Study on the separation and characterization of cadmium incorporated into Zea Mays L.

Methods of separation and characterization of Cd in Zea Mays L. were studied by means of a radioisotopic technique based on injecting ¹⁰⁹Cd into the plant. Two classic methods for fractionating plant material were compared. Cd was found to occur in all different cell components and a significant activity of Cd in the intracellular liquid is bound to proteins as indicated by chromatography on a molecular sieve. Cd fixed to cell walls exchanges entirely after selective solvent extraction with H₂O, KNO₃, HAc, HCl. Our results indicate Cd‐binding sites in stems.     

Himalayan waters at the crossroads: issues and challenges

The Hindu Kush Himalayas are called the water towers of Asia as they are the source of 10 major rivers and have the largest snow and ice deposits outside the two poles. Water emanating from the HKH provides food, energy and ecosystem services to up to 1.3 billion people. Climate change and socio-economic and demographic changes have put unprecedented pressure on these water resources, leading to uncertain supplies, increased demands and higher risks of extreme events like floods and droughts. The eight articles in this special issue highlight various dimensions of the Himalayan water resources by focusing on both physical and social science aspects of water management.     

喜马拉雅地区国际河流信息提取与分析

以公开发布的水资源数据以及人口、GDP等社会经济数据为主要数据源,以ARCGIS为技术平台,提取喜马拉雅地区印度河、恒河、雅鲁藏布江-布拉马普特拉河及其主要跨国支流的河流长度、流域面积、年降雨量、年地表径流量、人口、耕地面积和GDP等水资源以及社会经济信息。结果表明,中国境内的水资源量以及人口、耕地、GDP等社会经济量在3大河流系统中所占的比例都很小。印度河、恒河和雅鲁藏布江-布拉马普特拉河的天然径流量分别为2.07×1011m3/a、5.50×1011m3/a和8.28×1011m3/a,其中中国境内的产流量分别为1.00×1011m3/a、0.14×1011m3/a和1.21×1011m3/a,仅占三大河流总径流量的4.83%、2.55%和14.61%。对于包括恒河、布拉马普特拉河和梅克纳河在内的恒河三角洲水系,中国境内产水量的比例只有8.88%。     

CDLSTM: A Novel Model for Climate Change Forecasting

Water received in rainfall is a crucial natural resource for agriculture, the hydrological cycle, and municipal purposes. The changing rainfall pattern is an essential aspect of assessing the impact of climate change on water resources planning and management. Climate change affected the entire world, specifically India’s fragile Himalayan mountain region, which has high significance due to being a climatic indicator. The water coming from Himalayan rivers is essential for 1.4 billion people living downstream. Earlier studies either modeled temperature or rainfall for the Himalayan area; however, the combined influence of both in a long-term analysis was not performed utilizing Deep Learning (DL). The present investigation attempted to analyze the time series and correlation of temperature (1796–2013) and rainfall changes (1901–2015) over the Himalayan states in India. The Climate Deep Long Short-Term Memory (CDLSTM) model was developed and optimized to forecast all Himalayan states’ temperature and rainfall values. Facebook’s Prophet (FB-Prophet) model was implemented to forecast and assess the performance of the developed CDLSTM model. The performance of both models was assessed based on various performance metrics and shown significantly higher accuracies and low error rates.     

Mapping dry/wet snow cover in the Indian Himalayas using IRS multispectral imagery

Application of remote sensing data has been made to differentiate between dry/wet snows in a glacierized basin. The present study has been carried out in the Gangotri glacier, Himalayas, using IRS-LISS-III multispectral data for the period March-November 2000 and the digital elevation model. The methodology involves conversion of satellite sensor data into reflectance values, computation of NDSI, determination of the boundary between dry/wet snows from spectral response data, and threshold slicing of the image data. The areas of dry snow cover and wet snow cover for different dates of satellite overpasses have been computed. The dry snow area has been compared with non-melting area obtained from the temperature lapse rate method, and the two are found to be in close mutual correspondence (< 15%). It is observed that there occur four water-bearing zones in the glacierized basin: dry snow zone, wet snow zone, exposed glacial ice and moraine-covered glacial ice, each of which possesses unique hydrological characteristics and can be distinguished and mapped from satellite sensor data. It is suggested that input of data on the position and extent of specifically wet snow and exposed glacial ice, which can be directly derived from remote sensing, should improve hydrological simulation of such basins.     

Empirical relationship between near-IR reflectance of melting seasonal snow and environmental temperature in a Himalayan basin

The snow-melting zone forms a site of marked physical-hydrological processes. A basic requirement for monitoring such zones is the data on temperature distribution, for which the method of environmental lapse rate and remote sensing with thermal infrared scanners have been used earlier. In this study, repetitive multispectral image data sets acquired from IRS-LISS-III satellite sensor have been used for snow mapping in the Gangotri glacier, Himalayas, and topographically corrected reflectance values have been computed using a digital elevation model. Temperature measurements at a field station have been used for estimating temperature distribution in the snow-covered basin on the corresponding dates. It is shown here that in the melting seasonal snow zone, the topographically corrected mean near-IR reflectance systematically decreases from higher to lower elevation levels, and can be broadly related to the environmental temperature distribution in a restricted range of about 0-5 °C. As a large number of satellites routinely provide data in the reflected infrared range, this method appears to have a reasonable potential, at least to provide surrogate data for filling-in gaps in the database, with possible applications in environmental surveillance, runoff modeling, climatic modeling and numerous other snowfield studies.     

Vertical Air Mass Exchange Driven by the Local Circulation on the Northern Slope of Mount Everest

To better understand vertical air mass exchange driven by local circulation in the Himalayas, the volume flux of air mass is estimated in the Rongbuk Valley on the northern slope of Mount Everest, based on a volume closure method and wind-profiler measurements during the HEST2006 campaign in June 2006.Vertical air mass exchange was found to be dominated by a strong downward mass transfer from the late morning to late night. The average vertical air volume flux was 0.09 m s-1, which could be equivalent to a daily ventilation of 30 times the enclosed valley volume. This vertical air mass exchange process was greatly affected by the evolution of the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM), with a strong downward transfer during the SASM break stage, and a weak transfer during the SASM active stage.     

Computer aids for reliability

Hydraulic structures are coming up fast in India to meet the growing needs of irrigation, power for modern development, and multi-story buildings for a growing population. These structures are being located in the Himalayas and new techniques are being increasingly used in construction. The geological features of the weak rocks in the Himalayas present special problems for the foundations in housing, roads, irrigation structures etc. including tunnels. Additional instruments were fabricated together with new techniques and computer aids, affording reliability in the construction works in these regions. Equipment costs were controlled by current modern methods, new techniques of graphical coordination of Plant usage were carried out and close coordination was affected in speeding up the construction. The use of interactive graphics for simulating construction by computer aids was adopted.     

Morpho-palynological investigation of gymnospermal flora from subalpine and alpine zones of northern Pakistan using LM and SEM

The pollen morphology, with special reference to exine sculpture, of some species of the gymnosperms was assessed for the first time from the subalpine and alpine zones of western Himalayas northern Pakistan. The pollen of all these species is airborne and allergenic, so pollen morphology helps for identification of this allergenic pollen at specific level. Different morpho-palynological characteristics were analyzed including size range of pollen, polar and equatorial diameter ratio, exine ornamentation, sculpturing, exine thickness, pollen type, and shape. For accurate and quick identification of species, taxonomic key was made based on different morpho-palynological characteristics. The quantitative data were processed using SPSS software. Gymnospermal pollen includes inaperturate, rarely 1-colpate observed in (Cupressaceae), hexazonocolpate in (Ephedraceae), vesiculate, bissacate in (Pinaceae), and inaperturate in (Taxaceae). Different pollen shapes observed were prolate (4 spp), sub-spheroidal (7 spp), and oblate (1 spp). Variation was observed in exine sculpturing granular (4 spp), reticulate (1 spp), areolate-punctate (3 spp), and psilate (2 spp). This is based on the analysis of 10 plants belonging to four families of gymnosperms. Distinct pollen shape has emerged as the most diagnostic feature to separate some genera such as spheroidal in (Cupressaceae, Taxaceae), prolate and radiosymmetrical in (Ephedraceae), and bilateral in (Pinaceae). Exine thickness and sculpturing proved to be helpful at generic and specific levels. The results reinforced the significance of gymnospermal pollen morphological features which were used as aid for valuable taxonomic tool in plant systematics.     

Functional properties of lactic acid bacteria isolated from ethnic fermented vegetables of the Himalayas

A total of 94 strains of Lactic acid bacteria (LAB), previously isolated from ethnic fermented vegetables and tender bamboo shoots of the Himalayas, were screened for functional properties such as acidification capacity, enzymatic activities, degradation of antinutritive factors and oligosaccharides, production of biogenic amines, hydrophobicity and adherence to mucus secreting HT29 MTX cells. Strong acidification and coagulation activities of LAB strains were recorded. Most of the LAB strains showed antimicrobial activities against the used indicator strains; however, only Lb. plantarum IB2 (BFE 948) isolated from inziangsang, a fermented leafy vegetable product, produced a bacteriocin against Staphylococcus aureus S1. LAB strains showed enzymatic activities and also degraded oligosaccharides. Almost all the strains of LAB were non-producers of biogenic amines except few strains. Some strains of Lb. plantarum showed more than 70% hydrophobicity. Adherence to the mucus secreting HT29 MTX cells was also shown by seven strains indicating their probiotic nature.