Landscape Mapping and Tree Diversity Assessment of Pangi Valley: A Remote Tribal Area of Himachal Pradesh in Western Himalaya, India

Pangi valley in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh is one of the remote tribal areas in Indian western Himalaya. The plant resources in its landscapes are flourishing under least anthropogenic conditions. For social upliftment of the tribals in this area, a number of developmental activities are being implemented by the government. A study was conducted for mapping of its landuse/landcover using satellite remote sensing to identify major forested landscapes in the region. It was followed by a detailed random stratified sampling of the forested landscapes for phytosociological estimation of its tree species. The 21.97 % of study area was estimated under forests followed by Scrublands and Grassy meadows (18.24 %). Majority of area (54.05 %) was Snow and Scree slopes. Among the forests, maximum area was occupied by Mixed Broad Leaved Forest LSE type (36.08%) followed by Cedrus deodara (26.94%) and Betula utilis (18.07%) forest LSE types. These species, owing to immense medicinal properties and value for their economic utilization, feature in threatened and endangered category list of plants. It is, therefore, recommended that the developmental activities may be implemented in scientific way, which may not pose threat to bioresources in this region

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

IPA-Open access -Distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0 Groundwater Contamination Due to Municipal Solid Waste Disposal -A GIS Based Study in Erode City

Abstract Erode city, the head quarters of Erode District is located on the bank of Cauvery River in Tamil Nadu state. It lies between 11° 17' N and 11° 23' N latitudes and 77° 40' E and 77° 46' E longitudes with an approximate aerial extent of 120 km 2 . The city depends on Cauvery River for its drinking water supply. In addition to Cauvery River water, people in this region also depend on the groundwater resources for their domestic, agricultural and industrial needs. Urbanization and improper disposal of solid wastes lead to contamination of groundwater and surface water resources in this region. Municipal solid wastes of the city are presently disposed as open landfills at three distinct sites namely Vendipalayam, Vairapalayam and Semur. The leaches of the open dump yards directly contaminate the groundwater and surface water resources leading unsuitability of water for drinking at many places. Hence, a detailed study has been carried out using Geographical Information System (GIS) to understand the spatial variation of surface water and groundwater quality. About forty three groundwater samples and seven surface water samples were collected during February, 2009 from the study region, and the samples were analyzed for various physical and chemical parameters such as pH, Electrical Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Alkalinity, Hardness, Na The concentrations of physical and chemical constituents in the water samples were compared with the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) and World Health Organization (WHO) standard to know the suitability of water for drinking. The study indicates that the water quality parameters exceed the permissible limits for drinking at many locations leading the water unsuitable for drinking. The spatial variation of groundwater quality parameters was also plotted using GIS

Selective Reservation Strategies for Backfill Job Scheduling

Although there is wide agreement that backfilling produces significant benefits in scheduling of parallel jobs, there is no clear consensus on which backfilling strategy is preferable - should conservative backfilling be used or the more aggressive EASY backfilling scheme. Using tracebased simulation, we show that if performance is viewed within various job categories based on their width (processor request size) and length (job duration), some consistent trends may be observed. Using insights gleaned by the characterization, we develop a selective reservation strategy for backfill scheduling. We demonstrate that the new scheme is better than both conservative and aggressive backfilling. We also consider the issue of fairness in job scheduling and develop a new quantitative approach to its characterization. We show that the newly proposed schemes are also comparable or better than aggressive backfilling with respect to the fairness criterion