Summary
Escherichia coli biofilm consists of a bacterial colony embedded in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) which protects the microbes from adverse environmental conditions and ...results in infection. Besides being the major causative agent for recurrent urinary tract infections, E. coli biofilm is also responsible for indwelling medical device‐related infectivity. The cell‐to‐cell communication within the biofilm occurs due to quorum sensors that can modulate the key biochemical players enabling the bacteria to proliferate and intensify the resultant infections. The diversity in structural components of biofilm gets compounded due to the development of antibiotic resistance, hampering its eradication. Conventionally used antimicrobial agents have a restricted range of cellular targets and limited efficacy on biofilms. This emphasizes the need to explore the alternate therapeuticals like anti‐adhesion compounds, phytochemicals, nanomaterials for effective drug delivery to restrict the growth of biofilm. The current review focuses on various aspects of E. coli biofilm development and the possible therapeutic approaches for prevention and treatment of biofilm‐related infections.
The experiment was conducted with an intent to know the effect of different farming systems on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility coefficients, reproductive traits, disease incidence, ...heat stress indices, and cost economics of Nellore sheep. The study includes two parallel trials to prevent the influence of age on heat stress indices (panting score and erythrocyte osmotic fragility (EOF)). One hundred and twenty lambs (60 ram-lambs and 60 ewe-lambs) were allotted in a randomized block design under extensive, semi-intensive, and intensive systems for trial I, whereas trial II include eighteen rams assigned to the three respective farming systems in a completely randomised design. Both, season (summer) and grazing practice increased the panting score and EOF. The heat stress indices were positively correlated (P<0.01) with dry-bulb temperature and temperature-humidity index (THI) and inversely correlated (P<0.01) to relative humidity. Allotting the sheep to intensive system increased (P<0.001) weight gain and average daily gain with higher effect in males compared to females. The parameters of asymptotic weight (A), integration constant (B), and maturation rate were higher for intensive males. The male Nellore lambs had higher asymptotic weight and lower maturity rate than females, irrespective of the rearing system. Intensive sheep revealed a higher dry matter intake, digestibility coefficients, feed conversion ratio. The instantaneous bite mass (IBM) was higher for Commelina benghalensis, while instantaneous bite frequency (IBF), instantaneous intake rate (IIR) were higher for Cyanodon dactylon and amaranthus viridis, respectively. The proportion of intakes were highest for Stylo hemata followed by Cynodon dactylon and Tridax procumbens species. No differences were observed for the weight at puberty, oestrus cycle length, oestrus duration, conception percent, gestation period, and lambing percent in three rearing systems; however, the age at puberty was lower (P<0.001) and the birth weight was higher (P<0.001) for sheep reared under intensive farming system. Highest disease incidence was observed in rainy and winter seasons, particularly in sheep reared under extensive system. The capital expenditure was same for the three rearing systems, while the recurring expenditure was higher for Intensive farming system. The gross income and net income were higher for intensive system on account of higher weight gains. However, the higher returns per rupee of expenditure project the extensive farming as an ideal rearing system for small farmers and entrepreneurs with a low initial capital.
SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the outbreak of severe respiratory illness (COVID-19) in Wuhan City, China and is now spreading rapidly throughout the world. The prompt outbreak of COVID-19 and its ...quick spread without any controllable measure defines the severity of the situation. In this crisis, a collective pool of knowledge about the advancement of clinical diagnostic and management for COVID-19 is a prerequisite. Here, we summarize all the available updates on the multidisciplinary approaches for the advancement of diagnosis and proposed therapeutic strategies for COVID-19. Moreover, the review discusses different aspects of the COVID-19, including its epidemiology; incubation period; the general clinical features of patients; the clinical features of intensive care unit (ICU) patients; SARS-CoV-2 infection in the presence of co-morbid diseases and the clinical features of pediatric patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2. Advances in various diagnostic approaches, such as the use of real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), chest radiography, and computed tomography (CT) imaging; and other modern diagnostic methods, for this infection have been highlighted. However, due to the unavailability of adequate evidence, presently there are no officially approved drugs or vaccines available against SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, we have discussed various therapeutic strategies for COVID-19 under different categories, like the possible treatment plans with drug (antiviral drugs and anti-cytokines) therapy for disease prevention. Lastly, potentials candidates for the vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 infection have been described. Collectively, the review provides an overview of the SARS-CoV-2 infection outbreak along with the recent advancements and strategies for diagnosis and therapy of COVID-19.
The P8 stem-loop region of the trnL intron, which is known to be hypervariable in size with multiple repeat motifs and created difficulties in alignment, is always excluded in phylogenetic as well as ...barcode analyses. This region was investigated for species discrimination in 98 taxa of orchids belonging to the tribe Vandeae using in silico mapping of restriction site polymorphism. The length of the P8 regions varied from 200 nucleotides in Aerides rosea to 669 nucleotides in Dendrophylax sallei. Forty two taxa had unique lengths, while as many as eight shared a common length of 521 nucleotides. Of the 35 restriction endonucleases producing digestions in the P8 regions, three, viz., AgsI, ApoI and TspDTI turned out to have recognition sites across all the 98 taxa being studied. When their restriction data were combined, 92 taxa could be discriminated leaving three taxon pairs. However, Acampe papillosa and Aeranthes arachnites despite having similar restriction sites differed in their P8 lengths. This is the first report on thorough investigation of the P8 region of trnL intron for search of species specific restriction sites and hence its use as a potential plant DNA barcode.
To investigate the effects of copper (Cu), rice plant (Oryza sativa. L. var. MSE-9) was treated with different Cu concentrations (0, 10, 50 and 100μM) for 5 days in hydroponic condition. Gradual ...decrease in shoot and root growth was observed with the increase of Cu concentration and duration of treatment where maximum inhibition was recorded in root growth. Cu was readily absorbed by the plant though the maximum accumulation was found in root than shoot. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production and lipid peroxidation were found increased with the elevated Cu concentration indicating excess Cu induced oxidative stress. Antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and glutathione reductase (GR) were effectively generated at the elevated concentrations of Cu though catalase (CAT) did not show significant variation with respect to control. Ascorbate (ASH), glutathione (GSH) and proline contents were also increased in all the Cu treated plants compared with the control. SOD isoenzyme was greatly affected by higher concentration of Cu and it was consistent with the changes of the activity assayed in solution. The present study confirmed that excess Cu inhibits growth, induced oxidative stress by inducing ROS formation while the stimulated antioxidative system appears adaptive response of rice plant against Cu induced oxidative stress. Moreover proline accumulation in Cu stress plant seems to provide additional defense against the oxidative stress.
► Excess Cu negatively affects growth of the rice plant. ► Damage was more severe in root than shoot. ► Excess Cu led to oxidative stress in rice plant by inducing ROS generation. ► The plant tolerated the oxidative stress by increasing antioxidant defense system. ► Increased level of proline also reflects its association in tolerating the stress.
The high degree of morbidity and mortality in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients is largely due to the development of chemoresistance against conventional chemotherapeutic drugs. In view of the ...accumulating evidence that various dietary botanicals offer a safe, inexpensive and multi-targeted treatment option, herein, we hypothesized that a combination of Andrographis paniculata and Oligomeric Proanthocyanidins (OPCs) might interact together with regard to anti-tumorigenic activity in CRC. As a result, we demonstrated the enhanced anti-cancer activity between these two botanical extracts in terms of their ability to inhibit cancer cell growth, suppress colony formation and induce apoptosis. Furthermore, we validated these findings in subcutaneous xenograft model and in patient derived primary epithelial 3D organoids. Transcriptomic profiling identified involvement of metabolic pathways and ferroptosis-associated genes, including HMOX1, GCLC and GCLM, that may be responsible for the increased anti-tumorigenic activity by the two compounds. Collectively, our study provides novel evidence in support of the combinatorial use of andrographis and OPCs as a potential therapeutic option, perhaps as an adjunctive treatment to classical drugs, in patients with colorectal cancer.
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•Additive manufactured catalytic converter to reduce emissions from gasohol fuels.•A novel substrate design of catalytic converter is proposed for better conversion efficiency.•The ...substrate of catalytic converter is fabricated using additive manufacturing technique.•The catalytic converter is insulated with phase change material to reduce cold-start emissions.•The cold start emissions are reduced by 75% compared to a conventional catalytic converter.
In recent years, there have been many investigations carried on the regulated emissions in SI engines using gasohol fuels. However, there has been a lack of research on unregulated emissions, the technique required to reduce unregulated emissions, and cold start emissions at gasohol fuels. In this research work, a unique design for substrate in the catalytic converter is proposed to increase the conversion efficiency and reduce both regulated and unregulated emissions. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) results show that unique design has 10.4% greater surface area, 1.29 times higher cell density, with the more uniform flow, greater pressure drop, and lesser exit velocity than conventionally shaped substrate. The novel design of substrate is fabricated using an additive manufacturing (AM) process with Stainless Steel (SS) 316L material to have high mechanical and thermal strength. The AM substrate and conventional shaped substrate are coated with non – Platinum Group Metal (PGM) catalysts such as cobalt oxide and vanadium pentoxide as catalysts using sol–gel dip-coating technique. Both the catalytic converters are tested with gasoline, E10, and E20 blends in SI engine. The emission results show 17.39% higher conversion efficiency than conventional shaped Three-way catalytic converter (TWC). The catalytic converter with the novel shaped substrate is insulated with Phase Change Material (PCM) to reduce cold-start emissions. From the cold start study, it was concluded that the PCM-KOH insulated catalytic converter is found to be the most efficient way to resolve the cold start emissions with 75% higher conversion efficiency than a conventional TWC.
Enhanced photocurrents were observed by employing zinc oxide doped single wall carbon nanotube (ZnO:SWCNT) in the photoactive medium of thin film organic solar cells (TFOSC). The investigations were ...conducted based on either poly 4,8-bis (2-ethyhexyl)oxy benzo(1,2-b:4,5-b’)dithiophene-2,6-diyl3-uoro-2-(2 ethylhexyl)carbonylthieno 3,4-bthiophenediyl (PTB7) blended with 6,6-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM),PTB7:PCBM or poly (3hexylthiophene) (P3HT): 6,6-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester, P3HT:PCBM blend active layers containing ZnO:SWCNT nanocomposite at various concentrations. The best performances of the devices were found to be dependent on both the concentration of ZnO:CNT and the nature of the host medium. A substantial improvements in power conversion efficiencies (PCE) were observed as high as 68% and 31% for PTB7:PCBM and P3HT:PCBM blend with ZnO:CNT, respectively. Further device improvement were noted by employing co-solvent and solvent additive in the processing of TFOSC. The optical, electrical and morphological properties of photoactive films are discussed based on the experimental results along with the associated effect on device performances.
•ZnO:CNT assisted charge transport improved the PCE of PTB7:PCBM organic solar cell by 68%.•The optimum ZnO:CNT loading in PTB7:PCBM blend was found to be 6% by weight.•Favourable phase segregations resulted in high photocurrent.•Charge mobility has increased by two order of magnitude by the use of solvent additives.
Pyrochlores offer an ideal playground to investigate the magnetic ground state of frustrated magnetic systems. In this class of materials, competition between various magnetic interactions remains ...frustrated and prevents an ordered magnetic state at low temperatures. Tb2Sn2O7 has recently attracted significant attention due to its ordered spin-ice state. Additionally, in such systems, application of external magnetic field might result in exotic magnetic states. Our current investigation on Tb2Sn2O7 reveal the presence of a new phase associated with fifth order susceptibility at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. In this compound, at zero fields, for a stabilized spin-ice state, the singlet–singlet state separated by δ play an imperative role. Under magnetic fields, δ increases and the Zeeman energy associated with the magnetic anisotropy is believed to get enhanced; which can be the key ingredient for evolution of higher-order moments, above 10 kOe, in this compound.
Approximate computing is an emerging computing technique for designing energy- and resource-efficient arithmetic circuits for error-resilient applications. Square root (SQR) computation is a ...fundamental and complex operation in various signal/image processing tasks. It demands high resource and energy consumption, making the square-rooter a crucial design element. This brief proposes a low-complexity logarithmic-based energy-efficient approximate square rooter (LESQ) for computing integer SQR using simple addition and shift operations. A partial error compensation scheme is also suggested for improved accuracy. The proposed approximate square rooter also enables various accuracy configurable modes to tradeoff error with hardware efficiency for targeted application requirements. LESQ achieves energy- and area-delay savings of up to 80% and 60%, respectively, compared to an accurate array-based square-rooter design. The proposed approximate design is tested on error-tolerant applications, such as image processing and amplitude modulation (AM) communication system.
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