Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

About: Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati is a education organization based out in Guwahati, Assam, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Adsorption & Catalysis. The organization has 6933 authors who have published 17102 publications receiving 257351 citations.

Structure-Activity Studies on Therapeutic Potential of Thymoquinone Analogs in Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract: Purpose Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the deadliest of all tumors. Previously, we were the first to show that Thymoquinone (TQ) derived from black seed (Nigella sativa) oil has anti-tumor activity against PC. However, the concentration of TQ required was considered to be high to show this efficacy. Therefore, novel analogs of TQ with lower IC50 are highly desirable.

Capturing Human Activity Spaces: New Geometries

Abstract: "Activity space," defined as the local areas within which people move or travel during the course of their activities during a specified time period, is a measure of an individual's spatial behavior that captures individual and environmental differences and offers an alternative approach to studying the spatial reach of travelers. The shape and the area of activity space are a product of how it is conceptualized and measured. This paper enlarges the set of geometries that can be used to describe activity space. It tests four parametric geometries (ellipse, superellipse, Cassini oval, and bean curve), which are identified as those capturing a specific share of all locations visited (i.e., 95%) while minimizing the area covered. They are estimated for a number of long-duration data sets while distinguishing among trip purposes. This paper presents a flexible, easily adaptable method for calculating activity spaces of different shapes and a qualitative comparison of the four shape types on the basis of the given surveys. The choice of an appropriate shape representing an individual's activity space is highly dependent on the spatial distributions and frequencies of the locations visited by the person in the given time period.

Efficient in vitro plant regeneration from shoot apices and gene transfer by particle bombardment in Jatropha curcas

Abstract: An efficient and reproducible in vitro plant regeneration system from shoot apices was developed in Jatropha curcas. Benzylaminopurine (BAP; 2.5 μM) was most effective in inducing an average of 6.2 shoots per shoot apex. Incorporation of gibberellic acid (GA3; 0.5 μM) to basal medium was found essential for elongation of shoots. The BAP-habituated mother explants continuously produced shoots during successive subculture without any loss of morphogenic potential. The shoots rooted efficiently on half-strength MS medium. The rooted plantlets were acclimatized with more than 98 % success and the plants transferred to soil:compost in nursery showed no sign of variation compared to the seed-grown plants. The whole process of culture initiation to plant establishment was accomplished within 5–6 weeks. A genetic transformation system in J. curcas was established for the first time, using bombardment of particles coated with plasmid pBI426 with a GUS-NPT II fusion protein under the control of a double 35S cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) promoter. The β-glucuronidase (GUS) activity in J. curcas shoot apices was significantly affected by the gold particle size, bombardment pressure, target distance, macrocarrier travel distance, number of bombardments, and type and duration of osmotic pre-treatment. The proliferating bombarded shoot apices were screened on medium supplemented with 25 mg dm−3 kanamycin and surviving shoots were rooted on medium devoid of kanamycin. The integration of the transgene into genomic DNA of transgenic plants was confirmed by PCR and Southern blot hybridization. The transgenic plants showed insertion of single to multiple copies of the transgene.