Understanding Below-replacement Fertility in Kerala, India

Kerala is well-known globally for the unprecedented fertility transition in the Indian subcontinent towards the end of the last century. The state has already reached below-replacement fertility level in the 1990s while the rest of India was experiencing high or mid-level fertility. With this backdrop, an attempt was made in this paper (a) to explore the plausible factors associated with sub-replacement fertility and consequent population momentum in Kerala and (b) to trace their socioeconomic and health policy implications. The underlying factors that led to the fertility transition was explored and discussed in some detail. An enhanced level of human development achieved during the last quarter of the 20th century, mainly through developments in social and health sectors, is likely to be the main contributor. Unlike other states in India, there were historical factors as well that functioned as a catalyst for this, such as widespread education and women's empowerment. As an inevitable demographic impact, population growth due to momentum is expected to be very strong in Kerala with an age-structural transition favouring the old. The so-called ‘demographic dividend’ invoked by the increase of labour-force derived from the youth bulge in the age-structure is being lost in the state due to very limited capital investments and political will. Again, as a direct consequence of population growth, population density in Kerala will take a staggering level of 1,101 persons per sq km in 2026. The ill effects of environmental deterioration and consequent changes in morbidity patterns will have to be dealt with seriously. The very foundations of health policy needs revamping in the light of demographic changes associated with sub-replacement fertility. The tempo of population-ageing is very high in Kerala. The proportion of population aged 60+ years is likely to be 20% in 2026 whereas it will be around 12% only in India. The current level of social and health infrastructure in the state may not be sufficient to cope with the emerging demands of population-ageing since the financial and morbidity burdens of the elderly are already quite high. To conclude, Kerala portrays a typical case of the vagaries of the onset of sub-replacement fertility level in the absence of reasonable structural changes in the economic and health fronts

Production and growth of cultchless oyster spat of Crassostrea madrasensis (Preston) for single oyster culture

In India, edible oyster (Crassostrea madrasensis) farming is being practised by several farmers in central Kerala employing the rack and ren method in the estuaries and backwaters. However, farmed oysters do not find ready marketability due to the high labour costs involved in handling and shucking. The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin, Kerala, has developed the hatchery technology for edible oyster spat production, both cultched and cultchless. Nevertheless, these have not been commercialised due to the fact that spat collection from wild is still the most feasible option in oyster farming. The aim of the present study was to produce cultchless spat in the farm site itself and rear it to commercial size for harvesting uniform sized regular, rounded single oysters

Mesoporous tertiary oxides via a novel amphiphilic approach

We report a facile biomimetic sol-gel synthesis using the sponge phase formed by the lipid monoolein as a structure-directing template, resulting in high phase purity, mesoporous dysprosium- and gadolinium titanates. The stability of monoolein in a 1,4-butanediol and water mixture complements the use of a simple sol-gel metal oxide synthesis route. By judicious control of the lipid/solvent concentration, the sponge phase of monoolein can be directly realised in the pyrochlore material, leading to a porous metal oxide network with an average pore diameter of 10 nm

CFD Analysis of Aerodynamic Drag Effects on Vacuum Tube Trains

Aerodynamic aspects of train shapes suitable for Vacuum Tube Train System are investigated in this paper. Three feasible geometries for the vacuum tube train system have been considered and modelled in three dimensions and have been computationally studied using the commercial software Ansys Fluent. Aerodynamic drag loads on these geometries have been calculated under different tube pressures and speeds of the train, which provide insight on various operating parameters that need to be considered while designing the vacuum tube train system. The present computational research shows that, the suitable vacuum pressure, and different shapes of head and tail of the train have significantly effects the drag force of the vacuum train in the tunnel. Overall, the elliptical train shape with a height to base ratio of 2:1 is more efficient for aerodynamic drag reduction of the vacuum tube train at the vacuum tube pressure of 1013.25 Pa

Flow pumping system for physiological waveforms

A pulsatile flow pumping system is developed to replicate flow waveforms with reasonable accuracy for experiments simulating physiological blood flows at numerous points in the body. The system divides the task of flow waveform generation between two pumps: a gear pump generates the mean component and a piston pump generates the oscillatory component. The system is driven by two programmable servo controllers. The frequency response of the system is used to characterize its operation. The system has been successfully tested in vascular flow experiments where sinusoidal, carotid, and coronary flow waveforms are replicated