Hydrobiological variables as a regulatory factor on the abundance of heterotrophic flagellates in an urban pond

The seasonal abundance of flagellates has been monitored over a period of 1 year from December2013 to November 2014(divided into 4 conjugative seasons namely winter, spring, summer, and autumn) in an experimental pond located in Rajshahi City Corporation area, Bangladesh. To our knowledge, this study is the first to shed light on the occurrence and possible interrelationships among heterotrophic flagellates(HF),bacteria and zooplankton in Bangladesh and the result obtained by this study will be beneficial for similar water ecosystem all over the world. Standard methods were used to determine the prescribed hydrological parameters and zooplankton cell density. Maximum HF abundance(14 346.00 cells/mL) was found in the spring and the minimum(5 215.00 cells/mL) occurred in the summer. Inverse to HF, significantly(P0.05)higher zooplankton abundance was found during the winter(782.00±47.62 cells/mL) and the lowest value was found in the autumn(448.00±39.15 cells/mL). Whereas similar to the HF, total bacterial abundance was significantly higher during the spring((2.25±1.05)×10~5 cells/mL) and lower in the summer((0.79±0.06)×105 cells/mL). Multivariate analyses(ANOSIM and MDS) have shown significant seasonal differences for cell numbers where MDS ordination plot and cluster analysis based on similarity in the genera abundance of HF revealed overlapping condition between winter and spring. Canonical correspondence analysis(CCA) also showed a distinct separation among the genera based on the prevailing hydrological situation and indicated that temperature, pH, BOD_5, and NO_3~- were the most important environmental variables in determining the observed variation in HF community structure. Among the biological factors, zooplankton showed negative but total bacteria were positively correlated with HF abundance.     

Risk Assessment,Emergency Preparedness and Response to Hazards: The Case of the 1997 Red River Valley Flood,Canada

The prevention and/or mitigation offlood disasters requires continual research, numerouscapital investment decisions, and high-qualitymaintenance and modifications of flood-controlstructures. In addition, institutional and privatepreparedness is needed. The experience offlood-control in North America has shown mixedoutcomes: while flood frequency has declined duringthe last few decades, the economic losses havecontinued to rise. Recent catastrophic floods havealso been linked to major structural interventions inthe region. The flood diversions may cause harmfuleffects upon the floodplain inhabitants by influencingflood levels in areas which are not normallyflood-prone. The increasing vulnerability of thefloodplain inhabitants poses new challenges and raisesquestions concerning the existing risk assessmentmethods, institutional preparedness and responses todisaster-related public emergencies, and local-levelpublic involvement in flood mitigation efforts.In the context of the catastrophic 1997 floods of theRed River Valley, Manitoba, Canada, this researchfocuses on two aspects of flood-related emergencygovernance and management: (i) the functions andeffectiveness of control structures, and (ii) theroles, responsibilities and effectiveness oflegislative and other operational measures. The studyconcludes that the flood-loss mitigation measures,both in terms of effects of control structures andinstitutional interventions for emergency evacuation,were not fully effective for ensuring the well-beingand satisfaction of floodplain inhabitants. Althoughorganizational preparedness and mobilization to copewith the 1997 flood emergency was considerable, theirsuccess during the onset of the flood event waslimited. Lack of communication and understandingbetween institutions, a reluctance to implementup-to-date regulations, and minimal publicparticipation in the emergency decision-making processall contributed to the difficulties experienced byfloodplain inhabitants.     

Laboratory modelling of shear behaviour of soft joints under constant normal stiffness conditions

Shear behaviour of regular sawtooth rock joints produced from casting plaster are investigated under constant normal stiffness (CNS) conditions. Test results obtained in this investigation are also compared with the constant normal load (CNL) tests. It is observed that the peak shear stress obtained under CNL conditions always underestimates the peak shear stress corresponding to the CNS condition. Plots of shear stress against normal stress show that a nonlinear (curved) strength envelope is acceptable for soft rock joints subjected to a CNS condition, in comparison with the linear or bilinear envelopes often proposed for a CNL condition. Models proposed by Patton (1966) and Barton (1973) have also been considered for the predictions of peak shear stress of soft joints under CNS conditions. Although Patton's model is appropriate for low asperity angles, it overestimates the shear strength in the low to medium normal stress range at higher asperity angles. In contrast, while Barton's model is realistic for the CNL condition, it seems to be inappropriate for modelling the shear behaviour of soft joints under CNS conditions. The effect of infill material on the shear behaviour of the model joints is also investigated, and it is found that a small thickness of bentonite infill reduces the peak stress significantly. The peak shear stress almost approached that of the shear strength of infill when the infill thickness to asperity height ratio (t/a) reached 1.40. This paper also introduces an original, empirical shear strength envelope to account for the change in normal stress and surface degradation during CNS shearing. © Rapid Science Ltd. 1998     

Hydrologic characteristics of floods in Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM) delta

In the middle of 2007, a severe flood affected the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. This is a natural disaster that takes people’s lives, destroys livestock, infrastructures and communication systems and, damages crops and fish ponds. Despite many adverse impacts, the flood situation is an accepted phenomenon to the citizens of Bangladesh, due to the immense increase of soil fertility due to the flood, plus, the recharge of aquifer, ecosystem and fish. The flood of 2007 was the 5th major flood of the last 20 years when more than thirty-five percent of the area of the country was inundated with flood water. As in the past, the flood of 2007 had its own significance. The geography of the country contains a floodplain delta of three major river basins: the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna (GBM). The mean monthly rainfall plot from the TRMM satellite data has shown that for both the Meghna and Brahmaputra basins, the rainfall was higher during July 2007 than any other months of the last 2 years. This excess rainfall had accumulated in the Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers and carried downstream to Bangladesh. This was the main cause of the flooding in 2007. The first crossing above the danger level of the river waters was observed at Durgapur station of the Someswari and at Sunamganj station of the Surma on the nineteenth of July, 2007 inside Bangladesh. In terms of magnitude of the peak and duration of the flood, the Brahmaputra was higher in 2007 than during 2004. However, the Ganges river water level never crossed the danger level during flood of 2007. The Meghna was lower during the flood peak for the duration of the flood in 2007. The year–to-year variability in both the magnitude and duration of the flood suggests changes in rainfall and landuse pattern of the catchment.     

Development of analytical models to estimate the increase in pile capacity with time (pile setup) from soil properties

This paper presents the analyses of twelve prestressed concrete (PSC) instrumented test piles that were driven in different bridge construction projects of Louisiana in order to develop analytical models to estimate the increase in pile capacity with time or pile setup. The twelve test piles were driven mainly in cohesive soils. Detailed soil characterizations including laboratory and in situ tests were conducted to determine the different soil properties. The test piles were instrumented with vibrating wire strain gauges, piezometers, pressure cells that were monitored during the whole testing period. Several static load tests (SLTs) and dynamic load tests were conducted on each test pile at different times after end of driving (EOD) to quantify the magnitude and rate of setup. Measurements of load tests confirmed that pile capacity increases almost linearly with the logarithm of time elapsed after EOD. Case pile wave analysis program was performed on the restrikes data and was used along with the load distribution plots from the SLTs to evaluate the increase in skin friction capacity of individual soil layers along the length of the piles. The logarithmic linear setup parameter “A” for unit skin friction was calculated of the 70 individual clayey soil layers and was correlated with different soil properties such as undrained shear strength (S_u), plasticity index, vertical coefficient of consolidation (c_v), over consolidation ratio and sensitivity (S_t). Nonlinear multivariable regression analyses were performed, and three different empirical models are proposed to predict the pile setup parameter “A” as a function of soil properties. For verification, the subsurface soil conditions and setup information for additional 18 PSC piles collected from local database were used to compare the measured versus predicted “A” parameters from the proposed models, which showed good agreement.

     

Climatic changes and desertification in some regions of the Middle East

It is generally believed that more than 100 tropical countries are suffering from desertification or land degradation as a result of climatic changes. There is also concern that the rising temperature would lead to further environmental degradation and cause economic, social and other environmental impacts (1) in the Middle East. This paper is a modest attempt to investigate temperature and rainfall data in three countries of the Middle East (Oman, Bahrain, and Sudan) to determine if any change has taken place in the weather conditions. The short term environmental impact of the GulfWar in 1991 has been included in the study.The study confirms that temperatures are rising and rainfall is decreasing in Oman (2, 3) and other two countries, leading to increasing desertification processes. Here, following Hume and Kelly (4) desertification is taken to mean degradation in dryland regions or the permanent decline in the potential of the land to support biological activity and hence human welfare. A brief geographical discussion of Oman, Bahrain, and Sudan precedes a detailed analysis of temperatures and rainfall regimen in all three countries.     

Shear flow driven counter rotating vortices in an inhomogeneous dusty magnetoplasma

The coupling of Shukla-Varma (SV) and convective cell modes is discussed in the presence of non-Boltzmannian electron response and parallel equilibrium shear flow. In the linear case, a new dispersion relation is derived and analyzed. It is found that the coupled SV and convective cell modes destabilize in the presence of electron shear flow. On the other hand, in the nonlinear regime, it is shown that Shukla-Varma mode driven counter rotating vortices can be formed for the system under consideration. It is found that these vortices move slowly by comparison with the ion acoustic or electron drift-wave driven counter rotating vortices. The relevance of the present investigation with regard to space plasmas is also pointed out.     

Effects of convective available potential energy,temperature and humidity on the variability of thunderstorm frequency over Bangladesh

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - The present study examines the effects of convective available potential energy (CAPE), temperature and humidity on the spatiotemporal variation of...     

Mechanical compaction and ultrasonic velocity of sands with different texture and mineralogical composition

This study presents the results of experimental compaction while measuring ultrasonic velocities of sands with different grain size, shape, sorting and mineralogy. Uniaxial mechanical compaction tests up to a maximum of 50 MPa effective stress were performed on 29 dry sand aggregates derived from eight different sands to measure the rock properties. A good agreement was found between the Gassmann saturated bulk moduli of dry and brine saturated tests of selected sands. Sand samples with poor sorting showed low initial porosity while sands with high grain angularity had high initial porosity. The sand compaction tests showed that at a given stress well‐sorted, coarse‐grained sands were more compressible and had higher velocities (Vp and Vs) than fine‐grained sands when the mineralogy was similar. This can be attributed to grain crushing, where coarser grains lead to high compressibility and large grain‐to‐grain contact areas result in high velocities. At medium to high stresses the angular coarse to medium grained sands (both sorted sands and un‐sorted whole sands) showed high compaction and velocities (Vp and Vs). The small grain‐to‐grain contact areas promote higher deformation at grain contacts, more crushing and increased porosity loss resulting in high velocities. Compaction and velocities (Vp and Vs) increased with decreasing sorting in sands. However, at the same porosity, the velocities in whole sands were slightly lower than in the well‐sorted sands indicating the presence of loose smaller grains in‐between the framework grains. Quartz‐poor sands (containing less than 55% quartz) showed higher velocities (Vp and Vs) compared to that of quartz‐rich sands. This could be the result of sintering and enlargement of grain contacts of ductile mineral grains in the quartz‐poor sands increasing the effective bulk and shear stiffness. Tests both from wet measurements and Gassmann brine substitution showed a decreasing Vp/Vs ratio with increasing effective stress. The quartz‐rich sands separated out towards the higher side of the Vp/Vs range. The Gassmann brine substituted Vp and Vs plotted against effective stress provide a measure of the expected velocity range to be found in these and similar sands during mechanical compaction. Deviations of actual well log data from experimental data may indicate uplift, the presence of hydrocarbon, overpressure and/or cementation. Data from this study may help to model velocity‐depth trends and to improve the characterization of reservoir sands from well log data in a low temperature (<80–100^o C) zone where compaction of sands is mostly mechanical.