Dinuclear gold (I)-di-N-heterocyclic carbene complexes: syntheses,structure, density functional theory calculation and photoluminescence study

The synthesis and characterizations for a series of dinuclear gold (I)-di-NHC complexes, 1–8 through the trans-metalation method of their respective silver (I)-di-NHC complexes, i–viii are reported (where NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene). The successful complexation of a series of unusual non-symmetrical and symmetrical di-NHC ligands, 3,3'-(ethane-1,2-diyl)-1-alkylbenzimidazolium-1'-butylbenzimidazolium (with alkyl = methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, pentyl, hexyl, heptyl, benzyl) with the gold (I) ions are suggested by elemental analysis, Fourier transform-infrared, ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR data. The ¹³C-NMR spectra of 1–8 show a singlet sharp peak in the range of 190.00–192.00 ppm, indicating the presence of a carbene carbon that bonded to the gold (I) ion. From single crystal X-ray diffraction data, the structure of complex 6 with the formula of [di-NHC-Au (I)]₂·2PF₆ is obtained [where NHC = 3,3'-(ethane-1,2-diyl)-1-hexylbenzimidazolium-1'-butylbenzimidazolium]. The photophysical study in solid state of 6 displays an intense photoluminescence with a strong emission maxima, λ_em = 480 nm, upon excitation at 340 nm at room temperature. Interestingly, the emission maximum at 77 K shows a structural character with a strong peak at 410 nm, a medium at 433 nm and a weak at 387 nm, accompanied by a tail band to about 500 nm.     

Widrow-cellular neural network and optoelectronic implementation

A new type of optoelectronic cellular neural network has been developed by providing the capability of coefficients adjusment of cellular neural network (CNN) using Widrow based perceptron learning algorithm. The new supervised cellular neural network is called Widrow-CNN. Despite the unsupervised CNN, the proposed learning algorithm allows to use the Widrow-CNN for various image processing applications easily. Also, the capability of CNN for image processing and feature extraction has been improved using basic joint transform correlation architecture. This hardware application presents high speed processing capability compared to digital applications. The optoelectronic Widrow-CNN has been tested for classic CNN feature extraction problems. It yields the best results even in case of hard feature extraction problems such as diagonal line detection and vertical line determination.     

Radiation pasteurised oil palm empty fruit bunch fermented with Pleurotus sajor-caju as feed supplement to ruminants

In solid state fermentation, Pleurotus sajor-caju has been found to be able to degrade at least 30% oil palm empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) fibre leaving 70 % useful materials. Conditions under which fermentation carried out were investigated. It was found that, in the temperature range between 25– 28 °C, relative ph between 6–8, moisture between 60–70 % and medium composition of CaCO₃: rice bran 2 %: 5 % were the optimum conditions. The results showed in fermented products that, there were substantial reduction in cellulosic component such as Crude Fiber (CF, 18 %); Acid Detergent Fibre (ADF, 45 %), Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF, 61 %) and Acid Detergent Lignin (ADL, 14 %). However, Crude Protein (CP, 10%) increased resulted from single cell protein enrichment of mycelial microbial mass. The mass reductions of substrate in fermentation process corresponds to the CO₂ released during fermentation. Hence, attributable to the decreased in content of CF, ADF, NDF, and ADL. The digestibility study has also been carried out to determine the useful level of this product to ruminant. Aflatoxin content was detected low in both the initial substrates and products. Based on nutritional value and low content of aflatoxin, the product is useful as a source of roughage to ruminant.     

10-GHz Optical Comb in L-Band Region With Brillouin/Erbium-Doped Fibre Laser

A multiwavelength Brillouin/erbium fibre laser (BEFL) which operates in the long wavelength (L-band) region is demonstrated for potential applications in an L-band wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) communication system. The laser configuration consists of a long erbium-doped fibre to enable L-band amplification where two 3-dB couplers take a portion of the generated BEFL signal and re-inject it into the single mode fibre to seed a cascaded BEFL line in the same direction as the first BEFL line. A stable and strong laser comb of up to five lines with 10-GHz spacing has been obtained with a Brillouin pump (BP) of 9.2 mW and a 980 nm pump of 92 mW. The BEFL has shown a broad tuning range with a tuning characteristic for line #1 which is flat over a range greater than 9.9 nm.     

Photon interaction studies using 241Am γ-rays

We have carried out some photon interaction measurements using 59.54 keV γ-rays from a ²⁴¹Am source. These include γ attenuation studies as well as photoelectric absorption studies in various samples. The attenuation studies have been made using leaf and wood samples, samples like sand, sugar etc., which contain particles of varying sizes as well as pellets and aqueous solutions of rare earth compounds. In the case of the leaf and wood samples, we have used the γ-ray attenuation technique for the determination of the water content in fresh and dried samples. The variation of the attenuation coefficient with particle size has been investigated for sand and sugar samples. The attenuation studies as well as the photoelectric studies in the case of rare earth elements have been carried out on samples containing such elements whose K-absorption edge energies lie below and close to the γ-energy used. Suitable compounds of the rare earth elements have been chosen as mixture absorbers in these investigations. A narrow beam good geometry set-up was used for the attenuation measurements. A well-shielded scattering geometry was used for the photoelectric measurements. The mixture rule was invoked to extract the values of the mass attenuation coefficients for the elements from those of the corresponding compounds. The results are consistent with theoretical values derived from the XCOM package.     

Synthesis of the possible carcinogenic dihydrodiol and diol epoxide of phthalazine

Inverse-Diels-Alder reaction of dimethyl 1,2,4,5-tetrazine-3,6-dicarboxylate with benzene cis-diol gave dihydrodiol containing the 1,4-dihydropyridazine ring. Attempts at oxidation of the dihydropyridazine ring with PIFA and MnO₂ resulted in the formation of 5- and 5,6-dihydroxy-phthalazine derivatives. The oxidation of the dihydropyridazine ring was achieved by way of photooxygenation. The phthalazine type dihydrodiol is unstable and easily undergoes aromatization. The Diels-Alder reaction of tetrazine with cyclohexadiene acetonide and epoxy-ketal cyclohexene as a dienophile was investigated. These reactions led to the possible carcinogenic phthalazine type of dihydrodiol and diol epoxide where the hydroxyl groups are protected.