Estuarine oceanography of the Vembanad lake Part II : the region between Cochin and Azhikode

Some aspects of the estuarine oceanography of the Vembanad lake between Cochin and Azhikode are discussed. Since this part of the lake is in confluence with the Arabian sea at its southern and northern ends, at Cochin and Azhikode, its circulation pattern and other characteristics are different from what they are between Cochin and Vaikom. Because of the position of these two mouths, which are exposed to the same tidal cycles, the high tides and low tides each producing two opposite flows respectively converge and diverge leaving a null zone, almost free of the tidal effect, around Kadakara, situated midway between Cochin and Azhikode. Another significant feature of this pairt of the estuary is an extreme low-salinity i«gion between Karthedam and Cherai during monsoon and early postmonsoon, brought about by the deflected waiters of the Periyar, opening at the northern end of the estuary

ALOE-EMODIN GLYCOSIDES AMELIORATE GLUCOSE UTILIZATION VIA INSULIN DOWNSTREAM REGULATORS: AN IN VIVO INVESTIGATION

ABSTRACTObjective: Aloe-emodin glycosides (AEG) isolated from Cassia fistula stimulates glucose transport and glycogen storage through a phosphatidylinositol3 kinase (PI3K)-dependent mechanism in L6 myotubes and inhibits adipocytes differentiation in 3T3L1 adipocytes was previously reported. Thisstudy intended to investigate the insulin mimetic effect of AEG by in vivo method.Methods: Male Wistar albino rats were randomly allocated into two groups and fed for a period of 3-week. The high-fat diet group animals wereinjected with a low dose (35 mg/kg) of streptozotocin to induce Type-2 diabetes. The diabetic rats were then treated with low dose: 10 mg/kg andhigh dose: 30 mg/kg for a period of 21-day. A dose-dependent decrease in fasting blood glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides levels on treatmentwith AEG. The carbohydrate metabolism in diabetic rats appeared to improve due to regulation in hepatic enzymes such as hexokinase, glucose-6phosphatase,and fructose1,6-bisphosphatase with a concomitant increasein glycogencontent.Results: AEG decreased lipid peroxidation and improved the antioxidant (enzymatic and nonenzymatic) levels in the liver of diabetic rats. Treatmentwith AEG (30 mg/kg) augmented the phosphorylation of insulin downstream regulators such as insulin receptor beta, insulin receptor substrate 1,PI3K, glucose transporter 4, glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta, and peroxisome proliferator activator receptor gamma in the skeletal muscle tissue ofthe Type-2 diabetic rats compared to vehicle-treated diabetic rats.Conclusion: The present results suggested that AEG could serve as an interesting candidate in the drug development for the management of diabetes.Keywords: Aloe-emodin glycoside, Type-2 diabetes, High-fat diet/streptozotocin, Carbohydrate Metabolism, Glycogen, Antioxidant enzyme

Design and Implementation an RFID Customer Shopping Behaviour Mining System

Shopping behavior data is of great an importance in understanding the effectiveness of marketing and merchandising campaigns. Online clothing stores are capable of the capturing customer shopping behavior by analyzing the click streams and customer shopping carts. Retailers within physical clothing stores, however, still lack effective methods to comprehensively identify shopping behaviors. In this study, we show that backscatter signals of passive RFID tags can be exploited to detect and record how customers browse stores, which garments they pay attention to, and which garments they usually pair up. The intuition is that phase readings of tags attached to items will demonstrate distinct yet stable patterns in a time-series when customers look at, pick out, or turn over desired items. We design Shop Miner, a framework that harnesses these unique spatial-temporal correlations of time-series phase readings to detect comprehensive shopping behaviors. We have implemented a prototype of Shop Miner with a COTS RFID reader and four antennas, and tested its effectiveness in two typical indoor environments. Empirical studies from two-week shopping-like data show that Shop Miner is able to identify customer shopping behaviors with high accuracy and low overhead, and is robust to interference

Efficiency Investigation of An Enhanced Air Heater Used In A Humidification-Dehumidification Desalination System

Background: Humidification dehumidification (HDH) desalination was proved to be economical for producing potable water. But there was a need to increase the productivity of the (HDH) desalination systems. Objective: This paper presents performance of the enhanced air heater in the (HDH) desalination system with the experimental and theoretical analysis. Experiments were conducted with the half perforated circular inserts arranged in series with different orientation angles (β=45º, 90°, 180º), pitch ratios (PR=1.5, 3) and different air mass flow rates (14 to 21 kg/h) in the air heater. Results: Maximum productivity of 850 ml/h in the HDH desalination system is obtained for an air heater's exergetic efficiency of 96% with baffle settings of 180 º orientation and pitch ratio of 1.5 with an air mass flow rate of 14 kg/h. Conclusion: Exergetic efficiency of the air heater progressively increases with the reduction in pitch ratio, increase in orientation angle between the plate and decrease in mass flow rate of air supplied to the unit

Steroid-sparing effect of ciclosporin A 1 mg/mL: 5-year case series of 107 children and young people with vernal keratoconjunctivitis

Background/aims To explore the steroid-sparing and other therapeutic effects of ciclosporin A (CsA) 1 mg/mL in the management of vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC). Methods Open retrospective single-group interventional consecutive cohort study (case series) of 107 children and young people (CYP) age 4.4-18 years with severe and/or recurrent VKC who were prescribed CsA 1 mg/mL between November 2015 and May 2021 at one institution. Review of electronic patient records, noting clinical indication for prescribing CsA 1 mg/mL, dosage prescribed at initiation and follow-up, impact on steroid usage before and after commencing CsA as well as adverse events and indications for discontinuation of treatment. Results The median number of inflammatory episodes requiring treatment with topical corticosteroids fell from 3 (IQR 2-4) during the 12 months prior to CsA 1 mg/mL to 1 (IQR 0-3) during the 12 months after, excluding steroid prescriptions with the first CsA 1 mg/mL prescription (Wilcoxon signed ranks test, two tailed, p<0.01). In the 12-month period following initiation of CsA 1 mg/mL with concomitant prescription of topical corticosteroids (n=82), daily dosage of steroids was reduced in 79 (96.3%) and discontinued in 67 (81.7%). The median number of hospital clinic visits fell from 4 (IQR 3-5) to 3 (IQR 2-5) (Wilcoxon p<0.01). Adverse events leading to discontinuation of CsA 1 mg/mL within 12 months of starting included stinging (instillation site pain) (6/107, 5.6%) and skinrash (1/107, 0.9%). Conclusion Commercial preparations of CsA 1 mg/mL, licensed for severe VKC in CYP, significantly reduce the need for concomitant topical corticosteroids and hospital clinic visits. Adverse events which may lead to discontinuation are stinging and skin rash

Sediment transport and flood risk: Impact of newly constructed embankments on river morphology and flood dynamics in Kathmandu, Nepal

Floodplain encroachment by embankments heightens flood risk. This is exacerbated by climate change and land-use modifications. This paper assesses the impact of embankments on sediment transport, channel geometry, conveyance capacity, and flood inundation of a reach of the Nakkhu River, Nepal. Using the CAESAR-Lisflood landscape evolution model based on a 2-m digital elevation model, we simulate four flood scenarios with and without embankments and sediment transport: a historical 25-year return period flood event used to design the embankments, 50-year, 100-year, and 1000-year return period flood events forecast using the Generalized Logistic Model (using data from 1992 to 2017). Our results indicate that flow confinement by embankments reduces inundation by 99% (from 22.5 to 0.3 ha) for the historical 25-year flood discharge of 42.23 and by 15% (from 28.8 to 24.4 ha) for the 1000-year return period flood discharge of 95 (similar to a 25-year maximum mid-future). The presence of embankments increases downstream sediment transport by more than 32% for all flood scenarios considered. Inclusion of sediment transport leads to a fivefold increase in predicted inundation area for a 25-year maximum mid-future flood compared to the no-sediment case in the embanked channel. Changes in channel geometry due to sedimentation significantly reduce conveyance capacity increasing overtopping flood risk, particularly where the channel is sinuous or located on flat terrain. Our results indicate that sediment erosion in outer meanders may threaten embankment stability by promoting undercuts. It is recommended that sediment transport effects be factored into embankment design and floodplain planning

Genomic instability and tumor-specific alterations in oral squamous cell carcinomas assessed by inter- (simple sequence repeat) PCR

Purpose: Genomic instability plays a major role in the genesis and progression of tumors, and in the evolution of tumor heterogeneity. To determine the role of genomic instability in the genesis and progression of oral cancer, we assessed the extent of genomic alterations in oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs). Experimental Design: We used the recently developed inter-(simple sequence repeat) PCR technique to quantitate genomic instability using matched tumor and normal OSCC samples (n = 25). The inter-repeat region bands of similar molecular size observed to be altered in more than one case were sequenced and analyzed to identify probable OSSC-associated specific genetic lesions. Results: Of the four base-anchored, dinucleotide repeat-based primers used for the study, the most informative profile in OSCCs was generated by the (CA)8RG primer. Measurement of genomic instability index using the (CA)8RG primer revealed a high incidence of genomic instability in OSCCs. No significant correlation between the extent of alterations and stage or location of the tumor was observed. Sequencing analysis of the altered bands revealed gains/losses in several chromosomal regions. Of the matched tumor and corresponding normal tissue DNA studied, hitherto unreported losses were seen in 11p15 and 17q25 chromosomal regions. Sequencing of some of the tumor-specific altered regions indicated that they code for regions of UDP-GalNAc and hRAD 17 genes, which were lost (deleted) in oral cancer. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the extent of genomic instability in OSCC is not correlated to the tumor stage or location. For the first time, we have shown that chromosomal alterations detected by inter-(simple sequence repeat) PCR could be correlated to genes associated with cancer development

Bloch Approximation in Homogenization and Applications

The classical problem of homogenization of elliptic operators with periodically oscillating coefficients is revisited in this paper. As is well known, the homogenization process in a classical framework is concerned with the study of asymptotic behavior of solutions $u^\varepsilon$ of boundary value problems associated with such operators when the period $\varepsilon>0$ of the coefficients is small. In a previous work by C. Conca and M. Vanninathan [SIAM J. Appl. Math., 57 (1997), pp. 1639--1659], a new proof of weak convergence as $\varepsilon\to 0$ towards the homogenized solution was furnished using Bloch wave decomposition. Following the same approach here, we go further and introduce what we call Bloch approximation, which will provide energy norm approximation for the solution $u^\varepsilon$. We develop several of its main features. As a simple application of this new object, we show that it contains both the first and second order correctors. Necessarily, the Bloch approximation will have to capture the oscillations of the solution in a sharper way. The present approach sheds new light and offers an alternative for viewing classical results

Recurrence of intestinal metaplasia and early neoplasia after endoscopic eradication therapy for Barrett’s esophagus: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Background Conflicting data exist with regard to recurrence rates of intestinal metaplasia (IM) and dysplasia after achieving complete eradication of intestinal metaplasia (CE-IM) in Barrett’s esophagus (BE) patients. Aim (i) To determine the incidence of recurrent IM and dysplasia achieving CE-IM and (ii) to compare recurrence rates between treatment modalities [radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with or without endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) vs stepwise complete EMR (SRER)]. Methods A systematic search was performed for studies reporting on outcomes and estimates of recurrence rates after achieving CE-IM. Pooled incidence [per 100-patient-years (PY)] and risk ratios with 95 %CI were obtained. Heterogeneity was measured using the I 2 statistic. Subgroup analyses, decided a priori, were performed to explore heterogeneity in results. Results A total of 39 studies were identified (25-RFA, 13-SRER, and 2 combined). The pooled incidence of any recurrence was 7.5 (95 %CI 6.1 – 9.0)/100 PY with a pooled incidence of IM recurrence rate of 4.8 (95 %CI 3.8 – 5.9)/100 PY, and dysplasia recurrence rate of 2.0 (95 %CI 1.5 – 2.5)/100 PY. Compared to the SRER group, the RFA group had significantly higher overall [8.6 (6.7 – 10.5)/100 PY vs. 5.1 (3.1 – 7)/100 PY, P = 0.01] and IM recurrence rates [5.8 (4.3 – 7.3)/100 PY vs. 3.1 (1.7 – 4)/100 PY, P &lt; 0.01] with no difference in recurrence rates of dysplasia. Significant heterogeneity between studies was identified. The majority of recurrences were amenable to repeat endoscopic eradication therapy (EET). Conclusion The results of this study demonstrate that the incidence rates of overall, IM, and dysplasia recurrence rates post-EET are not inconsiderable and reinforce the importance of close surveillance after achieving CE-IM.</jats:p