A longitudinal study of malaria associated with deforestation in Sonitpur district of Assam,India

Assam–Arunachal forest fringed foothill area is endemic for malaria incidence. The present study deals with the temporal analysis of malaria incidence and determines its association with deforestation in 24 villages along the Assam–Arunachal forest fringed foothill area of Sonitpur district of Assam. Malaria epidemiological survey has been carried out in the study area from the year 1994 to 2005. Remote sensing (RS) technique has been used to map the areas of forest changes from the year 2000 to 2005. Geographical information system (GIS) was used to map the malaria incidence and forest cover. The study villages are endemic to malaria infections and there was increasing trend of malaria incidence over the years. The slide positivity rate (SPR) ranged from 5.1% in 1997 to 44.4% in 2005. The percentage forest cover decreased significantly from 23.6% during 2000 to 15.4% during 2005, whereas SPR was increased during 2000–2005. The present study is the first attempt to understand the role of deforestation in malaria incidence using RS and GIS in the north-eastern region of India at a micro-geographic level. The study suggests that the area is endemic to malaria transmission. The decrease in forest cover is a serious ecological concern besides its role in elevating the malaria incidence in the study area.     

Finite Element and Reliability Analyses for Slope Stability of Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project: A Case Study

The partly constructed and excavated power house slopes of Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project experienced extensive collapses through complex mode of failure. A detailed study is attempted in this paper to understand the reasons for the failure and assess the stability of the existing constructed slopes using limit equilibrium and FEM solutions and also to propose modified design for rebuilding the slopes. To take into account the uncertainty associated with the rockmass and soil properties, probability and reliability analyses have also been carried out. Based on the field observations and stability analyses of the natural and cut slopes, suitable support systems such as slope flattening with various angles, weldmesh, shotcrete, rockbolts and drainage holes have been considered to meet the stability requirements. In this study, it is demonstrated that the probabilistic approach when used in conjunction with deterministic approach helps in providing a rational solution for quantification of stability in the estimation of risk associated with the power house slope construction.     

Microtremor survey in Talchir, India to ascertain its basin characteristics in terms of predominant frequency by Nakamura's ratio technique

The Talchir Basin, one of India's oldest basins, has been a subject of interest because of its rich coal deposits. The maximum thickness of the basin is about 1500 m. Beyond the basin is the hard metamorphic rocks of Precambrian age. The ambient noise survey data have been analyzed for the Talchir Basin using Nakamura's technique of horizontal–vertical-spectral-ratio (HVSR) to ascertain the basin structure in terms of the predominant frequency. The predominant frequency varies from 0.25 Hz to 7.8 Hz but a major portion of the basin comes under the range of 0.3 Hz–2.4 Hz while on the metamorphic rocks it is as high as 7.8 Hz. The variation in predominant frequency shows a good correlation with the sediment thickness of the basin. The results have been compared with the previous studies by other researchers and it shows consistency with the northerly dip of the basin. The present study has also been compared with the results of the synthetic seismogram that was performed for the Talchir Basin. The predominant frequency obtained from HVSR technique complements well with the frequency at which the peak response spectra ratio is observed. The present study of the predominant frequency identifies quite well the characteristics of Talchir Basin and is in good agreement with the synthetic ground motion modeling of the region.     

Arsenic-enriched aquifers: Occurrences and mobilization of arsenic in groundwater of Ganges Delta Plain, Barasat, West Bengal, India

Hydrogeochemical characteristics and elemental features of groundwater and core sediments have been studied to better understand the sources and mobilization process responsible for As-enrichment in part of the Gangetic plain (Barasat, West Bengal, India). Analysis of water samples from shallow tubewells (depth 24.3–48.5 m) and piezometer wells (depth 12.2–79.2 m) demonstrate that the groundwater is mostly the Ca-HCO₃ type and anoxic in nature (mean Eh_SHE = 34 mV). Arsenic concentrations ranged from <10–538 μg/L, with high concentrations only present in the shallow to medium depth (30–50 m) of the aquifer along with high Fe (0.07–9.8 mg/L) and relatively low Mn (0.15–3.38 mg/L) as also evidenced in core sediments. Most groundwater samples contained both As(III) and As(V) species in which the concentration of As(III) was generally higher than that of As(V), exhibiting the reducing condition. Results show lower concentrations of NO₃, SO₄ and NO₂ along with higher values of DOC and HCO₃, indicating the reducing nature of the aquifer with abundant organic matter that can promote the release of As from sediments into groundwater. Positive correlations of As with Fe and DOC were also observed. The presence of DOC may actively drive the redox processes. This study revealed that reduction processes of FeOOH was the dominant mechanism for the release of As into the groundwater in this part of the Ganges Delta plain.     

Polarimetric Study of Comets C/1995 O1 (Hale–Bopp) and C/2000 Wm1 (Linear)

We made polarimetric observations of comet Hale–Bopp covering awide phase angle range, from 18.8 to 47°. At certain phase angles the heliocentricdistance of the comet was less than 1 AU during its pre and post perihelion passages. Oneof the important findings, based on the data in the visual bands, is the higher polarizationwith stronger wavelength dependence compared to comet Halley, indicating the presenceof much finer grains in comet Hale–Bopp. It may also be noted that comet Hale–Bopphas shown highest degree of polarization known so far for any comet and hence fallsin the class of high polarization comets. Polarimetric observations were made of cometC/2000 WM1 (LINEAR)using narrow band (IHW) filters 4845 Å and 7000 Åand broad bands filters BVR during November 23–26, 2001 when the phase angle rangedfrom 15 to 22°. Some of the results based on these observations are presented anddiscussed.     

Sunyaev–Zel'dovich distortion from early galactic winds

We consider the distortion in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) resulting from galactic winds at high redshift. Winds outflowing from galaxies have been hypothesized to be possible sources of metals in the intergalactic medium, which is known to have been enriched to 10^−2.5 Z_⊙ at z ∼3. We model these winds as functions of mass of the parent galaxy and redshift, assuming that they activate at a common initial redshift, z _in, and calculate the mean y -distortion and the angular power spectrum of the distortion in the CMB. We find that the thermal Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ) effect resulting from the winds is consistent with previous estimates. The distortion arising from the kinetic SZ (kSZ) effect is, however, found to be more important than the thermal SZ (tSZ) effect. We find that the distortion resulting from galactic winds is an important contribution to the power spectrum of distortion at very small angular scales ( l ∼10⁴). We also find that the power spectrum resulting from clustering dominates the Poisson power spectrum for l ≤(4–5)×10⁵. We show explicitly how the combined power spectrum from wind dominates over that of clusters at 217 GHz, relevant for PLANCK . We also show how these constraints change when the efficiency of the winds is varied.     

Exact solution of the problem of diffuse reflection for a combination of Rayleigh and isotropic scattering

We consider the basic vector equation of transfer for radiation in a semi-infinite atmosphere for diffuse reflection which scatters radiation in accordance with the phase matrix obtained from a combination of Rayleight and isotropic scattering. This equation will give an integral equation for emergent intensity while subjected to the Laplace transform. The integral equation will give rise to the emergent intensity matrix on application of the Wiener-Hopf technique. This is an exact method.