102 research outputs found
A reservation based parking lot system to maximize occupancy and revenue
No full textNumerous parking issues are faced by people on a day to day basis. Congestion is caused by customers circling the lot in search of vacant parking spots while the lot may be full. At peak periods the parking lot may not be filled to maximum capacity because there are only primitive ways to indicate to customers the availability of spots in the lot. Thus parking garages tend to lose profit as usage of parking lots is not maximized. The Parking Lot System proposed aims to reduce these parking hassles faced by people and the occupancy issues faced by parking lot owners by providing customers with a facility of reserving parking spots before arrival at the lot. This reduces the parking search traffic as well as the parking search time. Additionally, this system proposes to automate occupancy tracking in the lot which ensures that customers are aware of the availability of parking spaces from remote locations. In case of unavailability of parking spaces, customers are notified at the entrance thereby reducing congestion levels in the lot. The designed system is simulated in real world scenarios to test the occupancy levels achieved by the lot. The practices and strategies used in well developed reservation systems (hotels and aviation industries) like overbooking are modified and applied in this domain to improve occupancy levels. An increase of about 5.19% in the occupancy level is observed. A comparative study of the effect of various business strategies is carried out to determine the best mix of user controllable parameters. The parameters controllable by the parking lot owners are the length of the grace period provided to customers to arrive and claim their reservation, the number of overbooked reservations made by the system and the proportion of spots in the lot available for reservation. A further increase of up to 5.97% in the occupancy level is observed by using different combinations and values of these parameters. For the purpose of simulation, the parking garage is assumed to be located in a city downtown area having customers using it for both corporate as well as leisure purpose.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Sonia Preeti Pint
Adult Education: Exploring the inequalities in the world’s most populated country
No full textThis month on Humanities Matter, we discuss the variation in literacy rates among India’s social strata, the importance of considering a gendered perspective in adult education policies within the country, and how such policies can empower marginalized communities and bring about social change.
All this and more with Dr. Preeti Dagar, author of “Subaltern Perspectives in Adult Education”, a chapter in the book Adult Education in India, Volume 35 in the series International Issues in Adult Education, published last year by Brill
“LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT” - CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PREETI SHENOY’S
No full textAbstract
‘Life is what you make it‘ is a fiction written by Preeti Shenoy a blooming author. She has also written for different publications like Reader’s Digest and The Times of India, as well as taught English and Math to children in India. Her first book was ‘34 Buffer guns and Candies‘ a creative notification that made it to the national-best seller list. The book ‘Life is what you make it’ is the story of Ankita Sharma a girl in her twenties. It focuses attention on a little known disease, bipolar disease.
The plot is set in the 80s and moves across two cities. Being a bright student she got admitted into one of South India’s best colleges. What follows is a series of events, love affairs, pranks and studies that are instrumental for every college going student. But Ankita’s life soon turn-turvy when she is diagnosed with a mental illness. She develops Bipolar disorder
Erratum to: Is Sensory Loss an Understudied Risk Factor for Frailty? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
No full textIn the article “Is Sensory Loss an Understudied Risk Factor for Frailty? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis,” an author was missing. Ana Maseda should be listed as the 11th author. The correct author list is: Benjamin Kye Jyn Tan, Ryan Eyn Kidd Man, Alfred Tau Liang Gan, Eva K Fenwick, Varshini Varadaraj, Bonnielin K Swenor, Preeti Gupta, Tien Yin Wong, Caterina Trevisan, Laura Lorenzo-López, Ana Maseda, José Carlos Millán-Calenti, Carla Helena Augustin Schwanke, Ann Liljas, Soham Al Snih, Yasuharu Tokuda, Ecosse Luc Lamoureux. This error has been corrected
Increasing low frequency sound attenuation using compounded single layer of sonic crystal
No full textNonlinear behaviour of reflectivity of gallium – Silica interface & its applications
No full text
Engineering soluble, high affinity T cell receptor domains for detection of staphylococcal and streptococcal exotoxins
No full textStaphylococcus aureus and group A Streptococcus express a family of exotoxins including staphylococcal enterotoxins A, B, C (SEA, SEB, SEC), toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) and streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxins (SpeA, SpeC) that possess superantigenic properties, by virtue of which they stimulate a large fraction of an individual’s T cells, leading to hyperinflammation and in some cases, organ failure and death. The molecular mechanism behind hyperinflammation has been attributed to the binding of superantigen (SAg) to both a T cell receptor (TCR) on a T cell, and a class II product of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on an antigen presenting cell, which leads to cross-linking of cells and excessive cytokine release from both cell types. Although SAgs bind with low affinity to the variable region of the beta chain (Vβ) of the TCR, they are very potent toxins. These toxins have been incriminated in food poisoning, sepsis, toxic shock syndrome (TSS), infective endocarditis, and skin conditions like atopic dermatitis. For purposes of neutralizing or detecting SAg, soluble versions of several Vβ domains against various SAgs have been engineered in the Kranz laboratory. Yeast display and directed evolution have allowed development of soluble, high-affinity Vβ proteins some of which have also been successfully used in animal models of S. aureus infections. In this work, a high-affinity Vβ receptor for Staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) was generated, and the use of this and other engineered, high-affinity Vβ proteins as specific and sensitive detecting agents was explored.
SEA is one among the collection of enterotoxins secreted by Staphylococcus aureus, which acts as a superantigen. It is also the most common enterotoxin recovered from food poisoning outbreaks in the United States. It is estimated that in most cases, the dose of SEA that causes the disease is of the order of a few micrograms per individual. In this study, I engineered a soluble form of a Vβ that had high affinity toward SEA, for purposes of understanding its molecular interaction with SEA and also to develop specific, sensitive assays for detection of SEA.
In chapter 2, the process of engineering of human Vβ22 protein for improving its affinity towards SEA is described. In this chapter, yeast display coupled with random mutagenesis and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) was used to select for stably expressing Vβ22 mutants on yeast cell surface. Because the affinity of stabilized Vβ22 mutants for SEA was low, these were then subjected to directed mutagenesis to select for mutants with enhanced affinity towards SEA. Incorporation of additional mutations by site-directed mutagenesis, yielded the high affinity mutant called “FL”. Selected Vβ22 mutants were expressed in E.coli and refolded in vitro, for assessing their binding properties. In collaboration with Dr. Eric Sundberg, the binding constants for interaction of wt Vβ22 and high affinity “FL” protein with SEA were determined by surface plasmon resonance. FL protein was shown to bind SEA with a KD value of 4nM, which was a 25,000-fold improvement in affinity compared to the wild-type protein, which binds SEA with low affinity (KD ~100µM). The SEA:Vβ interface was centered around residues within the complementarity determining region 2 (CDR2) loop of the Vβ. The engineered, high-affinity Vβ22 protein was specific for SEA, in that it did not bind to two other closely related enterotoxins SEE or SED, providing information on the SEA residues possibly involved in the interaction. Finally, the high-affinity Vβ22 mutant protein was used for development of a capture-ELISA based platform for specific detection of SEA.
In Chapter 3, a bead-based, two-color flow cytometry approach was used to develop a multiplex assay for simultaneous detection of staphylococcal (SEA, SEB and TSST-1) and streptococcal (SpeA and SpeC) toxins in a single sample. Vβ domains that were engineered for for binding with high-affinity to these toxins were used together with commercial, polyclonal, anti-toxin reagents to enable specific and sensitive detection with SD50 values of 400 pg/ml (SEA), 3 pg/ml (SEB), 25 pg/ml (TSST-1), 6 ng/ml (SpeA), and 100 pg/ml (SpeC) in singleplex assays. These sensitivities were in the range of 4- to 80-fold higher than achieved with standard ELISAs using the same reagents. The singleplex assays were combined to yield a multiplex assay that allowed reliable detection of the toxins in a single sample. In multiplex format, the sensitivity of detecting individual toxin was reduced due to higher noise associated with the use of multiple polyclonal agents, but the sensitivities were still well within the range necessary for detection in food sources or for rapid detection of toxins in culture supernatants. For example, the assay specifically detected SEA, SEB and TSST-1 in supernatants derived from cultures of various strains of Staphylococcus aureus. Thus, these reagents and the flow cytometry-based platform can be used for simultaneous detection of the toxins in food sources or culture supernatants of potential pathogenic strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes, or directly in clinical samples.Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2017-05-01The student, Preeti Sharma, accepted the attached license on 2015-04-16 at 15:37.The student, Preeti Sharma, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2015-04-16 at 16:32.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2015-04-21 at 08:18.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #7903 on 2015-07-22 at 14:24:46Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T22:45:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 5
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Previous issue date: 2015-04-21Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 79982
Lift date: 2017-07-22T22:46:21Z
Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemLimited Restriction Lifted for Item 79982 on 2017-07-23T09:15:17Z
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