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This study aims to determine the effects of intravitreal biosimilar ranibizumab injection on best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central macular thickness (CMT) in patients of branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) with macular edema. : A retrospective, unmasked, and data-based study was conducted on 50 patients of BRVO with macular edema, who presented to our OPD over a period of 2 years. Cases in our study received one intravitreal injection of biosimilar Ranibizumab (0.5 mg/0.05 ml) at presentation and were followed up one month after injection. The data was collected from patients and available records. The data regarding BCVA and CMT (by Optical Coherence Tomography) before and 1 month after treatment was recorded and analyzed statistically.: In this study, we included fifty eyes of fifty patients. The mean patients’ age (in years) was 53.08 ± 9.58. There were 24 (48%) male and 26 (52%) female patients. The baseline mean BCVA ± SD (logMAR) was 0.79 ± 0.16 and mean CMT ± SD (in µm) was 688.14 ± 98.41 before treatment. Mean BCVA (logMAR) and mean CMT (in µm) after one biosimilar ranibizumab injection, at 1-month follow-up, were 0.33 ± 0.13 and 307.18 ± 34.97 respectively. We used paired t-test to compare mean BCVA and mean CMT before and after injection, and we found a statistically significant difference (p-value of : Intravitreal biosimilar ranibizumab is an effective and safe therapy for patients of BRVO with macular edema and results in improvement of BCVA and decrease in CMT. Biosimilar injection has also reduced the cost of treatment leading to an increase in patients’ compliance.

In recent years, immense interest in the exploration of the generalized version of the monotonicity condition has been significantly accomplished by the researchers. The intention behind generalizing the monotonicity condition is to envelop many prime functions which are of huge interest in the domain of mathematical applications such as classification problems, image processing, decision-making systems, etc. In this regard, the framework of the pre-aggregation operators was introduced to generalize the notion of monotonicity in the traditionally defined concept of aggregation operators. Such functions have extended the group of operators utilized for information accumulation by considering directional monotonicity with respect to a specified vector. This study emphasizes the systematized exploration of the theoretical framework of the Bonferroni mean-type (BM-type) pre-aggregation operators. We propose the construction methodology of the BM-type pre-aggregation operators by suitably befitting preferable functions to provide a descriptive arrangement, which is quite adaptable, understandable, and interpretable. First, a construction mechanism is proposed by utilizing a bivariate function M . To enhance the potentiality of the proposed operator, a generalized variation of it has been proposed by suitably using two functions M and M ∗ , respectively. The primary step for an object recognition problem is edge detection and is considered as an important tool in image processing systems. For the applicatory purpose, an edge detection algorithm based on the proposed BM-type pre-aggregation operator has been presented with more emphasis given to the feature image extraction. A comprehensive comparative study has been made to assess the results obtained through the proposed edge detection algorithm with some other well-known edge detectors extensively utilized in the literature.

In this work, Ru x Pd y alloy nanoparticles were uniformly decorated on a two-dimensional reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheet by an in situ chemical co-reduction process. The resulting products were characterized by various physiochemical techniques such as X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma atomic absorption spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Further, the synthesized Ru x Pd y @rGO nanocomposites have been employed as a heterogeneous catalyst for three different catalytic reactions: (1) dehydrogenation of aqueous ammonia borane (AB); (2) hydrogenation of aromatic nitro compounds using ammonia borane as the hydrogen source, and (3) for the synthesis of aromatic azo derivatives. The present work illustrates the sustainable anchoring of metal nanoparticles over the surface of rGO nanosheets, which could be used for multifarious catalytic reactions.

The present investigation was done to identify the efficacy of callus culture method for in-vitro screening to identify resistant and susceptible wheat genotypes. The study led to establishment of protocol for in-vitro screening of susceptible and resistant wheat genotypes against Bipolaris sorokiniana. The Bipolaris sorokiniana crude toxin was used at various concentrations to supplement the callusing medium and the response of twelve genotypes was studied. The susceptible genotype Agra local showed maximum area prone to death of the callus because of effect of toxin in medium supplemented with MS+2,4-D (4.0 mgl-1) + NAA (2 mgl-1) with B. sorokiniana toxin whereas the resistant genotype Yangmai#6 showed least area affected by the toxin and the cream/ white callus observed in the case of controlled medium supplemented with toxin. The genotypes which were found to be resistant and susceptible in the field condition were clearly identified as the same using this method.

Malaria remains a major public health problem worldwide. The immune mechanisms that mediate protection against malaria are still unclear. Previously, we reported that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) play a critical role in host protection against malaria by altering the dynamic balance of T regulatory cells and effector T cells producing inflammatory cytokines. Here, we report that MSCs reprogram haematopoiesis in primary (bone marrow) and secondary (spleen) lymphoid organs to provide host protection against malaria. Adoptive transfer of MSCs from malaria-infected mice to naïve recipient mice that were subsequently infected with malaria parasites dramatically accelerated the formation of colony-forming units-erythroid cells in the bone marrow. Adoptively transferred MSCs also induced expression of the key erythroid cell differentiation factor GATA-1 in the spleen of recipient animals. Interestingly, we further observed a subtle increase in the CD34+ hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in lymphoid organs, including spleen and lymph nodes. Infusion of MSCs also enhanced T cell proliferation, resulting in increased numbers of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in the spleen. MSCs also inhibited the induction of the negative co-stimulatory receptor programmed death-1 by T cells in recipient animals upon infection with malaria parasites. Taken together, our findings suggest that MSCs play a critical role in host protection against malaria infection by modulating erythropoiesis and lymphopoiesis.

The naturally occurring polyphenolic compound curcumin has shown various medicinal and therapeutic effects. However, there are various challenges associated with curcumin, which limits its biomedical applications, such as its high degradation rate and low aqueous solubility at neutral and alkaline pH. In the present study, efforts have been directed towards trying to resolve such issues by encapsulating curcumin inside the micelles formed by imidazolium-based surface-active ionic liquid (SAIL). The shape and size of the micelles formed by the SAIL have been characterized by using DLS analysis as well as TEM measurements. The photo-physics of curcumin in the presence of ionic liquid (IL) and also with the addition of salt (NaCl) has been explored by using different optical spectroscopic tools. The time-dependent absorption studies have shown that there is relatively higher suppression in the degradation rate of curcumin after encapsulation by the imidazolium-based SAIL in an aqueous medium. The TCSPC studies have revealed that there is deactivation in the nonradiative intramolecular hydrogen transfer process of curcumin in the presence of IL micelles as well as with the addition of salt. Furthermore, the time-dependent fluorescence anisotropy measurement has been carried out to figure out the location of curcumin inside the micellar system. In order to correlate all experimental findings, density functional theory (DFT) and classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations at neutral pH media have been performed. It has been found that the van der Waals force of interactions plays a major role in the stabilization of curcumin in the micelles rather than the coulombic forces. It also has been observed that the van der Waals interactions remain unaffected in the presence of salt. However, as revealed by the MD simulation results, the micelles are found to be more compact in size after the addition of salt. The RMSD results show that the micelles formed by the SAIL achieve greater stability after a particular time constraint. Our results have divulged that the SAIL could act as a promising drug delivery system.

In the present study, we have successfully synthesized nitrogen-rich graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanosheets by a simple direct thermal polymerization approach. The synthesized g-C3N4 nanosheets were exfoliated using HCl to make their surface a few nanometers thick. The ultrathin surface was achieved by simply mixing g-C3N4 in 3 M HCl. After that, palladium nanoparticles were uniformly immobilized on the surface of g-C3N4. The synthesized materials were characterized by various physiochemical techniques such as X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Information about morphology and size was obtained through transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area, pore volume, and pore diameter were determined using nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements. The prepared material (Pd/g-C3N4) was utilized as an efficient catalyst for the reduction of hazardous nitroarenes and degradation of organic dyes. The catalyst could be easily recovered through centrifugation and then could be reused multiple times for the further catalytic cycles with a little loss in its catalytic activity. The work presented here illustrates the sustainable anchoring of metal nanoparticles over the surface of nitrogen-rich g-C3N4 nanosheets and could be utilized for different types of catalytic reactions.

The proposed antenna is an E-shaped biconcave patch array with defected ground structure (DGS) enabling the antenna to work under the Ku-band frequency range which is applicable for satellite and radar communication. The 12 GHz–18 GHz bandwidth is realized by taking the substrate of material FR4_epoxy with dimension (100 × 100 × 1.6) mm and the patch array composed of five bi-concave structures have been connected with line feed. The simulation result of the designed antenna has been discussed by analyzing S11-parameter, VSWR, radiation efficiency, directivity, gain etc. using HFSS Software. This paper mainly focuses on the implementation of Defective Ground Structure and its benefits for enhancing the bandwidth. The novelty of the design lies in its unique shape which is different from the conventional patch array.

In this study, dendritic fibrous core–shell silica particles having cubic morphology with uniform and vertical nanochannels have been successfully synthesised. The synthesized dendritic fibrous nanosilica over a cubic core (cSiO2@DFNS) have been characterized by using various techniques, such as powder X-ray diffraction, TEM, FE-SEM, TGA EDS, FT-IR and N2 adsorption–desorption experiments. The prepared DFNS particles demonstrated a very high surface area and pore diameter. Amine groups were functionalized on the fibres of cSiO2@DFNS and after that silver nanoparticles could be successfully immobilized on amine functionalized cubic silica particles. Due to the presence of a high surface area and a uniform pore diameter, the silver nanoparticle loaded cSiO2@DFNS could be successfully employed as an efficient and recoverable catalyst for reduction of toxic aromatic nitro compounds and degradation of organic dyes. Higher catalytic activity of the prepared material could be attributed to its fibrous morphology which could facilitate proper interactions of the reactants molecules with the silver nanoparticles.

The β-diketo-modified isoxazole derivative of curcumin (IOC) is well renowned for its anticancer, antioxidant, antimalarial, antiproliferative, and many other biological activities. With the aim of obtaining fundamental knowledge on the photophysics of IOC, the present work was directed toward delineating those at different pH environments and studying the degradation profiles of IOC at five different pH values. Because one of the primary drawbacks of curcumin is its rapid degradation at physiological conditions, the studies showed that the problem could be resolved, as the IOC molecule was extremely stable even in a highly alkaline medium. Further, in order to encounter the problems associated with the low solubility of IOC in aqueous media, β-CD (β-cyclodextrin) was used and calculations of the thermodynamic parameters revealed that the process of development of the host-guest inclusion complex was highly spontaneous in nature. The synthesis of the IOC:β-CD inclusion complex has also been accomplished in the solid state, and the solid formed has been characterized using various physicochemical techniques. Finally, while variations in the pH as well as addition of foreign metal ions in +1 and +2 oxidation states showed minimal effect on the photophysics of the IOC:β-CD inclusion complex, antiproliferative studies performed with 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assays revealed their nontoxic nature on fibroblast L929 normal cell lines and extremely toxic activity on human lung cancer A549 cell lines.

The microalgal strain Chlorella sorokiniana isolated from a waste stabilization pond was used for tertiary treatment of municipal wastewater. Three light:dark (L:D) regimes of 12:12, 16:8, and 24:0 were used for treating wastewater in microalga (A), microalga + sludge (A + S), and sludge (S) reactors. The removal of nutrients (N and P) was found to be the highest in the microalga-based reactor, with more than 80% removal of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and 1.2–5.6 log unit removal of pathogens. The addition of sludge improved chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. Nitrifiers were found to be predominant in the A + S reactor. Algal biomass productivity was more than 280 mg/L/d in all the L:D regimes. The increase in light regime improved nutrient removal and biomass productivity in the algal reactor. Results of the kinetic study showed that (i) nitrifiers had more affinity for ammonium than microalga, and hence, most of the ammonia was oxidized to nitrate, (ii) microalga assimilated nitrate as the primary nitrogen source in the A + S reactor, and (iii) solubilization of particulate organic nitrogen originated from dead cells reduced the nitrogen removal efficiency. However, in the microalga-based reactor, the ammonium uptake was higher than nitrate uptake. Among pathogens, the removal of Salmonella and Shigella was better in the A + S reactor than in the other two reactors (microalga and sludge reactor). Additionally, the heterotrophic plate count was drastically reduced in the presence of microalga. No such drastic reduction was observed in the stand-alone sludge reactor. Kinetic modeling revealed that microalga–pathogen competition and pH-induced die-off were the two predominant factors for pathogen inactivation.

Polymer micelles are considered to be efficient carriers for solubilizing and stabilizing various hydrophobic drugs. In order to address the problem of poor bioavailability of curcumin, a different...

This paper will focus on the challenges associated with algae-based wastewater treatment (ABWWT). To elucidate the issue, this review will investigate the following: (1) microalgal strain ...

The concept of pre-aggregation functions, which was oriented as an elementary attempt to outstretch the notion of monotonicity in aggregation functions, has enlarged the class of operators for information accumulation by considering directional monotonicity with respect to a vector. This consideration propels us to focus on the systematic investigation of the theoretical framework of different forms of pre-aggregation functions, particularly Bonferroni mean-type. In this regard, we propose the construction methodology of Bonferroni mean-type (BM-type) pre-aggregation functions by befitting suitable functions to provide a descriptive configuration, which is quite interpretable and understandable. Firstly, a construction method of BM-type pre-aggregation function has been propounded by utilizing a bivariate function M. Its properties are inspected in detail. To enrich its capacity, the proposed BM-type pre-aggregation function has been customized by utilizing two functions, namely M and M∗, respectively. Several illustrative examples have been presented in this regard.

The partitioned Bonferroni mean operator (PBM), which was formulated to outspread the family of the Bonferroni mean operator, has augmented the class of aggregation functions for information accumulation by modeling interrelationship among pairwise disjoint partition sets. It is constructed with the presupposition that the criteria set is subdivided into mutually disjoint partition sets, with homogeneous interconnection among input arguments of intra-partition sets. The PBM operator has accomplished a lot of desirability from the researchers due to its capability of apprehending interconnection among arguments in the information accumulation technique. The central idea of this study is to amplify the existing PBM definition systematically so that heterogeneous interconnections among the criteria of intra-partition sets can be captured. This contemplation prompted us to focus on the systematized proposition of extended partitioned Bonferroni mean (EPBM) operator based on heterogeneous connections of the information retrieved from the partition sets. In this aspect, we also propose the hesitant fuzzy extended partitioned Bonferroni mean (HFEPBM) operator, along with its weighted generalization (WHFEPBM operator), by fitting the concept of strict t-norms and t-conorms into it. To intensify the capacity for modeling real-life decision situations, the extended TOPSIS method and the proposed operator have been employed to detect the weights of decision-makers. A numerical example has been presented to demonstrate the experimental results obtained by utilizing the WHFEPBM operator. The contribution ends by providing a detailed comparative analysis of the proposed method with other existing methods by availing data through the simulation experiment.

Surfactants are organized assemblies that are often used as models for biomembranes and they can also act as solubilizing agents for various hydrophobic drug molecules. Isoxazole derivative of curcumin (IOC) is a potential drug molecule whose biological efficacy is limited due to its low aqueous solubility. In the present work, different supramolecular confined environments have been utilized to enhance the aqueous solubility of IOC. Besides this, they have also been used as models for studying the perturbations in the photophysical properties of IOC upon encapsulation inside them. To serve this purpose, three different surfactants have been chosen from each category of cationic (CTAB: Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide), anionic (SDS: Sodium Dodecylsulfate) and non-ionic (TX-100: Trition X-100) surfactants. In order to study the mechanism of interaction of IOC with the three different types of surfactant molecules, various steady-state and time-dependent spectroscopic techniques have been employed. The change in the optical properties of IOC, such as; red or blue shifts in the absorption or emission maxima and increase in the intensities has helped in gathering information about the successful encapsulation of IOC inside the surfactant micelles as well as the effect of different confined environments on the photophysics of IOC. The time-dependent stability of all the three micellar systems divulged with the help of UV–Visible spectroscopy has revealed that IOC-surfactant micellar systems are extremely stable in nature even after 3 days. The large value of partition coefficient and increment in the quantum yield values as well as average lifetime certainly indicates the partitioning of the IOC molecules inside the organized assemblies of all the three surfactant micellar systems. Moreover, the effect of salt (NaCl) concentration has also been investigated on the steady-state and time-dependent photophysical properties of IOC encapsulated surfactant nano-micellar system. It could be observed that the salt has no effect on the photophysics of IOC even at very high concentration. Hence, the information obtained from the present work opens door for a relatively new research area where novel drug formulations of IOC could be designed and developed that would help the mankind in the near future.

Highly stable dispersion of nanosized silver nanoparticles have been synthesized using biodegradable nitrolotriacetic acid (NTA) as both stabilizing and reducing agent in aqueous medium without using any hazardous chemicals. Due to their readily accessible surface, the synthesized silver nanoparticles showed good catalytic activity in the industrially important catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to the corresponding amines in the presence of NaBH4 and the results have been compared with that of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) stabilized silver nanoparticles.

Curcumin immobilized zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (Cmim@ZIF-8) based probe has been reported in order to detect Fe(II) ions in aqueous medium. The Cmim@ZIF-8 nanoprobe was synthesized by a one pot process and characterized by various techniques such as X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscope and Brunauer−Emmett−Teller surface area measurement. The prepared material (Cmim@ZIF-8) was tested against various monovalent and divalent metal ions and found to be selective for detection of Fe(II). Cmim@ZIF-8 exhibit turn off fluorescence intensity with Fe(II) ions due to displacement of Curcumin indicator from ZIF-8 surface with a detection limit of 7.64 μM. Furthermore, Cmim@ZIF-8 was successfully utilised to detect Fe(II) in live HepG2 cells through fluorescence confocal imaging.

Curcumin pyrazole derivatives have already been extensively studied as potent drugs in various biological fields but the information about their fundamental physical parameters is still somewhat limited. Therefore, the study of the photophysical behaviour of pyrazole derivatives of curcumin in various solvents is a very interesting and an important research area that necessarily needs to be explored in order to understand its biological efficacy. Herein, the photophysics of stable and pharmaceutically active curcumin pyrazole derivative (CPD) and curcumin phenyl pyrazole derivative (CPPD) has been studied in various solvent environments. For the investigation of photophysical properties, various spectroscopic techniques have been utilized. Steady state spectroscopic results have revealed that the excited state of both the derivatives is largely affected by changing the polarity of the medium. The molar extinction coefficient (e) for CPD and CPPD has also been determined in various solvents. From the measurement of Stokes shift values for wide range of solvents, it could be concluded that there is difference in the dipole moment of the excited state and the ground state of both the molecules. The Stokes shift values for both the derivatives were found to be correlated linearly with the normalized molar transition energy ( E T N ) of solvents with exceptions in case of polar protic solvents. This indicates that H- bonding might play a major role in the solution phase. The difference in the dipole moment of ground state and excited state of CPD and CPPD were calculated as around 5.23 D and 5.41 D. Further, using multiple regression analysis, the solute -solvent interactions were characterized as specific and non-specific. The low quantum yields obtained in polar protic solvents revealed that the positive solvatokinetic effect could take place in these solvents. The results of TCSPC study showed that the process of deactivation of the excited state of these derivatives is very slow in the presence of acetonitrile, DCM and non-polar solvents. A very fast decay of excited state of both the derivatives has been observed in the case of polar protic solvents. This could be due to the presence of strong H-bonding between the derivatives and these solvents which could result in the deactivation of excited states via non-radiative pathway.

The present work aims to decipher the photophysics of a β-diketo modified curcumin analog named isoxazole derivative of curcumin (IOC). IOC itself happens to be a potential drug molecule possessing numerous biological applications such as; anti-cancer, anti-malarial, anti-Alzheimer’s, anti-Parkinson’s etc. Herein, the photophysical properties of IOC have been explored in various sets of solvents. In order to investigate, steady state and time resolved spectroscopy have been utilized as a tool. To elucidate the experimental observations at molecular level, electronic structure calculations with density functional theory (DFT) as well as classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in explicit solvents have been deployed. The DFT has established that the most stable ground state electronic structure of the IOC molecule is the all trans- planar conformation where the conjugated pi-electrons are delocalized over the entire molecule. The MD simulations have provided an insight into the specific and non-specific interactions with the solvent molecules. Steady state spectroscopic techniques have shown that both the absorption and emission maxima experienced a traditional red shift upon increase in the solvent polarity. The absorption maxima for IOC got red shifted from 332 nm in hexane to 344 nm in DMSO. However, the red shift in the emission maxima is more pronounced than that of absorption maxima starting from 356 nm in hexane to 431 nm in water. The value of molar extinction coefficient has also been determined for IOC in different solvents from the concentration dependent absorption spectra. The time correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) data has revealed that the excited state of IOC molecule could relax via three probable pathways. Also, the overall process of decay of the excited state is comparatively slower in case of non-polar solvents. On the other hand, the fluorescence lifetime has been observed to be unusually low in case of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as compared to its other fellow polar aprotic solvents.