Irrigation and drainage in the new millennium

Presented at the 2000 USCID international conference, Challenges facing irrigation and drainage in the new millennium on June 20-24 in Fort Collins, Colorado.Includes bibliographical references.The introduction of canal irrigation in the semi-arid regions of the Haryana State of India underlain with saline ground water in early sixties led to the rise in water levels at an annual rate of 0.3 to 1.0 m and secondary salinization adversely affecting crop production. To develop feasible technologies for the reclamation of such areas, a pilot study on sub-surface tile drainage systems was undertaken in an area at the Haryana Agricultural University Farm having shallow water levels and high salinity. The drains with three spacings (24, 48, 72 m) were placed at a depth of 2.5 m. The water levels, drainage rates and soil salinity data from the study area growing vegetable crops (eggplant, tomato and potato) were used to calibrate the Field Agricultural Irrigation and Drainage Simulation (FAIDS) model for the period 1985-1989 and validate it for the period 1989-93. A number of simulations were also carried out to finalize optimum drain configuration (spacing x depth) under existing agrohydrological conditions. The drain configurations of 75 m x 2 m (1st option) and 100 m x 2.5 m (2nd option) performed equally well based on salinity in the root zone and crop performance. In both the options, relative evapotranspiration (ETa/ETp) of 0.81 was attained during the third year of operation of the drainage system under normal rainfall conditions. The occurrence of a maximum one-day rainfall event (1 in 10 years) during the fifth year resulted in the failure of one out of three crops in both the options in that year indicating the necessity of integration of a surface drainage system with the subsurface drainage under abnormal rainfall events. The existing inland basin drainage conditions did not permit the disposal of drainage effluent. The reuse system was therefore, integrated with the drainage system. A model RESBAL was coupled with the calibrated and validated model FAIDS and run for eight years to optimally design a series of connected reservoirs for the disposal of drainage effluent from an area provided with a subsurface drainage system. The possibility of the reuse of the disposed water for irrigation, aqua culture and salt harvesting was also studied comprehensively in order to maintain proper salt balance in the root zone. On the basis of this study, subsurface drainage systems coupled with surface drainage systems are being extended in Haryana to over 2000 ha of the farmers' land severely affected with waterlogging and soil salinity using a tile-laying trenching machine

Not Available

Not AvailableSocial audits make organizations / services more accountable towards society. It is being used as a management tool to assess the degree of success of various initiatives of the institution / services in terms of anticipated outcomes. It assesses the mechanics of accountability, degree and level of transparency, awareness and impact. To make social audit more scientific, a standardized scale is hereby developed to link the growth of social responsibility movement. This study was conducted in the twelve purposively selected districts of Bihar namely Banka, Bhagalpur, Patna, Nalanda, Munger, Purnea, Saran, Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, East Champaran & Siwan. Out of each selected districts, two blocks were selected purposively. A cluster of two village panchayats from each of the selected blocks were identified. A sample of 40 respondents was selected from each Village panchayats and accordingly total 1960 respondents were interviewed for the purpose. An exhaustive survey was conducted on eight dimensions of Social Audit. Likert technique was used for constructing the scale to measure the Social Audit of Extension Institution/ Services. The steps which followed for scale construction were item collection, editing of items, item selection, reliability of the scale, validity of the scale, administration of the scale. The study revealed that out of fifty two items related to technological, economical, social, religious, technology transfer, legal, time, programme execution areas of Social Audit, Thirty six items were found significant which constitute the scale for social audit. The highly significant correlation coefficients r = 0.78 indicate that the study was highly stable or dependable for measurement. CorrespondingNot Availabl

Thirty-degree shift in optimum temperature of a thermophilic lipase by a single-point mutation: effect of serine to threonine mutation on structural flexibility

In order to understand the molecular basis of cold adaptation, we have used directed evolution to transform a thermophilic lipase LipR1 into its psychrophilic counterpart. A single round of random mutagenesis followed by screening for improved variants yielded a mutant with single-point mutation LipR1M1 (S130T), with optimum activity at 20 degrees C. Its activity at 50 degrees C is only 20% as compared to wild type (100%). It showed catalytic rate constant (k(cat)) 3 times higher and a catalytic efficiency (k(cat)/K-m) 4 times that of wild type. Circular dichroism and fluorescence studies also supported our observation of mutant structural flexibility. Structure analysis using homology models showed that Threonine 130 is exposed to solvent and has lost H-bond interaction with neighboring amino acid, thereby increasing flexibility of this lipase structure

Energy-related applications of carbon materials-a review

Carbon materials, which are inert and possess good electrical conductivity, high surface area and layered structure, offer applications as electrodes in re-chargeable batteries, storage media for fuel cell for on-board hydrogen supply, fuel cell components, nano-electronic devices for computer chips, superconductors etc. This paper reviews current research on carbon materials (fullerenes, nano-sized single and multi-walled carbon tubes, graphene, carbon foam etc.) focusing on producing, distributing and storing energy. Keywords: Carbon foam, Carbon nanotubes, Energy source, Energy storage, Energy transmission, Fullerenes, Graphen

Influence of oxidative and non-oxidative conditions on petroleum pitch properties

A series of pitches were prepared by thermal treatment of petroleum feedstock under oxidative and non-oxidative conditions at 350-450°C, to study transformation behavior of feed components. Influence of type of oxidizing gas and oxidizing agent on softening point (SP), coking value (CV), quinoline insolubles (QI) and toluene insolubles (TI) was studied. Rate of increase of SP of pitch has been found more in oxidative conditions than in non-oxidative conditions. Oxidative conditions may also lead to reduction in stabilization period for making carbon fibers and activated carbon spheres. Formation of TI/QI is more under air/oxygen purging as compared to nitrogen purging. Keywords: IR, Non-oxidation, Oxidation, Petroleum pitc

Influence of oxidative and non-oxidative conditions on petroleum pitch properties

616-621A series of pitches were prepared by thermal treatment of petroleum feedstock under oxidative and non-oxidative conditions at 350-450°C, to study transformation behavior of feed components. Influence of type of oxidizing gas and oxidizing agent on softening point (SP), coking value (CV), quinoline insolubles (QI) and toluene insolubles (TI) was studied. Rate of increase of SP of pitch has been found more in oxidative conditions than in non-oxidative conditions. Oxidative conditions may also lead to reduction in stabilization period for making carbon fibers and activated carbon spheres. Formation of TI/QI is more under air/oxygen purging as compared to nitrogen purging

Point mutation Gln121-Arg increased temperature optima of Bacillus lipase (1.4 subfamily) by fifteen degrees

Small molecular weight Bacillus lipases are industrially attractive because of its alkaline optimum pH, broad substrate specificity and production in high yield by overexpression both in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. Its major limitation of being mesophilic in nature is constantly targeted by laboratory evolution studies. Herein metagenomically isolated Bacillus LipJ was randomly evolved by error prone PCR and library of variants were screened for enhanced thermostability. Point mutant Gln121Arg was extensively characterized and it showed dramatic shift of Temp. opt to 50 degrees C compared to 37 degrees C for parent enzyme. Thermostability studies at 45 degrees C and 50 degrees C determined six fold increase in half life for point variant Gln121Arg compared to LipJ. Circular dichroism (CD) and tryptophan fluorescence study established enhanced thermostability of Gln121Arg. Specific activity of point variant Gln121Arg was comparable to wild type with increased substrate affinity (Km reduced). Reduced kcat for variant Gln121Arg infer that kinetic and catalytic efficiency of mutant was compromised. Structural implications by homolog modelling predicted Gln121 to be placed within longest loop of the structure at surface. Localization of loop due to additional polar interactions by Arg121 to protein core defines molecular basis of enhanced thermostability of random point variant Gln121Arg. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved