Research

Identifying the Issue

Alcohol based fuel cell require a catalyst that efficiently breaks down alcohol molecules at the electrode surface for generating energy. The catalyst must also be environmentally benign, have high energy efficiency, and operate at ambient temperatures.

Objective of the Research

• Synthesize gold-based nanocomposites using simple organic molecules
• Adopt a cost-effective and energy efficient electrochemical synthesis yielding small size gold nanoparticles exhibiting excellent catalytic activity
• Provide an alternate to earlier reported metal-polymer composites serving as catalysts for oxidation of alcohols

Who should read this?

Anyone in industry/academia, working directly or indirectly on synthesis of efficient catalysts to be used for various electrochemical applications such as alcohol oxidation, sensors, hydrogen evolution reaction or oxygen evolution/reduction reactions.

Solution

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) possess tuneable size- and shape-dependent properties that are ideal for catalytic properties for many applications. However, the challenge lies in the synthesis of highly stable and ultra-small NPs. We report an energy-efficient galvanostatic route to engineer gold-curcumin (Au-CM) nanocomposites constituting small-sized (~2 nm) AuNPs enveloped by a porous network of curcumin. During electrolytic deposition, the in situ formed Au-CM complexes are the key for the low current involved in our electrosynthesis, which ultimately deposits as CM-enveloped AuNPs at the cathode (Au-CM/GCE).

The DFT study also presented high binding energy (18.76 eV) of Au-CM complex in the solvent phase. The Au-CM/GCE nanocomposite exhibited excellent stability (~200 cycles), facile electron transfer ability, catalytic activity, and low Arrhenius energy of 42 and 45 kJ mol−1, respectively, towards electrooxidation of EtOH and MeOH in alkaline medium. The oxidation kinetics are comparable to those of the best gold-polymer composites. This study points the way for one-pot green synthesis of other engineered electrocatalysts for different applications.

Key Features and Benefits

• Usage of very low current (100-1000 times lower than earlier reported values) for direct synthesis of gold nanoparticles using simple, natural organic molecules
• Electrodeposition of small-sized gold nanoparticles (~2 nm) embedded in a porous curcumin network
• The synthesised catalyst is highly stable during repeated use towards electro-oxidation of alcohols
• The reported gold-curcumin catalyst exhibits low activation energy for oxidation of alcohols

Impact

The research work presents an efficient and stable gold based electrocatalyst that can be used in design of ethanol based fuel cells. The reported catalyst serves as a suitable alternate to metal-polymer based catalysts

Team

• Sai Prasad Nayak, Department of Chemistry, Brindavan campus, SSSIHL
• Dr. Lakshman K. Ventrapragada, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson Nanomaterials Institute, Clemson University, USA
• Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy, STAR Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, SSSIHL
• Dr. J. K. Kiran Kumar, Department of Chemistry, Brindavan campus, SSSIHL
• Prof. Apparao M. Rao, Bowen Professor of Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy; Director, Clemson Nanomaterials Institute, Clemson University, USA

Paper Published in: Nano Energy (The impact factor for the journal is in excess of 17)

Title: Green synthesis of a novel porous gold-curcumin nanocomposite for super-efficient alcohol oxidation

Read Paper Here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2022.106966

Identifying the Issue

• While there are many vector-host models developed to study the spread of COVID-19 at population level, there are very few works done to understand the interplay of the immune response and the virus particles in the body. Also there is no mathematical modelling studies that talks about the time optimal control studies on COVID-19
• In this work, firstly, a mathematical model is developed incorporating inter-cellular time delay and the stability analysis of the equilibrium points admitted by the model is performed. Secondly, an optimal control problem is studied with antiviral agents and second-line drugs as control measures incorporating the adverse events caused by antiviral drugs. Lastly, a time-optimal control problem is formulated with the objective to drive the system from any given initial state to the desired infection-free equilibrium state in minimal time

Objective of the Research

• We propose to study the role and efficacies of the first line and second line drugs in reducing COVID-19 burden by framing an optimal control problem
• We propose to perform the stability analysis of the equilibrium points and find the condition for the global stability of the infection-free state
• We propose to frame and study the time-optimal control problem to drive the system from any given initial state to the desired infection-free equilibrium state in minimal time

Who should read this?

Academics, Mathematics, Bio-Mathematics, Mathematical Modelling, Doctors-Physicians, Research

Solution

In this study, we first develop SIV model at within-host level by incorporating the intercellular time delay and analyzing the stability of equilibrium points. The model dynamics admits a disease-free equilibrium and an infected equilibrium with their stability based on the value of the basic reproduction number $R_0$. We then formulate an optimal control problem with antiviral drugs and second-line drugs as control measures and study their roles in reducing the number of infected cells and viral load. The comparative study conducted in the optimal control problem suggests that if the first-line antiviral drugs show adverse effects, considering these drugs in reduced amounts along with the second-line drugs would be very effective in reducing the number of infected cells and viral load in a COVID-19 infected patient. Later, we formulate a time-optimal control problem with the goal of driving the system from any initial state to the desired infection-free equilibrium state in finite minimal time. Using Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle, it is shown that the optimal control strategy is of the bang-bang type, with the possibility of switching between two extreme values of the optimal controls. Numerically, it is shown that the desired infection-free state is achieved in a shorter time when the higher values of the optimal controls. The results of this study may be very helpful to researchers, epidemiologists, clinicians and physicians working in this field.
 

Key Features and Benefits

• When the first line antiviral drugs starts showing adverse events, considering first line antiviral drugs in reduced quantity along with the second line drug is found to be highly effective in reducing the infected cells and viral load in a COVID infected patients and this alternative also proved to be cost effective
• It is found that with higher values of first line and second line drugs the time to reach the desired infection free state decreases. This would imply that the infected cells and viral load in the body of a COVID infected individual becomes zero in short period of time with the higher values of the first line and second line drugs

Impact

• The work presented in this paper could enhance our understanding of complex interplay of immune response and virus particles in the body
• It can help physicians with decision making in the treatment of life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia

Team

Bishal Chhetri, Vijay M. Bhagat, Swapna Muthusamy, Ananth V S, D. K. K. Vamsi, Carani B Sanjeevi

Paper Published in: RSC Advances (Royal Society of Chemistry)

Title: Time Optimal Control Studies on COVID-19 Incorporating Adverse Events of the Antiviral Drugs

Read Paper Here: Computational and Mathematical Biophysics, 2021, 9:214 – 241

Identifying the Issue

COVID-19 is the largest global pandemic currently and it has emerged as the deadliest infection of the century. It’s still critical to find novel compounds that can inhibit viral replication, in turn reducing the pace of infection.

Objective of the Research

• To design and synthesise benzoxazole-thiazolidinone hybrids (B-T hybrids) using a facile synthetic route.
• To analyse the inhibitory potential of designed B-T hybrids against the SARS-CoV-2 proteases using an in-silico approach.

Who should read this?

COVID-19 Researchers, Medicinal Chemists and Pharmaceutical Industry.

Solution

Hybrid molecules represent a relatively recent area in drug research with promising results.

The two scaffolds (benzoxazole and thiazolidinone) exhibit a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities and showed antiviral efficacy (both in vitro and in vivo) against a variety of viruses.

The hybrids derived from these two scaffolds share a similarity (structurally) with some of the active compounds screened in vitro against SARS-CoV-2.

This motivated us to screen the benzoxazole–thiazolidinone hybrids as SARS-CoV-2 protease inhibitors. In order to achieve this, a combination of docking, dynamics, and free energy studies were employed in this study.

Key Features and Benefits

• Established the key interactions between the B-T hybrids and SARS-CoV-2 proteases.
• A simple four-step synthetic procedure was developed to synthesise the B-T hybrids.
• Identifying a novel compound (MBT9) that could act as an allosteric inhibitor of PLp, thus inhibits viral replication, in turn reducing the pace of infection.

Impact

• This study is related to the COVID-19 research and contributes to the understanding of SARS-CoV-2.
• The in-vivo and in-vitro studies could be carried out to further evaluate the therapeutic potential of the proposed ligands.
• The potential of the B-T hybrids as covalent binders to 3CLp can also be explored, as the conjugate amide group present in the thiazolidinone scaffold of the molecule can serve as a Michael acceptor.

Team

Vijay Sai Krishna Cheerala, Research Scholar, Department of Chemistry, Brindavan Campus, SSSIHL

Prasanth Ghanta, Research Scholar, Department of Biosciences, Prasanthi Nilayam Campus, SSSIHL

Prof. C N Sundaresan, Professor (Hon.), Department of Chemistry, Brindavan Campus, SSSIHL

Paper Published in: RSC Advances (Royal Society of Chemistry)

Title: Design, synthesis and in silico screening of benzoxazole–thiazolidinone hybrids as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 proteases

Read Paper Here: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/ra/d1ra07504g

Identifying the Issue

• EPDS is a validated screening tool used in the assessment of perinatal depression (PND)
• Responders answer EPDS questions differently due to PND associated stigma depending on the mode of administration
• This study evaluates the differences in EPDS scores used for assessment of PND over a span of 9 months

Objective of the Research

• Assessment of the difference in the EPDS scores between self and interviewer mode of administration
• Investigation of the baseline clinical and psychosocial characteristics of the study subjects associated with the difference between the two modes of administration
• Evaluation of the differences in antenatal depression, postnatal depression and PND rates using the two modes of EPDS administration

Who should read this?

This article is an outcome of study parameters based on socio-psychological assessments and is recommended for psychiatrists, mental health clinicians, physicians, students of mental health and obstetrics & gynaecology practitioners.

Solution

EPDS is a self-administered screening tool for assessing PND. However, the EPDS usage in the Indian population is predominantly interviewer-administered. It is extremely necessary to address the limitations involved in the assessment of PND in rural settings. The present longitudinal observational study was intended to evaluate the differences in EPDS administration between the self-administered and interviewer-administered modes to understand and improve the test score interpretations.

Key Features and Benefits

• The study helps in bridging the knowledge gap in PND assessment and health care catering to pregnant women and new mothers in the rural South-Indian population
• The study includes data related to preclinical, clinical and socio-demographics relevant to psychiatry and details the socio-cultural diversity of the region as it relates to mental health

Impact

• This study has a direct societal relevance, particularly in rural settings, with respect to healthcare administration for perinatal women
• The current research work sheds light on the possibility of systematic bias involved in administering EPDS questionnaires in the Indian population that needs to be still understood
• This study increases the awareness on the impact of the mode of EPDS administration, especially in non-English speaking, culturally diverse and low or middle-income countries such as India

Team

Pradeep Kumar Badiya, Sasidhar Siddabattuni, Venkatesh Srinivasan and Sai Sathish Ramamurthy
STAR Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam, 515134, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, India

Debarshi Dey
Independent Researcher, Biostatistician, Munich, 82152, Germany.

Akkamahadevi C. Hiremath
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Sri Sathya Sai General Hospital, Whitefield, Bangalore, 560066, India.

Raj Lakshmi Nalam
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Sri Sathya Sai General Hospital, Prasanthi Nilayam, 515134, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Sridhar Vaitheswaran and Aarthi Ganesh
Schizophrenia Research Foundation, Chennai 600101, Tamil Nadu, India

Yendluri Prabhakar
Department of Psychiatry, Government medical college/Government General Hospital, Anantapur, 515001, Andhra Pradesh, India

Paper Published in: Asian Journal of Psychiatry

Title: Effect of mode of administration on Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale in the South Indian population: A comparative study on self-administered and interviewer-administered scores

Read Paper Here: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1d~HG6gcL74Lx8

Identifying the Issue

• Number of reports has suggested symptoms of dyspnea, an indication of impaired lung function with reduced diffusion capacity post SARS-CoV-2 infection
• Need for a more reliable and accurate oxygen monitoring device that can complement pulse oximetry in the remote management of COVID-19 recovered individuals

Objective of the Research

• Monitoring of O2 uptake in SARS-CoV-2 recovered participants to assess their lung function in comparison with healthy individuals
• Designing of a low-cost, eco-friendly, high sensitive, plasmonics based sensor

Who should read this?

COVID-19 researchers, COVID-19 recovered patients, Pulmonologists, COVID Care health experts, Chemical sensor & nanotechnology scientists.

Solution

The trilateral international collaboration between the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL), India, Macquarie University, Australia (MACQ) and University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), United States of America began in the year 2017. Over the years, the collaboration has grown stronger with multiple collaborative projects and publications between these institutions.

In one such successful research collaboration, a new research study is now published in ACS Sensors. The technology developed is:

• A wood-microfluidics chip & plasmon-coupling based biodegradable and eco-friendly O2 sensor with ultrafast response time (~0.2 sec) and high sensitivity
• This is suggestive that SARS-CoV-2 recovered participants had comparatively lower oxygen uptake than healthy participants
• While this clinical data is preliminary in nature, this unique study presents novel insights into an under researched problem that is of paramount significance given the larger health implications of this ongoing pandemic and the nascent understanding of the post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2

Key Features and Benefits

• Next-gen breath sensors that will help achieve low-cost lung health diagnostic devices
• This technology will help in understanding the impact of COVID-19 on lung health through non-invasive mode of evaluation
• Use of novel, biodegradable wood chips for microfluidics will help save environment from plastic-based one-time use microfluidic chips

Impact

• First time 27-fold phosphorescence emission enhancement using surface plasmon-coupled emission platform
• Use of novel and reusable Au(III) complexes having fluorescence and phosphorescence emission for designing ratiometric O2 sensor
• Highly potential technology for post-COVID lung health monitoring

Team

• STAR Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning: Bebeto Rai, Dr. Venkatesh Srinivasan Dr. Kalathur Mohan Ganesh, Dr. Naga Sai Visweswar Kambhampati, Prof. Carani B Sanjeevi and Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy
• MQ Photonics Research Centre, MQ Sustainable Research Centre, Macquarie University: Dr. Robert Malmberg and Dr. Koushik Venkatesan.
• Center for Advanced Sensor Technology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County: Dr. Abhay Andar, Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy and Prof. Govind Rao

Paper Published in: ACS Sensors

Title: Surface Plasmon-Coupled Dual Emission Platform for Ultrafast Oxygen Monitoring after SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Read Paper Here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssensors.1c01665

Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy (STAR Lab, SSSIHL) in a trilateral collaboration with Dr. Chandramouli Subramaniam (Nanostructured Material Lab, IIT-Bombay) and Dr. Shivakiran Bhaktha (Photonic Systems Laboratory, IIT-Kharagpur) has published a new paper in Nanophotonics (Walter de Gruyter publication) demonstrating unusual ‘photoplasmonic’ effects (as they call it in the article) with the use of gold nano-assembly termed ‘sorets’ and Nd2O3 nanorods. The unavoidable losses in the gold nanoparticles are overcome with these functional metasurfaces in photonic crystal-coupled emission (PCCE) platform developed by the team in the year 2020, thereby demonstrating outstanding performance of the subject platform for several sensor applications.

Identifying the Issue

• Sensors are widely used in industrial processes, monitoring community well-being, homeland safety, criminalistics, environmental health supervision and point-of-care diagnostics
• Nanomaterials made of metals (generally called plasmonic materials) are throughout-the-world used in the evolution of sensor technology systematization. However, their accurate potential is beleaguered by inevitable inherent Ohmic losses that encumber the functional performance of any sensing platform
• Therefore, there is constant need for novel synthetic routes and advanced material platforms for global market sensor industries, using nanochemistry-based novel methods

Objective of the Research

• Ascertaining the ground elemental causes which leads to unproductive Ohmic losses in terms of basic physico-chemical aspects of the individual nano-constructs
• Discovering a frugal & viable technological solution to abate/preclude the Ohmic losses and recuperate the performance of gold nanomaterials, consequently demonstrating a translational approach to offer sensor-based industries with materials with grander efficiencies
• Refining the overall sensitivity and specificity of photoplasmonic sensor platform using cut-rate metal-dielectrics in comparison with cost intensive and hazardous nano-sensor techniques

Who should read this?

Anyone in industry, working directly or indirectly on advanced sensor technologies or sensing related know-hows including, security, reconnaissance, specialist (intensive) care units, environmental safety monitoring mechanisms, therapeutic technologies and disease diagnostics. Further this article will be extremely useful to researchers currently faced with the problem of ‘Losses’ in metamaterials dependent on plasmonic nanoparticles.

“Photoplasmonics”– A blossoming, rapid & realistic solution for the snags in biosensor technologies

• The novel nano-engineering strategies for diverse applications in optics and nano-bioengineering domains are discussed in this work
• In spite of copious electron densities of ≈ 5.9 × 1022 cm−3, excellent biocompatibility, structural tunability and utility in numerous biosensors, so far the quenching phenomenon in gold nanoparticles has remained an unescapable caveat
• Although sharp-edged nanostars and decorated nanohybrids have been explored in the past, the enhancement factor has been modest at 200-fold. The PCCE platform developed in this work with the use of gold sorets and high refractive index Nd2O3 ‘Huygens sources’ demonstrated unprecedented >1500-fold enhancement factor

Key Features and Benefits

• Use of judicious hybrid metal nano-assembly – dielectric nanorods assemblage.
• Experimental demonstration of suppressed quenching and >1500-fold PCCE enhancement.
• The multifold ‘gap-based antenna’ and ‘lightning-rod’ effects generated by the nano-assemblies and nanorods that sustain multitudinous hotspots catering to excellent sensitivity of PCCE platform
• The proposed hybrid methodology is useful in disease diagnostics for monitoring early stages of the disease and also aid in the fabrication of smart sensor chips for use in Point-of-Care (POC) devices

Impact

• The collective and coherent coupling between localized Mie and delocalized Bragg plasmons (of sorets), dielectric plasmons (of Nd2O3), highly confined & intense Bloch surface waves (of PCCE platform) aided in realization of dequenched, as well as amplified > 1500-fold enhancements at the photoplasmonic nanocavity interface, thereby addressing the quenching predicament
• The PCCE platform is expected to find immediate deployment for real-time monitoring of health and hazardous in environment. This study presents itself as a milestone to explore a plethora of exciting disruptive nano-engineering with the aid of different permutations and combinations of nanomaterials of different geometry and number, chosen from the Periodic Table. We anticipate the crucial role of machine learning and data science pertaining to materials properties in this regard.
• The proposed technology is a jumping-off point for sensor-based industrial establishments or market seeking such devices with augmented sensitivity. The high sensitivity aids in early disease diagnostics, ecological safety and bio-nano-engineering and related applications
• The rapid, cost-effective and simple plasmon mixing strategy used in the photoplasmonic platform with advanced nano-engineering are of immense benefit for low- and middle-income countries, in resource-limited settings and bottom of the pyramid.

Team

Seemesh Bhaskar,^† Pratyusha Das,^‡ Maku Moronshing,^¶ Aayush Rai,^† Chandramouli Subramaniam,^¶ Shivakiran Bhaktha B. N. ^‡ and Sai Sathish Ramamurthy^†.

^†STAR Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, CRIF, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh 515134, India.
^¶Nanostructured Material Lab, Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, Maharashtra, INDIA.
^‡Photonic Systems Laboratory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India -721302

Paper Published in: Nanophotonics

Title: Photoplasmonic assembly of dielectric-metal, Nd2O3-Gold soret nanointerfaces for dequenching the luminophore emission

Read Paper Here: https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2021-0124

Ms. Avanthika K, an alumna of the SSSIHL DFNS, Anantapur, received the ‘Certificate of Best Performer’ for her paper titled “Development and Shelf-life Studies of Quinoa Flour Enriched Gluten-free Cookies” presented at the ‘Innovation in Food Processing and Nutritional Sciences’ virtual conference organised by the Department of Food Processing Technology, AMET University, Chennai, on 29 June 2021. The paper was co- authored by Dr. Meera Manikkavachakan, research supervisor & Assistant Professor, DFNS.

Ms. Avanthika completed her M.Sc. in Food and Nutritional Sciences in 2018, and is currently working as a Dietician in the Sri Sathya Sai General Hospital, Puttaparthi. The work presented was part of her M.Sc. project and was carried out under the supervision of Dr. Meera M.

Organised by the Department of Food Processing Technology, Academy of Maritime Education and Training (AMET), this virtual conference on ‘Innovation in Food Processing and Nutritional Sciences’ was a two-day conference that focused mainly on the Innovations in Food Processing and Technology with an aim to bring together innovative leaders and also research scholars to share and discuss the rapid scientific and technological advances that are transforming the way food is being produced, processed and consumed while exploring new possibilities.

SSSIHL congratulates Ms. Avanthika K for the recognition and making the University proud, and wishes her the very best for her future.

Sri Seemesh Bhaskar, DST-Inspire SRF, SSSIHL, was awarded the Prestigious Dr. K. V. Rao Scientific Society Research Award 2021 at a ceremony held online. Seemesh, won the Bhoutikam Runners-up award in the Physics category, for his innovative research explorations performed at STAR Lab, CRIF, Dept. of Chemistry, SSSIHL on the topic “Hybrid Soret Nano-assembly for Ultrasensitive Surface Plasmon-Coupled Emission and Photonic Crystal-Coupled Emission Interfaces”. The award includes a prize Rs. 10,000/- and a trophy to the runner up in each category.

Dr. K. V. Rao Scientific Society Research award was formed in 2001 and is held annually to promote scientific research, popularize science and encourage young scientists to continue their career in basic sciences. Young researchers from all over the country below the age of 30, working in the field of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biosciences are selected for the award, based on the scrutiny and recommendations of the panel of judges (eminent scientists) after careful evaluation of research work and the presentations by the candidates in each category of allied sciences. The research work to be presented for the award should also be part of the doctoral program carried out or being carried out by the candidate.
 

This year the prestigious award ceremony was held in the august presence of the President, KVRSS, Mr. Anil Kumar Kutty, I.A.S and Prof. Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, Chancellor of Central University of Rajasthan and NIIT University, an eminent Scientist and Ex-Chairman of ISRO for 9 long years and recipient of three highest civilian honors, The Padma Shri (1982), The Padma Bhushan (1992) and The Padma Vibhushan (2000).

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL) congratulates Sri Seemesh Bhaskar for the above prestigious recognition and for making the University proud.

Link for the Dr. K. V. Rao Scientific Society program: https://www.kvrss.org/research-awards.html

YouTube link of the award being presented to Sri Seemesh Bhaskar: https://youtu.be/BdJUbbqHRw0?t=7533

The SSSIHL Research team, led by Asst. Professor, Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy, has published a new paper in ACS Applied Nano Materials that explores the use of a novel biopolymer, Lycoat®, to synthesize silver nanoparticles via a frugal disruptive approach. The augmented enhancements obtained from these nanoparticles were utilized for mobile phone-based attomolar sensing of environmentally hazardous mercury (Hg2+) ions.

Identifying the Issue

• Chemical, microwave and sonication assisted synthesis of nanoparticles have been used frequently. However, the advantages of UV light, an abundant renewable natural source, is seldom discussed which is significantly conducive for the synthesis of nanomaterials
• Metal ions in unregulated concentrations wreak havoc in the ecosystem by entering the food chain. The alarm with regard to mercury poisoning has been raised world-wide and several methodologies are adopted for detection of Hg2+ ions at extremely low concentrations for early diagnosis and environmental monitoring
• There is an urgent need of a frugal science based disruptive technology for the fabrication of nanomaterials to be used in translational applications that are rapid, low-cost and user-friendly, portraying high sensitivity and specificity

Objective of the Research

• Identifying eco-friendly and cost-effective approach for the synthesis of nanoparticles with defined geometries and anisotropy that can aid in achieving augmented fluorescence enhancements
• Improving the sensitivity and specificity of the sensor materials in comparison with the cost intensive and hazardous technologies that are currently being utilized. Sensors are extensively used in environmental health monitoring, public health control, industries and homeland security

Who should read this?

Anyone in industry, working directly or indirectly on sensor development or sensing related technologies including, security, surveillance, monitoring, environmental safety monitoring and medical technologies

Bio-Nano Inspired Anisotropic Interfaces- A Frugal Engineering Green Chemistry Approach

• The eco-friendly and biocompatible methodologies for diverse applications in nanophotonics and biomedical domains are discussed in this work
• Lycoat® is a plant derived biopolymer that complies with the European directive on food additives & USFDA and consequently is considered as a natural food ingredient. It is beneficial for use in patients (wound dressings), consumers and has found useful applications in food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries. Even though Lycoat® has been used extensively in the industries, it has so far not been explored for the green synthesis of anisotropic nanoparticles
• Three main challenges in the development of nanotechnologies have been addressed theoretically and experimentally in this work. The biosynthesized nanomaterials present: (i) non-toxic bio-inspired frugal science approach for synthesizing nanoparticles, (ii) obtaining augmented fluorescence emission enhancements using anisotropic nanoparticles, (iii) development of sensors with high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of hazardous heavy metal ions

Key Features and Benefits

• Bio-inspired synthesis route for nanoparticles
• Synthesis of anisotropic nanoparticles with defined geometries using a green synthesis nano-approach
• Bio-inspired approach in surface Plasmon-coupled emission platform by utilizing the synthesized nanofractals and nanocubes in three different SPCE interfaces- spacer, cavity and extended cavity architectures
• The multifold nanogaps generated by the nano-engineered hybrids sustain innumerable hotspots catering to attomolar sensitivity of the fluorescent dye molecule, rhodamine B
• The proposed green nanotechnology platform is useful in the sensing of heavy metals that are hazardous to the environment and human health

Impact

• A simple, cost-effective, frugal methodology is adopted to synthesize silver nanoparticles using a plant derived biopolymer- Lycoat® and applied them on a conventional existing sensor technology based on plasmonic platform
• The silver nanofractals (AgNFs) and silver nanocubes (AgNCs) synthesized here using a biocompatible Lycoat® polymer would be of immense use as antibacterial, antifungal, anti-oxidant, anticancer, and antiviral agents
• The well-known ability of the biocompatible Lycoat® polymer as films, and their ability to yield AgNFs and AgNCs (as reported here) upon simple UV exposure is being tested on different cloth materials (masks) to fight the COVID-19 pandemic
• An industry or market seeking such devices with augmented sensitivity could take forward the proposed methodology for utility in environmental safety and industrial applications
• A green approach for nano-engineering of silver nanoparticles and photonic sensor platforms that are of immense benefit for low- and middle-income countries, in resource-limited settings
• The mobile phone-based sensor platform presents a user-eco-friendly and economical detection compared to existing cost intensive spectrophotometers

Team

Sriram Rathnakumar, Seemesh Bhaskar, Aayush Rai, Darisi V. V. Saikumar, Naga Sai Visweswar Kambhampati, Venketesh Sivaramakrishnan and Sai Sathish Ramamurthy. Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh 515134, India

Paper Published in: ACS Applied Nano Materials

Title: Plasmon-Coupled Silver Nanoparticles for Mobile Phone-Based Attomolar Sensing of Mercury Ions

Read Paper Here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsanm.1c01347

Identifying the Issue

Behavioural finance considers that investors are not completely rational economic agents and are subject to cognitive limitations. About 4266 companies are listed on the U.S stock exchange, and Investors cannot provide equal attention to all the stocks and depend on heuristics and shortcuts. We ask:

“Does firm-initiated tweets grab investor attention and propel them to trade in the stock market”

Objective of the Research

• To create a dataset of the corporate tweets for a sample of thirty large corporations of the U.S.A
• To analyse the relationship between the frequency of firm-initiated tweets and changes in stock returns and trading volume

Who should read this?

Stock market investors, traders, social media managers and corporate communication heads in the U.S.A will find the results valuable

Solution

• Developed an algorithm on R programming language using “rtweet” and “BatchGetSymbols” packages to obtain firm-initiated tweets, stock prices,
  and trading volumes.
• Countered the API per-user per-day limitation by deploying a task scheduler to run a search query at regular intervals without supervision and executed it on the cloud storage using Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) provided by AWS Amazon Web Services.
• Examined the relationship between corporate tweeting behaviour and stock price using Vector Autoregression (VAR) model and used Impulse response function (IRF) to quantify the shock on the stock market from Tweets.
  We observe that a shock in corporate tweeting behaviour translates into a positive effect on changes in trading volume and returns in 73% and 60% of stocks, respectively

Key Features and Benefits

• The results establishing the association between corporate tweeting behaviour and traded values of return and volume will help corporates strategize the impact of their social media communication on the stock market
• Using corporate tweet frequency, investors can build forecasting models to predict future price movements to earn superior returns
• The study contributes to the scarce literature on the analysis of firm-initiated tweets on volumes and provides researchers the opportunity to examine content analysis on firm-initiated tweets

Impact

A study on the adoption and usage of social media by America’s largest companies, the Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts, found that Twitter topped the list. Twitter has revolutionized corporate communication and have become important channels for disseminating information.

The association between corporate tweeting behaviour and the stock market opens up great opportunities for corporations concerning corporate information disclosure. It has opened up a new discussion on the power of communication over actions, where social media users give great weightage to tweets and take decisions. In the 21st century, corporations will focus more on tweets to win the corporate war as “A Tweet is mightier than the sword”.
 

Team

• G Aditya, Research Scholar, Department of Management and Commerce, SSSIHL
• Dr Subramanian S Iyer, Assistant Professor, Department of Management and Commerce, SSSIHL

Title: “Impact of Firm-Initiated Tweets on Stock Return and Trading Volume”

Read Paper Here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15427560.2021.1949717