WHAT THE BRICKS TELL US FROM A TEMPLE AT BURKHAN KHALDUN MOUNTAINS: CHRONOLOGICAL INSIGHTS FROM pIRIR LUMINESCENCE

The Burkhan Khaldun Mountains (Mongolia) and its surrounding sacred landscape are associated with Genghis Khan’s birth and burial place as described in “The Secret History of the Mongols”. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 4 July 2015 under the title «Great Burkhan Khaldun Mountain and its surrounding sacred landscape.”This study offered a great opportunity to apply the recently developed post-IR infrared luminescence (pIRIR) approach to feldspar using coarse and polymineral fine grain techniques and determine the manufacturing date of a brick sample associated with the ruins of the Buddhist temple at the Burkhan Khaldun Mountains. Furthermore, the mineralogical composition of different blue-grey colored bricks from various temple buildings such as the Buddhist temples in Karakorum, Dugan in Erdene Zuu and Avargyn Balgas were studied. The original place and date of manufacturing of the bricks was revealed using the pIRIR180 and pIRIR240 from coarse and fine grains from a heated feldspar sample and were 1280±40 AD and 1230±50 AD, correspondingly, which falls into the time period of extensive constructions in Karakorum

Liquefaction Studies of the Solani Sand Reinforced with Geogrid

In this paper, a study on liquefaction resistance of Solani sand reinforced with geogrid sheets is reported. Tests were carried out on shake table (vibration Table) with sand samples prepared at relative density of 25% without and with geogrid sheets. In this investigation biaxial synthetic geogrid sheets having the dimension equal to plan dimension of the shake table tank were used in three different combinations of 3 layers, 4 layers and 5 layers at different depths within the sand sample. The liquefaction parameters such as maximum pore water pressure (Umax), maximum pore water pressure built up time (t1) and pore water pressure dissipation time (t3) were measured with the help of transparent piezometer tubes and stop watch for each combination of geogrid sheet corresponding to various levels of accelerations varying from 0.1g to 0.4g. In each test, the frequency of dynamic load was kept constant (5Hz). The liquefaction resistance of sand was evaluated in- terms of pore pressure ratio. Tests results indicate that on inclusion of geogrid sheets into the sand samples, the Umax decreases and t1 and t3 increases. It was also observed that on increasing the number of geogrid sheets, Umax decreases further and this decrease is significant at small amplitude of excitation. The average increase in liquefaction resistance of sand was found to be about 31 % in case of 5 layers of Geogrid sheets at 0.1g acceleration

Cycle Plate Load Tests on Reinforced Sand

This paper presents a set of results of laboratory scale model footing tests conducted to determine the cyclic load resistance of sand beds reinforced with horizontal sheets of geogrid. The test results indicate that the total settlement decreases and the bearing capacity increases, with the increase in size of reinforcements and number of layers. With the inclusion of reinforcing sheets, ·the coefficient of elastic uniform compression decreases slightly; but this decreased value is valid up to the increased bearing capacity of the reinforced sand bed. There is significant improvement in the damping capacity upon reinforcing the sand bed as indicated by the comparison of the strain energies under the pressure-settlement curves obtained from cyclic plate load tests

Geotechnical Investigations for Foundation Design for Multi-storeyed Building

Oil and Natural Gas Commission of India plans to construct a multi-storeyed building in Dehradun city at the foothills of Himalayas. The geotechnical investigations were carried out at site to determine soil parameters for foundation design. It was found that it was not possible to provide a raft foundation for the building and hence alternatively the pile foundation was suggested. The pile load capacity was predicted on the basis of soil parameters determined and a comparison was then made with the results obtained by carrying out load tests on constructed piles

MULTITEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF FOREST COVER CHANGE USING REMOTE SENSING AND GIS OF KANHA TIGER RESERVE, CENTRAL INDIA

Forest ecosystems play a key role in global ecological balance and provide a variety of tangible and intangible ecosystem services that support the livelihoods of rural poor. In addition to the anthropogenic pressure on the forest resources, climate change is also impacting vegetation productivity, biomass and phenological patterns of the forest. There are many studies reported all over the world which use change in Land Use Land Cover (LULC) to assess the impact of climate change on the forest. Land use change (LC) refers to any anthropogenic or natural changes in the terrestrial ecosystem at a variety of spatial or temporal scale. Changes in LULC induced by any causes (natural/anthropogenic) play a major role in global as well as regional scale pattern which in turn affects weather and climate. Remote sensing (RS) data along with Geographic Information System (GIS) help in inventorying, mapping and monitoring of earth resources for effective and sustainable landscape management of forest areas. Accurate information about the current and past LULC including natural forest cover along with accurate means of monitoring the changes are very necessary to design future adaptation strategies and formulation of policies in tune of climate change. Therefore, this study attempts to analyze the changes of LULC of Kanha Tiger Reserve (KTR) due to climate change. The rationale for selecting KTR is to have a largely intact forest area without any interference so that any change in LULC could be attributed to the impact of climate change. The change analysis depicted changes in land use land cover (LULC) pattern by using multi-temporal satellite data over a period of time. Further, these detected changes in different LULC class influence the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. As the study site is a Sal dominated landscape; the findings could be applied in other Sal dominated landscape of central India in making future policies, adaptation strategies and silvicultural practices for reducing the vulnerability of forest-dependent communities

Bacterial expression and secretion of various single-chain Fv genes encoding proteins specific for a Salmonella serotype B O-antigen.

Active single-chain Fv molecules encoded by synthetic genes have been expressed and secreted to the periplasm of Escherichia coli using the ompA secretory signal. Four different constructs were developed to investigate the effects of peptide linker design and VL-VH orientation on expression, secretion, and binding to a Salmonella O-polysaccharide antigen. Peptide linker sequences derived from the elbow regions of the Fab molecule were used alone or in combination with the flexible (GGGGS)2 sequence. VL and VH domain order in the single chain molecules had a profound effect on the level of secretion but hardly influenced total expression levels, which were approximately 50 mg/liter, chiefly in the form of inclusion bodies. With VL in the NH2-terminal position, the amount of secreted product obtained was 2.4 mg/liter, but when VH occupied this position the yield was less than 5% of this value. Enzyme immunoassays of the four products showed domain order and linker sequence affected antigen binding by less than an order of magnitude. Attempts to express active Fv from dicistronic DNA were unsuccessful, but active Fv was obtained from single-chain Fv by enzymic cleavage at a site in the elbow linker peptide. The thermodynamic binding parameters of intact and cleaved single-chain Fvs determined by titration microcalorimetry were similar to those of bacterially produced Fab and mouse IgG

ASSESSING IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON TEAK AND SAL LANDSCAPE USING MODIS TIME SERIES DATA

Climate change poses a severe threat to the forest ecosystems by impacting its productivity, species composition and forest biodiversity at global and regional level. The scientific community all over the world is using remote sensing techniques to monitor and assess the impact of climate change on forest ecosystems. The consistent time series data provided by MODIS is immensely used for developing a different type of Vegetation indices like NDVI (Normalized difference vegetation indices) products at different spatial and temporal resolution. These vegetation indices have significant potential to detect forest growth and health, vegetation seasonality and different phenological events like budding and flowering. The current study aims to understand the impact of climate change on Teak and Sal forest of STR (Satpura tiger reserve) in central India by using Landsat and MODIS time series data. The rationale for taking STR as study site was to attribute the changes exclusively to climate change as there is no anthropogenic disturbance in STR. A change detection analysis was carried out to detect changes between the period 2017 and 1990 using Landsat data of October month. To understand the inter-annual and seasonal variation of Teak and Sal forests, freely available MOD13Q1 product (250 m, 16 days’ interval) was used to extract NDVI values for each month and four seasons (DJF, JJAS, ON, MAM) for the period 2000 to 2015. The climatic data (rainfall and temperature) was sourced from IMD (India Meteorological Department) at different resolutions (1, 0.5 and 0.25 degree) for the given period of the study. A correlation analysis was done to establish a causal relationship between climate variable (temperature and rainfall) and vegetation health (NDVI) on a different temporal scale of annual, seasonal and month. The study found an increasing trend in annual mean temperature and no consistent trend in total annual rainfall over the period 2000 to 2015. The maximum percentage change was observed in minimum temperature over the period 2000 to 2015. The average annual NDVI of Teak and Sal forests showed an increasing trend however, no trend was observed in seasonal and monthly NDVI over the same period. The maximum and minimum NDVI was found in the post-monsoon months (ON) and summer months (MAM) respectively. As STR is a Teak and Sal dominated landscape, the findings of the current study can also be applied in developing silvicultural and adaptation strategies for other Teak and Sal dominated landscapes of central India

Biotransformation of Chrysin to Baicalein: Selective C6-Hydroxylation of 5,7-Dihydroxyflavone Using Whole Yeast Cells Stably Expressing Human CYP1A1 Enzyme

© 2017 American Chemical Society. Naturally occurring polyphenolic compounds are of medicinal importance because of their unique antioxidant, anticancer, and chemopreventive properties. Baicalein, a naturally occurring polyhydroxy flavonoid possessing a diverse range of pharmacological activities, has been used in traditional medicines for treatment of various ailments. Apart from its isolation from natural sources, its synthesis has been reported via multistep chemical approaches. Here, we report a preparative-scale biotransformation, using whole yeast cells stably expressing human cytochrome P450 1A1 (CYP1A1) enzyme that allows regioselective C6-hydroxylation of 5,7-dihydroxyflavone (chrysin) to form 5,6,7-trihydroxyflavone (baicalein). Molecular modeling reveals why chrysin undergoes such specific hydroxylation mediated by CYP1A1. More than 92% reaction completion was obtained using a shake-flask based process that mimics fed-batch fermentation. Such highly efficient selective hydroxylation, using recombinant yeast cells, has not been reported earlier. Similar CYP-expressing yeast cell based systems are likely to have wider applications in the syntheses of medicinally important polyphenolic compounds

Trends in the recovery of phosphorus in bioavailable forms from wastewater

Addressing food security issues arising from phosphorus (P) scarcity is described as one of the greatest global challenges of the 21st Century. Dependence on inorganic phosphate fertilisers derived from limited geological sources of P creates an urgent need to recover P from wastes and treated waters, in safe forms that are also effective agriculturally – the established process of P removal by chemical precipitation using Fe or Al salts, is effective for P removal but leads to residues with limited bioavailability and contamination concerns. One of the greatest opportunities for P recovery is at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) where the crystallisation of struvite and Ca-P from enhanced biological P removal (EBPR) sludge is well developed and already shown to be economically and operationally feasible in some WWTPs. However, recovery through this approach can be limited to <25% efficiency unless chemical extraction is applied. Thermochemical treatment of sludge ash produces detoxified residues that are currently utilised by the fertiliser industry; wet chemical extraction can be economically feasible in recovering P and other by-products. The bioavailability of recovered P depends on soil pH as well as the P-rich material in question. Struvite is a superior recovered P product in terms of plant availability, while use of Ca-P and thermochemically treated sewage sludge ash is limited to acidic soils. These technologies, in addition to others less developed, will be commercially pushed forward by revised fertiliser legislation and foreseeable legislative limits for WWTPs to achieve discharges of <1 mg P/L