A new generation of cyberinfrastructure and data services for earth system science education and research

International audienceA revolution is underway in the role played by cyberinfrastructure and modern data services in the conduct of research and education. We live in an era of an unprecedented data volume from diverse sources, multidisciplinary analysis and synthesis, and active, learner-centered education emphasis. Complex environmental problems such as global change and water cycle transcend disciplinary and geographic boundaries, and their solution requires integrated earth system science approaches. Contemporary education strategies recommend adopting an Earth system science approach for teaching the geosciences, employing pedagogical techniques such as enquiry-based learning. The resulting transformation in geoscience education and research creates new opportunities for advancement and poses many challenges. The success of the scientific enterprise depends heavily on the availability of a state-of-the-art, robust, and flexible cyberinfrastructure, and on the timely access to quality data, products, and tools to process, manage, analyze, integrate, publish, and visualize those data. Concomittantly, rapid advances in computing, communication, and information technologies have revolutionized the provision and use of data, tools and services. The profound consequences of Moore's Law and the explosive growth of the Internet are well known. On the other hand, how other technological trends have shaped the development of data services is less well understood. For example, the advent of digital libraries, web services, open standards and protocols have been important factors in shaping a new generation of cyberinfrastructure for solving key scientific and educational problems. This paper presents a broad overview of these issues, along with a survey of key information technology trends, and discuses how those trends are enabling new approaches to applying data services for solving geoscientific problems

Radio Link Simulator

The need for transmission of data over HF and VJUHF radio is increasing. There is a major disadvantage in testing the link in a field trial as propagation condition of the medium (especially HF) can be unpredictable and link condition may never again be the same. A simulator to create the atmospheric conditions, repeatably as required,to test the system behaviour is evident. The various propagation effects can be mathematically modelled, to get the signal affected by thechannel. Models for Gaussian, Rayleigh and Rice distributions and the implementation of the simulator using latest state-of-the-art DSP techniques are discussed

On an unusual swarming of the planktonic blue-green algae Trichodesmium Spp., off Mangalore

Instances of discoloured water phenomenon in the Indian waters have been reported earlier.This is caused by a variety of organisms such as blue-green algae, cystoflagellates and dinoflagellates, and is sometimes associated with adverse effects on the marine fauna including fish

Age and growth in Telescopium telescopium

In length frequency analysis, model were traced for period of two years and the growth was found to be 55 and 95 mm for I and 11 years respectively. Growth determined by months mode curve indicated that T. telescopium can grow up to 62, 85 and 110 mm in the I, II and III year respectively Growth assessed by probability plot was found to be upto 23,57.5, 91 and 108 mm in the 0, I II and III year respectively. Integrated method showed growth rates of 60, 92 and 111.6 mm respectively in the I, II and III year of life. Employing von Bertalanffy's growth equation It was found that it can grow up to 57.5, 91 and 108 mm respectively in the I, II and III year of life. The empirical length at different ages found by von Bertalanffy's growth equation showed general agreement with the growth estimates others

Investigation on the rate of uptake of vegetable tannins with respect to time and concentration

This article does not have an abstract

Optimal placement of Femto base stations in enterprise femtocell networks

Femto cells a.k.a. Low Power Nodes (LPNs) are deployed to improve indoor data rates as well as reduce traffic load on macro Base Stations (BSs) in 4G/LTE cellular networks. Indoor UEs getting high SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) can experience good throughput, but SNR decreases at faster rate due to obstacles, present along the communication path. Hence, efficient placement of Femtos in enterprise buildings is crucial to attain desirable SNR for indoor users. We consider obstacles and shadowing effects by walls and include them in the system model. We develop a Linear Programming Problem (LPP) model by converting convex constraints into linear ones and solve it using GAMS tool, to place Femtos optimally inside the building. Our extensive experimentation proves the optimal placement of Femtos achieves 14.41% and 35.95% increase in SNR of indoor UEs over random and center placement strategies, respectively

Temperature induced shell effects in deformed nuclei

The thermal evolution of the shell correction energy is investigated for deformed nuclei using Strutinsky prescription in a self-consistent relativistic mean-field framework. For temperature independent single-particle states corresponding to either spherical or deformed nuclear shapes, the shell correction energy $\Delta_{sc}$ steadily washes out with temperature. However, for states pertaining to the self-consistent thermally evolving shapes of deformed nuclei, the dual role played by the single-particle occupancies in diluting the fluctuation effects from the single-particle spectra and in driving the system towards a smaller deformation is crucial in determining $\Delta_{sc}$ at moderate temperatures. In rare earth nuclei, it is found that $\Delta_{sc}$ builds up strongly around the shape transition temperature; for lighter deformed nuclei like $^{64}Zn$ and $^{66}Zn$, this is relatively less prominent.Comment: 6 pages revtex file + 4 ps files for figures, Phys. Rev. C (in press

Experimental trawling in the area between Mangalore and Suratkal

Experimental fishing operations were conducted between Latitudes 12° 50' N & 13° 0' N, and Longitudes 74° 40' E & 74° 50' E (Figure 1). Though commercial exploitation by mechanized boats has been in progress in this area no information regarding the yield in relation to depth and the composition of the catches, is available. The present study was undertaken to throw light on these aspects of the fishery