CAS 2022 University Award
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL) is the First Indian Higher Education Institution to be conferred the CAS University Award since the inception of the award program in 2016. It is one of the four Universities selected this year by a panel of judges among a competitive field of 43 applicants from around the world for innovative and exemplary ways it prepares students for a career in the property and casualty insurance industry. The other three are Bryant University, Drake University, and the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, all from the USA.
Novel method for simultaneous analysis of endocrine disruptors and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons bound to ambient fine particulate matter
Identifying the Issue
Inhalation exposure to endocrine disruptors (Phthalic acid esters (PAEs)) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with serious health effects. However, the available methods for the analysis of PAEs and PAHs are time consuming methods based on gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. There is a need for a robust analytical method for the simultaneous determination of PAEs and PAHs.
Objective of the Research
- Develop a simple and robust analytical method for the simultaneous determination of endocrine disruptors and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) using the state-of-the-art technique liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry
- Deploy the developed method for the analysis of endocrine disruptors and PAHs bound to ambient PM2.5 samples collected at the suburban city of North West Indo-Gangetic Plain (N.W.IGP) in different seasons of the year
- Identify the sources of PAHs at the sampling site using diagnostic ratios
- Estimate the health risk associated due to the inhalation exposure to fine particulate matter bound PAEs and PAHs for the children and adults at the sampling site
Who should read this?
It is applicable to all the scientific and social community researchers as this work highlights health risk associated with the inhalation exposure to PAEs and PAHs bound to ambient fine particulate matter. Anyone who works in the Atmospheric and Analytical chemistry.
Solution
Liquid chromatography coupled electrospray ionization source mass spectrometry is a robust, sensitive and high performance analytical technique for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of organic composition from a sample. However, to the best of our knowledge there are no methods for the simultaneous determination of endocrine disruptors (PAEs) and PAHs using LC-MS/MS. In the present study, we had optimized a novel LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of endocrine disruptors and PAHs bound to ambient fine particulate matter. In this method, we report the quantification of targeted compounds faster than the earlier reported gas chromatography – mass spectrometry methods with better sensitivity for benzyl butyl phthalate (0.03 ng m-3) and di-butyl phthalate (0.33 ng m-3). This method has been deployed for the analysis for the endocrine disruptors and PAHs bound to ambient fine particulate matter samples collected at IISER Mohali in North West Indo-Gangetic plain.
Key Features and Benefits
- LC-ESI-MS/MS method for simultaneous determination of endocrine disruptors and PAHs bound to PM2.5.
- The higher concentrations of endocrine disruptors observed in summer season whereas PAHs in winter.
- DEHP and B[b]F are the most abundant endocrine disruptor and PAH, respectively at the sampling site
- B[a]P is higher in concentrations than the NAAQS standards (1 ng m−3), India.
- ILCR values for B[a]Peq exceeded the threshold limits set by USEPA
Impact
This work presents the novel method for the simultaneous analysis of endocrine disruptors and PAHs bound to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5). The reported results suggest that benzo (a) pyrene (B[a]P) (Group 1 Carcinogen) exceeded the threshold limits set by National Ambient Air Quality Standards, India. This study shows that exposure to PAEs and PAHs bound to PM2.5 should be of concern at the sampling site.
Team
- Patnana Durga Prasad, Department of Chemistry, Prasanthi Nilayam Campus, SSSIHL
- Dr B Praphulla Chandra, Department of Chemistry, Prasanthi Nilayam Campus, SSSIHL
- Pooja Chaudhary, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, IISER Mohali
- Dr Baerbel Sinha, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, IISER Mohali
- Dr Vinayak Sinha, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, IISER Mohali
Paper Published in: Atmospheric Environment (Elsevier)
Title of paper: Optimized LC-MS/MS method for simultaneous determination of endocrine disruptors and PAHs bound to PM2.5: Sources and health risk in Indo-Gangetic Plain
Read Paper Here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2022.119363
MBA Day 2022 Celebrated – Industry C-Suite Address Students on Need for Selfless Leadership
The Department of Management and Commerce, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam campus celebrated their 36th MBA day on 21st August 2022 with a conclave themed Stealth Leadership – A Model Towards Selfless Leadership.
The students had the opportunity to listen and interact with the three leaders from the industry – Sri Mayank Bathwal, CEO of Aditya Birla Health insurance, Sri Vinay Tonse, MD & CEO, SBI Funds Management Private Ltd., and Deputy Managing Director, SBI, and Sri D. Lakshmi Narayanan, MD Sundaram Home Finance. The leaders dwelled on the theme by sharing their perspectives with examples and lessons learned during the course of their professional journey so far, illuminating the young minds.
The conclave commenced with a prayer and the lighting of the lamp, followed by a welcome address by Dr. K Sayee Manohar, Head Dept. of Management and Commerce. The inaugural address was delivered by Dr. B Sai Giridhar, Registrar SSSIHL, followed by the keynote address by Dr. CB Sanjeevi, Vice-Chancellor SSSIHL. The Guest of Honour Sri R J Rathnakar, Managing Trustee, Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust, shared leadership lessons he had learned from the founder chancellor, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
The final segment titled ‘Ask me Anything’ saw students interact with a panel of five industry leaders – Sri Ram Gopal, CEO, Barclays Bank India, Sri Rangarajan Krishnan, CEO, Five Star Business Finance Ltd., Sri Anand Nergunam S, Global VP Revenue, Management & Growth, Zoho Corporation, Sri Bharath M Sundaram, Vice-President, Everest Group, and Sri Jitendra Panjabi, CEO, EM Investco Capital Advisors (all SSSIHL Alumni).
The students and staff were extremely grateful to all the leaders for their insightful talks on the importance and role of a good selfless leader in today’s highly self-centered world.
View Detailed Report Here.
View Pictures from the event
Watch the Recording here:
Session 1: https://youtu.be/RBZcSKuWIek
Session 2: https://youtu.be/MOLwwJRTXzQ
SSSIHL Women Scholar Wins AWSAR Award 2021 For Her Story ‘Cancer- The Nemesis’
Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research (AWSAR) an initiative by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) aims to disseminate Indian research stories among the masses in an easy-to-understand and interesting format to common-man.
The annual AWSAR award, was constituted to encourage Ph.D. Scholars and Post-Doctoral Fellows (PDFs) in Science and Technology (S&T) streams to write popular science articles by participating in a national competition.
The results of the 2021 AWSAR awards were announced at a ceremony that was streamed live on YouTube, Facebook, and India Science websites on National Science Day, 28 February 2022. A panel of eminent science communicators and scientists, constituted by DST, evaluated the entries.
From over 4000+ participants, Ms. Amitananda Dash, Research Scholar from the Department of Chemistry, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Anantapur Campus, was selected as one of the top 100 awardees for her popular science story titled “Cancer- The Nemesis”. Her story highlighted the innovative research on cancer being carried out currently in the labs at SSSIHL.
Ms. Amitananda Dash received a Certificate of Appreciation along with prize money of Rs. 10,000/- as part of the award.
For more on the award: https://www.awsar-dst.in/results-2021
Workshop on Confluence of Shakti, Siddhi and Samsiddhi – A Report
The Department of Management and Commerce, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Anantapur Campus held a one-day workshop on the 6 August 2022, titled Confluence of Shakti, Siddhi, and Samsiddhi. When translated into English, it reads as Confluence of Power, Knowledge, and Success.
The workshop saw five accomplished women leaders from the industry – Mrs. Premamala Ramalingam, Managing Director, Jouve India, Mrs. Vidya Shah, Founder Director of Bhooma Trust for Knowledge and Culture, Mrs. Sosmeta Sheshadri, Director Delivery Excellence, Life sciences Practice, Cognizant, Ms. Gayatri Rao Korde, Senior Vice President of HDFC Bank, and Ms. Bharathi Krish, Transformation Coach and Impact Professional – participate and illuminate the young minds through their inspiring talks, interactions and activities on various topics involving the students.
The workshop commenced with a prayer and the Lighting of the Lamp, followed by a welcome address by Dr. U Suma Rao, Associate professor, Dept. of Management and Commerce, and introductory remarks by Dr. K Sayee Manohar, Head, Dept. of Management and Commerce.
Prof. B Sai Giridhar, Registrar, SSSIHL delivered the inaugural address, which was followed by the keynote by Dr. C B Sanjeevi, Vice-Chancellor, SSSIHL.
The activities, interactions, and experiences shared by the guest speakers left the students highly energised and enlightened at the end of the workshop. The students found the content and speakers extremely engaging and informative.
For a detailed summary please click here.
View photos.
Watch the Recording here:
Morning Session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50I6H-QQuNI
Afternoon Session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkW-GdhDV58
2022 CAS Individual Research Grant Awarded to SSSIHL Actuarial Data Science Team
Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL) appreciates Casualty Actuarial Society for awarding the 2022 Individual Research Grant to the Actuarial Data Science group, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
The project team is led by Professor Pallav Kumar Baruah and Satya Sai Mudigonda.
About Individual Grants Competition:
The Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) and the Society of Actuaries’ (SOA) Committee on Knowledge Extension Research (CKER) announce the 2022 Individual Grants Competition to support the advancement of knowledge in actuarial science and contribute in an important way to areas of interest to the actuarial profession.
About CAS:
The Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) is a leading international organization for credentialing and professional education. Founded in 1914, the CAS is the world’s only actuarial organization focused exclusively on property and casualty risks and serves over 9,100 members worldwide. CAS members are experts in property and casualty insurance, reinsurance, finance, risk management, and enterprise risk management. Professionals educated by the CAS empower business and government to make well-informed strategic, financial and operational decisions.
About SSSIHL Actuarial Data Science:
SSSIHL is actively involved in actuarial data science research, specifically in the area of fraud detection. It has to its credit about 30 research papers/book chapters, 20 dissertations in non-life actuarial stream and 2 PhDs awarded in the area of actuarial data science. In fact, SSSIHL is one of the first University to award PhD in Actuarial Science in India.
About the Project:
The project is in the area of Insurance Fraud Detection using Actuarial and Data Science techniques. The project commenced on 1st June 2022 and will end by March 2023.
We wish the SSSIHL Actuarial Data Science Team all the best for the execution of this project.
DFNS Research Scholar Ms. Sai Sruthi Shree Recognized at The Chellaram Foundation Diabetes Research Awards 2022
A ‘Special Appreciation Prize’ was awarded to Ms. Sai Sruthi Shree K. K, Doctoral Research Scholar, DFNS, for her presentation under the ‘Basic Science’ category at ‘The Chellaram Foundation Diabetes Research Awards’ held on 4-6 March, during the 6th International Diabetes Summit (Virtual) – 2022.
The paper entitled ‘Designing and evaluation of a low-GI pigmented rice-based vegan gluten-free protein formulation suitable for malnutrition modulated and lean T2-diabetes mellitus’ was co-authored by Prof. N. Srividya, Research Supervisor & Head, DFNS, and Ms. Ashrita C. Haldipur, Research Scholar, DFNS.
In the study, low-GI pigmented rice and plant protein isolates were used as novel ingredients to scientifically design a gluten-free protein formulation. The nutritional analysis revealed the formulation to be a cost-effective dietary supplement suitable for preventing and managing lean T-2 diabetes mellitus.
Organized by the Chellaram’s Diabetes Institute (CDI), Pune, the event hosted best-in-class experts in the field of diabetes from leading national and global diabetes institutions and had over 9000 participants.
Congratulations to Ms. Sai Sruthi Shree on the recognition, and we wish her the very best for many more to come in the future.
SSSIHL Celebrates National Science Day 2022
Invoking the blessings of our Founder Chancellor Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the *National Science Day (NSD) 2022 was celebrated by the students and faculty of the Science Departments of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam Campus on Monday, 28 February, 2022.
As a precursor to the celebrations, the faculty and students were addressed on the 24 February 2022 by Dr Anuj Mubayi, a research scientist and the lead at the Infectious Disease Forecasting Group at The Public Health Company. A distinguished IBA fellow at Centre for Collaborative Studies in Mathematical Biology, Illinois State University Dr. Anuj is also an Applied and Computational Mathematics Scientist with more than 10 years of experience in disease modelling and health decision analysis. He spoke on the topic ‘Seeing into the Future through the Lens of Modelling of Complex Systems’.
Commemorating NSD 2022 on 28 February, Prof. (Dr.) C. B. Sanjeevi, the Vice Chancellor, SSSIHL commenced the event with the inaugural address. This was followed by enlightening and invigorating talks by two eminent speakers from the scientific fraternity interspaced by short presentations by the faculty of the Science Departments, SSSIHL on various research activities undertaken by them, Divine Excerpts on Science and Spirituality from a discourse of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and prize distribution for various competitions held as part of the NSD 2022.
The two eminent speakers were Dr. Vinay K Nandicoori, Director, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, who spoke on the topic “Evolution of Resistance in Pathogens” and Padma Shri A. S. Kiran Kumar, Former Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), who spoke on the topic ‘India’s Space Science Missions’.
For more information, please read:
NSD 2022 @ SSSIHL – A Summary of the Proceedings of the Celebrations
Program Schedule
*National Science Day is celebrated in India on 28 February each year to mark the discovery of the Raman effect by Indian physicist Sir C. V. Raman on 28 February 1928.
Sir C.V. Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for the discovery.
Dr. Balaram Khamari’s Agar Art Featured on ‘OMG! Yeh Mera India’, Telecast on History TV18
When science meets art, the outcome could want to make you say OMG!
A few years ago, when Dr. Balaram Khamari brought his love for art into the BioScience lab at SSSIHL, he discovered a new form of expression through a recently popular unusual art form called ‘Agar art‘.
Fascinated with his unusual yet amazing talent, the History TV18 channel has now featured Dr. Balaram and his work on their popular show OMG! Yeh Mera India, which showcases stories of Indians with extraordinary and unique talents. Balaram was featured in episode 7, season 8 of the show that was aired on 7 March 2022.
A student of BioScience from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Balaram completed his B.Sc. (Hons) in 2014 and his M.Sc. with a Gold medal in 2016. He later went on to complete his Ph.D. in 2021 under the supervision of Dr. B.E. Pradeep, Associate Professor, Department of Biosciences, Prasanthi Nilayam campus and is currently the Project Coordinator in a BIRAC funded project, AMR Laboratory, Department of Biosciences at the Prasanthi Nilayam campus of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning.
In 2020, Dr. Balaram received 2nd place in the annual Agar art contest organised by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) for his work ‘Microbial Peacock’.
What is Agar art?
Agar is a jelly-like substance made from seaweed. When used as a medium to grow or culture micro-organisms (bacteria, yeast, fungi, or protists) into specific patterns/forms, it is called Agar art and those practicing are known as Agar artists.
Chosen for their colors, the microbes arranged on the Agar plate (canvas) lend their color to the intricate pattern/design as they grow, creating stunning visuals/pictures
View video: https://youtu.be/TwDmi57zCG0
We congratulate Dr.Balaram Khamari for his achievements and for making us proud and wish him many more in the future.
Optimal Control Studies on Age Structured Modeling of COVID-19
Identifying the Issue
COVID -19 pandemic has caused the most severe health problems to adults over 60 years of age, with particularly fatal consequences for those over 80. In this case, age-structured mathematical modelling could be useful to determine the spread of the disease and to develop a better control strategy for different age groups. In this study, we first propose an age-structured model considering two different age groups, the first group with population age below 30 years and the second with population age above 30 years, and discuss the stability of the equilibrium points and the sensitivity of the model parameters. In the second part of the study, we propose an optimal control problem to understand the age-specific role of treatment in controlling the spread of COVID -19 infection.
Objective of the Research
- We propose to study the stability analysis of an age-structured model incorporating the saturation in medical treatment
- We propose to study the optimal control problem to study the effectiveness of treatment in reducing COVID-19 infection
Who should read this?
Academics, Mathematics, Bio-Mathematics, Mathematical Modelling, Doctors-Physicians, Research
Solution
In this research article we work on age-structured models considering two different age groups, the first group with population age below 30 years and the second with population age above 30 years. The results and findings of the modelling studies shows that infection decreases with the implementation of an optimal treatment strategy namely a combined treatment strategy considering treatment for both age groups is effective in keeping cumulative infection low in severe epidemics. Cumulative infection was found to increase with increasing saturation in medical treatment.
Key Features and Benefits
- It is found that the behaviour of the system depends on the value of basic reproduction number. Stability changes based on the value of basic reproduction number
- The results from the optimal control study suggests that with optimal treatment COVID-19 infection can be decreased
Team
- Sri Bishal Chhetri, Research Scholar, Dept. of Mathematics & Computer Science, SSSIHL
- Dr. D K K Vamsi, Asst. Professor, Dept. of Mathematics & Computer Science, SSSIHL
- Prof. (Dr) Carani B Sanjeevi, Vice-Chancellor, SSSIHL
Paper Published in: Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems
Title of paper: Optimal Control Studies on Age Structured Modeling of COVID-19 in Presence of Saturated Medical Treatment of Holling Type III
Read Paper Here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12591-022-00593-z