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Phage Immobilized Antibacterial Silica Nanoplatform: Application against Bacterial Infections
No full textAntibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens has become a worldwide public health problem in veterinary and human medicine. The emergence of methicillin resistance in Staphylococcus sp. has led to complications in treatment of bovine mastitis, wound infections in horses, dogs, pigs etc. and bacterimia in humans ranging from postules, sepsis to even death. To address this problem of antibiotic resistance, several attempts are being made of which, phage therapy offers a promising alternative. Herein, we report a phage based antibacterial nanoplatform having bactericidal potential against an isolated methicillin resistant skin bacterium, Staphylococcus arlettae as a model organism. The bacteriophages (phages) used in the study were isolated from sewage water via enrichment method against an isolated methicillin resitant skin bacterium, Staphylococcus arlettae (GenBank accession no. KF589201.1). The isolated phages were characterized thereafter for their host specificity and morphology by plaque assay and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) respectively. Intrinsic charge characteristic of phages was utilized for their immobilization on silica NPs monolyer using different conjugation chemistry, through covalent/electrostatic/ physisorption interactions. The efficacy of each immobilization approach was compared using plaque assay. Silica NPs of size ~ 300 nm were synthesized by hydrolysis and condensation of tetraethylorthosilicate in an alkaline environment, and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The particles were dispersed at air/water interface for monolayer formation on polyvinyllidine fluoride (PVDF) membrane via Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) thin film deposition technique at 15 mN/m surface pressure. It was observed that 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS) treated membranes act as a better bactericidal platform due to proper orientation of phages by means of electrostatic and covalent interaction as compared to phage bound by physical adsorption. Moreoever, high surface/ volume ratio of NPs further helped in improving bactericidal performance, associated with large loading capacity of phages on film. Thus, the present study can facilitate in design and development of an effective anti-bacterial compositions and dressings in veterinary medicine and animal agriculture to combat Staphylococcal infections
Plasticizers Induced Formation of Microcapsules From Freeze Dried Polystyrene Microreactors
No full textThe article describes solvent induced preparation of polystyrene microcapsules from freeze-dried microreactors. An aqueous suspension of microreactors was exposed to a plasticizing solvent for a defined time period. Plasticizer molecules surround the polymer chains and repel the water molecules. It results in the movement of the monomers toward each other. The process leads to formation of microcapsules with a core-shell structure. For proof of concept, four plasticizing solvents, namely 1,4-dioxane, toluene, dichloromethane, and chloroform, were studied for annealing of the hollow particles. It was concluded that chloroform was the best plasticizer in terms of transforming microreactors into microcapsules
Electroencephalogram based quantitative estimation of pain for balanced anaesthesia
No full textThe purpose of this study was to quantify the pain experienced by the patients in the Post Anaesthetic Care Unit (PACU) and to design an Electroencephalogram (EEG) based system which could monitor the pain in real time and display the quantified value as pain index. Research has established that the EEG from different lobes of brain can be used to find out individual indices for different components of balanced anaesthesia. In the present study, the focus was on analgesia. During the study, EEG of 31 patients was recorded from different regions of brain in the pre-operative (normal) and post-operative (painful) state. After analysis, it was observed that EEG parameters ‘Hjorth Activity’ and ‘Spectral Entropy’ from parietal region reflect the pain experienced by the patient during post-operative recovery period. Based on these parameters, a pain estimation system was developed which gave a numerical graded output between 0 and 10. This developed pain scale by analyzing EEG signals of the patients in the post operative period was correlated with Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and was found to be accurate to estimate the level of pain, when compared with the pain experienced by the patient
Coordination polymers: Opportunities and challenges for monitoring volatile organic compounds
No full textCoordination polymers (CPs) are emerging as the next generation of macromolecules for many industrial and technological applications. The highly porous nature of these CPs offers the opportunity to exploit them as very effective adsorbents for gaseous molecules, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Release of VOCs into the environment is highly undesirable as they can be extremely harmful to general public health and environmental quality. Lately, a large volume of the scientific literature has pointed towards the potentially important role of CPs in the monitoring and analysis of VOCs, offering unprecedented detection limits. This review discusses the opportunities and challenges for the use of CP materials in such applications, describing their general working principles, analytical performance, advantages, and limitations. Recent progress in the application of CPs in the detection, monitoring, and analysis of VOCs is critically reviewed. The discussion is further extended to cover future applications and current research activities in this emerging analytical field
Influence of pulsed electric field and heat treatment on Emblica officinalis juice inoculated with Zygosaccharomyces bailii
No full textThe effects of pulsed electric field (PEF) applying 26 kV cm−1 with 1 μs monopolar pulses (for 500 μs) on inactivation of Zygosaccharomyces bailii and the stability for the key quality characteristics (vitamin C, phenolic content, antioxidant capacity, nonenzymatic index, 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF), °brix, and pH) in Emblica officinalis juice were studied. These results were then compared to those of heat treatment (90 °C for 60 s) up to 40 days on storing at 4 °C. PEF treatment reduced 5.1 log cycles of Z. bailii with decreases in HMF concentration and browning index relative to heat treated juice. Simultaneously, PEF treated juice retained 63% of vitamin C and 88.9% of antioxidant capacity (p < 0.05). However, heat treated juice lowered 4.9 log cycles of Z. bailii and exhibited significant degradation of vitamin C and antioxidant capacity (p < 0.01). After all, both treatments did not induce any major changes in pH and °brix levels of emblica juice. Electron microscopy was used as a tool to find Z. bailii damage induced. Investigation of their morphology showed a leakage of cellular debris owing to the rupture of cell membrane of PEF treated Z. bailii. Thus, PEF treatment on emblica juice may offer an enormous potential for upgrading its quality than the heat processing method
Extraction of low-toxicity nanodiamonds from carbonaceous wastes
No full textBeing innocuous, nanodiamonds find huge applications in bioimaging, drug delivery and biomedical sensing. Their synthesis is generally carried out by detonation or shock wave methods. This article reports novel, economical and risk-free extraction of nanodiamonds from carbonaceous waste (smoke deposits of Hawan kund). Structural and morphological studies of extracted material revealed that the nanodiamonds have a size range of 4–5 nm and consists of sp3 core and sp2 shell. Extracted nanodiamonds contain various functional groups on its surface which make it suitable for various applications. Cytotoxicity assay revealed very less toxicity of extracted nanodiamonds, which makes them suitable candidate for biological applications. The proposed method offers the possibility of economical and detonation free production of nanodiamonds
Image acquisition techniques for assessment of legume quality
No full textThis paper reviews different image acquisition techniques that have been employed for quality evaluation of leguminous seeds and has relevance for engineers, food scientists and other agricultural researchers. The inspection and quality evaluation of food grains using machine vision can be achieved with greater speed, consistency and accuracy. Image acquisition is central to the success of any quality inspection system based on machine vision. Soybeans, peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas are the legumes, which form the staple food and hence have great ecological and economic importance. The image acquisition techniques that are reviewed in this paper are non-destructive in nature and are based on visible, infrared and other bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. These include techniques for external surface examination, measurement of moisture content, oil content, insect infestation detection and internal structure visualization. The advantages of machine-vision techniques over the conventional techniques based on manual methods for seed quality estimation are also discussed
Design of Hybrid Technique based on RGB Contents and Entropy of the Image and its Comparative Analysis with Existing Technique
No full textImage fusion is finding its application in all spheres of life like medical, military, geological etc. The aim of Image fusion is to combine the information of same scene images taken from different sensors or the images with focus on different objects. Fused image is more informative and better in quality. In this paper, a hybrid technique is developed and carried out a detailed comparative analysis with the existing techniques based on RGB contents, Entropy of the image. This paper is based on considering the remote sensing applicatio
Intuitive approach towards detection of attention tunneling while using a head-up display
No full textHead-up display (HUD), a primary cockpit display, helps in optimizing a pilot’s attention towards aircraft and outside events. Slight mismatch in the balance may cause missed events; this phenomenon is called attention tunneling and affects the situational awareness of the pilot. This work reports an intuitive approach to detect attention tunneling while use of HUD in aircrafts. Texture analysis of a composite HUD camera video provided three distinguishing parameters, viz., contrast, correlation, and homogeneity. These three texture parameters are used as inputs for a fuzzy inference-based assistive detection system which could be used for distinguishing tunneled and nontunneled HUD operation
Characterization of Climate Extremes on Plants and Soil Properties Using Nano-Dynamic Elastomechanic Response Analysis
No full textThis paper presents a nano dynamic plant response relationship by varying soil moisture content due to climate change. An advance soil condition monitoring technique using Laser Interferometry based biomechanical experiment is presented. Sensitive elasto-mechanic reversible ∆ = L 0.0001mm R and irreversible (∆ = L 0.005mm I ) growth response of plants by multiple external environmental variables at nano level are measured. Such response is mathematically
correlated with the mechanics of transpiration and soil physical properties (Dry and Wet) or more precisely water content and finally as a derivative of climate change. These dynamic changes in plant growth demonstrate the nano level effect of climate change is an alarming signature and it has been suggested that precipitation changes may have limited transpiration mechanism causing the lack of irreversible plant growth. It is also suggested that the change in plant diameter can be used to trigger alarming system for monitoring global warming