@article { ISI:000233001300007, title = {Efficient and improved method for the Biginelli reaction using solid superacid (sulphated SnO2)}, journal = {Heterocyclic Communications}, volume = {11}, number = {5}, year = {2005}, month = {OCT}, pages = {399-402}, publisher = {FREUND PUBLISHING HOUSE LTD}, type = {Article}, address = {PO BOX 35010, TEL AVIV 61350, ISRAEL}, abstract = {

One-pot synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-one (DHPM) has been effected efficiently by coupling of the three components, aldehyde, ethyl acetoacetate and urea/thiourea in the presence of solid Superacid (sulphated SnO2). The method presented herein is attractive with respect to yield, reaction time, workup procedure and reusable catalyst.

}, keywords = {Biginelli, DHPM, sulphated SnO2}, issn = {0793-0283}, author = {Bhosale, R. S. and Hashmi, A. M. and Zubaidha, P. K. and Dongare, Mohan K.} } @article {42819, title = {India: apremier destination for outsourcing}, volume = {42}, year = {2005}, month = {JAN}, author = {Chorghade, Mukund S. and Chorghade, V. M. and Gurjar, Mukund K. and Ramana, Chepuri V. and Kamerkar, A. V. and Zafran, H. and Mashelkar, Raghunath Anant} } @conference { ISI:000234827500072, title = {Influence of Sn- and Al- metal sources on post-synthesis modification of mesoporous SBA-15 molecular sieves}, booktitle = {3rd Conference of the Federation-of-European-Zeolite-Association}, series = {Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis}, volume = {158}, number = {A-B}, year = {2005}, note = {3rd Conference of the Federation-of-European-Zeolite-Association, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC, AUG 23-29, 2005}, month = {AUG}, pages = {565-572}, publisher = {Elsevier Science BV, Sara Burgerhartstraat 25, Po Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands}, organization = {Elsevier Science BV, Sara Burgerhartstraat 25, Po Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands}, address = {Prague, Czech Republic}, abstract = {

Mesoporous silica SBA-15 has been incorporated with various amounts of Sn and Al by post synthesis grafting technique, which results in excellent structural integrity and enhanced acidity. Physico-chemical characterization was done by various spectroscopic methods to understand the chemical nature of incorporated Sn and Al. XRD and BET results show that the hexagonal structural of the SBA-15 is maintained during the grafting with no loss of long range structure ordering. (119)Sn NMR Spectrum shows the presence of Sri in essentially octahedral environment, while 27 Al MAS NMR results confirm that a large proportion of the Al is in tetrahedral position. The resulting Sn and Al-grafted materials possess considerable catalytic activity in the transesterification of diethylmalonate (medium acidity) and isopropylation of naphthalene (strong acid sites), respectively.

}, isbn = {0-444-52082-1}, issn = {0167-2991}, author = {Shah, P and Ramaswamy, AV and Ramaswamy, V}, editor = {Cejka, J and Zilkova, N and Nachtigall, P} } @article { ISI:000234827500083, title = {Molecular dynamics simulations of H2O with sites of Cu-I-FAU and Cu-II-FAU}, journal = {Studies in surface science and catalysis }, volume = {158}, number = {A-B}, year = {2005}, note = {3rd Conference of the Federation-of-European-Zeolite-Association, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC, AUG 23-29, 2005}, month = {OCT}, pages = {655-662}, publisher = {Elsevier Science}, type = {Article, Proceedings Paper}, address = {Prague, Czech Republic}, abstract = {

A Born Oppenheimer molecular dynamic (BOMD) approach was chosen to study the interaction of water molecules with Cu-FAU models. We have compared the reactivity of Cu-I and Cu-II with the zeolite and compared the results to those calculated for Na. This Study shows a decrease of the coordination with time for Cu-I whereas there is not a significant change for Cu-II. BOMD shows also that, in the presence of water, Na+ may lead to easier cation exchange than for transition metal cations.

}, isbn = {0-444-52082-1}, issn = {0167-2991}, doi = {10.1016/S0167-2991(05)80397-0}, author = {Berthomieu, D. and Krishnamurty, S. and Heine, Thomas and Goursot, A.}, editor = {Cejka, J. and Zilkova, N. and Nachtigall, P.} } @conference { ISI:000245886300024, title = {Novel method for the synthesis of siloxane nanowires and filaments using gold nanoparticle catalysts}, booktitle = {International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology}, series = {International Journal of Nanoscience Series}, volume = {4}, number = {5-6}, year = {2005}, note = {International Conference on Nanoscience and Technology, Calcutta, INDIA, DEC 17-20, 2003}, month = {DEC}, pages = {1007-1010}, publisher = {World Scientific Publ Co Pte Ltd, Po Box 128 Farrer Rd, Singapore 9128, Singapore}, organization = {World Scientific Publ Co Pte Ltd, Po Box 128 Farrer Rd, Singapore 9128, Singapore}, address = { Calcutta, India}, abstract = {

A unique polymerization reaction of alkylsilanes to siloxane nanowires, filaments and tubes in presence of gold nanoparticles and water is presented. The gold nanoparticles, which catalyze this reaction also work as templates restricting the shape of the resulting polymers into wires and tubes. High resolution transmission electron microscopy images clearly reveal the presence of gold nanoparticle at the tip of each wire supporting the template hypothesis. Elemental analyses by different methods confirm the stoichiometry to be C18H37SiO1.5, when the alkylsilane used was C18H37SiH3, thus proving that the alkyl group remains intact during the polymerization reaction.

}, keywords = {gold nanoparticles, Nanowires, siloxane polymers}, doi = {10.1142/S0219581X0500398X}, author = {Bhagavatula L. V. Prasad and Stoeva, S. and Sorensen, C. M. and Klabunde, Kenneth J. and Zaikovskii, V.}, editor = {Sanyal, M. K. and Raychaudhuri, A. K. and Chakravorty, D.} } @article {42687, title = {Reversible transformations of gold nanoparticle morphology}, journal = {Langmuir}, volume = {21}, year = {2005}, month = {SEP}, pages = {10280{\textendash}10283}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Herein is reported a metamorphosis taking place in a gold nanosized system. The observed phenomenon of shape and size transformations was found to be completely reversible. Unlike most procedures in the literature where shape and size control occur in the synthetic step by adding growth- and shape-controlling agents such as surfactants or polymers, in this system postsynthetic changes in shape and size can be carried out simply by changing the ratio of reactive, competing reagents, more specifically, alkylthiols versus tetralkylammonium salts. Interestingly, the transfer of gold metal occurs (large prismatic particles to small particles and vice versa) under the influence of reagents that do not cause such interactions with bulk gold. All intermediate steps of the morphology change were observed using HRTEM and electron diffraction. The processes of breaking down and {\textquotedblleft}welding back{\textquotedblright} solid metal nanoparticles occur under mild conditions and are remarkable examples of the unique chemical properties of nanomaterials. The described process is expected to be relevant to other nanoscale systems where similar structural circumstances could occur.

}, doi = {10.1021/la051699v}, author = {Stoeva, Savka I. and Zaikovski, Vladimir and Bhagavatula L. V. Prasad and Stoimenov, Peter K. and Sorensen, Christopher M. and Klabunde, Kenneth J.} } @article {32}, title = {Grapevine DNA polymorphisms revealed by microsatellite-derived markers from soybean and rice}, journal = {Vitis}, volume = {45}, number = {2}, year = {2006}, month = {JAN}, pages = {81-84}, publisher = {TAYLOR \& FRANCIS INC}, type = {Article}, address = {325 CHESTNUT ST, SUITE 800, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19106 USA}, abstract = {

We report detection of DNA polymorphisms in grapevine by the use of microsatellite-flanking primer pairs from soybean and rice. These "cross species" microsatellite-derived markers were checked for their inheritance patterns in controlled grapevine crosses. They produced multiple bands that segregated and can be scored as individual genetic markers of dominant type. Employed in genetic mapping studies they offer advantages such as improved reproducibility in comparison to commonly used multi-locus marker systems like RAPDs and AFLPs.

}, keywords = {1, 3-dipolar addition, pyrazoles, regiospecific reaction, sydnones}, issn = {0039-7911}, author = {Agrawal, Dinesh C. and Topfer, R. and Zyprian, E.} } @article { ISI:000242621800023, title = {Molecular interactions between the specialist herbivore Manduca sexta (Lepidoptera, Sphingidae) and its natural host Nicotiana attenuata. VII. changes in the plant{\textquoteright}s proteome}, journal = {Plant Physiology}, volume = {142}, number = {4}, year = {2006}, month = {DEC}, pages = {1621-1641}, publisher = {AMER SOC PLANT BIOLOGISTS}, type = {Article}, address = {15501 MONONA DRIVE, ROCKVILLE, MD 20855 USA}, abstract = {

When Manduca sexta attacks Nicotiana attenuata, fatty acid-amino acid conjugates (FACs) in the larvae{\textquoteright}s oral secretions (OS) are introduced into feeding wounds. These FACs trigger a transcriptional response that is similar to the response induced by insect damage. Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight, and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, we characterized the proteins in phenolic extracts and in a nuclear fraction of leaves elicited by larval attack, and/or in leaves wounded and treated with OS, FAC-free OS, and synthetic FACs. Phenolic extracts yielded approximately 600 protein spots, many of which were altered by elicitation, whereas nuclear protein fractions yielded approximately 100 spots, most of which were unchanged by elicitation. Reproducible elicitor-induced changes in 90 spots were characterized. In general, proteins that increased were involved in primary metabolism, defense, and transcriptional and translational regulation; those that decreased were involved in photosynthesis. Like the transcriptional defense responses, proteomic changes were strongly elicited by the FACs in OS. A semiquantitative reverse transcription-PCR approach based on peptide sequences was used to compare transcript and protein accumulation patterns for 17 candidate proteins. In six cases the patterns of elicited transcript accumulation were consistent with those of elicited protein accumulation. Functional analysis of one of the identified proteins involved in photosynthesis, RuBPCase activase, was accomplished by virus-induced gene silencing. Plants with decreased levels of RuBPCase activase protein had reduced photosynthetic rates and RuBPCase activity, and less biomass, responses consistent with those of herbivore-attacked plants. We conclude that the response of the plant{\textquoteright}s proteome to herbivore elicitation is complex, and integrated transcriptome-proteome-metabolome analysis is required to fully understand this ubiquitous ecological interaction.

}, issn = {0032-0889}, doi = {10.1104/pp.106.088781}, author = {Giri, Ashok P. and Wuensche, Hendrik and Mitra, Sirsha Sribas and Zavala, Jorge A. and Muck, Alexander and Svatos, Ales and Baldwin, Ian T.} } @article { ISI:000253283700034, title = {Chemical inhomogeneity and mixed-state ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic semiconductor Co : TiO2}, journal = {Chemistry of Materials}, volume = {20}, number = {4}, year = {2008}, month = {FEB}, pages = {1344-1352}, publisher = {AMER CHEMICAL SOC}, type = {Article}, address = {1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA}, abstract = {

Diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) are among the most intensely investigated materials in recent times in view of their great application potential. Yet, they are also the most controversial because of the possibility of extrinsic effects attributable to dopant solubility and clustering, point defects, incorporation of unintentional impurities, etc. This has highlighted the central role of materials chemistry in rendering a specific microstate and property response. In this work, we provide a combined window of high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectrometry, X-ray absorption (XAS)/X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), and magnetization measurements on epitaxial rutile CoxTi1-xO2 (x = 0-0.06) system (the first discovered oxide-DMS, which continues to be controversial) grown at low temperature (400 degrees C) under different ambient atmospheres. The study brings out a mixed-state scenario of ferromagnetism involving intrinsic DMS (uniform dopant distribution at low dopant concentration) and coupled cluster magnetism, involving cobalt associations within the matrix at higher concentrations. We also show that by matrix valence control during growth, it is possible to realize a uniform embedded cluster state and the related coupled cluster magnetism.

}, issn = {0897-4756}, doi = {10.1021/cm702089z}, author = {Ogale, Satishchandra B. and Kundaliya, Darshan and Mehraeen, Shareghe and Fu, Lian-feng and Zhang, Shixiong and Lussier, Alexandre and Dvorak, Joe and Browning, Nigel D. and Idzerda, Yves and Venkatesan, Thirumalai} } @article { ISI:000261558700024, title = {Digestive duet: midgut digestive proteinases of manduca sexta ingesting nicotiana attenuata with manipulated trypsin proteinase inhibitor expression}, journal = {Plos One}, volume = {3}, number = {4}, year = {2008}, month = {APR}, pages = {e2008}, publisher = {PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE}, type = {Article}, address = {185 BERRY ST, STE 1300, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107 USA}, abstract = {

Background: The defensive effect of endogenous trypsin proteinase inhibitors (NaTPIs) on the herbivore Manduca sexta was demonstrated by genetically altering NaTPI production in M. sexta{\textquoteright}s host plant, Nicotiana attenuata. To understand how this defense works, we studied the effects of NaTPI on M. sexta gut proteinase activity levels in different larval instars of caterpillars feeding freely on untransformed and transformed plants. Methodology/Principal Findings: Second and third instars larvae that fed on NaTPI-producing (WT) genotypes were lighter and had less gut proteinase activity compared to those that fed on genotypes with either little or no NaTPI activity. Unexpectedly, NaTPI activity in vitro assays not only inhibited the trypsin sensitive fraction of gut proteinase activity but also halved the NaTPI-insensitive fraction in third-instar larvae. Unable to degrade NaTPI, larvae apparently lacked the means to adapt to NaTPI in their diet. However, caterpillars recovered at least part of their gut proteinase activity when they were transferred from NaTPI-producing host plants to NaTPI-free host plants. In addition extracts of basal leaves inhibited more gut proteinase activity than did extracts of middle stem leaves with the same protein content. Conclusions/Significance: Although larvae can minimize the effects of high NaTPI levels by feeding on leaves with high protein and low NaTPI activity, the host plant{\textquoteright}s endogenous NaTPIs remain an effective defense against M. sexta, inhibiting gut proteinase and affecting larval performance.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0002008}, author = {Zavala, Jorge A. and Giri, Ashok P. and Jongsma, Maarten A. and Baldwin, Ian T.} } @article { ISI:000251708300041, title = {Feasibility studies and dynamics of catalytic liquid phase esterification reactions in a micro plant}, journal = {Chemical Engineering Journal}, volume = {135}, number = {1}, year = {2008}, note = {9th International Conference on Microreaction Technology, Berlin, GERMANY, SEP 06-08, 2006}, month = {JAN}, pages = {S270-S275}, publisher = {ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA}, type = {Article}, address = {PO BOX 564, 1001 LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND}, abstract = {

We present a new micro reactor concept which is suitable for investigations of heterogeneously catalyzed liquid phase reactions. In the set-up two reactants are mixed in a commercially available interdigital micro mixer. The outlet of the micro mixer is connected to a modular micro reactor that consists of stacked plates. Each plate contains a milled meandering channel filled with catalyst beads. By using a variable number of plates the residence time can be manipulated and thus adjusted for a specific task. The synthesis of butyl acetate is considered as a model reaction since it has been investigated in detail in conventional reaction systems. In a first step, some experimental results of the heterogeneously catalyzed reaction are presented. In the second part, the set-up is operated as a chromatographic reactor. Dynamic behaviour is investigated applying the frontal analysis mode and the elution chromatography mode. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

}, keywords = {chromatographic reactor, heterogeneous catalysis, integrated process, modular micro reactor}, issn = {1385-8947}, doi = {10.1016/j.cej.2007.07.024}, author = {Kulkarni, A. A. and Zeyer, K. -P. and Jacobs, T. and Kaspereit, M. and Kienle, Achim} } @article {43320, title = {Multiple weak supramolecular interactions stabilize a surprisingly twisted As2L3 assembly}, journal = {Chemical Communications}, year = {2008}, month = {OCT}, pages = {3936 - 3938}, abstract = {A combined crystallographic, DFT and NMR spectroscopic study of a flexible As(2)(3) assembly reveals temperature dependent conformational behavior in solution and a highly asymmetric structure stabilized by As-pi and edge-to-face aromatic interactions.}, doi = {10.1039/b806958a}, author = {Pitt, Melanie A. and Zakharov, Lev N. and Vanka, Kumar and Thompson, Ward H. and Laird, Brian B. and Johnson, Darren W.} } @article { ISI:000261711400013, title = {Vitamin K-3 family members - Part II: Single crystal X-ray structures, temperature-induced packing polymorphism, magneto-structural correlations and probable anti-oncogenic candidature}, journal = {Journal of Molecular Structure}, volume = {892}, number = {1-3}, year = {2008}, month = {DEC}, pages = {74-83}, publisher = {ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV}, type = {Article}, address = {PO BOX 211, 1000 AE AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

Temperature-induced packing polymorphism is observed for vitamin K-3 (menadione, 3-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone, 1). Form la crystallizes at 300 K and 1b at 277 K both in the same space group P2(1)/c. Form 1b contains one molecule per asymmetric unit, performing anisotropy in g-factor viz. g(z) = 2.0082, g(y) = 2.0055 and g(x) = 2.0025, whereas form 1a contains two molecules in its asymmetric unit. Vitamin K-3 family members 2, [2-hydroxy vitamin K-3] and 3, [2-hydroxy-1-oximino vitamin K-3] also perform intrinsic neutral active naphthosemiquinone valence tautomers even in dark having spin concentrations due to hydrogen bonding and aromatic stacking interactions which are compared to vitamin K-3. The significant lateral C-H center dot center dot center dot O and O-H center dot center dot center dot pi bifurcated or pi-pi(center dot) interactions are discussed for molecular associations and radical formations. X-ray structure of 3 revealed pi-pi(center dot) stack dimers as radicals signatured in PR as triplet with five hyperfine splits [(A) over bar(N-14) = 11.9 G]. The centrosymmetric biradicals in 3 show diamagnetism at high temperature but below 10 K it shows paramagnetism with mu(eff) as 0.19 B.M. Vitamin K-3 and its family members inhibit biological activities of acid phosphatase (APase), which are proportional to their spin concentrations. This may relate to their probable anti-oncogenic candidature in future. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

}, keywords = {Anti-oncogenic candidature, H-bonding, Magneto-structural correlations, Naphthosemiquinones in vitamin K-3 family, Packing polymorphism, Spin concentrations}, issn = {0022-2860}, doi = {10.1016/j.molstruc.2008.05.015}, author = {Rane, Sandhya and Ahmed, Khursheed and Salunke-Gawali, Sunita and Zaware, Santosh B. and Srinivas, D. and Gonnade, Rajesh G. and Bhadbhade, Mohan M.} } @article { ISI:000268335600001, title = {Challenges associated with metal chelation therapy in alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease}, journal = {Journal of Alzheimers Disease}, volume = {17}, number = {3}, year = {2009}, month = {JUL}, pages = {457-468}, publisher = {IOS PRESS}, address = {NIEUWE HEMWEG 6B, 1013 BG AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

A close association between brain metal dishomeostasis and the onset and/or progression of Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease ( AD) has been clearly established in a number of studies, although the underlying biochemical mechanisms remain obscure. This observation renders chelation therapy an attractive pharmacological option for the treatment of this disease. However, a number of requirements must be fulfilled in order to adapt chelation therapy to AD so that the term {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}metal targeted strategies{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} seems now more appropriate. Indeed, brain metal redistribution rather than brain metal scavenging and removal is the major goal of this type of intervention. The most recent developments in metal targeted strategies for AD will be discussed using, as useful examples, clioquinol, curcumin, and epigallocatechin, and the future perspectives will also be outlined.

}, keywords = {Alzheimer{\textquoteright}s disease, clioquinol, cuprizone, metal dishomeostasis, metal ions, nanomedicine, Parkinson{\textquoteright}s disease, polyphenols}, issn = {1387-2877}, doi = {10.3233/JAD-2009-1068}, author = {Hegde, Muralidhar L. and Bharathi, P. and Suram, Anitha and Venugopal, Chitra and Jagannathan, Ramya and Poddar, Pankaj and Srinivas, Pullabhatla and Sambamurti, Kumar and Rao, Kosagisharaf Jagannatha and Scancar, Janez and Messori, Luigi and Zecca, Luigi and Zatta, Paolo} } @article { ISI:000267509500004, title = {Electronic manifestation of cation-vacancy-induced magnetic moments in a transparent oxide semiconductor: anatase Nb:TiO2}, journal = {Advanced Materials}, volume = {21}, number = {22}, year = {2009}, month = {JUN}, pages = {2282+}, publisher = {WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH}, type = {Article}, address = {BOSCHSTRASSE 12, D-69469 WEINHEIM, GERMANY}, abstract = {

Nb-doped anatase TiO2 thin films grown by pulsed-laser deposition show Kondo scattering in elctronic-transport measurements, providing evidence for the formation of magnetic moments. The origin of magnetism is attributed to cation (Ti) vacancies, confirmed by X-ray absorption spectroscopy and first-principle calculations. The Ti vacancies are controlled by oxygen partial pressure during growth.

}, issn = {0935-9648}, doi = {10.1002/adma.200803019}, author = {Zhang, Shixiong and Ogale, Satishchandra B. and Yu, Weiqiang and Gao, Xingyu and Liu, Tao and Ghosh, Saurabh and Das, Gour P. and Wee, Andrew T. S. and Greene, Richard L. and Venkatesan, Thirumalai} } @article {42757, title = {Functional delivery of siRNA in mice using dendriworms}, journal = {ACS Nano}, volume = {3}, year = {2009}, month = {SEP}, pages = {2495-2504}, doi = {10.1021/nn900201e}, author = {Agrawal, Amit C. and Min, Dal-Hee and Singh, Neetu and Zhu, Haihao and Birjiniuk, Alona and von Maltzahn, Geoffrey and Harris, Todd J. and Xing, Deyin and Woolfenden, Stephen D. and Sharp, Phillip A. and Charest, Alain and Bhatia, Sangeeta N.} } @article { ISI:000272896300048, title = {Magnetic phase transition in valence tautomers as polymorphs of 3-iodolawsone: Single crystal X-ray structure, DSC and EPR studies}, journal = {Journal of Molecular Structure}, volume = {938}, number = {1-3}, year = {2009}, month = {DEC}, pages = {328-335}, publisher = {ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV}, address = {PO BOX 211, 1000 AE AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

Three polymorphs of 3-iodolawsone (I-III) have been isolated and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. Polymorphs I and II were crystallized from methanol in two different valence tautomeric forms: hydroxynaphthoquinone (HNQ) and hydroxynaphthoseimquinone (HNSQ) as needles and thick plates, respectively. Polymorph III was crystallized from ethanol in HNQ form, as thin plates Chiral crystals of I belongs to the orthorhombic P2(1)2(1)2(1) space group: II and III belong to the monochnic non-centrosymmetric space group Cc. The molecules are packed via O-H O bonding and pi . pi stacking interactions. The study reveals that relatively stronger intermolecular H-bonding (2.02 angstrom) and most favoured pi . pi stacking (similar to 3 49 angstrom) interactions lead II to HNSQ radicals, presence of which was confirmed by EPR (g = 2.0052) spectroscopy. Interestingly, these materials exhibit crystal-to-crystal magnetic phase transition from polymorph I (diamagnetic) to polymorph II (paramagnetic structure) at 171.1 degrees C as identified by DSC and X-ray crystallographic studies (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

}, keywords = {3-Iodolawsone, Hydroxynaphthoquinone (HNQ), Hydroxynaphthosemiquinone radical (HNSQ), Magnetic phase transition, Polymorphs, Valence tautomers}, issn = {0022-2860}, doi = {10.1016/j.molstruc.2009.10.005}, author = {Zaware, Santosh B. and Dagade-Waghmode, Shobha and Gonnade, Rajesh G. and Srinivas, Darbha and Rane, Sandhya Y.} } @article {42456, title = {Polymeric ladderphanes}, journal = {Journal of the American Chemical Society}, volume = {131}, year = {2009}, month = {AUG}, pages = {12579{\textendash}12585}, abstract = {

A new class of polymers, which have a double-stranded polybinorbornene skeleton with multilayer planar oligoaryl linkers, defined as polymeric ladderphanes, are synthesized. The structures of these ladderphanes are determined by spectroscopic means. Photophysical studies and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopic investigations reveal that there is a strong interaction between the chromophore linkers. Thus, Soret band splitting in the absorption spectrum of the polymer with porphyrin linker (12e), significant fluorescence quenching with oligoaryl linkers (12b-d), and excimer emission with a terphenylene-diethynylene linker (12a) are characteristic photophysical properties of these polymers. Scanning tunneling microscopy shows that polymers 12b and d exhibit a ladder-like morphology and form a supramolecular assembly leading to a two-dimensional ordered array on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite surface.

}, doi = {10.1021/ja9035362}, author = {Chou, Chih-Ming and Lee, Shern-Long and Chen, Chih-Hsien and Biju, Akkattu T. and Wang, Hsian-Wen and Wu, Yi-Lin and Zhang, Guo-Fu and Yang, Kuang-Wei and Lim, Tsong-Shin and Huang, Min-Jie and Tsai, Po-Yu and Lin, Kin-Chuan and Huang, Shou-Ling and Chen, Chun-hsien and Luh, Tien-Yau} } @article {43243, title = {Study of cumulant approximations to n-electron valence multireference perturbation theory}, journal = {Journal of Chemical Physics}, volume = {130}, year = {2009}, month = {MAY}, pages = {Article Number: 194107}, abstract = {We investigate the possibility of reducing the complexity of multireference perturbation theory through cumulant based approximations to the high-order density matrices that appear in such theories. Our test cases show that while the cumulant approximated forms are degraded in accuracy relative to the parent theory and exhibit intruder state problems that must be carefully handled, they may provide a route to a simple estimation of dynamic correlation when the parent perturbation theory is infeasible. Nonetheless, further work is clearly needed on better approximations to the denominators in the perturbation theory.}, doi = {10.1063/1.3132922}, author = {Zgid, Dominika and Ghosh, Debashree and Neuscamman, Eric and Chan, Garnet Kin-Lic} } @article { ISI:000278165900028, title = {Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of various enzyme-substrate complexes of isopropylmalate dehydrogenase from thermus thermophilus}, journal = {Acta Crystallographica Section F-Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications}, volume = {66}, number = {6}, year = {2010}, month = {JUN}, pages = {738-743}, publisher = {WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC}, address = {COMMERCE PLACE, 350 MAIN ST, MALDEN 02148, MA USA}, abstract = {

The Thermus thermophilus 3-isopropylmalate dehydrogenase (Tt-IPMDH) enzyme catalyses the penultimate step of the leucine-biosynthesis pathway. It converts (2R,3S)-3-isopropylmalate to (2S)-2-isopropyl-3-oxosuccinate in the presence of divalent Mg(2+) or Mn(2+) and with the help of NAD(+). In order to elucidate the detailed structural and functional mode of the enzymatic reaction, crystals of Tt-IPMDH were grown in the presence of various combinations of substrate and/or cofactors. Here, the crystallization, data collection and preliminary crystallographic analyses of six such complexes are reported.

}, issn = {1744-3091}, doi = {10.1107/S174430911001626X}, author = {Merli, Angelo and Manikandan, Karuppasamy and Graczer, Eva and Schuldt, Linda and Singh, Rajesh Kumar and Zavodszky, Peter and Vas, Maria and Weiss, Manfred S.} } @article { ISI:000277643500009, title = {QTL mapping of multiple foliar disease and root-lesion nematode resistances in wheat}, journal = {Molecular Breeding}, volume = {26}, number = {1}, year = {2010}, month = {JUN}, pages = {107-124}, publisher = {SPRINGER}, address = {VAN GODEWIJCKSTRAAT 30, 3311 GZ DORDRECHT, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

A genetic linkage map, based on a cross between the synthetic hexaploid CPI133872 and the bread wheat cultivar Janz, was established using 111 F(1)-derived doubled haploid lines. The population was phenotyped in multiple years and/or locations for seven disease resistance traits, namely, Septoria tritici blotch (Mycosphaeralla graminicola), yellow leaf spot also known as tan spot (Pyrenophora tritici-repentis), stripe rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici), leaf rust (Puccinia triticina), stem rust (Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici) and two species of root-lesion nematode (Pratylenchyus thornei and P. neglectus). The DH population was also scored for coleoptile colour and the presence of the seedling leaf rust resistance gene Lr24. Implementation of a multiple-QTL model identified a tightly linked cluster of foliar disease resistance QTL in chromosome 3DL. Major QTL each for resistance to Septoria tritici blotch and yellow leaf spot were contributed by the synthetic hexaploid parent CPI133872 and linked in repulsion with the coincident Lr24/Sr24 locus carried by parent Janz. This is the first report of linked QTL for Septoria tritici blotch and yellow leaf spot contributed by the same parent. Additional QTL for yellow leaf spot were detected in 5AS and 5BL. Consistent QTL for stripe rust resistance were identified in chromosomes 1BL, 4BL and 7DS, with the QTL in 7DS corresponding to the Yr18/Lr34 region. Three major QTL for P. thornei resistance (2BS, 6DS, 6DL) and two for P. neglectus resistance (2BS, 6DS) were detected. The recombinants combining resistance to Septoria tritici blotch, yellow leaf spot, rust diseases and root-lesion nematodes from parents CPI133872 and Janz constitute valuable germplasm for the transfer of multiple disease resistance into new wheat cultivars.

}, keywords = {Pratylenchyus spp, Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, Rust diseases, Septoria tritici blotch, Synthetic hexaploid wheat, Triticum aestivum}, issn = {1380-3743}, doi = {10.1007/s11032-009-9381-9}, author = {Rebecca S. Zwart and Thompson, J. P. and Milgate, A. W. and Bansal, Urmil K. and Williamson, P. M. and Raman, H. and Bariana, Harbans S.} } @article { ISI:000278725100023, title = {Renewable H-2 from glycerol steam reforming: effect of La2O3 and CeO2 addition to Pt/Al2O3 catalysts.}, journal = {Chemsuschem}, volume = {3}, number = {5}, year = {2010}, month = {MAY}, pages = {619-628}, publisher = {WILEY-BLACKWELL}, address = {COMMERCE PLACE, 350 MAIN ST, MALDEN 02148, MA USA}, abstract = {

Glycerol is the main byproduct of biodiesel production and its increased production volume derives from the increasing demand for biofuels. The conversion of glycerol to hydrogen-rich mixtures presents an attractive route towards sustainable biodiesel production. Here we explored the use of Pt/Al2O3-based catalysts for the catalytic steam reforming of glycerol, evidencing the influence of La2O3 and CeO2 doping on the catalyst activity and selectivity. The addition of the latter metal oxides to a Pt/Al2O3 catalyst is found to significantly improve the glycerol steam reforming, with high H-2 and CO2 selectivities. A good catalytic stability is achieved for the Pt/La2O3/Al2O3 system working at 350 degrees C, while the Pt/CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst sharply deactivates after 20 h under similar conditions. Studies carried out on fresh and exhausted catalysts reveal that both systems maintain high surface areas and high Pt dispersions. Therefore, the observed catalyst deactivation can be attributed to coke deposition on the active sites throughout the catalytic process and only marginally to Pt nanoparticle sintering. This work suggests that an appropriate support composition is mandatory for preparing high-performance Pt-based catalysts for the sustainable conversion of glycerol into syngas.

}, keywords = {biofuels, Glycerol, heterogeneous catalysis, platinum, supported catalysts}, issn = {1864-5631}, doi = {10.1002/cssc.200900243}, author = {Montini, Tiziano and Singh, Rakesh and Das, Piyali and Lorenzut, Barbara and Bertero, Nicolas and Riello, Pietro and Benedetti, Alvise and Giambastiani, Giuliano and Bianchini, Claudio and Zinoviev, Sergey and Miertus, Stanislav and Fornasiero, Paolo} } @article { ISI:000281347500022, title = {Surface texture and specific adsorption sites of sol-gel synthesized anatase TiO2 nanoparticles}, journal = {Materials Research Bulletin}, volume = {45}, number = {10}, year = {2010}, month = {OCT}, pages = {1470-1475}, publisher = {PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD}, address = {THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5 1GB, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

The surface properties of sot-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. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

}, keywords = {Catalytic properties, Nanostructures, Oxides, Sol-gel chemistry, X-ray diffraction}, issn = {0025-5408}, doi = {10.1016/j.materresbull.2010.06.026}, author = {Zaki, Mohamed I. and Mekhemer, Gamal A. H. and Fouad, Nasr E. and Jagadale, Tushar C. and Ogale, Satishchandra B.} } @article { ISI:000293087200006, title = {Antioxidant and anticancer activities of supramolecularly controlled magnetostructural halo-oximes of lawsone}, journal = {New Journal of Chemistry}, volume = {35}, number = {8}, year = {2011}, month = {MAY}, pages = {1615-1623}, publisher = {ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY}, address = {THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

Crystal engineering based on halogen bonding together with host-guest interactions of water molecules via H-bonding, stabilizing supramolecular architecture in chloro 1, bromo 2 and iodo 3 oximes of lawsone, is discussed. 1 and 2 crystallize in orthorhombic, non-centrosymmetric space group Pna2(1) while 3 crystallizes in monoclinic P2(1)/n space group. Non-covalent competitive interactions of asymmetric solvation and halogen bonding can have a large influence on the spin distribution in 1, 2 and 3 derivatives of spin carrier lawsone live polymer as revealed by single crystal X-ray and EPR studies. The significant C3-Cl/Br center dot center dot center dot O, C3-Cl/Br center dot center dot center dot H, O-H center dot center dot center dot O-C, C-H center dot center dot center dot pi and pi center dot center dot center dot pi interactions have been identified in the molecular assemblies leading to net magnetostructures of halo-oximes. Dimer-of-dimer-type tetrameric radical assembly of 3 and interacting bi- and monoradical chain on 2(1) axis in 1 and 2 have been identified. The proton-coupled electron transfers possibly govern the antioxidant nature in halooximes of spin carrier lawsone in terms of oxygen reduction to water molecules. Such activity is found to be directly proportional to the spin (radical) concentrations in 1 to 3 and increases in order 1 \< 2 \< 3 according to halogen bonding effect. The antioxidant chemical DPPH assays for scavenging of such free radicals result in similar trend of increasing order like 1 \< 2 \< 3, but the chemical in vitro as well as ex vivo SOD antioxidant activities and biological anticancer activity on MCF-7, Hela and HL-60 cell lines show the increasing order 3 \< 2 \< 1 according to H-bonding effect. This probably could be attributed to the conversion of superoxide radical ions into H(2)O(2), which leads to greater oxidative stress leading to apoptosis.

}, issn = {1144-0546}, doi = {10.1039/c1nj20176j}, author = {Zaware, Santosh B. and Gonnade, Rajesh G. and Srinivas, Darbha and Khan, Ayesha A. and Rane, Sandhya Y.} } @article { ISI:000292333103041, title = {Atomic level description of the domain closure in a dimeric enzyme: thermus thermophilus 3-isopropylmalate dehydrogenase (IPMDH)}, journal = {FEBS Journal}, volume = {278}, number = {1, SI}, year = {2011}, note = {36th FEBS Congress of the Biochemistry for Tomorrows Medicine, Torino, ITALY, JUN 25-30, 2011}, month = {JUN}, pages = {458}, publisher = {Federat Soc Biochem \& Mol Biol}, address = {COMMERCE PLACE, 350 MAIN ST, MALDEN 02148, MA USA}, issn = {1742-464X}, author = {Graczer, E. and Merli, Angelo and Singh, R. K. and Karuppasamy, Manikandan and Zavodszky, P. and Weiss, M. S. and Vas, M.} } @article { ISI:000289367200026, title = {Atomic level description of the domain closure in a dimeric enzyme: thermus thermophilus 3-isopropylmalate dehydrogenase}, journal = {Molecular Biosystems}, volume = {7}, number = {5}, year = {2011}, month = {MAR}, pages = {1646-1659}, publisher = {ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY}, address = {THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

The domain closure associated with the catalytic cycle is described at an atomic level, based on pairwise comparison of the X-ray structures of homodimeric Thermus thermophilus isopropylmalate dehydrogenase (IPMDH), and on their detailed molecular graphical analysis. The structures of the apo-form without substrate and in complex with the divalent metal-ion to 1.8 angstrom resolution, in complexes with both Mn(2+) and 3-isopropylmalate (IPM), as well as with both Mn(2+) and NADH, were determined at resolutions ranging from 2.0 to 2.5 angstrom. Single crystal microspectrophotometric measurements demonstrated the presence of a functionally competent protein conformation in the crystal grown in the presence of Mn(2+) and IPM. Structural comparison of the various complexes clearly revealed the relative movement of the two domains within each subunit and allowed the identification of two hinges at the interdomain region: hinge 1 between alpha d and beta F as well as hinge 2 between alpha h and beta E. A detailed analysis of the atomic contacts of the conserved amino acid side-chains suggests a possible operational mechanism of these molecular hinges upon the action of the substrates. The interactions of the protein with Mn(2+) and IPM are mainly responsible for the domain closure: upon binding into the cleft of the interdomain region, the substrate IPM induces a relative movement of the secondary structural elements beta E, beta F, beta G, alpha d and alpha h. A further special feature of the conformational change is the movement of the loop bearing the amino acid Tyr139 that precedes the interacting arm of the subunit. The tyrosyl ring rotates and moves by at least 5 angstrom upon IPM-binding. Thereby, new hydrophobic interactions are formed above the buried isopropyl-group of IPM. Domain closure is then completed only through subunit interactions: a loop of one subunit that is inserted into the interdomain cavity of the other subunit extends the area with the hydrophobic interactions, providing an example of the cooperativity between interdomain and intersubunit interactions.

}, issn = {1742-206X}, doi = {10.1039/c0mb00346h}, author = {Graczer, Eva and Merli, Angelo and Singh, Rajesh Kumar and Karuppasamy, Manikandan and Zavodszky, Peter and Weiss, Manfred S. and Vas, Maria} } @article { ISI:000288045600024, title = {Composition-structure-property (Zn2+ and Ca2+ ion release) evaluation of Si-Na-Ca-Zn-Ce glasses: potential components for nerve guidance conduits}, journal = {Materials Science \& Engineering C-Materials for Biological Applications}, volume = {31}, number = {3}, year = {2011}, month = {APR}, pages = {669-676}, publisher = {ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV}, address = {PO BOX 211, 1000 AE AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

Bioactive glasses have demonstrated tailored therapeutic ion release, primarily with respect to the augmentation of hard tissues. However, controlled degradation and release of therapeutic ions from biomaterials may also play an important role in soft tissue regeneration such as repair of peripheral nerve discontinuities. In this study, three silica based glasses (0.5SiO(2)-0.2CaO-0.13ZnO-XNa2O-(0.17-X) CeO2) where, (0.04 \< X \< 0.14) were synthesised and characterised. The local environment of the Si-29 isotope was probed for each glass using Si-29 MAS-NMR, whilst the thermal characteristics of each glass were examined using DTA. Following these analyses, ion release profiles for Ca2+ and Zn2+ were evaluated; an equivalent specific surface area of 1 m(2) of each glass powder was incubated (37 degrees C) in 10 ml of citric acid buffer and TRIS-HCl buffer solution (pH 3.0 and pH 7.4 respectively) for incubation periods of up to 30 days. The Zn2+ concentration of each filtrate was analysed using flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (Varian AA240FS Fast Sequential AAS) and the Ca2+ concentration of each filtrate was determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer (Varian 820 ICP-MS). Results obtained from the Si-29 MAS-NMR spectra indicated Q(2) structures pervading the network. An analytical model was proposed to analyse the ion release profiles for each glass, and indicated heterogeneous dissolution of glass networks. The ion release data demonstrates that ion release in the range (19.26-3130 ppm) for Ca2+ and in the range (5.97-4904 ppm) for Zn2+ occurred. Release of such elements, at appropriate levels, from peripheral nerve guidance conduits may be advantageous with respect to the repair of peripheral nerve discontinuities. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

}, keywords = {Bioglass, Dissolution, Modelling}, issn = {0928-4931}, doi = {10.1016/j.msec.2010.12.016}, author = {Zhang, X. F. and Kehoe, S. and Adhi, S. K. and Ajithkumar, Thalasseril G. and Moane, S. and O{\textquoteright}Shea, H. and Boyd, D.} } @article {42724, title = {Efficient hydrogenation of organic carbonates, carbamates, and formates indicates alternative routes to methanol based on CO2 and CO}, journal = {Nature Chemistry}, volume = {3}, year = {2011}, month = {JUL}, pages = {609{\textendash}614}, abstract = {

Catalytic hydrogenation of organic carbonates, carbamates and formates is of significant interest both conceptually and practically, because these compounds can be produced from CO2 and CO, and their mild hydrogenation can provide alternative, mild approaches to the indirect hydrogenation of CO2 and CO to methanol, an important fuel and synthetic building block. Here, we report for the first time catalytic hydrogenation of organic carbonates to alcohols, and carbamates to alcohols and amines. Unprecedented homogeneously catalysed hydrogenation of organic formates to methanol has also been accomplished. The reactions are efficiently catalysed by dearomatized PNN Ru(II) pincer complexes derived from pyridine- and bipyridine-based tridentate ligands. These atom-economical reactions proceed under neutral, homogeneous conditions, at mild temperatures and under mild hydrogen pressures, and can operate in the absence of solvent with no generation of waste, representing the ultimate {\textquoteleft}green{\textquoteright} reactions. A possible mechanism involves metal{\textendash}ligand cooperation by aromatization{\textendash}dearomatization of the heteroaromatic pincer core.

}, doi = {10.1038/nchem.1089}, author = {Balaraman, Ekambaram and Gunanathan, Chidambaram and Zhang, Jing and Shimon, Linda J. W. and Milstein, David} } @article {42718, title = {Electron-rich PNP- and PNN-type Ru(II) hydrido-borohydride complexes. synthesis, structure and catalytic activity towards dehydrogenation of alcohols and hydrogenation of esters}, journal = {Organometallics}, volume = {30}, year = {2011}, month = {OCT}, pages = {5716{\textendash}5724}, abstract = {

Electron-rich PNP- and PNN-type ruthenium(II) hydrido borohydride pincer complexes, [RuH(BH4)(tBu-PNP)] (tBu-PNP = (2,6-bis(di-tert-butylphosphinomethyl)pyridine) (5) and [RuH(BH4)(tBu-PNN)] (tBu-PNN = 2-di-tert-butylphosphinomethyl-6-diethylaminomethylpyridine) (6), were prepared from their corresponding N2-bridged dinuclear Ru(II) complexes [(tBu-PNP)RuCl2]2(μ-N2) (3) and [(tBu-PNN)RuCl2]2(μ-N2) (4), respectively. The X-ray structure of 5 reveals a BH4{\textendash} anion η2 coordinated to ruthenium through two bridging hydrides. A variable-temperature 1H NMR study of 6 exhibits interesting fluxional behavior of the BH4{\textendash} ligand. Similarly, the Ru(II) hydrido borohydride complex 9, in which the BH4{\textendash} moiety is coordinated in a η1 bonding mode, was obtained by reaction of [RuCl2(PPh3)(iPr-PNP)] (iPr-PNP = 2,6-bis(diisopropylphosphinomethyl)pyridine) (8) with two equivalents of NaBH4 at room temperature. The hydrido borohydride pincer complexes 5, 6, and 9 catalyze the acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling of primary alcohols to esters and the dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols to the corresponding ketones, accompanied by evolution of hydrogen gas. The reactivity follows the order 6 \> 9 \> 5. With the hydrido borohydride complex 6 as catalyst, high yields (up to 98\%) and high turnover numbers (TON \~{}1000) were obtained in the dehydrogenation of primary alcohols under mild and neutral conditions. In addition, 6 effectively catalyzes the hydrogenation of nonactivated aromatic and aliphatic esters to the corresponding alcohols with TON \~{}200 under a relatively mild pressure of dihydrogen and neutral and homogeneous conditions. Thus, an efficient homogeneous catalytic system for the dehydrogenation{\textendash}hydrogenation reactions of alcohols is developed, which is relevant to the current interest in hydrogen storage.

}, doi = {10.1021/om200595m}, author = {Zhang, Jing and Balaraman, Ekambaram and Leitus, Gregory and Milstein, David} } @article { ISI:000294586400026, title = {TiO2 nanoparticle size dependence of porosity, adsorption and catalytic activity}, journal = {Colloids and Surfaces A-Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects}, volume = {385}, number = {1-3}, year = {2011}, month = {JUN}, pages = {195-200}, publisher = {ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV}, type = {Article}, address = {PO BOX 211, 1000 AE AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

The issue of size-sensitivity of the surface properties of anatase TiO2 is addressed by examining three samples synthesized by aqueous sol-gel method having different particle sizes on the nanoscale (8-19 nm). A number of characterization methods, namely, X-ray powder diffractometry, infrared spectroscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, sorptiometry and electron microscopy are employed. The data obtained reveal interrelated dependencies of the surface area, porosity, nitrogen and pyridine adsorption capacity and strength, and catalytic methylbutynol decomposition activity on the size of titania nanoparticles. Pertinent size-dependent bulk properties are also revealed and used to account for the changes conceded by the surface properties. Accordingly, going from 19 to 8-nm sized titania particles has been found to stabilize the anatase structure, weaken the surface acidity, and blueshift the UV absorption edge of titania. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

}, keywords = {Catalytic methylbutynol decomposition activity, Nano-titania, Particle size dependencies, Pyridine sorptiometry, Surface texture}, issn = {0927-7757}, doi = {10.1016/j.colsurfa.2011.06.010}, author = {Zaki, Mohamed I. and Fouad, Nasr E. and Mekhemer, Gamal A. H. and Jagadale, Tushar C. and Ogale, Satishchandra B.} } @article { ISI:000309786400075, title = {Discovering bisdemethoxycurcumin from curcuma longa rhizome as a potent small molecule inhibitor of human pancreatic alpha-amylase, a target for type-2 diabetes}, journal = {Food Chemistry}, volume = {135}, number = {4}, year = {2012}, month = {DEC}, pages = {2638-2642}, publisher = {ELSEVIER SCI LTD}, address = {THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5 1GB, OXON, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

Curcuma longa rhizome is used extensively in culinary preparations in Far East and South-East Asia. Health benefits of curcuminoids from C. longa as antioxidants, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory molecules have been well documented. We report here for the first time that Bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC) from C. longa, acts as an inhibitor to inactivate human pancreatic alpha-amylase, a therapeutic target for oral hypoglycemic agents in type-2 diabetes. Bioactivity guided isolation of rhizome isopropanol extract led to the identification by HPLC and NMR of BDMC as a lead small molecule inhibitor of porcine and human pancreatic alpha-amylase with an IC50 value of 0.026 and 0.025 mM, respectively. Kinetic analysis revealed that using starch as the substrate, HPA exhibited an uncompetitive mode of inhibition with an apparent K-i of 3.0 mu M. The study gains importance as BDMC could be a good drug candidate in development of new inhibitors of HPA and of functional foods for controlling starch digestion in order to reduce post-prandial hyperglycemia. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

}, keywords = {BDMC, Curcuma longa, Human pancreatic amylase, kinetics, Type-2 diabetes}, issn = {0308-8146}, doi = {10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.06.110}, author = {Ponnusamy, Sudha and Smita S. Zinjarde and Bhargava, Shobha and Rajamohanan, P. R. and RaviKumar, Ameeta} } @article { ISI:000304106900015, title = {Electrostatic grafting of a triphenylphosphine sulfonate on SBA-15: application in palladium catalyzed hydrogenation}, journal = {Catalysis Science \& Technology}, volume = {2}, number = {6}, year = {2012}, month = {FEB}, pages = {1188-1195}, publisher = {ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY}, address = {THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

A novel strategy for the immobilization of a sulfonate functionalized triphenylphosphine ligand by ion-ion interactions on an imidazolium modified SBA-15 is presented. A support containing electrostatically grafted triphenylphosphine as the ligand was reacted with PdCl2( CNPh)(2) and the resulting hybrid material catalyzed olefin hydrogenation under mild conditions. The catalyst exhibits excellent activity, selectivity and stability and it can be reused for at least ten times without any loss of activity. An analogous but covalently grafted palladium system does not show any hydrogenation activity under the same conditions. TEM images of the used catalyst clearly prove the absence of palladium nanoparticles. Additionally, XPS investigations prove that palladium( 0) is formed and the phosphine is oxidized. By AAS no palladium contamination down to 0.5 X 10(-4) mmol could be detected in the products and further leaching tests verified the reaction to be truly heterogeneous. This concept of non-covalent immobilization guarantees a tight bonding of the catalytically active species to the surface in combination with a high mobility, which should be favorable for other catalyses, too.

}, issn = {2044-4753}, doi = {10.1039/c2cy00535b}, author = {Wang, Lei and Dehe, Daniel and Philippi, Thomas and Seifert, Andreas and Ernst, Stefan and Zhou, Zhou and Hartmann, Martin and Taylor, Robin N. Klupp and Singh, Anand Pal and Jia, Mingjun and Thiel, Werner R.} } @article { ISI:000308046400038, title = {Hybrid molecules of carvacrol and benzoyl urea/thiourea with potential applications in agriculture and medicine}, journal = {Bioorganic \& Medicinal Chemistry Letters}, volume = {22}, number = {17}, year = {2012}, month = {SEP}, pages = {5550-5554}, publisher = {PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD}, address = {THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5 1GB, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

Benzoyl phenyl urea, a class of insect growth regulator{\textquoteright}s acts by inhibiting chitin synthesis. Carvacrol, a naturally occurring monoterpenoid is an effective antifungal agent. We have structurally modified carvacrol (2-methyl-5-[1-methylethyl] phenol) by introducing benzoylphenyl urea linkage. Two series of benzoylcarvacryl thiourea (BCTU, 4a-f) and benzoylcarvacryl urea (BCU, 5a-f) derivatives were prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, IR, H-1 and C-13 NMR and Mass spectroscopy. Derivatives 4b, 4d, 4e, 4f and 5d, 5f showed comparable insecticidal activity with the standard BPU lufenuron against Dysdercus koenigii. BCTU derivatives 4c, 4e and BCU 5c showed good antifungal activity against phytopathogenic fungi viz. Magnaporthe grisae, Fusarium oxysporum, Dreschlera oryzae; food spoilage yeasts viz. Debaromyces hansenii, Pichia membranifaciens; and human pathogens viz. Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans. Compounds 5d, 5e and 5f showed potent activity against human pathogens. Moderate and selective activity was observed for other compounds. All the synthesized compounds were non-haemolytic. These compounds have potential application in agriculture and medicine. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

}, keywords = {Antifungal agents, Benzoyl carvacryl urea, Benzoyl phenyl urea, Crop protection agents, Insect growth regulators}, issn = {0960-894X}, doi = {10.1016/j.bmcl.2012.07.017}, author = {Pete, Umesh D. and Zade, Chetan M. and Bhosale, Jitendra D. and Tupe, Santosh G. and Chaudhary, Preeti M. and Dikundwar, Amol G. and Bendre, Ratnamala S.} } @article { ISI:000310890600006, title = {Inheritance of resistance to root-lesion nematodes (Pratylenchus thornei and P. neglectus) in five doubled-haploid populations of wheat}, journal = {Euphytica}, volume = {188}, number = {2}, year = {2012}, month = {NOV}, pages = {209-219}, publisher = {SPRINGER}, address = {VAN GODEWIJCKSTRAAT 30, 3311 GZ DORDRECHT, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

Nematode species Pratylenchus thornei and P. neglectus are the two most important root-lesion nematodes affecting wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and other grain crops in Australia. For practical plant breeding, it will be valuable to know the mode of inheritance of resistance and whether the same set of genes confer resistance to both species. We evaluated reactions to P. thornei and P. neglectus of glasshouse-inoculated plants of five doubled-haploid populations derived from five resistant synthetic hexpaloid wheat lines, each crossed to the susceptible Australian wheat cultivar Janz. For each cross we determined genetic variance, heritability and minimum number of effective resistance genes for each nematode species. Distributions of nematode numbers for both species were continuous for all doubled-haploid populations. Heritabilities were high and the resistances were controlled by 4-7 genes. There was no genetic correlation between resistance to P. thornei and to P. neglectus in four of the populations and a significant but low correlation in one. Therefore, resistances to P. thornei and to P. neglectus are probably inherited quantitatively and independently in four of these synthetic hexaploid wheat populations, with the possibility of at least one genetic factor contributing to resistance to both species in one of the populations. Parents with the greatest level of resistance will be the best to use as donor parents to adapted cultivars, and selection of resistance to both species in early generations will be optimal to carry resistance through successive cycles of inbreeding to produce resistant cultivars for release.

}, keywords = {Aegilops tauschii, Disease resistance, Durum wheat, Germplasm development, Triticum aestivum, Wheat breeding}, issn = {0014-2336}, doi = {10.1007/s10681-012-0689-x}, author = {Thompson, John P. and Rebecca S. Zwart and Butler, David} } @article { ISI:000311204900021, title = {Microsatellite mapping identifies TTKST-effective stem rust resistance gene in wheat cultivars VL404 and Janz}, journal = {Molecular Breeding}, volume = {30}, number = {4}, year = {2012}, month = {DEC}, pages = {1757-1765}, publisher = {SPRINGER}, address = {VAN GODEWIJCKSTRAAT 30, 3311 GZ DORDRECHT, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

Wheat cultivar VL404 carries seedling resistance to Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici pathotype TTKST. Monogenic segregation for seedling resistance was observed in a VL404/WL711 recombinant inbred line population and the resistance locus was temporarily designated SrVL. Bulked segregant analysis using Diversity Arrays Technology markers located SrVL on chromosome 2BL. Detailed simple sequence repeat mapping placed SrVL between gwm120 and wmc175, both at genetic distances of 3.3 cM. Based on adult plant responses of Janz and VL404 in India and Kenya, we expected these cultivars to carry the same gene against TTKST. A subset of Diamondbird/Janz doubled haploid (DH) population showed monogenic segregation, when tested against TTKST and the locus was temporarily named SrJNZ. SrVL-linked markers gwm120 and wmc175 flanked SrJNZ at a similar genetic distance, thereby confirming our hypothesis. Chromosome 2BL carries Sr9, Sr16 and Sr28. Sr9 is a multi-allelic locus and all known alleles of Sr9 and Sr16 are ineffective against TTKSK and its derivatives. A recombination value of 16.7 cM between Sr9g-linked stripe rust resistance gene Yr7 and SrJNZ in Diamondbird/Janz DH population suggested that SrJNZ is not an allele at the Sr9 locus. Based on comparison of published genetic distances between Lr13, Sr9, Sr28 and Sr16 with that observed in this study, we concluded SrVL and SrJNZ to be Sr28. This gene was contributed by a common parent Gabo, which also exhibited resistance against TTKST. Sr28-linked markers gwm120 and wmc175 confirmed the presence of this gene in a high proportion of Australian cultivars that showed stem rust resistance in Kenya. These markers can be used for marker-assisted pyramiding of Sr28 with other stem rust resistance genes.

}, keywords = {Disease resistance, Markers, Stem rust, Ug99, Wheat}, issn = {1380-3743}, doi = {10.1007/s11032-012-9759-y}, author = {Bansal, Urmil K. and Rebecca S. Zwart and Bhavani, Sridhar and Wanyera, Ruth and Gupta, Vidya and Bariana, Harbans S.} } @article {42707, title = {Novel ruthenium complexes and their uses in processes for formation and/or hydrogenation of esters, amides and derivatives thereof}, number = {US 14/702,641}, year = {2012}, month = {OCT}, chapter = {US20150284417 A1}, abstract = {

The present invention relates to novel Ruthenium complexes and related borohydride complexes, and their use for (1) hydrogenation of amides (including polyamides) to alcohols and amines; (2) preparing amides from alcohols with amines (including preparing polyamides (e.g., polypeptides) by reacting dialcohols and diamines or by polymerization of amino alcohols); (3) hydrogenation of esters to alcohols (including hydrogenation of cyclic esters (lactones), cyclic di-esters (di-lactones) or polyesters); (4) hydrogenation of organic carbonates (including polycarbonates) to alcohols and of carbamates (including polycarbamates) or urea derivatives to alcohols and amines; (5) dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols to esters; (6) hydrogenation of secondary alcohols to ketones; (7) amidation of esters (synthesis of amides from esters and amines); (8) acylation of alcohols using esters; (9) coupling of alcohols with water to form carboxylic acids; and (10) dehydrogenation of beta-amino alcohols to form pyrazines. The present invention further relates to novel uses of certain pyridine Ruthenium complexes.

}, author = {Milstein, David and Balaraman, Ekambaram and Gunanathan, Chidambaram and Gnanaprakasam, Boopathy and Zhang, Jing} } @article { ISI:000303366000001, title = {Polymorphs, salts, and cocrystals: what{\textquoteright}s in a name?}, journal = {Crystal Growth \& Design}, volume = {12}, number = {5}, year = {2012}, month = {MAY}, pages = {2147-2152}, publisher = {AMER CHEMICAL SOC}, address = {1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA}, abstract = {

The December 2011 release of a draft United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance concerning regulatory classification of pharmaceutical cocrystals of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) addressed two matters of topical interest to the crystal engineering and pharmaceutical science communities: (1) a proposed definition of cocrystals; (2) a proposed classification of pharmaceutical cocrystals as dissociable {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}API-excipient{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} molecular complexes. The Indo U.S. Bilateral Meeting sponsored by the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum titled The Evolving Role of Solid State Chemistry in Pharmaceutical Science was held in Manesar near Delhi, India, from February 2-4, 2012. A session of the meeting was devoted to discussion of the FDA guidance draft. The debate generated strong consensus on the need to define cocrystals more broadly and to classify them like salts. It was also concluded that the diversity of API crystal forms makes it difficult to classify solid forms into three categories that are mutually exclusive. This perspective summarizes the discussion in the Indo-U.S. Bilateral Meeting and includes contributions from researchers who were not participants in the meeting.

}, issn = {1528-7483}, doi = {10.1021/cg3002948}, author = {Aitipamula, Srinivasulu and Banerjee, Rahul and Bansal, Arvind K. and Biradha, Kumar and Cheney, Miranda L. and Choudhury, Angshuman Roy and Desiraju, Gautam R. and Dikundwar, Amol G. and Dubey, Ritesh and Duggirala, Nagakiran and Ghogale, Preetam P. and Ghosh, Soumyajit and Goswami, Pramod Kumar and Goud, N. Rajesh and Jetti, Ram R. K. R. and Karpinski, Piotr and Kaushik, Poonam and Kumar, Dinesh and Kumar, Vineet and Moulton, Brian and Mukherjee, Arijit and Mukherjee, Gargi and Myerson, Allan S. and Puri, Vibha and Ramanan, Arunachalam and Rajamannar, T. and Reddy, C. Malla and Rodriguez-Hornedo, Nair and Rogers, Robin D. and Row, T. N. Guru and Sanphui, Palash and Shan, Ning and Shete, Ganesh and Singh, Amit and Sun, Changquan C. and Swift, Jennifer A. and Thaimattam, Ram and Thakur, Tejender S. and Thaper, Rajesh Kumar and Thomas, Sajesh P. and Tothadi, Srinu and Vangala, Venu R. and Variankaval, Narayan and Vishweshwar, Peddy and Weyna, David R. and Zaworotko, Michael J.} } @article { ISI:000306942300059, title = {Polymorphs, salts and cocrystals: what{\textquoteright}s in a name? (vol 12, pg 2147, 2012)}, journal = {Crystal Growth \& Design}, volume = {12}, number = {8}, year = {2012}, month = {AUG}, pages = {4290-4291}, publisher = {AMER CHEMICAL SOC}, address = {1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA}, issn = {1528-7483}, doi = {10.1021/cg300704b}, author = {Aitipamula, Srinivasulu and Banerjee, Rahul and Bansal, Arvind K. and Biradha, Kumar and Cheney, Miranda L. and Choudhury, Angshuman Roy and Desiraju, Gautam R. and Dikundwar, Amol G. and Dubey, Ritesh and Duggirala, Nagakiran and Ghogale, Preetam P. and Ghosh, Soumyajit and Goswami, Pramod Kumar and Goud, N. Rajesh and Jetti, Ram R. K. R. and Karpinski, Piotr and Kaushik, Poonam and Kumar, Dinesh and Kumar, Vineet and Moulton, Brian and Mukherjee, Arijit and Mukherjee, Gargi and Myerson, Allan S. and Puri, Vibha and Ramanan, Arunachalam and Rajamannar, T. and Reddy, C. Malla and Rodriguez-Hornedo, Nair and Rogers, Robin D. and Row, T. N. Guru and Sanphui, Palash and Shan, Ning and Shete, Ganesh and Singh, Amit and Sun, Changquan C. and Swift, Jennifer A. and Thaimattam, Ram and Thakur, Tejender S. and Thaper, Rajesh Kumar and Thomas, Sajesh P. and Tothadi, Srinu and Vangala, Venu R. and Vishweshwar, Peddy and Weyna, David R. and Zaworotko, Michael J.} } @article { ISI:000298860100004, title = {Proteomic analysis of glycated proteins from streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat kidney}, journal = {Molecular Biotechnology}, volume = {50}, number = {1}, year = {2012}, month = {JAN}, pages = {28-38}, publisher = {HUMANA PRESS INC}, address = {999 RIVERVIEW DRIVE SUITE 208, TOTOWA, NJ 07512 USA}, abstract = {

Glycation of proteins leading to formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) has been considered as one of the important causes of diabetic nephropathy. Therefore, in this study, glycated proteins were detected by anti-AGE antibodies from kidney of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat showing nephropathic symptoms, by using two dimensional electrophoresis and western blot analysis. These glycated proteins were identified and characterized by using combination of peptide mass finger printing and tandem mass spectrometric approaches. Glycated proteins identified included proteins from metabolic pathways, oxidative stress, cell signaling, and transport. Several of the proteins modified by glycation were involved in glucose metabolism. The extent of glycation was higher in diabetes compared to control, in the glycated proteins that were common to both control and diabetic kidney. Two dimensional electrophoresis proteins profiling of glycated proteins suggest that four of the glycated proteins were significantly up regulated in diabetes.

}, keywords = {AGE, Diabetes, Glucose toxicity, Nephropathy, Post-translation modification}, issn = {1073-6085}, doi = {10.1007/s12033-011-9409-3}, author = {Chougale, Ashok D. and Bhat, Shweta P. and Bhujbal, Swapnil V. and Zambare, Mandar R. and Puntambekar, Shraddha and Somani, Rahul S. and Boppana, Ramanamurthy and Giri, Ashok P. and Kulkarni, Mahesh J.} } @article { ISI:000301712600016, title = {Rapid self-healing hydrogels}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}, volume = {109}, number = {12}, year = {2012}, month = {MAR}, pages = {4383-4388}, publisher = {NATL ACAD SCIENCES}, address = {2101 CONSTITUTION AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20418 USA}, abstract = {

Synthetic materials that are capable of autonomous healing upon damage are being developed at a rapid pace because of their many potential applications. Despite these advancements, achieving self-healing in permanently cross-linked hydrogels has remained elusive because of the presence of water and irreversible cross-links. Here, we demonstrate that permanently cross-linked hydrogels can be engineered to exhibit self-healing in an aqueous environment. We achieve this feature by arming the hydrogel network with flexible-pendant side chains carrying an optimal balance of hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties that allows the side chains to mediate hydrogen bonds across the hydrogel interfaces with minimal steric hindrance and hydrophobic collapse. The self-healing reported here is rapid, occurring within seconds of the insertion of a crack into the hydrogel or juxtaposition of two separate hydrogel pieces. The healing is reversible and can be switched on and off via changes in pH, allowing external control over the healing process. Moreover, the hydrogels can sustain multiple cycles of healing and separation without compromising their mechanical properties and healing kinetics. Beyond revealing how secondary interactions could be harnessed to introduce new functions to chemically crosslinked polymeric systems, we also demonstrate various potential applications of such easy-to-synthesize, smart, self-healing hydrogels.

}, keywords = {adhesives, biomimetic materials, Hydrophobicity, molecular dynamics, smart materials}, issn = {0027-8424}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.1201122109}, author = {Phadke, Ameya and Zhang, Chao and Arman, Bedri and Hsu, Cheng-Chih and Mashelkar, Raghunath Anant and Lele, Ashish K. and Tauber, Michael J. and Arya, Gaurav and Varghese, Shyni} } @article { ISI:000299212700017, title = {Tuning spectral properties of phenothiazine based donor-pi-acceptor dyes for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells}, journal = {Journal of Materials Chemistry}, volume = {22}, number = {3}, year = {2012}, month = {NOV}, pages = {889-894}, publisher = {ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY}, type = {Article}, address = {THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

Two novel metal-free organic donor-pi-acceptor dyes were synthesized using electron-rich 10-butyl-(2-methylthio)-10H-phenothiazine as a donor and cyanoacrylic acid as an acceptor. The spectral response of the dye was tuned by introducing a vinylene thiophene pi-bridge. Obtained optical and electrochemical properties of the dyes seemed to be promising in terms of employing them as light harvesters in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The efficiencies of the devices under standard AM 1.5G (100 mW cm(-2)) conditions reached 7.3\% with volatile electrolyte. The differences in the photovoltaic parameters of these DSCs were explained by comparing the results of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements and transient photovoltage and photocurrent decay experiments.

}, issn = {0959-9428}, doi = {10.1039/c1jm14024h}, author = {Marszalek, Magdalena and Nagane, Satyawan and Ichake, Amol and Humphry-Baker, Robin and Paul, Vincent and Zakeeruddin, Shaik M. and Graetzel, Michael} } @article {42709, title = {Use of ruthenium complexes for formation and/or hydrogenation of amides and related carboxylic acid derivatives}, number = {US 13/471,037}, year = {2012}, month = {MAR}, type = {Grant}, chapter = {US9290441 B2}, abstract = {

A process for preparing amides by reacting a primary amine and a primary alcohol in the presence of a Ruthenium complex to generate the amide and molecular hydrogen. Primary amines are directly acylated by equimolar amounts of alcohols to produce amides and molecular hydrogen (the only byproduct) in high yields and high turnover numbers. Also disclosed are processes for hydrogenation of amides to alcohols and amines; hydrogenation of organic carbonates to alcohols; hydrogenation of carbamates or urea derivatives to alcohols and amines; amidation of esters; acylation of alcohols using esters; coupling of alcohols with water and a base to form carboxylic acids; dehydrogenation of beta-amino alcohols to form pyrazines and cyclic dipeptides; and dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols to ketones. These reactions are catalyzed by a Ruthenium complex which is based on a dearomatized PNN-type ligand of formula A1 or precursors thereof of formulae A2 or A3.

}, author = {Milstein, David and Gunanathan, Chidambaram and Ben-David, Yehoshoa and Balaraman, Ekambaram and Gnanaprakasam, Boopathy and Zhang, Jing} } @article { ISI:000323497900010, title = {Alishewanella solinquinati sp nov., isolated from soil contaminated with textile dyes}, journal = {Current Microbiology}, volume = {67}, number = {4}, year = {2013}, month = {OCT}, pages = {454-459}, publisher = {SPRINGER}, address = {233 SPRING ST, NEW YORK, NY 10013 USA}, abstract = {

A novel Gram-negative, motile, rod-shaped, facultative anaerobic bacterial strain, KMK6(T), was isolated from soil contaminated with textile dyes from an industrial estate located at Ichalkaranji, Maharashtra, India, and its taxonomical position was established by using a polyphasic approach. The major cellular fatty acids included C-17:1 omega 8c, summed feature 3 (C-16:1 omega 7c and/or iso-C-15:0 2-OH), C-17:0, C-16:0,C- and C-18:1 omega 7c. The DNA G+C content of strain KMK6(T) was 48.8 mol \%. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis confirmed its placement in the genus Alishewanella, and exhibited sequence similarity levels of below 97 \% to the type strains of validly published Alishewanella species. On the basis of genotypic and phenotypic evidence, strains KMK6(T) is considered to be a novel species of the genus Alishewanella, for which we propose that strain KMK6(T) (=NCIM 5295(T) =BCRC 17848(T)) is assigned to a novel species, Alishewanella solinquinati sp. nov.

}, issn = {0343-8651}, doi = {10.1007/s00284-013-0385-7}, author = {Kolekar, Yogesh M. and Pawar, Shrikant P. and Adav, Sunil S. and Zheng, Liu-Qiang and Li, Wen-Jun and Shouche, Yogesh S. and Dastager, Syed Gulam and Kodam, Kisan M.} } @article { ISI:000315069400009, title = {Catalytic activity of ZIF-8 in the synthesis of styrene carbonate from CO2 and styrene oxide}, journal = {Catalysis Communications}, volume = {32}, year = {2013}, month = {FEB}, pages = {36-40}, publisher = {ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV}, address = {PO BOX 211, 1000 AE AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

The catalytic activity of ZIF-8 in the synthesis of styrene carbonate from carbon dioxide and styrene oxide is presented. ZIF-8 crystals displayed catalytic activity even at temperatures as low as 50 degrees C, with styrene carbonate yields as high as similar to 54\% at 100 degrees C. In contrast to many prior-art catalysts, solvents or co-catalysts were not required. Pyridine and ammonia were used as probe molecules to estimate the type and density of acid sites in fresh and reused ZIF-8 catalysts. DRIFT spectroscopy of adsorbed pyridine revealed the presence of both Bronsted (B) and Lewis (L) acid sites. The B-sites have nearly vanished in the case of recycled ZIF-8 catalysts. The simultaneous presence of both the acid sites and the nitrogen basic moieties from the imidazole linker in ZIF-8 promoted the adsorption of the CO2 on the solid surface and its further conversion to the cyclic carbonate. The ZIF-8 catalysts could be recycled and reused without significant loss in catalytic activity. Published by Elsevier B.V.

}, keywords = {CO2 conversion, cyclic carbonates, Styrene carbonate, Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, ZIF-8}, issn = {1566-7367}, doi = {10.1016/j.catcom.2012.12.003}, author = {Zhu, Minqi and Srinivas, Darbha and Bhogeswararao, Seemala and Ratnasamy, Paul and Carreon, Moises A.} } @article { ISI:000318634000040, title = {Structural variations of D-pi-A dyes influence on the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells}, journal = {RSC Advances}, volume = {3}, number = {21}, year = {2013}, month = {MAR}, pages = {7921-7927}, publisher = {ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY}, address = {THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

Two new organic D-pi-A dyes containing identical pi-conjugated spacer and anchoring/acceptor moieties but different donor groups were designed and synthesized. These dyes containing didodecylcyclopentadithiophene (CPDT) as a spacer, cyanoacrylic acid as an acceptor and N-butyl-carbazole or N-butyl-phenothiazine moieties as electron donor groups are labelled as V4 and V11 dyes, respectively. The variation in the donor group of these two dyes, that influences the photophysical, electrochemical and photovoltaic parameters, was investigated. The highest photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 7.5\% was obtained with V4 dye at AM 1.5 G full sunlight intensity (100 mWcm(-2)). Comparison of phenothiazine donor dyes with two different pi-conjugated spacers, CPDT (V11) and vinyl thiophene (V7) containing devices shows that the V-oc of V7 dye is lower than that of V11 due to the downward shift of the conduction band edge. Transient photovoltage and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were performed to explain the differences in the PV parameters by varying the donors and/or spacer groups.

}, issn = {2046-2069}, doi = {10.1039/c3ra22249g}, author = {Marszalek, Magdalena and Nagane, Satyawan and Ichake, Amol and Humphry-Baker, Robin and Paul, Vincent and Zakeeruddin, Shaik M. and Gratzel, Michael} } @article { ISI:000317596800004, title = {Synthesis and catalytic activity of monodisperse gold-mesoporous silica core-shell nanocatalysts}, journal = {Catalysis Science \& Technology}, volume = {3}, number = {5}, year = {2013}, month = {FEB}, pages = {1190-1193}, publisher = {ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY}, address = {THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

Core-shell nanostructures, where gold nanoparticles of sub 10 nm size are successfully encapsulated inside porous silica spheres, have been prepared. The detailed characterization of the catalyst shows a high surface area and good mesoporosity. The sinter resistance of the catalyst under repeated cycles of the CO oxidation reaction is observed.

}, issn = {2044-4753}, doi = {10.1039/c3cy20772b}, author = {Sekhar, A. C. Sunil and Meera, C. J. and Kottavarithottil Ziyad and Gopinath, Chinnakonda S. and Vinod, C. P.} } @article {42704, title = {Synthesis, structures, and dearomatization by deprotonation of iron complexes featuring bipyridine-based PNN pincer ligands}, journal = {Inorganic Chemistry}, volume = {52}, year = {2013}, month = {JUL}, pages = {9636{\textendash}9649}, abstract = {

The synthesis and characterization of new iron pincer complexes bearing bipyridine-based PNN ligands is reported. Three phosphine-substituted pincer ligands, namely, the known tBu-PNN (6-((di-tert-butylphosphino)methyl)-2,2'-bipyridine) and the two new iPr-PNN (6-((di-iso-propylphosphino)methyl)-2,2'-bipyridine) and Ph-PNN (6-((diphenylphosphino)methyl)-2,2'-bipyridine) ligands were synthesized and studied in ligation reactions with iron(II) chloride and bromide. These reactions lead to the formation of two types of complexes: mono-chelated neutral complexes of the type [(R-PNN)Fe(X)2] and bis-chelated dicationic complexes of the type [(R-PNN)2Fe]2+. The complexes [(R-PNN)Fe(X)2] (1: R = tBu, X = Cl, 2: R = tBu, X = Br, 3: R = iPr, X = Cl, and 4: R = iPr, X = Br) are readily prepared from reactions of FeX2 with the free R-PNN ligand in a 1:1 ratio. Magnetic susceptibility measurements show that these complexes have a high-spin ground state (S = 2) at room temperature. Employing a 2-fold or higher excess of iPr-PNN, diamagnetic hexacoordinated dicationic complexes of the type [(iPr-PNN)2Fe](X)2 (5: X = Cl, and 6: X = Br) are formed. The reactions of Ph-PNN with FeX2 in a 1:1 ratio lead to similar complexes of the type [(Ph-PNN)2Fe](FeX4) (7: X = Cl, and 8: X = Br). Single crystal X-ray studies of 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 do not indicate electron transfer from the FeII centers to the neutral bipyridine unit based on the determined bond lengths. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to compare the relative energies of the mono- and bis-chelated complexes. The doubly deprotonated complexes [(R-PNN*)2Fe] (9: R = iPr, and 10: R = Ph) were synthesized by reactions of the dicationic complexes 6 and 8 with KOtBu. The dearomatized nature of the central pyridine of the pincer ligand was established by X-ray diffraction analysis of single crystals of 10. Reactivity studies show that 9 and 10 have a slightly different behavior in protonation reactions.

}, doi = {10.1021/ic401432m}, author = {Zell, Thomas and Langer, Robert and Iron, Mark A. and Konstantinovski, Leonid and Shimon, Linda J. W. and Diskin-Posner, Yael and Leitus, Gregory and Balaraman, Ekambaram and Ben-David, Yehoshoa and Milstein, David} } @article { ISI:000344448000007, title = {Development of bioconjugate from streptomyces tyrosinase and gold nanoparticles for rapid detection of phenol constituents}, journal = {Indian Journal of Experimental Biology}, volume = {52}, number = {11}, year = {2014}, month = {NOV}, pages = {1071-1081}, publisher = {NATL INST SCIENCE COMMUNICATION-NISCAIR}, type = {Article}, address = {DR K S KRISHNAN MARG, PUSA CAMPUS, NEW DELHI 110 012, INDIA}, abstract = {

Most of the phenol compounds are toxic and have been considered as hazardous pollutants. Several physicochemical and biological methods are available to detect and monitor the phenol pollutants in water and soil. In the present study, phenol constituents of winery, paper and plastic industrial effluents were successfully detected employing tyrosinase-gold nanoparticles bioconjugate. The synthesis of extracellular tyrosinase and gold nanoparticles was achieved by a single isolate of Streptomyces sp. DBZ-39. Enhanced production (369.41 IU) of tyrosinase was produced in submerged bioprocess employing response surface method with central composite design. Extracellular gold nanoparticles synthesized (12-18 nm) by Streptomyces sp. DBZ-39 were characterized with TEM, EDAX and FTIR analysis. A rapid detection (within 10 min) of phenol constituents from winery effluents was achieved by bioconjugate, when compared to tyrosinases and gold nanoparticles independently. Streptomyces tyrosinase could exhibit relatively a better performance than commercially available mushroom tyrosinase in the detection of phenol constituents. Winery effluent has shown much higher content (0.98 O.D) of phenol constituents than paper and plastic effluents based on the intensity of color and U.V absorption spectra.

}, keywords = {Bioconjugate, gold nanoparticles, Phenol detection, Streptomyces, Tyrosinase}, issn = {0019-5189}, author = {Zainab, Mazhari Bi Bi and Madhusudhan, D. N. and Raghavendra, H. and Dastager, Syed Gulam and Dayanand, Agsar} } @article { ISI:000346322200021, title = {Efficient conversion of cellulose to levulinic acid by hydrothermal treatment using zirconium dioxide as a recyclable solid acid catalyst}, journal = {Industrial \& Engineering Chemistry Research}, volume = {53}, number = {49}, year = {2014}, month = {DEC}, pages = {18796-18805}, publisher = {AMER CHEMICAL SOC}, address = {1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA}, abstract = {

Conversion of cellulose into platform chemicals is essential for sustainable development of the chemical industry. With this aim, single step hydrothermal conversion of cellulose to industrially important levulinic acid using zirconium dioxide as a catalyst has been investigated. A remarkably high yield (53.9 mol \%) of levulinic acid with excellent accountability and total conversion of cellulose has been achieved at 180 degrees C reaction temperature and reaction time of 3 h with 2 wt \% of catalyst and 2 g of cellulose. The major products identified were levulinic acid (LA), formic acid (FA), 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), furfural, and humins. Formation of humins during cellulose hydrolysis and dehydration was observed and is also confirmed by NMR and FTIR analysis. The effect of various reaction parameters such as temperature, time, substrate concentration, and catalyst loading on conversion and selectivity has been studied. The catalyst has been regenerated and recycled several times without any loss of activity and selectivity.

}, issn = {0888-5885}, doi = {10.1021/ie5011838}, author = {Joshi, Sunil S. and Zodge, Amit D. and Pandare, Kiran V. and Kulkarni, Bhaskar D.} } @article { ISI:000339128700053, title = {Highly regioselective C4-hydrazinylation of 2,4-dichloroquinolines: expedient synthesis of aminoquinoline substituted pyrrolidin-2,5-diones via hydrazinylquinolines}, journal = {Tetrahedron Letters}, volume = {55}, number = {30}, year = {2014}, month = {JUL}, pages = {4240-4244}, publisher = {PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD}, address = {THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5 1GB, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

A new class of hydrazinylquinoline regio-isomers has been synthesized through SNAr reaction of 2,4-dichloroquinolines with hydrazine hydrate. The reaction stops at the mono-substitution product with high regioselectivity at the C-4 rather than C-2 position of dichloroquinolines. The hydrazinylquinolines were subsequently converted into aminoquinoline substituted pyrrolidin-2,5-diones in the presence of Eaton{\textquoteright}s reagent. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

}, keywords = {5-diones, Eaton{\textquoteright}s reagent, Hydrazinylquinolines, Pyrrolidin-2, Regioisomers, SNAr reaction}, issn = {0040-4039}, doi = {10.1016/j.tetlet.2014.05.132}, author = {Kumar, Gopal Senthil and Zeller, Matthias and Gonnade, Rajesh Ghanshyam and Prasad, Kamam Jayarampillai Rajendra} } @article { ISI:000340826700002, title = {Isolation, characterization and antihyperlipidemic activity of secoisolariciresinol diglucoside in poloxamer-407-induced experimental hyperlipidemia}, journal = {Pharmaceutical Biology}, volume = {52}, number = {9}, year = {2014}, month = {SEP}, pages = {1094-1103}, publisher = {INFORMA HEALTHCARE}, address = {TELEPHONE HOUSE, 69-77 PAUL STREET, LONDON EC2A 4LQ, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

Context: Linum usitatissimum L. (Linaceae), commonly known as flaxseed, is a good source of dietary fiber and lignans. Earlier we reported cardioprotective, antihyperlipidemic, and in vitro antioxidant activity of flax lignan concentrate (FLC) obtained from flaxseed. Objectives: To isolate secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) from FLC and to evaluate the antihyperlipidemic activity of SDG in poloxamer-407 (P-407)-induced hyperlipidaemic mice. Material and methods: FLC was subjected to column chromatography and further subjected to preparative HPTLC to isolate SDG. The chemical structure of the isolated compound was elucidated by UV, IR, H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, DEPT, COSY, HSQC, HMBC, ROESY, MS, and specific optical rotation was recorded. Further, we have investigated the antihyperlipidaemic effect of SDG (20 mg/kg) in P-407-induced hyperlipidaemic rats. Hyperlipidaemia was induced by intraperitoneal administration of P-407 (30\% w/v). Serum lipid parameters such as total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were measured. Results and discussion: The structure and stereochemistry of the isolated compound were confirmed on the basis of 1D and 2D spectral data and characterized as SDG. Finally, isolated pure SDG was screened using a P-407-induced mice model for its antihyperlipidemic action using serum lipid parameters. The isolated SDG (20 mg/kg) significantly reduced serum cholesterol, triglyceride (p\<0.001), very low-density lipoprotein (p\<0.05), and non-significantly increased HDL-C. Conclusion: Finally, it was concluded unequivocally that SDG showed antihyperlipidaemic effects in P-407-induced hyperlipidaemic mice. Isolated pure SDG confirms that SDG is beneficial in the prevention of experimental hyperlipidemia in laboratory animals.

}, keywords = {column chromatography, flaxseed, Linum usitatissimum}, issn = {1388-0209}, doi = {10.3109/13880209.2013.877492}, author = {Zanwar, Anand A. and Hegde, Mahabaleshwar V. and Rojatkar, Supada R. and Sonawane, Kiran B. and Rajamohanan, P. R. and Bodhankar, Subhash L.} } @article { ISI:000338748400051, title = {One-pot synthesis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural by cellulose hydrolysis over highly active bimodal micro/mesoporous H-ZSM-5 catalyst}, journal = {ACS Sustainable Chemistry \& Engineering}, volume = {2}, number = {7}, year = {2014}, month = {JUL}, pages = {1928-1932}, publisher = {AMER CHEMICAL SOC}, address = {1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA}, abstract = {

Direct synthesis of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), a useful renewable biofuel and biochemical, was systematically studied by hydrolysis of microcrystalline cellulose over Bimodal-HZ-5 zeolite. Bimodal-HZ-5 zeolite obtained by post-synthesis modification of H-ZSM-5 with desilication was found to be a potential heterogeneous catalyst with 67\% cellulose conversion and 46\% yield of 5-HMF. Bimodal-HZ-5 was observed to be reusable for four cycles, without any loss in activity. The detailed optimization of process parameters and catalyst reusability are also presented. The present study opens a new avenue for the renewable one-pot synthesis of 5-HMF, a valuable product.

}, keywords = {5-Hydroxymethylfurfural, Biomodal-HZ-5, glucose, Hydrolysis, Microcrystalline cellulose}, issn = {2168-0485}, doi = {10.1021/sc500270z}, author = {Nandiwale, Kakasaheb Y. and Galande, Nitish D. and Thakur, Pratika and Sawant, Sanjay D. and Zambre, Vishal P. and Bokade, Vijay V.} } @article { ISI:000338011200013, title = {Scaling behavior of resistive switching in epitaxial bismuth ferrite heterostructures}, journal = {Advanced Functional Materials}, volume = {24}, number = {25}, year = {2014}, month = {JUL}, pages = {3962-3969}, publisher = {WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH}, address = {BOSCHSTRASSE 12, D-69469 WEINHEIM, GERMANY}, abstract = {

Resistive switching (RS) of (001) epitaxial multiferroic BiFeO3/La0.67Sr0.33MnO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures is investigated for varying lengths scales in both the thickness and lateral directions. Macroscale current-voltage analyses in conjunction with local conduction atomic force microscopy (CAFM) reveal that whilst both the local and global resistive states are strongly driven by polarization direction, the type of conduction mechanism is different for each distinct thickness regime. Electrode-area dependent studies confirm the RS is dominated by an interface mechanism and not by filamentary formation. Furthermore, CAFM maps allow deconvolution of the roles played by domains and domain walls during the RS process. It is shown that the net polarization direction, and not domain walls, controls the conduction process. An interface mechanism based on barrier height and width alteration due to polarization reversal is proposed, and the role of electronic reconstruction at the interface is further investigated.

}, issn = {1616-301X}, doi = {10.1002/adfm.201400110}, author = {Rana, Abhimanyu and Lu, Haidong and Bogle, Kashinath A. and Zhang, Qi and Vasudevan, Rama and Thakare, Vishal and Gruverman, Alexei and Ogale, Satishchandra and Valanoor, Nagarajan} } @article { ISI:000352488300022, title = {Activity enhancement upon the incorporation of titanium: au@ti-sio2 core-shell nanocatalysts for the CO oxidation reaction}, journal = {ChemCatChem}, volume = {7}, number = {7}, year = {2015}, month = {APR}, pages = {1222-1230}, publisher = {WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH}, address = {BOSCHSTRASSE 12, D-69469 WEINHEIM, GERMANY}, abstract = {

The encapsulation of gold nanoparticles 8-12nm in size within a porous Ti-SiO2 shell to form a core-shell nanoarchitecture was investigated, and the catalytic activity of the resulting structure was probed. Detailed characterization of the synthesized materials shows that the core-shell morphology is lost beyond a certain amount of incorporated titanium, and results in normal gold-supported Ti-SiO2. The material has a high surface area (913m(2)g(-1)) and high porosity, both of which make it an excellent choice for catalytic applications. With the optimum amount of incorporated Ti, the core-shell catalyst shows excellent room-temperature CO oxidation activity over several cycles with retention of its morphology at higher temperatures.

}, keywords = {core-shell structures, gold nanoparticles, Oxidation, Ti-SiO2}, issn = {1867-3880}, doi = {10.1002/cctc.201402954}, author = {Sekhar, Anandakumari C. Sunil and Kottavarithottil Ziyad and Soni, Yogita and Vinod, Chathakudath P.} } @article { ISI:000362611300009, title = {Atomic-resolution structures of the APC/C subunits Apc4 and the Apc5 N-terminal domain}, journal = {Journal of Molecular Biology}, volume = {427}, number = {20}, year = {2015}, month = {OCT}, pages = {3300-3315}, publisher = {ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD}, address = {24-28 OVAL RD, LONDON NW1 7DX, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

Many essential biological processes are mediated by complex molecular machines comprising multiple subunits. Knowledge on the architecture of individual subunits and their positions within the overall multimeric complex is key to understanding the molecular mechanisms of macromolecular assemblies. The anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) is a large multisubunit complex that regulates cell cycle progression by ubiquitinating cell cycle proteins for proteolysis by the proteasome. The holo-complex is composed of 15 different proteins that assemble to generate a complex of 20 subunits. Here, we describe the crystal structures of Apc4 and the N-terminal domain of Apc5 (Apc5(N)). Apc4 comprises a WD40 domain split by a long alpha-helical domain, whereas Apc5(N) has an alpha-helical fold. In a separate study, we had fitted these atomic models to a 3.6-angstrom-resolution cryo-electron microscopy map of the APC/C. We describe how, in the context of the APC/C, regions of Apc4 disordered in the crystal assume order through contacts to Apc5, whereas Apc5(N) shows small conformational changes relative to its crystal structure. We discuss the complementary approaches of high-resolution electron microscopy and protein crystallography to the structure determination of subunits of multimeric complexes. (c) 2015 MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

}, keywords = {anaphase-promoting complex, cell cycle, multisubunit structure, protein crystallography, ubiquitin}, issn = {0022-2836}, doi = {10.1016/j.jmb.2015.08.023}, author = {Cronin, Nora B. and Yang, Jing and Zhang, Ziguo and Kulkarni, Kiran and Chang, Leifu and Yamano, Hiroyuki and Barford, David} } @article { ISI:000354208900004, title = {Calcium phosphate nanocapsule crowned multiwalled carbon nanotubes for pH triggered intracellular anticancer drug release}, journal = {Journal of Materials Chemistry B}, volume = {3}, number = {19}, year = {2015}, month = {APR}, pages = {3931-3939}, publisher = {ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY}, address = {THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

We report calcium phosphate (CaP) nanocapsule crowned multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT-GSH-G4-CaP) as a novel platform for intracellular delivery of an anticancer drug. As a proof-of-concept, CNT-GSH-G4-CaP demonstrates release of anticancer drug doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) within intracellular lysosomes from the interior cavity of CNT upon pH triggered CaP dissolution. Importantly, we found that the CNT with a CaP nanolid can efficiently prevent untimely drug release at physiological pH but promotes DOX release at increased acidic milieu as observed in subcellular compartments such as lysosomes (similar to 5.0). This {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}zero premature release{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} characteristic is of clinical significance in delivering cytotoxic drugs, by reducing systemic toxicity and thus beneficial for the effective anticancer treatment. We envision that this pH triggered CaP crowned CNT nanosystem would lead to a new generation of self-regulated platforms for intracellular delivery of a variety of anticancer drugs.

}, issn = {2050-750X}, doi = {10.1039/c5tb00534e}, author = {Banerjee, Shashwat S. and Todkar, Kiran J. and Khutale, Ganesh V. and Chate, Govind P. and Biradar, Ankush V. and Gawande, Manoj B. and Zboril, Radek and Khandare, Jayant J.} } @article { ISI:000361828000068, title = {Conversion of dried aspergillus candidus mycelia grown on waste whey to biodiesel by in situ acid transesterification}, journal = {Bioresource Technology}, volume = {197}, year = {2015}, month = {DEC}, pages = {502-507}, publisher = {ELSEVIER SCI LTD}, address = {THE BOULEVARD, LANGFORD LANE, KIDLINGTON, OXFORD OX5 1GB, OXON, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

This study reports optimization of the transesterification reaction step on dried biomass of an oleaginous fungus Aspergillus candidus grown on agro-dairy waste, whey. Acid catalyzed transesterification was performed and variables affecting esterification, viz., catalyst methanol and chloroform concentrations, temperature, time, and biomass were investigated. Statistical optimization of the transesterification reaction using Plackett-Burman Design showed biomass to be the predominant factor with a 12.5-fold increase in total FAME from 25.6 to 320 mg. Studies indicate that the transesterification efficiency in terms of conversion is favored by employing lower biomass loadings. A. candidus exhibited FAME profiles containing desirable saturated (30.2\%), monounsaturated (31.5\%) and polyunsaturated methyl esters (38.3\%). The predicted and experimentally determined biodiesel properties (density, kinematic viscosity, iodine value, cetane number, TAN, water content, total and free glycerol) were in accordance with international (ASTM D6751, EN 14214) and national (IS 15607) standards. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

}, keywords = {Aspergillus candidus, Biodiesel, In situ acid transesterification, Plackett-Burman Design, Whey}, issn = {0960-8524}, doi = {10.1016/j.biortech.2015.07.118}, author = {Kakkad, Hardik and Khot, Mahesh and Smita S. Zinjarde and RaviKumar, Ameeta and Kumar, V. Ravi and Kulkarni, B. D.} } @article { ISI:000363152800005, title = {Core-shell nanoparticles: synthesis and applications in catalysis and electrocatalysis}, journal = {Chemical Society Reviews}, volume = {44}, number = {21}, year = {2015}, month = {AUG}, pages = {7540-7590}, publisher = {ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY}, address = {THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

Core-shell nanoparticles (CSNs) are a class of nanostructured materials that have recently received increased attention owing to their interesting properties and broad range of applications in catalysis, biology, materials chemistry and sensors. By rationally tuning the cores as well as the shells of such materials, a range of core-shell nanoparticles can be produced with tailorable properties that can play important roles in various catalytic processes and offer sustainable solutions to current energy problems. Various synthetic methods for preparing different classes of CSNs, including the Stober method, solvothermal method, one-pot synthetic method involving surfactants, etc., are briefly mentioned here. The roles of various classes of CSNs are exemplified for both catalytic and electrocatalytic applications, including oxidation, reduction, coupling reactions, etc.

}, issn = {0306-0012}, doi = {10.1039/c5cs00343a}, author = {Gawande, Manoj B. and Goswami, Anandarup and Asefa, Tewodros and Guo, Huizhang and Biradar, Ankush V. and Peng, Dong-Liang and Zboril, Radek and Varma, Rajender S.} } @article { ISI:000354964900096, title = {Freezing tendency towards 4-coordinated amorphous networks causes an increase in the heat capacity of supercooled Stillinger-Weber silicon}, journal = {RSC Advances}, volume = {5}, number = {55}, year = {2015}, month = {MAY}, pages = {44679-44686}, publisher = {ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY}, address = {THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

Supercooled liquid silicon (Si), modeled by the Stillinger-Weber (SW) potential, has been shown to undergo transition to low density amorphous phases at 1060 K in previous studies. Furthermore, the constant pressure heat capacity C-p has been found to exhibit a large increase as the liquid is cooled to 1060 K. In this work, we examine the nature of the equilibrium and the relaxation process of supercooled SW Si in the temperature range of 1060 K to 1070 K at zero pressure. We find that the relaxation of the supercooled liquid leads to a sharp irreversible decrease in the fluctuation of the two body energy of the largest connected network of 4-coordinated particles. Such a process implies a tightening of the bonds (i.e. freezing or jamming) of the network, and is accompanied by a sharp increase in the fraction of the 4-coordinated particles in the system. We find that the jamming (or freezing) process shows a sudden acceleration across a dynamical instability point that occurs at a unique potential energy state of the network. Further, we find that the occurrence of the dynamical instability is associated with the appearance of a straight line region in the cumulative potential energy distributions with a configurational temperature close to 1060 K. We conclude that the supercooled liquid state must be regarded as a constrained equilibrium state, since the accessible microstates are constrained by the inherent tendency of the system to approach the dynamical instability point. Thus all properties of supercooled liquid SW-Si, including the rise in C-p at 1060 K, can be attributed to the freezing tendency of the 4-coordinated particle network.

}, issn = {2046-2069}, doi = {10.1039/c5ra04892c}, author = {Apte, Pankaj A. and Pingua, Nandlal and Gautam, Arvind Kumar and Kumar, Uday and Willow, Soohaeng Yoo and Zeng, Xiao Cheng and Kulkarni, B. D.} } @article { ISI:000363184600027, title = {Gedunin and azadiradione: human pancreatic alpha-amylase inhibiting limonoids from neem (azadirachta indica) as anti-diabetic agents}, journal = {Plos One}, volume = {10}, number = {10}, year = {2015}, month = {OCT}, pages = {e0140113}, publisher = {PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE}, address = {1160 BATTERY STREET, STE 100, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111 USA}, abstract = {

Human pancreatic alpha-amylase (HPA) inhibitors offer an effective strategy to lower postprandial hyperglycemia via control of starch breakdown. Limonoids from Azadirachta indica known for their therapeutic potential were screened for pancreatic alpha-amylase inhibition, a known anti-diabetic target. Studies were carried out to reveal their mode of action so as to justify their hypoglycemic potential. Of the nine limonoids isolated/semi-synthesized from A. indica and screened for alpha-amylase inhibition, azadiradione and exhibited potential inhibition with an IC50 value of 74.17 and 68.38 mu M, respectively against HPA under in vitro conditions. Further screening on AR42J alpha-amylase secretory cell line for cytotoxicity and bioactivity revealed that azadiradione and gedunin exhibited cytotoxicity with IC50 of 11.1 and 13.4 mu M. Maximal secreted alpha-amylase inhibition of 41.8\% and 53.4\% was seen at 3.5 and 3.3 mu M, respectively. Michaelis-Menten kinetics suggested a mixed mode of inhibition with maltopentaose (K-i 42.2, 18.6 mu M) and starch (K-i{\textquoteright} 75.8, 37.4 mu M) as substrate with a stiochiometry of 1: 1 for both azadiradione and gedunin, respectively. The molecular docking simulation indicated plausible p-alkyl and alkyl-alkyl interactions between the aromatic amino acids and inhibitors. Fluorescence and CD confirmed the involvement of tryptophan and tyrosine in ligand binding to HPA. Thermodynamic parameters suggested that binding is enthalpically and entropically driven with Delta G degrees of -21.25 kJ mol(-1) and -21.16 kJ mol(-1) for azadiradione and gedunin, respectively. Thus, the limonoids azadiradione and gedunin could bind and inactivate HPA (anti-diabetic target) and may prove to be lead drug candidates to reduce/control post-prandial hyperglycemia.

}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0140113}, author = {Ponnusamy, Sudha and Haldar, Saikat and Mulani, Fayaj A. and Smita S. Zinjarde and Thulasiram, Hirekodathakallu and RaviKumar, Ameeta} } @article { ISI:000365148500002, title = {Gelation landscape engineering using a multi-reaction supramolecular hydrogelator system}, journal = {Journal of the American Chemical Society}, volume = {137}, number = {45}, year = {2015}, month = {NOV}, pages = {14236-14239}, publisher = {AMER CHEMICAL SOC}, address = {1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA}, abstract = {

Simultaneous control of the kinetics and thermodynamics of two different types of covalent chemistry allows pathway selectivity in the formation of hydrogelating molecules from a complex reaction network. This can lead to a range of hydrogel materials with vastly different properties, starting from a set of simple starting compounds and reaction conditions. Chemical reaction between a trialdehyde and the tuberculosis drug isoniazid can form one, two, or three hydrazone connectivity products, meaning kinetic gelation pathways can be addressed. Simultaneously, thermodynamics control the formation of either a keto or an enol tautomer of the products, again resulting in vastly different materials. Overall, this shows that careful navigation of a reaction landscape using both kinetic and thermodynamic selectivity can be used to control material selection from a complex reaction network.

}, issn = {0002-7863}, doi = {10.1021/jacs.5b06988}, author = {Foster, Jamie S. and Zurek, Justyna M. and Almeida, Nuno M. S. and Hendriksen, Wouter E. and le Sage, Vincent A. A. and Lakshminarayanan, Vasudevan and Thompson, Amber L. and Banerjee, Rahul and Eelkema, Rienk and Mulvana, Helen and Paterson, Martin J. and van Esch, Jan H. and Lloyd, Gareth O.} } @article { ISI:000360409800002, title = {Nonomuraea indica sp nov., novel actinomycetes isolated from lime-stone open pit mine, India}, journal = {Journal of Antibiotics}, volume = {68}, number = {8}, year = {2015}, month = {AUG}, pages = {491-495}, publisher = {JAPAN ANTIBIOTICS RESEARCH ASSOC}, address = {2 20 8 KAMIOSAKI SHINAGAWA KU, TOKYO, 141, JAPAN}, abstract = {

A Gram-positive, aerobic, nonmotile actinomycete strain designated DRQ-2(T) was isolated from the soil sample collected from limestone open pit mine from the Gulbarga region, Karnataka province, India. Strain DRQ-2(T) was identified as a member of the genus Nonomuraea by a polyphasic approach. Strain DRQ-2(T) could be differentiated from other members of the genus Nonomuraea on the basis of physiology and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity of strain DRQ-2(T) showed highest sequence similarity to Nonomuraea muscovyensis DSM 45913(T) (99.1\%), N. salmonea DSM 43678(T) (98.2\%) and N. maheshkhaliensis JCM 13929(T) with 98.0\%, respectively. Chemotaxonomic properties showing predominant menaquinones of MK-9 (H-4), MK-9(H-2) and MK-9(H-6), major polar lipids comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylmono methyl ethanolamine (PME), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), hydroxy-PME (OH-PME), hydroxy PE (OH-PEE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), ninhydrin-positive phosphoglycolipid and unknown phospholipid, fatty acids with major amounts of i-C-16:0, ai-C-15:0 and ai-C-17:0 supported allocation of the strain to the genus Nonomuraea. Results of DNA-DNA hybridization and physiological tests allowed genotypic and phenotypic differentiation of strain DRQ-2(T) from closely related species. The genomic DNA G+C content of the organism was 72.5 mol\%. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotypic and molecular characteristics, strain DRQ-2(T) represents a novel species of the genus Nonomuraea, for which the name N. indica sp. nov. is proposed, with type strain DRQ-2(T) (= NCIM 5480(T) = CCTCC AA 209050(T)).

}, issn = {0021-8820}, doi = {10.1038/ja.2015.24}, author = {Quadri, Syed Raziuddin and Tian, Xin-Peng and Zhang, Jing and Li, Jie and Nie, Guo-Xing and Tang, Shu-Kun and Al Ruwaili, Jamal and Agsar, Dayanand and Li, Wen-Jun and Dastager, Syed Gulam} } @article { ISI:000358337700009, title = {Synthesis, optoelectronic, and transistor properties of BODIPY- and cyclopenta[c]thiophene-containing pi-conjugated copolymers}, journal = {Journal of Physical Chemistry C}, volume = {119}, number = {28}, year = {2015}, month = {JUL}, pages = {15859-15867}, publisher = {AMER CHEMICAL SOC}, address = {1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA}, abstract = {

Three new low-band-gap copolymers were synthesized by fusing dipyrromethene difluoroborane (BODIPY) as the acceptor (A) and thiophene-capped 5,5-bis(hexyloxymethyl)-5,6-dihydro-4H-cyclopenta[c]-thiophene (CPT) as the donor (D). The BODIPY unit was copolymerized through the {\textquoteleft}alpha{\textquoteright} positions (1 and 7 positions) in P1 and through the {\textquoteleft}beta{\textquoteright} positions (2 and 6 positions) in P2 and P3. The additional acetylene unit between D and A in P3 enhanced the conjugation by minimizing the possible steric hindrance compared to that in P2, whereas P1 exhibited a more red-shifted absorption than P2 and P3 because of the more effective conjugaion through the {\textquoteleft}alpha{\textquoteright} positions of BODIPY. Importantly, the optical band gaps (E-g(opt)) obtained from the onset of the absorption spectra are 1.28, 1.71, and 1.57 eV for P1, P2, and P3, respectively. P1 has the lowest band gap for any CPT-containing polymer. In the best transistor devices, a mobility improvement by 4 orders of magnitude from 3.22 x 10(-6) cm(2) V-1 s(-1) for P2 to 0.01 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) for P1 was achieved. DFT calculations alongside measured charge-transport properties indicated that appreciable alterations in the optoelectronic properties of the polymers were achieved through minor changes in their structural features. The polymers were further characterized by thin-film X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and spectroelectrochemistry to investigate their material and electrochemical properties.

}, issn = {1932-7447}, doi = {10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b02743}, author = {Debnath, Sashi and Singh, Saumya and Bedi, Anjan and Krishnamoorthy, Kothandam and Zade, Sanjio S.} } @article { ISI:000378005600001, title = {2016 New talent: crystal engineering at its biggest and strongest}, journal = {Crystengcomm}, volume = {18}, number = {22}, year = {2016}, month = {MAY}, pages = {3963-3967}, publisher = {ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY}, address = {THOMAS GRAHAM HOUSE, SCIENCE PARK, MILTON RD, CAMBRIDGE CB4 0WF, CAMBS, ENGLAND}, issn = {1466-8033}, doi = {10.1039/c6ce90060g}, author = {Banerjee, Rahul and Day, Graeme M. and Friscic, Tomislav and Zhang, Hongjie} } @article { ISI:000372335600061, title = {Actinorectispora indica gen. nov., sp nov isolated from soil, a member of the family pseudonocardiaceae}, journal = {International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology}, volume = {66}, number = {2}, year = {2016}, month = {FEB}, pages = {939-945}, publisher = {SOC GENERAL MICROBIOLOGY}, address = {MARLBOROUGH HOUSE, BASINGSTOKE RD, SPENCERS WOODS, READING RG7 1AG, BERKS, ENGLAND}, abstract = {

The taxonomic positions of three Gram-stain-positive, aerobic strains, designated YIM 75722, 75726 and 75728(T), and isolated from a soil sample collected from Kurnool of Andhra Pradesh province, India, were assessed using a polyphasic approach. Growth was observed at pH 7.0-10.0 (optimum pH 7.0), 15-28 degrees C (optimum 28 degrees C) and 0-8\% (w/v) NaCl (grew without NaCl). Strains showed cylindrical spores with straight-chain morphology on aerial mycelium, but did not reveal sporangium-like structures or fragmentation of the substrate mycelium. Whole-cell hydrolysates of all strains contained galactose and ribose as the diagnostic sugars and meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diamino acid. The predominant menaquinone was MK-9(H-4); MK-9 (H-6) and MK-10 (H-4) were present in smaller amounts. The phospholipid pattern consisted mainly of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine. The major fatty acids were i-C-15: 0, ai-C-15: 0, i-C-17 : 0 and ai-C-17 : 0. The genomic DNA G+C content was 68.0 mol\%. Phylogenetic analysis, based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, revealed that strain YIM 75728(T) should be placed within the family Pseudonocardiaceae, in which the strain formed a distinct lineage. The combination of phylogenetic analysis, phenotypic characteristics and chemotaxonomic data support the conclusion that strain YIM 75728(T) represents a novel species of a novel genus of the family Pseudonocardiaceae for which the name Actinorectispora indica gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed. Strain YIM 75728(T) (=DSM 45410(T)=CCTCC AA 209065(T)) is the type strain of Actinorectispora indica. Strain YIM 75728(T) was considered as the type strain over the other two strains based on the highest sequence read length of the strain.

}, issn = {1466-5026}, doi = {10.1099/ijsem.0.000814}, author = {Quadri, Syed Raziuddin and Tian, Xin-Peng and Zhang, Jing and Al Ruwaili, Jamal and Hozzein, Wael N. and Agsar, Dayanand and Li, Wen-Jun and Dastager, Syed Gulam} } @article { ISI:000378741200010, title = {Fusarium oxysporum mediates systems metabolic reprogramming of chickpea roots as revealed by a combination of proteomics and metabolomics}, journal = {Plant Biotechnology Journal}, volume = {14}, number = {7}, year = {2016}, month = {JUL}, pages = {1589-1603}, publisher = {WILEY-BLACKWELL}, address = {111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA}, abstract = {

Molecular changes elicited by plants in response to fungal attack and how this affects plant-pathogen interaction, including susceptibility or resistance, remain elusive. We studied the dynamics in root metabolism during compatible and incompatible interactions between chickpea and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri (Foc), using quantitative label-free proteomics and NMR-based metabolomics. Results demonstrated differential expression of proteins and metabolites upon Foc inoculations in the resistant plants compared with the susceptible ones. Additionally, expression analysis of candidate genes supported the proteomic and metabolic variations in the chickpea roots upon Foc inoculation. In particular, we found that the resistant plants revealed significant increase in the carbon and nitrogen metabolism; generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), lignification and phytoalexins. The levels of some of the pathogenesis-related proteins were significantly higher upon Foc inoculation in the resistant plant. Interestingly, results also exhibited the crucial role of altered Yang cycle, which contributed in different methylation reactions and unfolded protein response in the chickpea roots against Foc. Overall, the observed modulations in the metabolic flux as outcome of several orchestrated molecular events are determinant of plant{\textquoteright}s role in chickpea-Foc interactions.

}, keywords = {Chickpea, fusarium oxysporum, Metabolomics, NMR, plant-pathogen interaction, proteomics}, issn = {1467-7644}, doi = {10.1111/pbi.12522}, author = {Kumar, Yashwant and Zhang, Limin and Panigrahi, Priyabrata and Dholakia, Bhushan B. and Dewangan, Veena and Chavan, Sachin G. and Kunjir, Shrikant M. and Wu, Xiangyu and Li, Ning and Rajmohanan, Pattuparambil R. and Kadoo, Narendra Y. and Giri, Ashok P. and Tang, Huiru and Gupta, Vidya S.} } @article { ISI:000368563000102, title = {Hybrid perovskite quantum nanostructures synthesized by electrospray antisolvent-solvent extraction and intercalation}, journal = {ACS Applied Materials \& Interfaces}, volume = {8}, number = {1}, year = {2016}, month = {JAN}, pages = {854-861}, publisher = {AMER CHEMICAL SOC}, address = {1155 16TH ST, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20036 USA}, abstract = {

Perovskites based on organometal lead halides have attracted great deal of scientific attention recently in the context of solar cells and optoelectronic devices due to their unique and tunable electronic and optical properties. Herein, we show that the use of electrospray technique in conjunction with the antisolventsolvent extraction leads to novel low-dimensional quantum structures (especially 2-D nanosheets) of CH3NH3PbI3- and CH3NH3PbBr3-based layered perovskites with unusual luminescence properties. We also show that the optical bandgaps and emission characteristics of these colloidal nanomaterials can be tuned over a broad range of visible spectral region by compositional tailoring of mixed-halide (I- and Br-based) perovskites.

}, keywords = {2D nanostructure systems, antisolvent-solvent extraction, bandgap tuning, electrospray, nanosheets, perovskite, quantum dots}, issn = {1944-8244}, doi = {10.1021/acsami.5b10208}, author = {Naphade, Rounak and Nagane, Satyawan and Shanker, G. Shiva and Fernandes, Rohan and Kothari, Dushyant and Zhou, Yuanyuan and Padture, Nitin P. and Ogale, Satishchandra} } @article { ISI:000372676800002, title = {Isolates of alpinia officinarum hance as COX-2 inhibitors: evidence from anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and molecular docking studies}, journal = {International Immunopharmacology}, volume = {33}, year = {2016}, month = {APR}, pages = {8-17}, publisher = {ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV}, address = {PO BOX 211, 1000 AE AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

Background: Inflammation triggered by oxidative stress can cause various ailments, such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, diabetes etc. In the last few years, there has been a renewed interest in studying the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action of plant constituents such as flavonoids and diarylheptanoids. Aim: To evaluate the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory activity and the total phenolic content of isolated compounds from Alpinia officinarum rhizomes. Furthermore, molecular docking was performed to study the binding mode of these compounds into the active site of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX -2). Methods: A. officinarum rhizomes were extracted by maceration, using methanol. This extract was further fractionated by partitioning with hexane, chloroform and ethyl acetate and these fractions on further purification resulted in isolation of five pure compounds. Characterization was carried out by using H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR and MS. They were further evaluated for antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity using carrageenan-induced paw edema model in rats. Molecular docking study was performed using Glide module integrated in Schrodinger molecular modeling software. Results: The compounds were identified as 1,7-diphenylhept-4-en-3-one (1), 5-hydroxy-1,7-diphenyl-3-heptanone (2), 3,5,7-trihydroxyflavone (Galangin, 3), 3,5,7-trihydroxy-4{\textquoteright}-methoxyflavone (Kaempferide, 4) and 5-hydroxy-7-(4 {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteright}-hydroxy-3 {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteright}-methoxyphenyl)-1-phenyl-3-heptanone (5). The compound-3 and compound-5 (10 mg/kg) showed significant (p \< 0.001) antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential. Moreover, total phenolic content was detected as 72.96 mg and 51.18 mg gallic acid equivalent respectively. All the five isolates were found to be good binders with COX-2 (average docking score -9.03). Conclusions: Galangin and 5-hydroxy-7-(4 {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteright}-hydroxy-3 {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteright}-methoxyphenyl)-1-phenyl-3-heptanone exhibited anti-inflammatory and in-vitro antioxidant activity which may be due to presence of phenolic content in it. The molecular docking study revealed that these compounds have affinity towards COX-2 active site which can further be explored as selective COX-2 inhibitors. The results obtained in this work justify the use of A. officinarum in the treatment of inflammatory disorders like rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

}, keywords = {5-Hydroxy-7-(4 {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteright}-hydroxy-3 {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteright}-methoxyphenyl)-1-phenyl-3-heptanone, Alpinia officinarum, Anti-inflammatory, Antioxidant, COX-2 inhibitors, Galangin}, issn = {1567-5769}, doi = {10.1016/j.intimp.2016.01.024}, author = {Honmore, Varsha S. and Kandhare, Amit D. and Kadam, Parag P. and Khedkar, Vijay M. and Sarkar, Dhiman and Bodhankar, Subhash L. and Zanwar, Anand A. and Rojatkar, Supada R. and Natu, Arun D.} } @article {43592, title = {Role of aliasing and interacting factors in the enhanced production of dehalogenase from Yarrowia lipolytica for degradation of brominated compounds}, journal = {Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry}, volume = {41}, year = {2016}, month = {SEP}, pages = {114-121}, abstract = {Use of persistent organobromines for industrial applications has led to their accumulation in environment. Yarrowia lipolytica NCIM 3589, a tropical marine yeast, degrades and detoxifies bromocompounds by an initial hydrolytic step. By optimizing culture conditions with 1-bromodecane as reference compound, the dehalogenase involved was remarkably enhanced 13-fold (384.13 U/ml) by a hybrid statistical Plackett-Burman and Box-Behnken design of experiments. Studies bring out in a novel way the role of aliasing and other masked interactions in growth media factors. Importantly, the enzyme acted on C3-C16 bromoalkanes and bromoaromatics, thereby generalizing the {\textquoteright}green chemistry{\textquoteright} applicability of optimized media formulation for biotechnological applications. (C) 2016 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}, doi = {10.1016/j.jiec.2016.07.015}, author = {Vatsal, Aakanksha and Potdar, Chirag and Smita S. Zinjarde and Kumar, V. Ravi and Kulkarni, Bhasker D. and RaviKumar, Ameeta} } @article {43609, title = {Selenium-containing fused bicyclic heterocycle diselenolodiselenole: field effect transistorstudy and structure property relationship}, journal = {ACS Applied Materials \& Interfaces}, volume = {8}, year = {2016}, month = {JUL}, pages = {18222-18230}, abstract = {The first application of the diselenolodiselenole (C4Se4) heterocycle as an active organic field effect transistor materials is demonstrated here. C4Se4 derivatives (2a-2d) were obtained by using a newly developed straightforward diselenocyclization protocol, which includes the reaction of diynes with selenium powder at elevated temperature. C4Se4 derivatives exhibit strong donor characteristics and planar structure (except 2d). The atomic force microscopic analysis and thin-film X-ray diffraction pattern of compounds 2a-2d indicated the formation of distinct crystalline films that contain large domains. A scanning electron microscopy study of compound 2b showed development of symmetrical grains with an average diameter of 150 nm. Interestingly, 2b exhibited superior hole mobility, approaching 0.027 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) with a transconductance of 9.2 mu S. This study correlate the effect of p-stacking, Se center dot center dot center dot Se intermolecular interaction, and planarity with the charge transport properties and performance in the field effect transistor devices. We have shown that the planarity in C4Se4 derivatives was achieved by varying the end groups attached to the C4Se4 core. In turn, optoelectronic properties can also be tuned for all these derivatives by end-group variation.}, doi = {10.1021/acsami.6b02154}, author = {Debnath, Sashi and Chithiravel, Sundaresan and Sharma, Sagar and Bedi, Anjan and Krishnamoorthy, Kothandam and Zade, Sanjio S.} } @article { ISI:000380038000012, title = {Site-selective synthesis and characterization of BODIPY-acetylene copolymers and their transistor properties}, journal = {Journal of Polymer Science Part A-Polymer Chemistry}, volume = {54}, number = {13}, year = {2016}, month = {JUL}, pages = {1978-1986}, publisher = {WILEY-BLACKWELL}, address = {111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA}, abstract = {

To study the effect of site-selective copolymerization of borondipyrromethene (BODIPY) with acetylene on the structural and optoelectronic properties, three copolymers P1-P3 were synthesized by the Sonogashira cross-coupling of BODIPY units with diacetylene and bromine capping through all the possible linkages: alpha-alpha (P1), alpha-beta (P2), and beta-beta (P3). The optoelectronic properties of the polymers were investigated systematically to understand the effect of site-selective polymerization. The HOMO levels of the polymers were significantly tuned from P1 to P3 with negligible change in the LUMO levels. Broadening of absorption spectra from P3 to P1 was observed because of increase in the extent of conjugation. Additionally, the charge transport properties of these polymers in organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) revealed that P1 and P3 exhibited only p-type mobility, whereas P2 exhibited electron mobility. Notably, the further investigations of the surface morphology of polymer films by atomic force microscopy (AFM) unveiled that comb like nanostructural arrangements in P3 was beneficial for the charge-carrier mobility over the circular arrangements in P1 and P2. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

}, keywords = {acetylene, BODIPY, DFT, low-band gap}, issn = {0887-624X}, doi = {10.1002/pola.28064}, author = {Debnath, Sashi and Singh, Saumya and Bedi, Anjan and Krishnamoorthy, Kothandam and Zade, Sanjio S.} } @article { ISI:000370135100007, title = {Streptomyces lonarensis sp nov., isolated from lonar lake, a meteorite salt water lake in India}, journal = {Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek International Journal of General and Molecular Microbiology}, volume = {109}, number = {2}, year = {2016}, month = {FEB}, pages = {225-235}, publisher = {SPRINGER}, address = {VAN GODEWIJCKSTRAAT 30, 3311 GZ DORDRECHT, NETHERLANDS}, abstract = {

A novel alkaliphilic actinomycete, strain NCL716(T), was isolated from a soil sample collected from the vicinity of Lonar Lake, an alkaline salt water meteorite lake in Buldhana district of Maharashtra State in India. The strain was characterised using a polyphasic taxonomic approach which confirmed that it belongs to the genus Streptomyces. Growth was observed over a pH range of 7-11 at 28 A degrees C. The cell wall was found to contain ll-diaminopimelic acid and traces of meso-diaminopimelic acid. The major fatty acid components were identified as iso-C-16:0 (46.8 \%), C-17:1 (12.4 \%), anteiso-C-15:0 (5.1 \%) and anteiso-C-17:1 (4.8 \%). The major polar lipids were identified as diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylinositol. The major menaquinones were determined to be MK-9 (H-6) (70.3 \%), MK-9 (H-4) (15.5 \%) and MK-9 (H-8) (7.2 \%). The G+C content of the DNA of the type strain was determined to be 71.4 mol \%. The 16S rRNA gene sequence has been deposited in GenBank with accession number FJ919811. Although the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed that strain NCL716(T) shares \> 99 \% similarity with that of Streptomyces bohaiensis strain 11A07(T), DNA-DNA hybridization revealed only 33.2 +/- A 3.0 \% relatedness between them. Moreover, these two strains can be readily distinguished by some distinct phenotypic characteristics. Hence, on the basis of phenotypic and genetic analyses, it is proposed that strain NCL716(T) represents a novel species of the genus Streptomyces, for which the name Streptomyces lonarensis sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is NCL 716(T) (=DSM 42084(T) = MTCC 11708(T) = KCTC 39684(T)).

}, keywords = {Alkaliphile, DDH analysis, Polyphasic taxonomy, Streptomyces lonarensis sp nov.}, issn = {0003-6072}, doi = {10.1007/s10482-015-0626-9}, author = {Sharma, Trupti K. and Mawlankar, Rahul R. and Sonalkar, Vidya V. and Shinde, Vidhya K. and Zhan, Jing and Li, Wen-Jun and Rele, Meenakshi V. and Dastager, Syed Gulam and Kumar, Lalitha Sunil} } @article {43801, title = {4-Phenyl quinoline derivatives as potential serotonin receptor ligands with antiproliferative activity}, journal = {European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry}, volume = {136}, year = {2017}, month = {AUG}, pages = {246-258}, type = {Article}, abstract = {Antagonists of signaling receptors are often effective non-toxic therapeutic agents. Over the years, there have been evidences describing the role of serotonin or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in development of cancer. Although there are reports on the antiproliferative effects of some serotonin receptor antagonists, there are very few investigations related to understanding their structure-activity relationships. In this study, we report the screening of a library of 4-phenyl quinoline derivatives for their antiproliferative activities. Preliminary docking studies indicated that these ligands had the ability to bind to two of the serotonin. receptors, 5-HT1B and 5-HT2B. The results of the in silico experiments were validated by performing in vitro studies on MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. The ethylpiperazine derivatives showed maximum toxicity against this cancer cell line. The compounds inhibited Calcium ion efflux (induced by serotonin) and ERK activation. One of the most active 4-phenyl quinoline derivatives (H3a) also induced apoptosis, thereby, suggesting the use of this scaffold as a potential anticancer drug. (C) 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.}, doi = {10.1016/j.ejmech.2017.05.002}, author = {Joshi, Pranaya V. and Sayed, Alim A. and RaviKumar, Ameeta and Puranik, Vedavati G. and Zinjarde, Smita S.} } @article {43978, title = {Biosurfactant surfactin as a kinetic promoter for methane hydrate formation}, journal = {Energy Procedia}, volume = {105}, year = {2017}, month = {MAY}, pages = {5011-5017}, type = {Article}, abstract = {In the present study, the effect of the biosurfactant Surfactin on methane hydrate formation kinetics was studied. Initially, several marine derived species were screened for the presence of Surfactin. The polymerase chain reaction technique was used as the preliminary screening step for Surfactin which was then followed up by a couple of different assays to provide conclusive evidence of the same. Based on these tests, the D-9 bacterial strain was identified as a producer of Surfactin. Once the presence of Surfactin had been proven, its effect on methane hydrate formation kinetics was investigated upon by carrying out hydrate formation experiments in a stirred tank reactor. The cell free supernatant containing Surfactin was itself used as the hydrate forming solution without any further processing. It was found that the presence of Surfactin in the system greatly enhances hydrate formation kinetics as compared to pure water. In fact the kinetics in presence of Surfactin also surpassed that obtained with 1 wt\% SDS, the most commonly used synthetic kinetic hydrate promoter. This basic study can pave the way for more sophisticated research on the use of biosurfactants as kinetic promoters with a view on rapid methane hydrate formation kinetics for applications such as methane separation, storage and transport.}, doi = {10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1050}, author = {Bhattacharjee, Gaurav and Barmecha, Vivek and Pradhan, Darshan and Naik, Rajesh and Zare, Kirti and Mawlankar, Rahul R. and Dastager, Syed Gulam and Kushwaha, Omkar Singh and Kumar, Rajnish} } @article {45724, title = {Environmentally benign bioderived carbon microspheres-supported molybdena nanoparticles as catalyst for the epoxidation reaction}, journal = {ACS Sustainable Chemistry \& Engineering}, volume = {5}, year = {2017}, month = {JAN}, pages = {904-910}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

A one pot synthesis of molybdenum oxide nanoparticles (NPs supported on bioderived carbon microspheres is reported. The catalyst was synthesized by the low temperature hydrothermal (LTH) method using D-glucose and bagasse as the carbon source. The carbonization of bagasse resulted in the formation of nonuniform carbon microspheres while glucose resulted in uniform carbon spheres. SEM and STEM elemental mapping show the uniform distribution of molybdenum oxide NPs over the carbon microspheres. XPS spectroscopy confirmed that molybdenum was in the Mo6+ oxidation state. The 1\% MoO3 supported on carbon microspheres derived from D-glucose showed excellent catalytic activity up to 100\% olefin conversion with 100\% epoxide selectivity using organic tent-butyl hydroperoxide as an oxidant. The catalyst was successfully used for up to five cycles without losing substantial activity and selectivity.

}, keywords = {Carbon microspheres, epoxidation, heterogeneous catalysis, Hydrothermal synthesis, TBHP}, issn = {2168-0485}, doi = {10.1021/acssuschemeng.6b02229}, author = {Doke, Dhananjay S. and Umbarkar, Shubhangi B. and Gawande, Manoj B. and Zbori, Radek and Biradar, Ankush V.} } @article {43959, title = {Gold nanoconjugates reinforce the potency of conjugated cisplatin and doxorubicin}, journal = {Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces}, volume = {160}, year = {2017}, month = {DEC}, pages = {254-264}, type = {Journal Article}, abstract = {Osteosarcoma or osteogenic sarcoma is the most common and prevalent cancerous tumor of bone and occurs especially in children and teens. Recent treatment strategy includes a combination of both chemotherapy and surgeries. Although, the use of single drug-based chemotherapy treatment remains unsatisfactory. Therefore, combinatorial therapy has emerged as a potential strategy for treatment with limited side- effects. Here, we evaluated the combinatorial anticancerous effect of cisplatin (CIS) and doxorubicin (DOX) bioconjugated bromelain encapsulated gold nanoparticles (B-AuNPs conjugated CIS and DOX) in the treatment of osteosarcoma. The synthesized B-AuNPs conjugated CIS and DOX were characterized by various characterization techniques like UV{\textendash}vis spectroscopy, TEM, DLS and zeta potential to ensure the synthesis, size, shape, size distribution and stability. Drug loading efficiency bioconjugation of CIS and DOX was ensured by UV{\textendash}vis spectroscopy. Bioconjugation of CIS and DOX was further confirmed using UV{\textendash}vis spectroscopy, TEM, DLS, Zeta potential and FT-IR analysis. The combinatorial effect of CIS and DOX in B-AuNPs conjugated CIS and DOX showed highly improved potency against MG-63 and Saos-2 cells at a very low concentration where primary osteoblasts didn{\textquoteright}t show any cytotoxic effect. The apoptotic effect of B-AuNPs conjugated CIS and DOX on osteosarcoma and primary osteoblasts cells were analyzed by increased permeability of the cell membrane, condensed chromatin and deep blue fluorescent condensed nucleus. The results clearly showed that B-AuNPs conjugated CIS and DOX significantly improved the potency of both the chemotherapeutic drugs by delivering them specifically into the nucleus of cancer cells through caveolae-dependent endocytosis. Thus, the greater inhibitory effect of combinatorial drugs (B-AuNPs conjugated CIS and DOX) over single drug based chemotherapy would be of great advantage during osteosarcoma treatment. }, keywords = {cells, chemotherapy, Cytology, Cytotoxicity, Drug interactions, dynamic light scattering, Gold, Molecular Biology, Platinum Compounds}, doi = {10.1016/j.colsurfb.2017.09.017}, author = {Iram, S.}, editor = {Zahera, M.} } @article {43988, title = {High quality hybrid perovskite semiconductor thin films with remarkably enhanced luminescence and defect suppression via quaternary alkyl ammonium salt based treatment}, journal = {Advanced Materials Interfaces}, year = {2017}, month = {JUL}, type = {Article}, abstract = {Significant enhancement in the luminescence and superior photophysical properties of CH3NH3PbBr3 thin films prepared via simple single step spin coating process involving a novel additive mediated solvent extraction step is reported. This process results in significantly lower disorder in CH3NH3PbBr3 perovskites with Urbach energies reducing from ≈35 to ≈17 meV, which is the lowest reported value to date. The additive mediated process also results in a remarkable improvement in the photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) from 1\% to 30\%. Coupled with the overall increase in surface roughness, a significant increase in the internal PLQY from 7\% to 77\% is estimated, indicating the superior quality of the treated thin films. The resultant high quality CH3NH3PbBr3 perovskites with remarkable photophysical properties can be used in realizing highly efficient optoelectronic devices. Highly efficient light emitting diodes using these perovskites are demonstrated here.}, doi = {10.1002/admi.201700562}, author = {Naphade, Rounak A. and Zhao, Baodan and Richter, Johannes M. and Booker, Edward and Krishnamurthy, Shrreya and Friend, Richard H. and Sadhanala, Aditya and Ogale, Satishchandra B.} } @article {43974, title = {Stimulation of d - and l -lactate dehydrogenases transcriptional levels in presence of diammonium hydrogen phosphate resulting to enhanced lactic acid production by Lactobacillus strain}, journal = {Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering}, volume = {17}, year = {2017}, month = {AUG}, pages = {1389-1723}, type = {Article}, abstract = {The present study revealed the effect of nitrogen sources on lactic acid production and stimulation of d- and l-lactate dehydrogenases (LDH) of parent Lactobacillus lactis NCIM 2368 and its mutant RM2-24 generated after UV mutagenesis. Both the parent and mutant strains were evaluated for d-lactic acid production in control and modified media. The modified media did not show remarkable effect on lactic acid production in case of parent whereas mutant exhibited significant enhancement in d-lactic acid production along with the appearance of l-lactic acid in the broth. Both LDH activities and specific activities were found to be higher in mutant than the parent strain. These results suggested that the diammonium hydrogen phosphate in modified media triggered the expression of LDH genes leading to enhanced lactic acid production. This observation has been proved by studying the expression levels of d- and l-LDH genes of parent and mutant in control and modified media using quantitative RT-PCR technique. In case of mutant, the transcriptional levels of d-LDH and l-LDH increased \~{}17 fold and \~{}1.38 fold respectively in modified medium compared to the values obtained with control medium. In case of parent, no significant change in transcriptional levels of d- and l-LDH was found when the cells were grown in either control medium or modified medium. This study suggested that the mutant, RM2-24 has l-LDH gene which is expressed in presence of (NH4)2HPO4 resulting in l-lactic acid production. Co-production of l-lactic acid in d-lactic acid fermentation may be detrimental in the PLA production.}, doi = {10.1016/j.jbiosc.2017.07.009}, author = {Singhvi, Mamata S. and Zendo, Takeshi and Iida, Hiroshi and Gokhale, Digambar V. and Sonomoto, Kenji} } @article {45377, title = { Balancing antimicrobial performance with hemocompatibility in amphiphilic homopolymers}, journal = {Journal of Polymer Science Part A- Polymer Chemistry}, volume = {56}, year = {2018}, month = {NOV}, pages = {2391-2396}, type = {Article}, abstract = {This work establishes amphiphilic polymethacrylates as new antimicrobial candidates that can be synthesized through a combination of controlled free radical polymerization and sequential postpolymerization modification protocols. When conjugated with a polyethylene glycol segment, the block copolymers exhibit a balanced performance between high antibacterial activity and high hemocompatibility.}, issn = { 0887-624X}, doi = { 10.1002/pola.29213}, author = {Zhu, Zhiyuan and Jeong, Gookyeong and Kim, Seung-Jin and Gadwal, Ikhlas and Choe, Youngson and Bang, Joona and Oh, Min-Kyu and Khan, Anzar and Rao, Jingyi} } @article {45430, title = {CSGID solves structures and identifies phenotypes for five enzymes in toxoplasma gondii}, journal = {Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology}, volume = {8}, year = {2018}, month = {OCT}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Toxoplasma gondii, an Apicomplexan parasite, causes significant morbidity and mortality, including severe disease in immunocompromised hosts and devastating congenital disease, with no effective treatment for the bradyzoite stage. To address this, we used the Tropical Disease Research database, crystallography, molecular modeling, and antisense to identify and characterize a range of potential therapeutic targets for toxoplasmosis. Phosphoglycerate mutase II (PGMII), nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDK), ribulose phosphate 3-epimerase (RPE), ribose-5-phosphate isomerase (RPI), and ornithine aminotransferase (OAT) were structurally characterized. Crystallography revealed insights into the overall structure, protein oligomeric states and molecular details of active sites important for ligand recognition. Literature and molecular modeling suggested potential inhibitors and druggability. The targets were further studied with vivoPMO to interrupt enzyme synthesis, identifying the targets as potentially important to parasitic replication and, therefore, of therapeutic interest. Targeted vivoPMO resulted in statistically significant perturbation of parasite replication without concomitant host cell toxicity, consistent with a previous CRISPR/Cas9 screen showing PGM, RPE, and RPI contribute to parasite fitness. PGM, RPE, and RPI have the greatest promise for affecting replication in tachyzoites. These targets are shared between other medically important parasites and may have wider therapeutic potential.

}, issn = { 2235-2988}, doi = {10.3389/fcimb.2018.00352}, author = {Lykins, Joseph D. and Filippova, Ekaterina V and Halavaty, Andrei S. and Minasov, George and Zhou, Ying and Dubrovska, Ievgeniia and Flores, Kristin J. and Shuvalova, Ludmilla A. and Ruan, Jiapeng and El Bissati, Kamal and Dovgin, Sarah and Roberts, Craig W. and Woods, Stuart and Moulton, Jon D. and Moulton, Hong and Mcphillie, Martin J. and Muench, Stephen P. and Fishwick, Colin W. G. and Sabini, Elisabetta and Shanmugam, Dhanasekaran and Roos, David S. and Mcleod, Rima and Anderson, Wayne F. and Ngo, Huan M.} } @article {44200, title = {Electrospinning of non-ionic cellulose ethers/polyvinyl alcohol nanofibers: characterization and applications}, journal = {Carbohydrate Polymers}, volume = {181}, year = {2018}, month = {FEB }, pages = {175-182}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

The morphology of spin-coated films and electrospun fibers of ethyl hydroxy ethyl cellulose (EHEC), hydrophobically modified ethyl hydroxy ethyl cellulose (HM-EHEC) and their blends with Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was examined by AFM, SEM and contact angle measurements. These polysaccharides upon blending with PVA exhibited smooth surface which was evidenced by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) observation. The electrospinnability of above polysaccharides with PVA was demonstrated for the first time. The oriented fibers could be obtained using a rotating disc collector. Contact angles of spin-coated films and electrospun fibers were discussed in terms of hydrophobicity and wetting characteristics. Further, The nanofibers of EHEC/PVA were in-situ crosslinked using citric acid and were used for controlled release of an antibacterial drug, Chlorhexidine Digluconate (ChD). In-vitro studies of cytotoxicity, cell growth and cell proliferation were performed using L929 mouse fibroblast cells. These nanofiber mats show potential in drug delivery and as scaffolds in tissue engineering applications.

}, keywords = {cellulose, drug delivery, electrospinning, Ethyl hydroxy ethyl cellulose, Hydrophobically modified ethyl hydroxy ethyl, scaffold, Spin coating}, issn = {0144-8617}, doi = {10.1016/j.carbpol.2017.10.070}, author = {Wali, Ashwini and Zhang, Yucheng and Sengupta, Poulomi and Higaki, Yuji and Takahara, Atsushi and Badiger, Manohar V.} } @article {45419, title = { Enhanced selectivity of 3-D ordered macroporous Pt/Al2O3 catalysts in nitrites removal from water}, journal = {Applied Catalysis A-General}, volume = {564}, year = {2018}, month = {AUG}, pages = {26-32}, type = {Article}, abstract = {Tailored macroporous mesoporous alumina supports have been successfully prepared using a single hard templating approach. Pt nanoparticles, showing similar physico-chemical properties, were homogeneously dispersed throughout the different alumina frameworks as catalytic active phase for drinking water treatment. We demonstrated that careful modification of pore properties of the catalyst (size and connectivity) by pseudomorphic transformation can strongly modulate the reaction rate and selectivity through the limited access to Pt active sites within the alumina porous particles. Specifically, 3-D Ordered Macroporous Pt-Al2O3 catalysts with a high degree of interconnectivity yield to superior catalytic properties (enhanced activity and selectivity) over pure mesoporous counterparts in the hydrogenation of nitrites in water. We found that large pores (240 nm) interconnected with windows (110 nm) alleviate mass transfer limitations and clearly improve NZ selectivity. The findings of this study further suggest the possibility of engineering the pore architecture of the support to fine tune the selectivity for a particular reaction rather than investigating more on tuning the properties of the costly active metallic phase.}, doi = {10.1016/j.apcata.2018.07.014}, author = {Sekhar, A. C. Sunil and Zaki, A. and Troncea, S. and Casale, S. and Vinod, C. P. and Dacquin, J. P. and Granger, P.} } @article {44490, title = {Greener L-lactic acid production through in situ extractive fermentation by an acid-tolerant Lactobacillus strain}, journal = {Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology}, year = {2018}, month = {MAY}, abstract = {Lactic acid (LA) fermentation requires a neutralizer for a physiologically acceptable range. However, a neutralizer generates a large amount of gypsum, an environmental pollutant. Furthermore, the downstream processing is complicated and expensive, comprising 50{\textendash}70\% of the total cost. We previously developed a Lactobacillus delbrueckii FM1, which can produce undissociated LA without neutralizer. Here, we improved FM1 by adaptive evolution at pH 4.5, which generated Adp FM1 showing an ~ 1.80-fold increase in LA production compared to FM1. The LA production via fed-batch fermentation yielded 36.2 g/L of LA, with a productivity of 0.500 g/L/h. However, cell viability was reduced due to the acidic pH and/or end-product inhibition. Therefore, an in situ LA recovery process using an extractive solvent was employed to maintain cell viability. Adp FM1 produced 49.2 g/L of LA via in situ LA-extractive fed-batch fermentation, which was ~ 1.4-fold higher than that without LA extraction. Adp FM1 provided a total LA productivity of 0.512 g/L/h in 96 h. Among the tested strains, Adp FM1 exhibited the highest H$^{+}$-ATPase activity and a 415-fold increase in H$^{+}$-ATPase gene expression compared to the parent strain. These results suggest that the in situ LA extractive fermentation process will ease downstream processing and prove to be a more economical and environmentally friendly option compared to the present fermentation. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the production of undissociated L-LA by Lactobacillus using an in situ recovery process, with high LA production levels and productivity.}, doi = {10.1007/s00253-018-9084-4}, author = {Singhvi, Mamata S. and Zendo, Takeshi and Gokhale, Digambar and Sonomoto, Kenji} } @article {45472, title = {Limonene inhibits Candida albicans growth by inducing apoptosis}, journal = {Medical Mycology}, volume = {56}, year = {2018}, month = {JUL}, pages = { 565-578}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Anti-Candida potential of limonene was evaluated against planktonic growth, biofilm (adhesion, development and maturation) and morphogenesis of Candida albicans in this study. Limonene is a major constituent of citrus oil and most frequently used terpene in food and beverage industry due to its pleasant fragrance, nontoxic, and is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) flavoring agent as well as treatment option in many gastrointestinal diseases. Limonene exhibited excellent anti-Candida activity and was equally effective against planktonic growth of C. albicans isolates differentially susceptible to FLC (N = 35). Limonene inhibited morphogenesis significantly at low concentration. However, it showed stage dependent activity against biofilm formation, that is, it was more effective against adhesion followed by development and maturation. Limonene also exhibited excellent synergy with FLC against planktonic and biofilm growth. SWATH-MS analysis led to identification of limonene responsive proteins that provided molecular insight of its anti-Candida activity. Proteomic analysis revealed upregulation of proteins involved in cell wall glucan synthesis (Kre6); oxidative stress (Rhr2, Adh7 and Ebp1); DNA damage stress (Mbf1 and Npl3); nucleolar stress (Rpl11, Rpl7, Rpl29, Rpl15) and down regulation of cytoskeleton organization (Crn1, Pin3, Cct8, Rbl2), and so forth, in response to limonene. Limonene mediated down regulation of Tps3 indicates activation of caspase (CaMca1) and induction of apoptosis in C. albicans. These results suggest that limonene inhibits C. albicans growth by cell wall/membrane damage induced oxidative stress that leads to DNA damage resulting into modulation of cell cycle and induction of apoptosis through nucleolar stress and metacaspase dependent pathway.

}, issn = {1369-3786}, doi = {10.1093/mmy/myx074}, author = {Thakre, Archana and Zore, Gajanan and Kodgire, Santosh and Kazi, Rubina and Mulange, Shradha and Patil, Rajendra and Shelar, Amruta and Santhakumari, Bayitigeri and Kulkarni, Mahesh J. and Kharat, Kiran and Karuppayil, Sankunny Mohan} } @article {45440, title = {Ni-Catalyzed dimerization and hydroperfluoroarylation of 1,3-dienes}, journal = {Journal of Organic Chemistry}, volume = { 83 }, year = {2018}, month = {AUG}, pages = {9267-9277}, type = {Article}, doi = {10.1021/acs.joc.8b01266}, author = {Iwasaki, Takanori and Min, Xin and Fukuoka, Asuka and Zhu, Longzhi and Qiu, Renhua and Yang, Tao and Ehara, Masahiro and Sudalai, Arumugam and Kambe, Nobuaki} } @article {44228, title = {Optimization of the in situ transesterification step for biodiesel production using biomass of Yarrowia lipolytica NCIM 3589 grown on waste cooking oil}, journal = {Energy}, volume = {142}, year = {2018}, month = {JAN }, pages = {944-952}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

The in situ (one-step) acid-catalyzed transesterification step for conversion to biodiesel of biomass from oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica grown on waste cooking oil (WCO) is studied. The process yield of biodiesel was optimized by investigating effects of various parameters, namely, biomass, methanol, chloroform, catalyst, temperature, time and sonication. A Plackett-Burman statistical design of experiments revealed that biomass is the most significant factor influencing biodiesel (FAME, fatty acid methyl ester) production. Subsequently, a one variable design (OVD) of experiments for increased biomass loadings showed higher yields of FAME with no additional requirement of reactants, solvents or special equipment. The biomass grown on WCO had a lipid productivity of 0.042 g L-1 h(-1) and 4 g of this loading gave a high FAME yield of 0.88 gin 8 hat 50 degrees C with methanol: chloroform (10:1) and acid catalyst (0.2 M H2SO4,1.0 ml g(-1)). The FAME profile had desirable amounts of saturated (32.81\%), monounsaturated (36.41\%), polyunsaturated (30.59\%) methyl esters. The predicted and experimentally determined physico-chemical properties of FAME were found in accordance with specified international standards. Thus, the direct one-pot in situ transesterification reaction using Y. lipolytica biomass grown on WCO provides a high yield of biodiesel with potential applicability while simultaneously addressing the management of this pollutant. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

}, keywords = {Biodiesel, FAME, In situ transesterification, One -step, Waste cooking oil, Yarrowia lipolytica}, issn = {0360-5442}, doi = {10.1016/j.energy.2017.10.082}, author = {Katre, Gouri and Raskar, Shubham and Zinjarde, Smita and Kumar, V. Ravi and Kulkarni, B. D. and RaviKumar, Ameeta} } @article {44643, title = {Repeated photoporation with graphene quantum dots enables homogeneous labeling of live cells with extrinsic markers for fluorescence microscopy}, journal = {Light-Science \& Applications}, volume = {7}, year = {2018}, month = {AUG}, pages = {47}, abstract = {

In the replacement of genetic probes, there is increasing interest in labeling living cells with high-quality extrinsic labels, which avoid over-expression artifacts and are available in a wide spectral range. This calls for a broadly applicable technology that can deliver such labels unambiguously to the cytosol of living cells. Here, we demonstrate that nanoparticle-sensitized photoporation can be used to this end as an emerging intracellular delivery technique. We replace the traditionally used gold nanoparticles with graphene nanoparticles as photothermal sensitizers to permeabilize the cell membrane upon laser irradiation. We demonstrate that the enhanced thermal stability of graphene quantum dots allows the formation of multiple vapor nanobubbles upon irradiation with short laser pulses, allowing the delivery of a variety of extrinsic cell labels efficiently and homogeneously into live cells. We demonstrate high-quality time-lapse imaging with confocal, total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF), and Airyscan super-resolution microscopy. As the entire procedure is readily compatible with fluorescence (super resolution) microscopy, photoporation with graphene quantum dots has the potential to become the long-awaited generic platform for controlled intracellular delivery of fluorescent labels for live-cell imaging.

}, issn = {2047-7538}, doi = {10.1038/s41377-018-0048-3}, author = {Liu, Jing and Xiong, Ranhua and Brans, Toon and Lippens, Saskia and Parthoens, Eef and Zanacchi, Francesca Cella and Magrassi, Raffaella and Singh, Santosh K. and Kurungot, Sreekumar and Szunerits, Sabine and Bove, Hannelore and Ameloot, Marcel and Fraire, Juan C. and Teirlinck, Eline and Samal, Sangram Keshari and De Rycke, Riet and Houthaeve, Gaelle and De Smedt, Stefaan C. and Boukherroub, Rabah and Braeckmans, Kevin} } @article {44636, title = {Serum responsive proteome reveals correlation between oxidative phosphorylation and morphogenesis in Candida albicans ATCC10231}, journal = {Journal of Proteomics}, volume = {185}, year = {2018}, month = {AUG}, pages = {25-38}, abstract = {

To understand the impact of fetal bovine serum (FBS) on metabolism and cellular architecture in addition to morphogenesis, we have identified FBS responsive proteome of Candida albicans. FBS induced 34\% hyphae and 60\% pseudohyphae in C. albicans at 30 C while 98\% hyphae at 37 C. LC-MS/MS analysis revealed that 285 proteins modulated significantly in response to FBS at 30 degrees C and 37 degrees C. Out of which 152 were upregulated and 62 were downregulated at 30 degrees C while 18 were up and 53 were downregulated at 37 degrees C. Functional annotation suggests that FBS may inhibit glycolysis and fermentative pathway and enhance oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos), TCA cycle, amino acid and fatty acid metabolism indicating a use of alternative energy source by C. albicans. OxPhos inhibition assay using sodium azide corroborated the correlation between inhibition of glycolysis and enhanced OxPhos with pseudohyphae formation. C. albicans induced hyphae in response to FBS irrespective of down regulation of Rasl,Asrl/Asr2, indicates the possible involvement of MAPK and cAMP-PKA independent pathway. The Cell wall of cells grown in presence of FBS at 30 degrees C was rich in mannan, Beta 1,3glucan and chitin while membranes were rich in ergosterol compared to those grown at 37 degrees C. Significance of the study: This is the first study suggesting a correlation between OxPhos and morphogenesis especially pseudohyphae formation in C. albicans. Our data also indicate that fetal bovine serum (FBS) induced morphogenesis is multifactorial and may involve MAPK and cAMP-PKA independent pathway. In addition to morphogenesis, our study provides an insight in to the modulation of metabolism and cellular architecture of C. albicans in response to FBS.

}, keywords = {analysis, Candida albicans, Fetal bovin serum, Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, morphogenesis, Oxidative phosphorylation, pathogenicity}, issn = {1874-3919}, doi = {10.1016/j.jprot.2018.06.018}, author = {Ahmed, Radfan and Kodgire, Santosh and Santhakumari, B. and Patil, Rajendra and Kulkarni, Mahesh J. and Zore, Gajanan} } @article {45429, title = {Understanding conformational dynamics of complex lipid mixtures relevant to biology}, journal = {Journal of membrane biology}, volume = {251}, year = {2018}, month = {DEC}, pages = {609-631}, type = {Article}, abstract = {This is a perspective article entitled "Frontiers in computational biophysics: understanding conformational dynamics of complex lipid mixtures relevant to biology" which is following a CECAM meeting with the same name.}, issn = {0022-2631 }, doi = {10.1007/s00232-018-0050-y}, author = {Friedman, Ran and Khalid, Syma and Aponte-Santamaria, Camilo and Arutyunova, Elena and Becker, Marlon and Boyd, Kevin J. and Christensen, Mikkel and Coimbra, Joao T. S. and Concilio, Simona and Daday, Csaba and van Eerden, Floris J. and Fernandes, Pedro A. and Graeter, Frauke and Hakobyan, Davit and Heuer, Andreas and Karathanou, Konstantina and Keller, Fabian and Lemieux, M. Joanne and Marrink, Siewert J. and May, Eric R. and Mazumdar, Antara and Naftalin, Richard and Pickholz, Monica and Piotto, Stefano and Pohl, Peter and Quinn, Peter and Ramos, Maria J. and Schiott, Birgit and Sengupta, Durba and Sessa, Lucia and Vanni, Stefano and Zeppelin, Talia and Zoni, Valeria and Bondar, Ana-Nicoleta and Domene, Carmen} } @article {46047, title = {Biodegradation of squalene and n-hexadecane by Gordonia amicalis HS-11 with concomitant formation of biosurfactant and carotenoids}, journal = {International Biodeterioration \& Biodegradation}, volume = {142}, year = {2019}, month = {AUG}, pages = {172-181}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Gordonia amicalis HS-11 has been enriched from a hydrocarbon contaminated tropical soil sample. The ability of this organism to utilize a triterpenic polyunsaturated hydrocarbon, squalene (2,6,10,15,19,23-hexamethyl-6,6,10,14,18,20-tetracosahexane) and the model saturated hydrocarbon n-hexadecane is described here. The isolate degraded squalene and n-hexadecane (79 +/- 3.02 and 96 +/- 4.11\%, respectively) after eight days of incubation. The isolate produced an extracellular biosurfactant that reduced surface tension from 69 +/- 2.83 to 40 +/- 1.63 and 35 +/- 2.34 mN m(-1) with squalene and n-hexadecane as carbon sources, respectively, after 6 days. The Actinomycete cleaved squalene to geranylacetone and famesyl acetaldehyde that were further utilized for supporting growth. n-Hexadecane was degraded via monoterminal oxidation and activities of important enzymes (alkane hydroxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase) were highest (215 +/- 8.76 and 169 +/- 6.02 units mg(-1) protein, respectively) after four days. Cells grown on squalene were short and with n-hexadecane there were clumps of longer cells. Squalene and n-hexadecane-grown cell surfaces were smooth possibly due to extracellular surface active compounds. While growing on hydrophobic substrates, some cells were seen adhering to droplets and others were in the free form. The culture was able to simultaneously degrade hydrocarbons and produce two commercially relevant value-added products. The yield of the extracellular biosurfactant on n-hexadecane was 480 mg l(-1) and cells grown on squalene and n-hexadecane also yielded carotenoids (2.3 +/- 0.14 and 2.9 +/- 0.10 mg g(-1) dry cell weight, respectively). This is the first report on the utilization of squalene by Gordonia.

}, keywords = {Aerobic biodegradation, Carotenoids, Catabolic pathways, Emulsifier, Gordonia amicalis HS-11}, issn = {0964-8305}, doi = {10.1016/j.ibiod.2019.05.005}, author = {Sowani, Harshada and Deshpande, Ashish and Gupta, Vidya and Kulkarni, Mohan and Zinjarde, Smita} } @article {46227, title = {Discovery of a novel oxadiazine derivative of glucocorticoids endowed with DNA binding activities and molecular docking studies}, journal = {Journal of Taibah University for Science}, volume = {13}, year = {2019}, month = {APR}, pages = {536-546}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

A series of new glucocorticoid oxadiazines (4-6) were synthesized by reacting glucocorticoids (1-3) with thiosemicarbazide and its derivatives. The structural assignment of products is confirmed on the basis of IR, H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, MS and analytical data. The synthesized compounds (4-6) obeyed the Lipinski{\textquoteright}s "Rule of Five" analysis based on a computational prediction of molecular and pharmacokinetic properties. The interaction studies of compounds (4-6) with DNA were carried out by employing single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay), UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. Compounds (4-6) were found capable of cellular DNA degradation breakage in isolated normal human lymphocytes. Viscometric and steady-state measurements further correlated with the comet assay studies. Hence, it could be suggested that the glucocorticoid compounds bearing a core oxadiazine scaffold would be a potent biological agent. Molecular docking studies further characterize the interaction of the synthesized compounds with DNA.

}, doi = {10.1080/16583655.2019.1603575}, author = {Sultanat and Ali, Abad and Asif, Mohd and Rizvi, Asim and Farhan, Mohd and Zaman, Shamsuz} } @article {47167, title = {Draft genome sequence of freshwater-derived streptomyces sp. strain BPSDS2, isolated from damte stream, northeast India}, journal = {American Society for Microbiology}, year = {2019}, month = {OCT}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

We report the draft genome sequence of Streptomyces sp. strain BPSDS2, isolated from freshwater sediments in Northeast India. The draft genome has a size of 8.27 Mb and 7,559 protein-coding sequences.

}, doi = {10.1128/MRA.00874-19}, author = {Zothanpuia and Passari, Ajit Kumar and Deka, Vinay and Rajput, Lakshmi P. M. and Priya, Purbajyoti and Dharne, Mahesh and Dastager, Syed and Mathew, Oommen K. and Hashem, Abeer and Abd_ Allah, Elsayed Fathi and Singh, Bhim Pratap} } @article {46438, title = {Pathways to defense metabolites and evading fruit bitterness in genus Solanum evolved through 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases}, journal = {Nature Communications}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, month = {NOV}, pages = {5169}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

The genus Solanum comprises three food crops (potato, tomato, and eggplant), which are consumed on daily basis worldwide and also producers of notorious anti-nutritional steroidal glycoalkaloids (SGAs). Hydroxylated SGAs (i.e. leptinines) serve as precursors for leptines that act as defenses against Colorado Potato Beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata Say), an important pest of potato worldwide. However, SGA hydroxylating enzymes remain unknown. Here, we discover that 2-OXOGLUTARATE-DEPENDENT-DIOXYGENASE (2-ODD) enzymes catalyze SGA-hydroxylation across various Solanum species. In contrast to cultivated potato, Solanum chacoense, a widespread wild potato species, has evolved a 2-ODD enzyme leading to the formation of leptinines. Furthermore, we find a related 2-ODD in tomato that catalyzes the hydroxylation of the bitter a-tomatine to hydroxytomatine, the first committed step in the chemical shift towards downstream ripening-associated non-bitter SGAs (e.g. esculeoside A). This 2-ODD enzyme prevents bitterness in ripe tomato fruit consumed today which otherwise would remain unpleasant in taste and more toxic.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-019-13211-4}, author = {Cardenas, Pablo D. and Sonawane, Prashant D. and Heinig, Uwe and Jozwiak, Adam and Panda, Sayantan and Abebie, Bekele and Kazachkova, Yana and Pliner, Margarita and Unger, Tamar and Wolf, Dalia and Ofner, Itai and Vilaprinyo, Ester and Meir, Sagit and Davydov, Olga and Gal-On, Amit and Burdman, Saul and Giri, Ashok and Zamir, Dani and Scherf, Tali and Szymanski, Jedrzej and Rogachev, Ilana and Aharoni, Asaph} } @article {46308, title = {Polylactic acid: synthesis and biomedical applications}, journal = {Journal of Applied Microbiology}, volume = {127}, year = {2019}, month = {DEC}, pages = {1612-1626}, type = {Review}, abstract = {

Social and economic development has driven considerable scientific and engineering efforts on the discovery, development and utilization of polymers. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most promising biopolymers as it can be produced from nontoxic renewable feedstock. PLA has emerged as an important polymeric material for biomedical applications on account of its properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, mechanical strength and process ability. Lactic acid (LA) can be obtained by fermentation of sugars derived from renewable resources such as corn and sugarcane. PLA is thus an eco-friendly nontoxic polymer with features that permit use in the human body. Although PLA has a wide spectrum of applications, there are certain limitations such as slow degradation rate, hydrophobicity and low impact toughness associated with its use. Blending PLA with other polymers offers convenient options to improve associated properties or to generate novel PLA polymers/blends for target applications. A variety of PLA blends have been explored for various biomedical applications such as drug delivery, implants, sutures and tissue engineering. PLA and their copolymers are becoming widely used in tissue engineering for function restoration of impaired tissues due to their excellent biocompatibility and mechanical properties. The relationship between PLA material properties, manufacturing processes and development of products with desirable characteristics is described in this article. LA production, PLA synthesis and their applications in the biomedical field are also discussed.

}, keywords = {Biocompatible, biodegradable, drug delivery, implants, l- and d-lactic acid, polylactic acid}, issn = {1364-5072}, doi = {10.1111/jam.14290}, author = {Singhvi, M. S. and Zinjarde, S. S. and Gokhale, D. V.} } @article {46752, title = {Antibacterial properties of glycosylated surfaces: variation of the glucosidal moiety and fatty acid conformation of grafted microbial glycolipids}, journal = {Molecular Systems Design \& Engineering}, volume = {5}, year = {2020}, month = {AUG}, pages = {1307-1316}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Glycosylated surfaces can display antimicrobial properties. It has been shown that sophorolipids can be used to develop biocidal coatings against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, but with a limited efficiency so far. Therefore, it appears necessary to further investigate the surface antibacterial activity of a broader set of structurally related glycolipids. The present work explores the influence of the glucosidic moiety (gluco-, sophoro-, cellobio-) and the fatty acid backbone (saturated,cisortransmonounsaturated). We show that the fatty acid backbone plays an important role:cisderivative of sophorolipids (SL) grafted onto model gold surfaces has better biocidal properties than saturated (SL0) andtransmonounsaturated (SLt) molecules, which appear to be inefficient. The number of glucose units is also a key factor: a one-third decrease in antibacterial activity is observed when having one glucose unit (GL) compared to two (SL). Sugar acetylation (SLa) does not seem to have an impact on the biocidal properties of surfaces. These results are not limited to sophorolipids, with cellobioselipids (CL) leading to similar antibacterial observations.

}, issn = {2058-9689}, doi = {10.1039/d0me00059k}, author = {Valotteau, Claire and Roelants, Sophie L. K. V. and Dhasaiyan, Prabhu and Zibek, Susanne and Guenther, Michael and Soetaert, Wim and Everaert, Bernd and Pradier, Claire-Marie and Babonneau, Florence and Baccile, Niki and Humblot, Vincent} } @article {46830, title = {Distinct metabolic states of a cell guide alternate fates of mutational buffering through altered proteostasis}, journal = {Nature Communications}, volume = {11}, year = {2020}, month = {JUN}, pages = {2926}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Metabolic changes alter the cellular milieu; can this also change intracellular protein folding? Since proteostasis can modulate mutational buffering, if change in metabolism has the ability to change protein folding, arguably, it should also alter mutational buffering. Here we find that altered cellular metabolic states in E. coli buffer distinct mutations on model proteins. Buffered-mutants have folding problems in vivo and are differently chaperoned in different metabolic states. Notably, this assistance is dependent upon the metabolites and not on the increase in canonical chaperone machineries. Being able to reconstitute the folding assistance afforded by metabolites in vitro, we propose that changes in metabolite concentrations have the potential to alter protein folding capacity. Collectively, we unravel that the metabolite pools are bona fide members of proteostasis and aid in mutational buffering. Given the plasticity in cellular metabolism, we posit that metabolic alterations may play an important role in cellular proteostasis.

}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-020-16804-6}, author = {Verma, Kanika and Saxena, Kanika and Donaka, Rajashekar and Chaphalkar, Aseem and Rai, Manish Kumar and Shukla, Anurag and Zaidi, Zainab and Dandage, Rohan and Shanmugam, Dhanasekaran and Chakraborty, Kausik} } @article {46850, title = {Functionalized magnetic nanosized materials for efficient biodiesel synthesis via acid-base/enzyme catalysis}, journal = {Green Chemistry}, volume = {22}, year = {2020}, month = {MAY}, pages = {2977-3012}, type = {Review}, abstract = {

According to the principles of green chemistry, the rapid recovery and reuse of catalysts after a catalytic reaction are important factors to realize the sustainable management of chemical production processes. The functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles is the basis for the efficient separation of heterogeneous catalysts from the reaction system by using the magnetic separation technology as well as for effectively bridging heterogeneous and homogeneous catalytic processes. This can considerably improve the production efficiency and reduce energy consumption as well. Owing to important applications as a potential biofuel or fuel additive, the synthesis of biodiesel mainly from low-cost biomass feedstocks has received considerable attention in the current biorefinery research. A simple synthesis process coupled with the application of functionalized magnetic catalysts can remarkably reduce the production cost and minimize waste generation, thereby promoting the potential development of green catalytic processes for the large-scale synthesis of biodiesel. In this review, the preparation methods, structural and performance control, and protection and functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles as well as the consequent catalytic effects in the synthesis of biodiesel (mainly long-chain fatty acid methyl esters) have been reported. In addition, various representative reaction mechanisms are discussed, emphasizing the existing challenges and prospects of industrialization.

}, issn = {1463-9262}, doi = {10.1039/d0gc00924e}, author = {Wang, Anping and Sudarsanam, Putla and Xu, Yufei and Zhang, Heng and Li, Hu and Yang, Song} } @article {46894, title = {Novel cilengitide-based cyclic RGD peptides as alpha nu beta(3) integrin inhibitors}, journal = {Bioorganic \& Medicinal Chemistry Letters}, volume = {30}, year = {2020}, month = {APR}, pages = {127039}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

In this letter, we report a series of five new RGD-containing cyclic peptides as potent inhibitors to alpha nu beta(3) integrin protein. We have incorporated various unnatural lipophilic amino acids into the cyclic RGD framework of cilengitide, which is selective for alpha nu beta(3) integrin. All the newly synthesized cyclic peptides were evaluated in vitro solid phase binding assay and investigated for their binding behaviour towards integrin subtypes. All the cyclic peptides were synthesized in excellent yield following solution-phase coupling strategy. The cyclic RGD peptides 1a-e exhibited IC50 of 9.9, 5.5, 72, 11 and 3.3 nM, respectively, towards a alpha nu beta(3) integrin protein. This finding offers further opportunities for the introduction unusual amino acids into the cyclic peptide framework of cilengitide.

}, keywords = {Anticancer drugs, Cilengitide, Integrins, RGD cyclicpeptides}, issn = {0960-894X}, doi = {10.1016/j.bmcl.2020.127039}, author = {Meena, Chhuttan L. and Singh, Dharmendra and Weinmueller, Michael and Reichart, Florian and Dangi, Abha and Marelli, Udaya Kiran and Zahler, Stefan and Sanjayan, Gangadhar J.} } @article {47017, title = {Recent advances in plant nanobionics and nanobiosensors for toxicology applications}, journal = {Current Nanoscience}, volume = {16}, year = {2020}, month = {JAN}, pages = {27-41}, type = {Review}, abstract = {

Emerging applications in the field of nanotechnology are able to solve a gamut of problems surrounding the applications of agroecosystems and food technology. Nano Engineered Material (NEM) based nanosensors are important tools for monitoring plant signaling pathways and metabolism that arc nondestructive, minimally invasive, and can provide real-time analysis of biotic and abiotic threats for better plant health. These sensors can measure chemical flux even at the single molecule level. Therefore, plant health could be monitored through nutrient management, disease assessment, plant hormones level, environmental pollution, etc. This review provides a comprehensive account of the current trends and practices for the proposed NEM related research and its (i) structural aspect, (ii) experimental design and performance as well as (iii) mechanisms of field application in agriculture and food system. This review also discusses the possibility of integration of data from NEM based nanosensors in current and emerging trends of precision agriculture, urban farming, and plant nanobionics to adopt a sustainable approach in agriculture,

}, keywords = {agro-ecosystems, engineered nanomaterials, nanobionics, Nanosensors, nanotechnology, nanotoxicology}, issn = {1573-4137}, doi = {10.2174/1573413715666190409101305}, author = {Ansari, Mohammad Hasan Dad and Lavhale, Santosh and Kalunke, Raviraj M. and Srivastava, Prabhakar L. and Pandit, Vaibhav and Gade, Subodh and Yadav, Sanjay and Laux, Peter and Luch, Andreas and Gemmati, Donato and Zamboni, Paolo and Singh, Ajay Vikram} } @article {46671, title = {Biological process of lysine-tRNA charging is therapeutically targetable in liver cancer}, journal = {Liver International}, volume = {41}, year = {2021}, month = {JAN }, pages = {206-219}, type = {Article }, abstract = {

Background \& Aims Mature transfer RNAs (tRNA) charged with amino acids decode mRNA to synthesize proteins. Dysregulation of translational machineries has a fundamental impact on cancer biology. This study aims to map the tRNAome landscape in liver cancer patients and to explore potential therapeutic targets at the interface of charging amino acid with tRNA. Methods Resected tumour and paired tumour-free (TFL) tissues from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients (n = 69), and healthy liver tissues from organ transplant donors (n = 21), HCC cell lines, and cholangiocarcinoma (CC) patient-derived tumour organoids were used. Results The expression levels of different mature tRNAs were highly correlated and closely clustered within individual tissues, suggesting that different members of the tRNAome function cooperatively in protein translation. Interestingly, high expression of tRNA-Lys-CUU in HCC tumours was associated with more tumour recurrence (HR 1.1;P = .022) and worse patient survival (HR 1.1;P = .0037). The expression of Lysyl-tRNA Synthetase (KARS), the enzyme catalysing the charge of lysine to tRNA-Lys-CUU, was significantly upregulated in HCC tumour tissues compared to tumour-free liver tissues. In HCC cell lines, lysine deprivation, KARS knockdown or treatment with the KARS inhibitor cladosporin effectively inhibited overall cell growth, single cell-based colony formation and cell migration. This was mechanistically mediated by cell cycling arrest and induction of apoptosis. Finally, these inhibitory effects were confirmed in 3D cultured patient-derived CC organoids. Conclusions The biological process of charging tRNA-Lys-CUU with lysine sustains liver cancer cell growth and migration, and is clinically relevant in HCC patients. This process can be therapeutically targeted and represents an unexplored territory for developing novel treatment strategies against liver cancer.

}, keywords = {Cladosporin, liver cancer, lysine, Lysyl-tRNA Synthetase, tRNA-Lys-CUU, tRNAome}, issn = {1478-3223}, doi = {10.1111/liv.14692}, author = {Zhang, Ruyi and Noordam, Lisanne and Ou, Xumin and Ma, Buyun and Li, Yunlong and Das, Pronay and Shi, Shaojun and Liu, Jiaye and Wang, Ling and Li, Pengfei and Verstegen, Monique M. A. and Reddy, D. Srinivasa and van Der Laan, Luc J. W. and Peppelenbosch, Maikel P. and Kwekkeboom, Jaap and Smits, Ron and Pan, Qiuwei} } @article {47747, title = { Flexible energy harvester from an organic ferroelectric ammonium salt}, journal = {Chemistry-An Asian Journal}, volume = {16}, year = {2021}, month = {DEC }, pages = {4122-4129}, type = {Article}, abstract = {Organic ferroelectrics due to their low cost, easy preparation, light weight, high flexibility and phase stability are gaining tremendous attention in the field of portable electronics. In this work, we report the synthesis, structure and ferroelectric behavior of a two-component ammonium salt 2, containing a bulky [Bn(4-BrBn)NMe2](+) (Bn=benzyl and 4-BrBn=4-bromobenzyl) cation and tetrahedral (BF4)(-) anion. The structural analysis revealed the presence of rich non-classical C-H...F and C-H...Br interactions in this molecule that were quantified by Hirshfeld surface analysis. The polarization (P) vs. electric field (E) hysteresis loop measurements on 2 gave a remnant polarization (P-r) of 14.4 mu C cm(-2) at room temperature. Flexible polymer composites with various (5, 10, 15 and 20) weight percentages (wt\%) of 2 in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) were prepared and tested for mechanical energy harvesting applications. A notable peak-to-peak output voltage of 20 V, maximum current density of 1.1 mu A cm(-2) and power density of 21.1 mu W cm(-2) were recorded for the 15 wt\% 2-TPU composite device. Furthermore, the voltage output generated from this device was utilized to rapidly charge a 100 mu F capacitor, with stored energies and measured charges of 156 mu J and 121.6 mu C, respectively.}, keywords = {Dielectric, energy harvesting, ferroelectricity, organic composites, piezoelectric}, issn = {1861-4728}, doi = {10.1002/asia.202101128}, author = {Gupta, Rishabh and Sahoo, Supriya and Deswal, Swati and Kothavade, Premkumar and Dixit, Prashant and Zareba, Jan K. and Shanmuganathan, Kadhiravan and Boomishankar, Ramamoorthy} } @article {47461, title = {Oxidative stress induced by piperine leads to apoptosis in Candida albicans}, journal = {Medical Mycology}, volume = {59}, year = {2021}, month = {APR}, pages = {366-378}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Candida albicans is a member of pathogens with potential drug resistance threat that needs novel chemotherapeutic strategies. Considering the multifarious biological activities including bioenhancer activity, anti-Candida potential of piperine was evaluated against planktonic/biofilm and hyphal growth of C. albicans alone or in combination as a synergistic agent with fluconazole. Piperine inhibits planktonic growth at or less than 15 mu g/ml, hyphae induction at 5 mu g/ml concentration, and exhibits stage-dependent activity against biofilm growth of a fluconazole-resistant strain of C. albicans (ATCC10231). Though piperine couldn{\textquoteright}t kill inoculum completely at minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), it is fungicidal at higher concentrations, as shown in apoptosis assay. FIC index values indicate that piperine exhibits excellent synergistic activity with fluconazole against planktonic (0.123) and biofilm (0.215) growth of an FLC resistant strain. Mode of anti-Candida activity was studied by identifying piperine responsive proteins wherein the abundance of 25 proteins involved in stress response, signal transduction and cell cycle were modulated (22 up and 3 downregulated) significantly in response to piperine (MIC50). Modulation of the proteins involved suggests that piperine affectsmembrane integrity leading to oxidative stress followed by cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in C. albicans. Flow cytometry-basedmitochondrialmembrane potential (MMP), cell cycle and apoptosis assay, as well as real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis of selected genes, confirms piperine induced oxidative stress (TRR1), cell cycle arrest and apoptosis (CaMCA1). Based on our results, we conclude that piperine inhibits planktonic and difficult-to treat-biofilm growth of C. albicans by affecting membrane integrity thereby inducing oxidative stress and apoptosis. Lay Abstract Piperine inhibit Candida albicans growth (planktonic and biofilm) significantly in our study. Piperine exhibits excellent synergistic potential with fluconazole The proteome analysis suggests that piperine induced membrane damage leads to oxidative stress followed by cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.

}, keywords = {Apoptosis, C. albicans, drug resistance, piperine, proteomics, synergy}, issn = {1369-3786}, doi = {10.1093/mmy/myaa058}, author = {Thakre, Archana and Jadhav, Vyankatesh and Kazi, Rubina and Shelar, Amruta and Patil, Rajendra and Kharat, Kiran and Zore, Gajanan and Karuppayil, S. Mohan} } @article {47703, title = {Room-temperature quasi-catalytic hydrogen generation from waste and water}, journal = {Green Chemistry}, volume = {23}, year = {2021}, month = {OCT}, pages = {7528-7533}, type = {Article}, abstract = {A solvation-driven catalyst-free H-2 generation system from water and various waste hydrosilanes at room temperature was developed, with good to quantitative H-2 yields in minutes. Using a green solvent is found to promote the strong coordination of proton carriers with hydrosilane to liberate H-2 based on molecular dynamics simulations. Theoretical calculations clarify that OH(-)in situ generated from H2O enabled by solvation is favorable for activating the Si-H species of hydrosilane, and the in situ formed Si-OH interacts more effectively with the adjacent remaining Si-H, both contributing to the overall enhanced H-2 generation. Moreover, the overall life-cycle impacts of the developed system are less than those of industrial H-2 production processes, especially in ozone layer depletion and abiotic depletion resources - fossil fuels. This protocol realizes the potential of efficiently producing H-2 from waste and water, and opens a new avenue to alleviate petroleum consumption.}, issn = {1463-9262}, doi = {10.1039/d1gc02722k}, author = {Wu, Hongguo and Zhang, Li-Long and Wang, Junqi and Jiang, Yiyuan and Li, Hu and Sudarsanam, Putla and Yang, Song} } @article {47091, title = {Sulfonic acid-functionalized heterogeneous catalytic materials for efficient biodiesel production: a review}, journal = {Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering}, volume = {9}, year = {2021}, month = {FEB}, pages = {104719}, type = {Review}, abstract = {

The development of social productive forces leads to the increasing consumption of fossil fuels. However, the burning of traditional fossil fuels releases huge amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, resulting in drastically increased global surface temperatures, and hence, global warming and abnormal climate change. Biodiesel, which can be produced by (trans)esterification of bio-oils using solid acid catalysts, is recognized as renewable and clean energy, alternative to fossil-derived diesel, and it can meet society{\textquoteright}s requirements. This review describes the catalytic conversion of bio-derived oils into biodiesel using various sulfonic acid-functionalized heterogeneous catalytic materials that show higher catalytic efficiency and superior recyclability. Besides, various methods of biodiesel preparation and the appropriate design and preparation of robust and efficient catalytic materials for biodiesel production were provided. Finally, the mechanisms of different catalytic esterification and transesterification reactions for biodiesel synthesis, the relevant reaction kinetic models, and techno-economic analysis of biodiesel production were critically discussed in this review.

}, keywords = {(Trans)esterification, Biodiesel, heterogeneous catalysis, kinetic study, solid acid}, doi = {10.1016/j.jece.2020.104719}, author = {Tan, Xiang and Sudarsanam, Putla and Tan, Jinyu and Wang, Anping and Zhang, Heng and Li, Hu and Yang, Song} } @article {47683, title = {Tuning of alpha-silyl carbocation reactivity into enone transposition: application to the synthesis of peribysin D, E-volkendousin, and E-guggulsterone}, journal = {Organic Letters}, volume = {23}, year = {2021}, month = {SEP }, pages = {6642-6647}, type = {Article}, abstract = {A reliable method for enone transposition has been developed with the help of silyl group masking. Enantio-switching, substituent shuffling, and Z-selectivity are the highlights of the method. The developed method was applied for the first total synthesis of peribysin D along with its structural revision. Formal synthesis of E-guggulsterone and E-volkendousin was also claimed using a short sequence.}, issn = {1523-7060}, doi = {10.1021/acs.orglett.1c02173}, author = {Athawale, Paresh R. and Zade, Vishal M. and Krishna, Gamidi Rama and Reddy, D. Srinivasa} } @article {47046, title = {Unbiased phenotype-based screen identifies therapeutic agents selective for metastatic prostate cancer}, journal = {Frontiers in Oncology}, volume = {10}, year = {2021}, month = {MAR }, pages = {594141}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

In American men, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death. Dissemination of prostate cancer cells to distant organs significantly worsens patients{\textquoteright} prognosis, and currently there are no effective treatment options that can cure advanced-stage prostate cancer. In an effort to identify compounds selective for metastatic prostate cancer cells over benign prostate cancer cells or normal prostate epithelial cells, we applied a phenotype-based in vitro drug screening method utilizing multiple prostate cancer cell lines to test 1,120 different compounds from a commercial drug library. Top drug candidates were then examined in multiple mouse xenograft models including subcutaneous tumor growth, experimental lung metastasis, and experimental bone metastasis assays. A subset of compounds including fenbendazole, fluspirilene, clofazimine, niclosamide, and suloctidil showed preferential cytotoxicity and apoptosis towards metastatic prostate cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. The bioavailability of the most discerning agents, especially fenbendazole and albendazole, was improved by formulating as micelles or nanoparticles. The enhanced forms of fenbendazole and albendazole significantly prolonged survival in mice bearing metastases, and albendazole-treated mice displayed significantly longer median survival times than paclitaxel-treated mice. Importantly, these drugs effectively targeted taxane-resistant tumors and bone metastases - two common clinical conditions in patients with aggressive prostate cancer. In summary, we find that metastatic prostate tumor cells differ from benign prostate tumor cells in their sensitivity to certain drug classes. Taken together, our results strongly suggest that albendazole, an anthelmintic medication, may represent a potential adjuvant or neoadjuvant to standard therapy in the treatment of disseminated prostate cancer.

}, keywords = {bone, carcinoma, drug-screen, Metastasis, Prostate}, issn = {2234-943X}, doi = {10.3389/fonc.2020.594141}, author = {Chung, Ivy and Zhou, Kun and Barrows, Courtney and Banyard, Jacqueline and Wilson, Arianne and Rummel, Nathan and Mizokami, Atsushi and Basu, Sudipta and Sengupta, Poulomi and Shaikh, Badaruddin and Sengupta, Shiladitya and Bielenberg, Diane R. and Zetter, Bruce R.} } @article {48132, title = {Incorporating conducting polypyrrole into a polyimide COF for carbon-free ultra-high energy supercapacitor}, journal = {Advanced Energy Materials}, volume = {12}, year = {2022}, month = {SEP}, pages = {2200754}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Redox-active covalent organic frameworks (COFs) store charges but possess inadequate electronic conductivity. Their capacitive action works by storing H+ ions in an acidic electrolyte and is typically confined to a small voltage window (0-1 V). Increasing this window means higher energy and power density, but this risks COF stability. Advantageously, COF{\textquoteright}s large pores allow the storage of polarizable bulky ions under a wider voltage thus reaching higher energy density. Here, a COF-electrode-electrolyte system operating at a high voltage regime without any conducting carbon or redox active oxides is presented. Conducting polypyrrole (Ppy) chains are synthesized within a polyimide COF to gain electronic conductivity (approximate to 10 000-fold). A carbon-free quasi-solid-state capacitor assembled using this composite showcases high pseudo-capacitance (358 mF cm(-2)@1 mA cm(-2)) in an aqueous gel electrolyte. The synergy among the redox-active polyimide COF, polypyrrole and organic electrolytes allows a wide-voltage window (0-2.5 V) leading to high energy (145 mu Wh cm(-2)) and power densities (4509 mu W cm(-2)). Amalgamating the polyimide-COF and the polypyrrole as one material minimizes the charge and mass transport resistances. Computation and experiments reveal that even a partial translation of the modules/monomers intrinsic electronics to the COF imparts excellent electrochemical activity. The findings unveil COF-confined polymers as carbon-free energy storage materials.

}, keywords = {carbon free capacitors, cation-anion co-storage, conductivity, high energy capacitors, polypyrrole doped COFs}, issn = {1614-6832}, doi = {10.1002/aenm.202200754}, author = {Haldar, Sattwick and Rase, Deepak and Shekhar, Pragalbh and Jain, Chitvan and Vinod, Chathakudath Prabhakaran and Zhang, En and Shupletsov, Leonid and Kaskel, Stefan and Vaidhyanathan, Ramanathan} } @article {48404, title = {Proteomic profile of candida albicans biofilm}, journal = {Journal of Proteomics}, volume = {265}, year = {2022}, month = {AUG }, pages = {104661}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Candida albicans biofilms are characterized by structural and cellular heterogeneity that confers antifungal resistance and immune evasion. Despite this, biofilm formation remains poorly understood. In this study, we used proteomic analysis to understand biofilm formation in C. albicans related to morphophysiological and architectural features. LC-MS/MS analysis revealed that 64 proteins were significantly modulated, of which 31 were upregulated and 33 were downregulated. The results indicate that metabolism (25 proteins), gene expression (13 proteins), stress response (7 proteins), and cell wall (5 proteins) composition are modulated. The rate of oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) and biosynthesis of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine, vitamin B6, and thiamine increased, while the rate of methionine biosynthesis decreased. There was a significant modification of the cell wall architecture due to higher levels of Sun41, Pir1 and Csh1 and increased glycosylation of proteins. It was observed that C. albicans induces hyphal growth by upregulating the expression of genes involved in cAMP-PKA and MAPK pathways. This study is significant in that it suggests an increase in OxPhos and alteration of cell wall architecture that could be contributing to the recalcitrance of C. albicans cells growing in biofilms. Nevertheless, a deeper investigation is needed to explore it further.Significance: Candida sps is included in the list of pathogens with potential drug resistance threat due to the increased frequency especially colonization of medical devices, and tissues among the patients, in recent years. Significance of our study is that we are reporting traits like modulation in cell wall composition, amino acid and vitamin biosynthesis and importantly energy generation (OxPhos) etc. These traits could be conferring antifungal resistance, host immune evasion etc. and thus survival, in addition to facilitating biofilm formation. These findings are expected to prime the further studies on devising potent strategy against biofilm growth among the patients.

}, keywords = {Biofilm, Candida albicans, Cell wall, LC-MS, Metabolism, MS, proteomics}, issn = {1874-3919}, doi = {10.1016/j.jprot.2022.104661}, author = {Abdulghani, Mazen and Iram, Rasiqua and Chidrawar, Priti and Bhosle, Kajal and Kazi, Rubina and Patil, Rajendra and Kharat, Kiran and Zore, Gajanan} } @article {48182, title = {Protophilic solvent-impelled quasi-catalytic CO2 valorization to formic acid and N-formamides}, journal = {Fuel}, volume = {326}, year = {2022}, month = {OCT}, pages = {125074}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

As a low-price and luxuriant C1 sustainable resource, CO2 has the privilege of synthesizing hydrogen carriers and valuable chemicals. However, expensive metallic and organic catalysts are often indispensable for going on wheels of the relevant reaction processes. In this work, a protophilic solvent-impelled quasi-catalytic system was developed for efficient synthesis of formic acid and various N-formamides with high yields of 76-94\% via reductive CO2 functionalization under mild reaction conditions (50 ?). Direct activation of the liquid hydrosilane toward the reduction of CO2 enabled by DMSO with optimum basicity/protophilicity is the predominant reaction route among the examined interaction models, while carbonic acid potentially derived from excessive CO2 and residual water inhibits the reaction, as explicitly disclosed by theoretical calculations and isotope labeling experiments. In addition, the in situ formed O-formyl species is conductive to the cascade CO2 reduction steps, which remarkably facilitated the overall quasi-catalytic upgrading process.

}, keywords = {CO2 utilization, Formic acid, Green energy, Nitrogenous chemicals, Quasi-catalysis}, issn = {0016-2361}, doi = {10.1016/j.fuel.2022.125074}, author = {Wu, Hongguo and Li, Hu and Zhao, Wenfeng and Sudarsanam, Putla and Yang, Song} } @conference {48195, title = {Skin mimicking solid optical tissue phantom fulfillment and its characterization}, booktitle = {Photonics in Dermatology and Plastic Surgery 2022}, year = {2022}, publisher = {SPIE}, organization = {SPIE}, address = {1000 20TH ST, PO BOX 10, BELLINGHAM, WA 98227-0010 USA}, abstract = {

Skin mimicking optical tissue phantoms are widely used in diagnostics systems for characterization, optimization, routine calibration and validation. In general, solid phantoms are more preferred in comparison to liquid phantoms. Therefore, our aim is to prepare and characterize the solid tissue phantoms having skin equivalent optical properties. In this work, we have used epoxy resin and hardener as a base material and titanium oxide (TiO2) nanoparticles and ink as a scatterer and absorber media, respectively. The total transmission (Tt), collimated transmission (Tc), and diffuse reflectance (Rd) spectra of the developed phantoms were measured with an integrating sphere installed in UV-VIS spectrometer within the wavelength range 400-700 nm. To characterize the optical properties such as absorption (mu(a)), reduced scattering (mu(s){\textquoteright}), and anisotropy factor (g) of the developed tissue phantoms, the numerical model based on Inverse Adding Doubling (IAD) has been used. With various concentrations of absorber and scatterer, a calibration curve was prepared. The calculated experimental optical properties from IAD matched with the predicted intrinsic optical properties of the skin. Thus, the preliminary results suggest that the recipe used in this study may be used as an alternative approach to developing skin mimicking solid optical phantom for diagnostics system applications.

}, keywords = {Absorption, anisotropy factor, scattering, skin mimicking, solid tissue phantom}, isbn = {978-1-5106-4740-4; 978-1-5106-4739-8}, doi = {10.1117/12.2609577}, author = {Kumar, Ajay and Hinge, Sarika and Dixit, Hemant and Kanawade, Rajesh and Kulkarni, Gauri}, editor = {Choi, B and Zeng, H} } @article {48434, title = {Synthesis, crystal structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis of a zinc(II) coordination polymer of 5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxa-diazole-2-thiol-ate}, journal = {Acta Crystallographica Section E Crystallographic Communications}, volume = {87}, year = {2022}, month = {AUG}, pages = {794-797}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

A new zinc coordination polymer with 5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxa-diazole-2-thiol-ate, namely,\ catena-poly[zinc(II)-bis-(μ2-5-phenyl-1,3,4-oxa-diazole-2-thiol-ato)-κ2N3:S;κ2S:N3], [Zn(C8H5N2OS)2]n, was synthesized. The single-crystal X-ray\ diffraction analysis\ shows that the polymeric structure crystallizes in the centrosymmetric monoclinic\ C2/cspace group.\ The ZnII\ atom is coordinated to two S and two N atoms from four crystallographically independent (L) ligands, forming zigzag chains along the [001] direction. This polymer complex forms an eight-membered [Zn{\textendash}S{\textendash}C{\textendash}N{\textendash}Zn{\textendash}S{\textendash}C{\textendash}N] chair-like ring with two ZnII\ atoms and two ligand mol-ecules. On the Hirshfeld surface, the largest contributions come from the short contacts such as\ van der Waals forces,\ including H...H, C...H and S...H. Inter-actions including N...H, O...H and C...C contacts were also observed; however, their contribution to the overall stability of the\ crystal lattice\ is minor.

}, keywords = {3, 4-oxa-diazole-2-thiol; coordination polymer; Hirshfeld surface analysis, crystal structure; zinc complex; 5-phenyl-1}, doi = {10.1107/S2056989022006922}, author = {Pirimova, Mehribon and Torambetov, Batirbay and Kadirova, Shakhnoza and Ziyaev, Abdukhakim and Gonnade, Rajesh G. and Ashurov, Jamshid} } @article {48827, title = {3D-printed polymer composite devices based on a ferroelectric chiral ammonium salt for high-performance piezoelectric energy harvesting}, journal = {Materials Horizons}, volume = {10}, year = {2023}, month = {JUL}, pages = {3153-3161}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) is an emerging technology to fabricate complex architectures, necessary to realize state-of-the-art flexible and wearable electronic devices. In this regard, top-performing devices containing organic ferro- and piezoelectric compounds are desired to circumvent significant shortcomings of conventional piezoceramics, e.g. toxicity and high-temperature device processibility. Herein, we report on a 3D-printed composite of a chiral ferroelectric organic salt {[Me3CCH(Me)NH3][BF4]} (1) with a biodegradable polycaprolactone (PCL) polymer that serves as a highly efficient piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG). The ferroelectric property of 1 originates from its polar tetragonal space group P4(2), verified by P-E loop measurements. The ferroelectric domain characteristics of 1 were further probed by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), which gave characteristic {\textquoteleft}butterfly{\textquoteright} and hysteresis loops. The PFM amplitude vs. drive voltage measurements gave a relatively high magnitude of the converse piezoelectric coefficient for 1. PCL polymer composites with various weight percentages (wt\%) of 1 were prepared and subjected to piezoelectric energy harvesting tests, which gave a maximum open-circuit voltage of 36.2 V and a power density of 48.1 mu W cm(-2) for the 10 wt\% 1-PCL champion device. Furthermore, a gyroid-shaped 3D-printed 10 wt\% 1-PCL composite was fabricated to test its practical utility, which gave an excellent output voltage of 41 V and a power density of 56.8 mu W cm(-2). These studies promise the potential of simple organic compounds for building PENG devices using advanced manufacturing technologies.

}, issn = {2051-6347}, doi = {10.1039/d3mh00444a}, author = {Sahoo, Supriya and Kothavade, Premkumar Anil and Naphade, Dipti R. and Torris, Arun and Praveenkumar, Balu and Zareba, Jan K. and Anthopoulos, Thomas D. and Shanmuganathan, Kadhiravan and Boomishankar, Ramamoorthy} } @article {48833, title = {Covalent organic framework thin-film photodetectors from solution-processable porous nanospheres}, journal = {Journal of the American Chemical Society}, volume = {145}, year = {2023}, month = {JAN}, pages = {1649-1659}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

The synthesis of homogeneous covalent organic framework (COF) thin films on a desired substrate with decent crystallinity, porosity, and uniform thickness has great potential for optoelectronic applications. We have used a solution-processable sphere transmutation process to synthesize 300 +/- 20 nm uniform COF thin films on a 2 x 2 cm2 TiO2-coated fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) surface. This process controls the nucleation of COF crystallites and molecular morphology that helps the nanospheres to arrange periodically to form homogeneous COF thin films. We have synthesized four COF thin films (TpDPP, TpEtBt, TpTab, and TpTta) with different functional backbones. In a close agreement between the experiment and density functional theory, the TpEtBr COF film showed the lowest optical band gap (2.26 eV) and highest excited-state lifetime (8.52 ns) among all four COF films. Hence, the TpEtBr COF film can participate in efficient charge generation and separation. We constructed optoelectronic devices having a glass/FTO/TiO2/COF-film/Au architecture, which serves as a model system to study the optoelectronic charge transport properties of COF thin films under dark and illuminated conditions. Visible light with a calibrated intensity of 100 mW cm-2 was used for the excitation of COF thin films. All of the COF thin films exhibit significant photocurrent after illumination with visible light in comparison to the dark. Hence, all of the COF films behave as good photoactive substrates with minimal pinhole defects. The fabricated out-of-plane photodetector device based on the TpEtBr COF thin film exhibits high photocurrent density (2.65 +/- 0.24 mA cm-2 at 0.5 V) and hole mobility (8.15 +/- 0.64 x10-3 cm2 V-1 S-1) compared to other as synthesized films, indicating the best photoactive characteristics.

}, issn = {0002-7863}, doi = {10.1021/jacs.2c09838}, author = {Bag, Saikat and Sasmal, Himadri Sekhar and Chaudhary, Sonu Pratap and Dey, Kaushik and Blaette, Dominic and Guntermann, Roman and Zhang, Yingying and Poloz, Miroslav and Kuc, Agnieszka and Shelke, Ankita and Vijayaraghavan, Ratheesh K. and Ajithkumar, Thalasseril G. and Bhattacharyya, Sayan and Heine, Thomas and Bein, Thomas and Banerjee, Rahul} } @article {48757, title = {Direct deoxygenation of α-hydroxy and α,β-dihydroxy ketones using a silyl lithium reagent}, journal = {Journal of Organic Chemistry}, volume = {88}, year = {2023}, month = {SEP}, pages = {14227-14235}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

A reliable method for the one-step direct deoxygenation of alpha-hydroxy ketones has been developed using a silyl lithium reagent and acetic anhydride. The method is metal-catalyst-free and does not require prefunctionalization of the hydroxy group prior to its removal. Deoxygenation of different primary, secondary, and tertiary alcohols was carried out with up to 98\% isolated yield. Additionally, double deoxygenation was achieved when the present method was applied to alpha,beta-dihydroxy ketones to access the corresponding enones in a single step.

}, issn = {0022-3263}, doi = {10.1021/acs.joc.3c01613}, author = {Zade, Vishal M. and Gangnale, Laxmikant D. and Athawale, Paresh R. and Reddy, D. Srinivasa} } @conference {48799, title = {Fast normalization and despeckled method for skin optical coherence tomography image via deep learning}, booktitle = {Photonics in Dermatology and Plastic Surgery 2023}, year = {2023}, month = {JUL}, publisher = {SPIE}, organization = {SPIE}, address = {1000 20TH ST, PO BOX 10, BELLINGHAM, WA 98227-0010 USA}, abstract = {

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is well-known for its high-resolution, non-invasive imaging modality with many medical uses, including skin imaging. Nevertheless, speckle noise limits the analytical capabilities of this imaging tool, causing deterioration in contrast and less exact detection of tissue microstructural heterogeneity. To address this issue, we proposed OCT despeckling approach by combing it with normalization to reduce the speckle noise more effectively. The proposed method contains multiple steps including phase correlation for alignment of misaligned frames, frame averaging which minimizes speckle noise, region-wise pixels normalization that helps to normalize intensity pixels, a modified BM3D filtering to suppress the white and speckle, and contrast enhancement to improve the contrast appropriately. To establish the approach, we applied 130 distinct B-scan skin OCT images and validate and evaluate the performance using qualitatively and quantitatively. Although the output obtained by the algorithm is promising, the method is time-consuming because of a series of steps. To reduce the time complexity, we also develop a supervised deep learning model by mapping between noisy-despeckled image pairs. The effectiveness and applicability of our DL approach were assessed using 130 skin OCT B-scans from various body areas taken from 45 healthy people between the ages of 20 and 60. With the support of the experimental results, we demonstrate that our DL model is capable to normalize and despeckling OCT images simultaneously.

}, keywords = {CNN, deep learning, denoising, Optical coherence tomography, speckle}, isbn = {978-1-5106-5809-7; 978-1-5106-5810-3}, doi = {10.1117/12.2651211}, author = {Rahaman, Jarjish and Lukas, Brandon and May, Julia and Puyana, Carolina and Tsoukas, Maria and Avanaki, Kamran}, editor = {Choi, B and Zeng, H} } @article {48817, title = {Opaque cell-specific proteome of Candida albicans ATCC 10231}, journal = {Medical Mycology}, volume = {61}, year = {2023}, month = {JUL}, pages = {myad062}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

Candida albicans, a polymorphic opportunistic pathogen of humans, can exist in different morphological forms like yeast, hyphae, pseudohyphae, chlamydospores, and white and opaque cells. Proteomic analysis of opaque form of C. albicans ATCC 10231 is carried out in the present study using microflow liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and validated using expression analysis of selected genes using reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR and mitochondrial membrane potential assay. This is the first report identifying opaque cell-specific proteins of C. albicans. A total of 188 proteins were significantly modulated under opaque form compared to white cells, of which 110 were upregulated, and 78 were downregulated. It was observed that oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) and oxidative stress are enhanced in C. albicans cells growing under opaque form as proteins involved in OxPhos (Atp1, Atp3, Atp16, Atp7, Cox6, Nuc2, Qcr7, and Sdh12) and oxidative stress response (Gcs1, Gtt11, Gpx2, Sod1, Ccp1, and Lys7) were significantly upregulated. The maximum upregulation of 23.16- and 13.93-fold is observed in the cases of Ccp1 and Nuc2, respectively. The downregulation of proteins, namely Als1, Csh1, Sap9, and Rho1, determining cell surface chemistry indicates modulation in cell wall integrity and reduced adhesion of opaque cells compared to white cells. This study is significant as it is the first draft of the proteomic profile of opaque cells that suggests enhanced OxPhos, oxidative stress, and modulation in cell surface chemistry indicating reduced adhesion and cell wall integrity, which could be associated with reduced virulence in opaque form. However, a deeper investigation is needed to explore it further. Lay Summary Opaque form is one of the least studied morphological forms of Candida albicans. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report providing opaque cell-specific proteome. It suggests enhanced oxidative phosphorylation, oxidative stress, and modulation in cell surface chemistry, which could be associated with reduced virulence in opaque form.

}, keywords = {albicans, C, LC-MS, MS, opaque, Oxidative stress, OxPhos, protein}, issn = {1369-3786}, doi = {10.1093/mmy/myad062}, author = {Abdulghani, Mazen and Telang, Saraswati and Desai, Manisha and Kadam, Shivdas and Kazi, Rubina and Shelar, Amruta and Patil, Rajendra and Maurya, Radheshyam and Zore, Gajanan} } @article {48835, title = {Unprecedented energy storage in metal-organic complexes via constitutional isomerism}, journal = {Chemical Science}, volume = {14}, year = {2023}, month = {JUN}, pages = {6383-6392}, type = {Article}, abstract = {

The essence of any electrochemical system is engraved in its electrical double layer (EDL), and we report its unprecedented reorganization by the structural isomerism of molecules, with a direct consequence on their energy storage capability. Electrochemical and spectroscopic analyses in combination with computational and modelling studies demonstrate that an attractive field-effect due to the molecule{\textquoteright}s structural-isomerism, in contrast to a repulsive field-effect, spatially screens the ion-ion coulombic repulsions in the EDL and reconfigures the local density of anions. In a laboratory-level prototype supercapacitor, those with beta-structural isomerism exhibit nearly 6-times elevated energy storage compared to the state-of-the-art electrodes, by delivering similar to 535 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1) while maintaining high performance metrics even at a rate as high as 50 A g(-1). The elucidation of the decisive role of structural isomerism in reconfiguring the electrified interface represents a major step forward in understanding the electrodics of molecular platforms.

}, issn = {2041-6520}, doi = {10.1039/d3sc01692g}, author = {Kottaichamy, Alagar Raja and Deebansok, Siraprapha and Deng, Jie and Nazrulla, Mohammed Azeezulla and Zhu, Yachao and Bhat, Zahid Manzoor and Devendrachari, Mruthyunjayachari Chattanahalli and Vinod, Chathakudath Prabhakaran and Kotresh, Harish Makri Nimbegondi and Fontaine, Olivier and Thotiyl, Musthafa Ottakam} }