Amity University

Cancer is an abnormal state of cells where they undergo uncontrolled proliferation and produce aggressive malignancies that causes millions of deaths every year. With the new understanding of the molecular mechanism(s) of disease progression, our knowledge about the disease is snowballing, leading to the evolution of many new therapeutic regimes and their successive trials. In the past few decades, various combinations of therapies have been proposed and are presently employed in the treatment of diverse cancers. Targeted drug therapy, immunotherapy, and personalized medicines are now largely being employed, which were not common a few years back. The field of cancer discoveries and therapeutics are evolving fast as cancer type-specific biomarkers are progressively being identified and several types of cancers are nowadays undergoing systematic therapies, extending patients' disease-free survival thereafter. Although growing evidence shows that a systematic and targeted approach could be the future of cancer medicine, chemotherapy remains a largely opted therapeutic option despite its known side effects on the patient's physical and psychological health. Chemotherapeutic agents/pharmaceuticals served a great purpose over the past few decades and have remained the frontline choice for advanced-stage malignancies where surgery and/or radiation therapy cannot be prescribed due to specific reasons. The present report succinctly reviews the existing and contemporary advancements in chemotherapy and assesses the status of the enrolled drugs/pharmaceuticals; it also comprehensively discusses the emerging role of specific/targeted therapeutic strategies that are presently being employed to achieve better clinical success/survival rate in cancer patients.

Nanotechnology monitors a leading agricultural controlling process, especially by its miniature dimension. Additionally, many potential benefits such as enhancement of food quality and safety, reduction of agricultural inputs, enrichment of absorbing nanoscale nutrients from the soil, etc. allow the application of nanotechnology to be resonant encumbrance. Agriculture, food, and natural resources are a part of those challenges like sustainability, susceptibility, human health, and healthy life. The ambition of nanomaterials in agriculture is to reduce the amount of spread chemicals, minimize nutrient losses in fertilization and increased yield through pest and nutrient management. Nanotechnology has the prospective to improve the agriculture and food industry with novel nanotools for the controlling of rapid disease diagnostic, enhancing the capacity of plants to absorb nutrients among others. The significant interests of using nanotechnology in agriculture includes specific applications like nanofertilizers and nanopesticides to trail products and nutrients levels to increase the productivity without decontamination of soils, waters, and protection against several insect pest and microbial diseases. Nanotechnology may act as sensors for monitoring soil quality of agricultural field and thus it maintain the health of agricultural plants. This review covers the current challenges of sustainability, food security and climate change that are exploring by the researchers in the area of nanotechnology in the improvement of agriculture.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) can attack a diverse range of targets to exert antimicrobial activity, which accounts for their versatility in mediating host defense against a broad range of pathogens. Most ROS are formed by the partial reduction in molecular oxygen. Four major ROS are recognized comprising superoxide (O2•-), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hydroxyl radical (•OH), and singlet oxygen ((1)O2), but they display very different kinetics and levels of activity. The effects of O2•- and H2O2 are less acute than those of •OH and (1)O2, because the former are much less reactive and can be detoxified by endogenous antioxidants (both enzymatic and nonenzymatic) that are induced by oxidative stress. In contrast, no enzyme can detoxify •OH or (1)O2, making them extremely toxic and acutely lethal. The present review will highlight the various methods of ROS formation and their mechanism of action. Antioxidant defenses against ROS in microbial cells and the use of ROS by antimicrobial host defense systems are covered. Antimicrobial approaches primarily utilizing ROS comprise both bactericidal antibiotics and nonpharmacological methods such as photodynamic therapy, titanium dioxide photocatalysis, cold plasma, and medicinal honey. A brief final section covers reactive nitrogen species and related therapeutics, such as acidified nitrite and nitric oxide-releasing nanoparticles.

Abiotic stress is one of the severe stresses of environment that lowers the growth and yield of any crop even on irrigated land throughout the world. A major phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays an essential part in acting towards varied range of stresses like heavy metal stress, drought, thermal or heat stress, high level of salinity, low temperature and radiation stresses. It also finds its role in various developmental processes including seed germination, seed dormancy, and closure of stomata. Abscisic acid acts by modifying the expression level of gene and subsequent analysis of cis- and trans-acting regulatory elements of responsive promoters. It also interacts with the signaling molecules of processes involved in retorting to stresses and development of seeds. On the whole, the stress to a plant can be susceptible or tolerant by taking into account the coordinated activities of various stress-responsive genes. Numbers of transcription factor are involved in regulating the expression of abscisic acid responsive genes by acting together with their respective cis‑acting elements. Hence, for improvement in stress-tolerance capacity of plants, it is necessary to understand the mechanism behind it. On this ground, this article enlightens the importance and role of ABA signaling with regard to various stresses as well as regulation of abscisic acid biosynthetic pathway along with the transcription factors for stress tolerance.

Genetic Algorithm (GA) may be attributed as method for optimizing the search tool for difficult problems based on genetics selection principle. In additions to Optimization it also serves the purpose of machine learning and for Research and development. It is analogous to biology for chromosome generation with variables such as selection, crossover and mutation together constituting genetic operations which would be applicable on a random population initially. GA aims to yield solutions for the consecutive generations. The extent of success in individual production is directly in proportion to fitness of solution which is represented by it, thereby ensuring that quality in successive generations will be better. The process is concluded once an GA is most suitable for the issues that need optimization associated with some computable system.. John Holland may be regarded as funding father of original genetic algorithm and is attributed to year 1970's as funding date. Additionally a random search method represented by Charles Darwin for a defined search space in order to effetely solve a problem. In this paper, what is genetic algorithm and its basic workflow is discussed how a genetic algorithm work and what are the process is included in this is also discussed. Further, the features and application of genetic algorithm are mentioned in the paper.

Curcumin is a highly potent, nontoxic, bioactive agent found in turmeric and has been known for centuries as a household remedy to many ailments. The only disadvantage that it suffers is of low aqueous solubility and poor bioavailability. The aim of the present study was to develop a method for the preparation of nanoparticles of curcumin with a view to improve its aqueous-phase solubility and examine the effect on its antimicrobial properties. Nanoparticles of curcumin (nanocurcumin) were prepared by a process based on a wet-milling technique and were found to have a narrow particle size distribution in the range of 2−40 nm. Unlike curcumin, nanocurcumin was found to be freely dispersible in water in the absence of any surfactants. The chemical structure of nanocurcumin was the same as that of curcumin, and there was no modification during nanoparticle preparation. A minimum inhibitory concentration of nanocurcumin was determined for a variety of bacterial and fungal strains and was compared to that of curcumin. It was found that the aqueous dispersion of nanocurcumin was much more effective than curcumin against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Penicillium notatum, and Aspergillus niger. The results demonstrated that the water solubility and antimicrobial activity of curcumin markedly improved by particle size reduction up to the nano range. For the selected microorganisms, the activity of nanocurcumin was more pronounced against Gram-positive bacteria than Gram-negative bacteria. Furthermore, its antibacterial activity was much better than antifungal activity. The mechanism of antibacterial action of curcumin nanoparticles was investigated by transmission electron micrograph (TEM) analysis, which revealed that these particles entered inside the bacterial cell by completely breaking the cell wall, leading to cell death.

The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a protein kinase that controls cellular metabolism, catabolism, immune responses, autophagy, survival, proliferation, and migration, to maintain cellular homeostasis. The mTOR signaling cascade consists of two distinct multi-subunit complexes named mTOR complex 1/2 (mTORC1/2). mTOR catalyzes the phosphorylation of several critical proteins like AKT, protein kinase C, insulin growth factor receptor (IGF-1R), 4E binding protein 1 (4E-BP1), ribosomal protein S6 kinase (S6K), transcription factor EB (TFEB), sterol-responsive element-binding proteins (SREBPs), Lipin-1, and Unc-51-like autophagy-activating kinases. mTOR signaling plays a central role in regulating translation, lipid synthesis, nucleotide synthesis, biogenesis of lysosomes, nutrient sensing, and growth factor signaling. The emerging pieces of evidence have revealed that the constitutive activation of the mTOR pathway due to mutations/amplification/deletion in either mTOR and its complexes (mTORC1 and mTORC2) or upstream targets is responsible for aging, neurological diseases, and human malignancies. Here, we provide the detailed structure of mTOR, its complexes, and the comprehensive role of upstream regulators, as well as downstream effectors of mTOR signaling cascades in the metabolism, biogenesis of biomolecules, immune responses, and autophagy. Additionally, we summarize the potential of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) as an important modulator of mTOR signaling. Importantly, we have highlighted the potential of mTOR signaling in aging, neurological disorders, human cancers, cancer stem cells, and drug resistance. Here, we discuss the developments for the therapeutic targeting of mTOR signaling with improved anticancer efficacy for the benefit of cancer patients in clinics.

Due to lack of specification and solubility of drug molecules, patients have to take high doses of the drug to achieve the desired therapeutic effects for the treatment of diseases. To solve these problems, there are various drug carriers present in the pharmaceuticals, which can used to deliver therapeutic agents to the target site in the body. Mesoporous silica materials become known as a promising candidate that can overcome above problems and produce effects in a controllable and sustainable manner. In particular, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) are widely used as a delivery reagent because silica possesses favorable chemical properties, thermal stability, and biocompatibility. The unique mesoporous structure of silica facilitates effective loading of drugs and their subsequent controlled release of the target site. The properties of mesoporous, including pore size, high drug loading, and porosity as well as the surface properties, can be altered depending on additives used to prepare MSNs. Active surface enables functionalization to changed surface properties and link therapeutic molecules. They are used as widely in the field of diagnosis, target drug delivery, bio-sensing, cellular uptake, etc., in the bio-medical field. This review aims to present the state of knowledge of silica containing mesoporous nanoparticles and specific application in various biomedical fields.

Nanotechnology is a promising field of interdisciplinary research. It opens up a wide array of opportunities in various fields like medicine, pharmaceuticals, electronics and agriculture. The potential uses and benefits of nanotechnology are enormous. The current global population is nearly 7 */billion with 50% living in Asia. A large proportion of those living in developing countries face daily food shortages as a result of environmental impacts or political instability, while in the developed world there is surplus of food. For developing countries, the drive is to develop drought and pest resistant crops, which also maximize yield. The potential of nanotechnology to revolutionise the health care, textile, materials, information and communication technology, and energy sectors has been well publicized. The application of nanotechnology to agriculture and food industries is also getting attention nowadays. Investments in agriculture and food nanotechnologies carry increasing weight because their potential benefits range from improved food quality and safety to reduced agricultural inputs and improved processing and nutrition. While most investment is made primarily in developed countries, research advancements provide glimpses of potential applications in agricultural, food, and water safety that could have significant impacts on rural populations in developing countries. This review is concentrated on modern strategies used for the management of water, pesticides, limitations in the use of chemical pesticides and potential of nano-materials in sustainable agriculture management as modern approaches of nanotechnology.   Key words: Agriculture, nanotechnology, nanofertilizer, nanoencapsulation, nanoherbicides.

This paper presents an empirical analysis of theperformance of popular convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for identifying objects in real time video feeds. The most popular convolution neural networks for object detection and object category classification from images are Alex Nets, GoogLeNet, and ResNet50. A variety of image data sets are available to test the performance of different types of CNN’s. The commonly found benchmark datasets for evaluating the performance of a convolutional neural network are anImageNet dataset, and CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and MNIST image data sets. This study focuses on analyzing the performance of three popular networks: Alex Net, GoogLeNet, and ResNet50. We have taken three most popular data sets ImageNet, CIFAR10, and CIFAR100 for our study, since, testing the performance of a network on a single data set does not reveal its true capability and limitations. It must be noted that videos are not used as a training dataset, they are used as testing datasets. Our analysis shows that GoogLeNet and ResNet50 are able to recognize objects with better precision compared to Alex Net. Moreover, theperformance of trained CNN’s vary substantially across different categories of objects and we, therefore, will discuss the possible reasons for this.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are important in regulating normal cellular processes whereas deregulated ROS leads to the development of a diseased state in humans including cancers. Several studies have been found to be marked with increased ROS production which activates pro-tumorigenic signaling, enhances cell survival and proliferation and drives DNA damage and genetic instability. However, higher ROS levels have been found to promote anti-tumorigenic signaling by initiating oxidative stress-induced tumor cell death. Tumor cells develop a mechanism where they adjust to the high ROS by expressing elevated levels of antioxidant proteins to detoxify them while maintaining pro-tumorigenic signaling and resistance to apoptosis. Therefore, ROS manipulation can be a potential target for cancer therapies as cancer cells present an altered redox balance in comparison to their normal counterparts. In this review, we aim to provide an overview of the generation and sources of ROS within tumor cells, ROS-associated signaling pathways, their regulation by antioxidant defense systems, as well as the effect of elevated ROS production in tumor progression. It will provide an insight into how pro- and anti-tumorigenic ROS signaling pathways could be manipulated during the treatment of cancer.

The beneficial effects of silicon and its role for plants are well established; however, the advantages of silicon nanoparticles over its bulk material are an area that is less explored. Silicon nanoparticles have distinctive physiological characteristics that allow them to enter plants and influence plant metabolic activities. The mesoporous nature of silicon nanoparticles also makes them good candidates as suitable nanocarriers for different molecules that may help in agriculture. Several studies have shown the importance of silicon nanoparticles in agriculture, but an overview of the related aspects was missing. Therefore, this review brings together the literature on silicon nanoparticles and discusses the impact of silicon nanoparticles on several aspects of agricultural sciences. The review also discusses the future application of silicon nanoparticles in plant growth, plant development, and improvement of plant productivity.

Highly efficient OLEDs are extremely demanded for the design of highly competitive energy-saving displays and lightings. In this article, we have systematically reviewed some most effective organic materials, eleven device architectural approaches, and outcoupling techniques to realize the high efficiency OLEDs.

Biogenic synthesis of metal nanoparticles is of considerable interest, as it affords clean, biocompatible, nontoxic, and cost-effective fabrication. Driven by their ability to withstand variable extremes of environmental conditions, several microorganisms, notably bacteria and fungi, have been investigated in the never-ending search for optimal nanomaterial production platforms. Here, we present a hitherto unexplored algal platform featuring Chlorella pyrenoidosa, which offers a high degree of consistency in morphology of synthesized silver nanoparticles. Using a suite of characterization methods, we reveal the intrinsic crystallinity of the algae-derived nanoparticles and the functional moieties associated with its surface stabilization. Significantly, we demonstrate the antibacterial and photocatalytic properties of these silver nanoparticles and discuss the potential mechanisms that drive these critical processes. The blend of photocatalytic and antibacterial properties coupled with their intrinsic biocompatibility and eco-friendliness make these nanoparticles particularly attractive for wastewater treatment.

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) with 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deaminase activity has potential to promote plant growth and development under adverse environmental conditions. The present study describes the isolation of six bacteria displaying ACC deaminase activity (from 900 to 1800 nmol α-ketobutyrate mg protein-1 h-1) from rhizospheric soil of Garlic (Allium sativum) crop. Out of six, two were selected for evaluation of other plant growth promoting activities. Apart from ACC deaminase activity (more than ~1500 nmol α-ketobutyrate mg protein-1 h-1), these two isolates ACC02 and ACC06 exhibited production of Indole acetic acid (greater than ~ 30 μg/ml), siderophore, ammonia, Hydrogen cyanide as well as solubilized insoluble form of phosphates (exceeding 85 mg/ml) and zinc. Besides presence of multifarious plant growth promoting activities these two isolates were also tolerant to salinity stress up to 4% (ACC02 up to 6%) and drought stress of 0.05MPa (ACC06 up to 0.73 MPa). The molecular characterization of isolates ACC02 and ACC06 on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that they belong to the genus Aneurinibacillus and Paenibacillus, respectively. The growth promoting abilities of these isolates were evaluated in pots by bio-priming French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) seeds. The results of this study revealed that treatment of bacterial isolates in the form of consortia significantly improved the (P≤ 0.05) morphological and physiological parameters than the individual treatment of the under salinity stress (25mM NaCl) conditions. The consortia treatment augmented the increment in root length (110%), root fresh weight (~45%), shoot length (60%), shoot fresh weight (255%) and total chlorophyll content (~ 57%) as compared to uninoculated positive control under salinity stress conditions.

In the arena of software, data mining technology has been considered as useful means for identifying patterns and trends of large volume of data. This approach is basically used to extract the unknown pattern from the large set of data for business as well as real time applications. It is a computational intelligence discipline which has emerged as a valuable tool for data analysis, new knowledge discovery and autonomous decision making. The raw, unlabeled data from the large volume of dataset can be classified initially in an unsupervised fashion by using cluster analysis i.e. clustering the assignment of a set of observations into clusters so that observations in the same cluster may be in some sense be treated as similar. The outcome of the clustering process and efficiency of its domain application are generally determined through algorithms. There are various algorithms which are used to solve this problem. In this research work two important clustering algorithms namely centroid based K-Means and representative object based FCM (Fuzzy C-Means) clustering algorithms are compared. These algorithms are applied and performance is evaluated on the basis of the efficiency of clustering output. The numbers of data points as well as the number of clusters are the factors upon which the behaviour patterns of both the algorithms are analyzed. FCM produces close results to K-Means clustering but it still requires more computation time than K-Means clustering.

At present aluminium matrix composites are widely used in engineering applications. Aluminium matrix composites are providing such superior properties which cannot be achieved by any existing monolithic material. Properties of aluminium matrix composite are highly influenced by nature of reinforcement which can be either in continuous or discontinuous fibre form. It also depends on the selection of processing techniques for the fabrication of aluminium matrix composites which depends on many factors including type of matrix and reinforcement, the degree of microstructural integrity desired and their structural, mechanical, electrochemical and thermal properties. Present paper reports an overview on synthesis routes, mechanical behavior and applications of aluminium matrix composites. Special focus is given to primary processing techniques for manufacturing of aluminium matrix composites. In the end, commercialization challenges, industrial aspects and future research directions are also briefed.

Nanoparticles (NPs) have been found to be potential targeted and controlled release drug delivery systems. Various drugs can be loaded in the NPs to achieve targeted delivery. Chitosan NPs being biodegradable, biocompatible, less toxic and easy to prepare, are an effective and potential tool for drug delivery. Chitosan is natural biopolymer which can be easily functionalized to obtain the desired targeted results and is also approved by GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe by the United States Food and Drug Administration [US FDA]). Various methods for preparation of chitosan NPs include, ionic cross-linking, covalent cross-linking, reverse micellar method, precipitation and emulsion-droplet coalescence method. Chitosan NPs are found to have plethora of applications in drug delivery diagnosis and other biological applications. The key applications include ocular drug delivery, per-oral delivery, pulmonary drug delivery, nasal drug delivery, mucosal drug delivery, gene delivery, buccal drug delivery, vaccine delivery, vaginal drug delivery and cancer therapy. The present review describes the formation of chitosan, synthesis of chitosan NPs and their various applications in drug delivery.

Multiple drug-resistant bacteria are a severe and growing public health concern. Because relatively few antibiotics have been approved over recent years and because of the inability of existing antibiotics to combat bacterial infections fully, demand for unconventional biocides is intense. Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) offer a novel potential means of fighting bacteria. Although metallic NPs exert their effects through membrane protein damage, superoxide radicals and the generation of ions that interfere with the cell granules leading to the formation of condensed particles, their antimicrobial potential, and mechanisms of action are still debated. This article discusses the action of metallic NPs as antibacterial agents, their mechanism of action, and their effect on bacterial drug resistance. Based on encouraging data about the antibacterial effects of NP/antibiotic combinations, we propose that this concept be thoroughly researched to identify means of combating drug-resistant bacteria.

COVID-19 outbreak has caused a downward spiral in the world economy and caused a huge impact on the higher education system. The sudden closure of campuses as a social distancing measure to prevent community transmission has shifted face-to-face classes to online learning systems. This has thrown the focus on utilising eLearning tools and platforms for effective student engagement which may have limitations of accessibility and affordability for many students. The pandemic has exposed the shortcomings of the current higher education system and the need for more training of educators in digital technology to adapt to the rapidly changing education climate of the world. In the post-pandemic situation, the use of eLearning and virtual education may become an integral part of the higher education system. The higher education institutions and universities need to plan the post-pandemic education and research strategies to ensure student learning outcomes and standards of educational quality.