New lipoxygenase and cholinesterase inhibitory sphingolipids from Carthamus oxyacantha

Two new sphingolipids: oxyacanthin A [(2S,3S,4R)-2-{[(2R,5E)-2-hydroxyoctadec-5-enoyl]amino}hexaeicosane-1,3,4-triol; 1] and B [(2S,3S,4R)-2-{[(2R,5E)-2-hydroxyoctadec-5-enoyl]amino}hexaeicosane-1,3,4-triol-1-O-β-D-glucopyranoside; 2], together with 1-octacosanol, β-sitosterol, β-sitosterol 3-O-β-D-glucopyranoside and luteolin 7-O-β-glucopyranoside were isolated from the methanolic extract of the whole plant of Carthamus oxyacantha. Their structures were elucidated using ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectra and 2D NMR analyses (HMQC, HMBC and COSY) in combination with mass spectrometry (EI-MS, HR-EI-MS, FAB-MS and HR-FAB-MS) experiments and in comparison with the literature data of the related compounds. Both the compounds 1 and 2 showed inhibitory potential against lipoxygenase (LOX) in a concentration-dependent manner with IC₅₀ values 83.3 ± 1.3 and 245.7 ± 1.1 µM, whereas compound 2 showed inhibition against enzymes acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) with IC₅₀ values 65.3 ± 0.1 and 93.6 ± 0.1 µM, respectively.     

P=C-N-heterocycles: synthesis of biaryl-type 1,3-benzazaphospholes with ortho-substituted phenyl or 2-heteroaryl groups

A facile synthesis of functionally substituted 2-(hetero)aryl 1,3-benzazaphospholes via nickel- or palladium-catalyzed phosphonylation of N-acyl-2-bromoanilides 1a-k with triethyl phosphite is presented. Anilidophosphonates 2a-g with naphthoyl-, o-substituted phenyl, furoyl- or thenoyl groups allow direct reductive cyclization with LiAlH(4) to benzazaphospholes 3. The reaction of the o-bromoderivative 2d proceeds with concomitant replacement of bromine by hydrogen, whereas the electron-withdrawing pyridyl group of 2h prevents the synthesis of 3h by this short route. An alternative synthesis of 2-pyridylbenzazaphosphole 3hvia anilidophosphonates succeeded starting from Fmoc-anilinophosphonate 2kvia selective cleavage of the N-protecting group, reduction of the resulting phosphonoaniline to phosphinoaniline and cyclization with pyridine-2-carboxaldehyde via a dihydrobenzazaphosphole 8. N-Substituted pyridylmethylbenzazaphosphole 9 was detected as a side product. The structure elucidation of the new compounds is based on multinuclear NMR data and X-ray crystal structure analyses of a phosphonoanilide, underlining the dominance of N-H···O=P hydrogen bonds over N-H···O=C type hydrogen bonds, of 3h and a supramolecular associate of 3b and its unprecedented air oxidation product 10.     

Localization of iris in gray scale images using intensity gradient

A new method of iris localization based on intensity value analysis is proposed in this paper. Iris recognition systems are mainly dependent on the performance of iris localization processing. Steps after localization involve normalization, feature extraction and matching. These steps are based on the accuracy and efficiency of localization of iris in human eye images. In the proposed scheme, the inner boundary of iris is calculated by finding the pupil center and radius using two methods. In the first method, selected region is adaptively binarized and centroid of the region utilized for obtaining pupil parameters. Edges are processed to detect radius and center of pupil during the second method. For outer iris boundary, a band is calculated within which iris outer boundary lies. Signals in one dimension are picked up along radial direction within determined band at different angles. Three points with maximum gradient are selected from each signal. Redundant points are deleted using Mahalanobis distance and remaining points are used to obtain the outer circle of the iris. Points for upper and lower eyelids are found in the same way as the iris outer boundary. Selected points are then statistically fitted to make parabolas and lastly eyelashes are removed from the image to completely localize the iris. Experimental results show that proposed method is very efficient and accurate.     

Phase Time for the Tunneling of Ultracold V-Type Atoms Through a Mazer Cavity

We study the tunneling time of ultracold V-type atoms interacting a high quality microwave cavity. Here atomic coherence is introduced in the system by a strong driving field which couples the two lower states of the three-level atom. It is found that in the presence of coherence, mazer action or the scattering like nature of the interaction may be examined for extended energies of the incident cold atoms. Our results show that position and amplitudes of the peak values of the phase time(traversal time) may be very effectively controlled by the coherent driving field. Further, here we obtained superclassical values of the phase time corresponding to much higher values of the transmission amplitudes of the tunneling atoms which may be advantageous in the possible experimental realization of the superclassical tunneling time of the traversing cold atoms. In addition, we examine a mirror reflection type symmetry in the phase time curve for a judicious choice of the external driving field.     

Structure-Based Designing,Solvent Less Synthesis of 1,2,3,4-Tetrahydropyrimidine-5-carboxylate Derivatives: A Combined In Vitro and In Silico Screening Approach

Objective: In this study, small molecules possessing tetrahydropyrimidine derivatives have been synthesized having halogenated benzyl derivatives and carboxylate linkage. As previously reported, FDA approved halogenated pyrimidine derivatives prompted us to synthesize novel compounds in order to evaluate their biological potential. Methodology: Eight pyrimidine derivatives have been synthesized from ethyl acetoacetate, secondary amine, aromatic benzaldehyde by adding catalytic amount of CuCl₂·2H₂O via solvent less Grindstone multicomponent reagent method. Molecular structure reactivity and virtual screening were performed to check their biological efficacy as an anti-oxidant, anti-cancer and anti-diabetic agent. These studies were supported by in vitro analysis and QSAR studies. Results: After combined experimental and virtual screening 5c, 5g and 5e could serve as lead compounds, having low IC₅₀ and high binding affinity.     

Optoelectronic and elastic properties of metal halides double perovskites Cs_2InBiX_6(X = F,Cl, Br,I)

Structural geometry, electronic band gaps, density of states, optical and mechanical properties of double perovskite halides Cs_2InBiX_6(X = F, Cl, Br, I) are investigated using the density functional theory. These compounds possess genuine perovskite stoichiometry, evaluated using various geometry-based indices like tolerance factor, octahedral factor, and formation energy. The fundamental electronic band gaps are direct and valued in the range 0.80–2.79 e V. These compounds have narrow band gaps(except Cs_2InBiX_6) due to strong orbital coupling of the cations. The valence band maximum and conduction band minimum are confirmed to be essentially of In 5 s and Bi 6 p characters, respectively. The splitting of Bi 6 p bands due to strong spin-orbit coupling causes reduction in the band gaps. These compounds have large dispersion in their bands and very low carrier effective masses. The substitution of halogen atoms has great influence on the optical properties. The mechanical properties reveal that Cs_2InBiX_6(X = F, Cl, Br, I) satisfy the stability criteria in cubic structures.     

Tailoring the donor moieties in TPA-based organic dyes for efficient photovoltaic,optical and nonlinear optical response properties

The current study reports tailoring the electronic donor structures of organic dyes to modify their optical and nonlinear optical (NLO) response properties. Five (5) tri-phenyl amine (TPA) based Donor-π-Acceptor (D-π-A) organic dyes with the codes ICAA1 , ICAA2 , ICAA3 , ICAA4 , and ICAA5 were designed and investigated for their optical and NLO properties using quantum chemical methods. Optical and NLO properties of these dyes were studied by CAM-B3LYP method and 6-311G* basis set. The focus has been on the impact of adding secondary donors and shifting their substitutions at ortho (o), meta (m) and para (p) positions. Among all designed compounds, ICAA4 showed the highest amplitude of average third-order NLO polarizability <γ>, which is calculated to be 1316 × 10⁻³⁶ esu. Time-dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) method was used to determine how a change in the position of the donor affected the excitation energy (E_g) and NLO response properties. The findings showed that changing the position of the secondary donor results in a red shift among absorption spectra as well as the increase in their NLO responses. Complete process of intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) has been investigated in terms of different optical parameters such as frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs), molecular electrostatic potentials (MEPs), transition density matrix (TDMs), density of states (DOS), electron density difference (EDD), and natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. Our calculations for study of ICT process indicate that p-position of methoxy group performs better among all other positions and even it has better NLO response properties than the compound with three collective methoxy groups. The calculated V_oc values of all designed molecules range from 1.09 to 1.30, all of them are positive while their ΔG_inject is found to be in the range of −0.87 to −1.79 eV indicating their decent potential for photovoltaic applications. The studied optical, NLO and photovoltaic parameters illustrated that ICAA1 to ICAA5 are appropriate molecules not only for NLO applications but also for efficient photovoltaic purposes.     

MHD axisymmetric flow of third grade fluid between porous disks with heat transfer

The magnetohydrodynamic(MHD) flow of the third grade fluid between two permeable disks with heat transfer is investigated.The governing partial differential equations are converted into the ordinary differential equations by suitable transformations.The transformed equations are solved by the homotopy analysis method(HAM).The expressions for square residual errors are defined,and the optimal values of convergencecontrol parameters are selected.The dimensionless velocity and temperature fields are examined for various dimensionless parameters.The skin friction coefficient and the Nusselt number are tabulated to analyze the effects of dimensionless parameters.