Rock Mass Evaluation of the Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) Dam and Underground Powerhouse, India

Geotechnical evaluation of the 163 m high concrete gravity Sardar Sarovar (Narmada) dam, under construction, and 1200 MW underground powerhouse (210m x 23m x 57.5m) and its ancillary structures has been done. The dam and powerhouse sites are occupied by basalt flows underlain by infra-trappean sedimentary rocks (Bagh beds) intruded by basic dykes. The area is structurally complex and seismically active. Intra-formational shears and sub-horizontal to low dipping weak layers like red bole, tuff, argillaceous sandstone having low values of shear parameters posed the problem of sliding stability of dam blocks. Concrete shear keys were provided as one of the remedial measures. Differential settlement was apprehended in the foundation of dam having varying physicoengineering properties and rock mass characteristics. Reinforced concrete mats were provided to treat the weathered and sheared rock mass and 34.5m deep reinforced concrete plug to prevent differential settlement of dam blocks located on river channel (dam base) fault. The horizontal seismic coefficient adopted for the dam is 0.125g. The construction of 1200 MW underground powerhouse located in basalt is nearing completion. During progressive excavation of the machine hall (cavern) cracks were observed in the 57.5m high shotcreted walls. Additional longer rock bolts/ cables/ tendons were provided as remedial measures. Draft tube and exit tunnels are passing through dolerite rocks dissected by chlorite-coated joints and slaked rock zones. Rib supports were introduced after observing behaviour of the rock mass and collapses in part of these tunnels

The Analysis and Extraction of Structure from Organizational Charts

Organizational charts, also known as org charts, are critical representations of an organization's structure and the hierarchical relationships between its components and positions. However, manually extracting information from org charts can be error-prone and time-consuming. To solve this, we present an automated and end-to-end approach that uses computer vision, deep learning, and natural language processing techniques. Additionally, we propose a metric to evaluate the completeness and hierarchical accuracy of the extracted information. This approach has the potential to improve organizational restructuring and resource utilization by providing a clear and concise representation of the organizational structure. Our study lays a foundation for further research on the topic of hierarchical chart analysis

An analysis of surgically treated cutaneous malignancies in central India

Background: Cutaneous malignancies constitute one of the most common human malignancies. Annually, more than 400,000 people are diagnosed to have skin cancer. The skin cancers are classified into melanomas and non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC). In India, skin cancers constitute about 1-2% of all the diagnosed cancers. The present study was undertaken on 41 patients presented to tertiary health centre to measure the frequency of cutaneous malignancies in our set up, analyse the demographic profile of the patients, assess the associated morbidity and mortality, formulate the treatment protocols and collect actionable evidence base for evolving useful strategies to address this emerging public health issue.Methods: Present study was carried out in the Department of surgical oncology, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (SAIMS), Central India during the period from Jan 2015 to Dec 2017. The patients included in this study fulfilled the inclusion criteria which was first who presented with cutaneous malignancy confirmed by histopathology and surgical intervention.Results: Out of a total of 41 patients with various cutaneous malignancies, 53.7% (n=22) were males while 46.3 % (n=19) were females. The mean age was 53.92 years. There were 24 cases of SCC, 4 cases of BCC, 5 cases of malignant melanoma, two cases of malignant fibrous histiocytoma, two cases of sebaceous and one case each of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, epithelioma, capillary haemangioma and poorly differentiated carcinoma respectively. Face was the most frequent site of involvement (n=17), followed by trunk (n=6), scalp (n=5), lower limb (n=5), genital (n=4), upper limb (n=3) and neck (n=1).Conclusions: Cutaneous malignancies are not uncommon in our set up. In our set up, SCC constitutes the leading type. Painless skin lesion of a relatively long duration is the usual presenting feature. There is intense need of mass awareness and to impart knowledge about the medical and socioeconomic implications of this emerging health issue. This will not only help to prevent the avoidable causes but also prompt early medical consultation in case an individual develops such skin lesions.

Thermal characteristics of streaming potential mediated flows of non-newtonian fluids with asymmetric boundary conditions and steric effect

Electrokinetic flows through narrow confinements have mostly been studied with symmetric boundary conditions on the walls even though in practice it is very common to have these walls made of different materials which in turn lead to different surface charge conditions on them. Such a dearth of studies is particularly acute in streaming potential flows which are naturally predisposed to strongly influence even simple pressure-driven flows in such narrow confinements. Further, the very nature of the fluid may, in general cases, be of non-Newtonian nature; this is especially true for biomedical assays. Motivated by this, we address a model problem of a streaming potential mediated flow of a power-law fluid through a slit channel having different boundary conditions. Additionally, as an important new contribution to this line of investigation, we study the thermal characteristics of such flow. Noting, pertinently, that the streaming potential effects are especially stronger for high values of the surface charge (which translates into high magnitudes of the zeta potential), we present a general framework that incorporates steric effects of the ions. This is done to avoid the unphysical ionic distributions predicted by the traditional Boltzmann approximation

The study of cutaneous malignancies at a tertiary care hospital in central india

Background: There has been an alarming rise in the incidence of various diseases including that of cancer in the world with increase in the incidence of cutaneous malignancies owing to various changes that have taken place in the society over the past few years with respect to the culture, the lifestyle and also a contributory role has been played by the changes in the atmosphere as a result of increase in the air pollutants in the environment. Based on the scenario, we decided to conduct a study to evaluate the presentation and the management cutaneous malignancies in a teaching hospital set up in central india.Methods: A retrospective study was conducted between the time period of 1 year on the records of patients who were diagnosed with cutaneous and related malignancies who were treated at our Institute on a predesigned semi structured performa. SPSS version 23.0 was used for the analysis of the data collected.Results: We evaluated a total of 29 cases, Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was the most common histological type (51.72%) followed by melanoma (27.59%) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC, 20.69%). 75.86% of patients with cutaneous malignancies were males and 24.14% were females. Mortality rate observed was 13.7%.Conclusions: The most common cutaneous malignancy seen in this study was squamous cell carcinoma having increased propensity towards males than females. Rate of loco-regional disease and median disease-free survival is directly dependent on the adequacy of disease-free surgical margin and to the limited extent on the adjuvant therapy

Hydrodynamic Interaction Enhances Colonization of Sinking Nutrient Sources by Motile Microorganisms

In this study, we document hydrodynamics-mediated trapping of microorganisms around a moving spherical nutrient source such as a settling marine snow aggregate. There exists a range of size and excess density of the nutrient source, and motility and morphology of the microorganism under which hydrodynamic interactions enable the passive capture of approaching microorganisms onto a moving nutrient source. We simulate trajectories of chemotactic and non-chemotactic bacteria encountering a sinking marine snow particle effusing soluble nutrients. We calculate the average nutrient concentration to which the bacteria are exposed, under regimes of strong and weak hydrodynamic trapping. We find that hydrodynamic trapping can significantly amplify (by ≈40%) the nutrient exposure of bacteria, both chemotactic and non-chemotactic. The subtle interactions between hydrodynamic and chemotactic effects reveal non-trivial variations in this “hydrodynamic amplification,” as a function of relevant biophysical parameters. Our study provides a consistent description of how microorganism motility, fluid flow and nutrient distribution affect foraging by marine microbes, and the formation of biofilms on spherical nutrient sources under the influence of fluid flow

Corrigendum to “Discovery of novel interacting partners of PSMD9, a proteasomal chaperone: Role of an Atypical and versatile PDZ-domain motif interaction and identification of putative functional modules” [FEBS Open Bio 4 (2014) 571–583]

10.1016/j.fob.2015.06.010FEBS Open Bio5731-73