Groundwater is an important source for drinking water supply in hard rock terrain of Bundelkhand massif particularly in District Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh, India. An attempt has been made in this work to ...understand the suitability of groundwater for human consumption. The parameters like pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, alkalinity
,
total hardness, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, bicarbonate, sulfate, chloride, fluoride, nitrate, copper, manganese, silver, zinc, iron and nickel were analysed to estimate the groundwater quality. The water quality index (WQI) has been applied to categorize the water quality viz: excellent, good, poor, etc. which is quite useful to infer the quality of water to the people and policy makers in the concerned area. The WQI in the study area ranges from 4.75 to 115.93. The overall WQI in the study area indicates that the groundwater is safe and potable except few localized pockets in Charkhari and Jaitpur Blocks. The Hill-Piper Trilinear diagram reveals that the groundwater of the study area falls under Na
+
-Cl
−
, mixed Ca
2+
-Mg
2+
-Cl
−
and Ca
2+
-
HCO
3
-
types. The granite-gneiss contains orthoclase feldspar and biotite minerals which after weathering yields bicarbonate and chloride rich groundwater. The correlation matrix has been created and analysed to observe their significant impetus on the assessment of groundwater quality. The current study suggests that the groundwater of the area under deteriorated water quality needs treatment before consumption and also to be protected from the perils of geogenic/anthropogenic contamination.
In this study, we evaluated genetic diversity in a panel of 87 Indian mustard varieties using 200 genomic-SSR markers. A total of 189 SSRs resulted into positive amplification with 174 (92.06%) SSRs ...generating polymorphic products and 15 (7.94%) SSRs producing monomorphic amplicons. A total of 552 alleles were obtained and allele number varied from 2–6 with an average number of 3.17 alleles per SSR marker. The major allele frequency ranged from 0.29 (ENA23) to 0.92 (BrgMS841) with an average value of 0.58 per SSR locus. The polymorphic information content (PIC) value ranged from 0.10 (BrgMS841) to 0.68 (BrgMS519) with 0.39 as mean PIC value. The gene diversity per locus ranged from 0.13 (BrgMS841) to 0.72 (ENA23 & BrgMS519) with a mean value of 0.48 per SSR primer pair. Both Unweighted Neighbor Joining-based dendrogram and population structure analysis divided all the 87 varieties into two major groups/subpopulations. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) inferred the presence of more genetic variation (98%) among individuals than among groups (2%). A total of 31 SSRs produced 36 unique alleles for 27 varieties which will serve as unique DNA-fingerprints for the identification and legal protection of these varieties. Further, the results obtained provided a deeper insight into the genetic structure of Indian mustard varieties in India and will assist in formulating future breeding strategies aimed at Indian mustard genetic improvement.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
3.
Blast induced rock mass damage around tunnels Verma, H.K.; Samadhiya, N.K.; Singh, M. ...
Tunnelling and underground space technology,
January 2018, 2018-01-00, 20180101, Letnik:
71
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Drilling and blasting is a preferred method of rock excavation world-wide due to low initial investment, cheap explosive energy, easy acceptability among the blasting engineers and, possibility to ...deal with different shapes and sizes of openings. Although, drill and blast method has witnessed significant technological advancements, it has inherent disadvantage of deteriorating surrounding rock mass due to development of network of fine cracks in it leading to safety and stability problems. The damage in the peripheral rock mass culminates in the form of overbreak and damaged zone beyond overbreak. In some cases the projects cost has increased more than 15% because of overbreak. Although significant efforts have been made to assess damage to the surrounding rock mass using different methods, the solution based on easily available site parameters is still lacking. Authors have carried out field investigations at five different tunnels located in Himalaya, India to study blast induced damage for wide range of rock mass quality Q values (0.03–17.8). In addition to Q, specific charge, perimeter charge factor, maximum charge per delay, advancement and confinement factors have also been used. Data sets of 113 experimental blasts are collected from the five tunnel sites. All the parameters, easily available to the site engineers, have been used for developing an empirical correlation to estimate the rock mass damage around the tunnel, which is discussed in the paper. The proposed empirical correlation has been validated using ultrasonic tests on rock core samples obtained from one of the experimental location.
Objective
To describe differences in outcomes between pregnant women with and without coronavirus dsease 2019 (COVID‐19).
Design
Prospective cohort study of pregnant women consecutively admitted for ...delivery, and universally tested via nasopharyngeal (NP) swab for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) using reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. All infants of mothers with COVID‐19 underwent SARS‐CoV‐2 testing.
Setting
Three New York City hospitals.
Population
Pregnant women >20 weeks of gestation admitted for delivery.
Methods
Data were stratified by SARS‐CoV‐2 result and symptomatic status, and were summarised using parametric and nonparametric tests.
Main outcome measures
Prevalence and outcomes of maternal COVID‐19, obstetric outcomes, neonatal SARS‐CoV‐2, placental pathology.
Results
Of 675 women admitted for delivery, 10.4% were positive for SARS‐CoV‐2, of whom 78.6% were asymptomatic. We observed differences in sociodemographics and comorbidities among women with symptomatic COVID‐10 versus asymptomatic COVID‐19 versus no COVID‐19. Caesarean delivery rates were 46.7% in symptomatic COVID‐19, 45.5% in asymptomatic COVID‐19 and 30.9% in women without COVID‐19 (P = 0.044). Postpartum complications (fever, hypoxia, readmission) occurred in 12.9% of women with COVID‐19 versus 4.5% of women without COVID‐19 (P < 0.001). No woman required mechanical ventilation, and no maternal deaths occurred. Among 71 infants tested, none were positive for SARS‐CoV‐2. Placental pathology demonstrated increased frequency of fetal vascular malperfusion, indicative of thrombi in fetal vessels, in women with COVID‐19 versus women without COVID‐19 (48.3% versus 11.3%, P < 0.001).
Conclusion
Among pregnant women with COVID‐19 at delivery, we observed increased caesarean delivery rates and increased frequency of maternal complications in the postpartum period. Additionally, intraplacental thrombi may have maternal and fetal implications for COVID‐19 remote from delivery.
Tweetable
COVID‐19 at delivery: more caesarean deliveries, postpartum complications and intraplacental thrombi.
Tweetable
COVID‐19 at delivery: more caesarean deliveries, postpartum complications and intraplacental thrombi.
This article includes Author Insights, a video available at https://vimeo.com/rcog/authorinsights16403
The XIII Banff meeting, held in conjunction the Canadian Society of Transplantation in Vancouver, Canada, reviewed the clinical impact of updates of C4d‐negative antibody‐mediated rejection (ABMR) ...from the 2013 meeting, reports from active Banff Working Groups, the relationships of donor‐specific antibody tests (anti‐HLA and non‐HLA) with transplant histopathology, and questions of molecular transplant diagnostics. The use of transcriptome gene sets, their resultant diagnostic classifiers, or common key genes to supplement the diagnosis and classification of rejection requires further consensus agreement and validation in biopsies. Newly introduced concepts include the i‐IFTA score, comprising inflammation within areas of fibrosis and atrophy and acceptance of transplant arteriolopathy within the descriptions of chronic active T cell–mediated rejection (TCMR) or chronic ABMR. The pattern of mixed TCMR and ABMR was increasingly recognized. This report also includes improved definitions of TCMR and ABMR in pancreas transplants with specification of vascular lesions and prospects for defining a vascularized composite allograft rejection classification. The goal of the Banff process is ongoing integration of advances in histologic, serologic, and molecular diagnostic techniques to produce a consensus‐based reporting system that offers precise composite scores, accurate routine diagnostics, and applicability to next‐generation clinical trials.
In this article, the Banff consortium presents the most updated version of the kidney, pancreas, and VCA transplant rejection classification and prospects for implementing intragraft molecular assessment. See the companion report on page 42.
Crystalline rocks are the best-suited rock type for the nuclear waste repository. A deeper understanding of the thermomechanical stability of rocks plays a crucial role in the selection of suitable ...host rock for this purpose. To investigate the feasibility of different types of Jalore granitoid rocks (red, pink, golden, and white granites) in this application. The main objective of this study is devoted to damage characteristics when selecting the potential rock, while little work has been done in the field of rock mechanical behaviors in particular nuclear waste disposal. Where rock needs to stable after undergoing increases in the number of the thermal cycle in the treatment if a below damage threshold temperature is applied as in this study (i.e., 250 °C). The rock specimens were heated till 250 °C for 12 h, with constant heating rate 5 °C/min and constant cooling rate 0.364 °C/min, up to nine cycles. In this paper, the stress–strain curve under tension (Brazilian disc test) was plotted for Jalore granitoid rocks after different thermal cycle treatment. Using Lemaitre’s strain equivalent principle along with statistics and damage theory, a model for damage caused due to thermal cycles under indirect tension condition is established. We have also measured the microscopic observation (thin section), mineral characterization (XRD), and surface morphology (SEM) of different thermal cycles treated. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DT) have also been used to identify the changes in thermal and kinetic behaviors. It is found that the increase of the thermal cycle leads to an accumulation in strains and a reduction in the P-wave velocity and rock strength. We have found that the thermal damage incurred on the rock, in the form of mass loss and P-wave velocity decrease, due to thermal cracks and nonuniform expansion of grains along the grain boundary were developed on the surface. Increasing thermal cycles lead to a reduction in tensile strength and elastic modulus. Fracturing within the rock is more severe, as compared to three cycles, after being subjected to five thermal cycles. It is interesting to note that beyond five cycles of thermal treatment, the thermal damage and stability of the granitoid have remained mostly unchanged.
To critically assess the performance of micro and small foodpreneurs during COVID-19 pandemic in Manipur state of India, an online survey was conducted during the year 2020. The survey data was ...subjected to non-parametric statistical analysis using PROC NPAR1WAY and Dwass, Steel, Critchlow-Fligner multiple comparison analysis. The findings suggested that during COVID-19 pandemic, the micro and small foodpreneurs faced multifaceted challenges with respect to the number of employees, working hours, supply of raw material, selling mode, production, sale, turnover and the extent of loss, etc. The performance of different categories of foodpreneurs was compared based on the change in various performance indicators between pre-pandemic and pandemic period. The study also highlights the major problems faced by the foodpreneurs and remedial measures. This is the first report on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on foodpreneurs from North East India.
ZnO is a promising candidate for use as an environmentally friendly thermoelectric (TE) material. However, high thermal conductivity leading to a poor TE figure-of-merit (zT) needs to be addressed to ...achieve a significant TE efficiency for commercial applications. Here, we demonstrate that selective enhancement in phonon scattering leads to an increase in the zT of ZnO because of Al doping and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) encapsulation. These nanocomposites are synthesized via a facile and scalable method. The incorporation of 1 at% Al with 1.5 wt % RGO into ZnO has been found to show significant improvement in zT (0.52 at 1100 K), which is an order of magnitude larger compared to that of bare undoped ZnO. Photoluminescence and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements confirm that RGO encapsulation significantly quenches surface oxygen vacancies in ZnO along with nucleation of new interstitial Zn donor states. Tunneling spectroscopy performed on bare as well as composite particles reveals that the band gap of ∼3.4 eV for bare ZnO reduces effectively to ∼0.5 eV upon RGO encapsulation, facilitating charge transport. The electrical conductivity also benefits from high densification (>95%) achieved using the spark plasma sintering method, which also aids in reduction of graphene oxide into RGO. The same Al doping and RGO capping synergistically bring about drastic reduction of thermal conductivity, through enhanced interfacial and point-defect-phonon scatterings. These opposing effects on electrical and thermal conductivities lead to enhancement in the power factors as well as the zT value. Overall, a practically viable route has been demonstrated for the synthesis of oxide–RGO TE materials, which could find their potential applications in high-temperature TE power generation.
Low field magnetotransport in manganites Siwach, P K; Singh, H K; Srivastava, O N
Journal of physics. Condensed matter,
07/2008, Letnik:
20, Številka:
27
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The perovskite manganites with generic formula RE(1-x)AE(x)MnO(3) (RE = rare earth, AE = Ca, Sr, Ba and Pb) have drawn considerable attention, especially following the discovery of colossal ...magnetoresistance (CMR). The most fundamental property of these materials is strong correlation between structure, transport and magnetic properties. They exhibit extraordinary large magnetoresistance named CMR in the vicinity of the insulator-metal/paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition at relatively large applied magnetic fields. However, for applied aspects, occurrence of significant CMR at low applied magnetic fields would be required. This review consists of two sections: in the first section we have extensively reviewed the salient features, e.g. structure, phase diagram, double-exchange mechanism, Jahn-Teller effect, different types of ordering and phase separation of CMR manganites. The second is devoted to an overview of experimental results on CMR and related magnetotransport characteristics at low magnetic fields for various doped manganites having natural grain boundaries such as polycrystalline, nanocrystalline bulk and films, manganite-based composites and intrinsically layered manganites, and artificial grain boundaries such as bicrystal, step-edge and laser-patterned junctions. Some other potential magnetoresistive materials, e.g. pyrochlores, chalcogenides, ruthenates, diluted magnetic semiconductors, magnetic tunnel junctions, nanocontacts etc, are also briefly dealt with. The review concludes with an overview of grain-boundary-induced low field magnetotransport behavior and prospects for possible applications.
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