• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.4957-4961
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• 2014

Background: Head and neck cancer without distant metastases is amenable to various modalities of treatment. However, the stage at presentation is a very important determinant for treatment success. The present study was conducted to determine the stage-wise presentation of non-metastatic head and neck cancer patients from the hilly regions in Kumaon division of Uttarakhand, India. Materials and Methods: The hospital records for non-metastatic head and neck cancer patients from the only functional cancer centre of the region for the period of two-years (January 2012-December 2013) were included. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma was excluded due to its staging system being different. Non-squamous histopathologies were also excluded. Patients hailing from nearby regions of Uttar Pradesh and Nepal were excluded, as were patients from non-hilly regions of Kumaon. Results: Of the 271 patients of head and neck cancer, 27 with distant metastases at diagnosis were excluded from the analysis. Of the 244 eligible patient records, 90.1% (n=222) were male, and 9.9% (n=22) were female. The proportions of patients with carcinoma of the larynx, oropharynx, oral cavity, hypopharynx and maxillary antrum were 31.9% (n=78), 27.9% (n=68), 20.5% (n=50), 12.7% (n=31) and 1.2% (n=3). A further 5.7% (n=14) were diagnosed as having secondary involvement of neck nodes with unknown primaries. The proportion of patients presenting in stages I, II, III, IVA and IVB were 0.8% (n=2), 2.5% (n=6), 9.4% (n=23), 51.6% (n=126) and 35.7% (n=87) respectively. Conclusions: An abysmally low proportion (3.3%) of non-metastatic head and neck cancer patients presented in the early stages (I and II). A vast majority of the patients (88.1%) presented with stages IVA and IVB. Not only does this reflect a poor therapeutic outlook, but also exposes the dire need for programmes focusing on cancer awareness and early detection in the region.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.40-42
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• 2004

A simple quantitative HPLC method has been developed for differentiating two plants of Asteraceae family viz. S. costus and A. lappa by using a pharmacologically active constituent chlorogenic acid and symmetry C18 column clubbed with a binary gradient using acetonitrile: 0.1% phosphoric acid and detected using a PDA at 327 nm. Quantitatively chlorogenic acid was found to be more in A. lappa (0.140%) than in S. costus (0.087%).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.10
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• pp.3327-3334
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• 2021

Present electric grids are advanced to integrate smart grids, distributed resources, high-speed sensing and control, and other advanced metering technologies. Cybersecurity is one of the challenges of the smart grid and nuclear plant digital system. It affects the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), for grid data communication and controls the information in real-time. The research article is emphasized solving the nuclear and smart grid hardware security issues with the integration of field programmable gate array (FPGA), and implementing the latest Time Authenticated Cryptographic Identity Transmission (TACIT) cryptographic algorithm in the chip. The cryptographic-based encryption and decryption approach can be used for a smart grid distribution system embedding with FPGA hardware. The chip design is carried in Xilinx ISE 14.7 and synthesized on Virtex-5 FPGA hardware. The state of the art of work is that the algorithm is implemented on FPGA hardware that provides the scalable design with different key sizes, and its integration enhances the grid hardware security and switching. It has been reported by similar state-of-the-art approaches, that the algorithm was limited in software, not implemented in a hardware chip. The main finding of the research work is that the design predicts the utilization of hardware parameters such as slices, LUTs, flip-flops, memory, input/output blocks, and timing information for Virtex-5 FPGA synthesis before the chip fabrication. The information is extracted for 8-bit to 128-bit key and grid data with initial parameters. TACIT security chip supports 400 MHz frequency for 128-bit key. The research work is an effort to provide the solution for the industries working towards embedded hardware security for the smart grid, power plants, and nuclear applications.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2444-2452
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• 2022

The field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is gaining popularity in industrial automation such as nuclear power plant instrumentation and control (I&C) systems due to the benefits of having non-existence of operating system, minimum software errors, and minimum common reason failures. Separate functions can be processed individually and in parallel on the same integrated circuit using FPGAs in comparison to the conventional microprocessor-based systems used in any plant operations. The use of FPGAs offers the potential to minimize complexity and the accompanying difficulty of securing regulatory approval, as well as provide superior protection against obsolescence. Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are a new technology for acquiring and processing plant data wirelessly in which sensor nodes are configured for real-time signal processing, data acquisition, and monitoring. ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4) is an open worldwide standard for minimum power, low-cost machine-to-machine (M2M), and internet of things (IoT) enabled wireless network communication. It is always a challenge to follow the specific topology when different Zigbee nodes are placed in a large network such as a plant. The research article focuses on the hardware chip design of different topological structures supported by ZigBee that can be used for monitoring and controlling the different operations of the plant and evaluates the performance in Vitex-5 FPGA hardware. The research work presents a strategy for configuring FPGA with ZigBee sensor nodes when communicating in a large area such as an industrial plant for real-time monitoring.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.18
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• pp.7891-7895
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• 2014

Background: Tobacco products continue to be used in large quantities in India despite the mandatory inclusion of pictorial health warnings (PHWs) on all tobacco packaging. The circumstances as to how people could continue the use of tobacco to the point of developing head and neck cancer despite enhanced awareness about the ill effects of tobacco is the main focus of this study. Materials and Methods: This study concerned patients with least 5-years history of tobacco use, having been diagnosed with histopathologically proven malignancies of the hypopharynx, larynx, oropharynx and oral cavity presenting at the Government Medical College-Haldwani, Nainital, India. A total of 183 patients were eligible for inclusion during July 1 2013 - June 30 2014. Of these, 59 patients used smoked tobacco exclusively, 22 patients used smokeless tobacco exclusively, and 102 patients used both forms of tobacco. Among users of smoked forms, 75.2% (n=121) were beedi users, and 24.8% (n=40) were cigarette users. Patients were asked direct questions as to whether they had noticed the presence of PHWs upon tobacco products. The reasons as to why PHWs were not effective in stopping the patients from tobacco use were investigated. Results: Of the 183 patients, 146 reported being aware about the presence of PHWs, and when they were asked reasons as to why they continued tobacco despite being aware of ill-effects, the commonest reason chosen (by 53.4%) was that patients had not regarded themselves as using tobacco heavy enough to cause cancer. Among the 36 patients who reported as being oblivious to the presence of PHWs on tobacco products, 63.9% reported that the products they used never displayed any PHWs, and 36.1% reported never having paid attention to the packaging. The awareness about PHWs was higher among cigarette smokers in comparison to beedi smokers (100% vs 76.1%, p=0.0002). Conclusions: Locally produced and marketed tobacco products such as beedis and oral tobacco often fail to display PHWs. The presence of PHWs without doubt enhances awareness about the carcinogenic risks of tobacco. However, enhanced awareness alone may not be enough, and as elucidated by this study, some persons continue to use tobacco to the point of developing malignancies. The need of the hour is the implementation of legal and economic sanctions discouraging the use of tobacco products.