Characteristic features of winter precipitation and its variability over northwest India

Northwestern parts of India receive considerable amount of precipitation during the winter months of December-March. Although, it is only about 15 of the annual precipitation, the precipitation is very important for rabi crops and to maintain the glaciers extend in the Himalaya, which melt and supply water to the rivers during other seasons. The precipitation is mainly associated with the sequence of synoptic systems known as 'western disturbances'. The precipitation has considerable spatial and temporal variability, with maximum precipitation occurring particularly over northern hilly regions, with decreasing influence southwards. The spatially coherent winter precipitation series has been prepared for the largest possible area comprising nine meteorological subdivisions of northwest India, which constitute about 32 of the total area of the country, having similar precipitation characteristics. The precipitation series has been statistically analysed to understand its characteristics and variability. The seasonal precipitation series is found to be homogeneous, Gaussian (normal) distributed and free from persistence. The precipitation variability has increased during the most recent three decades with more excess and deficient years

TUNING OF COMPONENT CHARACTERISTICS MAPS IN OFF DESIGN SIMULATION OF GAS TURBINES

A reliable simulation model is an essential component of health monitoring system for gas turbine engines. Hence a thermodynamic simulation model of a twin spool gas turbine engine is being developed for use in an engine health monitoring (EHM) system. This model is based on mass and energy conservation principles across each component of the gas turbine engine. The model is being developed with limited design point information and measured gas path parameters available from the test bed. Both on-design and off-design models are being developed in Matlab® programming environment. Component characteristics maps available in the open literature are being scaled and used in the off design simulation. The scaling parameters used in the maps are tuned to improve the agreement between simulation model and data collected from engine test bed. Both tuned and un-tuned results of the simulation along with their respective errors are presented. The scheme to incorporate the model in the physics based health monitoring module is also briefly presented. Conf Name: ISSS International Conference on Smart Materials, Structures and System

The Distribution and Influence Factors of Non-Invasive Tear Film Break-Up Time in Children [Letter]

Anjali Rani, Rakesh Kumar Yadav Department of Optometry, Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad, UP, IndiaCorrespondence: Anjali Rani, Department of Optometry, College of Paramedical Sciences, Teerthanker Mahaveer University, NH-09, Delhi road Bagadpur, Moradabad, UP, 244001, India, Email [email protected]

Seasonal prediction skill of winter temperature over North India

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Tiwari, P.R., Kar, S.C., Mohanty, U.C. et al. Theor Appl Climatol (2016) 124: 15. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1397-y. © Springer-Verlag Wien 2015.The climatology, amplitude error, phase error, and mean square skill score (MSSS) of temperature predictions from five different state-of-the-art general circulation models (GCMs) have been examined for the winter (December–January– February) seasons over North India. In this region, temperature variability affects the phenological development processes of wheat crops and the grain yield. The GCM forecasts of temperature for a whole season issued in November from various organizations are compared with observed gridded temperature data obtained from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) for the period 1982–2009. The MSSS indicates that the models have skills of varying degrees. Predictions of maximum and minimum temperature obtained from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) climate forecast system model (NCEP_CFSv2) are compared with station level observations from the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE). It has been found that when the model temperatures are corrected to account the bias in the model and actual orography, the predictions are able to delineate the observed trend compared to the trend without orography correction.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Biochemical composition of potato biowaste of popular North Indian cultivars

Potato is among the top processed vegetables, and its demand is continuously on the rise. Moreover, by the unit that peels are produced, significant issues associated with managing substantial volumes of solvents, impractical astounding scale drying out functions, in addition to lowering capital expenses render these remedies unfeasible. Additionally, isolation of helpful metabolites from potato are bound on the usage authorized as food quality applications. The current study's objective was to estimate the peel biochemical composition of potato cultivars suitable for cultivation in the Ranch district of Jharkhand state in India. The highest amount of chlorogenic acid (1.13 mg/g FW) and dry matter (17.90%) was determined in the variety Kufri Sindhuri. The chlorogenic acid content and the peel dry matter were determined to be significantly correlated with each other. The highest value for the phenolic content of the potato peel was determined for the variety Kufri Lalima. Simultaneously, the reducing sugars were most elevated in the peel of variety Kufri Pukhraj and starch content in the peel of variety Kufri Purkhraj. Overall, our work highlights the biochemical composition of potato peel and this information can be targeted on the potential usage of potato peel usage for industrial products formulation

Simultaneous Induction of Non-Canonical Autophagy and Apoptosis in Cancer Cells by ROS-Dependent ERK and JNK Activation

Background: Chemotherapy-induced reduction in tumor load is a function of apoptotic cell death, orchestrated by intracellular caspases. However, the effectiveness of these therapies is compromised by mutations affecting specific genes, controlling and/or regulating apoptotic signaling. Therefore, it is desirable to identify novel pathways of cell death, which could function in tandem with or in the absence of efficient apoptotic machinery. In this regard, recent evidence supports the existence of a novel cell death pathway termed autophagy, which is activated upon growth factor deprivation or exposure to genotoxic compounds. The functional relevance of this pathway in terms of its ability to serve as a stress response or a truly death effector mechanism is still in question; however, reports indicate that autophagy is a specialized form of cell death under certain conditions. Methodology/Principal Findings: We report here the simultaneous induction of non-canonical autophagy and apoptosis in human cancer cells upon exposure to a small molecule compound that triggers intracellular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production. Whereas, silencing of beclin1 neither inhibited the hallmarks of autophagy nor the induction of cell death, Atg 7 or Ulk1 knockdown significantly abrogated drug-induced H2O2-mediated autophagy. Furthermore, we provide evidence that activated extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) are upstream effectors controlling both autophagy and apoptosis in response to elevated intracellular H2O2. Interestingly, inhibition of JNK activity reversed the increase in Atg7 expression in this system, thus indicating that JNK may regulate autophagy by activating Atg7. Of note, the small molecule compound triggered autophagy and apoptosis in primary cells derived from patients with lymphoma, but not in non-transformed cells. Conclusions/Significance: Considering that loss of tumor suppressor beclin 1 is associated with neoplasia, the ability of this small molecule compound to engage both autophagic and apoptotic machineries via ROS production and subsequent activation of ERK and JNK could have potential translational implications.Singapore. Biomedical Research CouncilSingapore. Ministry of Educatio

Efficient CO2-Reducing Activity of NAD-Dependent Formate Dehydrogenase from Thiobacillus sp KNK65MA for Formate Production from CO2 Gas

NAD-dependent formate dehydrogenase (FDH) from Candida boidinii (CbFDH) has been widely used in various CO2 reduction systems but its practical applications are often impeded due to low CO2-reducing activity. In this study, we demonstrated superior CO2-reducing properties of FDH from Thiobacillus sp. KNK65MA (TsFDH) for production of formate from CO2 gas. To discover more efficient CO2-reducing FDHs than a reference enzyme e. CbFDH, five FDHs were selected with biochemical properties and then, their CO2-reducing activities were evaluated. All FDHs including CbFDH showed better CO2-reducing activities at acidic pHs than at neutral pHs and four FDHs were more active than CbFDH in the CO2 reduction reaction. In particular, the FDH from Thiobacillus sp. KNK65IVIA (TsFDH) exhibited the highest CO2-reducing activity and had a dramatic preference for the reduction reaction, i.e., a 84.2-fold higher ratio of CO2 reduction to formate oxidation in catalytic efficiency (k(cat)/K-B) compared to CbFDH. Formate was produced from CO2 gas using TsFDH and CbFDH, and TsFDH showed a 5.8-fold higher formate production rate than CbFDH. A sequence and structural comparison showed that FDHs with relatively high CO2-reducing activities had elongated N- and C-terminal loops. The experimental results demonstrate that TsFDH can be an alternative to CbFDH as a biocatalyst in CO2 reduction systemsope