Delineation of Salt Water and Fresh Water Interface between Kolleru Lake and Bay of Bengal Coast, Andhra Pradesh, India – Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

Kolleru Lake is the largest natural fresh water lake located between Godavari and Krishna deltas in Andhra Pradesh in India and is acting as a natural flood balancing reservoir. Dynamic land use changes from lake bed and agricultural land to aqua-culture and overexploitation of groundwater are becoming the major causes for salt-water intrusion. Changing of land use patterns is highly influencing on the quality of water. Paleo beach ridges are having potential aquifers around the Kolleru Lake. The main aim of this study is to identify seawater intrusion areas and reasons for intrusion. Integrated study of hydrogeology, hydrochemistry, remote sensing and geophysical investigations exposed the extent of salt-water intrusion up to the northern part of the lake, which is about 42 km away from the Bay of Bengal coast line. Top layer resistivity is more than 10 ohm-m in case of sand formations, 2–10 ohm-m in case of brackish water saturated formations and less than 1.0 ohm-m in case of saline water saturation aquifers, and clay-rich layers shows the resistivity in the range of 2 to 5 ohm-m. Remote sensing data and GIS (Geographical Information System) helped us to trace two major sea water intrusion patches from the coast to the lake

IMPACT OF MOTIVATION ON PROJECT TEAMS’ PERFORMANCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Sufficient motivation is a critical ingredient for any organization to derive optimal performances from their workforce. Project teams are an integral part of the efficient conduction of an information and communication technology company’s core operations. This study is dictated towards the evaluation of the main factors that influence the level of motivation portrayed by team members of information technology project teams. Through a comprehensive literature review, the research was able to uncover insightful trends in motivation patterns among project team members that might be useful to project managers. The findings of this research conclude that a project team manager can improve the motivation of his or her subordinates through proper supervision, provision of training, and through setting proper expectations. A survey conducted also indicated that 66.67% of employees feel motivated by being recognized and rewarded for their good efforts. Additionally, 28.57% of employees feel motivated by salary increments

Educational Leadership for School Based Management

Educational Leadership is identified as an important factor for quality education and developing countries have focused on this important factor and implemented systematic training and development programs for their leaders. Moreover, the latest educational policies advocate decentralized educational management, which has brought both benefits and problems in a number of countries. However, these initiations are far away from the expectations. Any educational reform will not be successful without both an evolution of institutional structures and specialized training and development programs for education professionals. One strategy for achieving these goals is found in School Based Management (SBM), a model of decentralized school administration that provides clear guidelines and has been successfully introduced in a number of countries. This paper focuses on the principles and practices of School Based Management for school effectiveness

An improved protein extraction method for detecting ruminant material in feed using lateral flow device dipsticks

The currently used immunological lateral flow based dipstick technology is not sensitive to detect the presence of ruminant animal material below 1% level of contamination in feed. The possible reason is that the processed animal proteins are subjected to chemicals and to high temperatures during the rendering process, thereby leading to either their denaturation or degradation. Also some feed samples producing viscous extracts or containing high contents of mineral or vitamins delay the migration flow in the test device and may thus give rise to either inconclusive or false positive results. Veterinary Laboratory Agency focused its efforts on developing a new protein extraction method through the EU Safeed-PAP project with the aim to increase the sensitivity of the dipstick method. The method developed is based on a bone sedimentation procedure coupled with an EDTA digestion step in order to liberate the protected proteins which are covalently bound to mineral structures within the bone mineral cage. All the results using this method showed that the feed contaminated with ruminant material is detected at 0.1 to 0.2% levels

Solar PV Feasibility Study on Higher Education Institutions in Connecticut

One of the most common issue in Connecticut (CT) is the high electricity rates. CT stands among the top five states for its high electric rates due to limitation in transmission facilities and storage of natural gas. Education institutions serve as good places to install photovoltaic systems as they have a large number of buildings available. Photovoltaic systems are a growing alternative energy source that reduces the electricity demand and hence higher education institutions should start implementing these technologies to reduce the burden of paying more for electricity bills. The primary objective of the study was to analyze the economic feasibility of solar photovoltaic systems (PV) in higher education institutions in Connecticut (CT). To perform the objective, several economic parameters were calculated and the annual electricity revenue for the University of New Haven was determined and applied to the entire state of Connecticut. The study was expanded to other states in the U.S. by normalizing the available roof area, electricity rate and solar index by each state. The total electricity generation was estimated for various regions by normalization. This estimation can be used by university administration for calculation of total power generation and total revenue per year in that particular state. With the normalization ratio obtained, one can identify the total power generation in other regions of the U.S. beforehand while considering installation of PV systems. Results from the study regarding the total revenue reveal that the Southwestern and Western regions of the U.S have more solar power generation capacity due to high solar radiation