A quantum chemical study on the formation of ethanimine (CH<Subscript>3</Subscript>CHNH) in the interstellar ice

Ethanimine (CH₃CHNH) is an important prebiotic molecule since it is a precursor of amino acid \(\alpha \)-alanine in Strecker synthesis. Two isomers (E and Z) of ethanimine were detected in the molecular cloud Sagittarius B2 north during GBT-PRIMOS survey. A possible radical-molecule reaction pathway has been proposed for the formation of ethanimine in the interstellar medium (ISM) from some previously detected interstellar molecules like methylene (both triplet CH₂ (³B₁) and singlet CH₂ (¹A₁)) and methyenimine (CH₂NH). The mechanism has been studied in the gas phase and in water ice with the help of density functional theory at B2PLYPD/6-311++G (2d, p) level of theory. It is observed that E-ethanimine forms efficiently in gas phase but ice reactions are favorable only in the hot core of molecular clouds. Same is true for the formation of Z-ethanimine which forms only at the surface of water cluster as the height of entrance barrier for formation of Z-ethanimine is similar to that of E-ethanimine. Isomerization from E to Z form is also studied and found to be forbidden due to large entrance barrier. Out of the two reaction system CH₂ (³B₁) + CH₂NH and CH₂ (¹A₁) + CH₂NH, later is more favorable then the former one due to the small entrance barrier. Still, much of the detected abundance of ethanimine comes from the reaction of CH₂ (³B₁) with CH₂NH as since CH₂ (¹A₁) has very low abundance compared to the CH₂ (³B₁) in ISM. The proposed pathway seems to be a promising candidate for the ethanimine formation in ISM.     

Study of magnetized accretion flow with cooling processes

We have studied shock in magnetized accretion flow/funnel flow in case of neutron star with bremsstrahlung cooling and cyclotron cooling. All accretion solutions terminate with a shock close to the neutron star surface, but at some regions of the parameter space, it also harbours a second shock away from the star surface. We have found that cyclotron cooling is necessary for correct accretion solutions which match the surface boundary conditions.     

Halo orbit of regularized circular restricted three-body problem with radiation pressure and oblateness

In this paper, computation of the halo orbit for the KS-regularized photogravitational circular restricted three-body problem is carried out. This work extends the idea of Srivastava et al. (Astrophys. Space Sci. 362: 49, 2017) which only concentrated on the (i) regularization of the 3D-governing equations of motion, and (ii) validation of the modeling for small out-of-plane amplitude (\(A_z =110000\) km) assuming the third-order analytical approximation as an initial guess with and without differential correction. This motivated us to compute the halo orbits for the large out-of-plane amplitudes and to study their stability analysis for the regularized motion. The stability indices are described as a function of out-of-plane amplitude, mass reduction factor and oblateness coefficient. Three different Sun–planet systems: the Sun–Earth, Sun–Mars and the Sun–Jupiter are chosen in this study. Stable halo orbits do not exist around the \(L_{1}\) point, however, around the \(L_{2}\) point stable halo orbits are found for the considered systems.     

Accuracy of the kinematic wave and diffusion wave approximations for time-independent flows with infiltration included

Errors in the kinematic wave and diffusion wave approximation for time-independent (or steady-state) cases of channel flow with infiltration were derived for three types of boundary conditions: zero flow at the upstream end, and critical flow depth and zero depth gradient at the downstream end. The diffusion wave approximation was found to be in excellent agreement with the dynamic wave approximation, with errors of less than 1·4% for KF²₀≥7·5, and up to 14% for KF²₀≤0·75 for the upstream boundary condition of zero discharge and finite depth, where K is the kinematic wave number and F₀ is the Froude number. The kinematic wave approximation was reasonably accurate except at the channel boundaries and for small values of KF²₀ (≤1). The accuracy of these approximations was significantly influenced by the downstream boundary, both in terms of the magnitude of the error and the segment of the channel reach for which these approximations would be applicable. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flood frequency analysis

Natural Hazards - The recurring flooding causes loss of life and damage to buildings and other structures, including bridges, sewerage systems, roadways and canals. It also frequently damages power...     

Development of Proxy Model for Hydraulic Fracturing and Seismic Wave Propagation Processes

Mathematical Geosciences - Characterization of discrete fracture networks is necessary for unconventional reservoir development, as they control the flow of fluids toward the hydraulically...     

Triangular Grid-Based Fuzzy Cross-Update Inversion of Gravity Data: Case Studies from Mineral Exploration

Natural Resources Research - In mineral exploration, geophysical inversion is a common mathematical tool to obtain reliable information on subsurface density properties based on gravity...     

Geospatial approach for tiger habitat evaluation and distribution in Corbett Tiger reserve,India

India has a rich repository of flora and fauna, but the rapid decline of wildlife and threat to its habitat has been a serious cause of concern. Hence, protected areas have been set up to achieve specific conservation objectives to facilitate timely and reliable information on forest types and its composition, degradation status and their suitability for different species of flora and fauna. In the present study, evaluation of tiger habitat in Corbett Tiger reserve is carried out using remote sensing, ground and other ancillary sources and is integrated using GIS using multi-criteria model. The results indicated that sal, mixed sal, miscellaneous forest, plantation, grassland, agriculture and scrub land are the major land use/land cover types and majority of the study area is covered under dense forest. Tiger habitat suitability analysis showed that large proportion of the area (51.4%) was found to be highly suitable followed by moderately suitable area (31%). Further, the correlation drawn between range-wise suitability area and actual tiger population in Corbett Tiger Reserve CTR indicated a positive correlation of 0.73. Disturbance to wildlife habitat, vegetation degradation and shrinking passage corridor are the major concern in CTR.     

Design of a neuro fuzzy model for image compression in wavelet domain

Image compression forms the backbone for several applications such as storage of images in a database, picture archiving, TV and facsimile transmission, and video conferencing. Compression of images involves taking advantage of the redundancy in the data present within an image. This work evaluates the performance of an image compression system based on fuzzy vector quantization, wavelet-based sub band decomposition and neural network. The vector quantization is often used when high compression ratios are required. The implementation consists of three steps: first, the image is decomposed into a set of sub bands with different resolutions corresponding to different frequency bands. Different quantization and coding schemes are used for different sub bands based on their statistical properties. In the second step, wavelet coefficients corresponding to the lowest frequency band are compressed by differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) and the coefficients corresponding to higher frequency bands are compressed using neural network. Finally, the result of the second step was used as input to fuzzy vector quantizer. Image quality was compared objectively using mean squared error and peak signal to noise ratio along with the visual appearance. The simulation results show clear performance improvement with respect to decoded picture quality when compared with other image compression techniques (Liu, 2005; Premaraju, 1996).     

Species diversity and population status of threatened plants in different landscape elements of the Rohtang Pass,western Himalaya

This paper highlights the quantitative estimates of plant species diversity and ecosystems of the Rohtang Pass,which is one of the most preferred visiting spots by tourists in Himachal Pradesh （H.P.）,India. In spite of high pressure of anthropogenic activities,the Rohtang Pass still harbours a variety of flowering plants with economic value,including various medicinal herbs. In order to observe species diversity in different landscape elements （LSEs）,ground surveys were conducted in nine unique LSEs within the elevation range between 3624 m and 4332 m. Plant community structure in each LSE was studied using stratified random sampling where a total 56 quadrats of 1 m^2 in size for herbs and 7 quadrats of 25 m^2 for shrubs were made. Of the total 50 plant species belonging to 15 families recorded in different random quadrats,24 species were found of medicinal value. Maximum species richness （18） and value of Shannon diversity （H＇=2.2648） were observed on northeast-facing slope in Picrorhiza kurrooa dominated LSE in moist area,followed by Rheum emodi LSE （species richness = 17 and H＇ = 2.4141） distributed on south-facing slope. Maximum values of species richness and Shannon diversity in Rheum emodi LSE were observed between 8 ～ 12 and 1.4797 ～ 2.1911,respectively. Rhododendron anthopogon dominated LSE on northwest-facing slope was found least diverse in terms of species richness where the Simpson index of dominance （D） was 0.4205. The species were equal in abundance in P. kurrooa LSE on east-facing slope and Pleurospermum candollii LSE on north-facing slope,showing the maximum similarity in terms of species distribution between the two LSEs. Low turnover of species across common LSEs gives an idea regarding their limited distribution. Five species of threatened category according to the IUCN criteria were observed in seven LSEs. The largest population of threatened medicinal plants was recorded on northeast and northwest-facing slopes where population density of Bergenia stracheyi （