The effect of sole application of inorganic fertilizers (NPK) (N:P:K:: 30:26:25
kg
ha
−1) and combined application of farmyard manure (FYM) @ 4
Mg
ha
−1 and inorganic fertilizers (NPK
+
FYM)
...vis-a-vis non-application of fertilizers and manures (control) on changes in soil physical properties and plant growth characteristics of soybean (cv. JS 335) was studied in a deep Vertisol at the Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal during the year 2001–2004. The results indicated that conjunctive use of recommended dose of fertilizer and farmyard manure (NPK
+
FYM) resulted in significant (
P
<
0.05) decrease of bulk density (9.3%), soil penetration resistance (42.6%) and increase in hydraulic conductivity (95.8%) and mean weight diameter of the water stable aggregates (13.8%) and soil organic carbon content (45.2%) compared to control. Among the aggregates, in macro-aggregate fraction (250–500
μm and 500–1000
μm size fraction) and in large macro-aggregate fraction (>2000
μm) maximum soil organic carbon concentration was recorded under NPK
+
FYM. The root mass of soybean was mostly (98%) confined to 15
cm soil depth. Combined application of NPK and FYM recorded significantly higher (
P
<
0.05) root length density and root mass density of soybean in the 0–15
cm soil layer at flowering stage over NPK (28 and 65%) and control (63 and 175%). The root length density of soybean was significantly negatively correlated with the penetration resistance (
r
=
0.98,
P
<
0.05). Application of FYM @ 4
Mg
ha
−1 with NPK significantly (
P
<
0.05) improved the biomass partitioning towards pod over NPK and control. The grain yield, water use efficiency and nitrogen use efficiency of soybean under NPK
+
FYM were significantly (
P
<
0.05) higher than NPK and control. The total above ground biomass and the leaf area index at R8 stage could account for respectively, 89 and 63% variation in grain yield of soybean. Therefore in every crop season, integrated use of farmyard manure at 4
Mg
ha
−1 and recommended dose of chemical fertilizers may be practised in Vertisols for improving soil physical environment and achieving higher soybean productivity through efficient utilization of water and nutrients.
The Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) is one of the payloads in ASTROSAT, the first Indian Space Observatory. The UVIT instrument has two 375 mm telescopes: one for the far-ultraviolet (FUV) ...channel (1300-1800 ), and the other for the near-ultraviolet (NUV) channel (2000-3000 ) and the visible (VIS) channel (3200-5500 ). UVIT is primarily designed for simultaneous imaging in the two ultraviolet channels with spatial resolution better than 1 8, along with provisions for slit-less spectroscopy in the NUV and FUV channels. The results of in-orbit calibrations of UVIT are presented in this paper.
Abstract
In this paper we report a cheap, paper electronics based solid state gas sensor to detect NH
3
gas selectively with a detection capability of better than 1 ppm. The sensor uses perovskite ...halide CH
3
NH
3
PbI
3
(MAPI) as the active sensor material grown on a paper. This paper based sensor works at room temperature. The current through the paper sensor increases by one order on exposure to only 10 ppm NH
3
gas. The calibrated sensitivity is ~55% for 1 ppm of NH
3
gas in Nitrogen or Air. The current noise limited resolution estimated to be ~10 ppb. This work establishes perovskite halide as a new solid state gas sensing material that can reach sub ppm sensitivity using simple paper electronics. Use of paper and also solution method used to grow the active material makes the sensor cost effective and easy to manufacture. This type of disposable high sensitive paper sensor can be used for detection of NH
3
as a marker in exhaled breathes for non-invasive diagnosis. The sensor formed on the paper, since it supports unheated operation, needs less than few nanowatt power for its operation.
Digestion of food depends on three main factors: (i) the ingested food and the extent to which the food is susceptible to the effects of digestive enzymes, (ii) the activity of the digestive enzymes ...and (iii) the length of time the food is exposed to the action of the digestive enzymes. Each of these factors is affected by a multitude of secondary factors. The present review highlights the experimental results on the secondary factor, enzymatic activity and possible contribution of the fish gut microbiota in nutrition. It has been suggested that fish gut microbiota might have positive effects to the digestive processes of fish, and these studies have isolated and identified the enzyme‐producing microbiota. In addition to Bacillus genera, Enterobacteriaceae and Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, Flavobacterium, Photobacterium, Pseudomonas, Vibrio, Microbacterium, Micrococcus, Staphylococcus, unidentified anaerobes and yeast are also suggested to be possible contributors. However, in contrast to endothermic animals, it is difficult to conclude the exact contribution of the gastrointestinal microbiota because of the complexity and variable ecology of the digestive tract of different fish species, the presence of stomach and pyloric caeca and the relative intestinal length. The present review will critically evaluate the results to establish whether or not intestinal microbiota do contribute to fish nutrition.
Abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear contributes considerably to global marine debris. These lost gears, mostly made of non-biodegradable synthetic materials, persist in the marine ...environment for longer periods of time and pose a great threat to marine life by entangling and killing target fishes and other non-target species such as turtles, birds, and mammals, a phenomenon known as ghost fishing. Other environmental impacts include physical impacts on aquatic habitats, transfer of microplastics into food web, and interference with fishing. Information regarding the catching efficiency and catch rates of lost nets in Indian waters is lacking. Ghost fishing capacity of simulated lost gillnets is being reported for the first time in India. This study investigates the ghost fishing capacity of lost gillnets through an experimental approach at Aroor, Vembanad lake, Kerala, India. Simulation studies using purposefully abandoned shrimp gillnets (32 mm mesh size) were conducted to understand the fishing capacity of lost gillnets during two seasons (monsoon and post-monsoon) as separate experiments. The gillnets maintained their catching efficiency until the 15th day during the first experiment and up to the 50th day in the second experiment. Catches showed an exponential reduction over time in both experiments. A total of 251 specimens comprising of 27 species were caught from both sets of experimental nets, and the state of catch in the nets showed different decaying stages from the second day itself along with fresh stages. As the days progressed, particulate matter and detritus began to accumulate on the experimental nets, increasing net visibility and reducing their catching efficiency. The results of the study on ghost fishing capability will contribute to the development of strategies for reducing the effects of lost nets on the aquatic ecosystem and for suggesting improved management strategies.
The industrial advancement has promoted the development of deep learning (DL)-based intelligent fault diagnosis methods for condition-based maintenance (CBM). Though these methods rely on large ...dataset for training, the collection of large number of fault samples is not practically feasible. For this purpose, generative adversarial networks (GANs) are capable to generate high-quality synthetic samples. However, the problem still persists with the training of GAN using limited fault samples that are present in practical conditions. This article proposes a novel conditional auxiliary classifier GAN framework coupled with model agnostic meta learning (MAML) to resolve this problem. The objective is to initialize and update the network parameters using MAML instead of regular stochastic gradient learning. This modification enables GAN to learn the task of synthetic sample generation using the limited training dataset. The effectiveness of the proposed framework has been compared with several famous state-of-the-art intelligent fault diagnosis methods existing in the literature. The comparative performance has been validated on benchmarked datasets, i.e., air compressor and bearing datasets collected from a single-stage reciprocating air compressor. The proposed framework is able to achieve the classification accuracy of 99.26% and 98.55% for bearing and air compressor datasets, respectively, with only ten samples per class. Moreover, a real-time case study is performed to validate the proposed method in real time.
The role of overcrowded and multigenerational households as a risk factor for COVID-19 remains unmeasured. The objective of this study is to examine and quantify the association between overcrowded ...and multigenerational households and COVID-19 in New York City (NYC).
Cohort study.
We conducted a Bayesian ecological time series analysis at the ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) level in NYC to assess whether ZCTAs with higher proportions of overcrowded (defined as the proportion of the estimated number of housing units with more than one occupant per room) and multigenerational households (defined as the estimated percentage of residences occupied by a grandparent and a grandchild less than 18 years of age) were independently associated with higher suspected COVID-19 case rates (from NYC Department of Health Syndromic Surveillance data for March 1 to 30, 2020). Our main measure was an adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) of suspected COVID-19 cases per 10,000 population. Our final model controlled for ZCTA-level sociodemographic factors (median income, poverty status, White race, essential workers), the prevalence of clinical conditions related to COVID-19 severity (obesity, hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, asthma, smoking status, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and spatial clustering.
39,923 suspected COVID-19 cases were presented to emergency departments across 173 ZCTAs in NYC. Adjusted COVID-19 case rates increased by 67% (IRR 1.67, 95% CI = 1.12, 2.52) in ZCTAs in quartile four (versus one) for percent overcrowdedness and increased by 77% (IRR 1.77, 95% CI = 1.11, 2.79) in quartile four (versus one) for percent living in multigenerational housing. Interaction between both exposures was not significant (βinteraction = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.99–1.00).
Overcrowdedness and multigenerational housing are independent risk factors for suspected COVID-19. In the early phase of the surge in COVID cases, social distancing measures that increase house-bound populations may inadvertently but temporarily increase SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk and COVID-19 disease in these populations.
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Recently, novel composite materials are rapidly being explored for water treatment applications. However, their physicochemical behavior and mechanistic investigations are still a ...mystery. Therefore, our key prospect is to develop a highly stable mixed-matrix adsorbent system using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) support impregnated with amine-functionalized graphitic carbon nitride/magnetite (gCN-NH2/Fe3O4) composite nanofibers (PAN/gCN-NH2/Fe3O4: PCNFe) by simple electrospinning techniques. Various instrumental techniques were used to explore the structural, physicochemical, and mechanical behavior of the synthesized nanofiber. The developed PCNFe with a specific surface area of 39.0 m2/g was found to be non-aggregated and to have outstanding water dispersibility, abundant surface functionality, greater hydrophilicity, superior magnetic property, and higher thermal & mechanical characteristics making it favorable for rapid As removal. Based on the experimental findings from the batch study, 97.0 and 99.0 % of arsenite (As(III)) and arsenate (As(V)), respectively, could be adsorbed by utilizing0.02 g of adsorbent dosage within 60 min of contact time at pH 7 and 4, with an initial concentration of 10 mg/L. Adsorption of As(III) and As(V) followed the pseudo-second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm models with an sorption capacities of 32.26 and 33.22 mg/g, respectively, at ambient temperature. The adsorption was endothermic and spontaneous, in accordance with the thermodynamic study. Furthermore, the addition of co-anions in a competitive environment did not affect As adsorption except for PO43-. Moreover, PCNFe preserves its adsorption efficiency above 80 % after five regeneration cycles. The combined results of FTIR and XPS after adsorption further support the adsorption mechanism. Also, the composite nanostructures retain their morphological and structural integrity after the adsorption process. The facile synthesis protocol, high As adsorption capacity, and enhanced mechanical integrity of PCNFe foreshadow its huge prospects for real wastewater treatment.
In this work the effect of multi-pass friction stir processing (FSP) followed by warm pressing on an as-extruded ZK60Mg plate was investigated. The microstructure, texture and resulting mechanical ...properties are reported here. Multi-pass FSP to partial depths on the top and bottom plate surfaces produced a novel, layered structure with three distinct microstructural zones associated with stirred, transition and core regions. In the stirred zone, FSP, followed by pressing at 200°C, created a 0.8μm ultrafine grain size which accounts for ∼55 vol.% of the material. The transition region (∼10 vol.%), showed extensively sheared coarse grains distributed in a matrix of finer grains. However, the core region (∼35 vol.%) showed extensive twinning inside coarse grains in an overall bimodal microstructure reminiscent of extrusion. The processed Mg with a strong basal texture exhibited high yield strength (>300MPa) and retention of adequate tensile ductility (>10%). The enhancement in mechanical properties of processed Mg is found to be highly influenced by the layered microstructure: UFG grained stirred zone, finer precipitates and strong basal texture.
Abstract
We present experimental results of the trace argon impurity puffing in the ohmic plasmas of Aditya-U tokamak performed to study the argon transport behaviour. Argon line emissions in visible ...and Vacuum Ultra Violet (VUV) spectral ranges arising from the plasma edge and core respectively are measured simultaneously. During the experiments, space resolved brightness profile of Ar
1+
line emissions at 472.69 nm (3p
4
4s
2
P
3/2
–3p
4
4p
2
D
3/2
), 473.59 nm (3p
4
4s
4
P
5/2
–3p
4
4p
4
P
3/2
), 476.49 nm (3p
4
4s
2
P
1/2
–3p
4
4p
2
P
3/2
), 480.60 nm (3p
4
4s
4
P
5/2
–3p
4
4p
4
P
5/2
) are recorded using a high resolution visible spectrometer. Also, a VUV spectrometer has been used to simultaneously observe Ar
13+
line emission at 18.79 nm (2s
2
2p
2
P
3/2
–2s2p
2
2
P
3/2
) and Ar
14+
line emission at 22.11 nm (2s
2
1
S
0
–2s2p
1
P
1
). The diffusivity and convective velocity of Ar are obtained by comparing the measured radial emissivity profile of Ar
1+
emission and the line intensity ratio of Ar
13+
and Ar
14+
ions, with those simulated using the impurity transport code, STRAHL. Argon diffusivities ~ 12 m
2
/s and ~ 0.3 m
2
/s have been observed in the edge (ρ > 0.85) and core region of the Aditya-U, respectively. The diffusivity values both in the edge and core region are found to be higher than the neo-classical values suggesting that the argon impurity transport is mainly anomalous in the Aditya-U tokamak. Also, an inward pinch of ~ 10 m/s mainly driven by Ware pinch is required to match the measured and simulated data. The measured peaked profile of Ar density suggests impurity accumulation in these discharges.
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