An optical tweezers-based immunosensor for detection of femtomoles-per-liter concentrations of antigens

We used optical tweezers—optical trapping with focused laser beams—to pull microspheres coated with antigens off of an antibody-coated surface. Using this technique, we could quantify the force required to separate antigen to antibody bonds. At very low surface density of antigen, we were able to detect the single antigen to antibody binding. The force required to break the antigen-antibody bonds and pull the microsphere off the surface was shown to increase monotonically with increasing surface density of antigens. Using the force determination as a transducer, we were able to detect concentrations of free antigens in solution as small as 10⁻¹⁵ mol/L in a competitive binding assay.     

Synthesis of benzosuberone-tethered spirooxindoles: 1-3-dipolar cycloaddition of azomethine ylides and arylidene benzosuberones

Molecular Diversity - Expedient synthesis of benzosuberone-tethered spirooxindoles was accomplished by a three-component 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction between azomethine ylide (generated in...     

Lewis acid-assisted olefin cross-metathesis reaction: an efficient approach for the synthesis of glycosidic-pyrroloquinolinone based novel building blocks of camptothecin and evaluation of their antitumor activity

A series of glycosidic-pyrroloquinolinone based novel building blocks of camptothecin (2a–g) were synthesized via Lewis acid-assisted olefin cross-metathesis reaction using Ti(OⁱPr)₄ 30 mol % and 10 mol % of Grubb’s second generation catalyst with good to excellent yields. Most of these compounds exhibited significant growth inhibitory effects on all the tested cancer cell lines and three compounds (2c, 2d and 2e) showed potent cytotoxic activity.     

Qualitative assessment of silver and gold nanoparticle synthesis in various plants: a photobiological approach

The development of rapid and ecofriendly processes for the synthesis of silver (Ag) and gold (Au) nanoparticles is of great importance in the field of nanotechnology. In this study, the extracellular production of Ag and Au nanoparticles was carried out from the leaves of the plants, Tridax procumbens L. (Coat buttons), Jatropa curcas L. (Barbados nut), Calotropis gigantea L. (Calotropis), Solanum melongena L. (Eggplant), Datura metel L. (Datura), Carica papaya L. (Papaya) and Citrus aurantium L. (Bitter orange) by the sunlight exposure method. Qualitative comparisons of the synthesized nanoparticles between the plants were measured. Among these T. procumbens, J. curcas and C. gigantea plants synthesized <20 nm sized and spherical-shaped Ag particles, whereas C. papaya, D. metel and S. melongena produced <20 nm sized monodispersed Au particles. The amount of nanoparticles synthesized and its qualitative characterization was done by UV–vis spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used for structural confirmation. Further analysis carried out by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), provided evidence for the presence of amino groups, which increased the stability of the synthesized nanoparticles.     

Dynamical instability of shear-free collapsing star in extended teleparallel gravity

We study the spherically symmetric collapsing star in terms of dynamical instability. We take the framework of extended teleparallel gravity with a non-diagonal tetrad, a power-law form of the model presenting torsion and a matter distribution as a non-dissipative anisotropic fluid. The vanishing shear scalar condition is adopted to gain insight in a collapsing star. We apply a first order linear perturbation scheme to the metric, the matter, and f(T) functions. The dynamical equations are formulated under this perturbation scheme to develop collapsing equation for finding dynamical instability limits in two regimes, such as the Newtonian and the post-Newtonian regime. We obtain a constraint-free solution of a perturbed time dependent part with the help of a vanishing shear scalar. The adiabatic index exhibits the instability ranges through the second dynamical equation which depend on physical quantities such as the density, the pressure components, the perturbed parts of the symmetry of the star, etc. We also develop some constraints on the positivity of these quantities and obtain instability ranges to satisfy the dynamical instability condition.     

Symmetric duality for second-order fractional programs

In this paper, a pair of symmetric dual second-order fractional programming problems is formulated and appropriate duality theorems are established. These results are then used to discuss the minimax mixed integer symmetric dual fractional programs.