Electrochemotherapy: transition from laboratory to the clinic

Although electroporation in the past has mainly been used as a research tool, recent work has demonstrated its potential for clinical applications. Some of the areas explored include electrochemotherapy (ECT), which utilizes electroporation as a means for delivering chemotherapeutic agents directly into tumor cells, encapsulation of drugs or genes into cells for their use as carrier systems, transdermal delivery of drugs or genes, gene therapy, and delivery of drugs or genes with an electroporation catheter. This article discusses the principles of ECT as a method of treating cancer, the requirements and development of electronic and electromechanical hardware for ECT, and it presents data for both in-vivo animal studies and clinical applications, especially for subcutaneous tumors. It is concluded that ECT has shown promise in treating a variety of cancers in humans. The basic principles are reasonably well understood. A good start has been made in the development of the necessary hardware to generate and apply the needed electric fields. As the human genome project progresses in identifying gene-based diseases and their possible cures, the same hardware system used for ECT can also be used for electrogene therapy. As ECT-based therapy becomes more widely recognized, it will offer an additional treatment modality and increased hope for cancer patients.     

The influence of land-use change and landscape dynamics on the climate system: relevance to climate-change policy beyond the radiative effect of greenhouse gases

Our paper documents that land-use change impacts regional and global climate through the surface-energy budget, as well as through the carbon cycle. The surface-energy budget effects may be more important than the carbon-cycle effects. However, land-use impacts on climate cannot be adequately quantified with the usual metric of 'global warming potential'. A new metric is needed to quantify the human disturbance of the Earth's surface-energy budget. This 'regional climate change potential' could offer a new metric for developing a more inclusive climate protocol. This concept would also implicitly provide a mechanism to monitor potential local-scale environmental changes that could influence biodiversity.     

A silicon carbide LOCOS process using enhanced thermal oxidation by argon implantation

A process is described for creating local oxidation of silicon structure (LOCOS) structures in silicon carbide using enhanced thermal oxidation by argon implantation. Thicker oxides were created in selective regions by using multiple energy argon implants at a dose of 1 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻² prior to thermal oxidation. Atomic force microscopy was used to analyze the fabricated LOCOS structure.     

Instrumentation for continuous in situ monitoring of water quality

A continuous river water-pollution level monitoring system using a comprehensive instrumentation package coupled with a microprocessor (μP)-based data logger and telelink is described. The instrumentation package along with a power supply unit and a μP-based converter and transmitter set is housed in a floating buoy, and on-shore receiving is effected through another μP-based system. A retransmission is performed next, and data are received at a station sufficiently remote from the river banks, where the data are stored as well as processed for further use. Bench-level tests and in situ experiments have shown promising results for long-term monitoring of water-quality parameters of a river     

Influence of certain physico-chemical treatments on the cookability of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan)

The influence of sodium hexametaphosphate (SHMP) and trisodium citrate (TSQ on the cookability of split cotyledons (dhal) of pigeon pea was studied. The former was found to be more effective in reducing the cooking time than the latter chemical when added to the cooking water at (85 ± 1)°C at 2% level of concentration. Influence of certain physicochemical treatments involving presoaking, freezing, thawing, and controlled drying on the cookability of the pigeon pea dhal was also investigated. Presoaking in a salt solution followed by either controlled drying alone or freezing, thawing and controlled drying in succession resulted in quick-cooking dhal.     

Performance study of the inverted absorber solar still with water depth and total dissolved solid

In this communication, an experimental study of inverted absorber solar still (IASS) and single slope solar still (SS) at different water depth and total dissolved solid (TDS) is presented. Experiments are conducted for the climatic condition of Muscat, Oman. A thermal model is also developed for the IASS and validated with experimental results. A fair agreement is found for the daytime operation of the IASS. It is observed that higher water temperature can be achieved by using the IASS in comparison to the SS. The daily yield obtained from the IASS are 6.302, 5.576 and 4.299 kg/m²-day at water depths (d_w) 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03 m respectively. At same respective water depths, the daily yield obtained from the SS are 2.152, 1.931, 0.826 kg/m²-day respectively lower than that of the IASS. It is observed that for climatic condition of Muscat, Oman, the optimum water depth for the IASS is 0.03 m above which the addition of reflector under the basin does not affect its performance much more in comparison to that of the SS for sea water. The feed saline water and yielded distilled water are also compared for different TDS values, pH, and electrical conductance. On the basis of economic analysis of IASS, it is found that the annualized cost of distilled water in Indian rupees for Muscat climatic condition is Rs. 0.74, 0.66 and 0.62 (conversion factors: $ 1 = Rs. 50 and 1 OMR = Rs. 120) for the life time of 15, 20 and 25 years respectively.     

An efficient adaptive artificial neural network based text to speech synthesizer for Hindi language

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Speech recognition is one of the major research regions these days under speech processing. This paper depends on developing a whole process that takes the input...