Book Review: Krishna and Christ

A review of Dr. Ishanana\u27s Krishna and Christ

Removal of mercury(II) by tri n-butyl phosphate based supported liquid membrane

ABSTRACT. Mercury even at a trace level poses a significant threat to the environment and the ecosystem. Thus, prompting the need to develop a technology to separate mercury(II) selectively from aqueous solutions. The removal of mercury(II) from aqueous solutions using tri n-butyl phosphate (TBP) based supported liquid membrane (SLM) was investigated in this study. HCl and NaOH were used as feed and strip phases, respectively. Factors considered for designing the experiments using the Taguchi method include feed phase acid concentration, strip phase alkali concentration, carrier concentration and initial feed phase mercury(II) concentration. The results indicated that carrier concentration was the most influential factor on the removal efficiency. The percentage contribution of each factor was calculated. The results show that carrier concentration and initial feed phase mercury(II) concentration have a maximum contribution. For the maximum removal of 91.7% of mercury(II) (initial concentration - 10 mg/L) in the feed phase, the optimum conditions were 0.3 M of HCl, 0.2 M of NaOH, and 90% of TBP. SEM analysis was performed to evidence the transportation process through the membrane. The research study indicated the potential use of TBP as a carrier in the SLM system for the selective separation of mercury in trace concentration.                     KEY WORDS: Removal of mercury(II), Tri n-butyl phosphate, Taguchi method, Supported liquid membrane   Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2021, 35(2), 273-286. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v35i2.

A unified approach to cooperative and non-cooperative sense-and-avoid

Cooperative and non-cooperative Sense-and-Avoid (SAA) capabilities are key enablers for Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle (UAV) to safely and routinely access all classes of airspace. In this paper state-of-the-art cooperative and non-cooperative SAA sensor/system technologies for small-to-medium size UAV are identified and the associated multi-sensor data fusion techniques are introduced. A reference SAA system architecture is presented based on Boolean Decision Logics (BDL) for selecting and sorting non-cooperative and cooperative sensors/systems including both passive and active Forward Looking Sensors (FLS), Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B). After elaborating the SAA system processes, the key mathematical models associated with both non-cooperative and cooperative SAA functions are presented. The analytical models adopted to compute the overall uncertainty volume in the airspace surrounding an intruder are described. Based on these mathematical models, the SAA Unified Method (SUM) for cooperative and non-cooperative SAA is presented. In this unified approach, navigation and tracking errors affecting the measurements are considered and translated to unified range and bearing uncertainty descriptors, which apply both to cooperative and non-cooperative scenarios. Simulation case studies are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed SAA approach on a representative host platform (AEROSONDE UAV) and various intruder platforms. Results corroborate the validity of the proposed approach and demonstrate the impact of SUM towards providing a cohesive logical framework for the development of an airworthy SAA capability, which provides a pathway for manned/unmanned aircraft coexistence in all classes of airspace

The Spraying Technology on Iraqi Agricultural Researches

Many of the Iraqi agricultural researches are used spraying technique to add chemical products including pesticides and growth regulators. Various studies were performed to study the effect of these substances at different concentrations to improve plant production. In order to adopt specific criteria of spraying researches and to replicate them easily, it is a necessary to mention all information related to the spraying processes and regulations for improving sprayer’s performance by increasing the amount of pesticide deposited on the target. The current study aims to survey Iraqi researches in details and analyse them randomly. Also, to highlight on the importance of information applied in spraying techniques and its relationship with improving of agricultural production. The survey showed most of these researches does not mention sufficiently the basic information, especially in the spraying or calibrating processes. These processes are important to ensure the best distribution of spraying in the field depending on type of sprayer, nozzle type, and operating pressure. Also, some of these researches do not show the application rate of pesticide and the factors affected on it, which may lead to imbalance in homogenization of the pesticide distribution. This study recommended using a power sprayer to avoid the misapplication in droplets distribution in comparison with pack back sprayers, which have a complication in the operating pressure and nozzle height regulation. Another recommendation was a necessity to select the perfect nozzle type that agrees with the global publications

A GNSS Integrity Augmentation System for Ground Vehicle Operations

The employment of GNSS for the navigation of autonomous ground vehicles has so far been applied to mining operations in Australia. Autonomous systems enable the development of navigation strategies such as global path-planning and path optimization for vehicle fleets, thereby lowering overall carbon emissions. Furthermore, autonomous ground vehicle operations can significantly improve safety ratings by eliminating human error arising from stress, fatigue and boredom. Widespread use of GNSS-based autonomous vehicles for ground operations is presently hindered by stringent safety regulations. This places strict integrity requirements on GNSS receivers, which must be able to detect GNSS signal errors and faults, and alert the navigation system in a timely manner. An integrity augmentation system is presented in this paper that can detect GNSS error sources and faults, and alert the navigation system of an autonomous ground vehicle in a timely manner. The system is developed by modelling GNSS error sources like antenna masking, signal attenuation and multipath and assigning threshold values for generating integrity alerts. The performance of the system in terms of GNSS fault detection is validated through a realistic simulation in a 3-D virtual ground environment. Trajectories representing the paths followed by vehicles are generated using a dynamic model of a generic fourwheeled ground vehicle. The integrity augmentation system was demonstrated to successfully detect GNSS errors and respond by issuing predictive (caution flags) and reactive (warning flags) in a timely manner for a range of trajectories and maneuvers

Law, technology and water conflicts in developing societies: a case study of tank systems in Tamil Nadu

The study examines the relationship between law, technology and water conflicts from colonial days to the present in traditional (water) tank systems in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Tanks are man-made water systems developed for irrigation and many other purposes in semi-arid areas. The thesis adopts a historical approach to study the development of law, particularly property rights, and takes an empirical approach to investigate the tank conflicts. Archival documents on irrigation development, Case laws, Focus Group Discussions, Open ended Interviews and Field visits to selected tank chains are used as source material for the discussion. Case studies of conflicts are described and analyzed at three levels - Vaigai river basin for a macro level, Kothai Anicut system in Cauvery basin for a meso level, and twenty other interconnected tanks for a micro-level. The thesis deviates from the conventional understanding that tanks as traditional systems as simple and local technologies but considers them to be complex. It argues that the use of commonly held systems such as tanks within the colonial and post colonial laws as state ownership has been the source of many conflicts. In particular, it finds most tank conflicts are a product of progressive and absolute state control over water and the systems established using colonial land revenue administrative law. The law continues to treat tanks as pieces of landed property held by state and the individuals rather than as technology systems that presupposed the regime of property rights introduced after the colonial times. The modern interventions in water including the reservoir building, and altering the hydraulics of rivers and streams aggravate tank conflicts and lead to their further detriment. The study brings the focus to ground realities, and offers new perspectives on understanding tank systems in dynamic ways

Use of Modern Technology in The Automated Farming of Agriculture

In order to improve efficiency, productivity, global market, and to reduce human intervention, time, and cost, there is a requirement for the introduction of new technology called the Internet of Things. The internet of things (IoT) is the network of interconnected devices that facilitates information transfer without human involvement. Agriculture and the Internet of Things work together to accomplish smart farming.   The current study is a systematic review on the use of IOT and other smart methods in agriculture

Context Based Classification of Reviews Using Association Rule Mining, Fuzzy Logics and Ontology

The Internet has facilitated the growth of recommendation system owing to the ease of sharing customer experiences online. It is a challenging task to summarize and streamline the online textual reviews. In this paper, we propose a new framework called Fuzzy based contextual recommendation system. For classification of customer reviews we extract the information from the reviews based on the context given by users. We use text mining techniques to tag the review and extract context. Then we find out the relationship between the contexts from the ontological database. We incorporate fuzzy based semantic analyzer to find the relationship between the review and the context when they are not found therein. The sentence based classification predicts the relevant reviews, whereas the fuzzy based context method predicts the relevant instances among the relevant reviews. Textual analysis is carried out with the combination of association rules and ontology mining. The relationship between review and their context is compared using the semantic analyzer which is based on the fuzzy rules

Communication, navigation and surveillance performance criteria for safety-critical avionics and ATM systems

The demand for improved safety, integrity and efficiency due to the rapid growth of aviation sector and the growing concern for environmental sustainability issues poses significant challenges on the development of future Communication, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) and Avionics (CNS+A) systems. High-integrity, high-reliability and all-weather services are required in the context of four dimensional Trajectory Based Operations / Intent Based Operations (TBO/IBO). The Next Generation Flight Management Systems (NG-FMS) and the Next Generation Air Traffic Management (NG-ATM) systems are developed allowing automated negotiation and validation of the aircraft intents provided by the NG-FMS. After describing the key system architectures, the mathematical models for trajectory generation and CNS performance criteria evaluation are presented. In this paper, the method for evaluating navigation performance is presented, including a detailed Monte Carlo simulation case study. The proposed approach will form a basis for evaluating communication and surveillance performances as well in future research. The Monte Carlo simulation results demonstrate the capability of the proposed CNS+A system architectures to comply with the required navigation performance criteria in the generation of optimized aircraft trajectory profiles

Cooperative and non-cooperative sense-and-avoid in the CNS+A context: a unified methodology

A unified approach to cooperative and noncooperative Sense-and-Avoid (SAA) is presented that addresses the technical and regulatory challenges of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) integration into nonsegregated airspace. In this paper, state-of-the-art sensor/system technologies for cooperative and noncooperative SAA are reviewed and a reference system architecture is presented. Automated selection of sensors/systems including passive and active Forward Looking Sensors (FLS), Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) system is performed based on Boolean Decision Logics (BDL) to support trusted autonomous operations during all flight phases. The BDL adoption allows for a dynamic reconfiguration of the SAA architecture, based on the current error estimates of navigation and tracking sensors/systems. The significance of this approach is discussed in the Communication, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management and Avionics (CNS+A) context, with a focus on avionics and ATM certification requirements. Additionally, the mathematical models employed in the SAA Unified Method (SUM) to compute the overall uncertainty volume in the airspace surrounding an intruder/obstacle are described. In the presented methodology, navigation and tracking errors affecting the host UAS platform and intruder sensor measurements are translated to unified range and bearing uncertainty descriptors. Simulation case studies are presented to evaluate the performance of the unified approach on a representative UAS host platform and a number of intruder platforms. The results confirm the validity of the proposed unified methodology providing a pathway for certification of SAA systems that typically employ a suite of non-cooperative sensors and/or cooperative systems