Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad&nbsp;(IIT Palakkad or IIT PKD) is a public autonomous&nbsp;engineering&nbsp;and&nbsp;research&nbsp;institute located in&nbsp;Palakkad,&nbsp;Kerala. It was&nbsp;one of the five new&nbsp;IITs&nbsp;proposed in the&nbsp;2014 Union budget of India. The campus was inaugurated on 3 August 2015. The institute has 94 faculty, 978 students, and 63 non-teaching staffs.

IT Palakkad currently offers four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) and two years MS programmes in 8 different engineering disciplines including&nbsp;Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Civil among others.

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IIT Palakkad

Precise detection of the misalignment can reduce maintenance cost, power loss and improve life of rotating machinery. In this paper, Hilbert Huang Transform (HHT) of the run-up response of a rotor is used to detect coupling misalignment. A finite element analysis is carried out to simulate desirable level of possible parallel and angular misalignment. All the best conventional detection techniques like Fourier spectrum analysis, Continuous Wavelet Transform are compared with results obtained by HHT. The effect of Signal to Noise Ratio and angular acceleration on all the methods to detect misalignment is discussed. The comparison of the methods is oriented towards detecting least possible misalignment level. Finally, experiments are performed on a test rotor rig to detect induced misalignment using the proposed method. It is observed that this method is sensitive to low misalignment, and consumes less testing time. Copyright © 2014 by ASME.

World University root node

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Proceedings of the ASME Turbo Expo

Detection and monitoring of shaft misalignment in rotors using hilbert huang transform

In this study, displacement and strain energy mode shapes obtained from the structure, are processed using continuous spatial wavelet transforms for damage identification. A cantilever and simply supported beam are analysed in ANSYS to obtain mode shapes by performing modal analysis both for damaged and undamaged conditions. Different wavelets are processed to choose the best mother wavelet for detecting crack, a representation of damage. The dimensions of crack like depth are varied from 0.5 mm. Spatial distribution of wavelet coefficients obtained is used for identifying the damage. The quantification of the damage is done by using Lipchitz constant. It is observed that by using strain energy mode shapes the percentage of damage (crack) identification level can be improved than by using displacement mode shapes. The minimum damage level that the strain mode shape can identify is approximately 3% of the element thickness, whereas with displacement mode shapes, it is about 7% of the element thickness. Different types of crack configurations like single surface crack, double surface cracks and internal cracks are simulated and studied using both the modal methods. It is observed that the strain energy mode method could identify internal cracks also. © (2014) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.

Applied Mechanics and Materials

Damage identification and quantification in structures using wavelet analysis

A low cost optical fiber pH sensor has been proposed. The sensor is configured by coating a pH sensitive film of hydrogel synthesized by Poly (Vinyl Alcohol)/Poly (Acrylic Acid) blend coated on an etched single mode fiber. The pH response of the gel coated fiber is studied. © OSA 2014.

Department of Chemistry

Proceedings 12th International Conference on Fiber Optics and Photonics, Photonics 2014

Study on polymer coated etched optical fiber for pH sensing

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen presenting cells that play a pivotal role in the initiation of immune responses. DCs ingest antigens and then present these antigens to T cells to initiate T cell activation and polarization. DCs receive signals both from environment and from endogenous molecules. DCs in the immune system constantly interact with immunoglobulins (or antibodies) and a substantial amount of these immunoglobulins are natural. We found that natural antibodies have a key role in regulating the DC functions and that CD40-reactive natural antibodies constitute one of the endogenous molecules that provide maturation-associated signals to DCs in physiology. In this chapter, we describe the isolation of anti-CD40 natural antibodies from pooled normal immunoglobulin preparations (intravenous immunoglobulin, IVIg) and their biological effects on human DC maturation and functions. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014.

Biological Sciences and Engineering

Methods in Molecular Biology

Regulation of human dendritic cell functions by natural anti-CD40 antibodies

The presence of maternal antibodies is a major obstacle for eliciting protective immune responses to foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines in young, growing animals. In this report, we analyzed the ability of inactivated quadrivalent oil emulsified and aluminium hydroxide adjuvanted FMD vaccines to elicit neutralizing antibody responses in growing calves that had maternal antibodies. Our results demonstrate that oil emulsified vaccines but not aluminium hydroxide adjuvanted FMD vaccines could surmount maternal antibodies to elicit strong and significant levels of neutralizing antibody responses in growing claves. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Veterinary Microbiology

Neutralizing antibody responses to foot-and-mouth disease quadrivalent (type O, A, C and Asia 1) vaccines in growing calves with pre-existing maternal antibodies

The mechanisms underlying Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) pathogenesis need to be thoroughly explored to delineate therapeutic approaches. It is believed that JEV manipulates the innate and adaptive compartments of the host's immune system to evade immune response and cross the blood-brain barrier. The present study was thus designed to investigate the functional modulation of DCs after exposure to JEV and to assess the consequences on CD4+ T-lymphocyte functions. Human monocyte-derived DCs were either infected with 1 MOI of live virus, UV-inactivated virus, or were mock-infected. Replication-competent JEV induced a significant increase in the expression of maturation markers 48 h postinfection, along with that of programmed cell death 1 ligand 1 (PD-L1; also called B7-H1 and CD274). JEV-infected DCs expanded the Treg cells in allogenic mixed lymphocyte reactions. The expansion of Treg cells by JEV-infected DCs was significantly reduced upon blocking PD-L1 using an antagonist. In addition, JEV-infected DCs significantly altered the proliferation and reduced the polarization of Th cells toward the Th1-cell phenotype. The results, for the first time, suggest that JEV evades the host's immune system by modulating the crosstalk between DCs and T lymphocytes via the PD-L1 axis. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH &amp; Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

European Journal of Immunology

Japanese encephalitis virus expands regulatory T cells by increasing the expression of PD-L1 on dendritic cells

A considerable progress has been achieved in the comprehension of the cellular and molecular mechanisms that account for the therapeutic benefit of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) in several autoimmune and inflammatory conditions. However, the precise mechanisms responsible for such a wide range of biological activities have not been proven unambiguously. A wide range of specificities have been identified within IVIg including idiotypes of immunoglobulins, Tcell receptor, HLA molecules, several cell surface molecules of immunological importance such as CD4, CD5, Fas, BAFF, cytokines and cytokine receptors, chemokine receptors, CD40 among others. Here we identify and characterize the natural autoantibodies of IgG isotype directed against the human Fc receptors. We show that the F(ab′)2 of IVIg recognize the FcγRIII (CD16) and FcγRII (CD32). Interestingly, the immunopurified anti-FcγIII and anti-FcγII antibodies isolated from IVIg bind soluble and membrane-bound FcR and inhibit rosette formation. Altogether, these results along with previous reports provide pointers on the existence of functionally relevant natural autoantibodies towards a wide range of self-motifs that may participate in regulation of the immune response. Their presence in the therapeutic immunoglobulin preparations may explain at least in part, the beneficial effect of IVIg in autoimmune diseases. © Springer Science+Business Media 2014.

Journal of Clinical Immunology

Natural autoantibodies to Fcγ receptors in intravenous immunoglobulins

Proinflammatory cytokines are critically involved in the alteration of adipose tissue biology leading to deterioration of glucose homeostasis in obesity. Here we show a pronounced proinflammatory signature of adipose tissue macrophages in type 2 diabetic obese patients, mainly driven by increased NLRP3-dependent interleukin (IL)-1β production. IL-1β release increased with glycemic deterioration and decreased after gastric bypass surgery. A specific enrichment of IL-17- and IL-22-producing CD4+ T cells was found in adipose tissue of type 2 diabetic obese patients. Coculture experiments identified the effect of macrophagederived IL-1β to promote IL-22 and IL-17 production by human adipose tissue CD4+ T cells. Reciprocally, adipose tissue macrophages express IL-17 and IL-22 receptors, making them sensitive to IL-17 and IL-22. IL-22 increased IL-1β release by inducing pro-IL-1β transcription through activation of C-Jun pathways in macrophages. In sum, these human data identified IL-1β and the T-cell cytokine IL-22 as key players of a paracrine inflammatory pathway previously unidentified in adipose tissue, with a pathological relevance to obesity-induced type 2 diabetes. These results provide an additional rationale for targeting IL-1β in obesity-linked type 2 diabetes and may have important implications for the conception of novel combined anti-IL-1β and anti-IL-22 immunotherapy in human obesity. © 2014 by the American Diabetes Association.

Fulltext

Diabetes

T cell+derived IL-22 amplifies IL-1β+driven inflammation in human adipose tissue: Relevance to obesity and type 2 diabetes

Ophthalmology

Re: Kaiser: Emerging therapies for neovascular age-related macular degeneration: Drugs in the pipeline (Ophthalmology 2013;120:S11-S15)

A defect-free rolling element bearing has a varying stiffness. The variation of stiffness depends on number of rolling elements, their configuration and cage frequency. The time-varying characteristics of the stiffness results in a parametric excitation. This may lead to instability which is manifested as high vibration levels. An FEM simulation is performed to evaluate stiffness in each configuration of rolling elements and is used to study the variation of direct stiffness and cross coupled stiffness. The obtained stiffness variation is expanded into a Fourier series to form the equation of motion for the bearing vibration. As the stiffness varies with cage frequency, stiffness term in the equation of motion is periodic with parametric excitation. Hence, the equation of motion is a 2-DOF coupled Mathieu equation. Based on Mathieu parameters and cage frequency there exists unstable rpm ranges for a particular bearing. Floquet theory is employed to find out the stable and unstable regions. This involves finding out maximum Floquet exponent using Monodromy matrix. The results obtained through Floquet theory are in agreement with the numerical solution of the governing equations.