14 research outputs found
Unraveling farmer suicides in India : egoism and masculinity in peasant life
No full textUnraveling Farmer Suicides in India contests the conventional notion of farmers’ suicides as seen through the limited scope of agrarian economic distress. Through an ethnographic study in the district of Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, it delves into the transformations in production, consumption, social relationship, and gender identities in present-day south India. Exploring these interconnected shifts, it interrogates the peripheral factors ascribed to farmer suicides and presents an alternative and more nuanced reality behind this grave crisis. The author contends that rural farmer suicides relate to emerging mentalities and interactions around status, equality, and honour in contemporary India
Efficacy and safety of concurrent chemoradiotherapy with or without Nimotuzumab in unresectable locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck: Prospective comparative study - ESCORT-N study
No full textBackground: Nimotuzumab is an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor monoclonal antibody which can be added to chemoradiotherapy (CRT) to improve efficacy for management of locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (LASCCHN). We prospectively evaluated the efficacy and safety of nimotuzumab with CRT for LASCCHN and compared with CRT alone. Materials and Methods: In this prospective study, 29 LASCCHN (Stage III–IVb) patients received Nimotuzumab plus CRT or CRT alone. Treatment included six cycles of cisplatin (40–50 mg/week) or carboplatin (area under the curve-based), nimotuzumab (200 mg/week), and radiotherapy (60–70 Gy). Tumor response was evaluated as per response evaluation criteria in solid tumors criteria. MoS was estimated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Toxicity and adverse events (AE's) were assessed as per CTCAE v 4.0. Results: At 24 weeks after completion of treatment, the tumor response rate (complete response, partial response, stable disease) was 53.3% and 35.7% favoring nimotuzumab arm while progression of disease was 40% and 35.7% in Nimotuzumab plus CRT and CRT groups, respectively. However, the objective response rate was 57% and 30% in favor of nimotuzumab arm. At median follow-up of 45.5 months, MoS was 33 months in Nimotuzumab plus CRT and 27 months in CRT group. The 5-year survival rate was 33.3% in Nimotuzumab plus CRT versus 7.1% in CRT group. Nimotuzumab was observed to be safe with no additional AE's such as hypersensitivity, hypomagnesemia, and allergic reaction was reported. Conclusion: Addition of Nimotuzumab to standard CRT showed improved survival rate in unresectable, LASCCHN patients without producing additional toxicity
Hard Knapsack Problems That Are Easy for Local Search
No full textChv'atal (1980) describes a class of zero-one knapsack problems provably difficult for branch and bound and dynamic programming algorithms. Chung et al. (1988) identifies a class of integer knapsack problems hard for branch and bound algorithms. We show that for both classes of problems local search provides optimal solutions quickly. Keywords : knapsack problem * local search * computational complexity Correspondence should be directed to the second author 1 Introduction Chv'atal (1980) describes a class of instances of zero-one knapsack problems due to Todd. ( We shall henceforth refer to these problems as the TODD class of problems. ) He shows that a wide class of algorithms --- including all based on branch and bound or dynamic programming --- find it difficult to solve problems in the TODD class. More precisely, the time required by these algorithms to solve instances of problems belonging to the TODD class grows as an exponential function of the problem parameters. Chung et a..
Design of Experiments for Optimization of Automotive Suspension System Using Quarter Car Test Rig
No full textAbstractThe recent years have witnessed an accelerated invention and innovation in suspension design. This project aims at finding the ideal combination of suspension and steering geometry parameters viz. tire pressure (typ), damping coefficient (cs), spring stiffness (ks), sprung mass (m), camber (cma), toe (toe) and wheel speed (N), so that the Ride Comfort (RC) is increased while maintaining an optimal degree of Road Holding (RH) using Design of Experiments. The high R-sq value of 97.70%, R-sq (pred) value of 91.85% and the R-sq (adj) value of 95.81% for RC and the corresponding values of 97.99%, 92.98% and 96.33% respectively for RH show the high reliability and predictability of the experimental models. The experimental models were then validated by executing the optimized set on the test rig with an average accuracy of 80%
Profile of patients undergoing palliative radiotherapy: A single-institute study from a tertiary care oncology center
No full textAbstract
Background: Palliative radiotherapy (PRT) plays a significant role in the palliation of symptoms in patients with cancer and constitutes nearly 50% of the workload in different settings. Aims: The aim is to study patient-, disease-, and treatment-related characteristics in locoregionally advanced and metastatic malignancies meriting palliative management. Setting and Design: This was a retrospective observational study in a tertiary care government institute with academic and research potential. Methodology: The electronic medical records, medical documents, and radiotherapy (RT) treatment charts were retrieved and studied. Observations: A total of 460 patients were included in the study over 2 years, forming 30% of the total number of patients treated during the study period. Three hundred and ninety-six patients received PRT to the metastatic sites, while 64 patients received extremely hypofractionated PRT to the primary for symptomatic relief. Totally 442 patients showed good symptomatic response to PRT. One hundred and thirty-eight patients underwent re-irradiation. Lung was the most common primary site seen in 155 cases. The most common indication for PRT was palliation of pain from painful metastases as seen in 240 cases, and the next common indication was palliative whole-brain RT for brain metastases as seen in 159 cases. Conclusion: PRT forms an integral and important aspect of palliative care to the vast number of patients harboring metastatic disease that warrants some form of treatment for symptomatic relief. Short course of PRT in outdoor setting is a preferred mode of treatment to improve the quality of life of these distressed patients.</jats:p
Profile of patients undergoing palliative radiotherapy: A single-institute study from a tertiary care oncology center
No full textBackground: Palliative radiotherapy (PRT) plays a significant role in the palliation of symptoms in patients with cancer and constitutes nearly 50% of the workload in different settings. Aims: The aim is to study patient-, disease-, and treatment-related characteristics in locoregionally advanced and metastatic malignancies meriting palliative management. Setting and Design: This was a retrospective observational study in a tertiary care government institute with academic and research potential. Methodology: The electronic medical records, medical documents, and radiotherapy (RT) treatment charts were retrieved and studied. Observations: A total of 460 patients were included in the study over 2 years, forming 30% of the total number of patients treated during the study period. Three hundred and ninety-six patients received PRT to the metastatic sites, while 64 patients received extremely hypofractionated PRT to the primary for symptomatic relief. Totally 442 patients showed good symptomatic response to PRT. One hundred and thirty-eight patients underwent re-irradiation. Lung was the most common primary site seen in 155 cases. The most common indication for PRT was palliation of pain from painful metastases as seen in 240 cases, and the next common indication was palliative whole-brain RT for brain metastases as seen in 159 cases. Conclusion: PRT forms an integral and important aspect of palliative care to the vast number of patients harboring metastatic disease that warrants some form of treatment for symptomatic relief. Short course of PRT in outdoor setting is a preferred mode of treatment to improve the quality of life of these distressed patients
Optimization of Passive Vehicle Suspension System by Genetic Algorithm
No full textAbstractThe design of suspension system has been one of the challenging tasks for engineers. The main function of any suspension system is to reduce or eliminate the road excitations transmitted to vehicle body. An effort has been made in this paper for a passive suspension system by using an optimization technique called Genetic algorithm to absorb vibrations as per ISO 2631-1: 1997 standards. The spring stiffness (ks), damping coefficient (cs), sprung mass (ms), unsprung mass (mu), tyre stiffness (kt) are optimized in such a way that ride comfort is increased .The quarter car and driver seat with the driver's body are simply modeled together as four degree of freedom (DOF) system by using SIMULINK for analyzing the ride comfort
First Thousand Cases of Intracranial Radiosurgery Treated with Gamma Knife at a Tertiary Care Hospital in India
No full textPurpose We present the profile of first 1,000 cases of intracranial radiosurgery (IRS) treated with Gamma Knife system at a government-funded tertiary care hospital in India. In addition to the information on the indications treated, this study provides an idea of the relevance of the Gamma Knife Radiosurgery (GKRS) for IRS in the fast-changing technological scenario. This study also shows the disease indications for which GKRS was the primary treatment preference
