A Laboratory Experiment with Relevance to The Survival of Micro-Organisms Entering a Planetary Atmosphere

A culture of E. coli was initially subjected to brief exposures to heat for durations of 30–60 s, starting with a temperature of 270 ^°C. A stepwise increase of this temperature from 270 ^°C–750 ^°C and a sequential culturing led to the emergence of a strain of this bacterium with a much higher resistance to flash heating than the original culture possessed. This behaviour would have an important relevance to the survival of micro-organisms upon entering a planetary atmosphere. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Infrared Spectroscopy Over The 2.9–3.9 μm Waveband in Biochemistry and Astronomy

The infrared spectrum of the galactic centre source GC-IRS 7 over the 2.9–3.9 μm waveband is interpreted as strong evidence for bacterial grains. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Impact of forest degradation on streamflow regime and runoff response to rainfall in the Garhwal Himalaya,Northwest India

Baseflows have declined for decades in the Lesser Himalaya but the causes are still debated. This paper compares variations in streamflow response over three years for two similar headwater catchments in northwest India with largely undisturbed (Arnigad) and highly degraded (Bansigad) oak forest. Hydrograph analysis suggested no catchment leakage, thereby allowing meaningful comparisons. The mean annual runoff coefficient for Arnigad was 54% (range 44–61%) against 62% (53–69%) at Bansigad. Despite greater total runoff Q_t (by 250 mm year^–1), baseflow at Bansigad ceased by March, but was perennial at Arnigad (making up 90% of Q_t vs. 51% at Bansigad). Arnigad storm flows, Q_s, were modest (8–11% of Q_t) and occurred mostly during monsoons (78–98%), while Q_s at Bansigad was 49% of Q_t and occurred also during post-monsoon seasons. Our results underscore the importance of maintaining soil water retention capacity after forest removal to maintain baseflow levels.

EDITOR D. Koutsoyiannis; ASSOCIATE EDITOR D. Gerten     

Intra-day variability of three Seyfert galaxies measured with XMM-Newton

We present and analyze the variability of three Seyfert galaxies on intra-day timescales. We have analyzed in a uniform manner the 38 longest( 30 ks) observations made for NGC 4051, MCG-06–30–15 and NGC 4151 by XMM-Newton between 2000 and 2015. The nuclei were quite active during essentially all of these observations and the overall X-ray fluxes(0.3–10 keV) varied by an order of magnitude. Most of the observations do appear to show characteristic timescales, estimated through their auto-correlation functions, ranging between ~2.9 ks and ~45.3 ks. The hard(2–10 keV) and soft(0.3–2.0 keV) bands are very well correlated but consideration of their hardness ratios shows that the sources typically soften during flares. We also provide new estimates of the central black hole masses for these three AGNs that support the hypothesis that Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies have relatively small central black holes.     

Stability of earth dam contaminated by chemical transport

When chemicals are introduced into the oil, they affect soil properties such as hydraulic conductivity and stress–strain behavior. In this study, several chloride concentrations are varied from 0 to 20 per cent to analyse the effect of chemicals on soil properties. A series of laboratory triaxial tests are performed on the cylindrical specimens of sand–bentonite mixture with different sodium chloride contents (5, 10, 15 per cent) by Nannapaneni. Deformation (elastic modulus, E) and strength (cohesion, c′, and angle of friction, ϕ′) parameters are obtained from the triaxial tests as functions of confining pressure and sodium chloride concentrations, and variations of parameters are incorporated into stability analysis. The stress–strain–strength behaviour based on the above strength parameters is introduced in a finite element procedure with a modified residual flow procedure (RFP). By integrating a slope stability procedure in the finite element method, the stability with time of earth dam contaminated by sodium chloride is examined. It is found that increasing sodium chloride concentration for the soil considered increases stability. However, the procedure is general and can allow stability analysis under the influence of other chemical which may lead to decrease in stability. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Soil erosion potential hotspot zone identification using machine learning and statistical approaches in eastern India

Natural Hazards - Land degradation is very severe in the subtropical monsoon-dominated region due to the uncertainty of rainfall in the long term, and most of the rainfall occurs with high...     

Statistical approach to triple systems in three-dimensional motion

This paper considers disruption of triple close approaches with low initial velocities and equal masses in the framework of statistical escape theory in a three-dimensional space. The statistical escape theory is based on the assumption that the phase trajectory of a triple system is quasi-ergodic. This system is described by allowing for both energy and angular momentum conservation in the phase space. In this paper, “possibility of escape” is derived with the formation of a binary on the basis of relative distances of the participating bodies. The complete statistical solutions (i.e. the semi-major axis \(a\), the distributions of eccentricity \(e\) of the binary, binary energy \({E}_{{b}}\), escape energy \({E}_{{s}}\) of escaper, and its escape velocity \({v}_{{s}}\)) of the system are derived from the allowable phase space volumes and are in good agreement with the numerical results in the range of perturbing velocities \({v}_{{i}}\)(\(10^{ - 1} \le {v}_{{i}} \le 10^{ - 10}\)) and directions of \({v}_{{i}}(0 \le \alpha _{{i}},\beta _{{i}},\gamma _{{i}} \le \pi )\), \({i} = 1,2,3\). In this paper, the double limit process has been applied to approximate the escape probability. Through this process, it is observed that the perturbing velocity \({v}_{{i}} \to 0^{ +} \), as the product of the semi-major axis \(a\) of the final binary and the square of the escape velocity \({v}_{{s}}\) approach 2/3, i.e. \({a} {v}_{{s}}^{2} \to 2 / 3\), whatever direction of \(\mathbf{v}_{{i}}\) may be.