136 research outputs found
Hemi masticatory spasm with facial hemi atrophy and localized scleroderma: Report of a case with bilateral involvement
No full textWe report a rare case of a 45 year old female with 15 year history of progressive left facial thinning with frequent episodes of involuntary jaw closure and almost continuous rippling movements over her left sided masticatory muscles. There was localized scleroderma, left facial hemi atrophy and left hemi masticatory spasm. Localized scleroderma was proven histopathologically. Electrophysiological studies revealed normal blink reflex on both sides. Her masseter inhibitory reflex was absent bilaterally and surface electromyogram showed spontaneous bursts of high frequency activity over bilateral masseter and left temporalis muscles. The patient responded remarkably with bilateral botulinum toxin injection. This case highlights presence of rare bilateral involvement of HMS especially on EMG and excellent response to botulinum toxin
Intracellular delivery of doxorubicin encapsulated in novel pH-responsive chitosan/heparin nanocapsules
No full textMidhun B Thomas,1,* Krishna Radhakrishnan,1,* Divya P Gnanadhas,2,* Dipshikha Chakravortty,2 Ashok M Raichur1,31Department of Materials Engineering, 2Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India; 3Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein, South Africa*These authors contributed equally to this workAbstract: A novel polyelectrolyte nanocapsule system composed of biopolymers, chitosan and heparin has been fabricated by the layer-by-layer technique on silica nanoparticles followed by dissolution of the silica core. The nanocapsules were of the size range 200 ± 20 nm and loaded with the positively charged anticancer drug doxorubicin with an efficiency of 89%. The loading of the drug into the capsule happens by virtue of the pH-responsive property of the capsule wall, which is determined by the pKa of the polyelectrolytes. As the pH is varied, about 64% of the drug is released in acidic pH while 77% is released in neutral pH. The biocompatibility, efficiency of drug loading, and enhanced bioavailability of the capsule system was confirmed by MTT assay and in vivo biodistribution studies.Keywords: drug delivery, layer-by-layer, electrostatic interaction, biocompatibl
Flexibility in adaptation planning: When, where and how to include flexibility for increasing urban flood resilience
No full textThe magnitude and urgency of the need to adapt to climate change is such that addressing it has been taken up by the United Nations as one of the sustainable development goals - Goal 13 (SDG13) in 2015. SDG13 emphasises the need to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate related hazards and natural disasters. Coping with urban floods is one of the major needs of climate adaptation, where integration of climate change responses into flood risk management policies, strategies and planning at international, national, regional and local levels is now the norm. However, much of this integration lacks effectiveness or real commitment from stakeholders involved in adaptation planning and implementation. Hence this research has focused on integrating flexibility based adaptation responses into an urban flood risk management context. The research has synthesised flexible adaptation practices from several disciplines including information technology, automobile and aerospace manufacturing. The outcomes of the research are brought together in a framework for structuring local adaptation responses and an adaptation planning process based on flexibility concepts. The outcomes provide a way to assist with the identification of the appropriate nature and type of flexibility required; where flexibility can best be incorporated; and when is the most appropriate time to implement the flexible adaptation responses in the context of urban flooding.Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Board for Doctorates of Delft University of Technology and of the Academic Board of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.Hydraulic Structures and Flood Ris
Machine Movement Prediction for Collision Avoidance
No full textConstruction sites are among the most dangerous work environments. Worldwide, thousands of workers are injured or killed while working with or around machinery. For Volvo Construction Equipment, safety of the workers is one of the core values. The company strives for the vision of "Zero accidents with Volvo Group Products " through high quality and innovative products that reduce the frequency of accidents as well as their consequences. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a solution towards this vision by developing a collision avoidance system for construction machinery. This is achieved by implementing a model based deterministic threat assessment approach in which the movement predictions of the machine is calculated and evaluated to determine the risk of a collision. The important aspect of generalization has also been considered, in which a new combined machine model has been developed which can be utilized to represent the kinematics of three different types of construction machinery. The results obtained from the combined machine model are compared with true machine models. Kalman filters and their extensions used for state/parameter estimation are investigated. A new method is formulated for predicting the states using Extended Kalman filter which has been proved to be better performing than the usual prediction methods. For collision detection, an algorithm based on the separating axis theorem has been developed. The developed system is investigated and validated using real-world data. The final result obtained from the thesis was an accurate threat assessment system performing for both linear and nonlinear trajectories by utilizing only GPS signals as input and also producing real time collision detection measures.Systems and ControlMechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineerin
Evaluation of various movement disorders in patients of genetically proven spinocerebellar ataxia: A study from a Tertiary Care Center in Northern India
No full textBackground: Movement disorders are one of the prominent nonataxic symptoms in patients of spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). The type of movement disorder may provide clinical clue to the type of SCA. Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate various movement disorders in patients of genetically proven SCAs and to establish a probable clinico-genetic correlation. Methods: Ninety-Five patients of genetically proven SCAs were assessed for the presence of various movement disorders. Results: Patients with SCA (75.8% males) with at least one movement disorder contributed 43.16%. Age for onset of movement disorder was 43.39 ± 13.43 years. SCA-12 (38.95%) was the most common subtype. Among the patients with at least one movement disorder, action tremor of hands contributed majority (90.2%). Dystonia and parkinsonism were present in 17.07% and 12.2% of patients (with movement disorder), respectively. Action tremor of hands was present in 34 patients with SCA-12 (91.89%), and 20 patients (54.05%) had onset of hand tremor preceding the onset of ataxia. Majority of patients with SCA-12 (81%) were of the same ethnic origin belonging to Agrawal community. Patients with movement disorder had a later onset (45 ± 13.88 years) of ataxic symptoms compared to those without a movement disorder (32.8 ± 11.92) (P = <0.0005). There was no significant association between severity of ataxia and presence of movement disorder. Conclusion: Movement disorders are present in about 43% of patients with SCA and can precede or succeed the onset of ataxia. Tremor onset SCA predicted SCA-12, especially in Agrawal community
Bi-Level Optimal Control Algorithm for Climate Optimized Cruise Trajector: With En-route Step Climb and Descent Flight Modes
No full textIn the year 2050, global anthropogenic radiative forcing from aircraft emissions are projected to increase significantly. Recent studies have considered climate optimized flight trajectories to be a promising measure to mitigate non-CO2 emissions’ environmental impact, which is highly sensitive to locus and time of emissions. Estimating the maximum mitigation potential from these trajectories requires accounting of air traffic regulations. As designing regulated climate optimal trajectories necessitates solving a hybrid optimal control system with unknown mode sequence and associated switching times, there is a need to build an efficient and systematic control technique. In this thesis, a bi-level optimal control algorithm is proposed for designing climate optimal cruise trajectories, the lower level calculates the optimal switching times and controlinputs of a fixed mode sequence and, the upper level updates the mode sequence with mode insertion which lower the cost locally. The problem for trajectory optimization is formulated here as a hybrid optimal control problem with a switched system and with a variable mode sequence, where step-climb and descent modes are included in the mode sequence. Optimal Control problems for minimizing operating cost and climate cost with fictitious climate cost functions (CCF), varying with altitude, are solved to study the performance of the algorithm. The algorithm is implemented within the Trajectory Optimization Module (TOM) by building a bi-level framework. The framework was validated by solving the operating cost optimal control problem. The maximum error between the cost reduction estimated by the algorithm and the actual cost reduction was found to be less than 15%. With high probability it can be stated that the bi-level framework is able to calculate an optimal mode sequence as the framework allow for zero entry modes in the mode sequence i.e. modes of zero duration. Although, careful consideration is required while selecting a mode for insertion as the framework is highly dependent on the sequence of the set of modes.Despite a satisfactory performance of the bi-level optimal control technique there are few challenges which limits the scope of this technique. The maximum error was found to increase for optimal control problems with AirClim CCFs. The dependence of the AirClim CCFs on position of the aircraft influences the locus of the trajectory at each flight level. Because of this the the trajectories calculated in each iteration of the framework are found to be inconsistent. A flight trajectory guided by waypoints is proposed as a solution for future studies to handle the inconsistency between trajectories. As future studies are expected to focus on finding optimal mode definitions for designing climate optimal trajectories, the bi-level optimal control algorithm can act as an intermediary tool with which the researchers can systematically investigate cost benefits along the trajectories.Aerospace Engineerin
Curcumin based optical sensing of fluoride in organo-aqueous media using irradiation technique
No full textDominance relations and universities ranking
No full textThis paper proposes a theory for establishing dominance relations between universities on the basis of their scientific production and the number of citations their publications received in given time window. We apply this theory to the ranking of French Universities.Ranking; dominance relations; citations
The Effects of Viscosity on Core-Annular Flow: Numerical Simulations and Experiments for Core-Annular Flow
No full textA study has been performed on the effects of the viscosity of the liquid in the core of core annular flow. This is a multiphase flow regime for two immiscible liquids in a pipe where the high-viscosity liquid forms a core and the other low-viscosity liquid forms a lubricating annulus around the core and along the wall. This is a very efficient method to transport oil. Another method is to heat the oil to reduce its viscosity prior to use in single phase transport. The advantage of combining these two methods is discussed in this thesis. First, two dimensional, axisymmetric numerical simulations using the OpenFOAM VoF solver have been performed based on previously performed experiments in vertical pipes. Periodic boundary conditions have been imposed in all the simulations under laminar conditions. The choice of the oil-water viscosity ratio is shown to influence the interfacial wave profile and the oil throughput. The highest throughput is achieved at an intermediate viscosity ratio. Simulations are also performed with a temperature gradient between the pipe wall and the oil which now has a temperature dependent viscosity. Multiple solutions are observed in some of the simulations when the conductivity is increased, which gives a relatively fast evolution to the final isothermal state. The causes for these multiple states have been investigated. It is concluded that the domain length and the initialization of the velocity profile influence the results. Next, the study has been extended to core annular flow in horizontal pipes. Experiments have been performed in which the oil has been heated to temperatures as high as 50 C to reduce its viscosity. The pressure drop that was measured along a 1 m section of the pipe shows a small dependence on the oil viscosity, for fixed oil and water flow rates. Images from the footage recorded for these experiments show how the interface waves and the levitation mechanism are affected when the oil viscosity is decreased. Three dimensional numerical simulations based on the experiments have been performed employing the Launder Sharma k-e turbulence model. Periodic boundaries are used to study the development of the flow. The pressure drop measured in the experiments is imposed in these simulations to study the effect of changing the viscosity. The oil holdup fraction is also imposed in the simulations. At high viscosity, deviations are found between the simulation results and the experiments in terms of the wave profiles and the resulting oil and water flow rates. For the lowest viscosity, the simulations show that the oil core will foul the upper wall of the pipe whereas the experiments show core annular flow with oil droplets. Simulations in which the experimental flow rate is imposed do not improve the results. The main conclusion from this study is that in horizontal pipes, core annular flows are more stable when the oil-water viscosity ratios are high.Mechanical, Maritime and Materials EngineeringProcess and Energ
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