Multicomponent assembling of salicylaldehydes,malononitrile and cyanoacetamides: A simple and efficient approach to medicinally relevant 2-amino-4H-chromene scaffold

Sodium hydroxide catalyzed a new multicomponent reaction of salicylaldehydes, malononitrile and cyanoacetamides under ‘on-water’ conditions, which results in the facile and efficient formation of the corresponding substituted 2-amino-4H-chromenes in 80–95% yields. The convenient approach to the substituted 2-amino-4H-chromenes developed here — the promising small-molecule ligands for different biomedical applications with known spasmolitic, diuretic and antianaphylactic activities — is beneficial from the viewpoint of diversity-oriented large-scale processes and represents a fast, efficient and environmentally benign ‘on-water’ synthetic concept for multicomponent reactions strategy.     

Is there any sense to investigate volumetric and acoustic properties of more binary mixtures containing Ionic Liquids?

The excess speed of sound, excess molar volume and excess molar isentropic compressibility of 52 binary mixtures containing Ionic Liquids at T = 298.15 K were calculated using selected literature speed of sound and density data. The second components were alcohols: methanol, or ethanol, or 1-propanol, or 2-propanol, or 1-butanol or other solvents: acetone, acetonitrile, tetrahydrofuran, dichloromethane and dimethylsulfoxide. The Balankina’s relative excesses, X_bal, i.e. the ratios between excess and ideal quantities X^E/X^id were also determined to reduce the structural impact of pure components to absolute excesses. Analysis of quantities determined shows some patterns for concentration dependences of large groups of mixtures; thus, the scheme for influence of anion or cation of Ionic Liquids and solvent on Balankina’s relative excesses was proposed. It seems that presented analysis provide the knowledge about absolute and relative excess quantities for other mixtures without doing the experimental work. It is also visible that analysis of excess molar quantities and X_bal parameters can support the interpretation of interactions which occur between Ionic Liquids and solvent.     

Solvent effect in polymer analysis by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

Solvent effect is one of the important factors in sample preparation which may affect matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectra of synthetic polymers. MALDI imaging, a useful imaging tool for discovering biomarkers in tissues, is applied here for better comprehension of solvent effect in polymer analysis by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Nylon-6 was chosen as a model polymer for the study of solvent effect. Its MALDI mass spectra in different solvents were performed. MALDI imaging analysis was performed for studying the incorporation of analytes into matrix crystals in different solvent combinations. Specifically, the colocalization of matrix and analyte was obtained through Pearson’s correlation (PC) coefficient analysis of their MALDI images. The results demonstrated that satisfactory spectra were obtained in higher PC value conditions. PC decreased along with an increase in the ratio of poor solvent, which suggested that we should minimize the poor solvent ratio to obtain better MALDI spectra.     

Rasagiline-encapsulated chitosan-coated PLGA nanoparticles targeted to the brain in the treatment of parkinson's disease

The aim of this study was to investigate the brain targeting potential of rasagiline-encapsulated chitosan-coated PLGA nanoparticles (RSG-CS-PLGA-NPs) delivered intranasally into the brain. Chitosan-coated PLGA nanoparticles (RSG-CS-PLGA-NPs) were developed through double emulsification-solvent evaporation technique. RSG-CS-PLGA-NPs were characterized for particle size, zeta potential, size distribution, encapsulation efficiency, and in vitro drug release. The mean particle size, polydispersity index, and encapsulation efficiency were found to be 122.38?±?3.64, 0.212?±?0.009, and 75.83?±?3.76, respectively. High-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectroscopy and mass spectroscopy study showed a significantly high mucoadhesive potential of RSG-CS-PLGA-NPs and least for conventional and homogenized nanoformulation. Pharmacokinetic results of RSG-CS-PLGA-NPs in Wistar rat brain and plasma showed a significantly high (**p?<?0.005) AUC_0-24 and amplified C_max over intravenous treatment group. Finally, the investigation demonstrated that intranasal delivery of mucoadhesive nanocarrier showed significant enhancement of bioavailability in brain, after administration of the RSG-CS-PLGA-NPs which could be a substantial achievement of direct nose to brain targeting in Parkinson’s disease therapy and related brain disorders.     

Resilient dissipative dynamic output feedback control for uncertain Markov jump Lur’e systems with time-varying delays

The resilient dissipative dynamic output feedback control problem for a class of uncertain Markov jump Lur’e systems with piecewise homogeneous transition probabilities and time-varying delays in the discrete-time domain are examined in this study. The designed controller can tolerate additive uncertainties in the controller gain matrix, which result from controller implementations. The time-varying delays are also supposed to be mode-dependent with lower and upper bounds known a priori. By constructing a Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional candidate, the sufficient conditions regarding the existence of desired resilient dissipative controllers are obtained in terms of linear matrix inequalities, thereby ensuring that the resulting closed-loop system is stochastically stable and strictly dissipative. Two numerical examples were established to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical results.     

Sharp oscillation and nonoscillation tests for linear difference equations

We consider difference equations with a single delay term and obtain sufficient conditions for both oscillation and nonoscillation. Moreover, our nonoscillation theorem improves the affirmative answer to Ladas’ corrected conjecture given by Tang and Yu in [Comput. Math. Appl. 38(11–12) (1999), pp. 229–237]. We also present a detailed discussion with examples to emphasize the significance and the sharpness of the new results.     

Complex dynamics of a discrete predator–prey model with the prey subject to the Allee effect

In this paper, complex dynamics of the discrete predator–prey model with the prey subject to the Allee effect are investigated in detail. Firstly, when the prey intrinsic growth rate is not large, the basins of attraction of the equilibrium points of the single population model are given. Secondly, rigorous results on the existence and stability of the equilibrium points of the model are derived, especially, by analyzing the higher order terms, we obtain that the non-hyperbolic extinction equilibrium point is locally asymptotically stable. The existences and bifurcation directions for the flip bifurcation, the Neimark–Sacker bifurcation and codimension-two bifurcations with 1:2 resonance are derived by using the center manifold theorem and the bifurcation theory. We derive that the model only exhibits a supercritical flip bifurcation and it is possible for the model to exhibit a supercritical or subcritical Neimark–Sacker bifurcation at the larger positive equilibrium point. Chaos in the sense of Marotto is proved by analytical methods. Finally, numerical simulations including bifurcation diagrams, phase portraits, sensitivity dependence on the initial values, Lyapunov exponents display new and rich dynamical behaviour. The analytic results and numerical simulations demonstrate that the Allee effect plays a very important role for dynamical behaviour.     

Discovery of potential inhibitor against human acetylcholinesterase: a molecular docking and molecular dynamics investigation

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease of central nervous system among elderly people. Human acetylcholinesterase (hAChE), an important enzyme in neuronal signaling, is responsible for the degradation of acetylcholine which in turn prevents the post synaptic signal transmissions. hAChE has been an attractive target of drug discovery for the search of therapeutics against AD. In the recent past hAChE has become hot target for the investigation of new potential therapeutics. We performed virtual screening of entire database against hAChE. Further, the extra precision molecular docking was carried out to refine the docking results and the best complex was passed for molecular dynamics simulations in order of understanding the hAChE dynamics and its behavior in complex with the ligand which corroborate the outcomes of virtual screening. This also provides binding free energy data that establishes the ligands efficiency for inhibiting hAChE. The computational findings discussed in this paper provide initial information of inhibitory effects of ligand, (drugbank entry DB00983), over hAChE.     

Full Bayesian analysis of claims reserving uncertainty

We revisit the gamma–gamma Bayesian chain-ladder (BCL) model for claims reserving in non-life insurance. This claims reserving model is usually used in an empirical Bayesian way using plug-in estimates for the variance parameters. The advantage of this empirical Bayesian framework is that allows us for closed form solutions. The main purpose of this paper is to develop the full Bayesian case also considering prior distributions for the variance parameters and to study the resulting sensitivities.     

Analysis of survivorship life insurance portfolios with stochastic rates of return

A general portfolio of survivorship life insurance contracts is studied in a stochastic rate of return environment with a dependent mortality model. Two methods are used to derive the first two moments of the prospective loss random variable. The first one is based on the individual loss random variables while the second one studies annual stochastic cash flows. The distribution function of the present value of future losses at a given valuation time is derived. For illustrative purposes, an AR(1) process is used to model the stochastic rates of return, and the future lifetimes of a couple are assumed to follow a copula model. The effects of the mortality dependence, the portfolio size and the policy type, as well as the impact of investment strategies on the riskiness of portfolios of survivorship life insurance policies are analyzed by means of moments and probability distributions.