Chemistry of Metal (Benzylidene) Picramate-Part III Benzylidene Picramates of Zinc Cadmium and Mercury

Benzylidene picramates of zinc, cadmium and mercury have been prepared by treating the corresponding aqueous sulphate and chloride solutions with sodium salt of 4'-dimethylaminobenzylidence-2-hydroxy-3, 5-dinitroaniline. A metal: ligand ratio of 1:2 has been established in all these cases. I.R. spectral studies of metal benzylidene picramates show N-M coordination (where M is zinc, cadmium or mercury). Explosive properties of these benzylidene picramates have also been studied and it was found that the thermal stability increases as the atomic radius decreases or ionization potential increases

Mitigation of hazards and risks of emerging pollutants through innovative treatment techniques of post methanated distillery effluent - A review

Distillery wastewater has high biological and chemical oxygen demand and requires additional treatment before it can be safely discharged into receiving water. It is usually processed through a biomethanation digester and the end product is the post-methanated distillery effluent (PMDE). Research have shown that PMDE released by molasses-based distilleries is a hazardous effluent that can cause harm to the biota and the environment; it contains elevated amount of total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS) and excess levels of persistent organic compounds (POPs), heavy metals, phenolic compounds, and salts. The practice of wastewater reuse for irrigation in many water scarce countries necessitates the proper treatment of PMDE before it is discharged into receiving water. Convention methods have been in practice for decades, but innovative technologies are needed to enhance the efficiency of PMDE treatment. Advance physical treatment such as membrane separation technology using graphene, ion-exchange and ultrafiltration membranes; chemical treatment such as advanced oxidation methods, electrocoagulation and photocatalytic technologies; biological treatment such as microbial and enzymatic treatment; and hybrid treatment such as microbial-fuel cell (MFC), genetically modified organisms (GMO) and constructed wetland technologies, are promising new methods to improve the quality of PMDE. This review provides insight into current accomplishments evaluates their suitability and discusses future developments in the detoxification of PMDE. The consolidated knowledge will help to develop a better management for the safe disposal and the reuse of PMDE wastewater

Correlating the Energetics and Atomic Motions of the Metal-Insulator Transition of M1 Vanadium Dioxide

Materials that undergo reversible metal-insulator transitions are obvious candidates for new generations of devices. For such potential to be realised, the underlying microscopic mechanisms of such transitions must be fully determined. In this work we probe the correlation between the energy landscape and electronic structure of the metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide and the atomic motions occurring using first principles calculations and high resolution X-ray diffraction. Calculations find an energy barrier between the high and low temperature phases corresponding to contraction followed by expansion of the distances between vanadium atoms on neighbouring sub-lattices. X-ray diffraction reveals anisotropic strain broadening in the low temperature structure's crystal planes, however only for those with spacings affected by this compression/expansion. GW calculations reveal that traversing this barrier destabilises the bonding/anti-bonding splitting of the low temperature phase. This precise atomic description of the origin of the energy barrier separating the two structures will facilitate more precise control over the transition characteristics for new applications and devices.Comment: 11 Pages, 8 Figure

Arithmetical Congruence Preservation: from Finite to Infinite

Various problems on integers lead to the class of congruence preserving functions on rings, i.e. functions verifying $a-b$ divides $f(a)-f(b)$ for all $a,b$. We characterized these classes of functions in terms of sums of rational polynomials (taking only integral values) and the function giving the least common multiple of $1,2,\ldots,k$. The tool used to obtain these characterizations is "lifting": if $\pi\colon X\to Y$ is a surjective morphism, and $f$ a function on $Y$ a lifting of $f$ is a function $F$ on $X$ such that $\pi\circ F=f\circ\pi$. In this paper we relate the finite and infinite notions by proving that the finite case can be lifted to the infinite one. For $p$-adic and profinite integers we get similar characterizations via lifting. We also prove that lattices of recognizable subsets of $Z$ are stable under inverse image by congruence preserving functions

Role of apoptotic index, mitotic index and MIB-1 antibody expression as biomarkers in preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions of uterine cervix

Background: In India, cervical cancer ranks as the 2nd most frequent cancer among women. This study was carried out to study the role of apoptotic index (AI), mitotic index (MI) and MIB-1 labelling index (LI) as biomarkers in preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions of uterine cervix.Methods: Total of 90 cases was studied, over a period of two years, in the Department of Pathology as well as Obstetrics and Gynaecology, LLRM Medical College and associated SVBP Hospital, Meerut, India. Apoptotic Index and Mitotic Index were calculated on H & E stained sections in all the 90 cases while ki-67 immunostaining was done only on 44.44% (40/90) cases.Results: Apoptotic Index, Mitotic Index and MIB-1 expression were found to increase as the grade of lesion increased from cervical dysplasia to invasive cervical carcinoma. In CIN-I, MIB-1 positive cells were confined to lower one-third of ectocervix and full thickness was involved in CIN-III.Conclusion: We found proliferative indices (Mitotic index and MIB-1 labelling index) and Apoptotic index useful in determining the grading of dysplasia and cervical carcinoma.Key words: Cervical dysplasia, Cervical carcinoma, Apoptotic index, Mitotic index, MIB-1 Labelling inde

The BG News November 28, 2012

The BGSU campus student newspaper November 28, 2012. Volume 103 - Issue 43https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/bg-news/9579/thumbnail.jp

Hapi: A Robust Pseudo-3D Calibration-Free WiFi-based Indoor Localization System

In this paper, we present Hapi, a novel system that uses off-the-shelf standard WiFi to provide pseudo-3D indoor localization. It estimates the user's floor and her 2D location on that floor. Hapi is calibration-free, only requiring the building's floorplans and its WiFi APs' installation location for deployment. Our analysis shows that while a user can hear APs from nearby floors as well as her floor, she will typically only receive signals from spatially closer APs in distant floors, as compared to APs in her floor. This is due to signal attenuation by floors/ceilings along with the 3D distance between the APs and the user. Hapi leverages this observation to achieve accurate and robust location estimates. A deep-learning based method is proposed to identify the user's floor. Then, the identified floor along with the user's visible APs from all floors are used to estimate her 2D location through a novel RSS-Rank Gaussian-based method. Additionally, we present a regression based method to predict Hapi's location estimates' quality and employ it within a Kalman Filter to further refine the accuracy. Our evaluation results, from deployment on various android devices over 6 months with 13 subjects in 5 different up to 9 floors multistory buildings, show that Hapi can identify the user's exact floor up to 95.2% of the time and her 2D location with a median accuracy of 3.5m, achieving 52.1% and 76.0% improvement over related calibration-free state-of-the-art systems respectively.Comment: Accepted for publication in MobiQuitous 2018 - the 15th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems: Computing, Networking and Service

Accumulation of stem sugar and its remobilisation in response to drought stress in a sweet sorghum genotype and its near-isogenic lines carrying different stay-green loci

Near isogenic lines (NILs) of sweet sorghum genotype S35 into which individual stay green loci were introgressed, were used to understand the contribution of Stay green loci to stem sugar accumulation and its remobilization under drought stress exposure. Sugar and starch content, activities of sugar metabolism enzymes and levels of their expression were studied in the 3rd (source) leaf from panicle and the 5th (sugar storing) internode of the three lines, in irrigated plants and in plants exposed to a brief drought exposure at the panicle emergence stage. Annotation of genes in the respective Stay green loci introgressed in the NILs was carried out using bioinformatics tools. The leaves of NILs accumulated more photoassimilates and the internodes accumulated more sugar, as compared to the parent S35 line. Drought stress exposure led to a decrease in the starch and sugar levels in leaves of all three lines, while an increase in sugar levels was observed in internodes of the NILs. Sugar fluxes were accompanied by alterations in the activities of sugar metabolizing enzymes as well as the expression of genes related to sugar metabolism and transport. Remobilization of sugars from the stem internodes was apparent in the NILs when subjected to drought stress, since the peduncle, which supports the panicle, showed an increase in the sugar content, even when photoassimation in source leaves was reduced. Several genes related to carbohydrate metabolism were located in the Stay green loci, which probably contributed to variation in the parameters studied

Dual-acting stapled peptides target both HIV-1 entry and assembly

Background: Previously, we reported the conversion of the 12-mer linear and cell-impermeable peptide CAI to a cell-penetrating peptide NYAD-1 by using an i,i + 4 hydrocarbon stapling technique and confirmed its binding to the C-terminal domain (CTD) of the HIV-1 capsid (CA) protein with an improved affinity (Kd ~ 1 μM) compared to CAI (Kd ~ 15 μM). NYAD-1 disrupts the formation of both immature- and mature-like virus particles in in vitro and cell-based assembly assays. In addition, it displays potent anti-HIV-1 activity in cell culture against a range of laboratory-adapted and primary HIV-1 isolates.<p></p> Results: In this report, we expanded the study to i,i + 7 hydrocarbon-stapled peptides to delineate their mechanism of action and antiviral activity. We identified three potent inhibitors, NYAD-36, -66 and -67, which showed strong binding to CA in NMR and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) studies and disrupted the formation of mature-like particles. They showed typical α-helical structures and penetrated cells; however, the cell penetration was not as efficient as observed with the i,i + 4 peptides. Unlike NYAD-1, the i,i + 7 peptides did not have any effect on virus release; however, they impaired Gag precursor processing. HIV-1 particles produced in the presence of these peptides displayed impaired infectivity. Consistent with an effect on virus entry, selection for viral resistance led to the emergence of two mutations in the gp120 subunit of the viral envelope (Env) glycoprotein, V120Q and A327P, located in the conserved region 1 (C1) and the base of the V3 loop, respectively.<p></p> Conclusion: The i,i + 7 stapled peptides derived from CAI unexpectedly target both CA and the V3 loop of gp120. This dual-targeted activity is dependent on their ability to penetrate cells as well as their net charge. This mechanistic revelation will be useful in further modifying these peptides as potent anti-HIV-1 agents.<p></p&gt