Ionic Silicon Protects Oxidative Damage and Promotes Skeletal Muscle Cell Regeneration

Volumetric muscle loss injuries overwhelm the endogenous regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle, and the associated oxidative damage can delay regeneration and prolong recovery. This study aimed to investigate the effect of silicon-ions on C2C12 skeletal muscle cells under normal and excessive oxidative stress conditions to gain insights into its role on myogenesis during the early stages of muscle regeneration. In vitro studies indicated that 0.1 mM Si-ions into cell culture media significantly increased cell viability, proliferation, migration, and myotube formation compared to control. Additionally, MyoG, MyoD, Neurturin, and GABA expression were significantly increased with addition of 0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 mM of Si-ion for 1 and 5 days of C2C12 myoblast differentiation. Furthermore, 0.1–2.0 mM Si-ions attenuated the toxic effects of H₂O₂ within 24 h resulting in increased cell viability and differentiation. Addition of 1.0 mM of Si-ions significantly aid cell recovery and protected from the toxic effect of 0.4 mM H₂O₂ on cell migration. These results suggest that ionic silicon may have a potential effect in unfavorable situations where reactive oxygen species is predominant affecting cell viability, proliferation, migration, and differentiation. Furthermore, this study provides a guide for designing Si-containing biomaterials with desirable Si-ion release for skeletal muscle regeneration.     

Biosensors For Monitoring Insecticides And Herbicides - A Survey

Biosensors for the detection of insecticides and herbicides have been reviewed. Direct, fast and easy determination of various insecticides - organophosphorus and carbamates, and herbicides has been achieved by integrating various biocomponents with different transducers. For the construction of biosensors, bioassay principles, effect of solvents and immobilization techniques used, and the compatibility of bioassay principle with the transducer has been discussed. The close integration of the biological events with the generation of a signal offers the potential for fabricating compact and easy-to-use analytical tools of high sensitivity and specificity. Their biological base makes them ideal for toxicological measurement of pesticides, while conventional techniques can only measure concentration. Screening of a particular source for biological component could be helpful to design a specific biosensor.     

Discrimination analysis of Indian tea varieties based upon color under optimum illumination

The paper investigates optimum light illumination intensity for maximum discrimination of the Indian black tea varieties using machine vision. The technique involves acquisition and analysis of color information of brewed tea liquor after setting different light illumination intensities between 700 and 1,300 lux. The data involving color attributes was analyzed using principal component analysis. It was observed that best discrimination among these tea varieties was achieved between 1,000 and 1,050 lux. The correlation analysis was also performed to show the relationship between color attributes and tea varieties. The study reveals that color attributes are significant parameters for discriminating Indian black tea varieties. The proposed technique is fast, convenient and low cost over the methods involving chemical analysis. It is an important step towards standardization of quality evaluation of tea by instrumented means.     

Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Wheat Gluten Proteins and their Contribution to Instant Noodle Quality

This study was carried out to examine the effect of quantity and quality of wheat gluten proteins on the quality attributes of instant fried noodles. Dough development time, dough stability, SDS sedimentation volume, gluten index and Resistance to extension/Extensibility (R/E) ratio were found to be positively correlated with glutenin content, whereas negatively associated with the quantity of gliadin sub-fractions. Medium strong flours were found most suitable for noodle preparation. The weaker flours from cultivars HW 2004 and C 306 having HMW-GS composition of Null, 2+12 and 20 alleles expressed at Glu-A1, B1 and D1, respectively could not withstand sheeting, resulted in rough surface and high breakage of noodles. The best noodle cultivars DBW 16 and WH 542 had 5+10 glutenin subunits at Glu-D1, however, differed in subunits expressed at Glu-A1 and Glu-B1 loci. Oil uptake and cooking time of noodles varied considerably from 15.4 to 22.7% and 2.0 to 4.0 min, respectively. Oil uptake in noodles was positively correlated with dough softening, however, all the parameters related to gluten quality and strength were negatively associated with the oil uptake. Cooking time of instant noodles was found to be highly associated with protein content (R² = 0.778) of flour, gluten quality and strength. Hardness or firmness of cooked noodles was found to be significantly linked with SDS sedimentation volume (R² = 0.725), gluten index (R² = 0.610), glutenin content (R² = 0.619), gliadin content (R² = ?0.567), R/E ratio (R² = 0.532) and gliadins/glutenins (R² = ?0.605) ratio.     

Current Trends in Neurodegeneration: Cross Talks between Oxidative Stress,Cell Death,and Inflammation

The human body is highly complex and comprises a variety of living cells and extracellular material, which forms tissues, organs, and organ systems. Human cells tend to turn over readily to maintain homeostasis in tissues. However, postmitotic nerve cells exceptionally have an ability to regenerate and be sustained for the entire life of an individual, to safeguard the physiological functioning of the central nervous system. For efficient functioning of the CNS, neuronal death is essential, but extreme loss of neurons diminishes the functioning of the nervous system and leads to the onset of neurodegenerative diseases. Neurodegenerative diseases range from acute to chronic severe life-altering conditions like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Millions of individuals worldwide are suffering from neurodegenerative disorders with little or negligible treatment available, thereby leading to a decline in their quality of life. Neuropathological studies have identified a series of factors that explain the etiology of neuronal degradation and its progression in neurodegenerative disease. The onset of neurological diseases depends on a combination of factors that causes a disruption of neurons, such as environmental, biological, physiological, and genetic factors. The current review highlights some of the major pathological factors responsible for neuronal degradation, such as oxidative stress, cell death, and neuroinflammation. All these factors have been described in detail to enhance the understanding of their mechanisms and target them for disease management.     

Preparing for Accreditation Under EC 2000: An Experience Report

Preparing for an accreditation evaluation under Engineering Criteria 2000 is a demanding task. For many programs, the most challenging requirements of the criteria have to do with establishing mechanisms to obtain input from various constituencies, formulating objectives on the basis of these inputs, formulating outcomes corresponding to each objective, establishing a range of assessment mechanisms to evaluate the program and outcomes, and establishing feedback mechanisms to use the results of the assessment to improve the program. This paper presents the experience of one program and some of the lessons learned.     

Detection of bioconjugated quantum dots passivated with different ligands for bio-applications

Bioconjugation of quantum dots has resulted in a significant increase in resolution of biological fluorescent labeling. This intrinsic property of quantum dots can be utilized for sensitive detection of target analytes with high sensitivity; including pathogenic bacteria and cancer monitoring. The quantum dots and quantum dot doped silica nanoparticles exhibit prominent emission peaks when excited at 400 nm but on conjugation to model rabbit antigoat antibodies exhibit diminished intensity of emission peak at 600 nm. It shows that photoluminescence intensity of conjugated quantum dots and quantum dot doped silica nanoparticles could permit the detection of bioconjugation. Samples of conjugated and unconjugated quantum dots and quantum dot doped silica nanoparticles were subjected to enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for further confirmation of bioconjugation. In the present study ligand exchange, bioconjugation, fluorescence detection of bioconjugated quantum dots and quantum dot doped silica nanoparticles and further confirmation of bioconjugation by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay has been described.     

Structural and electrical studies on Bi2VO5.5/Bi4Ti3O12 multilayer thin films

The textured multilayer (ML) thin films of bismuth layered ferroelectric (FE) compounds, Bi₂VO_5.5 (BVO) and Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ (BTO) with different individual layer thicknesses were fabricated via pulsed laser deposition technique on Pt(111)/TiO₂/SiO₂/Si substrates. X-ray diffraction studies confirmed that BVO and BTO retained their respective crystal structures in these multilayer (ML) thin films. The atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy studies showed smooth and dense microstructures. The polarization hysteresis (P?CE) studies on a representative (BVBT30) ML thin film at 300 K confirmed the remnant polarization (2P _r ) and coercive field (E _c ) to be ~20 ??C/cm² and 250 kV/cm, respectively. The value of P _r obtained was greater than that of the single layer thin film of BVO (P _r  ~ 5.6 ??C/cm²). The room temperature dielectric constant (??_r??) and the loss (D) for BVBT30 ML measured at 100 kHz were 170 and 0.01, respectively. The frequency and temperature dependent dielectric constant, impedance, modulus and ac conductivity of these ML thin films were studied as a function of frequency (100 Hz?C1 MHz) in the 25?C300 °C temperature range. Two distinct electrical responses were observed in these films, which were attributed to the grain effects at low temperatures and grain boundary effects at higher temperatures. The frequency dependent electrical conductivity was fitted well with the double power law which evidenced two different types of contributions to the conductivity; the low frequency conductivity being due to the short range translational hopping and the high frequency conductivity was due to the localized or reorientational hopping.     

Development of products incorporating fermented rice-dehulled blackgram-whey blends; their sensory and nutritional evaluation

Products like biscuits and weaning mixture incorporating fermented rice-dehulled blackgram-whey slurries were developed and analysed for sensory and nutritional evaluation. Rice and dehulled blackgram flour blend mixed in 70:30 proportion and fermented with whey at 35 °C for 18 h was the most acceptable blend for the preparation of biscuits as well as weaning mixture. Crude-protein, true-protein, non-protein nitrogen, fat and ash contents of the developed products whether incorporating fermented or unfermented cereal-legume-whey blends did not differ significantly. Antinutritional factors were significantly less and in vitro digestibilities of starch and protein were re-.     

Effect of Graded Dispersion of SiC Particles on Dielectric Behavior of SiC/Epoxy Composite

Silicon - Gradient structures mainly boost the dielectric and mechanical properties of composites. Herein, the fabrication of silicon carbide (SiC)/epoxy gradient composites via centrifugal casting...