Consequences of Pesticides on Environment: A Review

Outrageous use of pesticides has raised major issue of environmental concern. Pesticides cover broad range of insecticides, fungicides, weedicides, herbicides, rodenticides, nematicides, molluscicides, growth regulators etc. Although the purpose of pesticides is to harm only the target pests but if it is not used correctly, they can also harm people or the environment. Agricultural development perpetuates to remain the most paramount objective of Indian orchestrating and policy. In the process of development of agriculture, pesticides have become a consequential implement as a plant protection agent for boosting aliment engenderment. Further, pesticides play a consequential role by keeping many dreadful diseases. However, exposure to pesticides both occupationally and environmentally causes a range of human health quandaries. The objective of this paper is to review effects of pesticides on various biotic and abiotic factors of the environment and to mitigate proper solutions for it

A Review on Fuzzy - AHP technique in Environmental Impact Assessment of Construction Projects, India

There are several countries today using procedures for Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is based on a series of mathematical techniques which attempt to localize, describe and assess the positive and negative effects that any human activity has on our environment, generally causing it to deteriorate. The environmental impact assessment (EIA) of projects requires the evaluation of the effects of very diverse actions on a number of different environmental factors, the uncertainty and inaccuracy being inherent in the process of allocating values to environmental impacts carried out by a panel of experts, stakeholders and affected population. The application of the fuzzy Logic and AHP technique can be helpful in identification of the risk associated with construction or developing project and improves the study of EIA. Fuzzy is one of the characteristics of human thoughts for which fuzzy sets theory is an effective tool for fuzziness. A fuzzy logic knowledge-based approach can be used for the environmental impact assessment study of the different construction projects. The review article highlights the role of Fuzzy AHP logic method in EIA of different construction projects, fuzzy logic modeling - software for fuzzy EIA, fuzzy numbers and steps of fuzzy methods as well as reveals that how fuzziness can be determined by applying fuzzy logic method in construction projects

AstroSat view of the newly discovered X-ray transient MAXI~J1803--298 in the Hard-intermediate state

We perform comprehensive temporal and spectral analysis of the newly discovered X-ray transient MAXI~J1803--298 using an AstroSat target of opportunity observation on May 11, 2021 during its outburst. The source was found to be in the hard intermediate state. We detect type C quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) at the frequencies of $\sim5.4$ Hz and $\sim6.3$ Hz along with a sub-harmonic at $\sim2.8$ Hz in the $3-15$ keV band. The frequency and fractional rms amplitude of the QPO in the $15-30$ keV band are found to be higher than those in the $3-15$ keV band. We find soft lags of $\sim3.8$ ms and $\sim6.8$ ms for the respective QPOs at $\sim5.4$ Hz and $\sim6.3$ Hz, whereas soft lag of $\sim4.7$ ms is found at the sub-harmonic frequency. The increase in the soft lags at the QPO frequencies with energy is also observed in other black hole transients and is attributed to the inclination dependence of the lags. The rms-energy spectra indicate the power-law component to be more variable than the disk and the reflection components. We find a broad iron line with an equivalent width of $\sim0.17-0.19$ keV and a reflection hump above $\sim12$ keV in the energy spectrum. Based on the X-ray spectroscopy and considering the distance to the source as 8 kpc, the estimated mass ($\sim8.5-16$ M$_\odot$) and spin ($a\gtrsim0.7$) of the black hole suggest that the source is likely to be a stellar mass Kerr black hole X-ray binary.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ). 17 pages and 9 figure

Black Hole Spin Measurements in LMC X-1 and Cyg X-1 Are Highly Model Dependent

The black hole spin parameter, a _* , was measured to be close to its maximum value of 1 in many accreting X-ray binaries. In particular, a _* ≳ 0.9 was found in a number of studies of LMC X-1. These measurements were claimed to take into account both statistical and systematic uncertainties. We perform new measurements using a recent simultaneous observation by NICER and NuSTAR, providing a data set of high quality. We use the disk continuum method together with improved models for coronal Comptonization. With the standard relativistic disk model and optically thin Comptonization, we obtain values of a _* similar to those obtained before. We then consider modifications to the standard model. Using a color correction of 2, we find a _* ≈ 0.64–0.84. We then consider disks with dissipation in surface layers. To account for that, we assume the standard disk is covered by a warm and optically thick Comptonizing layer. Our model with the lowest χ ^2 then yields ${a}_{* }\approx {0.40}_{-0.32}^{+0.41}$ . In order to test the presence of such effects in other sources, we also study an X-ray observation of Cyg X-1 by Suzaku in the soft state. We confirm the previous findings of a _* > 0.99 using the standard model, but then we find a weakly constrained ${a}_{* }\approx {0.82}_{-0.74}^{+0.16}$ when including an optically thick Comptonizing layer. We conclude that determinations of the spin using the continuum method can be highly sensitive to the assumptions about the disk structure