Towards In-Transit Analytics for Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0, or Digital Manufacturing, is a vision of inter-connected services to facilitate innovation in the manufacturing sector. A fundamental requirement of innovation is the ability to be able to visualise manufacturing data, in order to discover new insight for increased competitive advantage. This article describes the enabling technologies that facilitate In-Transit Analytics, which is a necessary precursor for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) visualisation

Alpha-glucosidase and carbonic anhydrase inhibition studies of Pd(II)-hydrazide complexes

This study focused on the synthesis and characterization of hydrazide ligands and their respective Pd(II) complexes and used high throughput screening to determine their α-glucosidase and carbonic anhydrase II enzyme inhibition activities. The physical, analytical (elemental analyses for C, H, N and Pd) and spectral (FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, EI-mass) techniques utilized during characterization revealed the formation of square planar, neutral and 1:2 Pd(II)-hydrazide complexes with the general formula [PdL2Cl2]. In these Pd(II) complexes, the hydrazide ligands are monodentate; the terminal nitrogen is the donor atom. The uncoordinated hydrazide ligands were inactive against both α-glucosidase and carbonic anhydrase II enzymes; however, the respective Pd(II)-hydrazide complexes were approximately 300 times more potent α-glucosidase inhibitors than the standard compound, 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ). Some of the Pd(II) complexes also demonstrated potential carbonic anhydrase (CA) inhibition properties comparable to the standard compound, acetazolamide (ACZ).Higher Education Commission of Pakistan for financial support (‘The National Research Grants Program for Universities’, grant No.1862/R&D/10) and MMT acknowledges the support from Fulbright Scholar Award from The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Open Access funded by King Saud University

Pathological Studies on Lung Abscesses in Sheep Slaughtered in Kashmir Valley, India

The present study was conducted in Kashmir valley of India to investigate the prevalence and pathology of lung abscesses in sheep, slaughtered in different organized abattoirs. These abattoirs were visited between January 2010 to February 2011 and a total of 1455 lungs were examined. Out of these 18.9% lungs had abscesses, with higher incidence in young sheep (60%) than in adult ones (40%). Grossly, abscesses were observed in one or more lung lobes and were either single or multiple. In majority of lungs, abscess sizes varied from pea to walnut size, but in some cases large abscesses were also observed. Histopathologically, abscesses were characterized by a central caseo-necrotic core surrounded by pyogenic membrane with infiltration of polymorphonuclear cells and few mononuclear cells and macrophages. Most of the abscesses revealed presence of Gram positive bacterial infection where as chronic abscesses indicated both Gram positive and Gram negative bacterial infection. Fibrous tissue proliferation around the pyogenic membrane of the chronic abscesses was noticed. Disruption and disorientation of elastin fibres was also a prominent feature. Increased concentration of both acid and neutral mucopolysaccharides was observed in and around the lesion. Purulent material of abscesses revealed marked metachromasia. The study revealed that lung abscesses in domestic sheep are highly prevalent in Kashmir valley. Thus, there is a need to introduce appropriate control measures of diseases affecting the lungs to minimize the incidence of lung affections and hence reduce the ensuing economic losses

Synthesis, characterization, lipoxygenase, and tyrosinase inhibitory activities of non- cytotoxic titanium(III) and (IV) hydrazide complexes

Ti(III) and (IV) hydrazide complexes were synthesized, characterized, and screened for their tyrosinase and lipoxygenase inhibitory and cytotoxic activities. The geometry of Ti(III) hydrazide complexes is tentatively assigned as octahedral. Magnetic moments were found around 1.7 B.M. and electronic spectral transition in the range of 495-518 nm. Evaluation of Ti(IV) and Ti(III) hydrazide complexes for tyrosinase and lipoxygenase inhibitory activities revealed varying inhibition potential. Hydrazide ligands were inactive against tyrosinase, while significant activity was observed against lipoxygenase (LOX). Good to moderate inhibition activity was observed by Ti(IV) and Ti(III) hydrazide complexes against both enzymes. At the same time, promising results were obtained for Ti(IV) hydrazide complexes against tyrosinase enzymes suggesting their broad application as tyrosinase inhibitors. Complex 4d possess negative inhibition, thus behaving as a tyrosinase activator. The docking results showed a good correlation between complex experimental activities and binding energies. Cytotoxic investigation revealed the non-toxicity of complexes against normal cells.Z. Shaikh is thankful to the Higher Education Commission for Indigenous Scholarship No. 213-65456-2PS2-101 under Ph.D. Fellowships for 5000 scholars, HEC (Phase-II). Furthermore, the authors thank the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan for financial support (‘The National Research Grants Program for Universities’, Grant No. 1862/R&D/10)

Refining colorectal cancer classification and clinical stratification through a single-cell atlas

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) consensus molecular subtypes (CMS) have different immunological, stromal cell, and clinicopathological characteristics. Single-cell characterization of CMS subtype tumor microenvironments is required to elucidate mechanisms of tumor and stroma cell contributions to pathogenesis which may advance subtype-specific therapeutic development. We interrogate racially diverse human CRC samples and analyze multiple independent external cohorts for a total of 487,829 single cells enabling high-resolution depiction of the cellular diversity and heterogeneity within the tumor and microenvironmental cells. Results Tumor cells recapitulate individual CMS subgroups yet exhibit significant intratumoral CMS heterogeneity. Both CMS1 microsatellite instability (MSI-H) CRCs and microsatellite stable (MSS) CRC demonstrate similar pathway activations at the tumor epithelial level. However, CD8+ cytotoxic T cell phenotype infiltration in MSI-H CRCs may explain why these tumors respond to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Cellular transcriptomic profiles in CRC exist in a tumor immune stromal continuum in contrast to discrete subtypes proposed by studies utilizing bulk transcriptomics. We note a dichotomy in tumor microenvironments across CMS subgroups exists by which patients with high cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and C1Q+TAM content exhibit poor outcomes, providing a higher level of personalization and precision than would distinct subtypes. Additionally, we discover CAF subtypes known to be associated with immunotherapy resistance. Conclusions Distinct CAFs and C1Q+ TAMs are sufficient to explain CMS predictive ability and a simpler signature based on these cellular phenotypes could stratify CRC patient prognosis with greater precision. Therapeutically targeting specific CAF subtypes and C1Q + TAMs may promote immunotherapy responses in CRC patient

Novel nanophotolysis technique for breast cancer therapy

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of gold nanoparticles on breast cancer tumor. A theoretical approach has been adopted to probe the nanophotolysis technique using short pulse laser. The influences of various parameters including number of ions, shock front, energy distribution function, laser fluence are discussed in detail. Computational results suggest that spherical gold nanoparticles provides a promising platform for selective killing of abnormal cells in breast cancer tumor

Cytotoxic, antiglycation and carbonic anhydrase inhibition studies of chromium(III)-aroylhydrazine complexes

In order to further reveal the chemistry and biochemistry of chromium(III) complexes, the present work illuminates the formation of chromium(III) complexes with aroylhydrazine ligands with their physical, chemical and spectral studies. Another significant contribution of this study is the evaluation of the cytotoxic activity, antiglycation property and carbonic anhydrase inhibition study of synthesized chromium(III)-aroylhydrazine complexes. Synthesis and structural investigation of aroylhydrazine ligands (1-7) and their chromium(III) complexes (1a-7a) were carried out by using elemental analysis (C, H, N), physical (conductivity measurements) and spectral (EI-Mass, ESI-Mass, FTIR and UV-Visible) methods. These physical, analytical and spectral data supports that all chromium(III)-aroylhydrazine complexes exhibit an octahedral geometry in which ligand exhibits as a bidentate coordination and two water molecules coordinated at equatorial positions with general formula [Cr(L)2(H2O)2]Cl3. Cytotoxic investigations shows that synthesized chromium(III)-aroylhydrazine complexes were not found to be toxic against normal cells so these compounds were further studied for other biological activities. Moreover, aroylhydrazine ligands and their chromium(III) complexes were examined for their antiglycation activity in which ligands were found inactive whereas chromium(III)-aroylhydrazine complexes showed significant inhibition of the process of protein glycation. Similarly, in carbonic anhydrase inhibition studies all aroylhydrazine ligands were observed inactive while some of chromium(III)-aroylhydrazine complexes showed potential in carbonic anhydrase inhibition