Most of the marine pollution attributable to ship actions is associated with the illicit discharge of oily residues or ballast water, in what is commonly termed operational pollution. In the particular case of ballast water, careless disposal can lead to severe ecological damage, including the irreversible establishment of communities of invasive species. In its 2004 Convention on ballast water...

This paper is concerned with the design and implementation of high performance uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) for fluorescent lamps with electronic ballast. The UPS design is based on the capacity and voltage ratings of the lighting equipment. The current-predicted control technique is used to control the half-bridge switch-mode rectifier so as to improve the power factor and reduce the c...

Geogrids are commonly used in transportation applications for stabilization and reinforcement due to their higher tensile strengths compared to geotextiles as well as the stiffness improvement they provide through arresting and interlocking granular particles in the geogrid apertures. Influenced by many factors, such as the aperture shape and size of geogrid, the degree of interlocking contribu...

After almost two decades of intensified research, regulatory and political activities focussed on the prevention of harmful organisms and pathogen transfers around the world, in 2004 the International Convention on the Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) was adopted to provide for a common and globally uniform ballast water management (BWM) approach. Recognising th...

HID lamps are used in applications where high luminous intensity is desired. They are used in a wide range of applications from gymnasiums to movie theatres, from parking lots to indoor aquaria, from vehicle headlights to indoor gardening. They require ballasts during start-up and also during operation to regulate the voltage and current levels. Electronic ballasts have advantages of less weigh...

Bacterial abundance, population dynamics and related environmental parameters were determined in bal last water during a transPacific voyage from Japan to the west coast of Canada. Water samples were collected from four ballast tanks, two of which underwent mid-ocean exchange (MOE) and two that remained unexchanged (control). Bacterial abundances in the unexchanged tanks increased from ~6.4×10 ...

The spread of non-native species has been a subject of increasing concern since the 1980s when human-mediated transportation, mainly related to ships' ballast water, was recognized as a major vector for species transportation and spread, although records of non-native species go back as far as 16th Century. Ever increasing world trade and the resulting rise in shipping have highlighted the issu...

As large numbers of ships either take in ballast from or discharge their ballast into the Mumbai Harbor region, it is pertinent to quantify microorganisms of health concerns and suggest on the suitability of water for ballasting purposes. To meet with this main aim, a selected set of general and pathogenic bacterial groups and their seasonal variations were studied from the Mumbai Harbor area. ...