•Indicator-based vulnerability assessment demands correct identification of indicators.•Alpine forest of higher altitudes is less vulnerable than lower sub-alpine forests.•RS-GIS are useful tool for ...indicator mapping and were used successfully.
Understanding the vulnerability of forests and its associated factors is crucial for the sustainable management of forested landscapes. The assessment of vulnerability of forests in the Indian Western Himalayan (IWH) region comprising the states of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), Himachal Pradesh (HP) and Uttarakhand (UK) was done using six indicators of vulnerability in the form of biological richness index, disturbance index, forest canopy density, fire point intensity and forest extraction intensity of fringe forests. We express this assessment as the “indicator-based vulnerability”. The indicators were allocated weights by multi criteria analysis using analytical hierarchy process. The spatial extent of all of the selected indicators was mapped for the IWH region at a pixel resolution of 24 m and was integrated to find out the vulnerability for each pixel in a GIS environment. The study area was divided into 172 grids of size 0.5°, equivalent to the grid size of available climatic projections, out of which 67 grids were identified as the forest grids. The grids that have at least 5% forest cover were designated as the forest grids and the vulnerability assessment was done only for these grids. The final representation of vulnerability across forested grids of the IWH was done at a spatial resolution of 5' and 0.5° to categorise as low, medium, high and very high class. It was observed that the highest concentration of “very high” and “high” vulnerable grids of 5' size lies in the state of UK, comprising 32 and 31%, respectively. The aggregated values at 0.5° indicate that most of the grids of UK fall under very high vulnerability except for the few uppermost and lowermost grids falling under other categories. In J&K, most of the 5' grids fall under low vulnerability (41%), while medium, high and very high categories are 27, 25 and 7%, respectively. Similarly, out of total 28 grids of size 0.5°, only one grid is categorized as very high vulnerable, while 11 grids fall under high vulnerability. In HP, none of the grids of either size is categorized as very high vulnerable. It was observed that most of the high and very high vulnerable grids in the IWH are in the lower altitudes while higher altitudes have lesser magnitude of vulnerability. Forests occurring at a higher elevation such as the Alpine forests (dry, moist and sub-alpine) is the least vulnerable forests compared to other forest type groups of the IWH.
The plants follow various strategies for adapting and mitigating climatic and environmental stresses. This offers an opportunity to comprehend adaptation and mitigation mechanisms under changing ...climate and environment emerging from vehicular emissions. We deployed an approach, i.e., physiological (Phy) and biophysical (Bioph) functional traits (FTs) based approach to understand plant response for assessing adaptation and mitigation potential for offsetting long-term urban climate and environment. We investigated Phy and Bioph FTs of adaptation, especially transpiration rate (E), stomatal conductance (Gs) and resistance (SRes), water use efficiency (WUE), carboxylation efficiency (CE), mesophyll efficiency (ME), leaf thickness (LTh), and mitigation FTs, including CO2 assimilation rate (A), leaf dust retention efficiency (DRE), and cooling impacts (CI) of the roadside plantation (Delonix regia and Callistemon viminalis). The study reported the significant effects of the roadside urban environment on the modulation of FTs, one of the strategies that plants follow to adapt and mitigate the urban climate. The C. viminalis was reported as having a better adaptive nature with higher mitigation potential than the D. regia. It is advocated that the approach deployed in the study could be exploited for identifying more adaptive plantation species to develop urban green belts for mitigating urban climate and environments.
•Deployed physio-biophysical functional traits approach for assessing adaptation and mitigation response of urban plantations.•Urban plantations significantly modulated functional traits for adapting to the novel climate created by vehicular emissions.•The C. viminalis was reported to be more adaptive with better mitigation potential than Delonix regia.
Energy consumption varies with the routing protocols used, whereby the selection of these protocols depends on the application in the wireless sensor networks. The other objective is to achieve a ...longer life of nodes and to make the communication among nodes and the Base Station economical. In this paper, we discuss various hierarchical routing protocols such as LEACH, TEEN, HEED and PEGASIS based on different parameters like energy consumption, throughput and packet dropping ratio along with the different simulation environment used for emulation and simulating the wireless sensor network scenarios viz NS-2, NS-3, OMNeT++, MATLAB, QualNet and TOSSIM.
Indian states are divergent in terms of pursuing their own economic policies linked to education, employability and employment. States significantly differ in terms of resource endowments, especially ...on endowments related to skill. This is reflected in the unequal distribution of educational capabilities, employability and skill intensity in workforce, employment and other key indicators. In effect, skills go much beyond formal certifications, especially in a culturally and geographically diverse nation like India. It is in this context, the 3E (Education, Employability and Employment) Index is planned and reconnoitred. The dimensions of the 3-E index are education, employability and employment in a comprehensive framework as an indication to Indian policymakers to highlight gaps between the three dimensions across states and within states. The focus of 3E index is from the labour market perspective and linking up supply and demand of labour. While traditionally one just links up education, we have included the added dimension of employability to gain insight on the supply side strength of each of the states in the labour market. The present attempt is an indicative assessment with the available data from NSS (61st and 68th Round) to have a holistic viewpoint on skills from a 3E perspective.
The Economic Surveys (2014–15 and 2015–16) have, over the years, stressed on the need to create jobs to meet the needs of a burgeoning population. However, the question as to which sector has the ...most potential to create jobs and at what level have often been left unanswered. The objective of this paper is to identify the sectors of the Indian economy that are able to generate different types of skilled employment, both directly as well indirectly, by estimating their employment linkage effects with varying levels of skills using the Input– Output technique. The contribution of this paper is that it re-defines skills by combining three types of education, including general, vocational and technical education, and thus defines four types of skilled employment categories—low skilled, low-medium skilled, medium-high skilled, and high skilled employment. The paper incorporates these four types of skilled employment within the Input–Output framework, using the World Input–Output Database (WIOD), and estimates the forward and backward linkage effects related to employment with respect to four different skill types for India. The estimation of these employment linkage effects is critical to identify the key employment-generating sectors in the Indian economy with varying levels of skill. The study also urges policymakers to boost some select sectors in order to enhance different types of employment, thus proposing a way to take forward the ‘Skill India Mission’.
•Effect of SWNT networks on response, signal-to-noise ratio and detection limit has been investigated.•CNT-μR is more sensitive as compared to CNT-TFR.•Regeneration of gas sensor surface and ...reduction of network density are found to have an adverse effect on the detection limit.
In this work Single wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) based gas sensor is fabricated with mainly two type of surface-networks, (i) SWNT random network (CNT-TFR) and (ii) SWNT aligned network (CNT-μR). Investigations of sensor response and its signal-to-noise ratio have been carried out for both the networks. Sensing measurement is performed by exposing sensor to NO2 concentration from 0.5ppm to 20ppm over CNT-TFR and CNT-μR. It has been found that the response of CNT-μR is higher than CNT-TFR. The variation of response with concentration for both sensors is investigated and it is observed that type of surface network affects the surface heterogeneity and hence adsorption capacity of sensor. The detection limit of these gas sensors is 125ppt and 165ppt for CNT-TFR and CNT-μR respectively. CNT-TFR has a better detection limit (DL) and signal-to-noise ratio as compared to CNT-μR due to better surface homogeneity of CNT-TFR. The detection limit for the aligned gas sensors decreases as network density decreases.
Multi-input multi-output (MIMO) is anticipated to be a prominent technique proposed in the wireless communications to improve the system capacity and data rates of the wireless networks. However, the ...MIMO transmitter suffers from imperfections, such as crosstalk, power-amplifier (PA) nonlinearity, in-phase and quadrature (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">I/Q </tex-math></inline-formula>) imbalance, and dc offset. Investigating these effects, this paper proposes neural network (NN)-based digital predistortion (DPD) as an integral solution to compensate for crosstalk, PA nonlinearity, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">I/Q </tex-math></inline-formula> imbalance, and dc offset imperfections simultaneously in MIMO transmitters. The proposed NN DPD model provides a one-step single-model digital mitigation solution to multibranches of MIMO transmitters. With the increase in the dimensions of MIMO transmitter, the proposed NN-based DPD model provides a better compensation for transmitter imperfections and also reduces the complexity as compared to the state-of-the-art DPD methods. The proof-of-concept is provided with the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">2 \times 2 </tex-math></inline-formula> and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">3 \times 3 </tex-math></inline-formula> MIMO transmitters in the presence of strong PA nonlinearity, crosstalk, I/Q imbalance, and dc offset for homodyne as well as heterodyne transmitters' cases.
Effective positive-pressure ventilation is a critical factor in newborn resuscitation. Neonatal endotracheal intubation (ETT) needs considerable training and experience, which poses a human factor ...challenge. Laryngeal mask airway (LMA) ventilation can be a secure and viable alternative during the initial stages of newborn resuscitation. However, there is limited evidence for its use during chest compression (CC).
Seventeen lambs were randomized into LMA or ETT ventilation post cord occlusion induced cardiac arrest. After 5 min of cardiac arrest, resuscitation was initiated as per NRP recommendations. Ventilation, oxygenation, systemic and pulmonary hemodynamic parameters were recorded till the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) or 20 min.
Baseline characteristics were similar between the groups. The incidence of ROSC was 75% (6/8) in the LMA group and 56% (5/9) in the ETT group (p = 0.74). The median (IQR) time to achieve ROSC was 6.85 min (6 min-9.1 min) in the LMA group and 7.50 min (5.33 min-18 min) in the ETT group (p = 0.65).
LMA ventilation during CC is feasible and non-inferior to ETT in this model.
Laryngeal mask airway (LMA) ventilation with chest compression is feasible and non-inferior to endotracheal tube ventilation in this experimental near-term lamb model of asphyxial cardiac arrest. First translational study to evaluate the use of LMA as an airway device with chest compression. Evidence primer for clinical studies to evaluate and confirm the feasibility and efficacy of LMA ventilation with chest compression are necessary before randomized clinical trials in neonates. LMA use in neonatal cardiopulmonary resusciation (CPR) could have the potential to optimize advanced resuscitation, especially in resource-limited healthcare settings.
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