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Developing a robust material holding antimicrobial assets has been an efficient strategy for reducing the risk of infections related to healthcare, significantly with medical devices and touch surfaces. Molybdenum-based compounds have drawn momentous attraction because of their unique characteristics. A series of undoped and 5 % rare earth (Ce & La) doped metal (Ni, Co & Bi) molybdate nanocomposites have been prepared by facile microwave combustion method and characterized. The present study investigates the effect of dopants on crystal structure and morphology, and their impact on anti-bacterial properties is noticed. The UV–Vis. absorption spectra of all samples show a broad absorption band between 280 and 430 nm. The antibacterial properties of the prepared nanocomposites have been examined by the agar diffusion method against three Gram-positive and two Gram-negative bacteria, showing good bactericidal efficiency for all samples, except 5 % Ce–NiMoO4(antibacterial activity exclusively against Gram-positive bacteria) and 5 % La–NiMoO4(no antibacterial activity) nanocomposites. This work provided a novel pathway in the biomaterial field.

In this study, lanthanum oxide (La2O3) nanoparticles or lanthana were synthesized by the planetary ball milling method and then used as a filler for the preparation of the polypropylene (PP) based nanocomposites by solution mixing method. The PP used in the study was derived from the discarded saline bottles. The structural and the surface morphology of the synthesized lanthanum oxide nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, SEM and FTIR. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) study revealed that the thermal stability of the nano lanthana composites increased with the addition of the lanthanum oxide nanoparticles. The mechanical properties, such as Young’s modulus and tensile strength, were also improved by the addition of the lanthanum oxide nanoparticles to the PP matrix. The composites also showed antibacterial activity against Escherichia colibacteria. This approach not only mitigates medical plastic waste and environmental impact but also paves the way for versatile polymer nanocomposites with extensive industrial applications, especially in biomedical packaging.

AbstractEmerging antimicrobial resistance has highlighted the need to design more effective antibiotics to treat deadly bacterial infections. Acinetobacter baumannii’s outer membrane protein A (OmpA) is a critical virulence component involved in biofilm formation, immunomodulation, and antibiotic resistance, which characterizes it as a potential therapeutic target. The present study aimed to screen the natural product database (>1,00,000) to identify the potential inhibitor against OmpA. Molecular docking studies revealed that 10 compounds had good docking scores (≤ −7 kcal/mol) compared to the reported inhibitor epiestriol (-3.079). Further, these 10 compounds were subjected to ADME analysis and MMGBSA analysis. Based on MMGBSA results, we selected 5 compounds [NP-1 (MolPort-039-337-117), NP-5(MolPort-019-932-973), NP-6 (MolPort-005-948-336), NP-8(MolPort-042-673-978) and NP-9(MolPort-042-673-766)] with high binding affinity. Molecular dynamics simulation found that NP-5, NP-8, and NP-9 were stable after analysing their RMSD, RMSF, the radius of gyration, and hydrogen interactions of complexes. Our study revealed that NP-5, NP-8, and NP-9 bind perfectly with OmpA and can act as its potential inhibitors. The results of this study imply that the identified inhibitors have the potential for further investigation.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Recently, Synchronous Reluctance Motors (SynRM) are finding place in several applications such as electric vehicles, aerospace, renewable and marine due to their inherent advantages such as the absence of rare earth materials and rotor windings, high performance, no demagnetization effects, and low cost. Therefore, the need to study, analyze and diagnose the fault at an early stage is becoming crucial for these machines. This work aims to develop analytical models necessary for incipient Stator Inter-Turn Faults (SITF) diagnosis on SynRM drives. A detailed analysis of SynRM with SITF has been attempted to comprehend the fault current behavior at various fault severities and operating conditions. Furthermore, steady state analysis has been carried out, by developing the sequence component models, which are critical for designing model-based diagnosis techniques. A method for the estimation of the fault currents is developed, which could help in post-fault operations of the drive, for bringing the fault current to a safe value. The conclusions of this study will be helpful for developing diagnosis techniques for SynRM drives, and to plan the post-fault operations. The experimental validation has been performed in a laboratory prototype using 3.7kW SynRM drive.

ABSTRACTIntroductionThe Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the first three-dimensional (3D) printed tablet, Spritam®, led to a burgeoning interest in using 3D printing to fabricate numerous drug delivery systems for different routes of administration. The high degree of manufacturing flexibility achieved through 3D printing facilitates the preparation of dosage forms with many actives with complex and tailored release profiles that can address individual patient needs.Areas coveredThis comprehensive review provides an in-depth look into the several 3D printing technologies currently utilized in pharmaceutical research. Additionally, the review delves into vaginal anatomy and physiology, 3D-printed drug delivery systems for vaginal applications, the latest research studies, and the challenges of 3D printing technology and future possibilities.Expert opinion3D printing technology can produce drug-delivery devices or implants optimized for vaginal applications, including vaginal rings, intra-vaginal inserts, or biodegradable microdevices loaded with drugs, all custom-tailored to deliver specific medications with controlled release profiles. However, though the potential of 3D printing in vaginal drug delivery is promising, there are still challenges and regulatory hurdles to overcome before these technologies can be widely adopted and approved for clinical use. Extensive research and testing are necessary to ensure safety, effectiveness, and biocompatibility.

Approximate computing (AxC) is being widely researched as a viable approach to deploying compute-intensive artificial intelligence (AI) applications on resource-constrained embedded systems. In general, AxC aims to provide disproportionate gains in system-level power-performance-area (PPA) by leveraging the implicit error tolerance of an application. One of the more widely used methods in AxC involves circuit pruning of arithmetic operators used to process AI workloads. However, most related works adopt an application-agnostic approach to operator modeling for the design space exploration (DSE) of Approximate Operators (AxOs). To this end, we propose an application-driven approach to designing AxOs. Specifically, we use spiking neural network (SNN)-based inference to present an application-driven operator model resulting in AxOs with better-PPA-accuracy tradeoffs compared to traditional circuit pruning. Additionally, we present a novel FPGA-specific operator model to improve the quality of AxOs that can be obtained using circuit pruning. With the proposed methods, we report designs with up to 26.5% lower PDPxLUTs with similar application-level accuracy. Further, we report a considerably better set of design points than related works with up to 51% better-Pareto front hypervolume.

ABSTRACTText summarization is a fundamental Natural language processing task that plays a crucial role in efficiently condensing large textual documents into concise and clear summaries for human comprehension. The amount of data being generated in the medical domain nowadays requires substantial application of the current deep learning approaches such as transformers. The main goal of this research is to extract relevant summaries from the abstracts of the research articles published related to cancer, blood cancer, tinnitus, and Alzheimer's. As the domain-related data requires special attention, our approach uses a fine-tuned transformer model, to guarantee that the summaries produced are not only brief but also accurate. Moreover, as a part of this research, we have effectively collected the information from PubMed and also prepared the data for analysis. A comparative analysis of the Bidirectional and Auto-Regressive Transformers (BART), Text-to-Text Transfer Transformer (T5), Textrank, and Lexrank models on the dataset is carried out in this study to understand the medical insights effectively. The fine-tuned transformer's performance in comparison with other models brings out a newer dimension for future studies.

The combination of lightweight, durable, and flexible elastomer nanocomposites presents a unique set of features that make them highly promising for a range of several engineering applications. Present work investigates the performance of the mechanical and electrical characteristics of a nanocomposite produced by combining silicon rubber (SR) with nano-Graphene, copper oxide (CuO). Two roll mixing followed by compression moulding is used to manufacture different configurations of Graphene/CuO/SR nano composite. Nano composites specimens are fabricated with 1, 2, 4, and 8 wt % of graphene with fixed 1 % CuO. There has been a discernible improvement of 146.52 % in the mechanical properties and 18.1 % in electrical performance. This improvement is supported by the FESEM morphological analysis of fractured surfaces. It has been observed that the optimized loading of 8 wt % of Graphene gives the best performance. The strong interfacial interaction between the Graphene/CuO and SR is responsible for the performance gain.

Digital twin (DT) is at the forefront of the Industry 4.0 revolution facilitated through advanced data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity. With this research, we intend to explore the applications of DTs in the consumer electronics (CE) industry. This study delves into different realms within the consumer electronics sector to explore how DT technology could be beneficial while considering the potential limitations. Some CE fields that could benefit from DTs include product design and development, predictive maintenance, personalization, virtual user manuals and training, product performance optimization, remote support and troubleshooting, supply chain optimization, and sustainability. This research also focuses on various aspects of the crucial role played by consumer electronics in implementing DTs in the industry, including hardware integration, data collection methods and establishing reliable connectivity, software development, standards and interoperability, user experience and interaction design, data security and privacy, and feedback-driven improvements. It also discusses challenges like data accuracy, complexity, cost, limited scope of representation, data privacy and security concerns, user engagement and adoption, and integration and compatibility issues faced while implementing this technology.

AbstractThe re-emergence of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) in 2022 has become a global issue. The virus was first found in Denmark in 1958. The first human MPXV disease was reported in 1980 in Congo, caused by a rare zoonotic virus belonging to the genus Orthopoxvirus and the family Poxviridae. Like SARS-CoV, there are no specific drugs to treat this infection. Taking cues from the successful implementation of drug repositioning for the Covid-19 pandemic using in silico drug discovery. We employed structure-based drug design in the study to repurpose the existing drug and natural product derivatives libraries against MPXV. The E8 protein was chosen as a therapeutic target because it is a surface membrane protein involved in viral entry and adhesion to the host cell surface membrane. Our study was bifurcated into the following steps; determining and analyzing the structure of the E8, followed by structure-based virtual screening of different datasets (natural products obtained from bacteria and fungi and FDA-approved drugs) to identify the hits. Based on the best binding affinities and protein-ligand interactions, we further proceeded for molecular dynamic (MD) studies of the identified hits, which revealed Gabosine D (docking score = −8.469 kcal/mol, MM/GBSA dG bind = −41.6729 kcal/mol) and Edoxudine (docking score = −6.372 kcal/mol, MM/GBSA dG bind = −35.8291 kcal/mol) as the best lead molecules. MD simulation for 100 ns was performed in triplicate, and post MM/GBSA analysis was conducted, which proves the stability of the identified leads. In addition, their ADME profiles also confirmed their suitability as therapeutic options for the treatment of monkeypox.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Herein, we report nickel(0)-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of NHC/CAAC-based carbodicarbene (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene and CAAC = cyclic(alkyl)(amino)carbene) with different aryl chlorides, bromides, and iodides. The resulting aryl-substituted cationic carbodicarbene derivatives are prone to one-electron oxidation yielding radical-dications, which, depending on the aryl motif employed, follow different modes of radical–radical dimerization and constitute an entry point to carbon/nitrogen- and nitrogen/nitrogen-centered diradicaloids. Subsequently, this coupling strategy was strategically applied to the synthesis of p-phenylene- and p,p′-biphenylene-bridged carbon/carbon-centered electron-deficient diradicaloids. The employed π-conjugated spacer plays a crucial role in determining the triplet population at room temperature by modulation of the singlet–triplet gap: EPR inactive for p-phenylene vs EPR active for p,p′-biphenylene. Nearly two decades after the disclosure of carbodicarbenes as donor-stabilized atomic carbon equivalents by Tonner and Frenking in 2007, we demonstrate their cross-couplings with a series of aryl halides/dihalides and, based on this, developed a modular methodology for the systematic synthesis of various electron-deficient diradicaloids.

A novel hydrogen bonded single crystal of 7-azaindolinium-3,5-dinitrobenzoate (7AIDNB) has been grown, and the structure of the crystal was determined by single-crystal XRD analysis. The results show that the grown crystal belongs to a triclinic crystal system with centrosymmetric space group P-1 and the unit cell parameters: a= 6.998(9) Å, b= 8.498(12) Å, c= 13.103(17) Å, V= 710.78(17) Å3, Z= 2. The presence of expected discrete functional groups in 7AIDNB has been identified by an FT-IR spectroscopic study. The thermal stability and decomposition of the title crystal have been studied by TG-DTA analysis. The optical property of the grown crystal has been analyzed by UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy analysis. The DFT with 6-311++G(d, p) basis set has been used to examine optimization of molecular geometry, Mulliken charge, and HOMO-LUMO. As the frequency of the grown crystal increases, the dielectric loss and dielectric constant decrease. The third-order NLO parameters of 7AIDNB have been examined by a Z-scan technique.

Age-related cerebromicrovascular changes, including blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption and microvascular rarefaction, play a significant role in the development of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and neurodegenerative diseases. Utilizing the unique model of heterochronic parabiosis, which involves surgically joining young and old animals, we investigated the influence of systemic factors on these vascular changes. Our study employed heterochronic parabiosis to explore the effects of young and aged systemic environments on cerebromicrovascular aging in mice. We evaluated microvascular density and BBB integrity in parabiotic pairs equipped with chronic cranial windows, using intravital two-photon imaging techniques. Our results indicate that short-term exposure to young systemic factors leads to both functional and structural rejuvenation of cerebral microcirculation. Notably, we observed a marked decrease in capillary density and an increase in BBB permeability to fluorescent tracers in the cortices of aged mice undergoing isochronic parabiosis (20-month-old C57BL/6 mice [A-(A)]; 6 weeks of parabiosis), compared to young isochronic parabionts (6-month-old, [Y-(Y)]). However, aged heterochronic parabionts (A-(Y)) exposed to young blood exhibited a significant increase in cortical capillary density and restoration of BBB integrity. In contrast, young mice exposed to old blood from aged parabionts (Y-(A)) rapidly developed cerebromicrovascular aging traits, evidenced by reduced capillary density and increased BBB permeability. These findings underscore the profound impact of systemic factors in regulating cerebromicrovascular aging. The rejuvenation observed in the endothelium, following exposure to young blood, suggests the existence of anti-geronic elements that counteract microvascular aging. Conversely, pro-geronic factors in aged blood appear to accelerate cerebromicrovascular aging. Further research is needed to assess whether the rejuvenating effects of young blood factors could extend to other age-related cerebromicrovascular pathologies, such as microvascular amyloid deposition and increased microvascular fragility.

AbstractThis paper studies the input-queued switch operating under the MaxWeight algorithm when the arrivals are according to a Markovian process. We exactly characterize the heavy-traffic scaled mean sum queue length in the heavy-traffic limit, and show that it is within a factor of less than 2 from a universal lower bound. Moreover, we obtain lower and upper bounds that are applicable in all traffic regimes and become tight in the heavy-traffic regime.We obtain these results by generalizing the drift method recently developed for the case of independent and identically distributed arrivals to the case of Markovian arrivals. We illustrate this generalization by first obtaining the heavy-traffic mean queue length and its distribution in a single-server queue under Markovian arrivals and then applying it to the case of an input-queued switch.The key idea is to exploit the geometric mixing of finite-state Markov chains, and to work with a time horizon that is chosen so that the error due to mixing depends on the heavy-traffic parameter.

The complexation behavior of tri-iso-amyl phosphate (TiAP) and tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) ligands with U(VI), Th(IV), and Nd(III) was investigated using density functional theory (DFT). Quantum chemical calculations yielded identical coordination geometries for TBP and TiAP complexes. Calculated complexation energies indicated a preferential extraction of U(VI) followed by Th(IV) over Nd(III), aligning with solvent extraction experiments conducted in the cross-current mode. Notably, during the separation of Th(IV) from RE(III), an increase in Th(IV) loading in the organic phase suppressed RE(III) extraction. Further analysis highlighted the crucial role of structural features (symmetry and dipole moment) in the extraction behavior of complexes. Energy decomposition analysis underscored the essential role of geometric strain and dispersion interaction energies in deciding the stability of the complexes.

Recent advancements in flexible triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have widely focused on converting mechanical energy into electrical energy to power small wearable electronic gadgets and sensors. To effectively achieve this, an efficient energy-converted power management circuit is required. Herein, we report on Aurivillius-type strontium bismuth titanate (SrBi4Ti4O15) nanoparticles (SBT NPs)-loaded polyglucosamine (PGA) composite film-based flexible TENG to be used for energy harvesting/storage and biomechanical applications. Initially, SBT NPs were synthesized and then, different weight concentrations were loaded into PGA. The TENG devices were fabricated using different wt % composite films (SBT/PGA) and polydimethylsiloxane as positive and negative triboelectric layers, respectively, and aluminum was used as a conductive electrode attached to two tribo films. To evaluate the electrical output from the device, contact-separation operation mode was used. An optimized TENG consisting of 2 wt % SBT/PGA composite film produced the maximum electrical output voltage and current of approximately ∼239 V and ∼7.5 μA, respectively. Efficient TENG energy harvesting and storage circuits have been proposed for storing charges in capacitors and for operating electronic gadgets. The optimized TENG was employed to generate electrical energy from various biomechanical movements. Thereafter, the biodegradability of the composite film was also tested. The fabricated films were completely biodegraded within a few hours. Furthermore, the TENG was utilized as a tap-indication transducer for multipurpose switching applications.

Carbon-based materials that act as supports to design electrocatalysts have been actively pursued for fuel cells and overall water-splitting (OWS) applications. However, carbon-based supports face serious carbon corrosion at high positive potentials, affecting catalyst activity and stability and hindering practical applicability. Herein, carbon-free transition metal-oxide–based 2D titanate nanosheet support has been proposed, demonstrating the applicability of titanate nanosheets as an alternative support for designing electrocatalysts. A new chemical route to produce large 2D nanosheets of titanate via exfoliation has been discovered. Colloidal 2D titanate nanosheet support allows the growth of active nickel molybdenum oxide (NiMoOx) forming Titanate@NiMoOxcore–shell materials. Fine heat treatment at different temperatures facilitates in situformation of MoOxin NiMoOxlayers on 2D titanate boosting catalytic activity. An increase in heat treatment facilitates an increase in the semiconductivity of the titanate phase and a simultaneous decay of the active MoOxcomponent, resulting in poor activity. The optimal catalyst Titanate@NiMoOx_200 required an overpotential of 0.54 and 1.19 VRHEfor the HER and the OER and an overall cell voltage of 1.75 V to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm–2with spectacular stability for up to 24 h in KOH media. Spectroscopic and microscopy analyses prove the efficient electronic interaction between MoOxand NiMoOxin the hybrid components. Density functional theory and experimental work suggest that the MoOx/NiMoOxhybrid shows higher water adsorption energy and excellent water-splitting performance. This work sheds light on the feasibility and practical application of titanate support for the rational design of diverse electrocatalysts from noble to non-noble metal-based electrocatalysts for a range of electrochemical applications.

The objective of the study is to understand the effect of martensite-austenite (MA) constituents along with the neighbouring bainitic matrix and its effect on low-temperature impact toughness in the thermo-mechanically simulated inter-critically reheated coarse-grained heat-affected zone (ICCGHAZ) of offshore High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) steels. ICCGHAZ was simulated using a Gleeble 3500 thermomechanical simulator between the inter-critical temperature near Ac1(lower ICT) and at a temperature 50 °C higher (upper ICT) for two different steels (steel A and steel B) with predominant microstructures composed of granular bainite (GB) and bainitic ferrite (BF), respectively. MA constituents were observed in the form of necklaces along prior austenitic grain boundaries (PAGB) of simulated ICCGHAZ for both steel A and steel B. Steel A combrised of discrete island MA constituents inside the GB grains and steel B consists of lath shaped MA constituents inside BF grains. Fractographical analysis showed that secondary cracks were initiated at the MA constituents along PAGB and propagated linearly into the GB/BF grains in the ICCGHAZ. The cracks initiated at the bulky MA at grain boundaries of steel A moved towards the pre-cracked or de-bonded discrete MA inside the grains and propagated through the interlinking of microcracks. In contrast, for steel B a notable percentage of cracks were initiated through the necklace-like MA at the grain boundaries and propagated through the BF lath. Pre-cracking of the slender MA present at the lath boundaries facilitated crack propagation in steel B. Furthermore, increasing the inter-critical temperature improved the impact toughness of steel A with a predominantly GB microstructure, whereas impact toughness improvement was limited in steel B with a BF microstructure.

AbstractTuberculosis infection has always been a global concern for public health, and the mortality rate has increased tremendously every year. The ability of the resuscitation Mycobacterium tuberculosis(Mtb) from the dormant state is one of the major reasons for the epidemic spread of tuberculosis infection, especially latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). The element that encourages resuscitation, RpfB (resuscitation-promoting factors B), is mostly in charge of bringing Mtbout of slumber. This reason makes RpfB a promising target for developing tuberculosis drugs because of the effects of latent tuberculosis. Therefore, this work was executed using a computational three-level screening of the Selleckhem antibiotics database consisting of 462 antibiotics against the ligand binding region of the RpfB protein, followed by an estimation of binding free energy for ideal identification and confirmation of potential RpfB inhibitor. Subsequently, three antibiotic drug molecules, i.e., Amikacin hydrate (−66.87 kcal/mol), Isepamicin sulphate (−60.8 kcal/mol), and Bekanamycin (−46.89 kcal/mol), were selected on the basis of their binding free energy value for further computational studies in comparison to reference ligand, 4-benzoyl-2-nitrophenyl thiocyanate (NPT7). Based on the intermolecular interaction profiling, 200 ns molecular dynamic simulation (MD), post-simulation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA), the selected antibiotics showed substantial stability with the RpfB protein compared to the NPT7 inhibitor. Conclusively based on the computational results, the preferred drugs can be potent inhibitors of the RpfB protein, which can be further validated using in vivoresearch and in vitroenzyme inhibition to understand their therapeutic activity against tuberculosis infection.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

The conventional ultra sparse matrix converter (USMC) attains a maximum voltage gain of 0.866, a crucial limitation of matrix converters. It can be overcome by integrating the impedance network with USMC. The primary focus of this article is to integrate switched boost network with USMC to improve the gain profile. This impedance network consists of semiconductor devices and energy storing elements. Controlling this impedance network without affecting the normal operation of USMC has remained a challenging task, which the authors have carefully handled in this article. This article investigates the load power factor effects on the overall voltage gain, which leads the converter to a nonzero discontinuous current mode. Further, this article deals with the total harmonic distortion dependency on the output frequency. In comparison to already reported converters, the proposed converter enhances the gain with minimum passive components. The simulation and experimental results (400 Hz load frequency) show that the proposed converter can boost the voltage gain greater than the unity with two passive elements.

A hybrid Mg composite filled with micro Al2O3 and nano TiO2 is manufactured through a blend press sinter powder metallurgy route. To appraise the significance of filler incorporation on the mechanical and corrosion strength, the composite is undergoing a series of characterizations. Initially the filler distribution was analyzed through electron microscopes. Static mechanical tests as per ASTM are conducted to measure the influence of fillers on the tensile and compression properties. The corrosion characteristics were studied by immersing the composites into the laboratory synthesized stimulated body fluid (SBF). Through the Tafel Polarization, the corroded surfaces are examined. The corrosion resistance of the composites exhibited a change that closely resembled that of pure magnesium. Based on the experimental findings, it appears that the composite being examined is well-suited for various biomedical applications, particularly in the field of dental implants.

Frequent measurement of creatinine by point-of-care testing (POCT) may facilitate the earlier detection of acute kidney injury (AKI) in critically ill patients. However, no robust data exist to confirm its equivalence to central laboratory testing. We aimed to conduct a multicenter study to compare POCT with central laboratory creatinine (CrC) measurement.

Current assessments on topical treatment attributes in actinic keratosis (AK) do not evaluate safety, effectiveness, and satisfaction from both clinician and patient perspectives, creating an unmet need for more comprehensive AK-specific measures that fully capture the patient experience.