Development of a scale for factors causing delays in infrastructure projects in India

The objective of the paper is to develop a validated scale to measure the factors that cause delays in infrastructure projects. The study employed a standard three phase scale development procedure of Churchill (1979) which was augmented subsequently by Nunnally, Bernstein and Berge (1994) and Prakash and Phadtare (2018). In phase one, 73 factors that cause delays were identified, which were reduced to 45 based on literature review and expert opinions. These 45 factors were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in phase two and three, respectively, to refine and establish convergent, discriminant and nomological validity of the scale. The study confirms that delays in infrastructure projects happen due to six factors, i.e., Contractor Related Factors (CON); Consultant Related Factors (CS); External Factors (EX); Labour Related Factors (LR); Material Related Factors (MT) and Design Related Factors (DJ). The study is particularly useful for the firms engaged in the development of infrastructure projects globally, as it identifies and ranks the factors that cause delays in a project. However, the study being confirmatory in nature only confirms the grouping of factors causing delays and is also limited by the possibility of sampling error.&nbsp

Management of Tall Wet Grasslands in Dudwa National Park, Uttar Pradesh, Indian \u3cem\u3eTerai\u3c/em\u3e Protected Areas–Conservation Implications

Tall wet grasslands in the northern alluvial flood plains of the river Ganges and Brahmaputra are popularly known as Terai grasslands. Dudhwa National Park, Uttar Pradesh,India, is a moist deciduous forest dominated by sal (Shorea robusta) interspersed with numerous swamps and tall, wet grasslands dominated by Saccharum, Narenga, Sclerostachya, Imperata and Typha species. Common management practices used by the Dudhwa National Park Management include: (1) grass cut and burned; (2) grass cut, removed, and burned; (3) grass harrowed and burned; and (4) grass burned for tall wet grasslands. In this study split plots of 100 m x 260 m were used to assess the effects of these burning treatments. Twelve data sets covering different seasons were collected from April 1998 to January 2001 wherein 150 plots (5 treatments x 10 plots x 3 replicates) were sampled. The paper provides information on diversity, distribution, succession and the adaptive management practices of the Terai tall wet grasslands. The study indicated that Desmostachya bipinnata, a species of poor value to wildlife and local people, showed increased abundance and aboveground biomass at the cost of other preferred prominent grass species in the managed plots, particularly the harrowed-burned treatment. The resultant likely change of the Upland grassland predominated by Imperata cylindrica and the Sclerostachya fusca, Saccharum narenga and Saccharum spontaneum dominated Lowland grassland to Desmostachya bipinnata due to repeated harrowed-burned treatment is a major management concern. This calls for a regular monitoring of the species composition and their abundance. Harrowing should be completely avoided

Cu2+ uptake by Chlorococcum hemicolum - A Xeric Chlorophycean Alga

Bioremediation of copper by xeric chlorophycean bioremediator, Chlorococcum hemicolum was investigated. The growth rates at various concentrations of Cu2+ were assessed in terms of protein level and 8 mg L-1 (37.67 % level in growth kinetics) is the tolerance limit. Absorption/adsorption kinetics was estimated after 240 hrs of Cu2+ treatments. Absorptions were higher than adsorption with maximum accumulation factor (AF) of 1.40. The Cu2+ concentration and absorption were linearly related (r = 0.99; p>0.01). Other biochemical parameters like total sugar, chlorophyll and carotenoids were also quantified to correlate the state of metabolism and these exhibited reduction due to heavy metal stress

Development of Feed-Forward Back-Propagation Neural Model to Predict the Energy and Exergy Analysis of Solar Air Heater

In the present work, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model has been developed to predict the energy and exergy efficiency of a roughened solar air heater (SAH).  Total fifty data sets of samples, obtained by conducting experiments on SAHs with three different specification of wire-rib roughness on the absorber plates, have been used in this work. These experimental data and calculated values of thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency have been used to develop an ANN model. Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) and Scaled Conjugate Gradient (SCG) learning algorithm were used to train the proposed ANN model. Six numbers of neurons were found with LM learning algorithm in the hidden layer as the optimal value on the basis of statistical error analysis. In the input layer, the time of experiments, mass flow rate, ambient temperature, mean temperature of air, absorber plate temperature and solar radiation intensity have been taken as input parameters; and energy efficiency and exergy efficiency have been taken as output parameters in the output layer. The 6-6-2 neural model has been obtained as the optimal model for prediction. Performance predictions using ANN were compared with the experimental data and a close agreement was observed. Statistical error analysis was used to evaluate the results.Citation: Ghritlahre, H. K. (2018). Development of feed-forward back-propagation neural model to predict the energy and exergy analysis of solar air heater. Trends in Renewable Energy, 4, 213-235. DOI: 10.17737/tre.2018.4.2.007

A REVIEW ON PREVENTIVE MEASURES IN HYPERTENSIVE CHILDREN

Considerable advances have been made in detection, evaluation, and management of high blood pressure, or hypertension, in children and adolescents. Because of the development of a large national database on normative blood pressure (BP) levels throughout childhood, the ability to identify children who have abnormally elevated BP has improved. Still perusal to Ayurvedic texts provides no straight reference to hypertension but on tunneling down the texts and arranging the scattered references from different texts, this is evident that Hridya and process of Rasa Vikshepa or Anudhavana by Vyana vayu has become helpful to understand the hypertension. Based on developing evidence, it is now apparent that primary hypertension is detectable in the young and occurs commonly. The long-term health risks for hypertensive children and adolescents can be substantial; therefore, it is important that preventive measures be taken to reduce these risks and optimize health outcomes, which are discussed in this paper

Does the UK sport delivery system's approach to sport provision influence individuals’ sport participation and their outcomes differently? A case study of a County Sport Partnership in England

There is a lack of knowledge on how alternative forms of sports facility provision influences end user's sports and physical activity behaviour, and the consequent impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital. To address this knowledge gap, this thesis has undertaken a multi-level analysis of the sport delivery system. It examines if strategic priorities and objectives pursued by different types of sport and fitness facilities, that are being influenced by macro level forces, along with their characteristics and ownership, influences individuals sport participation behaviour with a potential consequent impact on the policy outcomes of health, well-being and social capital. In the UK recently, sport policy objectives have focussed on increasing the population s participation in sport and physical activity to enhance a range of outcomes including health, well-being and social capital. Over the last three decades, there has also been significant changes in sport provision with the growth of private sector facilities, and public sector facilities being outsourced to private management. However, there is no evidence of the effectiveness of these alternative arrangements in delivering the policy objectives. There is limited knowledge on how different agents and actors in the sport delivery system function collectively to achieve these objectives or not, and a multi-level analysis of the sport delivery system i.e., from policy, through facilities, to end users does not exist. This gap in knowledge is addressed in this thesis through the adoption of a mixed methods case study of Leicestershire and Rutland Sport-County Sport Partnership (LRS-CSP) region in the midlands of England. The sport participation of individuals who use differently owned and managed sport and fitness facilities in the LRS-CSP region is examined, and the impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital, from macro level (policy), meso level (facilities), and micro level (end users) perspectives. Data collected at these levels involves, semi-structured interviews with the regional managers (macro level) who are responsible for the development and provision of sport in the region, a quantitative survey involving the facility managers (meso level) who are responsible for the day-to-day activities of the facilities, and quantitative survey and focus groups of end users in the region (micro level). Surveys done at the meso and the micro level are matched to the facilities of a variety of different ownership and characteristics to explore the influence this might have on individuals participation frequency and the impact this has on their health, well-being and social capital. The results show that government and public sport agencies priorities towards the sports sector which operate at the macro level of the sport delivery system influence the strategic objectives pursued by different types of sport and fitness facilities that are responsible for sport provision at the meso level of the sport delivery system. Public sport agencies and government bodies through their policies seem to have a significant influence over public sector including LMC facilities strategic decision making. However, this is not the case for the private sector facilities. Neither the strategic objectives of facilities nor their ownership and characteristics are shown to have a significant difference on the users sport participation behaviour, nor on the sport policy outcomes of their health, well-being and social capital. The largest influence on sport participation seems to be when individuals engage in sport with those they meet at the facility, indicating that facilitation of the co-creation of social capital among individuals could play a bigger role in increasing participation levels. Along with this, results also show that sport participation has a direct positive influence on individuals health which then enhances their well-being and social capital. This thesis contributes towards the long-standing debate about the relative value of different ownership types that span the public, private, and LMCs and their relationship with performance . The findings of the thesis suggest that, providing general availability of space for sport and fitness activities and by facilitating a network of opportunities with others and across activities is important in achieving the policy outcomes of improved participation and the consequent positive impact this has on health, well-being and social capital, and should be given priority in sport provision