Case Study on Landslide Investigations in Himalayas

The great Himalayan mountains are a majestic cluster of several, more or less parallel, hill ranges intervened by numerous vallies and extended plateaus. At the two ends of Himalayan ranges, other mountain ranges converge. Burmese ranges are in the Eastern and Karakoram-Hidkush mountain ranges in the North-Wester end. The individual hill ranges generally present a steep slope towards the plains of India and are more gently inclined towards the north. There are large variations in the geological features of different areas, however, the common phenomena in the landslides occurrence is that they are generally induced by rainfall. In this paper the case history of landslide in limestones at Uttar Pradesh Hill areas and sandstone in Arunachal Pradesh have been presented

A Useful Metaheuristic for Dynamic Channel Assignment in Mobile Cellular Systems

The prime objective of a Channel Assignment Problem (CAP) is to assign appropriate number of required channels to each cell in a way to achieve both efficient frequency spectrum utilization and minimization of interference effects (by satisfying a number of channel reuse constraints). Dynamic Channel Assignment (DCA) assigns the channels to the cells dynamically according to traffic demand, and hence, can provide higher capacity (or lower call blocking probability), fidelity and quality of service than the fixed assignment schemes. Channel assignment algorithms are formulated as combinatorial optimization problems and are NP-hard. Devising a DCA, that is practical, efficient, and which can generate high quality assignments, is challenging. Though Metaheuristic Search techniques like Evolutionary Algorithms, Differential Evolution, Particle Swarm Optimization prove effective in the solution of Fixed Channel Assignment (FCA) problems but they still require high computational time and therefore may be inefficient for DCA. A number of approaches have been proposed for the solution of DCA problem but the high complexity of these proposed approaches makes them unsuitable/less efficient for practical use. Therefore, this paper presents an effective and efficient Hybrid Discrete Binary Differential Evolution Algorithm (HDB-DE) for the solution of DCA Proble

First insights into the phylogenetic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Nepal

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in Nepal. Strain variation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis may influence the outcome of TB infection and disease. To date, the phylogenetic diversity of M. tuberculosis in Nepal is unknown. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We analyzed 261 M. tuberculosis isolates recovered from pulmonary TB patients recruited between August 2009 and August 2010 in Nepal. M. tuberculosis lineages were determined by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) typing and spoligotyping. Drug resistance was determined by sequencing the hot spot regions of the relevant target genes. Overall, 164 (62.8%) TB patients were new, and 97 (37.2%) were previously treated. Any drug resistance was detected in 50 (19.2%) isolates, and 16 (6.1%) were multidrug-resistant. The most frequent M. tuberculosis lineage was Lineage 3 (CAS/Delhi) with 106 isolates (40.6%), followed by Lineage 2 (East-Asian lineage, includes Beijing genotype) with 84 isolates (32.2%), Lineage 4 (Euro-American lineage) with 41 (15.7%) isolates, and Lineage 1 (Indo-Oceanic lineage) with 30 isolates (11.5%). Based on spoligotyping, we found 45 different spoligotyping patterns that were previously described. The Beijing (83 isolates, 31.8%) and CAS spoligotype (52, 19.9%) were the dominant spoligotypes. A total of 36 (13.8%) isolates could not be assigned to any known spoligotyping pattern. Lineage 2 was associated with female sex (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.58, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.42-4.67, p = 0.002), and any drug resistance (aOR 2.79; 95% CI 1.43-5.45; p = 0.002). We found no evidence for an association of Lineage 2 with age or BCG vaccination status. CONCLUSIONS: We found a large genetic diversity of M. tuberculosis in Nepal with representation of all four major lineages. Lineages 3 and 2 were dominating. Lineage 2 was associated with clinical characteristics. This study fills an important gap on the map of the M. tuberculosis genetic diversity in the Asian reg

South African Paediatric Surgical Outcomes Study : a 14-day prospective, observational cohort study of paediatric surgical patients

BACKGROUND : Children comprise a large proportion of the population in sub-Saharan Africa. The burden of paediatric surgical disease exceeds available resources in Africa, potentially increasing morbidity and mortality. There are few prospective paediatric perioperative outcomes studies, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). METHODS : We conducted a 14-day multicentre, prospective, observational cohort study of paediatric patients (aged <16 yrs) undergoing surgery in 43 government-funded hospitals in South Africa. The primary outcome was the incidence of in-hospital postoperative complications. RESULTS : We recruited 2024 patients at 43 hospitals. The overall incidence of postoperative complications was 9.7% [95% confidence interval (CI): 8.4–11.0]. The most common postoperative complications were infective (7.3%; 95% CI: 6.2–8.4%). In-hospital mortality rate was 1.1% (95% CI: 0.6–1.5), of which nine of the deaths (41%) were in ASA physical status 1 and 2 patients. The preoperative risk factors independently associated with postoperative complications were ASA physcial status, urgency of surgery, severity of surgery, and an infective indication for surgery. CONCLUSIONS : The risk factors, frequency, and type of complications after paediatric surgery differ between LMICs and high-income countries. The in-hospital mortality is 10 times greater than in high-income countries. These findings should be used to develop strategies to improve paediatric surgical outcomes in LMICs, and support the need for larger prospective, observational paediatric surgical outcomes research in LMICs. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION : NCT03367832.Jan Pretorius Research Fund; Discipline of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal; Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Groote Schuur Hospital and University of Cape Town; Department of Anaesthesia, University of the Witwatersrand; and the Paediatric Anaesthesia Community of South Africa (PACSA).https://bjanaesthesia.org2020-02-01gl2019Anaesthesiolog

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Not AvailablePhospho-compost (PC) and poultry manure (PM) were evaluated in field experiments to diversify integrated nutrient management (INM) for rain-fed cotton.Seed cotton yield in the PC (2501–2579 kg ha−1)was similar to the recommended INM (2673 kg ha−1) treatment and was significantly better than nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (100% NPK) (2130 kg ha−1) and farmers practice (FP) (1886 kg ha−1). Yield was lower in the PM (2476–2617 kg ha−1) than in the PC. Nutrient uptake was higher in all INM intervention plots due to an improvement in soil nutrient status compared with those receiving 100% NPK. Soil labile carbon values were higher in the INM treatments (333–452 mg kg−1), with a greater magnitude in the PC-amended plots (402–452 mg kg−1). Carbon management index (CMI) values were higher for the INM than treatments NPK and FP. Among INM interventions, PC plots had higher values than the PM.Not Availabl

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Not AvailableThe in£uence of the quality and quantity of diets on the disposition kinetics of albendazole were studied in sheep in two di¡erent experiments. The plasma concentration pro¢les of albendazole sulphoxide and albendazole sulphone were measured following intraruminal administration of albendazole at 5.0 mg/ kg body weight in weaner sheep o¡ered three di¡erent diets: 100% green Sorghum spp., 100% dry mature Cenchrus ciliaris hay and a 50:50 mix of these two diets. The peak plasma concentrations and the availability of the albendazole metabolites, as measured by the area under the concentration^time curve, were signi¢cantly higher (p50.01) in the animals o¡ered exclusively dry fodder compared to other diets. Changing the diet from dry to green fodder resulted in a signi¢cantly lower systemic availability of the drug metabolites. It is suggested that a decreased transit time of the digesta in the bowel on the green diet, with its high water content, limited the systemic availability of the drug by reducing the time available for gastrointestinal absorption. An experiment on the in£uence of di¡erent levels of pretreatment fasting on the pharmacokinetics of albendazole revealed signi¢cantly higher (p50.05) plasma concentrations of the anthelmintically active sulphoxide metabolite from 12 h onwards following administration of the drug in animals subjected to 24 h of pretreatment fasting compared to other groups with pretreatment fasting of 8, 12 or 18 h. The area under the concentration^time curve and the minimum residence time of the drug metabolites were signi¢cantly greater (p50.05) in animals that had been fasted for 24 h. It is suggested that fasting induces a decrease in the £ow of digesta through the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants and prolongs the duration of dissolution of the drug, resulting in enhancement of the absorption of albendazole and of the systemic availability of its metabolites.ICAR and NDD

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Not AvailableThe pharmacokinetics of albendazole was studied in sheep following single oral and intraruminal administration at nematocidal dose rates. The disposition curves of its metabolites indicated increased uptake of the drug in sheep following intraruminal as compared to oral dosing (p50.05). The increased bioavailability of benzimidazole anthelmintics given by the intraruminal route could be exploited for optimizing the use of anthelmintic for sustained parasite control in small ruminants.ICAR and NDD

Facets of coalbed methane reservoir in East Bokaro Basin, India

The East Bokaro Basin of the Damodar valley is a potentially prospective CBM (coalbed methane) play having significant cumulative coal seam thickness, in-situ gas content, vitrinite percentage, and adequate thermal maturity. Successful CBM recovery needs a detailed understanding of the organic content, pore structures/networks, storage properties and gas flow mechanism. The present work attempts to systematically investigate East Bokaro coal for organo-petrographic controls on gas content and generation, variations in sorption capacity and saturation, pore mechanisms, cleat intensity, cleat aperture distribution and spacing. The values of in-situ gas, sorption capacity and methane concentration (C1) vary from 3.52 to 30.93 cc/g (dry ash-free basis), 15.40–32.40 cc/g (dry ash-free basis), and 66–93 vol%, respectively. The atomic ratios H/C and O/C indicate that thermally matured coal seams contain type III-IV kerogen positioned in the dry gas window. The decrease of hydrogen-containing liptinite with increasing depth reveals the function of thermal gradient on the cracking of liptinitic compounds with successive evolution of hydrocarbons and the development of a carbon-rich pore matrix. The H/C ratio is also influenced by the increasing content of vitrinite and reflectance values of deeper coal. More than 63 % of desorbed gas was determined from desorption measurement and low sorption time (τ, mainly <10 days). This demonstrates good diffusion characteristics of the studied coal. It shows the tendency of desorbed gas diffusion from pores reaches to cleat-fractures with negligible influence of secondary mineral infillings. The high-pressure sorption studies of methane on various samples indicate substantial open-pore characteristics, supporting adsorption, diffusion and gas release. The relationship of C3/C1 and C2/C1 ratios demonstrates that the hydrocarbons in coal primarily originated from the thermogenic transformation of organic matter. Such an assessment is also supported by the stable isotope (δ13C1) value that ranges between −22.70 ‰ and −57.30 ‰. However, some of the lighter isotope values (<–50 ‰) indicate a mixed origin of gases, which may be due to the influx of fresh-water to coal associated aquifers carrying bacteria received from local drainage. Geochemically and thermally altered dissolved and partially filled pores, shown by SEM photographs, negligibly influence gas sorption, diffusion, and flow mechanism in coalbeds. The pore network model signifying that the studied coal seams are microstructurally different comprises a lateral difference in pore and cleat/fracture