Dimorphism in Placenticeras mintoi from the Upper Cretaceous Bagh Beds, central India

The Upper Cretaceous Bagh Beds yield many biota of which ammonoids are particularly well known. Previously Bagh ammonoids were grouped into many genera and species within several families. The present study, however, shows that failure to recognize dimorphism and a wide range of interspecific variation within the single genus Placenticeras perhaps results in taxonomic oversplitting. Specific dimorphism in P. mintoi has been established.     

Predicting permeability of tight carbonates using a hybrid machine learning approach of modified equilibrium optimizer and extreme learning machine

Acta Geotechnica - It is a problematic task to perform petro-physical property prediction of carbonate reservoir rocks in most cases, specifically for permeability prediction since a carbonate rock...     

Applying fuzzy logic to open data for sustainable development decision-making: a case study of the planned city Amaravati

Surf zone injuries (SZIs) are common worldwide, yet limited data are available for many geographical regions, including Europe. This study provides the first preliminary overview of SZIs along approximately 230 km of hazardous surf beaches in SW France during the summer season. A total of 2523 SZIs over 186 sample days during the summers of 2007, 2009 and 2015 were analysed. Documented injury data included date and time; beach location; flag colour; outside/inside of the bathing zone; age, gender, country and home postal code of the victim; activity; cause of injury; injury type and severity. Injuries sustained ranged from mild contusion to fatal drowning, including severe spinal injuries, wounds and luxation. While the most severe injuries (drowning) were related to rip currents, a large number of SZIs occurred as a result of shore-break waves (44.6%; n = 1125) and surfing activity (31.0%; n = 783) primarily inside and outside of lifeguard-patrolled bathing zones, respectively. Victims were primarily French living more than 40 km from the beach (75.9% of the reported addresses; n = 1729), although a substantial number of victims originated from Europe (14.7% of the addresses reported; n = 335), including the Netherlands (44.2%; n = 148), Germany (26.3%; n = 88) and Belgium (12.5%; n = 49). The predominant age group involved in the incidents was between 10 and 25 years (54.5%; n = 1376) followed by between 35 and 50 years (22.6%; n = 570), with the majority of SZIs involving males (69.6%, n = 1617). Despite the large predominance (74.1%; n = 33) of males involved in the most severe drowning incidents, all of which occurred outside the bathing zone, a surprisingly large proportion of females (48.0%; n = 133) experienced milder drowning incidents involving only minor to moderate respiratory impairment, peaking at 58.2% (n = 85) within the age group 10–25. The spine/cervical injury population is very young, with 58.5% (n = 313) within the age group 10–20. Specific injuries tended to occur in clusters (e.g. rip-current drowning or shore-break injury) with particular days prone to rip-current drowning or hazardous shore-break waves, suggesting the potential to predict the level of risk to beachgoers based on basic weather and marine conditions. This study calls for increased social-based beach safety research in France and the development of more effective public awareness campaigns to highlight the surf zone hazards, even within a supervised bathing zone. These campaigns should be targeted towards young males and females, in order to reduce the number of injuries and drownings occurring on beaches in SW France.     

Trace elements and their variation along seam profiles of certain coal seams of Middle and Upper Barakar formations (Lower Permian) in East Bokaro coalfield,district Hazaribagh,Bihar, India

Trace-element data are presented for the first time for any coal seam in India, across a full working section, based on systematically collected channel samples of coal, together with their maceral composition. The trace-element variation curves along the seam profile are presented together with group maceral compositions of Kargali Bottom, Kargali Top, Kargali, Kathara, Uchitdih, Jarangdih Bottom, Jarangdih, and Jarangdih Top seams, East Bokaro coalfield. The Kathara and Uchitdih seams have also been sampled at two other localities and lateral variation in data in their trace-element and maceral compositions is also evaluated.The East Bokaro coals have: Ba and Sr > 1000 ppm; Mn < 450 ppm; Zr < 400 ppm; Ni and V < 250 ppm; Cr < 185 ppm; La < 165 ppm; Cu, Nb, and B < 125 ppm; Pb, Co and Y < 75 ppm; Ga, Sn, Mo, In and Yb < 15 ppm; Ag 2 ppm; and Ge 7 ppm. Petrographically, the coals are dominant in vitrinite (33–97%), rare in exinite (<15%), and semifusinite (0.8–49%) is the dominant inertinite maceral, with variable mineral and shaly matter (11–30%), graphic representation of trace elements versus vitrinite, inertinite, and coal ash indicates the affinity of (a) vitrinite with Cu, Ni, Co, V, Ga and B; (b) inertinite with Nb and B; and (c) coal ash (mineral matter) with Pb, Cu, Ni, La, Mn and Y; Ba, Cr, Sr, Zr, Cu and Ni are of organic as well as inorganic origins.The trend of the variation patterns and average compositions of the different seams are shown to be distinct and different. The variation along the same profile is inferred to be different for different seams of the coalfield.Trace-element data for certain coals of seams from different coalfields in the Gondwana basins of India are presented. There is a wide difference for each of these basins with respect to certain elements. This is suggestive of the proportions of Cu, Ni, V, Y, Ba, Sr, Cr, B, Zr and Ag, characterizing the different Gondwana Basins.     

New Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) ammonite assemblages from Kutch, India

The Bathonian ammonite assemblages have been previously poorly recorded in Kutch. The present study has unearthed a rich array of ammonite taxa ranging from the Middle to Upper Bathonian. While Oxycerites Rollier (1909) is a new record from Kutch, the oldest occurrence of Choffatia Siemiradzki (1898) has been found from the Middle Bathonian horizon. Oxycerites cf. orbis (Giebel) is a zonal index of the Late Bathonian in other areas and thus facilitates interprovincial correlation. Besides, palaeobiogeographic and stratigraphic distribution of many species have been modified based on new information. For example, macrocephalitin species, i.e., Kamptokephalites cf. etheridgei Spath (1928), Macrocephalites bifurcatus transient intermedius Spath (1928), M. cf. mantataranus Boehm (1912) were previously known from West Pacific, Indonesia have been now found in Kutch. Gracilisphinctes Buckman (1920) has been previously known to occur during the Middle Bathonian time, the present work extends its stratigraphic distribution up to the definite Upper Bathonian horizon. Procerites hians (Waagen) an endemic species in Kutch previously known from the Upper Bathonian beds, its stratigraphic range has been extended down to the Middle Bathonian.Detail taxonomy of the newly obtained taxa has been done and in many cases sexual dimorphism has been recognized.     

Satellite based mapping and morphogenetic analysis of the landforms in the tertiary fold belts of parts of Tripura,India

In the present study, satellite-based mapping and morphogenetic analysis of eastern part of Tripura has been attempted. Landforms are delineated based on conjugate analysis of satellite-imaged and satellite-derived digital elevation data. Further, landforms were classified based on hierarchical three-tier classification system where genesis is used as a criteria to classify the landforms in the first level followed by nature of their dissection and the geometric forms of the landform in second and third level, respectively. During the analysis, it has been observed that most of the landforms are structural in origin and their orientations are guided by the geological lineaments although the variations in the dissection pattern of the landforms are related to the changes in the underlying lithology. The implementation of quantitative analysis using hypsometric integral and ruggedness index of geomorphic parameters indicates that the landforms are immature but have been evolving towards maturity.     

Linking remotely sensed Urban Green Space (UGS) distribution patterns and Socio-Economic Status (SES) - A multi-scale probabilistic analysis based in Mumbai,India

Urban Green Spaces (UGS) offer social and environmental benefits that enhance quality of life of the residents. However, due to the underlying social and economic disparities, different sections of urban population have disproportionate level of access to UGS. The environmental inequity owing to the varied UGS distribution poses a challenge to urban planners in efficient resource allocation. This study attempts to counter this challenge using a novel remote sensing-based approach. The variations in UGS distribution (in terms of quantity, quality and accessibility) across the neighbourhoods in Mumbai vis-à-vis the socio-economic status (SES) of neighbourhood residents are assessed using remote sensing-based indicators. Further, as these indicators are susceptible to the effect of changing scales, a multi-scale approach is adopted to study the potential variations in the relationship between SES and spatial metrics of UGS with spatial resolution. The neighbourhood SES was assessed using the newly developed Socio-Economic Status Index (SESI) and the neighbourhoods were classified into multiple SES categories. The UGS were extracted from remotely sensed data using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and their spatial distribution aspects were characterized using indicators at neighbourhood level. The variations in indicators of UGS distribution in the neighbourhoods belonging to different SES categories were analysed using a logistic regression model. The results showed that, while quantity of UGS is not statistically associated with neighbourhoods SES, the quality and accessibility aspects of UGS share a statistically significant relation with SES. Also, this relation was found to vary significantly with spatial resolutions. Further, it was found that the neighbourhoods with higher SES in Mumbai have a better access to green spaces, indicating spatial inequities in UGS distribution in Mumbai. This study has important implications for planning equitable green spaces in cities that are currently in urbanization transition.     

Stratification approach for forest cover type and landuse mapping using IRS-1A LISS-II data — A case study

Indian Remote Sensing Satellite-1A (IRS-1A) LISS-II data of 24th Nov., 1988 was analysed digitally to differentiate three density classes viz. dense/closed forest, open forest and degraded forest within each vegetation type in the district, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal. Stratification approach was used to classify separately forest cover into pure sal forests, mixed forests, riverine forests along with man-made sal/teak plantations. In this approach the forested and non-forested areas were classified separately through supervised classification techniques using maximum likelihood algorithm using VAX 11/780 based VIPS-32 Image Processing software. Later the two classified outputs were composited to provide entire area of the district. The forest cover of the district was 1420.89 sq. km, (22.82 percent). Other broad landuse/landcover dominant in the district include agricultural areas.(45.20 percent) and tea gardens (10.49 percent). The accuracy of the classified output was estimated to be 90 percent for forested areas and 85 percent in case of other landuse/landcover classes.