Optimization of cultural conditions for submerged state fermentation of di-gested biogas slurry for production of lignocellulolytic enzymes using Phanaerochaete chrysosporium MTCC 787

Growing environmental concerns and increasing demands from end-use sectors have increased the glob-al market for microbial products. Optimizations of production parameters hold great importance for the industry. The present study was aimed at optimization of submerged state fermentation conditions for production of lignocelluloly-tic enzymes from digested biogas slurry by Phanaerochaete chrysosporium MTCC 787. Enzyme activities for differ-ent enzymes i.e. endoglucanase, exoglucanase, ?-glucosidase; xylanase and mannanase; laccase, lignin peroxidase and manganese peroxidise, using P. chrysosporium MTCC 787 were maximum at 50% concentration of digested slur-ry and showed maximum value of xylanase i.e. 187.41U/ml. Effect of temperature (25°C, 30°C and 35°C) on lignocellu-losic bioconversion showed that at 30°C, maximum value of manganese peroxidise (167.5 U/ml) was obtained. High-est enzyme activites were obtained at selected inoculum size i.e. 10?spores/ml, e.g. 85.29 U/ml xylanase was ob-tained. Incubation period of 8 days and pH of 7.0 came out to be best conditions for P. chrysosporium MTCC787 to produce maximum enzyme activity e.g. xylanase 95.47U/ml at pH 7.0 and xylanase 144.96U/ml at 8 day incu-bation.This work presents a novel concept in optimization of fermentation process to produce lignocellulolytic en-zymes as this work is focussed on utilization of digested biogas slurry as a substrate for enzyme production and enhancement of the production with microbial source, which is environment friendly

Simulation of Z(3) walls and string production via bubble nucleation in a quark-hadron transition

We study the dynamics of confinement-deconfinement (C-D) phase transition in the context of relativistic heavy-ion collisions within the framework of effective models for the Polyakov loop order parameter. We study the formation of $Z(3)$ walls and associated strings in the initial transition from the confining (hadronic) phase to the deconfining (QGP) phase via the so called Kibble mechanism. Essential physics of the Kibble mechanism is contained in a sort of domain structure arising after any phase transition which represents random variation of the order parameter at distances beyond the typical correlation length. We implement this domain structure by using the Polyakov loop effective model with a first order phase transition and confine ourselves with temperature/time ranges so that the first order C-D transition proceeds via bubble nucleation, leading to a well defined domain structure. The formation of $Z(3)$ walls and associated strings results from the coalescence of QGP bubbles expanding in the confining background. We investigate the evolution of the $Z(3)$ wall and string network. We also calculate the energy density fluctuations associated with $Z(3)$ wall network and strings which decay away after the temperature drops below the quark-hadron transition temperature during the expansion of QGP. We discuss evolution of these quantities with changing temperature via Bjorken's hydrodynamical model and discuss possible experimental signatures resulting from the presence of $Z(3)$ wall network and associate strings.Comment: 23 pages and 12 figure

Effects of quarks on the formation and evolution of Z(3) walls and strings in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We investigate the effects of explicit breaking of Z(3) symmetry due to the presence of dynamical quarks on the formation and evolution of Z(3) walls and associated QGP strings within Polyakov loop model. We carry out numerical simulations of the first order quark-hadron phase transition via bubble nucleation (which may be appropriate, for example, at finite baryon chemical potential) in the context of relativistic heavy-ion collision experiments. Using appropriate shifting of the order parameter in the Polyakov loop effective potential, we calculate the bubble profiles using bounce technique, for the true vacuum as well as for the metastable Z(3) vacua, and estimate the associated nucleation probabilities. These different bubbles are then nucleated and evolved and resulting formation and dynamics of Z(3) walls and QGP strings is studied. We discuss various implications of the existence of these Z(3) interfaces and the QGP strings, especially in view of the effects of the explicit breaking of the Z(3) symmetry on the formation and dynamical evolution of these objects.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, PDFLate

Advancing our Understanding of Heat Wave Criteria and Associated Health Impacts to Improve Heat Wave Alerts in Developing Country Settings.

Health effects of heat waves with high baseline temperatures in areas such as India remain a critical research gap. In these regions, extreme temperatures may affect the underlying population's adaptive capacity; heat wave alerts should be optimized to avoid continuous high alert status and enhance constrained resources, especially under a changing climate. Data from registrars and meteorological departments were collected for four communities in Northwestern India. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) was used to obtain the relative risk of mortality and number of attributable deaths (i.e., absolute risk which incorporates the number of heat wave days) under a variety of heat wave definitions (n = 13) incorporating duration and intensity. Heat waves' timing in season was also assessed for potential effect modification. Relative risk of heat waves (risk of mortality comparing heat wave days to matched non-heat wave days) varied by heat wave definition and ranged from 1.28 [95% Confidence Interval: 1.11-1.46] in Churu (utilizing the 95th percentile of temperature for at least two consecutive days) to 1.03 [95% CI: 0.87-1.23] in Idar and Himmatnagar (utilizing the 95th percentile of temperature for at least four consecutive days). The data trended towards a higher risk for heat waves later in the season. Some heat wave definitions displayed similar attributable mortalities despite differences in the number of identified heat wave days. These findings provide opportunities to assess the "efficiency" (or number of days versus potential attributable health impacts) associated with alternative heat wave definitions. Findings on both effect modification and trade-offs between number of days identified as "heat wave" versus health effects provide tools for policy makers to determine the most important criteria for defining thresholds to trigger heat wave alerts

Photoacoustic Detection of Circulating Prostate, Breast and Pancreatic Cancer cells using targeted Gold Nanoparticles: Implications of Green Nanotechnology in Molecular Imaging

Nanoscience Poster SessionCirculating tumor cells are hallmarks of metastasis cancer. The presence of circulating tumor cells in blood stream correlates with the severity of disease. Photoacoustic imaging (PA) of tumor cells is an attractive technique for potential applications in diagnostic imaging of circulating tumor cells. However, the sensitivity of photoacoustic imaging of tumor cells depends on their photon absorption characteristics. In this context, gold nanoparticle embedded tumor cells offer significant advantages for diagnostic PA of single cells. As the PA absorptivity is directly proportional to the number of nanoparticles embedded within tumor cells, the propensity of nanoparticles to internalize within tumor cells will dictate the sensitivity for single cell detection. We are developing biocompatible gold nanoparticles to use them as probes as part of our ongoing effort toward the application of X ray CT Imaging, Ultra Sound (US) and photoacoustic imaging of circulating breast, pancreatic and prostate tumor cells. We, herein report our latest results which have shown that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)-conjugated gold nanoparticles (EGCG-AuNPs) internalize selectively within cancer cells providing threshold concentrations required for photo acoustic signals. In this presentation, we will describe, our recent results on the synthesis and characterization of EGCG gold nanoparticles, their cellular internalization and photo acoustic imaging of PC-3 prostate cancer cells and PANC-1 pancreatic cancer cells

Menger convex metric spaces and fixed point theorems

Takahashi et al have shown that every decreasing sequence of nonempty, bounded, closed, convex subsets of a complete, uniformly (Takahashi's) $W-$ convex metric space has nonempty intersection. This article presents an extension of this nonempty intersection property of $W-$ convex metric space to a Menger convex metric space. We study some characteristics of the Menger convex metric spaces. Using these results, fixed point results for $(\alpha, \beta)-$ generalized hybrid mapping on Menger convex metric space are discussed. As an application, it is discussed how these results are applicable to a metrizable topological real vector space with some specific Takahashi's $W-$ convex structure on it.Comment: 17 page

On Hausdorff Metric Spaces

An {\it expansive mapping of Lipschitz type} is introduced. A map, induced by a given map $T$ between two metric spaces $X$ and $Y$, from the power set of $X$ to the power set of $Y$ is considered. It is proved that the induced map preserves continuity, Lipschitz continuity and expansiveness of Lipschitz type. A nonempty intersection property in a metric space is achieved which also provides a partial generalization of the classical Cantor's Intersection Theorem. Using this nonempty intersection property and the considered induced map, it is shown that the converse of Henrikson's result (i.e. a Hausdorff metric space is complete if its underlying space is complete) also holds.Comment: 14 page