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

The development of an immune response against therapeutic factor VIII is the major complication in hemophilia A patients. Oligomannose carbohydrates at N239 and/or N2118 on factor VIII allow its binding to the macrophage mannose receptor expressed on human dendritic cells, thereby leading to factor VIII endocytosis and presentation to CD4+ T lymphocytes. Here, we investigated whether altering the interaction of factor VIII with mannose-sensitive receptors on antigen-presenting cells may be a strategy to reduce factor VIII immunogenicity. Gene transfer experiments in factor VIII-deficient mice indicated that N239Q and/or N2118Q factor VIII mutants have similar specific activities as compared to non-mutated factor VIII; N239Q/N2118Q mutant corrected blood loss upon tail clip. Production of the corresponding recombinant FVIII mutants or light chains indicated that removal of the N-linked glycosylation site at N2118 is sufficient to abrogate in vitro the activation of FVIII-specific CD4+ T cells by human monocyte-derived dendritic cells. However, removal of mannose-ending glycans at N2118 did not alter factor VIII endocytosis and presentation to CD4+ T cells by mouse antigen-presenting cells. In agreement with this, the N2118Q mutation did not reduce factor VIII immunogenicity in factor VIII-deficient mice. Our results highlight differences in the endocytic pathways between human and mouse dendritic cell subsets, and dissimilarities in tissue distribution and function of endocytic receptors such as CD206 in both species. Further investigations in preclinical models of hemophilia A closer to humans are needed to decipher the exact role of mannose-ending glycans in factor VIII immunogenicity. © Copyright © 2020 Delignat, Rayes, Dasgupta, Gangadharan, Denis, Christophe, Bayry, Kaveri and Lacroix-Desmazes.

World University root node

Biological Sciences and Engineering

Fulltext

Frontiers in Immunology

Removal of Mannose-Ending Glycan at Asn2118 Abrogates FVIII Presentation by Human Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells

B cells with regulatory properties (Bregs) were identified in human and in mice among different B-cell subsets. Their regulatory properties rely mainly on the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, in particular IL10, IL-35 and TGFβ, and were extensively studied in mouse models of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. However, the exact nature of the stimulatory signals conferring regulatory properties to B cells is still not clear. We serendipitously observed that fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) binds to a significant proportion of naïve mouse B cells. Binding of FITC to the B-cell surface implicated at least in part the B-cell receptor. It triggered IL-10 production and allowed the endocytosis of FITC-coupled antigens followed by their presentation to CD4+ T cells. In particular, B cells incubated with FITC-OVA polarized OTII T cells towards a Tr1/Th2 phenotype in vitro. Further, the adoptive transfer of B cells incubated with FITC-labeled myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein peptide protected mice from experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a T-cell-dependent autoimmune model. Together, the data show that FITC-stimulated B cells polarize immune responses towards Tr1/Th2 and acquire immuno-modulatory properties. © 2020

Cellular Immunology

Stimulation with FITC-labeled antigens confers B cells with regulatory properties

Department of Mathematics

Journal of Topology and Analysis

On the entropy norm on the group of diffeomorphisms of closed oriented surface

Here the possibility of developing a better three dimensional model for rubber when Hencky strain is written as an explicit function of the Cauchy stress is examined. Based on the experimental evidence, vulcanized unfilled rubber is assumed to be isotropic, incompressible, and deforming from a stress-free reference configuration. Vulcanized unfilled rubber undergoes strain-induced crystallization when uniaxial stretch exceeds 2. Therefore, in this study, a non-dissipative model is sought for rubber only till the von Mises stress is below a critical value. Using the biaxial response reported in Kawabata et al. (1981), the material functions are arrived adopting Rivlin and Saunders methodology. The material constants in the determined material functions are found using biaxial tests for four other experimental studies on rubber reported in the literature. The ability of the arrived constitutive model to describe the uniaxial and equal biaxial response of the same rubber is evaluated. The proposed model is benchmarked with established models in the classical framework. Among the models studied the proposed model performed as well as the other models for Kawabata et al. data set and marginally better than the other models for the remaining four experimental data sets. However, while the proposed model performance does not critically depend on the experiments used to deduce the material parameters, for the other models the material parameters need to be found from fixed biaxial experiments for better performance. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Department of Civil Engineering

International Journal of Engineering Science

Modeling the non-dissipative response of vulcanized unfilled rubber

A ruthenium-catalyzed electrochemical dehydrogenative annulation reaction of imidazoles with alkynes has been established, enabling the preparation of various bridgehead N-fused [5,6]-bicyclic heteroarenes through regioselective electrochemical C−H/N−H annulation without chemical metal oxidants. Novel azaruthenabicyclo[3.2.0]heptadienes were fully characterized and identified as key intermediates. Mechanistic studies are suggestive of an oxidatively induced reductive elimination pathway within a ruthenium(II/III) regime. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.

Department of Chemistry

Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

Azaruthena(II)-bicyclo[3.2.0]heptadiene: Key Intermediate for Ruthenaelectro(II/III/I)-catalyzed Alkyne Annulations

For accurate prediction of mechanical behaviour of cemented clay, a realistic description of its constitutive relation is important. In this study, within the framework of critical state soil mechanics, the bounding surface concept is employed to model the behaviour of cement stabilized soil. The plastic modulus proposed is load path-dependent where radial mapping rule is used for the imaginary points on the bounding surface. This bounding surface model, which includes tensile strength due to cementation effect, is extended to general stress space for implementing it in ABAQUS. The parameters for the model can be easily obtained from conventional triaxial drained and undrained tests and 1D consolidation test. With different boundary conditions, simulations are carried out for drained and undrained triaxial tests for a wide variety clay with different cement contents. In simulation, key attention is given to stress–strain behaviour and ultimate strength of cement stabilized clay. © 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering

A Bounding Surface Model for Cement Stabilized Clay

Deep Soil Mixing (DSM) is one of the effective methods widely used in the stabilization of soft and weak soils. For DSM applications, an industrial by-product based geopolymer binder was recommended as a sustainable alternative to cement. The addition of fibers to treated soil arrests crack propagation thus further improving its strength and ductility. In the present investigation, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) reacted with 8 M NaOH was used as a geopolymer (GP) binder to treat soft clay at high water content. Polypropylene (PP) fibers of 12 mm length were used as reinforcement in 0.25 to 1.0% proportions. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and durability (wetting – drying) tests were conducted on the prepared specimens. From the study, the advantages of fiber inclusion in improving the mechanical behaviour and durability of the treated soft soil were highlighted. The GP treated soil mixes with binder content of 30% and Activator/Binder (A/B) ratio of 0.75 reinforced with 1% PP fibers by weight have exhibited superior strength and durability characteristics and thus can be used as sustainable alternative to the traditional binders in deep soil mixing applications. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Materials Today: Proceedings

Fiber reinforced geopolymer treated soft clay – An innovative and sustainable alternative for soil stabilization

International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering (ICETE)

Free vibration analysis of pre-stressed membrane using element free Galerkin method

In this work, a detailed investigation on the effects of particle diameter on the fluidization characteristics of gas–particle flows inside a bubbling gas–solid fluidized bed has been carried out. The studies are performed using an in-house flow solver developed employing the Eulerian–Eulerian two-fluid model. Simulations carried out using the solver indicate that particle diameter has significant effects on the overall flow hydrodynamics inside a bubbling gas–solid fluidized bed. Numerical evidence suggests that time-averaged particle velocity at any section inside the fluidization zone decreases, while the time-averaged particle volume fraction increases with an increase in particle diameter. For a given diameter, the magnitude of maximum time-averaged particle velocity at any section has been found to increase gradually inside the fluidization zone as we move toward the outlet. Interestingly, this variation in the time-averaged particle velocity with height becomes less prominent with the increase in particle diameter. © 2019, OWZ.