A comprehensive review of dye-sensitized solar cell optimal fabrication conditions, natural dye selection, and application-based future perspectives.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) constructed using natural dyes possess irreplaceable advantages in energy applications. The main reasons are its performance, environmentally benign dyes, impressible performance in low light, ecologically friendly energy production, and versatile solar product integration. Though DSSCs using natural dyes as sensitizers have many advantages, they suffer from poor efficiency compared to conventional silicon solar cells.

Local Pattern Transformation Based Feature Extraction for Recognition of Parkinson's Disease Based on Gait Signals.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neuro-degenerative disorder primarily triggered due to the deterioration of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra of the human brain. The early detection of Parkinson's disease can assist in preventing deteriorating health. This paper analyzes human gait signals using Local Binary Pattern (LBP) techniques during feature extraction before classification.

Detection of ADHD From EEG Signals Using Different Entropy Measures and ANN.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent behavioral, cognitive, neurodevelopmental pediatric disorder. Clinical evaluations, symptom surveys, and neuropsychological assessments are some of the ADHD assessment methods, which are time-consuming processes and have a certain degree of uncertainty. This research investigates an efficient computer-aided technological solution for detecting ADHD from the acquired electroencephalography (EEG) signals based on different nonlinear entropy estimators and an artificial neural network classifier.

Low incidence of variants among the prelingual hearing impaired from southern India.

The broad spectrum of causal variants in the newly discovered gene is well reflected in worldwide studies. Except for one missense variant, none of the reported variants had reoccurred, thus reflecting the intragenic heterogeneity. We screened all the six coding exons of gene in a large cohort of 177 unrelated prelingual hearing impaired after excluding the common , nuclear and A1555G mitochondrial variants.

Detection of Focal and Non-Focal Electroencephalogram Signals Using Fast Walsh-Hadamard Transform and Artificial Neural Network.

The discrimination of non-focal class (NFC) and focal class (FC), is vital in localizing the epileptogenic zone (EZ) during neurosurgery. In the conventional diagnosis method, the neurologist has to visually examine the long hour electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, which consumes time and is prone to error. Hence, in this present work, automated diagnosis of FC EEG signals from NFC EEG signals is developed using the Fast Walsh-Hadamard Transform (FWHT) method, entropies, and artificial neural network (ANN).

Robust Classification of Intramuscular EMG Signals to Aid the Diagnosis of Neuromuscular Disorders.

This article presents the design and validation of an accurate automatic diagnostic system to classify intramuscular EMG (iEMG) signals into healthy, myopathy, or neuropathy categories to aid the diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases. First, an iEMG signal is decimated to produce a set of "disjoint" downsampled signals, which are decomposed by the lifting wavelet transform (LWT). The Higuchi's fractal dimensions (FDs) of LWT coefficients in the subbands are computed.

An effective approach to classify epileptic EEG signal using local neighbor gradient pattern transformation methods.

Electroencephalographic (EEG) signal records the neuronal activity in the brain and it is used in the diagnosis of epileptic seizure activities. Human inspection of non-stationary EEG signal for diagnosing epilepsy is cumbersome, time-consuming and inaccurate. In this paper an effective automatic approach to detect epilepsy using two feature extraction techniques namely local neighbor gradient pattern (LNGP) and symmetrically weighted local neighbor gradient pattern (SWLNGP) are proposed.

Leptospira surface adhesin (Lsa21) induces Toll like receptor 2 and 4 mediated inflammatory responses in macrophages.

Leptospirosis is zoonotic and emerging infectious disease of global importance. Little is understood about Leptospira pathogenesis and host immune response. In the present work we have investigated how Leptospira modulates the host innate immune response mediated by Toll-like receptors (TLRs) via surface exposed proteins.

Genetic Epidemiology of Mitochondrial Pathogenic Variants Causing Nonsyndromic Hearing Loss in a Large Cohort of South Indian Hearing Impaired Individuals.

Mitochondria play a critical role in the generation of metabolic energy in the form of ATP. Tissues and organs that are highly dependent on aerobic metabolism are involved in mitochondrial disorders including nonsyndromic hearing loss (NSHL). Seven pathogenic variants leading to NSHL have so far been reported on two mitochondrial genes: MT-RNR1 encoding 12SrRNA and MT-TS1 encoding tRNA for Ser((UCN)) .

Repeated administration of low-dose cisplatin in mice induces fibrosis.

Cisplatin, a chemotherapeutic used for the treatment of solid cancers, has nephrotoxic side effects leading to acute kidney injury (AKI). Cisplatin cannot be given to patients that have comorbidities that predispose them to an increased risk for AKI. Even without these comorbidities, 30% of patients administered cisplatin will develop kidney injury, requiring the oncologist to withhold or reduce the next dose, leading to a less effective therapeutic regimen.

Kidney glycosphingolipids are elevated early in diabetic nephropathy and mediate hypertrophy of mesangial cells.

Glycosphingolipids (GSLs) play a role in insulin resistance and diabetes, but their role in diabetic nephropathy (DN) has received limited attention. We used 9- and 17-wk-old nondiabetic db/m and diabetic db/db mice to examine the role of GSLs in DN. Cerebrosides or monoglycosylated GSLs [hexosylceramides (HexCers); glucosyl- and galactosylceramides] and lactosylceramide (LacCers) were elevated in db/db mouse kidney cortices, specifically in glomeruli, and also in urine.

Evaluation of antibody response in mice against avian influenza A (H5N1) strain neuraminidase expressed in yeast Pichia pastoris.

Avian influenza has raised many apprehension in the recent years because of its potential transmitability to humans. With the increasing emergence of drug-resistant avian influenza strains, development of potential vaccines are imperative to manage this disease. Two structural antigens, haemagglutinin and neuraminidase, have been the target candidates for the development of subunit vaccine against influenza.

Complete mitochondrial genome analysis and clinical documentation of a five-generational Indian family with mitochondrial 1555A>G mutation and postlingual hearing loss.

Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder and is genetically heterogeneous. Apart from nuclear gene mutations, a number of inherited mitochondrial mutations have also been implicated. The m.

Expression of avian influenza virus (H5N1) hemagglutinin and matrix protein 1 in Pichia pastoris and evaluation of their immunogenicity in mice.

The conventional avian influenza vaccines rely on development of neutralizing antibodies against the HA and NA antigens. However, these antigens are highly variable, and hence there is a need for better vaccine candidates which would offer broader protection in animals. The M1 of avian influenza is another major structural protein that has conserved epitopes that are reported to induce CD8+ T cells and can contribute to protection against morbidity and mortality from influenza.

Isolation and Identification of hydrocarbon degrading bacteria from Ennore creek.

The widespread problem caused due to petroleum products, is their discharge and accidental spillage in marine environment proving to be hazardous to the surroundings as well as life forms. Thus remediation of these hydrocarbons by natural decontamination process is of utmost importance. Bioremediation is a non-invasive and cost effective technique for the clean-up of these petroleum hydrocarbons.

Recombinant OmpL1 protein as a diagnostic antigen for the detection of canine leptospirosis.

Microscopic agglutination test (MAT) is the standard method for the diagnosis of leptospirosis, which is laborious and the interpretation of the results is subjective. The present work describes the use of recombinant-based IgG ELISA for the serodiagnosis of leptospirosis. We used recombinant outer membrane protein OmpL1 as an antigen for conducting IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Sphingomyelin synthase 1 activity is regulated by the BCR-ABL oncogene.

Sphingomyelin synthase (SMS) produces sphingomyelin while consuming ceramide (a negative regulator of cell proliferation) and forming diacylglycerol (DAG) (a mitogenic factor). Therefore, enhanced SMS activity could favor cell proliferation. To examine if dysregulated SMS contributes to leukemogenesis, we measured SMS activity in several leukemic cell lines and found that it is highly elevated in K562 chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) cells.

Sphingomyelin synthases regulate protein trafficking and secretion.

Sphingomyelin synthases (SMS1 and 2) represent a class of enzymes that transfer a phosphocholine moiety from phosphatidylcholine onto ceramide thus producing sphingomyelin and diacylglycerol (DAG). SMS1 localizes at the Golgi while SMS2 localizes both at the Golgi and the plasma membrane. Previous studies from our laboratory showed that modulation of SMS1 and, to a lesser extent, of SMS2 affected the formation of DAG at the Golgi apparatus.

Role of sphingomyelin synthase in controlling the antimicrobial activity of neutrophils against Cryptococcus neoformans.

The key host cellular pathway(s) necessary to control the infection caused by inhalation of the environmental fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans are still largely unknown. Here we have identified that the sphingolipid pathway in neutrophils is required for them to exert their killing activity on the fungus. In particular, using both pharmacological and genetic approaches, we show that inhibition of sphingomyelin synthase (SMS) activity profoundly impairs the killing ability of neutrophils by preventing the extracellular release of an antifungal factor(s).

Hexane extract of Raphanus sativus L. roots inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in human cancer cells by modulating genes related to apoptotic pathway.

Raphanus sativus, a common cruciferous vegetable has been attributed to possess a number of pharmacological and therapeutic properties. It has been used in indigenous system of medicine for the treatment of various human ailments in India. This present study evaluated the chemopreventive efficacy of different parts of R.

Development of rapid flow-through-based dot-immunoassay for serodiagnosis of leptospirosis in dogs.

An IgG-ELISA used recombinant antigen and a rapid flow-through enzyme immunoassay were developed for rapid screening of leptospiral antibodies in dogs using recombinant LipL41, which is one of the conserved outer membrane proteins in pathogenic leptospires as the coating antigen. Results from this study were compared with the standard microscopic agglutination test and found that the sensitivity and specificity of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were 75.46% and 93.

Serodiagnosis of bovine leptospirosis by IgG-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and latex agglutination test.

The efficacy of a recombinant leptospiral outer membrane protein LipL41 as an antigen for conducting IgG-Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and latex agglutination test (LAT) for serodiagnosis of bovine leptospirosis was evaluated. The recombinant LipL41 antigen developed and used for detecting the antibodies was specific in detection of the pathogenic serovars of Leptospira, as the expression of the LipL41 antigen is restricted only to pathogenic leptospires. A total of 430 bovine serum samples were subjected to IgG-ELISA and LAT, and the sensitivity and specificity were assessed in comparison with microscopic agglutination test (MAT).

Anti-inflammatory activity of four solvent fractions of ethanol extract of Mentha spicata L. investigated on acute and chronic inflammation induced rats.

Anti-inflammatory effects of four solvent fractions of ethanol extract of Mentha spicata were evaluated in acute and chronic inflammation induced in Wistar albino rats. Lipid peroxidation (LPO) and some antioxidants produced during chronic inflammation were quantitated. Hexane (320mg/kg of body weight in 25% DMSO), chloroform (320mg/kg body weight in 25% DMSO), ethyl acetate (160mg/kg body weight in 25% DMSO), aqueous (320mg/kg of body weight in ddH(2)O) fractions, two negative control groups (25% DMSO and ddH(2)O) and two anti-inflammatory drugs (Diclofenac: 25mg/kg of body weight; Indomethacin: 10mg/kg of body weight both in ddH(2)O) were administered by oral intubations to the eight groups of rats consisting six animals, each.

Sphingomyelin synthases regulate production of diacylglycerol at the Golgi.

SMS [SM (sphingomyelin) synthase] is a class of enzymes that produces SM by transferring a phosphocholine moiety on to ceramide. PC (phosphatidylcholine) is believed to be the phosphocholine donor of the reaction with consequent production of DAG (diacylglycerol), an important bioactive lipid. In the present study, by modulating SMS1 and SMS2 expression, the role of these enzymes on the elusive regulation of DAG was investigated.