“Comparative Study on Seismic Analysis of R.C Structure with Fixed and Spring Base in Different Zones and Soil Types Considering Soil Structure Interaction”

The nonlinear behavior of soil leads to complexity of a structure during earthquake. In recent trend soil structure interaction is considered only in very few cases and the structure is analyzed under the assumption of fixed or hinged base. Indian Standard Code also do not provide method for seismic analysis based on soil structure interaction since it has complication in analysis procedure. The response of a structure during earthquake is heavily influenced by soil structure interaction. In this study the comparative study on seismic analysis of RC frame structure with fixed and spring base in different zones of India are done taking different soil types and considering soil structure interaction. Two modes of soil structure interaction are considered for the analysis, one is replacing soil by spring and second by considering the whole soil mass. For the analysis purpose SAP 2000 software is used. For soil structure interaction study soil types considered are hard, medium and soft soil. Parameters such as displacement, drift and base shear are considered to determine the influence of soil structure interaction

Size Dependence of the Nonlinear Elastic Softening of Nanoscale Graphene Monolayers under Plane-Strain Bulge Tests: A Molecular Dynamics Study

The pressure bulge test is an experimental technique to characterize the mechanical properties of microscale thin films. Here, we perform constant-temperature molecular dynamics simulations of the plane-strain cylindrical bulge test of nanosized monolayer graphene subjected to high gas pressure induced by hydrogen molecules. We observe a nonlinear elastic softening of the graphene with an increase in hydrogen pressure due to the stretching and weakening of the carbon-carbon bonds; we further observe that this softening behavior depends upon the size of the graphene monolayers. Our simulation results suggest that the traditional microscale bulge formulas, which assume constant elastic moduli, should be modified to incorporate the size dependence and elastic softening that occur in nanosized graphene bulge tests

Academic Needs and Family Factors in the Education of Southeast Asian American Students: Dismantling the Model Minority Myth

The model minority myth is a powerful force in schools. Many teachers believe that Asian American students do not need academic interventions. The purpose of this study was to examine the student achievement of almost a million seventh-grade students from California. The research compared the performance of Southeast Asian Americans, Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese students, on reading and math on the CAT/6 standardized assessment with African American and White American students. Cambodian American and Laotian American students performed significantly lower than their White American peers and compared similarly to their African American peers. Vietnamese American students also scored lower than their White American counterparts on reading. In addition, the study examined the influence of parent education levels, free/reduced lunch status, and ethnicity on academic achievement. A huge achievement gap continues to plague many Southeast Asian American students

Magic structures and quantum conductance of [110] silver nanowires

We investigate the pathway of thinning process for transient [110] nanowires (NWs) of Ag. The result is in good agreement with experimental observations. An unambiguous identification of the structure of a NW requires at least two views along different directions. In the cases where two views of different NW structures are practically the same for very thin NWs which pose experimental difficulty due to small signal-to-noise ratio, our theoretical analysis helps distinguish these structures. On the basis of conductance (G) calculations vis-a-vis the structure of transient NWs, the puzzling experimental observation of fractionally quantized G values is explained by considering the existence of mixed structures for thin wires.open353

Diffusion Brazing of Ti-6Al-4V and Stainless Steel 316L Using AgCuZn Filler Metal

In the present study, vacuum brazing was applied to join Ti-6Al-4V and stainless steel using AgCuZn filler metal. The bonds were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. Mechanical strengths of the joints were evaluated by the shear test and microhardness. It has been shown that shear strength decreased with increasing the brazing temperature and time. The wettability of the filler alloy was increased by enhancing the wetting test temperature. By increasing the brazing temperature various intermetallic compounds were formed in the bond area. These intermetallic compounds were mainly a combination of CuTi and Fe-Cu-Ti. The shear test results verified the influence of the bonding temperature on the strength of the joints based on the formation of different intermetallics in the bond zone. The fracture analysis also revealed different fracture footpath and morphology for different brazing temperatures

Space use, interaction and recursion in a solitary specialized herbivore: a red panda case study

Better understanding of ecology is crucial for the success of an endangered species conservation program. There is little information available on space use, conspecific interactions and recursions by one such species, the red panda Ailurus fulgens. To address this deficiency we used GPS telemetry to examine their home range, core area, home-range overlap, dynamic interactions, and recursive movement, and investigated the effect of sex, age, and body mass on these behaviours across seasons. The median annual home range was 1.41 with nearly a quarter of this range being used as the core area. Sex and reproductive status were the key determinants of space use patterns on a seasonal scale, while body mass and age remained significant correlates for the core area. The home range of males was nearly double that of females, likely because of the polygynous mating system in red pandas. Females avoided overlapping home ranges while males overlapped home range with up to four females, and neighbouring males overlapped nearly half of their ranges. We found rare interactions between males and females outside the mating season. Red pandas showed site fidelity within their territory with seasonal variation across sex classes. We also observed high individual variation in patterns of both space use and recursion. Taken together, these results suggest that differences in biological requirements across seasons determine red panda space use patterns, conspecific interactions and recursion. But forage availability and quality, climatic factors, disturbances and habitat fragmentation are also likely to influence these behaviours, and these need to be investigated

A report on injuries and illnesses among athletes and games officials during XII South Asian Games-2016, Shillong, India

Background: The 12th South Asian Games (SAG) was held from February 5-16, 2016 in Guwahati and Shillong. International level mega-events bring people of different background to a single geographic location after extensive travel. Surveillance and measures for primary and secondary prevention of injuries and illnesses by the organizers and host country is highly desirable. There is no such previous published report on South Asian games. The study was conducted with the aim to analyse the medical arrangements and report injuries and illnesses in athletes and games officials during the South Asian Games-2016 at Shillong venue.Methods: : It is a retrospective study from all daily records of injuries and illnesses reported to the principal referral hospital designated to treat all significant injuries and illnesses for games officials and athletes from all eight participating countries staying in Shillong.Results: Eight major sports were conducted in Shillong that included Badminton, Boxing, Football, Judo, Taekwondo and Wushu. The average age of the injured athletes or ill officials combined was 27.5 years. Male to female ratio was approximately 7:3. There were a total of 65 injuries (59.6%) out of 109 hospital visits including six dislocations involving the upper limbs, but only one athlete required hospitalization. Athletes from three major contact sports namely taekwondo, football and wushu dominated the injured list. A significant number of games officials had injuries and medical illnesses, some requiring hospitalization.Conclusions: Thorough planning for befitting medical care arrangements is indispensable for successful conduct of any major sports event. Significant training, sensitization, preparedness, knowledge-based manpower and infrastructure are needed for adequate medical coverage before, during and after the schedule of any major sports events.

Improved trapping and handling of an arboreal, montane mammal: Red Panda Ailurus fulgens

It is sometimes essential to have an animal in the hand to study some of their ecological and biological characteristics. However, capturing a solitary, cryptic, elusive arboreal species such as the red panda in the wild is challenging. We developed and successfully tested a protocol for tracking, trapping, immobilization, and handling of red pandas in the wild in eastern Nepal. We established a red panda sighting rate of 0.89 panda/day with a capture success rate of 0.6. We trapped and collared one animal in 3.7 days. On average, we took nearly 136 (range 50–317) min to capture an animal after spotting it. Further processing was completed in 38.5 (21–70) min. Before capture, we found it difficult to recognize the sex of the red panda and to differentiate sub-adults above six months from adults. However, body weight, body length, tail length, shoulder height, and chest girth can be used for diagnosis, as these attributes are smaller in sub-adults. Our method is a welfare-friendly way of trapping and handling wild red pandas. We report new morphometric data that could serve as a guide for field identification

Applications of Nature-Inspired Algorithms for Dimension Reduction: Enabling Efficient Data Analytics

In [1], we have explored the theoretical aspects of feature selection and evolutionary algorithms. In this chapter, we focus on optimization algorithms for enhancing data analytic process, i.e., we propose to explore applications of nature-inspired algorithms in data science. Feature selection optimization is a hybrid approach leveraging feature selection techniques and evolutionary algorithms process to optimize the selected features. Prior works solve this problem iteratively to converge to an optimal feature subset. Feature selection optimization is a non-specific domain approach. Data scientists mainly attempt to find an advanced way to analyze data n with high computational efficiency and low time complexity, leading to efficient data analytics. Thus, by increasing generated/measured/sensed data from various sources, analysis, manipulation and illustration of data grow exponentially. Due to the large scale data sets, Curse of dimensionality (CoD) is one of the NP-hard problems in data science. Hence, several efforts have been focused on leveraging evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to address the complex issues in large scale data analytics problems. Dimension reduction, together with EAs, lends itself to solve CoD and solve complex problems, in terms of time complexity, efficiently. In this chapter, we first provide a brief overview of previous studies that focused on solving CoD using feature extraction optimization process. We then discuss practical examples of research studies are successfully tackled some application domains, such as image processing, sentiment analysis, network traffics / anomalies analysis, credit score analysis and other benchmark functions/data sets analysis

Dog Bites in Humans and Estimating Human Rabies Mortality in Rabies Endemic Areas of Bhutan

Dog bites in humans are a public health problem worldwide. We conducted a hospital based questionnaire survey and described the incidence and risk factors for human dog bites in Bhutan. We also estimated the human death rate attributable to rabies in two rabies endemic areas of south Bhutan. Our study shows that dog bites incidents in humans are common in the survey areas. There were significant gender and age differences in bite incidents; males and the children are affected the most. The majority of the victims were bitten by stray dogs, increasing the risk of rabies infection if not treated in time. Our decision tree model predicted 2.23 (95% CI: 1.20–3.59) human deaths from rabies/year, equivalent to an annual incidence of 4.67 (95% CI: 2.53–7.53) deaths/100,000 in the two rabies endemic areas of south Bhutan. In the absence of post exposure prophylaxis, the model predicted 19.24 (95% CI: 13.69–25.14) deaths/year in these two areas. The public should be encouraged to visit hospitals for post exposure prophylaxis following dog bite injury in south Bhutan