Constraint on unstable photino mass from a superlight gravitino

The known lower bound on the unstable photino mass gets invalidated by a gravitino lighter than 10⁻³ eV. Nevertheless, general bounds can be derived by feeding early universe constraints from the primary abundance of He⁴ and the extant lower bound on the gravitino mass into the lifetime for the decay photino → photon + gravitino. The mass-rangeO(100) eV toO(1) MeV is excluded.     

Formation of organorhodium complexes via C-H bond activation of 1,3-di(phenylazo)benzene

Reaction of a potential NCN-pincer ligand, viz. 1,3-di(phenylazo)benzene (L), with [Rh(PPh(3))(3)Cl] affords, via a C-H bond activation, an interesting dinuclear Rh(II) complex (1), and with RhCl(3)·3H(2)O affords a mononuclear Rh(III) complex (2) containing a catalytically useful Rh-OH(2) fragment.     

Application of a Multilayer Perceptron Artificial Neural Network for the Prediction and Optimization of the Andrographolide Content in Andrographis paniculata

Andrographolide, the principal secondary metabolite of Andrographis paniculata, displays a wide spectrum of medicinal activities. The content of andrographolide varies significantly in the species collected from different geographical regions. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the role of different abiotic factors and selecting suitable sites for the cultivation of A. paniculata with high andrographolide content using a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP-ANN) approach. A total of 150 accessions of A. paniculata collected from different regions of Odisha and West Bengal in eastern India showed a variation in andrographolide content in the range of 0.28–5.45% on a dry weight basis. The MLP-ANN was trained using climatic factors and soil nutrients as the input layer and the andrographolide content as the output layer. The best topological ANN architecture, consisting of 14 input neurons, 12 hidden neurons, and 1 output neuron, could predict the andrographolide content with 90% accuracy. The developed ANN model showed good predictive performance with a correlation coefficient (R²) of 0.9716 and a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.18. The global sensitivity analysis revealed nitrogen followed by phosphorus and potassium as the predominant input variables influencing the andrographolide content. The andrographolide content could be increased from 3.38% to 4.90% by optimizing these sensitive factors. The result showed that the ANN approach is reliable for the prediction of suitable sites for the optimum andrographolide yield in A. paniculata.     

Rearrangement of dicarboranyl methyl cation to icosahedral C3B9H12+: An ab initio dynamics view

Closo-carborane anions are prominent, whereas the cations of the same are less abundant in the literature. As these ions have similar size and are weakly coordinating, the ionic liquids of these two ions could have important applications in many areas of chemistry. In view of limited number of polyhedral carborane cations available, we revisited the rearrangement of dicarboranyl methyl cation (7-CH₂ 7,9-nido-C₂B₉H₁₀⁺) using ab initio molecular dynamics calculations with metadynamics. Our simulations confirmed the concerted mechanism of the rearrangement. We believe this work will resume the interest in its synthesis and carborane cations in general.     

The evolution of structure–property relationship of P2-type Na0.67Ni0.33Mn0.67O2 by vanadium substitution and organic electrolyte combinations for sodium-ion batteries

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Solid-state synthesis of novel electrode materials of P2-type layered oxides Na0.67Ni0.33-xVxMn0.67O2 (where x = 0, 0.05, and 0.11) for the...     

Raman spectroscopy in experimental oral carcinogenesis: investigation of abnormal changes in control tissues

Oral cancer is a major cause of mortality in South Asian men owing to rampant tobacco abuse. Cancers are also reported in non‐tobacco habitués, especially women, attributed to chronic irritations from irregular/sharp teeth, improper fillings, and poorly fit dentures. Conventional screening approaches are shown to be effective for high‐risk groups (tobacco/alcohol habitués). Raman spectroscopy (RS) is being extensively explored as an alternate/adjunct tool for diagnosis and management of oral cancers. In a previous Raman study on sequential oral carcinogenesis using hamster buccal pouch model, misclassifications between spectra from control and carcinogen [7,12‐dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA)]‐treated tissues were observed. Histopathology of some control tissues suggested pathological changes, attributable to repeated forceps‐induced irritations/trauma during animal handling. To explore these changes, in the present study, we recorded spectra from three different types of controls – vehicle control (n = 45), vehicle contralateral (n = 45), and DMBA contralateral (n = 70) – exposed to varying degree of forceps handling, along with DMBA‐treated pouches (n = 70) using a 14‐week carcinogenesis protocol. Spectra certified on the basis of histopathology and abnormal cell proliferation (cyclin D1 expression) were used to build models that were evaluated by independent test spectra from an exclusive set of DMBA‐treated and control animals. Many DMBA‐contralateral, vehicle‐control, and vehicle‐contralateral spectra were identified as higher pathologies, which subsequently corroborated with histopathology/cyclin D1 expression. Repeated forceps‐mediated injuries/irritations, during painting and animal handling, may elicit inflammatory responses, leading to neoplasm. The findings of the study suggest that RS could identify micro‐changes. Further, RS‐based in vivo imaging can serve as a promising label‐free tool for screening even in the non‐habitué population where conventional screening is shown to be not effective. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.