Three dimensional simulation of seawater intrusion in a regional coastal aquifer in UAE

Published13th Computer Control for Water Industry Conference, CCWI 2015In this study the vulnerability of the Wadi Ham aquifer, located in the Fujairah Emirate of the UAE, to seawater intrusion (SWI) is assessed using a 3D finite element (FE) model. The numerical model is developed based on available hydrogeological data in real scale. By simulation of the aquifer for the next 10 years and by maintaining the current rates of pumping (in year 2015), the progress of seawater intrusion in year 2025 is followed by further depletion in freshwater storage of the Wadi Ham aquifer. In order to control this problem, the model is subjected to a management strategy involving surface recharge of the aquifer with treated wastewater

Control of saltwater intrusion by aquifer storage and recovery

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Published Online 18th August 2016This paper presents the results obtained from the application of aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) technique to control seawater intrusion (SWI) in coastal aquifers. The study is based on the numerical modelling experiments performed using the SUTRA (Saturated–Unsaturated TRAnsport) finite-element code on the Wadi Ham aquifer in the UAE. A three-dimensional numerical model of this aquifer is developed and calibrated based on the available hydrogeological data in real scale. A significant amount of SWI has been calculated for the year 2015 due to the high rates of pumping from the available local well fields. To study the future responses of the aquifer to different control actions, the transient responses of SWI are simulated over a 10-year planning horizon. The proposed management measure (ASR) is implemented in repeated cycles of artificial recharge, storage and recovery using an additional set of wells defined in the model. The results show that ASR is a reliable method in controlling SWI in coastal aquifer systems besides its conventional role in subsurface water banking.The authors acknowledge their gratitude to the British Council, UK, for providing funding (project code: SH-04509) to support this research

Cytotoxic effects of delfin insecticide (Bacillus thuringiensis) on cell behaviour, phagocytosis, contractile vacuole activity and macronucleus in a protozoan ciliate Paramecium caudatum

The freshwater protozoan ciliate Paramecium caudatum was used to assess the potential cytotoxic effects and functional activities of biological insecticide delfin. Delfin® WG is a biological insecticidebased on the SA-11 strain of Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies kurstaki serotype 3a, 3b. In acute toxicity studies, cell motility was affected slightly at lower concentrations but at higher concentrationscells exhibited rocking movements, later on cells became motionless. LC50 for 3 h exposure was found to be 250.17 ± 15.33 ppm. In acute exposure cells showed deformities such as swelling of cells, ovalshaped deformity, and at higher concentrations shortening of longitudinal axis in the body size with blackening of cytoplasm occurred. Leaking of cytoplasmic contents was also observed. A significantdepletion of phagocytosis was observed on exposure to 100 ppm of delfin for 30 min to 1 h duration and was time dependent. Changes in pulsatory vacuole activity were observed on exposure 25, 50 and100 ppm for 20 min. The macronuclear aberrations increased with increasing concentrations of delfin up to 100 ppm. Macronuclear aberrations such as rod shaped macronucleus, marginalization ofmacronucleus, fragmentation, vacuolization and complete diffusion of macronucleus were observed and were dose dependent. Our findings on phagocytosis, contractile vacuole activity and macronuclearchanges indicate a potential physiological and cytogenetic effect of delfin on P. caudatum. The simplicity in handling, faster generation time, easy maintenance in the laboratory, rapid performance and high reproducibility makes ciliates as suitable tools and tags for physiological, genotoxicity studies and risk assessment

Identification of novel subgroup a variants with enhanced receptor binding and replicative capacity in primary isolates of anaemogenic strains of feline leukaemia virus

<b>BACKGROUND:</b> The development of anaemia in feline leukaemia virus (FeLV)-infected cats is associated with the emergence of a novel viral subgroup, FeLV-C. FeLV-C arises from the subgroup that is transmitted, FeLV-A, through alterations in the amino acid sequence of the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the envelope glycoprotein that result in a shift in the receptor usage and the cell tropism of the virus. The factors that influence the transition from subgroup A to subgroup C remain unclear, one possibility is that a selective pressure in the host drives the acquisition of mutations in the RBD, creating A/C intermediates with enhanced abilities to interact with the FeLV-C receptor, FLVCR. In order to understand further the emergence of FeLV-C in the infected cat, we examined primary isolates of FeLV-C for evidence of FeLV-A variants that bore mutations consistent with a gradual evolution from FeLV-A to FeLV-C.<p></p> <b>RESULTS:</b> Within each isolate of FeLV-C, we identified variants that were ostensibly subgroup A by nucleic acid sequence comparisons, but which bore mutations in the RBD. One such mutation, N91D, was present in multiple isolates and when engineered into a molecular clone of the prototypic FeLV-A (Glasgow-1), enhanced replication was noted in feline cells. Expression of the N91D Env on murine leukaemia virus (MLV) pseudotypes enhanced viral entry mediated by the FeLV-A receptor THTR1 while soluble FeLV-A Env bearing the N91D mutation bound more efficiently to mouse or guinea pig cells bearing the FeLV-A and -C receptors. Long-term in vitro culture of variants bearing the N91D substitution in the presence of anti-FeLV gp70 antibodies did not result in the emergence of FeLV-C variants, suggesting that additional selective pressures in the infected cat may drive the subsequent evolution from subgroup A to subgroup C.<p></p> <b>CONCLUSIONS:</b> Our data support a model in which variants of FeLV-A, bearing subtle differences in the RBD of Env, may be predisposed towards enhanced replication in vivo and subsequent conversion to FeLV-C. The selection pressures in vivo that drive the emergence of FeLV-C in a proportion of infected cats remain to be established

Stewarding COVID-19 health systems response in Pakistan: what more can be done for a primary health care approach to future pandemics?

We apply a primary healthcare (PHC) perspective to gauge Pakistan's health systems response to COVID-19, to identify stewardship lessons for integrating the PHC pandemic response. Analysis of Pakistan's response against the Astana PHC framework shows that the imperative for national survival helped mobilise an agile response across a fragmented health security context. The findings show effective multisector governance in responding to the health and social aspects of the pandemic, as well as the rapid roll-out of several public health functions and emergency care. However, we found weak maintenance of essential health services and ad hoc, short-lived efforts for community engagement. Critical enablers that helped steward the response across complex power-sharing arrangements included solidarity across society, collaborative data-driven decision-making, leveraging of siloed domestic resources and private sector coordination. At the same time, a more PHC-centric response was constrained by weak political prioritisation of essential health services, uneven services, weak direction to civil society volunteerism for community engagement and weak regulation of private sector contribution. We conclude that a mindset shift is required from short-term tactical measures to long-term investment in PHC-oriented transformative stewardship. Future preparedness must build attention to essential service package for emergencies, mobilisation of both private and public primary care providers, effective community engagement vision across societal actors and market regulation, within a collaborative governance framework

Forecasting Monthly Precipitation in Sylhet City Using ARIMA Model

In this study a seasonal ARIMA model was built using Box and Jenkins method to forecast long term rainfall in Sylhet. For this purpose rainfall data from 1980 to 2010 of Sylhet station were used to build and check the model. Rainfall data from 1980 to 2006 were used to develop the model while data from 2007 to 2010 were used to verify the prediction precision. Four basic chronological steps namely: identification, estimation, diagnostic checking, and forecasting were fitted out in developing the model.  Validity of the model was tested using standard graphical explanation of residuals given by Box and Jenkins. As a second step of validation, forecasted values of monthly rainfall were checked using actual data series. After completion of necessary checking and forecast observation, the ARIMA(0, 0, 1) (1,1, 1)12 was found to be the most effective to predict future precipitation with a 95% confidence interval. It is expected that this long term prediction will help decision makers in efficient scheduling of flood prediction, urban planning, rainwater harvesting and crop management. Keywords: Nonlinear time series analysis, ARIMA model, rainfall forecasting, Sylhet

Effects of ramped wall temperature and concentration on viscoelastic Jeffrey’s fluid flows from a vertical permeable cone

In thermo-fluid dynamics, free convection flows external to different geometries such as cylinders, ellipses, spheres, curved walls, wavy plates, cones etc. play major role in various industrial and process engineering systems. The thermal buoyancy force associated with natural convection flows can exert a critical role in determining skin friction and heat transfer rates at the boundary. In thermal engineering, natural convection flows from cones has gained exceptional interest. A theoretical analysis is developed to investigate the nonlinear, steady-state, laminar, non-isothermal convection boundary layer flows of viscoelastic fluid from a vertical permeable cone with a power-law variation in both temperature and concentration. The Jeffery’s viscoelastic model simulates the non-Newtonian characteristics of polymers, which constitutes the novelty of the present work. The transformed conservation equations for linear momentum, energy and concentration are solved numerically under physically viable boundary conditions using the finite-differences Keller-Box scheme. The impact of Deborah number (De), ratio of relaxation to retardation time (λ), surface suction/injection parameter (fw), power-law exponent (n), buoyancy ratio parameter (N) and dimensionless tangential coordinate (Ѯ) on velocity, surface temperature, concentration, local skin friction, heat transfer rate and mass transfer rate in the boundary layer regime are presented graphically. It is observed that increasing values of De reduces velocity whereas the temperature and concentration are increased slightly. Increasing λ enhance velocity however reduces temperature and concentration slightly. The heat and mass transfer rate are found to decrease with increasing De and increase with increasing values of λ. The skin friction is found to decrease with a rise in De whereas it is elevated with increasing values of λ. Increasing values of fw and n, decelerates the flow and also cools the boundary layer i.e. reduces temperature and also concentration. The study is relevant to chemical engineering systems, solvent and polymeric processes

BB flavour tagging using charm decays at the LHCb experiment

An algorithm is described for tagging the flavour content at production of neutral $B$ mesons in the LHCb experiment. The algorithm exploits the correlation of the flavour of a $B$ meson with the charge of a reconstructed secondary charm hadron from the decay of the other $b$ hadron produced in the proton-proton collision. Charm hadron candidates are identified in a number of fully or partially reconstructed Cabibbo-favoured decay modes. The algorithm is calibrated on the self-tagged decay modes $B^+ \to J/\psi \, K^+$ and $B^0 \to J/\psi \, K^{*0}$ using $3.0\mathrm{\,fb}^{-1}$ of data collected by the LHCb experiment at $pp$ centre-of-mass energies of $7\mathrm{\,TeV}$ and $8\mathrm{\,TeV}$. Its tagging power on these samples of $B \to J/\psi \, X$ decays is $(0.30 \pm 0.01 \pm 0.01) \%$.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at http://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2015-027.htm

Growth and Production Performances of Crossbred Climbing Perch Koi, Anabas testudineus in Bangladesh

The study was performed for evaluating the growth and production performances of crossbred climbing perch (Anabas testudineus) during August to October 2009. The crossbred groups of fish were produced by crossing between native climbing perch and Thai climbing perch (A. testudineus). Growth and production performances was compared at grow out condition between crossbred groups in the two reciprocal crosses of treatments viz. T1: Native climbing perch (?) × Thai climbing perch (?) and T2: Thai climbing perch (?)×Native climbing perch (?. At the same time, they were compared also with their respective control F1 pure line groups i.e. T3: Native climbing perch (?) × Native climbing perch (?) and T4: Thai climbing perch (?) × Thai climbing perch (?). It was evident from the results that among the treatments in grow out system, the highest mean harvesting weight was 69.25±9.01 g found in T4 (Thai climbing perch), which was significantly different (P<0.05) from all other treatments. Whereas, T3 (native climbing perch) also showed the lowest mean harvesting weight 33.38±8.74 g and showed significant differences (P<0.05) among all the treatments. The mean harvesting weight of both the crossbred groups i.e. T1 and T2 were 50.83±6.65 and 59.94±7.83 g, respectively and these results were statistically insignificant (P>0.05) between them but significant among all other treatments. The highest (93.60%) and lowest (83.06%) survival rates were observed in Thai koi (T4) and native Koi (T3) parental stocks, respectively. Wider variations in terms of productions performances were observed among the treatments, where the gross production of T1, T2, T3 and T4 were 2,753±96.67, 3,401±73.26, 1,733±168.47 and 4,051±185 kg/ha, respectively. The productions obtained from crossbred groups were at intermediate compared to their control pure line groups. Higher FCR mean value was observed in native control line (T3), while, lower FCR mean value was observed in Thai control line (T4). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijarit.v2i1.13990 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 2 (1): 19-25, June, 201

Reproductive Biology of Feather Back, Chital (Notopterus chitala, Ham.) Cultured in a Pond of Bangladesh

Studies on Gonadosomatic index (GSI), ova diameter and histology of the gonad were performed to understand reproductive biology of Feather back, Chital (Notopterus chitala) for a period of 6 months from January to June 2010. Thirty live chital fish were used in this study. The mean GSI values for female chital were found to range between 0.20±0.013 and 4.63±0.50. The highest GSI value was found in June. The smallest diameter of ovum was recorded 0.04 mm (January) and the largest was 4.00 mm (June). During the experimental period, the fecundity was ranged from 8,238 to 18,569 (mean 13,052±4607) in fish samples with body weight range from 1,296 to 2,360 (mean 1,742.50±474.44 g) while the relative fecundity was 5.65 to 14.33. Histological study revealed that the percentage of late perinucleolus (LPN) stage was highest in April and Cortical alveoli (CA) stage appeared from April and reached to maximum in May. Vitellogenic stage (VG) appeared in the month of May and chronologically increased through June. Vitellogenic stage (VG) of oocyte as well as highest ova diameter reached to the peak in June. The variations in the gonad weight and GSI of the female fish reached to the peak during June indicating maturity of ovary and definite spawning season. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/ijarit.v2i1.13991 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 2 (1): 26-31, June, 201