330 research outputs found
Sustainable tourism development: a compilation and analysis of expert views
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Development of a decision support tool for planning municipal solid waste management systems in India
No full textThesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program, 2017.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 99-102).Waste management is a significant challenge for India. The Indian waste landscape is changing rapidly as the population grows, the composition of the waste generated evolves, the extent of waste segmentation changes and the technologies available to collect and process waste improve. Many solutions have been proposed for dealing with the mixed waste but the most appropriate solution for a particular context is difficult to quantify. Thus, decisions are often made without considering the long-term economic, environmental or social consequences. The present work focuses on helping Indian cities improve collection, transportation and treatment of waste by developing a GIS-based decision support tool that assesses the cost effectiveness and efficiency of collection strategies, treatment technologies and system configurations. The tool considers the unique elements of a city including the demographics, waste composition, scale, existing infrastructure for waste collection and treatment and potential for implementing new technologies. Understanding the prevailing waste management architecture of these cities is vital in designing systems which adapt to meet the needs of the growing population with changing aspirations and consumer behavior. There is a lack of bottom-up data on the composition and volumes of waste in India. Our data-driven decision-making approach combines baseline data collection through waste audits with a systems optimization modeling approach. By using the tool to evaluate the economic, environmental and social impact of different technology configurations at varying scales, we are able to quantify the expected performance associated with different architectures. The decision support tool can be used to find the minimum cost waste configuration that considers both environmental GHG emissions and employment, by constructing trade-off graphs between competing goals. A compromise solution that satisfies competing goals is obtained at the turning point of the trade-off graphs. We also test the feasibility of improving the segregation rate in Muzaffarnagar and the impact segregation policies have on the metrics of the waste system. From the waste audits, we see that Indian households have a high composition of organic waste and waste generation increases with income level. By implementing a weekly feedback social incentive mechanism, we see that the segregation rate of organic waste by households increases to nearly twice than those households that were given no feedback. The tool shows that as the segregation rate of the city increases, the costs and GHG emissions reduce, while the employment of the waste system increases. The level of centralization of the system reduces as the level of segregation of waste increases, that is, the system moves towards smaller scale processing plants instead of large scale centralized plants.by Dhivya Ravikumar.S.M. in Technology and Polic
Cathepsin L in tumor angiogenesis and its therapeutic intervention by the small molecule inhibitor KGP94
Get PDFA significant proportion of breast cancer patients harbor clinically undetectable micrometastases at the time of diagnosis. If left untreated, these micro-metastases may lead to disease relapse and possibly death. Hence, there is significant interest in the development of novel anti-metastatic agents that could also curb the growth of pre-established micrometastases. Like primary tumor, the growth of metastases also is driven by angiogenesis. Although the role of cysteine protease Cathepsin L (CTSL) in metastasis associated tumor cell functions such as migration and invasion is well recognized, its role in tumor angiogenesis remains less explored. The present study examines the contribution of CTSL to breast cancer angiogenesis and evaluates the anti-angiogenic efficacy of CTSL inhibitor KGP94. CTSL semi-quantitative RT-PCR analysis on breast tissue panels revealed significant upregulation of CTSL in breast cancer patients which strongly correlated with increased relapse and metastatic incidence and poor overall survival. Preclinically, CTSL ablation using shRNA or KGP94 treatment led to a significant reduction in MDA-MB-231 tumor cell induced angiogenesis in vivo. In-vitro assessments demonstrated a significant decrease in various angiogenic properties such as endothelial cell sprouting, migration, invasion, tube formation and proliferation in the presence of KGP94. Microarray analyses revealed a significant upregulation of cell cycle related genes by CTSL. Western blot analyses further confirmed upregulation of members of the cyclin family by CTSL. Collectively, these data indicate that CTSL is an important contributor to tumor angiogenesis and that the CTSL inhibition may have therapeutic utility in the treatment of breast cancer patients.Fil: Sudhan, Dhivya R.. University of Florida; Estados UnidosFil: Rabaglino, Maria Belen. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Wood, Charles E.. University of Florida; Estados UnidosFil: Siemann, Dietmar W.. University of Florida; Estados Unido
Nutritional and Therapeutic values of Ginger wine using different strains of Yeast
No full textThis Dissertation / Report is the outcome of investigation carried out by the creator(s) / author(s) at the department/division of Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI), Mysore mentioned below in this page
Study the Clinical, Radiological and Microbiological Profile of Patients with Bronchiectasis in a Tertiary Care Hospital
Get PDFINTRODUCTION:
Bronchiectasis has prevalence of 4.2 per 1,00,000 persons. Patients are prone to recurrent LRTI & derailment of pulmonary functions which leads to poor QLI. It is considered more of an orphan disease without much research work. This study aims to bring out their clinical, radiological & microbiological features, their correlation with each other, for early disease identification, treatment and prevention of complications.
AIM:
To study the:
Bronchiectasis patients socio-demographic, clinical, radiological and microbiological profile.
Causative organism and its’ radiological correlation/disease severity
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
Its’ a cross sectional study with 165 patients for 6 months. History, clinical examination, symptom analysis, X-ray, HRCT chest, PFT (spirometry), ECHO, Sputum AFB, gram staining, culture &sensitivity done.
RESULTS:
78-males and 87 females.36.4% in age group of 40-50yrs and 33.7% in 50-60yrs. 52% had cough with sputum, 23% with cough, 49% with breathlessness. Etiology couldn’t be identified in 39%, while 32.7% had prior ATT. 45.5% had obstruction in PFT, while 38.8% was normal. Radiologicaly bilateral involvement was seen in 30% with cylindrical being common type in 58.8%. 42.7% had 2 lobe involvement and 1.8% had involvement of all lobes. 22.4% had hemoptysis. PHT and corpulmonale seen in 10.3% & 9.7% respectively Pseudomonas and klebsiella were common organisms in 26% each, E.coli and H.influenza in 18.2% and 10.3% respectively. Increased number of lobes involvement and destructive cystic types had signification correlation with pseudomonas culture (p < 0.001).
CONCLUSION:
Bronchiectasis is a progressive disease with increased morbidity and mortality. While RADIOLOGY plays an important role in diagnosis, MICROBIOLOGY plays an important role in treatment and preventing exacerbations/disease progression. Hence a multidisciplinary assessment is essential for wholesome management of the diseas
(2020-2021) A Study on Mycological profile of Diabetic Foot ulcer, antifungal susceptibility testing among common fungal agents isolated in tertiary care hospital
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Neuro-ophthalmic manifestations of intracranial tumours: A clinical profile
Get PDFAIM OF THE STUDY:
1. To study the clinical profile of patients with intracranial tumours presenting to the Neuro-Ophthalmology department of a Tertiary eye care centre.
2. To correlate the ocular manifestations and site of the intracranial tumour.
3. To study the behavior and natural course of the Brain tumour.
4. To study the prognosis of each tumour after treatment.
METHOD:
A prospective study of 192 consecutive patients who were proven to have Intracranial tumour clinically and radiologically from a period of June 2011 to June 2013 for a period of 2 years who presented to the Department of Neuro-Ophthalmology, Aravind eye hospital, Madurai. All these patients underwent a thorough ophthalmological and neurological evaluation.
RESULTS:
Out of a total of 192 patients, 104 (54.2%) were males and 88 (45.8%) were females. The mean age was 41.97years. Pituitary adenomas (46.9%), Meningiomas (24 %), Acoustic neuroma (8.3%) were the most common Brain tumours encountered. 156 patients (81.3%) had Defective vision at presentation, while Temporal pallor (34.9%) and primary optic atrophy (27.6%) were the commonest fundus changes. Bitemporal hemianopia is the most common field defect followed by generalized constriction. There was a statistically significant association between best corrected visual acuity at presentation and follow up best corrected visual acuity (p<0.001). Thus the visual prognosis depends upon the vision at presentation. There was a significant association between type of tumour and age group (p<0.001), but there was no association between gender and type of tumour (p=0.096).
CONCLUSION:
Any brain tumor is inherently serious and life-threatening because of its invasive and infiltrative character in the limited space of the intracranial cavity. Usually detection occurs in advanced stages when the presence of the tumor has caused unexplained symptoms. Improved diagnostic techniques are allowing Intracranial tumours to be detected at increasingly earlier stages, but cases are still seen with Neuro-ophthalmological symptoms as the presenting symptoms
Interaction of Nanoparticles with RF, AC, and Static Magnetic Fields in Thermal and Non-Thermal Cancer Therapy Applications
No full textElectromagnetics plays a crucial role in the interdisciplinary science of addressing the complex problem of targeted cancer therapy. Thermal therapies such as radio-frequency and microwave hyperthermia and ablation techniques though effective in ablating tumors are non-target specific. The dissertation focus on alternate thermal and non-thermal approaches inducing cancer cell apoptosis by external magnetic fields.
Nanoparticle based target specific rf hyperthermia is explored by designing an LCR resonator. Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of the NPs are determined to quantify rf heat enhancement due to the presence of NPs. Interaction of all field components with the NPs and their heat loss origin are investigated to study the SAR discrepancy in literature. Through measurements and finite element method simulations we determine the interaction of axial electric field with the electric double layer at the NPs/protein/ions interface leads to the SAR overestimation. To improve efficiency of NP targeting, a thermal therapy targeting specific heat sensitive ion channels which overcomes the drawbacks of nanoparticle hyperthermia such as particle concentration is explored. A low frequency ferrite core LCR resonator was designed to characterize magnetic nanoparticles in strong magnetic field with improved focusing and selectivity.
A non-thermal approach to induce cancer cell death through mechanical stress on the cell membrane via external magnetic field gradients was developed. The mechanical force acting on the microenvironment of the cell, affects the cytoskeleton which in turn induces internal biochemical forces/interactions which cause apoptosis. Static and ac (sweeping) magnetic field gradient generator was designed to be placed in an incubator to study the effects of magnetic force on cancer cell line. Further, the cells are dosed with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) functioning as force enhancers due to the added rotational force under ac fields. The field distributions, magnetic field gradient strength are visualized through finite element method simulations of the static and ac magnetic field generator. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell line, AsPC-1 stained with DRAQ7 are exposed to the magnetic field gradients to observe cell viability.Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department o
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