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At present, Artemisia annua L. is the major source of artemisinin production. To control the outbreaks of malaria, artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) are recommended, and hence an ample amount of artemisinin is required for ACTs manufacture to save millions of lives. The low yield of this antimalarial drug in A. annua L. plants (0.01-1.1%) ensues its short supply and high cost, thus making it a topic of scrutiny worldwide. In this study, the effects of root endophyte, Piriformospora indica strain DSM 11827 and nitrogen fixing bacterium, Azotobacter chroococcum strain W-5, either singly and/or in combination for artemisinin production in A. annua L. plants have been studied under poly house conditions. The plant growth was monitored by measuring parameters like height of plant, total dry weight and leaf yield with an increase of 63.51, 52.61 and 79.70% respectively, for treatment with dual biological consortium, as compared to that of control plants. This significant improvement in biomass was associated with higher total chlorophyll content (59.29%) and enhanced nutrition (especially nitrogen and phosphorus, 55.75 and 86.21% respectively). The concentration of artemisinin along with expression patterns of artemisinin biosynthesis genes were appreciably higher in dual treatment, which showed positive correlation. The study suggested the potential use of the consortium P. indica strain DSM 11827 and A. chroococcum strain W-5 in A. annua L. plants for increased overall productivity and sustainable agriculture.

Field study was conducted during winter seasons (November–March) of 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 at the Research Farm of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal, India, with an aim to investigate the crop productivity, energy and C budget, carbon footprint and economic sustainability of peanut cultivation fertilized with varied levels of nitrogen under polythene mulching. The experiment laid out in split-plot design comprised of two mulching practices as the main-plot treatments and seven doses of N with or without supplementation of Rhizobium bio-fertilizer as the sub-plot treatments. Fertilization with 100% recommended dose of nitrogen (RDN) + Rhizobium under polythene mulching brought about significant enhancement in pod yield over other nutrient management practices. The effects on yield attributing characters were similar to that of pod yield. Energy indices namely net energy gain, energy productivity, energy intensiveness and energy profitability were the highest with 100% RDN + Rhizobium, irrespective of mulching situations. However, the maximum values of specific energy and nutrient energy ratio were recorded when the crop received 50% RDN with and without Rhizobium, respectively, under mulching and non-mulching situations. Human energy profitability was always greater under mulching situations over non-mulching. Total estimated carbon footprints improved with increase in N level from 0 to 100% RDN with Rhizobium under polythene mulching over non-mulching situations. Highest value of C sustainability index was also observed with polythene covering particularly with the application of 100% RDN + Rhizobium. This treatment combination also proved its superiority with respect to economic benefits in peanut cultivation.

Abstract As covering layers, barrier envelopes of VIPs are always exposed to severe environmental conditions, including high temperatures, alkaline environments and local stress concentration when used as thermal insulation material in concrete structures. This study investigated the time-dependent degradations of three types of commonly used envelopes (aluminium film, metallized film and metallized film coated with alkali-resistant (AR) fibreglass mesh) and VIPs covered by these three envelopes by simulating environmental conditions with four types of alkaline solutions (NaOH solution with pH = 7, 11, 13 and saturated Ca(OH)2), two different temperatures (20 °C and 60 °C) and local stress concentration. The results showed that stress and high temperature accelerated the degradation of envelopes and that such degradation became more serious with increased pH value and temperature. It was also observed that the thermal conductivity of VIPs increases quickly when they are exposed to higher alkalinity combined with high temperatures. After 6-week submerged in saturated Ca(OH)2 solution at 60 °C, the thermal conductivity of VIPs increased from 4.413 mW/m K to 13.049 mW/m K for aluminium foil, from 5.375 mW/m K to 10.982 mW/m K for metallized film, and from 5.786 mW/m K to 8.110 mW/m K for AR fibreglass mesh-reinforced film, respectively.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of rural energy transition in cooking options in India. Although India is aiming to achieve a double-digit economic growth, a large share of rural households still rely on firewood for cooking which not only has serious repercussions of increasing indoor pollution but also has a concomitant adverse effect on women and child morbidity and mortality. However, transition to clean energy options like improved cookstoves for these households may not be necessarily linear. It is often driven or resisted by latent factors such as caste, trust, social capital, information flow, social positioning of clusters that are deeply embedded in the social and cultural norms and values specific to local rural contexts. This has been shown in the present case study that pertains to eight villages in the remote and deprived Purnea district of Bihar and the need for internalizing them in the macro energy policymaking has been established in the paper. Design/methodology/approach The paper applies a macro foundation research that is complemented by micro foundation tools of fuzzy cognitive mapping-based mental model framework to achieve the purpose of the study. Focused-group discussions and interviews are also conducted to establish the narrative of the paper. Findings Caste, socio-political position, asset structure, remoteness, culture and technology access affect rural households’ decision making capability that is related to shifting from using the traditionalmeans of firewood and biomass based traditional cookstoves for cooking to adopting improved clean cooking stoves which will enable the transition toward the use of clean rural energy in the eight villages in Bihar chosen for this study. Research limitations/implications The findings of the paper have larger implications for the broader macro energy policymaking in the country by taking into account the non-linear, latent factors of village contexts. Practical implications The research will help energy policymakers in decision-making and will guide the implementation process of national- and state-level policies on rural energy transition in India. Social implications The findings of the paper will help the smoother implementation of national- and state-level rural energy transition policies for cooking, creating developmental dividends for rural Indian households. Originality/value The research is new with regard to the application of non-deterministic fuzzy cognitive mapping-based mental model approach to contribute to the country’s national- and state-level rural energy transition policies.

Abstract This paper highlights the load frequency control using dual mode Bat algorithm based scheduling of PI controllers for interconnected power systems. The bat inspired algorithm based on the echolocation of bats has been developed in 2010. In this study, the bat inspired algorithm based dual mode PI controller is applied to the multi-area interconnected thermal power system in order to tune the parameter PI controllers. The proposed controller is simple in structure and easy for implementation. The proposed controller was compared with those from conventional the PI controllers and Fuzzy gain scheduling of PI controllers. The simulation results show the point that the proposed bat inspired algorithm, based dual mode gain scheduling of PI controllers (BIDPI), provides better transient as well as steady state of response. It is also found that the proposed controller is less sensitive to the changes in system parameters.

Achieving carbon-neutrality has become a global agenda following the ratification of the Paris Agreement. For the developing countries, in particular, attaining a low-carbon economy is particularly important since these economies are predominantly fossil-fuel dependent, to which Bangladesh is no exception. Therefore, this study specifically aimed at evaluating the environmental impacts associated with energy consumption and other key macroeconomic variables in the context of Bangladesh over the 1975-2016 period. As opposed to the conventional practice of using carbon dioxide emissions to proxy environmental quality, this study makes a novel attempt to use the carbon footprints to measure environmental welfare in Bangldesh. The outcomes from this study are expected to facilitate the carbon-neutrality objective of Bangladesh and, therefore, enable the nation to comply with its commitments concerning the attainment of the targets enlisted under the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals declarations. The econometric analysis involved the application of methods that are suitable for handling the structural break issues in the data. The overall findings from empirical exercises reveal that aggregate energy consumption, fossil fuel consumption, and natural gas consumption boost the carbon footprint figures of Bangladesh. In contrast, nonfossil fuel consumption and hydroelectricity consumption are witnessed to abate the carbon footprint levels. Besides, economic growth and international trade are also evidenced to further increase the carbon footprints. Hence, these findings suggest that a clean energy transition within the Bangladesh economy can be the panacea to the nation's persitently aggravating environmental hardships. Furthermore, the causality analysis confirmed the presence of unidirectional causalities stemming from total energy consumption, fossil fuel consumption, natural gas consumption, hydroelectricity consumption, economic growth, and international trade to the carbon footprints. On the other hand, nonfossil fuel consumption is found to be bidirectionally associated with carbon footprints. In line with these aforementioned findings, several key policy suggestions are put forward regarding the facilitation of the carbon-neutrality agenda in Bangladesh.

tPresence of U232in U233bred in thorium blanket of fast reactor is a major concern in fuel reprocessing.The former’s daughter products being hard gamma emitter and the isotope itself having substantial halflife, its presence beyond 10 ppm makes fuel recycle complicated and expensive. In this study possibilityof decreasing U232production in a typical FBR blanket by means of spectrum modification is examined.SS, depleted B4C, SiC, Mo and W regions were introduced between core and radial blanket and evolutionof isotopes were studied to arrive at an optimal configuration that satisfies requirements of breedingU233and lowering U232concentration. SS, B4C, SiC, Mo and W are known to be high temperature materialwith appropriate stability in harsh fast reactor environment. Study has shown that introducing two SSreflector rows can achieve the required low value of U232concentration without greatly compromisingthe U233production.

The objective of this study was to assess the impacts of climate change and salinity on the economic viability of rice-based cropping systems under farmers' current management across current and future climate and salinity scenarios in south-west coastal Bangladesh. Detailed case studies were conducted in two contrasting coastal villages in Dacope Sub-district, Khulna District. Enterprise budgets were developed using APSIM-simulated and extrapolated yields together with crop management, cost, and price data obtained from the villages and estimated from various sources. The projected impact of climate change and salinization on the economic viability (profitability and riskiness) of most cropping systems was not pronounced. Thus rice-based cropping systems are likely to remain viable in both optimistic and pessimistic climate scenarios in coming decades, even allowing for salinization, because some of the positive effects of climate change were projected to offset the sizeable losses due to salinity. Moreover, where small yield declines were projected these were often offset by higher future prices. Sustainably-managed rice/shrimp cropping systems are likely to remain the most profitable option in locations with access to tidal saline water. In other sites, given adequate freshwater for irrigation in the dry season, rice/non-rice cropping systems were projected to be the most viable options, especially incorporating newer crops such as sunflower and maize. Dry-season rice and wheat were not projected to be viable options.

Abstract One of the problems in operating earth air tunnel heat exchangers (EATHE) is the collection/rejection of heat from buried pipe to nearby sub-soil which alters the soil temperature, and, in turn, adversely affects the performance of EATHE system with time. This problem is more pronounced with the soil having poor thermal conductivity and little variation in moisture content. Extent thermal saturation and time required for self-recovery of soil around the buried pipe has great importance to ensure efficiency and usefulness of an EATHE system. However, there are hardly any studies on the self-recovery of soil during intermittent operation mode. The objective of present study is to compare the thermal saturation and self-recovery ability of soil in continuous and intermittent operation modes. The numerical results have been validated experimentally through a full scale setup. It is found that the soil temperature can be recovered in both intermittent and continuous operation modes by employing natural heat conduction (heat taken away from the pipe's immediate vicinity) and convection (heat taken away by purge air passing through EATHE in night hours when ambient is lower than soil) respectively.