Search

The elastic properties of crystals at high temperature are of significant interest as they affect the mechanical stability and performance of materials at elevated temperatures. In present study a theory for evaluating the temperature variation of second third and fourth order elastic constants for face centred cubic crystal structure solids is used on the basis of Coulomb and Born-Mayer potential using nearest-neighbour distance and hardness parameter. The theory is first applied to get the second order elastic constants (SOECs) and third order elastic contants (TOECs) for TiC and TiN crystals at different temperatures up to 500 K. In addition, the elastic constants thus obtained are used to evaluate the first order pressure derivatives (FOPDs) SOECs and TOECs. The elastic properties of these crystals at high temperature are of significant interest and are related to other important material properties such as thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, phase transformations, creep behaviour, oxidation resistance, and high-temperature strength.The results obtained show that the second order elastic constants and third order elastic constants of TiC are highest, so mechanical properties of TiC will be better than TiN, which makes it stiffer and more resistant to deformation under an applied load. These properties make TiC a popular material for cutting tools, wear-resistant coatings, and other high-performance applications.

A theoretical model of the equation of state based on Eulerian finite theory for high pressure has recently been reported by Singh et al. The adopted model successfully predicted the elastic properties of geophysical minerals and prototype solids and the results were also found favourable with experimental data. We have derived the expression for pressure dependence elastic moduli using the proposed model of the equation of state. In this study, the elastic constants of two hcp-transition metals ∼ Co and Re as function of pressure are computed using these formulated expressions. The obtained high-pressure elastic constants are found to be well consistent with the previous theoretical results and show a good agreement with the experimental results. As a result, the present study may play a vital role in geophysical applications.

The world receives more than 200 thousand people in a day and it is expected that the total world population will reach 9.6 billion by the year 2050. This will result in extra food demand, which can only be met from enhanced crop yield. Therefore, modernization of the agricultural sector becomes the need of the hour. There are many constraints that are responsible for the low production of crops, which can be overcome by using drone technology in the agriculture sector. This paper presents an analysis of drone technologies and their modifications with time in the agriculture sector in the last decade. The application of drones in the area of crop monitoring, and pesticide spraying for Precision Agriculture (PA) has been covered. The work done related to drone structure, multiple sensor development, innovation in spot area spraying has been presented. Moreover, the use of Artificial Intelligent (AI) and deep learning for the remote monitoring of crops has been discussed.

The unregulated use of groundwater for irrigation has led to declining water tables since the extraction rate is more than its recharge. As informal groundwater trading for irrigation has been prevalent in Western Uttar Pradesh, India, for a long time, there is a potential of introducing an organised groundwater irrigation market. Creating a hypothetical organized groundwater market, by following the contingent valuation approach, the present study evaluates the farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for groundwater irrigation and the factors determining the same. By collecting primary data from 300 farm households through an interview schedule, the study follows an iterative bidding method for eliciting the farmers’ WTP for the direct use-value of groundwater. The Heckman two-step model is used to estimate the average WTP and its determinants in order to mitigate the impact of sample selectivity bias. The results show that most of the farmers (86%) are willing to contribute to irrigation water reforms in the form of organised water market. The estimated value of WTP for groundwater irrigation is found to be INR 39.30 per hour in the case of 7.5 horsepower tube-well. Moreover, factors like the administrative block, education, social group, land size, primary crop, perception on water scarcity, and perception on water meters significantly impact the maximum WTP for groundwater irrigation. Interestingly, the WTP of tube-well owners who are not involved in groundwater trading is found to be 23% lower than that of groundwater buyers who are primarily marginal and small land holders, implying that even resource-poor farmers are willing to pay higher prices, if reliable groundwater irrigation is ensured.

In this study, the clogging mechanism of pervious concrete was evaluated using three different cloggers such as, Sand (S), Clay (C), and combination of sand and clay (S &C). The clogging mechanism was performed through falling head permeability apparatus, using clogger sediment load at the rate of 50, 150, and 200 grams in repetitive clogging cycles. It was observed from the results that combined (S & C) clogger shows overall critical results of clogging as 80% of the clogging was seen in 3 to 4 cycles. Moreover, it was observed from the results that pervious concrete mix made with R- type of aggregate gradation shows optimum compressive strength of the order of 8.6, 15.9, and 17 MPa at 7, 28 and 56 days of curing. Furthermore, the visual inspection test shows that clogging by clay clogger shows an even distribution of sediment on the whole length of the sample.

Polyhalite popularly known as POLY4 is a multi-nutrient fertiliser containing K, S, Mg, Ca, and micronutrients. POLY4 has a low carbon footprint, is certified for organic agriculture, and has the potential to improve crop productivity and quality attributes Indian mustard which often faces challenges due to imbalanced nutrition supplied in the current fertilisation schedule. The hypothesis of the study was that the multi-nutrient fartiliser POLY4 can ensure balanced nutrition for Indian mustard. Considering this, a field experiment was conducted during the winter seasons of 2017–18 and 2018–19 to evaluate the effect of POLY4 on Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.) with respect to its yield, quality, and nutrient uptake. POLY4 along with conventional sources of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) was compared to recommended fertilisation practices from conventional sources of N, P, K namely urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), and muriate of potash (KCl). With the application of POLY4, seed yield was significantly improved by about 600 kg ha−1 compared to NP control (no application of K and S) across the two seasons. Compared to recommended practice of NPK, the yield was increased by about 450 kg ha−1 with the application of POLY4. Mustard seed oil and protein percent were also improved with the use of POLY4. POLY4 did not have any adverse effect on the content of anti-nutritional factors and improved the omega-3 fatty acid content of mustard oil. Higher uptakes of macro and micronutrients in the crop were also recorded with POLY4 along with an improved soil nutrient status. From the economic point of view, it was also observed that the application of POLY4 resulted in an increment of net returns of USD 45–60 comparing cultivating mustard with the conventional N, P, K, and S fertilizers only. Therefore, the use of POLY4 as a source of multi-nutrient for balanced nutrition helped to increase the efficiency of applied nutrients which ultimately improved the yield and quality of mustard. This study exhibits the pioneer findings of polyhalite (POLY4) based balanced nutrition in Indian mustard.

This article emphasis the effective use of coals ashes in concrete which were generally dumped or used for low profile applications in early times. In meantime with profound studies, researchers started using coal ashes such as Fly Ash (FA), Coal Bottom Ash (CBA) and Pond Ash (PA) in concrete to reduce the dumped land sites to attain sustainable environment. Moreover, utilization of coal ashes in concrete overcome the risk of depletion of natural resources and also helps in to reduce the carbon emissions. Therefore, the current article presents a systematic review of 209 studies related to utilization of coal ashes which were carried out over a period of 70 years ranging from 1950 to present time. The performance of coal ashes (i.e., FA, CBA and PA) in concrete in terms of fresh properties such as water requirements and consistency of cement paste, workability of different concretes i.e., Normally Vibrated Concrete (NVC), Self Compacting Concrete (SCC) containing natural and recycled aggregates is critically evaluated and summarized. Further, the mechanical properties such as compressive strength and tensile strength and durability properties dealing from permeability consideration of concrete to chemical attack are also reviewed in this article. The different studies revealed that incorporation of FA in concrete as supplementary cementing material enhances the workability properties, mechanical strength and durable properties due to their fineness and pozzolanic effect. Similarly, CBA also gave positive results when used as fine aggregates in appropriate content in concrete.

Pervious concrete is a special type of concrete, achieved by either minimizing or excluding the sand from the normal concrete mix. In recent years, the practice of pervious concrete as a pavement material in small volume roads and parking lots has added much significance due to its constructive and eco-friendly characteristics. It is used to lessen the problem of local flooding in municipal areas and is significant tool to lessen the burden of municipal drainage system. This paper reviews the various properties, factors controlling the performance of pervious concrete, clogging mechanism and de-clogging techniques and lastly the factors that enhance the life span and properties of durability of pervious concrete are discussed. Durability tests of pervious concrete like, permeability, surface abrasion, freeze thaw and thermal conductivity are discussed. Furthermore, controlling factors such as water to cement ratio, aggregates, admixtures, compaction and curing are also discussed in this review. There occurs an expensive range for future research to recognize the better material that will make it a favorable ecological roadway material for high speed and high-volume traffic in coming times.

Abiotic stresses like high temperature, cold, freezing, drought, salinity, flooding or oxidizing agents cause significant loss in the crop yield and quality. Abiotic stresses cause reactive oxygen species (ROS) production such as singlet oxygen (1O2), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), superoxide radical (O2•−), hydroxyl radical (OH-), etc., that leads to a significant reduction of crop yield. A major source of ROS production in plants through aerobic metabolism is chloroplast, mitochondria, and peroxisome. The tripartite interactions involving Trichoderma- Phytopathogen-Host have received less attention in contrast to the plant–antagonist, plant–pathogen or pathogen–antagonist interactions. This article explores the possibilities of employing thermotolerant strains of agriculturally important microorganisms (AIMs) for alleviating the oxidative stress induced due heat stress in crops by modulating oxidative and defense network of the host.

This paper measures the technical efficiency, super-efficiency, slacks, and input/output targets for large Indian pharmaceutical firms according to ownership by applying Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach. The paper uses raw material, salaries & wages, advertisement & marketing and capital usage cost as input variables and net sales revenue as output variable. The super-efficiency model is applied to rank firms on the basis of efficiency scores. The paper finds that mean overall technical efficiency scores of Private Indian and Private Foreign are higher than Group-owned firms, suggesting that type of ownership affects the performance of a given firm. Further, foreign firms were found to have minimum slacks in inputs, evidently owing to their superior technology, better engineering skills and managerial practices. The study suggests that the inputs, such as, advertisement & marketing expenditure, and also the usage of labour and capital are required to be utilized far more productively in order to improve efficiency.

3D city model is a digital representation of the Earth's surface and it’s related objects such as building, tree, vegetation, and some manmade feature belonging to urban area. The demand of 3D city modeling is increasing day to day for various engineering and non-engineering applications. Generally three main image based approaches are using for virtual 3D city models generation. In first approach, researchers used Sketch based modeling, second method is Procedural grammar based modeling and third approach is Close range photogrammetry based modeling. Literature study shows that till date, there is no complete solution available to create complete 3D city model by using images. These image based methods also have limitations This paper gives a new approach towards image based virtual 3D city modeling by using close range photogrammetry. This approach is divided into three sections. First, data acquisition process, second is 3D data processing, and third is data combination process. In data acquisition process, a multi-camera setup developed and used for video recording of an area. Image frames created from video data. Minimum required and suitable video image frame selected for 3D processing. In second section, based on close range photogrammetric principles and computer vision techniques, 3D model of area created. In third section, this 3D model exported to adding and merging of other pieces of large area. Scaling and alignment of 3D model was done. After applying the texturing and rendering on this model, a final photo-realistic textured 3D model created. This 3D model transferred into walk-through model or in movie form. Most of the processing steps are automatic. So this method is cost effective and less laborious. Accuracy of this model is good. For this research work, study area is the campus of department of civil engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. This campus acts as a prototype for city. Aerial photography is restricted in many country and high resolution satellite images are costly. In this study, proposed method is based on only simple video recording of area. Thus this proposed method is suitable for 3D city modeling. Photo-realistic, scalable, geo-referenced virtual 3D city model is useful for various kinds of applications such as for planning in navigation, tourism, disasters management, transportations, municipality, urban and environmental managements, real-estate industry. Thus this study will provide a good roadmap for geomatics community to create photo-realistic virtual 3D city model by using close range photogrammetry.

Background: Falciparum malaria has been constantly associated with high morbidity and mortality for a long time. Vivax malaria, which was once thought to be a relatively benign condition, is appearing in its more malignant form, with severity gradually becoming a serious concern. Aim: This study is aimed to find out and compare the clinical and pathological manifestations of vivax and falciparum malaria in pediatric age group in Uttarakhand. Setting and Design: A prospective study was carried out at a tertiary care hospital of a medical college in Uttarakhand, India. Material and Methods: This study was done for a period of 2 years, from December 2010 to November 2012. Patients of 18 years age or below from Uttarakhand and nearby regions, who were smear positive or antigen positive were included in the study. Statistical Analysis: p value was calculated using Pearson Chisquare with Yates correction by DAG stat software. Result: Eighty Five patients were found to be suffering from malaria. 61 (71.8%) had vivax malaria, while 24 (28.2%) patients suffered from falciparum. Larger majority of malaria patients in both the groups happened to be males. The detailed study of morbidity profile clearly establishes that the complication related severity, earlier attributed to only falciparum is equally seen in vivax. Thrombocytopenia was the commonest finding in both. Other complications seen in both groups were those of cerebral malaria, severe anemia, ARDS, renal failure, malarial hepatitis, leucocytopenia, pancytopenia, shock with multiorgan dysfunction and hemoglobinuria. Even the mortality in the two groups was of the same order as p value calculated for the difference between the two species was well above 0.05. Conclusion: Vivax malaria is an important cause of mortality and morbidity. The severity of illness is almost similar in both vivax and falciparum malaria.

In this paper, fuzzy logic is meshed with sliding mode control, in order to control vibrations of a cantilevered plate. Test plate is instrumented with a piezoelectric sensor patch and a piezoelectric actuator patch. Finite element method is used to obtain mathematical model of the test plate. A design approach of a sliding mode controller for linear systems with mismatched time-varying uncertainties is used in this paper. It is found that chattering around the sliding surface in the sliding mode control can be checked by the proposed fuzzy sliding mode control approach. With presented fuzzy sliding mode approach the actuator voltage time response has a smooth decay. This is important because an abrupt decay can excite higher modes in the structure. Fuzzy rule base consisting of nine rules, is generated from the sliding mode inequality. Experimental implementation of the control approach verify the theoretical findings. For experimental implementation, size of the problem is reduced using modal truncation technique. Modal displacements as well as velocities of first two modes are observed using real-time kalman observer. Real time implementation of fuzzy logic based control has always been a challenge because a given set of rules has to be executed in every sampling interval. Results in this paper establish feasibility of experimental implementation of presented fuzzy logic based controller for active vibration control.

Coconut hispine beetle, Brontispa longissima (Gestro) was originally described from the Aru Islands (Maluku Province). It is native to Indonesia (Aru Islands, Maluku Province and possibly to Papua Province formerly known as Irian Jaya), and also to Papua New Guinea, including the Bismarck Archipelago, where it seldom causes serious problems. It has now spread widely in Asia, Australasia and Pacific Islands attacking not only coconut palm but also several other cultivated and wild palms. In recent times it has spread to Singapore, Vietnam, Nauru, Thailand, Maldives and Hainan Island (China). In the absence of natural antagonists it has become a very serious and devastating pest in new areas of its spread. It is feared that B. longissima will find its way from Maldives to Sri Lanka and southern parts of India to derail the economy of these important coconut-growing regions of the world. Thus emergency operations are necessary to try to decimate it down in the Maldives. A number of natural enemies such as Hispidophila (Haeckeliania) brontispae Ferriere, Ooncyrtus podontiae Gahan, Trichogrammatoidea nana Zehntner, Tetrastichus brontispae Ferriere, Asecodes hispinarum Boucek, Chrysonotomyia sp., Metarhizium anisopliae (Metchnikoff) Sorokin, Chelisoches morio Fabricius, Oecophylla smaragdina (Fabricious), mites on adults (Anoplocelaeno sp. and Celaenopsis sp.), geckoes, skinks, tree frog and unidentified bacterial pathogen have been recorded. Biological control by introduction and enhancement of parasitoids- A. hispinarum and T. brontispae has proved very effective. Similarly spray of improved strains of entomopathogenic fungus, M. anisopliae has proved effective. Exploratory surveys for parasitoids in the original home of B. longissima are suggested.