Impact of Southern Oscillation on the Frequency of Monsoon Depressions in the Bay of Bengal

The impact of Southern Oscillation on thecyclogenesis over the Bay of Bengal duringthe summer monsoon has been investigated.The analysis of correlation coefficients(CCs) between the frequency of monsoondepressions and the Southern OscillationIndex (SOI) reveals that more depressionsform during July and August of El Niñoyears. Due to this, the seasonal frequencyof monsoon depressions remains little higherduring El Niño epochs even though thecorrelations for June and September are notsignificant. The CCs for July and August aresignificant at the 99% level.The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)is known to affect Indian MonsoonRainfall (IMR) adversely. The enhancedcyclogenesis over the Bay of Bengal duringJuly and August is an impact of ENSO whichneeds to be examined closely. Increasedcyclogenesis over the Bay of Bengal may bereducing the deficiency in IMR duringEl Niño years by producing more rainfallover the eastern parts of India duringJuly and August. Thus there is a considerablespatial variation in the impact of ENSOon the monsoon rainfall over India and El Niñoneed not necessarily imply a monsoonfailure everywhere in India.The area of formation of monsoon depressionsshifts eastward during El Niño years.Warmer sea surface temperature (SST) anomaliesprevail over northwest and adjoiningwestcentral Bay of Bengal during premonsoon andmonsoon seasons of El Niño years.May minus March SOI can provide useful predictionsof monsoon depression frequencyduring July and August.     

Surface modification of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nizimuddinia zanardini</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Stoechospermum marginatum</Emphasis> using 4-phenyl-3-thiosemicarbazide to improve heavy metals biosorption from water

Surface modification of two algal biomasses, Nizimuddinia zanardini and Stoechospermum marginatum, using 4-phenyl-3-thiosemicarbazide ligand was performed to investigate the consequences on the adsorption of heavy metals from aqueous solution. Stabilization of amino group of 4-phenyl-3-thiosemicarbazide on the surface of biomasses was confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Chemical modification was found to exert significant positive effects on biosorption. Adsorption capacities for Pb(II), Cd(II) and Cr(VI) using modified N. zanardini were observed to be 19.3, 16.75 and 15.75 mg/g, respectively, compared to 17.48, 14.18 and 11.85 mg/g for raw N. zanardini biomass. Also, adsorption of Pb(II), Cd(II) and Cr(VI) by the modified S. Marginatum was found to be 17.54, 15.62 and 14.77 mg/g, respectively, in comparison with that of the raw biomass which were 16.86, 12.9 and 11.2 mg/g. The obtained results of the equilibrium adsorption were studied through different isotherm models of Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin, where the Langmuir model was observed to agree well with the results. Prevalent kinetic models including pseudo-second order and intra-particle diffusion were applied, and the pseudo-second order was found to describe the adsorption kinetics data adequately. Intra-particle model was also utilized in order to show penetration of metal ions, where it was realized that the biosorption took place in two or three steps including film diffusion, molecular diffusion and chemical reaction.     

Missing basics: a study on sanitation and women’s health in urban slums in Lucknow,India

GeoJournal - Sanitation is a multidimensional concept alluding primarily to provision of services for safe disposal of human excreta, provision of clean potable water as well as maintenance of...     

Ring foundation on elastic subgrade: an analytical solution for computer modelling using the Lagrangian multiplier method

In the practice of geotechnical engineering, the case of a ring footing carrying a set of concentrated point loads is a common problem. At times, the induced vertical and angular displacements for the ring footing need to be evaluated at a relatively precise level. By making use of the governing set of equations derived for the case of a general curved beam, expressions that can be easily implemented in modern computing software are derived for the vertical and angular displacements of a ring footing of rectangular cross section as functions of the radial position. The loading case considered is a vertical point load, and the soil is modelled as elastic. Estimates of the displacements have been shown for a common range of practical applications. The behaviour for a set of concentrated loads may be evaluated using the derived equations through direct superposition. Nonlinear finite element analysis is used to evaluate the vertical deflection and angular twist of the ring foundation. Numerical analysis performed for three ring foundations with different radii and cross sections is reported to validate the accuracy of the derived analytical solution. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shear flow driven counter rotating vortices in an inhomogeneous dusty magnetoplasma

The coupling of Shukla-Varma (SV) and convective cell modes is discussed in the presence of non-Boltzmannian electron response and parallel equilibrium shear flow. In the linear case, a new dispersion relation is derived and analyzed. It is found that the coupled SV and convective cell modes destabilize in the presence of electron shear flow. On the other hand, in the nonlinear regime, it is shown that Shukla-Varma mode driven counter rotating vortices can be formed for the system under consideration. It is found that these vortices move slowly by comparison with the ion acoustic or electron drift-wave driven counter rotating vortices. The relevance of the present investigation with regard to space plasmas is also pointed out.     

Peculiar motions of galaxy clusters: correlation function approach

The correlation function theory on the basis of prescribed boundary conditions provides a deeper understanding in studying the dynamical parameters of galaxy clusters. The approach approximates that the moderate dense systems discussed by a two point correlation function is helpful for describing the dynamical nature of galaxy clusters. The projected theory of two point correlation function for point mass and extended mass structures can be used an alternative tool in measuring the average peculiar motion and temperature profile of galaxy clusters.     

Obliquely propagating nonlinear structures in dense dissipative electron positron ion magnetoplasmas

Nonlinear electrostatic waves in dense dissipative magnetized electron-positron-ion (e-p-i) plasmas are investigated employing the quantum hydrodynamic model. In this regard, Zakharov Kuznetsov Burgers (ZKB) equation is derived in dense plasmas using the small amplitude perturbation expansion method. It is observed that obliqueness, positron concentration, kinematic viscosity, and the ambient magnetic field significantly alter the structure of nonlinear quantum ion acoustic waves in dense dissipative e-p-i magnetoplasmas. The present study may be useful to understand the nonlinear propagation characteristics of electrostatic shock structures in dense astrophysical systems where the quantum effects are expected to dominate.     

Enhancement and Mapping of Weak Multivariate Stream Sediment Geochemical Anomalies in Ahar Area,NW Iran

In this study, stream sediment geochemical data have been subjected to robust principal components analysis (RPCA) and singularity mapping (SM) to enhance and map significant multivariate geochemical anomalies (i.e., mineralization-related) in Ahar area, NW Iran. The RPCA was applied to (a) account for the compositional nature of stream sediment geochemical data using suitable log-ratio transformation, (b) modulate the effect of outliers in component estimation and (c) derive a multivariate geochemical footprint of mineralization. The SM was applied to extract anomalous patterns of the multivariate geochemical footprint of mineralization. The exploration targets were then delineated using Student’s t-statistics analysis. The correlations of mapped exploration targets with the known mineral occurrences and mineralization-related patterns were further evaluated using normalized density index and overall accuracy analyses.     

Prediction of copper content in waste dump of Sarcheshmeh copper mine using visible and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy

The pore structure characteristics of soil are closely related to soil engineering properties. For saline soil distributed in seasonally frozen areas, existing studies have focused on the influence of freeze–thaw cycles on pore structure, while the influence of soluble salt in the soil is not well understood. This study aims to explore the influence of salt content and salt type on the pore structure of freeze-thawed soil. Soil samples with different salt contents (0–2%) and types (bicarbonate salt and sulfate salt) were subjected to 10 freeze–thaw tests, and their pore size distributions (PSDs) were obtained by mercury intrusion porosimetry tests. In addition, the PSDs were quantitatively analyzed by fractal theory. For both salts, the PSDs of the tested soil samples were bimodal after the freeze–thaw cycles, and the porosity of saline soil samples increased with increasing salt content overall. However, the contents of various types of pores in soil samples with two salt types were quite different. The variation in bicarbonate salt content mainly affected the mesopore and macropore contents in the soil samples, and their change trends were opposite to each other. For soil samples with sulfate salt, the porosity and macropore content increased significantly when the salt content exceeded 1%. In addition, the pore structures in saline soil presented fractal characteristics after the freeze–thaw cycles, and the fractal dimension was positively correlated with macropore content. This study may provide references for understanding the engineering properties of saline soil in seasonally frozen areas at the microscale.