ABSTRACT
The aim of the special issue “Interactions of Forests, Climate, Water Resources, and Humans in a Changing Environment” is to present case studies on the influences of natural and human disturbances on forest water resources under a changing climate. Studies in this collection of six papers cover a wide range of geographic regions from Australia to Nigeria with spatial research scale spanning from a tree leaf, to a segment of forest road, and large basins with mixed land uses. These studies clearly show the strong interactions among forests, global climate change, water quantity and quality, and human activities at multiple scales. Understanding the underlying processes of response of natural ecosystems and society to global climate change is essential for developing actionable science-based climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies and methodologies. Future research should focus on feedbacks among forests, climate, water, and disturbances, and interactions of ecohydrologic systems, economics and policies using an integrated approach.
ABSTRACT
Due to gradual depletion of world petroleum reserves and the impact of environmental pollution of increasing exhaust emissions, there is an urgent need for suitable alternative fuels for use in engines. The heightened awareness of green house gas emissions and global warming compels introduction of more stringent environmental regulations worldwide. Renewable biofuels are considered potential solution for these problems. But use of biofuel is creating tribology related new challenges world over. In this paper a critical analysis of tribology related issue of three main biofuels, namely Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO), biodiesel and alcohols are discussed. Many issues like lubricity of blends, carbon deposit, viscosity, corrosion of engine components, etc are discussed in detail. Quality control of biofuels, identified as a key factor for sustainable market growth of these fuels and can lead to many tribological issues. In this regard a dire need for global harmonized standards is also discussed. Different solutions for alcohol fuel related engine problems are discussed. Critical discussion in relation to the problems due to the use of SVO in engine, like engine performance decrease, injector choking, oil ring sticking, etc took place in this paper. Potential solutions to these problems found by academia as well as industry are discussed here.
ABSTRACT
This paper aims to critically analyze the epidemiology of road traffic accident in India. It is noteworthy to mention that India already accounts for about 9.5% of the total 1.2 million fatal accidents in the world. In 2009, for every 4.14 minute and 1.13 minute one death and one injury took place in India from road accident, respectively. Between 1970 and 2009 the number of accidents has quadrupled (1.1 lakh in 1970 to 4.22 lakh in 2009) with nearly 6.5 fold increase in injuries (0.7 lakh in 1970 to 4.67 lakh in 2009) and nearly 9.5 fold increase in fatalities (0.14 lakh in 1970 to 1.27 lakh in 2009). During the period of 2004 to 2009, road accident rate, injury rate and casualty rate per 105 population have been increased by 8.5%, 4.7% and 29.8%, respectively. In 2009, total 1,08,409 male and 18,487 female died in road accident. It was also observed that in last five years (2005 to 2009) average 84.9% male and 15.1 % female died in road accident. In 2009, total 90,298 people, out of total 1,26,896 accident victims died from age group of (5-44 Yrs), which is the most productive age group for nation. Average percentage share of last five years (2005-2009) for the age groups (Up to 14 Yrs), (15–29 Yrs), (30–44 Yrs), (45–59 Yrs), and (Above 60 Yrs) were 6.35, 29.84, 35.05, 20.97 and 7.79, respectively. The month-wise distribution of ‘Road Accidents’ has also shown more accidents during May (38,928) and June (36,234) sharing 9.2% and 8.6% respectively. Maximum ‘Road Accidents’ (68,835) were reported during 3 p.m. to 6 p.m (16.3%), 64,191 cases during 9 a.m. to 12 noon (15.2%), and least number (28,984) of these accidents (6.9%) was reported during 1200 to 3 AM in the night. The causewise number of persons killed in road accidents indicates that almost three-fourths of the accidents were due to driver’s fault.