Monitoring changes in land use land cover of Yamuna riverbed in Delhi: a multi-temporal analysis

Impact of anthropogenic activities has led to significant changes in riverbeds over a period of time. The objective of the study was to monitor the land use land cover (LULC) of Yamuna riverbed in Delhi and to assess the changes due to natural and anthropogenic activities. The maximum likelihood classification was carried out by using March 1977, April 1999, April 2002 and February 2009 imageries. An overall accuracy of LULC classification of 2009 imagery was around 88.6% based on ground truth data. A significant reduction in the main river course and increase in agricultural activities as well as built up were observed in remote sensing analysis as an outcome of riverbed encroachments. The changed scenario of riverbed not only stresses the riverine ecosystem but also jeopardizes the future consequences on river hydraulics.     

Designer,Programmable DNA-peptide hybrid materials with emergent properties to probe and modulate biological systems

The chemistry of DNA endows it with certain functional properties that facilitate the generation of self-assembled nanostructures, offering precise control over their geometry and morphology, that can be exploited for advanced biological applications. Despite the structural promise of these materials, their applications are limited owing to lack of functional capability to interact favourably with biological systems, which has been achieved by functional proteins or peptides. Herein, we outline a strategy for functionalizing DNA structures with short-peptides, leading to the formation of DNA-peptide hybrid materials. This proposition offers the opportunity to leverage the unique advantages of each of these bio-molecules, that have far reaching emergent properties in terms of better cellular interactions and uptake, better stability in biological media, an acceptable and programmable immune response and high bioactive molecule loading capacities. We discuss the synthetic strategies for the formation of these materials, namely, solid-phase functionalization and solution-coupling functionalization. We then proceed to highlight selected biological applications of these materials in the domains of cell instruction & molecular recognition, gene delivery, drug delivery and bone & tissue regeneration. We conclude with discussions shedding light on the challenges that these materials pose and offer our insights on future directions of peptide-DNA research for targeted biomedical applications.     

Battery Energy Storage to Strengthen the Wind Generator in Integrated Power System

The wind energy generation,utilization and its grid penetration in electrical grid are increasing world-wide.The wind generated power is always fluctuating due to its time varying nature and causing stability problem.This weak interconnection of wind generating source in the electrical network affects the power quality and reliability.The localized energy storages shall compensate the fluctuating power and support to strengthen the wind generator in the power system,in this paper,it is proposed to control the voltage source inverter(VSI)in current control mode with energy storage,that is,batteries across the dc bus.The generated wind power can be extracted under varying wind speed and stored in the batteries.This energy storage maintains the stiff voltage across the dc bus of the voltage source inverter.The proposed scheme enhances the stability and reliability of the power system and maintains unity power factor,it can also be operated in stand-alone mode in the power system.The power exchange across the wind generation and the load under dynamic situation is feasible while maintaining the power quality norms at the common point of coupling.It strengthens the weak grid in the power system.This control strategy is evaluated on the test system under dynamic condition by using simulation.The results are verified by comparing the performance of controllers.     

Synthesis and characterization of fire resistance polymeric coating solution for carbon-blended aluminized (E-glass-based) and non-aluminized fabric

Abstract

In this study, we report the development and characterization of fire-resistant non-intumescent polymeric resin for aluminized (E-glass-based) and non-aluminized (basofil/nomex/carbon-based) firefighting suit fabrics. The prospective coating resin is synthesized via two-step polymerization of polyimide using dimethylacetamide (DMAc) as a common solvent. 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) is used as a coupling agent and is added just before coating. All the coating samples are prepared by hand layup technique and are allowed to cure (known as imidization) under the oven with increasing the temperature step-by-step from 80 to 350?°C. The imidization of coating resin is confirmed by FT-IR spectra analysis. Furthermore, all the samples are characterized with flammability, adhesion, thermal protective index, heat char and ignition, and thermal shrinkage as per BS 3120, MIL-C-29143, BS 3791, D-5537, and NFPA 1976 standards, respectively. The observed results confirmed that the prospective resin could be a better choice as fire-resistant coating for carbon-blended aluminized and/ non-aluminized fabric.     

Concurrency control in hierarchical multidatabase systems

Over the past decade, significant research has been done towards developing transaction management algorithms for multidatabase systems. Most of this work assumes a monolithic architecture of the multidatabase system with a single software module that follows a single transaction management algorithm to ensure the consistency of data stored in the local databases. This monolithic architecture is not appropriate in a multidatabase environment where the system spans multiple different organizations that are distributed over various geographically distant locations. In this paper, we propose an alternative multidatabase transaction management architecture, where the system is hierarchical in nature. Hierarchical architecture has consequences on the design of transaction management algorithms. An implication of the architecture is that the transaction management algorithms followed by a multidatabase system must be composable– that is, it must be possible to incorporate individual multidatabase systems as elements in a larger multidatabase system. We present a hierarchical architecture for a multidatabase environment and develop techniques for concurrency control in such systems. Edited by R. Sacks-Davis. Received June 27, 1994 / Accepted September 26, 1995     

Environmental Overview of the Sardar Sarovar Project

An overview of the various studies conducted to assess the environmental, ecological and social impacts, both positive and negative, of the Sardar Sarovar Project is presented. These studies have generally attempted to enhance the positive impacts, and to reduce the negative ones. The Sardar Sarovar Project is by far the most studied water project in the developing world, especially in social and environmental terms. The river Narmada and its numerous tributaries are a part of a very diverse system. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the river valley development is a complex task. The intricate interactions between various parameters, many of which cannot be definitively predicted, make EIA studies extremely difficult. The success of this project depends on how fast and how efficiently the various governmental agencies can work together with the NGOs, academics, the general public, and of course the politicians and policy makers.     

Effect of inert fillers on diffusion and controlled release of penetrant in polymer matrices

This study investigates the characteristics of leaching into a solvent of an active used as termiticide, Bifenthrin® (a synthetic pyrethroid) entrapped in polymer, and the effect of layered silicates on this diffusion. Two contrasting solvents, water and acetone, were used to understand this phenomenon; the active is soluble in acetone but has very low solubility in water. The data are used to understand the migration characteristics of Bifenthrin when encapsulated in polyurethane to form a termite barrier. The absorption characteristics of Bifenthrin in polyethylene were also studied for comparison. Bifenthrin-polyurethaneblends containing 0, 0.5, and 5% of layered silicates were prepared and monitored for the release of Bifenthrin. Using the time-concentration dependence of the active in polymer, diffusion coefficients of Bifenthrin from the polymer were inferred assuming Fickian diffusion. The presence of silicates had no significant effect on the diffusion behavior. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Predicting excavation methods and rock support: a case study from the Himalayan region of India

The Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower project (4 × 130 MW) in the Himalayan region of India, has been used as a case study to compare the problems and cost-effectiveness of a TBM or drill and blast excavation of the headrace tunnel and to assess the rock support measures for the powerhouse cavern. The NTH time and cost prognosis model indicated that the TBM would give a better weekly advance rate and unit excavation cost for the headrace tunnel. The Phase 2 finite element numerical modeling tool and the Hoek–Brown failure criterion were used to analyse the stresses and displacements likely to be experienced in the underground excavations. The rock support determined was compared with that indicated using the Q-method. The work has shown that numerical modeling can prove very useful in supplementing the results, provided the input parameters are accurate and take into account both direct measurements and judgment based on experience of the actual ground conditions.     

Global optimization of mixed-integer nonlinear (polynomial) programming problems: the Bernstein polynomial approach

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for constrained global optimization of mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems. The proposed algorithm uses the Bernstein polynomial form in a branch-and-bound framework. Ingredients such as continuous relaxation, branching for integer decision variables, and fathoming for each subproblem in the branch-and-bound tree are used. The performance of the proposed algorithm is tested and compared with several state-of-the-art MINLP solvers, on two sets of test problems. The results of the tests show the superiority of the proposed algorithm over the state-of-the-art solvers in terms of the chosen performance metrics.