Understanding behaviour of vitamin-C guest binding with the cucurbit[6]uril host

The present study describes non-covalent interaction and complexation behaviour of sodium ascorbate (SA) with cucurbit[6]uril (CB[6]) at neutral pH in aqueous Na₂SO₄ solution. The interaction behaviour is investigated using various analytical techniques like NMR, UV–Vis, fluorescence, TGA and DRS. The substantial increase in the intensity of emission and absorption spectra of sodium ascorbate is observed. The Benesi–Hildebrand evaluation method is used to determine the stoichiometry and equilibrium constant of the cucurbit[6]uril–sodium ascorbate complex, which suggested the 1:1 complex. Time-dependent ¹H NMR, ¹³C CP MAS and CD studies also echoed non-covalent interaction between SA with CB[6].     

Molineria recurvata Ameliorates Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Nephropathy through Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Pathways

Molineria recurvata (MR) has been traditionally used to manage diabetes mellitus in India. However, the molecular mechanism of MR on the diabetic-induced nephropathy has not been clearly investigated. Thus, this study investigates the protective effects of the MR extract on nephropathy in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Diabetes was instigated by a single intraperitoneal injection of STZ (45 mg/kg) in male Sprague-Dawley rats. Once the diabetes was successfully induced, the MR extract (200 mg/kg/day) or metformin (200 mg/kg/day) was orally administered for 14 days. Renal function, morphology changes and levels of inflammatory cytokines were measured. Blood glucose concentrations were considerably reduced in STZ-induced diabetic rats following treatment with the MR extract. The administration of the MR extract substantially restored the abnormal quantity of the oxidative DNA damage marker 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxy-guanosine (8-OHdG), malondialdehyde, glutathione, oxidized glutathione, superoxide dismutase, catalase, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-10, and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β). The urinary excretion of kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), selenium binding protein 1 (SBP1), and pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) was significantly reduced in diabetes rats after administration of the MR extracts. In the kidneys of STZ-induced diabetic rats, the MR extracts markedly downregulated the expression of fibronectin, collagen-1, and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). In particular, the MR extracts markedly increased the level of SIRT1 and SIRT3 and reduced claudin-1 in the kidney. These results suggest that the MR extracts exhibits therapeutic activity in contrast to renal injury in STZ-induced diabetic rats through repressing inflammation and oxidative stress.     

Two‐dimensional shifted Legendre polynomial collocation method for electromagnetic waves in dielectric media via almost operational matrices

In this paper, a numerical solution of fractional partial differential equations (FPDEs) for electromagnetic waves in dielectric media will be discussed. For the solution of FPDEs, we developed a numerical collocation method using an algorithm based on two‐dimensional shifted Legendre polynomials approximation, which is proposed for electromagnetic waves in dielectric media. By implementing the partial Riemann–Liouville fractional derivative operators, two‐dimensional shifted Legendre polynomials approximation and its operational matrix along with collocation method are used to convert FPDEs first into weakly singular fractional partial integro‐differential equations and then converted weakly singular fractional partial integro‐differential equations into system of algebraic equation. Some results concerning the convergence analysis and error analysis are obtained. Illustrative examples are included to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the technique. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved approximations for two-stage min-cut and shortest path problems under uncertainty

Mathematical Programming - In this paper, we study the robust and stochastic versions of the two-stage min-cut and shortest path problems introduced in Dhamdhere et al. (in How to pay, come what...     

Charmonium suppression in the presence of dissipative forces in a strongly-coupled quark–gluon plasma

We study the survival of charmonium states in a strongly-coupled quark–gluon plasma in the presence of dissipative forces. We consider first-order dissipative corrections to the plasma equation of motion in the Bjorken boost-invariant expansion with a strongly-coupled equation of state for QGP and study the survival of these states with the dissociation temperatures obtained by correcting the full Cornell potential not its Coulomb part alone with a dielectric function encoding the effects of deconfined medium. We further explore the sensitivity of prompt and sequential suppression of these states to the shear viscosity-to-entropy density ratio, η/s from perturbative QCD and AdS/CFT predictions. Our results show nice agreement with the recent experimental results at RHIC.     

Frequency upconversion in Pr3+-Li2O-TeO2 binary glass by decay curve analysis

Using the decay curve analysis frequency upconversion under continuous wave NIR laser radiation ( approximately 890 nm) following the non-resonant excitation at higher energies than 1G4 level has been reported. The decay curve of the antistokes emission (3P0-->3H4) shows similar behavior as that of the stokes emission (3P0-->3H4) and does not show any rise time attributing to the excited state antistokes absorption assisted by phonon emission. The covalency, bonding parameters and nephalauxetic effect for the present system has also been determined.     

Dissociation of 1P states in hot QCD Medium Using Quasi-Particle Model

We extend the analysis of a very recent work [1] to study the dissociation phenomenon of 1P states of the charmonium and bottomonium spectra (χ_c and χ_b) in a hot QCD medium using Quasi-Particle Model. This study employed a medium modified heavy quark potential which has quite different form in the sense that it has a lomg range Coulombic tail in addition to the Yukawa term even above the deconfinement temperature. Then we study the flavor dependence of their binding energies and explore the nature of dissociation temperatures by employing the Quasi-Particle debye mass for pure gluonic and full QCD case. Interestingly, the dissociation temperatures obtained by employing EoS1 and EoS2 with the Γ criterion, is closer to the upper bound of the dissociation temperatures which are obtained by the dissolution of a given quarkonia state by the mean thermal energy of the quasi-partons in the hot QCD/QGP medium.     

Photoluminescence Studies of Pr<Superscript>3+</Superscript> Doped Lead Germanate Glass

The Pr³⁺doped PbO-GeO₂ glass samples have been synthesized by melting and quenching process. The nephelauxetic ratio, covalency and bonding parameter which provides the information about the type of bonding between the rare earth ion and neighbor oxygen atoms calculated. The optical parameters such as radiative transition probabilities, radiative lifetime, branching ratios etc. of Pr³⁺ ions have been determined by Judd-Ofelt analysis. An upconversion emission using the excitation at ~594 nm supported by energy transfer process due to dipole-dipole interaction in the ¹D₂ metastable state has been found.     

Aminolysis of Epoxides in Ionic Liquid 1-Ethylpyridinium Trifluoroacetate as Green and Efficient Reaction Medium

Aminolysis of epoxides has been carried out using the ionic liquid 1-ethylpyridinium trifluoroacetate ([EtPy][TFA]) as reaction medium. The reactions went smoothly under mild conditions without any catalyst to afford corresponding β-aminoalcohols in high conversions. Moreover, further enhancement in the conversions was observed when AlCl₃ was used as Lewis acid catalyst.     

An environmentally friendly,cost effective synthesis of quinoxalines: the influence of microwave reaction conditions

A convenient, environmentally friendly and novel synthesis of quinoxalines using silica gel as the catalyst is described. The choice of microwave conditions has been shown to have a substantial impact on the reaction outcome with closed-vessel microwave irradiation resulting in the formation of quinoxalines in high yields and short reaction times. Preliminary mechanistic investigations have indicated that a slight build-up in pressure has a major impact on the reaction outcome.