Informatics Publishing Limited

M. Ashok Kumar , R. Nagarajan , R. Ilayaraja , S. Swaminathan , Ajay A. Desai

Abstract

Invasive species are regarded as one of the largest threats to biodiversity but little is known about the invasion of exotic plants into the tropical forest. The per cent grass availability in gaur (Bos gaurus H. Smith, 1827) foraging areas in three different habitats namely dry deciduous forest, moist deciduous forest and thorn forest in relation to weed category areas viz., Lantana camara invasion areas, Chromolaena odorata invasion areas, 'both weeds invasion' and 'weed-free' areas were investigated in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve between November 2003 and April 2004. The overall mean per cent grass availability was 28.52±26.81/m² (n=7343). The overall mean density of L. camara and C. odorata were 2.2±5.75/50m² (n=8090) and 10.7±14.6/50m² (n=8090) respectively. Among the habitats, the dry deciduous forest had maximum availability of grass (%) followed by thorn forest and moist deciduous forest. The per cent availability of grass was highest in the weed free areas of dry deciduous forest (54.0227.28%) and lowest in L. camara areas of thorn forest (14.52±14.45%). In all the habitats there was a significant variation among the weed category areas with reference to the per cent availability of grass. The densities of L. camara and C. odorata negatively influenced the per cent grass availability. The Standardized Partial Regression Coefficients of multiple regression equation model indicated that the C. odorata had the primary influence on the grass growth followed by L. camara.

Keywords

Gaur, Lantana camara, Chromolaena odorata, grass availability

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K. S. Balasubramaniam ¹, A. L. Paropkari ², R. Nagarajan ¹

Affiliations
1 Geology Section, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay 400076, IN
2 National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, IN

Abstract

Laboratory studies of three bauxitic profiles from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu suggest that plagioclase feldspar alters to gibbsite via halloysite and not from kaolinite. The alteration characteristics of feldspars and the morphological aspects of clays leading to the genesis of bauxites were studied under electron microscope.

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R. Nagarajan ¹, J. S. Armstrong-Altrin ², R. Nagendra ³, J. Madhavaraju ⁴, J. Moutte ⁵

Affiliations
1 School of Civil Engineering, Sastra University, Thanjavur - 61 3 402,, IN
2 Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra, Universdad Autonoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Crudad Universitaria, Carretera Pachuca-Tulancingo km 4 5, Pachuca, Hidalgo 42 1 84, MX
3 Department of Geology, Anna University, Chennai - 600 025, IN
4 Institute do Geologia, Estacion Regional del Noroeste, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Apart Postal 1039, Hermosillo, Sonora 83000, MX
5 Centre SpiNC, Ecole des Mines, 158 cours Fauriel, F 42023, Sant-Etienne, FR

Abstract

Petrographic, major, trace, and rare earth element compositions of quartz arenites, arkoses, and siltstones of Neoproterozoic Rabanpalli Forrnation of Bhima Basin have been investigated to understand the provenance. The quartz arenites, arkoses, and siltstones have large variations in major element concentrations. For example, quartz arenites and arkoses contain the hlgher Si0₂ (average with one standard deviation being 97±1,73±2,respectively) and lower Al₂O₃ (0 95±0 4, 9 6±O 9, respectlvely) concentrations than siltstones (SiO₂=64±4, A1₂0₃=14±1), which is mainly due to the presence of quartz and absence of other Al-bearing minerals in relation with rock types. This is also supported by our petrography, since quartz arenites and arkoses contain significant amount of quartz relative to feldspar and lithic fragments. The observed low CIA values and A-CN-K diagram suggest that the sedimentary rocks of Rabanpalli Formation have undergone K-metasomatism.

The Co, Ni, Cr, Ba, Zr, Hf, and Th values are higher in siltstones than quartz arenites and arkoses. The EU/EU^*, (La/LU)_en, La/Sc, Th/Sc, Th/Co, Th/Cr, Cr/Th ratios, and Cr, Ni, V, and Sc values strongly suggest that these sediments were mainly derived from the felsic source rocks. This interpretation is also supported by the Th/Sc versus Sc bivariate and La-Th-Sc triangular plots. The rare earth element (REE) patterns of these rocks also support their derivation from felsic source rocks. Further more, these rocks exhibit higher LREE/HREE ratio (8±4) and a significant negative Eu anomaly (0 77±0 16), which indicate the felsic igneous rocks as a possible source rocks.

Keywords

Geochemistry, Paleoweathering, Provenance, K-Metasomatism, Sandstone, Bhima Basin, Karnataka.

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D. Bakkiaraj ¹, R. Nagendra ¹, R. Nagarajan ², John S. Armstrong-Altrin ³

Affiliations
1 Department of Geology, Anna University, Chennai - 600 025, IN
2 Department of Applied Geology, School of Engineering and Science, Curtin University, CDT 250, 98009, Miri, Sarawak, MY
3 Unidad Academica de Geologia Marina y Ambiental, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico D.F., C.P. 04510, MX

Abstract

Major, trace and rare earth elements (REE) composition of sandstones from the Upper Cretaceous Sillakkudi Formation, Ariyalur Group, Cauvery Basin were studied to decipher their weathering and provenance history. Texturally, these sandstones are immature, poorly sorted and grain supported. Abundance of feldspars especially, plagioclase indicates rapid deposition of sediments from a nearby source rocks. Using the geochemical classification diagram the Sillakkudi sandstones are classified as fe-sand, quartz arenite, litharenite, sub-litharenite, sub-arkose, arkose, and wacke types, which is also supported by the petrography study. The transition trace elements like Co, Ni, and V are higher in the Sillakkudi sandstones than upper continental crust (UCC) values. However, the Sillakkudi sandstones are lower in Cr (mean ∼21) content than average UCC value (∼35). The poor correlation between Cr and Ni (r = 0.08, number of samples n = 20) imply that these sandstones were derived from felsic source rocks. Similarly, the Eu/Eu* (0.35-1.73), La/Sc (1.93-9.36), Th/Sc (0.41-6.57), Th/Co (0.14-5.01), Th/Cr (0.23-2.94), and Cr/Th (0.34-4.28) ratios support a felsic source for the Sillakkudi sandstones. The significant enrichment of Zr, Hf, and Th in fe-sand, sub-arkose and litharenite could be related to the presence of heavy minerals, especially zircon. However, the zircon geochemistry did not affect the REE distribution and its patterns in the Sillakkudi sandstones. The Chondrite normalized REE patterns of Sillakkudi sandstones are characterized by relatively flat HREE (Gd/Yb_CN = ∼0.73-2.41; subscript _CN refers to chondrite normalized value), enriched LREE (La/Sm_CN = ∼3.39-5.82) and negative Eu anomaly (mean value Eu/Eu* = 0.80). The Gd/Yb_CN ratios (∼0.73-2.50) are less than 2.5, which suggest that these Sillakkudi sandstones were derived from the less HREE depleted source rocks. The comparison of REE patterns and its Eu anomalies to the source rocks reveals that the Sillakkudi sandstones received a major contribution of sediments from Dharwar craton.

Keywords

Geochemistry, Zircon, Sandstones, Upper Cretaceous, Sillakkudi, Cauvery Basin.

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John S. Armstrong-Altrin ¹, J. Madhavaraju ², Alcides N. Sial ³, Juan J. Kasper-Zubillaga ¹, R. Nagarajan ⁴, K. Flores-Castro ⁵, Janet Luna Rodriguez ⁵

Affiliations
1 Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia, Unidad de Geologia Marina y Ambiental, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Circuito Exterior s/n, 04510, Mexico D.F., MX
2 Estacion Regional del Noroeste, Instituto de Geologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Hermosillo 83000, Sonora, MX
3 Nucleo de Estudos Geoquimicos e Laboratorio de Isotopos Estaveis (NEG - LABISE), Departmento de Geologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Caixa Posta 7852, 50670-000 Recife, BR
4 Department of Applied Geology, School of Engineering and Science, Curtin University of Technology, CDT 250, 98009, Miri, Sarawak, MY
5 Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra, Ciudad Universitaria, Carretera Pachuca-Tulancingo Km. 4.5, 42184 Pachuca, Hidalgo,, MX

Abstract

Petrography and stable isotopes (carbon and oxygen) geochemistry of limestones from the El Abra Formation, Actopan, were studied to identify their digenetic environments. The major petrographic types identified are mudstone, wackestone, grainstone, and boundstone. Most of the studied samples show positive δ¹³C values, except two samples (2 and 28), which are slightly negative values (-0.27‰ and -0.02‰). The organic remains identified in foraminiferal wackestone type can be responsible for the negative δ¹³C values. The δ¹⁸O values range from -12.41‰ to -4.02‰ and indicate meteoric diagenesis.

Keywords

Carbonate Rocks, Carbon and Oxygen Isotopes, Diagenesis, Hidalgo State, Mexico.

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R. Rameshkumar ¹, R. Nagarajan ²

Affiliations
1 Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology in Anna University, Viruthunagari, Tamilnadu, IN
2 Raja College of Engineering and Technology, Madurai, Tamilnadu, IN

Abstract

In this paper, novel pulse width modulation control strategies which use sine carrier waveform is proposed for seven-level cascaded inverter. In sine carrier waveform, different control strategies such as phase disposition (PD) and inverted phase disposition (IPD) are implemented. The proposed control strategies improve the total harmonic distortion and enhance the fundamental component of the output voltage. The fundamental output voltage and harmonics obtained in each method are compared with each other. The different PWM techniques adopting the constant switching frequency multicarrier are simulated for a 2KW, 3φ inverter using MATLAB/SIMULINK. The effect of switching frequency on the harmonics and fundamental output voltage are also analyzed.

Keywords

Sine Multicarrier SPWM (SMC SPWM), Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM), Total Harmonic Distortion (THD).

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K. Ravi Kumar ¹, Ashutosh Das ¹, Mukesh Goel ¹, R. Nagarajan ²

Affiliations
1 Centre for Environmental Engineering, PRIST University, Thanjavur, T. N., IN
2 Department of Applied Geology, School of Engineering and Science, Curtin University, CDT 250, 98009, Miri, Sarawak, MY

Abstract

The ancient Thanjavur population located in delta of River Cauvery had been dependent on surface water for drinking until recently, wherein there is an incremental rise in augmented bore-well water supply. Incidentally, there have been observations of moderate to high scale formations by the groundwater during domestic heating, as well as consistently high record of kidney-stone (mostly calcium oxalates) occurrence in the city and its suburbs. The present work focuses on calcium content, its desirability level and the corrosion/scaling coefficients. One hundred two (102) samples were collected prior to monsoon season in the year 2008 from the study area for study of various physico-chemical parameters. In order to estimate scalability and corrosivity, two standard indices (namely Langelier Saturation Index and Ryznar Saturation Index) were used. GIS has been used to develop integrated maps for demarcating zones of different calcium concentrations in groundwater and its relation with scale and corrosion formation tendencies.

Keywords

Groundwater Quality, Scale Formation, Corrosion, Langelier Saturation Index, Ryznar Saturation Index.

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V. S. Chitre ¹, S. Mulay ¹, R. Nagarajan ¹, Usha Ram ¹, A. M. Pisal ¹

Affiliations
1 Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune, IN

Abstract

The present study is the outcome of a team research undertaken at the Population Research Centre of the Gokhale institute of Politics and Economics. The study tries to calculate the cost of providing hospital services on a per capita basis spread over seven districts of Maharashtra in the year 1999-2000. Average cost is calculated separately for each of the components like fixed and variable cost. An inter-districts comparison is also attempted to show the spatial difference in cost associated with hospital services. Lastly it argues the case of increasing efficiency in two ways: (i) by increasing the entitlements to health care and (ii) by lowering the costs.

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R. Nagarajan ¹, S. Mulay ¹

Affiliations
1 Population Research Centre, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune 411004, IN

Abstract

The child sex ratio (f/m) in Maharashtra has declined by 33 points from 946 in 1991 to 913 in 2001. The present study tries to understand the possible role of Ultrasound Sonography Centres in this context. The study uses data on child sex ratio from Census of India 2001 and the data on district-wise Ultrasound Sonography Centres from the State Family Welfare Bureau, Government of Maharashtra. It is observed that the sonography centres in Maharashtra are unevenly distributed across 35 districts. Correlation and regression analyses at the district level confirm a significant negative association/relationship between the availability of sonography facilities and child sex ratio in Maharashtra. The results, of course, indicate that there is a need to regulate the proliferation and functioning of sonography centres.

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R. Nagarajan ¹, Sanjeevanee Mulay ¹

Affiliations
1 Population Research Centre, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune 411 004, IN

Abstract

Maharashtra is one of the advanced states in the country in terms of income, industry, urbanisation, female literacy, infant survival, primary health infrastructure and family planning acceptance. But none of these advantages have helped the state to achieve the desired demographic transition: the state continues to have a relatively high fertility compared to southern states despite its advantages over many decades. The experience of Maharashtra reveals that economic development alone is not sufficient to achieve the lower population growth rate. The objectives of the paper are: (i) to analyse the regional differentials in population and other related development indicators within Maharashtra; (ii) to find out the extent of regional disparity in Maharashtra in comparison with some of the other states which have made considerable progress towards the population stabilisation in recent years and (iii) to assess the role of regional disparities in development on fertility transition in Maharashtra. The data for the study were mainly drawn from Census 2001; Rapid Household Survey on Reproductive and Child Health (RCH-RHS) and National Family Health Survey (NFHS-1&2). The analysis exhibits the striking regional differences in demographic parameters in Maharashtra. Analysis also shows that not only the regional disparities are higher in Maharashtra it is also higher compared to the other states, which have made considerable progress towards demographic transition.

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R. Nagarajan ¹

Affiliations
1 Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune 411 004, IN

Abstract

The recent availability of empirical evidence gathered from a number of demographic surveys in agrarian societies has led to a debate on the nature and extent of relationship between landholding and fertility. The discussions have yielded plausible ways in which access to land influences fertility behaviour. The main focus of this paper is on an examination of theories relating to the landfertility relationship and a review of empirical studies on the topic. The results of the empirical studies are presented in a labular form. The available evidence at the micro and macro levels confirms the existence of a positive relationship between land and fertility. The theoretical arguments an the relationship are reviewed and the suggested land-fertility linkages then examined in the light of the available evidence. Finally, prospects far further research are discussed.

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R. Nagarajan ¹, Ravindra Singh ¹, J. P. Mangalhara ¹, Rajesh Rampal ¹

Affiliations
1 IR Camouflage Division, Defence Laboratory, Jodhpur-342011, IN

Abstract

Pyrometry is being used in defence and industry for temperature measurement and emissivity determination of materials. To acquire object's accurate temperature, pyrometer was to be calibrated. The calibration procedure and the results in the wavelength regions 8-14 μm, 3-5 μm and 0.9-2.5 μm for the temperature range 50-400°C, 500-1200 °C and 900-1500 °C respectively are discussed. Blackbody sources were set to different temperatures and the source temperatures were recorded using reference (RTD and pyrometer) as well as the test pyrometers. Also, temperature variation with respect to emissivity error has been estimated. The comparison between these data yielded greater correlation (correlation co-eff: >99%), which certifies that these test pyrometers con be used for non-contact temperature measurement and emissivity determination of materials.

Keywords

Pyrometer, Infrared, Temperature Measurement, Calibration, Standards, Non-Contact Method.

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T. K. Jagannathan ¹, R. Nagarajan ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600036, IN

Abstract

Acoustic cavitations are produced when ultrasound is coupled with liquid medium and the cavitation energy released is a characteristic feature of frequency of ultrasound used, apart from properties of the medium. Cavitation implosions play a major role in all ultrasound-assisted processes, and hence, characterization of cavitation energy in ultrasonic tanks is an important aspect. This paper presents the cavitation energy measurements made within ultrasonic tanks operating in the frequency range of 33 kHz to 470 kHz. Cavitation energy is very high in low frequency fields and it decays with frequency, following an inverse cubic relation. Increase in viscosity and decrease in surface tension of the liquid medium results in reduced cavitation intensities. The effect of hydrostatic pressure on cavitation energy was also studied. When hydrostatic pressure was increased, cavitation energy increases initially, upto 2 atm pressure (absolute), and then it decreases with pressure at constant power input of 500 W. Higher frequencies (>400 kHz) deliver less cavitational energy, which is optimal for processes such as cleaning of delicate parts, and ultrasound-assisted bio-processes.

Keywords

Acoustic Cavitation, Ultrasound Propagation, Cavitation Energy, Cavitation Intensity.

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R. Sathish Babu ¹, R. Nagarajan ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer and Information Science, Annamalai University, IN

Abstract

In conventional literatures, there are several different methods of collection and extraction and are also used to minimize dimensionality. Traditional methods are intuitively designed to delete redundant and outdated information to help define new test cases more effectively. But the number of specific words in the Bag of Words (BoW) model must be manually calculated, requiring time and work and portability of deficiencies. In addition, the number of codebook vectors in BoW rises as cancer types grow and the efficiency and accuracy of detection are reduced. The BoW model is therefore not ideal for multi-operative failure diagnosis. Therefore, we propose an improved BoW in this paper which selects the number of special terms required to collect cancer diagnostic functions from different documents. The overall recognition and accuracy rates are higher than other existing extraction models. The improved BoW method has been verified to be highly effective in operating conditions that meet the requirements in real time.

Keywords

Bag of Words, Cancer Document Retrieval, Codebook, Dimensionality Reduction.

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V. Kumaresan ¹, R. Nagarajan ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer and Information Science, Annamalai University, IN

Abstract

In natural language processing, the text clustering plays a major role on reducing the text dimensionality. However, the lack of data models has made the clustering algorithm to face sparsity problems. The integration with deep learning has resolved the problem of scarce knowledge on text documents. However, deeper architectures learn such redundant features, which limit the efficiency of solutions. In this paper, a complete extraction of features from text document using neural network model. The neural network model utilizes feed forward mechanism and a type of unsupervised learning that denoises the corrupted input features. The reconstructed feature is used for initialing the feed forward network. This method reduces the manual labelling in the process of screening. For evaluation, series of experiments are conducted to investigate the performance of the method over the text datasets with various conventional algorithms.

Keywords

Text Document, Feature Extraction, Neural Network, Denoising.

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R. Nagarajan ¹, G. Maria Priscilla ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer Science, Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, IN

Abstract

WSNs (Wireless Sensor Networks) have recently gained popularity. WSNs are typically deployed in insecure, unstructured areas where their source location reveals critical information about targets. Sensor deployment in WSNs has been seen in a variety of applications that oversee events and send information to base stations. Optimal route selection and source location privacy are critical issues in WSNs. If an intruder determines the source node by studying traffic mode, an attack could be conducted on a target with ease. Previous methods were based on MSROs (Mobile Sink-based Route Optimizations) and Cloud-Based WSN Protection Schemes. This research work chooses the optimum multi-sink node based on the BFAs (Bacteria Foraging Algorithms). But, it does not yield optimal paths to balance the PDRs (Packet Delivery Ratios) and energy dissipation. To seek a solution to this issue, this study proposes ERR-CSLPPs (Efficient and Reliable Routing with Cloud-based Source-Location Privacy Protections) using AAFBOA (Adaptive Adjustment Factor based Butterfly Optimization Algorithm), allowing the approach to choose the mobile sink node. Depending on the ETCs (Expected Transmission Counts), residual energy, and hop count, the optimal paths are chosen with the help of TOPSISs for efficient transmissions. The actual packets are sent over the preferred path. Next, the cloud-like false hotspot is formed to include counterfeit packets into the WSN to confuse the intruder and yield an elaborate privacy location. Counterfeit packets are included along the delivery path of the actual data packet to extend the time needed for tracing the traffic flow. The experiments reveal that the proposed system yields improved performance when matched with the earlier system in terms of overall energy dissipation, node utilization ratio, transmission delay, security, and network lifetimes.

Keywords

Cloud Center, Mobile Sink, Adaptive Adjustment Factor, Fake Hotspot and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution.

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