A New Family of Continuous Probability Distributions

In this paper, a new parametric compound G family of continuous probability distributions called the Poisson generalized exponential G (PGEG) family is derived and studied. Relevant mathematical properties are derived. Some new bivariate G families using the theorems of “Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern copula”, “the modified Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern copula”, “the Clayton copula”, and “the Renyi’s entropy copula” are presented. Many special members are derived, and a special attention is devoted to the exponential and the one parameter Pareto type II model. The maximum likelihood method is used to estimate the model parameters. A graphical simulation is performed to assess the finite sample behavior of the estimators of the maximum likelihood method. Two real-life data applications are proposed to illustrate the importance of the new family.     

Atmospheric Pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharges for the Deposition of Organic Plasma Polymer Coatings for Biomedical Application

Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing - Atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) are proving to have great potential in the bioengineering and medical field for functionalisation...     

Ezetimibe-Loaded Nanostructured Lipid Carrier Based Formulation Ameliorates Hyperlipidaemia in an Experimental Model of High Fat Diet

Ezetimibe (EZE) possesses low aqueous solubility and poor bioavailability and in addition, its extensive hepatic metabolism supports the notion of developing a novel carrier system for EZE. Ezetimibe was encapsulated into nanostructured lipid carriers (EZE-NLCs) via a high pressure homogenization technique (HPH). A three factor, two level (2³) full factorial design was employed to study the effect of amount of poloxamer 188 (X1), pressure of HPH (X2) and number of HPH cycle (X3) on dependent variables. Particle size, polydispersity index (PDI), % entrapment efficiency (%EE), zeta potential, drug content and in-vitro drug release were evaluated. The optimized formulation displays pragmatic inferences associated with particle size of 134.5 nm; polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.244 ± 0.03; zeta potential of −28.1 ± 0.3 mV; % EE of 91.32 ± 1.8% and % CDR at 24-h of 97.11%. No interaction was observed after X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies. EZE-NLCs (6 mg/kg/day p.o.) were evaluated in the high fat diet fed rats induced hyperlipidemia in comparison with EZE (10 mg/kg/day p.o.). Triglyceride, HDL-c, LDL-c and cholesterol were significantly normalized and histopathological evaluation showed normal structure and architecture of the hepatocytes. The results demonstrated the superiority of EZE-NLCs in regard to bioavailability enhancement, dose reduction and dose-dependent side effects.     

Poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone-maleic anhydride-styrene) grafted terpolymer: Synthesis,characterization, and bactericidal property evaluation against E. coli and S. epidermidis

Poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone-maleic anhydride-styrene) terpolymer was prepared using AIBN initiator with acetone as solvent. The terpolymer was grafted with anti-bacterial agents para-aminobenzoic acid and 2,4-dichlorophenol to introduce bactericidal activity to the terpolymer. The terpolymer and the grafted polymers were characterized by FTIR, ¹H-NMR, and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopic methods. Thermal properties were determined by differential scanning calorimetric technique and thermogravimetric analysis. The glass transition temperature was found to be 111°C (terpolymer), 150°C (VMS-G-PABA) and 130°C (VMS-G-DCP). Terpolymer starts degradation at 288°C and grafted terpolymers at 104°C (VMS-G-PABA) and 129°C (VMS-G-DCP), respectively. The anti-bacterial activity of grafted terpolymers were evaluated by the shake flask method against gram positive and gram negative bacteria E. coli and S. epidermidis. The grafted terpolymers showed effective inhibition against both the bacteria, the minimum inhibition concentration was observed to be 75 µg/mL and 80 µg/mL for VMS-G-PABA and 50 µg/mL for VMS-G-DCP against E. coli and S. epidermidis, respectively. The new polymers showed 90% bacterial growth inhibition at 200 µg/mL.     

Synthesis, structure, and LLCT transitions in terminal hydrazido(2-) bipyridine complexes of titanium

Addition of 2,2'-bipyridine and its derivatives to Ti(NMe2)2(dpma), where dpma is N,N-di(pyrrolyl-alpha-methyl)-N-methylamine, followed by various hydrazine derivatives was used to generate a series of terminal hydrazido(2-) complexes. Among the new complexes is Ti[=NN(H)Ph](But-bpy)(dpma), which was structurally characterized, where But-bpy is 4,4'-tert-butyl-2,2'-bipyridine. Other new complexes reported are Ti(NNMe2)(Me-bpy)(dpma), Ti(NNMe2)(bpy)(dpma), Ti(NNMe2)(Ph-bpy)(dpma), Ti[NN(Me)Ph](But-bpy)(dpma), Ti[NN(Me)p-tolyl](But-bpy)(dpma), and Ti[NN(Me)4-FC6H4](But-bpy)(dpma). Titanium hydrazido(2-) complexes bearing bpy substituents possess a low-energy transition, leading them to have blue or green colors, which is somewhat unusual for titanium(IV) species. Through absorption studies on the derivatives, it was determined that the low-energy transition is the result of an unusual ligand-to-ligand charge transfer where electron density residing on the hydrazido(2-) is transferred to the bpy pi* orbitals.     

Oligomer Sensor Nanoarchitectonics for “Turn-On” Fluorescence Detection of Cholesterol at the Nanomolar Level

Sensitive and rapid monitoring of cholesterol levels in the human body are highly desirable as they are directly related to the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. By using the nanoarchitectonic approach, a novel fluorescent conjugated oligofluorene (OFP-CD) functionalized with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) was assembled for “Turn-On” fluorescence sensing of cholesterol. The appended β-CD units in OFP-CD enabled the forming of host-guest complexes with dabsyl chloride moieties in water, resulting in fluorescence quenching of the oligofluorene through intermolecular energy transfer. In the presence of cholesterol molecules, a more favorable host-guest complex with stoichiometry 1 cholesterol: 2 β-CD units was formed, replacing dabsyl chloride in β-CD’s cavities. This process resulted in fluorescence recovery of OFP-CD, owing to disruption of energy transfer. The potential of this nanoarchitectonic system for “Turn-On” sensing of cholesterol was extensively studied by fluorescence spectroscopy. The high selectivity of the sensor for cholesterol was demonstrated using biologically relevant interfering compounds, such as carbohydrates, amino acids, metal ions, and anions. The detection limit (LOD value) was as low as 68 nM, affirming the high sensitivity of the current system.     

Design of an Amphiphilic Perylene Diimide for Optical Recognition of Anticancer Drug through a Chirality-Induced Helical Structure

Introduction of chirality into a supramolecular self-assembly system plays an indispensable role in attaining specific molecular recognition ability. Herein, a chiral anticancer drug 5′-deoxy-5-fluorouridine (5′DFU) was explored for inducing the self-assembly of a cationic perylene diimide derivative containing boronic acid groups (PDI-PBA) into a highly ordered right-handed helical structure. As a result, PDI-PBA exhibited a molecular recognition ability towards 5′DFU among other cis-diols and anticancer drugs. With the help of a dynamic covalent bond and favorable hydrogen-bonding interactions, chirality transfer from chiral 5′DFU to achiral PDI-PBA breaks down the strong π–π stacking of PDI-PBA and makes it reorganize into highly ordered helical supramolecular structures. This work provides an insight into chiral anticancer drug tuning interactions of π-chromophores and the inducement of hierarchical self-assembly to achieve specific molecular recognition.     

Approximate Relativistic Bound State Solutions of the Tietz–Hua Rotating Oscillator for Any κ-State

Approximate analytical solutions of the Dirac equation with Tietz–Hua (TH) potential are obtained for arbitrary spin–orbit quantum number κ using the Pekeris approximation scheme to deal with the spin–orbit coupling terms κ(κ ± 1)r ^?2. In the presence of exact spin and pseudo-spin symmetric limitation, the bound state energy eigenvalues and associated two-component wave functions of the Dirac particle moving in the field of attractive and repulsive TH potential are obtained using the parametric generalization of the Nikiforov–Uvarov method. The cases of the Morse potential, the generalized Morse potential and non-relativistic limits are studied.     

Electrical studies on bulk Se96Sn4 semiconducting glass before and after gamma irradiation

Bulk Se₉₆Sn₄ chalcogenide glass was prepared by melt quenching technique and irradiated by different doses of 4, 8, 12, 24 and 33 kGy using ⁶⁰Co gamma emitter. I-V characteristics were obtained for this glass, before and after gamma irradiation, in the temperature range 200-300 K. Ohmic behavior was observed at low electric fields (≤1×10⁴ V/m), while at higher fields, a deviation from ohmic towards non-ohmic behavior was observed. The plots of ln(I/V) vs. V were found to be straight lines and the slopes of these lines decrease linearly with temperature indicating the presence of SCLC. In the temperature range of measurements, the dependence of DC conductivity on temperature at low electric field shows two types of conduction channels, one in high temperature range 270-300 K and the other at low temperature range 200-270 K. Analysis of the experimental data shows that the conductivity at room temperature decreases with increase in irradiation dose. This is attributed to rupturing of SnSe_4/2 structural units, upon irradiation, and rebuilt of Se atoms between Se chains. This redistribution of bonds, induced by gamma irradiation, is responsible for the corresponding increase in the activation energy. The obtained values of the activation energy indicate that the conduction occurs due to thermally assisted charge carriers movement in the band tail of localized states. However, in the low temperature range, results obtained from Mott’s variable range hopping (VRH) model reveal that the density of localized states has its maximum value at a gamma dose of 12 kGy, while the disorder parameter T_o, hopping distance R_hop and hopping energy W have their minimum value at this particular dose.