AI and augmented reality for 3D Indian dance pose reconstruction cultural revival.

This paper delves into the specialized domain of human action recognition, focusing on the Identification of Indian classical dance poses, specifically Bharatanatyam. Within the dance context, a "Karana" embodies a synchronized and harmonious movement encompassing body, hands, and feet, as defined by the Natyashastra. The essence of Karana lies in the amalgamation of nritta hasta (hand movements), sthaana (body postures), and chaari (leg movements). Although numerous, Natyashastra codifies 108 karanas, showcased in the intricate stone carvings adorning the Nataraj temples of Chidambaram, where Lord Shiva's association with these movements is depicted. Automating pose identification in Bharatanatyam poses challenges due to the vast array of variations, encompassing hand and body postures, mudras (hand gestures), facial expressions, and head gestures. To simplify this intricate task, this research employs image processing and automation techniques. The proposed methodology comprises four stages: acquisition and pre-processing of images involving skeletonization and Data Augmentation techniques, feature extraction from images, classification of dance poses using a deep learning network-based convolution neural network model (InceptionResNetV2), and visualization of 3D models through mesh creation from point clouds. The use of advanced technologies, such as the MediaPipe library for body key point detection and deep learning networks, streamlines the identification process. Data augmentation, a pivotal step, expands small datasets, enhancing the model's accuracy. The convolution neural network model showcased its effectiveness in accurately recognizing intricate dance movements, paving the way for streamlined analysis and interpretation. This innovative approach not only simplifies the identification of Bharatanatyam poses but also sets a precedent for enhancing accessibility and efficiency for practitioners and researchers in the Indian classical dance.

A novel strategy of nanosized herbal Plectranthus amboinicus, Phyllanthus niruri and Euphorbia hirta treated TiO2 nanoparticles for antibacterial and anticancer activities.

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles exhibit good anticancer and antibacterial activities. They are known to be environmentally friendly, stable, less toxic, and have excellent biocompatibility nature. Due to these properties, they are well suited for biological applications particularly in biomedical applications such as drug delivery and cancer therapy. In this research article, three medicinal herbs namely, Plectranthus amboinicus (Karpooravalli), Phyllanthus niruri (Keezhanelli), and Euphorbia hirta (Amman Pacharisi), were used to modify the surface of the TiO2 nanoparticles. The synthesized nanoparticles were subjected to various characterization techniques. The samples are then subjected to MTT assay to determine cell viability. KB oral cancer cells are used for the determination of the anticancer nature of the pure and bio modified nanoparticles. It is observed that Plectranthus amboinicus-Phyllanthus niruri modified TiO2 nanoparticles exhibit excellent anticancer activities among other bio modified and pure samples. The samples are then examined for antibacterial activities against three Gram-negative bacterial strains namely, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and two Gram-positive bacterial strains namely, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus mutans, respectively. Among the modified and pure samples, Plectranthus amboinicus showed good antibacterial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In the Flow cytometry analysis, the generation of p53 protein expression from Plectranthus amboinicus-Phyllanthus niruri modified TiO2 nano herbal particles shows the anti-cancerous nature of the sample. Then to determine the toxic nature of the Plectranthus amboinicus-Phyllanthus niruri modified TiO2 nano herbal particles against normal cells, the NPs were subjected to MTT assay against normal L929 cells, and it was found to be safer and less toxic towards the normal cells.

Chloroplast genome analysis of Angiosperms and phylogenetic relationships among Lamiaceae members with particular reference to teak (Tectona grandis L.f).

Availability of comprehensive phylogenetic tree for flowering plants which includes many of the economically important crops and trees is one of the essential requirements of plant biologists for diverse applications. It is the first study on the use of chloroplast genome of 3265 Angiosperm taxa to identify evolutionary relationships among the plant species. Sixty genes from chloroplast genome was concatenated and utilized to generate the phylogenetic tree. Overall the phylogeny was in correspondence with Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) IV classification with very few taxa occupying incongruous position either due to ambiguous taxonomy or incorrect identification. Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified from almost all the taxa indicating the possibility of their use in various genetic analyses. Large proportion (95.6%) of A/T mononucleotide was recorded while the di, tri, tetra, penta and hexanucleotide amounted to less than 5%. Ambiguity of the taxonomic status of Tectona grandis L.f was assessed by comparing the chloroplast genome with closely related Lamiaceae members through nucleotide diversity and contraction/expansion of inverted repeat regions. Although the gene content was highly conserved, structural changes in the genome was evident. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that Tectona could qualify for a subfamily Tectonoideae. Nucleotide diversity in intergenic and genic sequences revealed prominent hyper-variable regions such as, rps16-trnQ, atpH-atpI, psc4-psbJ, ndhF, rpl32 and ycf1 which have high potential in DNA barcoding applications.

Chitosan-cellulose hydrogel conjugated with L-histidine and zinc oxide nanoparticles for sustained drug delivery: Kinetics and in-vitro biological studies.

Functionalised nanohybrid hydrogel using L-Histidine (HIS) conjugated chitosan, phyto-synthesised zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZNPs) and dialdehyde cellulose (DAC) was formulated as a sustained drug delivery carrier for the polyphenol drugs - Naringenin (NRG), Quercetin (QE) and Curcumin (CUR). A maximum loading efficiency of 90.55 %, 92.84 % and 89.89 %, respectively were optimised for NRG, QE and CUR in the hybrid hydrogel. The maximum drug release was favoured for the optimum drug loading and at pH-5. HIS-chitosan conjugation stabilised the hydrogel and enabled a sustained drug delivery. Drug release kinetics predicted a non-Fickian diffusion-based mechanism along with polymer erosion. Prominent antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Trichophyton rubrum strains were predicted to evolve based on the synergic formulation. Significant biocompatibility towards L929 cells revealed their support for normal cell survival. Anticancer studies towards A431 cells exhibited excellent cytotoxicity with a 15 to 30-fold increase using the hybrid carrier, compared to the free polyphenol drugs.

Bio-modified TiO2 nanoparticles with Withania somnifera, Eclipta prostrata and Glycyrrhiza glabra for anticancer and antibacterial applications.

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles exhibit good anticancer and antibacterial activities. They are known to be environmentally friendly and stable, less toxic and excellent biocompatibility nature. In this paper we report the biological properties of pure TiO2 nanoparticles modified with Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), Eclipta prostrata (Karisalankanni) and Glycyrrhiza glabra (Athimathuram) for biological applications. X-ray diffraction results revealed the anatase nature of the samples. From the TEM analyses, it is observed that there is an increase in the particle size of the bio modified samples. UV results show the red shift for the bio modified samples when compared with the pure samples. The samples are then subjected to MTT assay to determine the cell viability. KB oral cancer cells are used for the determination of anticancer nature of the pure and bio modified nanoparticles. It is observed that Withania somnifera - Eclipta prostrate modified TiO2 nanoparticles exhibit excellent anticancer activities among other bio modified and pure samples. The samples are then examined for their antibacterial activities against three Gram-negative bacterial strains namely, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and two Gram-positive bacterial strains namely, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus mutans. Among the modified and pure samples, Withania somnifera - Eclipta prostrata showed good antibacterial nature against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.

Synergic formulation of onion peel quercetin loaded chitosan-cellulose hydrogel with green zinc oxide nanoparticles towards controlled release, biocompatibility, antimicrobial and anticancer activity.

The therapeutic prospective of a novel carrier based delivery of phyto-derived quercetin (QE) extracted from onion peel waste was studied in the present work. Dialdehyde cellulose (DAC) developed from sugarcane bagasse (SCB) cellulose effectively crosslinked chitosan hydrogel. The hydrogel matrices were embedded with green zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), phyto-synthesized using musk melon seeds. The hybrid carrier formulation was characterised using analytical techniques such as XRD, FTIR and SEM analysis. The onion peel drug (OPD) analysed for its bioactive components using HPLC was reported as a potential source of QE. Taguchi optimization for the QE drug loading in the nanohybrid hydrogel indicated a remarkable improvement by 39% in comparison to drug loading in hydrogel without ZnO NPs. The maximum QE release was obtained at an optimal drug loading condition with pH 5.0, which favoured the anticancer applications. The drug release revealed a Fickian diffusion mechanism by adopting various kinetic models. The commercial QE and QE in OPD (QE/OPD) loaded nanohybrid hydrogels were found to inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Trichophyton rubrum strains. The biocompatibility and anticancer properties of the QE/OPD loaded nanohybrid hydrogels were established against normal L929 murine fibroblast cells and A431 human skin carcinoma cell lines respectively.

An Intelligent Model for Blood Vessel Segmentation in Diagnosing DR Using CNN.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is an eye disease, which affects the people who are all having the diabetes for more than 10 years. The ophthalmologist identifies when the dilated eye exam causes severe in any one of the following deviations in the retina: changes in blood vessels, leaking blood vessels, newly grown blood vessels, swelling of the macula, changes in the lens, and damages to the nerve tissue. It can eventually lead to vision loss. The early detection of DR prevents the cause of blindness. In this paper, we propose the retinal image segmentation and extraction of blood vessels by morphological processing, thresholding, edge detection, and adaptive histogram equalization. For the automatic diagnosis of DR from the fundus image, we also developed a network with the convolutional neural network architecture for accurately classifying its severity. By using high-end graphical processor unit (GPU), we trained this network on the publicly available dataset such as DRIVE, DIARETDB0, and DIARETDB1_v1, and the images collected from the Aravind Eye Hospital, Coimbatore, India. Our proposed CNN achieves a sensitivity of 98%, a specificity of 93%, and an accuracy of 96.9% containing a database of 854 images.

Highly biocompatible chitosan with super paramagnetic calcium ferrite (CaFe2O4) nanoparticle for the release of ampicillin.

The CaFe2O4 nanoparticles (CFNP) were synthesized using the solution combustion method. The CFNP-chitosan-ampicillin was prepared by the ionic gelation method using tripolyphosphate (TPP). The CFNP, chitosan-CFNP, chitosan-CFNP-ampicillin materials were characterized by XRD, FT-IR and TGA analysis in order to evaluate the particle nature and size, the presence of functional groups and their thermal stability. The FESEM and EDAX analysis were performed to understand the surface morphology of the materials and the presence of CFNP in the material, respectively. The vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis was performed to analyze the magnetic property of the chitosan-CFNP material. The squareness value of 0.1733 obtained by VSM measurements indicates the super paramagnetic nature of chitosan-CFNP. Taguchi orthogonal array method was applied to identify the significant impacting parameters for maximizing the drug encapsulation of chitosan-CFNP. The drug release studies showed that the drug was released rapidly in acidic medium as compared to the basic or neutral medium. The drug release kinetic data were fitted with different linear kinetic model equations and the best fit was obtained with Korsmeyer-Peppas model. The model drug ampicillin release from chitosan-CFNP was tested against staphylococcus epidermis bacteria through disc diffusion method for checking biocompatibility and antibacterial activity.

Effect of Bacillus subtilis PB6, a natural probiotic on colon mucosal inflammation and plasma cytokines levels in inflammatory bowel disease.

The pathophysiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) involves the production of diverse lipid mediators, namely eicosanoid, lysophospholipids, and platelet-activating factor, in which phospholipase A2 (PLA2) is the key enzyme. Thus, it has been postulated that control of lipid mediators production by inhibition of PLA2 would be useful for the treatment of IBD. This hypothesis has been tested in the present study by examining the therapeutic effect of a novel natural probitic Bacillus subtilis PB6 (ATCC- PTA 6737). B. subtilis PB6 is found to secrete surfactins (cyclic lipopeptides) which have anti-bacterial potential. These surfactins inhibit PLA2, a rate-limiting enzyme involved in the arachidonic acid associated inflammatory pathway and could downregulate the inflammatory response by regulating the eicosanoid and cytokine pathways. With this concept, an experimental animal trial has been conducted in a rat model of 2, 4, 6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced colitis. The oral administration of PB6 suppresses the colitis as measured by mortality rate, changes in the weight gain, colon morphology and the levels of plasma cytokines. The animals treated orally with PB6 at 1.5 x 10(8) CFU/kg thrice daily from day 4 to 10 significantly improve gross pathology of the colon and regain the colon weight to normal (p < 0.05), compared to TNBS-induced positive control. The plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-alpha, 1L-1beta, IL-6 and IFN-gamma) are also significantly lowered (p < 0.05) and anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-I0 and TGF-beta) significantly (p < 0.05) increased after the oral administration of PB6 on day 11. The present study supports the concept that PB6 inhibits PLA2 by the secreting surfactins. In a clinical investigation, it is found to be well tolerated by all the healthy volunteers.

DNA binding and cleavage properties of certain tetrammine ruthenium(II) complexes of modified 1,10-phenanthrolines--effect of hydrogen-bonding on DNA-binding affinity.

A series of ruthenium(II) mixed ligand complexes of the type [Ru(NH(3))(4)(L)](2+), where L=imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline (ip), 2-phenylimidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline (pip), 2-(2-hydroxyphenyl)imidazo[4,5-f][1,10]phenanthroline (hpip), 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (dip), naphtha[2,3-a]dipyrido[3,2-h:2',3'-f]phenazine-5,18-dione (qdppz), 5,18-dihydroxynaphtho[2,3-a]dipyrido[3,2-H:2',3'-f]phenazine (hqdppz), have been isolated and characterized. The interaction of these complexes with calf thymus DNA (CT DNA) has been explored by using absorption, emission, and circular dichroic spectral methods, thermal denaturation studies and viscometry. All these studies suggest the involvement of the modified phenanthroline 'face' rather than the ammonia 'face' of the complexes in DNA binding. An intercalative mode of DNA binding, which involves the insertion of the modified phenanthroline ligands in between the base pairs, is suggested. The results from absorption spectral titration and circular dichroism (CD), thermal denaturation and viscosity experiments indicate that the qdppz and hqdppz complexes (K(b) approximately 10(6) and Delta T(m)=11-13 degrees C) bind more avidly than the ip, pip and hpip complexes (K(b) approximately 10(5), Delta T(m)=6-8 degrees C). Intramolecular hydrogen bonding in the hpip and hqdppz complexes increases the surface area of the intercalating diimines and enhances the DNA binding affinity substantially. The ammonia co-ligands of the complexes are possibly involved in hydrogen bonding with the intrastrand nucleobases to favour intercalation of the extended aromatic ligands. Circular dichroism spectral studies reveal that all the complexes effect certain structural changes on DNA duplex; [Ru(NH(3))(4)(ip)](2+) induces a B to A transition while [Ru(NH(3))(4)(qdppz)](2+) a B to Psi conformational change on CT DNA. Cleavage efficiency of the complexes were determined using pBR322 supercoiled plasmid DNA. All the complexes, except hqdppz complex, promote the cleavage of supercoiled plasmid (form I) to relaxed circular form (form II).