Electrical Transport Properties of Nb and Ga Double Substituted Fe2VAl Heusler Compounds

Semiconductors - In this work the results of studying the electrical transport properties of Fe2V1 –xNbxAl1 –yGay (0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.2 and 0.1 ≤ y ≤ 0.2) are...     

Evaluation and inter-comparison of high-resolution multi-satellite rainfall products over India for the southwest monsoon period

Rainfall is one of the key drivers of the global hydrological cycle and has large socio-economic impacts. Tropical rainfall accounts for two-thirds of the global rainfall and is primarily associated with the monsoon. Multi-satellite rainfall products provide rainfall with high temporal and spatial resolutions; however, they exhibit regional and seasonal biases. Evaluation of these products against ground-based observations can improve the accuracy of the estimated rainfall. With the launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory, two advanced high-resolution multi-satellite precipitation products namely; Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) and Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP) are released. In the present study the spatial and temporal structures of rainfall in near real time and research versions of IMERG-V4 (near real-time (NRT) & Final (FNL)), GSMaP-V6 (NRT & moving vector with Kalman filter (MVK)), INSAT3D (Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) Multispectral Rainfall Algorithm (IMR) & Hydro-Estimator method (HEM)) and Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) – National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) Merged product have been evaluated against gridded gauge-based IMD rainfall data on daily, monthly and seasonal scales. All the datasets show noticeable bias in producing rainfall over orographic regions (i.e. Western Ghats and foothills of Himalayas) and North-East India, though there exists significant difference among the satellite measurements. Different skill scores are computed for GSMaP, IMERG and INSAT3D data products to evaluate the performance of these satellite estimates. However in terms of biases IMD-NCMRWF Merged, GSMaP (NRT & MVK) and IMERG (NRT & FNL) underestimates rainfall (about 11%, 17%, 23%, 18% and 3%, respectively) and INSAT3D (IMR & HEM) overestimates (about 49% and 33%, respectively), for the India region as a whole. In a similar way, HEM product shows 15% better performance than IMR product in INSAT3D category. However, both NRT and MVK products of GSMaP show similar variations compared to observe rainfall. Overall IMD–NCMRWF merged and IMERG-FNL data products show better agreement with the gauge-based IMD data compared to GSMaP. The GPM-based products (IMERG and GSMaP) estimate rainfall much better than INSAT3D estimation.     

Predicting Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) curves for ecosystem modeling applications

Vegetation indices derived from remote sensing data provide information about the variability in stature, growth and vigor of the vegetation across a region, and have been used to model plant processes. For example, the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) provides a measure of greenness of the vegetation that can be used to predict net primary production. However, ecosystem models relying on remote sensing data for EVI or other vegetation indices are limited by the time series of the satellite data record. Our objective was to develop a statistical model to predict EVI in order to extend the time series for modeling applications. To explain the functional behavior of the seasonal EVI curves, a two-stage multiple regression fitting procedure within a semi-parametric mixed effect (SPME) model framework was used. First, a linear mixed effect (LME) model was fitted to the EVI with climate indexes, crop and irrigation information as predictor variables. Second, Penalized B-splines were used to explain the behavior of the smooth residuals, which result from a smooth model fit to the smooth EVI data curve, in order to describe the uncertainty of the EVI curve. Individual models were fit within individual Major Land Resources Areas (MLRAs). Predicted seasonal EVI, derived from our regression equations, showed a strong agreement with the observed EVI and was able to capture the site by site and year by year variation in the EVI curve. Out-of-sample prediction produced excellent results for a majority of the sites, except for sites without clear seasonal patterns, which may have resulted from cloud contamination and/or snow cover. Therefore, given the appropriate climate, crop, and irrigation information, the proposed approach can be used to predict seasonal EVI curves for extending the time series into the past and future.     

Toxicokinetics and recovery studies of dicamba dimethyl amine salt in goats following single oral administration

BACKGROUND: Toxicokinetics and recovery studies of dicamba dimethyl amine salt (DDAS) were conducted to obtain more information about its toxicity and tissue retention in farm animals. RESULTS: The minimum oral toxic dose level of DDAS was determined as 1400 mg kg^?1 body weight. In the toxicokinetic study, blood DDAS concentration of 55.6 ± 0.59 µg mL^?1 (mean ± standard error) was detected at 0.08 h, which peaked to 102.3 ± 5.03 µg mL^?1 at 0.25 h, and declined to a minimum of 4.1 ± 0.06 µg mL^?1 at 36 h. In recovery studies, DDAS concentration in urine began to increase significantly (P < 0.05) from 12 h, peaked at 24 h and declined from 48 h onwards. Maximum excretion through faeces was at 24 h and was complete by 144 h. The residual level in tissues decreased significantly (P < 0.05) on day 7 as compared to day 4. In histopathological studies, cellular alterations in lungs, liver, kidney, adrenal gland and spleen were found. CONCLUSION: DDAS persists in the body for a shorter period and its major excretory route is through urine. DDAS has lower affinity to accumulate in tissues, and intensity of cellular alterations is not severe after single‐dose oral administration. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Porous media based model for deep-fat vacuum frying potato chips

Vacuum frying is an alternative method to the traditional atmospheric deep-fat frying that offers the health benefits associated with lower concentrations of acrylamide and less adverse effects on oil quality while still preserving the natural color and flavor of the product.     

Challenges for Sustainable Management of Groundwater Use in Bangkok,Thailand

An overview of groundwater development in Bangkok, Thailand, is provided and the paper highlights the environmental consequences of unplanned large-scale groundwater utilization. The effectiveness of the control measures adopted so far to address the issue of land subsidence is discussed. Recent initiatives and studies are analysed and the impediments to effective implementation of control measures are identified. Challenges faced by the Department of Groundwater Resources, which is responsible for groundwater development and management, are indicated. Recommendations are then put forward for improvement of the groundwater management system.     

Compact body-worn MIMO antenna with high port isolation for UWB applications

This article investigates the mutual coupling reduction of a compact two elements wearable ultra-wideband (UWB) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna. The ground plane of the proposed wearable MIMO antenna structure consists of three connected square ring-shaped stubs and two rectangular slots of narrow height. These ground stubs and slots minimize the mutual coupling effect between antennas and provide high isolation. The suggested MIMO antenna functions from the 1.87 to 13.82 GHz frequency spectrum covering WLAN (2.4–2.484 GHz), UWB (3.1–10.6 GHz), and X band (8–12 GHz) with 152.32% fractional bandwidth. It sustains port isolation above 27 dB throughout the 2 to 13.82 GHz frequency band. Inside the whole working frequency band, the suggested antenna offers a tiny envelope correlation coefficient (ECC < 0.098), greater diversity gain (DG > 9.93 dB), minimum channel capacity loss (CCL < 0.32 bits/s/Hz), and slight magnitude variation in mean effective gain of antenna ports (< 0.1 dB). The recommended antenna yields a SAR level below the designated threshold (<1.6 W/kg), affirming its suitability for body-worn applications. The designed MIMO antenna structure has an overall volume of 32 × 48 × 1.5 mm³.     

Theoretical Modeling of the Thermoelectric Properties of Fe2Ti1 –xVxSn Heusler Alloys

Semiconductors - Theoretical calculations of the electron structure and Seebeck coefficient in Fe2Ti1 –xVxSn alloys for the cases of a fully ordered L21 and partially disordered B2 Heusler...     

A simple spectrophotometric method for estimating total glucosinolates in mustard de-oiled cake

Glucosinolates are anti-nutritional factors present abundantly in the seed meal fraction of oilseed Brassica species. They are found in varying levels among different genotypes. Those genotypes containing less than 30 µmol/g are considered low/zero glucosinolate type and are preferred for edible purposes due to low pungency. Twenty two different genotypes were taken for the analysis of glucosinolates by spectrophotometry. A regression model was obtained using Ordinary Least Square technique which predicted a formula. Total glucosinolates (µmol/g) = 1.40 + 118.86 × A₄₂₅, where A₄₂₅ is the absorbance at 425 nm. The total glucosinolate content obtained by the prediction formula when compared with HPLC data showed a correlation coefficient of 0.942. This high correlation between the two data sets validated the developed methodology. This method also simplifies the estimation of total glucosinolates by excluding the use of HPLC or other sophisticated instruments.