Electron-acoustic solitary waves in a relativistically degenerate quantum plasma with two-temperature electrons

Using the Quantum hydrodynamic (QHD) model Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) type solitary excitations of electron-acoustic waves (EAWs) have been examined in a two-electron-populated relativistically degenerate super dense plasma. It is shown that relativistic degeneracy parameter significantly influences the conditions of formation and properties of solitary structures.     

Point Discharge Current During a Solar Eclipse

The effect of solar eclipse of July 22, 2009, obscuring up to 91 %, upon the value of point discharge current (PDC) has been reported in this paper. The observation had been taken from Kolkata (Lat. 22.56°N, Long. 88.5°E). During the eclipse period, significant variations in the magnitude of PDC were observed than their average value for the same period in other days. The average value of the PDC for the successive ±10 days adjacent to the solar eclipse day was about 2.253 A.U. (Arbitrary Unit), while the minimum value showed about 2.242 A.U. at the time of greatest phase at 06:26.4 IST (Indian Standard Time). The results are mainly interpreted in terms of changes of the conductivity of the medium during the solar eclipse.     

Modulational instability of ion-acoustic wave packets in quantum pair-ion plasmas

Amplitude modulation of quantum ion-acoustic waves (QIAWs) in a quantum electron-pair-ion plasma is studied. It is shown that the quantum coupling parameter H (being the ratio of the plasmonic energy density to the Fermi energy) is ultimate responsible for the modulational stability of QIAW packets, without which the wave becomes modulational unstable. New regimes for the modulational stability (MS) and instability (MI) are obtained in terms of H and the positive to negative ion density ratio β. The growth rate of MI is obtained, the maximum value of which increases with β and decreases with H. The results could be important for understanding the origin of modulated QIAW packets in the environments of dense astrophysical objects, laboratory negative ion plasmas as well as for the next generation laser solid density plasma experiments.     

The Work Function Associated with Ultra-relativistic Electron Emission from Strongly Magnetized Neutron Star Surface

Following an extremely interesting idea (Schieber 1984), published long ago, the work function associated with the emission of ultra-relativistic electrons from magnetically deformed metallic crystal (mainly iron) at the outer crust of a magnetar is obtained using relativistic version of Thomas–Fermi type model for electron distribution around the nuclei in this region. In the present scenario, surprisingly, the work function becomes anisotropic; the longitudinal part is an increasing function of magnetic field strength, whereas the transverse part diverges.     

Fuzzy Based Approach for Moist Deciduous Forest Identification Using MODIS Temporal Data

Fuzzy based soft classification have been used immensely for handling the mixed pixel and hence to extract the single class of interest. The present research attempts to extract the moist deciduous forest from MODIS temporal data using the Possibilistic c-Means (PCM) soft classification approach. Temporal MODIS (7 dates) data were used to identify moist deciduous forest and temporal AWiFS (7 dates) data were used as reference data for testing. The Simple Ratio (SR), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and Transformed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (TNDVI) were used to generate the temporal vegetation indices for both the MODIS and the AWiFS datasets. It was observed from the research that the MODIS temporal NDVI data set1, which contain the minimum number of images and avoids the temporal images corresponding to the highest frequency stages of onset of greenness (OG) and end of senescence (ES) activity of moist deciduous forest have been found most suitable data set for identification of moist deciduous forest with the maximum fuzzy overall accuracy of 96.731 %.     

Landscape Dynamics in North East Region of India (Meghalaya State) Using Spatial Decision Tree Model

Abstract

India has figured with two hotspots ‐ the Western Ghats and the Eastern Himalayas ‐ in an identification of 8 ‘hottest’ biodiversity hotspots (Myers et. al. 2000). The Meghalaya state (study area) in North Eastern India lies within the “Indo‐Burma” area, which is one of the 8 ‘hottest’ biodiversity hotspots. Timber extraction, the age‐old practice of shifting cultivation and mining has been a major cause of extensive changes in this landscape. Human induced disturbance differs from natural disturbance especially in extension, severity and frequency. Spatial presentation of landscape dynamics can be used to infer disturbance regimes horizontally. Disturbance regimes are mostly dominated by landuse practices in Meghalaya and these landuse practices are important contributors for overall interpretation of ecological processes operating within the landscape. In this scenario, the development of models to study landscape dynamics using remote sensing and GIS would be of great importance to ecologists. In this paper, we make an attempt to characterize landscape dynamics using a decision tree based approach. The varying impacts of human interventions reflected in three zones at landscape level have been brought out in the present study. The physiographic zones of Meghalaya (viz. Garo hills, Khasi hills and Jaintia hills) manifest different landscape characteristics and present varying degree of degradation status. Garo hills, experiences maximum shifting cultivation and has shown highest dynamism in the study area followed by Jaintia and Khasi hills. Characterization of landscape dynamics is important in the perspective of decision makers and policy makers in order to prioritize conservation strategies, so that urgent and necessary action can be taken.     

Analysing spatio-temporal footprints of urbanization on environment of Surat city using satellite-derived bio-physical parameters

Our study examines the relationships among various environmental variables in Surat city using remote sensing. Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite data were used in conjugation with geospatial techniques to study urbanization and correlation among satellite-derived biophysical parameters namely, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), normalized difference built-up index (NDBI), normalized difference water index (NDWI), normalized difference bareness index (NDBaI) and land surface temperature (LST). A modified NDWI (MNDWI) was used for extracting areas under water. Land use/land cover classification was performed using hierarchical decision tree classification technique using ERDAS IMAGINE Expert classifier with an accuracy of 90.4% for 1990 and 85% for 2009. It was found that city has expanded over 42.75 sq.km within two decades. Built-up, fallow and sediment land use classes exhibited high dynamics with increase of nearly 200% and 50% and decrease of 55% respectively from 1990 to 2009. Vegetation and water classes were less dynamic with 20% decrease and 15% increase. The transformation of land parcels from vegetation to built-up, vegetation to fallow and fallow to built-up has resulted in increase of LST by 5.5 ± 2.6°C, 6.7 ± 3°C and 3.5 ± 2.9°C, respectively.     

FLAC Based Numerical Studies on Dynamic Interference of Two Nearby Embedded Machine Foundations

This paper emphasizes on the dynamic interaction of two closely spaced embedded square or rectangular foundations under the action of machine vibration. One of the foundations is excited with a known vibration source placed on the top of it, called the active foundation. The objective is to study the effect of dynamic motion of the active foundation on the nearby passive foundation through a layered soil medium. The analysis is performed numerically by using the explicit finite difference code FLAC ^3D . The soil profile is assumed to obey the Mohr–Coulomb yield criteria with non-linear failure envelope. The analysis is performed under sinusoidal dynamic loading with varying amplitude. Under the dynamic excitation, the settlement behavior of the interacting foundations is studied by varying the spacing between the foundations. In addition, the variation of vertical normal and shear stress developed beneath the interacting foundations is also explored. The present theoretical investigation indicates that the settlement and vertical normal stress below the active foundation is generally found to be higher than that obtained for the passive foundation, whereas the shear stress response below the foundations follows the reverse trend.     

Seismic analysis of nailed vertical excavation using pseudo-dynamic approach

An attempt has been made to study the behavior of nailed vertical excavations in medium dense to dense cohesionless soil under seismic conditions using a pseudo-dynamic approach. The effect of several parameters such as angle of internal friction of soil(Φ), horizontal(k_h) and vertical(k_v) earthquake acceleration coefficients, amplification factor(f_a), length of nails(L), angle of nail inclination(α) and vertical spacing of nails(S_v) on the stability of nailed vertical excavations has been explored. The limit equilibrium method along with a planar failure surface is used to derive the formulation involved with the pseudo-dynamic approach, considering axial pullout of the installed nails. A comparison of the pseudo-static and pseudo-dynamic approaches has been established in order to explore the effectiveness of the pseudo-dynamic approach over pseudo-static analysis, since most of the seismic stability studies on nailed vertical excavations are based on the latter. The results are expressed in terms of the global factor of safety(FOS). Seismic stability, i.e., the FOS of nailed vertical excavations is found to decrease with increase in the horizontal and vertical earthquake forces. The present values of FOS are compared with those available in the literature.