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Blazars represent dominant population of the extragalactic $\gamma$-ray sources in the Universe. These sources exhibit some characteristic properties like strong and non-thermal continuum emission over the entire electromagnetic spectrum from radio to TeV $\gamma$-rays with rapid variability on all timescales. The emission at radio and optical wavelengths is highly polarized with significant variation. The fastest variability in the blazar emission is observed during the flaring activity which is an important observational property of blazars. In this paper, we describe various methods to characterize the temporal variability in the multi-wavelength light curves of blazars. We also provide a detailed description of the set of statistical parameters which are used to quantify the level of variability present in the time-series. Implications of the informations derived from the variability study to probe the physics of blazars using multi-wavelength observations are also discussed., Comment: 13 Pages, Accepted for Publication in Astronomische Nachrichten (Astronomical Notes) Journal

The flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 279 was observed in an extremely high activity state on June 16, 2015 (MJD 57189). In this paper, we investigate the properties of this flaring episode in the high energy γ-ray and optical bands using data from the Fermi-LAT, SMARTS, and SPOL observations during the period June 1-30, 2015 (MJD 57174-57203). The highest emission state in the γ-ray band detected by the Fermi-LAT exhibits a peak flux of ∼ 2×10−7 erg cm−2 s−1 which is more than 25 times the flux level measured in the low activity state of the source. The temporal analysis of the daily Fermi-LAT light curve suggests that the giant flaring episode has characteristic rise and decay times less than one day. The optical daily light curves in B, V, R, and J bands also indicate the flaring activity from 3C 279 with flux levels peaking for two days on June 16-17, 2015 (MJD 57189-57190). The discrete correlation function analysis indicates a time lag of 1 day or longer between the γ-ray and optical peaks during the flaring episode. The γ-ray emission is also observed to show a harder-when-brighter behaviour whereas optical emission exhibits an opposite behaviour. The γ-ray emission region during the flare is observed to be very compact and is located close to the base of the jet. The degree of linear polarization in the wavelength range 500-700 nm measured using SPOL during this period is also highly variable with a peak of ∼ 30% one day after the γ-ray flare. Near simultaneous γ-ray flux points show a linear anti-correlation with the degree of polarization during the period of γ-ray flare. The significant drop in the degree of linear polarization suggests a sudden increase in the tangled magnetic field strength in the emission region.

This study tries to elicit the unexplored nexus between the contraceptive failure and abortions in India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh. Condom being the most used modern method contributes to 47% of all observed episodes in the calendar period. Of all accidental pregnancies occurred because of modern contraceptive failures, 35.2% terminated with induced abortions. Gross failure rate of modern methods is conspicuously higher for urban poor, uneducated women, and marginalized section of population living in urban area. From a total of 7496 episodes of all reversible methods, abortions are estimated as high as 29.2%, whereas for the traditional method it accounts for around 21%. The empirical evidence of induced abortions due to contraceptive failure put serious concern regarding unintended pregnancies and hence discourages fertility intentions among the potential couples.

Background. Aspergillus is an inherently ubiquitous, weakly pathogenic fungus causing opportunistic infections. It is very rarely localized in the larynx, although laryngeal Aspergillosis may develop in the immunocompromised patients including those with leukaemia and severe aplastic anaemia. Objective. The aim of the research was to explore the primary laryngeal Aspergillosis in an immunocompetent patient thru a case report. Methods. A case report of primary laryngeal Aspergillosis in an immunocompetent patient is presented. Results. A male patient of 40 years old, presenting with chronic worsening hoarseness, was found to have a smooth, white spheroid submucosal growth on left vocal cord with preserved bilateral cord movements on videostroboscopy. Histopathological examination of vocal cord growth revealed squamous epithelium containing septate hyphae with acute angle dichotomous branching pattern consistent with Aspergillus. Voice improved after a four-week course of oral itraconazole 200 mg/day. Post therapy follow up of 24 months was unremarkable. Conclusions. Primary laryngeal Aspergillosis develops in the immunocompetent patients. Iatrogenic, vocal abuse, occupation and lifestyle factors may be contributory. Optimal diagnosis and management mandates a high index of suspicion.

With the changing climate, reliable climate projections are essential for agriculture risk management. The present study aims to explore the output of a regional climate model (RCM) at different climatic regimes and its applications in crop simulation models. Here, a comparative study of the cotton crop growth and yield response for Akola in the central and Hisar northern agroclimatic zone of India represents rainfed and irrigated growing regions of cotton, respectively. The RegCM4 projections and its bias-corrected values of temperature and precipitation data for the period 1971–2005 are compared with the observations to assess its reliability with the crop simulation models as weather inputs. The results signify that the RCM model is wet, which implies that, it shows high rainfall intensity in terms of frequency as a number of rainy days and amount. The model also shows night warming as there is a significant decline in maximum temperature and minimal decline in minimum temperature, thus there is a reduced diurnal temperature difference. Overall model highly underestimates temperature and overestimates rainfall. Strikingly reduced numbers of intense warm and cold events are simulated. Model is highly biased for rainfall events >0 mm/day and 5mm/day, and moderately biased for rainfall >5 mm/day. Precipitation bias-correction, using quantile mapping approach, shows excellent agreement at an annual scale. But precipitation variability could not be captured that well as it is a ‘distribution-based method'. However, it worked well in the irrigated Hisar region than the rainfed Akola region. The bias-corrected RegCM4 climate inputs are utilized in Decision Support System for Agro-technology Transfer (DSSAT) simulations for cotton yields, Leaf Area Index (LAI) and ball number at maturity/m2 (NM) for both regions. Bias-corrected outputs are in better agreement with corresponding observations than non-bias-corrected outputs in both regions. Future research could apply these simulated model data complemented with reliable bias correction techniques to explicitly study climate change's impact on crop productivity.

We explore the potential of an artificial neural network (ANN) based method intelligence to probe the propagation of cosmic $\gamma$-ray photons in the extragalactic Universe. The journey of $\gamma$-rays emitted from a distant source like blazar to the observer at the Earth is impeded by the absorption through the interaction with the extragalactic background light (EBL), leading to an electron-positron pair production. This process dominates for gamma ray photons with energy above 10 GeV propagating over the cosmological distances. The effect of $\gamma$-ray attenuation is characterized by a physical quantity called \emph{optical depth}, which strongly depends on the $\gamma$-ray photon energy, redshift of the source, and density of the EBL photons. We estimate the optical depth values for $\gamma$-ray energies above 10 GeV emitted from the sources at redshifts in the range 0.01 to 1 using three different and most promising EBL models. These optical depth estimates are randomly divided into two data sets for training and testing of the ANN using energy, redshift as inputs and optical depth as output. The optimization of ANN-performance for each EBL model employs standard back-propagation (BP) and radial-basis function (RBF) algorithms. The performance of the ANN model using the RBF is found to be superior to the BP method. In particular, the RBF-ANN with 40 neurons in the hidden layer corresponding to the EBL model proposed by Finke et al. (2010) shows the best performance for the propagation of $\gamma$-rays in the Universe., Comment: 23 Pages, 6 Tables, 6 Figures, Accepted for Publication in New Astronomy Journal

Introduction: Corona virus disease- 2019 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome- 2 (SARS-CoV-2), also known as Novel corona virus (2019-nCoV).The disease presentation ranges from asymptomatic to severe acute respiratory failure requiring intensive care support. There are multiple drugs, therapies, and vaccine trials underway. One such therapy is convalescent plasma. Passive immunity delivered as anti-corona virus antibodies from convalescent human plasma has promise of emerging as a therapeutic option in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Objective: The objective of the study is to determine the age and sex distribution of the recipients of the convalescent Covid 19 plasma among patients admitted at different hospitals in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at Department of blood bank, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, Jharkhand from July 28, 2020 to October 28, 2020 who received at least one convalescent plasma transfusion for hospitalized patients aged 18 years or older with moderately as well as severely ill or life-threatening COVID-19 disease within 21 days from the onset of their illness. Results: This study recorded greater number of male recipients with B Positive blood group. The convalescent plasma recipients were mostly old patients above 50 years of age.

In this work, we use two different methods to determine the opacity of the TeV gamma-rays caused by the extragalactic background light (EBL) via e-e+ production due to photon-photon interaction. The first method, Model-Dependent Approach, uses various EBL models for estimating the opacity as a function of the redshift and energy of the TeV photons. The second method, Model-Independent Approach, relies on using the simultaneous observations of blazars in the MeV-GeV energy range from the Fermi-LAT and in the TeV band from the ground-based gamma-ray telescopes. We make the underline assumption that the extrapolation of the LAT spectrum of blazars to TeV energies is either a good estimate or an upper limit for the intrinsic TeV spectrum of a source. We apply this method on the simultaneous observations of a few blazars at different redshifts to demonstrate a comparative study of six prominent EBL models. Opacities of the TeV photons predicted by the model-independent approach are systematically larger than the ones estimated from the model-dependent method. Therefore, the gamma-ray observations of blazars can be used to set a strict upper limit on the opacity of the Universe to the TeV photons at a given redshift., 4 Figures, 4 Tables, Accepted for Publication in NRIAG JOURNAL OF ASTRONOMY AND GEOPHYSICS, Abstract shortened

CANEGRO-Sugarcane model was used to assess the impact of climate change on sugarcane in different combinations of elevated temperature and CO2 concentrations. Additionally, we used dynamically downscaled bias-corrected regional climate model (RCM) data using RegCM4 under RCP4.5 scenario (2040–2060) to project the future change in sugarcane stalk fresh mass (SFM) and sucrose mass (SM). The results showed an increase in temperature, rainfall and solar radiation in the future projections at the study site. The SFM and SM were found to be vulnerable (3–25% decrease) by increasing temperature (1–4 °C), however, a higher concentration (2–14% increase) was observed for both SFM and SM under elevated CO2 levels (450–850 ppm). The combined effect of increased temperature and elevated CO2 had a beneficial effect on SFM but negative on SM (more for rainfed condition). Overall, SFM was projected to increase by 3–39% (rainfed) and 7–47% (irrigated) in 2040–2060 relative to 1971–2000 in diverse agro-climatic zones of the region. Similarly, SM was projected to decrease by 9–69% (rainfed) and 6–37% (irrigated). In general, water stress conditions combined with the projected increase in temperature adversely affected the sugarcane. The findings suggest the development of a efficient water use, heat-tolerant cane variety and improved farm management strategies in the near future to assist the sugar industry and to adapt to the changing climate in northern India. This is required in the greater perspective of decrease in sucrose mass in spite of double-fold increase in CO2.

Mining and related activities cause severe degradation of ambient air quality. A study of particulate matter (PM) across transportation, mining and control (C) sites for dust attenuation capacity (DAC) in selected tree species were carried out in Jharia coalfield (JCF) to estimate the menace of dust pollution and also to measure air pollution tolerance index (APTI). Results indicated that the maximum value of PM10 and PM2.5 ranged from 54 to 174 and 29 to 78 μg m− 3 respectively across all the sites. The maximum values occurred in transportation and the minimum at C for both the particulates. Mining and transportation resulted in an increase in PM10 values by 161 and 200% and PM2.5 values by 100 and 136% respectively as compared to those in C. The mean concentration of PM10 and PM2.5 across the sites exceeded the permissible limit of 100 and 60 μg m− 3 respectively. Transportation was worse than mining due to the high proportion of hazardous fine (PM2.5) particulates. DAC indicated that Tectona grandis (TG) captured maximum dust (2.15 mg cm− 2) with 85% and Peltophorum inerme (PI) the minimum (0.15 mg cm− 2) with 5% efficiency. The trend for DAC showed TG > Ficus glomerata (FG) > Psidium guajava (PG) > Ficus benghalensis (FB) > Ficus religiosa (FR) > Alstonia scholaris (AS) > Aegle marmelos (AM) > Gmelina arborea (GA) > Dalbergia sissoo (DS) > Syzyzium cumini (SC) > Azadirachta indica (AI) > Terminalia arjuna (TA) > Mangifera indica (MI) > Albizia lebbeck (AL) > PI in descending order. APTI based on pH, total chlorophyll, ascorbic acid and relative water content indicated maximum values for TG (17) with 90% and minimum for PI (10) with 57% of the total and is a measure of the sustainability of plants in JCF. The descending order for APTI was TG > PG > FG > FR > FB > AI > MI > SC > DS > GA > AM > AS > AL > TA > PI. Thus, TG is the most suitable and PI the least. Stomatal density is negatively related to DAC and positively related to APTI. DAC therefore, cannot be attributed to a single factor but a mix of complex factors such as morphological and anatomical characteristics of the leaf, particle size, species type, metabolism, location, meteorology and stress conditions. Based on the findings a greenbelt design was proposed to improve the air quality of the mining and transportation areas.

In this paper, we discuss an artificial intelligence based approach to constrain the redshift of blazars using combined $\gamma$--ray observations from the \emph{Fermi} Large Area Telescope (LAT) and ground based atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (ACTs) in GeV and \emph{sub} TeV energy regimes respectively. The spectral measurements in GeV and TeV energy bands show a redshift dependent spectral break in the $\gamma$--ray spectra of blazars. We use this observational feature of blazars to constrain their redshift. The observed spectral information of blazars with known redshifts reported in the \emph{Fermi} catalogs (3FGL and 1FHL) and TeV catalog are used to train an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based algorithm. The training of the ANN methodology is optimized using \emph{Levenberg - Marquardt} algorithm with $\gamma$--ray spectral indices and redshifts of 35 well observed blazars as input and output parameters respectively. After training, we use only observed spectral indices in GeV and sub TeV regimes for 10 blazars as inputs to predict their redshifts. The comparison of predicted redshifts by the ANN with the known redshift suggests that both the values are consistent within $\sim$ 18$\%$ uncertainty. The method proposed in the present work would be helpful in future for constraining or predicting the redshifts of the blazars using only observational $\gamma$--ray spectral informations obtained from the \emph{Fermi}-LAT and current generation IACTs as well as from the next generation Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) with improved source statistics., Comment: 3 Figures, 3 Tables, Accepted for Publication in Experimental Astronomy

Old mine workings, mainly hidden galleries, goafs, shafts etc may pose a great threat to the local environment and also for future mine development. The present study mainly deals with delineation and mapping of old mine workings over Tikmani-Gareriya section, a part of east Basuria colliery, Jharia coal field, India using state-of-the-art 64 electrodes and 61 channel FlashRES-Universal electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). ERT data have been acquired along a line at 5m electrode spacing covering total profile length of 315m using Wenner, Schlumberger, Gradient and Dipole-Dipole arrays over a known old mine working. Further joint inversion of all combined arrays has also been carried out using 2.5D resistivity inversion program to combine the relative advantage of all arrays for producing superior results. The acquired data have been analysed using four different thresholds for all arrays with quality factors 15, 10, 5, and 1; each with 60mA current. 2D inverse resistivity models generated using Joint inversion of all combined arrays with quality factor 5 provides best result for delineation of coal pillars, galleries and goafs followed by Gradient, Schlumberger, Dipole-Dipole and Wenner arrays with same quality factor. Coal pillars have been identified with relatively high resistivity anomaly whereas galleries and goaf have been delineated with relatively low resistivity anomaly. The estimated range of resistivity variation of coal pillars have been well corroborated with published results. The results prove the efficacy of the ERT technique for detection of old mine workings.

In this study, effort is made to estimate weekly rainfall over India at 36 meteorological subdivisions during monsoon 2016 (June to September) by using several precipitation products from different satellites which include Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) INSAT-3D derived Hydro Estimate (HE), INSAT Multi-Spectral Rainfall Algorithm (IMSRA) rainfall products, Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) derived from JPL, NASA, and National Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF) Merged Satellite Gauge (NMSG) of IMD. Different satellite estimates, and rain gauge satellite merged products have been compared with gridded rainfall products prepared by India Meteorological Department (IMD). HE at 4 km pixel resolution and IMSRA at 0.100 × 0.100 resolution are derived rainfall products from Indian satellite INSAT-3D.GPM (IMERG) product is derived at 0.100 × 0.100 resolution from Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) satellite jointly operated by JAXA (Japan) and NASA (USA). NCMRWF Merged Satellite-Gauge (NMSG) rainfall data has been generated at a 0.25° × 0.25° grid resolution by IMD & NCMRWF. The data is analyzed preliminarily for the southwest monsoon season of 2016 at weekly temporal resolution. The overall comparison shows that GPM (IMERG) estimates better rainfall over the coastal and plain region, however, HE estimates better rainfall over the hilly region, in general, and for Kerala region, particularly. NMSG product needs improvement over the hilly region and considerable improvement is required in IMSRA product. For all 36 meteorological subdivisions, NMSG product has 0.56 average Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies (NSE) for 17 weeks with IMD Gridded rainfall data. However, for satellite-derived rainfall by GPM (IMERG), HE and IMSRA have 0.29, 0.1 and −0.8 average NSE at 17 weeks, respectively. Based on this study, it is concluded that NMSG daily rainfall product is best, however, amongst satellite-derived rainfall, overall GPM gives a better result with a few exceptions and IMSRA need more modifications.

Rice is an important cereal crop and part of daily diet not only in India but also throughout Asia. Agriculture is highly dependent on the variations in temperature, precipitation and solar radiation and long-term climate patterns. The pattern of changing climate in last 30 years indicate that predictable and possible changes in rainfall and temperature can reduce agriculture outputs and yields particularly for rice and wheat significantly. The main aim of this research paper is to study the Kharif Rice Productivity in Hisar, Haryana under changing climate. The study focuses on the impacts of climate change namely intensity, timings and spatial distribution of rainfall. Kharif rice is more vulnerable to meteorological drought due to growing uncertainties in monsoon rains under the changing climate patterns. The study of seasonal changes in precipitation at decadal scale for observed and CORDEX projected precipitation for the selected region was done to understand the impacts of climate change. Along with this, DSSAT Crop Simulation Model was run to quantify the water stress in the years with more negative rainfall departure and to identify the reasons for variability in yield. DSSAT model was able to simulate phenological events and final grain yield at maturity stage with reasonable accuracy under varied weather conditions. The analysis of the simulated results indicates the association between yield and rainfall amount and its distribution during the season and different phenological growth stages of rice. The results further indicate that water stress at important stages such as Booting, Heading and Flowering majorly impact the final yield.

This paper presents the issues in snow water equivalent (SWE) determination using acoustic reflectometry. To determine SWE, the density and the depth of each layer of snow in a snow pack need to be estimated. A noninvasive acoustic reflectometry technique to estimate the SWE is proposed in the mentioned paper, in which it is shown that SWE of the snowpacks with approximately 100 cm depth can be determined using a maximum length sequence (MLS) of length 7 as a probe signal. We performed similar experiments as reported in the mentioned paper to determine SWE using acoustic reflectometry but failed to replicate the given method. The signal processing-related issues such as design of probe signal, direct pickup problem, and so on of the mentioned paper are investigated and presented in this communication. We show that it is not possible to extract the reflection response by using the MLS of length 7 as a probe signal. The amount of sound attenuation and absorption in the snow medium is very high, of the order of 1 dB/cm and greater depending on the frequency, as reported in the literature and measured by us. Hence, the depth of snowpack investigated in the mentioned paper is practically difficult to achieve using conventional loudspeaker and microphone. Also, it has been explained how the cross-correlation peak width and, hence, the layer resolution achieved by the authors of the mentioned paper is not practically feasible by their reported method. We have also demonstrated that Wiener spiking deconvolution-based technique is not able to obtain the sharp peaks as shown in the mentioned paper.

The water resource management is a present need for sustaining the living environment on a watershed. The anthropological activities on any watershed cause resources imbalance that eventually affects the watershed performance. Remote sensing and geographical information system are the powerful tools to identify such changes in the watershed either by natural causes and/or by human intervention. Such knowledge is useful for scientific planning and management of watershed. The present study has been highlighted the morphometric analysis with land use and land cover (LULC) changes and hydrologic performance during 2001 and 2011 over the Champua watershed of Upper Baitarani river basin, Odisha, India. The various parameters of morphometry which cause soil erosion have been evaluated and are used to prioritize the sub-watersheds. Also, LULC changes from two satellite imaginaries of the years 2001 and 2011 have been classified and percentage area changes of the respective classes for the sub-watersheds over one decade have been estimated. Then, various land features which would increase runoff and cause more soil erosion have been evaluated to prioritize the sub-watershed. Finally, prioritization is assigned for sub-watersheds, according to severity effects due to morphometric parameter and LULC changes. To archive for management point of view, the conservation practices or measures are recommended as per their final priority. These results obtained from prioritization of sub-watershed would be useful for hydraulic engineers for planning and management.

Odisha State is located in eastern part of India which is blessed with sufficient amount of rainfall. Major part of the state is covered by Mahanadi river basin; Mahanadi river basin originated from Sihawa town and disposed out to Bay of Bengal near Sambalpur, Odisha State. The distribution pattern is erratic and uneven due to climate, topography, hydrology and geomorphology of the state. Catchment area of the Mahanadi is vast; therefore, drainage order is also high (about six); due to these features large amount of water has generated, and it will be appeared as flood at downstream through deltaic region to Bay of Bengal. In this connection, water resources planning and management are one of the crucial issues. For any hydrological study, it is necessary to identify the characteristics and climatic variability of the catchment. In the present study, long-term (1901–2013) rainfall time series has been utilized for rainfall variability analysis using nonparametric tests, viz. Mann–Kendall (MK), modified Mann–Kendall (MMK) and Theil–Sen’s slope. The average annual rainfall of the Odisha State is to be found as about 1438 mm; out of them, about 78% occurs in the monsoon season. In the present study, it was found that the maximum and minimum rainfalls occurred at Bhadrak and Puri districts, respectively. As per change point detection, it was found to be as 1945 is shift change year. Further, it was noticed that most of the districts are showing positive trends before change point and vice versa. Similar results are estimated in the monsoon season because most of the rainfall has occurred in the monsoon season. Both positive and negative trends have been found in Odisha State; detailed study has been carried out for rainfall behavior identification of the state. The present study is useful for agricultural and water resources planning and mitigation.

The rainfall forecast of global forecasting system (GFS) model running at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), i.e., GFS T574 (25 km) and GFS T1534 (12.5 km) is verified at its natural resolution. A verification study is conducted for the rainfall forecast over Indian window during the summer monsoon season (June–September) 2016. Regional verification of rainfall forecast was also carried out over five homogeneous regions of India, i.e., north India, west coast of India, northeast India, central India and peninsular India. The skill of the model forecast is also evaluated for yes/no, categorical and few heavy rainfall cases over India. Results show that both T1534 and T574 models are able to provide more realistic spatial distribution of seasonal mean rainfall over India. This study also shows that both the model forecasts are skillful in capturing the 24 h accumulated rainfall over climatologically heavy rainfall regions, but the magnitude and location fluctuated. The rainfall forecast for different rainfall categories in terms of different statistical skill scores, i.e., ratio score, HK, bias, hit rate and HKQ showed a relatively high skill for T1534 compared to T574 over most parts of the country from the day 1 to day 5 forecasts. It is also found from this study that the skill in predicting day 1 to day 3 forecasts of both the models was found to be good and usable for all parts of the country except for high terrain regions in India. The results documented here are expected to be useful to the operational forecasters in day-to-day weather forecasting over Indian monsoon regions.

Rising carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration causes fertilization effects resulting in enhanced crop biomass and yields and thus likely enhances nutrient demand of plants. Hence, this field study was carried out to investigate the effects of elevated CO₂ and N on biomass yield, nutrient partitioning, and uptake of major nutrients by soybean (Glycine max L.) using open‐top chambers (OTCs) of 4 m × 4 m size. Soybean was grown in OTCs under two CO₂ [ambient and elevated (535 ± 36.9 mg L⁻¹)] and four N levels during July to October 2016. The four N levels were N₀, N₅₀, N₁₀₀, and N₁₅₀ referring to 0, 50, 100, and 150% recommended dose of N. Both CO₂ and N significantly affected biomass and grain yield, though the interaction was non‐significant. CO₂ enrichment produced 30–65% higher biomass and 26–59% higher grain yield under various N levels. As compared to the optimum N application (N₁₀₀), the CO₂‐mediated increment in biomass yield decreased with either lower or higher N application, with the response being lowest at N₁₅₀. As compared to ambient concentration, elevated CO₂ resulted in significant reduction of seed P concentration at all N application levels but at N₁₅₀, an opposite trend was observed. The decrease in seed P was maximum at N₀ and N₅₀ (7–9%) and by 3% at N₁₀₀, whereas there was a gain of 7.5% at N₁₅₀. The seed N and K concentrations were not affected either by CO₂ or N application. Total N, P, and K uptake at harvest were significantly affected by CO₂ and N, but not by CO₂ × N interaction. Elevated CO₂ resulted higher uptake of N by 18–61%, P by 23–62%, and K by 22–62% under various N treatments.

The advent of Forward Osmosis (FO) has ushered in a new revolution in the field of membrane technology. Besides the oft-studied application of water purification, FO has opened up new frontiers of research in diverse fields. All of them are potentially sustainable technology solutions characterized by a high degree of process intensification. It is interesting to imagine different avenues where the potent combination of membrane technology and osmotic gradient can be used. This brief review evaluates four such emerging applications of FO; viz: Membrane Crystallization, Osmotic Pumps, Energy Production, and Membrane Evaporation which will be considered as the most important in the near future. All four aforesaid applications were critically reviewed with respect to the principle of operation, process design fundamentals, cost distribution, tangible benefits over conventional alternatives and commercial ventures around the world. Comparative assessments of transport flux, yield, configuration, and membrane module was carried out. Several issues relating to performance, hydrodynamics and scale up designs were analyzed with special emphasis on concentration polarization, flux decline, nature of the membrane.

There are many places in the different countries of the world where working in the underground mines have been done below surface structures such as railway lines, roads, buildings, villages/residential colonies, pipelines, etc. The workings are generally old, abandoned and presently unapproachable. In some places, important delicate surface structures are installed above a portion of old abandoned underground workings. Safety of these important surface structures above old underground mine workings is a serious concern in many countries all over the world. Many times, it is difficult to move or divert these surface structures due to a number of reasons including technical problems, the involvement of huge expenditures and socio-economic issues. There is a need to assess the stability of these places and the procedure to stabilise the places if found unstable to make the structures safe. Hence, there is a need of proper stability assessment of the ground below these surface structures. The railway line is one of such important structures, where stability should be ensured for the safety of the passengers. In India, many underground workings are present below railway lines. Most of the workings are old and unapproachable and their stability status is in doubt. Dismantling or diverting of the important railway lines is a high-level policy matter and involves huge time and money besides complicated socio-political issues like the rehabilitation of the affected people. But the safety of the commuters using railways passing over the coal-bearing areas having mining activities cannot be compromised. Therefore, it is highly preferable to take protective measures instead of dismantling and diversion of lines, wherever possible. It is necessary to establish the position and dimension of the inaccessible underground workings below these types of important surface structures and carry out its stability analysis to take appropriate protective measures for the safety of the structures and commuters. This paper highlights the delineation procedure of the unapproachable underground roadways below surface structures with special reference to railway lines and its stability evaluation with case studies. Appropriate protective measures have also been suggested which are proved to be effective and validated the results of the study.

Since 2002, Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite has provided monthly estimates of land water storage variations by monitoring time-variable components of earth's gravity field. We present GRACE satellite RL05 gravity data at 1° × 1° resolution to estimate terrestrial water storage change (surface water + groundwater) over India during Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) and Northeast (NE) monsoon periods for the year 2015. As the NE monsoon was above normal in 2015, groundwater storage has increased significantly. By using GLDAS2.1 (1° × 1° resolution data) land surface state variables, we deduced as to how Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) is partitioned into canopy water and soil moisture components. By computing storage changes in GRACE TWS, Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) land surface state variables and by using a terrestrial-based water balance approach, we calculated changes in the groundwater storage. The GRACE data indicate the variation of 15 cm in the TWS during the ISM period over India and a gain of 2.35 cm NE season over Peninsular India. After the ISM season, the groundwater storage was increased by 13 cm over India and 6.45 cm during the NE monsoon over Peninsular India. We also observed a high run-off (sub-surface + surface) rate in both the monsoon periods. The accumulated rainfall over India was estimated as 76.58 cm out of which 33.8 cm was computed as run-off (ISM season). Similarly, the mean rainfall in Peninsu lar India was calculated as 8 cm out of which 3.86 cm was approximated as run-off (NE monsoon season).

The increasing demand for pre-pouring melt quality evaluation by thermal analysis has led to some important breakthroughs in understanding the solidification of spheroidal graphite cast iron (SGI). The two important parameters which characterize the solidification cooling curve of SGI are temperature of eutectic undercooling (TEU) temperature of eutectic recalescence (TER). In this study, the response of preconditioning treatment (0.1% Al,Zr,Ca–FeSi) on TEU and TER was investigated in several samples from different heats. It was found that preconditioning increases both TEU and TER. The average eutectic graphitization ability after preconditioning was found to increase from 60 to 75. The average undercooling (∆T) and recalescence (∆Tr) in preconditioned samples were 12 °C and 2 °C, whereas in samples without preconditioning average ∆T and ∆Tr are 19 °C and 7 °C, respectively. Preconditioning improves graphitization ability thereby increasing the graphite nodule count. The actual nodule count of SG iron samples obtained by image analysis was found to be in agreement with that of nodule counts predicted by thermal analysis.

We observed the TeV blazar Mrk421 in the very high energy (VHE) region with TACTIC from 21 December, 2014 to 21 February, 2015. The VHE γ-ray signal is detected from the source at a statistical significance of ∼ 9σ with 648 ± 74 γ-ray like events using a total observation time of 65.6 h of clean data. To denote the active period of the source, the entire observation has been divided into two spells: Spell I (21–30 December, 2014; MJD: 57012–57021) and Spell II (15 January-21 February, 2015; MJD: 57037–57074). The Spell I corresponds to relatively higher activity state wherein 337 ± 47 γ-rays are detected at a statistical significance of 7.39σ in 21.7 h. During Spell II, 311 ± 57 γ-ray events have been detected in ∼ 44c at a statistical significance of 5.6σ. The analysis of high energy (HE) γ-ray data from Fermi-LAT has been carried out for the period of TACTIC observations. In addition, near simultaneous multi-wavelength data from Swift-BAT and MAXI in the X-ray region, SPOL in optical V-band and OVRO at 15 GHz radio band have also been considered. The HE γ-ray and optical observations indicate variability during both the spells whereas hard X-ray observations are consistent with the average emission through out the TACTIC observations. The broad-band spectral energy distributions of the source are reproduced by single zone homogeneous synchrotron self Compton process for the two spells. The model parameters estimated for the two spells are similar except for the particle energy density which is obtained to be slightly higher during Spell I.

One-dimensional hydrodynamic models overestimate river cross-section derived from freely available SRTM DEMs. The present study aims to minimize the overestimation of river flow. DEM-extracted cross-sections obtained from 30 m and 90 m resolutions show higher elevation values than the actual river cross sections of Krishna and Bhima rivers, India. To minimize the overestimation of the river flow, DEM-extracted cross-sections are modified using known cross-section of the river. The corrections for cross sections extracted from DEM, are obtained by subtracting the DEM-derived cross-sections from a known cross-section of the river. Monsoons flows that occurred in years 2006 and 2009 in Krishna and Bhimariver have been used for modeling. The MIKE HYDRO River model performance with modified DEM-extracted cross-sections of river improves as the correlation coefficient, root mean square error, index of agreement, Nash Sutcliffe efficiency & Percentage deviation in peak (%) values are improved.

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2015 and 2016 at research farm of the ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute Regional Station Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar to determine the foliar feeding of micronutrients (iron and zinc at different growth stages) on growth, yield and economics of rice in middle Gangetic plains of Bihar. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design consisting of 9 treatments with 3 replications. The treatments consist of 0.5% spray of Zinc Sulphate and 1% spray of Ferrous Sulphate at four different growth stages i.e. 40, 50, 60 and 70 days after transplanting (DAT) and one control. The results shown significant increasing trends of growth, yield attributes and yield of rice with four sprays of 1.0% solution of FeSO4 at 40, 50, 60 and 70 days and three sprays of ZnSO4 at 50, 60 and 70 days recorded significantly higher plant height, effective tillers/m2, panicle length, grains/panicle, 1,000-grain weight, biological yield, grain yield and straw yield at maturity. These treatments also gave significantly higher net returns and benefit: cost ratio over the control.

Acid mine water was treated with fly ash zeolite (FAZ), followed by different active chemicals to know its suitability for crops. Acid mine drainage (AMD) was obtained from Gorbi abandoned opencast mines of Singrauli, Northern Coalfields (NCL), India. The AMD was treated with 20 g/l dosing of fly ash zeolite, followed by different precipitating chemicals, using different doses of Ba(OH)2, BaCO3 and Ca(OH)2. The doses of 1.0 g/l Ba(OH)2, 1.5 g/l BaCO3 and 0.5 g/l Ca(OH)2 were used. The treatment with FAZ, followed by 1.0 g/l of Ba(OH)2, converted the water quality of AMD to the permissible level. The electrical conductivity (EC), percentage of sodium and metals found at the permissible level indicated the suitability of mine water for agriculture use. AMD treated directly with 1.0 g/l of Ba(OH)2 was found unsuitable for agriculture use. The treatment with FAZ and followed by BaCO3 (1.5 g/l) explained that the water quality was not at the permissible level and unsuitable for agriculture use. AMD treated directly with 1.5 g/l of BaCO3 was also found unsuitable for agriculture. The treatment with FAZ, and followed by 0.5 g/l dosing of Ca(OH)2, also showed water quality not at the permissible level. The conductivity, total salt content (as TDS) and sulfate values increased or decreased minimally, and there was an increase in the concentrations of total hardness and calcium hardness in the final treated mine water. The direct dosing with 0.5 g/l of Ca(OH)2 made AMD unsuitable for agriculture use. Treatment with 20 g/l FAZ followed by 1.0 g/l of Ba(OH)2 produced the treated AMD suitable for agriculture use.

The field of ground-based γ-ray astronomy has made very significant advances over the last three decades with the extremely successful operations of several atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes worldwide. The advent of the imaging Cherenkov technique for indirect detection of cosmic γ rays has immensely contributed to this field with the discovery of more than 220 γ-ray sources in the Universe. This has greatly improved our understanding of the various astrophysical processes involved in the non-thermal emission at energies above 100 GeV. In this paper, we summarize the important results achieved by the Indian γ-ray astronomers from the GeV-TeV observations using imaging Cherenkov telescopes over the last two decades. We mainly emphasize the results obtained from the observations of active galactic nuclei with the TACTIC (TeV Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope with Imaging Camera) telescope, which has been operational since 1997 at Mount Abu, India. We also discuss the future plans of the Indian γ-ray astronomy program with special focus on the scientific objectives of the recently installed 21 m diameter MACE (Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment) telescope at Hanle, India.

The structural integrity of composites faces severe challenge in the form of environmental extremes. Therefore, its performance in those cases were of great interest. In the present work, flexural strength of glass/epoxy composites were analysed in the environment of thermal shock generated by cryogenic exposure as well by thermal conditioning. Four cases were chosen, room temperature (RT), cryogenic conditioning (LN), thermal conditioning below (BG) and above glass transition temperature (AG). The exposure time for all the environments was kept constant at 24 hours. These responses are investigated with two sets of loading rates (i) 1 mm/minute and (ii) 10 mm/min. The experimental results indicate that; all three scenarios deeply impact the flexural response of the specimen. The first set experiences changes in flexural strength, strain, and chord modulus by (2.75, -8.52, 11.32), (21.36, 39.75, -6.47), (-35.8, -11.37, -22.94) % with LN, BG and AG condition respectively. Moreover, with high rate of loading these responses change by (-23.89, -28.41, -5.17), (-37.45, -43.56, -1.86), (-19.4, -27.46, 16.37) % respectively. The prolonged exposure indicates a strain hardening phenomenon in LN specimen, which improves the flexural strength with a 1 mm/min loading rate. However, this plasticization of the specimen was unable to bear the load at an elevated rate of loading, and therefore a loss in all the properties is seen with a 10 mm/min loading rate. Therefore, it is anticipated that the properties will further deteriorate with a higher rate of loadings.

AR Sco is a close compact binary system that shows non-thermal, pulsed and highly linear polarized emission. In this study, a search for high energy gamma-ray emission was conducted between 100 MeV - 500 GeV by analysing the newly available Fermi-LAT Pass 8 data with the new Fermi 1.0.1 Science Tools. Binned likelihood analysis was performed using power law, broken power law and log parabola models. From the selected Region of Interest (ROI) centred on AR Sco’s position, we calculated a statistical significance of √TS ≤ 4.31σ for the integrated gamma-ray activity between 100 MeV - 500 GeV at a photon flux level of (4.39 ± 3.24) x 10^−9 ph cm^−2 s^−1 using the broken power law model. This resulted in a 2σ upper-limit detection from the position of AR Sco. Unbinned likelihood analysis was also done to maximize the probability of detection from this faint gamma-ray emitting region, resulting in a statistical √TS ≤ 3.69σ using a broken power law model with an associated photon flux level of (3.05 ± 1.60) x 10^−9 ph cm^−2 s^−1.

We present the preliminary results of the search for gamma$-$ray emission from the novalike variable AE Aquarii using the upgraded Fermi$-$LAT Pass 8 data set. A previous study using the Fermi$-$LAT Pass 7 data pipeline showed indications of a low$-$level, but consistent, pulsed emission at a period of 16.54 s, which is the first harmonic of the 33.08 s spin period of the white dwarf. Here we report our findings of a follow$-$up study utilizing the Pass 8 data, which uses an improved galactic diffuse gamma$-$ray emission model as well as more inclusive selection criteria. Thus far no clear detection of any significant gamma$-$ray excess from AE Aqr in the Fermi$-$LAT energy range has been made. However, there are some energy bins with significance just above 2$\sigma$. This significance value is below the Fermi$-$LAT detection limit that signifies a clear 4$-$5 $\sigma$ detection and can only be considered as a 2 $\sigma$ upper$-$limit. The corresponding upper limit of the integrated energy flux above 100 MeV is $F_{\gamma} \sim 4 \times$10$^{-13} \mbox{erg} \, \mbox{cm}^{-2} \, \mbox{s}^{-1}$ which is determined at the 99.995 $\%$ confidence level. However, indications of low$-$level pulsed modulation is found at, or close to, the 33.08 s spin period of the white dwarf in a few two$-$week data sections with higher than average TS values, which is promising for possible future follow$-$up studies with the Cherenkov Telescope Array.

Analysis of non-uniqueness model in resistivity imaging data is vital in inaugurating the consistency of models. Nevertheless, such analysis is moderately unusual in resistivity imaging data set. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) technique is being constantly used in many scientific areas including engineering, environmental and archaeological survey. Primarily, the inversion algorithm techniques are employed on synthetic model data set with and without some random Gaussian noise, and its validity is tested by filed data set. The study was conducted in the premises of Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR), Dhanbad by laying an ERT profile of 480 m length with 5 m electrode spacing using Syscal Pro (Iris instrument) resistivity meter. Two standard arrays were used in this study namely Wenner-Schlumberger and dipole-dipole array. The data set was mixed to a single array to achieve better resolution and enhanced clarification. On processing data by Prosys-II software, it was exported in Res2Dinv software for inversion. In this context, data was inverted by different algorithm techniques i.e. least square (L2-norm) and robust inversion (L1-norm). Exemplary results related to the heterogeneity of the resistivity structure within the high and low resistivity anomaly were obtained by robust inversion method. The obtained results are in broad agreement with the simulation model.

In this work, we have analyzed the $\gamma$-ray data in the energy range 100 MeV to 500 GeV from the \emph{Fermi}-Large Area Telescope (LAT) observations for the period August 4, 2008 to March 31, 2019. The $\gamma$-ray emission from AR Scorpii over the last decade is not statistically significant and therefore 2$\sigma$ upper limit on the integral flux above 100 MeV has been estimated. We reproduce the non-thermal broadband spectral energy distribution of AR Scorpii using an emission model having two synchrotron components due to the relativistic electrons in very high magnetic fields. The first component (Synchrotron-1) broadly describes the emissions at radio to high energy X-rays through the synchrotron radiation originating from a spherical region of radius $\sim$ 1.8$\times$10$^{10}$ cm and a magnetic field strength of $\sim$ 10$^3$ Gauss. The second component (Synchrotron-2) which reproduces the X-ray emission at lower energies and predicts the $\gamma$-ray emission, originates from another spherical region with radius $\sim$ 1.4$\times$10$^{10}$ cm and a magnetic field strength of $\sim$ 10$^6$ Gauss. The relativistic electron populations in both the emission regions are described by a smooth broken power law energy distribution. The $\gamma$-ray emission predicted by the Synchrotron-2 model is below the broadband sensitivity of the \emph{Fermi}-LAT and is also consistent with the 95$\%$ confidence level upper limit on the integral flux above 100 MeV derived from more than 10 years of observations. According to our model, the binary system AR Scorpii could be a $\gamma$-ray source, although its emission level must be below the current detection limit of the \emph{Fermi}-LAT., Comment: 15 Pages, 2 Figures, 1 Table, Accepted for Publication in Astroparticle Physics