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Travel demand measures on short-term and long-term basis are very much required for handling the vehicular growth and travel demand. This leads to the idea of developing sustainable societies, where the need of the present generation is met without exploiting the resources of future generations. Sustainability has got worldwide importance in this era. Sustainable cities cannot survive without sustainable mobility. Researchers and policy decision makers, all over the world, are employing policies to promote the use of sustainable modes and to increase the shift towards public transport. The selection and implementation of effective policies are a difficult job. The existing level of sustainability has to be assessed in order to make this task effective. Level of sustainability of a city can be assessed using sustainable indicators. This study analyzed the current transportation scenario of a satellite city, Kazhakuttom, in the State of Kerala in southern India using sustainability indicators identified from the literature. The study contributes to the literature by suggesting a methodology in which areas of intervention were identified by analytical hierarchy process (AHP) based on the users' ranking of indicators. The methodology developed in the study can be applied to other cities, since the results from the study are found to be realistic and close to the existing scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The antimicrobial activity of extracts of Curcuma zedoaria and Curcuma malabarica tubers was tested against six bacterial and two fungal strains using the agar well diffusion and broth dilution methods. Petroleum ether, hexane, chloroform, acetone and ethanol extracts exhibited antibacterial as well as antifungal activity. Acetone and hexane extracts of both tubers showed comparable antimicrobial activity as indicated by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values, but other extracts of Curcuma malabarica showed significantly lower activity than those of Curcuma zedoaria. The MIC values for different strains and extracts ranged from 0.01 to 0.15 mg/ml in Curcuma zedoaria and from 0.01 to 0.94 mg/ml in Curcuma malabarica. Staphylococcus aureus (Gram positive) was inhibited by Curcuma malabarica but not by Curcuma zedoaria. This study is the first report of the antimicrobial properties of Curcuma malabarica. The findings also support the use of Curcuma zedoaria tubers in traditional medicine for the treatment of bacterial and fungal infections.