Emerging MXene–Polymer Hybrid Nanocomposites for High-Performance Ammonia Sensing and Monitoring

Ammonia (NH3) is a vital compound in diversified fields, including agriculture, automotive, chemical, food processing, hydrogen production and storage, and biomedical applications. Its extensive industrial use and emission have emerged hazardous to the ecosystem and have raised global public health concerns for monitoring NH3 emissions and implementing proper safety strategies. These facts created emergent demand for translational and sustainable approaches to design efficient, affordable, and high-performance compact NH3 sensors. Commercially available NH3 sensors possess three major bottlenecks: poor selectivity, low concentration detection, and room-temperature operation. State-of-the-art NH3 sensors are scaling up using advanced nano-systems possessing rapid, selective, efficient, and enhanced detection to overcome these challenges. MXene–polymer nanocomposites (MXP-NCs) are emerging as advanced nanomaterials of choice for NH3 sensing owing to their affordability, excellent conductivity, mechanical flexibility, scalable production, rich surface functionalities, and tunable morphology. The MXP-NCs have demonstrated high performance to develop next-generation intelligent NH3 sensors in agricultural, industrial, and biomedical applications. However, their excellent NH3-sensing features are not articulated in the form of a review. This comprehensive review summarizes state-of-the-art MXP-NCs fabrication techniques, optimization of desired properties, enhanced sensing characteristics, and applications to detect airborne NH3. Furthermore, an overview of challenges, possible solutions, and prospects associated with MXP-NCs is discussed

Evaluation of Withania somnifera in a middle cerebral artery occlusion model of stroke in rats

1. Stroke causes brain injury in millions of people worldwide each year. Despite the enormity of the problem, there is currently no approved therapy that can reduce infarct size or neurological disability. One of the approaches that can be used in limiting the neurological damage after stroke is the use of prophylactic treatment in patients with a high-risk of stroke. The present study was undertaken to investigate the effect of the Indian herbal plant Withania somnifera as a prophylactic treatment in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion model of stroke in rats. 2. Two groups of male Wistar rats were pretreated with a hydroalcoholic extract of W. somnifera (1 g/kg, p.o.) for 15 and 30 days. Thereafter, rats were subjected to focal ischaemia by occlusion of the MCA using an intraluminal thread. After 2 h MCA occlusion, reperfusion was allowed by retracting the thread. Animals were assessed for ischaemic changes using diffusion-weighted imaging 30 min after reperfusion. Twenty-four hours later, rats were subjected to motor performance tests and were subsequently killed for the estimation of the marker of oxidative stress malondialdehyde (MDA). The control group received vehicle and a similar protocol was followed. 3. Significant motor impairment, with elevated levels of MDA, was observed in vehicle-treated MCA-occluded rats. In addition, diffusion-weighted imaging showed increased signal intensity in the right hemisphere compared with the contralateral hemisphere. Treatment with W. somnifera for 15 days did not improve motor performance or decrease the elevated levels of MDA. However, when the pretreatment time of W. somnifera was increased to 30 days, it prevented motor impairment and significantly decreased the raised levels of MDA compared with vehicle-treated rats. In the W. somnifera (30 days)-pretreated group, the percentage hemispheric lesion area in diffusion-weighted imaging was significantly attenuated (17 ± 2%) compared with the vehicle-treated MCA-occluded group (30 ± 4%). 4. Because W. somnifera has been documented to have anti-oxidant properties, the protection afforded by W. somnifera could be due to its anti-oxidant effect. The present study provides first evidence of the effectiveness of an Indian herb in focal ischaemia

Preliminary Investigation on Generation of Electricity Using Micro Wind Turbines Placed on A Car

Wind energy is one of the prominent resources for renewable energy and it is traditionally extracted using stationary wind turbines. However, it can also be extracted using mini or micro wind turbines on a moving body, such as an automobile, while cruising at high speeds on freeways. If the electricity is produced using air flowing around the vehicle without affecting aerodynamic performance of the vehicle, it can be used to charge up the battery or power up additional accessories of the vehicle. For the first time, in the present work, a preliminary investigation was carried out to generate electricity by utilizing air flow on a moving car. Initially, a correlation between the car speed and wind velocity was established using an anemometer. Placing a set of two micro wind turbines along with two micro generators on the rear end of the car trunk, the present study investigated the feasibility of generating electricity from these micro wind turbines while evaluating the effect of drag force on the performance of the car through the experimental approach and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Both approaches confirmed negligible effect of drag force on the vehicle performance in terms of gas mileage and changes in drag coefficient values. Following these studies, the micro wind turbines were also tested for electricity generation at various cruising speeds of the car ranging from 50 to 80 mph on the freeways. The voltage and power generated always showed an increasing trend with increasing the car speed, however they saturated when a cut off limit was setup with the voltage controllers. A maximum voltage of 3.5 V and a maximum current of 0.8 A were generated by each micro wind turbine when a cut off limit was used along with a load consisting of four LED bulbs in parallel with 3.5 V and 0.2 A rating each. On the other hand, when the tests were repeated without using the cut-off limit, a maximum voltage of 18.91 V and a maximum current of 0.65 A were recorded with a load of six flash bulbs in series (flash bulb rating – 4.8 V and 0.5 A each). These studies clearly demonstrate the flexibility to vary the voltage and current outputs from the micro wind turbines indicating a possibility for utilizing the wind energy on the cars at high speeds. Keywords: automobile, renewable energy; wind energy Article History: Received Sept 5th 2016; Received in revised form Dec 6th 2016 ; Accepted January 4th 2017; Available online How to Cite This Article: Bangi, V.K.T., Chaudhary, Y., Guduru, R.K., Aung, K.T and Reddy, G.N. (2017) Preliminary investigation on generation of electricity using micro wind turbines placed on a car. Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 6(1), 75-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.14710/ijred.6.1.75-8

Expression and purification of anthrax toxin protective antigen from Escherichia coli

Anthrax toxin consists of three separate proteins, protective antigen (PA), lethal factor (LF), and edema factor (EF). PA binds to the receptor on mammalian cells and facilitates translocation of EF or LF into the cytosol. PA is the primary component of several anthrax vaccines. In this study we expressed and purified PA from Escherichia coli.The purification of PA from E. coli was possible after transporting the protein into the periplasmic space using the outer membrane protein A signal sequence. The purification involved sequential chromatography through hydroxyapatite, DEAE Sepharose CL-4B, followed by Sephadex G-100. The typical yield of purified PA from this procedure was 500 μ g/liter. PA expressed and purified from E. coli was similar to the PA purified from Bacillus anthracis in its ability to lyse a macrophage cell line (J774A.1). The present results suggest that a signal sequence is required for the efficient translocation of PA into E. coli periplasmic space

Additional file 1: of Frequencies of CYP2C9 polymorphisms in North Indian population and their association with drug levels in children on phenytoin monotherapy

Polymerase chain reaction. PCR was performed by initial denaturation at 94 °C for 2 min followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 94 °C for 30 s, annealing at 60 °C for 10 s and extension at 72 °C for 1 min followed by final extension at 72 °C for 7 min. The products were run at 250 V in a horizontal electrophoresis system (Bangalore Genie) on a 2 % agarose gel to check for amplification. 5 μL of PCR products (375 bp) were digested overnight at 37 °C with Ava II (New England Biolabs) for CYP2C9*2 genotyping. A 130 bp amplicon was digested by Sty 1 (Eco 1301) (Fermentas International Inc) for CYP2C9*3 genotyping. After the overnight digestion, the digested DNA was run along with the undigested PCR product on a 2 % agarose gel with ethidium bromide at 150 V in a horizontal electrophoresis system and visualized under UV light. (PDF 82 kb

SCOPE: Surveillance of COVID-19 in pregnancy- results of a multicentric ambispective case-control study on clinical presentation and maternal outcomes in India between April to November 2020.

ObjectiveTo determine the clinical manifestations, risk factors, treatment modalities and maternal outcomes in pregnant women with lab-confirmed COVID-19 and compare it with COVID-19 negative pregnant women in same age group.DesignMulticentric case-control study.Data sourcesAmbispective primary data collection through paper-based forms from 20 tertiary care centres across India between April and November 2020.Study populationAll pregnant women reporting to the centres with a lab-confirmed COVID-19 positive result matched with controls.Data qualityDedicated research officers extracted hospital records, using modified WHO Case Record Forms (CRF) and verified for completeness and accuracy.Statistical analysisData converted to excel files and statistical analyses done using STATA 16 (StataCorp, TX, USA). Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) estimated using unconditional logistic regression.ResultsA total of 76,264 women delivered across 20 centres during the study period. Data of 3723 COVID positive pregnant women and 3744 age-matched controls was analyzed. Of the positive cases 56·9% were asymptomatic. Antenatal complications like preeclampsia and abruptio placentae were seen more among the cases. Induction and caesarean delivery rates were also higher among Covid positive women. Pre-existing maternal co-morbidities increased need for supportive care. There were 34 maternal deaths out of the 3723(0.9%) positive mothers, while covid negative deaths reported from all the centres were 449 of 72,541 (0·6%).ConclusionCovid-19 infection predisposed to adverse maternal outcomes in a large cohort of Covid positive pregnant women as compared to the negative controls