Antioxidant activity and Cytotoxic evaluation of Phytofabricated Silver Nanoparticles of Fig (Ficus mollis Vahl)

The present study aimed to evaluate Antioxidant and Cytotoxic activity of phytofabricated silver nanoparticles (FmF-AgNPs) derived from Figs of Ficus mollis. This green synthesized FmF-AgNPs were tested for antioxidant activity with DPPH assay and cytotoxicity activity against MCF-7 (Human breast adenocarcinoma cell lines) with MTT assay at various concentrations. The data obtained demonstrated that FmF-AgNPs posses both antioxidant activity and cytotoxicity activity which is dosage-dependent. In conclusion, results obtained revealed the potent therapeutic value of phytofabricated silver nanoparticles (FmF-AgNPs) can act as potent antioxidant and anticancer agent

The Significance of Nomadic Pastoralism for Sustaining Soil Fertility in Northern Karnataka, India

Pastoralist groups in India, including the Raika of Rajasthan, Pullikulum cattle breeders in Tamil Nadu, and groups such as the Dhangar, Kuruba and Kuruma of the Deccan Plateau realize a major proportion of their income from penning their herds and flocks on farmers’ fields. Focusing on shepherds from Northern Karnataka, this paper makes a first attempt at calculating the impact of penning on livelihoods, soil fertility and the national economy

P-glycoprotein ATPase from the resistant pest, Helicoverpa armigera: Purification, characterization and effect of various insecticides on its transport function

AbstractHelicoverpa armigera is a major pest of agricultural crops and has developed resistance to various insecticides. A P-glycoprotein (Pgp) with ATPase activity likely to be involved in insecticide resistance was purified and characterized from insecticide-resistant H. armigera. The purification was 18-fold with 3% yield. The optimum pH and temperature were found to be 7.4 and 30–40°C, respectively. Kinetic studies indicated that this enzyme had a Km value of 1.2mM for ATP. Pgp from H. armigera was partially sequenced and found to be homologous to conserved sequences of mammalian Pgps. Pesticides stimulated H. armigera Pgp ATPase activity with a maximum stimulation of up to 40%. Quenching of the intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence of purified Pgp was used to quantitate insecticide binding. Using the high-affinity fluorescent substrate, tetramethylrosamine, transport was monitored in real time in proteoliposomes containing H. armigera Pgp. The presence of Pgp could be one of the reasons for insecticide resistance in this pest

Design of Quality 4.0 Maturity Assessment Methodology

Industry 4.0 has been adopted by the firms and the practitioners. This revolution has changed the manner in which the firms design and strategies their business operations by incorporating digital transformation and improvising business models. There is a need for designing the guidelines and pursuing the digital transformation. Maturity models are actually the standard structure adopted for improvement by evaluating the existing situation. In this study, a conceptual framework was designed to study the Quality 4.0 Maturity Assessment Methodology. Wherein, ‘Quality 4.0’ being a dependent variable is affected by five independent variables affecting Quality 4.0, these were Process, People, Culture, Methods and Tools, these independent variables were in turn influenced by the three control variables strategy, leadership and knowledge. To corroborate the findings a pilot test was conducted by collecting data from 150 participants as per convenient sampling. The exploratory research design was adopted for the study, qualitative data was evaluated using Descriptive statistics, and a Test of Association of variables was conducted using tools Z-test; Chi-Square test; one way ANOVA; and Correlation to conclude the study.Průmysl 4.0 byl přijat firmami i odborníky z praxe. Tato revoluce změnila způsob, jakým firmy navrhují a strategie svých obchodních operací začleněním digitální transformace a improvizovaných obchodních modelů. Je potřeba navrhnout směrnice a pokračovat v digitální transformaci. Modely zralosti jsou ve skutečnosti standardní strukturou přijatou pro zlepšení hodnocením stávající situace. V této studii byl navržen koncepční rámec pro studium Metodiky hodnocení zralosti Quality 4.0. Zatímco ‚Kvalita 4.0‘ je závislá proměnná, je ovlivněna pěti nezávislými proměnnými ovlivňujícími kvalitu 4.0, kterými byly Proces, Lidé, Kultura, Metody a Nástroje, tyto nezávislé proměnné byly zase ovlivněny třemi kontrolními proměnnými, strategií, vedením a znalostmi. Pro potvrzení zjištění byl proveden pilotní test sběrem dat od 150 účastníků podle vhodného vzorkování. Pro studii byl přijat design průzkumného výzkumu, kvalitativní data byla vyhodnocena pomocí deskriptivní statistiky a byl proveden Test asociace proměnných pomocí nástrojů Z-test; Chí-kvadrát test; jednosměrná ANOVA; a Korelace k uzavření studie.639 - Katedra managementu kvalityvelmi dobř

Experimental Models of Status Epilepticus and Neuronal Injury for Evaluation of Therapeutic Interventions

This article describes current experimental models of status epilepticus (SE) and neuronal injury for use in the screening of new therapeutic agents. Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures. SE is an emergency condition associated with continuous seizures lasting more than 30 min. It causes significant mortality and morbidity. SE can cause devastating damage to the brain leading to cognitive impairment and increased risk of epilepsy. Benzodiazepines are the first-line drugs for the treatment of SE, however, many people exhibit partial or complete resistance due to a breakdown of GABA inhibition. Therefore, new drugs with neuroprotective effects against the SE-induced neuronal injury and degeneration are desirable. Animal models are used to study the pathophysiology of SE and for the discovery of newer anticonvulsants. In SE paradigms, seizures are induced in rodents by chemical agents or by electrical stimulation of brain structures. Electrical stimulation includes perforant path and self-sustaining stimulation models. Pharmacological models include kainic acid, pilocarpine, flurothyl, organophosphates and other convulsants that induce SE in rodents. Neuronal injury occurs within the initial SE episode, and animals exhibit cognitive dysfunction and spontaneous seizures several weeks after this precipitating event. Current SE models have potential applications but have some limitations. In general, the experimental SE model should be analogous to the human seizure state and it should share very similar neuropathological mechanisms. The pilocarpine and diisopropylfluorophosphate models are associated with prolonged, diazepam-insensitive seizures and neurodegeneration and therefore represent paradigms of refractory SE. Novel mechanism-based or clinically relevant models are essential to identify new therapies for SE and neuroprotective interventions

Effects of Tropomodulin 2 on Dendritic Spine Reorganization and Dynamics

Dendritic spines are actin-rich protrusions that receive a signal from the axon at the synapse. Remodeling of cytoskeletal actin is tightly connected to dendritic spine morphology-mediated synaptic plasticity of the neuron. Remodeling of cytoskeletal actin is required for the formation, development, maturation, and reorganization of dendritic spines. Actin filaments are highly dynamic structures with slow-growing/pointed and fast-growing/barbed ends. Very few studies have been conducted on the role of pointed-end binding proteins in the regulation of dendritic spine morphology. In this study, we evaluated the role played by tropomodulin 2 (Tmod2)—a brain-specific isoform, on the dendritic spine re-organization. Tmod2 regulates actin nucleation and polymerization by binding to the pointed end via actin and tropomyosin (Tpm) binding sites. We studied the effects of Tmod2 overexpression in primary hippocampal neurons on spine morphology using confocal microscopy and image analysis. Tmod2 overexpression decreased the spine number and increased spine length. Destroying Tpm-binding ability increased the number of shaft synapses and thin spine motility. Eliminating the actin-binding abilities of Tmod2 increased the number of mushroom spines. Tpm-mediated pointed-end binding decreased F-actin depolymerization, which may positively affect spine stabilization; the nucleation ability of Tmod2 appeared to increase shaft synapses.German Academic Exchange ServiceNational Institutes of HealthDeutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftPeer Reviewe

Segmented Learning for Class-of-Service Network Traffic Classification

Class-of-service (CoS) network traffic classification (NTC) classifies a group of similar traffic applications. The CoS classification is advantageous in resource scheduling for Internet service providers and avoids the necessity of remodelling. Our goal is to find a robust, lightweight, and fast-converging CoS classifier that uses fewer data in modelling and does not require specialized tools in feature extraction. The commonality of statistical features among the network flow segments motivates us to propose novel segmented learning that includes essential vector representation and a simple-segment method of classification. We represent the segmented traffic in the vector form using the EVR. Then, the segmented traffic is modelled for classification using random forest. Our solution's success relies on finding the optimal segment size and a minimum number of segments required in modelling. The solution is validated on multiple datasets for various CoS services, including virtual reality (VR). Significant findings of the research work are i) Synchronous services that require acknowledgment and request to continue communication are classified with 99% accuracy, ii) Initial 1,000 packets in any session are good enough to model a CoS traffic for promising results, and we therefore can quickly deploy a CoS classifier, and iii) Test results remain consistent even when trained on one dataset and tested on a different dataset. In summary, our solution is the first to propose segmentation learning NTC that uses fewer features to classify most CoS traffic with an accuracy of 99%. The implementation of our solution is available on GitHub.Comment: The paper is accepted to be appeared in IEEE GLOBECOM 202

Spectral Characterization and 3D Molecular Modeling Studies of Metal Complexes Involving the O, N-Donor Environment of Quinazoline-4(3H)-one Schiff Base and Their Biological Studies

A simple condensation of 3-amino-2-methylquinazoline-4-one with 2-hydroxy-1-naphthaldehyde produced new tridentate ONO donor Schiff base ligand with efficient yield. The structural characterization of ligand and its Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Mn(II), Zn(II), and Cd(II) complexes were achieved by the aid of elemental analysis, spectral characterization such as (UV-visible, IR, NMR, mass, and ESR), and magnetic data. The analytical and spectroscopic studies suggest the octahedral geometries of Cu(II), Co(II), Ni(II) and Mn(II) complexes and tetrahedral geometry of Zn(II) and Cd(II) complexes with the tridentate ONO Schiff base ligand. Furthermore, the conclusions drawn from these studies afford further support to the mode of bonding discussed on the basis of their 3D molecular modeling studies by considering different bond lengths, bond angles, and bond distance. The ligand and its metal complexes evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC number 7443), Bacillus subtilis (MTCC number 9878), Escherichia coli (MTCC number 1698), Aspergillus niger (MTCC number 281), and Aspergillus flavus (MTCC number 277). The MIC of these compounds was found to be most active at 10 μg/mL concentration in inhibiting the growth of the tested organisms. The DNA cleavage activity of all the complexes was studied by gel electrophoresis method

Quantitative Confocal Microscopy for Grouping of Dose–Response Data: Deciphering Calcium Sequestration and Subsequent Cell Death in the Presence of Excess Norepinephrine

Fluorescent calcium (Ca2+) imaging is one of the preferred methods to record cellular activity during in vitro preclinical studies, high-content drug screening, and toxicity analysis. Visualization and analysis for dose–response data obtained using high-resolution imaging remain challenging, due to the inherent heterogeneity present in the Ca2+ spiking. To address this challenge, we propose measurement of cytosolic Ca2+ ions using spinning-disk confocal microscopy and machine learning–based analytics that is scalable. First, we implemented uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) for visualizing the multivariate time-series dataset in the two-dimensional (2D) plane using Python. The dataset was obtained through live imaging experiments with norepinephrine-induced Ca2+ oscillation in HeLa cells for a large range of doses. Second, we demonstrate that the proposed framework can be used to depict the grouping of the spiking pattern for lower and higher drug doses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt at UMAP visualization of the time-series dose response and identification of the Ca2+ signature during lytic death. Such quantitative microscopy can be used as a component of a high-throughput data analysis workflow for toxicity analysis. © Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening 2021

Isolation and Characterization of Gut Bacterial Proteases Involved in Inducing Pathogenicity of Bacillus thuringiensis Toxin in Cotton Bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera

Bacillus thuringiensis toxin proteins are deployed in transgenic plants for pest management. The present studies were aimed at characterization of gut bacterial proteases involved in activation of inactive Cry1Ac protoxin (pro-Cry1Ac) to active toxin in Helicoverpa armigera. Bacterial strains were isolated from H. armigera midgut andscreened for their proteolytic activation toward pro-Cry1Ac. Among 12 gut bacterial isolates seven isolates showed proteolytic activity, and proteases from three isolates (IVS1, IVS2, and IVS3) were found to be involved in the proteolytic conversion of pro-Cry1Ac into active toxin. The proteases from IVS1, IVS2, and IVS3 isolates were purified to 11.90-, 15.50-, and 17.20-fold, respectively. The optimum pH and temperature for gut bacterial protease activity was 8.0 and 40°C. Maximum inhibition of total proteolytic activity was exerted by phenylmethane sulfonyl fluoride followed by EDTA. Fluorescence zymography revealed that proteases from IVS1, IVS2, and IVS3 were chymotrypsin-like and showing protease band at ~15, 65, and 15 kDa, respectively. Active Cry1Ac formed from processing pro-Cry1Ac by gut bacterial proteases exhibited toxicity toward H. armigera. The gut bacterial isolates IVS1, IVS2, and IVS3 showed homology with B. thuringiensis (CP003763.1), Vibrio fischeri (CP000020.2), and Escherichia coli (CP011342.1), respectively. Proteases produced by midgut bacteria are involved in proteolytic processing of B. thuringiensis protoxin and play a major role in inducing pathogenicity of B. thuringiensis toxins in H. armigera