Organofluorine Hydrazone Derivatives as Multifunctional Anti-Alzheimer's Agents with CK2 Inhibitory and Antioxidant Features

A set of novel hydrazone derivatives were synthesized and analyzed for their biological activities. The compounds were tested for their inhibitory effect on the phosphorylating activity of the protein kinase CK2, and their antioxidant activity was also determined in three commonly used assays. The hydrazones were evaluated for their radical scavenging against the DPPH, ABTS and peroxyl radicals. Several compounds have been identified as good antioxidants as well as potent protein kinase CK2 inhibitors. Most hydrazones containing a 4-N(CH₃)₂ residue or perfluorinated phenyl rings showed high activity in the radical-scavenging assays and possess nanomolar IC₅₀ values in the kinase assays.     

Spray dryer processed graphene oxide/reduced graphene oxide for high-performance supercapacitor

This study deals with the utility of mini spray dryer process to improve the dispersibility, of graphene oxide(GO) and its application for high-performance supercapacitor. Initially, the neutral solution of GO was obtained using the modified Hummer's method. After this, the prepared GO solution was processed by mini spray dryer to obtain a more purified, lighter, and dispersed form of GO which is named as spray dryer processed GO (SPGO). The SPGO thus obtained showed excellent dispersibility behavior with various solvents, which is not found in case of conventional oven drying. Furthermore, utility of SPGO and its reduced form (r-SPGO) for supercapacitor applications have been investigated. Results obtained from the cyclic voltammetry(CV) analysis, impedance, and charge-discharge behavior of supercapacitor fabricated using r-SPGO shows enhanced features. Therefore, the simple spray dried GO and its reduced form, that is, r-SPGO can be utilized as a potential candidate for the supercapacitor application. Herein, as synthesized SPGO exhibited the specific capacitance of 12.07 and 37.6 F/g with PVA-H₃PO₄ and 1 mol/L H₃PO₄, respectively, at a scan rate of 5 mV/s. On the other hand, reduced form of SPGO, that is, r-SPGO showed the specific capacitance of 27.16 and 230 F/g with PVA-H₃PO₄ and 1 mol/L H₃PO₄, respectively.     

Properties of poly(ethylene terephthalate)–poly(ethylene naphthalene 2,6‐dicarboxylate) blends with montmorillonite clay

The production and properties of blends of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and poly(ethylene naphthalene 2,6‐dicarboxylate) (PEN) with three modified clays are reported. Octadecylammonium chloride and maleic anhydride (MAH) are used to modify the surface of the montmorillonite–Na⁺ clay particles (clay–Na⁺) to produce clay–C18 and clay–MAH, respectively, before they are mixed with the PET/PEN system. The transesterification degree, hydrophobicity and the effect of the clays on the mechanical, rheological and thermal properties are analysed. The PET–PEN/clay–C18 system does not show any improvements in the mechanical properties, which is attributed to poor exfoliation. On the other hand, in the PET–PEN/clay–MAH blends, the modified clay restricts crystallization of the matrix, as evidenced in the low value of the crystallization enthalpy. The process‐induced PET–PEN transesterification reaction is affected by the clay particles. Clay–C18 induces the largest proportion of naphthalate–ethylene–terephthalate (NET) blocks, as opposed to clay–Na⁺ which renders the lowest proportion. The clay readily incorporates in the bulk polymer, but receding contact‐angle measurements reveal a small influence of the particles on the surface properties of the sample. The clay–Na⁺ blend shows a predominant solid‐like behaviour, as evidenced by the magnitude of the storage modulus in the low‐frequency range, which reflects a high entanglement density and a substantial degree of polymer–particle interactions. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Correlation analysis of geothermal data in North America

Correlation studies of the geothermal parameters have been carried out for Michigan Basin and the results are interpreted with the help of observed relations between heat flow, geological age and crustal thickness for North America. Heat flow and geothermal gradient are found to decrease with thermal conductivity, while they are positively correlated with each other, supporting the earlier findings of Negi et al. (1974). It is noted that, to some extent, these associations can be explained with the help of variations in crustal thickness.     

Life quality index for the estimation of societal willingness-to-pay for safety

The engineering and management of human safety is an important societal objective that includes extensive efforts by governments, both legislative and administrative, to enhance the health and safety of the public. Although the achievement of safety goals depend primarily on individuals and organizations responsible for safety, much support is drawn from expertise in diverse scientific and engineering disciplines. The activities range from structural safety (dams, tunnels, bridges to tall buildings) to safe operation of hazardous industrial installations (energy generation facilities, LNG terminals, petrochemical plants) to transportation systems (airline, rail, car safety) to technologies designed to minimize adverse impacts on the environment. All these activities are crucially concerned with risk: with the likelihood and the probable effects of various measures on life and health. We have developed a unified rationale and a clear basis for effective strategic management of risk across diverse sectors. Safety is an important objective in society but it is not the only one. The allocation of society's resources devoted to safety must be continually appraised in light of competing needs, because there is a limit on the resources that can be expended to extend life. The paper presents the Life Quality Index (LQI) as a tool for the assessment of risk reduction initiatives that would support the public interest and enhance safety and quality of life. The paper provides an intuitive reformulation of the LQI as equivalent to a valid utility function that is consistent with the principles of rational decision analysis. The LQI is further refined to consider the issues of discounting of life years, competing background risks, and population age and mortality distribution. The LQI is applied to quantify the societal willingness-to-pay, which is an acceptable level of public expenditure in exchange for a reduction in the risk of death that results in improved life-quality.     

Influence of the prebuckling stress-field on the critical loads of inhomogeneous composite laminates

The paper studies the uniaxial buckling behavior of composite laminates in which preselected variations of fiber spacing in the constituent laminae are adopted. Such laminates are referred to as inhomogeneous laminates because of the variable elastic stiffness along the coordinate axes. A non-uniform prebuckling stress state observed even under constant uniaxial compression has a pronounced influence on the buckling behaviour of an inhomogeneous laminate. A procedure is summarized for computing the critical load of a laminate using the Ritz method which exploits an analogy between the bending and stretching formulations and utilizes Gram-Schmidt orthogonal polynomials. The paper illustrates that the variation in fiber spacing is an innovative way of increasing the critical load for a prescribed amount of fiber and highlights its remarkable sensitivity to the nature of fiber spacing, in-plane and out-of-plane boundary conditions, fiber type and the aspect ratio of the laminate.     

Arthroplasty implant biomaterial particle associated macrophages differentiate into lacunar bone resorbing cells

OBJECTIVE: To study the pathogenesis of aseptic loosening: in particular, to determine whether macrophages responding to particles of biomaterials commonly used in arthroplasty surgery for arthritis are capable of differentiating into osteoclastic bone resorbing cells, and the cellular and hormonal conditions required for this to occur. METHODS: Biomaterial particles (polymethylmethacrylate, high density polyethylene, titanium, chromium-cobalt, stainless steel) were implanted subcutaneously into mice. Macrophages were isolated from the foreign body granulomas that resulted, cultured on bone slices and coverslips, and assessed for both cytochemical and functional evidence of osteoclast differentiation. RESULTS: Tartrate resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) negative macrophages isolated from granulomas containing particles of all types of biomaterial composition were capable of differentiating into TRAP positive cells capable of extensive lacunar bone resorption (assessed by scanning electron microscopy). The presence of both UMR106 rat osteoblast-like cells and 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 was necessary for this to occur. CONCLUSION: All implant materials produce wear particles that are the focus of a heavy foreign body macrophage response in the fibrous membrane between a loose implant component and the host bone undergoing resorption. These findings underline the importance of biomaterial wear particle generation and the macrophage response to different types of biomaterial wear particles in the pathogenesis of aseptic loosening.     

Bayes estimation of the linear hazard-rate model

In life testing, the failure-time distributions are often specified by choosing an appropriate hazard-rate function. The class of life-time distribution characterized by a linear hazard-rate includes the one-parameter exponential and Rayleigh distributions. Usually the parameters of the linear hazard-rate model are estimated by the method of least squares. This work is concerned with Bayes estimation of the two-parameters from a type-2 censored sample. Monte Carlo simulation is used to compare the Bayes risk of the regression estimator with the minimum Bayes risk. Discrete mixtures of decreasing failure rate distributions are known to have decreasing failure rates. The authors prove that the result holds for continuous mixtures as well