Phospholipid/Polydiacetylene Vesicle-Based Colorimetric Assay for High-Throughput Screening of Bacteriocins and Halocins

Multi-phase anaerobic reactor for H₂ and CH₄ production from paperboard mill wastewater was studied. The reactor was operated at hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 12, 18, 24, and 36 h, and organic loading rates (OLRs) of 2.2, 1.5, 1.1, and 0.75 kg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/m³ day, respectively. HRT of 12 h and OLR of 2.2 kg COD/m³ day provided maximum hydrogen yield of 42.76?±?14.5 ml/g COD_removed and volumetric substrate uptake rate (?rS) of 16.51?±?4.43 mg COD/L h. This corresponded to the highest soluble COD/total COD (SCOD/TCOD) ratio of 56.25?±?3.3 % and the maximum volatile fatty acid (VFA) yield (Y_VFA) of 0.21?±?0.03 g VFA/g COD, confirming that H₂ was mainly produced through SCOD conversion. The highest methane yield (18.78?±?3.8 ml/g COD_removed) and ?rS of 21.74?±?1.34 mgCOD/L h were achieved at an HRT of 36 h and OLR of 0.75 kg COD/m³ day. The maximum hydrogen production rate (HPR) and methane production rate (MPR) were achieved at carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 47.9 and 14.3, respectively. This implies the important effect of C/N ratio on the distinction between the dominant microorganism bioactivities responsible for H₂ and CH₄ production.     

Determination of Selenium by Single-Drop Microextraction and Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Spectroscopy

A simple and convenient assay based on single-drop microextraction with infrared spectroscopy is reported for the determination of selenium. The extraction conditions were carefully optimized and selenium was preconcentrated through single-drop microextraction in 1,2-dichloroethane containing N-hydroxy-N-phenyl-N′-(o-tolyl) benzimidamide. The method is selective and almost all common ions including molybdenum(VI), chromium(VI), and tungsten(VI) did not interfere with the isolation protocol. The selenite band at 875?±?2?cm^?1, which is assigned to the asymmetric vibrational stretch (υ₃), was used for the quantification of selenium. Low limits of detection and quantification of 2.0 and 6.6?µg?L^?1 demonstrate the sensitivity of the method. Good precision was evaluated by the standard deviation (2.0?µg?L^?1) and relative standard deviation (0.5%) for 8?µg?L^?1 was achieved for 10 measurements. The method was used to analyze human blood, urine, and water for selenium.     

Efficient synthesis of acridinediones in aqueous media

An efficient synthesis of acridinediones in two steps have been achieved using water as a reaction media without chromatographic purification. First step involves the reaction of dimedone with ammonium acetate to yield enaminone in water which on further reaction with various aldehydes yields acridinedione in aqueous media. The reaction merits the use of water as solvent, no additive catalyst and provides high yield of products with good purity.     

Catalyst-free glycerol-mediated green synthesis of 5′-thioxospiro[indoline-3,3′-[1,2,4]triazolidin]-2-ones/spiro[indoline-3,3′-[1,2,4]triazolidine]-2,5′-diones

The development of new catalyst-free green and efficient protocol to access 5′-thioxospiro[indoline-3,3′-[1,2,4]triazolidin]-2-ones/spiro[indoline-3,3′-[1,2,4]triazolidine]-2,5′-diones, potential privileged scaffolds for drug discovery, is disclosed. Key feature of this methodology is the dual use of glycerol—a recyclable, bioorganic compound, as a solvent cum promoter. Other highlights include use of inexpensive reagents, mild reaction conditions, operational simplicity, short reaction time, no need for chromatographic purification, and high yields.     

Organic Supercapacitors as the Next Generation Energy Storage Device: Emergence,Opportunity, and Challenges

Harnessing new materials for developing high-energy storage devices set off research in the field of organic supercapacitors. Various attractive properties like high energy density, lower device weight, excellent cycling stability, and impressive pseudocapacitive nature make organic supercapacitors suitable candidates for high-end storage device applications. This review highlights the overall progress and future of organic supercapacitors. Sustainable energy production and storage depend on low cost, large supercapacitor packs with high energy density. Organic supercapacitors with high pseudocapacitance, lightweight form factor, and higher device potential are alternatives to other energy storage devices. There are many recent ongoing research works that focus on organic electrolytes along with the material aspect of organic supercapacitors. This review summarizes the current research status and the chemistry behind the storage mechanism in organic supercapacitors to overcome the challenges and achieve superior performance for future opportunities.     

Performance of solid state protonic battery with different cathodes

To establish the fact that the performance of a solid state battery is predominantly governed by the cathode, primary electrochemical cells were fabricated using FeH(SO₄)₂-xH₂O solid electrolyte having proton transport number close to unity (prepared by chemical route) taken in conjunction with five different cathodes MnO₂, PbO₂, V₆O₁₃, I₂ and TMAI iodine complex. Amongst these, better discharge characteristics along with thermodynamic and chemical stability of the cell were offered by TMAI iodine complex based cathode. Beside these, it provided short-circuit current, capacity and energy density of the order of 5 mA 4.5 mAh and 2.67 Wh/kg respectively due to the presence of highly active iodine, which is not free in TMAI compared to the cathode made of simply I₂. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Ionic Devices, Anna University, Chennai, India, Nov. 28–30, 2003.     

Simple algorithms for approximating all roots of a polynomial with real roots

We present a simple algorithm for approximating all roots of a polynomial p(x) when it has only real roots. The algorithm is based on some interesting properties of the polynomials appearing in the Extended Euclidean Scheme for p(x) and p′(x). For example, it turns out that these polynomials are orthogonal; as a consequence, we are able to limit the precision required by our algorithm in intermediate steps. A parallel implementation of this algorithm yields a P-uniform NC₂ circuit, and the bit complexity of its sequential implementation is within a polylog factor of the bit complexity of the best known algorithm for the problem.