Serotonin- 5-HT2A and Glutamate Receptors Gene Expression in Streptozotocin induced diabetic rats:Effects of pyridoxine and Aegle marmelose leaf extract

Department of Biotechnology, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Impact of Self-generation of Priorities and Non-preemptive Service in Single/Multiserver Queues

In this thesis we have studied a few models involving self-generation of priorities. Priority queues have been extensively discussed in literature. However, these are situations involving priority assigned to (or possessed by) customers at the time of their arrival. Nevertheless, customers generating into priority is a common phenomena. Such situations especially arise at a physicians clinic, aircrafts hovering over airport running out of fuel but waiting for clearance to land and in several communication systems. Quantification of these are very little seen in literature except for those cited in some of the work indicated in the introduction. Our attempt is to quantify a few of such problems. In doing so, we have also generalized the classical priority queues by introducing priority generation ( going to higher priorities and during waiting). Systematically we have proceeded from single server queue to multi server queue. We also introduced customers with repeated attempts (retrial) generating priorities. All models that were analyzed in this thesis involve nonpreemptive service. Since the models are not analytically tractable, a large number of numerical illustrations were produced in each chapter to get a feel about the working of the systems.

Studies on some new Schiff base complexes of ruthenium and neodymium

In the present study an attempt has been made to synthesize some simple complexes of multidentate ligands. Analogous zeolite encapsulated complexes were also synthesized and characterized. Immobilization on to polymer supports through covalent attachment is expected to solve the problem of decomposition of many complexes during catalytic reaction. Hence the work is also extended to the synthesis and characterization of some polymer supported complexes of Schiff base Iigands. All the three types of synthesized complexes, simple, zeolite encapsulated and polystyrene anchored, were subjected to catalytic activity study towards catechol-oxidation reaction. A selected group of complexes were also screened for their catalytic activity towards phenol-oxidation reaction. Biological screening of the synthesized ligands and neat complexes were done with a view to establish the effect of complexation on biological systems.

On Finite Mixture of Pareto and Beta Distnbutions

Department of Statistics, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Isolation and characterization of glycosaminoglycans and a study of its bioactive potential in two commercially important species of cephalopods, Loligo duvauceli and Sepia pharaonis

The present study is aimed at the isolation and characterization of glycosaminoglycans from selected tissues of two commercially important species of cephalopods;squid,Loligo duvauceli and cuttlefish,Sepia pharaonis,keeping in view of the aforementioned benefits on the utilization of waste generated during processing.The cephalopod GAGs may also be expected to have an effect on various physiological functions based on the results obtained from GAGs from other sources.In addition,knowledge of the chemical structure of macromolecules that constitute major components of extracellular matrix(ECM) will be helpful in understanding their interactions with other matrix components.

Marine Benthos of the Continental Shelf of Southwest and Southeast Coast of India

Department of Marine Biology,Microbiology and Biochemistry,Cochin University of Science and Technology

Dopamine D1 and D2 Receptor Functional Regulation:Glutamate Receptor Gene Expression in the Brain of Hypoglycaemic and Hyperglycaemic Rats

In the present study a detailed investigation on the alterations of dopamine and its receptors in the brain regions of streptozotocin induced diabetic and insulin induced hypoglycaemic rats were carried out. Glutamate receptor, NMDARI gene expression in the hypoglycaemic and hyperglycaemic brain was also studied. EEG recording in hypoglycaemic and hyperglycaemic will be carried out to measure brain activity. in vitro studies on glucose uptake and insulin secretion, with and without specific antagonists were carried out to confirm the specific receptor subtypes - DA D1, DA D2 and NMDA involved in the functional regulation during hyperglycaemic and hypoglycaemic brain damage. The molecular studies on the brain damage through dopaminergic and glutamergic receptors will elucidate the therapeutic role in the corrective measures of the damage to the brain during hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia. This has importance in the management of diabetes and antidiabetic treatment for better intellectual functioning of the individual.

Development of Safety and Quality Management System in Shrimp Farming

Shrimp Aquaculture has provided tremendous opportunity for the economic and social upliftment of rural communities in the coastal areas of our country Over a hundred thousand farmers, of whom about 90% belong to the small and marginal category, are engaged in shrimp farming. Penaeus monodon is the most predominant cultured species in India which is mainly exported to highly sophisticated, quality and safety conscious world markets. Food safety has been of concem to humankind since the dawn of history and the concern about food safety resulted in the evolution of a cost effective, food safety assurance method, the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP). Considering the major contribution of cultured Penaeus monodon to the total shrimp production and the economic losses encountered due to disease outbreak and also because traditional methods of quality control and end point inspection cannot guarantee the safety of our cultured seafood products, it is essential that science based preventive approaches like HACCP and Pre requisite Programmes (PRP) be implemented in our shrimp farming operations. PRP is considered as a support system which provides a solid foundation for HACCP. The safety of postlarvae (PL) supplied for brackish water shrimp farming has also become an issue of concern over the past few years. The quality and safety of hatchery produced seeds have been deteriorating and disease outbreaks have become very common in hatcheries. It is in this context that the necessity for following strict quarantine measures with standards and code of practices becomes significant. Though there were a lot of hue and cry on the need for extending the focus of seafood safety assurance from processing and exporting to the pre-harvest and hatchery rearing phases, an experimental move in this direction has been rare or nil. An integrated management system only can assure the effective control of the quality, hygiene and safety related issues. This study therefore aims at designing a safety and quality management system model for implementation in shrimp farming and hatchery operations by linking the concepts of HACCP and PRP.

Geochemistry of transition, non-transition and rare-earth elements in the surficial sediments of continental shelf of Kerala and an annex to the Cochin estuarine system

The metals present in the surface sediments have high demand on a global perspective, and the main reservoir of these elements is believed to be the ocean floor. A lot of studies on metals are going on throughout the world for its quantification and exploitation. Even though, some preliminary attempts have been made in selected areas for the quantitative study of metals in the western continental shelf of India, no comprehensive work has been reported so far. The importance of this study also lies on the fact that there has not been a proper evaluation of the impact of the Great Tsunami of 2004 on the coastal areas of the south India. In View of this, an attempt has been made to address the seasonal distribution, behavior and mechanisms which control the deposition of metals in the sediments of the western continental shelf and Cochin Estuary, an annex to this coastal marine region.Surface sediment samples were collected seasonally from two subenvironemnts of southwest coast of India, (continental shelf of Kerala and Cochin estuarine system), to estimate the seasonal distribution and geochemical behavior of non-transition, transition, rare-earth elements, Th and U. Bottom water samples were also taken from each station, and analysed for temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen, hence the response of redox sensitive elements to oxygen minimum zone can be addressed. In addition, other sedimentary parameters such as sand, silt, clay fractions, CaCO3 and organic carbon content were also estimated to evaluate the control factors on level of metals present in the sediment. The study used different environmental data analysis techniques to evaluate the distribution and behavior of elements during different seasons. This includes environmental parameters such as elemental normalisation, enrichment factor, element excess, cerium and europium anomalies and authigenic uranium.

Efficiency in Delivering Obstetric Care-A Comparison of Public and Private Hospitals in Ernakulam District

Department of Applied Economics, Cochin University of Science and Technology

Realization of a Scanning Photoacoustic Technique: Thermal properties of Bulk and Film Samples

Among the large number of photothcrmal techniques available, photoacoustics assumes a very significant place because of its essential simplicity and the variety of applications it finds in science and technology. The photoacoustic (PA) effect is the generation of an acoustic signal when a sample, kept inside an enclosed volume, is irradiated by an intensity modulated beam of radiation. The radiation absorbed by the sample is converted into thermal waves by nonradiative de-excitation processes. The propagating thermal waves cause a corresponding expansion and contraction of the gas medium surrounding the sample, which in tum can be detected as sound waves by a sensitive microphone. These sound waves have the same frequency as the initial modulation frequency of light. Lock-in detection method enables one to have a sufficiently high signal to noise ratio for the detected signal. The PA signal amplitude depends on the optical absorption coefficient of the sample and its thermal properties. The PA signal phase is a function of the thermal diffusivity of the sample.Measurement of the PA amplitude and phase enables one to get valuable information about the thermal and optical properties of the sample. Since the PA signal depends on the optical and thennal properties of the sample, their variation will get reflected in the PA signal. Therefore, if the PA signal is collected from various points on a sample surface it will give a profile of the variations in the optical/thennal properties across the sample surface. Since the optical and thermal properties are affected by the presence of defects, interfaces, change of material etc. these will get reflected in the PA signal. By varying the modulation frequency, we can get information about the subsurface features also. This is the basic principle of PA imaging or PA depth profiling. It is a quickly expanding field with potential applications in thin film technology, chemical engineering, biology, medical diagnosis etc. Since it is a non-destructive method, PA imaging has added advantages over some of the other imaging techniques. A major part of the work presented in this thesis is concemed with the development of a PA imaging setup that can be used to detect the presence of surface and subsmface defects in solid samples.Determination of thermal transport properties such as thermal diffusivity, effusivity, conductivity and heat capacity of materials is another application of photothennal effect. There are various methods, depending on the nature of the sample, to determine these properties. However, there are only a few methods developed to determine all these properties simultaneously. Even though a few techniques to determine the above thermal properties individually for a coating can be found in literature, no technique is available for the simultaneous measurement of these parameters for a coating. We have developed a scanning photoacoustic technique that can be used to determine all the above thermal transport properties simultaneously in the case of opaque coatings such as paints. Another work that we have presented in this thesis is the determination of thermal effusivity of many bulk solids by a scanning photoacoustic technique. This is one of the very few methods developed to determine thermal effiisivity directly.

E-marketing motivators,inhibitors and critical success factors: A study of small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTES) in Mauritius and Andaman islands, India

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have a dramatic impact on the tourism industry because they force this sector as a whole to rethink the way in which it organises its business . In the light of such rethinking within the tourism industry, this study has focussed on the Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs) in two island destinations, namely Mauritius and Andaman Islands, India.Suggestions. The findings conceming SMTEs in Mauritius and Andaman Islands have been compared to make some destination-specific inferences. The relevance of the findings has been discussed with reference to the SMTEs in the two destinations as well as the possible acceptability in other comparable settings. Suggestions have been made for further research in SMTEs’ use of the Internet for marketing function.

Highly conductive and transparent ZnO thin film using Chemical Spray Pyrolysis technique: Effect of doping and deposition parameters

In the present work we report the preparation details studies on ZnO thin films. ZnO thin films are prepared using cost effective deposition technique viz., Chemical Spray Pyrolysis (CSP). The method is very effective for large area preparation of the ZnO thin film. A new post-deposition process could also be developed to avoid the adsorption of oxygen that usually occurs after the spraying process i.e., while cooling. Studies were done by changing the various deposition parameters for optimizing the properties of ZnO thin film. Moreover, different methods of doping using various elements are also tried to enhance the conductivity and transparency of the film to make these suitable for various optoelectronic applications.

Studies on rainfall variability and the influence of orography and land use on the climate of Peninsular India

The present study helped to understand the trend in rainfall patterns at smaller spatial scales and the large regional differences in the variability of rainfall. The effect of land use and orography on the diurnal variability is also understood. But a better understanding on the long term variation in rainfall is possible by using a longer dataset,which may provide insight into the rainfall variation over country during the past century. The basic mechanism behind the interannual rainfall variability would be possible with numerical studies using coupled Ocean-Atmosphere models. The regional difference in the active-break conditions points to the significance of regional studies than considering India as a single unit. The underlying dynamics of diurnal variability need to be studied by making use of a high resolution model as the present study could not simulate the local onshore circulation. Also the land use modification in this study, selected a region, which is surrounded by crop land. This implies the high possibility for the conversion of the remaining region to agricultural land. Therefore the study is useful than considering idealized conditions, but the adverse effect of irrigated crop is more than non-irrigated crop. Therefore, such studies would help to understand the climate changes occurred in the recent period. The large accumulation of rainfall between 300-600 m height of western Ghats has been found but the reason behind this need to be studied, which is possible by utilizing datasets that would better represent the orography and landuse over the region in high resolution model. Similarly a detailed analysis is needed to clearly identify the causative relations of the predictors identified with the predictant and the physical reasons behind them. New approaches that include nonlinear relationships and dynamical variables from model simulations can be included in the existing statistical models to improve the skill of the models. Also the statistical models for the forecasts of monsoon have to be continually updated.

A Study of Closure and Fuzzy Closure Spaces with Reference to H-Closedness and Convexity

Department of Mathematics, Cochin University of Science and Technology.