Showing papers by "Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad published in 2012"

Immunomodulatory Properties of Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Cytokines and Factors

Abstract: Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are defined as undifferentiated cells that are capable of self renewal and differentiation into several cell types such as chondrocyte, adipocyte, osteocyte, myocyte, hepatocyte, and neuron-like cells. MSC can be isolated from bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, adipose tissue, placenta, periosteum, trabecular bone, synovium, skeletal muscle, and deciduous teeth. Immunomodulatory of MSCs is one of the important issues nowadays, because this aspect can be clinically applied for graft-versus-host and autoimmune diseases. In this review, we tried to discuss in detail about cytokines and factors such as members of the transforming growth factor superfamily (transforming growth factor-β), hepatic growth factors (HGF), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), IL-10, indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), nitric oxide (NO), heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), and human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) that are involved in immunomodulatory of MSCs.

The realm of cellulases in biorefinery development

Abstract: Geopolitical concerns (unstable supply of gasoline, environmental pollution, and regular price hikes), economic, and employment concerns have been prompting researchers, entrepreneurs, and policy makers to focus on harnessing the potential of lignocellulosic feedstock for fuel ethanol production and its commercialization. The carbohydrate skeleton of plant cell walls needs to be depolymerised into simpler sugars for their application in fermentation reactions as a chief carbon source of suitable ethnologic strains for ethanol production. The role of cellulolytic enzymes in the degradation of structural carbohydrates of the plant cell wall into ready-to-fermentable sugar stream is inevitable. Cellulase synergistically acts upon plant cell wall polysaccharides to release glucose into the liquid media. Cellulase predominantly dominates all the plant cell wall degrading enzymes due to their vast and diverse range of applications. Apart from the major applications of cellulases such as in detergent formulations, textile desizing, and development of monogastric feed for ruminants, their role in biorefinery is truly remarkable. This is a major area where new research tools based upon fermentation based formulations, biochemistry, and system biology to expedite the structure-function relationships of cellulases including cellulosomes and new designer enzymatic cocktails are required. In the last two decades, a considerable amount of research work has been performed on cellulases and their application in biomass saccharification. However, there are still technical and economic impediments to the development of an inexpensive commercial cellulase production process. Advancements in biotechnology such as screening of microorganisms, manipulation of novel cellulase encoding traits, site-specific mutagenesis, and modifications to the fermentation process could enhance the production of cellulases. Commercially, cheaper sources of carbohydrates and modified fermentation conditions could lead to more cost-effective production of cellulases with the goal to reduce the cost of ethanol production from lignocellulosics. Implementation of integrated steps like cellulase production and cellulase mediated saccharification of biomass in conjunction with the fermentation of released sugars in ethanol in a single step so called consolidated bio-processing (CBP) is very important to reduce the cost of bioethanol. This paper aims to explore and review the important findings in cellulase biotechnology and the forward path for new cutting edge opportunities in the success of biorefineries.

Quantitative trait locus analysis and construction of consensus genetic map for drought tolerance traits based on three recombinant inbred line populations in cultivated groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.).

Abstract: Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important food and cash crop grown mainly in semi-arid tropics (SAT) regions of the world where drought is the major constraint on productivity. With the aim of understanding the genetic basis and identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for drought tolerance, two new recombinant inbred line (RIL) mapping populations, namely ICGS 76 × CSMG 84-1 (RIL-2) and ICGS 44 × ICGS 76 (RIL-3), were used. After screening of 3,215 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers on the parental genotypes of these populations, two new genetic maps were developed with 119 (RIL-2) and 82 (RIL-3) SSR loci. Together with these maps and the reference map with 191 SSR loci based on TAG 24 × ICGV 86031 (RIL-1), a consensus map was constructed with 293 SSR loci distributed over 20 linkage groups, spanning 2,840.8 cM. As all these three populations segregate for drought-tolerance-related traits, a comprehensive QTL analysis identified 153 main effect QTL (M-QTL) and 25 epistatic QTL (E-QTL) for drought-tolerance-related traits. Localization of these QTL on the consensus map provided 16 genomic regions that contained 125 QTL. A few key genomic regions were selected on the basis of the QTL identified in each region, and their expected role in drought adaptation is also discussed. Given that no major QTL for drought adaptation were identified, novel breeding approaches such as marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) and genomic selection (GS) approaches are likely to be the preferred approaches for introgression of a larger number of QTL in order to breed drought-tolerant groundnut genotypes.

A review of the effects of catalyst and additive on biodiesel production, performance, combustion and emission characteristics

Abstract: This article is a literature review of the effect of different catalysts and additives on biodiesel production, performance, combustion and emission characteristics. This study is based on the reports of about 60 scientists who published their findings between 1998 and 2010. It was reported that base catalyst produced more biodiesel compared to acid type catalysts. There was not much variation in engine performance with the use of catalyst. Combustion characteristics were improved with the use of additives. It was found that ignition delay was reduced and premixed combustion duration was increased with the addition of catalyst. HC emission and PM emission were reduced with the use of catalysts.

Milk-borne infections. An analysis of their potential effect on the milk industry.

Abstract: In developed countries such as the United States of America, foodborne illnesses account for 48 million infections per year. Developing countries such as India face greater simultaneous challenges particularly since incorrect processing or storage of dairy products can represent a transmission hazard for a large number of pathogens and can be responsible for outbreaks of brucellosis, listeriosis, tuberculosis, etc. It is important to recognize the types of germs which can be transmitted through insufficient thermal preparation of milk or milk products or through post-pasteurization contamination, in order to successfully avoid transmission of milk-borne infections.

The impact of curcumin on breast cancer

Abstract: Curcumin, the active ingredient of turmeric (curry spice), is believed to be associated with reducing the incidence of breast cancers in Asian countries. Anti-cancer efficacy of curcumin and analogs has been tested in pre-clinical studies in some cancer models including breast cancer. These studies reported promising results in inhibiting human cancer cell proliferation and tumorigenesis in animal models. Both in vitro and in vivo studies have shown that curcumin and its analogs target critical genes associated with angiogenesis, apoptosis, cell cycle, and metastasis. The inhibition of human breast cancer cell growth by curcumin is mediated via certain signaling cascades including the modulation of the NF-κB signaling pathway. Epidemiological and experimental data also demonstrated the efficacy of curcumin in chemoprevention and reversing chemo-resistance of tumors of certain cancers. This review summarizes the studies revealing the preventive and therapeutic effects of curcumin and its analogs with an emphasis on multi-targeted biological and molecular effects in a breast cancer model.

Pulmonary toxicity assessment of multiwalled carbon nanotubes in rats following intratracheal instillation

Abstract: In this study, we have evaluated the pulmonary toxicity of intratracheally (i.t.) instilled two multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in rats. The lungs of rats were instilled with phosphate buffered saline + 1% of Tween 80 or MWCNT or carbonyl iron or quartz particles at a dose of 0.2, 1, and 5 mg/kg b.w. Following exposure, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was collected from the lungs to analyze lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lipid peroxidation products (MDA; malondialdehyde), and total microprotein (MTP) levels at 24 h, one week, one month, and three months post instillation periods. The lungs of particle exposed rats were also collected at the same intervals to evaluate for histopathology. Exposures of MWCNT and quartz particles to rats produced transient dose dependant increase in BAL fluid LDH, ALP, MDA, and MTP values than control at all post exposure periods. Results of lung histopathology revealed that exposure of MWCNT produced a dose dependant focal peribronchiolar lymphoid aggregates, foamy alveolar macrophage accumulation, lymphoplasmocytic infiltration, fibrosis and diffuse alveolar damage. In conclusion, instillation of MWCNT produced a greater pulmonary toxicity in rats and was comparable with that of quartz. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol, 2012.

High speed and area efficient vedic multiplier

Abstract: High speed pipelined multiplier architecture is proposed in this paper. The pipelined architecture consists of 3 stages. 1st stage consists of the 4 - bit Vedic Multiplication unit. 2nd stage consists of partial products and carry. 3rd stage consists of adders and the result of the multiplication. This paper presents the efficiency of Urdhva Triyagbhyam Vedic method for multiplication which strikes a difference in the actual process of multiplication itself. It enables parallel generation of partial products and eliminates unwanted multiplication steps. The proposed algorithm is modeled using Verilog, a hardware description language. It is found that 11 logic cells are required to build nibble multiplier. The propagation time of the proposed architecture is found to be 4.585ns. Implementation has been done for the Xilinx FPGA device, Spartan-3E. The results shows that multiplier implemented using Vedic multiplication is efficient in terms of area and speed compared to its implementation using Array and Booth multiplier architectures.

Abiotic elicitation of gymnemic acid in the suspension cultures of Gymnema sylvestre

Abstract: Elicitation is one of the few strategies that find commercial application in the enhancement of secondary metabolite production from plants as well as cell culture systems. Due to their immense medicinal value, production of saponins in suspension cultures has been attempted by many researchers. Gymnema sylvestre is a rich source of gymnemic acids (saponins) that find application in the treatment of diabetes. The present study is an attempt to evaluate the effect of various metal salts (cadmium chloride, mercuric chloride, silver nitrate, cupric chloride, cobaltous chloride and calcium chloride) in eliciting the response from G. sylvestre suspension cultures. The maximum gymnemic acid production in the suspensions was achieved on day 12 of culture, though the maximum biomass was obtained on day 16. Among the different salts, CdCl2 gave maximum response (59.97 mg/gDCW) at 2 mM concentration after a 24 h time period, while, AgNO3 gave the least response (18.35 mg/gDCW) on incubation of 48 h at 1 mM concentration, in terms of gymnemic acid accumulation. The accumulation of gymnemic acid was found to be dependent on treatment time and concentration of the elicitor. The enhanced gymnemic acid production shown by the suspensions in response to the metal salts indicates their role in evoking the plant defense mechanisms. These elicitation studies help in providing a platform for improved commercial supply of bioactive gymnemic acids.

Adsorption Characteristics of Atrazine on Granulated Activated Carbon and Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract: Adsorption of atrazine (ATZ) from aqueous solutions by granular activated carbon (GAC) and carbon nanotubes (CNT) was studied in a batch-mode adsorption system at different initial concentrations of ATZ (1.0–30.0 mg L–1) and at three temperatures of 288, 296 and 304 K. The adsorption isotherms of Langmuir, Freundlich, Polanyi–Manes, and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (modified) were used to model the process. The adsorption kinetics followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The thermodynamic parameters ΔH0, ΔS0, and ΔG0 of the adsorption were estimated. The thermodynamic parameters indicate that the adsorption process is spontaneous and exothermic.

Multimodal Biometrics -- Sources, Architecture and Fusion Techniques: An Overview

Abstract: Biometrics is the science and technology of measuring and analyzing biological data of human body, extracting a feature set from the acquired data, and comparing this set against to the template set in the database. The increasing demand of enhanced security systems has led to an unprecedented interest in biometric based person authentication system. Biometric systems based on single source of information are called Unimodal systems. Although some Unimodal systems have got considerable improvement in reliability and accuracy, they often suffer from enrollment problems due to non-universal biometrics traits, susceptibility to biometric spoofing or insufficient accuracy caused by noisy data. Hence, single biometric may not be able to achieve the desired performance requirement in real world applications. One of the methods to overcome these problems is to make use of multimodal biometric authentication systems, which combine information from multiple modalities to arrive at a decision. Multimodal biometric systems are those which utilize, or capability of utilizing, more than one physiological or behavioral characteristic for enrollment, verification, or identification. Studies have demonstrated that multimodal biometric systems can achieve better performance compared with Unimodal systems. We discuss here different multimodal sources, multimodal architectures & different fusion techniques used in multimodal biometric systems.

Synthesis and Characterization of Copper Ferrite Nanocrystals via Coprecipitation

Abstract: Nanocrystalline CuFe2O4 powder was prepared by a coprecipitation method from iron chloride and copper chloride in the presence of octanoic acid (C8H16O2) as surfactant. The as-prepared samples were characterized by XRD, TEM, SEM, FT-IR and VSM. SEM and TEM indicated that the particles were quasi spherical with the particle sizes in the range of 23±7 nm. The magnetic properties of the sample were measured by using a vibration sample magnetometer (VSM), which showed that the sample exhibited a typical ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature, while present finite coercivity of 245.5 Oe at 300 K.

Real time simulation: Recent progress & challenges

Abstract: In order to compete in the global market, engineering organizations are under increasing pressure to design, develop, and deploy products in the market place as quickly as possible with first time quality. In order to achieve these objectives, it is necessary to streamline the design and development process, namely, “transfer of analytical design of Intelligence to Mechatronics intelligence” in an efficient and expedient manner. An increasing pressure exists on the development cycle of control systems to serve this widening application spectrum. The time-to-market of a new product often determines its commercial success. Consequently, design problems have to be discovered as early as possible in the design process in order to take remedial actions. Efficient and accurate tools and procedures are required to support short yet successful development processes. Over the last two decades, commercially available computer has become both increasingly powerful and increasingly affordable. This, in turn, has led to the emergence of highly sophisticated simulation software applications that not only enable high-fidelity simulation of dynamic systems and related controls, but also automatic code generation for implementation in industrial controllers. Simulation tools have been widely used for the design and improvement of electrical systems since the mid twentieth century. The evolution of simulation tools has progressed in step with the evolution of computing technologies. In last ten years, computing technologies have improved dramatically in performance and become widely available at a steadily decreasing cost. Consequently, simulation tools have also seen dramatic performance gains and steady cost decreases. Researchers and engineers now have access to affordable, high-performance simulation tools that were previously too cost prohibitive, except for the largest manufacturers and utilities. The purpose of this paper is to review major milestones that set the stage for the development of the today's real time simulation including sufficient detail to acquaint reader with their basic principles, strength, challenges and its applications.

A constructive smart antenna beam-forming technique with spatial diversity

Abstract: One of the most important processes in smart antennas, is beam forming. The major function of beam forming is to change the beam pattern of the antenna for a given angle. If the antenna does not change its direction based on the receiving signal, the signal losses will be high. So, in order to increase the efficiency and to reduce the signal losses in the system, here a new method is proposed for beam forming in smart antenna along with spatial diversity using fuzzy interference system and neural network (NN). In order to provide training for NN and fuzzy logic, a huge personalised training dataset is generated using Genetic Algorithm. Given a desired angle as input, the proposed method gives the corresponding antenna parameters and phase angle as output. The length of the beam, interference, phase angle, number of patterns and spatial diversity are the smart antenna parameters that are considered in the proposed method. In addition, the proposed method increases the efficiency in determining the smart antenna parameters. The proposed method is implemented and the results are analysed. The comparative and analytical results prove the performance of the proposed method over other existing methods.

Identification and characterization of EST-SSRs in finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.)

Abstract: In recent years, microsatellites have become the most used markers for studying population genetic diversity. The increased availability of the DNA sequences has given the possibility to develop EST-derived SSR markers. A total of 1,927 ESTs of Eleusine coracana available in the NCBI database were mined for SSRs. Di-nucleotides are the most occurring motifs accounting for more than 50% of the repeats, of which GA was the most abundant motif and tetra-nucleotides are the least occurring motifs. Of the 132 markers identified, 30 primer pairs based were synthesized. SSR markers were used for variety discrimination and genetic assessment in 15 finger millet accessions; 20 primers showed polymorphism and 13 primers were identified as having a PIC value above 0.5. On the basis of the distribution of these polymorphic alleles, the 15 accessions were classified into two groups. This study has demonstrated the potential of EST-derived SSR primer pairs in finger millet. These primers will serve as valuable source for further breeding programs.

A novel LC-MS/MS method for simultaneous quantification of tenofovir and lamivudine in human plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study.

Abstract: A new, rapid, sensitive and specific LC-MS/MS method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of tenofovir and lamivudine in human plasma using abacavir as an internal standard. An API-4000 LC-MS/MS with electrospray ionization was operated in multiple-reaction monitoring mode for the analysis. The analytes were extracted from plasma by solid-phase extraction technique using an Oasis HLB cartridge. The reconstituted samples were chromatographed on a Chromolith ROD speed C18 column using a mixture of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile (90:10 v/v) at a flow-rate of 1 mL/min. The method was validated as per the FDA guidelines. The calibration curves were found to be linear in the range of 5–600 ng/mL for tenofovir and 25– 4000 ng/mL for lamivudine. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy results were well within the acceptable limits. A run time of 2.8 min consumed for each sample made it possible to analyze more samples per day. The proposed assay method was found to be applicable to a pharmacokinetic study in human male volunteers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.