Adaptation and human migration, and evidence of agriculture coincident with changes in the Indian summer monsoon during the Holocene

Human societies have evolved through a complex system of climate and ecological interactions. Known records suggest intimate relationship of adaptations, mitigations and migrations to climate extremes leaving their impacts on human societies. The northwestern part of India provides such an example, where human civilizations flourished in the early Holocene along the major fluvial systems when the Indian summer (southwest) monsoon was much stronger and rainfall was higher over the Indian land mass. Summers were thus wetter, conducive to agriculture and ecodiversity. Changes in the early civilizations in the Indian subcontinent had a close relation to changes in the monsoon climate over the past 10,000 years. The summer monsoon has weakened over the last 7000 years since its peak intensification in the early Holocene (10,000-7000 cal yrs BP). Discrete intervals of dry phases in the summer monsoon are visible in the proxy record of the monsoon winds from the marine sediments of the Arabian Sea, which had significant impact on human settlements in South Asia. The strongest aridity in the Indian subcontinent and extended periods of droughts at ca 5000- 4000 cal yrs BP seems to have triggered eastward human migrations towards the Ganga plain. Other times of monsoon weakening during the Holocene are coincident with the initial development of ponds, reservoirs and other rainwater harvesting structures that may have served as an adaptation to climate change

Therapeutic radiological interventional procedures in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: To improve the survival rate of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in whom surgery is not possible, various methods have been developed employing angiographic and percutaneous techniques. We analyzed our experience with various percutaneous therapeutic interventional techniques done for HCC in our center. Methods: Sixty-one patients with inoperable HCC (mean age 48.9 [SD 13.8] y; 47 men) were treated between January 1997 and December 2000 by transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) alone (22), TACE with percutaneous alcohol injection (PEI) (20), transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) with steel coils and gel foam for gastrointestinal bleed (7), percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (1), percutaneous preoperative right portal vein embolization (3) and percutaneous preoperative tumor embolization to reduce blood loss at surgery (8). Results: In 42 patients treated by TACE and PEI and TACE alone, tumor necrosis was scored; over 50% necrosis was seen only after six and nine months in both treatment groups. The survival rates after six and nine months and the median survival were similar in the two groups. Of 7 cases treated with TAE with steel coils and gel foam, the gastrointestinal bleeding stopped in four; in the other three, bleeding did not stop completely although less transfusion was required. In the patient treated by radiofrequency ablation, follow-up contrast-enhanced CT did not show enhancing tumor mass. We noted left lobe enlargement after percutaneous preoperative right portal vein embolization, prior to right hepatectomy. Conclusion: In patients with HCC not amenable to surgical intervention, a variety of percutaneous therapeutic interventional techniques may be used

Evaluating air quality and criteria pollutants prediction disparities by data mining along a stretch of urban-rural agglomeration includes coal-mine belts and thermal power plants

Air pollution has become a threat to human life around the world since researchers have demonstrated several effects of air pollution to the environment, climate, and society. The proposed research was organized in terms of National Air Quality Index (NAQI) and air pollutants prediction using data mining algorithms for particular timeframe dataset (01 January 2019, to 01 June 2021) in the industrial eastern coastal state of India. Over half of the study period, concentrations of PM2.5, PM10 and CO were several times higher than the NAQI standard limit. NAQI, in terms of consistency and frequency analysis, revealed that moderate level (ranges 101–200) has the maximum frequency of occurrence (26–158 days), and consistency was 36%–73% throughout the study period. The satisfactory level NAQI (ranges 51–100) frequency occurrence was 4–43 days with a consistency of 13%–67%. Poor to very poor level of air quality was found 13–50 days of the year, with a consistency of 9%–25%. Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Bagged Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) and Bayesian Regularized Neural Networks (BRNN) are the data mining algorithms, that showed higher efficiency for the prediction of PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and SO2 except for CO and O3 at Talcher and CO at Brajrajnagar. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between observed and predicted values of PM2.5 (ranges 12.40–17.90) and correlation coefficient (r) (ranges 0.83–0.92) for training and testing data indicate about slightly better prediction of PM2.5 by RF, SVM, bagged MARS, and BRNN models at Talcher in comparison to PM2.5 RMSE (ranges 13.06–21.66) and r (ranges 0.64–0.91) at Brajrajnagar. However, PM10 (RMSE: 25.80–43.41; r: 0.57–0.90), NO2 (RMSE: 3.00–4.95; r: 0.42–0.88) and SO2 (RMSE: 2.78–5.46; r: 0.31–0.88) at Brajrajnagar are better than PM10 (RMSE: 35.40–55.33; r: 0.68–0.91), NO2 (RMSE: 4.99–9.11; r: 0.48–0.92), and SO2 (RMSE: 4.91–9.47; r: 0.20–0.93) between observed and predicted values of training and testing data at Talcher using RF, SVM, bagged MARS and BRNN models, respectively. Taylor plots demonstrated that these algorithms showed promising accuracy for predicting air quality. The findings will help scientific community and policymakers to understand the distribution of air pollutants to strategize reduction in air pollution and enhance air quality in the study region

Performance evaluation of isoproturon-degrading indigenous bacterial isolates in soil microcosm

<p>Isoproturon (IPU)-degrading soil bacteria were isolated from herbicide-applied wheat fields. These isolates were identified using cultural, morphological, biochemical and 16S rRNA sequencing methods. 16S rRNA sequences of both the bacterial isolates were compared with NCBI GenBank data base and identified as <i>Bacillus pumilus</i> and <i>Pseudoxanthomonas</i> sp. A soil microcosm study was carried out for 40 days in six different treatments. Experimental results revealed maximum 95.98% IPU degradation in treatment 6 where bacterial consortia were augmented in natural soil, followed by 91.53% in treatment 5 enriched with organic manure as an additional carbon source. However, only 14.03% IPU was degraded in treatment 1 (control) after 40 days. In treatments (2–4), 75.59%, 70.92% and 77.32% IPU degradation was recorded, respectively. IPU degradation in all the treatments varied significantly over the control. 4-Isopropylaniline was detected as IPU degradation by-product in the medium. The study confirmed that <i>B. pumilus</i> and <i>Pseudoxanthomonas</i> sp. performed effectively in soil microcosms and could be employed profitably for field-scale bioremediation experiments.</p

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Not AvailableThis study examines the energy requirement and energy inputeoutput relationship of colocasia-based cropping systems viz., Colocasiaeonionefrenchbean, colocasiaegardenpeaefrenchbean, colocasiae wheateokra, colocasiaeradishepotato, colocasiaecabbageefrenchbean, colocasiaecorianderecauliflowere frenchbean, colocasiaecorinderetomato and riceewheat in the Indian Himalayas. Results revealed that potato consumed the highest total input energy (25084 MJ/ha) and the least was in coriander (5108 MJ/ha). System productivity in terms of colocasia equivalent yield was highest with colocasiae onionefrenchbean system (52.38 t/ha). Mineral fertilizers (50e62%), seed (8e26%) and irrigation water (11e17%) consumed the bulk of the input energy for all cropping systems. The total input energy was highest under colocasiaeradishepotato (59919 MJ/ha) and the lowest in riceewheat (38244 MJ/ha). Colocasiaeonionefrenchbean, with the highest system productivity, produced the highest energy productivity (1.203 kg/MJ). Colocasiaecorianderetomato, with the highest system biomass, produced higher energy ratio (30.4), human energy profitability (2813.4) and energy profitability (29.43). Colocasiaewheateokra (1362928 MJ/ha) recorded the highest total energy output. Human energy profitability was highest under colocasiaecorianderetomato (2813.4) indicating that it was the most labor energy efficient cropping system. Hence, the colocasiaecorinderetomato and colocasiae onionefrenchbean cropping systems are more suitable in the Indian Himalayas for their higher energy use efficiency and energy productivity, respectively, and are advised for wide adoption.Not Availabl