• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.75-98
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• 2013

This study focuses on shear strengthening performance of simply supported reinforced concrete (RC) T-beams bonded by glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) strips in different configuration, orientations and transverse steel reinforcement in different spacing. Eighteen RC T-beams of 2.5 m span are tested. Nine beams are used as control beam. The stirrups are provided in three different spacing such as without stirrups and with stirrups at a spacing of 200 mm and 300 mm. Another nine beams are used as strengthened beams. GFRP strips are bonded in shear zone in U-shape and side shape with two types of orientation of the strip at $45^{\circ}$ and $90^{\circ}$ to the longitudinal axis of the beam for each type of stirrup spacing. The experimental result indicates that the beam strengthened with GFRP strips at $45^{\circ}$ orientation to the longitudinal axis of the beam are much more effective than $90^{\circ}$ orientation. Also as transverse steel increases, the effectiveness of the GFRP strips decreases.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.230-237
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• 2021

Functional constipation is common in the paediatric population all over the world. Effective disimpaction to evacuate the impacted faecal matter forms an essential initial step in the management of constipation. Though different regimens of polyethylene glycol 3350 with electrolytes (PEG+E) are accepted as the prime medication for disimpaction, response is not always satisfactory. A randomised prospective study was undertaken, in a tertiary paediatric Gastroenterology centre to find out the outcome of a 2-day disimpaction when a stimulant laxative sodium picosulphate was added to PEG3350+E (PEG+E+PS group) and comparing it with the outcome using PEG3350+E (PEG+E group) alone. Hundred and one children were randomised into two groups to receive PEG+E+PS and PEG+E. Results revealed that PEG+E+PS group proved significantly superior to PEG+E group in most of the efficacy-parameters in terms of disimpaction as well as long-term management of constipation. Though stimulant laxatives are being used for disimpaction, comparative data are lacking. This was the 1st such comparative study looking at the efficacy of these two processes of disimpaction along with long term effect on treatment.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.929-936
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• 2022

In the U.S., the state, local, tribe, and territorial governments seek funding from the federal government through the Public Assistance program to carry out these recovery works. In this paper historic public assistance data between 1998 and 2021 have been analyzed to derive several insights such as: types of disasters causing the most damage, states requiring more support, net present value of the federal expense etc. This paper has found that the states requiring more support from the federal government are not always the states suffering the maximum losses from the disasters. It has also found that the net present value of the federal expense between 1998 and 2020 to restore, repair, reconstruct, or replace disaster damaged roads and bridges across the U.S. is $15 billion in 2021 values. Moreover, this paper has tested the correlation between the states' public assistance funds requirements and the existing condition and performance of roads and bridges as revealed by the American Society of Civil Engineer's infrastructure grade card. It has found a weak correlation between these two. The outcomes of this paper can be used by the decision makers to analyze the viability of any possible alternative to the exiting public assistance program. The insights can also help in better decision making in pre-disaster preparation and post-disaster funds allocation.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.367-384
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• 2023

Herein, we present the design and development of an efficient finite element analysis model for thermal plate forming in shipbuilding. Double curvature shells in the ship building industries are primarily formed through the thermal forming technique. Thermal forming involves heating of steel plates using heat sources like oxy-acetylene gas torch, laser, and induction heating, etc. The differential expansion and contraction across the plate thickness cause plastic deformation and bending of plates. Thermal forming is a complex forming technique as the plastic deformation and bending depends on many factors such as peak temperature, heating and cooling rate, depth of heated zone and many other secondary factors. In this work, we develop an efficient finite element analysis model for the thermo-mechanical analysis of thermal forming. Different simulations are reported to study the effect of various parameters affecting the process. Temperature dependent properties are used in the analysis and the finite element analysis model is used to identify the critical flame velocity to avoid recrystallization of plate material. A spring connected plate is modeled for structural analysis using spring elements and that helps in identifying the resultant shapes of various thermal forming patterns. Finally, detailed simulation results are reported to establish the efficacy, applicability and efficiency of the designed and developed finite element analysis model.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8177-8186
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• 2016

The present study was aimed at determining the effects of alkylating and oxidative stress inducing agents on a newly identified variant of DNA polymerase beta ($pol{\beta}{\Delta}_{208-304}$) specific for ovarian cancer. $Pol{\beta}{\Delta}_{208-304}$ has a deletion of exons 11-13 which lie in the catalytic part of enzyme. We compared the effect of these chemicals on HeLa cells and HeLa cells stably transfected with this variant cloned into in pcDNAI/neo vector by MTT, colony forming and apoptosis assays. $Pol{\beta}{\Delta}_{208-304}$ cells exhibited greater sensitivity to an alkylating agent and less sensitivity towards $H_2O_2$ and UV when compared with HeLa cells alone. It has been shown that cell death in $Pol{\beta}{\Delta}_{208-304}$ transfected HeLa cells is mediated by the caspase 9 cascade. Exon 11 has nucleotidyl selection activity, while exons 12 and 13 have dNTP selection activity. Hence deletion of this part may affect polymerizing activity although single strand binding and double strand binding activity may remain same. The lack of this part may adversely affect catalytic activity of DNA polymerase beta so that the variant may act as a dominant negative mutant. This would represent clinical significance if translated into a clinical setting because resistance to radiation or chemotherapy during the relapse of the disease could be potentially overcome by this approach.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.11
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• pp.4723-4726
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• 2015

Background: The survival of patients with hypopharyngeal cancer is low amongst head and neck cancer cases. The incidence rates of hypopharyngeal cancers in our population are amongst the highest in the world and there are limited data available on the literature on varied responses to first course of treatment with radiotherapy (RT) and concurrent chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) in our population. Materials and Methods: Clinical characteristics and initial responses to treatment in patients who had received radiotherapy and chemo-radiotherapy in a regional cancer center from January 2010 to December 2013 were evaluated. The data were obtained from the hospital cancer registry, and analysis was carried using descriptive statistics. Pearson's chi-square was used to test for differences in the variables and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 554 patients were included in the analysis, 411 (74.2%) receiving RT and 143 (25.8%) being given CRT. There was significantly lower number of patients above 70 years with a higher proportion of patients below 50 years who had received CRT (p<0.05). Some 79.3% and 84.6% of patients in the RT and CRT groups respectively presented with a favorable performance status, and in the RT group 240 (58.4%) showed complete response (CR), and in the CRT group 103 (72.0%) showed CR at the first follow-up (p<0.05). Conclusions: Concurrent chemo-radiotherapy gives better short term response to treatment in locally advanced hypopharyngeal cancers.

• BMB Reports
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.62-67
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• 2008

The present study was aimed to elucidate the mechanism of stabilization of tubulin by deuterium oxide ($D_2O$). Rate of decrease of tryptophan fluorescence during aging of tubulin at 4$^{\circ}C$ and 37$^{\circ}C$ was significantly lower in $D_2O$ than in $H_2O$. Circular dichroism spectra of tubulin after incubation at 4$^{\circ}C$, suggested that complete stabilization of the secondary structure in D2O during the first 24 hours of incubation. The number of available cysteine measured by DTNB reaction was decreased to a lesser extent in $D_2O$ than in $H_2O$. . During the increase in temperature of tubulin, the rate of decrease of fluorescence at 335 nm and change of CD value at 222 nm was lesser in $D_2O$. Differential Scanning calorimetric experiments showed that the $T_m$ values for tubulin unfolding in $D_2O$ were 58.6$^{\circ}C$ and 62.17$^{\circ}C$, and in $H_2O$. those values were 55.4$^{\circ}C$ and 59.35$^{\circ}C$.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1321-1324
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• 2012

Background: DNA polymerase beta ($pol{\beta}$) is a key enzyme in the base excision repair pathway. It is 39kDa protein, with two subunits, one large subunit of 31 kDa having catalytic activity between exon V to exon XIV, and an 8 kDa smaller subunit having single strand DNA binding activity. Exons V to VII have double strand DNA binding activity, whereas exons VIII to XI account for the nucleotidyl transferase activity and exons XII to XIV the dNTP selection activity. Aim: To examine the association between $pol{\beta}$ polymorphisms and the risk of ovarian cancer, the present case control study was performed using 152 cancer samples and non-metastatic normal samples from the same patients. In this study, mutational analysis of $pol{\beta}$ genomic DNA was undertaken using primers from exons IX to XIV - the portion having catalytic activity. Results: We detected alteration in DNA polymerase beta by SSCP. Two specific heterozygous point mutations of $pol{\beta}$ were identified in Exon 9:486, A->C (polymorphism 1; 11.18%) and in Exon 11:676, A->C (polymorphism 2; 9.86%). The correlation study involving polymorphism 1 and 4 types of tissue showed a significant correlation between mucinous type with a Pearson correlation value of 4.03 (p=0.04). The association among polymorphism 2 with serous type and stage IV together have shown Pearson ${\chi}^2$ value of 3.28 with likelihood ratio of 4.4 (p=0.07) with OR =2.08 (0.3-14.55). This indicates that there is a tendency of correlation among polymorphism 2, serous type and stage IV, indicating a risk factor for ovarian cancer. Conclusion: Hence, the results indicate that there is a tendency for $pol{\beta}$ polymorphisms being a risk factor for ovarian carcinogenesis in India.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.99-114
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• 2018

Due to shortage of land and architectural aesthetics, sometimes the buildings are constructed as unconventional in plan. The wind force acts differently according to the plan shape of the building. So, it is of utter importance to study wind force or, more specifically wind pressure on an unconventional plan shaped tall building. To address this issue, this paper demonstrates a comprehensive study on mean pressure coefficient of 'E' plan shaped tall building. This study has been carried out experimentally and numerically by wind tunnel test and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation respectively. Mean wind pressures on all the faces of the building are predicted using wind tunnel test and CFD simulation varying wind incidence angles from $0^{\circ}$ to $180^{\circ}$ at an interval of $30^{\circ}$. The accuracy of the numerically predicted results are measured by comparing results predicted by CFD with experimental results and it seems to have a good agreement with wind tunnel results. Besides wind pressures, wind flow patterns are also obtained by CFD for all the wind incidence angles. These flow patterns predict the behavior of pressure variation on the different faces of the building. For better comparison of the results, pressure contours on all the faces are also predicted by both the methods. Finally, polynomial expressions as the sine and cosine function of wind angle are proposed for obtaining mean wind pressure coefficient on all the faces using Fourier series expansion. The accuracy of the fitted expansions are measured by sum square error, $R^2$ value and root mean square error.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.1999-2002
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• 2012

Background: DNA polymerase is a single-copy gene that is considered to be part of the DNA repair machinery in mammalian cells. The encoded enzyme is a key to the base excision repair (BER) pathway. It is evident that pol beta has mutations in various cancer samples, but little is known about ovarian cancer. Aim: Identification of any variant form of $pol{\beta}$ cDNA in ovarian carcinoma and determination of association between the polymorphism and ovarian cancer risk in Indian patients. We used 152 samples to isolate and perform RT-PCR and sequencing. Results: A variant of polymerase beta (deletion of exon 4-6 and 11-13, comprising of amino acid 63-123, and 208-304) is detected in heterozygous condition. The product size of this variant is 532 bp while wild type pol beta is 1 kb. Our study of association between the variant and the endometrioid type shows that it is a statistically significant factor for ovarian cancer [OR=31.9 (4.12-246.25) with p<0.001]. The association between variant and stage IV patients further indicated risk (${\chi}^2$ value of 29.7, and OR value 6.77 with 95% CI values 3.3-13.86). The correlation study also confirms the association data (Pearson correlation values for variant/stage IV and variant/endometrioid of 0.44 and 0.39). Conclusion: Individuals from this part of India with this type of variant may be at risk of stage IV, endometrioid type ovarian carcinoma.