Orchids

Known for their often exquisite flowers, orchids are the largest family of flowering plants in the world with over 30,000 species identified. They are distributed in most countries and are especially prolific in tropical regions, where the majority of species grow on the trunks and branches of trees. In temperate regions, such as southern Australia, most orchids grow in the ground.

Throughout the life of an orchid it forms relationships with other organisms. Most importantly orchids rely on fungi to assist with the germination of seed, and in some cases continue to work with fungi throughout their life for their continuing health and development. Orchids may also grow on a host plant and depend on certain insects to pollinate them.

Orchid seed is the smallest seed of all plants, taking more than 1.25 million seeds to weigh a single gram. A specific fungus allows orchid seed to germinate by effectively providing energy to it that the orchid can’t provide itself. Other plants are self sufficient at this stage but not orchids.

Nitrox

Nitrox is a generic term that can be used to describe any gaseous mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. In the context of technical diving, nitox is a mixture containing more oxygen than air. The two most commonly used nitrogen-oxygen mixtures contain 32% and 36% oxygen by volume. This differs significantly from compressed air, which contains approximately 21% oxygen by volume. While an increase of 12 to 16% oxygen by volume may not seem drastic, it allows divers to significantly extend their bottom time, and decreases their risk of developing DCS.

While diving with nitrox has definite benefits, it also has clearly associated risks. The major hazard is oxygen toxicity. This comes about when oxygen is inhaled in high concentrations for an extended period of time; this occurs primarily when a diver exceeds the recreational limits for depth. Under these circumstances, a diver can experience an epileptic-like seizure, which may lead to drowning. Due to this potentially fatal hazard, divers using nitrox must adhere to special dive tables. These tables list the maximum safe amount of time that a diver can stay underwater at a certain depth.

Sun Temple

Konark Sun Temple, situated in the eastern State of Orissa close to the holy city of Puri, is devoted to the sun God or Surya. It is an epic depiction of the sun God Surya's chariot; it has 24 wheels and it is decorated with emblematic designs and it is led by a side of six horses. It is a work of art of Orissa's medieval structural design and one of India's most famous Brahman sanctuaries.

The Konark temple is broadly known not only for its architectural greatness but also for the complexity and wealth of sculptural work. It marks the highest point of achievement of Kalinga architecture depicting the grace, the joy and the rhythm of life all its wondrous variety.

The temple declared a world heritage by UNESCO was built in A.D. 1250, during the reign of the Eastern Ganga King Narasimhadeva-I (A.D. 1238-64). There are two rows of 12 wheels on each side of the Konark sun temple. Some say the wheels represent the 24 hours in a day and others say the 12 months. The seven horses are said to symbolize the seven days of the week. Sailors once called this Sun Temple of Konarak, the Black Pagoda because it was supposed to draw ships into the shore and cause shipwrecks.

India's nocturnal bird

JERDON'S Courser is a nocturnal bird, inhabitant of Andhra Pradesh. The bird is critically endangered. It is the only prevalent bird to Andhra Pradesh. It has a big eye for night vision, a black crown, a yellow beak and orange throat patch and is found only in thin, scrubby areas with bushes between two and three meters in height. The call of the bird is – kwikkoooo.. kwikoooo..kwikkooooo...




At first Thomas C. Jerdon spotted this bird in 1848 but not seen again until 1986 when Bharat Bhushan, an ornithologist at the Bombay Natural History Society rediscovered the species that had been feared extinct. This courser is a restricted-range endemic found in India in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh.

The construction of the Telugu-Ganga canal, around the border of the wildlife sanctuary was proposed. The proposed path of the canal threatened the sanctuary, conservationists including Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS, BirdLife in India) and RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) .They urged the Supreme Court of India to get involved. The Supreme Court stopped the construction work, and now, three years later on, a new route has been approved which avoids most of the protected sites.

Activities taken to protect the endangered species
To take on conservation research on the Jerdon's courser to find out inhabitants size and distribution and to spot out the current intimidation to the birds; to produce a management plan based on the study and monitoring; to offer training for BNHS and Forestry Department staff; to lift the profile of the Jerdon's course both at national and local levels.

Ekistics

The term Ekistics (coined by Konstantinos Apostolos Doxiadis in 1942) applies to the science of human settlements. It includes regional, city, community planning and dwelling design. It involves the study of all kinds of human settlements, with a view to geography and ecology - the physical environment- , and human psychology and anthropology, and cultural, political, and occasionally aesthetics.

As a scientific mode of study is currently found to rely on statistics and description, organized in five Ekistic Elements: Nature, Anthropos, Society, Shells, and Networks. It is generally a more academic field than "urban planning", and has considerable overlap with some of the less restrained fields of architectural theory.

Information Gathering Satellite

program. It was started as a response to the 1998 North Korean missile test over Japan. The satellite program's main mission is to provide early warning of impending hostile launches in the neighborhood. This programme is under direct control of the cabinet. However it should be noted, that Earth observation is a rather new field for Japan. The first Japanese mission in this field MOS-1 was launched only in 1987. For this reason Japan still lacks some technology in this field with a resolution of one meter.

Linear control

Linear control systems use linear negative feedback to produce a control signal mathematically based on other variables, with a view to maintaining the controlled process within an acceptable operating range.

The output from a linear control system into the controlled process may be in the form of a directly variable signal, such as a valve that may be 0 or 100% open or anywhere in between. Sometimes this is not feasible and so, after calculating the current required corrective signal, a linear control system may repeatedly switch an actuator, such as a pump, motor or heater, fully on and then fully off again, regulating the duty cycle using pulse-width modulation.