Selenium Biofortification: Roles,Mechanisms, Responses and Prospects

The trace element selenium (Se) is a crucial element for many living organisms, including soil microorganisms, plants and animals, including humans. Generally, in Nature Se is taken up in the living cells of microorganisms, plants, animals and humans in several inorganic forms such as selenate, selenite, elemental Se and selenide. These forms are converted to organic forms by biological process, mostly as the two selenoamino acids selenocysteine (SeCys) and selenomethionine (SeMet). The biological systems of plants, animals and humans can fix these amino acids into Se-containing proteins by a modest replacement of methionine with SeMet. While the form SeCys is usually present in the active site of enzymes, which is essential for catalytic activity. Within human cells, organic forms of Se are significant for the accurate functioning of the immune and reproductive systems, the thyroid and the brain, and to enzyme activity within cells. Humans ingest Se through plant and animal foods rich in the element. The concentration of Se in foodstuffs depends on the presence of available forms of Se in soils and its uptake and accumulation by plants and herbivorous animals. Therefore, improving the availability of Se to plants is, therefore, a potential pathway to overcoming human Se deficiencies. Among these prospective pathways, the Se-biofortification of plants has already been established as a pioneering approach for producing Se-enriched agricultural products. To achieve this desirable aim of Se-biofortification, molecular breeding and genetic engineering in combination with novel agronomic and edaphic management approaches should be combined. This current review summarizes the roles, responses, prospects and mechanisms of Se in human nutrition. It also elaborates how biofortification is a plausible approach to resolving Se-deficiency in humans and other animals.     

Smectogenic properties of N,N'-bis[(2-hydroxy-4-alkoxyphenyl)methylene]benzene-1,4-diamine liquid crystals with double lateral H-bonds

A series of eight liquid crystalline compounds, N,N'-bis[(2-hydroxy-4-alkoxyphenyl)methylene]benzene-1,4-diamines, has been synthesized and characterized. These homologous compounds differ in the length of terminal alkyl group C _n H_2n+1 wherein n is an even number ranging from 4 to 18. The spectroscopic techniques, FTIR, ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR, were employed to characterize the molecular structure. The transition temperatures of all the title compounds and their mesophases were studied by differential scanning calorimetry and polarizing microscopy. All the compounds were smectogenic, exhibiting both tilted and non-tilted molecular orientation in their smectic phases. Further investigation to ascertain the anisotropic nature of subphases within the smectogenic region was carried out using X-ray diffraction.     

First observation of K X-rays from pp atoms

K and L series X-rays have been observed from p$\text{p}$ atoms formed in hydrogen gas at NTP in association with annihilations into neutral particles. The total K X-ray yield is (6.5 ± 3.2) × 10^?3 per stopped antiproton. A model-dependent fit of the K X-ray spectrum gives a K_α energy of 8.9±0.3 keV, corresponding to a strong interaction shift of (?0.5±0.3) keV.     

Fractional photon model of three-photon mixing in the non-linear interaction process

In this paper, a fractional photon model is proposed by considering the photon-exchange interaction in the reverse process of the non-linear three-photon mixing interaction. The phase matching condition for various types of uniaxial crystals can be simplified and classified by this model with the consideration of the unequal fractional photon-exchange of the two generated waves in the reverse manner. This also leads to the explanation of observing the phase mismatch and output bandwidth of the resonant and non-resonant waves in a cavity. Finally, a quantitative approach to this model, with experimental results, is also demonstrated.     

A study of tautomerism in diazonium coupling products of 4-hydroxycoumarin

The spectra (¹H nmr, ir and uv) of a series of 3-arylazo-4-hydroxycoumarins 1a-m indicate that such compounds exist predominantly in the keto hydrazone form 1A both in solid state and in solution. The acid dissociation constants of the series studied were determined spectrophotometrically in 80 vol% ethanol-water mixture at 27° and ionic strength of 0.1. The results of the correlations of these constants by Hammett and Yukawa-Tsuno equations exclude the presence of the hydroxyazo form 1B in equilibrium with 1A in agreement with the spectral data. Also, the HMO method has been used to study tautomerism in such compounds. The results are also in full agreement with both the spectral and linear free energy correlations, the hydrazone form 1A being the most stable. It is further shown that both the intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonding favor the hydrazone tautomer.     

Modelling the CPI using a lognormal diffusion process and implications on forecasting inflation

The Maximum Likelihood estimator is used within a lognormaldiffusion process and closed form analytical solutions are obtained.The monthly CPI forecasts are estimated for the period between1970 and 2002. The quarterly estimates of inflation rates areobtained from monthly forecasts rather than from quarterly data.This has significantly improved the estimates of inflation rates.The model also produced a superior fit as compared to randomwalk and GARCH(p,q)-M models. The adopted approach is foundto be simple, economical and generally suitable for modellingstochastic processes that reflect aggregation over time stemmingfrom many factors, and in which the transition path betweenconsecutive states is relatively smooth.     

A simple multi-scroll hyperchaotic system

We propose a simple autonomous hyperchaotic system that can generate multi-scroll attractors. The proposed system has a canonical structure, one control parameter, and a switching-type nonlinearity. If multiple breakpoints are added to the system nonlinearity, multi-scroll behavior can be obtained. We numerically demonstrate hyperchaotic behavior of the proposed system, under different nonlinearities, as its control parameter is changed. Furthermore, we study hyperchaos in the proposed system when it assumes a fractional order, and demonstrate that hyperchaotic behavior can be obtained in systems less than fourth order. Throughout the study, hyperchaos is verified by examining the Lyapunov spectrum, where the presence of multiple positive Lyapunov exponents in the spectrum is indicative of hyperchaos.     

Weighted ebyev-Ostrowski type inequalities

In account of the famous ebyev inequality,a rich theory has appeared in the literature.We establish some new weighted ebyev type integral inequalitíes.Our proofs are of independent interest and provide new estimates on these types of inequalities.     

Existence of solutions for generalized implicit vector variational-like inequalities

In this paper, we introduce a new class of generalized implicit vector variational-like inequalities in Hausdorff topological vector spaces and Banach spaces which contain implicit vector equilibrium problems, implicit vector variational inequalities and implicit vector complementarity problems as special cases. We derive some new results by using the KKM–Fan theorem, under compact and noncompact assumptions on underlying convex sets.     

Lifetime measurements and decay of superdeformed bands in Hg isotopes

The lifetimes of states in Superdeformed (SD) bands in ^192,194Hg have been measured using the Doppler shift attenuation method. Intrinsic quadrupole moments have been extracted for band 1 of ¹⁹²Hg and for bands 1, 2, and 3 of ¹⁹⁴Hg. It was found that the quadrupole moments for the “identical” SD bands in these nuclei are the same. In the same experiment, one-step transitions linking SD states to yrast and near yrast states for bands 1 and 3 of ¹⁹⁴Hg have been identified. From this observation, excitation energies, spins and probable parities have been assigned to SD states in these bands.