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

Study of Ni and Zn doped CeOFeAs: Effect on the structural transition and specific heat capacity

We have systematically studied the substitution of nonmagnetic Zn and magnetic Ni at iron sites in Ce based oxypnictide. The parent compound (CeOFeAs) shows an anomaly in resistivity around 150 K due to structural transition from tetragonal (space group: P4/nmm) to orthorhombic structure (space group: Cmma). Substitution of Zn suppresses this anomaly to lower temperature (~130 K) but Ni substitution does not show any anomaly around this temperature and the compound behaves like a metal. Further, we find that non magnetic (Zn) doping leads to higher impurity scattering as compared to magnetic Ni doping. Similar to the resistivity measurement, the specific heat shows another jump near 4 K for CeOFeAs. This is attributed to the ordering of Ce3+ moments. This peak shifts to 3.8 K for Zn substituted compound and there is no change in the ordering temperature in the Ni substituted CeOFeAs. These peaks are broadened in applied magnetic field (5 T) and the calculated magnetic entropy tends to saturate at the same value for 0 T and 5 T external magnetic field.Comment: 16 pages Text+Fig

Characterization and diversity assessment in coconut collections of Pacific Ocean Islands and Nicobar Islands

Characterization and genetic diversity assessment among 30 conserved coconut accessions collected from Pacific Ocean Islands and Nicobar Islands for morphological traits, physico-chemical traits of tender nut water, leaf biochemical parameters and molecular characterization by using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were undertaken at World Coconut Germplasm Centre, Andaman. Significant variations were observed for most morphological and nut component traits. Out of the 30 accessions characterized, four accessions, namely, Niu Leka, Hari Papua, Niu Oma and Nikkore were dwarfs among which Niu Leka was identified as a unique dwarf with higher copra content. A dendrogram of genetic relationship obtained through RAPD markers showed distinct variation with 66% in all accessions. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) value of 13 selected primers was 0.29 and maximum and minimum PIC values was 0.46 and 0.17 for primers OPF-19 and OPH-25, respectively. Cluster analysis by UPGMA method grouped the accessions into two major clusters. The results will be useful in the selection among these conserved accessions for specific traits for future utilization in crop improvement initiatives based on their performance for different desirable traits and the level of diversity.Key words: Coconut, genetic diversity, characterization, RAPD, cluster analysis

OMDT Design and Implementation Documentation

The purpose of this document is to outline the requirements, design and development of the Online Mathematics Diagnostic Tool (OMDT) while helping the client obtain a better understanding of the project. The intended audience for this document is the Learning Management System (LMS) Team at The University of the South Pacific (USP) and the Faculty of Science Technology and Environment (FSTE) Administration Office. Within this document, readers can find information about our general project concepts, a list of functional and non-functional requirements, examples of our graphical user interfaces (GUI), as well as information on the implementation schedule

Observation-based 3-D view of aerosol radiative properties over Indian Continental Tropical Convergence Zone: Implications to regional climate

Spatial vertical distributions of aerosol radiative properties over Indian Continental Tropical Convergence Zone (CTCZ) up to 6 km altitude during the pre-monsoon monsoon seasons of 2008 have been measured reported for the first time. Inter-seasonal intra-seasonal comparisons of different aerosol properties below above the boundary layer are carried out in among different regions of CTCZ. During pre-monsoon, aerosol layers were found to be present up to altitude as high as 6 km over the Indo-Gangetic Plains Himalayan foothills. A large increase in absorption coefficients (by two to five times) near the Himalayan foothills coastal India than the background values may be attributed to extensive biomass burning as supported by fire counts data. During monsoon, the aerosols were mostly confined to lower troposphere. However, absorbing aerosols were found to rebuild much faster than scattering aerosols after rains. Heating rates were very high over urban city of Bareilly peaking around 2 km during the pre-monsoon. The HR values over urban Kanpur during monsoon were comparable to Bareilly during pre-monsoon. Negligible latitudinal gradient of heating rate from the Himalayan foothill to central India was observed during both the seasons

Electrophoretic Analysis of Indian Isolates of Mycoplasma agalactiae

Mycoplasma agalactiae and Mycoplasma bovis both are responsible for respiratory conditions in sheep and goats. M. agalactiae is a major pathogen of sheep and goats and accounts for almost 90% of outbreaks of contagious agalactia syndrome in goats and almost 100% in sheep. On the basis of clinical signs and cultural, morphological, and biochemical characterization it is almost impossible to differentiate between both the species. Moreover, due to presence of genomic and proteomic similarity most of the time routine diagnostic tests fail to differentiate between them. Hence the present study was conducted to find out the protein profile of isolates of both the species by SDS-PAGE and to find out the cross-reacting as well as differentiating immunogenic proteins by Immunoblotting, which can be of immunoprophylactic as well as diagnostic values. The study revealed 6-7 major immunogenic cross-reactive proteins with the presence of two important non-cross-reacting species specific polypeptides particularly 25.50 and 24.54 kDa in M. agalactiae and M. bovis, respectively, that might be of diagnostic values

Regional Inequality in India in the 1990s: A District-Level View

This paper examines changes in regional inequality in India in the 1990s, using data for 210 of India's districts, spread across nine states. It provides a finer-grained quantitative analysis of growth patterns than has hitherto been attempted for India. The methodology is that of cross-section growth regressions, which seek to explain longer-run growth rates in terms of initial conditions of development. By identifying these connections, the study seeks to illuminate the role of aspects of physical infrastructure, financial development and human capital in influencing regional patterns of growth. In turn, this may have implications for government policies at the national and state levels. We find no evidence for divergence, but evidence for growth convergence in some cases, dependent on initial conditions. The district level results are supportive of the importance of literacy, and access to finance and roads. The methodology can be used to identify districts which may require additional policy intervention along these dimensions, as well as districts where the performance is worse than the average, even after conditioning on development measures, suggesting other causes of backwardness

Burden and predictors of hypertension in India: results of SEEK (Screening and Early Evaluation of Kidney Disease) study

Background: Hypertension (HTN) is one of the major causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The objective of the study was to investigate the burden and predictors of HTN in India. Methods: 6120 subjects participated in the Screening and Early Evaluation of Kidney disease (SEEK), a community-based screening program in 53 camps in 13 representative geographic locations in India. Of these, 5929 had recorded blood pressure (BP) measurements. Potential predictors of HTN were collected using a structured questionnaire for SEEK study. Results: HTN was observed in 43.5% of our cohort. After adjusting for center variation (p < 0.0001), predictors of a higher prevalence of HTN were older age ≥40 years (p < 0.0001), BMI of ≥ 23 Kg/M2 (p < 0.0004), larger waist circumference (p < 0.0001), working in sedentary occupation (p < 0.0001), having diabetes mellitus (p < 0.0001), having proteinuria (p < 0.0016), and increased serum creatinine (p < 0.0001). High school/some college education (p = 0.0016), versus less than 9th grade education, was related with lower prevalence of HTN. Of note, proteinuria and CKD were observed in 19% and 23.5% of HTN subjects. About half (54%) of the hypertensive subjects were aware of their hypertension status. Conclusions: HTN was common in this cohort from India. Older age, BMI ≥ 23 Kg/M2, waist circumference, sedentary occupation, education less, diabetes mellitus, presence of proteinuria, and raised serum creatinine were significant predictors of hypertension. Our data suggest that HTN is a major public health problem in India with low awareness, and requires aggressive community-based screening and education to improve health

Epidemiology and risk factors of chronic kidney disease in India – results from the SEEK (Screening and Early Evaluation of Kidney Disease) study

Background: There is a rising incidence of chronic kidney disease that is likely to pose major problems for both healthcare and the economy in future years. In India, it has been recently estimated that the age-adjusted incidence rate of ESRD to be 229 per million population (pmp), and >100,000 new patients enter renal replacement programs annually. Methods: We cross-sectionally screened 6120 Indian subjects from 13 academic and private medical centers all over India. We obtained personal and medical history data through a specifically designed questionnaire. Blood and urine samples were collected. Results: The total cohort included in this analysis is 5588 subjects. The mean ± SD age of all participants was 45.22 ± 15.2 years (range 18–98 years) and 55.1% of them were males and 44.9% were females. The overall prevalence of CKD in the SEEK-India cohort was 17.2% with a mean eGFR of 84.27 ± 76.46 versus 116.94 ± 44.65 mL/min/1.73 m2 in non-CKD group while 79.5% in the CKD group had proteinuria. Prevalence of CKD stages 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 was 7%, 4.3%, 4.3%, 0.8% and 0.8%, respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of CKD was observed to be 17.2% with ~6% have CKD stage 3 or worse. CKD risk factors were similar to those reported in earlier studies. It should be stressed to all primary care physicians taking care of hypertensive and diabetic patients to screen for early kidney damage. Early intervention may retard the progression of kidney disease. Planning for the preventive health policies and allocation of more resources for the treatment of CKD/ESRD patients are imperative in India