High-performance liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous estimation of the key intermediates of duloxetine

A simple reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method employing C-18 column has been developed for simultaneous analysis of three intermediates in the synthesis of S-duloxetine, the antidepressant drug, viz., 2-acetyl thiophene (AT), N,N-dimethyl-3-keto-(2-thienyl)-propanamine (DKTP) and (S)-N,N-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-(2-thienyl)-propanamine (DHTP). Good separations were achieved by employing an isocratic system using acetonitrile and 0.05 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) containing 0.02% diethylamine. The detection was carried out at 241 nm. The method was validated for linearity, range, accuracy and precision. The developed method was applied for monitoring the progress of chemical synthesis of DKTP from AT followed by the biocatalytic reduction of DKTP to DHTP as the disappearance of the substrate and formation of the product can be monitored simultaneously by the present method.     

Nonequilibrium transport in quantum impurity models: the Bethe ansatz for open systems

We develop an exact nonperturbative framework to compute steady-state properties of quantum impurities subject to a finite bias. We show that the steady-state physics of these systems is captured by nonequilibrium scattering eigenstates which satisfy an appropriate Lippman-Schwinger equation. Introducing a generalization of the equilibrium Bethe ansatz--the nonequilibrium Bethe ansatz--we explicitly construct the scattering eigenstates for the interacting resonance level model and derive exact, nonperturbative results for the steady-state properties of the system.     

Instability of black hole formation under small pressure perturbations

We investigate here the spectrum of gravitational collapse endstates when arbitrarily small perfect fluid pressures are introduced in the classic black hole formation scenario as described by Oppenheimer, Snyder and Datt (OSD) (Oppenheimer and Snyder in Phys Rev 56:455, 1939; Datt in Zs f Phys 108:314, 1938). This extends a previous result on tangential pressures (Joshi and Malafarina Phys Rev D 83:024009, 2011) to the physically more realistic scenario of perfect fluid collapse. The existence of classes of pressure perturbations is shown explicitly, which has the property that injecting any smallest pressure changes the final fate of the dynamical collapse from a black hole to a naked singularity. It is therefore seen that any smallest neighborhood of the OSD model, in the space of initial data, contains collapse evolutions that go to a naked singularity outcome. This gives an intriguing insight on the nature of naked singularity formation in gravitational collapse.     

Multiobjective expected value model for portfolio selection in fuzzy environment

In this paper, we propose a credibilistic framework for portfolio selection problem using an expected value multiobjective model with fuzzy parameters. We consider short term return, long term return, risk and liquidity as key financial criteria. A solution procedure comprising fuzzy goal programming and fuzzy simulation based real-coded genetic algorithm is developed to solve the model. The proposed solution approach is considered advantageous particularly for the cases where the fuzzy parameters of the problem may assume any general functional form. An empirical study is included to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed model and solution approach in real-world applications of portfolio selection.     

The 2-center problem in three dimensions

Let P be a set of n points in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$. The 2-center problem for P is to find two congruent balls of minimum radius whose union covers P. We present a randomized algorithm for computing a 2-center of P that runs in $O(\beta (r^{?})n^2{\log }^{4}n\log \log n)$ expected time; here $\beta (r)=1/{(1?r/r_0)}^3$, $r^{?}$ is the radius of the 2-center balls of P, and $r_0$ is the radius of the smallest enclosing ball of P. The algorithm is near quadratic as long as $r^{?}$ is not too close to $r_0$, which is equivalent to the condition that the centers of the two covering balls be not too close to each other. This improves an earlier slightly super-cubic algorithm of Agarwal, Efrat, and Sharir (2000) [2] (at the cost of making the algorithm performance depend on the center separation of the covering balls).     

Two photon exchange contributions to elastic $\vec{e}+p\rightarrow e+\vec{p}$ process in the non-local field formalism

We compute the two photon exchange contributions to elastic scattering of polarized electrons from target protons. We use a non-local field theory formalism for this calculation. The formalism maintains gauge invariance and provides a systematic procedure for making this calculation. The results depend on one unknown parameter, . We compute the two photon exchange correction to the ratio of electric to magnetic form factors extracted using polarization transfer experiments. The correction is found to be small if . However, for larger values of , the correction can be quite significant. The correction to the polarization transfer results goes in the right direction to explain their difference with the ratio measured by the Rosenbluth separation method. We find that the difference between the two experimental results can be explained for a wide range of values of the parameter . We also find that the corrections due to two photon exchange depend on the photon longitudinal polarization ε. Hence, we predict an ε dependence of the form factor ratio extracted using the polarization transfer technique. Finally, we obtain a limit on by requiring that the non-linearity in ε dependence of the unpolarized reduced cross section is within experimental errors.     

Syntheses of aromatic aldehydes by laccase without the help of mediators

This communication reports the selective bioconversions of substituted toluenes to substituted benzaldehydes without the help of any mediators by purified laccase of indigenous fungal strain Fomes durissimus microbial type culture collection (MTCC)-1173. Molecular mass of laccase purified by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was found to be 74.86 kDa (～75 kDa). By using this purified laccase, selective bioconversions of 3-nitrotoluene to 3-nitrobenzaldehyde, 2-fluorotoluene to 2-fluorobenzaldehyde, 4-fluorotoluene to 4-fluorobenzaldehyde, 2-chlorotoluene to 2-chlorobenzaldehyde and 4-chlorotoluene to 4-chlorobenzaldehyde have been done without the help of mediator molecules within 1–2 hrs at room temperature and pressure with high yields (>90%). All the above bioconversions are good examples of green chemistry.     

Advancing MXene Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion Reactions: Surface,Stoichiometry, and Stability

MXenes, due to their tailorable chemistry and favourable physical properties, have great promise in electrocatalytic energy conversion reactions. To exploit fully their enormous potential, further advances specific to electrocatalysis revolving around their performance, stability, compositional discovery and synthesis are required. The most recent advances in these aspects are discussed in detail: surface functional and stoichiometric modifications which can improve performance, Pourbaix stability related to their electrocatalytic operating conditions, density functional theory and advances in machine learning for their discovery, and prospects in large scale synthesis and solution processing techniques to produce membrane electrode assemblies and integrated electrodes. This Review provides a perspective that is complemented by new density functional theory calculations which show how these recent advances in MXene material design are paving the way for effective electrocatalysts required for the transition to integrated renewable energy systems.