SRM University

Chitin is a major component of fungal cell walls and serves as a microbe-associated molecular pattern (MAMP) for the detection of various potential pathogens in innate immune systems of both plants and animals. We recently showed that chitin elicitor-binding protein (CEBiP), plasma membrane glycoprotein with LysM motifs, functions as a cell surface receptor for chitin elicitor in rice. The predicted structure of CEBiP does not contain any intracellular domains, suggesting that an additional component(s) is required for signaling through the plasma membrane into the cytoplasm. Here, we identified a receptor-like kinase, designated CERK1, which is essential for chitin elicitor signaling in Arabidopsis. The KO mutants for CERK1 completely lost the ability to respond to the chitin elicitor, including MAPK activation, reactive oxygen species generation, and gene expression. Disease resistance of the KO mutant against an incompatible fungus, Alternaria brassicicola, was partly impaired. Complementation with the WT CERK1 gene showed cerk1 mutations were responsible for the mutant phenotypes. CERK1 is a plasma membrane protein containing three LysM motifs in the extracellular domain and an intracellular Ser/Thr kinase domain with autophosphorylation/myelin basic protein kinase activity, suggesting that CERK1 plays a critical role in fungal MAMP perception in plants.

The use of F. religiosa might be beneficial in inflammatory illnesses and can be used for a variety of health conditions. In this article, we studied the identification of antioxidants using (DPPH) 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazylradical scavenging activity in Ficus religiosa, as F. religiosa is an important herbal plant, and every part of it has various medicinal properties such as antibacterial properties that can be used by the researchers in the development and design of various new drugs. The 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) is a popular, quick, easy, and affordable approach for the measurement of antioxidant properties that includes the use of the free radicals used for assessing the potential of substances to serve as hydrogen providers or free-radical scavengers (FRS). The technique of DPPH testing is associated with the elimination of DPPH, which would be a stabilized free radical. The free-radical DPPH interacts with an odd electron to yield a strong absorbance at 517 nm, i.e., a purple hue. An FRS antioxidant, for example, reacts to DPPH to form DPPHH, which has a lower absorbance than DPPH because of the lower amount of hydrogen. It is radical in comparison to the DPPH-H form, because it causes decolorization, or a yellow hue, as the number of electrons absorbed increases. Decolorization affects the lowering capacity significantly. As soon as the DPPH solutions are combined with the hydrogen atom source, the lower state of diphenylpicrylhydrazine is formed, shedding its violet color. To explain the processes behind the DPPH tests, as well as their applicability to Ficus religiosa (F. religiosa) in the manufacture of metal oxide nanoparticles, in particular MgO, and their influence on antioxidants, a specimen from the test was chosen for further study. According to our findings, F. religiosa has antioxidant qualities and may be useful in the treatment of disorders caused by free radicals.

The Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) represents a notable breakthrough in the domain of natural language processing, which is propelling us toward the development of machines that can understand and communicate using language in a manner that closely resembles that of humans. GPT is based on the transformer architecture, a deep neural network designed for natural language processing tasks. Due to their impressive performance on natural language processing tasks and ability to effectively converse, GPT have gained significant popularity among researchers and industrial communities, making them one of the most widely used and effective models in natural language processing and related fields, which motivated to conduct this review. This review provides a detailed overview of the GPT, including its architecture, working process, training procedures, enabling technologies, and its impact on various applications. In this review, we also explored the potential challenges and limitations of a GPT. Furthermore, we discuss potential solutions and future directions. Overall, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of GPT, its enabling technologies, their impact on various applications, emerging challenges, and potential solutions.

Antibiotic resistance, and, in a broader perspective, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), continues to evolve and spread beyond all boundaries. As a result, infectious diseases have become more challenging or even impossible to treat, leading to an increase in morbidity and mortality. Despite the failure of conventional, traditional antimicrobial therapy, in the past two decades, no novel class of antibiotics has been introduced. Consequently, several novel alternative strategies to combat these (multi-) drug-resistant infectious microorganisms have been identified. The purpose of this review is to gather and consider the strategies that are being applied or proposed as potential alternatives to traditional antibiotics. These strategies include combination therapy, techniques that target the enzymes or proteins responsible for antimicrobial resistance, resistant bacteria, drug delivery systems, physicochemical methods, and unconventional techniques, including the CRISPR-Cas system. These alternative strategies may have the potential to change the treatment of multi-drug-resistant pathogens in human clinical settings.

Root canal therapy has been practiced ever since 1928 and the success rate has tremendously increased over the years owing to various advancements in the field. One main reason is the complete understanding of the microbiology involved in the endodontic pathology. This has helped us to modify the conventional treatment plans and effectively combat the microorganisms. Now, studies are aiming to explore the characteristics of the "most" resistant organism and the methods to eliminate them. This article gives an insight of the microbiology involved in endodontic pathology and discusses its role in our treatment procedure. Information from original reviews listed in PubMed, published from 1995 to 2010, has been mainly included in this review.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are a widespread research tool because of their oxidation resistance, biocompatibility and stability. Chemical methods for AuNP synthesis often produce toxic residues that raise environmental concern. On the other hand, the biological synthesis of AuNPs in viable microorganisms and their cell-free extracts is an environmentally friendly and low-cost process. In general, fungi tolerate higher metal concentrations than bacteria and secrete abundant extracellular redox proteins to reduce soluble metal ions to their insoluble form and eventually to nanocrystals. Fungi harbour untapped biological diversity and may provide novel metal reductases for metal detoxification and bioreduction. A thorough understanding of the biosynthetic mechanism of AuNPs in fungi is needed to reduce the time of biosynthesis and to scale up the AuNP production process. In this review, we describe the known mechanisms for AuNP biosynthesis in viable fungi and fungal protein extracts and discuss the most suitable bioreactors for industrial AuNP biosynthesis.

As the computer technology and computer network technology are developing, the amount of data in information industry is getting higher and higher. It is necessary to analyze this large amount of data and extract useful knowledge from it. Process of extracting the useful knowledge from huge set of incomplete, noisy, fuzzy and random data is called data mining. Decision tree classification technique is one of the most popular data mining techniques. In decision tree divide and conquer technique is used as basic learning strategy. A decision tree is a structure that includes a root node, branches, and leaf nodes. Each internal node denotes a test on an attribute, each branch denotes the outcome of a test, and each leaf node holds a class label. The topmost node in the tree is the root node. This paper focus on the various algorithms of Decision tree (ID3, C4.5, CART), their characteristic, challenges, advantage and disadvantage.

In the recent years, noble nanoparticles have attracted and emerged in the field of biology, medicine and electronics due to their incredible applications. There were several methods have been used for synthesis of nanoparticles such as toxic chemicals and high energy physical procedures. To overcome these, biological method has been used for the synthesis of various metal nanoparticles. Among the nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have received much attention in various fields, such as antimicrobial activity, therapeutics, bio-molecular detection, silver nanocoated medical devices and optical receptor. Moreover, the biological approach, in particular the usage of natural organisms has offered a reliable, simple, nontoxic and environmental friendly method. Hence, the current article is focused on the biological synthesis of silver nanoparticles and their application in the biomedical field.

Abstract Academic and corporate interest in ethical leadership, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and firm performance has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. In fact, many research papers and journal special issues have been focused on these three domains. In this context, this paper conducts a systematic review on the concepts of ethical leadership and CSR and their impact on firm performance. 114 papers published over a period of 58 years (1958–2016) were selected and analyzed according to descriptive and content perspectives to propose a conceptual framework and define a future research agenda. In fact, the main results allow us to derive six main propositions representing possible areas of investigation to direct research on the topic. More in details, the body of literature highlights that financial factors are the main barriers affecting the adoption of CSR practices. On the contrary, internal and external environment was found to represent a critical success factor in the adoption of CSR practices. Finally, the results highlight that personal values have impact on ethical leadership that in turn has direct positive impact on CSR and direct and indirect impact on firm performance.

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are an attractive nanomaterial consisting of a monolayer or a few layers of graphene having excellent and unique properties. GQDs are endowed with the properties of both carbon dots (CDs) and graphene. This review addresses applications of GQD based materials in sensing, bioimaging and energy storage. In the first part of the review, different approaches of GQD synthesis such as top-down and bottom-up synthesis methods have been discussed. The prime focus of this review is on green synthesis methods that have also been applied to the synthesis of GQDs. The GQDs have been discussed thoroughly for all the aspects along with their potential applications in sensors, biomedicine, and energy storage systems. In particular, emphasis is given to popular applications such as electrochemical and photoluminescence (PL) sensors, electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensors, humidity and gas sensors, bioimaging, lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, supercapacitors and dye-sensitized solar cells. Finally, the challenges and the future perspectives of GQDs in the aforementioned application fields have been discussed.

Abstract Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a well‐touted term in management disciplines that connects the business goals and societal values. CSR is used as a strategic approach that gives competitive differentiation through coagulation of both business and overarching societal goals. Organizations believe that goodwill created by CSR activities bestows the strategic competitive advantage and sustainable development. The objective of the study is to measure the impact of CSR activities on purchase intention either directly or indirectly; for this purpose, the study has administered a structured questionnaire and collected responses from Indian citizens purchasing products from FMCG companies topping the CSR spending list and used structural equation modeling to validate the results. The findings suggest that customers process CSR details unconsciously and may not remember the explicit detail, but they are more likely to include the brand in the consideration set evokedby positive attitudes trailing behind.

Cannonball ( Couroupita guianensis ) is a tree belonging to the family Lecythidaceae. Various parts of the tree have been reported to contain oils, keto steroids, glycosides, couroupitine, indirubin, isatin, and phenolic substances. We report here the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using cannonball leaves. Green synthesized nanoparticles have been characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, SEM, TEM, and FTIR. Cannonball leaf broth as a reducing agent converts silver ions to AgNPs in a rapid and ecofriendly manner. The UV-Vis spectra gave surface plasmon resonance peak at 434 nm. TEM image shows well-dispersed silver nanoparticles with an average particle size of 28.4 nm. FTIR showed the structure and respective bands of the synthesized nanoparticles and the stretch of bonds. Green synthesized silver nanoparticles by cannonball leaf extract show cytotoxicity to human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Overall, this environmentally friendly method of biological silver nanoparticles production provides rates of synthesis faster than or comparable to those of chemical methods and can potentially be used in various human contacting areas such as cosmetics, foods, and medical applications.

The rapid developments in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) help the smart healthcare systems to deliver more sophisticated real-time services. At the same time, IoMT also raises many privacy and security issues. Also, the heterogeneous nature of these devices makes it challenging to develop a common security standard solution. Furthermore, the existing cloud-centric IoMT healthcare systems depend on cloud computing for electrical health records (EHR) and medical services, which is not suggestible for a decentralized IoMT healthcare systems. In this article, we have proposed a blockchain-based novel architecture that provides a decentralized EHR and smart-contract-based service automation without compromising with the system security and privacy. In this architecture, we have introduced the hybrid computing paradigm with the blockchain-based distributed data storage system to overcome blockchain-based cloud-centric IoMT healthcare system drawbacks, such as high latency, high storage cost, and single point of failure. A decentralized selective ring-based access control mechanism is introduced along with device authentication and patient records anonymity algorithms to improve the proposed system's security capabilities. We have evaluated the latency and cost effectiveness of data sharing on the proposed system using Blockchain. Also, we conducted a logical system analysis, which reveals that our architecture-based security and privacy mechanisms are capable of fulfilling the requirements of decentralized IoMT smart healthcare systems. Experimental analysis proves that our fortified-chain-based H-CPS needs insignificant storage and has a response time in the order of milliseconds as compared to traditional centralized H-CPS while providing decentralized automated access control, security, and privacy.

Abstract Dietary polyphenols have been widely investigated as antidiabetic agents in cell, animals, human study, and clinical trial. The number of publication (Indexed by Web of Science) on “polyphenols and diabetes” significantly increased since 2010. This review highlights the advances and opportunities of dietary polyphenols as antidiabetic agents. Dietary polyphenols prevent and manage Type 2 diabetes mellitus via the insulin‐dependent approaches, for instance, protection of pancreatic islet β‐cell, reduction of β‐cell apoptosis, promotion of β‐cell proliferation, attenuation of oxidative stress, activation of insulin signaling, and stimulation of pancreas to secrete insulin, as well as the insulin‐independent approaches including inhibition of glucose absorption, inhibition of digestive enzymes, regulation of intestinal microbiota, modification of inflammation response, and inhibition of the formation of advanced glycation end products. Moreover, dietary polyphenols ameliorate diabetic complications, such as vascular dysfunction, nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, cardiomyopathy, coronary diseases, renal failure, and so on. The structure–activity relationship of polyphenols as antidiabetic agents is still not clear. The individual flavonoid or isoflavone has no therapeutic effect on diabetic patients, although the clinical data are very limited. Resveratrol, curcumin, and anthocyanins showed antidiabetic activity in human study. How hyperglycemia influences the bioavailability and bioactivity of dietary polyphenols is not well understood. An understanding of how diabetes alters the bioavailability and bioactivity of dietary polyphenols will lead to an improvement in their benefits and clinical outcomes.

In this study, four factors at three level central composite face centered design was employed to study and optimize the process variables on extraction of bioactive compounds (total anthocyanin, phenolic and flavonoid content) from Nephelium lappaceum L. fruit peel. The effect of process variables such as extraction temperature (30–50 °C), power of ultrasound (20–40 W), extraction time (10–30 min) and solid–liquid ratio (1:10–1:20 g/ml) is studied. Multiple regression analysis was done on the experimental data to develop second-order polynomial models with high coefficient of determination value (R2 > 0.99). The optimal conditions based on both individual and combinations of all process variables (extraction temperature of 50 °C, ultrasound power of 20 W, extraction time of 20 min and solid–liquid ratio of 1:18.6 g/ml) were determined by Derringer’s desired function methodology. Under these conditions, total anthocyanin (10.26 ± 0.39 (mg/100 g)), phenolics (552.64 ± 1.57 (mg GAE/100 g)) and flavonoid (104 ± 1.13 (mg RE/100 g)) content values were determined and it is closely related with the predicted values (10.17 mg/100 g of total anthocyanin, 546.98 mg GAE/100 g of total phenolics and 100.93 mg RE/100 g of total flavonoid content) and indicted the suitability of the developed models.

BACKGROUND: α-amylase and α-glucosidase digest the carbohydrates and increase the postprandial glucose level in diabetic patients. Inhibiting the activity of these two enzymes can control postprandial hyperglycemia, and reduce the risk of developing diabetes. Bitter gourd or balsam pear is one of the important medicinal plants used for controlling postprandial hyperglycemia in diabetes patients. However, there is limited information available on the presence of α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibiting compounds. In the current study, the protein extracts from the fruits of M. charantia var. charantia (MCC) and M. charantia var. muricata (MCM) were tested for α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibiting activities in vitro, and glucose lowering activity after oral administration in vivo. RESULTS: The protein extract from both MCC and MCM inhibited the activity of α-amylase and α-glucosidase through competitive inhibition, which was on par with Acarbose as indicated by in vitro percentage of inhibition (66 to 69 %) and IC50 (0.26 to 0.29 mg/ml). Both the protein extracts significantly reduced peak blood glucose and area under the curve in Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats, which were orally challenged with starch and sucrose. CONCLUSIONS: Protein extracts from the fruits of the two varieties of bitter gourd inhibited α-amylase and α-glucosidase in vitro and lowered the blood glucose level in vivo on par with Acarbose when orally administrated to Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Further studies on mechanism of action and methods of safe and biologically active delivery will help to develop an anti-diabetic oral protein drug from these plants.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has evolved significantly over fifty years into a powerful analytical technique. This review aims to achieve five main goals. (1) Providing a comprehensive history of SERS's discovery, its experimental and theoretical foundations, its connections to advances in nanoscience and plasmonics, and highlighting collective contributions of key pioneers. (2) Classifying four pivotal phases from the view of innovative methodologies in the fifty-year progression: initial development (mid-1970s to mid-1980s), downturn (mid-1980s to mid-1990s), nano-driven transformation (mid-1990s to mid-2010s), and recent boom (mid-2010s onwards). (3) Illuminating the entire journey and framework of SERS and its family members such as tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) and shell-isolated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SHINERS) and highlighting the trajectory. (4) Emphasizing the importance of innovative methods to overcome developmental bottlenecks, thereby expanding the material, morphology, and molecule generalities to leverage SERS as a versatile technique for broad applications. (5) Extracting the invaluable spirit of groundbreaking discovery and perseverant innovations from the pioneers and trailblazers. These key inspirations include proactively embracing and leveraging emerging scientific technologies, fostering interdisciplinary cooperation to transform the impossible into reality, and persistently searching to break bottlenecks even during low-tide periods, as luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Graphene quantum dots are known to exhibit tunable photoluminescence (PL) through manipulation of edge functionality under various synthesis conditions. Here, we report observation of excitation dependent anomalous m-n type fingerprint PL transition in synthesized amino functionalized graphene quantum dots (5-7 nm). The effect of band-to-band π*-π and interstate to band n-π induced transitions led to effective multicolor emission under changeable excitation wavelength in the functionalized system. A reasonable assertion that equi-coupling of π*-π and n-π transitions activated the heterogeneous dual mode cyan emission was made upon observation of the PL spectra. Furthermore, investigation of incremented dimensional scaling through facile synthesis of amino functionalized quantum graphene flakes (20-30 nm) revealed it had negligible effect on the modulated PL pattern. Moreover, an effort was made to trace the origin of excitation dependent tunable heterogeneous photoluminescence through the framework of energy band diagram hypothesis and first principles analysis. Ab initio results suggested formation of an interband state as a manifestation of p orbital hybridization between C-N atoms at the edge sites. Therefore comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis revealed that newly created energy levels can exist as an interband within the energy gap in functionalized graphene quantum structures yielding excitation dependent tunable PL for optoelectronic applications.

In this experiment, green-synthesized silver and gold nanoparticles were produced rapidly by treating silver and gold ions with an extract of Memecylon umbellatum leaf. The reaction process was simple and easy to handle, and was monitored using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. The effect of the phytochemicals present in M. umbellatum, including saponins, phenolic compounds, phytosterols, and quinones, on formation of stable silver and gold nanoparticles was investigated by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The morphology and crystalline phase of the nanoparticles were determined by transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. The results indicate that the saponins, phytosterols, and phenolic compounds present in the plant extract play a major role in formation of silver and gold nanoparticles in their respective ions in solution. The characteristics of the nanoparticles formed suggest application of silver and gold nanoparticles as chemical sensors in the future. Given the simple and eco-friendly approach for synthesis, these nanoparticles could easily be commercialized for large-scale production.

Nanoengineered biomaterials have dramatically expanded the range of tools used for infection control and to accelerate wound healing. This review thoroughly describes the developments that are shaping this emerging field and evaluates the potential wound healing applications of recently developed engineered nanomaterials for both acute and chronic wounds. Specifically, we will assess the unique characteristics of engineered nanomaterials that render them applicable for wound healing and infection control. A range of engineered nanomaterials, including polymeric-, metallic- and ceramic-based nanomaterials, that could be used as therapeutic delivery agents to accelerate regeneration of damaged dermal and epidermal tissues are also detailed. Finally, we will detail the current state of engineered nanomaterials for wound regeneration and will identify promising new research directions in infection control.