Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad

About: Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad is a education organization based out in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Computer science & Control theory. The organization has 2475 authors who have published 5067 publications receiving 61891 citations. The organization is also known as: NIT Allahabad & Motilal Nehru Regional Engineering College.

Differential Phytotoxic Impact of Plant Mediated Silver Nanoparticles (AgNPs) and Silver Nitrate (AgNO3) on Brassica sp.

Abstract: Continuous formation and utilization of nanoparticles (NPs) have resulted into significant discharge of nanosized particles into the environment. NPs find applications in numerous products and agriculture sector, and gaining importance in recent years. In the present study, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were biosynthesized from silver nitrate (AgNO3) by green synthesis approach using Aloe vera extract. Mustard (Brassica sp.) seedlings were grown hydroponically and toxicity of both AgNP and AgNO3 (as ionic Ag+) was assessed at various concentrations (1 and 3 mM) by analyzing shoot and root length, fresh mass, protein content, photosynthetic pigments and performance, cell viability, oxidative damage, DNA degradation and enzyme activities. The results revealed that both AgNPs and AgNO3 declined growth of Brassica seedlings due to enhanced accumulation of AgNPs and AgNO3 that subsequently caused severe inhibition in photosynthesis. Further, the results showed that both AgNPs and AgNO3 induced oxidative stress as indicated by histochemical staining of superoxide radical and hydrogen peroxide that was manifested in terms of DNA degradation and cell death. Activities of antioxidants, i.e., ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and catalase (CAT) were inhibited by AgNPs and AgNO3. Interestingly, damaging impact of AgNPs was lesser than AgNO3 on Brassica seedlings which was due to lesser accumulation of AgNPs and better activities of APX and CAT, which resulted in lesser oxidative stress, DNA degradation and cell death. The results of the present study showed differential impact of AgNPs and AgNO3 on Brassica seedlings, their mode of action, and reasons for their differential impact. The results of the present study could be implied in toxicological research for designing strategies to reduce adverse impact of AgNPs and AgNO3 on crop plants.

Integration of Kano’s Model into quality function deployment (QFD)

Abstract: Viability of a product or service in the market depends upon the satisfaction that it can extend to its customers through quality. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a tool that gathers voice of customer (VoC) and inducting the expected features in the final product. It is also desirable that the practitioners of QFD must extend due importance to latent expectations of the customers, which in turn may fulfill overall customer satisfaction for a product or service. Kano et al. (J Jpn Soc Qual Control, 14:39–48, 1984; 1996) and Kano (2001) have suggested a method to identify the different categories of requirements through customer responses. Based on the QFD and Kano model analysis, a function has been proposed to adjust the traditional improvement ratio (Tan and Shen, Total Qual Manag 11:1141–1151, 2000) for each product or service attribute to recognize the importance of a attribute, which can be helpful in developing a product or service in such a manner that maximum customer satisfaction can be achieved. The proposed methodology has been illustrated using customer survey data.

Study of Waste Plastic Mix Concrete with Plasticizer

Abstract: The fresh and hardened properties of waste virgin plastic mix concrete have been studied (CUR Report 1991). A number of concrete mixes were prepared in which sand was partially replaced by waste plastic flakes in varying percentages by volume. Waste plastic mix concrete with and without superplasticizer was tested at room temperature. Forty-eight cube samples were moulded for compressive strength tests at three, seven, and twenty-eight days. Eight beams were also cast to study the flexural strength characteristic of waste plastic mix concrete. It was found that the reduction in workability and compressive strength, due to partially replacement of sand by waste plastic, is minimal and can be enhanced by addition of superplasticizer.