Phytochemical Profiling,In Vitro Biological Activities,and In Silico Molecular Docking Studies of Dracaena reflexa

Dracaena reflexa, a traditionally significant medicinal plant, has not been extensively explored before for its phytochemical and biological potential. The present study was conducted to evaluate the bioactive phytochemicals and in vitro biological activities of D. reflexa, and perform in silico molecular docking validation of D. reflexa. The bioactive phytochemicals were assessed by preliminary phytochemical testing, total bioactive contents, and GC-MS analysis. For biological evaluation, the antioxidant (DPPH, ABTS, CUPRAC, and ABTS), antibacterial, thrombolytic, and enzyme inhibition (tyrosinase and cholinesterase enzymes) potential were determined. The highest level of total phenolic contents (92.72 ± 0.79 mg GAE/g extract) was found in the n-butanol fraction while the maximum total flavonoid content (110 ± 0.83 mg QE/g extract) was observed in methanolic extract. The results showed that n-butanol fraction exhibited very significant tyrosinase inhibition activity (73.46 ± 0.80) and acetylcholinesterase inhibition activity (64.06 ± 2.65%) as compared to other fractions and comparable to the standard compounds (kojic acid and galantamine). The methanolic extract was considered to have moderate butyrylcholinesterase inhibition activity (50.97 ± 063) as compared to the standard compound galantamine (53.671 ± 0.97%). The GC-MS analysis of the n-hexane fraction resulted in the tentative identification of 120 bioactive phytochemicals. Furthermore, the major compounds as identified by GC-MS were analyzed using in silico molecular docking studies to determine the binding affinity between the ligands and the enzymes (tyrosinase, acetylcholinesterase, and butyrylcholinesterase enzymes). The results of this study suggest that Dracaena reflexa has unquestionable pharmaceutical importance and it should be further explored for the isolation of secondary metabolites that can be employed for the treatment of different diseases.     

Intraspecific competition of predator for prey with variable rates in protected areas

Nonlinear Dynamics - In this present study, we systematically explore the periodicity (almost periodic nature) of a dynamical system in time-varying environment, which portrays a special case of...     

Observation of chimera patterns in a network of symmetric chaotic finance systems

The economic and financial systems consist of many nonlinear factors that make them behave as the complex systems. Recently many chaotic finance systems have been proposed to study the complex dynamics of finance as a noticeable problem in economics. In fact, the intricate structure between financial institutions can be obtained by using a network of financial systems. Therefore, in this paper, we consider a ring network of coupled symmetric chaotic finance systems, and investigate its behavior by varying the coupling parameters. The results show that the coupling strength and range have significant effects on the behavior of the coupled systems, and various patterns such as the chimera and multi-chimera states are observed. Furthermore, changing the parameters' values, remarkably influences on the oscillators attractors. When several synchronous clusters are formed, the attractors of the synchronized oscillators are symmetric, but different from the single oscillator attractor.     

二氧化硫脲:一锅合成吡喃并[4,3-b] 吡喃类化合物的高效可重复使用有机催化剂（英文）

A series of pyrano[4,3‐b]pyran derivatives have been synthesized in excellent yields by the reaction of aromatic aldehydes with malononitrile or cyanoacetate and 4‐hydroxy‐6‐methylpyran‐2‐one in water at 80 °C, with the transformation being catalyzed by an aqueous solution of thiourea dioxide(TUD). Upon completion of the reaction, the product was isolated by filtration or extraction and the remaining aqueous TUD solution could be reused several times without any discernible impact on its catalytic activity. This procedure offers several advantages over existing procedures, including high yields, operational simplicity, the use of a non‐toxic catalyst and solvent, short reaction time and minimum pollution of the environment, making it a useful and attractive process for the preparation of pyrano[4,3‐b]pyran derivatives.     

Size control synthesis of sulfur doped titanium dioxide （anatase） nanoparticles, its optical property and its photo catalytic reactivity for CO2 ＋ H2O conversion and phenol degradation

Sulfur doped anatase TiO2 nanoparticles (3 nm−12 nm) were synthesized by the reaction of titanium tetrachloride, water and sulfuric acid with addition of 3M NaOH at room temperature. The electro-optical and photocatalytic properties of the synthesized sulfur doped TiO2 nanoparticles were studied along with Degussa commercial TiO2 particles (24 nm). The results show that band gap of TiO2 particles decreases from 3.31 to 3.25 eV and for that of commercial TiO2 to 3.2 eV when the particle sizes increased from 3 nm to 12 nm with increase in sulfur doping. The results of the photocatalytic activity under UV and sun radiation show maximum phenol conversion at the particle size of 4 nm at 4.80% S-doping. Similar results are obtained using UV energy for both phenol conversion and conversion of CO2+H2O in which formation of methanol, ethanol and proponal is observed. Production of methanol is also achieved on samples with a particle size of 8 and 12 nm and sulfur doping of 4.80% and 5.26%. For TiO2 particle of 4 nm without S doping, the production of methanol, ethanol and proponal was lower as compared to the S-doped particles. This is attributed to the combined electronic effect and band gap change, S dopant, specific surface area and the light source used.     

Effect of annealing on hydrophobic stability of plasma deposited fluoropolymer coatings

Fluorinated amorphous carbon (a-C:F) films e.g. plasma polymerised perfluorocyclobutane have long attracted much consideration due to their low surface energy, hydrophobicity, low refractive index, good electrical and thermal insulation and good thermal stability. Although a-C:F films have many advantages, hydrophobic stability over time in air and water remains a major concern. In this study, the effects of weathering conditions on the hydrophobicity of fluorocarbon films prepared from perfluorocyclobutane precursors were examined using water contact angle measurements. It was found that the high initial hydrophobicity of as-deposited films degrades rapidly in humid conditions. The stability of hydrophobicity can be significantly improved when a suitable treatment such as annealing is employed. The mechanism of weathering was explained with the help of a number of morphological and chemical characterisation techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). In particular, XPS results demonstrated that a reduction in the overall amount of -CF₃ radical, oxygenation of surface fluorides and the formation of an overlayer all influence the degradation of fluorocarbon in aquatic environment.     

Redox behavior of juglone in buffered aq.: Ethanol media

The present work reports the redox mechanism of 5-hydroxynaphthalene-1,4-dione (HND), commonly known as juglone, in buffered aqueous media having 50% of ethanol. HND followed different mechanistic routes depending upon the pH of the media and more than one pK_a were evaluated from the changes in the slope of the E_p vs. pH plot. The change of pH from acidic to neutral conditions was found to switch the mechanism from CEC to EE mechanism. Pulse techniques were utilized to determine the number of electrons involved in the oxidation and/or the reduction step and to ensure the nature of the redox process. Based upon the obtained results, an electrode reaction mechanism was proposed. Computational studies of HND supported the experimental results. UV-Visible spectroscopy was also employed for the detailed characterization of the compound in a wide range of pH and for the determination of its pK_a.     

Regioselective Arylation and Alkynylation of 2,3‐Dibromo‐1H‐inden‐1‐one by Suzuki?Miyaura and Sonogashira Cross‐Coupling Reactions

Suzuki? Miyaura reactions of 2,3‐dibromo‐1H‐inden‐1‐one afforded a wide range of arylated 1H‐inden‐1‐ones. Sonogashira cross‐coupling reactions gave alkynylated indenones. The reactions proceeded with very good regioselectivity in the less sterically hindered and more electron‐deficient position 3.     

Intraband effects on ultrafast pulse propagation in semiconductor optical amplifier

High bit-rate (>10 Gb/s) signals are composed of very short pulses and propagation of such pulses through a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) requires consideration of intraband phenomena. Due to the intraband effects, the propagating pulse sees a fast recovering nonlinear gain which introduces less distortion in the pulse shape and spectrum of the output pulse but introduces a positive chirping at the trailing edge of the pulse.