Study of Irrigation Project In View of Cost and Time Overruns

It is well known that most irrigation projects in India exposed to time and cost overrun or both. This phenomenon may affect the progress of country as well as may expose many institutions of construction to be destroyed. The aim of this paper is to study of irrigation projects in view of cost and time overruns of irrigation projects in Amravati region. The study clarified that ?Land acquisition, Rehabilitation affected people and Increase in CSR rate was the most critical factor that influences project delay. The survey also indicated that "Other reasons" occupied the second rank in importance, where "Changes in Structural Design, Establishment tools and plant (ETP) and Extra work" were among the most important factors affecting delay. The study illustrated that "prices fluctuations of constructions project due to other reasons" which was changes in design, land acquisition, Delay in government approval, oppose of farmers and unforeseen ground conditions these are the most important factors that may lead to cost overrun. Also it clarified that contractor's delay of material delivery and equipment have led to cost overrun. The study also clarified that prices inflation highly contributes to cost overrun. The study recommended government, contractors, and consultants to hold their responsibilities to avoid any delay or cost overrun which could be achieved by good management of the project and finding new methods for storing the needed materials from the beginning of the project

A RARE CASE SCENARIO- ASSOCIATION OF POSTEROLATERAL OSTEOCHONDRAL INJURY WITH PCL AVULSION, ACL TEAR AND LATERAL MENISCUS INJURY

Association of posterolateral osteochondral (OCD) injury with multi- ligamentous knee injury (MLKI) can be a devastating injury which often results in long-term knee instability, loss of function and early osteoarthritis. For such patients, paucity of literature persists on management of such injury for better outcome. This case critically demonstrates an attempt to manage the patient with such rare scenario with the best options for early recovery

A Smart System for Detection of Road Lane and Divider

Road Lane and divider detection is a core part in environmental perception for driver assistance system. The paper discusses about machine learning and computer vision approach to identify road lanes and dividers and proposes a system for detection of road lane and divider. Driving assistance systems heavily rely on the road lane and divider recognition. Voting classification was implemented using 7 different classifiers. The combination of Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF (ORB) provided feature extraction. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) provided dimension reduction. The performance has been examined on the basis of accuracy (95.50%), precision (78.81%), recall (65.71%), and F1 score (71.67%). The proposed solution is helpful in solving issues related to road safety and reducing road accidents

A putative short-chain dehydrogenase Rv0148 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis affects bacterial survival and virulence

During infection, Mycobacterium tuberculosis combats the stress generated by the host cells through the action of short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases (SDRs). Rv0148 belongs to the oxidoreductase family with the SDRs domain, which regulates the homeostasis of M. tuberculosis. In our earlier studyusing knockout mutant strain (∆0148), we reported that Rv0148 is involved in intermediary metabolism, drug resistance and cell homeostasis of M. tuberculosis. In the current study, we explored the functional role of Rv0148 using gene knockout mutant in-vitro and in-vivo models of infection. We report the ∆0148 is attenuated for virulence of M. tuberculosis. During human monocyte (THP-1) cell line infection, M. tuberculosis Δ0148 displayed reduced intracellular survival compared to the wild type at successive time points. Similarly, in a guinea pig animal model of aerosol infection, Δ0148 displayed a growth attenuation at 5- and 10-week post-infection in the lungs and spleen compared to the wild-type M. tuberculosis and Rv0148-complemented Δ0148 strains. Our study suggest that Rv0148 has a distinct role in the intracellular virulence of M. tuberculosis

Metronomic adjuvant chemotherapy evaluation in locally advanced head and neck cancers post radical chemoradiation – a randomised trial

Background: Locally advanced head and neck cancers treated with radical chemoradiation have unsatisfactory outcomes. Oral metronomic chemotherapy improves outcomes in comparison to maximum tolerated dose chemotherapy in the palliative setting. Limited evidence suggests that it may do so in an adjuvant setting. Hence this randomized study was conducted. Methods: Patients of head and neck (HN) cancer with primary in oropharynx, larynx or hypopharynx, with PS 0–2 post radical chemoradiation with documented complete response were randomized 1:1 to either observation or oral metronomic adjuvant chemotherapy (MAC) for 18 months. MAC consisted of weekly oral methotrexate (15 mg/m2) and celecoxib (200 mg PO BD). The primary endpoint was OS and the overall sample size was 1038. The study had 3 planned interim analyses for efficacy and futility. Trial registration- Clinical Trials Registry- India (CTRI): CTRI/2016/09/007315 [Registered on: 28/09/2016] Trial Registered Prospectively. Findings: 137 patients were recruited and an interim analysis was done. The 3 year PFS was 68.7% (95% CI 55.1–79.0) versus 60.8% (95% CI 47.9–71.4) in the observation and metronomic arm respectively (P value = 0.230). The hazard ratio was 1.42 (95% CI 0.80–2.51; P value = 0.231). The 3 year OS was 79.4% (95% CI 66.3–87.9) versus 62.4% (95% CI 49.5–72.8) in the observation and metronomic arm respectively (P value = 0.047). The hazard ratio was 1.83 (95% CI 1.0–3.36; P value = 0.051). Interpretation: In this phase 3 randomized study, oral metronomic combinations of weekly methotrexate and daily celecoxib failed to improve the PFS or OS. Hence observation post-complete response post radical chemoradiation remains the standard of care. Funding: ICON funded this study.</p

Role of a Putative Alkylhydroperoxidase Rv2159c in the Oxidative Stress Response and Virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis, is one of the leading infectious agents worldwide with a high rate of mortality. Following aerosol inhalation, M. tuberculosis primarily infects the alveolar macrophages, which results in a host immune response that gradually activates various antimicrobial mechanisms, including the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), within the phagocytes to neutralize the bacteria. OxyR is the master regulator of oxidative stress response in several bacterial species. However, due to the absence of a functional oxyR locus in M. tuberculosis, the peroxidase stress is controlled by alkylhydroperoxidases. M. tuberculosis expresses alkylhydroperoxide reductase to counteract the toxic effects of ROS. In the current study, we report the functional characterization of an orthologue of alkylhydroperoxidase family member, Rv2159c, a conserved protein with putative peroxidase activity, during stress response and virulence of M. tuberculosis. We generated a gene knockout mutant of M. tuberculosis Rv2159c (MtbΔ2159) by specialized transduction. The MtbΔ2159 was sensitive to oxidative stress and exposure to toxic transition metals. In a human monocyte (THP-1) cell infection model, MtbΔ2159 showed reduced uptake and intracellular survival and increased expression of pro-inflammatory molecules, including IL-1β, IP-10, and MIP-1α, compared to the wild type M. tuberculosis and Rv2159c-complemented MtbΔ2159 strains. Similarly, in a guinea pig model of pulmonary infection, MtbΔ2159 displayed growth attenuation in the lungs, compared to the wild type M. tuberculosis and Rv2159c-complemented MtbΔ2159 strains. Our study suggests that Rv2159c has a significant role in maintaining the cellular homeostasis during stress and virulence of M. tuberculosis