Assessment of Land Cover changes on long-term treated industrial effluent irrigation using Remote sensing and GIS techniques

A study was under taken to identify and map the changes in land use and land cover over a period of (1992 to 2017) 25 years in an area irrigating with treated industrial waste water using remote sensing and GIS technologies. Four LANDSAT TM and ETM+ images of 1992, 1999, 2006 and 2017 with a spatial resolution 30mx30m were used to determine the temporal land cover changes. Consequently, ground truth confirmation was done in the study area. Supervised classification was carried out in ArcGIS to identify the LULC classes. The study area was classified into four major classes; Water bodies, Settlements, Vegetation and Fallow lands.  The study revealed that fallow lands was decreased by 99.8%, vegetation was found to be increased by 90.2%  and settlement area was found to increase by 65.7 % over the period of 15 years. Livelihood increased with increased socio-economic status of the people

Burden of Disease from Toxic Waste Sites in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines in 2010

Background: Prior calculations of the burden of disease from toxic exposures have not included estimates of the burden from toxic waste sites due to the absence of exposure data. Objective: We developed a disability-adjusted life year (DALY)-based estimate of the disease burden attributable to toxic waste sites. We focused on three low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Methods: Sites were identified through the Blacksmith Institute’s Toxic Sites Identification Program, a global effort to identify waste sites in LMICs. At least one of eight toxic chemicals was sampled in environmental media at each site, and the population at risk estimated. By combining estimates of disease incidence from these exposures with population data, we calculated the DALYs attributable to exposures at each site. Results: We estimated that in 2010, 8,629,750 persons were at risk of exposure to industrial pollutants at 373 toxic waste sites in the three countries, and that these exposures resulted in 828,722 DALYs, with a range of 814,934–1,557,121 DALYs, depending on the weighting factor used. This disease burden is comparable to estimated burdens for outdoor air pollution (1,448,612 DALYs) and malaria (725,000 DALYs) in these countries. Lead and hexavalent chromium collectively accounted for 99.2% of the total DALYs for the chemicals evaluated. Conclusions: Toxic waste sites are responsible for a significant burden of disease in LMICs. Although some factors, such as unidentified and unscreened sites, may cause our estimate to be an underestimate of the actual burden of disease, other factors, such as extrapolation of environmental sampling to the entire exposed population, may result in an overestimate of the burden of disease attributable to these sites. Toxic waste sites are a major, and heretofore underrecognized, global health problem

Entwicklung, Dimensionen und schulische Relevanz epistemologischer Überzeugungen

Matthias S. Entwicklung, Dimensionen und schulische Relevanz epistemologischer Überzeugungen. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2010

Lau effect and beam collimation

We report a new phenomenon in showing that the rotation sensitivity of Lau fringes depends not only on spatial coherence of the illumination used but also on its convergence or divergence. This finding could be usefully applied to beam collimation and focal length measurement.K. V. Avudainayagam and S. Chitralekh

Rotation sensitivity of Lau fringes: an analysis based on coherence theory

An analysis based on coherence theory is presented, which explains the experimentally observed rotation sensitivity of the contrast of Lau fringes obtained under spatially incoherent illumination

Effects of electrolyte composition on chromium desorption in soils contaminated by tannery waste

We conducted batch studies to investigate the effect of phosphate and dominant cations present in tannery waste on desorption of chromium (Cr) from surface and subsurface soil horizons from a contaminated tannery waste site at Mount Barker, South Australia. The surface horizon (0–15 cm) of the soil profile was alkaline (pH 7.9) and the subsurface horizon (50–90 cm) was acidic (pH 3.9). Aqua-regia extractable Cr concentration ranged from 62 g/kg in the surface to 0.26 g/kg in the subsurface soils. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopic studies revealed the predominance of carbonate and kaolin minerals in the surface soils, and highly weathered framboidal particles, with morphology similar to that of pyrites, in the subsurface soils. The amount of Cr desorbed from the contaminated soils varied considerably with both the electrolyte’s cationic charge and soil properties. The effect of cations, Ca²⁺ and Na⁺ (CaCl₂ , NaCl), and phosphate on desorption of Cr was investigated. While the ionic strength of the solutions was standardised at approximately 0.03 mol/L, the concentration of phosphate (as KH₂ PO₄) was varied from 0 to 3.2 mmol/L. On the basis of studies on solution to soil ratio and desorption kinetics we chose a 20: 1 solution to soil ratio and 2 h equilibration time. In the surface alkaline soil, the amount of Cr released decreased in the order Na⁺ (286 μg/L) ≥ water (256 μg/L) > Ca²⁺ (156 μg/L). In contrast subsurface acidic soil showed a reverse trend, i.e. Ca²⁺ (52 μg/L) > Na⁺ (29 μg/L) > water (20 μg/ L). Speciation of Cr in the extracts showed predominantly Cr(VI) in the alkaline surface soil and Cr(III) in the subsurface acidic soil. A strong effect of phosphate on the cumulative amount of chromate desorbed was observed. The study shows that the presence of high concentrations of Na⁺ (0.03 mol/L) and phosphate (3.2 mmol/L) in soil solution enhances Cr(VI) mobility. In contrast, Ca²⁺ may induce retention of Cr(VI) in Cr-contaminated alkaline soils