Compression behavior of reconstituted soils mixed with bentonite for a cutoff wall in a landfill site

Soil-bentonite (SB) backfill is used extensively in cutoff walls at landfill sites; the walls are used as engineered geotechnical barriers for contaminant control. With increasing bentonite content, the coefficient of consolidation and hydraulic conductivity of the SB decrease. However, when the bentonite content is increased beyond a certain percentage, the hydraulic conductivity of the SB decreases very little. One of the aims of this paper is to introduce the concept of optimal bentonite content (OBC) for SB cutoff walls, in which the hydraulic conductivity (k_h) is expected to be lower than 1?×?10^?9 m/s. Additionally, the paper introduces a new index consolidation stress ratio, c_vσ′, which is used to obtain the OBC. For this study, the initial water contents of the SB backfill material are selected to be 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2 times their corresponding liquid limits. The clayey soils are amended with different bentonite contents, 0, 5, 8, and 10% (by dry weight basis) for the oedometer tests. Then, piezocone penetration test (CPTU) is applied in SB cutoff wall at a landfill site in Jingjiang city, China. The results of the laboratory and field studies show that the introduction of a new index, c_vσ′, is very useful for calculating the OBC and for evaluating the coefficient of consolidation and hydraulic conductivity of SB backfill. The advantage of SB backfill with OBC is that it can achieve the design requirement of very low hydraulic conductivity and improve the safety reserves.     

Risk,perception and adaptation to climate change: evidence from arid region,India

The paper contributes to the growing literature highlighting the significance of assessing risk and vulnerability, micro-level perceptions and adaptation decision-making in building resilience of farm communities to climate change in dryland region of India. To select a region for grassroots enquiry, spatial differential in risk to climate change was assessed in Rajasthan, using IPCC AR5 framework. Among the highly vulnerable and risky districts, Bikaner district was selected for elicitation of micro-level imperatives. Rising atmospheric temperature, inter-seasonal displacements of rainfall and recurrence of extreme events were perceived by the farmers resulting in resource degradation, production risks and erosion of households’ socio-economic dynamics. As risk preventive measures, suitable adjustment in agricultural practices, natural resource management, shift to off-farm activities and other relief measures were adopted by the farmers. Farmer’s choice of adaptation was influenced by several climatic, socio-economic and infrastructural & institutional factors in varying degree. Moreover, several financial, economic, infrastructural and informational bottlenecks to adaptations were reported during household survey and FGDs. The results suggest that capturing grassroots evidence is crucial for directing locally tailored adaptation strategies, along with the improving deficiencies in the developmental pathways for climate-resilient agriculture.

     

Micro-level perception to climate change and adaptation issues: A prelude to mainstreaming climate adaptation into developmental landscape in India

Climate change adds another dimension of challenges to the growth and sustainability of Indian agriculture. The growing exposure to livelihood shocks from climate variability/change and limited resource base of the rural community to adapt has reinforced the need to mainstream climate adaptation planning into developmental landscape. However, a better understanding of micro-level perceptions is imperative for effective and informed planning at the macro-level. In this paper, the grass-root level perspectives on climate change impacts and adaptation decisions were elicited at farm level in the Moga district of Punjab and Mahbubnagar district of Telangana, India. The farmers opined that the climatic variability impacts more than the long-term climate change. They observed change in the quantum, onset and distribution of rainfall, rise in minimum as well as maximum temperature levels, decline in crop yield and ground water depletion. The key socio-economic effects of climate change included decline in farm income, farm unemployment, rural migration and increased indebtedness among farmers. In order to cope with climate variability and change thereon, farmers resorted to adaptation strategies such as use of crop varieties of suitable duration, water conservation techniques, crop insurance and participation in non-farm activities and employment guarantee schemes. Farmers’ adaptation to changing climate was constrained by several technological, socio-economic and institutional barriers. These include limited knowledge on the costs–benefits of adaptation, lack of access to and knowledge of adaptation technologies, lack of financial resources and limited information on weather. Besides, lack of access to input markets, inadequate farm labour and smaller farm size were the other constraints. Further, on the basis of the grass-root elicitation a ‘Need-Based Adaptation’ planning incorporating farmers’ perceptions on climate change impacts, constraints in the adoption of adaptation strategies and plausible adaptation options were linked with the most suitable ongoing programmatic interventions of the Government of India. The study concluded that micro-level needs and constraints for various adaptation strategies and interventions should be an integral part of the programme development, implementation and evaluation in the entire developmental paradigm.     

On non-adiabatic oscillations of gaseous systems in hydromagnetics

The general variational principle obtained by Unno for the study of stellar stability is extended to include the effects of magnetic fields in the general case where the perturbations are nonadiabatic. The unperturbed configuration is non-rotating, but internal motions are possible.A general stability equation is derived, using the modified variational principle. In the simplest case, this equation is identical to the one derived by Unno except for the appearance of magnetic terms in one of the coefficients (through the Lorentz force). If dissipation is neglected, the characteristic equation reduces to the one derived by Frieman and Rotenberg in the stationary case and by Kovetz in the static case.The stability of magnetic stars against homologous oscillations is examined and the usual result for the dynamical mode is obtained.     

On rotating isothermal configurations in the post-Newtonian approximation of general relativity

The equations which govern the structure of a rotating, truncated isothermal sphere in the post-Newtonian approximation of general relativity are derived and solved numerically. Each model is parameterized by both a rotation and a relativity parameter. The density inside the configurations is tabulated and graphed as a function of both distance from the center and co-latitude. Relativistic gravitational effects are found to pull the models into states which are considerably more centrally condensed than one predicts classically. Rotation tends to flatten the isothermal configurations into oblate spheroids, though for even the largest rotation parameters the degree of flattening is only a few percent. The computed models may be similar to the cores of relativistic star clusters.     

Mapping bedrock lithologies through in situ regolith using retained element ratios: a case study from the Agnew-Lawlers area,Western Australia

Large, high-quality multi-element geochemical datasets are becoming widely available in the exploration industry, and afford excellent opportunities to investigate geochemical processes. A dataset of over 2500 analyses of unweathered and variably weathered mafic and ultramafic rocks for over 50 elements has been collected by Gold Fields Ltd. in the auriferous Agnew-Lawlers area of the eastern Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. This dataset is used to investigate changes in element abundances and inter-element ratios through varying degrees and styles of weathering in an area of thick regolith characterised by deep in situ weathering. Systematic interrogation of the data, using lithostratigraphic controls derived from regional mapping and geophysics, reveals that a suite of elements, including Ti, Al, Zr, Th, La, Sc and Nb, and to a lesser extent Cr and Ni, behave as essentially immobile components during saprolite formation. In some cases diagnostic element ratios persist into siliceous duricrust. Ratios of these elements are used as reliable discriminants of bedrock type, and delineate features such as cryptic layering within fractionated sills and subtle geochemical variants in a sequence of tholeiitic and komatiitic basalts. Mapping on the basis of discriminant element ratios greatly extends previous trace-element ratio-based schemes for rock type discrimination. The potential to determine several of these elements with adequate precision and accuracy using portable XRF technology opens a potentially useful technique for rapid geochemical bedrock mapping in residual terrains.     

Numerical and multivariate stochastic approaches to characterize flow in a constructed wetland basin

Reduction in specific and viscous dissipation rate in surface waters by flow control and contaminant removal are the goals of constructed wetlands. A two-dimensional simulation study on surface flow through a constructed wetland in Guilin, China is performed. The flow through the wetland is modeled and dynamically simulated by distinct case studies by varying both inlet width and inflow rate. Nonlinear increase in peak dynamic pressure and specific dissipation rates as a function of increasing inflow rate is reported for the different cases studied. The results of the numerical models confirm an increase in viscous dissipation, shear stress and dynamic pressure within the wetland with increase in inflow rate. These modeling results are used as inputs for performing a statistical data analysis. Further, a multivariate stochastic statistical framework has been proposed for the prediction of dissipation as a function of variables including inflow rate, inlet geometry and wall shear stress. Multivariate and variance analysis is performed to validate the appropriateness of the theoretical models proposed. Results provide simplified meaningful suggestions to constructed wetland design and related applications.     

The energy spectrum of cosmic ray electrons between 10 and 1000 GeV

Measurements made by the Bombay Group on the fluxes of cosmic ray electrons in the energy range 10–1000 GeV have been compared with those of other workers in the same energy domain with a view to understand the present confused situation on the existing observations at these high energies. Such an analysis clearly brings out the current situation in its true perspective and highlights the care and emphasis to be placed on future experimentation in this important field.     

Insights on the process of two-stage coronae formation at olivine-plagioclase contact in mafic dyke from Palghat Cauvery Shear Zone,southern India

Mineralogy and Petrology - Coronae between olivine and plagioclase are a common replacement texture in mafic rocks by magmatic and metamorphic processes. Mafic dykes from Palghat Cauvery Shear Zone...     

Two-Dimensional Spectral Estimation: A Radon Transform Approach

A new technique for two-dimensional (2-D) spectral estimation of a stationary random field (SRF) is investigated in this paper. This is based on the extension of the Radon transform theory to stationary random fields (SRF's), proposed by Jain and Ansari [19]. Using the Radon transform, the 2-D estimation problem is reduced to a set of one-dimensional (1-D) independent problems, which could then be solved using 1-D linear prediction (LP) or by any other high-resolution estimation procedure. This is unlike previous methods which obtain the 2-D power spectral density OPSD) estimate by using 1-D high-resolution techniques in the spirit of a separable estimator [2]. Examples are provided to illustrate the performance of the new technique. Various features of this approach are highlighted.