Isotopic effects on non-linearity, molecular radius and intermolecular free length

Computation of non-linearity parameter (B/A), molecular radius (r _m) and intermolecular free length (L _f) for H₂O, C₆H₆, C₆H₁₂, CH₃OH, C₂H₅OH and their deuterium-substituted compounds have been carried out at four different temperatures, viz., 293.15, 303.15, 313.15 and 323.15 K. The aim of the investigation is an attempt to study the isotopic effects on the non-linearity parameter and the physicochemical properties of the liquids, which in turn has been used to study their effect on the intermolecular interactions produced thereof.     

Cyanobacteria as Natural Therapeutics and Pharmaceutical Potential: Role in Antitumor Activity and as Nanovectors

Cyanobacteria (blue-green microalgae) are ubiquitous, Gram-negative photoautotrophic prokaryotes. They are considered as one of the most efficient sources of bioactive secondary metabolites. More than 50% of cyanobacteria are cultivated on commercial platforms to extract bioactive compounds, which have bene shown to possess anticancer activity. The chemically diverse natural compounds or their analogues induce cytotoxicity and potentially kill a variety of cancer cells via the induction of apoptosis, or altering the activation of cell signaling, involving especially the protein kinase-C family members, cell cycle arrest, mitochondrial dysfunctions and oxidative damage. These therapeutic properties enable their use in the pharma and healthcare sectors for the betterment of future generations. This review provides a baseline overview of the anti-cancerous cyanobacterial bioactive compounds, along with recently introduced nanomaterials that could be used for the development of new anticancer drugs to build a healthy future for mankind.     

Performance evaluation of the phase encoded optical CDMA system

Recently, there has been increasing interest in field of Optical CDMA due to its potential for offering unmatched features at ultra high data rates in field of local and metro area networks. In this paper, a very simple method of Optical CDMA encoding known as the Temporal Phase Encoding is discussed and the performance of the system with this encoding technique is evaluated on the basis of number of users, length of the spreading code for 4-phase and 8-phases. Simulation results for the system are presented for upto seven users. Bit error rate curves are plotted with data rate of 1 Gbps. This has been found that performance improves if normalized threshold higher than 0.5 is used.     

Dual drug-loaded paclitaxel–thymoquinone nanoparticles for effective breast cancer therapy

The present study highlights the beneficial synergistic blend of anticancer drug paclitaxel (PTX) and thymoquinone (TQ) in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. We aimed to augment the therapeutic index of PTX using a polymeric nanoparticle system loaded with PTX and TQ. PLGA nanoparticles encapsulating the two drugs, individually or in combination, were prepared by single emulsion solvent evaporation method. The formulated nanoparticles were homogenous with an overall negative charge and their size ranging between 200 and 300 nm. Entrapment efficiency of PTX and TQ in the dual drug-loaded nanoparticles was found to be 82.4 ± 2.18 and 65.8 ± 0.45 %, respectively. The release kinetics of PTX and TQ from the nanoparticles exhibited a biphasic pattern characterised by an initial burst, followed by a gradual and continuous release. The anticancer activity of nanoparticles encapsulating both the drugs was higher as compared to the free drugs in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The combination index for the dual drug-loaded NPs was found to be 0.688 which is indicative of synergistic interaction. Thus, here, we propose the synthesis and use of dual drug-loaded TQ and PTX NPs which exhibits enhanced anticancer activity and can additionally help to alleviate the toxic effects of PTX by lowering its effective dose.     

Increasing the stability of an enzyme toward hostile organic solvents by directed evolution based on iterative saturation mutagenesis using the B-FIT method

Mutants of the lipase from Bacillus subtilis, previously engineered for enhanced thermostability using directed evolution based on the B-FIT method, show significantly increased tolerance to hostile organic solvents.     

Reactions of acetonitrile coordinated to a nitrosylruthenium complex with H2O or CH(3)OH under mild conditions: structural characterization of imido-type complexes

The reaction of cis-[Ru(NO)(CH(3)CN)(bpy)(2)](3+) (bpy = 2,2'-bipyridine) in H(2)O at room temperature proceeded to afford two new nitrosylruthenium complexes. These complexes have been identified as nitrosylruthenium complexes containing the N-bound methylcarboxyimidato ligand, cis-[Ru(NO)(NH=C(O)CH(3))(bpy)(2)](2+), and methylcarboxyimido acid ligand, cis-[Ru(NO)(NH=C(OH)CH(3))(bpy)(2)](3+), formed by an electrophilic reaction at the nitrile carbon of the acetonitrile coordinated to the ruthenium ion. The X-ray structure analysis on a single crystal obtained from CH(3)CN-H(2)O solution of cis-[Ru(NO)(NH=C(O)CH(3))(bpy)(2)](PF(6))(3) has been performed: C(22)H(20.5)N(6)O(2)P(2.5)F(15)Ru, orthorhombic, Pccn, a = 15.966(1) A, b = 31.839(1) A, c = 11.707(1) A, V = 5950.8(4) A(3), and Z = 8. The structural results revealed that the single crystal consisted of 1:1 mixture of cis-[Ru(NO)(NH=C(O)CH(3))(bpy)(2)](2+) and cis-[Ru(NO)(NH=C(OH)CH(3))(bpy)(2)](3+) and the structural formula of this single crystal was thus [Ru(NO)(NH=C(OH(0.5))CH(3))(bpy)(2)](PF(6))(2.5). The reaction of cis-[Ru(NO)(CH(3)CN)(bpy)(2)](3+) in dry CH(3)OH-CH(3)CN at room temperature afforded a nitrosylruthenium complex containing the methyl methylcarboxyimidate ligand, cis-[Ru(NO)(NH=C(OCH(3))CH(3))(bpy)(2)](3+). The structure has been determined by X-ray structure analysis: C(25)H(29)N(8)O(18)Cl(3)Ru, monoclinic, P2(1)/c, a = 13.129(1) A, b = 17.053(1) A, c = 15.711(1) A, beta = 90.876(5) degrees, V = 3517.3(4) A(3), and Z = 4.     

Properties of glass-fiber reinforced composites based on liquid diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-c-epoxy resin

Glass-fiber reinforced epoxy composites were fabricated from the matrix resin liquid diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-C (DGEBC) using various amines as curing agents with and without fortifier (20 phr). The epoxy laminates were evaluated for their mechanical properties, such as flexural strength, interlaminar shear strength (ILSS), tensile strength and shore-D hardness. Dielectric properties, such as the dielectric constant, tan δ, dielectric loss and the resistivity of the laminated samples, were measured. The effect of the chemical reagents on the mechanical properties (i.e. flexural strength, lLSS) was also studied.     

On unified fractional integral operators

The present paper is in continuation to our recent paper [6] in these proceedings. Therein, three composition formulae for a general class of fractional integral operators had been established. In this paper, we develop the Mellin transforms and their inversions, the Mellin convolutions, the associated Parseval-Goldstein theorem and the images of the multivariableH-function together with applications for these operators. In all, seven theorems and two corollaries (involving the Konhauser biorthogonal polynomials and the Jacobi polynomials) have been established in this paper. On account of the most general nature of the polynomials S _n ^m [x] and the multivariableH-function whose product form the kernels of our operators, a large number of (new and known) interesting results involving simpler polynomials and special functions (involving one or more variables) obtained by several authors and hitherto lying scattered in the literature follow as special cases of our findings. We give here exact references to the results (in essence) of seven research papers which follow as simple special cases of our theorems.