Assessment of Heavy Metal Contamination in Green Leafy Vegetables Grown in Bangalore Urban District of Karnataka

Randomly collected waste water, soil and green leafy vegetable samples were from five stations of Bangalore urban district were analysed for the heavy metals namely Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr, Cd and Mn using Atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Present study explains the extent of heavy metal contamination in two leafy vegetables viz., palak (Beta vulgaris) and coriander (Coriandrum sativum). Results showed that, palak leaves contain Cu, Zn, Pb, Cr and Mn in all the sampling points. Cr at S1, S2 and S5 stations crossed safe value limit recommended by FAO/WHO. In coriander leaves Cu, Zn and Mn found in all stations. Pb concentration was exceedingly high in palak (28.43ppm to 149.50ppm) and coriander (54.69ppm to 75.50ppm) in all sampling stations. Cd was detected only at two stations in S2 (0.81ppm) and S4 (1.50ppm). Cr was detected at S1, S2 and S3 stations and at S2 station, Cr content in palak (70.79ppm) and coriander (127.27ppm) was alarmingly exceeding the allowable limit. Cytological studies indicated the formation of anaphase bridge, irregular metaphase, chromosome stickiness, precocious chromosome at anaphase and vagrant chromosomes. Soil samples do not revealed any appreciable increase in the concentration of heavy metals and found within the permissible limits but values were higher than control that shows contamination was mainly due to automobile exhaust, pesticides and industrial exhaust. Pb was detected in all the waste water samples and in S1 (<0.05PPM) and S2 (<0.05ppm) traces of Cd was detected. Physico-chemical parameters of waste water were also determined and factors such as pH, EC, TDS and DO found to exceed the drinking and irrigation water standards. Key Words: Heavy metals, leafy vegetables, palak, coriander, waste water, soil, chromosome

Bilayer Quantum Hall Ferromagnet in a Periodic Potential

The bilayer quantum Hall system at a total filling of $\nu_T=1$ has long resisted explanation in terms of a true counterflow superfluid, though many experimental features can be seen to be "almost" that of a superfluid. It is widely believed that quenched disorder is the root cause of this puzzle. Here we model the nonperturbative effects of disorder by investigating the $\nu=1$ bilayer in a strong periodic potential. Our model assumes that fermions are gapped and real spins are fully polarized, and concentrates on the pseudospin variable (the layer index), with the external potential coupling to the topological (Pontryagin) density of the pseudospin. We find that as the potential strength increases, there are ground state transitions in which the topological content of the pseudospin configuration changes. These transitions are generically weakly first-order, with a new quadratically dispersing mode (in addition to the linearly dispersing Goldstone mode) sometimes becoming nearly gapless near the transition. We show that this leads to strong suppressions of both the Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature and the interlayer tunneling strength, which we treat perturbatively. We discuss how these results might extend to the case of true disorder

Ethyl Methane Sulphonate induced morphological variations in mulberry (Morus) variety M5

Present investigation deal with the study of mutagenic effect of Ethyl Methane Sulphonate (EMS) on mulberry variety M5. The results revealed that at 0.4% EMS treatment, height of the plant and leaf area were considerably increased. Stem dichotomy, fusion of leaves, increase in thickness, change in texture of leaves and occurrence of albino and xantha were common in 0.3% EMS treated plants in M1 generation

Effect of different doses of gamma radiation on growth parameters of Mulberry (Morus) variety Kosen

The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of different doses of gamma radiations(1kR-10kR from co60)on different growth parameters of mulberry variety Kosen.Overall results revealed that a declined trend in all the growth parameters i.e. sprouting (83.66%-18.66%), rooting (77.96%-19.59%), height of the plant (105.00 cm-58.03 cm), number of the branches (7.73-4.23), intermodal distance (3.76 cm-3.94 cm), petiole length (2.89 cm-2.59 cm) and pollen fertility (77.93%-40.66%) were recorded and showed a deleterious effect. But the response of growth parameters against different doses showed variant behaviour in case of rooting as constant declined trend was not observed. Similarly fluctuating state has been found in other growth parameters also

A semiclassical analysis of the Efimov energy spectrum in the unitary limit

We demonstrate that the (s-wave) geometric spectrum of the Efimov energy levels in the unitary limit is generated by the radial motion of a primitive periodic orbit (and its harmonics) of the corresponding classical system. The action of the primitive orbit depends logarithmically on the energy. It is shown to be consistent with an inverse-squared radial potential with a lower cut-off radius. The lowest-order WKB quantization, including the Langer correction, is shown to reproduce the geometric scaling of the energy spectrum. The (WKB) mean-squared radii of the Efimov states scale geometrically like the inverse of their energies. The WKB wavefunctions, regularized near the classical turning point by Langer's generalized connection formula, are practically indistinguishable from the exact wave functions even for the lowest ($n=0$) state, apart from a tiny shift of its zeros that remains constant for large $n$.Comment: LaTeX (revtex 4), 18pp., 4 Figs., already published in Phys. Rev. A but here a note with a new referece is added on p. 1

Status and Infrastructure of the Health Sector in Karnataka

Karnataka is closer to the average of India in case of health status and health facilities, but compared to the states like Kerala, it stands too low. The most striking problem, related to the health infrastructure and health status arises out of the regional imbalance. The study shows that the Gulbarga and Belgaum divisions of Karnataka show a poor status in health infrastructure and health status. Among these, the Gulbarga division (means Hyderabad Karnataka) lies in the lower position. It is well known that Hyderabad Karnataka is underdeveloped in most of the sectors compared to the rest of the regions. Lesser health infrastructure facilities in this region clearly indicate the neglect of the government intervention/ interest to develop basic infrastructure facilities in this region. For better health, health facilities should be improved. For better health facilities, public health expenditure is very important. At present, the Karnataka government is spending very less amount of money on health, which is about 2 per cent of the NSDP. This amount has to be increased. Increasing the public expenditure alone, cannot serve the purpose, unless it is properly used for delivering quality infrastructure and good service mechanization

Electron paramagnetic resonance evidence for Jahn-Teller glasses

Single crystal E.P.R. studies of copper as a dopant in lithium potassium sulphate, lithium ammonium sulphate and lithium sodium sulphate have been carried out from room temperature down to 77K. The three Jahn-Teller (JT) systems behave very similarly to one another. The room temperature dynamic JT spectra with giso = 2.19 ± 0.01 and Aiso = ±(33 ± 4)× 10-4 cm-1 transform around 247 K to spectra characterized by randomly frozen-in axial strains with g = 2.4307 ± 0.0005, g = 2.083 ± 0.001, A = ±(116 ± 2) × 10-4 cm-1 and A = ±(14 ± 4) ×10-4 cm-1. We proposed that the low temperature phase (below 247 K) of each of these systems provides an example of a Jahn-Teller glass

Aerothermal modeling program, phase 2

The main objectives of the Aerothermal Modeling Program, Phase 2 are: to develop an improved numerical scheme for incorporation in a 3-D combustor flow model; to conduct a benchmark quality experiment to study the interaction of a primary jet with a confined swirling crossflow and to assess current and advanced turbulence and scalar transport models; and to conduct experimental evaluation of the air swirler interaction with fuel injectors, assessments of current two-phase models, and verification the improved spray evaporation/dispersion models