Indian Coals vis-a-vis Spontaneous Heating Problems

The paper highlights the alarming problem of spontaneous heating in mines so that immediate remedies can be identified and implemented. The status of spontaneous heating in the last four decades has been summarized showing the changing trend of spontaneous heating occurrences in India. The paper also deals with some new methods of dealing mine fires which so far have not been implemented in India but have great potential

Reversal of underground mine ventilation

Reversal of main ventilation is one of the important means to isolate a fire during emergency. In America, it has been reported that by fan reversal lives have been saved in underground coal mine. Indian coal mines have so far not come forward to adopt this method. Not much research work has so far been carried out in India. This paper deals with international review of the work carried out in other countries. Law relating to reversal of ventilation in different countries of the world is discussed. The effect of reversal on goaf gases and adjustment of ventilating flow is also outlined

Impact of integrated community-facility interventions model on neonatal mortality in rural Bangladesh- a quasi-experimental study

Background Neonatal mortality remains unacceptably high in many countries. WHO recommends that all newborns be assessed during the postnatal period and should seek prompt medical care if there is any danger sign. However, in many developing countries, only a small proportion of women receive postnatal care. Also, the quality of care in public health facilities is suboptimal. Methods We designed an intervention package that included community health worker-assisted pregnancy and birth surveillance, post-natal visits to assess newborns on the first, third, seventh and twenty-eighth days of birth, referral for facility-based care, and establishing a newborn stabilization unit at the first level referral health facility. We did a quasi-experimental, propensity-score matched, controlled study in the Sylhet region of Bangladesh. We used a cross-sectional survey method at baseline and endline to measure the effect of our intervention. We considered two indicators for the primary outcome–(a) all-cause neonatal mortality rate and (b) case fatality of severe illness. Secondary outcomes were the proportion of neonates with signs and symptoms of severe illness who sought care in a hospital or a medically qualified provider. Results Our sample size was 9,940 live births (4,257 at baseline, 5,683 at end line). Our intervention was significantly associated with a 39% reduction (aRR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.40–0.93; p = 0.046) in the risk of neonatal mortality and 45% reduction (aRR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.35–0.86; p = 0.001) in the risk of case fatality of severe illness among newborns in rural Bangladesh. The intervention significantly increased the care-seeking for severe illness at the first-level referral facility (DID 36.6%; 95% CI % 27.98 to 45.22; p<0.001). Interpretation Our integrated community-facility interventions model resulted in early identification of severely sick neonates, early care seeking and improved treatment. The interventions led to a significant reduction in all-cause neonatal mortality and case fatality from severe illness

Not Available

Not AvailableMany species of prolific breeding fishes support massive biomass of juveniles during and just after their peak breeding season. This kind of huge standing stock at a particular season facilitates small scale artisanal or subsistence fisheries specifically targeting these stocks, which extent for very short duration. In inland aquatic systems like reservoirs and streams with riparian fisher folk, the opportunity to exploit the juvenile population is high depending upon the approachability of the water bodies and livelihood options of the riparian fishers. In case the situation is similar to the well-known adage 'the fishery is the activity of last resort', the probability for such small scale juvenile fishery to exist is very high. Many a times, small scale seasonal fisheries go unnoticed and their relevance and contribution to the livelihoods of riparian population is undermined, especially in the remote inland water bodies such as reservoirs. Such sort of intense but very seasonal targeted fishing activity was observed in Hirakud reservoir situated in the state of Orissa in north eastern India.Not Availabl

Fighting mine fires using gases with particular reference to nitrogen

The practice of pumping gases which inhibit combustion for purposes of controlling or extinguishing mine fires is now universally accepted. The practice has been used many times in coal mines in India and the experiences are reviewed. The procedures relating to a membrane based nitrogen generator and to a combustion gases generator are described. The physical properties, practical requirements and economic implications of using different gases is briefly reviewed. Some aspects of the practice as related to mine fires in certain collieries in other countries are dealt with

Study on Application on Fire Suppression Techniques Under Dynamic Fire Conditions

A mine fire model gallery has been designed and constructed on the premises of the Central Mining Research Institute, Dhanbad, India to perform systematic in-depth studies on various aspects of mine fires. The gallery is 65.5 m long and 5.86 m2 in cross-section and it is divided into firing and non-firing zones. It is equipped with a computer-aided online telemonitoring system that has 130 sensors, two data loggers and computer peripherals for continuous recording of various fire parameters. A fan to generate airflow through the gallery has been installed at its end. Two sliding doors and one rolling shutter were also provided for sealing and regulation of airflow. Two sets of experiments have been carried out in the model gallery maintaining air velocity of 1 and 1.5 m/s through it. In the experiments, the inner sides of the firing zone, 22 m in length, were lined with a thin layer (8–10 cm thick) of coal slabs. Two fire suppression techniques viz. flushing of liquid nitrogen (LN2) and infusion of high pressure high stability (HPHS) nitrogen foam were tried to quantify their effectiveness under dynamic fire conditions. The paper addresses important design features of the gallery, its instrumentation system, the experimental procedure adopted and important findings from the experiments. It has been observed that the intensity of the fire was very high after one hour of its initiation and continued for 3–4 hours. During the period, frequent backlash with smoke and flame was noticed. The efficacy of the fire suppression techniques has been assessed in terms of reduction in temperature, generation rate of CO2 and CO, and heat release rate. The study reveals that high pressure high stability (HPHS) nitrogen foam is more effective in controlling open fires than liquid nitrogen is

Optimal design of an EV fast charging station coupled with storage in Stockholm

Is battery energy storage a feasible solution for lowering the operational costs of electric vehicle fast charging and reducing its impact on local grids? The thesis project aims at answering this question for the Swedish scenario. The proposed solution (fast charging station coupled with storage) is modelled in MATLAB, and its performance is tested in the framework provided by Swedish regulation and electricity tariff structure. The analysis is centred on the economic performance of the system. Its cost-effectiveness is assessed by means of an optimisation algorithm, designed for delivering the optimal control strategy and the required equipment sizing. A mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation is utilised. The configuration and operative costs of conventional fast charging stations are used as a benchmark for the output of the optimisation. Sensitivity analysis is conducted on most relevant parameters: charging load, battery price and tariff structure. The modelling of the charging demand is based on statistics from currently implemented 50 kW DC chargers in Sweden. Overall, results show that with current figures the system may be an economically viable solution for both reducing costs and lowering the impact on the local distribution grid, at least during peak-period pricing. However, sensitivity analysis illustrates how system design and performance are highly dependent on input parameters. Among these, electricity tariff was identified as the most important. Consequently, detailed discussion on the influence of this parameter is conducted. Finally, the study shows how the system is in line with most recent directives proposed by the European Commission

Applications of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) in the field of Nanomaterials and Nanocomposites

Bandyopadhyay, S., *Bhowmick, AK., Samudrala, SK. & Gupta, SK