Molecular and absolute crystal structure of pindolol-1-(1H-indol-4-yloxy)-3-[(1-methylethyl)amino]-2-propanol: A specific beta-adrenoreceptor antagonist with partial agonist activity

The crystal and molecular structure of pindolol, 1-(1H indol-4-yloxy)-3-[(1-methylethyl)amino]-2-propanol, has been determined by direct methods. Crystals are tetragonal, ,a=b=15.809(4),c=11.246(2) Å,Z=8,D _c=1.174 mg m^–3. The finalR-factor for 2271 reflections withI>2(I) is 0.038. Refinement by full-matrix least-squares on F² also enabled the absolute configuration of the structure to be established. The molecule is essentially planar, including much of the side-chain which is stabilized by the existence of two intramolecular H-bonds, between the ethyl oxygen and OH group, and between the OH and side-chain amide groups, respectively. The crystal structure is formed by three intermolecular hydrogen bonds including two side-chain-side-chain interactions, between ethyl oxygen to amide and OH to amide, and an interaction between the side-chain OH to indole NH.     

Recent Advances in Randomness Extraction

The area of randomness extraction has seen interesting advances in recent years, with rapid progress on many longstanding open problems, along with the introduction of many new notions that played a key role in this development. We survey this progress and highlight new definitions and notions that have been the subject of intense study in recent work.     

A validated HPLC‐PDA method for identification and quantification of two bioactive alkaloids,ephedrine and cryptolepine,in different Sida species

A simple, rapid, accurate and reproducible reverse‐phase HPLC method has been developed for the identification and quantification of two alkaloids ephedrine and cryptolepine in different extracts of Sida species using photodiode array detection. Baseline separation of the two alkaloids was achieved on a Waters RP‐18 X‐terra column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm) using a solvent system consisting of a mixture of water containing 0.1% Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and acetonitrile in a gradient elution mode with detection at 210 and 280 nm for ephedrine and cryptolepine, respectively. The calibration curves were linear in a concentration range of 10–250 µg/mL for both the alkaloids with correlation coefficient values >0.99. The limits of detection and quantification for ephedrine and cryptolepine were 5 and 10 µg/mL and 2.5 and 5 µg/mL, respectively. Relative standard deviation values for intra‐day and inter‐day precision were 1.22 and 1.04% for ephedrine and 1.71 and 2.06% for cryptolepine, respectively. Analytical recovery ranged from 92.46 to 103.95%. The developed HPLC method was applied to identify and quantify ephedrine and cryptolepine in different extracts of Sida species. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of adjacent channel interference on thefrequency-modulated WDM optical communication system

The effect of adjacent channel interference on the frequency modulated wavelength division multiplexing (FM-WDM) optical communication system is analyzed in this paper. This system uses injection-locked optical discriminator at the output for the demodulation of FM channels. Adjacent channel interference results in crosstalk in the FM-WDM communication system which has been calculated. Dependence of crosstalk on the channel spacing, received signal power in a particular channel, and linewidth enhancement factor of the slave laser incorporated in the optical discriminator has been numerically investigated. The injection-locked discriminator has a typical output crosstalk level of -50 dB for a channel spacing of 100 GHz with optical injection level of -30 dB into the slave laser and is a suitable subsystem to be used in FM-WDM communication system     

Local oscillator chain for 1.55 to 1.75THz with 100-/spl mu/W peak power

We report on the design and performance of a fix-tuned /spl times/2/spl times/3/spl times/3 frequency multiplier chain that covers 1.55-1.75THz. The chain is nominally pumped with 100mW at W-band. At 120K the measured output power is larger than 4/spl mu/W across the band with a peak power of 100/spl mu/W at 1.665THz. A similar chain operated at room temperature produced a peak power of 21/spl mu/W. These power levels now make it possible to deploy multipixel heterodyne imaging arrays in this frequency range.     

Two-dimensional electronic transport in In0.53Ga0.47As quantum Wells

Transport properties of the electrons itinerant two dimensionality in a square quantum well of In_0.53Ga_0.47As are studied in the framework of Fermi-Dirac statistics including the relevant scattering mechanisms. An iterative solution of the Boltzmann equation shows that the ohmic mobility is controlled by LO phonon scattering at room temperature, but below 130 K alloy scattering is predominant. The calculated mobilities with a suitable value of the alloy scattering potential agree with the experimental results over a range of lattice temperature. For lattice temperatures below 25 K where the carrier energy loss is governed by the deformation potential acoustic scattering, the warm electron coefficient is found to be negative. Its magnitude decreases with increasing lattice temperature and is greater for larger channel widths. Values of the small-signal AC mobility of hot electrons at a lattice temperature of 4.2 K are obtained for different sheet carrier densities and channel widths. Cut-off frequencies around 100 GHz are indicated.Dedicated to H.-J. Queisser on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Surface Coating Rescues Proteins from Magnetite Nanoparticle Induced Damage

The presence of magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) in physiological systems induces toxicity through its effects on mitochondrial function and reactive oxygen species (ROS) imbalance. Magnetic NP induced cytotoxicity has been elaborately evaluated for impending threats, however, a detailed investigation is lacking. It is shown that the interaction of Fe₃O₄ NPs with cytochrome c can lead to different events based on the NPs to protein ratio, the solution conditions, and the type of surface protection. At low NPs concentration, rapid binding and subsequent electron transfer are the preferred events while at higher concentration slow oxidative modification of the protein is initiated. The slow event of protein modification yields conformational disorientation, loss of stability, and formation of amyloid‐like structures with cytochrome c. The possibility that the NP induced oxidative stress and age can work in concert to compromise different aspects of cellular quality control processes is discussed. Suitable surface modifications of the NPs inhibit their direct binding to the protein molecules and minimize NP induced toxicity.     

A novel approach for coefficient quantization of low-pass finite impulse response filter using differential evolution algorithm

Evolutionary computational techniques have been employed judiciously in various signal processing applications of late. In this paper, such an attempt has been made to design a low-pass linear-phase multiplier-less finite duration impulse response (FIR) filter using differential evolution (DE) algorithm. This particular evolutionary optimization technique has been explored to search the impulse response coefficients of the FIR filter in the form of sum of power of two (SPT) in order to avoid the multipliers during design process. The performance of the designed low-pass filter has been studied thoroughly in terms of its frequency characteristics and primitive requirement of fundamental hardware blocks. The superiority of our design has been ascertained over a number of existing techniques by various means. Finally, the proposed filter of different lengths has been implemented on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip for evaluating the competency of this work. The percentage improvement in hardware complexity produced by our design has also been computed and clearly listed in this paper for convenience.     

Infrared spectroscopy of chromium-doped cadmium selenide

The maximum optical-absorption cross section of Cr²⁺ ions was evaluated from near-infrared (NIR) absorption spectroscopy and direct measurements of the chromium concentration in Cr²⁺:CdSe crystals. The emission lifetime of the excited state, ⁵E, of Cr²⁺ was measured as a function of Cr²⁺ concentration in the 2×10¹⁷ −2×10¹⁸ ions/cm³ range and as a function of temperature from 77–300 K. Lifetime values were as high as ∼6 μs in the 77–250 K range and decreased to ∼4 μs at 300 K because of nonradiative decays. Assuming that most of the Cr dopant is in the Cr²⁺ state, an optical-absorption cross section σ_a of (1.94±0.56) × 10⁻¹⁸ cm² was calculated. Implications for laser performance are discussed.