The electricity sector in Nepal is currently facing the formidable challenges of an insufficient ... more The electricity sector in Nepal is currently facing the formidable challenges of an insufficient installed capacity, a sub-optimal infrastructure, circular debt and revenue shortage. All of the problems hamper socioeconomic activities. The demand of energy has been consistently increasing annually and the peak demand growth rate of around 10% per year requires addition of generation as well. Nepal, today, experiences a peak power shortage of 12% and an energy shortage of about 8%. To fulfill the gap of demand and supply, integration of industrial cogeneration and captive plant play significant roles. Numerous countries across the globe are consuming bagasse to generate electricity, but regrettably in our country, this valued renewable resource has mostly been thrown away as a mere trash. Analysis of exportable power from sugar industries is an important aspect of the disclosure on grid integration of captive cogeneration plant and resulting environmental impact. This study aimed at ...
Due to high power losses and relieve transmission line from overload operation, Nepal has to upgr... more Due to high power losses and relieve transmission line from overload operation, Nepal has to upgrade its transmission system. The main objective of this research paper is to investigate technical and financial aspects of uprating existing 132 kV line of Nepal by re-conductoring it with High Temperature Low Sag conductor. For this purpose, electrical, mechanical and financial aspectsare evaluated using Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)-738-SA model for conductor capacity derating, Hybrid numerical method for sag calculation and Monte Carlo simulation for sensitivity analysis respectively. The derated capacity of existing conductor and proposed High Temperature Low Sag (HTLS) conductors are calculated which are less than manufacturer's rating. The sag of Aluminium Core Steel Supported (ACSS)-Dove, Thermal-Resistant-Aluminium Conductor Steel Reinforced (TACSR)-Dove and Super Thermal Resistant Aluminium Conductor Invar Reinforced (STACIR) is found to be greate...
As competition builds for water resources in the Western U.S., limited irrigation strategies for ... more As competition builds for water resources in the Western U.S., limited irrigation strategies for crop production are emerging to conserve agricultural water for other uses or as a way to continue to produce crops under reduced water allocations. Alfalfa is a crop with potential for water savings in a limited irrigation system. The objective of this study was to evaluate potential water saving strategies for alfalfa on the Front Range of Colorado. A field study evaluated four irrigation strategies: Full Irrigation (FI), Stop Irrigation After 2nd Cutting (S2), Spring and Fall Irrigation (SF), and Stop Irrigation After 1st Cutting (S1). Changes in yield, consumptive water use (ET), water-use efficiency (WUE), stand density, and forage quality were measured. Results of the study showed that yield decreased with ET in a fashion similar to previous research. Over the two year period, average yields were reduced by 3.1, 3.5 and 6.5 Mg ha-1 compared to the FI treatment for the S2, SF, and S...
Abstract. Burgeoning populations are increasing municipal water demand in the West, a phenomena t... more Abstract. Burgeoning populations are increasing municipal water demand in the West, a phenomena that is changing rural and urban economies. Agricultural water is a preferred source for meeting growing demands, but transfers often require formerly irrigated land to be fallowed removing a key base industry from rural regional economies. It is no surprise that large scales transfers are greeted with highly-charged, emotionally contentious debates. One alternative to ‘buy and dry ’ strategies is gaining interest. The alternative allows farmers to lease a portion of their water portfolio to cities. Leased water is generated as farmers reduce the consumptive use of their cropping operations by limiting irrigation. Examples of limited irrigation strategies include timing irrigations during vegetative growth and adopting innovative crop rotations. Importantly, the limited irrigation cropland remains in production so that rural economies suffer reduced effects vis a vis buy and dry activity....
Following macroeconomic reforms introduced in the Indian economy in the early 1990s, and the refo... more Following macroeconomic reforms introduced in the Indian economy in the early 1990s, and the reforms in the multilateral trading order brought about in the wake of GATT negotiations and the setting up of the WTO, the Indian agriculture has entered into the phase of globalization and diversification. It is expected that the combined effect of the reforms in the domestic policies and international trade reforms would result in a much larger integration of the Indian economy with the rest of the world, and such a scenario would bring about substantial benefits to the Indian farmers. The reforms undertaken so far have, however, failed to bring about the expected gains to Indian farmers. The process of reforms is still continuing and it is hoped that once the negotiations on reforms conclude and the envisaged reforms are implemented in letter and spirit, the gains to Indian agriculture would be positive and substantial. To realize the expected gains from trade liberalization, apart from ...
The suitability of rice husk as an alternative to sand in concrete production was studied here. R... more The suitability of rice husk as an alternative to sand in concrete production was studied here. Rice husk is an agricultural waste obtained from the rice. For this, various properties of concrete mainly workability, bulk density, water absorption, compressive strength and flexural strength were experimentally determined with the partial replacement of sand by rice husk at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 percent respectively. M15 grade of concrete was prepared at 0.60 water cement ratio considering weight batching. The experimental results showed that the workability of the concrete increased with the increase in percent replacement of sand by rice husk. Similarly, the water absorption also increased while the bulk density, compressive strength and flexural strength of the samples decreased with the increasing amount of rice husk content in the mixtures. The research suggested that up to 10 percent replacement of sand by rice husk, the concrete so produced could be used for building compres...
Presented at Urbanization of irrigated land and water transfers: a USCID water management confere... more Presented at Urbanization of irrigated land and water transfers: a USCID water management conference on May 28-31, 2008 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 2021
The value chain refers to the source of competition to facilitate organizations to maximize and s... more The value chain refers to the source of competition to facilitate organizations to maximize and sustain value for their consumers. Value chain flexibility is necessary to build sustainable initiatives in addressing ambiguity. In the literature, there is a lack of framework to highlight the challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility. This study fills this research gap by suggesting a framework for challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility. In this study, thirteen potential challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility are identified and an integrated model is developed. It adopts the modified Total Interpretive Structure Model and the Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification methodology. The mixed approach is used as the modified Total Interpretive Structure Model organizes the binary interactions among the challenges, while Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification analysis organiz...
Modern Supply Chain Research and Applications, 2020
PurposeThe carbon emissions due to industrial production and market consumption activities are th... more PurposeThe carbon emissions due to industrial production and market consumption activities are the major contributors to global warming. With the signing of UN Paris Accord 2016 on climate change, the world's major countries are devising measures to combat climate change and attain a sustainable, low-carbon future. Globalization demands companies not only to adopt greener manufacturing practices internally for reduced carbon footprint (CFP) but beyond its boundaries (i.e. its supply chain). This study aims to discuss the relationship between CFP and sustainable supply chain, as evident in the current literature and industry practices. It provides a total comprehension of past, present and future headings in the CFP area and its contribution to a sustainable supply chain.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review and analysis have been undertaken in supply chain sustainability and CFP. A bibliometric approach is adopted for this investigation, and one of the bigges...
Modern Supply Chain Research and Applications, 2020
PurposeDue to unceasing declination in environment, sustainable agro-food supply chains have beco... more PurposeDue to unceasing declination in environment, sustainable agro-food supply chains have become a topic of concern to business, government organizations and customers. The purpose of this study is to examine a problem associated with sustainable network design in context of Indian agro-food grain supply chain.Design/methodology/approachA mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model is suggested to apprehend the major complications related with two-echelon food grain supply chain along with sustainability aspects (carbon emissions). Genetic algorithm (GA) and quantum-based genetic algorithm (Q-GA), two meta-heuristic algorithms and LINGO 18 (traditional approach) are employed to establish the vehicle allocation and selection of orders set.FindingsThe model minimizes the total transportation cost and carbon emission tax in gathering food grains from farmers to the hubs and later to the selected demand points (warehouses). The simulated data are adopted to test and validate th...
Nepal has an extreme altitudinal range from 60-8850 m with heterogeneous topography and distinct ... more Nepal has an extreme altitudinal range from 60-8850 m with heterogeneous topography and distinct climatic zones. The country is considered a biodiversity hotspot, with nearly a quarter of the land area located in protected areas. Nepal and the surrounding Himalayan region are particularly vulnerable to climate change because of their abrupt ecological and climatic transitions. Tens of millions of people rely on the region's ecosystem services, and observed and modeled warming trends predict increased climate extremes in the Himalayas. To study the ecological impacts of climate change in Nepal and inform adaptation planning, we review the literature on past, present, and predicted future climatic changes and their impacts on ecological diversity in Nepal. We found few studies focusing on organisms, while research on species and communities was more common. Most studies document or predict species range shifts and changes in community composition. Results of these few investigations highlight major lacunae in research regarding the effects of changing climate on species comprising the Himalayan biota. Further empirical work is needed at all levels of biological organization to build on information regarding direct ecological impacts of climatic changes in the region. Countries face an ever-increasing threat of climate change, and Nepal has strong physiographic, elevational, and climatic gradients that could provide a useful model for studying the effects of climate change on a mountainous, and highly biodiverse, area.
District heating networks are commonly addressed in the literature as one of the most effective s... more District heating networks are commonly addressed in the literature as one of the most effective solutions for decreasing the greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector. These systems require high investments which are returned through the heat sales. Due to the changed climate conditions and building renovation policies, heat demand in the future could decrease, prolonging the investment return period. The main scope of this paper is to assess the feasibility of using the heat demand-outdoor temperature function for heat demand forecast. The district of Alvalade, located in Lisbon (Portugal), was used as a case study. The district is consisted of 665 buildings that vary in both construction period and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district renovation scenarios were developed (shallow, intermediate, deep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were compared with results from a dynamic heat demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors. The results showed that when only weather change is considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications (the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation scenarios, the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered). The value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination of weather and renovation scenarios considered). On the other hand, function intercept increased for 7.8-12.7% per decade (depending on the coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters for the scenarios considered, and improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.
The dry anaerobic digestion process is an innovative waste-recycling method to treat high-solidco... more The dry anaerobic digestion process is an innovative waste-recycling method to treat high-solidcontent bio-wastes. This can be done without dilution with water by microbial consortia in an oxygenfree environment to recover potential renewable energy and nutrient-rich fertilizer for sustainable solid waste management. It generally takes place at solid concentrations higher than 10% and enables a higher volumetric organic loading rate, minimal material handling, lower energy requirements for heating, limited environmental consequences and energetically effective performance. The long retention time, poor startup performance, incomplete mixing and the accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are considered as the main disadvantages for the solid-state fermentation process. In order to develop feasible dry anaerobic digestion processes, it is important to review the optimization techniques and suggest possible areas where improvements could be made. These include reactor configuration, mixing, solid retention time, feedstocks, organic loading rate, inoculation, co-digestion, pretreatment, percolation, additives and environmental conditions within the digester such as temperature, pH, buffering capacity and VFAs concentration.
Afghanistan faces a significant shortage of the physical and human capital needed to optimize use... more Afghanistan faces a significant shortage of the physical and human capital needed to optimize use of its water resources and manage its irrigated farms. The project's objective is to bolster human capital and water resource management capabilities by surveying available resources, developing (with Afghani counterparts) water institutions that make best use of available resources, providing demonstration of irrigation and agriculture techniques/technologies, and delivering curricula to Afghani specialists who may then disseminate information in the field Under the AWATT program of USAID, Colorado State University (CSU) is working closely with consortium partners;
This paper presents temporal and spatial pattern of drought phenomena in central Nepal using stan... more This paper presents temporal and spatial pattern of drought phenomena in central Nepal using standardized precipitation index (SPI) at multiple time scales. The study is based on 32 years of monthly precipitation data from 40 meteorological stations from 1981 to 2012. Results indicate that, while there is no distinct trend in regional precipitation, interannual variation is large. Trend analysis of drought index shows that most stations are characterized by increases in both severity and frequency of drought and trend is stronger for longer drought time scales. Over the study period, the summer
Satellite-based precipitation products have been shown to represent precipitation well over Nepal... more Satellite-based precipitation products have been shown to represent precipitation well over Nepal at monthly resolution, compared to ground-based stations. Here, we extend our analysis to the daily and subdaily timescales, which are relevant for mapping the hazards caused by storms as well as drought. We compared the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) 3B42RT product with individual stations and with the gridded APHRODITE product to evaluate its ability to retrieve different precipitation intensities. We find that 3B42RT, which is freely available in near real time, has reasonable correspondence with ground-based precipitation products on a daily timescale; rank correlation coefficients approach 0.6, almost as high as the retrospectively calibrated TMPA 3B42 product. We also find that higher-quality ground and satellite precipitation observations improve the correspondence between the two on the daily timescale, suggesting opportunities for improvement in satellite-based monitoring technology. Correlation of 3B42RT and 3B42 with station observations is lower on subdaily timescales, although the mean diurnal cycle of precipitation is roughly correct. We develop a probabilistic precipitation monitoring methodology that uses previous observations (climatology) as well as 3B42RT as input to generate daily precipitation accumulation probability distributions at each 0.25 • × 0.25 • grid cell in Nepal and surrounding areas. We quantify the information gain associated with using 3B42RT in the probabilistic model instead of relying only on Climate 2015, 3 330 climatology and show that the quantitative precipitation estimates produced by this model are well calibrated compared to APHRODITE.
The study was carried out in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology NMCTH (n = 20, age 3-54yrs) wh... more The study was carried out in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology NMCTH (n = 20, age 3-54yrs) who presented tonsil problems and underwent tonsillectomy over period of 1 year (2006-2007). Patients who underwent tonsillectomy were selected for study throughout preoperative and two months of postoperative period. Out of 20 patients (8 male andl2 female) 3 patients presented with sleep apnoea syndrome, 8 patients required hospitalization due to odynophagia and high fever and 9 of them suffered from recurrent tonsillitis. Post operative period was uneventful. The commonest presentation was recurrent sore throat and commonest organism isolated on throat swab culture (superficial) was S. aureus (26.0%). Sixty-nine percentage of culture was sterile, most probably because of prior antibiotics use. Only one out of twenty cultures showed a haemolytic streptococcus. According to previous studies carried out, organism obtained from superficial swab may be different from that of from core and th...
Precipitation in mountain regions is often highly variable and poorly observed, limiting abilitie... more Precipitation in mountain regions is often highly variable and poorly observed, limiting abilities to manage water resource challenges. Here, we evaluate remote sensing and ground station-based gridded precipitation products over Nepal against weather station precipitation observations on a monthly timescale. We find that the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B-43 precipitation product exhibits little mean bias and reasonable skill in giving precipitation over Nepal. Compared to station observations, the TRMM precipitation product showed an overall Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.49, which is similar to the skill of the gridded station-based product Asian Precipitation-Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of Water Resources (APHRODITE). The other satellite precipitation products considered (Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP), the Climate Prediction Center Morphing technique (CMORPH), Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information Using Artificial Neural Networks-Cloud Classification System (PERSIANN-CCS)) were less skillful, as judged by Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency, and, on average, substantially underestimated precipitation compared to station observations, despite their, in some cases, higher nominal spatial resolution compared to TRMM. None of the products fully captured the dependence of mean precipitation on elevation seen in the station observations. Overall, the TRMM product is promising for use in water resources applications.
Current paper examines the space-time dynamics of yearly rainfall of the Tocantins-Araguaia Hydro... more Current paper examines the space-time dynamics of yearly rainfall of the Tocantins-Araguaia Hydrographic Region (TAHR), foregrounded on rainfall volume from isohyet maps and interpolated by Kriging geo-statistical method. Rainfall space dynamics was undertaken by the analysis of descriptive statistics, Index of Meteorological Irregularity (IMI) and Variation Coefficient. Temporal dynamics was analyzed through the distribution of total annual volume precipitation for each TAHR subbasin by the Standardized Anomaly Index, trend and magnitude test provided by Mann-Kendall and Sen Tests. Results correlated with meteorological anomalies of the Atlantic (Dipole) and Pacific (ENOS) Oceans show a highly heterogeneous rainfall behavior with temporal variability. Or rather, a decrease of rainfall extensiveness during years of intense meteorological anomaly with a rainfall increase south of the High Tocantins and Araguaia sub-basins and a decrease of rainfall in the Lower Tocantins sub-basin, with El Niño features. Although the Mann-Kendall test does not show statistically a significant trend for rainfall in the TAHR region, Sen's estimator reveals a decrease in rainfall in the High Tocantins (-1.24 km³ year-1) and Araguaia (-1.13 km³ year-1) sub-basins and a rainfall increase in the Lower Tocantins sub-basin (0.53 km³ year-1) and in the TAHR region (-1.5 km³ year-1).
IOSR Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 2012
The proposed method develops a fuzzy rule-based classifier that was tested using features for isl... more The proposed method develops a fuzzy rule-based classifier that was tested using features for islanding detection in distributed generation. In the developed technique, the initial classification boundaries are found out by using the decision tree (DT). From the DT classification boundaries, the fuzzy membership functions (MFs) are developed and the corresponding rule base is formulated for islanding detection. But some of the fuzzy MFs are merged based upon similarity the measure for reducing the fuzzy MFs and simplifying the fuzzy rule base to make it more transparent. The developed fuzzy rule-based classifier is tested using features with noise up to a signal-to-noise ratio of 20 dB and provides classification results without misdetection, which shows the robustness of the proposed approach for islanding detection for distributed generations in the distribution network.
The electricity sector in Nepal is currently facing the formidable challenges of an insufficient ... more The electricity sector in Nepal is currently facing the formidable challenges of an insufficient installed capacity, a sub-optimal infrastructure, circular debt and revenue shortage. All of the problems hamper socioeconomic activities. The demand of energy has been consistently increasing annually and the peak demand growth rate of around 10% per year requires addition of generation as well. Nepal, today, experiences a peak power shortage of 12% and an energy shortage of about 8%. To fulfill the gap of demand and supply, integration of industrial cogeneration and captive plant play significant roles. Numerous countries across the globe are consuming bagasse to generate electricity, but regrettably in our country, this valued renewable resource has mostly been thrown away as a mere trash. Analysis of exportable power from sugar industries is an important aspect of the disclosure on grid integration of captive cogeneration plant and resulting environmental impact. This study aimed at ...
Due to high power losses and relieve transmission line from overload operation, Nepal has to upgr... more Due to high power losses and relieve transmission line from overload operation, Nepal has to upgrade its transmission system. The main objective of this research paper is to investigate technical and financial aspects of uprating existing 132 kV line of Nepal by re-conductoring it with High Temperature Low Sag conductor. For this purpose, electrical, mechanical and financial aspectsare evaluated using Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)-738-SA model for conductor capacity derating, Hybrid numerical method for sag calculation and Monte Carlo simulation for sensitivity analysis respectively. The derated capacity of existing conductor and proposed High Temperature Low Sag (HTLS) conductors are calculated which are less than manufacturer's rating. The sag of Aluminium Core Steel Supported (ACSS)-Dove, Thermal-Resistant-Aluminium Conductor Steel Reinforced (TACSR)-Dove and Super Thermal Resistant Aluminium Conductor Invar Reinforced (STACIR) is found to be greate...
As competition builds for water resources in the Western U.S., limited irrigation strategies for ... more As competition builds for water resources in the Western U.S., limited irrigation strategies for crop production are emerging to conserve agricultural water for other uses or as a way to continue to produce crops under reduced water allocations. Alfalfa is a crop with potential for water savings in a limited irrigation system. The objective of this study was to evaluate potential water saving strategies for alfalfa on the Front Range of Colorado. A field study evaluated four irrigation strategies: Full Irrigation (FI), Stop Irrigation After 2nd Cutting (S2), Spring and Fall Irrigation (SF), and Stop Irrigation After 1st Cutting (S1). Changes in yield, consumptive water use (ET), water-use efficiency (WUE), stand density, and forage quality were measured. Results of the study showed that yield decreased with ET in a fashion similar to previous research. Over the two year period, average yields were reduced by 3.1, 3.5 and 6.5 Mg ha-1 compared to the FI treatment for the S2, SF, and S...
Abstract. Burgeoning populations are increasing municipal water demand in the West, a phenomena t... more Abstract. Burgeoning populations are increasing municipal water demand in the West, a phenomena that is changing rural and urban economies. Agricultural water is a preferred source for meeting growing demands, but transfers often require formerly irrigated land to be fallowed removing a key base industry from rural regional economies. It is no surprise that large scales transfers are greeted with highly-charged, emotionally contentious debates. One alternative to ‘buy and dry ’ strategies is gaining interest. The alternative allows farmers to lease a portion of their water portfolio to cities. Leased water is generated as farmers reduce the consumptive use of their cropping operations by limiting irrigation. Examples of limited irrigation strategies include timing irrigations during vegetative growth and adopting innovative crop rotations. Importantly, the limited irrigation cropland remains in production so that rural economies suffer reduced effects vis a vis buy and dry activity....
Following macroeconomic reforms introduced in the Indian economy in the early 1990s, and the refo... more Following macroeconomic reforms introduced in the Indian economy in the early 1990s, and the reforms in the multilateral trading order brought about in the wake of GATT negotiations and the setting up of the WTO, the Indian agriculture has entered into the phase of globalization and diversification. It is expected that the combined effect of the reforms in the domestic policies and international trade reforms would result in a much larger integration of the Indian economy with the rest of the world, and such a scenario would bring about substantial benefits to the Indian farmers. The reforms undertaken so far have, however, failed to bring about the expected gains to Indian farmers. The process of reforms is still continuing and it is hoped that once the negotiations on reforms conclude and the envisaged reforms are implemented in letter and spirit, the gains to Indian agriculture would be positive and substantial. To realize the expected gains from trade liberalization, apart from ...
The suitability of rice husk as an alternative to sand in concrete production was studied here. R... more The suitability of rice husk as an alternative to sand in concrete production was studied here. Rice husk is an agricultural waste obtained from the rice. For this, various properties of concrete mainly workability, bulk density, water absorption, compressive strength and flexural strength were experimentally determined with the partial replacement of sand by rice husk at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 percent respectively. M15 grade of concrete was prepared at 0.60 water cement ratio considering weight batching. The experimental results showed that the workability of the concrete increased with the increase in percent replacement of sand by rice husk. Similarly, the water absorption also increased while the bulk density, compressive strength and flexural strength of the samples decreased with the increasing amount of rice husk content in the mixtures. The research suggested that up to 10 percent replacement of sand by rice husk, the concrete so produced could be used for building compres...
Presented at Urbanization of irrigated land and water transfers: a USCID water management confere... more Presented at Urbanization of irrigated land and water transfers: a USCID water management conference on May 28-31, 2008 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 2021
The value chain refers to the source of competition to facilitate organizations to maximize and s... more The value chain refers to the source of competition to facilitate organizations to maximize and sustain value for their consumers. Value chain flexibility is necessary to build sustainable initiatives in addressing ambiguity. In the literature, there is a lack of framework to highlight the challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility. This study fills this research gap by suggesting a framework for challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility. In this study, thirteen potential challenges to sustainable initiatives in value chain flexibility are identified and an integrated model is developed. It adopts the modified Total Interpretive Structure Model and the Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification methodology. The mixed approach is used as the modified Total Interpretive Structure Model organizes the binary interactions among the challenges, while Cross-Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification analysis organiz...
Modern Supply Chain Research and Applications, 2020
PurposeThe carbon emissions due to industrial production and market consumption activities are th... more PurposeThe carbon emissions due to industrial production and market consumption activities are the major contributors to global warming. With the signing of UN Paris Accord 2016 on climate change, the world's major countries are devising measures to combat climate change and attain a sustainable, low-carbon future. Globalization demands companies not only to adopt greener manufacturing practices internally for reduced carbon footprint (CFP) but beyond its boundaries (i.e. its supply chain). This study aims to discuss the relationship between CFP and sustainable supply chain, as evident in the current literature and industry practices. It provides a total comprehension of past, present and future headings in the CFP area and its contribution to a sustainable supply chain.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review and analysis have been undertaken in supply chain sustainability and CFP. A bibliometric approach is adopted for this investigation, and one of the bigges...
Modern Supply Chain Research and Applications, 2020
PurposeDue to unceasing declination in environment, sustainable agro-food supply chains have beco... more PurposeDue to unceasing declination in environment, sustainable agro-food supply chains have become a topic of concern to business, government organizations and customers. The purpose of this study is to examine a problem associated with sustainable network design in context of Indian agro-food grain supply chain.Design/methodology/approachA mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model is suggested to apprehend the major complications related with two-echelon food grain supply chain along with sustainability aspects (carbon emissions). Genetic algorithm (GA) and quantum-based genetic algorithm (Q-GA), two meta-heuristic algorithms and LINGO 18 (traditional approach) are employed to establish the vehicle allocation and selection of orders set.FindingsThe model minimizes the total transportation cost and carbon emission tax in gathering food grains from farmers to the hubs and later to the selected demand points (warehouses). The simulated data are adopted to test and validate th...
Nepal has an extreme altitudinal range from 60-8850 m with heterogeneous topography and distinct ... more Nepal has an extreme altitudinal range from 60-8850 m with heterogeneous topography and distinct climatic zones. The country is considered a biodiversity hotspot, with nearly a quarter of the land area located in protected areas. Nepal and the surrounding Himalayan region are particularly vulnerable to climate change because of their abrupt ecological and climatic transitions. Tens of millions of people rely on the region's ecosystem services, and observed and modeled warming trends predict increased climate extremes in the Himalayas. To study the ecological impacts of climate change in Nepal and inform adaptation planning, we review the literature on past, present, and predicted future climatic changes and their impacts on ecological diversity in Nepal. We found few studies focusing on organisms, while research on species and communities was more common. Most studies document or predict species range shifts and changes in community composition. Results of these few investigations highlight major lacunae in research regarding the effects of changing climate on species comprising the Himalayan biota. Further empirical work is needed at all levels of biological organization to build on information regarding direct ecological impacts of climatic changes in the region. Countries face an ever-increasing threat of climate change, and Nepal has strong physiographic, elevational, and climatic gradients that could provide a useful model for studying the effects of climate change on a mountainous, and highly biodiverse, area.
District heating networks are commonly addressed in the literature as one of the most effective s... more District heating networks are commonly addressed in the literature as one of the most effective solutions for decreasing the greenhouse gas emissions from the building sector. These systems require high investments which are returned through the heat sales. Due to the changed climate conditions and building renovation policies, heat demand in the future could decrease, prolonging the investment return period. The main scope of this paper is to assess the feasibility of using the heat demand-outdoor temperature function for heat demand forecast. The district of Alvalade, located in Lisbon (Portugal), was used as a case study. The district is consisted of 665 buildings that vary in both construction period and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district renovation scenarios were developed (shallow, intermediate, deep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were compared with results from a dynamic heat demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors. The results showed that when only weather change is considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications (the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation scenarios, the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered). The value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination of weather and renovation scenarios considered). On the other hand, function intercept increased for 7.8-12.7% per decade (depending on the coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters for the scenarios considered, and improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.
The dry anaerobic digestion process is an innovative waste-recycling method to treat high-solidco... more The dry anaerobic digestion process is an innovative waste-recycling method to treat high-solidcontent bio-wastes. This can be done without dilution with water by microbial consortia in an oxygenfree environment to recover potential renewable energy and nutrient-rich fertilizer for sustainable solid waste management. It generally takes place at solid concentrations higher than 10% and enables a higher volumetric organic loading rate, minimal material handling, lower energy requirements for heating, limited environmental consequences and energetically effective performance. The long retention time, poor startup performance, incomplete mixing and the accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are considered as the main disadvantages for the solid-state fermentation process. In order to develop feasible dry anaerobic digestion processes, it is important to review the optimization techniques and suggest possible areas where improvements could be made. These include reactor configuration, mixing, solid retention time, feedstocks, organic loading rate, inoculation, co-digestion, pretreatment, percolation, additives and environmental conditions within the digester such as temperature, pH, buffering capacity and VFAs concentration.
Afghanistan faces a significant shortage of the physical and human capital needed to optimize use... more Afghanistan faces a significant shortage of the physical and human capital needed to optimize use of its water resources and manage its irrigated farms. The project's objective is to bolster human capital and water resource management capabilities by surveying available resources, developing (with Afghani counterparts) water institutions that make best use of available resources, providing demonstration of irrigation and agriculture techniques/technologies, and delivering curricula to Afghani specialists who may then disseminate information in the field Under the AWATT program of USAID, Colorado State University (CSU) is working closely with consortium partners;
This paper presents temporal and spatial pattern of drought phenomena in central Nepal using stan... more This paper presents temporal and spatial pattern of drought phenomena in central Nepal using standardized precipitation index (SPI) at multiple time scales. The study is based on 32 years of monthly precipitation data from 40 meteorological stations from 1981 to 2012. Results indicate that, while there is no distinct trend in regional precipitation, interannual variation is large. Trend analysis of drought index shows that most stations are characterized by increases in both severity and frequency of drought and trend is stronger for longer drought time scales. Over the study period, the summer
Satellite-based precipitation products have been shown to represent precipitation well over Nepal... more Satellite-based precipitation products have been shown to represent precipitation well over Nepal at monthly resolution, compared to ground-based stations. Here, we extend our analysis to the daily and subdaily timescales, which are relevant for mapping the hazards caused by storms as well as drought. We compared the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) 3B42RT product with individual stations and with the gridded APHRODITE product to evaluate its ability to retrieve different precipitation intensities. We find that 3B42RT, which is freely available in near real time, has reasonable correspondence with ground-based precipitation products on a daily timescale; rank correlation coefficients approach 0.6, almost as high as the retrospectively calibrated TMPA 3B42 product. We also find that higher-quality ground and satellite precipitation observations improve the correspondence between the two on the daily timescale, suggesting opportunities for improvement in satellite-based monitoring technology. Correlation of 3B42RT and 3B42 with station observations is lower on subdaily timescales, although the mean diurnal cycle of precipitation is roughly correct. We develop a probabilistic precipitation monitoring methodology that uses previous observations (climatology) as well as 3B42RT as input to generate daily precipitation accumulation probability distributions at each 0.25 • × 0.25 • grid cell in Nepal and surrounding areas. We quantify the information gain associated with using 3B42RT in the probabilistic model instead of relying only on Climate 2015, 3 330 climatology and show that the quantitative precipitation estimates produced by this model are well calibrated compared to APHRODITE.
The study was carried out in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology NMCTH (n = 20, age 3-54yrs) wh... more The study was carried out in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology NMCTH (n = 20, age 3-54yrs) who presented tonsil problems and underwent tonsillectomy over period of 1 year (2006-2007). Patients who underwent tonsillectomy were selected for study throughout preoperative and two months of postoperative period. Out of 20 patients (8 male andl2 female) 3 patients presented with sleep apnoea syndrome, 8 patients required hospitalization due to odynophagia and high fever and 9 of them suffered from recurrent tonsillitis. Post operative period was uneventful. The commonest presentation was recurrent sore throat and commonest organism isolated on throat swab culture (superficial) was S. aureus (26.0%). Sixty-nine percentage of culture was sterile, most probably because of prior antibiotics use. Only one out of twenty cultures showed a haemolytic streptococcus. According to previous studies carried out, organism obtained from superficial swab may be different from that of from core and th...
Precipitation in mountain regions is often highly variable and poorly observed, limiting abilitie... more Precipitation in mountain regions is often highly variable and poorly observed, limiting abilities to manage water resource challenges. Here, we evaluate remote sensing and ground station-based gridded precipitation products over Nepal against weather station precipitation observations on a monthly timescale. We find that the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B-43 precipitation product exhibits little mean bias and reasonable skill in giving precipitation over Nepal. Compared to station observations, the TRMM precipitation product showed an overall Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency of 0.49, which is similar to the skill of the gridded station-based product Asian Precipitation-Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of Water Resources (APHRODITE). The other satellite precipitation products considered (Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMaP), the Climate Prediction Center Morphing technique (CMORPH), Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information Using Artificial Neural Networks-Cloud Classification System (PERSIANN-CCS)) were less skillful, as judged by Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency, and, on average, substantially underestimated precipitation compared to station observations, despite their, in some cases, higher nominal spatial resolution compared to TRMM. None of the products fully captured the dependence of mean precipitation on elevation seen in the station observations. Overall, the TRMM product is promising for use in water resources applications.
Current paper examines the space-time dynamics of yearly rainfall of the Tocantins-Araguaia Hydro... more Current paper examines the space-time dynamics of yearly rainfall of the Tocantins-Araguaia Hydrographic Region (TAHR), foregrounded on rainfall volume from isohyet maps and interpolated by Kriging geo-statistical method. Rainfall space dynamics was undertaken by the analysis of descriptive statistics, Index of Meteorological Irregularity (IMI) and Variation Coefficient. Temporal dynamics was analyzed through the distribution of total annual volume precipitation for each TAHR subbasin by the Standardized Anomaly Index, trend and magnitude test provided by Mann-Kendall and Sen Tests. Results correlated with meteorological anomalies of the Atlantic (Dipole) and Pacific (ENOS) Oceans show a highly heterogeneous rainfall behavior with temporal variability. Or rather, a decrease of rainfall extensiveness during years of intense meteorological anomaly with a rainfall increase south of the High Tocantins and Araguaia sub-basins and a decrease of rainfall in the Lower Tocantins sub-basin, with El Niño features. Although the Mann-Kendall test does not show statistically a significant trend for rainfall in the TAHR region, Sen's estimator reveals a decrease in rainfall in the High Tocantins (-1.24 km³ year-1) and Araguaia (-1.13 km³ year-1) sub-basins and a rainfall increase in the Lower Tocantins sub-basin (0.53 km³ year-1) and in the TAHR region (-1.5 km³ year-1).
IOSR Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 2012
The proposed method develops a fuzzy rule-based classifier that was tested using features for isl... more The proposed method develops a fuzzy rule-based classifier that was tested using features for islanding detection in distributed generation. In the developed technique, the initial classification boundaries are found out by using the decision tree (DT). From the DT classification boundaries, the fuzzy membership functions (MFs) are developed and the corresponding rule base is formulated for islanding detection. But some of the fuzzy MFs are merged based upon similarity the measure for reducing the fuzzy MFs and simplifying the fuzzy rule base to make it more transparent. The developed fuzzy rule-based classifier is tested using features with noise up to a signal-to-noise ratio of 20 dB and provides classification results without misdetection, which shows the robustness of the proposed approach for islanding detection for distributed generations in the distribution network.
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