Fugitive emission studies of workplace air of an opencast mining locality to know the overall impacts on ambient air quality - A case study

Dust generated by the wheels of dumper, trucks, etc of granular materials exposed to the air known as fugitive emission because it is not discharged to the atmosphere in a confined flow stream. Study has been conducted at Block – II OCP for the evaluation of emission due to area source in order to assess its impact over general ambient air quality. Application of Oak Ridge Air Quality Index (ORAQI) highlight about the status of workplace air as well as overall impacts on the quality of its surrounding atmosphere of the region

Manipulation of graphene's dynamic ripples by local harmonic out-of-plane excitation

With use of carefully designed molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate tuning of dynamic ripples in free-standing graphene by applying a local out-of-plane sinusoidal excitation. Depending on the boundary conditions and external modulation, we show control of the local dynamic morphology, including flattening and stable rippling patterns. In addition to studying the dynamic response of atomically thin layers to external time-varying excitation, our results open intriguing possibilities for modulating their properties via local dynamic morphology control

Role of Histone Variant H2A.J in Fine-Tuning Chromatin Organization for the Establishment of Ionizing Radiation-Induced Senescence

Purpose: Radiation-induced senescence is characterized by profound changes in chromatin organization with the formation of Senescence-Associated-Heterochromatin-Foci (SAHF) and DNASegments-with-Chromatin-Alterations-Reinforcing-Senescence (DNA-SCARS). Importantly, senescent cells also secrete complex combinations of pro-inflammatory factors, referred as Senescence-AssociatedSecretory-Phenotype (SASP). Here, we analyzed the epigenetic mechanism of histone variant H2A.J in establishing radiation-induced senescence. Experimental Design: Primary and genetically-modified lung fibroblasts with down- or up-regulated H2A.J expression were exposed to ionizing radiation and were analyzed for the formation of SAHF and DNA-SCARS by immunofluorescence microscopy. Dynamic changes in chromatin organization and accessibility, transcription factor recruitment, and transcriptome signatures were mapped by ATAC-seq and RNA-seq analysis. The secretion of SASP factors and potential bystander effects were analyzed by ELISA and RT-PCR. Lung tissue of mice exposed to different doses were analyzed by the digital image analysis of H2A.J-immunohistochemistry. Results: Differential incorporation of H2A.J has profound effects on higher-order chromatin organization and on establishing the epigenetic state of senescence. Integrative analyses of ATAC-seq and RNA-seq datasets indicate that H2A.J-associated changes in chromatin accessibility of regulatory regions decisively modulates transcription factor recruitment and inflammatory gene expression, resulting in an altered SASP secretome. In lung parenchyma, pneumocytes show dose-dependent H2A.J expression in response to radiation-induced DNA damage, therefore contributing to proinflammatory tissue reactions. Conclusions: The fine-tuned incorporation of H2A.J defines the epigenetic landscape for driving the senescence programme in response to radiation-induced DNA damage. Deregulated H2A.J deposition affects chromatin remodeling, transcription factor recruitment, and the pro-inflammatory secretome. Our findings provide new mechanistic insights into DNA-damage triggered epigenetic mechanisms governing the biological processes of radiationinduced injury

Neutron scattering study of the effects of dopant disorder on the superconductivity and magnetic order in stage-4 La_2CuO_{4+y}

We report neutron scattering measurements of the structure and magnetism of stage-4 La_2CuO_{4+y} with T_c ~42 K. Our diffraction results on a single crystal sample demonstrate that the excess oxygen dopants form a three-dimensional ordered superlattice within the interstitial regions of the crystal. The oxygen superlattice becomes disordered above T ~ 330 K, and a fast rate of cooling can freeze-in the disordered-oxygen state. Hence, by controlling the cooling rate, the degree of dopant disorder in our La_2CuO_{4+y} crystal can be varied. We find that a higher degree of quenched disorder reduces T_c by ~ 5 K relative to the ordered-oxygen state. At the same time, the quenched disorder enhances the spin density wave order in a manner analogous to the effects of an applied magnetic field.Comment: 4 figures included in text; submitted to PR

A Study of Air Pollution load assessment around opencast coal project in India

Opencast mining technology results in the release of a huge amount of air borne dust. The air borne dust peculiarly below 100 micron in size, are environmentally nuisance and cause health hazards. Total suspended particulate matter (TSPM) and respiratory particulate mater (PM10) are the major pollutants in the air environment of opencast coal mines. Therefore, dust generation, its dispersion, and pollution load assessment have been found to be major concer4ns in air quality modeling of opencast coal mines. The present paper focuses on the quantification of sourcewise emission inventory for different point, area and line sources considering the background dust concentration at one of opencast coal project (OCP), nakmely Hindustan Lalpet of Western Coalfields Limited (WCL). The 24 hr average concentrations of TSPM and PM10 were monitored at three monitoring stations during winter season. On an average the PM10 concentration in the ambient air constituted 17.00 to 60.3% of TSPM concentration. TSPM concentration ranged from 313.11 to 565.57 µg/m3 and 79.48 to 270.61 µg/m3

Synthesis of Steered Flat-top Beam Pattern Using Evolutionary Algorithm

In this paper a pattern synthesis method based on Evolutionary Algorithm is presented. A Flat-top beam pattern has been generated from a concentric ring array of isotropic elements by finding out the optimum set of elements amplitudes and phases using Differential Evolution algorithm. The said pattern is generated in three predefined azimuth planes instate of a single phi plane and also verified for a range of azimuth plane for the same optimum excitations. The main beam is steered to an elevation angle of 30 degree with lower peak SLL and ripple. Dynamic range ratio (DRR) is also being improved by eliminating the weakly excited array elements, which simplify the design complexity of feed networks

Optimum Design of Thin Wideband Multilayer Electromagnetic Shield Using Evolutionary Algorithms

This paper describes the method of optimum design of multilayer perforated electromagnetic shield using Evolutionary algorithms, namely Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm (PSO) and Genetic Algorithm (GA). Different parameters which are inherently conflicting in nature corresponds to the multilayer structure of the electromagnetic shields have been considered. The goal is to minimize the overall mass of the shield with respect to its shielding effectiveness and cost. Three different models are considered and synthesized using evolutionary algorithms. Numerical optimal results for each model using different algorithms are presented and compared with each other to establish the effectiveness of the proposed method of designing

Chemical Composition and Larvicidal Activities of the Himalayan Cedar, Cedrus deodara Essential Oil and Its Fractions Against the Diamondback Moth, Plutella xylostella

Plants and plant-derived materials play an extremely important role in pest management programs. Essential oil from wood chips of Himalayan Cedar, Cedrus deodara (Roxburgh) Don (Pinales: Pinaceae), was obtained by hydrodistillation and fractionated to pentane and acetonitrile from which himachalenes and atlantones enriched fractions were isolated. A total of forty compounds were identified from these fractions using GC and GC-MS analyses. Essential oils and fractions were evaluated for insecticidal activities against second instars of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella L. (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae), using a leaf dip method. All samples showed promising larvicidal activity against larvae of P. xylostella. The pentane fraction was the most toxic with a LC50 value of 287 µg/ml. The himachalenes enriched fraction was more toxic (LC50 = 362 µg/ml) than the atlantones enriched fraction (LC50 = 365 µg/ml). LC50 of crude oil was 425 µg/ml and acetonitrile fraction was LC50 = 815 µg/ml. The major constituents, himachalenes and atlantones, likely accounted for the insecticidal action. Present bioassay results revealed the potential for essential oil and different constituents of C. deodara as botanical larvicides for their use in pest management