Assessment of LNAPL in subsurface under fluctuating groundwater table using 2D sand tank experiments

The focus of this study was to investigate the fate and transport of toluene, a light nonaqueous-phase liquids (LNAPLs) in the subsurface region under dynamic groundwater table conditions. A series of experiments were conducted using two-dimensional (2D) sand tank setup having dimensions 125×90×10  cm 125×90×10  cm (L×H×W L×H×W ) and integrated with an auxiliary column of inner diameter 14 cm and height 120 cm. Initially, a steady-state flow and LNAPL transport experiment was conducted under stable groundwater table condition. Thereafter, three groundwater table fluctuation experiments were conducted on a rising and falling groundwater table in 2, 4, and 8 h to maintain rapid, general, and slow fluctuation conditions, respectively. The pure phase of toluene was injected at a rate of 1  mL/min 1  mL/min for a total duration of 5 min. Soil-water and soil-vapor samples were periodically collected and analyzed for toluene concentrations. Later, the representation of the 2D sand tank setup was numerically simulated to obtain the response of flow and the LNAPL transport under varying groundwater table conditions. Analysis of the results shows that a large LNAPL pool area (250  cm 2 250  cm2 ) develops under rapidly fluctuating groundwater conditions, which significantly enhances the dissolution rate and contributes to a high concentration of dissolved LNAPLs at the receiving receptors. Estimated values of Sherwood and Peclet numbers show that the dissolution rates were highly affected by groundwater table dynamics, which may cause loss of pure-phase pollutant mass around the pollutant source. The concentration isolines of toluene show that the transport of dissolved LNAPL plumes was also comparatively fast in the case of rapidly fluctuating groundwater. A high biodegradation rate was observed in plume regions having concentration ranges of 140–160 ppm, while it decreases in plume regions having very high (>160  ppm >160  ppm ) and low concentrations (<140  ppm <140  ppm ) of dissolved LNAPL. In the sand tank, microbial growth was found to increase as the plume moved away from the LNAPL pool toward a low gradient, which intensifies the detrimental impact of toluene on the survival of indigenous microorganisms near the LNAPL pool. The results of this study may help in implementing effective remediation techniques to decontaminate LNAPL polluted sites under fluctuating groundwater table conditions, especially in (semi)-arid coastal aquifers

Geometric morphometric comparison between modern homo sapien skulls of south india and rest of the world

Morphometry can be defined as the measurement of shape irrespective of the variations of size (scale, translation and rotation). In the recent years, a lot of work has been done world-wide to analyze the variations in the human morphology.Most of the work in this direction was done mainly on African or American population. Lack of work on Indian population arouse our interest to make a study on the same. In the present work, we planned to compare the modern Homo sepien skull of South India and modern Homo sepien skull of world-wide important African male, Australian aboriginal male, African-American male etc. and tried to establish a relationship between them according to their shape. It has been successfully established the relation between the skulls according to the shape closeness. Specimen 10 (South Indian Skull)and 11 (South Indian Skull) have similarity in skull shape which shows the correctness of our result. Specimen 0 (Mongoloid Skull) and 6 (Human Male African-American Skull) show similar shape variation. Specimen 12 (Vedaface) is quite close to (Human Male Asian Skull)8 and 7 (Human Female American Indian Skull). But Specimen 9 (Mongoloid Skull) is found to be quite different from all others. A negative result is also obtained by relative warp which contradicts PCA and shows that specimen 10 (South Indian Skull) posseses similar deformation with respect to specimen 9 (Mongoloid Skull) however 11 (South Indian Skull) is also near. Also 0 (Mongoloid Skull) and 6 (Human Male African-American Skull) are far apart. The result obtained is quite enthusiastic and but further studies in this directions on Indian population is highly required

OVERLAPPED CLUSTERING APPROACH FOR MAXIMIZING THE SERVICE RELIABILITY OF HETEROGENEOUS DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING SYSTEMS

ABSTRACT For distributed computing system (DCS) where server nodes can fail permanently with nonzero probability, the reliability of the system can be defined as the probability that the system run the entire tasks successfully assign on it before all the nodes fail. In heterogeneous distributed system where various nodes of the system have different characteristics, reliability of the system is highly dependent on the tasks allocation strategies. So, this paper presents a rigorous framework for efficient tasks allocation in heterogeneous distributed environment, with the goal of maximizing the system reliability. Reliability of the system is characterized in the presence of communication uncertainties and topological changes due to node&apos;s failure. Node failure has adverse effects on the system reliability. Thus, one possible way to improve reliability is to make the communication among the tasks as local as possible. For this, an overlapped clustering approach has been used. Further, we calculate the reliability of each node of the DCS to determine the actual capabilities of each node. Here, our purpose is to assign the more costly task to more reliable node of the DCS. Then we utilize the load balancing policies for handling the node&apos;s failure effect as well as maximizing the service reliability of the DCS. A numeric example is presented to illustrate the importance of incorporating overlapping cluster and load balancing on the reliability study

Kinematic Comparison of Different Technique of Putting the Shot at the Moment of Release

The purpose of the study was to conduct a kinematic comparison of different techniques of putting the shot at the moment of Release. Eight male shot putters of L.N.U.P.E. between the age group of 20 to 26 years, who had been participating regularly, were selected as subjects. 2 D Kinovea Video Anlysis software was used for kinematical analysis of different techniques of putting the shot. Casio Exilim Ex F1H a standard camera which frequency was 300 frame/second and which was placed at 4.67 meter distance perpendicular to  the subject in horizontal plane at height of 1.50 meter.  To find out kinematical comparison between those shot putters who uses different stances t-test was used. For testing the hypothesis the level of significance was set at .05.Results show that the calculated t value is 1.237   and      .260   in relation to linear kinematical variables at moment of releases i.e. Height of c.g. of subject and height of c.g. of shot respectively. It also show that calculated t value for angular kinematic variables such as ankle (right &amp; left),knee(right&amp;left),hip(right&amp;left),shoulder(right&amp;left),elbow(right&amp;left)andwristjoint(right&amp;left)is(.454&amp;2.83*),(1.39&amp;.351),(2.23&amp;1.51),(.290&amp;.419),(.550&amp;.794)and(.365&amp;.833). 1)Insignificant difference was found between those shot putters who uses different technique of putting the shot in relation to  height of c.g. of subject and height of c.g. of shot put.2)Insignificant difference was also found in relation to ankle (right), knee (right &amp; left) and hip joint (right), shoulder (right &amp; left), elbow (right &amp; left) and wrist joint (right &amp; left).3)Significant difference was found between those shot putters who use different technique of putting the shot in relation to ankle joint (left). Key words: Horizontal Plane, Kinematic, Shot Put, Technique

Maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality in COVID-19 positive obstetric patients with medical disorders in tertiary care hospital in North India

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus experienced mild to moderate respiratory illness. Coronavirus is known to human kind since 1930. It was first discovered in domesticated chicken with symptoms of pulmonary infection. The aim and objective was to study clinical profile of patients presented with medical disorders in COVID-19 positive pregnant women.Methods: Present retrospective COHORT study included 50 COVID-19 positive obstetrics patients. The study was conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology, World college of medical sciences and research, Jhajjar (Haryana). Retrospective review of medical records of all pregnant patients with pre-existing medical disorders or those suspected with medical disorders on the basis of clinical and/or laboratory data from 1 April 2020 through 30 September 2020.Results: Mean age of the women was 27.46±4.16 years with age range of 20-35 years. Mean period of gestation was 33.26±8.35 weeks. A total of 33 (66%) women were found to be COVID-19 positive due to close contact. 29 (58%) women were found to be asymptomatic and 17 (34%) had various other COVID-19 symptoms. In 17 (34%), sore throat was the commonest symptoms followed by cough, myalgia and fatigue, that is, 13 (26%) each. Fever at the time of admission was present in 9 (18%) women and postpartum fever was observed in 4 (8%) women. Mean hospital stay was 9.24±3.25 days. A total of 29 (58%) women underwent caesarean delivery and 21 (42%) had normal vaginal delivery. Mean postoperative hospital stay was 4.48±2.24 days. In 9 women, postoperative complications were seen. A total of 8 babies admitted to NICU due to various complications. Two babies expired during the study period.Conclusions: In the present retrospective COHORT study, the majority of the pregnant women with COVID-19 infection had mild symptoms with no severe illness. Mother-to-child transmission of COVID-19 cannot be ruled out. The impacts of COVID-19 infection on patients with medical disorders during pregnancy were seen

OVERLAPPED CLUSTERING APPROACH FOR MAXIMIZING THE SERVICE RELIABILITY OF HETEROGENEOUS DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING SYSTEMS

ABSTRACT For distributed computing system (DCS) where server nodes can fail permanently with nonzero probability, the reliability of the system can be defined as the probability that the system run the entire tasks successfully assign on it before all the nodes fail. In heterogeneous distributed system where various nodes of the system have different characteristics, reliability of the system is highly dependent on the tasks allocation strategies. So, this paper presents a rigorous framework for efficient tasks allocation in heterogeneous distributed environment, with the goal of maximizing the system reliability. Reliability of the system is characterized in the presence of communication uncertainties and topological changes due to node&apos;s failure. Node failure has adverse effects on the system reliability. Thus, one possible way to improve reliability is to make the communication among the tasks as local as possible. For this, an overlapped clustering approach has been used. Further, we calculate the reliability of each node of the DCS to determine the actual capabilities of each node. Here, our purpose is to assign the more costly task to more reliable node of the DCS. Then we utilize the load balancing policies for handling the node&apos;s failure effect as well as maximizing the service reliability of the DCS. A numeric example is presented to illustrate the importance of incorporating overlapping cluster and load balancing on the reliability study

Impedance Spectroscopic Investigation of the Degraded Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell due to Ageing

This paper investigates the effect of ageing on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The electrical characterization of fresh and degraded DSCs is done under AM1.5G spectrum and the current density-voltage (J-V) characteristics are analyzed. Short circuit current density (JSC) decreases significantly whereas a noticeable increase in open circuit voltage is observed. These results have been further investigated electroanalytically using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). An increase in net resistance results in a lower JSC for the degraded DSC. This decrease in current is mainly due to degradation of TiO2-dye interface, which is observed from light and dark J-V characteristics and is further confirmed by EIS measurements. A reduction in the chemical capacitance of the degraded DSC is observed, which is responsible for the shifting of Fermi level with respect to conduction band edge that further results in an increase of open circuit voltage for the degraded DSC. It is also confirmed from EIS that the degradation leads to a better contact formation between the electrolyte and Pt electrode, which improves the fill factor of the DSC. But the recombination throughout the DSC is found to increase along with degradation. This study suggests that the DSC should be used under low illumination conditions and around room temperature for a longer life

Assessment of soil physical health and productivity of Kharkhoda and Gohana blocks of Sonipat district (Haryana), India

In order to assess soil health of Kharkhoda and Gohana blocks of Sonipat district (a part of western Yamuna canal irrigated region), important parameters namely pH, electrical conductivity (EC), texture, bulk density (BD), saturated hydraulic conductivity (HC), soil organic carbon (OC), available water retension capacity (AWRC) and non capillary pores (NCP) were measured by collecting undisturbed soil samples in nearly 66 villages. Soil physical rating index (PI) method was used to compute PI which was an indicator of soil physical health of thatregion. Results revealed that in Gohana and Kharkhoda blocks, nearly 90% area had pH &lt;8.0 and EC&gt;4 dS m-1, which indicated that soils were saline. Prediction maps of soil BD showed that 75% of the total area in 15-30 cm soil layer had BD above &gt;1.6 mg m-3, which indicated the presence of hard pan in subsurface. HC data of subsurface layer also showed that 60% of the area had values&lt;0.5 cm hr-1 which reconfirmed the presence of hard pan. For both surface as well as subsurface soil layers, mostly AWC was &gt;10% which indicated adequate water retention capacity of these soils. However 85% of subsurface had poor soil aeration capacity as indicated NCP range &lt; 10 %. Prediction map of PI for subsurface layer showed that majority of area had PI&lt;0.4 which indicated that expected yield of the crop cannot be more than 70% of the potential yield even under normal or higher levels of fertilizer and water inputs