A low cost, non-explosive process for the synthesis of graphene oxide (GO) is demonstrated. Using suitable choice of reaction parameters including temperature and time, this recipe does not require ...expensive membranes for filtration of carbonaceous and metallic residues. A pre-cooling protocol is introduced to control the explosive nature of the highly exothermic reactions during the oxidation process. This alleviates the requirement for expensive membranes and completely eliminates the explosive nature of intermediate reaction steps when compared to existing methods. High quality of the synthesized GO is corroborated using a host of characterization techniques including X-ray diffraction, optical spectroscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy and current-voltage characteristics. Simple reduction protocol using ultra-violet light is demonstrated for potential application in the area of photovoltaics. Using different reduction protocols together with the proposed inexpensive method, reduced GO samples with tunable conductance over a wide range of values is demonstrated. Density functional theory is employed to understand the structure of GO. We anticipate that this scalable approach will catalyze large scale applications of GO.
Aim
Tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) is an economically important caffeine‐containing beverage crop with massive plantation in the Northeast corner of the agroclimatic belt of India. The main ...aim of the work was to isolate, identify and characterize the native plant growth promoting endophytes associated with tea for future microbe based bioformulation.
Methods and Results
A total of 129 endophytic bacteria were isolated and characterized for plant growth promoting traits such as indole‐3‐acetic acid (IAA), phosphate solubilization, ammonia production, biocontrol traits like siderophore and extracellular enzyme production. BOX‐PCR fingerprinting was used to differentiate the various bacterial isolates obtained from six different tea species. 16S rRNA sequencing and blast analysis showed that these isolates belonged to different genera, that is, Bacillus, Brevibacterium, Paenibacillus and Lysinibacillus. Lysinibacillus sp. S24 showed the highest phosphate solubilization and IAA acid production efficiency of 268·4 ± 14·3 and 13·5 ± 0·5 µg ml−1, respectively. Brevibacterium sp. S91 showed the highest ammonia production of 6·2 ± 0·5 µmol ml−1. Chitinase, cellulase, protease and pectinase activities were shown by 4·6, 34·1, 27·13 and 13·14% of the total isolates, respectively. Similarly, 41% of the total isolates were positive for 1‐aminocyclopropane‐1‐carboxylic acid (ACC) deaminase activity. Further, the potent PGP isolates, S24 and S91 were able to enhance the vegetative parameters such as dry/fresh weight of root and shoot of tea plants in nursery conditions.
Conclusion
Our findings corroborate that tea endophytic bacteria possess the potential to demonstrate multiple PGP traits both, in vivo and in vitro and have the potential for further large‐scale trials.
Significance and Impact of the Study
The exploration of tea endophytic bacterial community is suitable for the development of bioformulations for an integrated nutrient management and thus sustainable crop production and decreasing the hazardous effects of chemical fertilizers on the environment and human health.
Many diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, neurodegenerative disease, lupus, autoimmune disease, and cancer, are described by chronic inflammation following tissue damage. Anti-inflammatory drugs ...like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and other steroids cause many side effects and generally need careful consideration and monitoring during usage. In recent years, a significant interest in plant-derived approaches has been warranted. The bioactive glycoside syringin might be one of the effective immunomodulatory agents. However, its immunomodulatory potential needs to be better known. In this study, we evaluated the immunomodulatory potential of syringin using network pharmacology, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulation-based approaches. First, we applied the GeneCards and OMIM databases to acquire the immunomodulatory agents. Then, the STRING database was utilized to get the hub genes. Interaction analysis and molecular docking described strong binding of the active site of immunomodulatory proteins with the bioactive syringin. Molecular dynamics simulations (200 ns) showed a very stable interaction of syringin with the immunomodulatory protein. Further, the optimized structure and molecular electrostatic potential of the syringin were calculated by a density-functional theory utilizing basis levels of B3LYP/6-31. Syringin investigated in this study holds the required drug-likeness characteristics and follows Lipinski's rule of five. However, quantum-chemical estimations show the syringin has potent reactivity, demonstrating a lower energy gap. Furthermore, the gap between
E
LUMO and
E
HOMO was low, suggesting the excellent affinity of syringin towards the immunomodulatory proteins. The present study shows that syringin might be an effective immunomodulatory agent and can be further explored using different experimental methods.
Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
Adsorption property of graphene oxide (GO) towards cationic dyes such as methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RhB) has been investigated experimentally. GO structure used in our study is decorated ...with experimentally observed oxygen functional groups (OFGs). Fast and effective adsorption of MB with GO in single and binary solute solution has been observed experimentally. In support of our experimental data and to understand the interaction of adsorbent (GO) and dye, density functional theory (DFT) calculation has been used for calculating individual binding energy of GO, GO/dye in aqueous medium. Further, study on dye interaction with GO reveals that adsorption was facilitated by presence of oxygen functional group through electrostatic interactions.
•Elucidate role of excess hydroxyl groups in graphene oxide dye selectivity.•Density functional theory estimate of adsorption binding energies are estimated.•Paves way for cationic dye separation.
Thin film solar cells based on Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) absorber material suffers from performance issues arising due to the presence of a non-optimal back contact barrier, low carrier lifetime, ...acceptor/donor point defects in bulk, interface defects at the absorber-buffer junction and grain boundaries within the absorber. We perform comprehensive simulations enumerating the impact of these performance limiting factors on CZTS solar cells. These simulations capture the experimentally observed anomalies in current-voltage (I–V) characteristics and the open-circuit voltage (VOC) pinning in CZTS solar cells. These cause-effect relationships as elaborated in the findings are expected to be of great interest to the experimentalists working in this field.
•A detailed I–V modeling for CZTS solar cells to understand anomalies observed in experiments.•Simulation shows donor type defect cause VOC loss and acceptor type cause current loss.•Deep defect at the interface of CZTS/CdS has severe effect on efficiency than shallow defects.•The impact of grain size on the efficiency of CZTS solar cell is simulated.
Purpose
Synthetic non-absorbable meshes are routinely used in hernia surgery for clean cases but are avoided in the case of clean-contaminated or contaminated hernia or dirty cases to minimize the ...risk of infection. The present study was conducted to evaluate the outcome of polypropylene mesh in the settings of bowel resection performed for strangulated hernias of the abdominal wall.
Methods
This prospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Surgery of a teaching hospital in central India between 1st March 2015 and 31st Aug 2017. Adult patients > 18 years age, with abdominal wall hernias, presenting with strangulation, and requiring resection and anastomosis for gangrenous bowel were included in the study. Outcomes noted were wound infection, morbidity and mortality, need for the removal of the mesh, and recurrence of the hernia.
Results
30 (22 men and 8 women) patients with strangulated hernias underwent emergency surgery with resection of gangrenous bowel and anastomosis. The 30 cases included 21 inguinal, seven incisional, one femoral and one umbilical hernia. 12 of the 30 cases having gross contamination of the operative wound due to perforated gangrenous bowel were classified as ‘dirty’; while the remaining 18 cases with non-perforated gangrenous herniating bowel were classified as ‘contaminated’. Wound infection occurred in 8/30 patients (26.67%); but these healed with antibiotics and dressing. Mesh removal was not required in any patient during entire study period. Two recurrences (6.7%; one inguinal and one incisional hernia) were observed. There was no mortality.
Conclusion
The use of polypropylene mesh for contaminated and dirty strangulated hernias is effective and safe, with acceptable morbidity and good short-term results.
Encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS) is a rare but serious condition that results in (a) encapsulation of bowel within a thickened fibrocollagenous peritoneal membrane and (b) recurrent episodes ...of bowel obstruction. Although described by various names in the literature, the preferred term is encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis because it best describes the morphologic and histologic changes in this disorder. The etiology of EPS is multifactorial, with a wide variety of implicated predisposing factors that disrupt the normal physiologic function of the peritoneal membrane-prime among these factors being long-term peritoneal dialysis and bacterial peritoneal infections, especially tuberculosis. The clinical features of EPS are usually nonspecific, and knowledge of the radiologic features is necessary to make a specific diagnosis. The findings on radiographs are usually normal. Images from small-bowel follow-through studies show the bowel loops conglomerated in a concertina-like fashion with a serpentine arrangement in a fixed U-shaped configuration. US demonstrates a "cauliflower" appearance of bowel with a narrow base, as well as a "trilaminar" appearance depicted especially with use of high-resolution US probes. CT is the imaging modality of choice and allows identification of the thickened contrast material-enhanced abnormal peritoneal membrane and the encapsulated clumped bowel loops. In addition, CT can potentially help identify the cause of EPS (omental granuloma in tuberculosis), as well as the complications of EPS (bowel obstruction). Conservative medical treatment and surgical therapy early in the course of EPS have been used for management of the condition. The purpose of this article is to review the nomenclature and etiopathogenesis of EPS, describe the multimodality imaging appearances of EPS, including differentiating its features from those of other conditions mimicking EPS, and give an overview of management options. Online DICOM image stacks are available for this article.
RSNA, 2018.
Quantifying soil attributes in agroforestry reflects its productivity and carbon dynamics which indicates a healthier ecosystem functioning toward achieving sustainable production of coffee in the ...Southern region of Chhattisgarh. The present study was carried out in the coffee-based agroforestry system (AFs) of the Darbha Block, Bastar region in Chhattisgarh. The objective of this paper was to analyze soil properties and carbon dynamics of soil under five varietal treatments of coffee-based AFs. Silver oak cultivation was added to the AFs as it protects coffee and helps in sustainable coffee production. The soil was collected randomly using the auger from two different depths viz., 0–15 and 15–30 cm under coffee-based AFs. The value of N, P, K, S, B, Zn, C, Fe, Mn, OC%, and SOC stock were higher in San Ramon (T3) based AFs. The values of bulk density (BD), pH, and EC were recorded as highest under control treatment (To), respectively. Soil organic carbon (SOC) stock ranged between 10.21 (T0)–13.86 (T3) and 0.34 (T0)–0.59 (T3)
t
ha
−1
for surface and sub-soil, respectively. Data analysis revealed the isolation of six PCA (principle component analysis) from the various soil attributes. The first component reflected maximum variability for both layers. Further, correlation studies revealed a strong association between the soil attributes. Therefore, the present work highlights the importance of agroforestry systems towards improving soil quality along with sustainable production of coffee.
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