Coconut shell particles reinforced cardanol–formaldehyde resole resin biocomposites: Effect of treatment on thermal properties

The current work focuses on the thermal behavior of biocomposites based on cardanol formaldehyde resin (CFR) reinforced with untreated and treated coconut shell particles (CSP). CFR has been synthesized by condensing cardanol with formaldehyde in the presence of NH₄OH catalyst (ratio of 1:1.6:0.36). Fabricating biocomposites is performed by compression moulding technique. The CSP with particle size of 50?µm is used in various proportions: 30 and 40?wt%. The CSP is immersed in 5?wt% NaOH solution for 5?h. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is used to characterize chemical formation of the new biocomposites. Thermogravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis are applied to measure the thermal stability of composites. The thermal stability exhibits a slight decrease with particles loading from 30 to 40?wt% against neat CFR. This work gives a path for the possibility of CSP usage in low-value products in composite manufacturing.     

Molecular recognition in bisurea thermoplastic elastomers studied with pyrene-based fluorescent probes and atomic force microscopy

Fluorescence spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements using bisurea-pyrene probes show that they are randomly dispersed in the hard blocks of thermoplastic elastomers with matching bisurea groups, whereas they phase separate from polymers with non-matching or no bisurea groups.     

Analgesic and antimicrobial studies of some 2,4-dichloro-5-fluorophenyl containing arylidenetriazolothiadiazines

2,4-Dichloro-5-fluorophenyl containing 7-arylidenetriazolothiadiazines were obtained by the reaction of 4-amino-3-(2,4-dichloro-5-fluorophenyl)-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole with 2,3-dibromo-1,3-diarylpropan-1-ones, and also by the reaction of 4-amino-3-(2,4-dichloro-5-fluorophenyl)-5-mercapto-1,2,4-triazole with α-bromopropenones in the presence of a base. The structure of the 7-arylidenetriazolothiadiazines was confirmed by an alternative synthesis. A plausible mechanism for the formation of 7-arylidenetriazolothiadiazines is proposed. All newly synthesized compounds were screened for their analgesic and antimicrobial activities. Compounds bearing 4-chlorophenyl or 3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl moieties at position 7 of the arylidenetriazolothiadiazines showed excellent analgesic activity. Arylidenetriazolothiadiazines carrying a phenyl, 4-chlorophenyl, 4-methylphenyl, 3,4-dimethoxyphenyl, and 2,4-dichlorophenyl moieties at position 7 showed excellent antibacterial and antifungal activities. Correspondence: Mari Sithambaram Karthikeyan, Department of Chemistry, Mangalore University, Mangalagangothri 574199, Karnataka, India.     

金属含量对Ni-Pd/H-Y上正癸烷加氢异构化反应活性和产物选择性的影响

在Y分子筛上浸渍0.1 wt% Pd和0.1–0.5 wt% Ni,用X射线衍射表征了该催化剂的结晶度,用透射电镜测得平均金属粒径.催化剂中Pd和Ni的化学态用X射线光电子能谱测定,其酸性则用氨-程序升温脱附进行了表征,发现一些酸位被Ni2+离子交换.采用程序升温还原表征了HY分子筛负载的Pd, Ni和Pd-Ni催化剂的还原性能.正癸烷加氢异构化反应在200–450 oC和1 atm条件下进行.结果发现,当0.1 wt% Pd/HY中Ni添加量增至0.3 wt%时,正癸烷转化率和异构化选择性增加.单支链和双支链异构体选择性的增加表明该反应遵循质子化环丙烷中间体机理. Ni添加量超过阈值导致活性和异构化选择性急剧下降.综上可见,双金属催化剂更有利于选择性生成双支链异构体,其辛烷值更高.     

Discovery of a Highly Selective Glycogen Synthase Kinase‐3 Inhibitor (PF‐04802367) That Modulates Tau Phosphorylation in the Brain: Translation for PET Neuroimaging

Glycogen synthase kinase‐3 (GSK‐3) regulates multiple cellular processes in diabetes, oncology, and neurology. N‐(3‐(1H‐1,2,4‐triazol‐1‐yl)propyl)‐5‐(3‐chloro‐4‐methoxyphenyl)oxazole‐4‐carboxamide (PF‐04802367 or PF‐367) has been identified as a highly potent inhibitor, which is among the most selective antagonists of GSK‐3 to date. Its efficacy was demonstrated in modulation of tau phosphorylation in vitro and in vivo. Whereas the kinetics of PF‐367 binding in brain tissues are too fast for an effective therapeutic agent, the pharmacokinetic profile of PF‐367 is ideal for discovery of radiopharmaceuticals for GSK‐3 in the central nervous system. A ¹¹C‐isotopologue of PF‐367 was synthesized and preliminary PET imaging studies in non‐human primates confirmed that we have overcome the two major obstacles for imaging GSK‐3, namely, reasonable brain permeability and displaceable binding.     

Optical,magnetic and photocatalytic properties of magnetically separable Fe<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript>-doped ZnO and pristine ZnO nanospheres

This work focussed on the optical, magnetic and photocatalytic properties of sol–gel-synthesized Fe₃O₄-doped ZnO nanospheres and was compared with pristine ZnO nanospheres. The crystalline phase of Fe₃O₄-doped ZnO nanospheres was studied with X-ray diffraction analysis and was well matched with standard pattern. Surface morphology was studied with HR-SEM images and EDAX spectrum. Furthermore, elemental mapping analysis was carried out to confirm the presence of Fe₃O₄ phase in Fe₃O₄-doped ZnO nanospheres. FT-Raman spectral studies show that a strong intense peak at 670 cm^?1 indicates the presence of Fe₃O₄ in Fe₃O₄-doped ZnO nanospheres. The mean crystallite size of Fe₃O₄-doped ZnO nanospheres was 34 nm as calculated by Debye–Scherrer’s formula which confirmed with HR-TEM image. The SAED pattern shows the presence of (100), (101), (102) and (202) of ZnO phase and (400) of Fe₃O₄ phase, confirming the crystalline nature of Fe₃O₄-doped ZnO nanospheres. The vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) result shows that Fe₃O₄-doped ZnO nanospheres possess superparamagnetic nature and the composite nanospheres are magnetically separable. The optical properties have been studied by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and time-resolved photoluminescence spectra. Implantation of Fe₃O₄ in ZnO nanospheres modifies the UV absorption edge, and it displays near-band gap emission and deep-level emission. The photocatalytic activity of Fe₃O₄-doped ZnO nanospheres studied against rhodamine B dye is found higher than that of pristine ZnO nanospheres which shows that Fe₃O₄-doped ZnO nanospheres are a promising photocatalyst.     

4-(N,N-diethylamino) benzaldehyde thiosemicarbazone in the spectrophotometric determination of palladium

4-(N,N-diethylamino)benzaldehyde thiosemicarbazone(DEABT) is proposed as a sensitive and selective analytical reagent for the spectrophotometric determination of palladium(II). The reagent reacts with palladium (II) in a potassium hydrogen phthalate-hydrochloric acid buffer of pH 3.0, to form a yellow complex. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range up to 3.60 microgmL(-1). The optimum concentration range for minimum photometric error as determined by Ringbom plot method is 0.36 - 3.24 microg mL(-1). The yellow Pd(II)-DEABT complex shows a maximum absorbance at 408 nm, with molar absorptivity of 3.33 x 10(4) dm3 mol(-1) cm(-1) and Sandell's sensitivity of the complex from Beer's data, for D = 0.001, is 0.0032 microg cm(-2). The composition of the Pd(II)-DEABT complex is found to be 1:2 (M:L). The interference of various cations and anions in the method were studied. The proposed method was successfully used for the determination of Pd(II) in alloys, catalysts, complexes and model mixtures with a fair degree of accuracy.     

Interventional Fairness with Indirect Knowledge of Unobserved Protected Attributes

The deployment of machine learning (ML) systems in applications with societal impact has motivated the study of fairness for marginalized groups. Often, the protected attribute is absent from the training dataset for legal reasons. However, datasets still contain proxy attributes that capture protected information and can inject unfairness in the ML model. Some deployed systems allow auditors, decision makers, or affected users to report issues or seek recourse by flagging individual samples. In this work, we examine such systems and consider a feedback-based framework where the protected attribute is unavailable and the flagged samples are indirect knowledge. The reported samples are used as guidance to identify the proxy attributes that are causally dependent on the (unknown) protected attribute. We work under the causal interventional fairness paradigm. Without requiring the underlying structural causal model a priori, we propose an approach that performs conditional independence tests on observed data to identify such proxy attributes. We theoretically prove the optimality of our algorithm, bound its complexity, and complement it with an empirical evaluation demonstrating its efficacy on various real-world and synthetic datasets.     

Crystal Structure Analysis of 1′,2′,3′,4′‐tetrahydro‐1,3‐diphenyl‐4‐chlorospiro[2‐pyrazoline‐5,2‐napthalen]1′one

The crystal structure of the title compound “1′,2′,3′,4′‐tetrahydro‐1,3‐diphenyl‐4‐chlorospiro[2‐pyrazoline‐5,2‐napthalen] 1′one” has been determined. The structure consists of a pyrazoline ring, three aromatic rings and a tetralone moiety. All the aromatic rings are planar while the cyclohexonone ring of the tetralone moiety is in the distorted sofa conformation. The molecular packing is stabilized by C‐H…O and C‐H…π type inter molecular interactions.