Influence of Thermal Radiation on Stagnation Flow towards a Stretching Sheet with Induced Magnetic Field

In this study, we studied the effects of radiation and induced magnetic field effects on the flow past a stretching sheet. The governing equations of the flow are transformed into a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations using self-suitable transformations, which are then solved numerically using Runge-Kutta based shooting technique. The effects of different non-dimensional parameters on velocity, induced magnetic field and temperature profiles along with the friction factor and local Nusselt number are discussed through graphs and tables.  Results indicate that increase in either magnetic field parameter or stretching ratio parameter enhances the velocity of the flow. Keywords: Stagnation point flow, Induced magnetic field, thermal radiation, stretching Sheet

Structural basis for bending of organic crystals

Bending is observed in organic crystals when the packing is anisotropic in such a way that strong and weak interaction patterns occur in nearly perpendicular directions

Heat transfer characteristics on MHD Powell-Eyring fluid flow across a shrinking wedge with non-uniform heat source/sink

This report presents the flow and heat transfer characteristics on magnetohydrodynamic non-Newtonian fluid across a wedge near the stagnation point. The fluid flow is time independent and laminar. The radiation and irregular heat sink/source effects are deemed. The system of nonlinear ODEs is attained from PDEs by choosing the proper similarity transformations. Further, the well-known shooting and Runge-Kutta methods are utilized to acquire the problem’s solution subject to assumed boundary conditions. Figures are outlined to emphasize the impact of several parameters on the fields of velocity and temperature. Further, the rate of heat transfer and friction factor are also anticipated and portrayed with the assistance of table. Results indicate that the curves of velocity diminish with shrinking parameter, magnetic field parameter and material fluid parameter. Also the non-uniform heat source/sink parameters play a crucial role in the heat transfer performance

Consortium Approach for Capacity Building in Watershed Management in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand: Experiences and Learning.Resilient Dryland Systems Report no. 56.

The Comprehensive Assessment (CA) of watershed programs in India undertaken by the ICRISATled consortium showed that large scope exists to improve the impact for 66% of the watershed projects by addressing the issues of productivity enhancement, technical back stopping, collective action, improving community participation, diversification of systems and targeted income-generating activities for women and landless sections of the community. The CA also identified poor capacity building as the weakest link for achieving the impact as well as for scaling-up the benefits from the exemplar watersheds in the country. Participatory management of natural resources in the watersheds was adopted as the best approach for sustainable management of natural resources in the rain-fed regions by adopting consortium approach. The consortium approach for integrated watershed management involved holistic farming systems approach and called for convergence of interventions from different sectors like livestock, poultry, markets, monitoring and evaluation, policies, institutions, finances, in addition to agricultural production. The common Watershed Guidelines of 2008 released by the Government of India have clearly emphasized strong efforts for capacity building through a new framework by adopting principles of convergence and participatory collective action. The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India in partnership with German International Cooperation (GIZ), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) developed a national consortium for capacity building for decentralized watershed management and piloted capacity building for decentralized watershed management through consortium approach in three states in India viz., Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. The results and the learning from the pilot states showed that convergence of various departments could be addressed through buy-in and timely interventions from the top officials of the concerned departments. The champions at state level played an important role for establishing the consortium as well as ensuring proper functioning of the consortium for capacity building of the integrated watershed management program (IWMP). It also showed that support from the national nodal agency/departments is expected by the states in forming of guidelines as well as technical support through the national consortium. Earlier experiences of the state department working with externally funded projects by agencies like World Bank etc., sensitized the departments and were more willing to accept new innovative approaches. The Department of Land Resources (DoLR) which is a nodal agency for implementation of IWMP in the country need to take a lead role for developing the national level capacity building strategy for enhancing the impact of the IWMP through forming national support group for providing handholding support to the states to operationalize the national capacity building strategy

Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) for rapid soil testing and soil quality assessment in smallholder farms

Rapid soil testing and soil quality assessment are essential to address soil degradation and low farm incomes in smallholder farms. With the objective of testing diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) to rapidly assess soil chemical properties, nutrient content and a soil quality index (SQI), samples of surface soil were collected from 1113 smallholder farms in seven districts in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, India. A minimum dataset (MDS) approach was followed to estimate SQI using the three chemical parameters of soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and soil organic carbon (SOC), and 11 different soil nutrients. Principal component and correlation analyses showed that soil pH, SOC content and three available nutrients - copper (Cu), iron (Fe) and sulphur (S) - may constitute the MDS. Estimated SQI values showed strong positive correlation with crop yields. Results of chemometric modelling showed that the DRS approach could yield the coefficient of determination (R2) values in the validation datasets ranging from 0.79 to 0.94 for exchangeable calcium (Ca) followed by 0.67–0.88 for exchangeable potassium (K), 0.52–0.86 for SOC and 0.53–0.81 for available boron (B) content. Except in one district, the DRS approach could be used to estimate SQI values with R2 values in the range of 0.63–0.81; an R2 value of 0.71 was obtained in the pooled dataset. We also estimated the three-tier soil test crop response (STCR) ratings to compare DRS and wet chemistry soil testing approaches. Similar STCR ratings were obtained for both these approaches in more than 86% of the samples. Parameters for which both the methods yielded similar ratings in more than 80% of the samples were EC (>98%), pH and exchangeable Ca (>81%) and available B (>89%). With similar ratings, these results suggest that the DRS approach may safely be used for farmers' fields, replacing the traditional wet analysis approach of soil testing

Economic implications of groundwater exploitation in hard rock areas of southern peninsular India

The present paper analyses the consequences of groundwater exploitation by using field-level data collected from two distinct well irrigated areas of Karnataka. The study results show that the consequences arising out of groundwater overexploitation are severe in high well interference area compared to low well interference area. The burden of well failure is more or less equally shared by all categories of farmers but small farmers are the worst victims of resource scarcity. As a result, overexploitation of groundwater has different impacts on different categories of farmers in terms of access to groundwater, cost and returns to groundwater irrigation and its negative externality cost. The study suggests maintaining inter-well distance to prevent resource mining and calls for supply and demand side interventions. The institutional reform is necessary to restore surface water bodies to facilitate aquifer recharge

Magnetohydrodynamic Cattaneo-Christov flow past a cone and a wedge with variable heat source/sink

In the present article, the problem of boundary layer flow of MHD electrically conducting fluid past a cone and a wedge with non-uniform heat source/sink along with Cattaneo-Christov heat flux is investigated numerically. At first, the flow equations are converted into ODE via appropriate self similarity transforms and the resulting equations are solved with the assistance of R.-K. and Newton’s methods. The influence of several dimensionless parameters on velocity and temperature fields in addition to the friction factor and reduced heat transfer coefficient has been examined with the support of graphs and numerical values. The heat transfer phenomenon in the flow caused by the cone is excessive when compared to the wedge flow. Also, the thermal and momentum boundary layers are not the same for the flow over a cone and wedge. Keywords: MHD, Non-uniform heat source/sink, Cattaneo-Christov heat flux, Cone and wedg

Structure-property correlations in bending and brittle organic crystals

Bending of crystals of molecular solids occurs when the strength of intermolecular interactions in orthogonal directions is significantly different. We report here a survey of 60 molecular crystals and establish a causative correlation between bending and crystal packing. This group contains crystals with 4 and 8 Å crystal axes and includes 1D, 2D, 3D, isostructural, polymorphic, stacked, interlocked, single, and multicomponent crystals and solvates. We found that 17 of these 60 crystals may be bent, whereas the rest are brittle and cannot be bent plastically. The bending crystals could be deformed into many shapes; sometimes, they could even be flattened upon themselves without breakage. A model for bending is proposed using the information obtained from X-ray diffraction, face indexing, and mechanical property measurements on both bending and non-bending (brittle) crystals. The bending and brittleness of these molecular crystals are discussed in comparison with the deformation behavior of metals. Molecular crystals show practically no change in volume and the lengths of the inner and the outer arcs and the sample thickness are unchanged following plastic bending. This is in contrast with the bending of metallic materials, in which a decrease in thickness is evident. Isotropic crystals with comparable intermolecular interactions in the three orthogonal directions are "cross-linked"and do not bend; they are hard and brittle. Mechanical properties of molecular crystals are important because they vary with the crystal form and have major implications for large-scale processing and handling of materials in industry, especially the pharmaceutical industry