Optimal staffing of specialized programme trainees under uncertainty

We propose a stochastic model and provide an easy-to-implement optimization tool for admission decisions to specialized training programmes designed for service industries. The model can be applied for staffing of trainees in medical residency programmes, vocational schools, management trainee programmes, and similar. Especially towards graduation, trainees in these programmes substantially contribute to workforce of their affiliated institutions, thus having a targeted number of advanced level students become a potential performance metric for administration. For uncertain attrition rates and study duration, we model and provide an iterative solution algorithm to find the optimal annual admission number for these programmes. Our numeric analysis results show that the solution is robust to changes in attrition and study duration probabilities; hence, our model is robust against specification errors for these parameters, which could be hard to estimate due to data unavailability and fluctuations in educational and economic conditions.     

Exploring the Strength of the H‐Bond in Synthetic Models for Heme Proteins: The Importance of the N−H Acidity of the Distal Base

The distal hydrogen bond (H‐bond) in dioxygen‐binding proteins is crucial for the discrimination of O₂ with respect to CO or NO. We report the preparation and characterization of a series of Zn^II porphyrins, with one of three meso‐phenyl rings bearing both an alkyl‐tethered proximal imidazole ligand and a heterocyclic distal H‐bond donor connected by a rigid acetylene spacer. Previously, we had validated the corresponding Co^II complexes as synthetic model systems for dioxygen‐binding heme proteins and demonstrated the structural requirements for proper distal H‐bonding to Co^II‐bound dioxygen. Here, we systematically vary the H‐bond donor ability of the distal heterocycles, as predicted based on pK_a values. The H‐bond in the dioxygen adducts of the Co^II porphyrins was directly measured by Q‐band Davies‐ENDOR spectroscopy. It was shown that the strength of the hyperfine coupling between the dioxygen radical and the distal H‐atom increases with enhanced acidity of the H‐bond donor.     

Anticholinesterase activity screening of some novel dithiocarbamate derivatives including piperidine and piperazine moieties

The present study was undertaken to synthesize some novel lipophilic piperazine and piperidinedithiocarbamates and investigate their inhibitory potencies against cholinesterase enzymes. In the synthetic studies, 44 new compounds were isolated. The structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by spectroscopic analyses. Enzymatic studies were carried out using modified Ellman's assay against Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and Butrylcholinesterase (BChE) enzymes, and it was observed that some of the compounds selectively inhibit AChE. Theoretical ADME predictions were calculated for selected compounds in the series. Enzyme kinetics and molecular docking studies were performed for the most active compound C41 and nature of inhibition and interactions between enzyme and ligand were explained.     

Eu3+- and Ho3+-doped Ba3Al2O6- and MgAl2O4-type phosphors and their photoluminescent properties

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The aluminate hosts were basically activated with the Eu3+- and Ho3+-ions which were prepared by solid-state reaction in this study. The DTA/TG results...