Assessment of Safety and Health in the Tea Industry of Barak Valley,Assam: A Fuzzy Logic Approach

Traditional safety and health system measurement procedures, practiced in various industries produce qualitative results with a degree of uncertainty. This paper presents a fuzzy-logic-based approach to developing a fuzzy model for assessing the safety and health status in the tea industry. For this, the overall safety and health status at a tea estate has been considered as a function of 4 inputs: occupational safety, occupational health, behavioral safety and competency. A set of fuzzy rules based on expert human judgment has been used to correlate different fuzzy inputs and output. Fuzzy set operations are used to calculate the safety and health status of the tea industry. Application of the developed model at a tea estate showed that the safety and health status belongs to the fuzzy class of good with a crisp value of 7.2.     

Water and solute movement in soil as influenced by macropore characteristics: 2. Macropore tortuosity

The paper describes the results of a laboratory study on the effects of macropore tortuosity on breakthrough curves BTCs and solute distribution in a Forman loam (fine loamy-mixed Udic Haploborolls) soil. BTC were obtained using 2-D columns (slab) containing artificial macropores of five different tortuosity levels. The BTCs were run under a constant hydraulic head of 0.08 m over an initially air dry soil. The input solutions contained 1190 mg l⁻¹ of potassium bromide, 10 mg l⁻¹ of Rhodamine WT, and 100 mg l⁻¹ of FD&C Blue #1. A soil column without macropores served as a control. The displacement of a non-adsorbed tracer was not affected by the tortuosity level. An increase in macropore tortuosity progressively increased the breakthrough time, increased the apparent retardation coefficient (R′), decreased the depth to the center of mass of a given adsorbed tracer, and increased the anisotropy in tracer distribution profile. The relative importance of macropore tortuosity increased with an increase in the adsorption coefficient of the tracer. Compared to macropore continuity, the macropore tortuosity had greater impact on solute distribution profile than in its leaching.     

Spatiotemporal mapping of Land Use/Land Cover dynamics using Remote Sensing and GIS approach: a case study of Prayagraj City,India (1988–2018)

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Prayagraj City is one the biggest cities in the State of Uttar Pradesh which has been selected as Smart City by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs,...     

Landslide hazard,vulnerability, and risk assessment (HVRA), Mussoorie township,lesser himalaya,India

Environment, Development and Sustainability - In the present study, landslide hazard, vulnerability and the risk assessment of the Himalayan township Mussoorie, located in the lower part of the...     

Effect of lindane on antibody response to typhoid vaccine in weanling rats

Abstract

The immunosuppressive effect of lindane was assessed in weanling rats over a period of 5 weeks. Agglutinin titres against S. typhi ‘O’ and ‘H’, S. paratyphi ‘AH’ and ‘BR’ antigens were determined following TAB vaccination in control and lindane‐fed animals. The titres attained in non‐treated controls were higher significantly than those in treated animals indicating a suppressive effect of lindane on humoral immune responses.     

Acute toxicity of mercury to the fingerlings of Indian major carps (catla, rohu and mrigal) in relation to water hardness and temperature

In the present study short-term (96 hr) toxicity of mercury in relation to water hardness (270 and 560 mg/l) and temperature (16 degrees C and 35 degrees C) to the fingerlings of Indian major carps, i.e. catla, rohu and mrigal has been evaluated using static bioassay. The LC5o indicates that both water hardness and temperature played significant role in mercury toxicity. The test fishes were found most resistant with water hardness of 560 mg/l at 16 degrees C as compared to that of water hardness of 560 mg/l at 35 degrees C and water hardness of 270 mg/l at both the temperatures, i.e. 35 and 16 degrees C. Whereas the order of relative sensitivities of these fishes for mercury ions were recorded as catla>rohu>mrigal. The safe concentrations of mercury were ranged in between 12.133 to 19.689 microg/l for catla; 64.039 to 82.555 microg/l for rohu and 73.510 to 89.585 microg/l for mrigal for both the water hardness and temperature.     

Deviation of negatively charged protein fractions in the trochophore and veliger larvae by the larvicidal action of baygon in freshwater pulmonate Gyraulus convexiusculus (Planorbidae)

In the present investigation egg capsules of Gyraulus convexiusculus were treated with different concentrations of baygon. A dose and duration dependent deviations in the number of negatively charged protein fractions in the trochophore and veliger larval stages were observed. It resulted into anomalies in the morphogenesis and organogenesis of corresponding larval stages. Most of the protein bands showed the decrease in the protein positive intensities in comparison to control. This suggested that baygon causes larval toxicity in Gyraulus convexiusculus.     

Spectrophotometric determination of nitrite with diphenylamine in potable and polluted water

This paper describes a new method for the determination of nitrite in potable and polluted water, based on the reaction of nitrite with p-nitroaniline to form diazonium salt and its subsequent coupling with diphenylamine in acidic medium. The pink coloured dye formed obeys Beer's law in the range 0.16 to 0.56 μg/ml at λ_max = 540 nm. The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity being 57.5 × 10³ lmole^?3cm^?1 and 0.0008 μg/cm², respectively. The optimum reaction conditions and other analytical parameters have been studied. Extraction of the dye with chloroform enhances the sensitivity considerably and makes 0.04 μg/ml of nitrite determinable.