Spectroscopic analysis of the interaction between Co3O4 nanoparticles and acid phosphatase

Monatshefte für Chemie - Chemical Monthly - In this study, the structure and stability of acid phosphatase in its interaction with Co3O4 nanoparticles are evaluated through absorbance, enzyme...     

Uncommon Terpenoids from Salvia Species: Chemistry,Biosynthesis and Biological Activities

The search for new bioactive compounds from plant sources has been and continues to be one of the most important fields of research in drug discovery. However, Natural Products research has continuously evolved, and more and more has gained a multidisciplinary character. Despite new developments of methodologies and concepts, one intriguing aspect still persists, i.e., different species belonging to the same genus can produce different secondary metabolites, whereas taxonomically different genera can produce the same compounds. The genus Salvia L. (Family Lamiaceae) comprises myriad distinct medicinal herbs used in traditional medicine worldwide that show different pharmacological activities due to the presence of a variety of interesting specialized metabolites, including mono-, sesqui-, di-, sester-, tri-, tetra-, and higher terpenoids as well as phenylpropanoids, phenolic acid derivatives, lignans, flavonoids, and alkaloids. We herein summarize the research progress on some uncommon terpenoids, isolated from members of the genus Salvia, which are well recognized for their potential pharmacological activities. This review also provides a current knowledge on the biosynthesis and occurrence of some interesting phytochemicals from Salvia species, viz. C₂₃-terpenoids, sesterterpenoids (C₂₅), dammarane triterpenoids (C₃₀), and uncommon triterpenoids (C₂₀+C₁₀). The study was carried out by searching various scientific databases, including Elsevier, ACS publications, Taylor and Francis, Wiley Online Library, MDPI, Springer, Thieme, and ProQuest. Therefore, 106 uncommon terpenoids were identified and summarized. Some of these compounds possessed a variety of pharmacological properties, such as antibacterial, antiviral, antiparasitic, cytotoxic and tubulin tyrosine ligase inhibitory activities. Due to the lack of pharmacological information for the presented compounds gathered from previous studies, biological investigation of these compounds should be reinvestigated.     

Biofortification—A Frontier Novel Approach to Enrich Micronutrients in Field Crops to Encounter the Nutritional Security

Globally, many developing countries are facing silent epidemics of nutritional deficiencies in human beings and animals. The lack of diversity in diet, i.e., cereal-based crops deficient in mineral nutrients is an additional threat to nutritional quality. The present review accounts for the significance of biofortification as a process to enhance the productivity of crops and also an agricultural solution to address the issues of nutritional security. In this endeavor, different innovative and specific biofortification approaches have been discussed for nutrient enrichment of field crops including cereals, pulses, oilseeds and fodder crops. The agronomic approach increases the micronutrient density in crops with soil and foliar application of fertilizers including amendments. The biofortification through conventional breeding approach includes the selection of efficient genotypes, practicing crossing of plants with desirable nutritional traits without sacrificing agricultural and economic productivity. However, the transgenic/biotechnological approach involves the synthesis of transgenes for micronutrient re-translocation between tissues to enhance their bioavailability. Soil microorganisms enhance nutrient content in the rhizosphere through diverse mechanisms such as synthesis, mobilization, transformations and siderophore production which accumulate more minerals in plants. Different sources of micronutrients viz. mineral solutions, chelates and nanoparticles play a pivotal role in the process of biofortification as it regulates the absorption rates and mechanisms in plants. Apart from the quality parameters, biofortification also improved the crop yield to alleviate hidden hunger thus proving to be a sustainable and cost-effective approach. Thus, this review article conveys a message for researchers about the adequate potential of biofortification to increase crop productivity and nourish the crop with additional nutrient content to provide food security and nutritional quality to humans and livestock.     

On doubly warped product Finsler manifolds

In this paper, we introduce horizontal and vertical warped product Finsler manifolds. We prove that every C-reducible or proper Berwaldian doubly warped product Finsler manifold is Riemannian. Then, we find the relation between Riemannian curvatures of doubly warped product Finsler manifold and its components, and consider the cases that this manifold is flat or has scalar flag curvature. We define the doubly warped Sasaki-Matsumoto metric for warped product manifolds and find a condition under which the horizontal and vertical tangent bundles are totally geodesic. We obtain some conditions under which a foliated manifold reduces to a Reinhart manifold. Finally, we study an almost complex structure on the tangent bundle of a doubly warped product Finsler manifold.     

A low-cost optimization framework to solve muscle redundancy problem

Prediction of muscle activations based on optimization procedures mostly leads to a prohibitive computational effort. To overcome this problem, an optimization framework by reformulation of the so-called method of extended inverse dynamics (EID) was developed. A planar, seven-segment model with sixteen muscle groups was used to represent human neuromusculoskeletal dynamics. The muscle activations were estimated based on two methods: EID, which treats the system dynamics (compatibility between muscular and skeletal torques), as an equality constraint, and the proposed method, which employs unconstrained system dynamics of EID (USDEID). The proposed method is based on the idea that the EID equality constraint, which is difficult to satisfy, can be eliminated by reformulation of the governing equations and optimization variables, which not only relaxes the optimization problem and leads to less optimization parameters, but also guarantees the full compatibility of the system dynamics. The comparison of simulation results of optimal muscle activations against experimental data showed a reasonable agreement for both methods during half of a gait cycle. Optimization results showed that USDEID is not only more accurate than EID in terms of the compatibility between the skeletal and muscular system dynamics, but also approximately eight times faster for ten random initial values. USDEID may be used to predict muscle activations, when the computational cost becomes prohibitive.     

Investigation of electronic and optical properties of (CdSe/ZnS/CdSe/ZnS) quantum dot–quantum well heteronanocrystal

In this article, we have investigated the photoluminescence intensity of quantum dot–quantum well heteronanocrystal with non-linear potential profile which has been analyzed by the finite element numerical methods and is compared with traditional potential profile of same heteronanocrystal. We have probed the effect of carrier localization in layers of heteronanocrystal on the photoluminescence intensity. Moreover, the effects of variation of radius layers such as CdSe core, shell, and ZnS barriers radius on the photoluminescence intensity are studied. Besides, for the first time, we demonstrated the shift of quantum dot–quantum well operation wavelength by introducing non-linear potential profile in the core of heteronanocrystal that can be drastically affected on biological application. Furthermore, in biological application, by tuning the emission wavelengths of quantum dot into the far-red and near-infrared ranges, the non-invasive in vivo imaging technique was developed. In this wavelength window, tissue absorption, scattering, and auto-fluorescence intensities have minimum quantities. In our article with new structure, the relation between size and operation wavelength don’t follow traditional relation.     

Three component reactions of N‐nucleophiles and activated acetylenes with NH‐acids: A facile synthesis in water

A straightforward and efficient method for the synthesis of 1,2‐dihydroisoquinolines via a one‐pot, three‐component reaction of isoquinoline, activated acetylenes, and NH‐acids in water at 70°C without using any catalyst is reported. The method offers several advantages including high yields of products and an easy workup procedure. J. Heterocyclic Chem., (2012).