Evaluation of Grass Bales Stored under Cover and Plinth System of Storage

The feed and fodder requirement for dairy animals is primarily met by roughages, green fodder and homemade concentrate mixtures. Roughages are high in crude fibrous material which essentially consists of cellulose, hemi-cellulose and to some extent lignin. Livestock production is backbone of Indian Agriculture and source of employment in rural areas for centuries. To meet the demand of feeding these huge livestock population an adequate supply of feed throughout the year is the prerequisite for successful animal production programmes. A huge gap between demand and supply of feed and fodder exists in our country. This huge gap between requirement and availability of livestock feeds like dry fodders, green fodders could however be bridged by proper post harvest management of all kind of forage resources and search for alternate source of protein rich forage supplement. The most common livestock feed resources are crop reduces (straw, stover, haulms etc). All of these fodder resources are highly voluminous and having lower density varying from 40-70 kg/m3 due to which there transportation, storage and handling are very cumbersome and expensive and therefore cannot be utilized up to a maximum extent. Storage is a repeated phase during transit of agricultural produce and the product needs to be stored from one harvest to next thus, demanding additional carry over as safe guard, against speculation in price and market demand or against shortage and famine

Significance of ventilation system design on fire with special reference to extensive and fire affected mine

In a coal mine when sealed off area having connection with atmosphere (surface) and intake airways only the condition becomes more worsen when active fire in such sealed off area creates sufficient drought due to fire. In such situation sometimes pressure created by the fan may not be sufficient to neutralize such suction pressure created by the fire. In this case continuous feeding of fresh air to the fire takes place through cracks and fissures and weak zones around the boundary, which guides the fire to propagate in mines. Continuation of such phenomena for longer period may lead to loss of huge property as well as the mine itself. The control the leakage of air under such situation some modification in ventilation system is definitely required. In this paper the ventilation arrangement to neutralize the drought created by the fire in one of the mine of BCCL without affecting the ventilation of other part of the mine followed by thorough monitoring of status of fire have been discussed

Application of High expansion nitrogen foam to control mine fire – a case study

High expansion nitrogen foam technology has been found an effective technique world over for controlling underground mine fire in this paper the conventional methods adopted in coal mines for dealing a fire have been briefly discussed. Attempts have been made to highlight the advantages and merits of high expansion foam technology over the other techniques. A success story of application of high expansion nitrogen for controlling underground fire in record time in MCL mines has been presented and reference of other places in Indian coal mines where the technique were applied successfully, has been made in brief

Assessment of status and extent of fire in abandoned coalmines – a case study

The problem of fire in abandoned mines is a global challenge to all coal producing countries. The main and immediate concern is t\o save the vital surface structures like railway lines/roads, bridges, rivers/stream, overhead construction from such fires as well as protecting adjacent underground property of the mine either by isolating or digging out permanently. But the difficulties are being faced, in both the cases of isolation of such fires, due to lack of knowledge of exact location of fire in unapproachable mine as the surface evidence of fires may not be related by straight line paths to the source of combustion. Authors have identified three zones around fire viz., active fire zone, upstream zone (negative pressure zone) and downstream zone (positive pressure zone) on the basis of some parameters viz temperature, pressure by measurement through boreholes, gas composition, fire index ratio from results of air samples collected through boreholes and application of US mine Fire Diagnostic (MFD) model. Vector representation of trend of gas composition, borehole wise was also used in indentifying the different zones and their widths. This concept was applied for identifying different zones of fire affected area in one of the mine of Bharat Coking coal Limited (BCCL) Situated in Central part of India in state of Jharkhand. The details of methodology for measurement of parameters considered, particulars of the mine and experimental conditions, results of investigation and steps for calculation of status and extent of fires including rate of progress for some period have been covered in this paper

Secondary organic aerosol production from diesel vehicle exhaust: impact of aftertreatment, fuel chemistry and driving cycle

Environmental chamber ("smog chamber") experiments were conducted to investigate secondary organic aerosol (SOA) production from dilute emissions from two medium-duty diesel vehicles (MDDVs) and three heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDVs) under urban-like conditions. Some of the vehicles were equipped with emission control aftertreatment devices, including diesel particulate filters (DPFs), selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs). Experiments were also performed with different fuels (100% biodiesel and low-, medium- or high-aromatic ultralow sulfur diesel) and driving cycles (Unified Cycle,~Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule, and creep + idle). During normal operation, vehicles with a catalyzed DPF emitted very little primary particulate matter (PM). Furthermore, photooxidation of dilute emissions from these vehicles produced essentially no SOA (below detection limit). However, significant primary PM emissions and SOA production were measured during active DPF regeneration experiments. Nevertheless, under reasonable assumptions about DPF regeneration frequency, the contribution of regeneration emissions to the total vehicle emissions is negligible, reducing PM trapping efficiency by less than 2%. Therefore, catalyzed DPFs appear to be very effective in reducing both primary PM emissions and SOA production from diesel vehicles. For both MDDVs and HDDVs without aftertreatment substantial SOA formed in the smog chamber – with the emissions from some vehicles generating twice as much SOA as primary organic aerosol after 3 h of oxidation at typical urban VOC / NO_x ratios (3 : 1). Comprehensive organic gas speciation was performed on these emissions, but less than half of the measured SOA could be explained by traditional (speciated) SOA precursors. The remainder presumably originates from the large fraction (~30%) of the nonmethane organic gas emissions that could not be speciated using traditional one-dimensional gas chromatography. The unspeciated organics – likely comprising less volatile species such as intermediate volatility organic compounds – appear to be important SOA precursors; we estimate that the effective SOA yield (defined as the ratio of SOA mass to reacted precursor mass) was 9 ± 6% if both speciated SOA precursors and unspeciated organics are included in the analysis. SOA production from creep + idle operation was 3–4 times larger than SOA production from the same vehicle operated over the Urban Dynamometer Driving Schedule (UDDS). Fuel properties had little or no effect on primary PM emissions or SOA formation

Chamber method of ventilation - a proven technology for reducing leakage of air into the goaf

Improvement in climatic conditions at workings in mine having surface cracks by increasing fan capacity is a risky proposition. It may lead to spontaneous heating in the mine due to leakage of air from surface caused by increase in cumulative pressure drop measured from the surface. The above problem cannot be addressed by conventional ventilation system. Anew method of ventilation named "Chamber method of ventilation" have been evolved to ventilate the workings under the situation mentioned above, the method is superimposed on the existing ventilation system of the mine without much modifications or any adverse effect on ventilation of remaining districts. The method was successfully implemented at 1 & 2 incline mines, Jhanjra project, Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) to reduce surface air leakage for control of fire in a working longwall panel and for improvement in climatic condition

Loss of the xeroderma pigmentosum group B protein binding site impairs p210 BCR/ABL1 leukemogenic activity

Previous studies have demonstrated that p210 BCR/ABL1 interacts directly with the xeroderma pigmentosum group B (XPB) protein, and that XPB is phosphorylated on tyrosine in cells that express p210 BCR/ABL1. In the current study, we have constructed a p210 BCR/ABL1 mutant that can no longer bind to XPB. The mutant has normal kinase activity and interacts with GRB2, but can no longer phosphorylate XPB. Loss of XPB binding is associated with reduced expression of c-MYC and reduced transforming potential in ex-vivo clonogenicity assays, but does not affect nucleotide excision repair in lymphoid or myeloid cells. When examined in a bone marrow transplantation (BMT) model for chronic myelogenous leukemia, mice that express the mutant exhibit attenuated myeloproliferation and lymphoproliferation when compared with mice that express unmodified p210 BCR/ABL1. Thus, the mutant-transplanted mice show predominantly neutrophilic expansion and altered progenitor expansion, and have significantly extended lifespans. This was confirmed in a BMT model for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, wherein the majority of the mutant-transplanted mice remain disease free. These results suggest that the interaction between p210 BCR/ABL1 and XPB can contribute to disease progression by influencing the lineage commitment of lymphoid and myeloid progenitors

A bibliography of parasites and diseases of marine and freshwater fishes of India

With the increasing demand for fish as human food, aquaculture both in freshwater and salt water is rapidly developing over the world. In the developing countries, fishes are being raised as food. In many countries fish farming is a very important economic activity. The most recent branch, mariculture, has shown advances in raising fishes in brackish, estuarine and bay waters, in which marine, anadromous and catadromous fishes have successfully been grown and maintained

Perspectives of Portuguese People with Physical Disabilities Regarding Their Sexual Health: A Focus Group Study

The World Health Organization has considered sexual health as a major dimension of global health and a sexual right. However, the sexual health of people with physical disabilities is still poorly addressed by health and social care professionals, and it is very stigmatized by society. This study aimed to assess the perspectives of Portuguese people living with physical disabilities regarding issues affecting their sexual health. Nine women and 17 men with different physical disabilities participated in the study. Participants were recruited from a professional rehabilitation facility located in the North of Portugal and were assigned to four groups in one-hour sessions. Three main categories emerged from the content analysis: (1) meanings and beliefs regarding sexuality; (2) experiences of sexuality; (3) necessary changes. Despite the positive social changes towards sexuality, participants expressed that their sexual rights are still unfulfilled, as they live in a context that perpetuates their dependency. They pointed out low self-esteem, prejudice and social isolation, poor architectural accessibility and scarcity of financial support as some of the barriers to their lives and their sexual health. Finally, participants identified the main needs regarding their sexual health, such as: access to specialized information; training for health professionals. This study gives voice to people with physical disabilities and sheds light into both individual and contextual factors affecting their sexual health. Of utmost importance, this study draws attention to the need for reinforcing sexuality of people with disabilities in the social agenda and brings implications for future research and practice.This study was supported by a Grant attributed to the first author by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/112168/2015)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio