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[en] The region consisting of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Ceylon, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia is considered for a model study on the possibility of establishing regional fuel cycle centres. Nuclear power generation capacity for this region is estimated and projected through 2000 A.D. and accordingly the demands for various nuclear fuel cycle services are determined. Preliminary calculations show that for the region conversion and fuel fabrication plants may be economically feasible before 1990 whereas reprocessing plants may become feasible only after 1990. The possibility of enrichment plant is even more uncertain. Ore, enrichment and fabrication in future may constitute more than 95-98% of the total fuel cycle cost. For fuel cycle economy, therefore, regional cooperation should be emphasized for these services. Reprocessing has to be considered because of the valuable fissile materials present in the spent fuel. Assuming that regional fuel cycle centre/centres may be established in Bangladesh, the study considered the local advantages and disadvantages of such an effort. Though no major problem could be identified in the case of conversion and fabrication plants, considerable difficulty is anticipated from a large reprocessing plant because of waste management and disposal problems. Bangladesh does not appear to have any suitable waste disposal site in view of the present technology. However, if the long term leaching problemns of solidified wastes are resolved then wastes may be dumped in the sea-canyon in the Bay of Bengal (called the ''Swatch of no ground'') or in the deep underground caverns

[en] Shortage of irrigation water at critical growth stages of maize is limiting its production worldwide. Breeding drought-tolerant cultivars is one possible solution while identification of potential genotypes is crucial for genetic improvement. To assess genetic variation for seedling-stage drought tolerance, we tested 40 inbred lines in a completely randomized design under glasshouse conditions. From these, two contrasting inbred lines were used to develop six basic generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1F1, BC2F2). These populations were then evaluated in a triplicated factorial randomized complete block design under non-stressed and drought-stressed conditions. For statistical analyses, a nested block design was employed to ignore the replication effects. Significant differences (p=0.01) were recorded among the genotypes for investigated seedling-traits. Absolute values of fresh root length, fresh root weight, and dry root weight lead to select two genotypes, one tolerant (WFTMS) and one susceptible (Q66). Estimates of heritability, genetic advance, and genotypic correlation coefficients were higher and significant for most of the seedling-traits. Generation variance analysis revealed additive gene action. Narrow-sense heritability [F2 = 65; F8 = 79] revealed the same results. Generation mean analysis signified additive genetic effects in the inheritance of cob girth, non-additive for plant height, grains per ear row and grain yield per plant, and environmental for ear leaf area, cob length, grain rows per ear, biomass per plant, and 100-grain weight under drought-stressed conditions. For conferring drought-tolerance in maize, breeders can adopt the recombinant breeding strategy to pyramid the desirable genes. (Author)

[en] The drive to find alternative fuels to replace such hydrocarbons as diesel and petrol has resulted in an excess of different fuels-few of which are commercially available in large quantities. As fuels, by their very nature, must be combustible, the fire, explosion and explosion properties will need to be known. The use of biomass as a source of energy has been further improved in recent years and special interest has been paid to biomass gasification. Due to the increasing interest in biomass gasification, several studies have been proposed in order to explain and understand this complex process, and the design, simulation, optimization and process analysis of gasifiers have been carried out. This paper reviews several Biomass gasification studies. (author)

[en] The effect of a single intraperitoneal injection of a low dose (1 mu g/g) and a high dose (4 mu /g) of thyroxine (T 4) were investigated with time on plasma metabolites in broiler (Hubbard) chicks. Plasma total proteins, albumin fraction, glucose and triglyceride levels were decreased significantly in both experimental groups. The plasma cholesterol values remained almost comparable with controls during the early stages of the experiment but after 72 hours of the experiment higher dose of T 4 resulted in a significant (p<0.01) decrease followed by significant (p<0.05) increase in the same experimental group. The plasma albumin fraction decreased significantly in animals injected with higher dose of T/sub 4/ after 24 hours and the same trend continue even after 72 hour of the experiment. Plasma uric acid values were significantly decreased in group administered with lower dose of T/sub 4/ after 12 hours of the post injection time. However in animals administered with higher dose of thyroid hormone reflected a significant increase in plasma uric acid levels after 12 hours of the experiment and its levels were significantly decreased after 48 hours. The results are discussed in the light of previous reports of thyroid hormones and their physiological implications in different vertebrate groups. (author)

[en] The DOe experiment at the Tevatron collider presents first measurement of the production rate of the W + c final state relative to W + jets in pp collisions at s√ = 1.96 TeV. The measured rate is 0.071 ± 0.017 for jet transverse momentum p_T > 20 GeV/c, and is consistent with the theoretical prediction

[en] A set of six drought tolerant and susceptible maize inbred lines were evaluated under normal and water stress conditions. Significant differences among the genotypes were found for all the characters. Plant height, leaf area, grain yield per plant and harvest index, under both conditions indicated additive gene action with partial dominance which suggested that these traits might be useful during selection for developing synthetics. However over-dominance type of gene action was recorded for kernels per row and 100-grain weight. Heritability estimates ranged from moderate to high (54- 85%) for various traits. Gene action (additive and overdominance) and heritability suggested selection of desirable parents for breeding drought tolerant hybrids. (author)

[en] Membrane-based natural gas separation has become one of the promising technologies due to its compactness, energy efficiency, environment friendliness and economic advantages. In this work, a three stage membrane process for the separation of CO/sub 2//CH/sub 4/ is proposed based on a novel fixed site carrier membrane which has the potential to meet the CO/sub 2//CH/sub 4/ separation and durability requirement. A simulation analysis, which utilizes the Aspen Hysys capabilities to calculate and couple energy balances in the process model, has been conducted to investigate the effect of process parameters on the gas processing cost. Two different natural gas mixtures containing 9.5% and 2.9% CO/sub 2/ have been simulated for various process conditions. This fixed site carrier membrane performs well when wetted with water. Therefore, natural gas feed streams are saturated with water. It is evident from the analysis that it is possible to maintain 2% CO/sub 2/ in retentate and methane loss in permeate below 2% by optimizing the process conditions. The analysis shows that fixed site carrier membrane offers a viable solution for natural gas sweetening. (author)

[en] Gas separation processes play a vital role in many industries like hydrogen recovery, air separation, natural gas dehydration. Membrane based gas separation processes offer a great potential for these industrial applications because of their environmental friendliness, energy efficiency and ease of scale up. Mathematical modeling of membrane based gas separation process can help to predict the performance of such separation processes. In this study, a numerical method is proposed by comparing different numerical techniques which are used to solve model equations of co-current flow. Numerical methods such as Bogacki-Shampine method, Dormand-Prince method, Adams-Bashforth-Moulton method, numerical differentiation formulas, modified Rosenbrock formula of order 2, Trapezoidal rule with free interpolant and Trapezoidal rule with backward difference formula of order 2 are used to solve the system of coupled nonlinear differential equations. This approach is used for the first time in a multicomponent membrane based gas separation process. This technique requires least computational time, improved solution stability and has been validated for the separation of hydrogen from multicomponent gas mixture. This numerical technique helps to predict the concentration of hydrogen in reject (retentate) and permeate streams. The simulation results show good agreement with experimental data. (author)

[en] We present a measurement of the forward-backward charge asymmetry (A_FB) in p(bar p) → Z/γ* + X → e⁺e^- + X events at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV using 1.1 fb^-1 of data collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. A_FB is measured as a function of the invariant mass of the electron-positron pair, and found to be consistent with the standard model prediction. We use the A_FB measurement to extract the effective weak mixing angle sin² θ_W^eff = 0.2327 ± 0.0018 (stat.) ± 0.0006 (syst.)