Carbon nanotube decorated magnetic microspheres as an affinity matrix for biomolecules

Carbon nanotube (CNT) decorated magnetic microspheres were fabricated to develop a multimodal platform that utilizes non-covalent molecular interactions of CNTs to magnetically separate biomolecules. Hybrid CNT-microspheres prepared by a feasible method reported herein had a well-defined structure as characterized by Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Binding interactions of resulting magnetic CNT-microspheres with DNA oligonucleotides were studied to demonstrate that single stranded DNA (ssDNA) in a solution can be effectively recovered by magnetic CNT-microspheres through strong physical wrapping of DNA around CNTs' walls. The magnetic character of these CNT-microspheres combined with their capability to bind other molecules including DNA allows their use as an affinity matrix that can be utilized in affinity separation of biomolecules, and also as a platform to monitor non-covalent binding interactions of CNTs with other biomolecules. As a proof of concept, we report on the use of these CNT-microspheres in in vitro selection of ssDNA aptamers against carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a cancer biomarker, by Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX). ssDNA aptamer candidates that have strong affinity towards CEA were successfully separated magnetically from a pool of ssDNA (1014 molecules). Our results demonstrate that CNT-microspheres can serve as strong tools for affinity separation methodologies and can be utilized for various affinity pairs in solution

An authentication scheme to protect the location privacy of femtocell users

© 2014 IEEE. Femtocells are small cellular base-stations, suitable for residential units or business offices. Femtocells are cost-effective solution for areas where deploying traditional base-stations is costly. Femtocells inherits security and privacy threats of GSM, and UMTS networks such as location privacy and tracking. These threats are even more severe, since the deployment of femtocells, which covers areas as small as an office, allows for an unprecedented tracking of mobile users location. This paper presents an authentication scheme, which allows a mobile user to use an open femtocell, while making it hard for its mobile operator to know the exact location of that mobile user. The scheme complements the privacy protection of UMTS. Further, the scheme enables mobile operators to reward owners of open femtocells. The paper discusses the security of the presented scheme. The simulation of the authentication scheme shows the feasibility of our work

Ferroxane derived ceramic composite material as catalysts for heterogenous Fenton reactions for dyes and pharmaceutical removal in water

The goal of this project is to fabricate iron oxide (ferroxane) ceramics as catalysts for heterogeneous Fenton reactions, which will ultimately be used in the degradation of nonbiodegradable organic compounds, such as pharmaceuticals, in water. Iron oxide ceramics were fabricated from carboxylate-FeOOH nanoparticles (Ferroxane). Their synthesis took place in two steps: (i) synthesis of ?-FeO(OH) (lepidocrocite) from ferrous chloride; and (ii) ferroxane production from the mineral by reacting it with acetic acid. Hematite was obtained by sintering ferroxane nanoparticles at 500 Co. Next, ferroxane nanoparticles were reacted with salts of cobalt and manganese, due to their high reduction potential, to obtain mixed metal oxide nanoparticles at 10:1, 4:1, and 2:1 Fe:metal ratio

The incidence rate of female breast cancer in Saudi Arabia: an observational descriptive epidemiological analysis of data from Saudi Cancer Registry 2001-2008

Background: This study presents descriptive epidemiological data related to breast cancer cases diagnosed from 2001 to 2008 among Saudi women, including the frequency and percentage of cases, the crude incidence rate (CIR), and the age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR), adjusted by the region and year of diagnosis. Methods: This is a retrospective descriptive epidemiological study of all Saudi female breast cancer cases from 2001 to 2008. The statistical analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics, a linear regression model, and analysis of variance with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA). Results: A total of 6,922 female breast cancer cases were recorded in the Saudi Cancer Registry from 2001 to 2008. The highest overall percentages (38.6% and 31.2%) of female breast cancer cases were documented in women who were 30–44 and 45–59 years of age, respectively. The eastern region of Saudi Arabia had the highest overall ASIR, at 26.6 per 100,000 women, followed by Riyadh at 20.5 and Makkah at 19.4. Jazan, Baha, and Asir had the lowest average ASIRs, at 4.8, 6.1, and 7.3 per 100,000 women, respectively. The region of Jouf (24.2%; CIR 11.2, ASIR 17.2) had the highest changes in CIR and ASIR from 2001 to 2008. While Qassim, Jazan and Tabuk recorded down-trending rates with negative values. Conclusion: There was a significant increase in the CIRs and ASIRs for female breast cancer between 2001 and 2008. The majority of breast cancer cases occurred among younger women. The region of Jouf had the greatest significant differences of CIR and ASIR during 2001 to 2008. Jazan, Baha, and Najran had the lowest average CIRs and ASIRs of female breast cancer, whereas the linear trend upward is a concern in certain regions, such as the eastern region, Makkah, and Riyadh. However, further analytical epidemiological research is needed to identify the potential risk factors involved in the increase in the prevalence of breast cancer among Saudi women

Variable Flux Profile Optimization of a High Flux Solar Simulator

A High Flux Solar Simulator (HFSS) provides artificial solar radiation using an array of high- intensity discharge lamps attached to ellipsoidal reflectors to focus their light to a point where high temperatures can be achieved. High flux solar simulators are used for solar thermal and thermochemical research. They provide high-flux radiation used for controlled lab-scaled experimentation as an alternative to concentrated solar power systems which depends on sunlight, which is intermittent. In this project, a HFSS model is developed consisting of ten 2.5 KW metal halide lamps mounted in a truncated ellipsoidal reflector with variable flux profile capability. The novel variability in flux profile is useful in achieving different ranges of temperatures with different flux profile configurations that can be used for a wide range of solar thermal, thermochemical, and photovoltaic research applications. The variation in the flux profile of the solar simulator model is achieved by changing the angle of the lamp module with respect to the target, changing the distance between the arc of the bulb and the focal point of the reflector and by varying the power of the lamps. Ray-tracing simulation software, Trace-Pro is used to analyze the variation in the flux profile with respect to the change in parameters of the solar simulator, and a relationship is determined by fitting various curve fit types, and a piecewise worked the best. This relationship is used to define the optimization model for obtaining the optimal configuration of the HFSS model using a trust-region reflective optimization method. The objective of the optimization model is to reduce the sum of the squared difference between the user-defined flux profile and the flux profile of the solar simulator model obtained by varying its parameters. Several user-defined flux profile configurations are tested. The optimization model was able to approximate the user-defined flux profile within the achievable limits of the flux profile of the solar simulator. Thus, reducing the effort in manually adjusting the parameters of the high flux solar simulator

Characterization of Isolated Bioactive Phytoconstituents from Flacourtia Indica as Potential Phytopharmaceuticals-An in Silico Perspective

The dependence of mankind for therapeutic applications on plants dates back to the start of the human race. Natural remedies from ethnobotanicals are found to be safe and cost effective. Due to the poor pharmacokinetic profiles and toxicity problems many synthetic drugs often fails to enter the market thus, the pharmacologically active compounds from plants continued to provide an important source of novel drug leads. The early inclusion of pharmacokinetics consideration in the drug discovery process using in silico methods is becoming popular due to improved generation of software’s. The problems with conventional method required time-consuming multi-step processes against a battery of in vivo biological screening and high cost thus, In silico prediction of the pharmacokinetic parameters, biological properties and toxicity due to advent of chemo-informatics tools, has reduced the cost dramatically and early application in drug design are realized. The present investigation deals with computational evaluation of six isolated phytocompounds from Flacourtia indica for their pharmacological potential and biological activities. These compounds were evaluated for drug likeness properties, bioactivity score, ADME/T profiles, and health affects by using various bioinformatics tools. The result indicated that all the six compounds analyzed were non mutagens, non-carcinogens and having good drug-likeness properties were seen. The ADMET parameters and probability of health effects were analyzed by admet SAR and ACD/I-Lab online tools respectively and results shows the ADMET and probability of health effects values are also in satisfying ranges. Pharmacological activities of these compounds were predicted individually using PASS server many different pharmacological activities and mechanisms of action shown by these compounds were reported. The results of our analysis clearly depict that all six phytocompounds were having good pharmacokinetic profiles with numerous biological activities. These compounds can be further studied in vitro and in vivo for the discovery of novel preventive and therapeutic drug

The synthesis of the antimalarial compound hydroxypiperaquine (HPQ)

Malaria remains one of the most common causes of illness and death in developing countries.1 The development of new drugs to combat the disease is becoming one of the fastest growing research areas. Hydroxypiperaquine (HPQ) is an antimalarial bisquinoline compound related to the emerging antimalarial drug Piperaquine (PQ).2 Various research programs are being conducted internationally in efforts to prepare PQ for possible clinical use in combination with artemisinin derivatives. The hydroxy compound (HPQ) has been described in the Chinese literature but no data exists for this compound within the Western literature.3The primary aim of this research project was to synthesise Hydroxypiperaquine via alternative synthetic pathways to that briefly described by Xu et al3 by exploring various synthetic strategies based on literature synthetic procedures involving similar compounds. HPQ was synthesised through a three step synthetic process. In the first step, tertiary butoxy carbonyl (tBOC) piperazine was coupled with 4,7-dichloroquine (4,7-DCQ) to produce the intermediate 7-chloro-4-(tBOC piperazin-1-yl)quinoline. The second synthetic step involved the deprotection of 7-chloro-4-(tBOCpiperazinyl)quinoline to remove the tertiary butoxy carbonyl (tBOC) protecting group.The deprotected intermediate, 7-chloro-4-(piperazin-1-yl)quinoline, was subsequently reacted with 1,3-dichloropropanol in 1-pentanol to yield HPQ in the third step. This three step synthetic approach provides an alternative and efficient process to synthesise HPQ. The research provides important and specific details for the synthetic methodology involved in the synthesis of HPQ for future synthetic and biological research

ABDUL SAMAD AL-FALIMBANI'S ROLE AND CONTRIBUTION IN THE DISCOURSE OF ISLAMIC KNOWLEDGE IN MALAY WORLD

Shaykh Abdussamad al-Falimbani was an important figure in the intellectual tradition of Islam in the Malay world in the 18th century. This article shows that al-Falimbani played an important role in conveying and developing Islamic sciences, not only in the Malay World even in Arab lands, including in Makkah and in Zabid, Yemen. Al-Falimbani was also one of the superior scholars who not only received recognition from fellow scholars and students from among the Malays, even from his colleagues and students who were Arab. Al-Falimbani's important contribution to the intellectual tradition of Islam in Malay World was: the first, the spread of al-Falimbani's various religious works to various regions of the Islamic world, both in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Second, the development of intellectual networks of teachers and students in the region of Malay and Middle East in the 18th century. Third, the maintenance of the continuity of Islamic scientific treasures from the classical Islamic scholars to the Muslims in the 18th century even to the modern era today. Fourth, harmonize tasawuf teachings with Islamic law, so that the traditions and rituals of Sufism remain practiced in the corridors of the valid Shari'a. &nbsp

A Generalised Approach for the Prediction of Laser Cutting Parameters

A design of a tasking and control environment for laser based manufacturing systems is proposed. This uses an empirical approach based on recording previous manufacturing experience in a database, in order that this can be used in planning and control of future processes. The work presented gives details of the partial implementation of this design for laser cutting systems. This makes use of Computer Aided Design and Manufacture, Computer Numerical Controlled laser cutting machines, database and computerised planning and control