Showing papers by "Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra published in 2016"

Flavonoids: an overview

Abstract: Flavonoids, a group of natural substances with variable phenolic structures, are found in fruits, vegetables, grains, bark, roots, stems, flowers, tea and wine. These natural products are well known for their beneficial effects on health and efforts are being made to isolate the ingredients so called flavonoids. Flavonoids are now considered as an indispensable component in a variety of nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, medicinal and cosmetic applications. This is attributed to their anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic and anti-carcinogenic properties coupled with their capacity to modulate key cellular enzyme function. Research on flavonoids received an added impulse with the discovery of the low cardiovascular mortality rate and also prevention of CHD. Information on the working mechanisms of flavonoids is still not understood properly. However, it has widely been known for centuries that derivatives of plant origin possess a broad spectrum of biological activity. Current trends of research and development activities on flavonoids relate to isolation, identification, characterisation and functions of flavonoids and finally their applications on health benefits. Molecular docking and knowledge of bioinformatics are also being used to predict potential applications and manufacturing by industry. In the present review, attempts have been made to discuss the current trends of research and development on flavonoids, working mechanisms of flavonoids, flavonoid functions and applications, prediction of flavonoids as potential drugs in preventing chronic diseases and future research directions.

A Combination of Shape and Texture Features for Classification of Pulmonary Nodules in Lung CT Images

Abstract: Classification of malignant and benign pulmonary nodules is important for further treatment plan. The present work focuses on the classification of benign and malignant pulmonary nodules using support vector machine. The pulmonary nodules are segmented using a semi-automated technique, which requires only a seed point from the end user. Several shape-based, margin-based, and texture-based features are computed to represent the pulmonary nodules. A set of relevant features is determined for the efficient representation of nodules in the feature space. The proposed classification scheme is validated on a data set of 891 nodules of Lung Image Database Consortium and Image Database Resource Initiative public database. The proposed classification scheme is evaluated for three configurations such as configuration 1 (composite rank of malignancy "1" and "2" as benign and "4" and "5" as malignant), configuration 2 (composite rank of malignancy "1","2", and "3" as benign and "4" and "5" as malignant), and configuration 3 (composite rank of malignancy "1" and "2" as benign and "3","4" and "5" as malignant). The performance of the classification is evaluated in terms of area (A z) under the receiver operating characteristic curve. The A z achieved by the proposed method for configuration-1, configuration-2, and configuration-3 are 0.9505, 0.8822, and 0.8488, respectively. The proposed method outperforms the most recent technique, which depends on the manual segmentation of pulmonary nodules by a trained radiologist.

Nanoemulsion gel-based topical delivery of an antifungal drug: in vitro activity and in vivo evaluation

Abstract: Objective: In this study, attempt has been focused to prepare a nanoemulsion (NE) gel for topical delivery of amphotericin B (AmB) for enhanced as well as sustained skin permeation, in vitro antifungal activity and in vivo toxicity assessment.Materials and methods: A series of NE were prepared using sefsol-218 oil, Tween 80 and Transcutol-P by slow spontaneous titration method. Carbopol gel (0.5% w/w) was prepared containing 0.1% w/w AmB. Furthermore, NE gel (AmB-NE gel) was characterized for size, charge, pH, rheological behavior, drug release profile, skin permeability, hemolytic studies and ex vivo rat skin interaction with rat skin using differential scanning calorimeter. The drug permeability and skin irritation ability were examined with confocal laser scanning microscopy and Draize test, respectively. The in vitro antifungal activity was investigated against three fungal strains using the well agar diffusion method. Histopathological assessment was performed in rats to investigate their tox...

Cold active hydrolytic enzymes production by psychrotrophic Bacilli isolated from three sub-glacial lakes of NW Indian Himalayas.

Abstract: The diversity of culturable, cold-active enzymes producing Bacilli was investigated from three sub-glacial lakes of north western Indian Himalayas. Amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis (ARDRA) using three restriction enzymes Alu I, Msp I, and Hae III led to the clustering of 136 Bacilli into 26, 23, and 22 clusters at 75% similarity index from Chandratal Lake, Dashair Lake, and Pangong Lake, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing led to the identification of 35 Bacilli that could be grouped in seven families viz.: Bacillaceae (48%), Staphylococcaceae (14%), Bacillales incertae sedis (13%), Planococcaceae (12%), Paenibacillaceae (9%), Sporolactobacillaceae (3%), and Carnobacteriaceae (1%), which included twelve different genera Bacillus, Desemzia, Exiguobacterium, Jeotgalicoccus, Lysinibacillus, Paenibacillus, Planococcus, Pontibacillus, Sinobaca, Sporosarcina, Staphylococcus, and Virgibacillus. Based on their optimal temperature for growth, 35 Bacilli were grouped as psychrophilic (11 strains), psychrotrophic (17 strains), or psychrotolerant (7 strains), respectively. The representative isolates from each cluster were screened for cold-active enzyme activities. Amylase, β-glucosidase, pectinase, and protease activities at 4 °C were detected in more than 80% of the strains while approximately 40, 31, 23, 14, 11, and 9% of strains possessed cellulase, xylanase, β-galactosidase, laccase, chitinase, and lipase activity, respectively. Among 35 Bacilli, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Bacillus marisflavi, Exiguobacterium indicum, Paenibacillus terrae, Pontibacillus sp., Sporosarcina globispora, and Sporosarcina psychrophila were efficient producers of different cold-active enzymes. These cold-adapted Bacilli could play an important role in industrial and agricultural processes.

Exploring the Relationship between Employer Branding and Employee Retention

Abstract: The employment environment, nowadays, is becoming increasingly competitive. In such competitive environment, employer branding is fast emerging as a long-term human resource (HR) strategy to attrac...

Exploring Employee Engagement—A Way to Better Business Performance

Abstract: There is an unprecedented change in the job description as well as workforce diversity due to globalization of organizations. Employee engagement has emerged as an important management-focused acti...

Review on various modelling techniques for the solar dryers

Abstract: This review paper is focused on the various modelling techniques for the solar dryer system. The modelling techniques are very important to develop, increase drying efficiency, analyse and predict the performance of different kinds of solar drying system. The modelling techniques are also important for predicting the temperature of crop moisture content, drying rate, quality of crop and colour of crops. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD can be applied for analysing and investigating of air flow and spry of temperature in the drying system. Adaptive-network-based fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) can be used to predict the behaviour of the solar drying system. ANN is used to calculate the mass of the dried crops on hourly basis. FUZZY is very important software for using the simulation of drying system. That can also be used to accurately predict the results with a minimum error. The mathematical modelling techniques are used for testing the drying behaviour of crops in the laboratory. It act in effect tool between scientists and investigators. It helps short of spending vast amount of time, energy and money in experimental events. Before fabrication the modelling techniques are very supportive in simulation of different types of solar drying system. Thus, analysis on the base of modelling techniques is not only save time but also save the capital investment in solar drying system. The advantage and future scope of modelling techniques is also discussed.

Synthesis, Biochemistry, and Computational Studies of Brominated Thienyl Chalcones: A New Class of Reversible MAO-B Inhibitors

Abstract: A series of (2E)-1-(5-bromothiophen-2-yl)-3-(para-substituted phenyl)prop-2-en-1-ones (TB1-TB11) was synthesized and tested for inhibitory activity toward human monoamine oxidase (hMAO). All compounds were found to be competitive, selective, and reversible toward hMAO-B except (2E)-1-(5-bromothiophen-2-yl)-3-(4-nitrophenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (TB7) and (2E)-1-(5-bromothiophen-2-yl)-3-(4-chlorophenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (TB8), which were selective inhibitors of hMAO-A. The most potent compound, (2E)-1-(5-bromothiophen-2-yl)-3-[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]prop-2-en-1-one (TB5), showed the best inhibitory activity and higher selectivity toward hMAO-B, with Ki and SI values of 0.11±0.01 μm and 13.18, respectively. PAMPA assays for all compounds were carried out in order to evaluate the capacity of the compounds to cross the blood-brain barrier. Moreover, the most potent MAO-B inhibitor, TB5, was found to be nontoxic at 5 and 25 μm, with 95.75 and 84.59 % viability among cells, respectively. Molecular docking simulations were carried out to understand the crucial interactions responsible for selectivity and potency.

The effect of employer brand dimensions on job satisfaction: gender as a moderator

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify key dimensions of employer brand (EB) and empirically examine the impact of different dimensions of EB upon job satisfaction. A six-factor EB model has been tested for reliability and validity through confirmatory factor analysis. The study also addresses the moderating role of gender in the relationship between EB dimensions and job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modelling has been adopted to determine the contribution of EB dimensions towards job satisfaction of employees. Key dimensions of EB are identified through literature review. Item generation has been done through literature review and exploratory structured interviews with employees. Findings – The results demonstrate that EB acts as a critical predictor of job satisfaction. All the six dimensions of EB (training and development, reputation, organisation culture and ethics and corporate social responsibility, work-life balance and diversity) were found to be cri...

Assessment of social sustainable development in urban India by a composite index

Abstract: India has experienced rapid urbanisation with the rate growing from 26 percent in the 1990–2000 decade, to 30 percent in the 2000–2010 decade putting massive pressure on basic infrastructure and services. The objective of this paper is to develop a social sustainable framework and a composite index which is tailor-made to assess the Indian cities. Since social sustainability cannot be developed in isolation this paper examines urban sustainability in an integrated manner with its four dimensions of social, economic, environmental and institutional and maps the criteria at three levels i.e. policy, theoretical, and practical levels. The three tiered hierarchical model is tested in the state of Odisha where the social sustainability can be put to test in the best context as the urbanisation is growing at a stupendous speed and the infrastructure growth does not match up. Using the framework it is possible to obtain a composite index for Urban Social Sustainability whose model can be applied to all Indian cities with contextual changes. The dimensional index score and thematic index score obtained from the model helps in benchmarking the cities and identifying gaps so that it can inform national policy and planning. The social sustainability index together with the indices on the other three dimensions would help in making well informed judgement in the allocation of resources.

Experimental evaluation of waste plastic oil and its blends on a single cylinder diesel engine

Abstract: The aim of the present work to investigate the performance of oil derived from the waste plastic on diesel engine. Waste plastic fuel (WPF) is derived from the waste plastics by catalytic pyrolysis. Test were employed to completely characterize the Fuel by determining the physical, chemical and spectroscopic like FTIR, GC-MS properties of WPF and WPF-diesel blends in different proportions and to evaluate the performance and emission characteristics of these fuel and their blends on a single cylinder diesel engine and finally the results were compared with reference test fuel diesel. It is observed that the engine can operate with neat WPF and their blends without any modification and can be used as an alternative fuel for diesel engine. However, it is found that WPF10D90 (10% waste plastic oil and 90% diesel fuel) shows similar results as compare to diesel.

Elastic liposome-based gel for topical delivery of 5-fluorouracil: in vitro and in vivo investigation

Abstract: Objective: This investigation has focused to characterize the elastic liposome containing 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and to enhance drug permeation across stratum corneum (SC) of the skin (rat) using various surfactants and in vivo dermal toxicity evaluation.Methodology: 5-FU-loaded elastic liposomes were developed, prepared and characterized for their entrapment efficiency, vesicle size, number of vesicles, morphological characteristics, surface charge and turbidity. In vitro drug release profile, in vitro skin permeation potential and in vitro hemolytic ability of the formulation have been evaluated to compare with drug solution for 24 h. In vitro skin permeation potential was also compared with marketed cream. Furthermore, in vivo skin irritation potential, drug penetration into the skin using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and in vivo toxicity studies were performed.Results and conclusions: The optimized elastic liposomes demonstrated maximum drug entrapment efficiency, optimum vesicular...

An algorithm based on the variational iteration technique for the Bratu-type and the Lane–Emden problems

Abstract: In this paper, a new algorithm for the numerical solution of the Bratu-type and the Lane–Emden problems with boundary conditions is presented. The proposed algorithm is based on the variational iteration method (VIM), where all the boundary conditions are used before designing the recursive scheme for the approximate solutions of considered boundary value problems. Unlike the VIM, the proposed algorithm avoids solving a sequence of nonlinear algebraic or (transcendental) equations for the undetermined coefficients. Convergence and error analysis of the proposed method is also given. Illustrative examples, of two different models, are examined to demonstrate the accuracy, applicability, and generality of the proposed method.

Tool condition monitoring by SVM classification of machined surface images in turning

Abstract: Tool condition monitoring has found its importance to meet the requirement of quality production in industries. Machined surface is directly affected by the extent of tool wear. Hence, by analyzing the machined surface, the information about the cutting tool condition can be obtained. This paper presents a novel technique for multi-classification of tool wear states using a kernel-based support vector machine (SVM) technique applied on the features extracted from the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) of machined surface images. The tool conditions are classified into sharp, semi-dull, and dull tool states by using Gaussian and polynomial kernels. The proposed method is found to be cost-effective and reliable for online tool wear classification.

Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitory Activity of Novel Pyrazoline Analogues: Curcumin Based Design and Synthesis.

Abstract: A series of new 2-methoxy-4-(5-phenyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)phenolderivatives, 4-13, were synthesized and tested for their human MAO inhibitory activity. All the compounds were found to be selective and reversible toward hMAO-A except 4, a selective inhibitor of hMAO-B and 12, a nonselective inhibitor. Compound 7 was found to be a potent inhibitor of hMAO-A with Ki = 0.06 ± 0.003 μM and was having selectivity index of (SI = 1.02 × 10(-5)). It was found to be better than standard drug, Moclobemide (hMAO-A with Ki = 0.11 ± 0.01 μM) with selectivity index of SI = 0.049. Molecular docking simulation was carried out to understand the crucial interactions responsible for selectivity and potency.

Deltamethrin-induced oxidative stress and mitochondrial caspase-dependent signaling pathways in murine splenocytes.

Abstract: Deltamethrin (DLM) is a well-known pyrethroid insecticide used extensively in pest control. Exposure to DLM has been demonstrated to cause apoptosis in various cells. However, the immunotoxic effects of DLM on mammalian system and its mechanism is still an open question to be explored. To explore these effects, this study has been designed to first observe the interactions of DLM to immune cell receptors and its effects on the immune system. The docking score revealed that DLM has strong binding affinity toward the CD45 and CD28 receptors. In vitro study revealed that DLM induces apoptosis in murine splenocytes in a concentration-dependent manner. The earliest markers of apoptosis such as enhanced reactive oxygen species and caspase 3 activation are evident as early as 1 h by 25 and 50 µM DLM. Western blot analysis demonstrated that p38 MAP kinase and Bax expression is increased in a concentration-dependent manner, whereas Bcl 2 expression is significantly reduced after 3 h of DLM treatment. Glutathione depletion has been also observed at 3 and 6 h by 25 and 50 µM concentration of DLM. Flow cytometry results imply that the fraction of hypodiploid cells has gradually increased with all the concentrations of DLM at 18 h. N-acetyl cysteine effectively reduces the percentage of apoptotic cells, which is increased by DLM. In contrast, buthionine sulfoxamine causes an elevation in the percentage of apoptotic cells. Phenotyping data imply the effect of DLM toxicity in murine splenocytes. In brief, the study demonstrates that DLM causes apoptosis through its interaction with CD45 and CD28 receptors, leading to oxidative stress and activation of the mitochondrial caspase-dependent pathways which ultimately affects the immune functions. This study provides mechanistic information by which DLM causes toxicity in murine splenocytes. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 31: 808-819, 2016.

Three-dimensional NiCo2O4/NiCo2S4 hybrid nanostructure on Ni-foam as a high-performance supercapacitor electrode

Abstract: The spinel structured ternary mixed metal oxide NiCo2O4 and sulphide NiCo2S4 are considered as promising pseudocapacitive materials. In view of this, the present work involves the fabrication of NiCo2O4 nanosheets and a NiCo2O4/NiCo2S4 hybrid nanostructure on Ni-foam as a conductive substrate by a facile ammonia evaporation technique. The NiCo2O4/NiCo2S4 hybrid nanostructure exhibits remarkable supercapacitive performance compared to bare NiCo2O4 nanosheets due to its three dimensional open structure and synergistic effect of NiCo2O4 and NiCo2S4. The hybrid nanostructure exhibits a specific capacitance as high as 3671 F g−1 at a current density of 1.8 A g−1 and 2767 F g−1 at 9 A g−1 with a capacity retention value of 84% at 10 A g−1 after 2000 cycles. Furthermore, the electrode composed of the NiCo2O4/NiCo2S4 hybrid nanostructure displays a noticeably high energy density as well as power density (8820 W kg−1 at 41.65 W h kg−1) compared to the NiCo2O4 nanosheets (5374.28 W kg−1 at 20.90 W h kg−1) with great flexibility. It is anticipated that the combination of materials and the special structural design lead to fast electrochemical redox reactions, fast electron/ionic transportation and mechanical integrity, which promote the NiCo2O4/NiCo2S4 hybrid nanostructure as a superior electrode in high performing flexible supercapacitors.