Abstract

Earthquake problems in India need no introduction. Some of the great earthquakes of the world occurred in India and neighborhood areas. During past two decades, India has witnessed 7 moderate earthquakes which caused large number of casualties and innumerable property loss. Most of these losses are due to poor quality of construction and generally low level of awareness of the earthquake hazard prevalent in the country. In this regard, there is a need for coordinated and sustained effort towards earthquake risk reduction in the country. This can be achieved through education and awareness building.

Abstract

This paper present detailed seismic hazard assessment of the peninsular india which is considered to be seismically most stable landmasses of the indian plate. Past seismic history in this region clearly shows that the seismicity of the area is varying. There were more than five damaging earthquakes with magnitude greater than 6 have occurred in this region stressing the importance of detailed seismic hazard assessment for the region.

Abstract

This paper presents the detailed seismic hazard assessment of the peninsular India (lat. 8°-28°N and long. 67.5°-90°E) which is considered to be seismically most stable landmasses of the Indian plate. Past seismic history in this region (Koyna, 10 December 1967; Bhadrachalam, 13 April 1969; Broach, 23 March 1970; Hyderabad, 30 June 1983; Latur, 30 September 1993; Jabalpur, 22 May 1997; Bhuj, 26 January 2001 etc) clearly shows that the seismicity of the area is varying. There were more than five damaging earthquakes with magnitudes greater than Mw 6.0 have occurred in this region, stressing the importance of detailed seismic hazard assessment for the region. For India, Bhatia et al. (1999) published a probabilistic seismic hazard map based on several well identified and prominent source zones in the country. An attempt has been made in this paper to study the present seismic status of this region incorporating the seismicity, tectonic and geological characteristics and using the collected earthquake data Peak Ground Acceleration was estimated using the attenuation relation developed by Iyengar and Raghukanth (2004). Estimated PGA values were used to compute the deviation with respect to assigned PGA values for various regions provided in Indian Standard code IS 1893:2002. The results show that, the estimated PGA in many areas of the Peninsular India is more than the specified value in the current seismic macrozonation map of the country. This provides an important basis for attempting the detailed microzonation of an area within the Penisular India.

Abstract

This paper presents the detailed seismic hazard assessment of the peninsular India (lat. 8°-28°N and long. 67.5°-90°E) which is considered to be seismically most stable landmasses of the Indian plate. Past seismic history in this region (Koyna, 10 December 1967; Bhadrachalam, 13 April 1969; Broach, 23 March 1970; Hyderabad, 30 June 1983; Latur, 30 September 1993; Jabalpur, 22 May 1997; Bhuj, 26 January 2001 etc) clearly shows that the seismicity of the area is varying. There were more than five damaging earthquakes with magnitudes greater than Mw 6.0 have occurred in this region, stressing the importance of detailed seismic hazard assessment for the region. For India, Bhatia et al. (1999) published a probabilistic seismic hazard map based on several well identified and prominent source zones in the country. An attempt has been made in this paper to study the present seismic status of this region incorporating the seismicity, tectonic and geological characteristics and using the collected earthquake data Peak Ground Acceleration was estimated using the attenuation relation developed by Iyengar and Raghukanth (2004). Estimated PGA values were used to compute the deviation with respect to assigned PGA values for various regions provided in Indian Standard code IS 1893:2002. The results show that, the estimated PGA in many areas of the Peninsular India is more than the specified value in the current seismic macrozonation map of the country. This provides an important basis for attempting the detailed microzonation of an area within the Penisular India

Abstract

In environments with identical features, the global localization of a robot, might result in multiple hypotheses of its location. If the situation is extrapolated to multiple robots, it results in multiple hypotheses for multiple robots. The localization is facilitated if the robots are actively guided towards locations where it can use other robots as well as obstacles to localize itself. This paper aims at presenting a learning technique for the above process of active localization of multiple robots by co-operation. An MDP framework is used for learning the task, over a semi-decentralized team of robots hereby maintaining a bounded complexity as opposed to various multi-agent learning techniques, which scale exponentially with the increase in the number of robots.

Abstract

In this paper we deduce the evolution of a four wheeled active suspension rover from a five wheeled passive suspension rover. The aim of this paper is to design a suspension mechanism which utilizes the advantages of both passive suspension and active suspension rover. Both the design considered here are simpler than the existing suspension mechanisms in the sense that the number of links as wells as the number of joints have been significantly reduced without compromising the climbing capability of the rover. We first analyze the kinematics of the five wheeled rover and its motion pattern while climbing an obstacle and try to deduce the same motion pattern and capability in the four wheeled rover. Both the suspension mechanism consists of two planar closed kinematic chains on each side of the rover. We also deduce the control strategy for the active suspension rover wherein only two actuators are used to control the internal configuration of the rover. To the best of author's knowledge this is the minimum number of actuators required to control the internal configuration of a active suspension while operating on a fully 3D rough terrain. Extensive uneven terrain simulations are performed for both 5-wheeled and 4-wheeled rover and a comparative analysis has been done on maximum coefficient of friction and torque requirements.

Abstract

Incorporating ferromagnetic materials into integrated microwave devices is a promising approach for the development of on-chip high-performance circuit components. Therefore, high-frequency domain-wall motion and magnetization rotation, which yield permeability, are of primary interest. However, so far it has not been attempted to physically separate high-frequency domain-wall motion and magnetization rotation driven by external magnetic field excitation. Nor have attempts for the corresponding characterizations. In this work, patterned permalloy films are integrated with on-chip microstrip lines. Domain-wall motion and magnetization rotation are separated through aspect ratio and dimension control. The measured results show that high-frequency-field driven domain-wall motion is fast, different from current driven domain-wall motion. It is also shown that coupling effects are not important when the distance between two adjacent permalloy films is~ 1 μm despite their large lateral dimensions. Finally, surface topography affects domain structures and corresponding dynamic processes.

Abstract

Identification of base pairs which can participate, through multimodality of edge interactions, in conformational switching events, and evaluation of possible environmental factors responsible for the switching can lead to greater understanding of RNA functional dynamics. Moleculardynamics studies by Schneider et al involving multimodality in C:U W:W cis interactions in aqueous medium, arguments forwarded by Van Dongen et al in support of a pH dependent G:C W:W cis to G:C H:W cis conformational switch and the postulation of putative role of a minor motifs in ribosomal dynamics through structure analysis, are examples of efforts in this section. Here we discuss the computational analysis of a putative pH dependant conformational switching of G:G base pairs in RNA structures.

Abstract

The last two decades have seen increasing interest in the area of controlling dynamics at the atomic level. Among the several approaches used, Optimal Control Theory (OCT) has emerged as a powerful method for designing laser pulses to achieve prescribed dynamical goals. We have used OCT to obtain infrared laser pulses for the selective vibrational excitation of several different systems, from a simple diatomic to triatomics located in complex molecular environments. We use time dependent quantum mechanics to monitor the evolution of the system subject to a varying laser field. We have obtained fields for vibrational control of the diatomic system HF applying OCT using different algorithms, namely an iterative method, conjugate gradient method and genetic algorithms. The time-dependent quantum mechanical propagation of the system is achieved using the split operator form of the time evolution operator together with Fast Fourier transforms and grid methods. For the modelling of FeCO in carboxy-myoglobin, we use a two mathematical dimensional model. Density functional theory is used to obtain the potential energy and dipole moment surfaces of the active site model, while the conjugate gradient method is employed within the OCT optimization procedure to obtain the laser pulses. Optimized laser fields are found which give virtually 100% excitation probability to preselected vibrational levels. A similar application to a hydrogen bonded system of biological significance will also be presented. In all cases, detailed analyses of the field are carried out in terms of its power spectrum and the time variation of the contributions from the frequencies involved.

Abstract

Augmenting virtual objects between real objectsof a video poses a challenging problem, primarily because itnecessitates accurate knowledge of the scene’s depth. In thispaper, we propose an approach that generates an approximatedepth for every pixel in the vicinity of the virtual object, which weshow is enough to decide the ordering of objects in every image.We also draw a similarity between layered segmentation andaugmentation. We argue that augmentation only needs to knowwhich layers are in front of the object and which are behind it.Our algorithm makes effective use of object boundaries detectedin an image using image segmentation. The assumption thatthese boundaries correspond to depth discontinuities provides auseful simplification of the problem, sufficient to produce realisticresults. We use a combination of segmentation and featuredetection for sparse depth assignment. Results on challengingdata sets show the effectiveness of our approach