History of Tehri Rockfill Dam Design

A 260.5 m high rockfill dam is one of the main components of Tehri Dam Project which is under construction for the last over seventeen years. During this period detailed site investigations have been carried out and design of the dam is kept under constant review. A number of studies are conducted to provide feasible solutions to anticipated problems. The paper describes main design features of the dam mentioning the changes necessitated time to time with regard to these

Treatment of Left Bank Slopes of Ichari Dam

The left bank of Ichari Diversion Dam was anticipated unstable because of toe submergence and drawdown effects after the construction of the dam, on the weak geological formations. Extensive laboratory and field investigations were carried out to determine the extent of stabilising measures needed. The proposals of providing pretensioned steel anchors or alternatively, reinforced concrete shaft anchors were considered in details to obviate the possibility of deep seated slides. The choice fell in favour of R.C. anchors mainly because there is no uncertainty about their in situ strength. These anchors were provided in two rows (one having vertical and other inclined anchors) at 9.0m spacing. The design of these anchors was done as continuous space frame with ultimate load theory. The two rows are connected at the top with a 6.0m thick concrete slab (monolith). A massive concrete retaining wall of 9.0m height rests on this slab with provision of shear keys. Above this elevation, concrete bocks and boulder pitching, with back filters, have been used to stabilise the slope at a gradient of 1.5:1 (H:V) in the hill wash material zone

Behaviour of Ramganga Dams

Two earth and boulder fill dams of height 127.6 m and 72.2 m are major structures of Ramganga River Project. Their foundation rocks are alternations of clayshale and sandrock of Middle Siwaliks. Both have thick core consisting of central zone of crushed clayshale encased by crushed sandrock zones. The clayshale and sandrock available from spillway excavations, just adjacent to these dams, were utilized as dam fill. No major problem except that of seepage control in cut off trench excavation and compaction near abutments, was encountered during construction. Both the dams are well instrumented. Their construction was completed in 1974-75 and the reservoir has nine fillings since then. Observations reveal that phreatic line has not yet been fully established. The stressmeters installed in clay zone of the core of main dam show effective stresses less than half of the overburden effective stresses, thereby indicating arching due to interaction between clay and sand zones of core

Critical Appraisal of Baby Friendly Hospital Initiatives among the beneficiaries of Indore Urban - A Comparative Study

Background: Majority of the women in M.P who breastfeed their babies throw away the colostrum before they begin actual feed. Only 14.9% females feed their babies with in 1/2 an hour (National Family Health Survey-3). In Indore 2 hospitals have been given designation of baby friendly hospital (BFH) namely M.Y. hospital (MYH) which is a tertiary care center, attached to Medical College and District hospital (DH). Objectives: (1) To assess the process of implementation of baby friendly hospital initiative programme. (2) Knowledge, Attitude, Practice regarding breast feeding amongst the beneficiaries. Methods: A comparative study was conducted between two BFH and two NBFH (Non Baby Friendly Hospitals) of Indore. The respondents were categorized into health care providers and beneficiaries. A pretested questionnaire was used to interview the respondents which was made taking into consideration the essential 10 Criteria of BFHI Programme. Results: 89% in BFH and 97% in NBFH were having positive attitude towards colostrum feeding. 81% postnatal mothers in BFH and 96% in NBFH were having knowledge about benefits of exclusive breast feeding. 21% postnatal mothers in BFH and 39% in NBFH initiated breast feeding within ½ an hour. 64 % of mothers in BFH and 62 % mothers in NBFH were practicing exclusive breast Feeding. Conclusion: The above findings show that although designated as BFH, the breast feeding practices remained poor as compared to NBFH. There is an utmost need to reinforce training and constant monitoring of health care providers regarding BFHI

Evaluation of immediate reactions to β lactam antibiotics using a comprehensive diagnostic protocol

Background: β lactam antibiotics are commonly prescribed groups of antibacterial drugs for various infections however the prevalence of its allergic effects is not clear in our country, hence the need for an effective diagnostic protocol to determine immediate hypersensitivity reactions. The objective was to formulate a diagnostic protocol for evaluating immediate drug hypersensitivity to β lactam antibiotics.Methods: A prospective study was conducted at a tertiary care hospital. Adults who were prescribed any class of β lactam antibiotic were included. Non irritating concentrations of the antibiotic as per The European Network on drug Allergy were used. A strict three step diagnostic algorithm with skin prick test followed by intradermal test and drug provocation test, with 20 minutes observation period between each step, to determine cutaneous allergic reactions was followed.Results: The most commonly prescribed drug was cefazolin, followed by ceftriaxone, and cefoperazone + sulbactam combination. The culprit drugs were ceftriaxone in 4 (4.7%) patients, followed by piperacillin + tazobactam combination in 3 (3.5%), amoxicillin + clavulanic acid in 2 (2.3%) and 1 (1.1%) each for cefotaxime and cefepime + tazobactam combination. No patients were positive for skin prick test; 2.4% were positive for intradermal test and 10.6% were positive for drug provocation test.Conclusions: This diagnostic protocol is apt to adequately diagnose immediate reactions to β lactam antibiotics and henceforth can be used effectively in India. However, the skin prick test may be excluded but the intradermal test and drug provocation test is crucial to identify these immediate reactions

Solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation for a pseudoscalar meson in Minkowski space

A new method of solution of the Bethe-Salpeter equation for a pseudoscalar quark-antiquark bound state is proposed. With the help of an integral representation, the results are directly obtained in Minkowski space. Dressing of Green's functions is naturally taken into account, thus providing the possible inclusion of a running coupling constant as well as quark propagators. First numerical results are presented for a simplified ladder approximation

Soil Liquefaction in Nepal-Bihar Earthquake of August 21, 1988

Liquefaction of the soil occurred at many places in the Nepal-Bihar earthquake. In the great earthquake of 1934 in this region, there had also been wide spread liquefaction of soil. Analysis for determining the influence of acceleration level, relative density, particle size and depth of soil on liquefiability of soil has been carried out, using the three most commonly used approaches and the difference in the results brought out