Occurrence and diversity of mosquitocidal strains of Bacillus thuringiensis

Ever since the discovery of the first Bacillus thuringiensis strain capable of killing mosquito larvae,namely, B. thuringiensis var israelensis, there are several reports from different parts of the worldabout the occurrence of mosquitocidal strains belonging to different subspecies/serotypes numberingthirty-six. The main sources of these wild type strains are soils/sediments, plants, animal feces,sick/moribund insects and waters. The toxicity of the strains within a subspecies/serotype variedwidely. Some of the strains exhibited toxicity to mosquitoes as well as lepidopterans and dipterans(including mosquitoes) as well as plant parasitic nematodes

A convenient chromatography-free access to enantiopure 6,6'-di-tert-butyl-1,1'-binaphthalene-2,2'-diol and its 3,3'-dibromo, di-tert-butyl and phosphorus derivatives: utility in asymmetric synthesis

A simple chromatography-free high-yielding synthesis of the hexane-soluble enantiopure 6,6'-di-tert-butyl-1,1'-binaphthalene-2,2'-diol 3 (6,6'-di-tert-butyl BINOL) using Friedel-Crafts reaction on 1,1'-binaphthalene-2,2'-diol 1 (BINOL) is described. The enantiomeric purity was fully maintained in the reaction. Compound 3 has been used as an entry point for the convenient chromatography-free synthesis of 3,3',6,6'-tetra-tert-butyl BINOL 4 and 3,3'-dibromo-6,6'-di-tert-butyl BINOL 5. A straightforward route to enantiopure bisphosphites [(6,6'-R2C20H10O2)P]2[O2C20H10-6,6'-R2] [R = H 15, t-Bu 16] by simply reacting phosphorochloridite (6,6'-R2C20H10O2)PCl [R = H20, t-Bu 6] with metallic sodium is highlighted. The identity of 15 and 16 as their selenium-oxidized products 17 and 18 (at phosphorus center) is confirmed by X-ray crystallography (17 in the enantiopure form and 18 as racemate). Various enantiopure phosphoramidites of the modified BINOL have been synthesized. It is established that even when the phosphoramidites derived from the unsusbstituted BINOL 1 fail to give an appreciable optical induction in the asymmetric reduction of acetophenone/phenacyl chloride, those derived from 3 do induce moderate chiral induction (up to 30% ee in the case for acetophenone and 43% ee in the case of phenacyl chloride), thus leaving scope for further improvement in ee for related reactions

BIOAVAILABILITY ENHANCEMENT OF POORLY SOLUBLE RALOXIFENE BY DESIGNING INCLUSION COMPLEX WITH β–CYCLODEXTRIN

Objective: Raloxifene hydrochloride (RLX) is widely used in the treatment of osteoporosis, but due to its extensive first pass metabolism bioavailability of RLX is remaining only 2%. In addition of that being from BCS class II, RLX has poor water solubility. Therefore the objective of present research work was to enhance solubility and dissolution rate of RLX by formulating inclusion complex with β cyclodextrin (β-CD) as a carrier.Methods: Inclusion complex was prepared by various methods like physical mixture, co-precipitation method and kneading method using different drug to carrier ratios (1:1, 1:2 and 1:3).Results: Inclusion complex prepared with co-precipitation method had shown 5.5 fold improvements in water solubility and significant increment in dissolution rate when compared with plain RLX. Optimized formulation was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction and Scanning electron microscopy studies for their compatibility, thermal analysis, crystallinity and surface morphology determination, respectively. Results of DSC and XRD study suggested the conversion of RLX from crystalline form to amorphous form. Stability studies showed stable formulation up to the period of 6 months. In vivo pharmacokinetic study was also conducted in wistar rats for optimized drug loaded inclusion complex that showed nearby two fold increments in drug bioavailability compared to plain drug suspension.Conclusion: From these studies, it can be concluded that solubility and dissolution rate of poorly soluble raloxifene could be remarkably increased by formulating into the inclusion complex with β-CD which results in significant improvement in bioavailability of poorly soluble RLX.Â

Bridging the gap between academia and industry:a social media case study

The social media operating environment is every changing, as such it is difficult for students to develop up to date theoretical knowledge and practitioner skills. Through a Management Knowledge Transfer Project (mKTP) with a new social media start-up company, a team of academics were able to create a real-time case study, offering business and marketing students tailored workshops and weekly interactions with industry, contributing to the development of the social media service. The academics followed the Theory – Application- Implication (TAI) framework

Hydrophosphonylation of activated alkenes and alkynes via fluoride ion activation in ionic liquid medium

A simple transition metal-free hydro/hydrothiophosphonylation of Baylis-Hillman adducts, substituted allyl bromides, allenylphosphonates and alkynes, promoted by fluoride ion in ionic liquid, is described. Clear-cut evidence for fluoride activation of the phosphite via pentacoordinate phosphorus is provided for the first time. Also, in a comparative reaction, the product obtained was different from that from the palladium catalyzed one. Structures of key products are proven by X-ray crystallography

Synthesis and utility of new amine/nucleobase addition products of allenylphosphonates

In the reaction of allenylphosphonates with amines/nucleobases, depending on the amine and the allenylphosphonate, either Z- or E-vinylphosphonate or allylphosphonate as a single isomer with a β-amino functionality was isolated. A simple route to phosphonates with a β-NH2 group is developed by direct reaction with ammonia. In reactions with adenine, three different modes of reaction, with one of them involving an unusual cyclisation, are observed. The utility of (enamino)allyl phosphonate products thus obtained in the synthesis of (enamino)-1,3-butadienes via Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons (HWE) reaction is also demonstrated

Learning to Prevent Monocular SLAM Failure using Reinforcement Learning

Monocular SLAM refers to using a single camera to estimate robot ego motion while building a map of the environment. While Monocular SLAM is a well studied problem, automating Monocular SLAM by integrating it with trajectory planning frameworks is particularly challenging. This paper presents a novel formulation based on Reinforcement Learning (RL) that generates fail safe trajectories wherein the SLAM generated outputs do not deviate largely from their true values. Quintessentially, the RL framework successfully learns the otherwise complex relation between perceptual inputs and motor actions and uses this knowledge to generate trajectories that do not cause failure of SLAM. We show systematically in simulations how the quality of the SLAM dramatically improves when trajectories are computed using RL. Our method scales effectively across Monocular SLAM frameworks in both simulation and in real world experiments with a mobile robot.Comment: Accepted at the 11th Indian Conference on Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing (ICVGIP) 2018 More info can be found at the project page at https://robotics.iiit.ac.in/people/vignesh.prasad/SLAMSafePlanner.html and the supplementary video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=420QmM_Z8v

Reactivity ratio estimation in copolymerization: a new analysis of unresolved conflicts

Using a stochastic approach, a fresh analysis has been provided to resolve the possible causes of the existing conflicts in the reactivity ratio estimation in copolymerization systems. The analysis provides some new clues regarding the inadequacy of a transient system (batch reactor) and suggests the use of a steady state operation (CSTR) as a more reliable method