Experimental study using coir geotextiles in watershed management

International audienceThis paper presents the results of a field experiment conducted in Kerala, South India, to test the effectiveness of coir geotextiles for embankment protection. In the context of sustainable watershed management, coir is a cheap and locally available material that can be used to strengthen traditional earthen bunds or protect the banks of village ponds from erosion. Particularly in developing countries, where coir is abundantly available and textiles can be produced by small-scale industry, this is an attractive alternative for conventional methods

Enhanced Residential Bathroom Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities

The research reviews the rationale behind water and energy saving in the domestic application within the bathroom unit in the UK. Various technologies for water saving including rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling and the related regulatory issues are reviewed. Various water saving toilets, as well as waste water heat recovery systems, were discussed and compared. The incentives, impact, challenges, and opportunities for various stakeholders including end user, property developers, technology companies and researchers, utility companies and the government are analysed. The review shows that greywater recycling for toilet flushing has highest user acceptance and is inevitable for zero/close to zero carbon home development. It was found that technology barriers are still an important factor in the application of the current products, including adaptability and size to fit a wide range of bathrooms as well as initial cost. The retrofitability of any technology was found important to create a timely impact on the decline of resources and infrastructure stress. The article gathers a range of technological and market challenges based on the individual components and technologies in the bathroom and concludes that an integrated approach is required for an effective technology in the bathroom

Areca nut and its role in oral submucous fibrosis

Areca nut, commonly called as betel nut or supari, is a fruit of areca catechu palm tree, which is native of South Asia and Pacific Islands. The seed or endosperm is consumed fresh, boiled or after sun drying or curing. Chewing areca nut is thought to have central nervous system stimulating effect and along with this it is known to have salivary stimulating and digestive properties. According to the traditional Ayurvedic medicine, chewing areca nut and betel leaf is a good remedy against halitosis. It is also used for its deworming property. Along with these beneficial effects of areca nut one of its most harmful effects on the human body in general and oral cavity in particular is the development of potentially malignant disorder called Oral Submucous Fibrosis. The present paper discusses in detail the effects of the components of areca nut on pathogenesis of Oral Submucous Fibrosis

Time series analysis of tool wear in sheet metal stamping using acoustic emission

Galling is an adhesive wear mode that often affects the lifespan of stamping tools. Since stamping tools represent significant economic cost, even a slight improvement in maintenance cost is of high importance for the stamping industry. In other manufacturing industries, online tool condition monitoring has been used to prevent tool wear-related failure. However, monitoring the acoustic emission signal from a stamping process is a non-trivial task since the acoustic emission signal is non-stationary and non-transient. There have been numerous studies examining acoustic emissions in sheet metal stamping. However, very few have focused in detail on how the signals change as wear on the tool surface progresses prior to failure. In this study, time domain analysis was applied to the acoustic emission signals to extract features related to tool wear. To understand the wear progression, accelerated stamping tests were performed using a semi-industrial stamping setup which can perform clamping, piercing, stamping in a single cycle. The time domain features related to stamping were computed for the acoustic emissions signal of each part. The sidewalls of the stamped parts were scanned using an optical profilometer to obtain profiles of the worn part, and they were qualitatively correlated to that of the acoustic emissions signal. Based on the wear behaviour, the wear data can be divided into three stages: - In the first stage, no wear is observed, in the second stage, adhesive wear is likely to occur, and in the third stage severe abrasive plus adhesive wear is likely to occur. Scanning electron microscopy showed the formation of lumps on the stamping tool, which represents galling behavior. Correlation between the time domain features of the acoustic emissions signal and the wear progression identified in this study lays the basis for tool diagnostics in stamping industry

Two New Genera of Songbirds Represent Endemic Radiations from the Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats, India

A long-standing view of Indian biodiversity is that while rich in species, there are few endemics or in-situ radiations within the subcontinent. One exception is the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, an isolated mountain range with many endemic species. Understanding the origins of the montane-restricted species is crucial to illuminate both taxonomic and environmental history

The protective and attractive covering of a vegetated embankment using coir geotextiles

This paper presents the results of a field experiment conducted in Kerala, South India, to test the effectiveness of coir geotextiles for embankment protection. The results reveal that treatment with geotextile in combination with grass is an effective eco-hydrological measure to protect steep slopes from erosion. In the context of sustainable watershed management, coir is a cheap and locally available material that can be used to strengthen traditional earthen bunds or protect the banks of village ponds from erosion. Particularly in developing countries, where coir is abundantly available and textiles can be produced by small-scale industry, this is an attractive alternative for conventional methods. This paper analyses the performance of coir geotextile in different treatments with respect to soil moisture content, protection against erosion and biomass production

Physiological Costs of Repetitive Courtship Displays in Cockroaches Handicap Locomotor Performance

Courtship displays are typically thought to have evolved via female choice, whereby females select mates based on the characteristics of a display that is expected to honestly reflect some aspect of the male’s quality. Honesty is typically enforced by mechanistic costs and constraints that limit the level at which a display can be performed. It is becoming increasingly apparent that these costs may be energetic costs involved in the production of dynamic, often repetitive displays. A female attending to such a display may thus be assessing the physical fitness of a male as an index of his quality. Such assessment would provide information on his current physical quality as well as his ability to carry out other demanding activities, qualities with which a choosy female should want to provision her offspring. In the current study we use courtship interactions in the Cuban burrowing cockroach, Byrsotria fumigata to directly test whether courtship is associated with a signaler’s performance capacity. Males that had produced courtship displays achieved significantly lower speeds and distances in locomotor trials than non-courting control males. We also found that females mated more readily with males that produced a more vigorous display. Thus, males of this species have developed a strategy where they produce a demanding courtship display, while females choose males based on their ability to produce this display. Courtship displays in many taxa often involve dynamic repetitive actions and as such, signals of stamina in courtship may be more widespread than previously thought