Abundance and distribution of gaseous ammonia and particulate ammonium at Delhi, India

This study reports abundance and distribution of gaseous NH<sub>3</sub> and particulate NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup> at Delhi. Gaseous NH<sub>3</sub> and particulate NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup> concentrations were measured during pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons of the years 2010 and 2011. Average concentrations of gaseous NH<sub>3</sub> during pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons were recorded as 26.4, 33.2 and 32.5 μg m<sup>−3</sup>, respectively. Gaseous NH<sub>3</sub> concentrations were the highest during monsoon, thought to be due to decay and decomposition of plants and other biogenic material under wet conditions, leading to increased NH<sub>3</sub> emission. The results showed that particulate NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup> was always lower than the gaseous NH<sub>3</sub> during all the seasons. The concentrations of particulate NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup> were recorded as 11.6, 22.9 and 8.5 μg m<sup>−3</sup> during pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, respectively. The percent fraction of particulate NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup> was noticed to be highest during the monsoon season, which is attributed to increased humidity levels favouring partitioning into the aerosol phase. On an average, 33.3% of total N-NH<sub>x</sub> was present as particulate NH<sub>4</sub><sup>+</sup>. Higher concentrations of NH<sub>3</sub> noticed during night time may be due to stable atmospheric conditions. The study highlighted that, as compared with rural sites, urban sites showed higher concentrations of gaseous NH<sub>3</sub> in India, which may be due to higher population density, human activities and poor sanitation arrangements

Occurrence and incidence of foot rot disease on fenugreek caused by Fusarium moniliforme in Rohilkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, India

Pathological studies were carried out in Rohilkhand region during the crop season 2013-14 to assess the pathogenic disease incidence of foot rot of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum Linn.) caused by Fusarium moniliforme. A total of 75 fields were surveyed during the crop period at monthly interval during germination, vegetative, flowering and fruiting stages in five different localities of Rohilkhand region. The foot-rot disease of fenugreek was found in all fields (Bareilly, Baheri, Pilibhit, Budaun and Meerganj) selected for the study. Monthly occurrence of disease incidence of foot rot ranged from 44-58%. Maximum disease incidence was recorded in the month of Oct. (58%) followed by September (57%) and November (56%). January exhibited the lowest incidence (45%) of pathogenic disease. However, foot rot symptoms developed at early stage of plant growth and persisted up to the end of the crop

Mechanical Failure Analysis of Needles, for Micro-needle Array Dry-electrodes

 Dry electrodes, which have an array of vertically aligned conducting micro-needles over a conducting substrate/base are most suitable for long-term continuous monitoring of EEG-signal, and overcomesthe disadvantages of conventional wet electrodes. A crucial design requirement for thesemicro-needlearrays, is the choice of the needle material with suitable mechanical strength to penetrate the skin without mechanical failure. This paper gives, the results of mechanical failure analysis of different needle materials that have been typically used/proposed for invasive use. A conical needle with 150μ width at the base and 10μ width at the tip, and length in the range 10μ - 200μ was taken up for calculation. The Critical load for failure, falls in the following descending order for the selected materials: viz., Carbon Nanofibre (CNF), Titanium-alloy (Ti 6-4), Single Crystal Silicon, Nickel, Tungsten, Platinum-Iridium (Pt90 percent-Ir10 percent), Stainless Steel (SS304),Poly Methyl Methacrylate (PMMA), Polyimide, Polycarbonate, Gold, Silver, Photoresist-SU8, Polyurethane and Poly DiMethylSiloxane (PDMS).Taking the most accepted value of 0.1N as the penetration force required for needle penetration into skin, it is seen that for a needle length of 100μ, the following materials, Carbon Nanofibre (CNF), Titanium-alloy (Ti 6-4), Single Crystal Silicon, Nickel, Tungsten, Platinum -Iridium (Pt90 percent-Ir10 percent) andStainless Steel (SS304), can penetrate the skin without mechanical failure

Weakly Z symmetric manifolds

We introduce a new kind of Riemannian manifold that includes weakly-, pseudo- and pseudo projective- Ricci symmetric manifolds. The manifold is defined through a generalization of the so called Z tensor; it is named "weakly Z symmetric" and denoted by (WZS)_n. If the Z tensor is singular we give conditions for the existence of a proper concircular vector. For non singular Z tensor, we study the closedness property of the associated covectors and give sufficient conditions for the existence of a proper concircular vector in the conformally harmonic case, and the general form of the Ricci tensor. For conformally flat (WZS)_n manifolds, we derive the local form of the metric tensor.Comment: 13 page

Effect of various levels of nitrogen on quantitative and qualitative parameters of Rose var. “Top Secret” under poly house condition

Study was conducted to find out the effect of various levels (100, 150, 200, 250,300 mg/plant/week) of nitrogen on growth parameters in terms of qualitative and quantitative traits of rose var. Top Secret. Plant growth in general increased with increase in nitrogen levels. Among various levels of nitrogen application, 300 mg nitrogen per plant per week significantly increased all vegetative growth parameters and showed maximum plant height (117.45 cm), leaf area (98.91 cm2 ) and a number of leaves (62.50). Further, flowering parameters like stalk length (83.53cm), bud diameter (2.45cm), bud length (2.55 cm), number of flowers per plant (7.30) as well as per square meter (53.05) were also significantly maximum in plants given nitrogen @ 300 mg per plant per week. Leaf N (2.94 %), P (0.19%), K (1.87%) and chlorophyll content in leaves (4.41mg/g) was also higher with 300 mg N per plant per week. Vase life (10 days) and anthocyanin content in petal tissue (2.09 mg/g) were found the maximum in plants given nitrogen @ 250 mg per plant per week, which was at par with the treatment of nitrogen @ 300 mg per plant per week. Nitrogen should be applied at the rate of 300 mg/plant/week under protected cultivation as the optimum dose for good plant growth and qualitative flower production in rose var. Top Secret under protected cultivation

Characteristics of black carbon over Delhi and Manora Peak - a comparative study

The characteristics of aerosol black carbon (BC) were studied at two different climatic regimes, i.e. Delhi and Manora Peak during winter and spring of 2007. Spring BC was found to be similar to 59% lower at Delhi and similar to 23% higher at Manora Peak than their corresponding winter BC. Diurnal BC variation showed two enhanced peaks at Delhi (morning and night) whereas a single late afternoon peak at Manora Peak. Delhi BC showed a clear correlation with prevailing winds whereas no correlation was observed at Manora Peak. The major contribution of BC at Manora Peak can be expected from biomass burning while at Delhi fossil fuel dominates

Nitrile hydratase of Rhodococcus erythropolis: characterization of the enzyme and the use of whole cells for biotransformation of nitriles

The intracellular cobalt-type nitrile hydratase was purified from the bacterium Rhodococcuserythropolis. The pure enzyme consisted of two subunits of 29 and 30 kDa. The molecular weight of the native enzyme was estimated to be 65 kDa. At 25 °C the enzyme had a half-life of 25 h. The Michaelis–Menten constants K(m) and v(max) for the enzyme were 0.624 mM and 5.12 μmol/min/mg, respectively, using 3-cyanopyridine as the substrate. The enzyme-containing freely-suspended bacterial cells and the cells immobilized within alginate beads were evaluated for converting the various nitriles to amides. In a packed bed reactor, alginate beads (2 % alginate; 3 mm bead diameter) containing 200 mg/mL of cells, achieved a conversion of >90 % for benzonitrile and 4-cyanopyridine in 38 h (25 °C, pH 7.0) at a feed substrate concentration of 100 mM. The beads could be reused for up to six reaction cycles

Spin Fluctuations and the Magnetic Phase Diagram of ZrZn2

The magnetic properties of the weak itinerant ferromagnet ZrZn_2 are analyzed using Landau theory based on a comparison of density functional calculations and experimental data as a function of field and pressure. We find that the magnetic properties are strongly affected by the nearby quantum critical point, even at zero pressure; LDA calculations neglecting quantum critical spin fluctuations overestimate the magnetization by a factor of approximately three. Using renormalized Landau theory, we extract pressure dependence of the fluctuation amplitude. It appears that a simple scaling based on the fluctuation-dissipation theorem provides a good description of this pressure dependence.Comment: 4 revtex page

Influence of different land-surface processes on Indian summer monsoon circulation

The impact of different land-surface parameterisation schemes for the simulation of monsoon circulation during a normal monsoon year over India has been analysed. For this purpose, three land-surface parameterisation schemes, the NoaH, the Multi-layer soil model and the Pleim-Xiu were tested using the latest version of the regional model (MM5) of the Pennsylvania State University (PSU)/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) over the Indian summer monsoon region. With respect to different land-surface parameterisation schemes, latent and sensible heat fluxes and rainfall were estimated over the Indian region. The sensitivity of some monsoon features, such as Somali jet, tropical easterly jet and mean sea level pressure, is discussed. Although some features of the Indian summer monsoon, such as wind and mean sea level pressure, were fairly well-simulated by all three schemes, many differences were seen in the simulation of the typical characteristics of the Indian summer monsoon. It was noticed from the results that the features of the Indian summer monsoon, such as strength of the low-level westerly jet, the cross-equatorial flow and the tropical easterly jet were better simulated by NoaH compared with verification analysis than other land-surface schemes. It was also observed that the distribution of precipitation over India during the peak period of monsoon (July) was better represented with the use of the NoaH scheme than by other schemes