A Study on Regional Sea Level Variation Along the Indian Coast

Mean sea level variation is a global phenomenon with spatial variations in trends on regional levels. Among the key findings of IPCC, global mean sea level has increased and it will continue to increase in the coming century. The amount of sea level rise or fall and its effects at any given location is highly unpredictable. Increase in intense spells of precipitation, uneven spread of rainfall in space and time, damage due to storm surges and coastal flooding are increasing in frequency with increase in global warming trends and the changing sea level. Increasing trend in mean sea level may cause inundation of low lying areas especially affecting small islands. In case of storm surges the scenario may be even worse. Bay of Bengal being an active breeding area of tropical storms, it might become devastating to cope up with the situation if the increasing trend in sea level continues. Mangroves, the natural barrier of coastal flooding and erosion, will be at high risk of submergence due to sea level rise. There is a need to understand the statistics of sea level changes and adapt to the situation in all possible ways. This study focuses on changes in the mean sea level on a regional scale. The available tide gauge data (along the coasts of North Indian Ocean (NIO)) and satellite altimetry data are analysed to understand the changing trend of the sea level in the NIO. Though most of the tide gauges show a positive trend there exists a few which also shows a negative trend in the sea level. Also there lies a gap in the global estimates of sea level variation and the local average. For instance, based on the available long tide gauge data, it is found that the sea level at few stationsshowed a rise of nearly 1 to 8 mm/year whereas few stations experienced decrease in sea level by as much as 3 mm/year. It is therefore important to understand the increasing/decreasing trend of various tide gauge records individually before considering them in regional sea level variation studies. In this study only the tide gauges with longer periods of data with minimum gaps in data set are considered for analysis. Satellite altimetry data available since 1993 is used to investigate the changes in the sea level at locations where tide gauge data are not available

Role of Androgens in Cardiovascular Diseases in Men: A Comprehensive Review

The present knowledge on the androgens role in cardiovascular physiology is not fully completed. It remains unclear whether low serum testosterone concentrations in men are an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) or a marker of the presence of CVD. However, we demonstrated that endogenous testosterone levels may be implicated in CVDs. Androgens role in modulating cardiovascular function is one of the highest importances, given that its deficiency is strongly associated with hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity, and cardiac hypertrophy. Although significant and independent association between testosterone levels and cardiovascular events in elderly men have not been confirmed in large prospective studies, cross-sectional studies, however, suggested that low testosterone levels in elderly men are associated with CVDs. The results of androgen therapy are not also conclusive. Perhaps, the effects of testosterone treatment of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity have not been extensively examined in control studies. Data on male animal experimentation of the effect of testosterone replacement therapy are either neutral or beneficial on the development of atherosclerosis. Since circulatory androgen levels modulation is expected to cause many other side effects, it seems to be essential to develop a strategy to target androgen receptor for better treating the CVDs

Wave climate projections along the Indian coast

Future changes in wave climate will influence the marine ecosystem, coastal erosion, design of coastal defences, operation of near‐ and off‐shore structures, and coastal zone management policies and may further add to the potential vulnerabilities of coastal regions to projected sea level rise. Many studies have reported changes in the global wave characteristics under climate change scenarios, but it is important to project future changes in local/regional wave climate for smooth implementation of policies and preventing severe coastal erosion and flooding. In this study the regional wave climate along the Indian coast for two time slices, 2011–2040 and 2041–2070, is reported using an ensemble of near‐surface winds generated by four different CMIP5 general circulation models (GCMs), under RCP4.5 scenario. Comparison of the wave climate for the two time slices shows an increase in wave heights and periods along much of the Indian coast, with the maximum wave heights increasing by more than 30% in some locations. An important finding is that at most locations along the east coast, wave periods are expected to increase by almost 20%, whereas along the west coast an increase of around 10% is expected. This will alter the distribution of wave energy at the shoreline through changes in wave refraction and diffraction, with potential implications for the performance and design of coastal structures and swash‐aligned beaches. Furthermore, the computations show material changes in the directional distribution of waves. This is particularly important in determining the longshore transport of sediments and can lead to realignment of drift‐aligned beaches, manifesting itself as erosion and/or siltation problems. This study is a preliminary contribution towards regional climate projections for the Indian Ocean region which are needed to plan and mitigate the impacts of future climate change

Attitude of Tribal Parents Towards the Higher Education of Girls in India

The paper focuses on the attitude of tribal parents regarding the education of girls. This review paper intends to understand the attitudes of tribal parents towards the education of girls in India and West Bengal, according to their gender, educational level, and socioeconomic position. We determined that tribal parents have a positive mindset for their daughters’ education. They realize the importance of education, however they cannot control certain situations, such as migration and the negligence of the girls towards their coeducation. The essential point in all these instances is that tribal parents in India desire to educate their daughters; the majority of them face severe challenges due to a lack of schools or lack of basic infrastructure within the area’s current schools

Rapid template-free synthesis of an air-stable hierarchical copper nanoassembly and its use as a reusable catalyst for 4-nitrophenol reduction

A hierarchical copper nanoassembly was synthesized by one-pot solvothermal treatment at 150 degrees C for 2 h in the presence of copper nitrate, formamide and water. The product exhibited phase pure hierarchical Cu microspheroids (2-7 mu m) comprising a nanorod (50-100 nm) assembly. The Cu microspheroids showed excellent air-stability, antioxidative properties and catalytic reduction of p-nitrophenol

Evaluation of CMIP5 and CORDEX derived wave climate in Indian Ocean

The effects of climate change are currently a widely investigated issue. However, little attention has been paid to the effects of climate change on regional wave climate. With the growing need towards developing future projections of waves to assess climate-driven impacts on coastal processes, it is required to evaluate the performance of General Circulation Models (GCMs) and Regional Climate Models (RCMs) in simulating wave climate independent of their ability to simulate other standard variables. Near-surface winds, derived from GCMs participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and RCMs from Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX), are used to force a spectral wave model to simulate hindcast waves over Indian Ocean (IO) region. The GCM and RCM forced climatological wave characteristics (significant wave height, mean wave period, and mean wave direction) are compared with reanalysis data derived from ERA-Interim for performance evaluation. RCMs work at fine resolution and are assumed to simulate regional climate better than GCMs. However, we identified that there is no added value in simulating wave climate using RCMs. We also identified that there is no improvement in wave simulation upon choosing a fine resolution GCM (~ 1.4°) over a coarse GCM (~ 2.5°). Seasonality in wave characteristics is an important aspect in the IO. The skill of climate models in capturing seasonality was also evaluated. It is observed that ensemble GCM forced wave simulations capture seasonality better than other models. Finally, it is recommended to use ensemble GCM wind forcing for better wave simulation in the IO region

Effect of long-term wave climate variability on longshore sediment transport along regional coastlines

Long-term changes in wave climate have potential impacts on the evolution of regional coastlines. This study investigates the impact of variable wave climate on the temporal dynamics of longshore sediment transport (LST), which plays a major role in defining the overall coastal geomorphology of regional coastlines. The central west coast of India is considered as the study region. ERA-Interim wave hindcast dataset over the period of 1979–2015 is used to derive the contemporary wave climate in this region. The annual average significant wave height, period, and direction are computed and used to estimate LST of the study region. This region experiences oblique waves from the W-SW direction with an annual average significant wave height and wave period of 1.32 m and 8.10 s, respectively, that induces a gross northerly transport of approximately 450,000 m3/year. It is found that the total LST is driven by swell waves and wind waves and shows a decreasing trend of about 5% over the analysis period. The decay in LST is found to be linked with decreases in wave activity in this region. The swell wave induced sediment transport is an order of magnitude higher than the wind wave induced LST. It is observed that the swell generation in the lower latitudes has decreased, resulting in reduced swell wave induced LST in the study area. Both swell and wind wave induced LST show seasonal variation. Finally, a link is established between the seasonal variation of swell induced LST and the cyclogenesis periods. In addition, the wind wave induced LST is observed to have a direct link with the latitudinal position of the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ)

Examining the association between stock return and seasonally adjusted trade in India: A strategic approach to Indian stock market during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic

This paper aims to examine the association between Indian stock market return and seasonally adjusted trade for Indian Banking sector shares. The objective of the study is to measure the association between stock return and seasonally adjusted trade in the Indian stock market and recommend strategies. Due to the Covid 19 outbreak banking sector was highly affected, the Government of India also announced a moratorium on all categories of loans, banking business majorly depending on the deposit and loan creation, so the Government decision threaten the banking sector. Many private sector banks terminated temporary staff because of cut cost policies.  We divided the banking sector into three segments. Namely, Public, Private and Small Finance Banks. Utilizing daily data from February 2020 to July 2020, consisting of 2196 in numbers, we ran a panel Vector Autoregression model to analyze the association. It was found that the return of stocks is influencing the volume of trade during this period. Also, while measuring the short-run causality, it is found that the return of banking stocks specifically granger causes the volume of trade. The suggestions of the study lie in providing importance to framing policies on improving the financial health of the economy through different fiscal policies. Strategic policies are required to face post-Covid situations. The turnaround strategies to combat the effects of the pandemic are characterized by the availability of the sustainable resources of the particular sector in consideration

Future wave-climate driven longshore sediment transport along the Indian coast

Longshore sediment transport is an important nearshore process that governs coastal erosion/accretion and in turn defines the orientation of coastlines. In this study, we assess the changes in longshore transport rates along the Indian coast due to the potential changes in wave parameters under the RCP4.5 climate scenario. The projected wave climate for two time slices, ‘near-term/present’ (2011–2040) and ‘mid-term/future’ (2041–2070) were used to investigate changes in the corresponding sediment transport rates. An empirical model accounting for major wave parameters, longshore current, resulting sediment transport and shoreline evolution was used. It was found that most of the Indian coast exhibited the same drift direction in both time slices, although changes in transport magnitude were present. To give a broad-brush characterisation of the coastline, the shoreline elements were classified as erosive, accretive or stable based on the comparative longshore transport rates of neighbouring elements. Similar characterisations, carried out for both time slices, showed that about 35% of the total coastline would remain unaffected due to the changing wave climate in the future (i.e. there is little to no change); about 20% is expected to ‘worsen’ (i.e. expected to undergo higher magnitudes of erosion wrt present rate) and 45% to ‘improve’ (i.e. expected to accrete/reach stability). It was also observed that the net annual transport rates pertaining to the future period are not expected to change significantly with respect to the current scenario. This indicates that the change in longshore transport rates arising from future changes in wave climate as represented by the RCP4.5 climate change scenario will have a broadly neutral effect