News on Science, Technology and Research in India
Scientists at Department of Biotechnology’s Mohali-based National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute have developed non-toxic and edible composite coatings based on wheat straw hemicellulosic polysaccharide (WP) and stearic acid derivatized oat bran polysaccharide (SAOP) that promise to overcome the problems.
Knowing the property of silver in inhibiting the growth of bacteria, scientists at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune have successfully carried out implant surface modifications by depositing a nano-scale thin film of silver on the titanium surface to address the challenge of implant failures, especially due to bacterial infections. ARI is a Pune based autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology.
The study by R Ramesh, IIA, V Mugundhan, RRI and K Prabhu, IIA, found that the release is broken and spans both over multiple locations and at different times. This finding can help us form a better understanding of time and location of solar flares that affect the ionosphere and radio communications on Earth and also release energetic particles into space. The findings were published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The device, which was developed by CV Yelamaggad and his group from CeNS, is capable of detecting explosives such as TNP, TNT, and RDX. It works on a simple visual detection technique.
Scientists have discovered two actinomycetes bacterial strains to fight against a fungal plant pathogen called Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. The pathogen poses a major threat to large cardamom plants, which are a major source of income for the farmers of Sikkim. The lead scientists behind this discovery are from Department of Biotechnology’s Imphal-based Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development (IBSD).
To boost cooperation in the sector of e-waste recycling, NML signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Technology Transfer with Unique India Private Limited, Firozabad, for the extraction of cobalt metal and salt from the black powder of lithium batteries.
Converting fine-sized iron ores to spherical balls is called pelletization. These pellets can be used in blast furnace and Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) plants to make steel. The system also alarms the operator in case more quantities of over- or under-sized pellets are produced. The size distribution trend is useful for an operator to control the process parameters to maintain the desired size range and reduce the recycling load.
The pill, developed from the fruit extract, is undergoing clinical trials for renal anaemia. It can prove to be an economical cure for the disease — researchers claim the treatment cost can be cut to one-fourth, in addition to replacing intravenous procedures with oral intake. In Gujarat, 63 per cent children — 55 per cent females and 22 per cent males — are reportedly anaemic.
The scientists have identified alterations in DNA, multiple genes and pathways associated with local lymph node metastasis in oral cancers. Metastatic lymph nodes carry cancer from primary sites to other sites. The team analysed exome-wide sequence and genome-wide copy number data and identified both heritable and non-heritable genomic alterations associated with lymph node metastasis.
A research group at the National Centre for Cell Science (NCCS), Pune led by Dr. Arvind Sahu has for the first time identified the precise units of the RCA protein molecules that are responsible for their regulatory function, thus revealing that functional modularity exists in these proteins.
