B.R. Singh

Bio: B.R. Singh is an academic researcher from Government of India. The author has contributed to research in topics: Slope stability & Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 7 publications receiving 77 citations.

Investigations and stability analyses of Malin village landslide of Pune district, Maharashtra, India

Abstract: This paper presents field investigations and numerical analyses of the landslide, affecting Malin village of Pune district in Maharashtra, India. The Malin village was wiped out due to Malin landslide, occurred on July 30, 2014; however, only a primary school and few houses remained safe during the event, and mass of the people buried in debris of slide. To study the causes of the event, field study has been carried out. Representative samples of slope-forming geomaterials (soil/rock) have been collected at three locations of the hill viz. L1 (bottom of the hill), L2 (middle of the hill) and L3 (top of the hill) along with massive and vesicular basalt for the determination of the geotechnical properties in the laboratory. The estimated geotechnical properties have been used for numerical modeling of the hill slope that has been performed to calculate factor of safety, maximum displacement, displacement direction and accumulated maximum shear strain with the help of numerical programs based on limit equilibrium method and finite element method approaches, respectively. This study shows that the hill slope was unstable with FoS < 1 and prone to failure. It was triggered by various man-made and natural factors like heavy rainfall, unscientific construction activities at the top of the hill and along the hill, unplanned cultivations and lack of drainage system. Also, the results of the numerical analysis can be successfully implemented to minimize/reduce impact and frequency of landslide in the area of similar morphology.

Medicinal values of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) in Human Life: An Overview

Abstract: Garlic is one of the important bulb crops grown and used as a spice or a condiment throughout India. According to the Unani and Ayurvedic systems as practised in India, garlic is carminative and is a gastric stimulant and thus help in digestion and absorption of food. Allicin present in aquous extract of garlic reduces cholesterol concentration in human blood. Garlic extract has antimicrobial activity against many genera of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Garlic contains a higher concentration of sulfur compounds which are responsible for its medicinal effects. The chemical constituents of garlic have also been investigated for treatment of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, blood pressure, atherosclerosis and hyperlipidaemia and highly praised by several authors. Therefore, this paper is reviewed to inspire and impress the young researchers about the medicinal values of garlic. The inhalation of garlic oil or garlic juice has generally been recommended by doctors in case of pulmonary tuberculosis, rheumatism, sterility, impotency, cough and red eyes. Garlic possesses insecticidal action. About 1% garlic extract gives protection against mosquitoes for 8 hours. Extract of garlic along with chilli and ginger has beneficial action against soil nematodes. Beneficial use of garlic extract has been found against many fungi. Garlic is probably one of the earliest known medicinal plants, which used from ancient time to cure different disease conditions in human. Garlic’s principal medicinal uses are to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, fight infections, and prevent cancer. The main interest of researchers in the medicinal values of garlic is its broad-spectrum therapeutic effect with minimal toxicity. Garlic extract has antimicrobial activity against many genera of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Garlic contains a higher concentration of lavoura compounds which are responsible for its medicinal effects. The active constituents are avoura-containing compounds that are rapidly absorbed and metabolized. Numerous studies suggest that garlic lowers total cholesterol concentrations by approximately 10%, favorably altering HDL/LDL ratios. Literature survey support garlic’s effectiveness as a mild antihypertensive, lowering blood pressure by 5-7%. Garlic inhibits platelet aggregation and enhances fibrinolytic activity, reducing clots on damaged endothelium. Another important use of garlic is as antidiabetic. Garlic controls the blood sugar level by different types of mechanisms. In vitro studies and animal data suggest that garlic may help to prevent some solid tumors. Therefore garlic is also effective in the cancer prevention. There are no studies evaluating its effectiveness in treating children or pregnant or nursing women. The other proposed uses of garlic include the hepatoprotective, antihelmentics, antiinflammatory, antioxidant, antifungal and wound healing. Garlic, from crushed to capsules, is consumed throughout the world. The active chemical in garlic is allicin, which is produced when raw garlic is crushed, allowing the enzyme alliinase to act on the stable precursor allin. Garlic’s antidiabetic, antibiotic and perhaps anticancer effects are well accepted in the world over, because of the many scientific literature supporting these effects. Garlic also has hepatoprotective, antioxidant, and antihelmentic effect. This review paper demonstrated some of the benefits of garlic for its potential uses in preventing and curing different diseases, and acting as antioxidant for many radicals. Fresh and powdered garlic are popular for food flavor and should continue to be used. Today, with the ever-growing resistant organisms, taking of garlic extract remains a powerful antimicrobial agent. Clearly more studies are needed to refine the use and improvement of the efficacy of this important medicinal plant. It is corresponding that substitute medicines practices with plant extracts including garlic as a means of decreasing the burden of diseases would be of public health importance.

Impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami along the Tamil Nadu coastline: field survey review and numerical simulations

Abstract: The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami had a significant impact on the Tamil Nadu coast in India. In this paper, a range of field survey data collected by different survey teams available in literature have been analyzed and compiled to serve as a basis for validation of numerical tsunami simulations. The individual field surveys reveal a significant scatter in the run-up data between the different teams, which point out that the uncertainty in these data must be taken into account when using them for validation. The inundation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami is simulated for the coastlines of Chennai and Nagapattinam based on high-resolution topography. Different spatially uniform Manning friction as well as heterogeneous friction maps is used. Overall, the simulation results showed a good agreement with the field observations, but there are also some observed spatial variability in the goodness of the fit between the data and simulations. In some areas, clear discrepancies are found. The results obtained using detailed land use maps including spatially variable friction are not significantly more accurate than those employing spatially constant values. For most areas, parameters indicating relatively low friction provided best match with the observations. This may also suggest that the inundation is often strongly governed by local variations in topography.

Considerations for the Stability of Longwall Chain Pillars and Adjacent Roadway

Abstract: SUMMARY The old subject of stability of chain pillars and a roadway protected by them is dealt with using a new approach. The simple method of the theory of beams on elastic support is used to estimate the one-sided pressure distribution over the chain pillars the goaf being only on one side. It is shown how the mechanical properties involved in the method can be determined measuring roof-seam contact displacements in situ. It is found that even if the pillars per se are stable, the roadway which they protect may still show signs of distress, as given in a case study. A modern rock mass classification has been applied to assess roadway stability.

Genetically modified Cotton species detection by LISS-III satellite data

Abstract: It is possible to infer the genetically modified species by using remotely sensed data. Using ERDAS software the algorithm of BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) Cotton in Punjab, India was developed successfully. GPS enabled space technology has the potential to identify the exact location of Bt Cotton by generating Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for the calculation of total area covered by this species. It was possible to develop a correlation in between genetically modified Cotton crop and NDVI value. In parts of Bhatinda district of Punjab the yield of Bt Cotton and NDVI showing R2 value of more than 4.5 in regression analysis. A correlation matrix was also generated which shows that NDVI values of BT cotton has reasonably acceptable correlation with Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) of soil and water also.

Short Communication - Studies on the antimicrobial effects of garlic (Allium sativum Linn), ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) and lime (Citrus aurantifolia Linn)

Abstract: The antimicrobial effect in vitro of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of garlic (Allium sativum Linn.), ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) and lime (Citrus aurantifolia Linn.) juice were assayed against Staphylococcus aureus; Bacillus spp., Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. All the test organisms were susceptible to undiluted lime-juice. The aqueous and ethanolic extracts of garlic and ginger singly did not inhibit any of the test organisms. The highest inhibition zone of 19 mm was observed with a combination of extracts on Staphylococcus aureus. Salmonella spp were resistant to almost all the extracts except lime.

Applications of Particle Swarm Optimization in Geotechnical Engineering: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract: Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is an evolutionary computation approach to solve nonlinear global optimization problems. The PSO idea was made based on simulation of a simplified social system, the graceful but unpredictable choreography of birds flock. This system is initialized with a population of random solutions that are updated during iterations. Over the last few years, PSO has been extensively applied in various geotechnical engineering aspects such as slope stability analysis, pile and foundation engineering, rock and soil mechanics, and tunneling and underground space design. A review on the literature shows that PSO has utilized more widely in geotechnical engineering compared with other civil engineering disciplines. This is due to comprehensive uncertainty and complexity of problems in geotechnical engineering which can be solved by using the PSO abilities in solving the complex and multi-dimensional problems. This paper provides a comprehensive review on the applicability, advantages and limitation of PSO in different disciplines of geotechnical engineering to provide an insight to an alternative and superior optimization method compared with the conventional optimization techniques for geotechnical engineers.

A hybrid artificial bee colony algorithm-artificial neural network for forecasting the blast-produced ground vibration

Abstract: Drilling and blasting is an inseparable part of the rock fragmentation process in open-pit mines. Prediction of blast-produced ground vibration is considered as an important issue in blasting works. The aim of this study is to propose a hybrid model for predicting blast-produced ground vibration in the Miduk copper mine, Iran, using combination of the artificial neural network (ANN) combined with artificial bee colony (ABC) (codename ABC-ANN). Here, ABC was used as an optimization algorithm to adjust weights and biases of the ANN. The predicted values of ground vibration by ANN and ABC-ANN models were also compared with several empirical models. In this regard, 89 blasting events were monitored and values of two influential factors on ground vibration, i.e., maximum charge weight used per delay (MC) and distance between monitoring station and blasting-point (DI) together with their peak particle velocity values (as an index of ground vibration) were carefully measured. The results of the predictive models have been compared with the data at hand using mean absolute percentage error, root mean squared error and coefficient of correlation (R2) criteria. Eventually, it was indicated that the constructed ABC-ANN model outperforms the other models in terms of the prediction accuracy and the generalization capability.

Stability analysis of a typical landslide mass in the Three Gorges Reservoir under varying reservoir water levels

Abstract: Water level change upstream of a reservoir highlights the risk of a landslide-prone area on the banks of a reservoir. This paper conducted a study on the deformation mechanism of a selected landslide that occurred in the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) after the water level of the reservoir changed. The long-monitored surface deformation of the slide mass revealed that the deformation of the landslide was related to the water level changes in the reservoir, especially of the change between flood and floodless seasons. The measured internal lateral displacements in the landslide showed that such a landslide was characterized by a trail-mode. FLAC3D was adopted to model the landslide by examining the plastic zone, factor of safety, and the displacement in the x-direction in consideration of four conditions: the natural state of a landslide in the TGR, the initial impoundment, the subsequent rise of water level, and the drawdown of water level. The numerical results indicated that the landslide mass tended to be unstable during the initial impoundment; the subsequent rise of water level had a limited effect on the landslide happening, but the drawdown of water level directly triggered the landslide. The landslide changed from push-mode to trail-mode. It is strongly recommended that drawdown of the water level in the reservoir be carefully controlled to mitigate the effect on landslide mass.