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Microbial Synthesis of Alkaloids and Applications in Healthcare
Plant alkaloids are a large group of natural compounds with wide-ranging bioactive characteristics, but the number of alkaloids obtained from the plant is low. Mass extraction of these bioactive alkaloids is affected by the trouble in large-scale propagation of these plants and absence of efficient strategies for extraction. However, production by chemical reactions is a substitute method; it is less effective due to its highly complex structure. The extensive study of alkaloid biosynthesis in plants and the advancement of genetic and metabolic engineering techniques enabled the opportunity to synthesise alkaloids through microbial hosts via metabolic engineering and bioprocess optimisations. In this chapter, we discuss the various gene-manipulation strategies to produce alkaloids in various microbial hosts and their application in the healthcare industry. 2023 selection and editorial matter, Ranjna Sirohi, Amit Kumar Rai, Luciana Porto de Souza Vandenberghe, and Binod Parameswaran; individual chapters, the contributors -
The Truncated Modified Lindley Generated Family of Distributions
In this paper, two contributions to the modified Lindley distribution are provided. First, we bend the truncation scheme to this model to introduce a new distribution on the interval (0, 1). Theory and practice are provided. In particular, we show that it can be an interesting alternative to the analogous truncated exponential and Lindley distributions. Then, we employ this truncated distribution to develop a new generalized family of distributions. We examine its main theoretical properties, and show how it can be applied quite efficiently to analyse various data sets. 2023 Mir Masoom Ali, Irfan Ali, Haitham M. Yousof and Mohamed Ibrahim. -
Risks and ethics of nanotechnology: an overview
Environmental nanotechnology is thought to be important to current environmental engineering and scientific techniques. The biomedical, textile, aerospace, manufacturing, cosmetics, oil, defense, agricultural, and electronics industries can all benefit from the use of nanotechnology to enhance a wide range of material properties, including physical, chemical, and biological properties. However, nanotechnology-based products or nanomaterials (e.g., nanofibers, nanowires, nanocomposites, and nanofilms) may be harmful to human health. Since nanomaterials are usually manufactured using novel manufacturing techniques and have a variety of sizes, shapes, and surface energies, there can also be uncertainties in their manufacture and handling. This chapter provides a detailed account of ethical issues related to nanotechnology, particularly environmental toxicity, risk management, health risk evolution, and environmental significance of nanomaterials. In addition, environmental challenges, toxic effect of nanoparticles on the environment, ethics of nanotechnology, and social, ecological, biological, and other legal issues are highlighted. The potential of nanomaterials in environmental remediation and their use in environmental protection is also emphasized. 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. -
Microbial Enzymes for Synthesis of Chiral Drug Intermediates
Microbes or microbial enzymes can catalyze the synthesis of bioorganic compounds, and this process is defined as biocatalysis. Biocatalysis has become an essential technique in organic biotransformation, typically applied in chemical industries. Biocatalysts generally show high activity and excellent enantio, stereo, regio, and chemo-selectivity. They offer practical and cost-effective ways to synthesize semi-synthetic analogues and novel drug molecules. Many bacteria and fungi-derived enzymes could catalyze highly specific hydroxylations of various substrates that are highly complex to synthesize by chemical methods. This chapter details and discusses different biocatalytic microbial platforms that permit to produce the chiral drug intermediates. 2023 selection and editorial matter, Ranjna Sirohi, Amit Kumar Rai, Luciana Porto de Souza Vandenberghe, and Binod Parameswaran; individual chapters, the contributors -
Optical Properties of Magnetic Quantum Dots
The delta-like dispersion of the density of states (DoS) enable quantum dots (QD) to display optical and electronic properties comparable with those of real atoms. The discrete electronic structure of QDs akin to that of atoms is formed due to the effect of quantum confinement (QCE). In the case of magnetic quantum dots (MQD), the QDs are incorporated with magnetic impurities such as Mn atom, rare earth elements etc., by which the QDs undergo significant changes in optical and electronic properties by lifting their degeneracies (Zeeman effect). The combination of fluorescent and magnetic entities opens up opportunities for synthesizing two-in-one nanocomposites beneficial for multi-functional, multi-targeting, and multi-theranostic tools. Optical properties of QDs consisting of magnetic impurities, such as the absorption coefficient, oscillator strength, and refractive index are discussed in this chapter. 2023 selection and editorial matter, Amin Reza Rajabzadeh, Seshasai Srinivasan, Poushali Das, and Sayan Ganguly. -
A Glimpse into the Future: AI, Digital Humans, and the Metaverse Opportunities and Challenges for Life Sciences in Immersive Ecologies
The Metaverse is poised to have a significant impact in life sciences, especially in the healthcare sector. In the near future, genomic data along with AI and extended reality may be used to enhance digital humans to create digital twins to be used for virtual world interactions, or manipulated to obtain insights for real-world healthcare decision-making. In addition, extended reality may enable more robust population-based research and faster drug discovery, and permit the creation of virtual spaces and immersive environments for patients and physicians alike. In this chapter, we examine aspects of extended reality and AI that will play important roles in various areas of life sciences and discuss the future of life sciences in the Metaverse. 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. -
Adoption of blockchain technology in the real estate sector toward the improvement of smart cities
The rapid urbanization of global population causes many social, economic, and environmental issues, which does significantly influence the quality of life and living conditions of the people over the past years. The idea of smart city has grown popular, and it brings the opportunity to solve these urban issues. The motives of smart cities are to create the best use of public resources, enhance the quality life of people, and provide high quality services. Also, smart cities benefit from innovative applications of new kinds of information and communication technology to support communal sharing. Blockchain technology (BT) is more helpful to promote the development of smart cities through the implementation of BT in all the sectors. Blockchain-based smart contracts are disrupting the smart real estate sector of the smart cities. With this background, the study aims to explore the adoption of green BT in real estate sector toward the implementation of smart cities. 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. -
Sustainable Biodegradable and Bio-based Materials
The quest for sustainable biodegradable and bio-based materials is ever increasing due to their versatile properties and also their ability to serve as potential alternatives to their synthetic counterparts. The major types of bio-based materials of commercial importance can be derived majorly from plant, animal, and microbial sources through physical, chemical, or biological extraction methods. Despite their potential applications, biocompatibility, and biodegradability, these bio-based polymers still face hurdles in competing with conventional plastics. The major factors contributing to this involve the production and extraction cost. In recent years, the integration of waste valorization with biopolymer production and the development of eco-friendly green extraction protocols with minimum usage of chemicals were visualized as efficient strategies for the sustainable production of biopolymers. This study summarizes the important biodegradable and bio-based materials of commercial importance along with their production methods and application in diverse sectors. 2023 selection and editorial matter, Ajay, Parveen, Sharif Ahmad, Jyotsna Sharma, Victor Gambhir. -
Advances in the use of ceramic catalysts in fine chemical synthesis
Ceramics are versatile materials that have been put to many different uses. Catalysis is one such area where they have been used, both as catalyst and as a robust support material for catalysts. Properties like porosity and thermal and mechanical stability make ceramics attractive in these applications. Oxidation, esterification, hydrogenation, reduction, condensation reaction, and FriedelCrafts reaction are important reactions, which have uses spanning a wide range of applications, most notably in energy and environment. This chapter gives the recent advancements in ceramic materials used in the synthetic applications of the abovementioned reactions. The type and class of the ceramic material used and its role have been mentioned for these reactions. 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. -
Bacteriocins as Biotechnological Tools in Food and Pharmaceuticals: Applications and Future Prospects
The World Health Organization (WHO) and FAO have defined probiotics as non- pathogenic living organisms that greatly benefit host cells and have several positive outcomes at the level of gut. The intake of probiotics at an adequate amount confers good health and many times is used for several treatments (Hill et al. 2014; Gibson et al. 2017). Not only the microorganisms as a whole, but the proteins or peptides secreted by these species have tremendous applications in food spoilage, pharmaceuticals, antibiotic development, and much more. Thus, antimicrobial peptides from bacteria have drawn more attention for their wide range of applications. 2023 selection and editorial matter, Arti Gupta and Ram Prasad; individual chapters, the contributors. -
Nutraceuticals to prevent and manage cardiovascular diseases
Unhealthy lifestyle and diet are the key risk factors to cardiovascular diseases. A healthy cardiac and vascular system can prevent cardiovascular-related diseases like hypertension, atherosclerosis, and heart stroke. Identifying pharmacologically important metabolites had paved the way to contemporary medicine. People are more attracted to them as they are majorly plant-based metabolites such as polysaccharides, polyphenols, polysterols, and vitamins as cardio-protectors. Preclinical, clinical, and animal studies provide substantial data confirming nutraceuticals as a promising therapeutic agent in curing cardiovascular diseases. This chapter summarizes on major bioactive molecules as nutraceuticals with preclinical and clinical studies, emphasising their cardiovascular protective roles. 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. -
Graphene Nanotechnology for Renewable Energy Systems
The high degree of mechanical, electrical, and thermal conductivity of graphene enables its application in the renewable energy sector. Graphene plays a vital role in diodes, photovoltaic cells, supercapacitors, batteries, and full cells applications and it enhances the existing efficiency in a tremendous way. The addition of graphene can do tremendous effects on all kinds of inorganic and organic materials for solar cells. In the supercapacitor domain, graphene plays a vital role to provide a large surface which can be useful for energy storage applications. The hybrid supercapacitor and battery trends in research and technology have been discussed. The electrical vehicles and green applications need and accomplishments of graphene and its derivatives have also been described. 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. -
Biomass-Based Functional Carbon Nanostructures for Supercapacitors
For the creation of next-generation biocompatible energy technologies, it is urgently necessary to examine environmentally acceptable, low-cost electrode materials with high adsorption, rapid ion/electron transit, and programmable surface chemistry. Because of their wide availability, environmentally friendly nature, and affordability, carbon electrode materials made from biomass have received a lot of interest lately. The biological structures they naturally possess are regular and accurate, and they can be used as templates to create electrode materials with precise geometries. The current study is primarily concerned with recent developments in research pertaining to biomass-derived carbon electrode materials for supercapacitor applications, including plant, fruit, vegetable, and microorganism-based carbon electrode materials. Also provided is a summary of alternative synthesis methods for the conversion and activation of biomass waste. 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. -
Interaction of Nanomaterials with Plant Macromolecules: Nucleic Acid, Proteins and Hormones
Nanotechnology has the ability to change a wide range of industrial and agricultural operations. To harness these possibilities, it is essential to construct nano-materials that have minimum impact on the human body, plant systems as well as the environment. Using different materials can up-or down-regulate diverse genes of plants, create stimulating or stressful conditions and even cause production of metabolites that affect plant-associated microbes. The same nanoparticle can promote one plant species growth and be toxic to another. A small change in the concen-trations could cause either flourishment or senescence. It is crucial to understand how nanomaterials interact with nucleic acids, the most fundamental plant macro-molecule, as well as with the proteins and hormones made by biochemical processes. This chapter explores the basics of nanotechnology, with a brief classification and notes on some of the most recently used nanomaterials in agriculture such as metals and their oxides, quantum dots, graphene, arabinoxylan and chitosan nanoparticles, single and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Interactions with these above-mentioned macromolecules are explored, along with futuristic applications in plants that are currently being tested, like nanocarriers and nanovalves. Through this work, it is hoped that the field will further be extended through proper understanding of the environmental implications of nanomaterials, and that green technology will become the norm. The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. -
Nanomaterial- Based Electrochemical Sensors for Vitamins and Hormones
Women and adolescent girls around the globe have fallen prey to, or rather have become vulnerable to, infections and poor health conditions due to the deficiencies caused by their deprivation of vitamins and proteins along with hormonal imbalance resulting in a snowballing effect causing declining well-being among women. The methods currently available in assessing vital hormones and vitamins are time-consuming and expensive, thereby making them inaccessible to economically weaker sections of society. The work carried out so far in determining and quantifying these biomolecules has mostly employed immunosensing techniques on screen-printed electrodes. Glassy carbon electrodes or carbon paste electrodes modified with metal nanoparticles, graphene, and various polymerized films are also being used for the sensing of these biomolecules. In this chapter, the authors navigate a path through, and give a concise outlook on, various nanomaterial-based electrodes and their comparative efficiency for electrochemical sensing of vitamins and hormones. 2023 selection and editorial matter, Anitha Varghese and Gurumurthy Hegde; individual chapters, the contributors. -
Cancer Prognosis by Using Machine Learning and Data Science: A Systematic Review
Cancer is one of the most fatal diseases in the world and the leading cause for most deaths worldwide. Diagnosing cancer early has become the need of the day for doctors and researchers as it allows them to categorize patients as high-risk and low-risk categories which will eventually help them in correct diagnosis and treatment. Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that makes use of raw data to make predictions and insights. Using machine learning for cancer prognosis has been under study for a long time and several papers have been published regarding the same. Even though many papers have been published on the usage of statistical methods for cancer prognosis, it has been proved that machine learning models provide more accuracy when compared to conventional statistical methods of detection. These machines can be trained to detect abnormalities such as a tumour by looking at real-world examples. Models such as artificial neural networks, decision trees, clustering techniques, and K-Nearest-Neighbours (KNNs) are being used for cancer prediction, prognosis and also research purposes. The key aim of this article is to go through the popular key trends in using machine learning algorithms for cancer prognosis, types of input datasets to be fed, different types of cancers that can be studied and also the performance of these models. 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. -
Bioactive Phytochemicals from DatePalm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Seed Oil Processing By-products
Humans cultivate plants for their daily commodities, like food and medicines. Innumerable varieties of crops and plant-derived products like cotton, fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses, and oils have been developed. A variety of seed oils have been used by humankind in dietary supplements and regarded as feedstock for the production of biofuels. Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is one such plant used in the production of oil. Date palm is a commercial fruit that is primarily cultivated in South Mediterranean countries. Date palm fruit and its processed products such as jams, jellies, and syrup are globally consumed. However, tons of seed waste is generated after processing and raises environmental problems due to poor seed waste disposal practices. Scientific reports suggest that date palm seed oil is a rich in minerals, fatty acids, and various phytochemicals like phenols, flavonoids, sterols, and tocopherols. These bioactive molecules possess significant pharmacological activities like antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and hepatoprotectivity. This chapter summarizes the phytochemicals present in the date palm seed oil, discusses the fatty acid composition in various date palm cultivars worldwide, and highlights the pharmacological activities exhibited by the date seed oil. The chapter also discusses the effective utilization of date seed oil in the food and pharmaceutical industry and the seed oil by-products in biofuel production. Pharmaceuticals and biofuel production presents an excellent opportunity for the valorization of date palm cultivation and economic returns. 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG. -
IOT Contribution in Construct of Green Energy
Energy derived from natural sources, such as sunlight, wind, and water, is called green energy. Green energy is a source of energy derived from clean sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass. The environment benefts from green energy because green energy replaces the harmful effects of fossil fuels with more environmentally friendly options. Green energy sources release far fewer greenhouse gases, as well as little or no air pollutants when looked at in their full life cycle. Taking steps to reduce air pollution benefts not only the planet but also human and animal health. Increasing reliance on the Internet of Things (IoT) has helped modernize the energy industry. Sensor attached to generation, transmission, and distribution equipment is used in IoT applications in green energy production. Alternative energy offers several benefts over traditional energy options. As the demand for clean energy grows and environmental prudence becomes the norm, Internet of Things solutions for energy management keep developing. Using the Internet of Things today benefts green energy, enabling companies in this sector to make the most of their data, and improves effciency and safety. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. -
Gucchi (Morchella esculenta)
This chapter focuses on Morchella esculenta as a nutraceutical and functional food, its habit, habitat, general characteristics, availability, biologically active compounds present and pharmacological and medicinal value. Mushrooms are spore-bearing fleshy fruiting bodies of fungus often present above the ground. Greeks and Romans included mushrooms in their diet. Romans considered mushrooms as the food of supernatural beings, despite the Chinese contemplating them as the elixir of the human being. Functional foods that are prepared from morel mushrooms are of high medicinal properties. The production of M. esculenta worldwide is 1.5 million tonnes of fresh weight and 150 tonnes of dry weight. India and Pakistan are the major morel-producing countries and each country has about 50 tonnes of dry morels. The pharmacological properties of Morchella species show its use in Chinese traditional medicine since 2, 000 years and in Malaysia and Japan to cure several diseases. 2023 Deepu Pandita and Anu Pandita. -
Face Detection-Based Border Security System Using Haar-Cascade and LBPH Algorithm
Border security is a process which measures the border management ideas by a country or set of countries to wage against unspecific and unauthorized travel or trade across the country borders, to bound non-legal deport, various crimes combat, and foreclose dangerous criminals from entering in the country. A system will help in keeping a check on those personnels who forge with the legal document with an intension to cross the border. This article discusses about border security of whole Indian context, and there are various such systems which have been built since 2010 as wireless sensor network system named Panchendriya. Remote and instruction manual switch mode arm system using ultrasonic sensor for security of border. This article we have made use of Haar-Cascadian along with LBPH algorithm with their functioning. The result and discussion section we compare most recent face recognition techniques that have been used in the last ten years. The proposed prototype is discussed and shown through simulation model, it provide better result compare to existing model. The proposed Haar-Cascade and LBPH algorithm provide 10% better performance. 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.