Water Scarcity Issues in Bihar, India

International Journal of Scientific Research and Innovation P u b l i s h e d Q u a r t e r l y b y B. B r a i n s S c h o l a s t i c C e n t e r (Under BBrains Development Society) JUNE 2011 www.bbmanthan.info   June, 2011 Contents 1. From Editor’s Desk 2. Research Articles: 4 rth Contents 1 ISSN No. 0974-6331, Volume 12 BSC, 2011 2.1 Finding all Justifications in the SNOMED CT Boontawee Suntisrivaraporn, Thailand 2 2.2 Structural, Magnetic and Mössbauer Studies of Nanocrystalline Ni-Zn Ferrite, Synthesized using Citrate Precursor Method Rakesh Kumar Singh, A. Narayan, A. Yadav, S. Layek, Patna, India 9 2.3 Thermodynamical Properties of Inhomogeneous Associating Fluids Using Density Functions Pradeep Kumar Chowdhury, Muzaffarpur, India 12 2.4 Rejuvenating the Mathematical Morphology in Image Analysis Neha Gautam, Rahul Gaurav, Isik, Turkey 16 2.5 Identification Card Using RFID And Biometric Recognition Bárbara Emma Sánchez-Rinza, Otto Hernández -González, Alonso Corona-Chávez, Pue, Mexico 20 2.6 High Efficient Solar Energy Harvesting for Bihar Green Energy Initiative R. K. Behera, Patna, India 25 3. General Articles 3.1 Evolving Consciousness: from Homo sapiens to Homo spiritualis Ranjeet Kumar, Lucknow, India 29 3.2 Plant Taxonomy in the Current Scenario of Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics M. Ajmal Ali, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 31 3.3 Resurgence of infectious diseases and emergence of New infections Diwaker Tejaswi, Patna, India 33 3.4 Water Scarcity Issues in Bihar, India Ashok Kumar Ghosh, Patna, India Manthan is an International Journal of Scientific Research and Innovation Published quarterly by B.Brains Scholastic Center (under BBrains Development Society),' A gyan Kendra' under the guidance of Global Scientific Council of the society with the objectives of sharing ideas, innovation, knowledge and achievements which can be benefited to the scientific and non-scientific community. Chief Editor Bibhuti Bikramaditya CEO, Tekbrains, Patna, India Executive Editor Dr. M. Abul Farah Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Editorial Board Members Prof. S. P. Verma Patna, India Dr. Sudhir Ranjan Pittsburgh, USA Indra R. Sharma New Delhi, India Dr. Manis Kumar Jha Jamshedpur, India Dr. Bhasker Choubey Glasgow, UK Publishing Office 35 BBrains Scholastic Center Malti Niwas, Road No-1, Dhelwa Near Bus Stand Byepass Road Kankarbagh, Patna, India Tel: +91-8002359537 Email : bbmanthan@gmail.com Web : www.bbmanthan.info Note: Copyright is protected with the editor of the journal. Reproducibility or copy of any article without permission of the editor will be treated as violation of the legal bindings. From Editors desk BBrains Scholastic Center (under BBrains Development Society) organized Fourth International Conference on Science & Technology “Fourth Bihar Science Conference 2011 (BSC 2011)” in association with BRA Bihar University at its LS College, Muzaffarpur (India) from Feb 11 to 13, 2011. The theme of the conference was “Developing attitude of product development and transforming ideas into implementation”. On this occasion, around 600 delegates and eminent scientists of from various universities were participated. The highlight of this conference was the inauguration and keynote lecture by Dr. R. K. Pachauri, Director General of TERI and Chairman of IPCC who got Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. The universities who participated this year are Thammasat University (Thailand), Isik University (Turkey), university of Puebla (Mexico), King Saud University (Riyadh), Massetues Institute of Technology (USA), Chevron (USA), National Polytechnic Institute, (Mexico), CINVESTAV (Mexico), DRDO (Delhi), IIT (Patna), IIT (Delhi), IIT (Kanpur), University of Hyderabad (Hyderabad), Aligarh Muslim University (Aligarh), Gautam Budha university (NOIDA), CFRI (Mumbai), Indian Institute of Packaging (Hyderabad), NIT (Patna), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Mumbai), West Bengal University of Science & Technology and all Bihar and Jharkhand based universities etc. This conference has become forum to help and support research activities of the colleges and universities of Bihar. Since the start of the conference, the research quality and working style of the local scientists has visibly improved. This SPECIAL 12th Issue of Manthan is the supplement of BSC 2011 which covers selected full length papers/ articles of delegates, keynote speakers and young scientist awardees of the said conference. We solicit your reactions, comments and suggestions in the mailbox and expect that with your help and support in future this magazine will grow into a versatile platform. For details you are free to visit our website www.bbmanthan.info Bibhuti Bikramaditya Chief Editor   1 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 2-8 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Finding all Justifications in the SNOMED CT Boontawee Suntisrivaraporn School of Information, Computer and Communication Technology Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Thammasat University, Thailand 2 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 2-8 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info 3 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 2-8 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info 4 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 2-8 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info 5 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 2-8 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info 6 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 2-8 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info 7 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 2-8 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Corresponding Author: Email: sun@siit.tu.ac.th 8 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 9-11 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Structural, Magnetic and Mössbauer Studies of Nanocrystalline Ni-Zn Ferrite, Synthesized using Citrate Precursor Method Rakesh Kumar Singh a, A. Narayan b, A. Yadav c, S.Layek d a Department of Physics, Patna Women’s College, Patna University, Patna, Bihar, India b Department of Physics, Patna University, Patna, Bihar, India c Vidyavihar Institute of Technology, Purnea, Bihar, India d Department of Physics, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur, India nickel nitrate and Zinc nitrate were taken in stoichiometric proportions as starting materials. Aqueous solutions of these salts were prepared separately by dissolving the salt in minimum amount of deionized water while stirring constantly. The solutions were then mixed together. Aqueous solution of citric acid was prepared in adequate quantity by weight and was added to the prepared salt solutions. The mixture was heated at temperature about 60oC to 80oC for two hours with continuous stirring. This solution was allowed to cool to room temperature and finally it was dried at 90-95oC in an oven until it formed a brown color fluffy mass. This precursor was heated at 450oC for one hour in a muffle furnace. By this process, the precursor decomposed to give nickelzinc ferrite powder consisting of nanometer size particles. Results and Discussions Structural features: The ferrite samples prepared as described above were structurally characterized using large angle X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD). In all our samples of Ni-Zn mixed ferrites, XRD patterns show diffraction peaks that correspond to spinel ferrites mainly, together with small peaks of Hematite (Figure 1) and sodium Zincate tetrahydrate. However, the intensities corresponding to these impurity phases are small. Similar peaks were also observed in Ni-Zn ferrite samples prepared using hydrothermal technique4. Albuquerque et al. (2000) have prepared ferrite samples by coprecipitation technique with heat treatment at 300oC as well as higher temperatures12 and it was shown that samples exhibit good structural ordering only for heat treatment at temperature higher than 400oC. The other phases (in addition to spinel) may be attributed to inaccuracy in stoichiometric proportions, inhomogeneity at microscopic scale and presence of unreacted chemicals in the finished product. The lattice constant was observed to change with the proportion of nickel. Apart from the anomalous result for x= 0.2, as the proportion of nickel is increased from x= 0 to 0.8, the lattice constant shows a Abstract Nanocrystalline Nickel Zinc Ferrite particles (NixZn1with different composition were prepared by Citrate precursor method. The ferrite powders were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and Mossbauer Spectroscopy tools. The maximum value of saturation magnetization was observed as 52.18 emu/g and Coercivity as 116.10 Oe in sample with x = 0.8. The Mössbauer spectroscopy results show two environments for iron nuclei. In contrast to bulk Ni-Zn ferrites, the lattice parameter in our samples has a tendency to nonlinearly decrease with increase in the proportion of Nickel. The range of average particle size is 7 nm to 18 nm as obtained from XRD line broadening. xFe2O4) Keywords: Ferrite, Nanoparticle, Magnetic Properties, Mossbauer studies Introduction Nanocrystalline Spinel Nickel zinc ferrites have been investigated extensively in recent years because of their potential applications in various electronics devices, radio frequency circuits, high quality filters, rod antennas, transformers, read-write heads for high speed digital tape recorders and magnetic storage devices1,2,3. Their multifarious use in electronics industry stems from the fact that they have large permeability even at high frequency4. Moreover, they have remarkably high electrical resistivity, mechanical hardness, chemical stability and reasonable cost. Several researchers have used citrate precursor method for synthesis of ferrites in bulk as well as nano sizes due to its attractive features like low cost and ease of preparation5-11. We have also used the same method for preparing our samples. Materials and methods Synthesis of Ni-Zn Ferrite Nanoparticles: Samples of nanometer-sized nickel-zinc ferrite powder, NixZn1xFe2O4(x=0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8) were prepared by using the Citrate precursor method. Ferric nitrate, 9 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 9-11 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info decreasing trend. A similar trend has also been reported for bulk nickel-zinc ferrite materials earlier 13. Table 1: Magnetic parameters of the Nickel Zinc Ferrite samples Sample Hc (Oe) Mr (emu/g) Ms (emu/g) 17.50 43.43 40.54 43.64 38.94 52.18 Ni0.2Zn 0.8Fe2O4. Ni0.4 Zn.6Fe2O4 Ni0.5Zn.0.5Fe2O4 Ni 0.6 Zn0.4Fe2O4 22.42 1.53 90.86 35.77 93.10 116.10 0.5744 0.1049 5.658 2.678 4.610 11.38 Squareness/ Particle size (nm) 0.033/ 16 0.002/7 0.140/16 0.059/9 0.118/9 0.148/18 Fig.1: XRD pattern for Ni0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4 Nanomaterials L a t t ic e c o n s t a s a f u n c t io n o f N ic k e l Z in c r a t io 8 .4 E - 1 0 8 .3 8 E - 1 0 8 .3 6 E - 1 0 Lattice constant 8 .3 4 E - 1 0 8 .3 2 E - 1 0 8 .3 E - 1 0 8 .2 8 E - 1 0 0 20 40 N ic k e l % 60 80 100 Ni 0.75 Zn 0.25 Fe2O4 Ni 0.8Zn 0.2Fe2O4 Fig. 2: Variation of Lattice constant with percentage increase of Nickel Magnetic and Mossbauer studies: The ferrite samples were magnetically characterized using VSM as well as by Mössbauer spectroscopy. The magnetic parameters obtained from VSM measurements of the six samples of Ni-Zn mixed ferrite particles are tabulated in Table 1. The magnetic hysteresis curves for Ni0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4 nanoparticles are shown in figure 3. Caizer and Stefaneseu15 have reported that the magnetic properties are determined by the size of the nanocrystallites. The decrease in saturation magnetisation with decrease in particle size of the nanocrystallites can be attributed to surface effect, spin canting and broken exchange bonds16. In our studies, we have also obtained lowering of saturation magnetization as compared to bulk values. 1 0 0 .0 N i0 .8 Z n 0 .2 F e 2 O 4 ( R T ) Transmission(%) 9 9 .5 9 9 .0 9 8 .5 9 8 .0 -1 5 -1 0 -5 0 5 1 0 1 5 V e lo c ity ( m m /s ) Fig. 4: Mössbauer Spectrum for Ni Nanomaterials 0.8Zn 0.2Fe2O4 Fig. 3: Hysteresis Loop for Ni Nanoparticles 0.8Zn 0.2Fe2O4 The values of the magnetization parameters do not show a systematic trend with change in composition. Partly the impurity phases and partly the varying particle size might be responsible for this. The annealing temperature of 4500 C may not be optimum for all the samples. The most interesting case seems to be with Ni0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4 ,where both the coercive field (116.10 Oe) and the saturation magnetization (52.18 emu/g) are largest. Values of saturation magnetization higher than 50 emu/g have so far been achieved by using other methods14,15, only through sintering at temperatures much above 450oC, the sintering temperature used in the present method. Synthesing ferrite samples at lower temperatures have its own advantages as the grain growth is checked and one is more likely to get strain-free nanoparticles. The Mössbauer pattern of the Ni0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4 sample (Fig. 4) shows that two sextets are superposed, one over the other. Ni-ferrite is an inverse ferrite and one expects Fe ions to occupy both A and B sites. Zn has a preference for A-sites and hence the area corresponding to the A-site sextet should be somewhat smaller to that corresponding to B-site. The well resolved six-line pattern shows that there are no significant superparamagnetic fluctuations of the magnetic moment. However, the Bhf values of the sextets in the spectrum (47.6 T and 43.5 T) are less than the values expected for bulk samples (50 T to 55 T) indicating the fact that the particles are in nanosize but the blocking temperature is above room temperature. The XRD peak broadening for this particular sample gives the average particle size to be 18 nm consistent with the reduced Bhf. Conclusion We used a single annealing temperature for all our samples of nanocrystalline Ni-Zn mixed ferrite. We observed that the magnetic properties as well as particle size depended on stoichiometric proportion of 10 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 9-11 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Nickel and Zinc. The maximum saturation magnetization was found to 52.18 emu/g. This might be a feature of the citrate precursor method that was used by us. The lattice parameter has a tendency to decrease with increase in the proportion of Nickel but we did not get a straight line function as has been reported for the case of bulk ferrites. The Mössbauer spectrum shows that Fe occupies both the A and B sites in the sample and superparamegnetic fluctuations are not significant. Acknowledgement Authors, Rakesh K. Singh and A. Yadav are thankful to Nalanda Open University, Patna for partial financial support for this work. We are grateful to Prof. H. C. Verma, Dept. of Physics, IIT Kanpur for fruitful discussion and encouragement. References [1] Sugimoto, M., J.Am. Ceram. Soc. 82 (1999) 269. [2] Ishino, K. and Y. Naruniya, Ceram. Bull. 66, (1987) 1469. [3] Gilot, B., Euro, Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 91 (2002) 10. [4] Upadhaya, C., D. Mishra, H. C. Verma, S. Anand, R.P. Das, J. Magn. Mag. Mat. 260 (2003) 188. [5] Guaita, F. J., H. Beltron, E Cordoncillo, J. B.Carda, P.Secribano, J. Euro. Ceram. Soc. 19 (1999) 363. [6] Vijayalakshmi, A. and N.S. Gajbhiye, J. Appl. Phys. 83 (1998) 400. [7] Kamble R.C. et al., J. Alloy. Comp., 491 (2010) 372. [8] Costa, A.C.F.M, Tortella, E, M. R. Morelli, R.H.G.A. Kiminami, J. Magn.Mag. Mat., 256 (2003) 174. [9] Prasad, S., and N. S. Gajbhiye, J. Alloy. Comp., 265 (1998) 27. [10] Verma, A., T. C. Goel, R. G. Mendiratta, P. Kishan. J. Magn.Mat., 192 (1999) 271. [11] Narayan A, R. K. Singh, M. Roy, B. Pandey, V. Kumar, H. C. Verma, Patna Univ. Jour. 31 (2007) 11. [12] Albuquerque, A. S., Jose, D. Ardisson, Waldemar, A.A. Maedo, J. Appl. Phys. 87 (2000) 4352. [13] Smit, J. and H.P.J. Wijn, Ferrites, (1959) Philips Technical Library, U. K. Edition, London. 145. [14] Verma, A., T. C. Goel, R. G. Mendiratta, P. Kishan., J. Magn. Mag.Mat. 208 (2000) 3119. [15] Caizer, C. and M. Stefanescu, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys, 35 (2002) 3035. [16] Coey, J . M. D., Phys. Rev. Lett. 27 (1971) 1140. Corresponding Author: Email: rakeshpu@yahoo.co.in 11 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 12-15 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Thermodynamical Properties of Inhomogeneous Associating Fluids Using Density Functions Pradeep Kumar Choudhary Department of Physics, R. D. S. College, B. R. A. Bihar University Muzaffrapur 842002, Bihar, India Abstract An Analytical expression for molecular association on the phase coexistence properties of fluid with one or two direction attractive centre is discussed .The basic theory of Rosenfeld for the hard sphere is extended to inhomogeneous fluids on the basis of density function. The density functional approach in the grand canonical ensemble utilized to determine thermo dynamical properties of the inhomogeneous fluids. The theoretical prediction is in good quantitative agreement with the simulation result which is available INTRODUCTION The theoretical methods for predicting equilibrium properties of homogeneous non-polar fluids are now well documented; much less understood are the properties of confined associating fluids. The density functional theory is routinely used to investigate the properties of simple inhomogeneous system. For anisotropic association, molecular simulations are often computationally intensive and analytical theories give faithful representation of the local fluid structure1. The interplay between chemical association and in-homogeneity makes the phase behaviour of confined associating fluids interesting but difficult to predict. For bulk associating fluids, Wertheim’s thermodynamic perturbation theory provides a relative simple yet accurate description of thermodynamic properties 6,8 associating hard spheres confined between two parallel hard walls. The pair-wise two body potential is given by u(r12,ω1ω2)= uR((r12) + ∑∑ u(r A B AB,ω1ω2), (1) where r12 is the center to center distance between sphere 1 and 2, ω1 and ω2 represents the orientations of the two spheres, and the double sum applies over all associations sites. The reference potential uR represents hard sphere repulsion is given by uR(r12)=∞, r12 < (σ1 + σ2) / 2 =0, r12 > (σ1+ σ2) / 2, (2) where σ1 is the hard sphere diameter for component i. The association potential uAB represents the potential between a bonding site A on a spherical particle and a bonding site B from a different sphere with the condition when the attraction sites A and B on molecules 1, 2 prevents molecules 3 from coming close enough to form bond with either site A or B. The association potential is u AB ( r1 2 , ω 1 ω 2 ) = - ε , r1 2 < r c = 0, otherwise (3) 2 (b) Theory Let us consider a model in which molecules are assumed to have one bonding site that allows for the formation of dimmers in the system, short ranged, highly anisotropic attractions are obvious choices as models for chemical bonding in the frame work of density functional theory (DFT). The grand free energy can be written as a function of μ i . . Most current applications of Wertheim’s theory are limited to the first order perturbation that takes into account only the structure corresponding hard sphere reference system. A quantity of central interest is the density functional theory has proven to be a theoretical approach in the study of inhomogeneous system the grand free energy Ω is written as a functional of the number density distribution ρ(r). 2. BASIC THEORY 2 (a) Potential Model We consider a binary mixture of neutral and Ω(ρi (r)) = F(ρi (r)) + ∑∫ drρi (r)[φi (r) − μ i ] (4) i =1 3 In an open system, the minimization of this grand potential at constant chemical potential μ i , and absolute temperature T, determines the properties of the equilibrium states satisfies 1 12 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 12-15 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info ∂Ω/∂ρ i (r) = 0, (5) Hence Eqs.(4) leads to μ i = [( ∂ f hs ρ i (r))/( ∂ ρ i (r))] [( ∂ f bond ρ i (r))/( ∂ ρ i (r)) ] + where c i (r;{(ρ i (r))}) is the one particle DCF of the ith component, is defined as the functional derivative of the excess free energy functional Fex. i.e + (1) c i(1) (r;{(ρ i (r))}) = -β [ ∂Fex (ρ i (r ))/(∂ρ i (r )) ]. (11) The density Eq.(10) for the non-uniform fluid, on using the least particle method due to Percus, provides a route for the calculation of the RDF of the uniform fluid given by ∑ ∫ dr ρ (r)φ i=1 3 i asso ( | r – r’|), (6) where f hs (ρ(r)) denotes the local free energy density of a uniform hard-sphere density of a uniform hard-sphere fluid, f bond (ρ i (r)) corresponds to the local change in the free energy, g ij (r) = exp[−βuij (r) + ci(1) (r;[{ρi0 g ij (r)}])− ci~(1) ({ρ i0 })] . (12) ϕasso (|r-r |) is ' the attractive part of the isotropic association potential between particles and i=1,2,3. The Helmholtz free energy is expressed as contribution from an ideal gas terms and an excess term due to intermolecular interactions. F ( ρ (r)) = Fid ρ i (r) + Fex ρ i (r) . (7) Although Eqs.(10) and Eqs.(12) are formally exact for their practical implementation. The fundamental-measure theory of Resenfeld provides an expression for the excess intrinsic Helmholtz free energy density is represented as a function of weighted densities ρ i (r) j The ideal gas contribution is given by the exact expression ρ i (r) = ∑ρα i ,i (r) = ∑ ∫ ρ (r’ ) ω j ij (r - r’)dr’, (13) Fid ρ i (r) = kT∑ ∫ drρ i (r){ln(ρ i (r)λ 3 ) − 1} , (8) i i =1 3 where λ i = (h/(2π mkT) ) represents the thermal wavelength. Here in a typical perturbation approach, the Helmholtz free energy for a system of inhomogeneous associating hard-sphere consists of hard sphere reference system and perturbation. 1/2 weights functions ωi j (r ), characterize the geometry of a spherical particle. 2 (c ) Thermodynamic perturbation theory Thermodynamic perturbation theory for mixture using the hard-core repulsive potential as the reference system and the second from perturbation as described in Eq.(9), therefore, the Helmholtz free energy density due to associations is given by Fex (ρi (r)=kT ∫ dr[ϕhs (ρi (r)+ϕasso {ρi (r)}] . (9) Once we have an expression for the intrinsic Helmholtz free energy, solution to Eq.(5) gives the equilibrium density profiles and subsequently, thermodynamics properties. Equating the chemical potential of each component to that of the bulk fluid mixture of density ( ρ i ) with which it is in equilibrium, the density distribution for the ith component can be expressed as o _ ϕasso = ∑M i ij ρ j (ln XA - (XB/2) + (1/2)), (14) B where Mi is the number of association sites per molecule of species i, and XA is the fraction of molecules of component i not bonded at site A. In Eq. (6.14) XA is calculated from XA = 1/(1 + where Δij = 4π hs g ij (σij). fAB .KAB . ∑ρ X j A Δij ), (15) i ρi (r) = ρi0exp[−βφi (r) + ci(1) (r;[{ρi (r) − ci~(1) ({ρi0 })] , (10) (16) Here KAB is a constant reflecting the volume available for bonding of the two sites on molecules 1 and 2, fAB=[exp(ε/kT) – 1] represents the Mayer 13 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 12-15 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info function and hs g ij (σij) is contact value of the hard- sphere pair correlation function for mixture. hs g ij (σij) = (1/(1- ξ3) + (3σiσj /(σi +σj) ξ2/(1-ξ3)2) + η= 2(σiσj/(σi + σj) ξ / (1- ξ3)), 2 2 2 (17) (18) π 0 3 [ρ1 σ 1 + ρ 0 σ 3 ] 2 2 6 π = [x + (1 − x)α 3 ]ρ 0 σ 3 . 2 6 (24) The compressibility equation is given by 2 βP/ρ 0 = [(1 + ξ 3 + ξ 3 )/(1 − ξ 3 )3 ] ξm = (π/6) where m ∑ i=1 2 ρiσim), = 1,2,3 and σij = (σ1+σ2). (19) 1 1 − 3η1 x( − 1) 2 [{(1 + ) + σ 2 ξ 2 }/(1 − ξ 3 ) 3 ] , α α (25) where If i = j, for contact value of the pair distribution function of the hard core reference fluid is given by gHS(σ) = (1 – η/2)/ (1-η)3. (20) η1 = π 0 3 ρ1 σ 1 =[( π / 6){x + (1 − x)α 3 )}ρ0 σ3 ] . 2 6 (26) therefore Since α = (σ1 / σ 2 ) , and σ 2 > σ 2 , Once we have an expression for the intrinsic Helmholtz free energy, minimization of the grand potential with respect to the density distributions Eq.(10) leads to the Euler Lagrange equation σ < 1 . The value of 0 3 x = (ρ0 / ρ0 ) and η1 = [( π / 6)ρ1 σ1 ] , 2 (27) ρ i ( r)= Λ i exp[ ci1 [r,ρi(r)]+ [μi– φ i ( r)]/(kT)], (21) -3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In Fig.1.the calculated : value 3 2 where c [r; ρ i (r ) is the one particle direct correlation function, obtained from (1) i of c i(1) [r; ρ i (r ) = -(1/kT){ ∂ Fex(ρi(r))/δρi(r )} =- ∫ dr’ ∑∂ [( φ A hs + φasso )/ ∂ ρ i (r ) ] ω ij .(r - r’). (22) At equilibrium, the chemical potentials of all species remain constant. When the confined fluid is in equilibrium with a bulk phase. The chemical potential can be calculated from μi = kTln (ρ i + Λ i-3 ) + μ i ex, HS α(= σ1 /σ 2 ) plotted against Γ (= ρσ ) at constant η(= 0.1) and x( = ρ 0 /ρ ) at 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 2 0 and 0.6. The fig. shows the value of x( = ρ 2 /ρ ) 3 increases the corresponding value Γ (= ρσ 2 ) decreases and justify that the values approaches to where the ratio x( = ρ 2 /ρ ) becomes 1.0. In Fig.2 we have calculated the value of compressibility factor β p / ρ0 with hard-sphere 0 + μi ex,assoc. (23) The first term of the Eq.(23) comes from the ideal gas, second term is the hard sphere and last term due to association chemical potential is calculated from Wertheim’s thermodynamic perturbation theory. The bulk hard-sphere mixture characterized by the diameter ratio α = σ1 /σ 2 with σ 2 > σ 1 the concentration x= ρ 2 / ρ0 with ρ0 = ρ1 + ρ2 and the 0 0 0 diameter ratio α =0.5 at constant mole fraction 0.25, 0.5, 0.75. The mole fraction ratio x increase the compressibility increases. The calculated results compared with available data of C. Barrio and J.R. Solana. The agreement is found good. bulk packing fraction η is expressed as 14 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 12-15 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info References 0.85 [1] 0.8 0.75 Γ 0.7 0.65 0.6 0.9 0.92 0.94 0.96 0.98 1 Fig.1 The value of Γ with respect to α at packing fraction and constant X α constant [2] [3] [4] (1986). [5] M S Wertheim J. Chem. Phys. 88 1145 (1988). [6] C J Seguno W.G Chapman and K P Shukla Mol. Phys. 90 759 (1997) [7] M F Holovko E Vakarin Mol. Phys. 85 1057 (1995). [8] G Jackson W G Chapman K E Gubbins J Chem. Phys. 65 01 (1998). [9] V Talanquer and D W Oxtoby J. Chem. Phys. 112 851 (2000). [10] Y Yang-Xin and W Jianzhong J Chem. Phys. 116 7094(2002) Correspondence Author: Email: pkchoudhury1964@gmail.com L.D Gelb,K E Gubbins, R Radhakrishnan and M Sliwinska Rep. Prog. Phys. 62 1573 (1999). M S Wertheim J. Stat. Phys. 35 19 (1984). M S Wertheim J. Stat. Phys. 42 459 (1986). M S Wertheim J. Stat. Phys. 85 2929 βp / ρ0 11 6 1 , 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.5 Fig.2 The compressibility factors for hard sphere mixture with diameter ratio constant value 0.5 with mole fraction 0.25, 0.5, 0.75. 15 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 16-19 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Rejuvenating the Mathematical Morphology in Image Analysis Neha Gautam#, Rahul Gaurav* # Department of Information Technology, Kuvempu University, India, * Department of Electronics Engineering, Isik University, Turkey Abstract Mathematical Morphology technique was first proposed in France in sixties for providing a very coherent theoretical framework for image processing and analysis. This theory was receiving very little attention that time but nowadays, is becoming an object of research in many laboratories and international conferences. Recently, this tool has emerged as an important research topic as the image analysis field is expanding rapidly. Eventually, its impact has been evident by the specialist in the area of both spatial information theory and theories involved in digital image processing and analysis and others related to Mathematical Sciences as well. The methodology used in this paper is likely to be useful for strategic analysis based on the mathematical theories of sets and topological notions, its principle lies in studying the morphological properties (shape, size, orientation etc.) of the objects through non-linear transformations associated with a reference object (the structuring element). This paper presents a set theoretical approach and elucidates the basic concepts of the mathematical morphology in a rather general framework as the classical tool of analysis and segmentation of images. We will also identify some future research directions for mathematical morphology. theory, topology, lattice algebra, random functions, stochastic geometry, etc. It helps us to perform automated measurements on image data. Thus, it involves set theoretic method of image analysis providing a quantitative description of geometric structures. It is most commonly applied to digital images, but it can also be employed on surface, surface meshes, graphs, solids and many other spatial structures. It characterizes various topological and geometric continuous-space concepts such as shape, size, convexity, connectivity and geodesic distance on continuous and discrete spaces. It is based on shapes in the images not the pixel intensities that are viewed as a general image-processing framework. Generally we use it before and after image segmentation (except the case of watershed segmentation). Two fundamental morphological operations – erosion (shrinking) and dilation (expansion) are based on Minkowski operations. There are two different types of notations for these operations: Serra/Matheron notation and Haralick/Sternberg notation. In this paper, Haralick/Sternberg notation is used which is the more often used one in case of practical applications. In this notation erosion is defined as follows (Eq. 1) (Serra, 1982): Mathematical Morphology: Image Analysis Perspective This technique was initiated by G.Matheron and J.Serra for the quantitative analysis of spatial structures, at the Paris School of Mines. If we break the term into two words then Mathematical does obviously refer to the mathematical part that is the use of set theory and morphology part refers to the study of shape. So in general we can say that Mathematical Morphology is a tool for extracting image components that are useful for representation and description. Its mathematical origins stem from set and dilation as : Where, B and Bˆ are structuring elements and 16 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 16-19 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Fig 1 Dilation and erosion by a structuring element There are two types of composites relations; one is called morphological opening and the other as morphological closing. The main aim of opening is to remove unnecessary structures in the image like noise. Binary opening removes the small regions that are smaller than the structuring element. It is defined as erosion followed by dilation and is given as an image F opened by a SE K: O( F , K ) = F o K = ( F $ K ) ⊕ K Closing is used to merge or to fill the structure in an image. It is defined as dilation followed by erosion. It can fill the small holes that are smaller than the structuring element. Binary closing is an image F closed by a SE K is given as: C(F , K ) = F • K = (F ⊕ K ) $ K Fig 4 (a), (b), (c), (d) respectively Future Work and Conclusion In the fig 1, it has been shown how morphological opening can remove a strip of land projecting into a body of water (capes), a relatively narrow strip of land (with water on both sides) connecting two larger land areas (isthmus) and island which are smaller than the structuring elements. In the fig 2, filling of an arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land (gulfs), channels and lakes small than the structuring elements has been explained. Fig 5: Black Top Hat: Closing (f) – f, “Extraction of Dark Features” 17 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 16-19 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info It is a powerful tool for solving various image related queries and also for such operations, which are difficult to be expressed, by other tools. MM helps us express such tougher operations in a rather easier way, such as the boundary extraction example. This approach is often used to post-process “threshold” images then performs some MM operations (like clean up noise, fill in holes) and as a result providing a nice segmented region. The need for morphology has been evident in various fields of science and engineering as well which has been substantiated in recent years like the one in which it acts as one of the best methods to eliminate weak network lines so that there is an emergence of strongly connected sub-networks in such way that one can predict the behavior of the network. With the help of mathematical morphology, power network images are being decimated for analytical view. It gives a quick view of the strong sub-networks in the power system. In the recent years, morphology has shown its need to the researchers in the realization of several topics like image enhancement, image segmentation, image restoration edge detection, texture analysis, feature generation, skeletonization, shape analysis, image compression, component analysis, curve filling, general thinning, feature detection and noise reduction. It has shown directions to several researches and development works across the globe by providing an easier method in several image related applications. It helps in the teeth detection of a gear using subtraction and labeling, in getting the grid identification from Biochip by detecting the size of parts and analyzing its shape (pattern spectrum) using OTSU and entropy threshold. Another important application lies in the detection of runways in satellite airport imagery, which is a multi step algorithmic process that involves White Top-hat Transformation (segmentation tool that extracts respectively dark objects from the uneven background) of the source, image threshold and reconstruction of the detected long features to get the ultimate result. It’s easy-to-use mathematical techniques have helped in the medical field too. In the detection of filarial worms, this tool has been proven to be the most efficient one. In such cases, Black Top-hat Transformation of source is firstly done [fig 5]. Hence the reconstruction after eliminating the short structures of the skeleton gives the final result. In this paper, the applications and effectiveness of mathematical morphology was presented. The way, in which it is beneficial in dealing with many imagerelated problems, through various cited examples which were brought forth in a lucid manner. We saw the strength and versatility of this technique through the review of previous research works in this domain. It has been rightly remarked by a famous researcher “though mathematical morphology is a powerful tool for many image analysis, it is not that famous because it is not useful or it is not used so it is not famous, may be because it involves too many mathematical theory!” but we saw the aspect in which it can be dealt with several image queries. Hence, we conclude on this note of discussion that in spite of not gaining ample recognition, Mathematical Science, Geographic Information Sciences and image Science evidenced the efficiency of morphology and the time has come to prove its enduringness to the critics. The crux of the matter is that we can await some more precise results in the world of images in the near future where the differences between the morphological and non-morphological operations will be well known to us Acknowledgement The authors would like to pay their gratitude to Mr Bibhuti Bikramaditya for his commendable support and valuable suggestions during the preparation of this paper. References 1. Rahul Gaurav, “A Mathematical Morphological Perspective in the world of Images”, Seminar on Spatial Information Retrieval, Analysis, Reasoning and Modelling 18th-20 th March 2009. ISI-DRTC, Bangalore, India 2. Hugues Talbot, “Image Analysis and Processing Mathematical Morphology” ESIEE – ECP 2006 3. Wyne Hsu, Mong Li Lee, Ji Zhang, “Image Mining: Trends and Developments”, Journal of Intelligent Information Systems Volume 19, Issue 1 (July 2002). 4. William Green, “Edge Detection Tutorial.” Internet:http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~weg22/edge. html, 2002. 3. M. Kowalczyk , P. Koza, P. Kupidura , J. Marciniak, “APPLICATION OF MATHEMATICAL MORPHOLOGY OPERATIONS FOR SIMPLIFICATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF CORRELATION OF IMAGES IN CLOSE-RANGE PHOTOGRAMMETRY”, The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. Vol. XXXVII. Part B5. Beijing 2008 5. Adrien Bousseau, “Mathematical Morphology a non exhaustive overview”, pages 2-14. 6. Radhakrishnan, B. D. S.Sagar, and B. Venkatesh,” Morphological Image Analysis of Transmission 18 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 16-19 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Systems”IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 1, JANUARY 2005. 7. Pierre Soille, Morphological Image Analysis. Springer-Verlag, 2003. 8. Rafael C. Gonzalez, Richard E Woods. Digital Image Processing. Prentice Hall, second edition, 2002. 9. Milan Sonka et. al. Image Processing, Analysis and Machine Vision. PWS Publishing, second edition, 1999. 10. Edge Detection using mathematical morphology, Neil Scott, RESEARCH CENTRE FOR INTEGRATED MICROSYSTEMSth UNIVERSITY OF WINDSOR, June 15 , 2007. 11. LIXU GU, SEMINAR SERIES ON ADVANCED MEDICAL IMAGE PROCESSING, LIXU GU, Robarts Research Institute London, Ontario, Canada, September 13, 2002 12. L. Najman, Using Mathematical Morphology for Document Skew Estimation, Laboratoire A2SI, Groupe ESIEE Cit´e Descartes, BP99. 13. Michael F. Goodchild, University of California, Santa Barbara, GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SCIENCE FIFTEEN YEARS LATER, pages 2-4 14. Center of Mathematical Morphology (http://cmm.ensmp.fr/index_eng.html) at Ecole des Mines de Paris. 15. Morphology Digest (http://www.cwi.nl/projects/morphology) edited by Henk Heijmans, Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 16. “Image analysis and mathematical morphology” by J. Serra (call# TA1632.S47 v.2 1988) to 17. Ole Christian Eidheim,” Introduction Mathematical Morphology”, Department of Computer and Information Science, NTNU 18. Shivprakash Iyer, Sunil K. Sinha J., 2005. Automated condition assessment of buried sewer pipes based on digital imaging techniques. Indian Institute of Science, Sep.–Oct., 85, 235–252 Corresponding Author: Email: #neha.niitp@gmail.com * rahulgaurav.kist@yahoo.com 19 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 20-24 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Identification Card Using RFID And Biometric Recognition Bárbara Emma Sánchez-Rinza, Otto Hernández -González, Alonso Corona-Chávez** Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, **Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica y Electrónica 14 sur y avenida san Claudio Puebla, Pue. México Abstract In this work we show a system capable of identifying people from the fingerprint image, using an 8K RFID card that works wirelessly. The fingerprint images are processed through a series of techniques that improve their quality. From this template it is possible to verify the identity of the user with a95% accuracy. I. INTRODUCTION WITH the advance of technology, each day more and more tasks are performed in an automated fashion. Within the broad range of possibilities offered by technological development and innovation, we have observed that people authentication systems are becoming an emerging area, and consequently, biometrics is positioned as the focus of these systems. Biometrics refers to the use of distinctive anatomical traits (in this case fingerprints), called biometric identifiers, that can automatically recognize individuals. Biometrics is becoming an essential component of effective solutions for identification, because biometric identifiers can not be shared or lost, in addition to inherently represent the identity of the body of the individual. The recognition of a person's body is a very powerful identity management with enormous potential. II.-FINGERPRINT Fingerprints are fully formed around the seven months of fetal development and configuration of the edges of the fingers does not change during the life of the individual except due to some accidents such as scrapes or cuts. Moreover, they have the quality to be relatively stable over time. Therefore, the probability of finding two similar fingerprints is 1.9x10-15. Today fingerprints represent one of the most mature biometric technologies. A fingerprint is the representation of the surface morphology of the epidermis of a finger. It has a set of parallel lines (ridges) which are formed before birth and remain without the time to generate some kind of change or modification [1] . In this paper we use the Galton method for checking the local characteristics as it is one of the methods in which more work has been done and several algorithms exist with relatively low computational complexity. The method of local characteristics is based on comparison of minutiae. Minutiae or Galton's characteristics (see Figure 1) are local discontinuities in the fingerprint pattern corresponding to the lines of the fingerprint. There are different types of minutiae, but the two most important are the bifurcations and terminations, as other types of minutiae are formed with a combination of both. For this reason, the feature extraction stage detects two types of minutiae [2]. Fig.1. Types of minutiae in a fingerprint. To conclude whether two fingerprints match or not, the same person performs a procedure that begins with the classification of the fingerprint and matches the minutiae of both tracks. III. BASE OF THE ACQUISITION For an efficient biometric system, the indicators or personal traits under study must meet the following qualifications: 20 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 20-24 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Permanence: the characteristic should not change with time, or do so very slowly. Uniqueness: the existence of two people with identical property should have a very small probability. Universality means any person should have that feature. Quantification: the property can be measured quantitatively [3]. The work was carried out following the steps shown in the diagram in Figure 2, which is explained below: 1.-Acquisition of the footprint that will be used to create the template which will be stored on the card. 2.-Image enhancement provide the benefit of having a better collection of minutiae. 3.-processing of images to extract some characteristic points, which represent the essential information of each track. 4.-Identification by comparing fingerprint minutiae stored in the card. with the following characteristics (see Figure 3). • Blue LED. • Works well with dry or wet fingerprints. • Compatible with Windows ® Vista, XP Professional, Windows Server 2000 and 2000, 2003, 2008. • Pixel resolution: 512 dpi (on the scan area). • capture area: 14.6 mm (width in the center) 18.1 mm (length). • 8-bit grayscale (256 levels of gray). • Reader size (approximate): 65 mm x 36 mm x 15.56 mm. • Compatible with USB 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 (High speed). It was decided to use this model because of the quality of reading and friendly handling. Imagen Acquisition Fig. 3. Reader Digital Persona fingerprint mark. Image Enhancement Figure 4 shows tests performed with the reader to obtain fingerprints. Extraction of characteristic point Identification Fig. 4. Fingerprints acquired. Fig. 2. Diagram of the steps that the system IV ACQUISITION OF IMAGES To get the image of the acquired fingerprint the “U.are.U4500 Person model” digital reader is used V IMAGE PROCESSING The main objective of digital image processing is to extract a vector of characteristics that identify the individual. As mentioned above the method used for the comparison of fingerprints is with local characteristics [4]. Obtaining minutiae has been performed in 4 steps, as shown in Figure 5. 21 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 20-24 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info The first thing that works is the creation of the XML file, containing data information identifying the person. Figure 7 indicates the window where that s fingerprint images are captured. Due to the nature of the employed algorithms it is necessary to obtain four samples of the same footprint with the aim of obtaining better feature extraction footprint. Moreover, a photo and details of the person to be identified are added. Fig. 5. Steps of the algorithm to acquire the feature vector. The feature vector was obtained from the fingerprint image that was taken with digital fingerprint reader. These images have been digitally processed to enhance the minutiae. These lines form the descriptor of the fingerprint. A classifier based on a threshold and the Pearson correlation coefficient verifies whether a new mark belongs to the claimed identity. The results show a 95% confidence for a 50 people sample. Defining information for the system. The first to be defined before the program was started, was the way in which data would be stored inside the card. It was decided that XML should be utilized because it allows that information to be stored and transferred from card system in a structured manner. The way in which information is structured is shown in Figure 6. Fig.7. People capture window The feature vector is stored in a file which is stored within the RFID card, which has a capacity of 8K and whose characteristics are: T •Mifare Model • Frequency 13.56MHz • Protocol ISO14443A • 8192 Byte Size • PVC Material • Temperature -20 - +50 • Dimension 54 × 85.6 × 0.86 (mm) To store information on it so it is necessary to take into account the size of the information is stored. Having the vector of features, validation is performed for people with their fingerprints, the first thing you need is to load the fingerprint template, the system returns a feature vector and compares it with the stored information for validation. Figures 8 and 9 show a positive and a negative validation. Fig. 6. XML File Structure. Then, after having studied the concepts and algorithms behind fingerprints. the system programming is performed. VI PROGRAMMING For the realization of the system programming, C # language is employed because it facilitates interaction with the digital fingerprint reader and RFID card reader [5,6]. 22 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 20-24 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info As with the reading of the fingerprints it was decided to use programming language C # [7]. The following window has been created where the following operations are performed (see Figure 11): • Connect the card reader • Get the serial number on the card • Read the information stored • Write the information inside the card. Fig. 8. Validation window with the person people validated. Fig. 11. Window for testing the RFID card VIII CONCLUSIONS In this work we have developed a system capable of identifying people from the fingerprint image, using an 8K RFID card that works wirelessly. The fingerprint images are processed through a series of techniques that improve their quality. From this template it is possible, with a classifier based on similarities to verify the identity of the user with a 95% accuracy. The future work is to encrypt the information of the person to protect sensitive data. REFERENCES [1] Davide Maltoni, Dario Maio, Anil K. Jain, Salil Prabhakar, “Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition”, Springer, Año 2009 [2] Peter Komarinski, “Automated Fingerprint Identificacion”, Elsevier, Año 2005 [3] Fabio Román Arbelo, Carlos Manuel Travieso González, Jesús Bernardino Alonso Hernández, ”Autenticación De Personas A Partir De La Biometría De La Región Dígito Palmar”, Vector plus: miscelánea científico – cultural, Fundación Universitaria de Las Palmas, Nº. 27, 2006, pags. 27-34 [4] Marius Tico, Pauli Kuosmanen, “An Algorithm for Fingerprint Image Postprocessing”, Signals, Systems Fig. 9. People confirmation window with the person not validated. Once the fingerprint validation is completed,m the RFID card is tested. The employed RFID system is as follows (see Figure 10): • Model SL500 • Frequency 13.56MHz • Protocol ISO14443A, ISO14443B, ISO15693 • USB Interface • Temperature -20 - +50 • Dimension 110 × 80 × 26 mm • Weight 100 g • Windows System 98 \ 2000 \ XP \ NT \ ME \ Vista • Maximum Range 5cm. Fig. 10: RFID Card Reader. 23 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 20-24 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info and Computers, 2000, vol.2, Año 2000, pags. 1735 1739 [5] Klaus Finkenzeller, “RFID Handbook: Fundamentals and Applications in Contactless Smart Cards and Identification”, Ed. John Wiley & Sons, Año 2003. [6] Syed Ahson, Mohammad Ilyas, “RFID Handbook: Applications, Technology, Security, and Privacy”, Ed. CRC Press, London New York, Año 2008, Páginas 1315. 1. [7] Bill Glover and Himanshu Bhatt, “RFID Essentials”, Ed. O'Reilly, Año 2006, 1-19. Corresponding Author: Email: brinza@cs.buap.mx 24 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 25-28 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info High Efficient Solar Energy Harvesting System for Bihar Green Energy Initiative Ranjan K. Behera Department of Electrical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, Bihar, India rapid growth in recent years. It has been reported that worldwide solar system demand is predicted to continue to grow more than 30% annually for the next three years for the following reasons: excess manufacturing capacity has helped push down average photovoltaic (PV) system prices by more than 25%; the ongoing reduction of PV system installation cost; and the positive incentive movement in multiple regions [1]. Most of the isolated lands in India are situated on the hilly area where it is very difficult to install transmission line to those places due to high price and appreciable line loss. It is preferred to install a solar power generator at the consumers end or top of the hill. In these hilly areas there is plenty of sun shine. In fact, among solar generation system, those based on PV is one of the favorable and reliable method of the power generation for small size power module [2]. Due to rapid growth in semiconductor and power electronics technology, photovoltaic (PV) energy is of increasing interest in electrical power applications. The conventional two-stage PV energy conversion system includes a dc/dc converter and a dc/ac inverter that are connected between a PV array and an electrical power system [3]–[4]. The dc/dc converter is used to track the maximum power point of the PV array according to various maximum power-point tracking (MPPT) methods [5]–[7]. The dc/ac inverter is used to produce an output current in phase with the utility voltage and to obtain a unity power factor. However, the cost and efficiency of the two-stage PV energy conversion system are compromised because of the large number of individual devices, i.e., the dc/dc converter, batteries and dc/ac inverter. Hence, a single-stage PV energy conversion system is proposed for rural electricity applications, resulting in smaller physical volume, lower weight, lower cost, and higher efficiency [8], [9]. This paper aims to give an overview on grid connected PV inverters topology for rural electrification and to outline future trends in this rapidly developing technology. The paper is organized as follows. Section II describes solar power converter topology designs and discusses safety aspects concerning transformer less topologies. Section III outlines new developments including new system designs concept and discusses new transformer less Abstract As the cost of conventional energy sources continues to increase, alternative energy sources continue to gain in popularity beyond expectation and in this way to reduce environmental pollution. Alternative energy sources, such as Photovoltaic (PV) and Fuel Cell (FC), application is increasing day by day to meet the increased electrical load demand. Particularly, in stand-alone power supply system, powering the electrical load requirement and powering more number of electrical grids is one of the up-coming fields. In India especially in Bihar and Orissa, most of the rural areas are disconnected from the main power grid. Mostly it is in an isolated network, where electrical connection is impossible. To meet this power requirement in rural areas, the stand-alone PV system is the best choice. Although PV energy has received considerable attention over the last few decades, due to high installation cost and the low conversion efficiency of PV modules are the major obstacles to using this PV energy source on a large scale. Therefore, several studies are being developed in order to minimize these drawbacks of the existing system. In order to extract the maximum power of the PV array, the classical implementation of the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) in stand-alone systems is generally accomplished by the series connection of a dc–dc converter between the PV array and the load, the energy storage element or with a grid-tie inverter connected to grid. Considering that in the series connection, the dc–dc converter always processes all power generated, the total efficiency of the PV system greatly depends on the efficiency of this series dc–dc converter and grid-tie inverter. In order to improvement the system efficiency and reliability it is necessary to address suitable fault tolerant power electronics converters system for rural electrification. The power electronics converter topology should posses the ability of smart and intelligent load management and can be used for both isolated loads or grid connected system. Introduction With the ever-increasing demand for “green” energy, solar power has drawn a lot of attention by its 25 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 25-28 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info topologies. Section IV summarizes the main findings and developments. Solar Power Converter Topology Power electronics design plays a key role in the performance of a solar power system, as design engineers first look at maximum conversion. Since PV modules have very low conversion efficiency from solar to electrical energy (in the range of 20 percent), the efficiency of a power inverter is meaningful to minimize solar module area and volume of the entire system. Additionally, power loss of devices generates heat on silicon dies that causes temperature rise and must be effectively dissipated. These losses lead to a thermal stress. Hence, a high reliable design of power electronics converter with heat sink is necessary. Minimum power loss not only saves energy, but also enhances system reliability, making the system more compact and less costly. To convert the fluctuating direct current (DC) output voltage from solar modules into a wellregulated sinusoidal alternating current (AC) voltage, the architecture of a typical solar power conversion system is either two-stage or single-stage, with or without, DC/DC converter as shown in Figure-1 (a) and (b). DC DC Cin DC Solar Panel MPP Tracking and Voltage Boost High Frequency PWM Inverter Cdc Filter AC Utility Grid inverters in the future - HERIC (Sunways) and multilevel inverters. HERIC, shown in Figure 2, is structurally different than a conventional full-bridge inverter, incorporating an extra switch and diode pairs at the output. With these added devices and appropriate control, HERIC inverters are capable of boosting the system efficiency by effectively handling the reactive power flow. Fig. 2: HERIC inverter + Sa1 Da1 Sb1 Db1 Sc1 Dc1 Sa2 Da2 Sb2 Db2 Cf Sc2 Dc2 Vdc + - + Cf Da3 + - Cf R Y B Sa3 Sb3 Db3 Sc3 Dc3 ( Sa4 Da4 Sb4 Db4 Sc4 Dc4 a) DC DC Cin DC MPP Tracking Cdc DC Current Shaper Grid Frequency PWM Inverter DC Filter AC Utility Grid - Fig.3: Three level neutral point clamped inverter. ( Solar Panel b) Fig. 1(a-b): Grid connected classical solar power conversion system. The existence of a DC/DC stage can maintain the input voltage of inverter at a constant and controlled level, and decouple the control of voltage and power flow. However, an extra conversion stage can have a negative effect on system efficiency. Because of this, more solar inverter manufacturers are evaluating and adopting single stage architecture, even when the inverter control is more complicated and voltage rating of power devices can increase. Among the recently introduced inverter topologies, two are considered to have the most potential for grid-tied centralized 26 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 25-28 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Fig.4: Cascaded multilevel inverter. Three level Neutral Point Clamped (NPC) and cascaded multilevel Inverter, shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4 is a specialized topology targeted at centralized solar power applications with higher voltages. Compared to its traditional counterpart, these inverters have only one half of voltage stress on each switch so that devices with much lower voltage can be used. This leads to higher efficiency and lower device costs. In addition, the electromagnetic interference (EMI) level and output filter size can be reduced, thus lowering the overall cost of the system. Brief Description of the System A simplified block diagram of the distributed power generating system for grid connected and isolated system by using a PV panel and a new storage device called energy capacitor system (ECaSS) is shown in Figure 5. The system is designed with an aim to meet a residential load of 1 kW peak, and the load pattern is assumed to have an average value of 530 W and a load form factor (LFF: the ratio of the total energy above the average power to the daily total energy) of 18% (as shown in Load-2 of Figure 8). Here, it is considered that the PV panel should be big enough to supply the peak power of the load. Its capacity is calculated using the following equation [10]: EPV(min) = Pload × LFF × 24 (1) where EPV(min) : minimum daily output of PV panel (W·h); Pload : average value of the load (W). + Power Detection For the load mentioned earlier, (1) gives EPV(min) = 2.29 kW·h. As the load is ac, dividing this value by the efficiency of the inverter (=90%) we get, EPV(min) = 2.54 kW·h. To be on safer side, we have considered this value to be 3 kW·h. In Patna, Bihar, the minimum PV output is produced in the month of December. Using the estimation procedure discussed, it was found that a 1.2 kW panel could produce 3 kW·h/day in December. Hence, it is estimated that nine PV modules having a nominal VOC of 24.0 V and ISC of 7.69 A each. The modules can be connected in series that can produce a peak output of 1296 W at Maximum Power Point (MPP) (Im = 7.2A, Vm = 180 V). Again, it is considered that the ECaSS should be big enough to supply the peak energy even during rainy days. Estimation of PV Output Power Once the insolation, incident on a PV panel, is known, its output power (PPV) can easily be estimated by the following equation: PPV = R X cos θ × ηm × Ap × ηp (2) where R solar radiation (W/m2); θ angle of incidence calculated by considering β = 45◦ ηm efficiency of the MPPT = 96%; Ap area of the PV panel = 8.505 m2; ηp efficiency of the PV panel = 11% (at 25◦C with a rate of change of −0.052%◦C). MPPT 240 Solar Panel 12 KW 1 2 3 4 Bank voltage Bank switch 6 Control Power set 2 Storage/ Battery Bank 1 3 4 Interface Circuit 6 7 3 Phase Grid 5 Load 8 Fig. 6: Calculated PV output power on 11th April, 2010. PC 5 Power detect 7 Display 8 Load setting (a) MPPT + - 240 Solar Panel 12 KW 1 2 3 4 Bank voltage Bank switch 6 Control Power set 2 Storage/ Battery Bank 1 3 4 Interface Circuit 6 7 5 Load 8 PC 5 Power detect 7 Display 8 Load setting (b) Fig. 5: Block diagram of the proposed rural electrification system. (a) Grid connected system (b) Isolated system Fig. 7. Estimated efficiency versus load power Considering the given values of the above parameters, the PV output on a typical sunny day has 27 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 25-28 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info been estimated and the actual output on the same day has been measured for comparison. The results are presented in Figure 6. Since, the value of ηp is calculated by considering the average temperature of the day, the estimated PPV gives the temperature compensated value. The integrated energy of the estimated PPV is 5.6 kW·h. Although the estimated PV output is smooth, the practically obtained one may have many fluctuations due to the tracking action of the MPPT. However, these fluctuations do not hamper the system operation. As the ECaSS can be charged and discharged quickly, it absorbs these variations and provides a steady output to the power conversion system (PCS). Estimated efficiency versus load power is given in Figure 7. To study the performance of the system, three load profiles have been simulated. These are shown in Fig. 8. Among them, the first one is a typical commercial load, the second one is a typical residential load, and the third one is a hypothetical load pattern. has an excellent overall efficiency (92%) and is expected to be durable, as it is used the ECaSS that has longer lifetime than conventional batteries. References [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Fig. 8: Load profiles used for performance study. Conclusion The construction of a distributed power generating system of PV-ECaSS and its possible rural electricity generation have been presented in this paper. For its proper functioning, an estimation technique of the PV output power is also described. Using this estimated PV power the proposed system can work properly for Bihar green energy initiatives. The optimum power benefit and load-levelling facility can be achieved from the system with the help of the simulation program and the estimation of PV power. The obtained results prove the viability of the system. It is economically beneficial both in sunny days and cloudy days. In addition to the economical benefit, the system provides a good load-levelling feature. Moreover, the system [8] [9] [10] C. Qian, “Solar Power Conversion – a System Solution to Alternative Energy Demand,” Application notes, Microsemi’s Power Products Group, Bend, USA, July 2010. B. K. Bose, P. M. Szczeny, and R. L. Steigerwald, “Microcomputer control of a residential photovoltaic power conditioning system,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. IA-21, pp. 1182–1191, Sept./Oct. 1985. S. J. Chiang, K. T. Chang, and C. Y. Yen, “Residential energy storage system,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 45, pp. 385–394, June 1998. H. Sugimoto and H. Dong, “A new scheme for maximum photovoltaic power tracking control,” in Proc. IEEE PCC—Nagaoka’97, 1997, pp. 691– 696. J. H. R. Enslin, M. S.Wolf, D. B. Snyman, and W. Sweigers, “Integrated photovoltaic maximum power point tracking converter,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 44, pp. 769–773, Dec. 1997. C. Hua, J. Lin, and C. Shen, “Implementation of a DSP-controlled photovoltaic system with peak power tracking,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 45, pp. 99–107, Feb. 1998. K. H. Hussein, I. Muta, T. Hoshino, and M. Osakada, “Maximum photovoltaic power tracking: An algorithm for rapidly changing atmospheric conditions,” Proc. IEE—Gen. Transmission Distrib., vol. 142, no. 1, pp. 59–64, Jan. 1995. A. Lohner, T. Meyer, and A. Nagel, “A new panel-integratable inverter concept for gridconnected photovoltaic systems,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Industrial Electronics, Jun. 1996, pp. 827–831. M. Meinhardt et al., “Miniaturized low profile module integrated converter for photovoltaic applications with integrated magnetic components,” in Proc. IEEE Applications Power Electron. Conf. Expo., Mar. 1999, pp. 305–311. R. Om, S. Yamashiro, R. K. Mazumder, K. Nakamura, K. Mitsui, M. Yamagishi, and M. Okamura, “Design and performance evaluation of grid connected PV-ECS system with load leveling function,” IEEJ Trans. Power and Energy, Japan, vol. 121-B, pp. 1112–1119, Sep. 2001. Corresponding Author: Phone No.: +91-612-2552050, 2277383 (Fax) Email: rkb@iitp.ac.in 28 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 29-30 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Evolving Consciousness: from Homo sapiens to Homo spiritualis Ranjeet Kumar Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India The manifestation of that which exists but does not manifest is the progenitor of life. It’s analogous to the seed which has potential of getting transformed in to a jungle. Transformation of the potential to kinetics is the key to origin and evolution. The whole purpose of life is precession as defined by Edward Hamming, it simply means that it’s the effect of a body in motion on the other like throwing a stone generates ripples on the surface and perpendicular to it is the motion of the stone. Here the side effects at right angle to the motion matters and define the greatest philosophy behind a purposeful living. The true purpose of life is right angle to the goal we set. The goal of life is not the purpose as when you achieve the goal then you stop and there is no more precession. The central idea being that we should be in motion. Initiating is important. The inherent mental inertia has been instrumental in limiting our capability to excel. There is always a fear factor at the back of consciousness that makes us uneasy in starting a new project. This is what mental programming all about. It’s the nature and nurture factor that governs the ability to initiate and accept the consequences there after. A fast debugging of mental hard disk becomes inevitable. This world is truly for those who can quickly learn, unlearn and relearn under the dynamically changing environment. It’s up on us to feed our grey matter with thoughts that are affirmative. Brain does not make any image of “no” what is needed is to come up with “yes” it’s possible and I definitely can strive to achieve it. The script of success is written only when one knows the language of courage. As Paulo Coelho in his famous book says “When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision”. So is what Swami Vivekananda has on this is “You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power”. He strongly says that each soul is potentially divine and expressing this divinity in our thoughts and action is prime goal. The essence being that in the school called life you first take up the problem and later learn the lesson just opposite of what our conditioning and education has been. The blueprint of perpetual happiness lies in the DNA of courage and the central dogma of life lies in the heart which drives you to an evolutionary roller coaster gradually transforming you from human doing to human being. Remember that the entire cosmos conspires when you inspired by naive thoughts desire to initiate. The essence being mind that is nothing but bundle of thoughts which keeps you in a state of confusion, and thoughts that can make difference get lost like needle in haystacks has to be brought to action. Become a strong magnet so that the needle does not get lost and prepare platform so that these small but important seeds with a potential to form jungles can be planted deep in to your consciousness that’s what an idea can make tremendous difference all about. Let novel ideas perpetuate and does not let it die in gestation. Mark Twain says “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education” this statement is quite pragmatic education to me is a lifelong exercise and sometime schooling create so much resistance in our thinking that we hesitate to initiate anything new. Deepak Chopra says that “every person is a god in embryo, its only desire is to be born” right indeed. What I want to convey in nutshell is that journey of thousand miles begin with a single step. So let every stone that comes your way become a milestone in your odyssey called life and not a tumbling hurdle. What should have been a learning odyssey has become a painful pursuit for earning a living. Our education has ruined the capability of thinking innovatively and has definitely interfered with our learning process. Learning for the sake of knowledge that churns to what we called wisdom is no more happening. We have become so mechanized that the complexity of our mental faculty has left no room for creative thinking and enjoying the “being” part of our life. What I wish to propound is that in the struggle of existence “we are no more human being but human doing”. The faculty called mind is intricately complex and interesting entity. We can simply perceive mind as bundle of unorganized thoughts. What are these thoughts then, it’s interesting that these are just like the trailing news that we always see on news channel most of which are breaking news and you know the element of truth is very little. “Breaking news” means that there is nothing positive or constructive, it’s just there to break your calm conscious being. Most of your thoughts are programmed and there is no substance in 29 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 29-30 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info it. Being aware of the fact what can be done is to note those thoughts that are really worth pursuing this is analogous to finding needle in the hay sticks. I don’t know really whether I have made you comfortably miserable or miserably comfortable by putting my unorganized thoughts before you. But let me simplify the whole idea is to enjoy being what you are. I would like to give you a practical tip of becoming a banyan tree and not an ornamental bonsai. If you ask a seed about what’s within it, the answer is nothing but remember this nothing is not the one we think it’s a special nothing with an inherent potential of everything hidden in its core. So what if you plant the seed then a tree is born and that tree can breed numerous other trees and what would be the end result is a garden, a jungle. Likewise are our thoughts and what we need to do is to consciously plant these chosen thoughts in our subconscious mental field to prepare a customized tailor made garden of thoughts. So let me share with you a technique called the pictographic technique that allows your desires to animate. It’s a kalpvriksha its panacea for the holistic successful being. First think of something that you really want to achieve and seed this thought deep in to your subconscious being. After seeding the idea see the bigger picture, its meditation close your eyes and see the end result. Like if you seeded an idea of becoming a doctor, what you should see is that you are having a stethoscope with a batch on your chest that you are Dr. so and so. Seeing is important but imagine and dream take a bird’s eye view attach intense emotion to the very thought, desire passionately and I bet if you go on doing this it will profoundly change your mental frame and you will automatically start attracting things that can make this happen Paulo Coelho the famous writer of Alchemist call it Natures Conspiracy but for me its map to your divine destiny. Now passionately desiring has to be converted in to your unflinching faith that yes if others can I can also and this is called transformation it’s something sublime but will animate your faith in to action. Faith in action is important and it’s driven by the fire within its similar to a small step in the right direction leading to a giant leap in your personal reality (personality). Suppose that you have always condemned rich friend of yours who owns a car and constantly pass negative comments. My only take home message is accept the things and stop kissing on negative note. Once you can accept the things in totality now let your faith work for you. The beauty of faith in action is it’s scientific and it works the idea is whatever picture the brain see comes true. So let the brain be a nesting ground for noble ideas from nesting to testing from testing to investing from investing to creasting and crowning phase let your faith evolve step by step in the journey of wisdom. Being is beautiful it’s the canvas of God’s masterpiece painting called life. Being let you get detached from the agony of the competitive living. Life has hidden musicality and there is every possibility that your being can let it surface on your personality. You get tuned to the vibes of almighty and the nectar flows. You become a dynamo of excellence driven by a purposeful living. I am concluding my write-up with the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, and live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success that is way great spiritual giants are produced.” Conclusion The ancient rule of Vedic connectivity is beautiful; it’s a key to dynamic evolution of conscious positive being. It is manifestation of supreme energy and adding purpose to the divine existence of universal oneness. Acknowledgement The nature and nurture and all the saints and sages whom I have assimilated in my odyssey to truthful living. 30 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 31-32 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Plant Taxonomy in the Current Scenario of Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics M. A. Ali Department of Botany and Microbiology College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, describes, classifies, identifies, and names the plants. Plant identification is the determination of the identity of an unknown plant by comparison with previously collected specimens or with the aid of books or identification manuals. The process of identification connects the specimen with a published name. Once a plant specimen has been identified, its name and properties are known. Plant classification is the placing of known plants into groups or categories to show some relationship. Plant systematics is involved with relationships between plants and their evolution, whereas plant taxonomy deals with the actual handling of plant specimens. Modern biological classification has its root in the work of Carolus Linnaeus, who grouped species according to shared physical characteristics. These groupings since have been revised to improve consistency with the Darwinian principle of common descent. The traditional classification of plants into respective classes, orders, families, genera and species has been based on shared morphologic, cytologic, biochemical and ecologic traits. There are several approaches have been put forward time to time for classification of plants viz., form or habit of plant (Theophrastus, Caesalpino), artificial (Tournefort, Linnaeus), natural (Bauhin, Ray, de Jussieu, de Candolle, Bentham & Hooker) and phylogenetic (Engler & Prantl, Bessey, Hutchinson, Cronquist, Takhtajan, Thorne, Dahlgren, Angiosperm Phylogeny Group). Since the 1960s a trend called cladistic taxonomy (or cladistics or cladism) has emerged, arranging taxa in an evolutionary tree. Molecular systematics or molecular phylogenetics which is an essentially cladistic approach and is the use of the structure of molecules to gain information on an organism’s evolutionary relationships was pioneered by Charles G. Sibley (birds), Herbert C. Dessauer (herpetology), and Morris Goodman (primates), followed by Allan C. Wilson, Robert K. Selander and John C. Avise. Early attempts of molecular systematics were also termed as chemotaxonomy and made use of proteins, enzymes, carbohydrates and other molecules which were separated and characterized using techniques such as chromatography. Beginning in the early 1980s and continuing to the present, the use of DNA has represented the “cutting edge” (glamour area) within the entire field of plant systematics. Our understanding of the relationships among organisms at various levels in the tree of life has been advanced greatly in the last two decades with the aid of DNA molecular systematic techniques and phylogenetic theory. A diverse array of molecular techniques are available to the plant systematist for use in phylogentic inference, including restriction site analysis, comparative sequencing, analysis of DNA rearrangements (e.g. inversions), gene and intron loss, and various polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based techniques. These are generally considered superior for evolutionary studies since the actions of evolution are ultimately reflected in the genetic sequences. At present it is still a long and expensive process to sequence the entire DNA of an organism, and this has been done for only a few species. However, it is quite feasible to determine the sequence of a defined area of a particular chromosome. Closely related organisms generally have a high degree of agreement in the molecular structure of these substances, while the molecules of organisms distantly related usually show a pattern of dissimilarity. Molecular phylogeny uses such data to build a relationship tree that shows the probable evolution of various organisms. The most common approach is the comparison of sequences for genes using sequence alignment techniques to identify similarity. Plant molecular systematics has relied primarily on the chloroplast genome. Nuclear ribosomal DNA is arranged in tandem repeats in one or a few chromosomal loci. Each repeat consists of a transcribed region that comprises an external transcribed spacer (ETS) followed by the 18S gene, an internal transcribed spacer (ITS-1), the 5.8S gene, a second internal transcribed spacer (ITS-2), and finally the 26S gene. Each such repeat is separated from the next repeat by an intergenic spacer (IGS). The nuclear genes that code for rRNA are repeated thousands of times within the typical plant genome. In fact they can comprise as much as 10% of the total plant DNA. The most remarkable feature of rDNA is the overall sequence homogeneity among members of the gene family in a given species. The process by which this pattern of intraspecific homogeneity and interspecific 31 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 31-32 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info heterogeneity is maintained has been called concerted evolution. It is widely accepted that in the process of concerted evolution a single mutation can be fixed in a relatively short time period due to unequal crossing over or gene conversion. These homogenization processes have been described as molecular drive. The coding regions show little sequence divergence among closely related species, whereas the spacer regions exhibit higher rates of variability. Therefore, nuclear ribosomal ITS sequence data have a great potential to resolve plant phylogenies at various intrafamiliar levels in angiosperms. Despite the large size of the nuclear genome, most attempts to infer phylogeny with nuclear gene sequences have involved the nuclear ribosomal DNA cistron (rDNA). The approximate lengths of the three coding regions are very similar throughout plants. The 18S gene equals 1,800 bp, the 26S gene equals 3,300 bp, the 5.8S gene equals 160 bp. In contrast, the length of the IGS varies considerably (from 1 to 8 kb). This variation in IGS length is the major contributors to the large range of variation in total length of the repeat unit in plants, ranging from approximately 8-15 kb. Variation in the length of the ITS-1 and ITS-2 regions is also noteworthy. The external transcribed spacer (ETS) region (especially the 3'end of the 5'-ETS adjacent to 18S) has sometimes been exploited in lower-level phylogenetic analyses. The nuclear genome of plants consists of certain DNA sequences that are present once per genome. These are referred to as single copy or unique sequence DNA. The lengths of single copy sequences in plant genomes usually vary from 200 to several thousand bp. Single or low-copy nuclear genes have also great potential to elucidate phylogenetic relationships of plants. The advantages of nuclear genes include the availability of many genes, their overall faster rate of evolution, and their biparental inheritance. As gene sequencing becomes easier and cheaper, molecular systematics is being applied to more and more groups, and in some cases is leading to radical revisions of accepted taxonomies. The term bioinformatics is most commonly associated with the analysis of data generated by molecular biology. Genomics, the study of the nucleotide sequence of organismal genomes, and proteomics, the record of all proteins produced by a genome, are viewed as the frontiers of bioinformatics. The informatics challenge in these fields is turning the vast amounts of genomic and proteomic data into understandable and useful information. Development of phylogenetic theory and cladistic analysis of DNA sequences data has resulted into phylogenetic classification of the land plants. DNA barcoding -the use of short DNA sequences for biological identifications has gained worldwide attention in the scientific community which revolutionizes our knowledge of plant diversity and is on its way to being accepted as a global standard for the purpose of species identification. India, with its wide range of physiographic and climatic conditions, has a rich varied flora, unparalleled in any other country in the world. The physiographic diversity of the country has produced all possible types and extremities of climatic conditions suitable for supporting wide varied types of ecosystems. It is estimated that about 45,000 species of plants which forms the conspicuous vegetal cover comprises about 6.8% of all known flowering plants of the world. With 2.46% of land area having 6.8% of flowering plants, India is recognized as one of the top 12 mega-biodiversity centers of the world. However, the Indian plant taxonomist is still cataloguing the life even in the era when Plant taxonomy is being practiced using tools and techniques of molecular biology and bioinformatics. The molecular systematic studies in India on Indian flora is in infancy due to lack of proper training of molecular biology and bioinformatics especially to taxonomist, thus a rich biodiversity of India has remained untouched from molecular systematic studies and in understanding the evolutionary relationship. There is thus an urgent need to review the status of taxonomic studies in India in context with latest development in the discipline. With the rich biological resources and many outstanding botanists who are familiar with the regional flora and interesting systematic questions, should initiate molecular systematic program to advance our understanding on the tree of life and to address new evolutionary questions. Correspondence: Phone: +966-4677561 Email: majmalali@rediffmail.com 32 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 33-34 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Resurgence of Infectious Diseases and Emergence of New Infections Diwakar Tejaswi Consultant Physician & Medical Director, International Health Organization & PAHAL Exhibition Road, Patna-800001, Bihar, India The environment influences our health in many ways - through exposures to physical, chemical and biological risk factors. Globally, nearly one quarter of all deaths and of the total disease burden can be attributed to the environment. Over the last 30 years the reversal in the declining death rate due to infectious diseases has alarmed international health experts. Dramatic successes in eradicating small pox, controlling polio and tuberculosis, and eliminating vector-borne diseases such as yellow fever, dengue and malaria from many regions convinced most experts the era of infectious diseases would soon be over. Unfortunately this optimistic prognosis was premature as a number of diseases have dramatically reemerged. Tuberculosis (MDR and XDR TB), cholera, dengue, plague, and malaria have increased in incidence or geographic range, as have new drug-resistant strains of bacteria. In addition newly recognized diseases, such as AIDS or H1N1, have emerged. The present global emergence of infectious diseases is clearly associated with the social and demographic changes of the past 50 years, particularly urbanization and globalization, with the attendant spread of pathogens (agents causing disease) via infected humans, hosts, vectors or commodities. The change in the environment caused by human activities is also apparent in the transformation of much of our landscape and conversion of regional systems once dominated by natural ecosystems. Factors include expansion into urban or peri-urban habitat, deforestation, and the spread of intensive farming. The environment’s role in the emergence of diseases is apparent in the connections between the direct consequences of human changes to urban and rural landscapes and ecosystems, and the secondary effects on disease emergence factors. Developing irrigated agriculture, for example, can create breeding grounds for mosquitoes, a vector for malaria. Likewise the inadequate storm drainage and sewerage systems often associated with rapid urbanization not only increase the breeding habitat for disease vectors but facilitate the spread of waterborne pathogens causing cholera and leptospirosis. Overwhelming evidence points to human demographic changes as the major direct and indirect factor contributing to the increase in infectious disease, with somewhat different dynamics and mechanisms at work in urban and rural environments. In the first case the increasing number of people crowded into dense settlements has dramatically increased opportunities for food, water, rodent and vector-borne pathogens to “colonise” and persist in human populations. Each pathogen has unique transmission and adaptive characteristics that determine a minimum population for survival (the threshold for measles is about 250,000 people). Whether the threshold is 100,000 or a million the number of large urban settlements and the average settlement size has been growing fast in recent decades. The number of cities of one million or larger was 76 in 1950, 522 in 1975, and 1122 in 2000, and is set to exceed 1600 by 2015. This 20-fold increase translates to a roughly similar increase in global infectious disease vulnerability due to this one factor alone. This type of growth has indirect social and environmental consequences that contribute to multiplying the actual increase in population. Poverty, poor living conditions, including lack of sanitation and infrastructure for waste-water and solid waste management, increases opportunities for vector- borne diseases and others passing from animals to humans. The geographic spread and expansion into peri-urban areas of the mosquito Aedes albopictus, exquisitely adapted for breeding in discarded plastic containers and used automobile tires, is a good example of how a potential vector of viral diseases has taken advantage of environmental change. Lack of sanitation and waste water treatment, and industrial scale intensification of animal production systems the world over; contribute to exotic species, and the proliferation and spread of water and food-borne pathogens. Increasingly frequent outbreaks of infections are caused by these and other organisms, many of which may eat alongside or prey on wild mammals and birds as natural parasites. The contamination of surface waters and spread of pathogens is further promoted by the alteration of catchments and watersheds accompanying urbanization, and intensive farming around cities. Channeling streams, removing vegetation on the banks, and filling in wetland - all of which accompany unplanned urbanization eliminate the natural retention and nutrient recycling systems, as well as 33 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 33-34 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info barriers to surface run-off contaminated with intestinal pathogens. Nutrient pollution leading to oxygen depletion in estuaries, lakes, streams and even stretches of ocean, such as the Gulf of Mexico, helps such pathogens survive too. In rural areas population and consumption play a less direct role in contributing to disease emergence, particularly as rural emigration is fuelling the demographic explosion in cities. It is more that urban areas are driving a sustained increase in the timber trade, agriculture, stock raising and mining, resulting in turn in deforestation and changes in land use that are transforming rural landscapes and natural areas in ways that often facilitate the emergence of disease. Deforestation or even “patchy” reforestation leads to ecological changes such as increased edge habitat and local extinction of predators that favour some disease vectors and reservoir species. Encroachment of individuals and settlements on natural ecosystems brings humans into contact with known and novel pathogens. The spread and intensification of farming results in the development of irrigation systems, ideal breeding sites for mosquitoes and a habitat for opportunistic insects and rodents that may be vectors or reservoirs for disease. Dams provide a favorable habitat for other vectors. Climate change represents a potential environmental factor affecting disease emergence Shifts in the geographic ranges of hosts and vector, the effect of increasing temperature on reproductive, development and mortality rates on hosts, vectors, and pathogens, and the effects of increased climate variability on flooding and droughts all have the potential to affect disease incidence and emergence positively or negatively. At present there is insufficient evidence to indicate what the net effect will be once climate changes begin to have a major affect on ecosystems. However, a dominant theme emerging from research on the ecology of infectious disease is that accelerated and abrupt environmental change, whether natural or caused by humans, may provide conditions conducive to pathogen emergence: pathogen adaptation, host switching, and active or passive or dispersal. The resurgence of infectious diseases worldwide reflects our quick-fix mentality, with poor development planning, a lack of political determination and institutional inertia. It is not the inevitable result of development, environmental change, or even incremental population growth. On the contrary much can be done to reverse the current trend. As well as rebuilding the public health infrastructure for infectious diseases, there is substantial evidence and a growing number of examples of how regional planning and development, including urbanization, agricultural expansion, and the management and conservation of forests and other ecosystems can minimize and even reduce outbreaks of infectious disease as well as environmental damage. Basically we need an integrated approach to pathogen control. This approach will involve meshing social and economic development programs, environmental and natural resource management, with intervention based on the reinvigorated field of disease ecology and methods involving community participation. Correspondence: Phone: 91-612-2206964, 91-9835078298(M) 34 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 35-36 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info Water Scarcity Issues in Bihar, India Ashok Kumar Ghosh Department of Environment and Water Management, A.N. College, Patna, Bihar, India Increasing global temperature has caused widespread glacier recessions in the new fold mountain belts of the Himalayas. Glacial recession has affected the flow of the Ganga river system, its impact being enhanced by human interventions. There are many adverse impact of the current climate change on the drainage pattern and river ecology of the Ganga system in Bihar (India). A rapid shift in the river meander occurred along Patna within a span of a few years. The reduced volumes of river water are leading to ecological disaster in Bihar in the form of truncated channel flows, and increasing sedimentation. This, along with pollution load, has aggravated aquatic life, as revealed in large-scale herniation in the zooplanktons. Also, abrupt drop in the river depth was indicative of local faults along the river bed, implying seismic impacts of ongoing changes in the river’s regime. Our studies have concluded that climate change, apart from affecting life forms, was also altering the geomorphology of the Ganga Basin in the state of Bihar.1 The northern part of the state of Bihar, India, has innumerable south flowing streams that are subject to annual inundation. The river basins bear numerous water bodies and marshy lands. A systematic study of wetlands of north Bihar was undertaken by our research group for the period 1984 –2004 through remote sensing data. The observations are very interesting and alarming. Rapid changes in surface water regime have been detected. There is a contradictory trend in eastern and western parts of the study area, the former showing expansion of surface water and the latter revealing rapid shrinkage of the same.2 Testing of groundwater used for drinking for arsenic has been undertaken more widely by our research group in several districts of Bihar with the support of UNICEF. Available data for sixteen districts are collated which provides the most up-to-date picture of areas known to be affected by arsenic in groundwater in the Indian portion of the GangesBrahmaputra river basin. Bihar is one of the states where the ground water is heavily contaminated with arsenic. In Bihar, on the River Ganges upstream of West Bengal, 66,623 sources from 11 districts have been tested and water samples from 10.8% of sources were found to contain arsenic at concentrations greater than 50 μgL−1 and 28.9% at concentrations greater than 10 μgL−1. 3 Arsenic Map of Bihar ‐2009 West Champaran East Gopalganj Sheohar Champaran Sitamarhi Madhubani Supaul Siwan Muzaffarpur Darbhanga Madhepura Araria Kishanganj Saran Buxar Kaimur Rohtas Vaishali Samastipur Begusarai Saharsa Purnia Bhojpur Patna Jehanabad Khaga ria Bhagalpur Banka Katihar Nala ndaSheikhpura Munger Nawada Lakhisarai Jamui Aurangabad Gaya 16 Arsenic Affected Districts Fig. 1: Arsenic affected districts of Bihar West Champaran Bihar - Fluoride in Ground Water East Sheohar Champaran Sitamarhi Gopalganj Madhubani Supaul Araria Kishanganj Siwan Muzaffarpur Darbhanga Madhepura Saran Buxar Kaimur Rohtas Vaishali Samastipur Begusarai Saharsa Purnia Bhojpur Patna Jehanabad Khagaria Bhagalpur Banka Katihar NalandaSheikhpura Lakhisarai Nawada M unger Aurangabad Gaya Jamui Fluoride affected Districts Fig. 2: Fluoride affected districts of Bihar There is a proven correlation between high iron and high arsenic concentrations. In Bihar, majority of the arsenic hotspots found to be distributed in HCO3 – dominated ground water facies. Contrary to our preliminary assessment that arsenic hotspots clustered along the banks of the master stream, Ganga, the interfluvial terrain and Himalayan foothills in tested positive for arsenic north Bihar also contaminated ground waters, the latest concentrations being detected in Darbahanga - Purnea Belt and the Kishanganj - Supaul Terai belts. Hence, arsenic contaminations occur continuously from the northern foothills to the south Ganga Plains, with the typical spatial variations in contamination levels within short distances. General arsenic concentrations also recorded to be decreasing with increasing depth, with the sole exception of western Bhojpur district where shallow 35 Manthan, International Journal, Vol. 12, June, 2011, Pages 35-36 ISSN No. 0974-6331 www.bbmanthan.info aquifers had less arsenic levels than the progressively deeper ones. Highest concentration of 1861 μgL−1 was recorded in this district, where out of 5420 hand pumps surveyed, 45% hand pumps had more than 10 μgL−1 arsenic. In Bhagalpur district 4516 hand pumps were surveyed, out of which 24.78 % had more than 10 μgL−1 arsenic. A large number of biological samples tested positive for arsenic toxicity. The study is still going on in several districts and the complete picture is yet to emerge in some areas. Deep groundwater in particular requires a comprehensive programme of supporting research to determine appropriate aquifers and ensure aquifers tapped remain safe from arsenic in the longer term. In this and other respects continued monitoring of groundwater quality in arsenic-affected areas is of the utmost priority.4 Fluoride contamination is another serious problem related to ground water of Bihar. Isolated pockets of intense fluoride contaminations have been found in the southern districts of Nawada [maximum 15.6 ppm], Gaya, Rohtas, and Munger and southern Bhagalpur district. Study of fluoride contaminations are in progress, the identified areas having aquifers at fluctuating levels and limited surface water resources in contrast to the northern water surplus districts. Villages with fluoride contaminations include Bhoopnagar and Masuribarof Amas Block, and, Bhaktauri, Kamalpur and Dhaneta of Bankebazar Block [Gaya District]; Rajauli, Kachariyadih and Muslim Tola [Nawada District]. 5 All the studies undertaken by our research group related to water quality and quantity indicate that the state of Bihar is going to face serious water scarcity in near future. Water crisis will become endemic in this water surplus state and urgent remedial measures are required to preserve and protect this precious water resource essential for our survival. References [1] Ghosh et al., (2007) Global Warming and changing land use patterns in Bihar Plains, India. In: Proceedings of Annual Conference of Royal Geographical Society, London. [2] Ghosh et al., (2004) The Impact of Changing Surface Water Configuration on Land use of Bihar, India. In: Proceedings of ISCO 2004 Conference, Brisbane, Australia. [3] Nickson et al., (2007). Current knowledge on the distribution of arsenic in groundwater in five states of India. Journal of Environmental Science and Health, 42: 1–12. [4] Ghosh, A., N. Bose, A.G. Bhatt and R. Kumar (2010) New dimensions of groundwater arsenic Contamination in Mid-Ganga Plain, India. Arsenic in Geosphere and Human DimensionsAs 2010 CRC Press, UK. [5] Ghosh, A., S.K. Singh and N. Bose (2009) Monitoring and Management of Arsenic and Fluoride Contamination in Ground Water of Bihar [India]. In: Bangladesh Chemical Congress, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, pp15-16. 36