Uranium: occurrence,distribution across India and its potential health effects

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Uranium contamination in the aquatic environment is an emerging concern worldwide. With the development of the global economy, uranium...     

Conifers Phytochemicals: A Valuable Forest with Therapeutic Potential

Conifers have long been recognized for their therapeutic potential in different disorders. Alkaloids, terpenes and polyphenols are the most abundant naturally occurring phytochemicals in these plants. Here, we provide an overview of the phytochemistry and related commercial products obtained from conifers. The pharmacological actions of different phytochemicals present in conifers against bacterial and fungal infections, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are also reviewed. Data obtained from experimental and clinical studies performed to date clearly underline that such compounds exert promising antioxidant effects, being able to inhibit cell damage, cancer growth, inflammation and the onset of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, an attempt has been made with the intent to highlight the importance of conifer-derived extracts for pharmacological purposes, with the support of relevant in vitro and in vivo experimental data. In short, this review comprehends the information published to date related to conifers’ phytochemicals and illustrates their potential role as drugs.     

Insights into the photophysics,protonation and Cu2+ ion coordination behaviour of anthracene-9,10-dione-based chemosensors

Carboxylic acid–diamine-based Cu²⁺ chromogenic sensors (3 and 4) exhibited colour switching from red to blue with good sensitivity and selectivity towards Cu²⁺ among other physiologically important alkali, alkaline earth and heavy metal ions. This colour-switching phenomenon arises due to selective deprotonation of aryl amine NH by Cu²⁺. Significantly, chemosensor 3 (λ_max 492 nm) shows multiple modes of complexation towards Cu²⁺. It is very much evident from the appearance of blue colour (λ_max 615 nm) at pH >7.0 and yellow colour (λ_max 465 nm) at pH < 4.0. In addition, chemosensor 3 exhibits a unique logic gate system that involves ‘INHIBIT’ and ‘TRANSFER’ logic gates.     

Efficient design of perovskite solar cell using mixed halide and copper oxide

Solar cells based on perovskites have emerged as a transpiring technology in the field of photovoltaic. These cells exhibit high power conversion efficiency. The perovskite material is observed to have good absorption in the entire visible spectrum which can be well illustrated by the quantum efficiency curve. In this paper, theoretical analysis has been done through device simulation for designing solar cell based on mixed halide perovskite. Various parameters have efficacy on the solar cell efficiency such as defect density, layer thickness, doping concentration, band offsets, etc. The use of copper oxide as the hole transport material has been analyzed. The analysis divulges that due to its mobility of charge carriers, it can be used as an alternative to spiro-OMeTAD. With the help of simulations, reasonable materials have been employed for the optimal design of solar cell based on perovskite material. With the integration of copper oxide into the solar cell structure, the results obtained are competent enough. The simulations have shown that with the use of copper oxide as hole transport material with mixed halide perovskite as absorber, the power conversion efficiency has improved by 6%.The open circuit voltage has shown an increase of 0.09 V, short circuit current density has increased by 2.32 m A/cm~2, and improvement in fill factor is 8.75%.     

Analysis of fiber optic SPR sensor utilizing platinum based nanocomposites

SPR based fiber optic sensor using nanocomposite is presented. Nanocomposites comprising of Pt nanoparticles with various volume fractions embedded in dielectric matrices of TiO₂ and SnO₂ are considered. Sensitivity enhances with increase in thickness of nanocomposite and volume fraction of nanoparticles for both nanocomposites. Optimized thicknesses are obtained to be 40 and 50 nm for Pt–TiO₂ and Pt–SnO₂ nanocomposites respectively while optimized volume fraction is found to be 0.85 for both nanocomposites. 40 nm thick Pt–TiO₂ nanocomposite based sensor with 0.85 volume fraction possesses utmost sensitivity.     

Percolative transport in the vicinity of charge-order ferromagnetic transition in a hole-doped manganite

We report measurements of non-linear charge transport in epitaxial (La_1−x Pr _x )_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ thin films fabricated on (100) oriented SrTiO₃ single crystals by pulsed laser deposition. The end members of this series, namely Pr_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ and La_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ are canonical charge-ordered (CO) and ferromagnetic manganites, respectively. The onset of the CO state in Pr_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ is manifested by a pronounced insulating behavior below ∼ 200 K. The CO state remains stable even when a large (∼ 2×10⁵ V/cm) electric field is applied across the thin film samples. However, on substitution of Pr with La, a crossover from the highly resistive CO state to a state of metallic character is observed at relatively low electric fields. The current-voltage characteristics of the samples at low temperatures show hysteretic and history dependent effects. The electric field driven charge transport in the system is modelled on the basis of an inhomogeneous medium consisting of ferromagnetic metallic clusters dispersed in a CO background.     

A nanoparticle based chromogenic chemosensor for the simultaneous detection of multiple analytes

Quantum Dot-Schiff base conjugate displays selectivity for Cu(2+) and Fe(3+) enabling the simultaneous detection of these ions in semi-aqueous solution; in contrast, the Schiff base itself displayed no selectivity.     

Polarization switching properties of spray deposited CsNO3: PVA composite films

The ferroelectric and switching properties of spray deposited cesium nitrate: poly (vinyl alcohol) composite films at different substrate temperatures (T _s ) have been studied. The optimum value of remanent polarization was obtained in the film deposited at T _s =200°C, which may be due to larger structural distortion (c/a ratio) and less porosity as revealed by x-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) analysis. The switching current transients have been analyzed by nucleation limited switching model (NLS) with the Lorentzian distribution function. This model gives excellent agreement with the experimental polarization current throughout the whole time range. The switching parameters were determined in the composite films deposited at different T _s and found to be optimum at T _s =200°C. The effect of pulse amplitude on the domain switching properties has also been studied and analyzed. The peak value of polarization current exhibits an exponential dependence on the external applied field.     

Bandwidth packing problem with queueing delays: modelling and exact solution approach

In this paper we develop a general but smooth global optimization strategy for nonlinear multilevel programming problems with polyhedral constraints. At each decision level successive convex relaxations are applied over the non-convex terms in combination with a multi-parametric programming approach. The proposed algorithm reaches the approximate global optimum in a finite number of steps through the successive subdivision of the optimization variables that contribute to the non-convexity of the problem and partitioning of the parameter space. The method is implemented and tested for a variety of bilevel, trilevel and fifth level problems which have non-convexity formulation at their inner levels.     

Synthesis and characterization of d-glucosamine-derived low molecular weight gelators

Carbohydrate-based low molecular weight gelators are an interesting class of molecules with many potential applications. Previously, we have found that certain esters and carbamates of 4,6-O-benzylidene-α-d-methyl-glucopyranoside are low molecular weight gelators for a variety of solvents, including water. In order to obtain effective and robust sugar-based organogelators and understand the structure and gelation relationship, we extended our studies using 4,6-O-benzylidene-α-d-methyl-2-deoxy-2-amino-glucopyranoside as the headgroup. A series of amides and ureas were prepared from the protected d-glucosamine and the corresponding isocyanates or acid chlorides, in good yields. The self-assembling properties of these compounds were studied in several solvents, including water and aqueous solutions. Comparing to the ester and carbamate derivatives previously prepared from d-glucose, the amides and urea derivatives afforded more robust gels at lower concentrations typically. Most of these compounds were found to be efficient low molecular weight hydrogelators (LMHGs) for aqueous solutions at concentrations lower than 0.5 wt %. The preparation and characterization of these compounds are reported here.