Correlation Between Low Strain Shear Modulus and Standard Penetration Test ‘N’ Values

In this study an attempt has been made to develop correlation between standard penetration test (SPT) N values and low strain shear modulus (Gmax). The field experiments of Multichannel Analysis of Surface Wave (MASW) are carried out at 38 locations close to boreholes having Standard Penetration Test N values and in-situ density. These experimental data were generated and used for seismic microzonation of Bangalore, India. In-situ densities of subsurface layers were obtained from undisturbed soil samples collected from the boreholes. Shear wave velocity (Vs) profile with depth were obtained for the same locations or close to the boreholes using MASW. The low strain shear modulus values have been calculated using measured Vs and soil density. About 215 pairs of SPT N and shear modulus values are used for regression analysis and correlation between them are developed. The differences between fitted regression relations using measured and corrected N values were analyzed and presented. More details of correlation between shear modulus versus measured and corrected SPT N values and comparisons are presented elsewhere

Site Response Study of Deep Soil Column in Lucknow, India

Earthquake activities in the many parts of world had shown the importance of local soil condition in the propagated wave motion. In this paper an attempt has been made to estimate site effects of deep soil column in Lucknow, Indo-Gangetic basin for scenario earthquakes at Himalayan plate boundary. Based on previous study, the synthetic ground motion has been generated using Stochastic Finite Fault model (FINSIM) for two scenario earthquakes at seismic gaps. One seismic gap called as western location/seismic gap is located about 307.88km from site and gives the peak ground acceleration of 0.11g at site. Another one is the Central seismic gap/location is located in central seismic gap at 229.77km from the site and gives the Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) of 0.218g. The local soil layer details with standard penetration test N value have been collected for the main location in Lucknow from literates. The general soil found for this site is silty sand and silty clays having SPT N value up to above 100 up to a depth of 30m. The soil details extrapolated up to 100m by assuming linear variation from 30 m. The site response analysis has been carried out using equivalent linear and non linear approaches by employing SHAKE 2000 and Deep soil program. Input has been assigned at 30m 50, 75 and 100m to find effective depth of input motion. This study shows that the ground motions are being amplified within a depth of 50 to 80 m, but these results need to be further confirmed with large number of data. The input ground motions are amplified 1.06 to 2.5 times due to the soil condition

A checking method for probabilistic seismic-hazard assessment: case studies on three cities

The conventional Cornell's source-based approach of probabilistic seismic-hazard assessment (PSHA) has been employed all around the world, whilst many studies often rely on the use of computer packages such as FRISK (McGuire FRISK-a computer program for seismic risk analysis. Open-File Report 78-1007, United States Geological Survey, Department of Interior, Washington 1978) and SEISRISK III (Bender and Perkins SEISRISK III-a computer program for seismic hazard estimation, Bulletin 1772. United States Geological Survey, Department of Interior, Washington 1987). A "black-box" syndrome may be resulted if the user of the software does not have another simple and robust PSHA method that can be used to make comparisons. An alternative method for PSHA, namely direct amplitude-based (DAB) approach, has been developed as a heuristic and efficient method enabling users to undertake their own sanity checks on outputs from computer packages. This paper experiments the application of the DAB approach for three cities in China, Iran, and India, respectively, and compares with documented results computed by the source-based approach. Several insights regarding the procedure of conducting PSHA have also been obtained, which could be useful for future seismic-hazard studies. © 2010 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Principles and Practices of Seismic Microzonation: Case Studies in India

This paper presents an overview of the principles and practices of seismic microzonation with some case studies in India. India has experienced major damages and loss of life due to earthquakes. Macrozonation map in Indian seismic code IS-1893 is frequently revised soon after a major earthquake in the country. New revision which was published in 2002 after Bhuj earthquake in 2001 contains four macro zones. These zones are based on geology and limited seismology input without considering geotechnical aspects such as site effects and liquefaction. In order to understand the earthquake vulnerability of major urban centers and prepare new zonation map, the Govt. of India has initiated microzonation of 63 cities in India after 2001 earthquake. Many microzonation studies are under progress and few of them have been completed. This paper presents an overview of these studies. Seismic microzonation of Jabalpur urban area is the first work in India towards seismic microzonation of Indian cities. Jabalpur study has provided many learning lessons to other studies. Preliminary microzonation of Delhi has been completed and detailed one is under progress. Seismic Hazard and Microzonation Atlas of the Sikkim Himalaya has been published with geological and seismological background. Microzonation of Guwahati was done based on geology, geomorphology, seismotectonics, soil characteristics, pre-dominant frequencies, peak ground acceleration, seismic hazard and demography. Seismic Microzonation of Dehradun has been prepared based on shear wave velocity with site response. First order Microzonation of Haldia has been developed based on peak ground acceleration, predominant frequency and elevation map. Different maps and results were presented for Gujarat microzonation based on noise survey and after shock data. None of these studies included the geotechnical aspects. The geotechnical aspects were fully incorporated in the recently completed Microzonation work of Bangalore and the ongoing study of Chennai microzonation. An overview of seismic microzonation studies in India is presented in this paper

Mandating Self-Imposed Curfew - An Analysis of PM Modi's Janta Curfew Speech

This study explores the persuasive strategies used by the Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi to appeal to the citizens of India, to observe ‘Janta Curfew’ or People’s Curfew, as a preventive measure to contain the spread of Covid-19 infections in India. The study maps the speech to established strategies and theories of persuasion such as Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle, Elaboration Likelihood Model, Monroe's Motivated Sequence, and Cognitive Dissonance Theory; and ascertains the indispensability of the aforementioned theoretical frameworks. The study also identifies Modi’s unique persuasive strategies such as wheedling, building-up (before delivering), complimenting before criticizing, Eutrepismus, and subtly titling the task; and analyzes their effectiveness in persuading the citizens of India to comply with Janta Curfew

Survey and surveillance on rice false smut disease severity in Tamil Nadu and the influence of wind velocity on disease progression under field conditions

The false smut disease of rice incited by Ustilaginoidea virens is a major constraint on rice production. The main aim of the present study was to ascertain the false smut disease severity in both delta and non-delta districts of Tamil Nadu through survey and surveillance and assess the correlation between the disease severity and wind velocity for the past three years, 2019, 2020 and 2021. Moreover, the present study addressed the disease distribution pattern of false smut diseases under field conditions.  The results obtained from survey results revealed that the maximum disease severity was recorded in Nagapattinam district (Nagapattinam block) with 27.45% and the minimum disease severity was recorded in the district Theni (Bodinayakanur block) with 8% in 2021. Similarly in 2019 and 2020 maximum disease severity was recorded in the following districts Thanjavur district (Orathanadu block) with 19.91% and Thanjavur district (Peravurani block) with 18.54% and the minimum disease severity was recorded in the following districts Madurai district (Madurai north block) with 4.78% and Madurai district (Usilampatti block) with 4.78% respectively. The obtained R2 values through regression analysis were 0.70, 0.79 and 0.76 in the following years, 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. Besides the relationship between the false smut disease development, the pattern wind direction was also assessed. By assessing the false smut disease distribution pattern under field conditions, more disease distribution was observed around the surrounding area of the paddy field as well as the diagonal path of the field which clearly revealed that wind direction influences the disease development

Structural Analysis of Nano Core PCF With Fused Cladding for Supercontinuum Generation in 6G Networks

The Sixth Generation (6G) networks have identified the use of frequency range between 95 GHz and 3 THz with a targeted data rate of 1 Terabytes/second at the access network for holographic video applications. As is demands broadening of spectrum at the core network, this paper proposes a Supercontinuum Generation (SCG) through photonic crystal fiber (PCF) as it provides excellent broadening of the optical spectrum. Discussed in the paper is supercontinuum generation at high pumping power as per the standards specified by the International Telecommunications Union. The proposed PCF is designed with silicon nanocrystal core and the cladding microstructures is arranged in a fusion approach to effectively optimize the optical parameters such as dispersion, nonlinearity, birefringence, group-velocity dispersion, and confinement loss. The fused cladding comprises of a flower-cladding assembly in which air-holes arrangement is inspired from petals in a pleated structure. Such arrangement is shown here to provide high nonlinearity and negative dispersion for high power supercontinuum generation. The novel nanocore assembly with improved structural constraints delivers a non-linearity of 6.37 × 106 W−1 km−1 and a negative dispersion of −142.1 (ps/nm-km) at 1,550 nm. Moreover, a supercontinuum spectrum is generated using different pulse widths ranging from 350 to 650 ps with 25 kW pump power for PCF lengths of 10 and 15 mm

DREB1A overexpression in transgenic chickpea alters key traits influencing plant water budget across water regimes

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is mostly exposed to terminal drought stress which adversely influences its yield. Development of cultivars for suitable drought environments can offer sustainable solutions. We genetically engineered a desi-type chickpea variety to ectopically overexpress AtDREB1A, a transcription factor known to be involved in abiotic stress response, driven by the stress-inducible Atrd29A promoter. From several transgenic events of chickpea developed by Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation, four single copy events (RD2, RD7, RD9 and RD10) were characterized for DREB1A gene overexpression and evaluated under water stress in a biosafety greenhouse at T6 generation. Under progressive water stress, all transgenic events showed increased DREB1A gene expression before 50 % of soil moisture was lost (50 % FTSW or fraction of transpirable soil water), with a faster DREB1A transcript accumulation in RD2 at 85 % FTSW. Compared to the untransformed control, RD2 reduced its transpiration in drier soil and higher vapor pressure deficit (VPD) range (2.0–3.4 kPa). The assessment of terminal water stress response using lysimetric system that closely mimics the soil conditions in the field, showed that transgenic events RD7 and RD10 had increased biomass partitioning into shoot, denser rooting in deeper layers of soil profile and higher transpiration efficiency than the untransformed control. Also, RD9 with deeper roots and RD10 with higher root diameter showed that the transgenic events had altered rooting pattern compared to the untransformed control. These results indicate the implicit influence of rd29A::DREB1A on mechanisms underlying water uptake, stomatal response, transpiration efficiency and rooting architecture in water-stressed plants