Different chemical behaviors and antioxidant activity of three novel schiff bases containing hydroxyl groups. X-ray structure of CH2{cyclo-C6H10-NH=CH-(2-O-naphth)}2.H2O

The antioxidant activities of three new Schiff base compounds, 1–3, were studied through their direct scavenging ability to eliminate free radicals using DPPH and ABTS methods and also through their indirect antioxidant activity as measured using the ferric thiocyanate (FTC) method. The number of OH groups in the compounds and their positions play a role in the activity. The crystal structure of CH2{cycloC6H10NHCH-(2-O-naphth)}2.H2O (1), has been determined and proves the existence of intramolecular hydrogen-bonds and hydrogen-bonded water molecules and reveals the keto-amine (NH⋯O) tautomer of this compound. One cyclo-hexyl ring was found to be disordered, and was resolved in two orientations. Hydrogen atoms of the NHCH groups were located in difference maps and were refined freely. Compounds 2 and 3 exhibit the enol-imine form. The UV–vis spectra of the three compounds have been studied in organic solvents of different polarity, and in basic and acidic media, and were found helpful in understanding the tautomeric forms in these compounds; the polarity was modified by adding (CF3COOH) or [(C2H5)3N] to the solvent. All three compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis, UV–vis, FTIR, NMR and MS

Synthesis and greener pastures biological study of bis-thiadiazoles as potential Covid-19 drug candidates

A novel series of bis- (Abdelhamid et al., 2017, Banerjee et al., 2018, Bharanidharan et al., 2022)thiadiazoles was synthesized from the reaction of precursor dimethyl 2,2′-(1,2-diphenylethane-1,2-diylidene)-bis(hydrazine-1-carbodithioate) and hydrazonyl chlorides in ethanol under ultrasonic irradiation. Spectral tools (IR. NMR, MS, elemental analyses, molecular dynamic simulation, DFT and LUMO and HOMO) were used to elucidate the structure of the isolated products. Molecular docking for the precursor, 3 and ligands 6a-i to two COVID-19 important proteins M$^{pro}$ and RdRp was compared with two approved drugs, Remdesivir and Ivermectin. The binding affinity varied between the ligands and the drugs. The highest recorded binding affinity of 6c with M$^{pro}$ was (−9.2 kcal/mol), followed by 6b and 6a, (−8.9 and −8.5 kcal/mol), respectively. The lowest recorded binding affinity was (−7.0 kcal/mol) for 6 g. In comparison, the approved drugs showed binding affinity (−7.4 and −7.7 kcal/mol), for Remdesivir and Ivermectin, respectively, which are within the range of the binding affinity of our ligands. The binding affinity of the approved drug Ivermectin against RdRp recoded the highest (−8.6 kcal/mol), followed by 6a, 6 h, and 6i are the same have (−8.2 kcal/mol). The lowest reading was found for compound 3 ligand (−6.3 kcal/mol). On the other side, the amino acids also differed between the compounds studied in this project for both the viral proteins. The ligand 6a forms three H-bonds with Thr 319(A), Sr 255(A) and Arg 457(A), whereas Ivermectin forms three H-bonds with His 41(A), Gly143(A) and Gln 18(A) for viral M$^{pro}$. The RdRp amino acids residues could be divided into four groups based on the amino acids that interact with hydrogen or hydrophobic interactions. The first group contained 6d, 6b, 6 g, and Remdesivir with 1–4 hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions 1 to 10. Group 2 is 6a and 6f exhibited 1 and 3 hydrogen bonds and 15 and 14 hydrophobic interactions. Group 3 has 6e and Ivermectin shows 4 and 3 hydrogen bonds, respectively and 11 hydrophobic interactions for both compounds. The last group contains ligands 3, 6c, 6 h, and 6i gave 1–3 hydrogen bonds and 6c and 3 recorded the highest number of hydrophobic interactions, 14 for both 6c and 6 h. Pro Tox-II estimated compounds’ activities as Hepatoxic, Carcinogenic and Mutagenic, revealing that 6f-h were inactive in all five similar to that found with Remdesivir and Ivermectin. The drug-likeness prediction was carried out by studying physicochemical properties, lipophilicity, size, polarity, insolubility, unsaturation, and flexibility. Generally, some properties of the ligands were comparable to that of the standards used in this study, Remdesivir and Ivermectin

Unmanned aerial vehicle for fire surveillance and monitoring

[ES] Los incendios forestales siguen siendo uno de los grandes problemas ambientales a los que se enfrenta la sociedad en la actualidad. Además del gran impacto medioambiental, la destrucción de ecosistemas y las posibles pérdidas humanas, hay que añadir los costes económicos derivados de la lucha contra el fuego. Todos estos motivos han provocado que se busque en la tecnología actual, herramientas y sistemas que permitan ayudar en tareas de la lucha contra incendios y, más en concreto, el uso de Vehículos Aéreos No Tripulados (UAVs). El hecho de que los UAVs puedan alcanzar lugares remotos de manera rápida y, embarcar sensores y dispositivos que ayuden en tareas peligrosas y arriesgadas, los hacen idóneos para la lucha contra el fuego. En este trabajo recoge el desarrollo, en colaboración con Telefónica Digital España, de una aplicación innovadora haciendo uso de la tecnología más actual presente en la robótica, en la cual un dron es capaz de realizar tareas de vigilancia y monitorización de incendios de manera autónoma, gracias a los sensores y dispositivos embarcados en el mismo. Además, se implementa una interfaz gráfica que permita el intercambio de información entre la aeronave y el usuario en tierra.[EN] Forest fires continue to be one of the major environmental problems facing society today. In addition to the high environmental impact, the destruction of ecosystems and possible human losses, the economic costs of fire-fighting must be added. All these reasons have led to the search, in current technology, for tools and systems to help in fire-fighting tasks and, more specifically, the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The fact that UAVs can reach remote locations quickly and embark on sensors anddevices to assist in dangerous and risky tasks makes them ideal for firefighting. This work includes the development, in collaborationwith Telefónica Digital España, of an effective tool using current technology present in robotics, in which a drone is capable of carrying out fire surveillance and monitoring tasks autonomously, thanks to the sensors and devices on board. In addition, a graphical interface is implemented that allows the exchange of information between the aircraft and the ground user.Este trabajo es financiado por el gobierno de la Comunidad de Madrid a traves de la Beca Doctorado Industrial (BECA ´ IND2017/TIC-7834). El laboratorio de Sistemas Inteligentes agradece TELEFONICA DIGITAL ESPANA, S.L.U. su ayuda y financiaci ˜ on a ´ traves del proyecto: ”Sistemas de UAV Aut ´ onomo para Super- ´ vision de Incendios Forestales”.Madridano, Á.; Campos, S.; Al-Kaff, A.; García, F.; Martín, D.; Escalera, A. (2020). Vehículo aéreo no tripulado para vigilancia y monitorización de incendios. Revista Iberoamericana de Automática e Informática industrial. 17(3). https://doi.org/10.4995/riai.2020.11806OJS263173Al-Ka, A., Moreno, F. M., de la Escalera, A., Armingol, J. M., 2017. Intelligent vehicle for search, rescue and transportation purposes. In: 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security and Rescue Robotics (SSRR). IEEE, pp. 110-115. https://doi.org/10.1109/SSRR.2017.8088148Albani, D., Nardi, D., Trianni, V., 2017. Field coverage and weed mapping by uav swarms. In: 2017 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE, pp. 4319-4325. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2017.8206296Chen, K., Sun, Q., Zhou, A., Wang, S., 2018. Adaptive multiple task assignments for uavs using discrete particle swarm optimization. In: International Conference on Internet of Vehicles. Springer, pp. 220-229. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05081-8_16Couceiro, M. S., Portugal, D., Ferreira, J. F., Rocha, R. P., 2019. Semfire: Towards a new generation of forestry maintenance multi-robot systems. In: 2019 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII). IEEE, pp. 270-276. https://doi.org/10.1109/SII.2019.8700403Erdos, D., Erdos, A., Watkins, S. E., 2013. An experimental uav system for search and rescue challenge. IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine 28 (5), 32-37. https://doi.org/10.1109/MAES.2013.6516147Harikumar, K., Senthilnath, J., Sundaram, S., 2018. Multi-uav oxyrrhis marinainspired search and dynamic formation control for forest firefighting. IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1109/TASE.2018.2867614Imdoukh, A., Shaker, A., Al-Toukhy, A., Kablaoui, D., El-Abd, M., 2017. Semiautonomous indoor firefighting uav. In: 2017 18th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR). IEEE, pp. 310-315. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAR.2017.8023625Lottes, P., Khanna, R., Pfeifer, J., Siegwart, R., Stachniss, C., 2017. Uav-based crop and weed classification for smart farming. In: 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE, pp. 3024-3031. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2017.7989347Loureiro, M. L., Allo, M., 2018. Los incendios forestales y su impacto económico: Propuesta para una agenda investigadora. Revista Galega de Economía 27 (3), 129-142.Madridano, Á., Al-Kaff, A., Martín, D., et al., 2020. 3d trajectory planning method for uavs swarm in building emergencies. Sensors 20 (3), 642. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20030642Merino, L., Caballero, F., de Dios, J. R. M., Maza, I., Ollero, A., 2010. Automatic forest fire monitoring and measurement using unmanned aerial vehicles. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Congress on Forest Fire Research. Citeseer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3033-5_37Ostovar, A., Hellstrom, T., Ringdahl, O., 2016. Human detection based on infrared images in forestry environments. In: International Conference on Image Analysis and Recognition. Springer, pp. 175-182 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41501-7_20Pajares, G., 2015. Overview and current status of remote sensing applications based on unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs). Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing 81 (4), 281-330. https://doi.org/10.14358/PERS.81.4.281Pajares, G., Ruz, J. J., Lanillos, P., Guijarro, M., de la Cruz, J. M., Santos, M., 2008. Generacion de trayectorias y toma de decisiones para uavs. Revista Iberoamericana de Automática e Informática Industrial RIAI 5 (1), 83-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1697-7912(08)70125-0Qin, H., Cui, J. Q., Li, J., Bi, Y., Lan, M., Shan, M., Liu, W., Wang, K., Lin, F., Zhang, Y., et al., 2016. Design and implementation of an unmanned aerial vehicle for autonomous firefighting missions. In: 2016 12th IEEE International Conference on Control and Automation (ICCA). IEEE, pp. 62-67. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCA.2016.7505253Toriz, A., Raygoza, M., Martínez, D., 2017. Modelo de inclusion tecnológica uav para la prevención de trabajos de alto riesgo, en industrias de la construcción basado en la metodología ivas. Revista Iberoamericana de Automática e Informática industrial 14 (1), 94-103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riai.2016.09.004Yuan, C., Liu, Z., Zhang, Y., 2016. Vision-based forest fire detection in aerial images for firefighting using uavs. In: 2016 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS). IEEE, pp. 1200-1205. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS.2016.7502546Yuan, C., Liu, Z., Zhang, Y., 2017. Aerial images-based forest fire detection for firefighting using optical remote sensing techniques and unmanned aerial vehicles. Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems 88 (2-4), 635-654. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-016-0464-7Zharikova, M., Sherstjuk, V., 2019. Forest firefighting monitoring system based on uav team and remote sensing. In: Automated Systems in the Aviation and Aerospace Industries. IGI Global, pp. 220-241. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-7709-6.ch00

RNA silencing can explain chlorotic infection patterns on plant leaves

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>RNA silencing has been implicated in virus symptom development in plants. One common infection symptom in plants is the formation of chlorotic tissue in leaves. Chlorotic and healthy tissue co-occur on a single leaf and form patterns. It has been shown that virus levels in chlorotic tissue are high, while they are low in healthy tissue. Additionally, the presence of siRNAs is confined to the chlorotic spots and the boundaries between healthy and infected tissue. These results strongly indicate that the interaction between virus growth and RNA silencing plays a role in the formation of infection patterns on leaves. However, how RNA silencing leads to the intricate patterns is not known.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we elucidate the mechanisms leading to infection patterns and the conditions which lead to the various patterns observed. We present a modeling approach in which we combine intra- and inter-cellular dynamics of RNA silencing and viral growth. We observe that, due to the spread of viruses and the RNA silencing response, parts of the tissue become infected while other parts remain healthy. As is observed in experiments high virus levels coincide with high levels of siRNAs, and siRNAs are also present in the boundaries between infected and healthy tissue. We study how single- and double-stranded cleavage by Dicer and amplification by RNA-dependent RNA polymerase can affect the patterns formed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This work shows that RNA silencing and virus growth within a cell, and the local spread of virions and siRNAs between cells can explain the heterogeneous spread of virus in leaf tissue, and therewith the observed infection patterns in plants.</p

Deconstruction of the (Paleo)Polyploid Grapevine Genome Based on the Analysis of Transposition Events Involving NBS Resistance Genes

Plants have followed a reticulate type of evolution and taxa have frequently merged via allopolyploidization. A polyploid structure of sequenced genomes has often been proposed, but the chromosomes belonging to putative component genomes are difficult to identify. The 19 grapevine chromosomes are evolutionary stable structures: their homologous triplets have strongly conserved gene order, interrupted by rare translocations. The aim of this study is to examine how the grapevine nucleotide-binding site (NBS)-encoding resistance (NBS-R) genes have evolved in the genomic context and to understand mechanisms for the genome evolution. We show that, in grapevine, i) helitrons have significantly contributed to transposition of NBS-R genes, and ii) NBS-R gene cluster similarity indicates the existence of two groups of chromosomes (named as Va and Vc) that may have evolved independently. Chromosome triplets consist of two Va and one Vc chromosomes, as expected from the tetraploid and diploid conditions of the two component genomes. The hexaploid state could have been derived from either allopolyploidy or the separation of the Va and Vc component genomes in the same nucleus before fusion, as known for Rosaceae species. Time estimation indicates that grapevine component genomes may have fused about 60 mya, having had at least 40–60 mya to evolve independently. Chromosome number variation in the Vitaceae and related families, and the gap between the time of eudicot radiation and the age of Vitaceae fossils, are accounted for by our hypothesis