1-Benzoyl-4-(4-methyl­phen­yl)phthal­azine

In the title mol­ecule, C22H16N2O, the tolyl and benzoyl rings make dihedral angles 50.2 (5) and 56.4 (5)°, respectively, with the phthalazine ring system while the dihedral angle between the tolyl and benzoyl rings is 0.70 (4)°. The crystal structure is stabilized by inter­molecular C—H⋯O and C—H⋯N hydrogen bonds, as well as weak C—H⋯π inter­actions

Enhancing Corporate Governance Through Shareholder Activism

India as a developing country needs to be reformed at equal intervals to maintain growth and stability in an economy. The scandals and issues in the stock market highlighted the need for corporate governance. In western countries shareholder activism gained importance due to the scandals and the reforms being very effective now. This paper is aimed to review the history of corporate governance and the issues faced in India. There are major reforms initiated in 1990s to ensure corporate governance is followed effectively by corporate. The research will help to find out the status of shareholder activism in India. I examined the policies laid by SEBI and the governance committees recommendations. I have also analyzed the policies followed by the good governance companies and bad governance companies and have tried to research on corporate issues and find out a possible solution and mechanism to improve corporate governance. The recommendation to enhance corporate governance will be focused mainly on shareholders activism

An outbreak investigation of typhoid fever in Pondicherry, South India, 2013

Background: Preliminary investigation at Pediatric ward of Indira Gandhi Medical College revealed admission of a cluster of typhoid cases who were residents of one particular street in a nearby locality. Objectives: This study was undertaken to estimate the magnitude of the outbreak, identify the source of infection, and, thereby, institute control measures. Materials and Methods: An investigation team including 10 MBBS students carried out a sanitary survey, house-to-house survey, data collection using epidemiological case sheets, and spot mapping. Typhoid diagnosis was confirmed as per the IDSP guidelines, i.e., either a blood culture growth positive for Salmonella typhi or a fourfold rise in antibody titer. An age- and gender-matched case–control study was conducted to find the association of occurrence of typhoid with various possible sources of infection. Water samples were collected from the affected households and public taps for investigation. Results: Rapid survey of all the 6 streets of Thilaspet covered 1106 people living in 283 households. All nine confirmed cases were residents of one particular street. The attack rate calculated was 3.4% in this street. A significant association of occurrence of typhoid was found only with consumption of raw drinking water (OR = 12.6, P = 0.01). Water samples only from the affected street tested positive for the presence of coliforms. The sanitary survey documented water pipeline breakage at the junction of this street. Further spread of disease was stopped by advocating drinking of boiled water and repair of pipeline. Conclusion: Strengthening of disease surveillance for early identification of localized outbreaks and instituting control measures can effectively control disease spread

Optimizing Compliance and Thermal Conductivity of Plasma Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings via Controlled Powders and Processing Strategies

The properties and performance of plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are strongly dependent on the microstructural defects, which are affected by starting powder morphology and processing conditions. Of particular interest is the use of hollow powders which not only allow for efficient melting of zirconia ceramics but also produce lower conductivity and more compliant coatings. Typical industrial hollow spray powders have an assortment of densities resulting in masking potential advantages of the hollow morphology. In this study, we have conducted process mapping strategies using a novel uniform shell thickness hollow powder to control the defect microstructure and properties. Correlations among coating properties, microstructure, and processing reveal feasibility to produce highly compliant and low conductivity TBC through a combination of optimized feedstock and processing conditions. The results are presented through the framework of process maps establishing correlations among process, microstructure, and properties and providing opportunities for optimization of TBCs

Effect of N-substitution in naphthalenediimides on the electrochemical performance of organic rechargeable batteries

We have demonstrated that even small structural variations on the imide nitrogens of naphthalenediimides bearing identical Li-ion binding sites can cause dramatic effects in the performance of organic rechargeable batteries. In particular, naphthalenedimide dilithium salt showed excellent cycling with a capacity of 130 mA h g(-1) at potentials as high as 2.5 V vs. Li/Li+.

Are diamonds a MEMS\u27 best friend?

Next-generation military and civilian communication systems will require technologies capable of handling data/ audio, and video simultaneously while supporting multiple RF systems operating in several different frequency bands from the MHz to the GHz range [1]. RF microelectromechanical/nanoelectromechanical (MEMS/NEMS) devices, such as resonators and switches, are attractive to industry as they offer a means by which performance can be greatly improved for wireless applications while at the same time potentially reducing overall size and weight as well as manufacturing costs

A Radically Configurable Six-State Compound

Most organic radicals possess short lifetimes and quickly undergo dimerization or oxidation. Here, we report on the synthesis by radical templation of a class of air- and water-stable organic radicals, trapped within a homo[2]catenane composed of two rigid and fixed cyclobis (paraquat-p-phenylene) rings. The highly energetic octacationic homo[2]catenane, which is capable of accepting up to eight electrons, can be configured reversibly, both chemically and electrochemically, between each one of six experimentally accessible redox states (0, 2+, 4+, 6+, 7+, and 8+) from within the total of nine states evaluated by quantum mechanical methods. All six of the observable redox states have been identified by electrochemical techniques, three (4+, 6+, and 7+) have been characterized by x-ray crystallography, four (4+, 6+, 7+, and 8+) by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, one (7+) by superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry, and one (8+) by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Curcumin-induced inhibition of cellular reactive oxygen species generation: novel therapeutic implications

There is evidence for increased levels of circulating reactive oxygen species (ROS) in diabetics, as indirectly inferred by the findings of increased lipid peroxidation and decreased antioxidant status. Direct measurements of intracellular generation of ROS using fluorescent dyes also demonstrate an association of oxidative stress with diabetes. Although phenolic compounds attenuate oxidative stress-related tissue damage, there are concerns over toxicity of synthetic phenolic antioxidants and this has considerably stimulated interest in investigating the role of natural phenolics in medicinal applications. Curcumin (the primary active principle in turmeric, Curcuma longa Linn.) has been claimed to represent a potential antioxidant and antiinflammatory agent with phytonutrient and bioprotective properties. However there are lack of molecular studies to demonstrate its cellular action and potential molecular targets. In this study the antioxidant effect of curcumin as a function of changes in cellular ROS generation was tested. Our results clearly demonstrate that curcumin abolished both phorbol-12 myristate-13 acetate (PMA) and thapsigargin-induced ROS generation in cells from control and diabetic subjects. The pattern of these ROS inhibitory effects as a function of dose-dependency suggests that curcumin mechanistically interferes with protein kinase C (PKC) and calcium regulation. Simultaneous measurements of ROS and Ca2+ influx suggest that a rise in cytosolic Ca2+ may be a trigger for increased ROS generation. We suggest that the antioxidant and antiangeogenic actions of curcumin, as a mechanism of inhibition of Ca2+ entry and PKC activity, should be further exploited to develop suitable and novel drugs for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy and other diabetic complications

A parallel geometric multigrid method for finite elements on octree meshes applied to elastic image registration

The first component of this work is a parallel algorithm for constructing non-uniform octree meshes for finite element computations. Prior to octree meshing, the linear octree data structure must be constructed and a constraint known as "2:1 balancing" must be enforced; parallel algorithms for these two subproblems are also presented. The second component of this work is a parallel matrix-free geometric multigrid algorithm for solving elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs) using these octree meshes. The last component of this work is a parallel multiscale Gauss Newton optimization algorithm for solving the elastic image registration problem. The registration problem is discretized using finite elements on octree meshes and the parallel geometric multigrid algorithm is used as a preconditioner in the Conjugate Gradient (CG) algorithm to solve the linear system of equations formed in each Gauss Newton iteration. Several ideas were used to reduce the overhead for constructing the octree meshes. These include (a) a way to lower communication costs by reducing the number of synchronizations and reducing the communication message size, (b) a way to reduce the number of searches required to build element-to-vertex mappings, and (c) a compression scheme to reduce the memory footprint of the entire data structure. To our knowledge, the multigrid algorithm presented in this work is the only matrix-free multiplicative geometric multigrid implementation for solving finite element equations on octree meshes using thousands of processors. The proposed registration algorithm is also unique; it is a combination of many different ideas: adaptivity, parallelism, fast optimization algorithms, and fast linear solvers. All the algorithms were implemented in C++ using the Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard and were built on top of the PETSc library from Argonne National Laboratory. The multigrid implementation has been released as an open source software: Dendro. Several numerical experiments were performed to test the performance of the algorithms. These experiments were performed on a variety of NSF TeraGrid platforms. Our largest run was a highly-nonuniform, 8-billion-unknown, elasticity calculation on 32,000 processors.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Vuduc, Richard; Committee Member: Biros, George; Committee Member: Davatzikos, Christos; Committee Member: Tannenbaum, Allen; Committee Member: Zhou, Hao Mi