Novel Steroidal (6R)‐Spiro‐1,3,4‐thiadiazoline Derivatives as Anti‐bacterial Agents

Novel steroidal (6R)‐spiro‐1,3,4‐thiadiazoline derivatives have been synthesized by the cyclization of steroidal thiosemicarbazones. Thiosemicarbazones have been synthesized by the reaction of steroidal ketones with thiosemicarbazide. All the compounds have been characterized by IR, ¹H NMR, mass and elemental analyses. The antibacterial activities of these compounds have been first tested in vitro by the disk diffusion assay against two Gram‐positive and two Gram‐negative bacteria, and then the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values have been determined with the reference of standard drug amoxicillin. The results showed that steroidal thiadiazoline derivatives exhibited better antibacterial activity than the steroidal thiosemicarbazone derivatives. Chloro and acetoxy substituents on the 3β‐position of the steroidal thiadiazoline ring increased the anti‐bacterial activity. Among all the compounds, compounds 7 and 8 were found better inhibitors as compared to the respective drug amoxicillin.     

Photodynamic effect in near-IR light by a photocytotoxic iron(III) cellular imaging agent

A red light for cancer cells: an iron(III) complex (1, see picture) that contains an anthracenyl fluorophore moiety and a catecholate ligand is a potent, metal-based PDT agent that efficiently photocleaves DNA in near-infrared light, has significant nuclear uptake, and high photocytotoxicity in red light by an apoptotic pathway in HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cells.     

Improvement of the mechanical and barrier properties of methylcellulose-based films by treatment with HEMA and silane monomers under gamma radiation

Methylcellulose (MC)-based films were prepared by casting from its 1% aqueous solution containing 0.5% vegetable oil, 0.25% glycerol and 0.025% Tween^®-80. Puncture strength (PS), puncture deformation (PD) and water vapor permeability (WVP) of the films were found to be 147 N/mm, 3.46 mm, and 6.34 g mm/m² day kPa, respectively. The monomer, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) (0.1–1%, w/w) was incorporated into the MC-based solution and films were prepared by casting. Films were then exposed to gamma radiation (5–25 kGy) and it revealed that 1% HEMA containing films showed the highest PS values (282 N/mm at 10 kGy). Silane monomer (3-aminopropyl tri-ethoxy silane) (0.1–1%, w/w) was also added into the MC-based films and were found to improve the strength of the films significantly. In comparison between HEMA and silane treatment onto MC-based films, it was observed that silane performed better strength and barrier properties. Surface morphology of the monomer treated films was examined by scanning electron microscopy and suggested better appearance than MC-based film.     

Modification of mechanical and thermal property of chitosan–starch blend films

Chitosan–starch blend films (thickness 0.2 mm) of different composition were prepared by casting and their mechanical properties were studied. To improve the properties of chitosan–starch films, glycerol and mustard oil of different composition were used. Chitosan–starch films, incorporated with glycerol and mustard oil, were further modified with monomer 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) using gamma radiation. The modified films showed improvement in both tensile strength and elongation at break than the pure chitosan–starch films. Water uptake of the films reduced significantly than the pure chitosan–starch film. Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) showed that the modified films experience less thermal degradation than the pure films. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and FTIR were used to investigate the morphology and molecular interaction of the blend film, respectively.     

Influence of rare earth Ce on structural, electrical and magnetic properties of Sr based W-type hexagonal ferrites

A series of single phase W-type Sr_3−xCe_xFe₁₆O₂₇ (x=0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.10) hexagonal ferrites prepared by the Sol-Gel method was sintered at 1050 °C for 5 h. The X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that all the samples belong to the family of W-type hexagonal ferrites. The c/a ratio falls in the range of W-type hexagonal ferrites. The grain size was measured by SEM varies from 0.7684 to 0.4366 μm which shows that the Ce³⁺ substituted samples have smaller grain size than pure ferrite Sr₃Fe₁₆O₂₇ which results from the difference in ionic radii of Ce³⁺ (1.034 Å) and Sr²⁺ (1.12 Å). The room temperature resistivity of the present samples varies from 6.5×10⁸ to 272×10⁸ Ω-cm. The coercivity increases from 1370 to 1993 Oe which is consistent with the decrease in grain size. The coercivity values indicate that the present samples fall in the range of hard ferrites. The large value of H_c may be due to domain wall pinning at the grain boundaries.     

Pressure-dependent dynamical properties of Zn-based II–VI semiconductors

The effect of pressure on optical phonons and polaron properties in ZnS, ZnSe, and ZnTe II–VI compound semiconductors has been investigated. The calculations are performed in the framework of ab initio pseudopotential approach based on the density functional perturbation theory. At zero pressure, a reasonable degree of agreement is generally found between our results and data available in the literature. It is found that when pressure is increased the phonon modes at Г in the Brillouin zone are shifted towards high energies. The pressure dependence of features such as Fröhlich coupling parameter, the Debye temperature of the longitudinal optical phonon frequency and the polaron effective mass showed that the polaron properties are sensitive to the pressure effect.     

Eventual periodicity of forced oscillations of the Korteweg-de Vries type equation

In this paper, we study the eventual periodicity of the initial boundary value problem (IBVP) for Korteweg-de Vries equation posed on a bounded domain. We show that if the boundary forcing is periodic of period τ, then the solution u of the IBVP at each spatial point becomes eventually time-periodic of period τ. In order to exhibit eventual periodicity, we approximate the solution of the IBVP using the Adomian decomposition method. We compare our work with the approximate solution of IBVP obtained by the homotopy perturbation method and present numerical experiments using Mathematica.     

A new fractional analytical approach via a modified Riemann–Liouville derivative

This work suggests a new analytical technique called the fractional homotopy perturbation method (FHPM) for solving fractional differential equations of any fractional order. This method is based on He’s homotopy perturbation method and the modified Riemann–Liouville derivative. The fractional differential equations are described in Jumarie’s sense. The results from introducing a modified Riemann–Liouville derivative in the cases studied show the high accuracy, simplicity and efficiency of the approach.