Role of Melatonin in Plant Tolerance to Soil Stressors: Salinity,pH and Heavy Metals

Melatonin (MT) is a pleiotropic molecule with diverse and numerous actions both in plants and animals. In plants, MT acts as an excellent promotor of tolerance against abiotic stress situations such as drought, cold, heat, salinity, and chemical pollutants. In all these situations, MT has a stimulating effect on plants, fomenting many changes in biochemical processes and stress-related gene expression. Melatonin plays vital roles as an antioxidant and can work as a free radical scavenger to protect plants from oxidative stress by stabilization cell redox status; however, MT can alleviate the toxic oxygen and nitrogen species. Beyond this, MT stimulates the antioxidant enzymes and augments antioxidants, as well as activates the ascorbate–glutathione (AsA–GSH) cycle to scavenge excess reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this review, we examine the recent data on the capacity of MT to alleviate the effects of common abiotic soil stressors, such as salinity, alkalinity, acidity, and the presence of heavy metals, reinforcing the general metabolism of plants and counteracting harmful agents. An exhaustive analysis of the latest advances in this regard is presented, and possible future applications of MT are discussed.     

Synthesis of heterocyclic compounds via Michael and Hantzsch reactions

Heterocycles represent the largest diversity of organic compounds with signifcant chemical, biomedical, and industrial applications. They exist in numerous natural products, dyes, and as scaffolds in diverse drugs and related pharmaceutically active substances. Substantial attention has been paid to develop various elegant methods to synthesize heterocycles. Among different strategies, Michael and Hantzsch reactions are considered as effective approaches for construction of heterocycles and their corresponding fused derivatives. This review covers this area especially in the last 10 years. The heterocyclic systems reported in this review are classified according to the kind of the heterocyclic systems.     

New Polymer Syntheses Part 60: A Facile Synthetic Route to Polyamides Based on Thieno[2,3-<Emphasis Type="Italic">b</Emphasis>]thiophene and Their Corrosion Inhibition Behavior

Polyamides containing thieno[2,3-b]thiophene moiety were prepared via a simple polycondensation reaction of the diaminothieno[2,3-b]thiophene monomer 1a with different kinds of diacid chlorides (including oxalyl, adipoyl, sebacoyl, isophthaloyl, terephthaloyl, 4,4′-azodibenzoyl, 3,3′-azodibenzoyl, p-phenylene diacryloyl) in the presence of LiCl and NMP as a solvent through lowtemperature solution polycondensation. The chemical structures of model compound and synthesized polyamides were confirmed by FTIR, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (including ¹H-NMR and ¹³C-NMR) and elemental analysis. In addition, the thermal stability, crystallinity structure and surface morphology of synthesized polyamides were characterized via thermogravametric analysis (TGA), wide-angle X-ray diffraction analysis (WAXD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Also, the corrosion inhibition behavior of selected examples of polyamides was investigated; the inhibitive effect of the investigated polymers for carbon steel in 1.0 mol·L^?1 HCl was studied using potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. PDP results displayed that the polyamides containing thieno[2,3-b]thiophene moiety can be as mixed-type inhibitors. The inhibition efficiency (P, %) was found to be in the range from 67.13% to 96.01%. There is an increase in P by the synthesized polymers in comparison to the starting monomer. The adsorption of these polymers was found to obey Langmuir adsorption isotherm.     

Unexpected products from the reaction of chalcones with cyanoguanidine

A new series of unexpected dihydrochalcones DHCs attached with cyanoiminopyrimidine moiety in addition to expected cyanoaminopyrimidines CAMPs were synthesized by efficient and facile method via reaction of cyanoguanidine with chalcone derivatives in the presence of EtONa.     

Parameterized self-adjusting heaps

We give a parameterized form for the standard implementation of the pairing heaps, skew heaps and skew-pairing heaps. When the node with the minimum value is to be deleted from the heap (deletemin operation), the procedures used to combine the resulting sub-trees into one tree depend on the value of a parameter k. When the value of k is equal to 2, the implementations are equivalent to the standard implementations. Using more complicated arguments, we show that for some predefined ranges of k this general form achieves the same bounds as the standard implementations. Finally, experimental results are conducted showing that for the pairing heaps, by tuning the value of k, the cost of the deletemin operation is reduced.     

Synthesis of chiral linear and macrocyclic candidates: VI. Synthesis and antibacterial activity of some macrocyclic tripeptides and linear dipeptide Schiff bases

A series of macrocyclic tripeptides and linear dipeptide Schiff base derivatives has been synthesized using pyridine-3,5-dicarboxylic acid and L-phenyalanine methyl ester as starting materials. Treatment of pyridine-3,5-dicarbonyl dichloride with L-phenylalanine methyl ester gave N,N′-(pyridine-3,5-diyldicarbonyl)bis(L-phenyalanine methyl ester) which was hydrolyzed with 1N sodium hydroxide to the corresponding bis-acid, and the latter was cyclized with diamino acids to afford macrocyclic tripeptide derivatives. The reaction of the bis ester with hydrazine hydrate gave bis-hydrazide, which was condensed with aldehydes to obtain the corresponding Schiff base derivatives. The structures of the newly synthesized compounds were confirmed by IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, and MS spectral data and elemental analyses. The antimicrobial activities of some of the newly synthesized compounds were comparable with that of Streptomycin used as control.     

Phosphorylation of Guar Gum/Magnetite/Chitosan Nanocomposites for Uranium (VI) Sorption and Antibacterial Applications

The development of new materials is needed to address the environmental challenges of wastewater treatment. The phosphorylation of guar gum combined with its association to chitosan allows preparing an efficient sorbent for the removal of U(VI) from slightly acidic solutions. The incorporation of magnetite nanoparticles enhances solid/liquid. Functional groups are characterized by FTIR spectroscopy while textural properties are qualified by N₂ adsorption. The optimum pH is close to 4 (deprotonation of amine and phosphonate groups). Uptake kinetics are fast (60 min of contact), fitted by a pseudo-first order rate equation. Maximum sorption capacities are close to 1.28 and 1.16 mmol U g⁻¹ (non-magnetic and magnetic, respectively), while the sorption isotherms are fitted by Langmuir equation. Uranyl desorption (using 0.2 M HCl solutions) is achieved within 20–30 min; the sorbents can be recycled for at least five cycles (5–6% loss in sorption performance, complete desorption). In multi-component solutions, the sorbents show marked preference for U(VI) and Nd(III) over alkali-earth metals and Si(IV). The zone of exclusion method shows that magnetic sorbent has antibacterial effects against both Gram+ and Gram- bacteria, contrary to non-magnetic material (only Gram+ bacteria). The magnetic composite is highly promising as antimicrobial support and for recovery of valuable metals.     

Synthesis of some substituted 6,7-dihydro-4-methoxy-7-methyl-7-substituted-5-oxo-5H-furo[3,2-g]chromene-9-sulfonate derivatives as potent antihypertensive α-blocking and antiarrythmic agents

Russian Journal of General Chemistry - A number of substituted 4-methoxy-7-methyl-6-(substituted methyl)-5-oxo-5H-furo[3,2-g]-chromene-9-sulfonates 3a–3f and 4a–4c were synthesized....     

Biocompatible Water Soluble Polyacrylic Acid Coated CdSe/Cu Quantum Dot Conjugates for Biomolecule Detection

Biocompatible polyacrylic acid functionalized CdSe/Cu quantum dot conjugates were synthesized to be used for biomolecules detection. The study results demonstrate the conjugation of the 2.5-3 nm QD with gram negative bacteria with a low detection limit of 28 cfu/ml. The photoluminescence (PL) intensity was correlated to bacterial count, cellular proteins and exopolysaccharides in the tested samples. Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy (CSLM) images showed significant QD uptake within the cells, both cytoplasm and DNA were the predominant targeted biomolecules, higher fluorescent uptake was shown in gram negative bacteria than that observed for gram positive bacteria. Moreover, PL showed that there was a distinction between live and dead cells as well as gram negative and gram positive cells. Cell viability was not affected even after 6 days (100% viability) rendering it a non-toxic QD. The method is simple and is performed in a single step within approximately 10 min as compared to multi-step protocols for classical microbial count or fluorescent dye staining. All the above results indicate that the CdSe/Cu-PAA QDs are suitable for biomolecule detection, bio-labeling and bioimaging applications.     

Lauryl sulfate@magnetic graphene oxide nanosorbent for fast methylene blue recovery from aqueous solutions

Lauryl sulfate is utilized to functionalize magnetic graphene oxide (MGOLS) for fast removal of methylene blue (MB) using batch sorption experiments. The effects of different analytical parameters including medium pH, equilibration time, MGOLS dosage, initial MB concentration and temperature on the % MB removal are investigated. Among different isotherm and kinetic models, the experimental data were best fitted to the Langmuir and pseudo-second-order rate equations. The maximum Langmuir loading capacity reaches 624.42?mg g^?1 for MGOLS under optimal conditions. Sorption kinetic of MGOLS is very fast: Approximately 96% of dye extraction was recorded within the first 2?minutes of this sorption process. The sorption mechanism is proposed and the feasibility, thermic and entropic characteristics were evaluated. Sorption and desorption performances of MGOLS are maintained almost constant over five cycles of sorption/desorption. The results concluded MGOLS as an efficient extractor for fast and feasible recovery of MB from aqueous matrices.