Photo-induced degradation of emamectin benzoate: effect of iron amendments and solvent system

Photodegradation is the major dissipation pathway for emamectin benzoate (EB) in water. Therefore, the photolysis of EB was studied in distilled water (DW) and methanol under different irradiation conditions such as natural sunlight, UV tube, and artificially stimulated light (mercury lamp 125 W). The results of the study showed that EB degrades rapidly in DW than in methanol as evidenced by a photodegradation efficiency of about 75 % achieved in DW, after 24 h of irradiation with UV light, while in methanol, it was only 59.3 %. The addition of iron to EB solution in DW further enhanced its photodegradation. The rate of photodegradation of EB was recorded to be increased from 5.5 × 10^?2 to 1.0 × 10^?1 k/h after amendment with iron. The order for the rate of photodegradation of EB was DW + Fe > DW > methanol, with their respective t _1/2 values of 6.5, 12.6, and 18.7 h. Fe amendment was also found to enhance the degradation efficiency of EB even in the absence of any light (dark).     

Parallel Proton Heating in Solar Wind Using Generalized (r, q) Distribution Function

Kinetic theory is used to calculate the power dissipated by obliquely propagating Alfvén waves to heat the solar wind protons, using the Generalized (r, q) distribution function. The evolution of power dissipation of protons with increasing heliocentric distance is subsequently determined. Comparison between theoretical and observational results with data shows good agreement, especially for the slow solar wind streams. Previous results where a Maxwellian distribution function was used to calculate the power dissipated did not match well with observations.     

ENSO, IOD and Indian Summer Monsoon in NCEP climate forecast system

El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and Indian Summer Monsoon rainfall features are explored statistically and dynamically using National Centers for Environment Prediction (NCEP) Climate Forecast System (CFSv1) freerun in relation to observations. The 100?years of freerun provides a sufficiently long homogeneous data set to find out the mean state, periodicity, coherence among these climatic events and also the influence of ENSO and IOD on the Indian monsoon. Differences in the occurrence of seasonal precipitation between the observations and CFS freerun are examined as a coupled ocean–atmosphere system. CFS simulated ENSO and IOD patterns and their associated tropical Walker and regional Hadley circulation in pure ENSO (PEN), pure IOD (PIO) and coexisting ENSO-IOD (PEI) events have some similarity to the observations. PEN composites are much closer to the observation as compared to PIO and PEI composites, which suggest a better ENSO prediction and its associated teleconnections as compared to IOD and combined phenomenon. Similar to the observation, the model simulation also show that the decrease in the Indian summer monsoon rainfall during ENSO phases is associated with a descending motion of anomalous Walker circulation and the increase in the Indian summer monsoon rainfall during IOD phase is associated with the ascending branch of anomalous regional Hadley circulation. During co-existing ENSO and IOD years, however, the fate of Indian summer monsoon is dictated by the combined influence of both of them. The shift in the anomalous descending and ascending branches of the Walker and Hadley circulation may be somewhat attributed to the cold (warm) bias over eastern (western) equatorial Indian Ocean basin, respectively in the model. This study will be useful for identifying some of the limitations of the CFS model and consequently it will be helpful in improving the model to unravel the realistic coupled ocean–atmosphere interactions for the better prediction of Indian Summer Monsoon.     

DEM Generation for Lunar Surface using Chandrayaan-1 TMC Triplet Data

Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is an important prerequisite for understanding the lunar surface. However, making accurate DEM is a very challenging task due to (a) lack of support of projection parameters in COTS packages (eg. PCI Geomatica), which are to be used in generation of Lunar DEM and (b) unavailability of Ground Control Points (GCPs). In the present study, DEM generation of lunar surface was attempted without GCPs using Rational Function (RF) model from Chandrayaan-1 TMC triplet images. In the study, a good correlation (of almost same order) is observed between Nadir-Fore (NF), Nadir - Aft (NA), Fore - Aft (FA) and Fore - Nadir - Aft (FNA) image pairs. The results suggest that DEM for lunar surface can be created without GCPs using RF model.     

Bioremediation of salt affected soils using cyanobacteria in terms of physical structure,nutrient status and microbial activity

In present investigation, consortia of two indigenous heterocystous cyanobacteria, Nostoc ellipsosporum HH-205 and Nostoc punctiforme HH-206 isolated from a salt affected area of Hisar, Haryana (India) were used as biofertilizer in bioremediation of salt affected soils having high electrical conductivity (13.5 dS/m) and pH (8) with poor organic carbon (0.3%) as well as nitrogen content (0.008%). The experiments were conducted in a pot house for the period of 240 days. There was a significant (P < 0.05) increase in carbon, phosphate, nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, cation exchange capacity, mean weight diameter and hydraulic conductivity of soil with biofertilizer treatment whereas sodium ion and electrical conductivity were found to be decreased. Improvement in soil aggregation and stability due to increased soil microbial activities (dehydrogenase, invertase and phosphomonoesterase) were also observed. Significant increase in growth and yield of pearl millet–wheat crop was observed in amended pots even under low water regime. Thus, the indigenous cyanobacterial species show promise in effective exploitation for phytoremediation and improved productivity of saline soils under semi-arid condition.     

Interstellar Medium and Star Formation Studies with the Square Kilometre Array

Stars and planetary systems are formed out of molecular clouds in the interstellar medium. Although the sequence of steps involved in star formation are generally known, a comprehensive theory which describes the details of the processes that drive formation of stars is still missing. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), with its unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution, will play a major role in filling these gaps in our understanding. In this article, we present a few science cases that the Indian star formation community is interested in pursuing with SKA, which include investigation of AU-sized structures in the neutral ISM, the origin of thermal and non-thermal radio jets from protostars and the accretion history of protostars, and formation of massive stars and their effect on the surrounding medium.