Ultrastructural analysis of cell wall of drug resistant and sensitive Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from cerebrospinal fluid by transmission electron microscope

Drug‐resistant tuberculosis is being increasingly recognized and is one among the leading cause of death worldwide. Remarkable impermeability of cell wall to antituberculous drugs protects the mycobacteria from drug action. The present study analyzed the cell wall thickness among first‐line drug resistant and sensitive Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) isolated from cerebrospinal fluid by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The average thickness of the cell wall of sensitive isolates was 13.60 ± 0.98 nm. The maximum difference (26.48%) in the cell wall thickness was seen among multi‐drug resistant (18.50 ± 1.71 nm) isolates and the least difference (4.14%) was shown by streptomycin‐resistant (14.18 ± 1.38 nm) isolates. The ultrastructural study showed evident differences in the cell wall thickness among sensitive and resistant isolates. Preliminary TEM examination of cells indicates that morphological changes occur in the cell wall which might be attributed to the drug resistance. The thickened wall of Mtb appears to help the bacilli to overcome the action of antituberculous drugs.     

Numerical Preservation of Velocity Induced Invariant Regions for Reaction–Diffusion Systems on Evolving Surfaces

We propose and analyse a finite element method with mass lumping (LESFEM) for the numerical approximation of reaction–diffusion systems (RDSs) on surfaces in \({\mathbb {R}}^3\) that evolve under a given velocity field. A fully-discrete method based on the implicit–explicit (IMEX) Euler time-discretisation is formulated and dilation rates which act as indicators of the surface evolution are introduced. Under the assumption that the mesh preserves the Delaunay regularity under evolution, we prove a sufficient condition, that depends on the dilation rates, for the existence of invariant regions (i) at the spatially discrete level with no restriction on the mesh size and (ii) at the fully-discrete level under a timestep restriction that depends on the kinetics, only. In the specific case of the linear heat equation, we prove a semi- and a fully-discrete maximum principle. For the well-known activator-depleted and Thomas reaction–diffusion models we prove the existence of a family of rectangles in the phase space that are invariant only under specific growth laws. Two numerical examples are provided to computationally demonstrate (i) the discrete maximum principle and optimal convergence for the heat equation on a linearly growing sphere and (ii) the existence of an invariant region for the LESFEM–IMEX Euler discretisation of a RDS on a logistically growing surface.     

Single-Component CMOS-Like Logic using Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based Ambipolar Organic Electrochemical Transistors

Complementary circuits based on organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are attractive for the development of inexpensive and disposable point-of-care bioelectronic devices. Ambipolar OECTs, which employ a single channel material, could decrease the fabrication complexity and manufacturing costs of such circuits. An ideal channel material for ambipolar OECTs should be electrochemically stable in aqueous environments, afford facile ion insertion for both cations and anions, and also facilitate high and balanced electron and hole transport. In this study, triethylene glycol functionalized diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP)-based polymer is proposed for the development of ambipolar OECTs. It is shown that DPP-based OECTs have a high and comparable figure of merit for both n- and p-type operations. Logic NOT, NAND, and NOR operations with corresponding complementary circuits constructed from identical DPP-based OECT devices are demonstrated. This study is an important step toward the development of sophisticated complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor-like logic circuits using single-component OECTs.     

Gum arabic as a phytochemical construct for the stabilization of gold nanoparticles: in vivo pharmacokinetics and X-ray-contrast-imaging studies

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have exceptional stability against oxidation and therefore will play a significant role in the advancement of clinically useful diagnostic and therapeutic nanomedicines. Despite the huge potential for a new generation of AuNP-based nanomedicinal products, nontoxic AuNP constructs and formulations that can be readily administered site-specifically through the intravenous mode, for diagnostic imaging by computed tomography (CT) or for therapy via various modalities, are still rare. Herein, we report results encompassing: 1) the synthesis and stabilization of AuNPs within the nontoxic phytochemical gum-arabic matrix (GA-AuNPs); 2) detailed in vitro analysis and in vivo pharmacokinetics studies of GA-AuNPs in pigs to gain insight into the organ-specific localization of this new generation of AuNP vector, and 3) X-ray CT contrast measurements of GA-AuNP vectors for potential utility in molecular imaging. Our results demonstrate that naturally occurring GA can be used as a nontoxic phytochemical construct in the production of readily administrable biocompatible AuNPs for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in nanomedicine.     

A study of an n-unit system operating in a random environment

An n-unit system operating in a random environment is considered. The environment determines the number of units required for the satisfactory performance of the system. Assuming that the environment is described by a Markov process, we obtain expressions for: (1) the distribution and the moments of the time to the first disappointment; and (2) the mean number of disappointments over an arbitrary interval.     

Performance Evaluation of Arc Welding Process Using Weld Data Analysis

Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) and metal inert gas (GMAW) welding process are the two most widely used welding processes. These processes are widely used for the construction and fabrication purpose in almost all type of industries. Some of the important factors which govern the weld quality in these welding processes are welding power sources, role of shielding gas (for GMAW process), welding consumables and skill of the welders. Currently, effects of these factors are evaluated by examining the quality of the weld produced and not by monitoring how welding process is affected by change in these factors. This is an indirect method because actual contribution made by individual parameter in physical process is effectively ignored. Further, this is expensive and time-consuming as the assessment can be carried out only after the weld is completed. Hence, a procedure to assess the quality of welding process using the data acquired while welding is in progress is preferred to testing of the weld for this purpose. In both SMAW and GMAW processes, welding speed, voltage and current are important parameters that affect the quality of the welds. Among these, monitoring of welding speed is relatively easy; but monitoring voltage and current is not. This is because, welding is a stochastic process in which wide variation in voltage and current occurs and duration of these variations is so short that they are not observed in the voltage and current displayed in the power source. However, with the help of a high-speed data acquisition system, voltage and current variations during actual welding process can be recorded and subsequently analysed to reveal very useful information on the welding process, and subsequently quality analysis of individual welding parameters can also be done. In the present study, the voltage and current signals acquired using a digital storage oscilloscope have been used to study SMAW and GMAW processes. Data was acquired for duration of 20 s at a sampling rate of 100,000 samples/s while welding is in progress. In the case of SMAW process, welding data was acquired for welds made using different welding power sources, but with same welder and same type of electrode. In the case of GMAW process, welds were made using same wire and same welder but with different gases for shielding and at different set currents. Dynamic variation in the voltage and current signals were carefully studied using time domain and statistical analyses. Results showed that differences in the characteristics of the different power sources used for SMAW process and effect of shielding gases and arc current on GMAW process could be easily revealed by such analysis. For SMAW process, results obtained could also be correlated with the appearance of the weld beads. Hence, a procedure involving high-speed data acquisition of voltage and current signal while welding is in progress and the statistical analysis of the acquired data have been proposed for monitoring of these two arc welding processes.     

Effect of nerodilol and carvone on in vitro permeation of nicorandil across rat epidermal membrane

The objective of the study was to investigate the effect of nerodilol and carvone on the in vitro transdermal delivery of nicorandil so as to fabricate a membrane-moderated transdermal therapeutic system. The in vitro permeation studies were carried across the rat epidermal membrane from the hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) gels (prepared with 70:30 v/v ethanol-water) containing selected concentrations of a terpene such as nerodilol (0% w/w, 4% w/w, 8% w/w, 10% w/w, or 12% w/w) or carvone (0% w/w, 4% w/w, 8% w/w, 12% w/w, or 16% w/w). The amount of nicorandil permeated (Q₂₄) from HPMC gel drug reservoir without a terpene was 3424.6 ± 51.4 μg/cm², and the corresponding flux of the drug was 145.5 ± 2.2 μg/cm²· h. The flux of nicorandil increased with an increase in terpene concentration in HPMC gel. It was increased ranging from 254.9 ± 3.1 to 375.7 ± 3.2 μg/cm²·h or 207.6 ± 4.7 to 356.7 ± 15.3 μg/cm²· h from HPMC gels containing nerodilol (4% w/w to 12% w/w) or carvone (4% w/w to 16% w/w), respectively. Nerodilol increased the flux of nicorandil by about 2.62-folds whereas carvone increased the flux of the drug by about 2.49-folds across the rat epidermal membrane. The results of the Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) study indicated that the enhanced in vitro transdermal delivery of nicorandil might be due to the partial extraction of stratum corneum lipids by nerodilol or carvone. It was concluded that the terpenes, nerodilol and carvone, produced a marked penetration enhancing effect on the transdermal delivery of nicorandil that could be used in the fabrication of membrane-moderated transdermal therapeutic systems.     

Intelligent Modeling Using Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) for Predicting Weld Bead Shape Parameters During A-TIG Welding of Reduced Activation Ferritic-Martensitic (RAFM) Steel

Reduced-activated ferritic-martensitic steels are considered to be the prime candidate for structural material of the fusion power plant reactor design. Tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding is preferred for welding of those structural materials. However, the depth of penetration achievable during autogenous TIG welding is very limited and hence productivity is poor. Therefore, activated-flux tungsten inert gas (A-TIG) welding, a new variant of TIG welding process has been developed in-house to increase the depth of penetration in single pass welding. In structural materials produced by A-TIG welding process, weld bead width, depth of penetration and HAZ width decide the mechanical properties and in turn the performance of the weld joints during service. To obtain the desired weld bead geometry, HAZ width and make a reliable quality weld, it becomes important to develop predictive tools using soft computing techniques. In this work, adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system is used to develop independent models correlating the welding parameters like current, voltage and torch speed with bead shape parameters like weld bead width, depth of penetration, and HAZ width. During ANFIS modeling, various membership functions were used. Triangular membership function provided the minimum RMS error for prediction and hence, ANFIS model with triangular membership functions were chosen for predicting for weld bead shape parameters as a function of welding process parameters.     

Influence of conical strip inserts in heat transfer enhancement under transition flow

ABSTRACT

The performance of the concentric tube heat exchangers can be increased due to the swirl flow generation caused by the inserts which exchange heat in an effective manner. Many researchers have studied the thermal behaviour of different types of inserts, such as twisted tape and wire coil, with different geometries. This work dealt with the heat transfer and friction factor behaviour of newly fabricated staggered and non-staggered conical strip insets. The conical strip insert produces much swirl flow corresponding to the twist ratios (Y?=?2, 3 and 5). The experimental results are in good agreement with the correlations developed for Nusselt number and friction factor with the help of regression analysis.