Synthesis, Spectroscopic Characterization and Structures of Tributyltin(IV) 4-[((E)-1-{2-hydroxy-5-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl]phenyl}methylidene)amino]benzoates. Toxicity Studies on the Second Larval Instar of the Anopheles stephensi Mosquito Larvae

A series of tributyltin(IV) complexes of 4-[((E)-1-{2-hydroxy-5-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl]phenyl}methylidene)amino]benzoates have been investigated by ¹H, ¹³C, ¹¹⁹Sn NMR, IR and ¹¹⁹Sn M?ssbauer spectroscopic techniques in combination with elemental analyses. Single crystal X-ray crystallography of Bu₃Sn[O₂CC₆H₄{N=C(H)C₆H₃-2-OH(N=NC₆H₄CH₃-4)}-p] reveals a distorted tetrahedral structure which is further supported by ¹¹⁹Sn M?ssbauer data. Toxicity studies of the tributyltin(IV) complexes along with their ligands 4-[((E)-1-{2-hydroxy-5-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl]phenyl}methylidene)amino]benzoic acids on the second larval instar of the Anopheles stephensi mosquito larvae are also reported.     

Gradient crystallinity and its influence on the poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(methyl methacrylate) membrane-derived by immersion precipitation method

Herein, phase inversion poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PVDF/PMMA) microporous membranes were prepared at various PMMA concentration by immersion precipitation method. Increment in the PMMA concentration has a significant influence in the PVDF membrane crystallinity, which is studied by differential scanning calorimeter, X-ray diffractometer, and small-angle X-ray scattering analyses. Properties such as membrane bulk structure, porosity, hydrophilicity, mechanical stability, and water flux vary in terms of PMMA concentration. Porosity is increased, and tensile strength decreased when PMMA concentration is beyond 30 wt %. Thermodynamic instability during the liquid to solid phase separation and variation in the crystallinity has an intense effect on these membrane properties. Then, 70/30 blend membrane selected as optimum composition owing to the high porosity and pure water flux compared to other compositions. This membrane is modified with a composite filler derived from the graphene oxide and titanate crosslinked by chitosan. The antibacterial, antifouling, and bovine serum albumin separation studies reveal that the developed nanocomposite membrane is a potential candidate for the separation application. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 137, 48677.     

Hydrated and anhydrous zinc borate fillers for tuning the flame retardancy of epoxy nanocomposites

In this study, hydrous (Zn₃B₆O₁₂·3.5H₂O) and anhydrous (ZnB₂O₄) forms of zinc borates were synthesized at 150 and 175°C under moderate pressure conditions (85 and 150 psi, respectively). Synthesized zinc borates were controllably incorporated (1, 5, and 10 wt%) in epoxy resin to prepare their nanocomposites. The flame-retardant and mechanical properties of these nanocomposites were determined and compared in terms of their flame spread testing, smoke density, limiting oxygen index, and flexural strength. Superior properties in terms of flame retardancy were observed for epoxy composites containing hydrous filler as compared to anhydrous zinc borates. Although flexural strength was observed to be decreased with increasing filler concentration, the marked drop is lower for composites with hydrous zinc borate as compared to the anhydrous one. The variations in flame-retardant and mechanical properties of composites with both types of fillers are related to their morphological (field emission scanning electron microscopy), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetry analysis and explained with condensed phase mechanism.     

Kinome Array Profiling of Patient-Derived Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Identifies Differentially Active Protein Tyrosine Kinases

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most difficult malignancies to treat. Minimal improvements in patient outcomes and persistently abysmal patient survival rates underscore the great need for new treatment strategies. Currently, there is intense interest in therapeutic strategies that target tyrosine protein kinases. Here, we employed kinome arrays and bioinformatic pipelines capable of identifying differentially active protein tyrosine kinases in different patient-derived pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cell lines and wild-type pancreatic tissue to investigate the unique kinomic networks of PDAC samples and posit novel target kinases for pancreatic cancer therapy. Consistent with previously described reports, the resultant peptide-based kinome array profiles identified increased protein tyrosine kinase activity in pancreatic cancer for the following kinases: epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), fms related receptor tyrosine kinase 4/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 (FLT4/VEGFR-3), insulin receptor (INSR), ephrin receptor A2 (EPHA2), platelet derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRA), SRC proto-oncogene kinase (SRC), and tyrosine kinase non receptor 2 (TNK2). Furthermore, this study identified increased activity for protein tyrosine kinases with limited prior evidence of differential activity in pancreatic cancer. These protein tyrosine kinases include B lymphoid kinase (BLK), Fyn-related kinase (FRK), Lck/Yes-related novel kinase (LYN), FYN proto-oncogene kinase (FYN), lymphocyte cell-specific kinase (LCK), tec protein kinase (TEC), hemopoietic cell kinase (HCK), ABL proto-oncogene 2 kinase (ABL2), discoidin domain receptor 1 kinase (DDR1), and ephrin receptor A8 kinase (EPHA8). Together, these results support the utility of peptide array kinomic analyses in the generation of potential candidate kinases for future pancreatic cancer therapeutic development.     

Surface texture and specific adsorption sites of sol-gel synthesized anatase TiO2 nanoparticles

The surface properties of sol-gel synthesized anatase titania (TiO₂) nanoparticles are probed by sorptiometry, infrared absorption spectroscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The results reveal strong correlations of the surface area, porosity, pyridine adsorption capacity and strength, and catalytic methylbutynol decomposition activity.     

Review on the Use of Heavy Metal Deposits from Water Treatment Waste towards Catalytic Chemical Syntheses

The toxicity and persistence of heavy metals has become a serious problem for humans. These heavy metals accumulate mainly in wastewater from various industries’ discharged effluents. The recent trends in research are now focused not only on the removal efficiency of toxic metal particles, but also on their effective reuse as catalysts. This review discusses the types of heavy metals obtained from wastewater and their recovery through commonly practiced physico-chemical pathways. In addition, it covers the advantages of the new system for capturing heavy metals from wastewater, as compared to older conventional technologies. The discussion also includes the various structural aspects of trapping systems and their hypothesized mechanistic approaches to immobilization and further rejuvenation of catalysts. Finally, it concludes with the challenges and future prospects of this research to help protect the ecosystem.     

Effect of Delta Current and Delta Current Frequency on Microstructure and Tensile Properties of Gas Tungsten Constricted Arc (GTCA)-Welded Inconel 718 Alloy Joints

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - The magnetic arc constriction technique was used to control the heat input-related metallurgical problems such as segregation of Nb and laves phase...     

Effects of brown algal phlorotannins and ascorbic acid on the physiochemical properties of minced fish (Pagrosomus major) during freeze–thaw cycles

The quality loss in fish during freeze–thaw cycles is considered one of the major issues caused mainly by temperature fluctuations during cold storage. The present work is aimed to illustrate the effects of brown algal phlorotannins (BAP) and ascorbic acid (AA) on physiochemical properties of minced snapper muscle through different freeze–thaw cycles. Both AA and BAP could retard lipid and protein oxidation, respectively, and synergistically. The Ca²⁺‐ATPase activity can be protected with the addition of antioxidants. The addition of 0.1% (w/w) AP showed 22.6% higher activity as compared with other groups especially during three freeze–thaw cycles. Cooking loss was efficiently inhibited and 0.1% AA + 0.3% BAP group showed 25.5% lower than control. Antioxidant is also helpful to maintain gel‐forming ability of minced snapper and 0.1% AA + 0.1% BAP group showed the best. These results revealed that both AA and BAP could prevent minced fish by inhibiting the protein denaturation during freeze–thaw cycles.     

Ternay Au@TiO2/α-Fe2O3 Nanocomposite with Nanoring Structure: Synthesis,Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - In the present study, a modified solvothermal reaction of (hematite) with titanium(IV) butoxide and gold(III) chloride produced...     

Design and development of microcontroller based instrumentation for studying complex bioelectrical impedance of fruits using electrical impedance spectroscopy

Electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is an electrical impedance technique to characterize the fruits and vegetables in terms of their frequency dependent bioimpedance profile. Standalone, portable, and low‐cost instrumentation is always preferred for conducting EIS procedures. This article reports the studies on the design and development of a Microcontroller based portable impedance measurement system to conduct the EIS studies on the fruits during ripening and storage. The proposed laboratory based EIS system is developed with a Microcontroller ATmega16, a Direct Digital Synthesizers based constant current source AD5930, a current to voltage converter, a low pass filter, and a DSO. To test and evaluate the developed system, the cucumber impedance is studied under the storage condition using EIS to characterize the cucumber freshness from the electrical impedance data. The real parts, imaginary parts of the cucumber impedance are calculated and the Nyquist diagrams are analyzed to study the equivalent circuit analysis. The developed system is compared with a standard impedance analyzer and it is observed that the results obtained from the developed system closely match with the data measured by the commercial impedance analyzer. The developed system is also found suitable for EIS studies of fruits, vegetables, and other biological tissues. The developed system is found low‐cost, fast, and user friendly. PCB based version of the proposed system with display unit will be found as a portable, standalone, and EIS system suitable for outdoor measurement in agricultural‐field applications.

Practical applications

Microcontroller based low cost electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been developed and is studied for EIS based fruit ripening analysis. The system is compared with the standard commercial impedance analyzer and it is found suitable fruit ripening characterization, vegetable freshness detection, and health studies of other biological tissues. The microcontroller based EIS system is found portable, low cost, fast, and user friendly device which can be used in laboratory, cultivation fields, cold storages and shops and markets. The developed system allows nontechnical person to operated and collect the data from fruit and vegetable samples. The system acquired data significantly correlate the bioimpedance variation with the ripening states which can be potentially utilized to study the fruit ripening noninvasively at low cost. Hence the product‐form of the developed devise could even be operated by field persons, farmers, and other common men to evaluate the fruit ripening and vegetable freshness.