Academic

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

The International collaboration between the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL), India and Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Japan began in the year 2015 with multiple teams working together from both the institutions. Over the years, the collaboration has grown stronger with multiple student exchanges and internships between the two institutions to work on numerous projects.

In one such successful project, a new research study is now published in Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures. In this research work, STAR Lab, SSSIHL and Matsumi Lab, JAIST have explored the use of 2D Titania nanotube (TiNT) and its Gold (Au) and Platinum (Pt)-nanoparticles decorated analogues for achieving augmented fluorescence emission using the surface plasmon-coupled emission (SPCE) platform.

Motivation

• Need for alternative 2D materials for plasmon-coupled fluorescence emission enhancement
• Extensive use of 2-Dimensional (2D) carbon material in the past for achieving augmented fluorescence emission
• 2D materials such as graphene has π-plasmons that can induce significant π–π interactions with the fluorophores resulting in decreased fluorescence emission
• Pure graphene is expensive and its synthesis involves cumbersome procedures

Research outcome

• The use of alternative, 2D-carbon type material- TiNT for plasmonic application
• Rapid (30 seconds) electrochemical synthesis of hybrid metal-dielectric spacer and cavity material (Au@TiNT, Pt@TiNT and AuPt@Pt-TiNT) for plasmonic applications
• Novel use of 2D-TiNT and Au and Pt-decorated TiNT in SPCE platform to achieve an excess of 100-fold fluorescence emission enhancement
• Purcell factor-based understanding of enhancement form hybrid metal-dielectric Pt@TiNT

Authors

• STAR Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning: Bebeto Rai, Dr. Venkatesh Srinivasan and Dr. Sai Sathish Ramamurthy
• Matsumi Lab, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology-Japan: Dr. Santhosh Bukka and Prof. Noriyoshi Matsumi

Journal: Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures

Read Paper Here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physe.2021.114868

The Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences (DFNS), SSSIHL won prizes for oral presentations at the National E-Conference on ‘Integration of Modern and Traditional Nutrition Approaches Towards Health and Wellbeing: Importance, Challenges and Future’ organized by Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, Sri Devaraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research, Kolar, on 28th and 29th April 2021.

Ms. Sai Sruthi Shree K K, Doctoral Research Scholar, DFNS won the First Prize for her presentation under the ‘Traditional Nutrition’ category for the paper entitled ‘Ayurvedic Perspective and Modern Nutritional Evaluation of Traditional Indian Brown Rice Varieties’ co-authored by Ms. Ashrita C. Haldipur, Doctoral Research Scholar, DFNS, and Dr. N. Srividya, research supervisor & Head, DFNS. This paper helped to validate the traditional knowledge on the nutritional importance of select pigmented rice varieties using modern research techniques. The award included a certificate of appreciation and a cash prize of rupees five thousand.

Under the ‘Trends in Therapeutic Nutrition’ category, Prof. B. Andallu, Honorary Faculty, DFNS, won the second prize for her paper entitled ‘Amelioration of H2O2-induced oxidative stress in human leukocytes by aniseed (Pimpinella anisum L.) extracts’ co-authored by Dr. Shobha Iyer. The paper explained the potency of aniseeds that are rich in bioactive phytochemicals as a preventive agent against oxidative stress-induced diseases. The award included a certificate of appreciation and a cash prize of rupees three thousand.

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL) congratulates Ms. Sai Sruthi and Prof. B Andallu and team DFNS, for the above recognition and for making the University proud.

Identifying the Issue

a) 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. None of the current models developed has studied the role and efficacies of HCQ and BCG Vaccination in reducing COVID-19 burden. Furthermore, these models have not considered explicitly the role of inflammatory mediators such as Cytokines and Chemokine’s released by the body in defending the body against the virus.

b) In this work, a within-host mathematical model is developed and optimal control problem is framed to study the role and efficacies of HCQ and BCG Vaccination in reducing the burden of COVID-19

Objective of the Research

• We propose to study the role and efficacies of HCQ and BCG Vaccination in reducing COVID-19 burden by framing an optimal control problem
• Comparative Effectiveness study is also done to support the results obtained in optimal control problem
• Both the above can help to understand the dynamics and control SARS-Cov-2 virus in a better way

Who should read this?

Anyone in the field of Academics and research, working in areas of Mathematics, Bio-Mathematics, Mathematical Modelling, and also Doctors, especially Physicians

Solution

In this work, we consider two scenarios involving the administration of HCQ and BCG vaccine. The findings of these studies include the following: the average infected cell count and viral load decreased the most when both the HCQ and BCG interventions were applied together in both scenarios. On the other hand, the average susceptible cell count decreased the best when HCQ alone was administered in both these scenarios. The basic reproduction number and viral count decreased the best when HCQ and BCG booster interventions were applied together, reinstating the fact obtained earlier in the optimal control setting.

Key Features and Benefits

• It is observed that the viral load decreased the most when both the HCQ and BCG interventions were applied together. This could help doctors and physicians to look for combination therapy as one of the alternatives to stop the multiplication of virus in the body
• The basic reproduction number and viral count decreased the best when HCQ and BCG booster interventions were applied together

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, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, India
• D K K Vamsi, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, India
• Bhanu Prakash, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, India
• Carani B Sanjeevi, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, India

Paper Published In: Advances in Dynamical Systems and Application, Volume 16, no. 1, 369-403

Title: “Combined Drug Interventions and its Efficacy in the Reduction of COVID-19 Burden: A Within-Host Modelling Study with reference to HCQ and BCG Vaccination”

Read Paper Here: https://www.ripublication.com/adsa21/v16n1p26.pdf

Dr. V. Prathyusha, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, SSSIHL, Anantapur was recently awarded the ‘Young Scientist Award 2020’ by the Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences (APAS) for her contribution in the field of Chemical Sciences. In addition, Dr. Prathyusha has also been admitted as ‘Associate Fellow’ of the A.P. Akademi of Sciences for the year 2020.

The Young Scientist Awards, was instituted by the Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences, in recognition of the notable research contributions and outstanding work of the young scientists of Andhra Pradesh working in different fields of Science and technology which includes Physical and Mathematical/Engineering Sciences/ Earth, Ocean, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences/ Medical, Health and Sciences/Chemical Sciences/Life Sciences including Agricultural Sciences.

The computational chemistry research team headed by Dr. V. Prathyusha, comprises two research scholars, Mr. Abhishek. H and K.V. S Mani Chandrika and have been actively working on bio-inspired molecules as potential adsorbents, potent bio-active molecules and the SERS of neurotransmitters in the presence of silver clusters. These studies will find useful applications in the field of medicine and environment. The computational studies are also being complemented by synthesis of the bio-active compounds, fabrication of materials and substrates in-house, and experimental SERS studies.

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (SSSIHL) congratulates Dr. V. Prathyusha and the team for the above recognition and for making the University proud.

For more on Dr. V.Prathyusha visit https://www.sssihl.edu.in/faculty/v-prathyusha/
 

Identifying the Issue

While there are vector-host models developed to study the dengue virus at population level, very few works performed to understand the dengue viral dynamics in human body. None of the current models as per our study has considered the role of innate immune response in the defence to the dengue viral attack until recently one of them by Rotem Ben-Shachar and Katia Koelle, introduced innate immune response and showed that it can reproduce the characteristic features of the primary infection.

In this paper, a non-linear model is proposed which incorporates innate and adaptive (both cellular and humoral) immune responses, studying the Dengue virus at cellular level using a mathematical model.

Objective of the Research

• We propose to study the dynamics of within-host epidemic model of dengue infection which incorporates both innate immune response and adaptive immune response (Cellular and Humoral)
• The proposed model also incorporates the time delay for production of antibodies from B cells and understand the dynamics of this model using the dynamical systems approach by performing the stability and sensitivity analysis
• Both the above can help detect and control the dengue virus better and understand the dengue viral dynamics in human body

Who should read this?

Those working in the field of Mathematics, Bio-Mathematics, Mathematical Modeling, research, and other related academic fields, and Doctors, especially Physicians.

Solution

The critical level of the antibody recruitment rate(q) was found to be responsible for the existence and stability of various steady states. The stability of endemic state was found to be dependent on time delay. The sensitivity analysis identified the production rate of antibodies (q) to be highly sensitive parameter.

• The existence and stability conditions for the equilibrium states of the disease have been obtained
• The threshold value of time delay has been computed which is critical for change in stability of the endemic state

Key Features and Benefits

• It has been observed that that innate response co-relates with the virus titer in the early stages of the infection which can help in an early detection of a serious disease
• The production rate of antibodies (q) was found to be highly sensitive
• It was observed that the burst rate of virus particles (k) has a predictable behaviour and the rate of infection(β1) is sensitive only in some interval range

Impact

• The works presented in this paper could enhance our understanding of this complex immune response
• The model can help in detection of the disease in the early stages of the infection

Team

• Deva Siva Sai Murari Kanumoori: University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy
• D Bhanu Prakash: Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning – SSSIHL, India
• D. K. K. Vamsi: Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning – SSSIHL, India
• Carani B Sanjeevi: Vice-Chancellor, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning -SSSIHL

Paper Published In: Computational and Mathematical Biophysics 9, no. 1 (2021): 66-80

Read Paper Here: https://doi.org/10.1515/cmb-2020-0118

Mr. Rohan Yashraj Gupta and Mr. S R Pranav Sai, Doctoral Research Scholars in Actuarial Science, DMACS, SSSIHL had the honour to present their individual research works at the 3rd Insurance Data Science Conference at City, University of London on 17th and 18th of June 2021.

The Insurance Data Science Conference 2021 brought together academics and practitioners in areas including data science, analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, computational statistics, and software, as applied in the insurance industry. The exchange mainly focused on applications in insurance pricing, reserving, risk assessment and modelling, customer analytics, capital management, catastrophe, and econometric modelling.

Several leading Actuaries and Data Scientists in the Insurance industry submit their works every year. After a rigorous selection process select high-quality works would be selected for the presentation at the conference. SSSIHL Doctoral Research Scholars presented on the following topics:

A comparative study of using various Machine Learning and Deep Learning-based fraud detection models for Universal Health Coverage schemes and assessing the impact of COVID-19 in healthcare fraud (Rohan Yashraj Gupta)

Capturing the power of ensemble learning using GLM and Artificial Neural Network for insurance pricing (S R Pranav Sai)

SSSIHL congratulates Mr. Rohan Yashraj Gupta and Mr. S R Pranav Sai for the honour and appreciates their deep commitment to research in Actuarial Data Science, inspiring others into this new stream of research.