Evaluation of transfer factor and ecological half life of 137Cs in terrestrial matrices around Kakrapar Gujarat Site,India during 1993–2019

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - The activity of 137Cs was measured in different terrestrial samples around Kakrapar Gujarat site. Transfer Factor and Ecological half-life of...     

An improvement on the maximum number of -dominating independent sets

Erdős and Moser raised the question of determining the maximum number of maximal cliques or, equivalently, the maximum number of maximal independent sets in a graph on vertices. Since then there has been a lot of research along these lines. A -dominating independent set is an independent set such that every vertex not contained in has at least neighbors in . Let denote the maximum number of -dominating independent sets in a graph on vertices, and let . Nagy initiated the study of . In this study, we disprove a conjecture of Nagy using a graph product construction and prove that for any even we have We also prove that for any we have improving the upper bound of Nagy.     

Synthesis and characterization of multiblock copolymers based on hydrophilic disulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) and hydrophobic partially fluorinated poly(arylene ether ketone) for fuel cell applications

Sulfonated fluorinated multiblock copolymers based on high performance polymers were synthesized and evaluated for use as proton exchange membranes (PEMs). The multiblock copolymers consist of fully disulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) and partially fluorinated poly(arylene ether ketone) as hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments, respectively. Synthesis of the multiblock copolymers was achieved by a condensation coupling reaction between controlled molecular weight hydrophilic and hydrophobic oligomers. The coupling reaction could be conducted at relatively low temperatures (e.g., 105 °C) by utilizing highly reactive hexafluorobenzene (HFB) as a linkage group. The low coupling reaction temperature could prevent a possible trans‐etherification, which can randomize the hydrophilic‐hydrophobic sequences. Tough ductile membranes were prepared by solution casting and their membrane properties were evaluated. With similar ion exchange capacities (IECs), proton conductivity and water uptake were strongly influenced by the hydrophilic and hydrophobic block sequence lengths. Conductivity and water uptake increased with increasing block length by developing nanophase separated morphologies. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments revealed that the connectivity of the hydrophilic segments was enhanced by increasing the block length. The systematic synthesis and characterization of the copolymers are reported. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 214–222, 2010     

Efficient One-pot Zeolite Synthesis Protocol from the Metastable *BEA to MTW Topology and Its Impact on the Methanol-to-Hydrocarbons Process

The inter-zeolite conversion is a method to convert one meta-stable zeolite to a thermodynamically stable zeolite. Despite the enormous interest, this method is yet to be popularized or standardized in the zeolite community. Intending to provide more insights into hydrothermal conversions from one zeolite to another, this work developed a novel one-pot and flexible synthetic protocol to efficiently obtain the meta-stable *BEA topology and its derived MTW topology by varying the hydrothermal crystallization time. This inter-zeolite conversion process led to changes in the zeolite framework and modified physicochemical properties during the process. Such a transformation was feasible by forming hierarchical zeolite phases sharing a similar “mtw”-based common building units, possibly driving such conversion. The structure-reactivity relationship of four different zeolite materials, synthesized from this one-pot inter-zeolite conversion method, was established concerning their performance in the methanol-to-hydrocarbon (MTH) process, which has been well supported by operando UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopic study coupled with online mass spectrometry and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. As a result, the pathway to synthesize various target zeolites from an identical initial synthesis gel with desired physicochemical properties has been scrutinized.     

Magnetism and transport studies in off-stoichiometric metallic perovskite compounds GdPd3Bx (x=0.25, 0.50 and 0.75)

We report the magnetic and transport properties of the off-stoichiometric metallic perovskite like compounds GdPd₃B_x (x=0.25, 0.50 and 0.75). Our results show that doping with boron in the lattice of parent binary-compound GdPd₃ leads to lattice expansion. Which in turn manifests in contrasting magnetic and transport behaviors of the doped compounds in comparison with the undoped GdPd₃. An attempt has been made to compare and correlate the results of magnetic and transport measurements of GdPd₃B_x with that of stoichiometric compositions GdPd₃B_xC_1−x. The comparative study of GdPd₃B_x and GdPd₃B_xC_1−x confirms that there is a strong correlations between the structural, magnetic and transport properties of these compounds.     

Thiamin biosynthesis in eukaryotes: characterization of the enzyme-bound product of thiazole synthase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its implications in thiazole biosynthesis

The biosynthesis of thiamin pyrophosphate in eukaryotes is different from the prokaryotic biosynthesis and is poorly understood to date. Only one thiazole biosynthetic gene has been identified (Thi4 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Here we report the identification and characterization of a Thi4-bound metabolite that consists of the ADP adduct of 5-(2-hydroxyethyl)-4-methylthiazole-2-carboxylic acid. The unexpected structure of this compound yields the first insights into the mechanism of thiamin thiazole biosynthesis in eukaryotes.     

A functional model for the cysteinate-ligated non-heme iron enzyme superoxide reductase (SOR)

Superoxide reductases (SORs) are cysteine-ligated, non-heme iron enzymes that reduce toxic superoxide radicals (O2-). The functional role of the trans cysteinate, as well as the mechanism by which SOR reduces O2-, is unknown. Herein is described a rare example of a functional metalloenzyme analogue, which catalytically reduces superoxide in a proton-dependent mechanism, via a trans thiolate-ligated iron-peroxo intermediate, the first example of its type. Acetic-acid-promoted H2O2 release, followed by Cp2Co reduction, regenerates the active Fe(II) catalyst. The thiolate ligand and its trans positioning relative to the substrate are shown to contribute significantly to the catalyst's function, by lowering the redox potential, changing the spin state, and dramatically lowering the nuFe-O stretching frequency well-below that of any other reported iron-peroxo, while leaving nuO-O high, so as to favor superoxide reduction and Fe-O, as opposed to O-O, bond cleavage. Thus we provide critical insight into the relationship between the SOR structure and its function, as well as important benchmark parameters for characterizing highly unstable thiolate-ligated iron-peroxo intermediates.     

A topological nullstellensatz for tensor-triangulated categories

Let $\mathrm{Spec}(\mathbb{T})$ be the spectrum of a tensor-triangulated category $(\mathbb{T},?,\mathbf{1})$. We show that there is a homeomorphism between the spectral space of radical thick tensor ideals in $(\mathbb{T},?,\mathbf{1})$ and the collection of open subsets of $\mathrm{Spec}(\mathbb{T})$ in inverse topology. In fact, we prove a more general result in terms of supports on $(\mathbb{T},?,\mathbf{1})$ and work by combining methods from commutative algebra, topology and tensor triangular geometry.     

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) design for Hg–Se interactions and their effect on reduction of Hg uptake by radish plant

The tendency of selenium to interact with heavy metals in presence of naturally occurring species has been exploited for the development of green bioremediation of toxic metals from soil using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) modeling. The cross validation of the data for the reduction in uptake of Hg(II) ions in the plant R. sativus grown in soil and sand culture in presence of selenium has been used for ANN modeling. ANN model based on the combination of back propagation and principal component analysis was able to predict the reduction in Hg uptake with a sigmoid axon transfer function. The data of fifty laboratory experimental sets were used for structuring single layer ANN model. Series of experiments resulted into the performance evaluation based on considering 20% data for testing and 20% data for cross validation at 1,500 Epoch with 0.70 momentums The Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm (LMA) was found as the best of BP algorithms with a minimum mean squared error at the eighth place of the decimal for training (MSE) and cross validation.