An emerging role for comprehensive proteome analysis in human pregnancy research

Elucidation of underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms is pivotal to the comprehension of biological systems. The successful progression of processes such as pregnancy and parturition depends on the complex interactions between numerous biological molecules especially within the uterine microenvironment. The tissue- and stage-specific expression of these bio-molecules is intricately linked to and modulated by several endogenous and exogenous factors. Malfunctions may manifest as pregnancy disorders such as preterm labour, pre-eclampsia and fetal growth restriction that are major contributors to maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Despite the immense amount of information available, our understanding of several aspects of these physiological processes remains incomplete. This translates into significant difficulties in the timely diagnosis and effective treatment of pregnancy-related complications. However, the emergence of powerful mass spectrometry-based proteomic techniques capable of identifying and characterizing multiple proteins simultaneously has added a new dimension to the field of biomedical research. Application of these high throughput methodologies with more conventional techniques in pregnancy-related research has begun to provide a novel perspective on the biochemical blueprint of pregnancy and its related disorders. Further, by enabling the identification of proteins specific to a disease process, proteomics is likely to contribute, not only to the comprehension of the underlying pathophysiologies, but also to the clinical diagnosis of multifactorial pregnancy disorders. Although the application of this technology to pregnancy research is in its infancy, characterization of the cellular proteome, unearthing of functional networks and the identification of disease biomarkers can be expected to significantly improve maternal healthcare in the future.     

Wrinkled 2D Materials: A Versatile Platform for Low‐Threshold Stretchable Random Lasers

A stretchable, flexible, and bendable random laser system capable of lasing in a wide range of spectrum will have many potential applications in next‐ generation technologies, such as visible‐spectrum communication, superbright solid‐state lighting, biomedical studies, fluorescence, etc. However, producing an appropriate cavity for such a wide spectral range remains a challenge owing to the rigidity of the resonator for the generation of coherent loops. 2D materials with wrinkled structures exhibit superior advantages of high stretchability and a suitable matrix for photon trapping in between the hill and valley geometries compared to their flat counterparts. Here, the intriguing functionalities of wrinkled reduced graphene oxide, single‐layer graphene, and few‐layer hexagonal boron nitride, respectively, are utilized to design highly stretchable and wearable random laser devices with ultralow threshold. Using methyl‐ammonium lead bromide perovskite nanocrystals (PNC) to illustrate the working principle, the lasing threshold is found to be ≈10 µJ cm^?2, about two times less than the lowest value ever reported. In addition to PNC, it is demonstrated that the output lasing wavelength can be tuned using different active materials such as semiconductor quantum dots. Thus, this study is very useful for the future development of high‐performance wearable optoelectronic devices.     

Thiol oxidation and loss of mitochondrial complex I precede excitatory amino acid-mediated neurodegeneration

Human ingestion of "chickling peas" from the plant Lathyrus sativus, which contains an excitatory amino acid, L-BOAA (L-beta-N-oxalylamino-L-alanine), leads to a progressive corticospinal neurodegenerative disorder, neurolathyrism. Exposure to L-BOAA, but not its optical enantiomer D-BOAA, causes mitochondrial dysfunction as evidenced by loss of complex I activity in vitro in male mouse brain slices and in vivo in selected regions of mouse CNS (lumbosacral cord and motor cortex). Loss of complex I activity in lumbosacral cord after L-BOAA administration to mice was accompanied by concurrent loss of glutathione. The inhibited complex I activity in mitochondria isolated from lumbosacral cord of animals treated with L-BOAA rebounded after incubation with the thiol-reducing agent dithiothreitol, indicating that oxidation of protein thiols to disulfides was responsible for enzyme inhibition. The inhibition of complex I could be abolished by pretreatment with antioxidant thiols such as glutathione ester and alpha-lipoic acid. Chronic treatment of male mice, but not female mice, with L-BOAA resulted in loss of complex I activity and vacuolation and dendritic swelling of neurons in the motor cortex and lumbar cord, paralleling the regionality of the aforementioned biochemical effects on CNS mitochondria. These results support the view that thiol oxidation and concomitant mitochondrial dysfunction (also implicated in other neurodegenerative disorders), occurring downstream of glutamate receptor activation by L-BOAA, are primary events leading to neurodegeneration. Maintenance of protein thiol homeostasis by thiol delivery agents could potentially offer protection against excitotoxic insults such as those seen with L-BOAA.     

Active vibration control of a beam instrumented with MWCNT/epoxy nanocomposite sensor and PZT-5H actuator,robust to variations in temperature

Microsystem Technologies - Multi walled carbon nano tube (MWCNT)/epoxy nanocomposite strain sensor and piezoelectric actuator pair are used in active vibration control (AVC) of a smart cantilevered...     

Analysis and recognition of operations using SEMG from upper arm muscles

Accurate muscular force estimation (from upper arm muscles) based on surface electromyogram forms an important issue in upper limb prosthetic design applications. The whole system consists of surface electrodes, signal acquisition protocols, and signal conditioning at different levels. Labview soft scope was used to acquire the surface electromyogram signal from the designed hardware. The study is concerned with the estimation of characteristics of recorded signals, and for that, statistical techniques of PCA were exercised for verifying the effectiveness of the processed signal against different upper arm motions before its classification. Thereafter, artificial neural network classifier was implemented for the classification surface electromyogram signals with best classification rate of 89.30%. Finally, the processing technique was used to significantly (p < .05) improve classification rate, without much loss of information.     

Modeling of poly(ethylene terephthalate) reactors. I. A semibatch ester interchange reactor

A comprehensive model for a semibatch ester interchange reactor has been developed with a view to investigate the effect of various process and operational variables on the DMT conversion rate as well as the by-product formation. The influence of important variables such as EG-to-DMT ratio, catalyst concentration, and operational variables such as temperature and pressure has been considered. Definite conclusions concerning the choice of the desirable range of process and operational variables to maximize productivity and minimize by-product formation have been reached.     

Feasibility study of hybrid energy system for off-grid rural water supply and sanitation system in Odisha,India

A feasibility study of a hybrid renewable energy system comprising the combined use of solar and biogas was conducted for a rural village Jahangirabad (latitude 20° 48′N and longitude 86°11′E) of Cuttack district of Odisha, India, by using the software Hybrid Optimisation Model for Electric Renewable. The objective of this study is to develop a suitable cost-effective model for the supply of reliable clean water as well as to provide a hygienic community toilet system for the poor people of the village. For various configurations of the components, the capital cost, net present cost, operating cost and the levelised cost of energy were determined.     

Investigation of hydrogen isotope effect on storage properties of Zr–Co–Ni alloys

The deuterium desorption pressure-composition isotherms (PCIs) of ZrCo_1−xNi_x-D₂ (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3) systems were generated in this study in the temperature range of 524–603 K using Sievert's type volumetric apparatus. Thermodynamic parameters like enthalpy and entropy change for deuterium desorption reactions involved in the ZrCo_1−xNi_x-D₂ systems were derived using the equilibrium pressure data of PCIs. In order to interpret the hydrogen isotope effect on the storage behaviour of ZrCo_1−xNi_x alloys, the results obtained in the present study were compared with the earlier reported data on the ZrCo_1−xNi_x-H₂ (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3) systems. This comparison revealed that these alloys show normal hydrogen isotope effect where the equilibrium pressure of D₂ is higher than that of H₂ at all experimental temperatures. Based on these observation, it is expected that at the ITER SDS operating conditions the equilibrium pressure of tritium, deuterium and hydrogen will follow the order: p(T₂) > p(D₂) > p(H₂) for these alloys.     

An automatic human chromosome metaspread image selection technique

The human chromosome metaspread images are used to generate the karyogram that is used for the diagnosis of the genetic defects. The genetic defects occur due to variation in either the structure of the chromosomes or the number of chromosomes present in the cell. The human chromosome metaspread image selection process is very critical in the karyogram generation task. It is very tedious and time-consuming process and is generally done manually by an expert cytogeneticist. The manual selection results may be biased, and it is possible that the whole search space is not explored to find the best metaspread image. The mood of the cytogeneticist will also greatly affect the selection results. So there is a strong need to automate the process of human chromosome metaspread image selection process. The proposed approach ranks the metaspread images based upon the quality score that is calculated using the count of the chromosomes of various orientations present in the metaspread image. The ranking has been done based upon ordinal ranking process, wherein a unique rank is assigned to each image based upon a set of rules. The rule base aids in the tiebreaking process in case the same quality score is derived for more than one metaspread image. The decision-making process of the expert cytogeneticist has been emulated by using a set of if–then rules. The proposed technique helps to select the best metaspread image, by exploring the complete set of images that can be used for the karyogram generation.