Exploring the impact of urban growth on land surface temperature of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Treball de Final de Màster Universitari Erasmus Mundus en Tecnologia Geoespacial (Pla de 2013). Codi: SIW013. Curs acadèmic 2016-2017Kathmandu is experiencing rapid urban growth since last few decades. Cities are expanding across the countryside at the expense of productive land. Such urban sprawl has incurred adverse environmental consequences affecting quality of life of urban residents in the valley. Recently, Kathmandu has been identified to be on the verge of climate change, especially in the context of urban warming. Thus exploring the impact of urban growth on land surface temperature could be an effective means to unveil environmental issues caused by anthropogenic activities. This can be useful for the urban planners in urban planning and management as well as to raise public awareness regarding urban warming effect. Advancement in thermal Remote Sensing, GIS and statistical procedure has enabled monitoring land surface temperature and its correlation to land use and land cover. To analyze such relationship, we performed supervised classification and change detection to determine the spatial trend of land use and land cover change. After that we obtained the spatial pattern of LST using thermal band of Landsat images. Then we applied regression analysis to explore the relationship between surface temperature and land surface characteristics including both land use land cover types and land use and land cover indices. Based upon our analysis, we found that urban area has increased considerably by 259% during the period 1988-2014. The surface temperatures were found to be greater for bare soil and urban land use types. The regression analysis showed positive correlation between urban growth and LST. Finally we found LULC indices based approach better than LULC class for LST prediction

Evaluation of Yield Attributing Trait of Spring Wheat Genotypes Under Normal and Late Sowing Condition

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is the third most important cereal crop in Nepal after rice and maize. The research is carried out during the winter season in agronomic field of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Bhairahawa, Nepal. Sowing is carried out 28th November 2020 and 24th December 2020 on alpha lattice design with two replication of twenty wheat genotype under normal and late sowing respectively. In the late sowing condition, all genotype's performance is reduced as compared to normal sowing. Under late sown condition, high temperatures reduced the days to booting (15.64%), days to heading (14.97%), days to maturity (14.16%), chlorophyll content (15.99%), plant height (8.59%), spike length (7.03%), number of spikelet per spike (9.21%), number of grain per spike (10.6%), spike weight (15.32%), effective tiller/m2 (9.92%), thousand kernel weight (10.3%) and grain yield (22.5%). NL 1420 presented higher 4118 kg/ha and 3310.5 kg/ha yield respectively and BL 4407 presented early maturity 119.2 DAS and 100.6 DAS respectively in normal sowing and late sowing condition. In a combined environment, maximum grain yield is recorded in NL1420. The result suggested that the tolerant line against the late sowing condition can be used as genetic resource for crop improvement and promote for grain yield

Relationship between Wheat Yield and Yield Attributing Character at Late Sowing Condition

Correlation coefficient and path analysis were computed between yield and yield attributing trait among twenty genotypes of wheat. The research was conducted during winter season of 2020/2021 in the agronomic field of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Bhairahawa, Nepal to identify the traits which influence the positive and negative relation to grain yield. Twenty genotypes of wheat were sown on 24th December 2020 on alpha lattice design with two replications. It has been found that under heat stress, DTB, DTH, DTM, CLC, PH, NGPS show a non-significant positive correlation with GY. Similarly ET shows a highly significant positive correlation to GY. However, SL, SW, TKW have a non-significant negative correlation with GY. In path analysis, DTM and ET have a positive direct effect on GY and DTH, SL, CLC and NGPS have an indirect effect on GY. Hence, the ET and DTM can be used to select wheat genotype for breeding purpose and studies to improve yield of genotypes under heat stress condition

Testing of bio-rational and synthetic pesticides to manage cabbage aphid (Brevicoryne brassicae L.) in cabbage field at Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal

Cabbage aphid (Brevicoryne brassicae L.) is an important pest of cabbage which reduces the yield and quality of the cabbage head. Farmers haven been using chemical pesticides to manage them but unfortunately these practices are toxic for human health, biodiversity and the environment. The study was conducted to test the efficacy of different bio-rational insecticides along with the chemical insecticide. ‘Green Coronet’ cabbage variety was used and the field experiment was laid out in the experimental farm of Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Rampur, Chitwan during the winter season of 2014.  The Experiment was designed in randomized complete block design with having 7 treatments (bio-rational insecticides with chemical and control)  and 3 replications. Plot size was 5.76 m2 (2.4m×2.4m) and spacing of 1 m was maintained between each blocks and plots. Field experiment showed that the highest reduction of cabbage aphid was obtained in Dimethoate (30 EC) treated plot followed by Derisom treated plot. The highest yield of cabbage head was obtained in Dimethoate treated plots (66.47 mt/ha) which was significantly at par with the Derisom (58.79 mt/ ha) treated plots. The yield for other treated plots were 47.60 mt/ha for Margosom, 43.77 mt/ha for Verticillium, 41.63 mt/ ha for Cow urine, 36.77 mt/ ha for Spinosad and control (33.45 mt/ ha) in terms of cabbage head yield. And, at the same time, natural enemies’ population was significantly lower to Dimethoate treated plots compared to bio-rational insecticides. Thus, Derisom (Derris based botanical) might be the best viable alternative in eco-friendly management of cabbage aphid considering cabbage head yield and protection of natural enemies. It was also evident from the research that Margosom (Neem based botanical) was found beneficial not only to conserve natural enemies in the cabbage field but also to minimize cabbage aphid population

Impact of artificial roughness variation on heat transfer and friction characteristics of solar air heating system

The present study describes the optimization of the spacer length parameter of perforated delta-shaped winglets (PDWs) imposed on the absorber plate of the solar air heater (SAH). An experimental set up is designed to analyze the influence of artificial roughness (AR) variation on the thermo-hydraulic performance of SAH. The variable parameter of the PDWs is the spacer length which varies from0 mm to 300 mm in steps of 100 mm. The impact of variation of on Nusselt number , friction factor and thermo-hydraulic performance is investigated. The fixed parameters of the PDWs are relative roughness height of perforated delta-shaped winglets = 0.8, relative longitudinal length of the perforated delta-shaped winglet = 2, relative transversal length of the perforated delta-shaped winglet = 0.66 and angle of incidence = 90°. The and of SAH provided with artificial roughened in the form of PDWs were improved by 5.17 and 4.52 times in comparison to SAH having smooth absorber plate. At the optimum value of spacer length = 0 mm and Re of 12000, attains a maximum value of 3.14 (>1). The study reveals the effectiveness of perforated delta winglets in the heat transfer augmentation of SAH

Manipulating plant geometry to improve microclimate, grain yield, and harvest index in grain sorghum

Cultivar selection, planting geometry, and plant population are the key factors determining grain sorghum yields in water deficit areas. The objective of this study was to investigate whether clump geometry (three plants clustered) improves microclimate within crop canopy when plants are grown under varying water levels. In a 2-yr sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) greenhouse study, plants were grown at two geometries (clump and conventional evenly spaced planting, ESP), two water levels (high and low, representing well-watered and water-limited condition, respectively), and three soil surface treatments (lid covered, straw-mulched, and bare). Air temperature and relative humidity (RH) within the plant canopy were measured every five minutes at different growth stages. Mean vapor pressure deficits (VPDs) within the clumps were consistently lower than those for ESPs, indicating that clumps improved the microclimate. Clumps had significantly higher harvest index (HI) compared to ESPs (0.48 vs. 0.43), which was largely due to clumps having an average of 0.4 tillers per plant compared to 1.2 tillers per plant for ESPs. Grain yield in the current study was similar between clumps and ESPs. However, our results suggest that improved microclimate was likely a reason for clumps producing significantly higher grain yields compared to ESPs in previous studies

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Bioactives and Its Role in Alleviating Oral Pathologies

Garlic (Allium sativa L.) is a bulbous flowering plant belongs to the family of Amaryllidaceae and is a predominant horticultural crop originating from central Asia. Garlic and its products are chiefly used for culinary and therapeutic purposes in many countries. Bulbs of raw garlic have been investigated for their role in oral health, which are ascribed to a myriad of biologically active compounds such as alliin, allicin, methiin, S-allylcysteine (SAC), diallyl sulfide (DAS), S-ally-mercapto cysteine (SAMC), diallyl disulphide (DADS), diallyl trisulfide (DATS) and methyl allyl disulphide. A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA statement. Scopus, PubMed, Clinicaltrials.gov, and Science direct databases were searched between 12 April 2021 to 4 September 2021. A total of 148 studies were included and the qualitative synthesis phytochemical profile of GE, biological activities, therapeutic applications of garlic extract (GE) in oral health care system, and its mechanism of action in curing various oral pathologies have been discussed. Furthermore, the safety of incorporation of GE as food supplements is also critically discussed. To conclude, GE could conceivably make a treatment recourse for patients suffering from diverse oral diseases

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Measurement of the Splitting Function in &ITpp &ITand Pb-Pb Collisions at root&ITsNN&IT=5.02 TeV

Data from heavy ion collisions suggest that the evolution of a parton shower is modified by interactions with the color charges in the dense partonic medium created in these collisions, but it is not known where in the shower evolution the modifications occur. The momentum ratio of the two leading partons, resolved as subjets, provides information about the parton shower evolution. This substructure observable, known as the splitting function, reflects the process of a parton splitting into two other partons and has been measured for jets with transverse momentum between 140 and 500 GeV, in pp and PbPb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair. In central PbPb collisions, the splitting function indicates a more unbalanced momentum ratio, compared to peripheral PbPb and pp collisions.. The measurements are compared to various predictions from event generators and analytical calculations.Peer reviewe