CdSe quantum dot-dispersed DOBAMBC: an electro-optical study

Cadmium selenide quantum dot (CdSe QD) has been used as a dopant in ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) 2-methylbutyl 4-(4-decyloxybenzylideneamino) cinnamate (DOBAMBC). Effect of CdSe QD in DOBAMBC on its different electro-optical (E-O) properties has been studied in the SmC* phase. The optical micrographs recorded for the pure and composite material are showing good dispersion of QDs in the FLC matrix. Micrographs of unaligned sample cell revealed that CdSe QDs induce homeotropic alignment of FLC molecules. An appreciable change in the value of E-O parameters like tilt angle, spontaneous polarisation and response time with shifting of SmA–SmC* phase transition temperature has been observed for CdSe QD–DOBAMBC composite. The observed properties of composite system have been discussed on the basis of surface properties of QDs in FLC system.     

Reductive Cleavage of Acetals/Ketals with ZrCl4/NaBH4

Reductive cleavage of acetals/ketals with zirconium tetrachloride-sodium borohydride leading to the formation of ether alcohols is described.     

Hydrophilic interaction LC–MS/MS method to avoid endogenous interference in the analysis of 4-hydroxy isoleucine from dietary supplementation of fenugreek

4-Hydroxy isoleucine is one of the potent hypoglycemic active constituents of fenugreek seeds. A method capable of reducing biological interferences is required for bioavailability studies. An isocratic separation of 4-hydroxy isoleucine from endogenous interferences was achieved in ZIC-cHILIC column using 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile (20:80, % v/v) pumped at 0.5 ml/min. Quantification was performed in multiple reaction monitoring mode using the transitions of m/z 148.1→102.1 and m/z 276.1→142.2 for 4-hydroxy isoleucine and homatropine (as internal standard), respectively. After full method validation, 4-hydroxy isoleucine levels in human plasma and commercial fenugreek formulations were determined. This method showed good linearity in the range of 50–2000 ng/mL. Intra- and interday accuracies were in the range of 90.64–109.0% and precision was <4.82% CV. The mean (SD) plasma concentration of 4-hydroxy isoleucine in healthy individuals at 2 h after oral administration of fenugreek tablet was found to be 1590 (260) ng/mL. Half of marketed formulations were found to contain <0.05% of 4-hydroxy isoleucine content. We developed a rapid hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for analysis of 4-hydroxy isoleucine in human plasma. This method can be applied directly to conduct the clinical pharmacokinetics studies of 4-hydroxy isoleucine in human population.     

Design and pharmacophoric identification of flavonoid scaffold-based aromatase inhibitors

Aromatase is a crucial enzyme for the catalysis of aromatization reaction at the last and rate-limiting step involved in the conversion of androgenic substrates to an estrogenic substrate. A hormone-dependent breast cancer in postmenopausal woman can be cured by inhibition of estrogen biosynthesis by the help of aromatase inhibitors (AIs). The mode of interactions of flavonones with the active site of aromatase has been studied in search of potent and selective AIs as a substitute of the natural steroidal ligand. Structure-based computational approach namely, molecular docking simulations were performed to investigate the structural features of the docked complex of aromatase and flavonoid ligands. A nonsteroidal flavonoid pharmacophore showing electrostatic and steric features for selective binding within the main pocket of the catalytic active site of aromatase has been identified as an outcome of the study. The binding affinity of quercetin and isoflavone were predicted within aromatase. Isoflavone was used as a negative control to compare its binding affinities with the selected dataset. The predicted binding affinity of negative control isoflavone was in accordance with its in vitro AI efficacy. Isoflavone showed poor binding affinity and ranked last in terms of MolDock score (−86.309 kcal/molÅ) compared to dataset molecules. The generated pharmacophoric information will be helpful for the synthetic chemist to design and synthesize selective AIs with comparable binding affinity to the natural steroidal ligand.     

Development and application of a novel immunoassay for measuring oxidative DNA damage in the environment

We developed a facile, cost-effective competitive binding assay for the analysis of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodGuo) in DNA, using a polyclonal rabbit antiserum raised against an 8-oxodGuo hapten coupled to bovine serum albumin and radiolabeled synthetic ligand containing multiple 8-oxodGuo residues. This radioimmunoassay (RIA) displays a high affinity for 8-oxodGuo in DNA, with a detection limit of approximately 1 adduct in 10(5) bases of DNA. 8-oxodGuo standards for RIA were quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography and electrochemical detection in DNA diluted in methylene blue and exposed to visible light. As an initial application we quantified 8-oxodGuo in dosimeters deployed at increasing depths in the Southern Ocean during the austral spring of the 1998 field season or at the surface at Palmer Station, Antarctica, throughout the 1999 field season. Cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD) were quantified using an established RIA. We found that the frequency of both photoproducts decreased with depth. However, CPD induction was attenuated at a faster rate than 8-oxodGuo, correlating with the differential attenuation of solar ultraviolet wavelengths in the water column. CPD induction was closely related with ultraviolet-B radiation (UVB) attenuation, whereas the lower attenuation of 8-oxodGuo suggests that oxidative damage is more closely related to ultraviolet-A radiation (UVA) irradiance. The ratio of 8-oxodGuo: CPD was also found to covary with changes in stratospheric ozone concentrations at Palmer Station. These data demonstrate the usefulness of these assays for environmental photobiology and the potential for their use in studying the relative impacts of UVB versus UVA, including ozone depletion events.     

Electrochemical approach for synthesis of 3-substituted indole derivatives

An efficient and economical method was developed for synthesis of 3-substituted indole by using electrochemically induced condensation of various aldehyde, indole and malononitrile.     

Zero permittivity band characteristics in one-dimensional plasma dielectric photonic crystal

We consider the oblique propagation of electromagnetic waves in one-dimensional plasma dielectric photonic crystals, the superlattice structure consisting of alternating plasma and dielectric materials using transfer matrix method. Our results show that photonic band gaps for all polarizations can be obtained in one-dimensional plasma dielectric photonic crystals. These structures can exhibit a new type of band or gap, for the incidence angles other than normal incidence, near frequencies where the electric permittivity of the plasma layer changes sign. This new band or gap arises, from the dispersive properties of the plasma layer, only for TM polarized waves and its width increases with the increasing angle of incidence. This differential behaviour under polarization can be utilized in the design of an efficient polarization splitter. The band characteristic is affected by the plasma width, the plasma density, dielectric width, the dielectric constant of the dielectric medium and angle of incidence.     

Groups with the Weak Maximal Condition on Non-permutable Subgroups

Let G be a group with the weak maximal condition on non-permutable subgroups. We prove that if G is a generalized radical group then G is either quasihamiltonian or a soluble-by-finite minimax group.     

Superconvergence of Legendre projection methods for the eigenvalue problem of a compact integral operator

In this paper, we consider the Galerkin and collocation methods for the eigenvalue problem of a compact integral operator with a smooth kernel using the Legendre polynomials of degree ≤n. We prove that the error bounds for eigenvalues are of the order O(n^−2r) and the gap between the spectral subspaces are of the orders O(n^−r) in L₂-norm and O(n^1/2−r) in the infinity norm, where r denotes the smoothness of the kernel. By iterating the eigenvectors we show that the iterated eigenvectors converge with the orders of convergence O(n^−2r) in both L₂-norm and infinity norm. We illustrate our results with numerical examples.