Food irradiation as a method of limiting crop loss in developing nations

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 31-34).Introduction: Introduction: The world today contains an estimated 6.7 billion humans, and our population is growing at an unprecedented rate, consuming an ever-increasing amount of global resources. According to United Nations projections, the majority of this growth will occur in the third-world nations of Africa, and, to a lesser extent, Asia, among those peoples least able to afford the increasing burden on their resources. Clearly, what is needed in these African nations in the near future are more efficient, low-cost methods of using those resources they already have. Foremost among the problems faced by African developing nations is a lack of a reliable, sufficient, and nutritious food supply. Much of the African population survives on malnourished diets irregularly supplied by subsistence agriculture. In addition, crop loss due to both pests and post-harvest spoilage is much higher than in first world nations, with cold-storage technologies and modem pesticides. Equally important are the lives lost each year to food-borne disease. In the United States alone, food-borne infections cause an estimated 76 million cases of illness and 323,000 hospitalizations annually, for an estimated annual treatment cost of $6.7 billion and a death toll of thousands. In developing nations, of course, these casualty figures are much higher. It is precisely this crop loss and food-borne disease which this thesis proposes to address, by both proposing and evaluating a method, namely, food irradiation, to diminish crop loss in African villages and small-towns. As stated by Fritz Kaferstein in the Journal of Public Health Policy, "In developing countries with warm climates, with non-grain staples, vegetables and fruits, the pos-tharvest loss is believed to exceed 50%. With commodities such as dried fish, insect infestation is reported to result in a loss of 25% of the product with an additional 10% lost due to spoilage. While not all of these losses can be prevented by food irradiation, the technology does offer unique potential to destroy insect infestation and reduce spoilage."by Nishaal Jitendra Parmar.S.B

3D echocardiography allows rapid and accurate surgical planning in complex aortic root abscess cases

Despite 3D echocardiography (3DE) acquiring significantly greater data than standard 2D echocardiography (2DE), it is underutilised in assessing cardiac anatomy and physiology. A key advantage is the ability of a single 3DE acquisition to be post-processed to generate volume-rendered 3D models and an unlimited number of multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) images. We describe the case of a highly anxious patient with life-threatening complex aortic valve endocarditis and aortic root abscess, refusing transesophageal echocardiography (TOE) under general anaesthesia with tachycardia, breathlessness and acute kidney injury precluding accurate or safe gated (computed tomography) CT, who was comprehensively assessed with a rapid 3D-TOE under sedation. This led to timely surgery and an excellent outcome for the patient

Ultrasound is not useful as a screening tool for dengue fever

Background: Dengue fever is a tropical disease that is transmitted by female Aedes Aegypti mosquitos. Early diagnosis is necessary to reduce the mortality and morbidity associated with the disease. A combination of clinical, laboratory, and sonography findings can be potentially helpful in making an early diagnosis of dengue fever. There is paucity of literature on the use of ultrasound for dengue fever screening; hence, the primary objective of the study was to evaluate the utility of ultrasound as a screening tool in dengue fever. Material/Methods: A total of 160 patients of suspected dengue fever were included in the study. They underwent ultrasound examinations in order to search for thickening of the gallbladder wall, pleural effusion, and ascites. On the basis of ultrasound findings, 65 cases were positive and 95 cases were negative for dengue fever. Serological tests were also used for diagnosing dengue fever, 93 cases were seropositive and 67 cases were seronegative. The ultrasonically diagnosed cases were compared with serologically diagnosed cases, and appropriate descriptive statistical analyses were applied. Results: The ultrasound findings included gall bladder wall thickening in 66 patients (41.2%). The sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of ultrasound in diagnosing dengue fever were 58%, 84%, and 83%, respectively. The negative predictive value and accuracy were 59% and 68.8%, respectively. Conclusions: The present study suggests that increased gall bladder wall thickness, pleural effusion, ascites, hepatomegaly, and splenomegaly are highly suggestive of dengue fever in clinically suspected cases. However, ultrasound should not be used as a screening tool, as negative ultrasound findings cannot rule out dengue fever due to the low sensitivity of this examination

Effect of music on post-exercise recovery rate in young healthy individuals

Background: Music has been used in exercise classes for many decades. The role of music in increasing the exercise performance is well recognized but there is very little information about effect of music on post-exercise recovery time.Methods: The present study was conducted to see the effect of musical sounds on post-exercise recovery time following moderate exercise with Harvard step test in young healthy volunteers. 30 young healthy volunteers (17 males, 13 females) aged between 17 to 20 years were recruited for the study. Pulse rate, systolic BP, diastolic BP were recorded prior to exercise in lying down position. The participants were subjected to moderate exercise by Harvard step test for 3 minutes on 3 consecutive days. They were allowed to rest in silence on 1st day, rest with hearing slow music on 2nd day and rest with hearing fast music on 3rd day. During the post-exercise relaxation time PR, SBP and DBP were measured immediately and after every 1 min. until the parameters returned to resting values. Data was statistically analysed using ANOVA test and 0.05 level of significance was set prior to the study.Results: The result showed that with slow music, recovery time of pulse rate (5.2 ± 2.1), systolic blood pressure (3.9 ± 1.1) and diastolic blood pressure (3.2 ± 1.7) were significantly faster as compared to both no music and fast music.Conclusion: The study concluded that music hastens post-exercise recovery and slow music has greater relaxation effect than fast or no music.

HER2-enriched subtype and novel molecular subgroups drive aromatase inhibitor resistance and an increased risk of relapse in early ER+/HER2+ breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Oestrogen receptor positive/ human epidermal growth factor receptor positive (ER+/HER2+) breast cancers (BCs) are less responsive to endocrine therapy than ER+/HER2- tumours. Mechanisms underpinning the differential behaviour of ER+HER2+ tumours are poorly characterised. Our aim was to identify biomarkers of response to 2 weeks’ presurgical AI treatment in ER+/HER2+ BCs. METHODS: All available ER+/HER2+ BC baseline tumours (n=342) in the POETIC trial were gene expression profiled using BC360™ (NanoString) covering intrinsic subtypes and 46 key biological signatures. Early response to AI was assessed by changes in Ki67 expression and residual Ki67 at 2 weeks (Ki672wk). Time-To-Recurrence (TTR) was estimated using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox models adjusted for standard clinicopathological variables. New molecular subgroups (MS) were identified using consensus clustering. FINDINGS: HER2-enriched (HER2-E) subtype BCs (44.7% of the total) showed poorer Ki67 response and higher Ki672wk (p<0.0001) than non-HER2-E BCs. High expression of ERBB2 expression, homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) and TP53 mutational score were associated with poor response and immune-related signatures with High Ki672wk. Five new MS that were associated with differential response to AI were identified. HER2-E had significantly poorer TTR compared to Luminal BCs (HR 2.55, 95% CI 1.14–5.69; p=0.0222). The new MS were independent predictors of TTR, adding significant value beyond intrinsic subtypes. INTERPRETATION: Our results show HER2-E as a standardised biomarker associated with poor response to AI and worse outcome in ER+/HER2+. HRD, TP53 mutational score and immune-tumour tolerance are predictive biomarkers for poor response to AI. Lastly, novel MS identify additional non-HER2-E tumours not responding to AI with an increased risk of relapse

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged jet production in root s(NN)=2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions

We present measurements of the azimuthal dependence of charged jet production in central and semi-central root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the second harmonic event plane, quantified as nu(ch)(2) (jet). Jet finding is performed employing the anti-k(T) algorithm with a resolution parameter R = 0.2 using charged tracks from the ALICE tracking system. The contribution of the azimuthal anisotropy of the underlying event is taken into account event-by-event. The remaining (statistical) region-to-region fluctuations are removed on an ensemble basis by unfolding the jet spectra for different event plane orientations independently. Significant non-zero nu(ch)(2) (jet) is observed in semi-central collisions (30-50% centrality) for 20 <p(T)(ch) (jet) <90 GeV/c. The azimuthal dependence of the charged jet production is similar to the dependence observed for jets comprising both charged and neutral fragments, and compatible with measurements of the nu(2) of single charged particles at high p(T). Good agreement between the data and predictions from JEWEL, an event generator simulating parton shower evolution in the presence of a dense QCD medium, is found in semi-central collisions. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Peer reviewe

Production of He-4 and (4) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV at the LHC

Results on the production of He-4 and (4) nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar <1, using the ALICE detector, are presented in this paper. The rapidity densities corresponding to 0-10% central events are found to be dN/dy4(He) = (0.8 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.3 (syst)) x 10(-6) and dN/dy4 = (1.1 +/- 0.4 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst)) x 10(-6), respectively. This is in agreement with the statistical thermal model expectation assuming the same chemical freeze-out temperature (T-chem = 156 MeV) as for light hadrons. The measured ratio of (4)/He-4 is 1.4 +/- 0.8 (stat) +/- 0.5 (syst). (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Forward-central two-particle correlations in p-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV

Two-particle angular correlations between trigger particles in the forward pseudorapidity range (2.5 2GeV/c. (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the ALICE Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B. V.Peer reviewe

Event-shape engineering for inclusive spectra and elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV

Peer reviewe