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

C−H hydroxylation of aryl acetamides and alkyl phenylacetyl esters was accomplished via challenging distal weak O-coordination by versatile ruthenium(II/IV) catalysis. The ruthenium(II)-catalyzed C−H oxygenation of aryl acetamides proceeded through C−H activation, ruthenium(II/IV) oxidation and reductive elimination, thus providing step-economical access to valuable phenols. The p-cymene-ruthenium(II/IV) manifold was established by detailed experimental and DFT-computational studies. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH

World University root node

Department of Chemistry

Fulltext

Chemistry - A European Journal

Insights into Ruthenium(II/IV)-Catalyzed Distal C−H Oxygenation by Weak Coordination

Detailed density functional theory calculations provide valuable insight into reactivity-controlling factors in transition metal-catalyzed C-H activation by carboxylate assistance. The chelation-Assisted activation of a variety of arenes by 3d and 4d transition metal complexes was analyzed by means of bond order analysis through density functional theory (DFT) calculations as well as energy decomposition analysis through DLPNO-CCSD(T) calculations, thereby providing in-depth information on distinct electronic influences on the key C-H activation transition state and demonstrating a preferred activation through a base-Assisted internal electrophilic substitution (BIES) rather than a concerted metalation-deprotonation (CMD) pathway. Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.

ACS Catalysis

Reactivity-Controlling Factors in Carboxylate-Assisted C-H Activation under 4d and 3d Transition Metal Catalysis

Department of Mathematics

arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.

Poisson algebras of loops on surfaces and skein algebras associated to their quantization

We prove a version of the Schwarz lemma for holomorphic mappings from the unit disk into the symmetric product of a Riemann surface. Our proof is function-theoretic and self-contained. The main novelty in our proof is the use of the pluricomplex Green’s function. We also prove several other Schwarz lemmas using this function. © 2019, Mathematica Josephina, Inc.

Journal of Geometric Analysis

Schwarz Lemmas via the Pluricomplex Green’s Function

The folded form of S-Peptide is found to be essential for the activation of RNase-S complex. Herein the folding-unfolding dynamics of S-Peptide and its protonated form in mild acidic conditions are investigated to assess the most favorable folding pathway in physiological conditions. Our results confirm that the pH assisted S-peptide structures could indeed influence on the binding and collapse of the hydrophobic groups, which in turn can modulate the structural stability of S-Peptide α-helix. We affirm that the protonated S-Peptide has its partially and completely folded states which are readily accessible whereas in the case of non-protonated S-Peptide, there exists an energy barrier in attaining the folds. Further, the RNase-S complex formation could be mostly assisted by mild acidic pH and we also confirm that the folding-unfolding pathways of S-Peptide are independent of the pH. © 2020 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

ChemistrySelect

Folding-Unfolding Dynamics of pH-Assisted Structures of S-Peptide

Mixed Pd–Au bimetallic nanoparticles embedded nitrogen doped graphene composites (PdAu/NG180) are explored for efficient electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol. A simple hydrothermal one-pot polyol method, involving simultaneous reduction of both Pd and Au, is utilized for the synthesis of Pd20-xAux/NG180 (x wt % = 0, 5, 10 and 15). This method is of multiple advantages such as inexpensiveness, reagent-free and environment-friendly being surfactant free. The morphology, crystal structure and chemical composition of NG180, Pd/NG180 and Pd20-xAux/NG180 catalysts are analyzed by XRD, FESEM-EDX, TEM, XPS and Raman spectroscopy methods. Electrocatalytic activities of PdAu/NG180 nanocomposites toward methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) in alkaline media are investigated by cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry and CO stripping measurements. Pd20-xAux/NG180 exhibited an increase in the electroactive surface area of Pd to twice by the coexistence of Au. In cyclic voltammetry studies, Pd10Au10/NG180 catalyst exhibits highest peak current density for MOR and is 1.5 times highly efficient compared to Pd20/NG180 with an enhanced shift in the onset potential by 140 mV to lower overpotentials. Besides, Pd10Au10/NG180 catalyst exhibited enhanced electroactive surface area and long-time durability in comparison to Pd20/NG180 catalyst. The steady state current density for MOR observed with Pd10Au10/NG180 at the end of 4000 s (98 mA mg−1Pd) is higher than those observed with all the other catalysts at the end of mere 1000 s alone (97, 61, and 32 mA mg−1Pd). The promising high electrocatalytic activity of Pd10Au10/NG180 is well corroborated from CO stripping experiments that the specific adsorption of CO onto Pd10Au10/NG180 (0.71 C m−2) is merely half to that observed onto Pd20/NG180 (1.49 C m−2). © 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

One-pot synthesis of Pd20-xAux nanoparticles embedded in nitrogen doped graphene as high-performance electrocatalyst toward methanol oxidation

The curvature-sensitive localisation of proteins on membranes is vital for many cell biological processes. Coarse-grained models are routinely employed to study the curvature-sensing phenomena and membrane morphology at the length scale of a few micrometres. Two prevalent phenomenological models exist for modelling the experimental observations of curvature sensing: (1) the spontaneous curvature (SC) model and (2) the curvature mismatch (CM) model, which differ in their treatment of the change in elastic energy due to the binding of proteins on the membrane. In this work, the prediction of sensing and generation behaviour by these two models are investigated using analytical calculations as well as dynamic triangulation Monte Carlo simulations of quasispherical vesicles. While the SC model yields a monotonically decreasing sensing curve as a function of the vesicle radius, the CM model results in a non-monotonic sensing curve. We highlight the main differences in the interpretation of the protein-related parameters in the two models. We further propose that the SC model is appropriate for modelling peripheral proteins employing the hydrophobic insertion mechanism, with minimal modification of membrane rigidity, while the CM model is appropriate for modelling curvature generation using scaffolding mechanism where there is significant stiffening of the membrane due to protein binding. © 2020, Indian Academy of Sciences.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Pramana - Journal of Physics

Models for membrane curvature sensing of curvature generating proteins

Introduction: Rifabutin (RFB) is a lipophilic, semi-synthetic antibiotic given for the treatment of atypical mycobacterial infections along with drug susceptible tuberculosis infections. The major challenges in its usage include low oral bioavailability (similar to 20\%) mainly due to its low solubility and extensive first pass metabolism. Aim: The present study aims to explore the pharmacokinetics, biodistribution and toxicity of nanocarrier of RFB. Materials and Methods: An experimental animal study was carried out in Institute for Industrial Research and Toxicology, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. RFB nanocarriers were formulated by using solvent diffusion evaporation method with minor modifications and characterised for its physicochemical properties by using various techniques like Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) method, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), X-ray Diffractometry (XRD), in-vitro release study etc. Further nanocarriers were also studied for in-vivo analysis using pharmacokinetics, biodistribution and toxicity studies. GraphPad Prism Software (Version 5.02) was used for the statistical analysis. Results: Nanocarriers of RFB were developed and evaluated for its safety and efficacy. The results of evaluation of nanocarrier for physical and chemical attributes revealed that its particle size obtained was 305-325 nm with low Poly Dispersity Index (PDI) of 0.26-0.36 and the high drug encapsulation efficiency (62.45-70.15\%). The nanocarrier formulation showed a sustained release pattern in Simulated Intestinal Fluid (SIF) upto 48 hours and in Physiological Buffer System (PBS) upto 7 days. The invivo study showed that the nano-lipoidal drug has significant higher Tmax and Cmax plasma value with higher t(1/2)(h) values in comparison to plain drug, Moreover, the slow elimination rate (Kel) resulted in significant (p<0.001) prolonged half-life (t(1/2)), which was many fold higher than the plain drug. No significant change was observed in haematological and liver enzyme profile of rats in plain drug and drug with nano-lipoidal carrier. Nanocarriers showed that there was an increase cell survival rate in MTT assay as compared to normal drug. Conclusion: By using nanotechnology based formulations, dose and dosing frequency of drug administration can be reduced. Thus, RFB drug can be administered in more efficacious manner reducing its toxic side effects, which ultimately improves patient compliance.

Department of Physics

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC RESEARCH

Pharmacokinetics, Biodistribution and Toxicity Studies for Nanocarrier of Antitubercular Agent-Rifabutin

Numbers of Visually impaired persons are suffering a lot for communicating their thoughts. Braille literacy is not affordable to all since the printers are expensive which costs roughly one Lakhs. This work aims to develop a braille embosser for the affordable price which embosses the A4 size sheet with braille code. Arduino Uno controller is employed to control the angular position of the stepper motor. The input is given as text format to the serial monitor of the arduino IDE. The input texts are converted into Unicode in order to get the corresponding braille code. With the help of stepper motors code is printed on the paper.