Influence of Material Variability on the Seismic Response of Pile Foundation

Pile foundation response during earthquakes is strongly affected by the type of material used in pile construction. In the present study three different types of materials viz. concrete, wood and bamboo are used to construct pile foundation. Specimens of clean sand and clay soil are used to prepare the soil for test and the physical properties of that soil are evaluated. Next, earthquake response analyses are conducted to clarify the effect of the nonlinear soil-pile foundation system on the performance of pile foundation. The input shaking included sinusoidal earthquake accelerations. Pile displacement, acceleration, strain and earth pressure are found out using PULSE and MICRON software. Performance evaluation of the pile foundation is discussed on the basis of pile curvature.   Keywords: Soil-pile interaction, pile material, shake table test, curvature, PULSE, MICRON

Formulation Of A Nutritious Cake By Using Chia Seed Flour Along With Oat Milk And Coconut Sugar

 Cake is a soft and fluffy food product that is a very tasty and delicious food for not only children but also for all age groups. Generally, the cake contains a high amount of sugar and carbohydrates. To make a healthy and nutritious cake for all, some ingredients can be modified to produce a newly developed cake. Chia seed flour can be used which is enriched with high fiber can improve cardiovascular health, promotes intestinal health, and reduces cholesterol levels. Another ingredient is coconut sugar a plant-based natural sweetener that can be used as a substitute for table sugar and is also a rich source of some minerals and would help to prevent blood sugar levels and to reduce depression and anxiety. In this study, cake prepared with chia seed four, coconut sugar, and oats milk has good nutritive value and good sensory acceptance

Formulation of Seismic Passive Resistance of Non-Vertical Retaining Wall Backfilled

The seismic passive earth pressure is really the most important parameter in some special cases like key analysis, anchor analysis, foundation analysis etc. The simultaneous action of weight, surcharge, cohesion and adhesion is also taken into consideration. A visual presentation is made by plotting graphs with the wide range of variation Parameters like angle of internal friction, angle of wall friction, wall inclination angle, cohesion (c), adhesion (ca), seismic accelerations (kh, kv), surcharge loading (q), unit weight, height (H) to provide the variation of seismic passive earth pressure coefficient. Keywords: Pseudo-static, seismic passive resistance, single wedge, rigid retaining wall, wall inclination

Soil Carbon Restoration through Conservation Agriculture

Poor soil fertility and soil degradation induced by persistent conventional farming with repeated tillage and removal or in situ burning of crop residue are major limitations to food security and environmental sustainability. However, degraded agricultural lands with depleted soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks are capable of soil carbon restoration through improved management practices like aggregation, humification and deep placement of C that can increase SOC seques-tration. According to FAO, conservation agriculture (CA) is arrived at as a solution to restore SOC with three pillars of minimum soil disturbance, permanent organic soil cover and diversified crop rotations. A significant increase in SOC levels under zero tillage (ZT) over conventional tillage (CT) was found; returning more crop residues to the soil is associated with an increase in SOC concentration that is further increased by crop diversification. Additionally, the incorporation of high-value trees with CA is treated as a working model for C storage. Thus, conservation agriculture is an operational approach to restore SOC that aggrades soil, reduces environmental footprints and makes agricultural systems more resilient to climate change

Effect of Climate Change on Aquatic Ecosystem and Production of Fisheries

The exploitation of nature for decades due to several anthropogenic activities has changed the climatic conditions worldwide. The environment has been polluted with an increase of greenhouse gases. The major consequences are global warming, cyclone, an increase in sea level, etc. It has a clear negative impact on the natural environment including aquatic ones. As a result, production of fish in the aquaculture system and marine system is greatly affected. Marine ecosystems like coral reefs are also destroyed. Decreased fish production has also affected the livelihood and economic condition of the fish farmers. So, corrective measures should be taken to reduce the climate changes for minimizing its effects on fish production. Using more eco-friendly substances, planting more trees, and preserving our nature are some steps to be taken. Awareness should also be generated among the common people

Hospital based surveillance and genetic characterization of rotavirus strains in children (<5 years) with acute gastroenteritis in Kolkata, India, revealed resurgence of G9 and G2 genotypes during 2011–2013

AbstractIntroductionIndia accounts for an estimated 457,000–884,000 hospitalizations and 2 million outpatient visits for diarrhea. In spite of the huge burden of rotavirus (RV) disease, RV vaccines have not been introduced in national immunization programme of India. Therefore, continuous surveillance for prevalence and monitoring of the circulating genotypes is needed to assess the disease burden prior to introduction of vaccines in this region.MethodsDuring January 2011 through December 2013, 830 and 1000 stool samples were collected from hospitalized and out-patient department (OPD) patients, respectively, in two hospitals in Kolkata, Eastern India. After primary screening, the G-P typing was done by multiplex semi-nested PCR using type specific primers followed by sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis for the VP7 gene of 25 representative strains was done.ResultsAmong hospitalized and OPD patients, 53.4% and 47.5% cases were positive for rotaviruses, respectively. Unlike previous studies where G1 was predominant, in hospitalized cases G9 rotavirus strains were most prevalent (40%), followed by G2 (39.6%) whereas G1 and G12 occurred at 16.4% and 5.6% frequency. In OPD cases, the most prevalent strain was G2 (40.3%), followed by G1, G9 and G12 at 25.5%, 22.8%, 9.3%, respectively. Phylogenetically the G1, G2 and G9 strains from Kolkata did not cluster with corresponding genotypes of Rotarix, RotaTeq and Rotavac (116E) vaccine strains.ConclusionThe study highlights the high prevalence of RV in children with gastroenteritis in Kolkata. The circulating genotypes have changed over the time with predominance of G9 and G2 strains during 2011-2013. The current G2, G9 and G1 Kolkata strains shared low amino acid homologies with current vaccine strains. Although there is substantial evidence for cross protection of vaccines against a variety of strains, still the strain variation should be monitored post vaccine introduction to determine if it has any impact on vaccine effectiveness

Congenital anomalies of ribs and its clinical significance

Introduction: The thoracic skeleton includes sternum, 12 pairs of ribs and associated costal cartilages, 12 thoracic vertebrae and the intervertebral discs interposed between them. The ribs and costal cartilages form the largest part of the thoracic cage. Congenital anomalies of the ribs usually reported are cervical, lumbar or bifid rib and synostosis of ribs. These abnormalities can cause nervous and vascular symptoms and misinterpretation during counting of ribs in physical examination. Materials and methods: The present study was carried out on 50 dry adult human ribs belonging to both sides. The morphological variations of bones were studied in detail and noted. Results: In first specimen, rib of right side revealed fusion of the two ribs in midshaft region with free anterior and posterior ends and in the second specimen of aleft side rib bifurcation was seen in anterior end. Conclusion: This congenital abnormalities may cause compression of neurovascular bundles at the root of the neck causing thoracic outlet syndrome. This abnormalities may also be an indication for few systemic disorders.So knowledge of this congenital anomalies will be helpful to diagnose systemic diseases and also to avoid misinterpretation during counting of ribs

Application of fuzzy consensus for oral pre-cancer and cancer susceptibility assessment

Health questionnaire data assessment conventionally relies upon statistical analysis in understanding disease susceptibility using discrete numbers and fails to reflect physician’s perspectives and missing narratives in data, which play subtle roles in disease prediction. In addressing such limitations, the present study applies fuzzy consensus in oral health and habit questionnaire data for a selected Indian population in the context of assessing susceptibility to oral pre-cancer and cancer. Methodically collected data were initially divided into age based small subgroups and fuzzy membership function was assigned to each. The methodology further proposed the susceptibility to oral precancers (viz. leukoplakia, oral submucous fibrosis) and squamous cell carcinoma in patients considering a fuzzy rulebase through If-Then rules with certain conditions. Incorporation of similarity measures using the Jaccard index was used during conversion into the linguistic output of fuzzy set to predict the disease outcome in a more accurate manner and associated condition of the relevant features. It is also expected that this analytical approach will be effective in devising strategies for policy making through real-life questionnaire data handling

Community based case-control study of rotavirus gastroenteritis among young children during 2008-2010 reveals vast genetic diversity and increased prevalence of G9 strains in Kolkata.

BACKGROUND:Group A Rotaviruses are a major etiologic agent of gastroenteritis in infants and young children (<5 years) worldwide. Although rotavirus vaccines have been successfully administered in many countries, in India the introduction of rotavirus vaccine in national immunization program was approved in 2014. Since high disease burden and large number of genetic variants have been reported from low income countries including India, monitoring of rotavirus was initiated prior to implementation of the vaccine in the region. METHODS:A total number of 3,582 stool samples were collected from an urban slum community in Kolkata, among which 1,568 samples were obtained from children of ≤ 5 years of age, with moderate to severe diarrhoea and 2,014 samples were collected from age-sex matched healthy neighbourhood controls. Rotavirus positive samples were typed by multiplex semi-nested PCR and nucleotide sequencing. Circulating strains were phylogenetically analyzed. RESULTS:Among 1,568 children with diarrhoea, 395 (25.2%), and among 2,014 asymptomatic children, 42 (2%) were rotavirus positive. G1P[8] was identified as the most common strain (32%) followed by G9P[8] (16.9%), G2P[4] (13.5%) and G9P[4] (10.75%). G12 strains with combinations of P[4], P[6] and P[8] comprised 11.9% of total positive strains. The rest (<10%) were rare and uncommon strains like G1P[4], G1P[6], G2P[8] and animal-like strains G4P[6], G6P[14] and G11P[25]. The 42 rotavirus positive samples from asymptomatic children revealed common genotypes like G1, G2 and G9. CONCLUSION:This community based case-control study showed increased predominance of genotype G9 in Kolkata. It also confirmed co-circulation of a large number of genetic variants in the community. Asymptomatic rotavirus positive children though low in number can also be a source of dispersal of infection in the community. This study provides background information to the policy makers for implementation of rotavirus vaccines in this region