Water distribution rules and water distribution performance: a case study in the Tambraparani Irrigation System

Irrigation management / Irrigation systems / Performance / Irrigation operation / Irrigation scheduling / Water distribution / Water allocation / Water delivery / Water users' associations / Legislation / Large-scale systems / Bananas / Case studies / India / Tamil Nadu / Tambraparani Irrigation System

Utilisation of Waste Plastics in Flexible Pavement Construction Laid on Expansive Soil Subgrade

This paper investigates the performance of model flexible pavement on expansive soil subgrade using gravel / flyash as subbase course with waste plastics as a reinforcing material. It was observed that from the laboratory test results of direct shear and CBR, the optimum percentage of waste plastics is equal to 0.3% and 0.4% for gravel and flyash materials. Cyclic load tests were carried out in the field on the reinforced and unreinforced model flexible pavements laid on expansive soil subgrades. It is observed that the maximum load carrying capacity associated with less value of rebound deflection is obtained for gravel/flyash reinforced subbase compared to unreinforced gravel/flyash subbase

Status of Farmer Producers Organizations (FPO) in Andhra Pradesh

A Variety of approaches have emerged over the years to address the problems of small and marginal farmers' agriculture. In order to improve the welfare and living standards of farmers, there is a need to create appropriate ecosystem in the state. Such institutional arrangement/membership-based institutions are found to be the backbone for primary sector. Both Central and State governments are stressing on promoting 'Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs) as an important strategy for creating an ecosystem for enhancing farmers profit

Wear behavior of secondary processed spray formed Al-28Si-5Cu-4Mg alloy

In the present study Al-28Si-5Cu-4Mg alloy has been spray formed and hot pressed for densification. Hot pressing refined the microstructure and reduced the porosity in the spray formed alloy from 10 to 1%. The microstructure of spray formed and hot pressed alloy exhibited equiaxed grain morphology with fine and uniform distribution of both primary and eutectic Si with fine needles of Q-Al 12 Si 7 Mg 4 Fe intermetallics and Chinese script like θ- Al 2 Cu precipitates in α-Al matrix. The size of Si particles ranged from 3–10 µm. In contrast the microstructure of as-cast alloy consisted of coarse primary and eutectic Si, long needles of Q-Al-Si-Mg-Cu-Fe phase and bright grey θ-Al 2 Cu phase in the α-Al matrix. The size of primary Si varied from 30–250 µm. The spray formed and hot pressed alloy exhibited a higher hardness compared to the as-cast alloy. The wear behavior of both the alloys, under dry sliding conditions, showed an increase in the wear rate with an increase in the load. However, the spray formed and hot pressed alloy exhibited maximum wear resistance and minimum coefficient of friction, while as-cast alloy exhibited minimum wear resistance and maximum coefficient of friction over the entire range of applied load. The high wear resistance and high hardness of spray formed and hot pressed alloy are explained in the light of its microstructural modifications induced during spray forming and subsequent hot pressing and also the topographical features of worn surfaces and morphology of debris particles

Effect of Cu and Mg on the wear properties of spray formed Al -22Si alloy

In the present study, the effect of Cu and Mg on the wear behavior of spray formed Al-22Si alloy has been investigated and the same has been compared with that of its counterpart as-cast alloy. Al-22Si and Al–22Si–4Cu–1.7Mg alloys prepared by spray deposition process were hot pressed to reduce the porosity. The microstructures were examined by optical and scanning electron microscopes. The microstructure of spray formed Al-22Si alloy is fine and homogeneous and primary silicon phase distributed in the aluminum matrix evenly are fine and faceted having a mean size of 12 µm. The microstructure of spray formed Al–22Si–4Cu–1.7Mg alloy exhibited equiaxed grain morphology with fine and uniform distribution of both primary and eutectic Si with fine Q-Al-Si-Mg-Cu phase and θ-Al 2 Cu precipitates dispersed evenly in α- Al matrix. In contrast the microstructure of as-cast Al–22Si alloy consisted of coarse plates of primary Si of size 350 µm and eutectic Si needles. The as-cast Al–22Si–4Cu–1.7Mg alloy consisted of coarse primary Si with Chinese script like θ-Al 2 Cu precipitates and needles of Q-Al- Si-Mg-Cu phase in α-Al matrix. The wear study of both as-cast and spray formed and hot pressed alloys under an applied load of 10 to 50 N and sliding velocity of 0.4 to1.5 ms -1 indicated two distinct regimes of mild and severe wear. In both the regimes, the spray-formed and hot pressed alloys consistently indicated a low wear rate compared to that of as-cast alloys. The high wear resistance of spray formed and hot pressed Al–22Si and Al–22Si–4Cu–1.7Mg alloys were explained in the light of their microstructural modifications induced during spray forming and subsequent hot pressing

Geochemical assessment of a siliceous limestone sample for cement making

A low grade siliceous limestone sample from the Jayantipuram mine of Andhra Pradesh, India, has been investigated for its suitability for cement making. Petrological as well as X-ray diffraction pattern studies indicated that the limestone sample was crystalline and dominantly composed of calcite and quartz. They are simple in mineralogy, and yet they have variable silica and lime contents. Geochemical analysis results of twenty five hand picked samples indicated that the limestone from the Jayantipuram mine shows a wide range of variations in LOI (29.94% to 40.64%), SiO2 (6.14% to 27.18%), CaO (37.93% to 50.78%), Al2O3 (0.49% to 2.27%) and Fe2O3 (0.28% to 2.4%). MgO, K2O, Na2O, TiO2 and MnO2 are present in traces. CaO with LOI shows a strong positive correlation where as CaO with SiO2 shows a strong negative correlation because of mineralogical factors. The chemical composition of the limestone reflects its mineralogical composition. The distribution of various elements in the acid-soluble fraction has been studied by the factor analysis method in order to interpret in terms of their mineralogy, sedimentary environment and diagenesis. Mineralogy, recrystallization and other diagenetic changes are the main factors affecting the distribution of the elements and their mutual relationships in the limestone. The aim of this paper is also to analyze how significantly the two parameters, silica modulus and lime saturation factor, influence this low grade siliceous limestone sample from the Jayantipuram mine of Andhra Pradesh, India, for the cement making process from the geochemical data

Ekpyrosis and inflationary dynamics in heavy ion collisions: the role of quantum fluctuations

We summarize recent significant progress in the development of a first-principles formalism to describe the formation and evolution of matter in very high energy heavy ion collisions. The key role of quantum fluctuations both before and after a collision is emphasized. Systematic computations are now feasible to address early time dynamics essential to quantifying properties of strongly interacting quark-gluon matter.Comment: Talk by R.V. at Quark Matter 2011, Annecy, France, May 23-28, 2011. LaTex, 4 pages; v2, final version to appear in J. Phys.

Postmastectomy chest wall radiation of left-sided carcinoma breast - a dosimetric comparison between electrons and photons

Background: For carcinoma breast patients requiring post mastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT), tangential photon beam (PB) is commonly used technique. The physical nature of electrons results in sharp dose fall off and reduces organs at risk (OAR) doses. Aim of the present study is to compare the coverage of chest wall and doses received by OARs – heart and lung between electron and photon beam plans in left sided breast cancer patients requiring PMRT.Methods: This study was done in 22 left sided carcinoma breast patients treated at GSL Medical College between May to December 2017. Both tangential PB plans and electron beam (EB) plans were generated on simulation computed tomography (CT) for each patient and both plans were compared. A dose of 50 Gy was prescribed to planning target volume (PTV) in 25 fractions.Results: The PB plans provided superior homogeneity index (HI) and conformity index CI compared to the EB plans (p<0.05). There was significant difference in favour of electron-beam plans for mean heart dose (p=0.0312), V25 Gy (p=0.029), V45 Gy (p=0.001) and V20 Gy of left lung (p=0.042). There was no significant difference in mean lung dose.Conclusions: Dosimetric data from this study suggests that PMRT with the electron beam can reduce doses to the heart and left lung with acceptable target coverage. It needs further research in the clinical setting

Indices for Superconformal Field Theories in 3,5 and 6 Dimensions

We present a trace formula for a Witten type Index for superconformal field theories in d=3,5 and 6 dimensions, generalizing a similar recent construction in d=4. We perform a detailed study of the decomposition of long representations into sums of short representations at the unitarity bound to demonstrate that our trace formula yields the most general index (i.e. quantity that is guaranteed to be protected by superconformal symmetry alone) for the corresponding superalgebras. Using the dual gravitational description, we compute our index for the theory on the world volume of N M2 and M5 branes in the large N limit. We also compute our index for recently constructed Chern Simons theories in three dimensions in the large N limit, and find that, in certain cases, this index undergoes a large N phase transition as a function of chemical potentials.Comment: a small typo corrected, 46 page