Renewed Looks at the Distribution of a Sum of Independent or Dependent Discrete Random Variables and Related Problems

Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability - Butler and Stephens (2017) have investigated the exact and approximate distributions of a sum S of independent binomial random variables with...     

Nelumbo nucifera leaves as source of water-repellent wax: Extraction through polar and non-polar organic solvents

Nelumbo nucifera leaves are rich source of natural wax possessing super-hydrophobic properties. It provides protection to them from ecological turbulences and climatic wear and tear. In this study, various experiments have been conducted to observe the yield of extraction and the determination of various functional groups, which are present in natural wax, derived from Nelumbo nucifera leaves. The natural wax has been extracted from lotus leaves through non-polar (hexane) and polar (ethanol) solvent via different extraction methods. The superhydrophobic wax has been successfully extracted with hexane. Whereas, ethanol did not extract the water-repellent wax of lotus leaf. Considering the cumulative amount, i.e. (desired + undesired), the maceration shows the extraction of 2.9% (%w/w, through hexane) and 10.2% (%w/w, through ethanol), while it was found 2.5% (%w/w, cycle period 15 min) and 9.0% (%w/w, cycle period 26 min) respectively, in case of Soxhlet extraction technique. For this specific case of natural wax recovery from biomass (lotus leaf), the maceration (traditional method) resulted a little bit superior extraction yield in comparison to the Soxhlet extraction method for extraction of crude wax. In the case of non-polar solvent (hexane), an extraction yield of 1.97% (%w/w) through maceration method was observed while in the case of non-polar solvent (ethanol), an extraction yield of 1.62% (%w/w) through Soxhlet extraction was observed. The TLC analysis on both types of extracts was performed. For the detection of various hydrocarbon chains in the crude wax extracts, FTIR was also performed. Topography of wax surface and wax-coated waterproof fabric was compared through SEM.     

Preparation and characterization of cyclodextrin inclusion complex of naringenin and critical comparison with phospholipid complexation for improving solubility and dissolution

Naringenin, a flavonoid specific to citrus fruits shows a variety of therapeutic effects like anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic, and antitumour effects. But it is associated with some limitations like poor water solubility, poor dissolution, lower half-life, and rapid clearance from the body. With the aim of improving amorphous nature, water solubility, and dissolution profile of naringenin and its complexes were prepared with β-cyclodextrin in three different molar ratios (1:1, 1:2, and 1:3) by solvent evaporation method. These complexes were characterized for solubility, drug content, chemical interaction (using FTIR), phase transition behavior (using DSC), crystallinity (using XRPD), surface morphology (using SEM), and in vitro dissolution study. The results were also critically compared with the results obtained from naringenin-phospholipid complexes (from author’s previous study). The prepared complexes showed high drug content (ranging from 69.53 to 84.38 %) and about two fold improvement in water solubility (from 41.81 to 76.31 μg mL^?1 in the complex with 1:3 ratio). SEM of the complexes showed irregular and rough surface morphology. FTIR, DSC, and XRPD data confirmed the formation of the complex. Unlike the free naringenin which showed a total of only 48.78 % drug release at the end of 60 min, the complex showed 98.0–100 % in dissolution study. Thus it was concluded that the β-cyclodextrin of naringenin may be of potential use for improving bioavailability of poorly soluble phytoconstituents/herbal drugs. On critical comparison with the phospholipid complex of naringenin both the techniques were found almost equally effective in improving the solubility and the dissolution performance of naringenin in the complex form.     

Different approaches of impregnation for resolution of enantiomers of atenolol,propranolol and salbutamol using Cu(II)-l-amino acid complexes for ligand exchange on commercial thin layer chromatographic plates

Atenolol and propranolol (the β-blocking agents) and salbutamol (broncho- and vasodilator) were resolved into their enantiomers by adopting different modes of loading/impregnating the Cu(II) complexes of l-proline (l-Pro), l-phenylalanine (l-Phe), l-histidine (l-His), N,N-dimethyl-l-phenylalanine (N,N-Me₂-l-Phe), and l-tryptophan (l-Trp) on commercial precoated normal phase plates. The three different approaches were (A) using the Cu(II)-l-amino acid complex as chiral mobile phase additive, (B) ascending development of plain commercial plates in the solutions of Cu complex, and (C) using a solution of Cu(II) acetate as mobile phase additive for the commercial TLC plates impregnated with ascending development of plates in the solutions of amino acid. Spots were located using iodine vapour. The results obtained for the three methods have been compared for their efficiency and the issue of involvement of the Cu(II) cation for the best performance of the three methods has been discussed with respect to the same mobile phase. The detection limit is 0.18 μg for each enantiomer.     

Indirect enantioresolution of (R,S)‐mexiletine by reversed‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography via diastereomerization with [(S,S)‐O,O'‐di‐p‐toluoyl tartaric acid anhydride], (S)‐naproxen and nine chiral reagents synthesized as variants of Marfey's reagent

Eleven chiral derivatizing reagents (CDRs) were used for preparation of diastereomers of (R,S)‐mexiletine containing a primary amino group in close proximity to the stereogenic center. One anhydride, namely [(S,S)‐O,O'‐di‐p‐toluoyl tartaric acid anhydride] was synthesized and (S)‐naproxen was used as such as the chiral derivatizing reagent. The other nine CDRs were synthesized by substituting one of the fluorine atoms in 1,5‐difluoro‐2,4‐dinitrobenzene with six amino acid amides and three amino acids. The diastereomers were separated by reversed‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography. The method was validated for linearity, accuracy, limit of detection and limit of quantification. The limit of detection was found in the range of 10–30 pmol. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Asymptotic behavior and finite element error estimates of Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic fluid flow model

In this article, the convergence of the solution of the Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic fluid flow model to its steady state solution with exponential rate is established under the uniqueness assumption. Then, a semidiscrete Galerkin method for spatial direction keeping time variable continuous is considered and asymptotic behavior of the semidiscrete solution is derived. Moreover, optimal error estimates are achieved for large time using steady state error estimates. Based on linearized backward Euler method, asymptotic behavior for the fully discrete solution is studied and optimal error estimates are derived for large time. All the results are even valid for κ→0, that is, when the Kelvin-Voigt model converges to the Navier-Stokes system. Finally, some numerical experiments are conducted to confirm our theoretical findings.     

A molecular dynamics study of the interaction of oleate and dodecylammonium chloride surfactants with complex aluminosilicate minerals

Surface characteristics of complex aluminosilicate minerals like spodumene [LiAl(SiO(3))(2)], jadeite [NaAl(SiO(3))(2)], feldspar [KAlSi(3)O(8)], and muscovite [K(2)Al(4)(Al(2)Si(6)O(20))(OH)(4)]) are modeled. Surface energies are computed for the cleavage planes of these minerals. Adsorption mechanisms of anionic chemisorbing type oleate and cationic physisorbing type dodecylammonium chloride molecules on two different crystal planes, that is (110) and (001), of spodumene and jadeite are studied in terms of the surface-surfactant interaction energies computed using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The conclusions drawn from purely theoretical computations match remarkably well with our experimental results.     

Selective detection of cysteine and glutathione using gold nanorods

A unique strategy for the selective detection of micromolar concentrations of cysteine/glutathione in the presence of various other alpha-amino acids through the plasmon coupling of Au nanorods is reported.     

The dynamical mixing of light and pseudoscalar fields

We solve the general problem of mixing of electromagnetic and scalar or pseudoscalar fields coupled by axion-type interactions L _int = g _ϕ ϕε _μναβ F ^μν F ^αβ . The problem depends on several dimensionful scales, including the magnitude and direction of background magnetic field, the pseudoscalar mass, plasma frequency, propagation frequency, wave number, and finally the pseudoscalar coupling. We apply the results to the first consistent calculations of the mixing of light propagating in a background magnetic field of varying directions, which show a great variety of fascinating resonant and polarization effects.