Search results for: 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami

Authors: Amit Kumar Sinha

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A coal preparation plant typically operates with multiple beneficiation circuits to process individual size fractions of coal obtained from mine so that the targeted overall plant efficiency in terms of yield and ash is achieved. Conventional coal beneficiation plant in India or overseas operates generally in two methods of processing; coarse beneficiation with treatment in dense medium cyclones or in baths and fines beneficiation with treatment in flotation cell. This paper seeks to address the proven application of intermediate circuit along with coarse and fines circuit in Jamadoba New Coal Preparation Plant of capacity 2 Mt/y to treat -0.5 mm+0.25 mm size particles in reflux classifier. Previously this size of particles was treated directly in Flotation cell which had operational and metallurgical limitations which will be discussed in brief in this paper. The paper also details test work results performed on the representative samples of TSL coal washeries to determine the top size of intermediate and fines circuit and discusses about the overlapping process of intermediate circuit and how it is process wise suitable to beneficiate misplaced particles from coarse circuit and fines circuit. This paper also compares the separation efficiency (Ep) of various intermediate circuit process equipment and tries to validate the use of reflux classifier over fine coal DMC or spirals. An overview of Modern coal preparation plant treating Indian coal especially Washery Grade IV coal with reference to Jamadoba New Coal Preparation Plant which was commissioned in 2018 with basis of selection of equipment and plant profile, application of reflux classifier in intermediate circuit and process design criteria is also outlined in this paper.

Keywords: intermediate circuit, overlapping process, reflux classifier

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Authors: Manoj Sarda, Abhishek Agarwal, Juhi Kaushik, Vatsal Sanjay, Arup Kumar Das

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Railways in India remain primary mode of transport having one of the largest networks in the world and catering to billions of transits yearly. Catastrophic economic damage and loss to life is encountered over the past few decades due to fire to locomotives. Study of fire dynamics and fire propagation plays an important role in evacuation planning and reducing losses. Simulation based study of propagation of fire and soot inside an air conditioned coach of Indian locomotive is done in this paper. Finite difference based solver, Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) version 6 has been used for analysis. A single air conditioned 3 tier coupe closed to ambient surroundings by glass windows having occupancy for 8 people is the basic unit of the domain. A system of three such coupes combined is taken to be fundamental unit for the entire study to resemble effect to an entire coach. Analysis of flame and soot contours and concentrations is done corresponding to variations in heat release rate per unit volume (HRRPUA) of fire source, variations in conditioned air velocity being circulated inside coupes by vents and an alternate fire initiation and propagation mechanism via ducts. Quantitative results of fractional area in top and front view of the three coupes under fire and smoke are obtained using MATLAB (IMT). Present simulations and its findings will be useful for organizations like Commission of Railway Safety and others in designing and implementing safety and evacuation measures.

Keywords: air conditioned coaches, fire propagation, flame contour, soot flow, train fire

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Authors: Amrin Moger, Sagar Bhalerao, Martin Mathew

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Advertisements play a vital role in dissemination of information regarding products and services. Advertisements as Mass Media tool is not only a source of entertainment, but also a source of information, education and entertainment. It provides information about the outside world and exposes us to other ways of life and culture. Public service advertisements (PSA) are generally aimed at public well-being. Aim of PSA is not to make profit, but rather to change public opinion and raise awareness in the Society about a social issue.’ Start with the boys’ is one such PSA aims to create awareness about issue of ‘gender bias’ that is taught prevalent in the society. Persons with disabilities (PWDs) are also consumers of PSA in the society. The population of persons with disability in the society also faces gender bias and discrimination. It is a double discrimination. The advertisement selected for the study gives out a strong message on gender bias and therefore must be accessible to everyone including PWDs in the society. Accessibility of PSA in the digital format can be done with the help of Universal Design (UD) in digital media application. Features of UD inclusive in nature, and it focus on eliminating established barriers through initial designs. It considers the needs of diverse people, whether they are persons with or without disability. In this research two aspects of UD in digital media: captioning and Indian sign language (ISL) is used. Hence a short survey study was under taken to know the effects of a multimedia on gender bias, in accessible format on persons with and without disability. The result demonstrated a significant difference in the opinion, on the usage accessible and non-accessible format for persons with and without disability and their understanding of message in the PSA selected for the study.

Keywords: public service advertisements, gender, disability, accessibility

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Authors: Mrunalini Sonne

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Aquaculture uses a variety of broad spectrum antibiotics to manage and prevent a variety of diseases without understanding their mechanisms of action. This has led to water pollution in the modern world. The necessity for alternate control measures against bacterial illnesses in the aquaculture sector is highlighted by issues brought on by antibiotic-resistant bacteria and the dearth of effective control strategies. Bacteriophages (phages) have shown promise as therapeutic agents for the efficient management of bacterial infections in aquaculture. In the current study, a variety of investigations were conducted to determine if utilizing lytic phages to reduce Aeromonas spp. infection in fish aquaculture was appropriate. Motile Aeromonas septicaemia is a fish disease that has caused financial harm to the aquaculture sector. Currently, the production of aquaculture depends significantly on antibiotics, which adds to the worldwide problem of the rise of bacteria that are resistant to medicines and resistance genes. To decrease the usage of antibiotics in aquaculture systems, it is crucial to create efficient antibiotic substitutes. Bacteriophages are capable of acting as a natural antagonist, mostly because of their great specificity, capacity for self-replication, and ability to quickly eradicate dangerous bacteria. There is a need for research that goes beyond just isolating and characterising lytic bacteriophages to examine their morphology, stability, and efficacy in various environmental conditions. Bacteriophage (or phage) therapy is a promising technique to control dangerous microbes in farmed fish. More phage therapy research in aquaculture is required in order to effectively employ phage treatment to lessen infection in fish brought on by Aeromonas.

Keywords: aquaculture, bacteriophages, fish, freshwater

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Authors: Rajiv Kumar, Amit Sachan, Arindam Mukherjee

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Government agencies around the world, including India, are incorporating digital technologies and processes into their day-to-day operations to become more efficient. Despite low internet penetration (around 34.8% of total population) in India, Government of India has made some public services mandatory to access online (e.g. passport, tax filing).This is insisting citizens to access mandatory public services online. However, due to digital divide, all citizens do not have equal access to internet. In light of this, it is an interesting topic to explore how citizens are able to access mandatory online public services. It is important to understand how citizens are adopting these mandatory e-government services and how the adoption behavior of these mandatory e-government services is different or similar to adoption behavior of non-mandatory e-government services. The purpose of this research is to investigate the factors that influence adoption of mandatory and non-mandatory e-government services in India. A quantitative technique is employed in this study. A conceptual model has been proposed by integrating the influencing factors to adopt e-government services from previous studies. The proposed conceptual model highlights a comprehensive set of potential factors influencing the adoption of e-government services. The proposed model has been validated by keeping in view the local context of Indian society. Online and paper based survey was administered, collected data was analyzed and results have been discussed. A total of 463 valid responses were received and further the responses were analyzed. The research reveals that the influencing factors to adopt e-government services are not same for both mandatory and non-mandatory e-government services. There are some factors that influence adoption of both mandatory and non-mandatory e-government services but there are some which are relevant for either of mandatory and non-mandatory e-government services. The research findings may help government or concerned agencies in successfully implementing e-government services.

Keywords: adoption, e-government, India, mandatory, non-mandatory

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Authors: Shivani Tiwari, Prathibha Karanth, B. Rajashekhar

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Impairments of syntactic morphology are often considered central in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In English and related languages, deficits of tense-related grammatical morphology could serve as a clinical marker of SLI. Yet, cross-linguistic studies on SLI in the recent past suggest that the nature and severity of morphosyntactic deficits in children with SLI varies with the language being investigated. Therefore, in the present study we investigated the morphosyntactic deficits in a group of children with SLI who speak Kannada, a morphologically complex Dravidian language spoken in Indian subcontinent. A group of 15 children with SLI participated in this study. Two more groups of typical developing children (15 each) matched for language and age to children with SLI, were included as control participants. All participants were assessed for morphosyntactic comprehension and expression using standardized language test and a spontaneous speech task. Results of the study showed that children with SLI differed significantly from age-matched but not language-matched control group, on tasks of both comprehension and expression of morphosyntax. This finding is, however, in contrast with the reports of English-speaking children with SLI who are reported to be poorer than younger MLU-matched children on tasks of morphosyntax. The observed difference in impairments of morphosyntax in Kannada-speaking children with SLI from English-speaking children with SLI is explained based on the morphological richness theory. The theory predicts that children with SLI perform relatively better in morphologically rich language due to occurrence of their frequent and consistent features that mark the morphological markers. The authors, therefore, conclude that language-specific features do influence manifestation of the disorder in children with SLI.

Keywords: specific language impairment, morphosyntax, Kannada, manifestation

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Authors: Dipanshu Sur, Ratnabali Chakravorty

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Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common metabolic abnormality such as changes in lipid profile, diabetes, hypertension and metabolic syndrome occurring in young women of reproductive age. Low vitamin D levels were found to be associated with the development of obesity and insulin resistance in women with PCOS. Variants on vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene have also been related to metabolic comorbidities in general population. Aim: The aim of this case-control study was to investigate whether the VDR gene polymorphisms are associated with susceptibility to PCOS. Methods: Women with PCOS and a control group, all aged 16-40 years, were enrolled. Genotyping of VDR Fok-I (rs2228570), VDR Apa-I (rs7975232) as well as GC (rs2282679), DHCR7 (rs12785878) SNPs between groups were determined by using direct sequencing. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)] levels were measured by ELISA. Results: Mean serum 25(OH)D in the PCOS and control samples were 19.08±7 and 23.27±6.03 (p=0.048) which were significantly lower in PCOS patients compared with controls. CC genotype of the VDR Apa-I SNP was same frequent in PCOS (25.6%) and controls (25.6%) (OR: 0.9995; 95%CI: 0.528 to 1.8921; p= 0.9987). The CC genotype was also significantly associated with both lower E2 (p=0.031) and Androstenedione levels (p=0.062). We observed a significant association of GC polymorphism with 25(OH)D levels. PCOS women carrying the GG genotype (in GC genes) had significantly higher risk for vitamin D deficiency than women carrying the TT genotype. Conclusions: In conclusion, data from this study indicate that vitamin D levels are lower, and vitamin D deficiency more frequent, in PCOS than in controls. The present findings suggest that the Apa-I, Fok-I polymorphism of the VDR gene is associated with PCOS and seems to modulate ovarian steroid secretion. Further studies are needed to better clarify the biological mechanisms by which the polymorphism influences PCOS risk.

Keywords: vitamin D receptor, polymorphism, vitamin D, polycystic ovary syndrome

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Authors: Choppala Pratheek, Vineet Ahuja

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Background: Crohn's disease (CD) recurrence following surgery is a common challenge, and current detection methods rely on risk factors identified in Western populations. This study aimed to investigate the risk factors and rates of postoperative CD recurrence in a tuberculosis-endemic region like India. Retrospective data was collected from a structured database from a specialty IBD clinic by reviewing case files from January 2005 to December 2021. Inclusion criteria involved CD patients diagnosed based on the ECCO-ESGAR consensus guidelines, who had undergone at least one intestinal resection and had a minimum follow-up period of one year at the IBD clinic. Results: A total of 90 patients were followed up for a median period of 45 months (IQR, 20.75 - 72.00). Out of the 90 patients, 61 received ATT prior to surgery, with a mean delay in diagnosis of 2.5 years, although statistically non-significant (P=0.078). Clinical recurrence occurred in 50% of patients, with the cumulative rate increasing from 13.3% at one year to 40% at three years. Among 63 patients who underwent endoscopy, 65.7% showed evidence of endoscopic recurrence, with the cumulative rate increasing from 31.7% at one year to 55.5% at four years. Smoking was identified as a significant risk factor for early endoscopic recurrence (P=0.001) by Cox regression analysis, but no other risk factors were identified. Initiating post-operative medications prior to clinical recurrence delayed its onset (P=0.004). Subgroup analysis indicated that endoscopic monitoring aided in the early identification of recurrence (P=0.001). The findings contribute to enhancing post-operative CD management strategies in such regions where the disease burden is escalating.

Keywords: crohns, post operative, tuberculosis-endemic, risk factors

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Authors: Srividya Sheshadri, Christopher Coley, Roa. R. Bhavani

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India currently accounts for 60 percent of the open defecation that is practiced globally. While research in the domain of sanitation development makes it apparent that girls and women living in rural India are disproportionately affected, interventions to address this dilemma are lacking. An important but relatively unexplored connection with poor sanitation is that women living in rural India are not only the largest marginalized group without access to adequate sanitation facilities, they also represent a majority of India’s unskilled workers. By training women to build their own toilets, through an approach that has demonstrated success in empowering marginalized communities through technical and vocational education and training (TVET), a collaborative dynamic emerges that can engage entire communities in the movement towards total sanitation. Designed and implemented by Amrita University, this technology-enhanced, community-based approach to skill development, known as Amrita computerized Vocational Education and Training (or Amrita cVET), has begun to show promise in addressing the struggle to end open defecation, and raise sanitation awareness, as well as strengthen personal and community development among women living in rural India. While Amrita cVET project, known as Women Empowerment: Sanitation, is currently in implementation in seven states throughout India, this paper will discuss early stages of the intervention in rural villages within the Indian states of: Karnataka and Goa, where previous sanitation efforts have failed to take hold.

Keywords: community based development, empowerment studies, sanitation in India, computerized vocational training

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Authors: Amita Jain, Shantanu Prakash, Suruchi Shukla

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Introduction: Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) is a complex multi etiology syndrome posing a great public health problem in the northern part of India. Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus is an established etiology of AES in this region. Recently, Scrub typhus (ST) is being recognized as an emerging aetiology of AES in JE endemic belt. This study was conducted to establish the direct evidence of Central nervous system invasion by Orientia tsutsugamushi leading to AES. Methodology: A total of 849 cases with clinical diagnosis of AES were enrolled from six districts (Deoria and its adjoining area) of the traditional north Indian Japanese encephalitis (JE) belt. Serum and Cerebrospinal fluid samples were collected and tested for major agent causing acute encephalitis. AES cases either positive for anti-ST IgM antibodies or negative for all tested etiologies were investigated for ST-DNA by real-time PCR. Results: Of these 505 cases, 250 patients were laboratory confirmed for O. tsutsugamushi infection either by anti-ST IgM antibodies positivity (n=206) on serum sample or by ST-DNA detection by real-time PCR assay on CSF sample (n=2) or by both (n=42).Total 29 isolate could be sequenced for 56KDa gene. Conclusion: All the strains were found to cluster with Gilliam strains. The majority of the isolates showed a 97–99% sequence similarity with Thailand and Cambodian strains. Gilliam strain of O.tsusugamushi is an emerging as one of the major aetiologies leading to AES in northern part of India.

Keywords: acute encephalitis syndrome, O. tsutsugamushi, Gilliam strain, North India, cerebrospinal fluid

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Authors: Malsawmtluanga, J. Malsawma, R. P. Tiwari, V. K. Gahalaut

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North East India is seismically one of the six most active regions of the world. It is placed in Zone V, the highest zone in the seismic zonation of India. It lies at the junction of Himalayan arc to the north and the Burmese arc to the east. The region has witnessed at least 18 large earthquakes including two great earthquakes Shillong (1987, M=8.7) and the Assam Tibet border (1950, M=8.7).The prominent Chite fault lies at the heart of Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram state and this hilly city is the home to about 2 million people. Geologically the area is a part of the Indo-Burmese Wedge and is prone to natural and man-made disasters. Unplanned constructions and urban dwellings on a rapid scale have lead to numerous unsafe structures adversely affecting the ongoing development and welfare projects of the government and they pose a huge threat for earthquakes. Crustal deformation measurements using campaign mode GPS were undertaken across this fault. Campaign mode GPS data were acquired and were processed with GAMIT-GLOBK software. The study presents the current velocity estimates at all the sites in ITRF 2008 and also in the fixed Indian reference frame. The site motion showed that there appears to be no differential motion anywhere across the fault area, thus confirming presently the fault is neither accumulating strain nor slipping aseismically. From the geological and geomorphological evidence, supported by geodetic measurements, lack of historic earthquakes, the Chite fault favours aseismic behaviour in this part of the Indo Burmese Arc (IBA).

Keywords: Chite fault, crustal deformation, geodesy, GPS, IBA

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Authors: Chakraborty Sudipta, A. R. Kambekar, Sarma Arnab

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Sea-level rise being one of the most important impacts of anthropogenic induced climate change resulting from global warming and melting of icebergs at Arctic and Antarctic, the investigations done by various researchers both on Indian Coast and elsewhere during the last decade has been reviewed in this paper. The paper aims to ascertain the propensity of consistency of different suggested methods to predict the near-accurate future sea level rise along the coast of Mumbai. Case studies at East Coast, Southern Tip and West and South West coast of India have been reviewed. Coastal Vulnerability Index of several important international places has been compared, which matched with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecasts. The application of Geographic Information System mapping, use of remote sensing technology, both Multi Spectral Scanner and Thematic Mapping data from Landsat classified through Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique for arriving at high, moderate and low Coastal Vulnerability Index at various important coastal cities have been observed. Instead of data driven, hindcast based forecast for Significant Wave Height, additional impact of sea level rise has been suggested. Efficacy and limitations of numerical methods vis-à-vis Artificial Neural Network has been assessed, importance of Root Mean Square error on numerical results is mentioned. Comparing between various computerized methods on forecast results obtained from MIKE 21 has been opined to be more reliable than Delft 3D model.

Keywords: climate change, Coastal Vulnerability Index, global warming, sea level rise

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Authors: Shibinu S, Mohamed Haseeb N

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In times of crisis, the diaspora's role and the help it offers are seen to be vital in determining how many countries, particularly low- and middle-income nations that significantly rely on remittances, recover. Twenty-one lakh twenty thousand Keralites have emigrated abroad, with 81.2 percent of these outflows occurring in the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC). Most of them are semi-skilled or low-skilled laborers employed in GCC nations. Additionally, a sizeable portion of migrants are employed in industrialized nations like the UK and the US. These nations have seen the development of a highly robust Indian Diaspora. India's development is largely dependent on the generosity of its diaspora, and the nation has benefited greatly from the substantial contributions made by several emigrant generations. Its strength was noticeable during the COVID-19 and Kerala floods. Millions of people were displaced, millions of properties were damaged, and many people died as a result of the 2018 Kerala floods. The Malayalee diaspora played a crucial role in the reconstruction of Kerala by providing support for the rescue efforts underway on the ground through their extensive worldwide network. During COVID-19, an analogous outreach was also noted, in which the diaspora assisted stranded migrants across the globe. Together with the work the diaspora has done for the state's development and recovery, there has also been a recent outpouring of assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on the subtleties of diaspora philanthropic scholarship and how Kerala was able to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and floods thanks to it. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with migrants, migrant organizations, and beneficiaries from the diaspora through snowball sampling to better understand the role that diaspora philanthropy plays in times of crisis.

Keywords: crises, diaspora, remittances, COVID-19, flood, economic development of Kerala

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Authors: Leticia Lengler, Jefferson Oliveira, Vania Estivalete, Jordana Marques Kneipp, Lucia Regina Da Rosa Gama Madruga

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The way social entrepreneurs act and can positively impact on our society engages the interest of academics, companies and governments, who seek solutions to solve or alleviate issues related to the abuse of natural resources, as well as the increase of poverty (social aspects). Studies on social entrepreneurship have been characterized by diverse ramifications and their transdisciplinary character, permeating various disciplines and approaches. Different bibliometric studies were conducted within the theme of social entrepreneurship. In this context, because it is a topic in development and multifaceted, the aim of this article is to present the main interfaces of the studies on the Social Entrepreneur figure in relation to the social concern of sustainability, highlighting the relevant researches and their trends, as well as their relationship with the organizations. Aiming to achieve this purpose, the specific goals are: to identify the most cited authors and articles, to verify the authors and journals with the greatest number of publications and their approaches and to point out their affiliations, countries, and languages of publications. It is still a secondary objective to identify the emerging trends in relation to the social entrepreneur and his social concern stemming from the discussions on sustainability. This way, we analyzed articles from two international databases (Scopus and Web of Science), from 2004 to 2016. The main results were the increase in the number of publications, with most of them in English language, coming mainly from the United States institutions (such as Indiana University and Harvard University) and the United Kingdom (whose main institutions are University of London and Robert Gordon University). Although publications in Spanish and Portuguese are the least expressive in quantity, some tendencies point to publications that discuss the social entrepreneur in terms of gender (that relates to female entrepreneurship) and social class (that relates to the need of building communities that contemplate the Social entrepreneur at the base of the pyramid). It should be noted that the trends of the themes emerged from the analysis of the publication titles only in Portuguese, since this is the native language of the authors who carry out their studies mainly in Brazil. When considering articles in Portuguese (57 indicated by WOS and 9 by Scopus), a previous analysis of the titles was carried out to identify how researchers were approaching the theme social entrepreneur in a joint way to the social dimension of sustainability. However, the analysis of the titles themselves brought a limitation to our study, since it was felt a need to carry out a qualitative study, in which it could be possible to consider the abstracts of the available articles.

Keywords: base of pyramid, social dimension, social entrepreneur, sustainability

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Authors: Shusmita Khan, Shams El Arifeen, Kanta Jamil

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Background: Nutrition transition in Bangladesh has progressed across various relevant socio-demographic contextual issues. For a developing country like Bangladesh, its is believed that, overnutrition is less prevalent than undernutrition. However, recent evidence suggests that a rapid shift is taking place where overweight is subduing underweight. With this rapid increase, for Bangladesh, it will be challenging to achieve the global agenda on halting overweight and obesity. Methods: A secondary analysis was performed from six successive national demographic and health surveys to get the trend on undernutrition and overnutrition for women from reproductive age. In addition, national relevant policy papers were reviewed to determine the countries readiness for whole of the systems approach to tackle this epidemic. Results: Over the last decade, the proportion of women with low body mass index (BMI<18.5), an indicator of undernutrition, has decreased markedly from 34% to 19%. However, the proportion of overweight women (BMI ≥25) increased alarmingly from 9% to 24% over the same period. If the WHO cutoff for public health action (BMI ≥23) is used, the proportion of overweight women has increased from 17% in 2004 to 39% in 2014. The increasing rate of obesity among women is a major challenge to obstetric practice for both women and fetuses. In the long term, overweight women are also at risk of future obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and heart disease. These diseases have serious impact on health care systems. Costs associated with overweight and obesity involves direct and indirect costs. Direct costs include preventive, diagnostic, and treatment services related to obesity. Indirect costs relate to morbidity and mortality costs including productivity. Looking at the Bangladesh Health Facility Survey, it is found that the country is bot prepared for providing nutrition-related health services, regarding prevention, screening, management and treatment. Therefore, if this nutrition transition is not addressed properly, Bangladesh will not be able to achieve the target of the NCD global monitoring framework of the WHO. Conclusion: Addressing this nutrition transition requires contending ‘malnutrition in all its forms’ and addressing it with integrated approaches. Whole of the systems action is required at all levels—starting from improving multi-sectoral coordination to scaling up nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive mainstreamed interventions keeping health system in mind.

Keywords: nutrition transition, Bangladesh, health system, undernutrition, overnutrition, obesity

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Authors: Linta Rose, Prasad K. Bhaskaran

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Water-level information along the coast is very important for disaster management, navigation, planning shoreline management, coastal engineering and protection works, port and harbour activities, and for a better understanding of near-shore ocean dynamics. The water-level variation along a coast attributes from various factors like astronomical tides, meteorological and hydrological forcing. The study area is the Head Bay of Bengal which is highly vulnerable to flooding events caused by monsoons, cyclones and sea-level rise. The study aims to explore the extent to which wind and surface pressure can influence water-level elevation, in view of the low-lying topography of the coastal zones in the region. The ADCIRC hydrodynamic model has been customized for the Head Bay of Bengal, discretized using flexible finite elements and validated against tide gauge observations. Monthly mean climatological wind and mean sea level pressure fields of ERA Interim reanalysis data was used as input forcing to simulate water-level variation in the Head Bay of Bengal, in addition to tidal forcing. The output water-level was compared against that produced using tidal forcing alone, so as to quantify the contribution of meteorological forcing to water-level. The average contribution of meteorological fields to water-level in January is 5.5% at a deep-water location and 13.3% at a coastal location. During the month of July, when the monsoon winds are strongest in this region, this increases to 10.7% and 43.1% respectively at the deep-water and coastal locations. The model output was tested by varying the input conditions of the meteorological fields in an attempt to quantify the relative significance of wind speed and wind direction on water-level. Under uniform wind conditions, the results showed a higher contribution of meteorological fields for south-west winds than north-east winds, when the wind speed was higher. A comparison of the spectral characteristics of output water-level with that generated due to tidal forcing alone showed additional modes with seasonal and annual signatures. Moreover, non-linear monthly mode was found to be weaker than during tidal simulation, all of which point out that meteorological fields do not cause much effect on the water-level at periods less than a day and that it induces non-linear interactions between existing modes of oscillations. The study signifies the role of meteorological forcing under fair weather conditions and points out that a combination of multiple forcing fields including tides, wind, atmospheric pressure, waves, precipitation and river discharge is essential for efficient and effective forecast modelling, especially during extreme weather events.

Keywords: ADCIRC, head Bay of Bengal, mean sea level pressure, meteorological forcing, water-level, wind

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Authors: Anagha Pavithran Vattamparambil, Niranjana Regimon

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Dalit and tribal communities in India have the largest suicide rate; however, the current literature does not reflect this reality. While existing research acknowledges socio-cultural risk factors, it fails to discuss structural issues pertaining to marginalized communities in India. Furthermore, the language is framed in an individualistic manner which denies room for recognizing systemic violence and injustice among causative agents of suicide. We aim to examine the representation of Dalit and tribal identities and their experiences of marginalisation as a contributive factor of suicide, as well as discuss the epistemic injustice involved in its exclusion. Electronic searches of PubMed, PsychInfo, and Web of Science databases will be carried out from inception till January 2023 to conduct a systematic scoping review of peer-reviewed articles; it will include all studies involving psychological autopsy in India. A narrative synthesis will be performed to gain insight into the inclusion of the experiences of Dalits and Tribals, the absence of which indicates a lacking understanding of suicide in India. It is also expected to highlight the alienation of lived experiences and narratives of marginalisation from mainstream discourse on suicide that constitutes epistemic injustice. There is a complex interplay of psychological, socio-cultural, economic, and political factors for suicide in the Indian setting. But, political and systemic issues are often downplayed in suicide etiology, including casteist assault, rape, violence, public humiliation, and discrimination which deserves more research attention.

Keywords: dalits, marginalisation, psychological autopsy, suicide, tribals

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Authors: Sunaina Sunaina

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The emergence of Thailand as a modern nation was amalgamation of several minority groups. Eventually, the nation tried to mitigate these diversities in the name of nationalism in the backdrop of colonial powers presence in neighboring nations. However, the continued imposition of modern nation building processes (which is a western concept) in the post-colonial era deepen the feelings of alienation among the minority groups and leads to separatist conflicts. It is significant that whatever form these conflicts take, will impact the security of nation as well as the region of Southeast Asia. This paper tries to explore the possible factors behind the state policies adopted by the government of Thailand to manage the insurgency in Southern provinces in the south. The protracted insurgency in the South has historical roots as Pattani kingdom had glorious period whether it was trade or commerce or education and its assimilation was never accepted by the leaders of these areas. But after assimilation of southern provinces in the state, it has been the state policy as an important factor in promoting or mitigating the insurgency. Initial protests from the elite class of southern provinces inflated into a more organized and violent uprising after Second World War. It was only the decade of 1990s that a relative peace could prevail for some time. The violence reemerged in 2004 with more intensity and till today this area is suffering with violence. Period of different Prime Ministers dealt this insurgency in different ways sometimes very hard line approach had been adopted especially under Primeminstership of Thaksin Shinawatra. Recently, the peace talks which were started during the period of Yinglunck Shinawatra and were carried forward by Junta government also halted. And again, the region stays in a very volatile state. Violence in these provinces not only questions the capability of government to provide political solution to the problem, but also emerges as a major threat to the internal security of the state. The current era where global terrorism is spreading fast, such vulnerable areas may work as a new ground for its proliferation in Southeast Asia. The paper attempts to understand how Thailand’s historical experience of security determines a different approach to national unity which limits the prospects for autonomy in the South. In conjunction with this experience it is nature of national politics and leadership that influences the nature of policies on the ground in Southern Thailand. The paper also tries to bring out conflict between state sovereignty and self-determination as demanded by many in the southern provinces.

Keywords: insurgency, southern Thailand, security, nation building

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Authors: Adfer Rashid Shah

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This study brings an introduction to the concept of waqf and explores the institution of waqf in the valley of Kashmir. Waqfs (pl. Auqaf) are Islamic endowments which can be movable or immovable property by Muslims for the welfare of the poor and the upkeep of the mosques, shrines, imambaras, madrassas, orphanages, etc,. The study was undertaken to venture into the sociology of these endowments and see the dynamics and role of waqf institution in the welfare of masses especially the deserving populace of the state of Jamu and Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Waqf Board (JKMWB) is a significant religio-social organization for it possesses the largest assets after the State government and has an immense potential and ownership in terms of huge properties besides having rich and perpetual cash and kind donations, gold, silver and other commodities from the believers. It is certainly the perpetual wealth of faith. Therefore this study besides exploring the waqf institution, sociologically probed into the social, religious and philanthropic interventions of the Wakf Board besides studying the waqf of education (both religious and general). Also, a passing reference on personalized Auqaf, local waqf committees particularly shia Auqaf was also made. As far methodology employed, the study was purely a qualitative study using various sociological perspectives like functionalism, grounded theory besides a range other concepts to see the total role of waqf that it has been playing for the people’s welfare in the valley of Kashmir since its establishment in 1940’s. The overall discussion revealed the social dynamics of waqf institution in Kashmir valley is increasing its social interventions and making difference in the lives of many deserving Muslims within its capacities.

Keywords: waqf, wakf board, religious waqf, philanthropy and education waqf, religious waqf, Kashmir

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Authors: G. Ramya

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Value engineering is a systematic approach, widely used to optimize the design or process or product in the designing stage. It used to achieve the client's obligation by increasing the functionality and attain the targeted cost in the cost planning. Value engineering effectiveness and benefits decrease along with the progress of the project since the change in the scope of the work and design will account for more cost all along the lifecycle of the project. Integrating the value engineering with other project management activities will promote cost minimization, client satisfaction, and ensure early completion of the project in time. Previous research studies suggested that value engineering can integrate with other project delivery activities, but research studies unable to frame a model that collaborates the project management activities with the job plan of value engineering approach. I analyzed various project management activities and their synergy between each other. The project management activities and processes like a)risk analysis b)lifecycle cost analysis c)lean construction d)facility management e)Building information modelling f)Contract administration, collaborated, and project delivery model planned along with the RIBA plan of work. The key outcome of the research is a value-driven project delivery model, which will succeed in dealing with the economic impact, constraints and conflicts arise due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the Indian construction sector. Benefits associated with the structured framework is construction project delivery that ensures early contractor involvement, mutual risk sharing, and reviving the project with a cost overrun and delay back on track ,are discussed. Keywords: Value-driven project delivery model, Integration, RIBA plan of work Themes: Design Economics

Keywords: value-driven project delivery model, Integration, RIBA

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Authors: Viral Nagori, Preeti Shroff, Prathana Dodia

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The paper presents the study on women entrepreneurship over the last decade in Indian and Global Context. This research study has its basis primarily in the literature review. The research methodology classifies the literature review paper based on different parameters of women entrepreneurship. The literature review relies on research papers in journals, articles in periodicals, and books published on women entrepreneurship. To accomplish this, the criteria included finding the most relevant, recent, and cited studies on women entrepreneurship over the last decade. It aims to evaluate the issues and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. The finding suggested that there are several common obstacles, which hinders the pathway to success towards being a successful woman entrepreneur. The paper also describes such common obstacles like the level of education, family responsibilities, lack of business information, religious and cultural constraints, limited mobility, exposure, lack of working capital, and more. The in-depth analysis of literature review indicates that despite the numerous barriers, the arrival of social media has played a crucial role in enabling women to start and scale up their enterprises. Further, technology innovation has given them access to have relevant market information, increase reach and network with the customers. It enabled them to achieve work life balance and pursuing entrepreneur in them. The paper also describes the Government and Nongovernmental initiatives for promotion of women entrepreneurship. At the end, the study provides insights into the changing dynamics of women entrepreneurship in the current scenario and future prospects.

Keywords: changing dynamics, government initiatives, literature review, social media, technology innovation, women entrepreneurship

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Authors: Sukhwinder Singh, Julian Park, Dinesh Kumar Benbi

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Although soil health, which is recognized as one of the key determinants of sustainable agricultural development, can be measured by a range of physical, chemical and biological parameters, the widely used parameters include pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (OC), plant available phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Soil health is largely affected by the occurrence of natural events or human activities and can be improved by various land management practices. A database of 120 soil samples collected from farmers’ fields spread across three major agro-climatic zones of Punjab suggested that the average pH, EC, OC, P and K was 8.2 (SD = 0.75, Min = 5.5, Max = 9.1), 0.27 dS/m (SD = 0.17, Min = 0.072 dS/m, Max = 1.22 dS/m), 0.49% (SD = 0.20, Min = 0.06%, Max = 1.2%), 19 mg/kg soil (SD = 22.07, Min = 3 mg/kg soil, Max = 207 mg/kg soil) and 171 mg/kg soil (SD = 47.57, Min = 54 mg/kg soil, Max = 288 mg/kg soil), respectively. Region-wise, pH, EC and K were the highest in south-western district of Ferozpur whereas farmers in north-eastern district of Gurdaspur had the best soils in terms of OC and P. The soils in the central district of Barnala had lower OC, P and K than the respective overall averages while its soils were normal but skewed towards alkalinity. Besides agro-climatic conditions, the size of landholding and farmer education showed a significant association with Soil Fertility Index (SFI), a composite index calculated using the aforementioned parameters’ normalized weightage. All the four stakeholder groups cited the current cropping patterns, burning of rice crop residue, and imbalanced use of chemical fertilizers for change in soil health. However, the current state of soil health in Punjab is unclear, which needs further investigation based on temporal data collected from the same field to see the short and long-term impacts of various crop combinations and varied cropping intensity levels on soil health.

Keywords: soil health, punjab agriculture, sustainability, soil fertility index

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Authors: S. P. Pradhan, Amulya Ratna Roul

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A number of landslides are occurring during the rainy season along Rayagada-Koraput Railway track for past three years. The track was constructed about 20 years ago. However, the protection measures are not able to control the recurring slope failures now. It leads to a loss to Indian Railway and its passengers ultimately leading to wastage of time and money. The slopes along Rayagada-Koraput track include both rock and soil slopes. The rock types include mainly Khondalite and Charnockite whereas soil slopes are mainly composed of laterite ranging from less weathered to highly weathered laterite. The field studies were carried out in one of the critical slope. Field study was followed by the kinematic analysis to assess the type of failure. Slake Durability test, Uniaxial Compression test, specific gravity test and triaxial test were done on rock samples to calculate and assess properties such as weathering index, unconfined compressive strength, density, cohesion, and friction angle. Following all the laboratory tests, rock mass rating was calculated. Further, from Kinematic analysis and Rock Mass Ratingbasic, Slope Mass Rating was proposed for each slope. The properties obtained were used to do the slope stability simulations using finite element method based modelling. After all the results, suitable protection measures, to prevent the loss due to slope failure, were suggested using the relation between Slope Mass Rating and protection measures.

Keywords: landslides, slope stability, rock mass rating, slope mass rating, numerical simulation

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Authors: Sangeeta Pilkhwal Sah, C. S. Mathela, Kanwaljit Chopra

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Valeriana wallichii DC, an ayurvedic traditional medicine, popularly named as Indian valerian exist as three chemotypes. GC-MS analysis of V. wallichii essential oil in present study showed maaliol as the major constituent followed by the presence of β-gurjunene, acoradiene, guaiol and α-santalene. The results thus confirmed it to be a maaliol chemotype. Further, the antidepressant-like effect of root essential oil (10, 20 and 40 mg/kg p.o.) was investigated in both acute and chronic treatment study using forced swim test in mice. Single administration of different doses produced an inverted U shaped curve and significantly inhibited the immobility period (39.7% and 58%) at doses 10 and 40 mg/kg respectively. Standard drug imipramine significantly decreased immobility period (59.8%). None of the doses altered locomotor activity except a significant decrease of 44.9% was observed with 40 mg/kg (p < 0.05). Similarly, daily administration of essential oil for 14 days produced a dose dependent effect with significantly reduced immobility period (70.9%) at 40 mg/kg dose only whereas imipramine produced 86% decrease (p < 0.05). The neurotransmitter levels in mouse brain were estimated on day 14 after the behavioral study. Significant increase in the level of norepinephrine (10%) and dopamine (23%) (p < 0.05) was found at 40 mg/kg dose, while no change was observed at 10 and 20 mg/kg doses. The antidepressant-like effect of essential oil (40 mg/kg) was prevented by pretreatment of mice with L-arginine (750 mg/kg i.p.) and sildenafil (5 mg/kg i.p). On the contrary, pretreatment of mice with L-NAME (10 mg/kg i.p.) or methylene blue (10 mg/kg i.p.) potentiated the antidepressant action of essential oil (20 mg/kg). The findings thus demonstrated that nitric oxide pathway is involved in mediating antidepressant like effect of essential oil from this chemotype.

Keywords: Valeriana wallichii DC chemotype, essential oil, forced swim test, nitric oxide modulators, neurotransmitters

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Authors: Khaled M. Khader, Mamdouh I. Elimy, Omayma A. Nada

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Sustainable development is the nominal goal of most countries at present. In general, fossil fuels are the development mainstay of most world countries. Regrettably, the fossil fuel consumption rate is very high, and the world is facing the problem of conventional fuels depletion soon. In addition, there are many problems of environmental pollution resulting from the emission of harmful gases and vapors during fuel burning. Thus, clean, renewable energy became the main concern of most countries for filling the gap between available energy resources and their growing needs. There are many renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and wave energy. Energy can be obtained from the motion of sea waves almost all the time. However, power generation from solar or wind energy is highly restricted to sunny periods or the availability of suitable wind speeds. Moreover, energy produced from sea wave motion is one of the cheapest types of clean energy. In addition, renewable energy usage of sea waves guarantees safe environmental conditions. Cheap electricity can be generated from wave energy using different systems such as oscillating bodies' system, pendulum gate system, ocean wave dragon system and oscillating water column device. In this paper, a multi-criteria model has been developed using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to support the decision of selecting the most effective system for generating power from sea waves. This paper provides a widespread overview of the different design alternatives for sea wave energy converter systems. The considered design alternatives have been evaluated using the developed AHP model. The multi-criteria assessment reveals that the off-shore Oscillating Water Column (OWC) system is the most appropriate system for generating power from sea waves. The OWC system consists of a suitable hollow chamber at the shore which is completely closed except at its base which has an open area for gathering moving sea waves. Sea wave's motion pushes the air up and down passing through a suitable well turbine for generating power. Improving the power generation capability of the OWC system is one of the main objectives of this research. After investigating the effect of some design modifications, it has been concluded that selecting the appropriate settings of some effective design parameters such as the number of layers of Wells turbine fans and the intermediate distance between the fans can result in significant improvements. Moreover, simple dynamic analysis of the Wells turbine is introduced. Furthermore, this paper strives for comparing the theoretical and experimental results of the built experimental prototype.

Keywords: renewable energy, oscillating water column, multi-criteria selection, Wells turbine

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Authors: Chu-Tzu Chen, Angela S. Huang, Yu-Min Chou, Chin-Hui Yang

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Dengue is a major public health concern throughout tropical and sub-tropical regions. Taiwan is located in the Pacific Ocean and overlying the tropical and subtropical zones. The island remains humid throughout the year and receives abundant rainfall, and the temperature is very hot in summer at southern Taiwan. It is ideal for the growth of dengue vectors and would be increasing the risk on dengue outbreaks. During the first half of the 20th century, there were three island-wide dengue outbreaks (1915, 1931, and 1942). After almost forty years of dormancy, a DEN-2 outbreak occurred in Liuchiu Township, Pingtung County in 1981. Thereafter, more dengue outbreaks occurred with different scales in southern Taiwan. However, there were more than ten thousands of dengue cases in 2014 and in 2015. It did not only affect human health, but also caused widespread social disruption and economic losses. The study would like to reveal the epidemiology of dengue on Taiwan, especially the severe outbreak in 2015, and try to find the effective interventions in dengue control including dengue vaccine development for the elderly. Methods: The study applied the Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System database of the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control as data source. All cases were reported with the uniform case definition and confirmed by NS1 rapid diagnosis/laboratory diagnosis. Results: In 2014, Taiwan experienced a serious DEN-1 outbreak with 15,492 locally-acquired cases, including 136 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) which caused 21 deaths. However, a more serious DEN-2 outbreak occurred with 43,419 locally-acquired cases in 2015. The epidemic occurred mainly at Tainan City (22,760 cases) and Kaohsiung City (19,723 cases) in southern Taiwan. The age distribution for the cases were mainly adults. There were 228 deaths due to dengue infection, and the case fatality rate was 5.25 ‰. The average age of them was 73.66 years (range 29-96) and 86.84% of them were older than 60 years. Most of them were comorbidities. To review the clinical manifestations of the 228 death cases, 38.16% (N=87) of them were reported with warning signs, while 51.75% (N=118) were reported without warning signs. Among the 87 death cases reported to dengue with warning signs, 89.53% were diagnosed sever dengue and 84% needed the intensive care. Conclusion: The year 2015 was characterized by large dengue outbreaks worldwide. The risk of serious dengue outbreak may increase significantly in the future, and the elderly is the vulnerable group in Taiwan. However, a dengue vaccine has been licensed for use in people 9-45 years of age living in endemic settings at the end of 2015. In addition to carry out the research to find out new interventions in dengue control, developing the dengue vaccine for the elderly is very important to prevent severe dengue and deaths.

Keywords: case fatality rate, dengue, dengue vaccine, the elderly

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Authors: Teodorica G. Ani

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Economic activity requires an encouraging regulatory environment and effective rules that are transparent and accessible to all. The World Bank has been publishing the annual Doing Business reports since 2004 to investigate the scope and manner of regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. A streamlined business environment supporting the development of competitive small and medium enterprises (SMEs) may expand employment opportunities and improve the living conditions of low income households. Asia has emerged as one of the most attractive markets in the world. Economies in East Asia and the Pacific were among the most active in making it easier for local firms to do business. The study aimed to describe the ease of doing business and its effect to economic growth among selected economies in Asia for the year 2014. The study covered 29 economies in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Middle Asia. Ease of doing business is measured by the Doing Business indicators (DBI) of the World Bank. The indicators cover ten aspects of the ease of doing business such as starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. In the study, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was used as the proxy variable for economic growth. Descriptive research was the research design used. Graphical analysis was used to describe the income and doing business among selected economies. In addition, multiple regression was used to determine the effect of doing business to economic growth. The study presented the income among selected economies. The graph showed China has the highest income while Maldives produces the lowest and that observation were supported by gathered literatures. The study also presented the status of the ten indicators of doing business among selected economies. The graphs showed varying trends on how easy to start a business, deal with construction permits and to register property. Starting a business is easiest in Singapore followed by Hong Kong. The study found out that the variations in ease of doing business is explained by starting a business, dealing with construction permits and registering property. Moreover, an explanation of the regression result implies that a day increase in the average number of days it takes to complete a procedure will decrease the value of GDP in general. The research proposed inputs to policy which may increase the awareness of local government units of different economies on the simplification of the policies of the different components used in measuring doing business.

Keywords: doing business, economic growth, gross domestic product, Asia

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Authors: Subbarao Pichuka, Amar Balakrishna Tej, Vikas Vemula

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In recent years, the frequency and intensity of urban floods have increased due to climate change all over the world provoking a significant loss in terms of human lives and property. This study investigates the effect of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes and population growth on the urban environmental conditions in the Indian metropolitan city namely Hyderabad. The centennial built-up area data have been downloaded from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) web portal for various periods (1975 to 2014). The ArcGIS version 10.8 software is employed to convert the GHSL data into shape files and also to calculate the amount of built-up area in the study locations. The decadal population data are obtained from the Census from 1971 to 2011 and forecasted for the required years (1975 and 2014) utilizing the Geometric Increase Method. Next, the analysis has been carried out with respect to the increase in population and the corresponding rise in the built-up area. Further the effects of extreme rainfall events, which exacerbate urban flooding have also been reviewed. Results demonstrate that the population growth was the primary cause of the increase in impervious surfaces in the urban regions. It in turn leads to the intensification of surface runoff and thereby leads to Urban flooding. The built-up area has been doubled from 1975 to 2014 and the population growth has been observed between 109.24% to 400% for the past four decades (1971 to 2014) in the study area (Hyderabad). Overall, this study provides the hindsight on the current urban flooding scenarios, and the findings of this study can be used in the future planning of cities.

Keywords: urban LULC change, urban flooding, GHSL built-up data, climate change, ArcGIS

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Authors: Vijay S. Katta, Vinod Kushwah, Rudraksh Tiwari, Mulayam Singh Gaur, Priti Dimri, Ashok Kumar Sharma

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The formation process of seismic activities because of abrupt slip on faults, tectonic plate moments due to accumulated stress in the Earth’s crust. The prediction of seismic activity is a very challenging task. We have studied the changes in surface latent heat temperatures which are observed prior to significant earthquakes have been investigated and could be considered for short term earthquake prediction. We analyzed the surface latent heat temperature (SLHT) variation for inland earthquakes occurred in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh (32.5 N, 76.1E, M-4.5, depth-5km) nearby the main boundary fault region, the data of SLHT have been taken from National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). In this analysis, we have calculated daily variations with surface latent heat temperature (0C) in the range area 1⁰x1⁰ (~120/KM²) with the pixel covering epicenter of earthquake at the center for a three months period prior to and after the seismic activities. The mean value during that period has been considered in order to take account of the seasonal effect. The monthly mean has been subtracted from daily value to study anomalous behavior (∆SLHT) of SLHT during the earthquakes. The results found that the SLHTs adjacent the epicenters all are anomalous high value 3-5 days before the seismic activities. The abundant surface water and groundwater in the epicenter and its adjacent region can provide the necessary condition for the change of SLHT. To further confirm the reliability of SLHT anomaly, it is necessary to explore its physical mechanism in depth by more earthquakes cases.

Keywords: surface latent heat temperature, satellite data, earthquake, magnetic storm

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Authors: Garima Joshi, Pratap Sharan, V. Sreenivas, Nand Kumar, Kameshwar Prasad, Ashima N. Wadhawan

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Schizophrenia is a debilitating disorder and is marked by cognitive impairment, which deleteriously impacts the social and professional functioning along with the quality of life of the patients and the caregivers. Often the cognitive symptoms are in their prodromal state and worsen as the illness progresses; they have proven to have a good predictive value for the prognosis of the illness. It has been shown that intensive cognitive rehabilitation (CR) leads to improvements in the healthy as well as cognitively-impaired subjects. As the majority of population in India falls in the lower to middle socio-economic status and have low education levels, using the existing packages, a majority of which are developed in the West, for cognitive rehabilitation becomes difficult. The use of technology is also restricted due to the high costs involved and the limited availability and familiarity with computers and other devices, which pose as an impedance for continued therapy. Cognitive rehabilitation in India uses a plethora of retraining methods for the patients with schizophrenia targeting the functions of attention, information processing, executive functions, learning and memory, and comprehension along with Social Cognition. Psychologists often have to follow an integrative therapy approach involving social skills training, family therapy and psychoeducation in order to maintain the gains from the cognitive rehabilitation in the long run. This paper reviews the methodologies and cognitive retaining programs used in India. It attempts to elucidate the evolution and development of methodologies used, from traditional paper-pencil based retraining to more sophisticated neuroscience-informed techniques in cognitive rehabilitation of deficits in schizophrenia as home-based or supervised and guided programs for cognitive rehabilitation.

Keywords: schizophrenia, cognitive rehabilitation, neuropsychological interventions, integrated approached to rehabilitation

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