Biostabilization of Mandaman dump slope, India

An integrated study of the biological stabilization of a coal-mine overburden dump slope has been carried out at Mandaman, 35 km from Dhanbad in eastern India native grasses-bamboo (Dendrocalmus strictus) and kashi (Saccharum spontaneoum)-are important species that can stabilize the dump slopes. The grasses have good soil binding capacity and help to control soil erosion and improve dump stability. Field observation of their growth performance has indicated that the mean grass height and root depth are 232(±74) cm and 46 (±5) cm, respectively, after there years and the below-ground root biomass is 474 (±69) g m-2. The mechanical and hydrogeological actions of the grass roots have improved the shear strength properties of the dump material. Numerical modeling has shown that the roots of these grasses increase the factor of safety of the dump slope from 1.2 to 1.4 and thus play a substantial role in the maintenance of long-term stability

Environment Pollution Status of Chandrapura Thermal Power Station (CTPS) in India - A case study

The sun is the main natural resource of energy, other than this; Thermal Power Energy is a major source of energy as well as a kind of polluting agency of the environment. As far as power generation/electrical energy is concerned coal is the most economic fuel that is easily available after mining for power generation, in this way we can say that coal is the major source for the generation of electrical energy in India. Coal produced in India is utilized for power generation nearly two third of the coal used for power generation have high ash content, as high as 40% and sometimes even more, with generates huge quantity of particulate matters in the form of fly ash and bottom ash as well as gaseous pollutants like, SO2, NOx, CO, etc. To estimate the amount of pollution level in and around Chandrapura Thermal Power Station (CTPS), ambient air monitoring studies were carried out with respect to SPM, SO2 and NOx. This paper deals, in brief, with equipment used, field study, laboratory analysis with respect to ambient air study and discusses the result of the case study

Restoration of a Coal-Mine Overburden Dump - A case Study

For the restoration of a coal-mine over-burden dump, five tree species viz Delbergia sisoo, azadirachta indica, Albizia procera, Delonix regia and Acacia nilotica were seeded to evaluate their germination and growth performance. Dalbergia sisoo was found to be the best early successional leguminous plant species showing maximum increase in shoot length and diameter on the mine dump. Therefore, it is recommended that the findings of this study be implemented on mass scale in the dry tropixs of India

Bioreclamation of coal mine overburden dumps in India

The growth performance of selected tree species on five coal mine overburden dumps in India has been studied for two years. Results indicate that the survival rate of tree species has been from 49 to 65% after two years of overburden dump revegetation. The values for plant height, diameter increment and biomass accumulation have ranged between 116 and 301 cm, 21 and 50 mm and 0.1 and 4.23 kg/plant respectively across all sites. Among the selected tree species Dalbergia sisoo (Sisum) and Leucena leucocephala (Subabool) were observed to be the fastest growing tree species at the Mandaman, Chora and Mudidih sites. But, Azadirachta indica (Neem) and Prospopis juliflora (Prosopis) have exhibited maximum growth at the Ghugus and South Balanda sites. Therefore, results of these pilot studies will help in the selection of plant species for the bioreclamation of large scale overburden dumps with similar conditions

Non-parametric modified histogram equalisation for contrast enhancement

Histogram equalisation has been a much sought-after technique for improving the contrast of an image, which however leads to an over enhancement of the image, giving it an unnatural and degraded appearance. In this framework, a generalised contrast enhancement algorithm is proposed which is independent of parameter setting for a given dynamic range of the input image. The algorithm uses the modified histogram for spatial transformation on grey scale to render a better quality image irrespective of the image type. Added to this, two variants of the proposed methodology are presented, one of which preserves the brightness of original image while the other variant increases the image brightness adaptively, giving it a better look. Qualitative and quantitative assessments like degree of entropy un-preservation, edge-based contrast measure and structure similarity index measures are then applied to the 500 image data set for comparing the proposed algorithm with several existing state-of-the-art algorithms. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm produces better or comparable enhanced images than several algorithms

Structure of hibiscus latent Singapore virus by fiber diffraction: A nonconserved His122 contributes to coat protein stability

10.1016/j.jmb.2010.12.032Journal of Molecular Biology4063516-526JMOB

Water resource accounting for an iron-ore mining area in India

A study has been conducted at the bicholim iron-ore mine, North Goa, India to investigate the hydrogeological continuity between the mine’s open pit and surrounding villages. Water resource accounting by demarcating different watersheds has also been carried out to analyse the major causes of groundwater scarcity in the region during dry periods. A resistivity survey and a ground penetrating radar survey were completed around the periphery of open pits, the results of the two independent surveys and other related data confirm that there is no observable hydrogeological continuity between the pits, nearby villages and Mayem Lake. Hence, there may not be any significant effect on surrounding water resources due to mining or mine dewatering. Water resource accounting has revealed that only 15-20% of 3500 mm precipitation per annum becomes part of the groundwater resource. The remainder of the annual precipitation is lost as heavy runoff, evapo-transpiration and subsurface capillary moisture. Closely spaced wells in the region have also aggravated the groundwater scarcity problem due to draw down effects. Therefore, an effective water resource conservation plan is required for the region to overcome the problem