Influence of two different dietary zinc sources in freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii post larvae

Journal of Oceanology and Limnology - A feeding experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of bulk zinc (B-Zn) and zinc nanoparticles (Zn-NPs) on survival, growth, compositions of amino acid...     

Controlling NOx Emission of Crude Rice Bran Oil Blend for Sustainable Environment

The main objective of this work is to investigate the factors influencing the NOx control of a stationary diesel engine fuelled with crude rice bran oil blend with lesser effect on smoke density and brake thermal efficiency (BTE). Fuel injection timing, percentage of EGR, and fuel injection pressure are chosen as the factors for the objective and NOx emission, smoke density, and BTE are considered as the response variables. To critically analyze the effects of the chosen factors on the objective three levels were chosen in each factor and the experiments were designed by following the design of experiments method. Taguchi's L₉ orthogonal array was used to conduct the tests with different combination of factor levels. Through analysis of variance (ANOVA) method, the most influencing factors and also the significance of each factor affecting each response variable were found out. Response graph was drawn for each response variable to determine the optimum combination of factor levels in achieving the objective and the obtained combination was confirmed experimentally.     

Assessment of surface water potential and groundwater recharge in ungauged watersheds: a case study in Tamil Nadu,India

Many of the states in India have been facing water scarcity for more than 2 decades due to increased demand, because of the increase in population and higher living standards. Consequently, many states have almost fully utilized the available surface water resources and are exploiting groundwater to augment water supplies. Investigations were carried out in the upper Thurinjalar watershed of Ponnaiyar basin in Tamil Nadu to determine the availability of surface water and to investigate the potential for enhancing groundwater recharge to support the water demand in the watershed. Increasing the water availability would also enable the community to convert the 46% of the land area in the watershed that is currently underutilised into productive uses. The surface water potential for the upper Thurinjalar watershed was assessed by applying the USDA–NRCS model with daily time steps. This modelling exercise indicated that the annual runoff from the 323 km² area of the watershed is 61 million m³. Groundwater recharge in the watershed was assessed by carrying out daily water balance method and indicated that about 43 million m³ of water from recharge is available on an annual basis or about 14% of annual rainfall. A simple regression model was developed to compute groundwater recharge from rainfall based on water balance computations and this was statistically verified. The modelling indicated that there is sufficient water available in the watershed to support current land uses and to increase the productivity of underutilised land in the area. The study also demonstrates that simple regression models can be used as an effective tool to compute groundwater recharge for ungauged basins with proper calibration.     

Influence of two different dietary zinc sources in freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii post larvae

A feeding experiment was conducted to evaluate the ef fects of bulk zinc(B-Zn) and zinc nanoparticles(Zn-NPs) on survival, growth, compositions of amino acid and fatty acid, and nonspeci?c immune responses of the freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii post larvae. The B-Zn(size 10 μm)and Zn-NPs(size 50 nm) were supplemented separately with the basal feeds of M. rosenbergii at 60 mg/kg and feed without supplementation of any Zn source was served as a control. M. rosenbergii were fed these feeds for 90 days and the results showed that signi?cant( P <0.05) improvements in survival, growth, feed intake,speci?c growth rate, essential amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids, nonspeci?c immune responses(total haemocytes and dif ferential haemocytes count) of M. rosenbergii fed with B-Zn and Zn-NPs supplemented feeds when compared to control. Among these Zn sources, Zn-NPs supplemented feeds fed prawns showed signi?cantly( P <0.05) better performance than that of B-Zn and control. Hence, present study suggests that the 60 mg/kg Zn-NPs can be supplemented with basal feeds of M. rosenbergii for regulating better survival and growth.     

Chemistry of the solar neutrino experiment

The possibility of chemical ‘trapping’ of the Ar⁺ ion in the reaction $$v{\text{ }} + {\text{ }}^{{\text{37}}} {\text{Cl}} \to {\text{ }}^{{\text{37}}} {\text{Ar}}^{\text{ + }} + {\text{ e}}^ - ,$$ when it takes place in tetrachloroethylene (C₂Cl₄) liquid, is examined in detail. It is concluded that if trapping does take place, the rate is much smaller than the charge neutralization rate. Therefore, this niechanism cannot explain the observed small rate of Ar production in the Brookhaven solar neutrino experiment. A detailed examination of a number of experiments which are sensitive to possible trapping lends strong support to this conclusion.     

Cosmic ray synthesis of organic molecules in Titan's atmosphere

We have studied the possible synthesis of organic molecules by the absorption of galactic cosmic rays in an N₂CH₄H₂ Titan model atmosphere. The cosmic-ray-induced ionization results in peak electron densities of 2 × 10³ cm^?3, with NH₄⁺, C₃H₉⁺, and C₄H₉⁺ being among the important positive ions. Details of the ion and neutral chemistry relevant to the production of organic molecules are discussed. The potential importance of $\text{N}\text{(}{}^2\text{D)}$ reactions with CH₄ and H₂ is also demonstrated. Although the integrated production rate of organic matter due to the absorption of the cosmic ray cascade is much less than that by solar ultraviolet radiation, the production of nitrogen-bearing organic molecules by cosmic rays may be greater.