The Iron Pillar at Delhi

The massive Iron Pillar located in South Delhi has been an object of considerable interest to modern scientists and technologists for two main reasons viz., the amazing technology by which a metallic object weighing nearly seven tons could be fabricated over fifteen centuries ago and the phenomenal corrosion resistance displayed by this ancient monument despite exposure to sun, rain, wind and dust for so long. In this paper all available material on this metallurgical marvel is examined scientifically and systematically and an attempt made to answer such questions as are likely to arise in the minds of discern-ing visitors to this impressive monument. The following important conclusions are arrived at: (1) Date of Erec-tion : 370-375 A.D., (2) Date of the Inscription : 380-385 A.D., (3) Mode of Fabrication.: Hammer forging and welding ball of hot pasty iron in many steps, and (4) Reasons for Restlessness : Il4any viz., unusual chemical composition, protective oxide film, favourable Delhi climate and slag particles at grain boundaries

Influence of crystallite shape on particle size broadening of Debye-Scherrer reflections

Formulae for the Scherrer constant Kβ, the variance Scherrer constant Kω and the taper parameter Lω for crystals having the external shapes of a triangular prism, a square prism, a hexagonal prism and a cylinder have been obtained in terms of the reflection indices and proportionality factors,viz., the ratio of the height of the crystal to the square root of its basal area and the ratio of the two lattice constants of the unit cell. The numerical values of Kβ, Kω and Lω have also been computed for direct application in particular cases

Organizational factors and total quality management - an empirical study

The level of awareness of Total Quality Management (TQM) has increased considerably over the last few years. Different sets of organizational requirements are prescribed by quality management gurus and practitioners for the effective practice of TQM. These requirements do not seem to have been formulated on the basis of systematic empirical research. Many researchers point out that tacit factors, e.g. employee empowerment, open culture and executive commitment, and not TQM tools and techniques alone, could drive TQM success, and that organizations would need to acquire these factors to stay successful. Many TQM advocates have also suggested that a conducive organizational environment would be essential for an effective practice of TQM. However, they did not offer any empirical evidence. There appears to be no empirical study reported in the literature that could establish a relation between TQM and organizational factors. The objective of this paper is to describe an empirical research on TQM conducted in Indian business units carried out recently by considering some organizational factors, e.g. quality of work life, organizational climate and communication. The methodology and findings are discussed in detail

The constitution and structure of manganese-gallium alloys

This article does not have an abstract

Monitoring of Noctiluca Bloom in Mandapam and Keelakarai Coastal Waters; Southeast Coast of India

Monitoring the Harmful Algal Blooms was carried out during July to December 2008 in Mandapam and Keelakarai coastal waters of Tamil Nadu, Southeast coast of India. In the month of October several fishes and shellfishes were died due to Noctiluca blooms along these two areas. The present investigation the following species of phyto and zooplankton were found to be common; phytoplankton such as Coscinodiscus sp., Skeletonema costatum, Bacillaria paradoxa, Thallassiothrix frauenfeldii, T. longisima, Leptocylindrus sp., and  zooplankton such as Paracalanus parvus, Acrocalanus gracilis, Pseudodiaptomus serricautatus, Rhincalanus cornutus, R. nasutus, Euterpina acutifrons, Nannocalanus minor, Eucalanus attenuates, E. crassus, Fish larvae, Fish eggs, Barnacle nauplii, Bivalve larvae, Gastropod larvae, Copepod nauplii  and Mysis larvae. The hydrobiological parameters also analysed during bloom and after blooms; the dissolved oxygen (2.6 – 4.9µM L-1) nutrients varied between nitrate (0.66 – 1.01µM L-1) nitrite (0.11 – 0.21µM L-1) phosphate (0.51 – 0.86µM L-1) and silicate (0.81 – 4.2µM L-1)

Egorov's theorem for transversally elliptic operators on foliated manifolds and noncommutative geodesic flow

The main result of the paper is Egorov's theorem for transversally elliptic operators on compact foliated manifolds. This theorem is applied to describe the noncommutative geodesic flow in noncommutative geometry of Riemannian foliations.Comment: 23 pages, no figures. Completely revised and improved version of dg-ga/970301

Hypersensitivity and chaos signatures in the quantum baker's maps

Classical chaotic systems are distinguished by their sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The absence of this property in quantum systems has lead to a number of proposals for perturbation-based characterizations of quantum chaos, including linear growth of entropy, exponential decay of fidelity, and hypersensitivity to perturbation. All of these accurately predict chaos in the classical limit, but it is not clear that they behave the same far from the classical realm. We investigate the dynamics of a family of quantizations of the baker's map, which range from a highly entangling unitary transformation to an essentially trivial shift map. Linear entropy growth and fidelity decay are exhibited by this entire family of maps, but hypersensitivity distinguishes between the simple dynamics of the trivial shift map and the more complicated dynamics of the other quantizations. This conclusion is supported by an analytical argument for short times and numerical evidence at later times.Comment: 32 pages, 6 figure

Modeling impacts of climate change scenario over Turkey

Bu çalışmada izlenen yöntem, Türkiye ve çevresi üzerinde, günümüz ve gelecek için NASA-Sonlu Hacim Genel Dolaşım Modeli (fvGCM) tarafından üretilen projeksiyonların, ICTP-Bölgesel İklim Modeli (RegCM3) kullanılarak dinamik olarak ölçek küçültülmesidir. Günümüz (1961-1990, RF) ve gelecek (2071-2100, A2) simülasyonları için, Hükümetlerarası İklim Değşikliği Paneli (IPCC) tarafından belirlenmiş sera gazları emisyon senaryoları dikkate alınmıştır. A2 ve RF simülasyonlarının sıcaklık ve yağış için yapılan mevsimsel analizleri Türkiye’nin iklimsel bölgeleri üzerinde alansal ortalama alınarak ayrı ayrı incelenmiştir. A2 simülasyonuna göre, Türkiye üzerinde sıcaklıklardaki en dramatik değişim yaz mevsiminde Ege Bölgesi üzerindeki 5 ila 6 °C’ler arasındaki artıştır. Kış ayları dışındaki mevsimlerde artış, 3-4 °C arasında değişmektedir. Gelecek simülasyonundaki minimum artış, kış mevsiminden 2-3 °C olarak hesaplanmıştır. Yine A2 simülasyonunda, Doğu Karadeniz dağları boyunca uzanan bölgede kış yağışlarıdaki artış, rüzgar paterninin değişmesiyle orografik etkinin güçlenmesine bağlıdır. Türkiye’nin güneyi üzerinde de rüzgar paterninin güneyli değişimine bağlı olarak kış yağışlarında çok ciddi azalmalar (% 34) model sonuçlarında ortaya çıkmıştır. Sonbahar meviminde ise Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesinde yağışlarda % 50’lere varan artışlar görülmüştür. Bu artışların ana nedeni değişen rüzgar akımlarının taşıdığı nem olabilir. Gelecek iklim senaryosunda Fırat ve Dicle su havzalarını kapsayan alandaki kış yağışlarında yaşanan azalmalarla, küresel ısınmaya paralel sıcaklık artışının buharlaşmaya etkisiyle birlikte değerlendirildiğinde, model sonuçlarının hidrolojik analizlerinin önemi daha çok ortaya çıkmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: İklim değişimi, bölgesel iklim modellemesi, ölçek küçültme.The Earth's climate has changed many times and fluctuated between the glacial and the interglacial periods since its formed. These changes related to natural forcings like volcanic eruptions, intense tectonic activity, solar activity and variation of Earth's orbital parameters, were sometimes very dramatic. Today, the global change we face to is different than the natural changes occurred in the past. Human-induced climate change has been taken into consideration extensively within the last decade more than ever. Recent advances in both climate observing systems and methodologies to detect the climate change, as well as broader global coverage of observations help scientists to better understand the climate system. Scientific studies which are led by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) showed that dominance of anthropogenic effect on global warming is indisputable (IPCC, 2007). Regional climate change modeling has been applied to many different areas such as agriculture, seasonal forecasting, hydrology applications, paleoclimate and climate projections. Because of its ability to resolve sharp gradients and contrasts in the surface conditions, the regional climate modeling approach yields more accurate and spatially detailed information. In this study,  the ICTP-Regional Climate Model version 3 (RegCM3) has been used to downscale present and future scenario simulations generated by the NASA-Finite Volume General Circulation Model (fvGCM) over Turkey and its surroundings. The present-day (1961-1990, RF) and the future climate change simulations (2071-2100, A2) are based on the IPCC Greenhouse Gases emissions, which are CO2, CH4, N2O, and CFC11- CFC12. Emission scenarios for these gases have been implemented into the radiation scheme for the simulations and, relatively high resolution of 30 km is adopted to resolve the complex topography of the domain. The role of the domain characteristics such as complex land-sea distribution determines the sub-regional climatic features and spatial climate variability. This diverse climatic structure of the region brings great challenge for regional climate modeling. Levantine Sea, Aegean Sea and Black Sea are main moisture sources of the Turkey and its surrounding regions. A2 simulation results which correspond future climate indicate that warming over Turkey's climatic zones is in the range of 2-5 °C. Summer temperature changes are more dominant in the A2 scenario. This pattern has also been observed for neighboring countries. Summer heat wave conditions over Aegean region (5 °C increase) are more obvious in the area averages than in the spatial pattern based model results. The difference between the summer and winter change is about 3 °C and it could play an important role in contributing to temporal shifts of the transition seasons. In addition, warming in winter over eastern and southeastern of Turkey which have higher altitudes are nearly 1 °C higher than for Marmara and Aegean regions which have lower altitudes. Autumn temperature changes for all regions are affected by the extension of the summer season extension due to the global warming. Most significant precipitation changes in A2 scenario have been occurred over the Mediterranean region of Turkey in winter and over the Southeastern of Turkey in autumn. Our analyses show a 34% decrease over Mediterranean region and it is related to the change in the atmospheric circulation which in turn causes reduced orographic forcing. The same circulation change also enhanced orographic forcing especially over the east of the Black Sea region and results in significant precipitation increase. Decreases over the Aegean and Southeastern regions are around 20% in winter. Autumn precipitation over Southeastern region increased as high as 48%. Flow pattern changes which also affected Iraq and Syria are consistent with enhanced moisture availability over this region which may account for the major precipitation increase. All precipitation changes in winter and autumn are also statistically significant. The amount of precipitation over Turkey in summer season is very little except eastern Black Sea region. Therefore, percent changes for summer precipitation over all of regions could not be meaningful to discuss. Analyses of A2 simulation show that combined effect of precipitation decrease and evapotranspiration increase related to temperature increase could play major role to reduce water resources over Turkey. Especially, there could be significant problems over Euphrates-Tigris basin because of the decreasing water availability in future scenario. Keywords: Climate change, regional climate modeling, downscaling scenarios

The tight groupoid of an inverse semigroup

In this work we present algebraic conditions on an inverse semigroup S (with zero) which imply that its associated tight groupoid G_tight(S) is: Hausdorff, essentially principal, minimal and contracting, respectively. In some cases these conditions are in fact necessary and sufficient.The first-named author was partially supported by CNPq. The second-named author was partially supported by PAI III grants FQM-298 and P11-FQM-7156 of the Junta de Andalucía and by the DGI- MICINN and European Regional Development Fund, jointly, through Project MTM2011-28992-C02-02

Annual variation in the levels of transcripts of sex-specific genes in the mantle of the common mussel, Mytilus edulis

Mytilus species are used as sentinels for the assessment of environmental health but sex or stage in the reproduction cycle is rarely considered even though both parameters are likely to influence responses to pollution. We have validated the use of a qPCR assay for sex identification and related the levels of transcripts to the reproductive cycle. A temporal study of mantle of Mytilus edulis found transcripts of male-specific vitelline coat lysin (VCL) and female-specific vitelline envelope receptor for lysin (VERL) could identify sex over a complete year. The levels of VCL/VERL were proportional to the numbers of sperm/ova and are indicative of the stage of the reproductive cycle. Maximal levels of VCL and VERL were found in February 2009 declining to minima between July - August before increasing and re-attaining a peak in February 2010. Water temperature may influence these transitions since they coincide with minimal water temperature in February and maximal temperature in August. An identical pattern of variation was found for a cryptic female-specific transcript (H5) but a very different pattern was observed for oestrogen receptor 2 (ER2). ER2 varied in a sex-specific way with male > female for most of the cycle, with a female maxima in July and a male maxima in December. Using artificially spawned animals, the transcripts for VCL, VERL and H5 were shown to be present in gametes and thus their disappearance from mantle is indicative of spawning. VCL and VERL are present at equivalent levels in February and July-August but during gametogenesis (August to January) and spawning (March to June) VCL is present at lower relative amounts than VERL. This may indicate sex-specific control mechanisms for these processes and highlight a potential pressure point leading to reduced reproductive output if environmental factors cause asynchrony to gamete maturation or release