Exploring the Impact of Micro-plastics on Soil Health and Ecosystem Dynamics: A Comprehensive Review

Microplastics, defined as particles measuring less than 5 mm, have emerged as widespread environmental pollutants, prompting concerns regarding their impact on soil ecosystems. This review investigates microplastics' presence, movement, and effects on soil health and ecosystem dynamics while highlighting their diverse sources, including industrial production and the breakdown of larger plastic materials. Despite their ubiquity, a significant gap exists in our understanding of the consequences of microplastics in terrestrial ecosystems, particularly within soils. The findings of this review article revealed that microplastics exert notable influences on soil properties, altering bulk density, aggregation, and water-holding capacity, which may have significant implications for soil biota and plant vitality. Furthermore, microplastics also carry toxic substances, complicating their environmental impact. The effects on soil microorganisms and soil-dwelling fauna, such as earthworms, underscore the intricate relationships within soil ecosystems. Additionally, microplastics can interact with other soil pollutants, potentially amplifying their adverse effects. The long-term impacts of microplastics on soil health remain uncertain, underscoring the imperative for sustained research endeavours. Challenges persist, including the absence of standardized methodologies for microplastic extraction and identification in soils, which hampers our ability to understand their presence and effects comprehensively. Furthermore, the lack of regulatory frameworks complicates managing and mitigating microplastic pollution. Future research should adopt a holistic approach, considering diverse microplastic types and applications. Both field and laboratory experiments are essential for accurately capturing the varied influences of microplastics. Efforts should concentrate on understanding the occurrence of microplastics, developing reliable detection methods, and exploring their interactions with other pollutants, especially in terrestrial ecosystems. In conclusion, mitigating microplastic pollution requires multifaceted strategies informed by ongoing research efforts and public awareness campaigns. We can effectively address the challenges posed by microplastic contamination in soil ecosystems through concerted action and comprehensive understanding

Multi-Objective Optimization of Friction Stir Welding of Aluminium Alloy Using Grey Relation Analysis with Entropy Measurement Method

The present research focus on optimization of Friction Stir Welding (FSW) process parameters for joining of AA6061 aluminium alloy using hybrid approach. The FSW process parameters considered are tool rotational speed, welding speed and axial force. The quality characteristics considered are tensile strength (TS) and percentage of tensile elongation (TE). Taguchi based experimental design L9 orthogonal array is used for determining the experimental results. The value of weights corresponding to each quality characteristic is determined by using the entropy measurement method so that their importance can be properly explained. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to determine the contribution of FSW process parameters. The confirmation tests also have been done for verifying the results

Analysis of heterotic potential for yield and its attributing traits in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench)

The present investigation was conducted on okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) to determine the extent of heterosis for 12 traits, including fruit yield and its attributing traits. A total of 28 F1s produced by crossing seven lines with four testers of okra in Line x Tester fashion were evaluated along with standard check during late Kharif 2022 season. The cross C20-HRB-55 x Varsha Uphar recorded best heterobeltiosis and the cross C10-VRO-4 x Azad Ganga recorded best standard heterosis for yield plant-1. The cross C10- VRO-4 x Azad Ganga showed negative heterosis over better parent and standard check for the traits days to 50% flowering and days to first picking. The F1 hybrid C10- VRO-4 x Azad Ganga, which has a high potential for yield can be evaluated further for early Kharif season in Punjab

Phytoplankton assemblage and UV-protective compounds in the river Ganges

191-203Interactions between physico-chemical parameters such as pH, temperature, nitrate, phosphate, alkalinity, acidity, biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) strongly affect aquatic ecosystems. Due to fluctuations in several environmental factors including river water pollution and UVR, organisms are under constant threat. However, phytoplankton protects themselves from environmental extremes by adopting several defense strategies including synthesis of photoprotective compounds such as scytonemin and mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs). We investigated the presence of scytonemin and MAAs in phytoplankton of some polluted sites of one of the holy rivers of the world, the Ganges at Varanasi, India. We observed phytoplankton assemblages and studied certain environmental parameters which could possibly affect phytoplankton diversity in the river. Phytoplankton consisted mainly of 49 taxa of 34 genera belonging to Bacillariophyceae, Chlorophyceae, Cyanophyceae, and Chrysophyceae. The members belonging to Bacillariophyceae and Chlorophyceae were the two dominant classes, which comprised up to 75% of the total phytoplankton. Photoprotective compounds were isolated and characterized from phytoplankton. Electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) analysis of MAAs showed the presence of shinorine, palythinol, mycosporine-glycine and palythine. A high concentration of scytonemin was also observed with an absorption maximum at 386 nm in the studied phytoplankton

Phytoplankton assemblage and UV-protective compounds in the river Ganges

Interactions between physico-chemical parameters such as pH, temperature, nitrate, phosphate, alkalinity, acidity, biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) strongly affect aquatic ecosystems. Due to fluctuations in several environmental factors including river water pollution and UVR, organisms are under constant threat. However, phytoplankton protects themselves from environmental extremes by adopting several defense strategies including synthesis of photoprotective compounds such as scytonemin and mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs).We investigated the presence of scytonemin and MAAs in phytoplankton of some polluted sites of one of the holy rivers of the world, the Ganges at Varanasi, India. We observed phytoplankton assemblages and studied certain environmental parameters which could possibly affect phytoplankton diversity in the river. Phytoplankton consisted mainly of 49 taxa of 34 genera belonging to Bacillariophyceae, Chlorophyceae, Cyanophyceae, and Chrysophyceae. The members belonging to Bacillariophyceae and Chlorophyceae were the two dominant classes, which comprised up to 75% of the total phytoplankton.Photoprotective compounds were isolated and characterized from phytoplankton. Electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) analysis of MAAs showed the presence of shinorine, palythinol, mycosporine-glycine and palythine. A high concentration of scytonemin was also observed with an absorption maximum at 386 nm in the studied phytoplankton

ANALYSIS AND MODELING OF SINGLE POINT CUTTING (HSS MATERIAL) TOOL WITH HELP OF ANSYS FOR OPTIMIZATION OF (TRANSIENT) VIBRATION PARAMETERS

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to study the change of vibration on lathe machine by the change of tool material. Industrial vibration on analysis is a measurement tool used to identify, predict and prevent failure in any rotating machinery. By the vibration analysis on any mechanical component will improve the reliability of machine and lead to better machine efficiency and reduce down time for eliminating electrical and mechanical failure. Machining and measuring operations are invariably accompanied by relative vibration between work piece and tool. The main cause of vibration is as follows: Unbalance forces in the machine: these forces are produced from within itself. Dry friction between the two mating surfaces: this produces what are known as self excited vibration. The effect of vibration is excessive stresses, undesirable noise, looseness of part and partial or complete failure of parts. in spite of these harmful effects the vibration phenomena does have some uses also , e.g in musical instrument ,vibrating screens , shakers stress reliving

Process forces and heat input as function of process parameters in AA5083 friction stir welds

AA5083 friction stir welds were produced using systematic experimental design, the process forces and heat input with varying parameters were studied. Helpful empirical models were developed in designing friction stir welding (FSW) tools and FSW welders. These models may be further helpful for making process parameter choice for this sort of alloy, defining welding program and control of process parameters by using computer numerical control friction stir welding welders. The results show that tool rotat-ional speed, welding speed and tool shoulder diameter are most significant parameters affecting axial force and heat input, while longitudinal force is significantly affected by welding speed and probe diameter

Error Analysis of SaHiT - A Statistical Sanskrit-Hindi Translator

AbstractThe paper shows a statistical Sanskrit-Hindi Translator and analyzes the errors being generated by the system. The System is being trained simultaneously on the platform - the Microsoft Translator Hub (MTHub) and is intended only for simple Sanskrit prose texts. The training set includes 24K parallel sentences and 25k monolingual data with recent BLEU (Bilingual Evaluation Understudy) scores of 41 and above. The paper discusses the errors analysis of the system and suggests possible solutions. Further, it also focuses on the evaluation of MTHub system with BLEU metrics. For developing MT systems, the parallel Sanskrit-Hindi text corpora has been collected or developed manually from the literature, health, news and tourism domains. The paper also discusses issues and challenges in the development of translation systems for languages like Sanskrit

Study of photoelectret effect in dysprosium doped zinc oxide

260-264In the present work, photoelectret properties of ZnO and dysprosium doped ZnO have been studied. Dysprosium (Dy) has been mixed in ZnO by weight with varying proportion. ZnO:Dy (0.50%) exhibits maximum photopolarization. The variation of photoelectret charge with applied voltage, photopolarization time, dark depolarization time, intensity of illumination and wavelength of illumination has been studied. XRD and SEM studies show that particle size of ZnO and ZnO:Dy (0.50%) is the order of few hundred nano meters