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Highly porous MnO 2 nanosheets were prepared from MnCl 2 and KMnO 4 following a modified co-precipitation route. The material was characterized by XRD, FTIR, TEM, SEM, XPS and BET surface area analysis. The MnO 2 material is microporous having surface area 301 m 2 /g and pore diameter 0.364 nm, and is amorphous in nature. The SEM images show the formation of spherical assembly and TEM images indicate the presence of fine nanosheets within it. The porosity and surface area, as well as the oxidizing property of the as-prepared nano MnO 2 have made the material a powerful oxidant for tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) degradation in aqueous medium under ambient condition. The degradation under various operational conditions was studied and the effects of pH, initial TCH concentration, MnO 2 dose, air/O 2 , temperature, and scavengers were examined. At lower pH, the degradation was more favored. During the oxidative degradation of TCH, slight leaching of Mn 2+ was observed. The degradation followed first order rate model in unbuffered condition and second order model under buffered media. About 55% TCH degradation and ∼44% COD removal was observed on 20-min reaction, under unbuffered condition and at initial pH ∼ 4, with 50 mg/L TCH concentration and 1.0 g/L MnO 2 dose. However, under similar condition, ∼75% degradation was possible under controlled pH (∼3.48). The material could be reused for two consecutive cycles with significant efficiency. The pharmaceutical products (hostacycline and terramycine, which belongs to TC group of antibiotics) were successfully degraded by the as-prepared nano MnO 2 with good performance.

Under suitably controlled conditions a cationic surfactant e.g. cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) forms bilayers on a silica surface, which has the unique property of solubilizing organic molecules through ‘adsolubilization’. This property is judiciously exploited to adsorb AuCl4− ions on the modified silica surface at much higher loading (compared to normal silica) through the formation of a CTA+ AuCl4− complex on the silica support. Next, gold nanoparticles supported on the surfactant-modified silica (SMS) are prepared using two methods: (1) UV illumination and (2) borohydride reduction, and the materials are designated as SMSG-1 and SMSG-2. Characterization of the particles confirms the formation of Au(0) nanoparticles on the SMS surface. The particles have a spherical shape with an average size of 37 ± 11 and 54 ± 14 nm for SMSG-1 and SMSG-2, respectively. They exhibit much higher catalytic activity when compared to Au(0) supported on normal silica for 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) reduction in a borohydride medium. Such synergism is presumed to be due to the surfactant bilayer, which provides a high concentration of 4-nitrophenolate ions near the Au(0) nanoparticles embedded on the SMS leading to highly efficient contact between them. The reductions under different conditions are studied and compared. SMSG-1 shows better performance when compared to SMSG-2. While the reaction followed a pseudo-first order for SMSG-1 for all experimentally studied conditions, a clear change over in order from first to second was noticed for SMSG-2 under certain conditions. The reaction rates, recyclability and turn over frequency (TOF) with a growing micro-electrode (GME) and a fully grown micro-electrode (FGME) are compared. The GME shows ∼9 times higher catalytic activity as compared to the FGME.

Herbo-metallic preparations such as bhasmas (ash) are used traditionally in Indian and Chinese medicinal systems. In Ayurveda, Swarna (gold) nanoparticles are used as Swarna bhasma to treat several clinical manifestations. While Usnea longissima, a medicinal lichen, ethnobotanical is known for the treatment of tooth cleaning and infectious diseases. The study aims to develop a herbo-metallic colloidal nano-formulation containing Swarna nanoparticles and polyphenols rich U. longissima extract (ULE) and evaluate its anti-quorum sensing (QS) property against Streptococcus mutans, an idea that has never been explored before, with a view towards combating the emergence of antibiotic resistance often linked with QS-regulated virulence factors and biofilms. The synthesized Uh-Au@Nano-CF was confirmed by a peak at 550 nm in the UV-visible spectrum. The obtained XRD data confirmed the crystalline nature of nanoparticles of 28 nm size. TEM image revealed that all the particles were spherical with a narrow size range of 5–23 nm. The FTIR result clearly showed that the ULE containing secondary OH as functional groups induces encapsulation of nanoparticles. HPTLC and HPLC fingerprinting of ULE confirmed the presence of polyphenols, including orcinol, arabitol, apigenin, and usnic acid. The data from the inhibition of violacein production in C. violaceum 12 472 revealed that the Uh-Au@Nano-CF at sub-lethal concentrations (5, 10 and 15%) show potent anti-QS activity. The treatment of Uh-Au@Nano-CF was found to inhibit the secretion of S. mutans virulence factors, including acid production, ATPase, enolase, lactate dehydrogenase, protease, total exopolysaccharide content, and glucosidase. The Uh-Au@Nano-CF in a concentration dependent manner showed anti-biofilm activity, inhibiting biofilm formation. Eventually, it was also documented that the Uh-Au@Nano-CF at 15% dilution enhanced the susceptibility of S. mutans to its conventional antibiotics. This study introduces not only a novel antimicrobial herbo-metallic colloidal nano-formulation, but also explores its new biomedical application, which targets QS-regulated virulence factors and biofilm of S. mutans rather than its viability.

A stub type Hybrid Metal Insulator Metal (HMIM)plasmonic filter has been investigated and compared with a Hybrid Metal Insulator (HMI) plasmonic filter. Results show that, the performance of HMIM stub filter is superior to that of a HMI plasmonic filter in terms of bandwidth and extinction ratio.

This is the first report on investigation of CMOS compatible hybrid metal insulator metal (HMIM) planar plasmonic waveguide based Bragg grating filter. It is formed by making periodic variation in the width of HMIM plasmonic waveguide. HMIM Bragg filters offer very good filtering characteristics with large band gap and near-zero transmission around the central wavelength. A micro cavity is also formed and investigated by introducing some defect in HMIM plasmonic Bragg grating. This kind of study is very useful for several chip scale applications such as filter, resonator, WDM systems etc.

Human skin detection strives to spot skin from the pictures. Automatic skin detection is considered as a significantly difficult and complex as skin image differ on the aspects of contents due to variation in size, style, orientation, alignment coupled with different contrast and background. This paper proposes a skin detection approach using localization, tracking, extraction, enhancement, and recognition. This approach remains sensitive to the color palette and uses edge detection technique. Also, color classification box incorporates a deep impact on the performance of the rule. The proposed approach detects single as well as multiple persons in a picture. Promising results are obtained on variety of pictures, except in few pictures wherever color distinction is hard to even when edge detection rule.

Engineered organic nanoparticle (ONP)-mediated co-delivery of genes and therapeutic agents is emerging as a powerful tool in the treatment of several genetic and non-genetic disorders. The ONP-based combinatory approach provides a technological platform that delivers genes with chemo/radio/photo/immunotherapies for the prevention or treatment of disease progression.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is offering unprecedented observational data that are used for managing Smart City utilities. Edge and Fog gateway devices are an integral part of IoT deployments to acquire real-time data and enact controls. Recently, Edge-computing is emerging as first-class paradigm to complement Cloud-centric analytics. But a key limitation is the lack of a platform-as-a-service for applications spanning Edge and Cloud. Here, we propose \(\mathbb {ECHO}\), an orchestration platform for dataflows across distributed resources. \(\mathbb {ECHO}\) ’s hybrid dataflow composition can operate on diverse data models – streams, micro-batches and files, and interface with native runtime engines like TensorFlow and Storm to execute them. It manages the application’s lifecycle, including container-based deployment and a registry for state management. \(\mathbb {ECHO}\) can schedule the dataflow on different Edge, Fog and Cloud resources, and also perform dynamic task migration between resources. We validate the \(\mathbb {ECHO}\) platform for executing video analytics and sensor streams for Smart Traffic and Smart Utility applications on Raspberry Pi, NVidia TX1, ARM64 and Azure Cloud VM resources, and present our results.

Chrysophanol is a unique anthraquinone having broad-spectrum therapeutic potential along with ecological importance. It is the first polyketide that has been reported to be biosynthesized in an organism-specific manner. The traditional Chinese and Korean medicinal systems provide evidence of the beneficial effects of chrysophanol on human health. The global distribution of chrysophanol encountered in two domains of life (bacteria and eukaryota) has motivated researchers to critically evaluate the properties of this compound. A plethora of literature is available on the pharmacological properties of chrysophanol, which include anticancer, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, antiulcer, and antimicrobial activities. However, the pharmacokinetics and toxicity studies on chrysophanol demand further investigations for it to be used as a drug. This is the first comprehensive review on the natural sources, biosynthetic pathways, and pharmacology of chrysophanol. Here we reviewed recent advancements made on the pharmacokinetics of the chrysophanol. Additionally, we have highlighted the knowledge gaps of its mechanism of action against diseases and toxicity aspects.

Silver-based nanostructures are suitable for many biomedical applications, but to be useful therapeutic agents, the high toxicity of these nanomaterials must be eliminated. Here, we biosynthesize nontoxic and ultra-small silver nanoclusters (rsAg@NCs) using metabolites of usnioid lichen (a symbiotic association of algae and fungi) that exhibit excellent antimicrobial activity against fluconazole (FCZ)-resistant Candida albicans that is many times higher than chemically synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and FCZ. The rsAg@NCs trigger apoptosis via reactive oxygen species accumulation that leads to the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, DNA fragmentation, chromosomal condensation, and the activation of metacaspases. The proteomic analysis clearly demonstrates that rsAg@NCs exposure significantly alters protein expression. Most remarkable among the down-regulated proteins are those related to glycolysis, metabolism, free radical scavenging, anti-apoptosis, and mitochondrial function. In contrast, proteins involved in plasma membrane function, oxidative stress, cell death, and apoptosis were upregulated. Eventually, we also established that the apoptosis-inducing potential of rsAg@NCs is due to the activation of Ras signaling, which confirms their application in combating FCZ-resistant C. albicans infections.

Ergonomic designs for blouses, worn as a top with the Indian sari, have been proposed to suit the needs of elderly Indian women. A group of 160 women, 65 to 80 years of age, living in Delhi and its satellite towns, were interviewed to identify their clothing needs, preferences and requirements. The results showed that the subjects had difficulty in finding age-appropriate clothing since most clothing available in the market was designed with young people in mind. It was also established that more than 80% of the women wore the traditional Indian sari during the day as well as at night and that they faced major problems with regard to the fit and comfort of blouses worn as a top with the same. Based on the feedback obtained from the subjects, 10 blouse designs were developed using various fabrics and style features for various occasions and activities. Ergonomic features have been incorporated to suit the requirements of a changed body shape and limitations posed on movement, dexterity and strength. Three of the designs have been discussed in this paper in detail.

Despite several conventional potent antibacterial therapies, bacterial infections pose a significant threat to human health because they are emerging as the leading cause of death worldwide. Due to the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, there is a pressing demand to discover novel approaches for developing more effective therapies to treat multidrug-resistant bacterial strains and biofilm-associated infections. Therefore, attention has been especially devoted to a new and emerging branch of science "nanotechnology" to design non-conventional antimicrobial chemotherapies. A range of nanomaterials and nano-sized carriers for conventional antimicrobial agents have fully justified their potential to combat bacterial diseases by reducing cell viability, by attenuating quorum sensing, and by inhibiting/or eradicating biofilms. This communication summarizes emerging nano-antimicrobial therapies in treating bacterial infections, particularly using antibacterial, quorum quenching, and anti-biofilm nanomaterials as new approaches to tackle the current challenges in combating infectious diseases.

With the advent of green pharmaceuticals, the secondary metabolites derived from plants have provided numerous leads for thedevelopment of a wide range of therapeutic drugs; however the discovery of new drugs with novel structures has declined in the past fewyears. Cryptogams including lichens, bryophytes, and pteridophytes represent a group of small terrestrial plants that remain relativelyuntouched in the drug discovery process though some have been used as ethnomedicines by various tribes worldwide. Studies of theirsecondary metabolites are recent but reveal unique secondary metabolites which are not synthesized by higher plants. These compoundscan have the potential to develop more potential herbal drugs for prevention and treatment of diseases The present article . deals with thesecondary metabolites and pharmacological activities of cryptogams with an objective to bring them forth as potential source ofbiodynamic compounds of therapeutic value. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21756/cba.v1i1.10958

Majority of the chemical processes in process industry can be modeled as first-order plus dead time processes. In the present analysis, selected process model transfer function is taken into consideration and PID controllers are designed for the process using various tuning techniques and the effect of dead time is compensated using Smith predictor.

The communal construction of mental illness makes recovery a daunting challenge since society largely perceives the psychiatrically ill as ‘deficient’. Not only does one have to deal with the illness itself, one additionally has to deal with the perpetual stigma associated with the labeling, increasing the personal consequences of these illnesses. In my own journey through mental illness, I have repeatedly tried to construct for myself those structures which would help me become stable and empower me from within rather than rob me of my sense of self. This paper is a small expression of that narrative.

The PD-1/PD-L1 molecular pathway is one of the primary mechanisms of immune evasion deployed by cancer cells. Induction of PD-L1 expression on cancer cells is associated with inhibition of immune responses against cancer, thus permitting cancer progression and metastasis. Activation of PD-1/PD-L1 pathway induces apoptosis of activated T-cells, inhibits their proliferation, facilitates T-cell anergy and exhaustion and enhances the function of regulator T-cells. Therefore, blocking this pathway restores the proliferation and cytotoxicity of CTLs, inhibits the function of Tregs and results in decreased T-cell apoptosis. A number of cancer immunotherapy agents targeting PD-1/PD-L1 have been developed and approved for a number of malignancies (PD-1: Nivolumab, Pembrolizumab, PD-L1: Atezolizumab, Avelumab, Durvalumab). However, there is a still a need for potent, selective small molecule inhibitors of the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway. The approved therapies require bolus intravenous injections, are administered in high dose and have a long half life. The long residence time of these mAbs could contribute to the well-documented drug-related adverse effects. Small molecule inhibitors, therefore, can provide increased oral bioavailability, increased bio-efficiency and shorted half life activity for a more controllable treatment, particular in the case of auto-immune or other adverse effects. Rational and structure guided de novo design approaches were used to design novel small molecule PD-1/PD-L1 pathway inhibitors; potency of these inhibitors was assessed in an in-vitro TR-FRET assay. Checkpoints signaling reporter assays as well as ex-vivo co-culture assays were used to assess the ability of the compounds to restore T-cell proliferation and function. Three novel chemical series as potent PD-1/PD-L1 pathway inhibitors are being developed for the treatment of cancer. Compounds from these series showed strong in vitro potency of 0.01 to 0.2 µM against PD-1/PD-L1. JBI-426 exhibited an IC50 of 0.04 µM and no cytotoxicity against cancer cell proliferation per se. JBI-426 showed good in vitro ADME properties in terms of aqueous solubility, metabolic stability, permeability and excellent oral bioavailability in mouse pharmacokinetics. In a RENCA syngeneic model, oral administration of JBI-426 at 50 mg/kg resulted in a strong tumor growth inhibition, comparable (or better) than the PD-L1 mAb, and was well tolerated. The effect of JBI-426 on tumor infiltrating lymphocytes was also assessed; a significant increase in CD8+ cytotoxic lymphocytes was observed. Further studies to assess additional compounds from the three chemical series are underway. The oral administration route of these PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors would provide an attractive alternate to the currently available antibodies in treating cancer either as a stand-alone therapy or in combination with other immuno-modulatory agents, as well as other standard of care agents. Citation Format: Sivanandhan Dhanalakshmi, Shivani Garapaty, Chandregowda Venkateshappa, Guru Pavan Seerapu, Reshma Das, Pradeep Nagaraj, Ronodip Kar, Anuj Kumar Singh, Venkatesha Ashokkumar Venkatesubbiah, Ramakishore VP Putta, Muralidhar Pendyala, Girisha Lokesh, Hari Madaka, Harikrishna Reddy Thummuru, Shikas AP, Prateeksha Anchan, Prathima Bhat, Rudresha G, Mohd Zainuddin, Krishnakumar V, Ramachandraiah Gosu, Rajendra Kristam, Jeyaraj DA, Sriram Rajagopal. Novel, heterocyclic small molecule inhibitors of PD-1 and PD-L1 pathway [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5552.

Performance of planar hybrid plasmonic waveguide has been investigated in detail considering its structural and material aspects. Mode properties of hybrid metal insulator (HMI) waveguide has been studied at 1550 nm wavelength using frequency domain electromagnetic solver of CST microwave studio. Investigation reveals that this waveguide provides large propagation length and deep sub wavelength confinement in low dielectric layers. This kind of waveguide overcomes the limitations of conventional plasmonic waveguides and instigates many applications such as nano lasers, couplers, dividers, optical interconnects, bio sensors and optical trapping etc.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: To evaluate retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness after conventional brilliant blue (BB) assisted macular hole (MH) surgery versus BB selective staining using whole blood (WB) in MH surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty eyes with stage 4 idiopathic MH with a clear media were randomly divided into two equal groups. Group A eyes underwent sequential intraoperative use of autologous heparinized WB followed by BB dye for staining internal limiting membrane, whereas eyes in group B were subjected to conventional BB staining. Clinical examination and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography was done preoperatively and postoperatively up to 6 months. RESULTS: Mean global RNFL thickness and mean temporal RNFL thickness decreased in both groups postoperatively, but the reduction in RNFL thickness in group B was greater than group A at all postoperative visits ( P < .05). CONCLUSION: BB toxicity may be responsible for reduction of RNFL thickness and WB appears to protect RNFL against dye toxicity. [ Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina . 2016;47:436–442.]

Tea (Camellia sinensis L.) is the most popular, flavored, functional, and therapeutic non-alcoholic drink consumed by two-thirds of the world's population. Black tea leaves are reported to contain thousands of bioactive constituents such as polyphenols, amino acids, volatile compounds, and alkaloids that exhibit a range of promising pharmacological properties. Due to strong antioxidant property, black tea inhibits the development of various cancers by regulating oxidative damage of biomolecules, endogenous antioxidants, and pathways of mutagen and transcription of antioxidant gene pool. Regular drinking of phytochemicals-rich black tea is linked to regulate several molecular targets, including COX-2, 5-LOX, AP-1, JNK, STAT, EGFR, AKT, Bcl2, NF-κB, Bcl-xL, caspases, p53, FOXO1, TNFα, PARP, and MAPK, which may be the basis of how dose of black tea prevents and cures cancer. In vitro and preclinical studies support the anti-cancer activity of black tea; however, its effect in human trails is uncertain, although more clinical experiments are needed at molecular levels to understand its anti-cancer property. This review discusses the current knowledge on phytochemistry, chemopreventive activity, and clinical applications of black tea to reveal its anti-cancer effect.

Unstable expansions of trinucleotide repeats (TNRs) are associated with a growing number of neurological dis- orders (at least 14), including HD (Huntington's disease), fragile X-syndrome, MD (Myotonic dystrophy) and Freidreich's ataxia. These disorders are often characterized by a tendency of certain pathological alleles to further expand due to biases in the parental origin of mutations, at times, leading to the most severe forms. TNR expression involves changes in the re- peat tract length, threshold value, secondary structure formation, interruptions, mismatch repair mechanism, genes and their involved sequences, the product thereof and anticipation. The interactions of each of these factors with the others in- fluence manifestations of the disease. The exact cellular events and/or mechanism of varied expression in all the neuro- logical diseases with similar repeats have not yet been clearly understood. A correlation between trinucleotide expansion, chromosomal fragile sites and neurological diseases has, however, been established. This review deals with the involve- ment of TNRs in neurological disorders with respect to the type of repeat, level of normal, premutation and expansion of repeats, chromosomal locus and the involved genes along with clinical implications. Possible answers to two basic ques- tions regarding the mechanisms of involvement of repeat expansions and interrelationships between such expansions and fragile sites have been provided based on the available experimental data. Detection of trinucleotide repeat expansion and fragile genetic sites could be among the excellent parameters for screening and diagnosis of human neurodegenerative disorders. An insight into the mechanisms involved may help the clinicians to develop suitable treatments. Received on: 27 October 2005 - Revised on: 6 November 2005 - Accepted on: 21 November 2005