Identification and characterization of size-segregated bioaerosols at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Ambient levels of viable bioaerosol were measured at four different sites on the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. Most of the viable bioaerosol was associated with the fungal fraction with the remainder due to bacteria. The highest concentrations of fungi were found at a health center (1,293 cfu/m³). The highest concentrations of both gram-positive (338.8 cfu/m²) and gram-negative (614 cfu/m²) bacteria were found at a garbage dump site. Gram-negative bacteria were found in larger numbers than gram-positive, possibly due to the higher ambient temperatures during their sampling. Most of the fungal bioaerosol identified is associated with immunotoxic diseases such as sick building syndrome and allergic diseases and was found in respirable fractions. Since the bacterial fractions were identified on the basis of morphology, i.e. only to the level of genus, their relationship to health effects could not be established. Although most of the sampling occurred indoors in naturally ventilated buildings, external temperature and humidity did not vary significantly during the study. Thus, it is more likely that the types of organisms and levels observed had more to do with the sources (decomposing garbage, spores carried from wooded areas, etc.) than the ambient or indoor environmental conditions.     

Tectonic implications of the earthquakes in the Indian subcontinent

The Bhuj earthquake (26 January 2001) in India and the Ghori earthquake (8 October 2005) in Pakistan, both occurred close to the Indian-Iranian plate boundary related to the activity along the intercontinental Chaman transform fault. It is suggested that the seismic activity along NNW — NNE trending weak zones or faults is more intense in the sub-continent than along the WNW trending zones. Since the stress along the former is less compressive but more of the shear or translational type. The devastative Koyna (1967) and Latur (1993) earthquakes both occurred along faults or weak zones that were close to the meridional rather than the equatorial trend. The Indian plate is moving to the north or NNE or NNW, along a rotational trajectory and hence the force tends to be more compressive along the equatorial weak zones. In contrast, it tends to be less compressive and more of the shear or translational along the weak zones that are close to meridional trend. The seismic activity is therefore more intense along the weak zones with NNW to NNE trend than along the ENE to EW trending zones.     

Decolorization of Congo red mediated by marine <Emphasis Type="Italic">Alcaligenes</Emphasis> species isolated from Indian West coast sediments

Alcaligenes species capable of degrading highly recalcitrant, carcinogenic, water-soluble dye—Congo red—were isolated from Indian West coastal sediments. Individual strains showed decolorization rates ranging from 76.49 to 98.76% within 24–48 h. Decolorization was most efficient at anoxic conditions catalyzed by intracellular azoreductase enzyme with an activity of 0.032 µmol min^?1 mg^?1 of protein. Degradation was confirmed by HPLC and FTIR analysis. LC/MS analysis of degraded metabolites established the cleavage of the azo bond-producing biphenyl diamine and 1,2′-diaminonapthalene-4-sulfonic acid. These results signify the effectiveness and ease to engineer processes such as feed batch/immobilized cell systems using these strains as biocatalysts to address the problem of global coastal water pollution caused by increased disposal of azo dye-containing industrial effluents.     

Spatial homogeneity of extreme precipitation indices using fuzzy clustering over northeast India

Natural Hazards - Regionalization on the basis of the properties of hydro-meteorological data helps in identifying the regions reflecting the similar characteristics which could be useful in...     

Evidence for non-self-similarity in the M w 7.7 2001 Bhuj earthquake sequence

Natural Hazards - Scaled energy, apparent stress, seismic moments, stress drops and corner frequencies are measured through the Levenberg–Marquardt nonlinear inversion modeling of S-wave...     

Response of Sandy Lake in Schirmacher Oasis,East Antarctica to the glacial-interglacial climate shift

Freshwater lakes in Antarctica fluctuate from ice-free state (during austral summer) to ice-cover state (during austral winter). Hence the lakes respond instantly to the seasonal climate of the region. The Antarctic seasons respond sharply to the glacial and interglacial climates and these signatures are archived in the lake sediments. A sediment core from Sandy Lake, a periglacial lake located in Schirmacher Oasis of East Antarctica records distinct changes in grain-size, C, N, C/N ratios (atomic), δ¹³C_OM and δ¹⁵N_OM contents during the last 36 ky. The contents of the sedimentary organic matter (OM) proxies (C_org ~ 0.3 ± 0.2%, C/N ratios ~9 ± 5 and δ¹³C_OM ~?18 ± 6‰) indicate that the OM in this lake sediment is a product of mixing of terrestrial and lacustrine biomass. Distinctly lower contents of C_org (~0.2%) and sand (~50%), low C/N ratios (~8) and depleted δ¹³C_OM (~?20‰) during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM: 32–17 ky BP based on Vostok Temperatures) suggest greater internal (autochthonous) provenance of organic matter and limited terrestrial (allochthonous) inputs probably due to long and intense winters in the Antarctic. Such intense winters might have resulted the lake surface to be ice-covered for most part of the year when the temperatures remained consistently colder than the Holocene temperatures. The denitrification within the lake evident by enriched δ¹⁵N_OM (>10‰) during Antarctic LGM might have resulted from oxygen-limitation within the lake environment caused by insulated lake surface. The gradual increases in δ¹³C_OM, C/N and sand content starting at ~11 ky BP and attaining high values (~?11‰, ~10 and ~80% respectively) at ~6 ky BP together suggest a subtle change in the balance of sources of organic matter between algal and macrophyte/bryophyte nearly 8–9 ky later to the beginning of the deglaciation. Thus the seasonal opening-up of the Sandy Lake similar to the modern pattern started with the establishment of the optimum temperature conditions (i.e., 0 °C anomaly) in the Antarctic, prior to which the lake environment might have remained mostly insulated or closed.     

Analysis of the change in temperature trends in Subansiri River basin for RCP scenarios using CMIP5 datasets

This study focuses on changes in the maximum and minimum temperature over the Subansiri River basin for different climate change scenarios. For the study, dataset from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) fifth assessment report (AR5) (i.e., coupled model intercomparison project phase five (CMIP5) dataset with representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios) were utilized. Long-term (2011–2100) maximum temperature (T _max) and minimum temperature (T_min) time series were generated using the statistical downscaling technique for low emission scenario (RCP2.6), moderate emission scenario (RCP6.0), and extreme emission scenario (RCP8.5). Trends and change of magnitude in T _max, T _min, and diurnal temperature range (DTR) were analyzed for different interdecadal time scales (2011–2100, 2011–2040, 2041–2070, 2070–2100) using Mann-Kendall non-parametric test and Sen’s slope estimator, respectively. The temperature data series for the observed duration (1981–2000) has been found to show increasing trends in T _max and T _min at both annual and monthly scale. Trend analysis of downscaled temperature for the period 2011–2100 shows increase in annual maximum temperature and annual minimum temperature for all the selected RCP scenarios; however, on the monthly scale, T _max and T _min have been seen to have decreasing trends in some months.