Bearing Capacity of Interfered Adjacent Strip Footings on Granular Bed Overlying Soft Clay: An Analytical Approach

In the present paper, the interference effects on bearing capacity of two and three closely spaced strip footings resting on granular bed overlying clay are being studied. A simple analytical model is proposed to predict the load-carrying capacity and the interference factor of an interfered footing, when adjacent strip footings are optimally placed on the surface of a Granular Bed (GB) overlying clay and both the footings are simultaneously loaded. A punching shear failure mechanism is envisaged in the analytical model. The load-carrying capacity of the footing is taken as the sum of total shearing resistances along the two vertical planes through the edges of the strip footing in the upper granular layer and the load-carrying capacity of the soft clay beneath the GB. Insights gained from finite element simulations are used to develop the new modified punching shear model for interfering footing. Bearing capacity can be easily calculated by using the proposed punching shear model for interfering footing. The analytical model is validated with numerical analyses and previous experimental results and found to be in reasonably good agreement. The influence of different parameters such as granular bed thickness, width of footing, number of footings are carried out in this study. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091723 Full Text: PD

Rare occurrence of Bombay duck from Central Kerala

The occurrence of Bombay duck along south coast of India is very rare, especially Kerala coast. On 4th December, 2019, one specimen of Bombayduck, Harpadon nehereus measuring 252 mm in total length and weighing 114.5 g was landed at Chellanam landing centre, Kochi (9°47'56.8"N 76°16'32.2"E) by an outboard ringseiner unit operated at a depth of 30-50 m targeting Indian oil sardine. Morphometric and meristic characters of the specimen landed were recorde

Micropropagation and conservation of selected endangered anticancer medicinal plants from the Western Ghats of India

Globally, cancer is a constant battle which severely affects the human population. The major limitations of the anticancer drugs are the deleterious side effects on the quality of life. Plants play a vital role in curing many diseases with minimal or no side effects. Phytocompounds derived from various medicinal plants serve as the best source of drugs to treat cancer. The global demand for phytomedicines is mostly reached by the medicinal herbs from the tropical nations of the world even though many plant species are threatened with extinction. India is one of the mega diverse countries of the world due to its ecological habitats, latitudinal variation, and diverse climatic range. Western Ghats of India is one of the most important depositories of endemic herbs. It is found along the stretch of south western part of India and constitutes rain forest with more than 4000 diverse medicinal plant species. In recent times, many of these therapeutically valued herbs have become endangered and are being included under the red-listed plant category in this region. Due to a sharp rise in the demand for plant-based products, this rich collection is diminishing at an alarming rate that eventually triggered dangerous to biodiversity. Thus, conservation of the endangered medicinal plants has become a matter of importance. The conservation by using only in situ approaches may not be sufficient enough to safeguard such a huge bio-resource of endangered medicinal plants. Hence, the use of biotechnological methods would be vital to complement the ex vitro protection programs and help to reestablish endangered plant species. In this backdrop, the key tools of biotechnology that could assist plant conservation were developed in terms of in vitro regeneration, seed banking, DNA storage, pollen storage, germplasm storage, gene bank (field gene banking), tissue bank, and cryopreservation. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to critically review major endangered medicinal plants that possess anticancer compounds and their conservation aspects by integrating various biotechnological tool

Change in Covid19 Related Perception and Practices Amid Inhabitants Of Kerala, Post Primary Level Intervention: A Field Trial done after the peak of second wave

Introduction: Since many cases of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The virus has infected millions worldwide. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of COVD-19 constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), calling for countries to take urgent and aggressive action against the spread of the virus. Methodology: This is a Field trial at all the 14 districts in the state of Kerala From May 2021 – Sept2021. Data Collection Period: Data collection began after getting approval from Institutional Ethical committee and after obtaining permanent registration number from Clinical Trial Registry of India. Results: Socio-demographic Profile of the study participants: The mean age of the study participants was 43.74 ± 15.502 years. It was found that 68% of the respondents were from South Kerala and there was almost equal participation from Central and North Kerala. More than half of the study participants were males (60%). Almost half of the study population were Hindus (47.1%). Perception and Practices regarding Covid 19, pre and post intervention: On doing the assessment of knowledge, during pre test, 59% participants were found to have adequate Knowledge (score> 80%) which increased to 62% post intervention. Similarly 56% had an agreeing attitude and 55% had accurate covid19 guideline related practices in the pre test which increased to 57% and 63% respectively. Conclusion: This Study shows that more than half of the study participants had adequate knowledge, agreeing attitude and good practice but it is a point of concern that the other half had low perception and practice. This reflects the fact that, in place of online intervention, full blown primary health intervention strategies focussing on reducing the gap between perception and practices of Covid19 will make a great difference in this period of time were the government is relaxing the restrictions that were enforced due to the pandemic

Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Modeling and Simulation in Civil Engineering

This conference proceedings contains articles on the various research ideas of the academic community and technical researchers presented at the 6th International Conference on Modeling and Simulation in Civil Engineering (ICMSC 2022). ICMSC 2022 was organized by the Department of Civil Engineering, TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala, India on December 1-3, 2022. The main aim of this conference is to bring together leading academicians, researchers, technocrats, practitioners, and students to exchange and share their experiences and research outputs on all aspects of Civil Engineering, especially related to the modeling and simulation in Civil Engineering.  Conference Title: 6th International Conference on Modeling and Simulation in Civil EngineeringConference Acronym:  ICMSC 2022Conference Date: 1-3 December 2022Conference Location: IndiaConference Organizer: Department of Civil Engineering, TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, Kerala, Indi