Spatial Variations of the Flood and Drought in the Northern Region of Sri Lanka

There are no any systematic orders in the occurrences of drought and flood hazards in Sri Lanka. Some areas have higher number of disaster occurrences and some other areas have lower numbers. In this situation this study focused the spatial variations of the drought and flood hazards in the Northern Region of Sri Lanka.  Main objective of this study is to identify the spatial patterns of drought and flood hazards in the study area. Monthly, Seasonal and annual climatic data for the stations Akkarayankulam, Ambalapperumalkulam, Iranaimadu, Kanukkerny, Karukkaikulam, Murunkan, Muththaiyankaddu, Nainathivu, Pallavarayankaddu, Pavatkulam, Thirunelveli, Vavunikkulam, and Vavuniya, were collected for the period from 1972 to 2012. Primary data for this study were collected using interviews and discussions and direct observations. Also varius sources of secondary data were used to carry out this study. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) has been used to identify the drought and flood hazards in every station for the period from 1972 to 2012. Krigging method of Arc GIS 9.2 version was used to identify the spatial variations of the drought and flood hazards.  During the South West Monsoon Season (SWMS) 03 severe drought in Vavunikkulam station and 09 in Akkarayankulam, 08 in Murungan, and 08 in Pavatkulam were identified. During the First Inter Monsoon Season (FIMS), extreme floods were experienced in several areas. Three in Iranaimadu, 03 in Thirunelveli, 03 in Pallavarayankaddu and 03 in Nainathivu station were identified in the Northern region using SPI method. During the Second Inter Monsoon Season (SIMS), 02 extreme floods in Thirunelveli, 02 in Vavuniya, and 03 in Murungan, and 02 in Akkarayankulam station and 07 severe droughts in Nainathivu and 05 in Vavuniya were also identified. During the North East Monsoon Season(NEMS), 03 extreme floods in Akkarayankulam, 03 in Ambalapperumalkulam and 03 severe floods, 03 extreme floods in Pallavaraykaddu, 03 severe floods in Muththaiyankaddu, 04 severe floods in Vavunikkulam station and 03 severe floods in Vavuniya were identified in the Northern region of Sri Lanka. Spatially some areas have been affected many times by flood and drought in the Northern Region of Sri Lanka. Comparatively, Eastern Parts of the study have more flood hazards and more number of droughts has occurred in the Western part of the study. Also 70% of the people expressed above thing. Also frequencies of the flood occurrences gradually decrease in the direction from the east to the west and similarly drought occurrences gradually decrease from the west to the east. Key Words: Drought, Flood, Seasons, Spatial Variations and Northern Regio

Particle Filter based Massive MIMO Channel Estimation

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems have drawn significant interest recently in next-generation wireless communications. The use of a large number of antennas in massive MIMO makes the estimation of channel state information very challenging. Accurate channel state information is essential in capitalizing the advantages of the massive MIMO technology. This paper proposes the application of the Ensemble Square Root Filter (EnSRF) and a variant of EnSRF, namely a Particle wise Update version of the Ensemble Square Root Filter (PUEnSRF) to estimate the time-selective frequency-flat fading channel coefficients in the massive MIMO scenario. Simulation results clearly indicate the remarkably superior accuracy and filter convergence of PUEnSRF estimates as compared to the conventional particle filters

“Building from bottom” a success story

Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) is a local government committed to provide basic infrastructure facilities including entertainment facilities to the people of the city. RMC is very well known for managing the city by using private sector participation as well as introduction of innovative mechanisms in management to serve people efficiently. City has prepared different plans for improving services and to nullify the gap between services and demands. The sole responsibility of Solid Waste Management (SWM) in the city lies with the Soild Wate Management department of Rajkot Muncipal Corporation (RMC)

Overexpression Analysis of emv2 gene coding for Late Embryogenesis Abundant Protein from Vigna radiata (Wilczek)

Late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins are speculated to protect against water stress deficit in plants. An over expression system for mungbean late embryogenesis abundant protein, emv2 was constructed in a pET29a vector, designated pET-emv2 which is responsible for higher expression under the transcriptional/translational control of T7/lac promoter incorporated in the Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3).Induction protocol was optimized for pET recombinants harboring the target gene. Overexpressed EMV2 protein was purified to homogeneity and the protein profile monitored by SDS-PAGE

A Sustainable Form of Land Use under Borassus flabellifer: A Case Study in Jaffna District of Sri Lanka

Perennial plantations play a significant role in mitigating climate change and improve the plant diversity. This study was carried out to estimate the carbon sequestration potential of Plamyrah (Borassus flabellifer) land use in twelve different soil series in Jaffna district and to estimate the plant diversity of the same. Samples were collected from sampling quadrates of 10 mx10 m. A total of 75 quadrates were sampled. Numbers of quadrates in each soil series were selected based on the extent of Palmyrah plants and soil series. From each quadrate following data was collected: number of Palmyrah trees and other trees and their height and diameter at breast height. Soil samples were also collected within each quadrate at three depths, up to a depth of 30 cm. For the estimation of biomass carbon stock Palmyrah wood density was determined using 15 wood samples. Biomass carbon was estimated using the standard equations. Soil organic carbon percentage was determined by loss on ignition method. The total carbon stock was determined by the summation of carbon in palm biomass and soil carbon. Plant diversity was estimated in terms of number of species, Shannan Weiver index (SWI) and evenness. Soil organic carbon percentage of Palmyrah land use in different soil series ranged between 1.1-4.5%. Soil organic carbon stock in different soil series ranged 51-190 Mg/ha. There was no significance difference among soil organic carbon percentage of Palmyra land use in different soil series. Top most layer (0-10 cm) had significantly higher amount of soil organic carbon than sub surface layers (10-20 cm, 20-30 cm). Palm density of Plamyrah land uses in different soil series ranged 5-13/100 m2. Biomass carbon stock ranged between 2.83-6.80 Mg/100 m2. Biomass carbon stock in different soil series was significantly differed. Total carbon stock ranged 4.06-7.97 Mg/100 m2. A total of 22 plant species belonging to 13 families were identified in the Palmyrah land uses in the study area. Arecaceae family was vastly distributed in the palmyrah land use while Poaceae and Malvaceae were the poorly distributed ones. The mean value of Shannan Weiver Index (SWI) was 1.2 while evenness was 0.74. This study therefore concludes that the Plamyrah land use in the study area has great potential to sequester carbon in long term, while maintaining a reasonable tree species diversity. Keywords: Soil carbon, Biomass carbon, Plant diversity, Carbon stoc

Fine mapping of rice drought QTL and study on combined effect of QTL for their physiological parameters under moisture stress condition

The present investigation was undertaken to study the effect of different yield QTL (DTY2.2, DTY3.1 and DTY8.1) under drought and their physiological response to drought stress. Backcross Inbred Lines (BILs) of IR64 (CB-193 and CB-229) along with IR64, APO and the traditional rice variety Norungan were raised in green house condition under water stress and control to evaluate the effect of the QTL on grain yield. The BIL CB-193 recorded higher photosynthetic rate (22.051), transpiration rate (7.152) and Ci/Ca ratio (0.597) whereas the BIL CB-229 recorded high relative water content (80.76%). It was found that the combination of three QTL (CB-229) performed better than the susceptible parent and the line with two QTL (CB-193 Fine-mapping of two QTLs viz., qDTY2.2 and qDTY8.1, for grain yield (GY) were conducted using backcross derived lines. Composite interval mapping analyses resolved the originally identified qDTY2.2 region of 6.7 cM into a segment of 2.1 cM and two sub QTLs at region between RM23132 and RM1578 (75.75 cM- 77.66 cM), RM515 and RM1578 (75.11 cM-77.66 cM) were identified in qDTY8.1 region. However this study provides a unique opportunity to breeders to introgress such regions together as a unit into high-yielding drought-susceptible varieties through MAS

Pharmaceutico analytical study of Ashwagandha Ghrita

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera (L) Family - Solanaceae) known as Indian ginseng is an effective immunomodulator, aphrodisiac, sedative and adaptogen. Ashwagandha Ghrita is a ghee based Ayurvedic formulation which is available in the market, but Ashwagandha Ghrita containing Rasasindura and Tamra Bhasma along with Ashwagandha and Musta Churna is also mentioned in classical text which many of us are not aware of. As we all know that the action of Rasaushadhis are quick and require very less dose the one mentioned by Vagbhatacharya (author of Rasaratnasamuchaya) is the need of the hour for the immunomodulation. The current trend in applied instrumental medical research encourages good medical practice, clinical and research based drug analysis. The main aim of analytical study is to find out working standards for the formulations and safe use of therapeutics

Status of exploitation of tuna, mackerel and seerfish in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Annual fish landing of Andaman and Nicobar Islands during 1989-'99 and the contribution of scombroids viz., tuna, mackerel and seerfishes are described. During the period the exploitation of tuna ranged between 321 to 3,8231, the average contribution being about 5% of the total fish landings. Among the tuna species, yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares is the major contributor followed by skipjack tuna Katsuwonus pelamis and bigeye tuna Thunns obesus all of which are best caught during March to August. The mackerfel fishery is supported by Rastrelliger brachysoma followed by R.kanagurta. The total mackerel landings ranged between 806 to 1,9551, the major fishing season being from March to June and September to October and is best caught in the gill nets and boat seines. Seerfishes are dominantly represented by two genera and three species vjz. Scomberomorus commerson, S. guttatus and Acanthocybium solandri. Their major fishing season is from March to August and November to Febmary, being generally caught by gill nets, troll lines and hand lines. During the period of 1989 -'99, the total exploitation of seerfishes ranged between 293 to 1,172 t and showed a gradual increase in their production