Modified soybean oil as a reactive diluent: Synthesis and characterization

Soybean oil was modified in two steps: (1) conjugation of soybean oil and (2) Diels‐Alder addition with 3‐(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate, 2,2,2‐trifluoroethyl methacrylate and triallyl ether acrylate. The structures were characterized using ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ¹³C‐¹H gradient heteronuclear single quantum coherence (gHSQC) NMR spectroscopy, and MALDI‐TOF mass spectrometry. The ¹³C‐¹H gHSQC NMR spectra helped confirm the formation of a cyclohexene ring in all reactions, indicating a Diels‐Alder addition. The diluent efficiency of modified soybean oil was evaluated in long oil alkyd formulation. Triallyl ether functionalized soybean oil resulted in the highest reduction in the viscosity of the alkyd formulations. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014 , 52, 3045–3059     

Evaluation of antioxidant activity and DNA cleavage protection effect of naphthyl hydroxamic acid derivatives through conventional and fluorescence microscopic methods

Antioxidant capacity of N-(1-naphthyl)valerohydroxamic acid (NVHA) and N-(1-naphthyl)phenylacetohydroxamic acid (NPAHA) has been evaluated by a novel approach employing the fluorescence microscopic single molecule observation method. This method allows direct observation of the changes in single DNA molecules. The DNA cleavage protection activity of the compounds was also assessed by the gel electrophoresis method. The applied methods confirmed that both compounds are capable of inhibiting the free radical mediated DNA damage. Free radical scavenging activity was assessed via the 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical (DPPH) and lipid peroxidation inhibition methods. The effective concentration causing a 50 % inhibition of the DPPH concentration, EC50, was found to be 371.54 mM for NVHA and 365.95 mM for NPAHA. Its lipid peroxidation inhibition ability was calculated to be 40.91 % at 371.54 mM for NVHA and 41.14 % at 365.95 mM for NPAHA. These results show the antioxidant potential of the naphthyl hydroxamic acids.     

Ultrasound-promoted greener approach to synthesize α-hydroxy phosphonates catalyzed by potassium dihydrogen phosphate under solvent-free condition

We report a new environmentally-benign, convenient, and facile methodology for the synthesis of α-hydroxyphosphonates from an aromatic/heteroaromatic aldehyde with triethyl phosphite in the presence of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH₂PO₄) under ultrasound-assisted solvent-free conditions. Furthermore, a series of compounds were synthesized and characterized by melting point, EI-MS, NMR, and IR tools. Utilization of easy reaction conditions, isolation, and purification makes this manipulation very interesting from an economic perspective.     

Prospecting Exopolysaccharides Produced by Selected Bacteria Associated with Marine Organisms for Biotechnological Applications

In this study, bacteria associated with marine organisms were screened for the production of exopolysaccharides(EPSs) on MY media containing sea salts(2.5%-10%). Three selected isolates were identified as Alteromonas sp. PRIM-21, Nitratireductor sp. PRIM-24 and Enterobacter sp. PRIM-26 using 16 S r RNA gene sequencing. Optimization of the growth and EPS production kinetics in relation to incubation time were assessed. The purified EPS yield was 590, 650 and 540 mg·L-1 culture media respectively in Alteromonas sp. PRIM-21, Nitratireductor sp. PRIM-24 and Enterobacter sp. PRIM-26. Biochemical and FTIR analyses revealed the presence of biologically important functional groups in the EPS produced by all the three isolates. The EPS produced by Nitratireductor sp. PRIM-24 and Alteromonas sp. PRIM-21 showed 2.0% sulfate content. These bacterial EPS also showed antioxidant and emulsifying activities and the EPS produced by Enterobacter sp.PRIM-26 showed significantly higher antioxidant activities in terms of superoxide(IC50 0.33 mg·mL -1) and DPPH(IC50 0.44 mg·mL -1) radical scavenging. It also showed higher emulsifying activities against selected hydrophobic substrates with EI24 values above 60%. From the results of the study, it can be concluded that the isolated bacteria produce EPS that can be investigated in detail for biotechnological applications.     

A general design for one dimensional discrete sine transform

Implementation of discrete sine transform (DST) is proposed, by folding the input data. This results in recursive structure, besides saving in the overall computation cycles. A simplified architecture to derive DST kernel has also been suggested.     

Synthesis and X-ray structure analysis of benzoic acid [1-(6-methyl-2,4-dioxo-3,4-dihydro-2H-pyran-3-yl)eth-(E)-ylidene]-hydrazide with a water molecule (C15H14N2O4?H2O)

The crystal structure of the title compound has been determined by X-ray diffraction methods. It crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁/n with cell parameters a = 7.097(1) Å, b = 19.257(1) Å, c = 10.893(1) Å, = 106.17(2), V = 1429.8(3) ų and Z = 4. The final reliability index is 0.059 for 2419 observed reflections. The molecule comprises of two six- membered rings which are abridged together through a network of C–N, N–N and C–N bonds. There are three keto functional groups and two methyl groups at various locations of the molecule. The C9 atom of methyl group and O2 of the keto group are deviated significantly from the mean plane of the molecule. Both the six-membered rings are planar and it is evident from the magnitude of their exocyclic torsion angles. The molecular structure is stabilized by few intra and intermolecular hydrogen bonds.     

Blind and Secured Adaptive Digital Image Watermarking Approach for High Imperceptibility and Robustness

In the past decade, rapid development in digital communication has led to prevalent use of digital images. More importantly, confidentiality issues have also come up recently due to the increase in digital image transmission across the Internet. Therefore, it is necessary to provide high imperceptibility and security to digitally transmitted images. In this paper, a novel blind digital image watermarking scheme is introduced tackling secured transmission of digital images, which provides a higher quality regarding both imperceptibility and robustness parameters. A block based hybrid IWT- SVD transform is implemented for robust transmission of digital images. To ensure high watermark security, the watermark is encrypted using a Pseudo random key which is generated adaptively from cover and watermark images. An encrypted watermark is embedded in randomly selected low entropy blocks to increase the security as well as imperceptibility. Embedding positions within the block are identified adaptively using a Blum–Blum–Shub Pseudo random generator. To ensure higher visual quality, Initial Scaling Factor (ISF) is chosen adaptively from a cover image using image range characteristics. ISF can be optimized using Nature Inspired Optimization (NIO) techniques for higher imperceptibility and robustness. Specifically, the ISF parameter is optimized by using three well-known and novel NIO-based algorithms such as Genetic Algorithms (GA), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), and Firefly Optimization algorithm. Experiments were conducted for the proposed scheme in terms of imperceptibility, robustness, security, embedding rate, and computational time. Experimental results support higher effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Furthermore, performance comparison has been done with some of the existing state-of-the-art schemes which substantiates the improved performance of the proposed scheme.     

Solvation thermodynamics of xylitol in water and in aqueous amino acids at 298.15 K

The scaled particle theory has been applied to calculate the free energy, ΔG_solv, enthalpy, ΔH_solv, and entropy, ΔS_solv of solvation for xylitol in water and in aqueous amino acids (glycine, alanine and valine) at 298.15 K. The solvation energy, enthalpy and entropy of xylitol are expressed in terms of their various ingredients. The results show that the interaction terms contribute favorably to the process of solvation. The results suggest that the cavity formation for accommodation of xylitol molecules in aqueous amino acids is an enthalpy‐dominated process. Furthermore, the investigated parameters indicate that xylitol–amino acid interactions follow the sequence: glycine alanine valine water. The findings of the present work may help to throw light on the role that xylitol can play to stabilize macromolecules like proteins in aqueous solutions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.