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The paper describes the recent devastating landslide of Kotrupi, Himachal Pradesh in India which had claimed many human lives and properties along its course on 13 August 2017. This event was the third reactivation of the slide as per data available. The study for this landslide involves a preliminary investigation of the site and comparison of pre- and post-event slope stability analysis. Other than rainfall, the combined effect of differential weathering rate of the debris and soil layers, low material strength, and the presence of a fault zone was found to be the primary cause of instability. The analysis was carried out with the geotechnical investigation and numerical modeling with the help of finite element model-based Phase 2 simulator. The significant findings of this paper include numerical simulation of pre- and post-event slide as stated under unsaturated and saturated condition. The study finds a low factor of safety of the present slope. The unstable condition of the slope may trigger another event of the same intensity shortly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Previous studies using the WHOQOL measures have demonstrated that the relationship between individual items and the underlying quality of life (QoL) construct may differ between cultures. If unaccounted for, these differing relationships can lead to measurement bias which, in turn, can undermine the reliability of results.Methods: We used item response theory (IRT) to assess differential item functioning (DIF) in WHOQOL data from diverse language versions collected in UK, Zimbabwe, Russia, and India (total N = 1332). Data were fitted to the partial credit 'Rasch' model. We used four item banks previously derived from the WHOQOL-100 measure, which provided excellent measurement for physical, psychological, social, and environmental quality of life domains (40 items overall). Cross-cultural differential item functioning was assessed using analysis of variance for item residuals and post hoc Tukey tests. Simulated computer-adaptive tests (CATs) were conducted to assess the efficiency and precision of the four items banks.Results: Splitting item parameters by DIF results in four linked item banks without DIF or other breaches of IRT model assumptions. Simulated CATs were more precise and efficient than longer paper-based alternatives.Discussion: Assessing differential item functioning using item response theory can identify measurement invariance between cultures which, if uncontrolled, may undermine accurate comparisons in computer-adaptive testing assessments of QoL. We demonstrate how compensating for DIF using item anchoring allowed data from all four countries to be compared on a common metric, thus facilitating assessments which were both sensitive to cultural nuance and comparable between countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explored the potential of Backpropagation Neural Network (BNN) and M5 model tree based regression approach to estimate the mean annual flood. Data used in this study were taken from an earlier study by Swamee et al. (J Water Resour Plan Manage 121:403–407, ) for 93 Indian catchments spread over the entire country. The relationship proposed by Swamee et al. (J Water Resour Plan Manage 121:403–407, ) was compared with the predictive accuracy of a BNN and M5 model tree approach. The data were analyzed using a tenfold cross-validation. Comparison of the results showed that predictions with the backpropagation neural network fell within a scatter line of ±30% with a correlation coefficient of 0.975. Furthermore, predictions with the M5 model tree fell well within a scatter line of ±15% with a correlation coefficient as high as 0.994. The results also showed that predicted values with neural network and M5 model tree were within about 1.25 times the actual values. However, the predicted values obtained using the Swamee et al. (J Water Resour Plan Manage 121:403–407, ) approach fell much beyond the scatter line of ±50% and the predicted mean annual flood values were sometimes as high as eight times the actual values. The correlation coefficient with this approach was 0.897. The results from this study suggest that backpropagation neural network and M5 model tree-based modeling approaches are superior in accuracy to the model proposed by Swamee et al. (J Water Resour Plan Manage 121:403–407, ). This study also suggests that M5 model trees, being analogous to piecewise linear functions, have certain advantages over neural networks as they offer more insight into the generated model, are acceptable to decision makers and are very efficient in training, and always converge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the impact of the entry of private players in the health insurance market on the size of the insurance market and the distribution of public health subsidies on health care provision in India. Simulation results presented in the paper suggest that the redistributive effect is small when richer groups have privileged access to public facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined a typical case of deep convective storm that formed over southwest India on October 12, 2011, using ground-based X-band radar measurements and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations. The radar observation showed isolated pockets of convective storm, which merged later to form a convective cluster. The observed storms were tall, extending well into the mixed-phase region. Few storms even extended up to the tropopause height. Three different WRF cloud microphysics schemes (WRF Double-Moment 6-Class, Morrison Double-Moment, and Milbrandt–Yau Double-Moment) were used to simulate the observed deep convective storm to examine the vertical structure of hydrometeors. All the cloud microphysics schemes were able to reproduce the convective storm event with a lag time of almost two and a half hours. The WRF Double-Moment 6-Class scheme better simulates the vertical structure of storm compared to the other two microphysics schemes. The WRF model reasonably simulated the observed patterns of convective storm when the WRF cloud microphysics scheme better simulate the graupel and snow. The differences in simulated storm structure obtained by different microphysics schemes compared to observation highlight the deficiency involved in the simulations in capturing the microphysics that is guiding the intensity of convective storms. The present study thus underscores the importance of microphysics in different parameterization schemes of WRF simulation over southwest India, which has an implication in the forecasting of convective storms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hereditary xerocytosis (HX), also known as dehydrated stomatocytosis (DHSt) is a dominantly inherited genetic disorder exhibiting red cell membrane dehydration caused by the loss of the monovalent cation K+ and water. Variants in mechanosensitive Piezo ionic channels of the PIEZO1 gene are the primary cause of HX. We have utilized high throughput and highly precise next-generation sequencing (NGS) to make a diagnosis and examine the genotype-phenotype relationship in inflexible HX cases. Seven unrelated patients with unexplained hemolytic anemia were scrutinized with a panel probing 8000 genes related to congenital anemia. Targeted next-generation sequencing identified 8 missense variants in the PIEZO1 gene in 7 unrelated Indian patients. Three of the 8 variants are novel (c.1795G > C, c.2915G > A, c.7372 T > C) and the remaining five (c.4082A > G, c.6829C > A, c.7374C > G, c.7381G > A, c.7483_7488dup) are previously reported. The variants have been validated by Sanger sequencing. One patient with autosomal dominant mutation (c.7372 T > C) is associated with iron refractory iron deficiency anemia. Of the 7 patients, one has HX in combination with a novel homozygous variant (c.994G > A) in the PKLR gene causing PK deficiency resulting in severe clinical manifestations with phenotypic variability. In silico prediction using bioinformatics tools were used to study the possible damaging effects of the novel variants. Structural-functional analysis of the novel variants was investigated by molecular modeling software (PyMOL and Swiss PDB). These results encompass the heterogeneous behavior of mechano-sensitive Piezo1 protein observed in HX patients in India. Moreover, NGS imparted a subtle, economical, and quick tool for understanding the genetic cause of undiagnosed cases of congenital hemolytic anemia. NGS grants a potential technology integrating clinical history together with molecular report profiting in such patients and their families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on 15 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) phase 3 (CMIP3) and 32 CMIP phase 5 (CMIP5) models, a detailed diagnosis was carried out to understand what compose the biases in simulation of the Indian Ocean basin mode (IOBM) and its capacitor effect. Cloud-radiation-SST (CRS) feedback and wind-evaporation-SST (WES) feedback are the two major atmospheric processes for SST changes. Most CMIP models simulate a stronger CRS feedback and a weaker WES feedback. During boreal fall of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation developing year and the following spring, there are weak biases of suppressed rainfall anomalies over the Maritime Continent and anomalous anticyclone over South Indian Ocean. Most CMIP models simulate reasonable short wave radiation (SWR) and weaker latent heat flux (LHF) anomalies. This leads to a weak bias of atmospheric processes. During winter, however, the rainfall anomalies are stronger due to west bias, and the anomalous anticyclone is comparable to observations. As such, most models simulate stronger SWR and reasonable LHF anomalies, leading to a strong bias of atmospheric processes. The thermocline feedback is stronger in most models. Though there is a deep bias of climatology thermocline, most models capture reasonable sea surface height-induced SST anomalies. Therefore, the effect of oceanic processes offset the weak bias of atmospheric processes in spring, and the tropical Indian Ocean warming persists into summer. However, anomalous northwest Pacific (NWP) anticyclone is weaker due to weak and west bias of the capacitor effect. The unrealistic western Pacific SST anomalies in models favor the westward extension of Rossby wave from the Pacific, weakening the effect of Kelvin wave from the Indian Ocean. Moreover, the western Pacific warming forces the NWP anticyclone move farther north than observations, suggesting a major forcing from the Pacific. Compared to CMIP3, CMIP5 models simulate the feedbacks more realistically and display less diversity. Thus, the overall performance of CMIP5 models is better than that of CMIP3 models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics and causes of inhomogeneous warming of the Tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) sea surface temperature during 1900-2005 are investigated based on observations and 16 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) models. Over the TIO, the observed warming trend has more than doubled since 1965, which is well simulated by the CMIP5 historical runs. However, as to spatial warming pattern, observations manifest a double-peak pattern during 1900-1940 and a non-uniform Indian Ocean Mode (IOBM)-like pattern during 1965-2005, which is not captured by the CMIP5 historical runs. Herein, an optimal detection analysis is employed, which indicates that the double-peak warming pattern can be explained well by a combination of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and natural forcing, and the non-uniform IOBM-like pattern is mostly attributable to anthropogenic forcing. Further, a mixed-layer heat budget analysis shows that atmospheric and oceanic processes, especially latent heat flux from atmospheric forcing part associated with GHG forcing, are beneficial for the warming patterns formation. Our study supports the claim that intrinsic ocean-atmosphere interaction within the TIO is the key mechanism for maintaining the TIO warming. From the model perspective, during 1900-1940, the weak anti-symmetric atmospheric circulation with easterly (northwesterly) anomalies north (south) of the equator helps to sustain the double-peak warming pattern. During 1965-2005, the intensified anti-symmetric wind pattern is in favor of the non-uniform IOBM-like warming pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few years, numerous remote user authentication and session key agreement schemes have been put forwarded for Telecare Medical Information System, where the patient and medical server exchange medical information using Internet. We have found that most of the schemes are not usable for practical applications due to known security weaknesses. It is also worth to note that unrestricted number of patients login to the single medical server across the globe. Therefore, the computation and maintenance overhead would be high and the server may fail to provide services. In this article, we have designed a medical system architecture and a standard mutual authentication scheme for single medical server, where the patient can securely exchange medical data with the doctor(s) via trusted central medical server over any insecure network. We then explored the security of the scheme with its resilience to attacks. Moreover, we formally validated the proposed scheme through the simulation using Automated Validation of Internet Security Schemes and Applications software whose outcomes confirm that the scheme is protected against active and passive attacks. The performance comparison demonstrated that the proposed scheme has lower communication cost than the existing schemes in literature. In addition, the computation cost of the proposed scheme is nearly equal to the exiting schemes. The proposed scheme not only efficient in terms of different security attacks, but it also provides an efficient login, mutual authentication, session key agreement and verification and password update phases along with password recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study strong ground motion characteristics and ground response analysis of different sites in Nanded City, India. Synthetic strong ground motion records are obtained for two scenario earthquakes of magnitude M 5.2 and M 6.8 in southern Peninsular India using the finite fault model. Shear-wave velocity averaged over top 30 m of the soil is obtained from multichannel analysis of surface wave survey at 60 sites at depths of 20-50 m below the ground surface. The sites in different parts of the city are characterized by peak ground acceleration (PGA) at the surface and bedrock level, 5 % damped response spectra at the ground surface and the amplification factor defined as the ratio of ground motion at the surface to that at the bedrock. The area east to the lineament is characterized by low V values (<200 m/s), probably associated with Godavari River basin sediments with alluvial deposits, composed of brown clay with intercalated bands of sand and gravel. A relatively high PGA value at the surface of about 0.24 g for the M 5.2 target event and hence high ground motion amplification indicative of major damage are observed at sites E-NE to the lineament in the area that are associated with the top soil column consisting of unconsolidated river basin sediments with very low V values (<200 m/s). The amplification factor for the city ranges from 3 to 8 for the highest target event of magnitude M 6.8. There is a strong lateral variation in PGA values at the surface for the part of the city lying to the east of the lineament and parallel to its trend, where a relatively high amplification factor of 6-8 is found at a dominant frequency of 1.5-2.5 Hz, which can be considered as a significant zone of amplification and hence areas with high seismic hazard. The site-specific response spectra show that the peak of spectral acceleration for different sites occurs around 3 Hz. There is a large spatial variation of spectral acceleration at any given frequency for the city. For example, site nos. 9 and 50 are characterized by a peak in spectral acceleration of 0.55 and 0.9 g, respectively, at 3 Hz frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keeping the systematic bias of the climate forecast system model version 2 (CFSv2) in mind, an attempt is made to improve the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall variability in the model from diurnal through daily to seasonal scale. Experiments with default simplified Arakawa-Schubert (SAS) and a revised SAS schemes are carried out to make 15 years climate run (free run) to evaluate the model fidelity with revised SAS as compared to default SAS. It is clearly seen that the revised SAS is able to reduce some of the biases of CFSv2 with default SAS. Improvement is seen in the annual seasonal cycle, onset and withdrawal but most importantly the rainfall probability distribution function (PDF) has improved significantly. To understand the reason behind the PDF improvement, the diurnal rainfall simulation is analysed and it is found that the PDF of diurnal rainfall has significantly improved with respect to even a high resolution CFSv2 T382 version. In the diurnal run with revised SAS, the PDF of rainfall over central India has remarkably improved. The improvement of diurnal cycle of total rainfall has actually been contributed by the improvement of diurnal cycle of convection and associated convective rainfall. This is reflected in outgoing longwave radiation and high cloud diurnal cycle. This improvement of convective cycle has resolved a long standing problem of dry bias by CFSv2 over Indian land mass and wet bias over equatorial Indian Ocean. Besides the improvement, there are some areas where there are still scopes for further development. The cold tropospheric temperature bias, low cloud fractions need further improvement. To check the role of shallow convection, another free run is made with revised SAS along with shallow convection (SC). The major difference between the new and old SC schemes lies in the heating and cooling behavior in lower-atmospheric layers above the planetary boundary layer. However, the inclusion of revised SC scheme could not show much improvement as compared to revised SAS with deep convection. Thus, it seems that revised SAS with deep convection can be a potentially better parameterization scheme for CFSv2 in simulating ISM rainfall variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assesses the impact of Doppler weather radar (DWR) data (reflectivity and radial wind) assimilation on the simulation of severe thunderstorms (STS) events over the Indian monsoon region. Two different events that occurred during the Severe Thunderstorms Observations and Regional Modeling (STORM) pilot phase in 2009 were simulated. Numerical experiments-3DV (assimilation of DWR observations) and CNTL (without data assimilation)-were conducted using the three-dimensional variational data assimilation technique with the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF-ARW). The results show that consistent with prior studies the 3DV experiment, initialized by assimilation of DWR observations, performed better than the CNTL experiment over the Indian region. The enhanced performance was a result of improved representation and simulation of wind and moisture fields in the boundary layer at the initial time in the model. Assimilating DWR data caused higher moisture incursion and increased instability, which led to stronger convective activity in the simulations. Overall, the dynamic and thermodynamic features of the two thunderstorms were consistently better simulated after ingesting DWR data, as compared to the CNTL simulation. In the 3DV experiment, higher instability was observed in the analyses of thermodynamic indices and equivalent potential temperature ( θ) fields. Maximum convergence during the mature stage was also noted, consistent with maximum vertical velocities in the assimilation experiment (3DV). In addition, simulated hydrometeor (water vapor mixing ratio, cloud water mixing ratio, and rain water mixing ratio) structures improved with the 3DV experiment, compared to that of CNTL. From the higher equitable threat scores, it is evident that the assimilation of DWR data enhanced the skill in rainfall prediction associated with the STS over the Indian monsoon region. These results add to the body of evidence now which provide consistent and notable improvements in the mesoscale model results over the Indian monsoon region after assimilating DWR fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intriguing feature associated with 'breaks' in the Indian summer monsoon is the occurrence of intense/flood-producing precipitation confined to central-eastern parts of the Himalayan (CEH) foothills and north-eastern parts of India. Past studies have documented various large-scale circulation aspects associated with monsoon-breaks, however the dynamical mechanisms responsible for anomalous precipitation enhancement over CEH foothills remain unclear. This problem is investigated using diagnostic analyses of observed and reanalysis products and high-resolution model simulations. The present findings show that the anomalous precipitation enhancement over the CEH foothills during monsoon-breaks emerges as a consequence of interactions between southward intruding mid-latitude westerly troughs and the South Asian monsoon circulation in its weak phase. These interactions facilitate intensification of mid-tropospheric cyclonic vorticity and strong ascending motion over the CEH foothills, so as to promote deep convection and concentrated rainfall activity over the region during monsoon-breaks. Mesoscale orographic effects additionally tend to amplify the vertical motions and precipitation over the CEH foothills as evidenced from the high-resolution model simulations. It is further noted from the model simulations that the coupling between precipitation and circulation during monsoon-breaks can produce nearly a threefold increase of total precipitation over the CEH foothills and neighborhood as opposed to active-monsoon conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the impact of the ocean-atmosphere coupling on the atmospheric mean state over the Indian Ocean and the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) is examined in the framework of the SINTEX-F2 coupled model through forced and coupled control simulations and several sensitivity coupled experiments. During boreal winter and spring, most of the Indian Ocean biases are common in forced and coupled simulations, suggesting that the errors originate from the atmospheric model, especially a dry islands bias in the Maritime Continent. During boreal summer, the air-sea coupling decreases the ISM rainfall over South India and the monsoon strength to realistic amplitude, but at the expense of important degradations of the rainfall and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) mean states in the Indian Ocean. Strong SST biases of opposite sign are observed over the western (WIO) and eastern (EIO) tropical Indian Ocean. Rainfall amounts over the ocean (land) are systematically higher (lower) in the northern hemisphere and the south equatorial Indian Ocean rainfall band is missing in the control coupled simulation. During boreal fall, positive dipole-like errors emerge in the mean state of the coupled model, with warm and wet (cold and dry) biases in the WIO (EIO), suggesting again a significant impact of the SST errors. The exact contributions and the distinct roles of these SST errors in the seasonal mean atmospheric state of the coupled model have been further assessed with two sensitivity coupled experiments, in which the SST biases are replaced by observed climatology either in the WIO (warm bias) or EIO (cold bias). The correction of the WIO warm bias leads to a global decrease of rainfall in the monsoon region, which confirms that the WIO is an important source of moisture for the ISM. On the other hand, the correction of the EIO cold bias leads to a global improvement of precipitation and circulation mean state during summer and fall. Nevertheless, all these improvements due to SST corrections seem drastically limited by the atmosphere intrinsic biases, including prominently the unimodal oceanic position of the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) during summer and the enhanced westward wind stress along the equator during fall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simulation of precipitation in a general circulation model relying on relaxed mass flux cumulus parameterization scheme is sensitive to cloud adjustment time scale (CATS). In this study, the frequency of the dominant intra-seasonal mode and interannual variability of Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) simulated by an atmospheric general circulation model is shown to be sensitive to the CATS. It has been shown that a longer CATS of about 5 h simulates the spatial distribution of the ISMR better. El Niño Southern Oscillation–ISMR relationship is also sensitive to CATS. The equatorial Indian Ocean rainfall and ISMR coupling is sensitive to CATS. Our study suggests that a careful choice of CATS is necessary for adequate simulation of spatial pattern as well as interannual variation of Indian summer monsoon precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rockfall is one of the major concerns along highways, settlements and forests around the globe. Amboli road cut hill is one such region which is highly vulnerable and suffers from recurrent rockfall mostly in the rainy season, which blocks the State Highway 121 for considerable period of time. The steep and highly jointed slope along the road makes the zone prone to failure due to rainwater action. This road experiences heavy traffic throughout the year as it is the only road connecting Goa to Satara and Kolhapur via Sawantwadi in Maharashtra State, India. Therefore, an attempt has been made in this study to understand the stability of the cliff face. A combination of field study and 2D computer simulation was performed to assess surface characteristics of the cliff face. Bounce height, translational kinetic energy, translational velocity and factor of safety for saturated condition have been estimated. The result of this study shows that the rock face is highly unstable taking into consideration the environmental condition and daily traffic. Proper preventive measures have also been suggested to arrest the movement of falling rocks before reaching the roads or valleys. It is a belief that if proper care is taken, then further uncertain rockfall hazards can be prevented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting (AR-WRF) model is used to study the influence of Western Ghats situated along the west cost of peninsular India in the mean characteristics of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) through numerical simulations. A control simulation (CTRL) is carried out using 11-year (2000-2010) mean initial and lateral boundary conditions from the ERA-Interim reanalysis to simulate the mean atmospheric features of the ASM. The Modern-Era retrospective analysis for research and applications (MERRA) data along with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM, 3B42 daily rainfall) data are used to validate the CTRL simulation. The simulated dynamical features and precipitation characteristics during the ASM period agree well with the MERRA reanalysis and TRMM observations. In order to examine the role of Western Ghats on the mean characteristics of the ASM, a sensitivity simulation (NoWG) is carried out with orography reduced to surface over a domain bound between 5°-28°N and 72°-90°E, keeping all other conditions unchanged. This sensitivity analysis showed an enhancement in the low level monsoon flow over the Indian Ocean and peninsular India in the absence of Western Ghats. The prominent up-draft over the west coast of peninsular India observed in the CTRL simulation also decrease in the absence of Western Ghats. The simulated rainfall show a considerable decrease over the west coast and an enhancement over the east coast of peninsular India in the absence of Western Ghats. These simulations clearly depict the importance of Western Ghats in the circulation dynamics and rainfall features during the ASM period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimates of return periods of extreme sea level events along the coast are useful for impact assessment. In this study, a vertically integrated 2D model was developed for the simulation of storm surges in the Bay of Bengal. The bathymetry for the model was derived from an improved ETOPO-5 data set, which was prepared in our earlier work. The meteorological forcing for the model was obtained from the cyclone model of Holland using the data available for 136 low-pressure systems that occurred during 1974-2000 in the Bay of Bengal. The simulated total sea level and the surge component were obtained for each event. The simulated peak levels showed good agreement with the observations available at few stations. The annual maxima of sea levels, extracted from the simulations, were fitted with Gumbel distribution using r-largest annual maxima method to estimate the 5- and 50-year return periods of extreme events at 26 stations along the east coast of India. The return periods estimated from simulated sea levels showed good agreement with those obtained from observations. The 5- and 50-year return levels of total sea level along the east coast of India show a considerable increase from south to north, with the 50-year return total sea levels being as high as 6.9 and 8.7 m at stations along the north eastern coast such as Sagar Island and Chandipur, respectively. The high return levels are expected at these stations as the cyclones developed in the Bay of Bengal generally move north or north-west, producing extreme events in the northern part, and moreover, these stations are characterized by high tidal ranges. However, at some regions in the southern part such as Surya Lanka and Machilipatnam, though 50-year return levels of total sea level are not very high (2.98 and 2.97 m, respectively) because of the relatively lower tidal ranges, high return levels of surges (0.84 and 0.57 m, respectively) are found. In addition to the role of shallow depths (5.0 and 6.1 m, respectively) at the two stations, the high return levels of surges are attributed to the effect of geometrical configuration at Surya Lanka and width (100 km) and orientation of continental shelf at Machilipatnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A severe thunderstorm produced a tornado (F3 on the Fujita-Pearson scale), which affected Rajkanika block of Kendrapara district of Orissa in the afternoon of March 31, 2009. The devastation caused by the tornado consumed 15 lives and left several injured with huge loss of property. The meteorological conditions that led to this tornado have been analyzed. An attempt is also made to simulate this rare event using Non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model (NMM) core of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) system with a spatial resolution of 4 km for a period of 24 h, starting at 0000 UTC of March 31, 2009. The atmospheric settings resulted from synoptic, surface, upper air, satellite and radar echo studies were favorable for the occurrence of a severe thunderstorm activity over Rajkanika. The model-simulated meteorological parameters are consistent with each other, and all are in good agreement with the observation in terms of the region of occurrence of the intense convective activity. The model has well captured the vertical motion. The core of the strongest winds is shown to be very close to the site of actual occurrence of the event. The wind speed is not in good agreement with the observation as it has shown the strongest wind of only 20 ms, against the estimated wind speed of 70 ms. The spatial distributions as well as intensity of rainfall rates are in good agreement with the observation as model simulated 35.4 mm against the observed rainfall of 41 mm over Chandbali. The results of these analyses demonstrated the capability of high-resolution WRF-NMM model in simulation of severe thunderstorm events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) forced by prescribed SST to simulate and predict the interannual variability of Indian/Asian monsoon has been widely attributed to their inability to reproduce the actual sea surface temperature (SST)-rainfall relationship in the warm Indo-Pacific oceans. This assessment is based on a comparison of the observed and simulated correlation between the rainfall and local SST. However, the observed SSTconvection/rainfall relationship is nonlinear and for this a linear measure such as the correlation is not an appropriate measure. We show that the SST-rainfall relationship simulated by atmospheric and coupled general circulation models in IPCC AR4 is nonlinear, as observed, and realistic over the tropical West Pacific (WPO) and the Indian Ocean (IO). The SST-rainfall pattern simulated by the coupled versions of these models is rather similar to that from the corresponding atmospheric one, except for a shift of the entire pattern to colder/warmer SSTs when there is a cold/warm bias in the coupled version. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examine the potential impact of the anticipated future marriage squeeze on nuptiality patterns in China and India during the twenty-first century. I use population projections from 2005 to 2100 based on three different scenarios for the sex ratio at birth (SRB). To counteract the limitations of cross-sectional methods commonly used to assess the severity of marriage squeezes, I use a two-sex cohort-based procedure to simulate marriage patterns over the twenty-first century based on the female dominance model. I also examine two more-flexible marriage functions to illustrate the potential impact of changes in marriage schedules as a response to the marriage squeeze. Longitudinal indicators of marriage squeeze indicate that the number of prospective grooms in both countries will exceed that of prospective brides by more 50% for three decades in the most favorable scenario. Rates of male bachelorhood will not peak before 2050, and the squeeze conditions will be felt several decades thereafter, even among cohorts unaffected by adverse SRB. If the SRB is allowed to return to normalcy by 2020, the proportion of men unmarried at age 50 is expected to rise to 15% in China by 2055 and to 10% in India by 2065. India suffers from the additional impact of a delayed fertility transition on its age structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Brain tumor detection and segmentation has created an interest on research areas. The process of identifying and segmenting brain tumor is a very tedious and time consuming task, since human physique has anatomical structure naturally. Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) scan analysis is a powerful tool that makes effective detection of the abnormal tissues from the brain. Among different techniques, Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) is a liable one which contains several modalities in scanning the images captured from interior structure of human brain. A novel hybrid energy-efficient method is proposed for automatic tumor detection and segmentation. The proposed system follows K-means clustering, integrated with Fuzzy C-Means (KMFCM) and active contour by level set for tumor segmentation. An effective segmentation, edge detection and intensity enhancement can detect brain tumor easily. For that, active contour with level set method has been utilized. The performance of the proposed approach has been evaluated in terms of white pixels, black pixels, tumor detected area, and the processing time. This technique can deal with a higher number of segmentation problem and minimum execution time by ensuring segmentation quality. Additionally, tumor area length in vertical and horizontal positions is determined to measure sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and similarity index values. Further, tumor volume is computed. Knowledge of the information of tumor is helpful for the physicians for effective diagnosing in tumor for treatments. The entire experimentation was implemented in MATLAB environment and simulation results were compared with existing approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, blood banks are owned by state hospitals, private hospitals, NGOs and private laboratories. The aim of this study is to improve the service levels of the blood supply chain by maximizing the availability and minimizing the wastage of blood. New configuration approaches are adapted from the successful methods of manufacturing sectors. In this retrospective cross-sectional study, whole blood (WB) demand and supply data between April 2015 to March 2016 has been taken. Data analytics tool "R" is used for statistical analysis. Two new configurations, namely a) Zonal Network and b) Pull system models have been developed to compare the existing blood supply chain. The performances of the proposed configurations have been compared with the existing system using suitable indicators computed using Arena simulation software12.0. The total shortage index (TSI) and total wastage index (TWI) are used as indicators of performance measures. Weights are assigned for shortage and wastage indices to the reconfigured models. The pull system model outperforms existing model and zone model by achieving zero wastage. In transfusion medicine, importance is given to the achievement of lesser percentage shortage than wastage. If the WB inventory in blood centers is sufficient enough and we have more than one zone for distribution, then we can reduce wastages level in the blood supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]