Evaluation of aqueous geochemistry of fluoride enriched groundwater: A case study of the Patan district, Gujarat, Western India

High fluoride (F−) groundwater causes fluorosis which might at severe stages lead to deformation of bones, bilateral lameness. The concentration of F− ranged from 0.4 to 4.8 mg/L. This study suggests that high HCO3− and Na+ in alkaline medium along with water–rock interaction plays important role in enrichment of F− in groundwater. Na-HCO3 is the dominant water type followed by Ca-HCO3 suggesting dominance of Na+, Ca2+ and HCO3− ions in groundwater. Factor analysis of water quality parameters suggests that four principal components account for 74.66% of total variance in the dataset. Factor 1 shows higher positive loading for pH, HCO3− negative loading for F−, Ca2+, SO42− depicting ion-exchange and HCO3 dominant water type responsible for F enrichment in groundwater. Saturation index for selected minerals suggests that most of the samples are oversaturated with calcite and undersaturated with fluorite. Calcite precipitation leads to the removal of Ca2+ from solution thus allowing more fluorite to dissolve. These released Ca2+ ions combine with CO32− ions to further enhance the precipitation of CaCO3

Water Security in a Changing Environment: Concept, Challenges and Solutions

Water is of vital and critical importance to ecosystems and human societies. The effects of human activities on land and water are now large and extensive. These reflect physical changes to the environment. Global change such as urbanization, population growth, socioeconomic change, evolving energy needs, and climate change have put unprecedented pressure on water resources systems. It is argued that achieving water security throughout the world is the key to sustainable development. Studies on holistic view with persistently changing dimensions is in its infancy. This study focuses on narrative review work for giving a comprehensive insight on the concept of water security, its evolution with recent environmental changes (e.g., urbanization, socioeconomic, etc.) and various implications. Finally, it presents different sustainable solutions to achieve water security. Broadly, water security evolves from ensuring reliable access of enough safe water for every person (at an affordable price where market mechanisms are involved) to lead a healthy and productive life, including that of future generations. The constraints on water availability and water quality threaten secured access to water resources for different uses. Despite recent progress in developing new strategies, practices and technologies for water resource management, their dissemination and implementation has been limited. A comprehensive sustainable approach to address water security challenges requires connecting social, economic, and environmental systems at multiple scales. This paper captures the persistently changing dimensions and new paradigms of water security providing a holistic view including a wide range of sustainable solutions to address the water challenges

Evaluating Geometric Characteristics of Planar Surfaces using Improved Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents a modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) algorithm for the evaluation of geometric characteristics defining form and function of planar surfaces. The geometric features of planar surfaces are decomposed into four components; namely straightness, flatness, perpendicularity, and parallelism. A non-linear minimum zone objective function is formulated mathematically for each planar surface geometric characteristic. Finally, the result of the proposed method is compared with previous work on the same problem and with other nature inspired algorithms. The results demonstrate that the proposed MPSO algorithm is more efficient and accurate in comparison to other algorithms and is well suited for effective and accurate evaluation of planar surface characteristics

Real time online profile measurement system for steel wire products

The quality specifications for products such as wire rods produced by the steel industry are becoming ever more demanding. This demand has led to achieve uniform product quality at high production speeds. As a result, there is a need for the systems that operate in real time and continuously measure cross-section profile of the rods and detect if any change or deviation from the desired behaviour in their cross-section. To reach this goal, a laser-based computer-controlled technology provides a useful solution. In this paper, a high speed, low cost and high accuracy non-contact laser-based measuring system has been proposed and developed using a STM32 microcontroller. The system can measure the thickness of solid, non-transparent wire rods using the linear charged-coupled sensor and sent to a microcontroller unit to further analyse and continuously display the cross-sectional profile in real time. Any deviation in the dimension over the length of the wire along with its position with respect to starting of the wire can be detected in real time. The designed and developed system has capability of measurement accuracies and respectabilities to the micrometre level