Comprehensive Trend Analysis of Past Century Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall and its Variability

The importance of rainfall for an agrarian economy like India is quite well known especially during the Indian summer monsoon months viz June through September Analysis of rainfall characteristics over the past century can present an idea of the variability of rainfall Variability of rainfall has been observed in intraseasonal as well as intra-annual time scale

RHA AS A LIMITED ALTERNATE OF CEMENT FOR S-ACID ATTACK ON CONCRETE

Large scale exploitation of natural sand creates environmental impact on society. River sand is most commonly used fine aggregate in concrete but due to acute shortage in many areas, availability, cost & environmental impact are the major concern. To overcome from this crisis, partial replacement of sand with quarry sand can be an economic alternative. Quarry sand has been used in different construction purposes but replacement technology has emerged as an innovative development to civil engineering material. Design mix of M20 grade concrete with replacement of 0%, 15%, 30%, 45%,60% of quarry sand have been considered for laboratory test i.e slump test, compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength, permeable voids and acid attack. (Cubes, cylinders, beams sample). The detailed study is on the effect of partial replacement of cement with Rice Husk Ash and Fly Ash on concrete. In this project different combination of Fly Ash and Rice Husk Ash as a partial replacement of cement and river sand by quarry sand is carried out. The composition of 7.5% Rice Husk Ash + 22.5% Fly Ash with 60% of quarry sand gives maximum strength results

Channel Controlled Foraminiferal Distribution off Bakkhali, West Bengal, India

Study area is situated 8 km south of the Bakkhali Island, West Bengal of India and its subaqueous environment influenced by the fluvial processes such as Hooghly River in west and its distributary like Muri Ganga in the centre and Saptamukhi River in the east. To understand the submarine behavior of these channels and associated meiobenthos, total of 28 sediment samples have been studied in detail. The study reveal that a total of fifteen species of recent benthic foraminifera belonging to 13 genera under 11 families were present and their distribution mainly controlled by channel morphology and sediment character. Based on the distribution of these benthic foraminiferal species, two assemblages have been identified. First assemblage, observed within the Hooghly and Muri Ganga channel, where salinity is comparatively low and sediment is mainly dominated by silt and clay. The most dominating benthic foraminifers of this assemblage are Ammobaculites agglutinans, Cribrostomoides jeffreysii and Asterorotalia trispinosa. Whereas, second assemblage mainly comprise of A. trispinosa, Ammonia beccarii, Asterorotalia spp., Elphidium excavatum, Elphidium crispum and Ammonia tepida noticed over the sand bars and adjoining shallow area. Keywords: channel morphology, Muri Ganga, Hooghly, sand ba

Elimination of Identity?based Discrimination in Food and Nutrition Programmes in India

India's growth story in recent years is being criticised for its inability to reduce the ever?increasing income inequality and higher incidence of malnutrition among its children, particularly those belonging to marginalised groups such as Scheduled Castes (SCs). This article examines the prevalence of identity?based discrimination in health and nutritional programmes and finds it to be one of the important reasons for the higher incidence of malnutrition among SC children. While examining the guidelines of two major nutritional support programmes – the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and the Mid Day Meal (MDM) Scheme – the article argues for making these more caste? and gender?sensitive in order to eliminate discrimination. It offers policy recommendations to address and monitor the discrimination in nutrition programmes. These include greater participation by marginalised groups like SCs in service planning and delivery, ensuring quality and promoting accountability; training and sensitisation of service providers; and the revision of administrative guidelines

Identification of risk factors for malaria control by focused interventions in Ranchi district, Jharkhand, India

Background & objectives: Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand state is endemic for malaria, particularly the Bundu Primary Health Centre (PHC) is the worst affected. Therefore, a study was initiated during 2009 using remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) to identify risk factors responsible for high endemicity in this PHC. Methods: Bundu and Angara in Ranchi district were identified as high and low malaria endemic PHCs based on epidemiological data of three years (2007–09). The habitation, streams, other water body, landform, PHC and village boundary thematic maps were prepared using IRS-P6/LISS III-IV imageries and macro level breeding sites were identified. Digital elevation model (DEM) of the PHCs was generated using Cartosat Stereo Pair images and from DEM, slope map was derived to calculate flat area. From slope, aspect map was derived to indicate direction of water flow. Length of perennial streams, area under rocky terrain and buffer zones of 250, 500 and 750 m were constructed around streams. High resolution remote sensing imageries were used to identify micro level breeding sites. Based on macro-micro breeding sites, six villages from each PHC were selected randomly having combination of different parameters representing all ecotypes. Entomological data were collected during 2010–11 in pre- and post-monsoon seasons following standard techniques and analyzed statistically. Differential analysis was attempted to comprehend socioeconomic and other determinants associated with malaria transmission. Results: The study identified eight risk factors responsible for higher malaria endemicity in Bundu in comparison to Angara PHC based on ecological, entomological, socioeconomic and other local parameters. Conclusion: Focused interventions in integrated vector management (IVM) mode are required to be carried out in the district for better management and control of disease

A Theoretical Study on Landslide in India: It's Causes & Preventions

<p>      <i>Landslides stem from the failure of materials making up the hill slopes and are beefed up by the force of gravity. When the ground becomes saturated, it can become unstable, losing its equilibrium in the long run. That's when a landslide breaks loose. When people are living down these hills or mountains, it's usually just a matter of time before disaster happens. Landslides are a natural phenomenon, but it involves many human activities which lead to the mass movement of landmass.</i></p&gt

Experimental evidence of enhancement in the anticipation time by cascading

We have studied and verified experimentally the enhancement in the anticipation time by cascading Chua's circuits. The experiments have been carried out in a one dimensional array of Chua's circuits (2 to 8) coupled unidirectionally, such that each one acts as a master for the next one. By doing so, it has been observed that the anticipation time increases with an increase in the array size. Moreover, the numerical simulations of an array of eighty Chua's circuits verify the experimental observations. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Revealing the Impact of Prestructural Ordering in GaSb Thin Films

International audienceFor phase change materials (PCMs) to become a viable universal memory candidate and obsolete von-Neumann architecture, materials with very low crystallization speed are needed. Moreover, introducing pre-structural ordering inside the material is also being touted as one of the promising techniques to reach the speed of SRAM or further down. In this aspect, GaSb alloys are showing much promise for not only having very low crystallization times by themselves and also showing an enormous drop in the programming time while crystallizing the re-amorphized material. Here we demonstrate how the threshold switching behaviour changes for the fully amorphous film in contrast with the disordered film with nucleation sites using conductive-Atomic Force Microscopy. It is found that the required power and programming current for memory switching with nominally stoichiometric GaSb (44:56) are 23 nW and 6.2 nA, respectively. As expected for a nucleation oriented PCM, the deposited thin film has two voltage thresholds during the local programming process, one for conduction and another for memory switching. However, when the nucleation sites are introduced inside the disordered film, the conduction and memory switching become simultaneous. This is also found to be reducing threshold power and SET current by 93% (1.5 nW) and 91% (550 pA), respectively. Furthermore, we also reveal the origin behind this behavioural change observed between these two thin films by using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy