A Pilot study to evaluate the feasibility, tolerance and efficacy of addition of hyperthermia to external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) on patients with locally advanced non metastatic inoperable head and neck cancer for palliation of symptoms

OBJECTIVES: To assess the feasibility and toxicity of hyperthermia with radiation in patients with locally advanced non metastatic head and neck cancers, to assess the palliation of distressing symptoms in them. METHODS: Ten patients diagnosed to have locally advanced head and neck cancers, were treated with radiotherapy to a dose of 66 Gy in 33 fractions in Cobalt 60 machine(conventional fractionation) along with once weekly sittings of hyperthermia. Hyperthermia was given 30 minutes before radiotherapy for 30 minutes. Descriptive statistics was done. Weekly toxicity was monitored by RTOG and CTCAE criteria. Pain and quality of life (EORTC questionnaire)) was assessed before and after treatment. Response was compared with CT scans 3 months after treatment with Wilcoxan sign test. Response was assessed by RECIST criteria. Survival analysis was done by Kaplan meier method. RESULTS: Among the 10 patients, 6 (60%) completed the treatment and 3(30%) without break. The incidence of grade 3 mucositis, grade 4 mucositis and grade 3 dermatitis was 42%, 14% and 28% respectively. The mean reduction in nodal size was 70% at 6 weeks. Pain control was good for a short duration (2 months), after which 50% of patients required STEP 3 analgesics. CONCLUSION: This treatment can be considered in patients with large, fixed nodes. Hyperthermia should be carried out with planned infrastructure and meticulous temperature monitoring and dosimetry

The House Wife Syndrome Manju Kapur in Home

Manju Kapur is feminist who has very different style from her current authors towards feminism and the variance lies in her action of feminism which makes her characters outstanding from the other authors. As far as her novel Home is afraid, it is absolutely a specific example of her contemporaryrational which is acutelyfixed with values. Nisha is the central character of this novel. She is the single girl child in her family. Home is regarded as a place where every family member sense secure but Nisha is sensual exploited and misuse by her individual companion Vicky within the four walls of home. Then she has been sent away from her home instead of Vicky just for the sake of family honour. However she does so well in her studies while staying away from the home but she has to come back there after some years and her studies smart a lot and no one cares about it. In her patriarchal family, the sole purpose of a girl’s life is to get married and that is why a girl is supposed to acquire all the qualities which are necessary to become a good wife. Her own self has no existence in her home. But she makes her own identity by her efforts. ManjuKapur has depicted the struggle of her journey in this novel

Slot Antennas - A Comprehensive Survey

Wireless Communication has found a rapid growth over the past decades starting from handheld devices to spacecraft applications. The efficient operation of all such wireless devices depends on the design and proper working of the transmitting and receiving antennas. Microstrip antennas are most commonly preferred for major wireless applications, because of their miniaturized structure, ease of fabrication, low power consumption, flexibility with printed circuit board, low profile, light weight, effective return loss and better radiation properties. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on microstrip antennas whose performance is improved to meet the increasing demand, by introducing slots of different shapes and sizes. These slots of various kinds helps in obtaining wider bandwidth over the C and Ultrawideban

Dimension Debasing towards Minimal Search Space Utilization for Mining Patterns in Big Data

Data mining algorithms generally produce patterns which are interesting. Such patterns can be used by domain experts in order to produce business intelligence. However, most of the existing algoritms that can not properly work for uncertain data. Keeping uncertain data’s characteristics in mind, it can be said that they do have more search space with existing algorithms. In this paper we proposed a method that can be used to reduce search space besides helping in producing patterns from uncertain data. The proposed method is based on MapReduce programming framework that works in distributed environment. The method essentially works on big data which is characterized by velocity, volume and variety. The proposed method also helps users to have constraints so as to produce high quality patterns. Such patterns can help in making well informed decisions. We built a prototype application that demonstrates the proof of concept. The empirical results are encouraging in mining uncertain big data in the presence of constraints. DOI: 10.17762/ijritcc2321-8169.15080

Religion: A Repertoire of Earth Ethics – A Study on the Ecospiritual Dimensions in Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams

Ecological crisis, a contemporary reality has triggered a paradigm shift in human thinking and discourse. Greening of religion is a novel approach to the interpretation of religious literature. The purpose of this study is to identify how literature reflects religious ethics centred on ecology and it brings out perspectives of religion regarding environmental conservation. Through a close reading of the literary text Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams, this paper aims to validate how the ecological ethics of religions can be a solution to environmental crisis and how this ecological reformation in spirituality should be given the intellectual respect it deserves

Inter-quintuple layer coupling and topological phase transitions in the chalcogenide topological insulators

Driving quantum phase transitions in the 3D topological insulators offers pathways to tuning the topological states and their properties. We use DFT-based calculations to systematically investigate topological phase transitions in Bi$_2$Se$_3$, Sb$_2$Se$_3$, Bi$_2$Te$_3$ and Sb$_2$Te$_3$ by varying the $c/a$ ratio of lattice constants. This ensures no net hydrostatic pressure under anisotropic stress and strain and allows a clear identification of the physics leading to the transition. As a function of $c/a$, all of these materials exhibit structural and electronic stability of the quintuple layers (QLs), and quasi-linear behavior of both the inter-quintuple layer distance and the energy gap near the topological transition. Our results show that the transition is predominantly controlled by the inter-QL physics, namely by competing Coulomb and van der Waals interactions between the outer atomic sheets in neighboring quintuple layers. We discuss the implications of our results for topological tuning by alloying.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Human adaptation of avian influenza viruses

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biological Engineering, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references.Human adaptation of avian influenza viruses pose an enormous public health challenge as the human population is predominantly naive to avian influenza antigens. As such, constant surveillance is needed to monitor the circulating avian strains. Of particular importance are strains belonging to H5N1, H7N7, H7N2 and H9N2 subtypes that continue to circulate in birds worldwide and have on occasions caused infections in humans. A key step in influenza human adaptation is the accumulation of substitutions/mutations in the viral coat glycoprotein, hemagglutinin (HA), that changes HA's binding specificity and affinity towards glycan receptors in the upper respiratory epithelia (referred to as human receptors). Unlike for the H1, H2, H3 and more recently H5 HA a correlation between the quantitative binding of HA to human receptors and respiratory droplet transmissibility has not been established for H9 and H7 subtypes. This thesis is a systematic investigation of determinants that mediate changes in HA-glycan receptor binding specificity, with focus on the molecular environments within and surrounding the glycan receptor binding site (RBS) of avian HAs, particularly the H9 and H7 subtypes. The glycan receptor binding properties of HA were studied using a combination of biochemical and molecular biology approaches including dose dependent glycan binding, human tissue staining and structural modeling. Using these complementary analyses, it is shown that molecular interactions between amino acids in and proximal to the RBS, including interactions between the RBS and the glycan receptor converge to provide high affinity binding of avian HA to human receptors. For the H9 HA [alpha]2-->6 glycan receptor-binding affinity of a mutant carrying Thr-189-->Ala amino acid change correlated with the respiratory droplet transmission in ferrets conferred by this change. Further, it was demonstrated for the first time that two specific mutations; Gln226-->Leu and Gly228-->Ser in glycan receptor-binding site of H7 HA substantially increase its binding affinity to human receptors. These approaches and findings contribute to a framework for monitoring the evolution of HA and the development of general rules that govern human adaption applicable to strains beyond ones currently under study.by Karunya Srinivasan.Ph.D

Design, Synthesis, Characterization and Biological Evaluation of Some Novel Anti Tubercular Agents Targeting Glutamine Synthetase 1

INTRODUCTION:The latest world health organization (WHO) reports show that there were 9.0 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases and 1.5 million tuberculosis (TB) deaths, leading cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide, after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Co-infection with the HIV fuels the global TB crisis, and successful TB treatment is further complicated and hampered by the existence of multidrug- resistant (MDR) TB and extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB [1] Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB (short for tubercle bacillus), in the past also called phthisis, phthisis pulmonalis, or consumption, is a widespread, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body.TYPES OF TUBERCULOSIS:Tuberculosis is a contagious disease; it affects almost all the important organs of the body. Clinically, tuberculosis is broadly categorized into three major categories 1. Primary tuberculosis. 2. Secondary tuberculosis. 3. Disseminated tuberculosis.AIM:The aim of this project is to design molecules into potential anti-tubercular activity that is capable of inhibiting cell wall synthesis by inhibiting glutamine synthetase. The designed compounds will be synthesized, characterized and evaluated for activity and toxicity.OBJECTIVE:The compounds are designed and docked against a specific crucial target, Glutamine Synthetase I, which is involved in the cell wall biosynthesis and nitrogen metabolism. The synthesized compounds are expected to act on the same.SUMMARY:Glutamine synthetase 1 is a vital enzyme present in the cell wall of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv. It belongs to the Ligase family. This enzyme was chosen as the target for the drug design study after thorough literature review. A database of 200 molecules with potential to inhibit the target (PDB id: 4 ACF) was chosen by altering the lead molecules, amino thiophene. The designed molecules were docked against the target chosen using ARGUS LAB. From among the docked molecules, 8 molecules with good Score were chosen for laboratory synthesis. The drug likeness and toxicity prediction was carried out for the filtered 8 compounds in silico. Then further the compounds were synthesized. The reaction conditions were optimized. The compounds were labeled as MM, CM, MMF, CMG, MMG, MC, CC,TM. These compounds were synthesized and recrystallized. PURITY: The purity of the compounds was evaluated by sharp melting point and TLC and was characterized by Infrared Spectroscopy, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and MASS Spectroscopy. A single peak obtained from GC-MS analysis predicted that the synthesized compounds are formed at correct manner. The molecular weight of the compounds are also determined. Further, compounds are characterized by IR, NMR (H1NMR) functional groups , number of protons are determined respectively. All the synthesized compounds exhibited molecular ion peak (M+ ) of varying intensities ascertaining the molecular weights of the compounds. ANTI-MICROBIAL ACTIVITY The purified compounds were screened for anti-tubercular activity by invitro Micro Plate Alamar Blue Assay. It showed that the synthesized compounds are sensitive at 3.12- 1.6 mcg/ml level. So the following results concluded that the synthesized compounds have better anti-tubercular activity.CONCLUSION:It is concluded that the synthesized compounds might effectively inhibit the chosen target Glutamine Synthetase I which is essential for the Mycobacterial Tuberculosis. Further structural modifications of the synthesized compounds will aid in the development of potential molecule against the pathogen

Clinico Epidemiological, Mycological study of Chronic Dermatophytosis

BACKGROUND: Chronic dermatophytosis is increasing in an alarming proportion all over India causing psycho-social and economic burden to the patients. This study was undertaken to understand the possible factors predisposing to chronic dermatophytosis, various clinical presentations, most common etiological agent and its clinicomycological correlation in patients attending the Mycology OPD, Department of Dermatology, Venerology and Leprosy in Rajiv Gandhi Govt General Hospital, Chennai. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To study the epidemiological aspects, various clinical presentations, associations, to isolate the various etiological agents and to study the Clinico mycological correlation of chronic dermatophytosis are selected for the study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted in Mycology section, Department of Dermatology, Madras Medical College / Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. Patients attending or referred to Mycology Outpatient department who had the disease for more than 6 months duration in spite of having completed treatment with or without recurrence. Detailed history, physical examination, direct microscopy and culture was done in all patients. RESULT: 100 patients with chronic dermatophytosis of duration more than 6 months were studied. 70% were females. Maximum number of patients were in the age group of third and fourth decade. 30% were housewives. 68% patients have history of family members being affected. 8% patients had contact with animals. 31% had associated diabetes mellitus which is found to be most common. 46% patients were using topical steroid as part of treatment. 35% of patients had both T. cruris and T. Corporisris. Overall tinea corporis most common seen in 94% of patients. KOH positivity was observed in 83 patients Trichophyton mentagrophytes was the most common species isolated in 63.9% of patients with 49.5% of patients had inflammatory lesions. Various atypical presentations observed in the study are eczematous, psoriasiform, pustular, vesicular pseudoimbricata and erythrodermic forms. CONCLUSION: The exact reason for the shift of the organism from T.rubrum which has been the most common organism implicated in chronic dermatophytosis worldwide to T.mentagrophytes remains an enigma which necessitates further studies on the environmental factors, mycological, antifungal susceptibility, molecular and genomic aspects of dermatophytosis. Avoidance of topical steroids and strict adherence to the treatment schedule is very important to prevent the development of chronicity in dermatophyte infection. Detailed study about the various aspects of fungal resistance and also the genetic, host and environmental factors is needed further to curtail the occurrence of this menace

A RECENT UPDATE ON HISTOGENESIS OF ADENOMATOID ODONTOGENIC TUMOR: A REVIEW

Adenomatoid odontogenic tumor (AOT) is a relatively rare benign, epithelial tumor of odontogenic origin. There is varying class of thoughts contemplating this lesion to be a hamartoma or neoplastic growth of odontogenic epithelium. Controversy regarding the histogenesis of the lesion is plentiful in earlier literature. The recent advent of immunohistochemical and ultrastructural studies has aided in throwing light on the tissue of origin of this tumor. This review aims at understanding the evolving concepts of histogenesis of AOT to better understand the biological behavior of the lesion. The review of AOT was carried out using PubMed and Google Scholar databases and 39 articles from the year 2001 to 2016 which contributed to the histogenesis of AOT were included for review. Since the origin of the cystic lining is similar to a reduced enamel epithelium and not the dental lamina, we propose the former to be the progenitor of AOT. Furthermore, we consider extra-follicular, as well as peripheral AOTs, originate from the remnants of Hertwig’s epithelial root sheath (epithelial rests of Malassez), which complies with the common histology for all these variants