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Back ground: Plastic is everywhere in today’s lifestyle. Because of indiscriminate dumping of plasticbags on land, toxic metals such as cadmium and lead pigments percolate into underground water. Garbagemixed with plastic bags interferes in waste processing facilities and causes problems in landfill operations.Disposal of plastic through recycling, burning, or land filling is a myth because it does not undergo bacterialdecomposition5. Due to non-biodegradable nature they cause hazardous negative impact on the environment.Material & methods: The present quasi-experimental study was conducted among school going students ofof class 11th and 12th ofSatyakaam International School. Data was collected on predesigned semi structuredquestionnaire which included details of socio demographic variables like age, sex, parent’s education andother details about knowledge, practice and attitude of school going children regarding plastic use. oneweek after the presentation again the knowledge of students regarding plastic was assessed on the same setof questionnaire. Result: knowledge of chemical nature of plastic before presentation was present in 64%students. knowledge regarding Non-biodegradable nature of plastic was present in 88% students. There wasincrease of 12% in knowledge regarding side effects of plastic on environment. 89% of the students supportgovernment on plastic ban. Conclusion: 16% samples that were unaware of the hazards of plastic useneeded to be educated about them through means like pamphlets, health talks, advertisements and awarenessprograms.

SAR waveforms from Cryosat-2 are processed using primary peak empirical retrackers to determine the sea surface height in the Arctic. The empirical retrackers investigated are based on the combination of the traditional OCOG (Offset Center of Gravity) and threshold methods with primary peak extraction. The primary peak retrackers involve the application of retracking algorithms on just the primary peak of the waveform instead of the complete reflected waveform. These primary peak empirical retrackers are developed for Cryosat-2 SAR data. This is the first time SAR data in the Arctic are processed using such primary peak retrackers. The sea surface heights determined are compared with the sea surface heights generated by the ESA Retracker as available in the Cryosat-2 Level-2 dataset from 2012. Performance of the primary peak retrackers is also compared with the traditional OCOG, threshold and five parameter beta retrackers. In the case of SAR-lead data, it is concluded that the proposed primary peak retrackers work better as compared with the traditional retrackers (OCOG, threshold, five parameter beta) as well as the ESA Retracker.

Sigma-delta modulators are becoming increasingly more popular in electronic circuits. They are characterized via their signal and noise transfer functions (STF and NTF). This linearized model is basically an autoregressive moving average model with exogenous inputs (ARMAX) model, which is used during the design of the modulator. Hence, the pole/zero locations of its transfer functions give valuable information about the system. The identification of the poles and zeros from input/output data enables the verification of the complete ?? modulator and can be used on actual measurements where the internal signals are not accessible. The identification of ARMAX models from input-output data is well studied in the literature under conditions that are generally met in control applications. However, ?? modulators are designed such that these general assumptions are violated. This paper gives an overview of the properties of ?? modulators and compares the pros and cons of both time- and frequency-domain identification techniques for ARMAX systems. Then, it discusses a modified frequency-domain approach to identify the ?? modulator starting from its input-output data. The technique is illustrated on both low-pass and bandpass ?? modulators, showing an excellent agreement between the theoretical and estimated transfer functions.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality in the US, despite significant improvements in diagnostic imaging and operative mortality rates. The 5-year survival rate remains less than 6% because of microscopic or gross metastatic disease at time of diagnosis. Although the treatment of pancreatic cancer remains a challenge, it is entering new era with development of new strategies and trial designs. Because there is an increasing number of novel therapeutic agents and potential combinations available to test in patients with pancreatic cancer and in their PDX models, the identification of robust prognostic and predictive markers for Cancer Stem Cells (CSC) PDX and Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC) PDX and of new targets and relevant pathways is a top priority as well as the design of adequate trials incorporating molecular-driven hypothesis. Here, we examined the efficacy of combined treatments of CEP1430 and CEP1507 in human pancreatic patient-derived xenograft (PDX) cancer cells, and pancreatic PDX CSCs models from the same donors. CEP1430 inhibited the growth of CSCs and CEP1507 inhibited growth of CTCs, while gemcitabine suppressed the viability of non-CSCs [70%] (differentiated tumor Cells). Consistently, in vivo studies showed that CEP1507 when combined with gemcitabine could eliminate the engraftment of human pancreatic cancer CTCs [85%(n=50,p Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Michael Sharma, Maulik Jain, Cristian Sharma, Karina Amezcua, Natalee Amezcua, Reed Hasson, Miriam Navel, Donna Stanton, Satya Narayan, Karl Kramberger, Rubio Punzalan, Jitesh Jani, Douglas Foster, Jay P. Sharma. Novel drug candidates cep1430 and cep1507 for targeting pancreatic patient-derived xenograft cancer stem cell and circulating tumor cell models [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3889. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-3889

European Space Agency's Cryosat-2 comes with the first ever SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) altimeter onboard a satellite. In this work precise sea surface heights and gravity fields are determined using Cryosat-2 SAR data. These determinations through satellite altimetry are difficult in the Arctic because of the presence of sea ice and coastal areas. Traditional retrackers generate erroneous results due to the superposition of echoes from the sea surface and sea ice. This work establishes an adaptation of the SAMOSA3 retracker as a suitable candidate; this model is improved and customized for the Arctic. Through this research it has been demonstrated that the SAMOSA3 retracker has a better performance as compared to other SAR retrackers when sea surface height and gravity field determination needs to be done. The performance evaluation of the SAMOSA3 retracker as compared to other retrackers has been done using sea surface height anomaly method and gravity field anomaly method.

CryoSat-2 offers at least four important improvements compared with conventional altimetry which should benefit marine gravity in general but particularly at high latitude. Firstly the ESA CryoSat-2 signal to noise ratio should be a factor of two better than conventional altimetry. Secondly the 369 days repeat offered by CryoSat-2 provides denser coverage than older geodetic mission data set like ERS-1. Thirdly, the 92 degree inclination of CryoSat-2 is designed to map more of the Arctic Ocean than previous altimetric satellites. Finally, CryoSat-2 is able to operate in two new modes (SAR and SAR-in) designed to improve the sea surface /ice height mapping in the Polar Regions. We have investigated the use of two years of CryoSat-2 LRM data as well as CryoSat SAR and SAR-in data for deriving a global gravity field as well as a regional marine gravity field in the Arctic. Both conventional ESA Level 2 GDR data, NOAA LRM data, but also Level1b (LRM, SAR and SAR-in waveforms) data have been analyzed. A suite of eight different empirical retrackers have been developed and investigated for their ability to predict marine gravity in the Arctic Ocean. The impact of the various improvement offered by CryoSat-2 in comparison with conventional satellite altimetry have been studied and quantified both globally but particularly for the Arctic Ocean using a large number of marine and airborne surveys providing “ground truth” marine gravity.

Sigma-delta modulators are becoming increasingly more popular in electronic circuits since they make optimal use of the high-speed capabilities of novel technologies. Such ΣΔ-modulators can be characterized via their signal and noise transfer function. These transfer functions are primarily used during the design of the modulators and hence, their pole/zero locations give valuable information about the system under test. The equivalent model with a signal and a noise transfer function is basically an ARMAX model. The identification of ARMAX systems is well studied under relatively general conditions. However, ΣΔ-modulators are designed such that they violate various of these general assumptions. This paper gives an overview of the properties of ΣΔ-modulators and compares the pros and contras of both time and frequency domain identification techniques for ARMAX systems. Finally, it is shown that only a modified frequency domain approach is capable to identify the ΣΔ-modulator. This technique is illustrated on a realistic low-pass ΣΔ-modulator, showing an excellent agreement between the estimated noise transfer function and the noise transfer function predicted using linear system theory.

Sigma-delta modulators are becoming increasingly more popular in electronic circuits. They are characterized via their signal and noise transfer functions (STF and NTF). This linearized model is basically an autoregressive moving average model with exogenous inputs (ARMAX) model, which is used during the design of the modulator. Hence, the pole/zero locations of its transfer functions give valuable information about the system The identification of the poles and zeros from input/output data enables the verification of the complete ?? modulator and can be used on actual measurements where the internal signals are not accessible. The identification of ARMAX models from input-output data is well studied in the literature under conditions that are generally met in control applications. However, ?? modulators are designed such that these general assumptions are violated. This paper gives an overview of the properties of ?? modulators and compares the pros and cons of both time- and frequency-domain identification techniques for ARMAX systems. Then, it discusses a modified frequency-domain approach to identify the ?? modulator starting from its input-output data. The technique is illustrated on both low-pass and bandpass ?? modulators, showing an excellent agreement between the theoretical and estimated transfer functions.

The accuracy of the Arctic marine gravity field has for many been severely limited by the availability and accuracy of altimeter data in the Arctic Ocean. Until recently only ERS-1 provided non-repeat (0.9 year) geodetic mission altimetry in the Arctic Ocean and only up to 82N. With the launch of Cryosat-2 three years ago a new source of high quality altimetric data has become available. The Cryosat-2 delay Doppler altimeter offers a factor of 20 improvements in along track resolution, an along-track footprint length that does not vary with wave height (sea state) and at least a factor of two in sea surface height precision. Over the Arctic Ocean the Cryosat-2 generally operates in SAR altimetry mode for cryospheric studies. We have tested the standard ESA L2 SAR altimetric data for the first 3 years and developed robust empirical retrackers for ice-covered regions and processing 3 years of L1 SAR altimetry in the Arctic Ocean for gravity field determination. Extensive testing, interpretation and improvement of methods to handles the new class of data has been investigated and the first result from a new Arctic Ocean wide gravity field will be presented as well as initial test of derived altimetric bathymetry using the new gravity field data.

The Sentinel-3 satellite mission with its SRAL instrumentation contains new features compared to the conventional radar altimeter mission that form the basis for new innovative GMES products and applications that are not considered or implemented in the Copernicus services yet. To utilize the full potential of the new data source, new methods and processing chains need to be developed. Also, new potential Copernicus products should be developed that utilize the improved along-track resolution over both the oceans and over land. Then new operational processing, validation and delivery mechanisms need to be developed and implemented for generating the new dynamic products. A smooth transition from old to new products is important to ensure existing services. Finally, the take-up of the new Copernicus products by the value-adding sectors needs to be stimulated and demonstrated to ensure that they will be used for commercial activities. The main objectives of the LOTUS project is to prepare the take-up of data from Sentinels 3. In the initial phase, LOTUS will develop processing scheme for extracting high-resolution sea surface heights, wave heights and wind speeds from SAR mode data. Over land, the LOTUS will develop processing scheme for extracting high-resolution river and lake heights, soil moisture, and snow water equivalents. This presentation show some preliminary results based on analyses using CRYOSAT data. Furthermore, new DEMO data sets are presented. These data sets facilitate the development of marine and hydrological services for Copernicus and the down-stream segment.

Cryosat2 Level 1B SAR data can be processed using different empirical retrackers to determine the sea surface height and its variations in the Arctic Ocean. Two improved retrackers based on the combination of OCOG (Offset Centre of Gravity), Threshold methods and Leading Edge Retrieval is used to estimate the sea surface height in the Arctic Region. This sea surface height determination is to be compared with the Level2 sea surface height components available in the Cryosat2 data. Further a comparison is done with the marine gravity field for retracker performance evaluation.