Assessment of LNAPL in subsurface under fluctuating groundwater table using 2D sand tank experiments

The focus of this study was to investigate the fate and transport of toluene, a light nonaqueous-phase liquids (LNAPLs) in the subsurface region under dynamic groundwater table conditions. A series of experiments were conducted using two-dimensional (2D) sand tank setup having dimensions 125×90×10  cm 125×90×10  cm (L×H×W L×H×W ) and integrated with an auxiliary column of inner diameter 14 cm and height 120 cm. Initially, a steady-state flow and LNAPL transport experiment was conducted under stable groundwater table condition. Thereafter, three groundwater table fluctuation experiments were conducted on a rising and falling groundwater table in 2, 4, and 8 h to maintain rapid, general, and slow fluctuation conditions, respectively. The pure phase of toluene was injected at a rate of 1  mL/min 1  mL/min for a total duration of 5 min. Soil-water and soil-vapor samples were periodically collected and analyzed for toluene concentrations. Later, the representation of the 2D sand tank setup was numerically simulated to obtain the response of flow and the LNAPL transport under varying groundwater table conditions. Analysis of the results shows that a large LNAPL pool area (250  cm 2 250  cm2 ) develops under rapidly fluctuating groundwater conditions, which significantly enhances the dissolution rate and contributes to a high concentration of dissolved LNAPLs at the receiving receptors. Estimated values of Sherwood and Peclet numbers show that the dissolution rates were highly affected by groundwater table dynamics, which may cause loss of pure-phase pollutant mass around the pollutant source. The concentration isolines of toluene show that the transport of dissolved LNAPL plumes was also comparatively fast in the case of rapidly fluctuating groundwater. A high biodegradation rate was observed in plume regions having concentration ranges of 140–160 ppm, while it decreases in plume regions having very high (>160  ppm >160  ppm ) and low concentrations (<140  ppm <140  ppm ) of dissolved LNAPL. In the sand tank, microbial growth was found to increase as the plume moved away from the LNAPL pool toward a low gradient, which intensifies the detrimental impact of toluene on the survival of indigenous microorganisms near the LNAPL pool. The results of this study may help in implementing effective remediation techniques to decontaminate LNAPL polluted sites under fluctuating groundwater table conditions, especially in (semi)-arid coastal aquifers

Marketing Management

Marketing management is define as it a business discipline which focuses on the practical application of marketing techniques and the management of a firm\u27s marketing resources and activities Globalization has led firms to market beyond the borders of their home countries, making international marketing highly significant and an integral part of a firm\u27s marketing strategy. Marketing managers are often responsible for influencing the level, timing, and composition of customer demand accepted definition of the term. In part, this is because the role of a marketing manager can vary significantly based on a business\u27s size, corporate culture , and industry context. This study wil expand onissues and debates common to many of the approaches and wil conclude with demonstratingthe ability to explain a chosen research approach. This paper has a significant contribution byclarifying how to ensure research quality, which is crucial to pursue auditable data col ectionand analysis and consequently to generate reliable knowledge in particular to case study research

An emerging protagonist: Sodium Glucose Co-transporters (SGLTs) as a burgeoning target for the treatment of diabetes mellitus

Contemporary therapies to rationalize the hyperglycaemia in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) generally involve insulin-dependent mechanisms and lose their effectiveness as pancreatic b-cell function decreases to a greater extent. The kidney emerges out as a novel and potential target to trim down the T2DM. The filtered glucose is reabsorbed principally through the sodium glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2), a low affinity transport system, which is present at the luminal surface cells that cover the first segment of proximal tubules. Competitive inhibition of SGLT2 therefore represents an innovative therapeutic strategy for the treatment of hyperglycaemia and/or obesity in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes by enhancing glucose and energy loss through the urine. Selective inhibitors of SGLT2 reduce glucose reabsorption, causing excess glucose to be eliminated in the urine; this decreases plasma glucose. SGLT2 inhibitors are coupled with osmotic dieresis and loss of weight which aid in reducing blood pressure. The observation that individuals with familial renal glycosuria maintain normal long-term kidney function provides some encouragement that this mode of action will not adversely affect renal function. This novel mechanism of targeting the kidney for the treatment of T2DM is reasonably valuable and is independent of insulin and clutch with the low risk of hypoglycemia

A study on the quality of life among stroke survivors: A cross sectional study

Background: The World Health Organization defines - Health as a “state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Methodology: A cross sectional study on 96 patients with stroke aged more than 30 years was carried out NIMS Hospital, Jaipur for a period of 4 months from 1st January 2018 to 30th April 2018. Results: Out of 96 patients, Mean quality of score of patients with stroke was 65.04±9.982 there was significant difference seen in quality of life score according to sex, side of lesion, duration of stroke, socioeconomic status, occupation and hypertension. Conclusions: It can be said that quality of life is a multidimensional concept. As stroke cases is among the most devastating of health aspect, having multiple and profound effects upon all aspects of life, hence evaluation of quality of life is very important. Each and every effort should be made to improve these aspects and in turn to activity daily living (ADL) and improve the overall quality of stroke patients

TCAD Simulations and Small Signal Modeling of DMG AlGaN/GaN HFET

This article presents extraction of small signal model parameters and TCAD simulation of novel asymmetric field plated dual material gate AlGaN/GaN HFET first time. Small signal model is essential for design of LNA and microwave electronic circuit by using the proposed superior performance HFET structure. Superior performances of device are due to its dual material gate structure and field plate that can provide better electric field uniformity, suppression of short channel effects and improvement in carrier transport efficiency. In this article we used direct parameter extraction methodology in which S-parameters of device were measured using pinchoff cold FET biasing. The measured S-parameters are then transformed into Y-parameters to extract capacitive elements and then in to Z-parameters to extract series parasitic elements. Intrinsic parameters are extracted from Y-parameters after de-embedding all parasitic elements of devce. Microwave figure of merits and dc performance are also studied for proposed HFET. The important figure of merits of device reported in the paper include transconductance, drain conductance, current gain, transducer power gain, available power gain, maximum stable gain, maximum frequency of oscillation, cut-off frequency, stability factor and time delay. Reported results are validated with experimental and simulation results for consistency and accuracy

Gamma Ray Irradiation for Crop Protection Against Salt Stress

Legumes have tremendous dietary value for human nutrition. However, the productivity of food legumes is always compromised owing to their insufficient ability to tolerate abiotic stresses such as drought or water logging, marginal soil, low/high temperatures and salt stress. Stress induces changes at the morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular level which are consequently manifested in terms of reduced seed yield and quality. Salt stress is one of the most important constraints to crop production particularly in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Low dose of ionising radiation like gamma ray is reported to induce growth and several other physiological attributes in non-legume and legume crops. Relationship between seed gamma irradiation and salinity stress response could be related to favourable maintenance of gas exchange attributes (Pn, gs and E), 14C partitioning, activity of antioxidative enzymes (SOD, CAT and POX), membrane stability index (MSI) K+ to Na+ ratio, proline and glycine betaine content. One or more mechanisms may contribute simultaneously towards salt tolerance response of crop plants. The present review critically analyses the effect of gamma ray irradiation on growth and development of legumes under salt stress and evaluates the contribution of various physiological and biochemical mechanisms towards radiation mediated alleviation of salt stress response

A study of expressed emotion, perceived stress and socio-demographic profile in patients of dissociative disorder

Background: Dissociation is understood as one of coping mechanism to deal with intense stressors. Individuals vary widely in their subjective response to a similar stressful event depending on number of factors including their family and social support system. So, authors tried to study the expressed emotion in patients of dissociative disorder along with other socio-demographic factors and its relation with perceived stress.Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study was done on 100 patients with primary diagnosis of dissociative disorder. Hamilton depression rating scale (HAM-D) was used to assess comorbid Depressive symptoms and Hamilton anxiety rating scale (HAM-A) was used to asses comorbid anxiety symptoms. Perceived stress scale (PSS) was used to assess the perception of stress. Family emotional involvement and criticism scale (FEICS) was used to measure perceived criticism (PC) and intensity of emotional involvement (EI).Results: Mean perceived stress in this study was 25.8. Mean score for perceived criticism (PC) was 16.5 and emotional involvement (EI) was 15.7. Both measures of expressed emotions were significantly higher in females and subjects belonging to joint families and rural area. In this study perceived stress by subjects was significantly (p=0.001) correlated to perceived criticism (Pearson r = 0.78) and emotional involvement (Pearson r = 0.77).Conclusions: High perceived criticism and emotion over involvement of family member was associated with perceived stress in dissociation patients

Leakage of CO2 from geological storage and its impacts on fresh soil–water systems: a review

Leakage of CO2 from the geological storage is a serious issue for the sustainability of the receiving fresh soil–water systems. Subsurface water quality issues are no longer related to one type of pollution in many regions around the globe. Thus, an effort has been made to review studies performed to investigate supercritical CO2 (scCO2) and CO2 enrich brine migration and it's leakage from geological storage formations. Further, the study also reviewed it's impacts on fresh soil–water systems, soil microbes, and vegetation. The first part of the study discussed scCO2/CO2 enrich brine migration and its leakage from storage formations along with it's impact on pore dynamics of hydrological regimes. Later, a state-of-the-art literature survey has been performed to understand the role of CO2–brine leakage on groundwater dynamics and its quality along with soil microbes and plants. It is observed in the literature survey that most of the studies on CO2–brine migration in storage formations reported significant CO2–brine leakage due to over-pressurization through wells (injections and abandoned), fracture, and faults during CO2 injection. Thus, changes in the groundwater flow and water table dynamics can be the first impact of the CO2–brine leakage. Subsequently, three major alterations may also occur—(i) drop in pH of subsurface water, (ii) enhancement of organic compounds, and (iii) mobilization of metals and metalloids. Geochemical alteration depends on the amount of CO2 leaked and interactions with host rocks. Therefore, such alteration may significantly affect soil microbial dynamics and vegetation in and around CO2 leakage sites. In-depth analysis of the available literature fortifies that a proper subsurface characterization along with the bio-geochemical analysis is extremely important and should be mandatory to predict the more accurate risk of CO2 capture and storage activities on soil–water systems