Dipolar cycloaddition based multi-component reaction: Synthesis of spiro tethered acenaphthylene–indolizine–pyridinone hybrids

The stereoselective syntheses of novel dispiro acenaphthylene–indolizine–pyridinone hybrid heterocycles have been achieved through one-pot four-component domino 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition–Michael addition–air oxidation sequence of reactions.     

Isophorone‐boronate ester: A simple chemosensor for optical detection of fluoride anion

A highly selective isophorone‐boronate ester based chemosensor, ( 1 ) , having a dicyanovinyl moiety as a convenient colorimetric probe, has been designed. Different types of anionic analyte such as CH₃COO^?, ClO₄^?, Cl^?, F^?, PF₆^?, Br^? and HSO₄^? were tested and among them only highly nucleophilic F^? anion displayed significant response towards the sensor. Addition of the fluoride anion across the boron atom disrupts the π‐conjugation thereby shifts the absorption wavelength towards the redshift region due to the decrease in the HOMO‐LUMO energy gap and a colour change from yellow to blue is observed under visible light condition. The detection limit of this probe was calculated to be 3.25 × 10^—8 M for fluoride anion. The binding constants and the detection limits of the sensor were calculated using absorption titration studies. The silica gel TLC strips dip‐coated by the chemosensor ( 1 ) revealed a colour change from yellow to brick red to naked eye.     

The properties of Mn–CuFe2O4 spinel ferrite nanoparticles under various synthesis conditions

The structural, morphological, magnetic, dielectric, and gas analyzing properties are studied in CuFe₂O₄(Mn–CuFe₂O₄) substituted spinel ferrite nanoparticles synthesized via evaporation and automatic combustion. The obtained nanoparticles are established to possess a spherical shape. The smallest size of Mn–CuFe₂O₄ (~9 nm) nanoparticles is achieved at using automatic combustion. X-ray diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy reveal that the crystal lattice constant and the Mn–CuFe₂O₄ nanoparticle size are larger at augmenting the annealing temperature from 600 to 900°С. The dielectric permeability and losses of Mn–CuFe₂O₄ nanoparticles are studied at various synthesis conditions and temperatures of annealing. Various aspects of gas sensibility of synthesized Mn–CuFe₂O₄ nanoparticles are tested, as well. The maximum response to the presence of liquefied petroleum gas is 0.28 at the optimum working temperature of 300°C for Mn–CuFe₂O₄ nanoparticles obtained via automatic combustion and it is 0.23 at 250°C for deposited nanoparticles.

     

Distribution functions, loop formation probabilities, and force-extension relations in a model for short double-stranded DNA molecules

We obtain, using transfer-matrix methods, the distribution function P(R) of the end-to-end distance, the loop formation probability, and force-extension relations in a model for short double-stranded DNA molecules. Accounting for the appearance of "bubbles," localized regions of enhanced flexibility associated with the opening of a few base pairs of double-stranded DNA in thermal equilibrium, leads to dramatic changes in P(R) and unusual force-extension curves. An analytic formula for the loop formation probability in the presence of bubbles is proposed. For short heterogeneous chains, we demonstrate a strong dependence of loop formation probabilities on sequence.     

Water-soluble terpolymer-mediated calcium carbonate crystal modification

The structure of the polymeric substrate plays an important role in the nucleation of calcium carbonate crystals. In this study a synthetic water-soluble poly(acrylamide-co-2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propane sodium sufonate-co-n-vinyl pyrrolidone) was found to be a substrate favoring the nucleation of polymorphs of calcium carbonate crystals under specific experimental conditions. Morphological characterization of the polymorphs was done using atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, FTIR analysis, and X-ray diffraction. If calcium carbonate is precipitated in the presence of terpolymer, a remarkable increase in nucleation density (number of crystals per unit area) was observed. Stacked crystals of rhombohedral morphology that formed may be due to the presence of sodium sulfonate groups on the terpolymer. However, in the presence of poly-L-aspartic acid, almost all crystals are hollow and have needlelike or plate like morphology was formed. This change in calcium carbonate morphology can be explained by the variation of the polymer conformation, if poly- L-aspartic acid is present.     

Enhanced visible light photocatalytic disinfection of gram negative, pathogenic Escherichia coli bacteria with Ag/TiV oxide nanoparticles

Silver sensitized titanium vanadium mixed Ag/TiV oxide photocatalyst was synthesized using sol-gel technique. The catalyst was characterized using XRD, SEM, EDAX, HRTEM, UV-DRS, XPS, and PL analysis which reveal the formation of a predominantly rutile mixed phase nanoparticles of 25-30 nm crystallite size. The catalyst showed a marked red-shift in the absorption spectrum compared to Degussa P25. It exhibited a remarkable enhancement in the visible light photocatalytic activity in inactivating Escherichia coli, a gram-negative pathogenic bacterium, too. The conclusions are supported by a comparison with an identically synthesized TiV oxide sample. A microbicidal photonic efficiency (MPE) has been defined and a method for its determination has been proposed to facilitate quantification of the performance of the photocatalyst and the disinfection system taking into account the response of the catalyst to the radiation intensity.     

Optimal quantum states for image sensing in loss

We consider a general image sensing framework that includes many quantum sensing problems by an appropriate choice of image set, prior probabilities, and cost function. For any such problem, in the presence of loss and a signal energy constraint, we show that a pure input state of light with the signal modes in a mixture of number states minimizes the cost among all ancilla-assisted parallel strategies. Lossy binary phase discrimination with a peak photon number constraint and general lossless image sensing are considered as examples.     

N—H...O and N—H...N interactions in three pyran derivatives

The three pyran structures 6‐methylamino‐5‐nitro‐2,4‐diphenyl‐4H‐pyran‐3‐carbonitrile, C₁₉H₁₅N₃O₃, (I), 4‐(3‐fluorophenyl)‐6‐methylamino‐5‐nitro‐2‐phenyl‐4H‐pyran‐3‐carbonitrile, C₁₉H₁₄FN₃O₃, (II), and 4‐(4‐chlorophenyl)‐6‐methylamino‐5‐nitro‐2‐phenyl‐4H‐pyran‐3‐carbonitrile, C₁₉H₁₄ClN₃O₃, (III), differ in the nature of the aryl group at the 4‐position. The heterocyclic ring in all three structures adopts a flattened boat conformation. The dihedral angle between the pseudo‐axial phenyl substituent and the flat part of the pyran ring is 89.97 (1)° in (I), 80.11 (1)° in (II) and 87.77 (1)° in (III). In all three crystal structures, a strong intramolecular N—H...O hydrogen bond links the flat conjugated H—N—C=C—N—O fragment into a six‐membered ring. In (II), molecules are linked into dimeric aggregates by N—H... O(nitro) hydrogen bonds, generating an R₂²(12) graph‐set motif. In (III), intermolecular N—H...N and C—H...N hydrogen bonds link the molecules into a linear chain pattern generating C(8) and C(9) graph‐set motifs, respectively.     

Numerical study on bacterial flagellar bundling and tumbling in a viscous fluid using an immersed boundary method

The bundling and tumbling behavior of bacterial flagella in a viscous fluid has got immense significance in the field of biological fluid dynamics. In this paper we investigate the hydrodynamic interaction among two and more than two flagella in a viscous fluid based on an immersed boundary method. We model each helical flagellum by a number of triangular cross-sections with three immersed boundary (IB) points on each cross-section. Three types of elastic links are generated from each IB point to create an elastic network model of the flagellum and the first cross-section is modeled as the flagellar motor. The elastic forces are computed based on the elastic energy approach and the motor forces are obtained from the applied angular frequency of rotation of the motor. The Stokes equations governing the flow are solved on a staggered Cartesian grid system using a fractional-step based finite-volume method. It is observed that when two left-handed helical flagella rotate in the counter-clockwise direction, the resulting hydrodynamic interaction leads to bundling. When one of the flagella reverses the direction of rotation to clockwise the hydrodynamic interaction results in tumbling. During the bundling, the flagella wrap and intertwine each other, whereas during the tumbling they separate in an erratic way. There exists an exact combination of the handedness and rotational direction of the flagella to achieve the bundling. The bundling-to-tumbling behavior of the flagella is studied and it is concluded that the tumbling occurs faster than the bundling. Further, the hydrodynamic interaction among three flagella in a viscous fluid is studied for the cases of rotation in the same direction and in different directions. The bundling and tumbling behavior is well captured even for the case of multiple (more than two) flagella using the developed model.     

Energy monitoring and analysis during deformation of bedded-sandstone: Use of acoustic emission

This paper investigates the mechanical behaviour and energy releasing characteristics of bedded-sandstone with bedding layers in different orientations, under uniaxial compression. Cylindrical sandstone specimens (54 mm diameter and 108 mm height) with bedding layers inclined at angles of 10°, 20°, 35°, 55°, and 83° to the minor principal stress direction, were produced to perform a series of Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS) tests. One of the two identical sample sets was fully-saturated with water before testing and the other set was tested under dry conditions. An acoustic emission system was employed in all the testing to monitor the acoustic energy release during the whole deformation process of specimens. From the test results, the critical joint orientation was observed as 55° for both dry and saturated samples and the peak-strength losses due to water were 15.56%, 20.06%, 13.5%, 13.2%, and 13.52% for the bedding orientations 10°, 20°, 35°, 55°, and 83°, respectively. The failure mechanisms for the specimens with bedding layers in 10°, 20° orientations showed splitting type failure, while the specimens with bedding layers in 55°, 83° orientations were failed by sliding along a weaker bedding layer. The failure mechanism for the specimens with bedding layers in 35° orientation showed a mixed failure mode of both splitting and sliding types. Analysis of the acoustic energy, captured from the acoustic emission detection system, revealed that the acoustic energy release is considerably higher in dry specimens than that of the saturated specimens at any bedding orientation. In addition, higher energy release was observed for specimens with bedding layers oriented in shallow angles (which were undergoing splitting type failures), whereas specimens with steeply oriented bedding layers (which were undergoing sliding type failures) showed a comparatively less energy release under both dry and saturated conditions. Moreover, a considerable amount of energy dissipation before the ultimate failure was observed for specimens with bedding layers oriented in shallow angles under both dry and saturated conditions. These results confirm that when rock having bedding layers inclined in shallow angles the failures could be more violent and devastative than the failures of rock with steeply oriented bedding layers.