Spatial equity in urban facility versus residents’ satisfaction: challenge for the unplanned cities—a case study of Barasat city,India

Spatial equity in urban facilities or service distribution is considered as a critical determinant of the quality of urbanization. Spatial equity simply means the presence of adequate facilities and equal proximity. Many initiatives have mostly focused on one type of facility, obviating the holistic understanding of the equity of distribution of all basic facilities in cities. Moreover, the perceptions of the citizens in the process of planning are hardly considered. In this paper, an integrated facility-satisfaction index is presented to evaluate the balance between the distribution of facilities and the level of residents' satisfaction derived from those facilities. This method has taken all possible urban facilities and categorized them as educational, health, financial, recreation, and others. The per capita facility availability is calculated by incorporating the spatial distribution of urban facilities, the service range of facilities, population distribution, and weight. The proper weights have been given by employing the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The satisfaction index has been derived from the citizens’ perception of each facility, marked on a 5-point Likert scale during the field survey. The paired-sample t-test demonstrated that there is a significant difference between the facility availability and satisfaction index at the significance level of 0.05. The application of the method is demonstrated in fast urbanizing Barasat city, West Bengal, India. Based on the degree of facility-satisfaction differences or correspondences, the entire region has been categorized into four zones viz. satisfied people with favorable facility availability, unsatisfied people with poor facility availability, unsatisfied people with relatively high facility availability, and satisfied people with relatively low facility availability. The pattern has been validated by identifying spatial clusters and spatial outliers of facility availability and satisfaction using local Moran’s I. This approach can help a city to distribute the facilities to satisfy the citizens of all corners which will help to overcome the constant problems of policy decisions without adequate and reliable information about the actual demand of the residents.

     

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 5-yr constraints on fnl with wavelets

We present a Gaussianity analysis of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP ) 5-yr cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropy data maps. We use several third-order estimators based on the spherical Mexican hat wavelet. We impose constraints on the local non-linear coupling parameter f _nl using well-motivated non-Gaussian simulations. We analyse the WMAP maps at resolution of 6.9 arcmin for the Q , V , and W frequency bands. We use the KQ 75 mask recommended by the WMAP team which masks out 28 per cent of the sky. The wavelet coefficients are evaluated at 10 different scales from 6.9 to 150 arcmin. With these coefficients, we compute the third order estimators which are used to perform a  χ²  analysis. The  χ²  statistic is used to test the Gaussianity of the WMAP data as well as to constrain the f _nl parameter. Our results indicate that the WMAP data are compatible with the Gaussian simulations, and the f _nl parameter is constrained to  −8 < f _nl < +111  at 95 per cent confidence level (CL) for the combined   V + W   map. This value has been corrected for the presence of undetected point sources, which add a positive contribution of  Δ f _nl= 3 ± 5  in the   V + W   map. Our results are very similar to those obtained by the WMAP team using the bispectrum.     

Komatiite within Chhotanagpur Gneissic Complex at Semra,Palamau District,Jharkhand: Petrological and geochemical fingerprints

Komatiite near Semra village, southwest of Daltonganj in Palamau District of Jharkhand, occurs within tremolite actinolite schist of ultramafic parentage. The fragmented olivine phenocrysts show mutually parallel as well as angular alignment, representing relict spinifex texture. Mineralogically the Semra ultramafic is lehrzolite in composition. The cumulates lack visible deformation suggesting original magmatic crystallization of these ultramafic rocks. The present occurrence of Spinifex Textured Peridotitic Komatiite (STPK) in Chhotanagpur Gneissic Complex (CGC) at northwestern part of Eastern Indian Shield is of great significance as it opens up a possibility of the presence of Archaean rock in CGC, which is yet to be established.     

Efficacy of Fine-Grained Soil as Landfill Liner Material for Containment of Chrome Tannery Sludge

This paper evaluates the potential use of a fine-grained soil obtained from a site in West Bengal, India, as a suitable landfill liner material for the containment of hexavalent chromium from tanning waste sludge. The physico-chemical properties of the soil were determined. The soil adsorption affinity for hexavalent chromium was also assessed through adsorption batch and breakthrough column tests. The zero point charge (pH_zpc) of the soil was found to be 7.3. The batch kinetics and column tests results indicated that the soil liner possesses a relatively good hexavalent chromium adsorption capacity at natural or slightly alkaline condition. The adsorption results showed that the hexavalent chromium uptake by the soil follows both Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherms. This study also illustrated that the hexavalent chromium breakthrough curve in the column experiment reached equilibrium concentration after 3.5 pore volumes (900 h). Overall, this study showed that the fine-grained soil has the potential for usage as a landfill liner or as a component of a landfill barrier system to prevent chromium contamination from the tannery waste disposal.     

Solar-wind interactions with the moon: Role of oxygen ions

The solar-wind interacts directly with the lunar surface due to tenuous atmosphere and magnetic field. The interaction results in an almost complete absorption of the solar-wind corpuscles producing no upstream bowshock but a cavity downstream. The solar-wind oxygen ionic species induce and undergo a complex set of reactions with the elements of the lunar minerals and the solar-wind derived trapped gases. The oxygen concentration indegeneous to the lunar surface material is about 60 at.%. Some of these oxygen are displaced from their crystal lattice locations by interactions of the solar-wind corpuscles. A small fraction of these displaced oxygen is in active state. The solar-wind oxygen species flux is about 6×10⁴ cm^–2 s^–1. Besides inducing and undergoing various reactions these species become trapped as oxygen atoms in the lunar grains. Only a portion of these trapped oxygen atoms is in active state. For the contribution of oxygen atoms and molecules from the lunar surface grains to the atmosphere and their reactions with other species, the diffusion coefficients of oxygen atom and molecule should be known. However their values in the highly radiation-damaged lunar surface material are not known. The coefficients are calculated by using the apparent lifetimes of atomic and molecular oxygen in the lunar material. The atmospheric concentration of oxygen atoms and molecules near the lunar surface are found to be about 20 and 3 cm^–3, respectively. These values appear to be very reasonable in comparison with the experimental data. The Apollo 17 lunar orbital UV spectrometer data indicate the atomic oxygen concentration is <8×10¹ cm^–3. The Apollo 17 lunar surface mass spectrometer (sensitivity: 1 count=2×10² molecules cm^–3) did not detect any oxygen molecules on the dayside of the Moon, but the sunrise concentration was reported to be 1±×10³ cm^–3. At the time of the sample collection on the Moon the oxygen content in the trapped gas layer was partly as oxygen atoms and partly as oxygen molecules. At the time of sample analysis on the Earth the concentrations of these two species did not change appreciably.     

Sedimentary structures displayed by the ultramafic rocks of Nausahi,Keonjhar District,Orissa, India

Gravity-controlled and other sedimentary structures exhibited by the ultramafic rocks of Nausahi, Keonjhar District, Orissa, India, are described and their significance briefly discussed. Mineral-graded and size-graded layering, slump structure and cusp textures formed by the influence of gravity, indicate that the ultramafic rocks under study have not been overturned and that the original depositional floor had a gentle north-easterly slope. The magmatic currents were locally strong enough to give rise to some characteristic structures like small-scale angular discordance, branching of chromite lamina, inclusion of one rock type in another, etc. There are also some structures resembling ripple mark and load cast. The pyroxenite dykes and veins were intruded predominantly in the solid state into the dunite-chromitite associations.     

Cosmic ray interactions with lunar materials: Nature and composition of species formed

The solar and galactic cosmic rays interact directly with lunar surface materials, and the dominant nature of interactions is essentially the complete absorption of corpuscles. These corpuscles damage the lattice structure, and induce a complex set of reactions in the materials producing various species. The cosmic ray damage of the lattice would not produce an amorphous layer, similar to that produced by the solar wind, because the solar wind erosion rate is faster than the cosmic ray-induced amorphous layer formation rate. The species formation rate considered in this paper are those produced by protons, the dominant component of cosmic rays. Protons produce H, H₂, OH, H₂O, and hydrogenated species of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, etc. These species, while migrating in the material, encounter oncoming cosmic ray corpuscles, and undergo a complex set of reactions. Although a variety of species are produced by protons, the dominant contributor to the atmosphere is H₂. The H₂ flux (molecules cm^–2 sec^–1) is about 1.5 × 10⁵ as compared to the H flux of 8.4 × 10¹ and the H₂O flux of 4.6 × 10^–2. These fluxes are about 10^–3 smaller than the fluxes of the same species produced by the solar wind protons. Thus the contributions of the cosmic ray-induced species to the atmosphere is very small compared to the solar wind-induced species. Although simulated experiments showed high concentractions of OH and H₂O in the terrestrial materials of lunar type, these species concentrations in the lunar materials under the lunar environment is much smaller than those observed in the simulated experiments.