IOSR-JESTFT   Volume-2 ~ Issue-3 ~ Nov–Dec 2012

Abstract: Presence of heavy metals in water bodies due to industrialization has led to serious health problems. In the present study, an adsorbent prepared from the raw bark of the Pongamia pinnata tree was used for the removal of Lead from aqueous and waste water containing heavy metals. The effectiveness of this adsorbent was studied in batch studies for various size fractions of adsorbent at different pH, concentration of metal ion, amount of adsorbent, contact time, agitation and temperature. The pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and Elovich models were applied to test the kinetic experimental data. Pseudo second order model best fitted the adsorption of Lead ions. The Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models were applied for the results. The Langmuir isotherms were best fitted by the equilibrium data. The maximum adsorption was found to be 34.36mg/g in waste water at a temperature of 300 C..
Keywords:Adsorption, Adsorption isotherms, Heavy metals, Industrial effluents, Lead

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kinetics of adsorption of lead (II) onto palm shell-based activated carbon using ion selective electrode, Bioresource Technology,
99, 2008, 5786-5792.
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Desalination, 185, 2005, 335-340.
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Batch and column studies, Separation and Purification Technology, 57, 2007, 11-16.
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Bioresource Technology. 99, 2008, 7091-7097.

Abstract: Automobile industries requière manufacturing véhicules at optimum coste and with greater safety. For this purpose every component of vehicle is analysed for critical conditions. In this work car rim is considered for optimization by using finite element method. The optimization is carried to minimize the weight of rim without exceeding allowable strain. The intention is to create the geometry utilizing parameters for all the variables, deciding which variables to use as design, state and objective variables to obtain an accurately converged solution. FEM software OptiStruct is used for optimization of rim. If the stress & strain values are within the permissible range, then certain dimensions are modified to reduce the amount of material needed. The procedure is repeated until design changes satisfy all the criteria. For experimental verification similar type of object is used and stresses in it are calculated for set load with suitable instrumentation. Then same is calculated in OptiStruct software and Experimental results are compared with FEM results
Keywords:Impact factor, Strain gauge, Vonmises stress,Optistruct, Strain indicator.

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walled cylindrical shells under axial loading, Applied mechanics and materials vols. 110-116, trans tech publication Switzerland.
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264 (2003) Page No. 343-376.
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Memories of the school of engineering, Nagoya University, Vol.50, No.1 (1998)
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loads, Journal of mathematical sciences, Vol. 70, No. 5.

Abstract: One of the characteristics of African cities is uncoordinated urbanization with a trend of 4% annually, but the rate differs according to regions. Several factors are associated with urbanization such as lifestyle, consumption habit and pattern. The environment today is facing challenges from urbanization as consumption of resources such as land; water; energy, and air have changed to artificial environment. Energy consumption has been the driving force in global warming. Overtime, urbanization has been a great threat to sustainability of urban environment. However, kerosene and LPG that are supposed to be the major source of energy for cooking becomes unaffordable to low income households. This research was conducted in two residential areas of the identified neighbourhood and the choice of this neighbourhood is influenced by the fact that the phenomenon under study is more prevalent in the high and medium density localities. The effect of increase in electricity tariff, kerosene and LPG has shifted the focus of household source of cooking energy to biomass and this has been the cause of the environmental problems in the area which includes Indoor Air Pollution, Deforestation and Desertification. The analysis however shows a significant relationship between choice of energy and income.
Keywords:Deforestation; Energy Consumption, Households; Environment; Urbanization.

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Abstract: Tetrapleura tetraptera (Schum and Thonn) is a valued forest species in Nigeria for its medicinal and culinary uses. But the plant is uncultivated, and its seeds are dormant. This poses an obvious challenge in efforts aimed at its conservation. Different pretreatment protocols (scarification) were tested for their efficiency to break the hard seed coat of T. tetraptera. Mature fruits of T. tetraptera were collected from Oban west forest in Cross River State, and the seeds extracted and scarified before germination. Mechanical scarification was done by rubbing the seeds against a rough cement wall; chemical scarification by soaking the seeds in concentrated sulphuric acid, concentrated hydrochloric acid and concentrated nitric acid for 15 minutes; while heat scarification was done by soaking the seeds in hot water. Seed dormancy was successfully broken either by mechanical or chemical scarification. Significant difference (p<0.001) was observed in germination and imbibition percentage within the non-scarified and scarified seeds. While the non-scarified seeds had the least germination (18.3%), seed scarified with sulphuric acid had the highest (90%) followed by mechanically scarified seeds (85%) and nitric acid scarified seeds (81.7%). Imbibition percentage increased up to 100% in the scarified seeds in contrast to 66.6% in the non-scarified seeds. This study shows that sulphuric acid scarification is an effective method for breaking seed coat-imposed dormancy in Tetrapleura tetraptera.
Keywords:germination, seed dormancy, scarification, Tetrapleura tetraptera.

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Abstract: Chemical insecticides produce the risk of developing pest resistance, side effects to non-target species, and long lived residues in the environment. Generalist Predators can be effective agents of bio-control against Musca domestica L. (house fly). Spiders, particularly assemblages of species, have been shown to be effective in reducing pest insects. Common house fly catcher (Plexippus petersi) is hunting its favorite prey house fly and other small insects. We investigated the potential of jumping spider species to reduce pests in a laboratory setting. In 24, 48 and 32hrs experiment, the mortality rate was increased and finally it reached 100% mortality rate. Plexippus petersi spiders significantly increased house fly mortality.
Keywords:House fly, Spiders, Pest, Predators, Mortality.

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Abstract: Zinc is an essential element needed by the body in small amounts as it is the most abundant trace metals in human. It deficiency is occurring in different climate regions of the world. It has become an important risk factor for plant growth as well as human health throughout the world. In this study, we observed the amount of zinc in different arums, bananas, vegetables and pulses which are locally available in Chittagong region of Bangladesh. The amount of zinc in twenty samples of arums was found to vary from 0.3174-9.0755 μg/g. The highest and lowest value was found in arums of Typhonium trilobatum (Patiya) and Amorphophallus campanulatus (Satkaniya) respectively. In bananas vary from 0.1430 to 2.7360 μg/g. The highest and lowest value was found in banana of Musa acuminata in Satkania and Ramgarh upazila respectively. The amount of zinc in vegetables was found to vary from 0.92-7.59 μg/g. Zinc in pulses were found to vary from 1.2973- 29.5008 μg/g. The highest and lowest values were found in Lathyrus sativus and Phaseolus aureus respectively. From four types of food, we see that the highest value of zinc in pulse species of Lathyrus sativus and the lowest value of zinc in banana species of Musa acuminata respectively of Chittagong region, Bangladesh.
Keywords:Zinc, Arum, Banana, Vegetable and Pulse.

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Abstract: Study of environmental contamination in the wildlife, free-ranging or those caged in the zoos, is a challenging venture. This is primarily because of difficulty in obtaining samples, which can be at the most opportunistic, from these animals. Feces of wild animals were used as biological indicator of exposure in wild animals caged and exposed to the ambient air pollution of urban habitat. Various metal contents in mammals of Jodhpur (India) zoo were in the range of 72.8±1.36 (Panthera leo) to 22.4±1.97 (Axis axis) ppm d/w. Cadmium was in range between 3.80±0.69 (Panthera leo) to 0.60±0.32 (Macaca mulatta) ppm d/w. Chromium was in rage of 6.91±2.66 (Axis axis) to 2.66±1.08 (Macaca mulatta) ppm d/w. Copper was in range between 19.0±1.17 (Panthera leo) to 7.0±3.51 (Macaca mulatta). Whereas zinc was found in range of 66.20±0.67 (Axis axis) to 10.2±1.33 (Panthera tigris) ppm d/w. Analysis of feed and water along with the soil in cages which is receiving particulate air pollutants indicates that air pollution is the primary cause due to high density of traffic in the area.
Keywords:Air pollution, Heavy metals, Bioindicator, Feces, Wild mammals.

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Abstract: Landslides are among the most costly and damaging natural hazards in mountainous region, triggered mainly under the influence of earthquakes and/or rainfall. In the present study, Landslide Hazard Zonation (LHZ) of South district, Sikkim State was carried out using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS). Various thematic layers namely slope, photo-lineament buffer, thrust buffer, relative relief map, geology and land use / land cover map were generated using remote sensing data and GIS. The weighting rating system based on the relative importance of various causative factors as derived from remotely sensed data and other thematic maps were used for the LHZ. The different classes of thematic layers were assigned the corresponding rating value as attribute information in the GIS and an ''attribute map'' was generated for each data layer. Each class within a thematic layer was assigned an ordinal rating from 0 to 9. Summation of these attribute maps were then multiplied by the corresponding weights to yield the Landslide Hazard Index (LHI) for each cell. Using trial and error method the weight-rating values have been re-adjusted. A LHZ map was prepared showing the five zones, namely ''very low hazard'', ''low hazard'', ''moderate hazard'', ''high hazard'' and ''very high hazard'' by using the ''slicing'' operation.
Keywords: Landslide, RS and GIS, Hazards, Thematic layers, Trial and Error, Sikkim State

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