

Zinc oxide is a versatile II-VI naturally n-type semiconductor that exhibits piezoelectric properties. By controlling the growth kinetics during a simple carbothermal reduction process a wide range of 1D nanostructures such as nanowires, nanobelts, and nanotetrapods have been synthesized. The driving force: for the nanostructure growth is the Zn vapour supersaturation and supply rate which, if known, can be used to predict and explain the type of crystal structure that results. A model which attempts to determine the Zn vapour concentration as a function of position in the growth furnace is described. A numerical simulation package, COMSOL, was used to simultaneously model the effects of fluid flow, diffusion and heat transfer in a tube furnace made specifically for ZnO nanostructure growth. Parameters such as the temperature, pressure, and flow rate are used as inputs to the model to show the effect that each one has on the Zn concentration profile. An experimental parametric study of ZnO nanostructure growth was also conducted and compared to the model predictions for the Zn concentration in the tube. © 2008 Materials Research Society.

Physical modelling of large area 4H-SiC PiN diodes

The recent developments in SiC PiN diode research mean that physics-based models that allow accurate, rapid prediction of switching and conduction performance and resulting converter losses will soon be required. This is especially the case given the potential for very high voltage converters to be used for enabling distributed and renewable power generation. In this work an electro-thermal compact model of a 4.5 kV silicon carbide PiN diode has been developed for converter loss modelling in Simulink. Good matching of reverse recovery has been achieved between 25 and 200 °C. The I-V characteristics of the P+ anode contact have been shown to be significant in obtaining good matching for the forward characteristics of the diode, requiring further modelling work in this area. © 2009 IEEE.

On computing the physical sources of jet noise

We derive a closed system of equations that relates the acoustically radiating flow variables to the sources of sound for homentropic flows. We use radiating density, momentum density and modified pressure as the dependent variables which leads to simple source terms for the momentum equations. The source terms involve the non-radiating parts of the density and momentum density fields. These non-radiating components are obtained by removing the radiating wavenumbers in the Fourier domain. We demonstrate the usefulness of this new technique on an axi-symmetric jet solution of the Navier-Stokes equations, obtained by direct numerical simulation (DNS). The dominant source term is proportional to the square of the non-radiating part of the axial momentum density. We compare the sound sources to that obtained by an acoustic analogy and find that they have more realistic physical properties. Their frequency content and amplitudes are consistent with. We validate the sources by computing the radiating sound field and comparing it to the DNS solution. © 2010 by S. Sinayoko, A. Agarwal.