Archives-March 2013

In this paper we examine the energy use patterns, energy input-output analysis and economic analysis of soybean production in Mazandaran province of Iran. The data were collected using a face-to-face questionnaire method from 95 farmers in Sari, Babolsar, Behshahr and Juibar counties. The results indicated that total energy input for soybean was about 38.7 GJha-1. Among all inputs involved, electricity (49.42%) and fertilizer (20.82%) had the highest energy values per hectare. The bene?t-cost ratio and energy ratio for cultivating for were found to be 1.56 and 2.06, respectively. Also, total cost of production was calculated 0.35 $kg-1 in the research area. The total mean expenditure for the production was 1145 $ha-1 that includes 969 $ha-1 for variable cost and 176 $ha-1 for fixed cost. Optimal consumptions of electricity and fertilizers as major inputs, minimum tillage and no tillage planting systems would be suggested.

The main objective of this paper focused on field exploratory survey of e-waste generation in Bangalore city. Field data were collected through questionnaire-based survey followed up with interviews where the target respondent groups and e-waste categories were predetermined to determine the e-waste flow purchasing pattern, recycling and disposal practices, and to understand the existing measures for e-waste management in Bangalore. There are three main target respondents included in the survey. The three main categories are Households, Offices (business entities and institutions) and Recyclers (Including importers and exporters, manufacturers, collectors, second-hand shops, repair shops, dismantlers, and processors of recyclable materials from used WEEE). A total of eleven major area of Bangalore city were selected. The basis for the selection of the survey location is based on the population density and also the socioeconomic status of the areas. The average weight of EEE was taken as per E-Waste Volume I, Inventory Assessment Manual, UNEPBased on the survey, it was estimated that the total e-waste generation in bulk quantity from software industry of all scales is 250162.8 kg/annum. Total e-waste generation due to repairs of EEE is 32443 Kg per annum. Total e-waste generated from seven EEE items due to households is 12190.09 Kg per annum. Total e-waste generated due to consumers/users in bulk quantities in hotels and institutes is 9447.12 Kg per annum. Total e-waste generated is 121 Kg from users/ consumers of mobile phones in bulk quantity n organizations. Total e-waste generated from users/consumers in bulk quantity from manufacturing industry of all scales is 20420.7. 8 Kg/annum.

The vibrational properties of 2–methyl-6-nitroquinoline have been investigated by FTIR and FT–Raman spectroscopies were performed according to the SQM force field method based on DFT calculation at the B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) level. The assignments of the most of the fundamentals of the title compound provided in this work are quite comparable and unambiguous. The results confirm the ability of the methodology applied for interpretation of the vibrational spectra of the title compound in the solid phase.

The aim of this research is to create the portfolio of efficient companies using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique to gain a return beyond the average return of market. For this purpose, input-oriented and output-oriented models were used under constant returns to scale (CCR) and variable returns to scale (BCC). Also, in this research the hypothesis “the portfolio composed of small companies has a better performance than the average of industry” was discussed. The results of the research indicate that in case of using CCR method, it is not possible to gain a return beyond the average return of market; however, it is possible to do so if BCC method is used. The performance of the portfolio created using this method was also appropriate. In the end, the portfolio composed of small companies had the return beyond the average return of market and had an appropriate performance.

In the present study bacterial species isolated from textile industry effluent were evaluated for their decolourization and degradation abilities. The textile waste has a high number of organic as well as inorganic pollutants which would be harmful to aquatic flora and faunas well as cause health problems if the industrial effluent is directly discharged into water bodies. Seven microbial strains were isolated and from them two strains identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens and Bacillus cereus were evaluated for their capability to degrade different dyes. Further the various condition for maximum dye degradation were analysed and Pseudomonas fluorescens was seen to give 95-98 % dye degradation under aerobic and agitated conditions at neutral pH.

Chromium has been widely used in various industries like textile, leather, chemical manufacture, metal finishing, paint industry and many other industries. Since hexavalent chromium is a priority toxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic chemical when present in excess, it is very much required to remove chromium from effluents before allowing it to enter any water system or on to land. In the present study, the removal of hexavalent chromium by adsorption on the Borasus flabellifer coir powder as adsorbent has been investigated in the batch experiments. The agitation time, the adsorbent size, adsorbent dosage, initial chromium concentration, temperature and the effect of solution pH are studied. Adsorption mechanism is found to follow Freundlich. The adsorption behavior is described by a second order kinetics. Percentage removal of chromium (VI) is found to be 97.16% at pH=2, w=0.5g, dp=63µm and temperature=303 K. The results obtained in this study illustrate that Borasus flabellifer coir powder is an effective and economically viable adsorbent for hexavalent chromium removal from industrial waste water.

Technologies have advanced rapidly in the field of digital signal processing due to advances made in high speed, low cost digital integrated chips. These technologies have further stimulated ever increasing use of signal representation in digital form for purposes of transmission, measurement, control and storage. Design of digital filters especially adaptive or semi adaptive is the necessity of the hour for SAR applications. The aim of this research work is to design and performance evaluation of 380-400 KHz Bartlett, Blackman and Chebyshev digital semi adaptive filters. For this work XILINX and MATLAB softwares were used for the design. As pert of practical research work these designs were translated using FPGA hardware SPARTAN-3E kit. These were optimized, analyzed, compared and evaluated keeping the sampling frequency at 5 MHz for 64 order. Both these filters designed using software and hardware were tested by passing a sinusoidal test signal of 381 KHz along with noise and the filtered output signals are presented.

An impact of floor levels and geological formation on the concentrations of indoor radon and its progeny studied inside 8 hospitals, and for three floor levels: ground, first and second. Locations of the selected hospitals had different geological formation and located in three main governorates: Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymaniya. Nuclear track detector type CR-39 (CR-39NTDs) used to measure track density of alpha particles that emitted from radon and its progeny. During spring season, 72 pair of exposure chambers (open-close chamber) equipped with 144 pieces of CR-39NTDs installed inside 24 rooms for three floors. After 90 day of exposure, exposed detectors etched in 6N NaOH at 70 ?C for 10 h. The highest and lowest radon concentration was in the hospitals of Shaheed Aso (Sulaymaniya city: 71.09±4.32 Bq.m^-3) and  Erbil Teaching ( Erbil city : 48.02±3.77Bq.m^-3) .This depended on the geological formation, type of building material, and the floor level. Therefore, the results showed that the average radon concentration and annual effective dose decreases gradually as the floor level increases. The highest and lowest of annual effective dose was found in ground and second floor, respectively. Thus, according to the annual exposure dose data, the workers are safety in most of the hospitals. More details about the type of building materials of the hospitals are listed in full paper.

Semi-organic nonlinear optical crystals of Tribismuthnonakisthioureanonachloride dihydrate has been grown by single diffusion gel growth technique. Powder XRD study reveals that the grown crystal belongs to triclinic system. Decomposition mechanism and melting point of the sample were deliberated in TGA/DSC analysis. Band gap energy value was calculated from photoluminescence spectrum. Dielectric constant of the crystal is premeditated as a function of frequency.

The primary task of the studies based on survey is the questionnaire development process. The design of a questionnaire involves a systematic procedure. This paper addresses the procedure adopted to design the questionnaire and to evolve policy guidelines for setting up of Environmental Regulation Management System (ERMS) in Indian Manufacturing Industries. During the process development, each and every phase of the questionnaire design is carefully framed based on the guidelines, experiences shared by the domain knowledge people and literature survey. The pre-tests, which are critical for the acceptance of any new questionnaire, are Understandability test and Reliability test. The questionnaire is validated with the above pretests using samples collected from different category of industries.