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

Sequence-defined oligomers (SDOs) with their unique monomeric sequence and customizable nature are attracting the attention of researchers globally. The structural and functional diversity attainable in SDOs makes this platform promising, albeit with challenges in the synthesis. Herein, we report the design and synthesis of a novel class of SDO by incorporating tertiary amines into the backbone from commercially available inexpensive materials. Tertiary amines were selected due to their various material and biomedical applications. Even though the synthesis and purification of amine compounds are challenging, their various significant applications, such as pharmaceuticals, catalysts, surfactants, corrosion inhibitors, dye intermediates, polymer additives, rubber accelerators, gas treating agents, agriculture and analytical chemistry, make them fascinating. The synthetic strategy that is designed here is extremely efficient and economical for the scalable synthesis of the SDO and is support-free, protection-deprotection chemistry-free and catalyst/template-free. Most importantly, no extra design and synthesis of the monomer is required here. The key reactions employed for the SDO synthesis are (i) transformation of the hydroxy group to a halide and (ii) substitution of the halide by the secondary amine units. Including the purifying processes, the multigram synthesis of 4-mer was completed in 12-14 h. The synthetic strategy was established by synthesizing two different sequences of SDOs. The SDOs are characterized by 1H NMR and LC-MS. The tandem MS (MS/MS) experiment was conducted in order to validate the sequences over the SDO chain. Furthermore, the SDO platform was advanced in two ways: (i) by increasing the chain length via attaching a linker, which provides a rapid method for increasing the tertiary amine over the SDO chain and (ii) postsynthetic modification of SDO with other functional groups, including guanidine for biological importance and a well-known fluorophore dansyl group for material significance. © 2024 American Chemical Society.

World University root node

Department of Chemistry

ACS Macro Letters

Sequence-Defined Tertiary Amine-Based Oligomer Employing a Scalable, Support-Free and Protection/Deprotection-Free Iterative Strategy

This study presents an innovative approach for the detection of 5-nitroimidazole antibiotics, namely ornidazole, secnidazole, metronidazole and tinidazole. These antibiotics are widely used to treat microbial infections in both humans and livestock industries. Their unregulated use poses environmental and health risks due to their persistence in water bodies and potential to contribute to drug resistance. In response, this research proposes the utilisation of the self-aggregation property of a single unmodified non-aromatic amino acid, ʟ-lysine, for the detection of these antibiotics. Lysine exhibits strong fluorescence in water in a concentration-dependent manner and the interaction of lysine with 5-nitroimidazole antibiotics resulted in the quenching of its fluorescence. With this technique, we obtained a detection limit of 2.5 μM for metronidazole (MDZ), 2.65 μM for ornidazole (ODZ), 3.13 μM for secnidazole (SDZ) and 2.98 μM for tinidazole (TDZ). This cost-effective approach also offers practicality through visual detection on paper strips as well as successful application in detecting those antibiotics in milk samples and animal products. Taking advantage of the unique properties of lysine and its interaction with antibiotics, this method provides a robust, simplified yet efficient means of detecting 5-nitroimidazole antibiotics, which holds significant potential for real-world implementation. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Microchemical Journal

Selective luminescent detection of 5-nitroimidazole antibiotics through self-aggregates of a single non-aromatic amino acid, ʟ-lysine

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy of serum/plasma represents an alluring molecular diagnostic tool, especially for cancer, as it can provide a molecular fingerprint of clinical samples based on vibrational modes of chemical bonds. However, despite the superior performance, the routine adoption of this technique for clinical settings has remained elusive. This is due to the potential confounding factors that are often overlooked and pose a significant barrier to clinical translation. In this Perspective, we summarize the concerns associated with various confounding factors, such as fluid sampling, optical effects, hemolysis, abnormal cardiovascular and/or hepatic functions, infections, alcoholism, diet style, age and gender of a patient or normal control cohort and improper selection of numerical methods that ultimately would lead to improper spectral diagnosis. We also propose some precautionary measures to overcome the challenges associated with these confounding factors. © 2024 American Chemical Society

Biological Sciences and Engineering

Analytical Chemistry

Infrared Spectroscopy for Rapid Triage of Cancer Using Blood Derivatives: A Reality Check

Protein S-palmitoylation mediated by DHHCs is recognized as a distinct and reversible form of lipid modification connected with several health perturbations, including neurodegenerative disorders, cancer and autoimmune conditions. However, the pharmacological characteristics of current pan-DHHC inhibitors, particularly their toxicity and off-target effects, have hindered their in-depth cellular investigations. The therapeutic properties of the natural compounds, with minimal side effects, allowed us to evaluate them as DHHC-targeting inhibitors. Here, we performed an insilico screening of 115 phytochemicals to assess their interactions with the DHHC20 binding site. Among these compounds, lutein, 5-hydroxyflavone and 6-hydroxyflavone exhibited higher binding energy (−9.2, −8.5 and −8.5 kcal/mol) in the DHHC20 groove compared to pan-DHHC inhibitor 2-BP (−7.0 kcal/mol). Furthermore, we conducted a 100 ns MD simulation to evaluate the stability of these complexes under physiological conditions. The MDsimulation results indicated that DHHC20 formed a more stable conformation with lutein compared to 5-hydroxyflavone and 6-hyroxyflavone via hydrophobic and H-bond interactions. Conclusively, these results could serve as a promising starting point for exploring the use of these natural molecules as DHHC20 inhibitors. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics

Identification of selective plant-derived natural carotenoid and flavonoids as the potential inhibitors of DHHC-mediated protein S-palmitoylation: an in silico study

S-palmitoylation is a dynamic lipid-based protein post-translational modification facilitated by a family of protein acyltransferases (PATs) commonly known as DHHC-PATs or DHHCs. It is the only lipid modification that is reversible and this very fact uniquely qualifies it for therapeutic interventions through the development of DHHC inhibitors. Herein, we report that 4″-alkyl ether lipophilic derivatives of EGCG can effectively inhibit protein S-palmitoylation in vitro. With the help of metabolic labeling followed by copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition Click reaction, we demonstrate that 4″-C14 EGCG and 4″-C16 EGCG markedly inhibited S-palmitoylation in various mammalian cells including HEK 293T, HeLa and MCF-7 using both in gel fluorescence as well as confocal microscopy. Further, these EGCG derivatives were able to attenuate the S-palmitoylation to the basal level in DHHC3-overexpressed cells, suggesting that they are plausibly targeting DHHCs. Confocal microscopy data qualitatively reflected spatial and temporal distribution of S-palmitoylated proteins in different sub-cellular compartments and the inhibitory effects of 4″-C14 EGCG and 4″-C16 EGCG were clearly observed in the native cellular environment. Our findings were further substantiated by in silico analysis which revealed promising binding affinity and interactions of 4″-C14 EGCG and 4″-C16 EGCG with key amino acid residues present in the hydrophobic cleft of the DHHC20 enzyme. We also demonstrated the successful inhibition of S-palmitoylation of GAPDH by 4″-C16 EGCG. Taken together, our in vitro and in silico data strongly suggest that 4″-C14 EGCG and 4″-C16 EGCG can act as potent inhibitors for S-palmitoylation and can be employed as a complementary tool to investigate S-palmitoylation. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Biomembranes

Protein S-palmitoylation is markedly inhibited by 4″-alkyl ether lipophilic derivatives of EGCG, the major green tea polyphenol: In vitro and in silico studies

The potential impacts of the inverter-interfaced renewable energy resources (IIRERs) on the performance of sequence-based directional relaying schemes (SBDRS) have been investigated in this paper. The directional overcurrent relays such as 67POS, 67NEG, 67ZERO and 32Q have been considered for the investigation. CIGRE-14 bus system with IIRERs along with detailed modeling of inverter control scheme (with and without grid codes) and SBDRS have been done in the PSCAD environment. The mathematical analysis and circuit realization of the IIRERs have been attempted in the paper. The exclusive fault characteristics exhibited by IIRERs cause the conventional SBDRS to mal-operate. Significant change in levels of sequence currents and angular relationships between sequence voltages and currents during faults contributes to relay's unpredictable behavior. The comparative study based on different fault types, fault resistances and interconnecting transformer connections have also been done. The study reveals the impact of non-generalized angular differences between positive sequence voltage and current at the inverter terminal on performance of 67POS. It is found that 67NEG and 32Q mal-operated for all types of unbalanced faults while the 67ZERO can be utilized for grounded fault with delta-star grounded connection of interconnecting transformer. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Department of Electrical Engineering

Electric Power Systems Research

Exploring the interdependence between control and protection philosophies in inverter integrated power system: A case study on directional relaying schemes

The architecture of solid-state transformers (SSTs) is usually comprised with three-stage cascaded converters. The control of cascaded multistage SSTs is conventionally designed considering decoupled stages. Furthermore, the isolating stage, which is typically implemented with dual active bridge converters, employs a closed-loop control with a much larger bandwidth (BW) than the ac-dc stage. This disparity in the BWs can put a strain on the intermediate dc-link capacitors that connect the ac-dc and isolating stages, resulting in large capacitor voltage excursions when the load changes. In fact, this can result in ac-dc stage overmodulation and even large current overshoots through the isolating stage's high-frequency transformers. This necessitates advanced SST control strategies that can mitigate the aforementioned challenges. This article proposes a control design in which the state variables are selected as the sum of capacitor energies and differences in capacitor energies. Unlike the state-of-the-art SST controllers, the proposed integrated control approach creates a more balanced and safe distribution of energies among the dc-link capacitors during load transients. The control design is simplified as the difference in the control-loop BWs between the stages does not affect this disturbance attenuation ability. The effectiveness of the proposed control is demonstrated by experiments using a 1-kVA SST with two strings. © 1986-2012 IEEE.

IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

A Control Strategy for Solid-State Transformers with Coupled Load Disturbance Attenuation Ability

Locally available marginal soil has been widely used as backfills due to the non-availability of granular soil. The performance of MSE walls at the end of construction with marginal lateritic soil as backfill was studied by conducting numerical model studies. Two types of reinforcements, viz., conventional geogrids and hybrid geogrids, were used in the present study. Recent evidences of adverse impacts of climate change necessitate the need for adaptation of MSE walls to changing climate, especially when backfilled with marginal soils. A coupled flow-deformation analysis was conducted on MSE walls with geogrids (GW) and hybrid geogrids (HGW) as reinforcements. Considering the lack of the experimental data which quantify the hydraulic and mechanical response of marginal lateritic backfills during rainfall-induced wetting, a physical model test was also conducted and presented herein. Results show that the backfill suction in GW was lost at the end of 4&nbsp;days of continuous heavy rainfall, but it was maintained in case of HGW even at the end of 10&nbsp;days of rainfall infiltration. Rainfall infiltration increased the facing deformation and surface settlement by 37% and 97%, respectively, in the case of MSE wall reinforced with the conventional geogrids (GW). However, hybrid geogrids (HGW) delayed the progression of wetting front and have prevented the backfill to undergo deformation. In GW, reinforcement strain has reached a maximum of 2.1% at the end of 10&nbsp;days of rainfall, whereas it was observed to be only 0.8% in case of HGW. Increment in reinforcement tensile load due to rainwater infiltration is 63% lower for HGW when compared with GW. Overall, the performance of MSE walls with marginal backfills was improved using hybrid geogrids due to the dissipation of excess pore water pressure.

Department of Civil Engineering

International Journal of Geosynthetics and Ground Engineering

Coupled Flow-Deformation Analysis of MSE Wall Reinforced with Hybrid Geogrids

A unified framework for fourth-order semilinear problems with trilinear nonlinearity and general sources allows for quasi-best approximation with lowest-order finite element methods. This paper establishes the stability and a priori error control in the piecewise energy and weaker Sobolev norms under minimal hypotheses. Applications include the stream function vorticity formulation of the incompressible 2D NavierStokes equations and the von Kármán equations with Morley, discontinuous Galerkin, C0 interior penalty, and weakly over-penalized symmetric interior penalty schemes. The proposed new discretizations consider quasi-optimal smoothers for the source term and smoother-type modifications inside the nonlinear terms.