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.

A Novel Highly Bioavailable Curcumin Formulation Improves Symptoms and Diagnostic Indicators in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Two-Dose, Three-Arm, and Parallel-Group Study.

Abstract: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune, chronic systemic inflammatory disorder. The long-term use of currently available drugs for the treatment of RA has many potential side effects. Natural phytonutrients may serve as alternative strategies for the safe and effective treatment of RA, and curcuminoids have been used in Ayurvedic medicine for the treatment of inflammatory conditions for centuries. In this study, a novel, highly bioavailable form of curcumin in a completely natural turmeric matrix was evaluated for its ability to improve the clinical symptoms of RA. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, three-arm, parallel-group study was conducted to evaluate the comparative efficacy of two different doses of curcumin with that of a placebo in active RA patients. Twelve patients in each group received placebo, 250 or 500 mg of the curcumin product twice daily for 90 days. The responses of the patients were assessed using the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) response, visual analog scale (VAS), C-reactive protein (CRP), Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and rheumatoid factor (RF) values. RA patients who received the curcumin product at both low and high doses reported statistically significant changes in their clinical symptoms at the end of the study. These observations were confirmed by significant changes in ESR, CPR, and RF values in patients receiving the study product compared to baseline and placebo. The results indicate that this novel curcumin in a turmeric matrix acts as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory agent for the management of RA at a dose as low as 250 mg twice daily as evidenced by significant improvement in the ESR, CRP, VAS, RF, DAS28, and ACR responses compared to placebo. Both doses of the study product were well tolerated and without side effects.

Determination of Instants of Significant Excitation in Speech Using Hilbert Envelope and Group Delay Function

Abstract: This letter proposes a time-effective method for determining the instants of significant excitation in speech signals. The instants of significant excitation correspond to the instants of glottal closure (epochs) in the case of voiced speech, and to some random excitations like onset of burst in the case of nonvoiced speech. The proposed method consists of two phases: the first phase determines the approximate epoch locations using the Hilbert envelope of the linear prediction residual of the speech signal. The second phase determines the accurate locations of the instants of significant excitation by computing the group delay around the approximate epoch locations derived from the first phase. The accuracy in determining the instants of significant excitation and the time complexity of the proposed method is compared with the group delay based approach.

Tetrabutylammonium tribromide (TBATB) as an efficient generator of HBr for an efficient chemoselective reagent for acetalization of carbonyl compounds.

Abstract: Acyclic and cyclic acetals of various carbonyl compounds were obtained in excellent yields under a mild reaction condition in the presence of trialkyl orthoformate and a catalytic amount of tetrabutylammonium tribromide (TBATB) in absolute alcohol. Chemoselective acetalization of an aldehyde in the presence of ketone, unsymmetrical acetal formation, shorter reaction times, mild reaction conditions, the stability of acid-sensitive protecting groups, high efficiencies, facile isolation of the desired products, and the catalytic nature of the reagent make the present methodology a practical alternative.

Multivariate optimisation of Cr (VI), Co (III) and Cu (II) adsorption onto nanobentonite incorporated nanocellulose/chitosan aerogel using response surface methodology

Abstract: In this study, tailor made Nanobentonite incorporated Nanocellulose/Chitosan aerogel (NCNB) has been used to study its metal adsorption capacity from simulated wastewater. The aerogel was characterised with FESEM, AFM, EDX, XRD, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy and found the successful conversion to the desired adsorbent in nano dimension. This NCNB was used for optimisation of Chromium, Cobalt and Copper adsorption. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was implemented to derive the binary correlation between various experimental parameters such as initial metal concentration, pH, adsorbent mass and temperature using Central Composite Design (CCD). The regression coefficients were evaluated which validated second order polynomial equation for the remediation of Cr, Co and Cu with NCNB. The maximum adsorption efficiencies under the optimum condition of the process parameters for Cr, Co and Cu removal were found to be 98.90, 97.45 and 99.01 % respectively. Co efficient of determination, R2 for Cr, Co and Cu were 0.9796, 0.8973 and 0.9321 respectively. Halsey isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model agreed well with the experimental data for all the three metals. Thermodynamics study showed the metal adsorption was spontaneous, endothermic and feasible in nature. These data imperatively show that use of this aerogel can be a good alternative to the expensive methods of heavy metal remediation.