Hopping transport in organic semiconductor system

The electrical conductivity of cupferron and some of its divalent transition metal complexes has been studied in the temperature range 0–150°C, in the amorphous state. An important result was found; namely that the temperature dependence of the conductivity is characteristic of the Mott hopping mechanism and identical with that of layers made by evaporating Ge, Si and carbon. It seems that only the physical structure determines the mechanism of conduction in amorphous materials, while the chemical composition is of minor importance.     

Threshold switching effects in AgTlSe2 and CuTlSe2 films

Switching effects in AgTlSe₂ and CuTlSe₂ chalcopyrite semiconductors films have been investigated. The threshold switching voltage was found to increase linearly with the thickness, moreoverV _th increases exponentially with the temperature. The rapid transition between the highly resistive and conductive states was attributed to an electrothermal origin from Joule's heating of a current channel.     

In vitro and in vivo comparison of the biological activities of two traditionally and widely used Arum species from Jordan: Arum dioscoridis Sibth & Sm. and Arum palaestinum Boiss.

Arum dioscoridis and A. palaestinum (Araceae) are indigenous plant species in Jordan. HPLC-MS analysis of A. dioscoridis revealed the presence of apigenin, luteolin, quercetin, quercetin-3-O-β-glucoside, vitexin, isoorientin, esculin, and caffeic and ferulic acids. Both Arum spp., influenced gastrointestinal carbohydrate and lipid digestion and absorption. Orlistat inhibited dose dependently and highly substantially pancreatic lipase (PL) in vitro. Similar to orlistat, Arum species aqueous extracts (AEs), apigenin, caffeic acid and esculin exhibited a concentration related PL inhibition. Comparable to acarbose, dual inhibition of α-amylase/α-glucosidase was observed for both Arum species. Like guar gum, A. dioscoridis AE minimised substantially area under 24 h glucose curve. Acute starch-induced postprandial hyperglycaemia in overnight fasting rats was highly significantly (p?<?0.001) decreased by A. dioscoridis AE. A. palaestinum could not perform effectively in either starch- or glucose-fed fasting rats. No antiproliferative effects against colorectal cancer cell lines HT29, HCT116 and SW620 were detected for tested Arum spp.     

Heuristic solutions for the vehicle routing problem with time windows and synchronized visits

We present a simulated annealing based algorithm for a variant of the vehicle routing problem (VRP), in which a time window is associated with each client service and some services require simultaneous visits from different vehicles to be accomplished. The problem is called the VRP with time windows and synchronized visits. The algorithm features a set of local improvement methods to deal with various objectives of the problem. Experiments conducted on the benchmark instances from the literature clearly show that our method is fast and outperforms the existing approaches. It produces all known optimal solutions of the benchmark in very short computational times, and improves the best results for the rest of the instances.     

A photochemical route to discrete, ternary metal chalcogenide clusters

Ternary clusters Cu(9)In(10)S(9)(SEt)(21)(PPh(3))(3) and Cu(11)In(6)S(7)(S(t)Bu)(15) were isolated from the UV-photolysis products of precursors (PPh(3))(2)CuIn(SEt)(4) and (PPh(3))(2)CuIn(S(t)Bu)(4), respectively, and structurally characterized.     

Unveiling Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Compositional Differences between Dukkah and Za’atar via SPME-GCMS and HPLC-DAD

Interest in plant-based diets has been on the rise in recent years owing to the potential health benefits of their individual components and the notion that plant-based diets might reduce the incidence of several diseases. Egyptian dukkah and Syrian za’atar are two of the most historic and famous Middle Eastern herbal blends used for their anti-inflammatory, hypolipidemic, and antidiabetic effects. Headspace SPME-GCMS and HPLC-DAD were adopted for characterizing the aroma profile and phenolic compounds of both herbal blends, respectively. Further, vapor-phase minimum inhibitory concentration was employed for assessing each blend’s antibacterial potential, while their antioxidant potential was estimated via in vitro antioxidant assays. SPME headspace analysis indicated the abundance of ethers and monoterpene hydrocarbons, while HPLC revealed the presence of several phenolics including rosmarinic acid, ferulic acid, and rutin. Biological investigations affirmed that vapor-phase of the tested blends exhibited antibacterial activities against Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens, while the antioxidant potential of the blends was investigated and expressed as Trolox (125.15 ± 5.92 to 337.26 ± 13.84 μM T eq/mg) and EDTA (18.08 ± 1.62 to 51.69 41 ± 5.33 μM EDTA eq/mg) equivalent. The presented study offers the first insight into the chemical profile and biological activities of both dukkah and za’atar.     

In Vitro Influence of ZnO,CrZnO, RuZnO,and BaZnO Nanomaterials on Bacterial Growth

In this work, ZnO, CrZnO, RuZnO, and BaZnO nanomaterials were synthesized and characterized in order to study their antibacterial activity. The agar well diffusion, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) assays were used to determine the antibacterial activity of the fabricated nanomaterials against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Escherichia coli ATCC35218, Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 7000603, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 278533. The well-diffusion test revealed significant antibacterial activity against all investigated bacteria when compared to vancomycin at a concentration of 1 mg/mL. The most susceptible bacteria to BaZnO, RuZnO, and CrZnO were Staphylococcus aureus (15.5 ± 0.5 mm), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19.2 ± 0.5 mm), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (19.7 ± 0.5), respectively. The MIC values indicated that they were in the range of 0.02 to 0.2 mg/mL. The MBC values showed that the tested bacteria’s growth could be inhibited at concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 2.0 mg/mL. According to the MBC/MIC ratio, BaZnO, RuZnO, and CrZnO exhibit bacteriostatic effects and may target bacterial protein synthesis based on the results of the tolerance test. This study shows the efficacy of the above-mentioned nanoparticles on bacterial growth. Further biotechnological and toxicological studies on the nanoparticles fabricated here are recommended to benefit from these findings.     

In vitro wound healing properties,antioxidant activities,HPLC–ESI–MS/MS profile and phytoconstituents of the stem aqueous methanolic extract of Dracaena reflexa Lam

Column chromatography of the stem aqueous methanolic extract of Dracaena reflexa Lam. (DRSE) led to the isolation of five flavonoids, one phenolic glycoside, one triterpenoid and two steroidal saponins. Furthermore, 44 compounds were tentatively identified in the phytoconstituent profile of DRSE using HPLC–ESI–MS/MS. The antioxidant activity of DRSE was evaluated. In a DPPH radical scavenging assay, DRSE exhibited an IC₅₀ value of 311.6 ± 10.10 μg/ml compared with the IC₅₀ value of the standard Trolox (24.42 ± 0.87 μg/ml). The antioxidant activities of DRSE using ABTS assay and ferric reducing antioxidant power assay were 326.63 μm Trolox equivalents/mg extract and 208.67 μm Trolox equivalents/mg extract, respectively. The wound-healing activity of DRSE was studied by the scratch assay using Human Skin Fibroblast cells. After 24 h DRSE (at 10 and 20 μg/ml) decreased the wound width to 0.55 ± 0.37 and 0.47 ± 0.55 mm, respectively, compared with the wound width in the control cells (0.77 ± 0.17 mm). This result suggested that DRSE improved the wound-healing process by inducing the migration of fibroblasts. Moreover, a docking study was performed to evaluate the binding affinity of the identified phytoconstituents toward GSK-3β relative to the co-crystalized inhibitor and curcumin with the possible involvement of this pathway in the wound-healing activity of the extract.     

Design and Synthesis of Some New Biologically Active Indeno[1,2-c]pyrazolones

Russian Journal of General Chemistry - The reaction between different arylhydrazones and ninhydrin (= indene-1,2-3-trione) in acetonitrile at room temperature is described to produce novel...