In situ chemichromic studies of interactions between a lutetium bis-octaalkyl-substituted phthalocyanine and selected biological cofactors

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2011 The Royal Society.Spin-coated films, approximately 100 nm thick, of a newly synthesized bis[octakis(octyl)phthalocyaninato] lutetium(III) complex on ultrasonically cleaned glass substrates exhibit pronounced chemichromic behaviour with potential application in healthcare. In situ kinetic optical absorption spectroscopic measurements show that the phthalocyanine Q-band is red shifted by 60 nm upon oxidation arising from exposure to bromine vapour. Recovery to the original state is achieved by the treatment of the oxidized films with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and l-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in an aqueous solution containing 1.5 M lithium perchlorate. The neutralization process is found to be governed by first-order kinetics. The linear increase of the reduction rate with increasing concentration of cofactors provides a basis for calibration of analyte concentrations ranging from 3.5 mM down to 0.03 mM.Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Material Command, USAF and the Leverhulme Trust

Effect of different spawn rates and substrate supplementation on yield of Indian Oyster mushroom, Pleurotus pulmonarius (Fr.) Quel.

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different spawn rates and substrate supplementation on yield of Pleurotus pulmonarius (Fr.) Quel. Among six spawn rates viz., 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 4%, 6% and 8%, respectively tried on wheat straw substrate, the spawn run was fastest (10.50 days) when spawn dose was 8%, followed by 6%, 4%, 2%, 1% and 0.5%, respectively. The pinheads appeared in 12.27 days by using spawn @ 8%, which proved to be the best spawn dose followed by 6%, 4%, 2%, 1% and 0.5%, respectively. Highest yield of 168.7 per 200g dry substrate was achieved @ 8% spawn rate. Lesser yields were recorded when spawn rate was reduced. The results also reveals the significantly highest biological efficiency of 84.33% at 8% spawn rate followed by 6%, 4%, 2%, 1% and 0.5%, respectively. It was concluded that spawn run was rapid at higher spawn rate but there was not much difference in yield when spawn dose was increased from 4 to 8%. Considering spawn cost and performance shown by different doses, 2-4% was found optimum dose for its cultivation.In case of substrate supplementation, wheat straw supplemented with cotton seed meal supported maximum mycelial growth (10.50 days of inoculation) and took mini-mum time for pinheads initiation (13.67 days). Similarly, maximum yield (155.3g) with biological efficiency of 77.65% was recorded on wheat straw supplemented with cotton seed meal followed by supplementation of saw dust, wheat straw (control), calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN), ammonium nitrateand urea, respectively. These studies will help to mushroom growers for selecting the most suitable spawn rate and also opens viable option of supplementation as wheat straw + cotton seed meal for better growth behaviour and optimum yield potential of Pleurotus pulmonarius as well as other oyster mushrooms cultivation

Comparative study of titanium elastic nailing versus hip spica in treatment of femoral shaft fractures in children

Background: There is no consensus on treatment of closed femoral-shaft fractures in children. We compared hip spica cast with titanium elastic nailing (TEN) in the treatment of femoral-shaft fractures in children.Methods: Study was conducted at SMS Medical College, Jaipur (Rajasthan). Out of 90 Patients of diaphyseal fracture femur, 45were treated conservatively by spica cast and 45 were treated with TEN. Follow up done regularly up to twelve months of injury with taking into account, various parameters.Results: All diaphyseal fractures of femur healed, whether treated conservatively by spica cast or treated operatively with TEN. The time of union and weight bearing was less in operative group as comparative to spica cast group. Ten patients (22.22%) in spica group compared to three patients (6.66%) in operative group had malunion and two patients (4.4%) in spica group compared none in operative group had delayed union.Conclusions: Results of TEN turned out to be far superior to traction and spica cast treatment in paediatric femoral fractures. Rate of complications was far low with operative than conservative Treatment

Secure Clustering Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are poised of huge number of low-cost and tiny devices i.e. senor nodes which communicate over wireless media. Various WSN based projects produced fruitful and interesting results that greatly improves our life. Due to several limitations on the resources of sensor nodes, the networks exposed against different types of attacks. Hence, security in sensor networks is a prime issue and becomes hot topic for researchers. In this paper, we have been reported a detailed analysis on secure cluster-based routing protocols in WSNs. Finally, we propose a matrix which generalizes the work and suggest the protocol suitability for particular application

Fuzzy Logic Based Geocast Routing in Vehicular Ad Hoc Network

1002-1010The purpose of vehicular ad hoc network (VANET) is timely, effectively and efficiently transmission of urgent messages from source to destination. These objectives can be solved effectively with geocast routing approaches in VANETs as the most of the intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications require sending information to the vehicles belonging to a particular geographic region. In this paper an attempt has been made to develop the geocast routing protocols using fuzzy logic. The fuzzy logic routing (FLR) approach is used to implement the protocols. Three membership functions for each input distance, direction, speed and five membership functions for output (chance) with Mamdani fuzzy inference system (FIS) are used. MATLAB R2015a has been used to analyze the performance of developed protocols and compared with other fuzzy routing protocols in terms of PDR and delay. It has been observed that fuzzified geocast protocols developed with FLR approach outperform fuzzy based unicast protocols reported by other authors

Structural and physical properties of layered oxy-arsenides LnRuAsO (Ln = La, Nd, Sm, Gd)

Polycrystalline samples of LaRuAsO, NdRuAsO, SmRuAsO, and GdRuAsO have been synthesized and studied using powder x-ray diffraction, electrical transport, magnetization, and heat capacity measurements. Variations in structural properties across the series reveal a trend toward more ideal tetrahedral coordination around Ru as the size of the rare earth element is reduced. The lattice parameters of these Ru compounds show a more anisotropic response to variation in Ln than their Fe analogues, and significant anisotropy in thermal expansion is also observed. Transport measurements show metallic behavior, and carrier concentrations near 10^21 - 10^22 electrons per cm^3 are inferred from simple analysis of Hall effect measurements. Anomalies in resistivity, magnetization, and heat capacity indicate antiferromagnetic ordering of rare earth moments at 5 K for GdRuAsO, 4.5 K for SmRuAsO, and <2 K for NdRuAsO. Magnetization measurements on LaRuAsO show no evidence of a magnetic moment on Ru. Observed behaviors are compared to those reported for similar Fe and Ru compounds

Interaction of mycobacterium tuberculosis rsha and sigh is mediated by salt bridges

10.1371/journal.pone.0043676PLoS ONE78

Droplet formation in cold asymmetric nuclear matter in the quark-meson-coupling model

The quark-meson-coupling model is used to study droplet formation from the liquid-gas phase transition in cold asymmetric nuclear matter. The critical density and proton fraction for the phase transition are determined in the mean field approximation. Droplet properties are calculated in the Thomas-Fermi approximation. The electromagnetic field is explicitly included and its effects on droplet properties are studied. The results are compared with the ones obtained with the NL1 parametrization of the non-linear Walecka model.Comment: 21 pages, RevTeX including 8 figures in .eps file

Probing spectral and timing properties of the X-ray pulsar RX J0440.9+4431 in the giant outburst of 2022-2023

The X-ray pulsar RX J0440.9+4431 went through a giant outburst in 2022 and reached a record-high flux of 2.3 Crab, as observed by Swift/BAT. We study the evolution of different spectral and timing properties of the source using NICER observations. The pulse period is found to decrease from 208 s to 205 s, and the pulse profile evolves significantly with energy and luminosity. The hardness ratio and hardness intensity diagram (HID) show remarkable evolution during the outburst. The HID turns towards the diagonal branch from the horizontal branch above a transition (critical) luminosity, suggesting the presence of two accretion modes. Each NICER spectrum can be described using a cutoff power law with a blackbody component and a Gaussian at 6.4 keV. At higher luminosities, an additional Gaussian at 6.67 keV is used. The observed photon index shows negative and positive correlations with X-ray flux below and above the critical luminosity, respectively. The evolution of spectral and timing parameters suggests a possible change in the emission mechanism and beaming pattern of the pulsar depending on the spectral transition to sub- and super-critical accretion regimes. Based on the critical luminosity, the magnetic field of the neutron star can be estimated in the order of 10$^{12}$ or 10$^{13}$ G, assuming different theoretical models. Moreover, the observed iron emission line evolves from a narrow to a broad feature with luminosity. Two emission lines originating from neutral and highly ionized Fe atoms were evident in the spectra around 6.4 keV and 6.67 keV (higher luminosities).Comment: Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Charge transport in Lead Sulfide Quantum Dots/Phthalocyanines Hybrid Nanocomposites

© 2017 The Authors. A hybrid composite of non-aggregated lead sulfide (PbS) nanoparticles of average size 5.8±1 nm embedded within a film of an octaalkyl substituted metal-free phthalocyanine (Compound 2) was prepared on interdigitated gold electrodes by mild acidic treatment of newly synthesised octasubstituted lead phthalocyanine analogue (Compound 1) in solid state phase. This nanocomposite film shows an enhancement of in-plane electrical conductivity over that of a film of octaalkyl substituted metal-free phthalocyanine alone by nearly 65%. This observation is consistent with the formation of charge complex compound as indicated by Raman and XPS data. The presence of PbS in the composite was examined on the basis of XRD peak positions which are comparable with those of bulk PbS. A band gap of 2.22 eV was calculated from optical absorption data using Tauc’s law, implying quantum confinement. The mono dispersal behaviour of PbS nanoparticles was established from TEM and XRD studies. The hopping conduction mechanism is found to be primarily responsible for charge transport in the hybrid nanocomposite film with the hopping distance larger than PbS diameter.This work is sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Material Command, USAF, under Grant No. FA9550-15-1-0123