Faculty Publications

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://idr.nitk.ac.in/handle/123456789/18736

Publications by NITK Faculty

Browse

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 233
  • Item
    Natural and anthropogenic factors controlling the dissolved organic carbon concentrations and fluxes in a large tropical river, India
    (2006) Balakrishna, K.; Kumar, I.A.; Srinikethan, G.; Mugeraya, G.
    Carbon studies in tropical rivers have gained significance since it was realized that a significant chunk of anthropogenic CO2 emitted into the atmosphere returns to the biosphere, that is eventually transported by the river and locked up in coastal sediments for a few thousand years. Carbon studies are also significant because dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is known to complex the toxic trace metals in the river and carry them in the dissolved form. For the first time, this work has made an attempt to study the variations in DOC concentrations in space and time for a period of 19 months, and estimate their fluxes in the largest peninsular Indian river, the Godavari at Rajahmundry. Anthropogenic influence on DOC concentrations possibly from the number of bathing ghats along the banks and domestic sewage discharge into the river are evident during the pre-monsoon of 2004 and 2005. The rise in DOC concentrations at the onset of monsoon could be due to the contributions from flood plains and soils from the river catchment. Spatial variations highlighted that the DOC concentrations in the river are affected more by the anthropogenic discharges in the downstream than in the upstream. The discharge weighted DOC concentrations in the Godavari river is 3-12 times lower than Ganga-Brahmaputra, Indus and major Chinese rivers. The total carbon fluxes from the Godavari into the Bay of Bengal is insignificant (0.5%) compared to the total carbon discharges by major rivers of the world into oceans. © Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006.
  • Item
    Synthesis and antimicrobial activities of some novel 1,2,4-triazolo[3,4-b]-1,3,4-thiadiazoles and 1,2,4-triazolo[3,4-b]-1,3,4-thiadiazines carrying thioalkyl and sulphonyl phenoxy moieties
    (2007) Karabasanagouda, T.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.; Shetty, N.S.
    Thirty one new 6-aryl-3-{(4-substituted phenoxy) methyl}-1,2,4-triazolo[3,4-b]-1,3,4-thiadiazoles (6a-s) and 6-aryl-3-{(4-substituted phenoxy methyl}-7H-1,2,4-triazolo[3,4-b]-1,3,4-thiadiazines (7a-l) have been synthesized from 4-thioalkyl phenols (1a-b) through a multi-step reaction sequence. Compounds 1a-b reacted with ethyl chloroacetate in presence of acetone and potassium carbonate to give ethyl [4-(thioalkyl) phenoxy] acetates (2a-b). Further, 2a was oxidized to [4-(methyl sulphonyl) phenoxy] acetate (2c) using hydrogen peroxide in acetic acid. Reactions of (2a-c) with hydrazine hydrate in alcoholic medium furnished 2-[4-thiosubstituted phenoxy] acetohydrazides (3a-b) and 2-[4-methyl sulphonyl phenoxy] acetohydrazide (3c) which on treatment with carbon disulphide and methanolic potassium hydroxide yielded corresponding potassium dithiocarbazates (4a-c). They were then converted to 4-amino-5-{(4-thioalkyl phenoxy) methyl}-4H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiols (5a-b) and 4-amino-5-{(4-methyl sulphonyl phenoxy) methyl}-4H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol (5c) by refluxing them with aqueous hydrazine hydrate. The title compounds 6a-s were prepared by condensing 5a-c with various aromatic carboxylic acids in presence of phosphorus oxychloride. The intermediates 5a-c, on condensation with various substituted phenacyl bromides afforded a series of title compounds (7a-l). The structures of new compounds 2a-7l were established on the basis of their elemental analysis, IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and mass spectral data. All the title compounds were subjected to in vitro antibacterial testing against four pathogenic strains and antifungal screening against three fungi. Preliminary results indicate that some of them exhibited promising activities and they deserve more consideration as potential antimicrobials. © 2006 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
  • Item
    Efficient shape descriptors for feature extraction in 3D protein structures
    (2007) Ranganath, A.; Shet, K.C.; Vidyavathi, N.
    Structural Genomics initiatives are generating an increasing number of protein structures with very limited biochemical characterization. Characterization of a protein's function and understanding the specific nature of a protein's binding is a critical part of both protein engineering and structure-based drug discovery. The accurate detection of binding site in these protein structures can be valuable in determining its function. As shape plays a crucial role in bimolecular recognition and function, the development of shape analysis techniques is important for understanding protein structure-function relationships. This paper describes the use of the continuous wavelet transforms (CWT) for characterizing shape features of 3D protein structures. The goal is to explore the CWT as a multiscale tool to generate rotation- and translation-invariant shape features. © 2007 IOS Press. All rights reserved.
  • Item
    Anti-diarrheal potential of Aegle Marmelos Corr. root bark extract in rats
    (2007) Vrushabendra Swamy, S.B.M.; Nataraj, K.S.; Jayaveera, K.N.; Gopkumar, P.; Nayak, S.; Kumar, G.S.; Umachigi, S.P.
    A study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of methanolic extract of the rootbark of Aegle marmelos Corr. (MAMC) against several experimental models of diarrhoea in rats. MAMC treated animal's showed significant inhibitory effect against castor-oil induced diarrhea and PGE2 induced enteropooling in rats. The extract also showed a significant reduction in gastrointestinal motility in the charcoal meal test in rats. The results obtained to establish the efficacy and substantiate the folkare claim as an anti-diarrhoeal agent.
  • Item
    Radioprotection by copper and zinc complexes of 5-aminosalicylic acid: A preliminary study
    (Begell House Inc., 2008) Mantena, S.K.; Unnikrishnan, M.K.; Chandrasekharan, K.
    The effect of copper and zinc complexes of 5-aminosalicylic acid (hereafter referred to as Cu-5ASA and Zn-5ASA, respectively) against whole-body gamma radiation-induced cytotoxicity was studied in Swiss albino mice. Protection against lethal irradiation was evaluated from 30 day mouse survival (10 Gy) and endogenous spleen colony assay (11 Gy); and against sublethal dose (4 Gy) was assessed from gamma irradiation (RT)-induced formation of micronuclei in the mouse bone marrow 24 h postirradiation. Pretreatment with either Cu-5ASA (2.5-9 mg/kg) or Zn-5ASA (3.5-14 mg/kg) intraperitoneally (i.p.) delayed and reduced percentage mortality in mice exposed to 10 Gy RT. The doses 9 mg/kg for Cu-5ASA and 7 mg/kg for Zn-5ASA were found to be the most effective dose in preventing RT-induced weight loss and reducing percentage mortality. Both the drugs also caused an increase in the endogenous spleen colonies in mouse exposed to 11 Gy RT. At sublethal doses of RT, pretreatment with either Cu-5ASA or Zn-5ASA resulted in a significant decrease in the RT-induced micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes and normochromatic erythrocytes (MPCEs and MNCEs) and an increase in the ratio of PCE to NCE (P/N), at 24 h postirradiation. These results show that both Cu-5ASA and Zn-5ASA are effective in protecting normal tissues against lethal and sublethal doses of RT. Further pretreatment with either Cu-5ASA or Zn-5ASA enhanced the survival of tumor-bearing mice (Ehrlich's ascites carcinoma) exposed to 7.5 Gy RT. In fact, both the complexes caused an increase in the mean and average survival times (MST and AST) when compared to the irradiated control, suggesting a synergetic effect of these drugs with radiation in causing cytotoxicity to the tumor cells. The data clearly indicate that both Cu-5ASA and Zn-5ASA significantly reduced the deleterious effect of radiation and hence could be useful agents in reducing the side effects of therapeutic radiation. © 2008 by Begell House, Inc.
  • Item
    Evaluation of water quality index for drinking purposes for river Netravathi, Mangalore, South India
    (2008) Avvannavar, S.M.; Shrihari, S.
    An attempt has been made to develop water quality index (WQI), using six water quality parameters Dissolved oxygen (DO), Biochemical oxygen Demand (BOD), Most Probable Number (MPN), Turbidity, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and pH measured at eight different stations along the river basin. Rating curves were drawn based on the tolerance limits of inland waters and health point of view. Bhargava WQI method and Harmonic Mean WQI method were used to find overall WQI along the stretch of the river basin. Five point rating scale was used to classify water quality in each of the study areas. It was found that the water quality of Netravathi varied from Excellent to Marginal range by Bhargava WQI method and Excellent to Poor range by Harmonic Mean WQI method. It was observed that the impact of human activity was severe on most of the parameters. The MPN values exceeded the tolerable limits at almost all the stations. It was observed that the main cause of deterioration in water quality was due to the lack of proper sanitation, unprotected river sites and high anthropogenic activities. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007.
  • Item
    Artificial neural networks model for the prediction of steady state phenol biodegradation in a pulsed plate bioreactor
    (2008) Shetty K, K.V.; Nandennavar, S.; Srinikethan, G.
    Background: A recent innovation in fixed film bioreactors is the pulsed plate bioreactor (PPBR) with immobilized cells. The successful development of a theoretical model for this reactor relies on the knowledge of several parameters, which may vary with the process conditions. It may also be a time-consuming and costly task because of their nonlinear nature. Artificial neural networks (ANN) offer the potential of a generic approach to the modeling of nonlinear systems. Results: A feedforward ANN based model for the prediction of steady state percentage degradation of phenol in a PPBR by immobilized cells of Nocardia hydrocarbonoxydans (NCIM 2386) during continuous biodegradation has been developed to correlate the steady state percentage degradation with the flow rate, influent phenol concentration and vibrational velocity (amplitude x frequency). The model used two hidden layers and 53 parameters (weights and biases). The network model was then compared with a Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) model, derived from the same training data. Further these two models were used to predict the percentage degradation of phenol for blind test data. Conclusions: The performance of the ANN model was superior to that of the MRA model and was found to be an efficient data-driven tool to predict the performance of a PPBR for phenol biodegradation. © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry.
  • Item
    Synthesis of some new 4-styryltetrazolo[1,5-a]quinoxaline and 1-substituted-4-styryl[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]quinoxaline derivatives as potent anticonvulsants
    (2009) Wagle, S.; Vasudeva Adhikari, A.V.; Suchetha Kumari, N.S.
    4-Methyltetrazolo[1,5-a]quinoxaline (3) was prepared by the azide cyclocondensation of 2-chloro-3-methylquinoxaline (2). The reaction of 3 with aromatic aldehydes furnished 4-styryltetrazolo[1,5-a]quinoxalines (4a-f). Compound 2, on treatment with hydrazine hydrate gave 2-hydrazino-3-methylquinoxaline (5). The ring closure of 5 was achieved by the reaction of orthoesters and trifluoroacetic acid to yield 4-methyl-1-(substituted)[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalines (7a-c). Further, reaction of 7a-c with different aromatic aldehydes furnished the title compounds, 4-styryl-1-(substituted)[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalines (8a-i) in good yield. In another scheme, the hydrazino compound 5 was treated with different aromatic aldehydes to yield corresponding N-arylidenehydrazino quinoxalines (6a-d). Further, the oxidative cyclization of hydrazones by nitrobenzene yielded 1-aryl-4-methyl[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalines (7d-g), which on condensation with aromatic aldehydes gave the title compounds, 1-aryl-4-styryl[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalines (8j-u). The newly synthesized compounds have been characterized by FTIR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and mass spectral data, followed by elemental analysis. Some of the compounds were screened for in vivo anticonvulsant activity. Few of them exhibited promising results. © 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
  • Item
    Optimization and analysis of nickel adsorption on microwave irradiated rice husk using response surface methodology (RSM)
    (2009) Ganesapillai, M.G.; Iyyaswami, I.; Helen Kalavathy, M.H.; Murugesan, T.; Miranda, L.R.
    Background: The removal of heavy metals using adsorption techniques with low cost biosorbents is being extensively investigated. The improved adsorption is essentially due to the pores present in the adsorbent. One way of improving the porosity of the material is by irradiation of the precursor using microwaves. In the present study, the adsorption characteristics of nickel onto microwave-irradiated rice husks were studied and the process variables were optimized through response surface methodology (RSM). Result: The adsorption of nickel onto microwave-irradiated rice husk (MIRH) was found to be better than that of the raw rice husk (RRH). The kinetics of the adsorption of Ni(II) from aqueous solution onto MIRH was found to follow a pseudo-second-order model. Thermodynamic parameters such as standard Gibbs free energy (?G°), standard enthalpy (?H°), and standard entropy (?S°)were also evaluated. The thermodynamics of Ni(II) adsorption onto MIRH indicates that it is spontaneous and endothermic in nature. The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimize the design parameters for the present process. Conclusion: Microwave-irradiated rice husk was found to be a suitable adsorbent for the removal of nickel(II) ions from aqueous solutions. The adsorption capacity of the rice husk was found to be 1.17 mg g-1. The optimized parameters for the current process were found as follows: adsorbent loading 2.8 g (100 mL)-1; Initial adsorbate concentration 6 mg L-1; adsorption time 210 min.; and adsorption temperature 35°C. © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry.