Effects of Wall-Soil-Structure Interaction on Seismic Response of Retaining Wall

Retaining walls have suffered damages under past earthquakes. Usually the analyses do not consider the retained soil’s interaction with the wall, which takes place during dynamic conditions. The consideration makes the wall-soil system more flexible than the wall alone. The conditions of separation of wall (during interactions) again change the dynamic characteristics of the assumed wall-soil system that needs to be addressed. The paper presents a study on the behavior of the retaining wall under static as well as seismic conditions considering above aspects. The wall-soil interaction model incorporates the modeling of interface between them. The system is idealized as a plane strain twodimensional model and base acceleration in the form of typical earthquake motion (Uttarkashi, October 20, 1991, India) is represented as external loading. The study concludes with important results, which are useful for researchers, scientists and those involved in analyses and design of retaining walls

Generalized Fractional Integral of the Product of Two Aleph-Functions

This paper is devoted to the study and develops the generalized fractional integral operators for a new special function, which is called Aleph-function. The considered generalized fractional integration operators contain the Appell hypergeometric function F3 as a kernel. We establish two results of the product of two Aleph-functions involving Saigo-Maeda operators. On account of the general nature of the Saigo-Maeda operators and the Aleph-function, some results involving Saigo, Riemann-Liouville and Erdélyi-Kober integral operators are obtained as special cases of the main result

Evaluation of oil of Cedrus deodara and benzyl benzoate in sarcoptic mange in sheep

Two commonly used acaricidal drugs in India containing oil Cedrus deodara (OCD) and benzyl benzoate (BB), respectively, were used in 24 lambs (3–6 months) naturally infected with Sarcoptes mites. The lambs were divided in three equal groups. Two groups were kept as treated groups and a third as control. Drugs were applied locally on affected parts on alternate days and recovery changes in skin lesions were observed regularly at the time of application. Blood samples from each group were collected and analysed for total erythrocytes, leukocytes, and haemoglobin concentration every 10 d Post treatment (PT). The two treated groups responded to the treatment but recovery in the C. deodara group (CDG) was faster and lesions were free from mites after 5 applications (tenth day) as compared to the seventh application (fourteenth day) in the benzyl benzoate group (BBG). Erythrocyte and leukocyte counts were significantly different in treated groups as compared to control. Animals treated with OCD had significantly more erythrocyte and leukocyte counts compared to control; however, haemoglobin did not show significant difference. Oil of C. deodara was found more efficacious in controlling sarcoptic mange in sheep

Management of red rust thrips, Chaetanophothripssignipennis (Bagnall) in banana

The commercial value of banana is mainly affected by red rust thrips, Chaetanophothripssignipennis(Bagnall) during fruiting phase at maturity. In this context, the trial was framed at F.R.S., N.A.U., Gandevi under ICAR-AICRP (Fruits) programme. The three years data on efficacy of bio-rational pesticides for management of red rust thrips revealed that bud injection of imidacloprid (0.3 ml/ 500 ml water) @ 1 ml/bud exhibited lowest unblemished fruits up to 8.37% over conventional spraying (20.72%) and bunch sleeving method (42.83%). The comparable results on fruit damage (14.83%) was observed with bud injection of azadirachtin (1%) (5 ml/l water) @ 2 ml/bud over conventional spray. The merit of technology furnished higher no. of unblemished fruits (<10%) and original peel superficial appearance remains impassive under bud injection technique with higher benefit cost ratio with very low dose of pesticide provide financial profit to growers and traders. Besides, imidacloprid residue was not detected in harvested fruits and there is no other technology available to remove this malady of banan

Hysteresis Loop Effect on Coronal Index and Solar Flare Index During Solar Cycles 22 and 23

The hysteresis loop effect on the solar activity as coronal index (CI) and solar flare index (SFI) over cosmic ray intensity (CRI) at the low cut-off rigidities neutron monitoring station Oulu on the monthly basis data for the period January 1, 1986 to December 31, 2008 has been studied. It is observed that the shape of the hysteresis loops is varying from solar cycle 22 to 23. The hysteresis loops for solar cycle 23 are broad ovals whereas for solar cycle 22 are nearly flat. A complementary feature of the cosmic ray intensity decreases more rapidly as the increase in solar activity (coronal index and solar flare index). The positive solar polar magnetic parameter (A>0) and negative solar polar magnetic parameter (A<0) is representing the hysteresis loops

Polyethylene Maleate Copolyesters as Coating Materials for Piezoelectric Quartz Crystal-based Chemical Sensors

Polyethylene maleate (PEM) was synthesised by direct polycondensation of maleic anhydride and ethylene glycol in toluene under reflux usingp-toluene sulphonic acid as a catalyst. Structure of PEM was further modified by varying nature of diols and acid components, chain length of glycols, incorporation of aromatic and fluorine groups in the chain. Formation of PEM was monitored by gas chromatography. The parameters like degree of polymerisation, number average molecular weight (Mn), and weight average molecular weight (Mw) were calculated from the extent of reaction and stoichiometric ratio of the reactants. The number average molecular weight was also determined using Knauer vapour pressure osmometer. Cohesive energy, volume, and solubility parameters of PEM-based copolyesters were calculated by group contribution method. These PEM-based copolyesters’ have been evaluated as sorbent-coating materials for the detection of organ0 phosphorus(OP)compo using dimethylmethylphosphonate (DMMP) as model compound and piezoelectric crystal detector. PEMbisphenol A is found to be the most sensitive and potential coating material for the detection of OP compounds using piezoelectric crystal detector. Potential PEM-based copolyesters have been characterised by viscosity, infrared spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, Mn and thermal stability

Scaled free energies, power-law potentials, strain pseudospins and quasi-universality for first-order structural transitions

We consider ferroelastic first-order phase transitions with $N_{OP}$ order-parameter strains entering Landau free energies as invariant polynomials, that have $N_V$ structural-variant Landau minima. The total free energy includes (seemingly innocuous) harmonic terms, in the $n = 6 -N_{OP}$ {\it non}-order-parameter strains. Four 3D transitions are considered, tetragonal/orthorhombic, cubic/tetragonal, cubic/trigonal and cubic/orthorhombic unit-cell distortions, with respectively, $N_{OP} = 1, 2, 3$ and 2; and $N_V = 2, 3, 4$ and 6. Five 2D transitions are also considered, as simpler examples. Following Barsch and Krumhansl, we scale the free energy to absorb most material-dependent elastic coefficients into an overall prefactor, by scaling in an overall elastic energy density; a dimensionless temperature variable; and the spontaneous-strain magnitude at transition $\lambda <<1$. To leading order in $\lambda$ the scaled Landau minima become material-independent, in a kind of 'quasi-universality'. The scaled minima in $N_{OP}$-dimensional order-parameter space, fall at the centre and at the $N_V$ corners, of a transition-specific polyhedron inscribed in a sphere, whose radius is unity at transition. The `polyhedra' for the four 3D transitions are respectively, a line, a triangle, a tetrahedron, and a hexagon. We minimize the $n$ terms harmonic in the non-order-parameter strains, by substituting solutions of the 'no dislocation' St Venant compatibility constraints, and explicitly obtain powerlaw anisotropic, order-parameter interactions, for all transitions. In a reduced discrete-variable description, the competing minima of the Landau free energies induce unit-magnitude pseudospin vectors, with $N_V +1$ values, pointing to the polyhedra corners and the (zero-value) center.Comment: submitted to PR

Unconventional Superconductivity and Nearly Ferromagnetic Spin Fluctuations in Nax_xCoO2_2⋅y\cdot yH2_2O

Co NQR studies were performed in recently discovered superconductor Na$_x$CoO$_2$$\cdot y$H$_2$O to investigate physical properties in the superconducting (SC) and normal states. Two samples from the same Na$_x$CoO$_2$ were examined, SC bilayer-hydrate sample with $T_c \sim 4.7$ K and non-SC monolayer-hydrate sample. From the measurement of nuclear-spin lattice relaxation rate $1/T_1$ in the SC sample, it was found that the coherence peak is absent just below $T_c$ and that $1/T_1$ is proportional to temperature far below $T_c$. These results, which are in qualitatively agreement with the previous result by Fujimoto {\it et al.}, suggest strongly that unconventional superconductivity is realized in this compound. In the normal state, $1/T_1T$ of the SC sample shows gradual increase below 100K down to $T_c$, whereas $1/T_1T$ of the non-SC sample shows the Korringa behavior in this temperature range. From the comparison between $1/T_1T$ and $\chi_{\rm bulk}$ in the SC sample, the increase of $1/T_1T$ is attributed to nearly ferromagnetic fluctuations. These remarkable findings suggest that the SC sample possesses nearly ferromagnetic fluctuations, which are possibly related with the unconventional superconductivity in this compound. The implication of this finding is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Mirnov coil data analysis for tokamak ADITYA

The spatial and temporal structures of magnetic signal in the tokamak ADITYA is analysed using recently developed singular value decomposition (SVD) technique. The analysis technique is first tested with simulated data and then applied to the ADITYA Mirnov coil data to determine the structure of current peturbation as the discharge progresses. It is observed that during the current rise phase, current perturbation undergoes transition from m=5 poloidal structure to m=4 and then to m=3. At the time of current termination, m=2 perturbation is observed. It is observed that the mode frequency remains nearly constant (≈10 kHz) when poloidal mode structure changes from m=4 to m=2. This may be either an indication of mode coupling or a consequences of changes in the plasma electron temperature and density scale length