Search results for: phosphoryl group donor

Authors: Bandar Ali Al-Asbahi, Mohammad Hafizuddin Haji Jumali

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Forster energy transfer between poly (9,9'-di-n-octylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) (PFO)/TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) as a donor and Fluorol 7GA as an acceptor has been studied. The energy transfer parameters were calculated by using mathematical models. The dominant mechanism responsible for the energy transfer between the donor and acceptor molecules was Forster-type, as evidenced by large values of quenching rate constant, energy transfer rate constant and critical distance of energy transfer. Moreover, these composites which were used as an emissive layer in organic light emitting diodes, were investigated in terms of current density–voltage and electroluminescence spectra.

Keywords: energy transfer parameters, forster-type, electroluminescence, organic light emitting diodes

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Authors: Imran Muhammad

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The main cause of infectious disease in the modern world is Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (MT). To combat tuberculosis, new and efficient drugs are an urgent need in the modern world. Schif bases are potent for their biological pharmacophore activity. Thus we selected different Vanillin-based Schiff bases for their binding activity against target enzymes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is (DprE1 (decaprenyl phosphoryl-β-D-ribose 2′-epimerase), and DNA gyrase subunit-A), using molecular docking. We evaluate the inhibition potential, interaction, and binding mode of these compounds with the target enzymes.

Keywords: schiff bases, tuberculosis, DNA gyrase, DprE1, docking

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Authors: Jineetkumar Gawad, Chandrakant Bonde

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Tuberculosis (TB) is a major worldwide concern whose control has been exacerbated by HIV, the rise of multidrug-resistance (MDR-TB) and extensively drug resistance (XDR-TB) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The interest for newer and faster acting antitubercular drugs are more remarkable than any time. To search potent compounds is need and challenge for researchers. Here, we tried to design lead for inhibition of Decaprenyl phosphoryl-β-D-ribose 2′-epimerase (DprE1) enzyme. Arabinose is an essential constituent of mycobacterial cell wall. DprE1 is a flavoenzyme that converts decaprenylphosphoryl-D-ribose into decaprenylphosphoryl-2-keto-ribose, which is intermediate in biosynthetic pathway of arabinose. Latter, DprE2 converts keto-ribose into decaprenylphosphoryl-D-arabinose. We had a selection of 23 compounds from azaindole series for computational study, and they were drawn using marvisketch. Ligands were prepared using Maestro molecular modeling interface, Schrodinger, v10.5. Common pharmacophore hypotheses were developed by applying dataset thresholds to yield active and inactive set of compounds. There were 326 hypotheses were developed. On the basis of survival score, ADRRR (Survival Score: 5.453) was selected. Selected pharmacophore hypotheses were subjected to virtual screening results into 1000 hits. Hits were prepared and docked with protein 4KW5 (oxydoreductase inhibitor) was downloaded in .pdb format from RCSB Protein Data Bank. Protein was prepared using protein preparation wizard. Protein was preprocessed, the workspace was analyzed using force field OPLS 2005. Glide grid was generated by picking single atom in molecule. Prepared ligands were docked with prepared protein 4KW5 using Glide docking. After docking, on the basis of glide score top-five compounds were selected, (5223, 5812, 0661, 0662, and 2945) and the glide docking score (-8.928, -8.534, -8.412, -8.411, -8.351) respectively. There were interactions of ligand and protein, specifically HIS 132, LYS 418, TRY 230, ASN 385. Pi-pi stacking was observed in few compounds with basic Imidazo [4,5-b] pyridine ring. We had basic azaindole ring in parent compounds, but after glide docking, we received compounds with Imidazo [4,5-b] pyridine as a basic ring. That might be the new lead in the process of drug discovery.

Keywords: DprE1 inhibitors, in silico drug designing, imidazo [4, 5-b] pyridine, lead, tuberculosis

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Authors: Juthamath Komvongsa, Bancha Mahong, Kannika Phasai, Sukanya Luang, Jong-Seong Jeon, James Ketudat-Cairns

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Os9BGlu31 is a rice transglucosidase that transfers glucosyl moieties to various acceptors such as carboxylic acids and alcohols, including phenolic acids and flavonoids, in vitro. The role of Os9BGlu31 transglucosidase in rice plant metabolism has not been reported to date. Methanolic extracts of rice bran and flag leaves were found to contain substrates to which Os9BGlu31 could transfer glucose from 4-nitrophenyl β -D-glucopyranoside donor. The semi-purified substrate from rice bran was found to contain oleic acid and linoleic acid and the pure fatty acids were found to act as acceptor substrates for Os9BGlu31 transglucosidase to form 1-O-acyl glucose esters. Os9BGlu31 showed higher activity with oleic acid (18:1) and linoleic acid (18:2) than stearic acid (18:0), and had both higher kcat and higher Km for linoleic than oleic acid in the presence of 8 mM 4NPGlc donor. This transglucosidase reaction is reversible, Os9bglu31 knockout rice lines of flag leaves were found to have higher amounts of fatty acid glucose esters than wild type control lines, these data conclude that fatty acid glucose esters act as glucosyl donor substrates for Os9BGlu31 transglucosidase in rice.

Keywords: fatty acid, fatty acid glucose ester, transglucosidase, rice flag leaf, homologous knockout lines, tandam mass spectrometry

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Authors: Pasquale Porcu, Mireille Vonlanthen, Gerardo Zaragoza-Galán, Ernesto Rivera

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In this work, we report the synthesis of a novel series of dendritic molecules bearing donor-acceptor groups (pyrene-bodipy) with potential applications in energy transfer. Initially, first and second generation Fréchet type dendrons (Py2-G1OH and Py4-G2OH) were prepared from 1-pyrenylbutanol and 3,5-dihydroxybenzylic alcohol. These compounds were further linked to a bodipy unit via an esterification reaction in order to obtain the desired products (Bodipy-G1Py2) and Bodipy-G2Py4). These compounds were fully characterized by FTIR and 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy and their molecular weights were determined by MALDITOF. The optical and photophysical properties of these molecules were evaluated by absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy, in order to compare their behaviour with other analogue molecules.

Keywords: bodipy, dendritic molecules, optical properties, pyrene

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Authors: Abdol-Hassan Doulah

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In this research, some of the inorganic complexes of uranyl with N- donor ligands were synthesized. Complexes were characteriezed by FT-IR and UV spectra, ¹HNMR, ¹³CNMR and some physical properties. The uranyl unit (UO2) is composed of a center of uranium atom with the charge (+6) and two oxygen atom by forming two U=O double bonds. The structure is linear (O=U=O, 180) and usually stable. So other ligands often coordinate to the U atom in the plane perpendicularly to the O=U=O axis. The antitumor activity of some of ligand and their complexes against a panel of human tumor cell lines (HT29: Haman colon adenocarcinoma cell line T47D: human breast adenocarcinoma cell line) were determined by MTT(3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide) assay. These data suggest that some of these compounds provide good models for the further design of potent antitumor compounds.

Keywords: inorganic, uranyl complex-donor ligands, Schiff bases, anticancer activity

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Authors: Ife Elegbeleye, Nnditshedzeni Eric, Regina Maphanga, Femi Elegbeleye, Femi Agunbiade

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The global potential of other renewable energy sources such as wind, hydroelectric, bio-mass, and geothermal is estimated to be approximately 13 %, with hydroelectricity constituting a larger percentage. Sunlight provides by far the largest of all carbon-neutral energy sources. More energy from the sunlight strikes the Earth in one hour (4.3 × 1020 J) than all the energy consumed on the planet in a year (4.1 × 1020 J), hence, solar energy remains the most abundant clean, renewable energy resources for mankind. Photovoltaic (PV) devices such as silicon solar cells, dye sensitized solar cells are utilized for harnessing solar energy. Polyene-diphenylaniline organic molecules are important sets of molecules that has stirred many research interest as photosensitizers in TiO₂ semiconductor-based dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The advantages of organic dye molecule over metal-based complexes are higher extinction coefficient, moderate cost, good environmental compatibility, and electrochemical properties. The polyene-diphenylaniline organic dyes with basic configuration of donor-π-acceptor are affordable, easy to synthesize and possess chemical structures that can easily be modified to optimize their photocatalytic and spectral properties. The enormous interest in polyene-diphenylaniline dyes as photosensitizers is due to their fascinating spectral properties which include visible light to near infra-red-light absorption. In this work, density functional theory approach via GPAW software, Avogadro and ASE were employed to study the effect of methoxy functionalized group on the spectral properties of polyene-diphenylaniline dyes and their photons absorbing characteristics in the visible region to near infrared region of the solar spectrum. Our results showed that the two-phenyl based complexes D5 and D7 exhibits maximum absorption peaks at 750 nm and 850 nm, while D9 and D11 with methoxy group shows maximum absorption peak at 800 nm and 900 nm respectively. The highest absorption wavelength is notable for D9 and D11 containing additional polyene and methoxy groups. Also, D9 and D11 chromophores with the methoxy group shows lower energy gap of 0.98 and 0.85 respectively than the corresponding D5 and D7 dyes complexes with energy gap of 1.32 and 1.08. The analysis of their electron injection kinetics ∆Ginject into the band gap of TiO₂ shows that D9 and D11 with the methoxy group has higher electron injection kinetics of -2.070 and -2.030 than the corresponding polyene-diphenylaniline complexes without the addition of polyene group with ∆Ginject values of -2.820 and -2.130 respectively. Our findings suggest that the addition of functionalized group as an extension of the organic complexes results in higher light harvesting efficiencies and bathochromic shift of the absorption spectra to higher wavelength which suggest higher current densities and open circuit voltage in DSSCs. The study suggests that the photocatalytic properties of organic chromophores/complexes with donor-π-acceptor configuration can be enhanced by the addition of functionalized groups.

Keywords: renewable energy resource, solar energy, dye sensitized solar cells, polyene-diphenylaniline organic chromophores

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Authors: Rebaz Sdiq Ismail

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Organ donation and transplantation is one of the most debated topics in modern jurisprudence. It is a surgical procedure that aims to prolong a person’s life suffering from damaged or missing organs. This surgical procedure is carried out by removing an organ from a donor and transplanting it into the body of the recipient. As human life is of high value in Islamic Sharia, therefore, the donor and recipient should go through an intensive medical examination to remove any health risk associated with the organ and transplantation procedure. Thus, in carrying out the organ donation process, any violation of the Sharia decree that might cause harm to the human body is strictly prohibited. The researcher concludes that the former scholars of Islamic Sharia, along with some of the contemporary scholars, are against the entire concept of organ donation and transplant. However, the majority of contemporary scholars support organ donation.

Keywords: law, donation, organ, Kurdistan, sharia

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Authors: Rabih Al-Kaysi

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When quasi-stable solutions of 9-methylanthracene (pi-electron donor, 0.0005 M) and 1,2,4,5-Tetracyanobenzene (pi-electron acceptor, 0.0005 M) in aqueous sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS, 0.025 M) were gently mixed, uniform-shaped rectangular charge-transfer nanocrystals precipitated out. These red colored charge-transfer (CT) crystals were composed of a 1:1-mole ratio of acceptor/ donor and are highly insoluble in water/SDS solution. The rectangular crystals morphology is semi hollow with symmetrical twin pockets reminiscent of nanocapsules. For a typical crop of nanocapsules, the dimensions are 21 x 6 x 0.5 microns with an approximate hollow volume of 1.5 x 105 nm3. By varying the concentration of aqueous SDS, mixing duration and incubation temperature, we can control the size and volume of the nanocapsules. The initial number of CT seed nanoparticles, formed by mixing the D and A solutions, determined the number and dimensions of the obtained nanocapsules formed after several hours of incubation under still conditions. Prolonged mixing of the donor and acceptor solutions resulted in plenty of initial seeds hence smaller nanocapsules. Short mixing times yields less seed formation and larger micron-sized capsules. The addition of Doxorubicin in situ with the quasi-stable solutions while mixing leads to the formation of CT nanocapsules with Doxorubicin sealed inside. The Doxorubicin can be liberated from the nanocapsules by cracking them using ultrasonication. This method can be extended to other binary CT complex crystals as well.

Keywords: charge-transfer, nanocapsules, nanocrystals, doxorubicin

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Authors: Zeynep Dikmen, Vural Bütün

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Electron donor or acceptor capability to participate in electron conjugation is the requirement for an electroactive material. Conjugated molecules and polymers bearing heterocyclic units have potential as optically electroactive materials. Thiazolo thiazole based compounds have attention for last two decades, because they have attractive electronic and optical properties, these compounds are useful for electronic application areas such as dye sentisized solar cells (DSSCs), organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and field effect transistors (FETs). Thiazolo[5,4-d]thiazole is bicyclic aromatic structure contains N and S atoms which act as electron donor. A new electron accepting or donating group bound to thiazolo [5,4-d] thiazole fused ring can change the electronic, spectroscopic, stability and dyeing properties of the new material. Polyphenylene(thiazolo [5,4-d] thiazole) (p-PhTT) compound was synthesized via condensation reaction of terephthalaldehyde with dithiooxamide. The chemical structure was determined with solid state 13C NMR spectroscopy. Optical properties (i.e. absorbance and band gap) was determined via solid UV-vis spectroscopy. The insoluble polymer was quarternized with 4-vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC). Colorless VBC changed into a yellow liquid. AgNO3 complex were prepared and optical properties were investigated with UV-Vis, fluorescence spectroscopy and X-ray spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry studies were examined in this research. This structure exhibits good absorbance and fluorescence in UV-vis region. Synthesis scheme of PyTT and preparation of metal complexes are given. PyTT has absorbance at ~360 nm and fluorescence at ~420 nm.

Keywords: thiazolo thiazole, quarternized polymers, polymeric ligands, Ag complexes

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Authors: David Ompong, Jai Singh

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A better understanding of the open-circuit voltage (Voc) related losses in organic solar cells (OSCs) is desirable in order to assess the photovoltaic performance of these devices. We have derived Voc as a function of charge carrier mobilities (μe and μh) for organic and hybrid solar cells by optimizing the drift-diffusion current density. The optimum Voc thus obtained depends on the energy difference between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level and the quasi-Fermi level of holes of the donor material. We have found that the Voc depends on the ratio of the electron (μe) and hole (μh) mobilities and when μh > μe the Voc increases. The most important loss term in the Voc arises from the energetics of the donor and acceptor materials, which will be discussed in detail in this paper.

Keywords: charge carrier mobility, open-circuit voltage, organic solar cells, quasi-fermi levels

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Authors: Valentina A. Mikhailova, Serguei V. Feskov, Anatoly I. Ivanov

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In the last decade the nonequilibrium charge transfer have attracted considerable interest from the scientific community. Examples of such processes are the charge recombination in excited donor-acceptor complexes and the intramolecular electron transfer from the second excited electronic state. In these reactions the charge transfer proceeds predominantly in the nonequilibrium mode. In the excited donor-acceptor complexes the nuclear nonequilibrium is created by the pump pulse. The intramolecular electron transfer from the second excited electronic state is an example where the nuclear nonequilibrium is created by the forward electron transfer. The kinetics of these nonequilibrium reactions demonstrate a number of peculiar properties. Most important from them are: (i) the absence of the Marcus normal region in the free energy gap law for the charge recombination in excited donor-acceptor complexes, (ii) extremely low quantum yield of thermalized charge separated state in the ultrafast charge transfer from the second excited state, (iii) the nonexponential charge recombination dynamics in excited donor-acceptor complexes, (iv) the dependence of the charge transfer rate constant on the excitation pulse frequency. This report shows that most of these kinetic features can be well reproduced in the framework of stochastic point-transition multichannel model. The model involves an explicit description of the nonequilibrium excited state formation by the pump pulse and accounts for the reorganization of intramolecular high-frequency vibrational modes, for their relaxation as well as for the solvent relaxation. The model is able to quantitatively reproduce complex nonequilibrium charge transfer kinetics observed in modern experiments. The interpretation of the nonequilibrium effects from a unified point of view in the terms of the multichannel point transition stochastic model allows to see similarities and differences of electron transfer mechanism in various molecular donor-acceptor systems and formulates general regularities inherent in these phenomena. The nonequilibrium effects in photoinduced ultrafast charge transfer which have been studied for the last 10 years are analyzed. The methods of suppression of the ultrafast charge recombination, similarities and dissimilarities of electron transfer mechanism in different molecular donor-acceptor systems are discussed. The extremely low quantum yield of the thermalized charge separated state observed in the ultrafast charge transfer from the second excited state in the complex consisting of 1,2,4-trimethoxybenzene and tetracyanoethylene in acetonitrile solution directly demonstrates that its effectiveness can be close to unity. This experimental finding supports the idea that the nonequilibrium charge recombination in the excited donor-acceptor complexes can be also very effective so that the part of thermalized complexes is negligible. It is discussed the regularities inherent to the equilibrium and nonequilibrium reactions. Their fundamental differences are analyzed. Namely the opposite dependencies of the charge transfer rates on the dynamical properties of the solvent. The increase of the solvent viscosity results in decreasing the thermal rate and vice versa increasing the nonequilibrium rate. The dependencies of the rates on the solvent reorganization energy and the free energy gap also can considerably differ. This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant No. 16-13-10122).

Keywords: Charge recombination, higher excited states, free energy gap law, nonequilibrium

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Authors: Razieh Teimouri

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Electrical modelling of Cu (In,Ga)Se₂ thin film solar cells is carried out with compositionally graded absorber and CdS buffer layer. Simulation results are compared with experimental data. Surface defect layers (SDL) are located in CdS/CIGS interface for improving open circuit voltage simulated structure through the analysis of the interface is investigated with or without this layer. When SDL removed, by optimizing the conduction band offset (CBO) position of the buffer/absorber layers with its recombination mechanisms and also shallow donor density in the CdS, the open circuit voltage increased significantly. As a result of simulation, excellent performance can be obtained when the conduction band of window layer positions higher by 0.2 eV than that of CIGS and shallow donor density in the CdS was found about 1×10¹⁸ (cm⁻³).

Keywords: CIGS solar cells, thin film, SCAPS, buffer layer, conduction band offset

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Authors: Y. S. Mohamed, L. A. Ahmed, H. A. Salem, A. M. Agha

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Liver Fibrosis is one of the most serious conditions that affect the Egyptian society. In the present study, the effect of nicorandil was investigated in experimentally-induced liver fibrosis by bile duct ligation in rats. Nicorandil (3mg/kg/day) was given orally 24 h after bile duct ligation for 14 days till the end of the experiment. Nicorandil group showed a significant improvement in liver function tests (ALT and ALP) as well as a significant decrease in oxidative stress biomarkers (TBARS and GSH), area of fibrosis and activity of hepatic stellate cells as indicated by decreased expression of alpha smooth muscle actin.Moreover, nicorandil treatment decreased HSCs proliferation due to its inhibitory effects on protein kinase C(PKC) and Platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) . Oral administration of either glibenclamide (10 mg/kg/day)(a KATP channel blocker) or L-NAME (30 mg/kg/day) (an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase) blocked the protective effects of nicorandil. However, nicorandil and L-NAME treated group showed more or less results similar to that of untreated bile duct ligated group. In conclusion, nicorandil was effective against the development of bile duct ligated-induced liver fibrosis in rats where activation of the NO pathway plays an important role in the protective effect nicorandil.

Keywords: hepatic stellate cells, nicorandil, nitric oxide donor, liver fibrosis

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Authors: Lien-Fa Lin, Yung-Ming Li, Fu-Shun Hsieh

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With the advancement of information technology and development of group commerce, people have obviously changed in their lifestyle. However, group commerce faces some challenging problems. The products or services provided by vendors do not satisfactorily reflect customers’ opinions, so that the sale and revenue of group commerce gradually become lower. On the other hand, the process for a formed customer group to reach group-purchasing consensus is time-consuming and the final decision is not the best choice for each group members. In this paper, we design a social decision support mechanism, by using group discussion message to recommend suitable options for group members and we consider social influence and personal preference to generate option ranking list. The proposed mechanism can enhance the group purchasing decision making efficiently and effectively and venders can provide group products or services according to the group option ranking list.

Keywords: social network, group decision, text mining, group commerce

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Authors: Narender Banwala

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The study critically evaluates that the politics of foreign aid and its effect on Afghanistan. The study argues that dynamics of foreign aid to Afghanistan are not driven solely by the Afghan political, social, and economic realities but much more by the ephemeral political goals of international donor countries. The objective of this paper is to find out the political reality of foreign aid given to Afghanistan in a post 9/11 era. The study analyses the gap between the donor countries' interests and the Afghan government's priorities in aid coordination and management. The aid given to Afghanistan has been accompanied by the political interests of the major powers and therefore violated the core principles of humanitarianism, i.e., humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. This research attempts to explain the areas which are of high priority, extremely vulnerable, and have been a neglected part since 2001. The study focuses on how as a result of politicization, foreign aid could not yield the expected results even after prolong presence of international donors in Afghanistan. Methodologically, the study includes both qualitative and quantitative data, which are collected by interviews with government officials and other government documents.

Keywords: Afganistan, aid, politics, security

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Authors: Emine G. Cansu Ergun

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Conjugated system based sensors for selective detection of metal ions have been taking attention during last two decades. Fluorescent sensors are the promising candidates for ion detection due to their high selectivity towards metal ions, and rapid response times. Detection of mercury in an environmenet is important since mercury is a toxic element for human. Beyond the maximum allowable limit, mercury may cause serious problems in human health by spreading into the atmosphere, water and the food chain. In this study, a quinoxaline and 3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene based donor-acceptor-donor type conjugated molecule used as a fluorescent sensor for detecting the mercury ion in aqueous medium. Among other various cations, existence of mercury resulted in a full quenching of the fluorescence signal. Then, a paper based sensor is constructed and used for mercury detection. As a result it is concluded that the offering sensor is a good candidate for selective mercury detection in aqueous media both in solution and paper based forms.

Keywords: Conjugated molecules , fluorescence quenching, metal ion detection , sensors

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Authors: Daniel Benson, Yundan Gong, Hannah Kirk

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Advancement in national language processing techniques has led to increased data processing speeds, and reduced the need for cumbersome, manual data processing that is often required when processing data from multilateral organizations for specific purposes. As such, using named entity recognition (NER) modeling and the Organisation of Economically Developed Countries (OECD) Creditor Reporting System database, we present the first geotagged dataset of OECD donor Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects on a global, subnational basis. Our resulting data contains 52,086 ODA projects geocoded to subnational locations across 115 countries, worth a combined $87.9bn. This represents the first global, OECD donor ODA project database with geocoded projects. We use this new data to revisit old questions of how ‘well’ donors allocate ODA to the developing world. This understanding is imperative for policymakers seeking to improve ODA effectiveness.

Keywords: international aid, geocoding, subnational data, natural language processing, machine learning

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Authors: Sharmila Rathee

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Individuals with disability/ies often face negative attitudes, discrimination, exclusion, and inequality of treatment due to stigmatization and stigmatized treatment. While a significant number of studies in field of stigma suggest that group-identification has positive consequences for stigmatized individuals, ironically very miniscule empirical work in sight has attempted to investigate in-group identification as a coping measure against stigma, humiliation and related experiences among disability group. In view of death of empirical research on in-group identification among disability group, through present work, an attempt has been made to examine the experiences of stigma, humiliation, and in-group identification among disability group. Results of the study suggest that use of in-group identification as a coping strategy is not uniform across members of disability group and degree of in-group identification differs across different sub-groups of disability groups. Further, in-group identification among members of disability group depends on variables like degree and impact of disability, factors like onset of disability, nature, and visibility of disability, educational experiences and resources available to deal with disabling conditions.

Keywords: disability, stigma, in-group identification, social identity

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Authors: Siyu Wang, Anthony Ward

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Emotional intelligence (EI) is a well-established personal characteristic. It has been viewed as a critical factor which can influence an individual's academic achievement, ability to work and potential to succeed. When working in a group, EI is fundamentally connected to the group members' interaction and ability to work as a team. The ability of a group member to intelligently perceive and understand own emotions (Intrapersonal EI), to intelligently perceive and understand other members' emotions (Interpersonal EI), and to intelligently perceive and understand emotions between different groups (Cross-boundary EI) can be considered as Group emotional intelligence (Group EI). In this research, a more representative Group EI measurement approach, which incorporates the information of the composition of a group and an individual’s role in that group, is proposed. To demonstrate the claim of being more representative Group EI measurement approach, this study adopts a multi-method research design, involving a combination of both qualitative and quantitative techniques to establish a metric of Group EI. From the results, it can be concluded that by introducing the weight coefficient of each group member on group work into the measurement of Group EI, Group EI will be more representative and more capable of understanding what happens during teamwork than previous approaches.

Keywords: case study, emotional intelligence, group EI, multi-method research

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Authors: Mireille Vonlanthen, Pasquale Porcu, Ernesto Rivera

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Dendritic macromolecules are presenting unique physical and chemical properties. One of them is the faculty of transferring energy from a donor moiety introduced at the periphery to an acceptor moiety at the core, mimicking the antenna effect of the process of photosynthesis. The mechanism of energy transfer is based on the Förster resonance energy exchange and requires some overlap between the emission spectrum of the donor and the absorption spectrum of the acceptor. Since it requires a coupling of transition dipole but no overlap of the physical wavefunctions, the energy transfer by Förster mechanism can occur over quite long distances from 1 to a maximum of 10 nm. However, the efficiency of the transfer depends strongly on distance. The Förster radius is the distance at which 50% of the donor’s emission is deactivated by FRET. In this work, we synthesized and characterized a novel series of dendrimers bearing pyrene moieties at the periphery and a Ru (II) complex at the core. The optical and photophysical properties of these compounds were studied by absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy. Pyrene is a well-studied chromophore that has the particularity to present monomer as well as excimer fluorescence emission. The coordination compounds of Ru (II) are red emitters with low quantum yield and long excited lifetime. We observed an efficient singulet to singulet energy transfer in such constructs. Moreover, it is known that the energy of the MLCT emitting state of Ru (II) can be tuned to become almost isoenegetic with respect to the triplet state of pyrene, leading to an extended phosphorescence lifetime. Using dendrimers bearing pyrene moieties as ligands for Ru (II), we could combine the antenna effect of dendrimers as well as its protection effect to the quenching by dioxygen with lifetime increase due to triplet-triplet equilibrium.

Keywords: dendritic molecules, energy transfer, pyrene, ru-trisbipyridine complex

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Authors: Douglas Yeboah, Monishka Narayan, Jai Singh

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One of the key parameters in determining the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of organic solar cells (OSCs) is the open-circuit voltage, however, it is still not well understood. In order to examine the performance of OSCs, it is necessary to understand the losses associated with the open-circuit voltage and how best it can be improved. Here, an analytical expression for the open-circuit voltage of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) OSCs is derived from the charge carrier densities without considering the drift-diffusion current. The open-circuit voltage thus obtained is dependent on the donor-acceptor band gap, the energy difference between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the hole quasi-Fermi level of the donor material, temperature, the carrier density (electrons), the generation rate of free charge carriers and the bimolecular recombination coefficient. It is found that open-circuit voltage increases when the carrier density increases and when the temperature decreases. The calculated results are discussed in view of experimental results and agree with them reasonably well. Overall, this work proposes an alternative pathway for improving the open-circuit voltage in BHJ OSCs.

Keywords: charge carrier density, open-circuit voltage, organic solar cells, temperature

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Authors: Chia-Ching Tsai

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The study examined the control illusion of conditioned superstition by using Taiwanese subjects. The study had a three-group experimental design, that is, conditioning group and a control group, and the conditioning group was further separated into superstitious and unsuperstitious groups. The results showed that conditioned superstition can significantly influence the control illusion. Further analysis showed that the control illusion in the superstitious conditioning group was significantly greater than in the control group or in the unsuperstitious conditioning group. Besides, there was no significant difference between the control group and the unsuperstitious conditioning group.

Keywords: Control illusion, Conditioned superstition, experimental design

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Authors: Nikolaos Katsoulas, Ioannis Naounoulis, Sofia Faliagka

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Cascade hydroponic systems have the potential to minimize environmental impact and improve resource efficiency by recycling the nutrient solution drained from a hydroponic (primary-donor) crop to irrigate another (secondary-receiver), less sensitive to salinity crop. However, it remains unclear if the drained solution from the primary crop can fully meet the nutritional requirements of a secondary crop and whether the productivity of the secondary crop is affected. To address this question, a prototype cascade hydroponic system was designed and tested using a cucumber crop as the donor crop and a melon as secondary crop. The performance of the system in terms of productivity and water and nutrient use efficiency was evaluated by measuring plant growth, fresh and dry matter production, nutrients content, and photosynthesis rate in the secondary crop. The amount of water and nutrients used for the primary and secondary crops was also recorded. This work was carried out under the ECONUTRI project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Horizon Europe Grant agreement: 101081858.

Keywords: hydroponics, salinity, water use efficiencu, nutrients use efficiency

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Authors: Rakesh Kumar Meena, Tanushree Chatterjee

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Okra (Abelmoschus esculentas L. Moench) or lady’s finger is an important vegetable crop belonging to the Malvaceae family. Unfortunately, production and productivity of Okra are majorly affected by Yellow Vein mosaic virus (YVMV). The AO: 189 (resistant parent) X AO: 191(susceptible parent) used for the development of mapping population. The mapping population has 143 individuals (F₂:F₃). Population was characterized by physiological and pathological observations. Screening of 360 DNA markers was performed to survey for parental polymorphism between the contrasting parents’, i.e., AO: 189 and AO: 191. Out of 360; 84 polymorphic markers were used for genotyping of the mapping population. Total markers were distributed into four linkage groups (LG1, LG2, LG3, and LG4). LG3 covered the longest span (106.8cM) with maximum number of markers (27) while LG1 represented the smallest linkage group in terms of length (71.2cM). QTL identification using the composite interval mapping approach detected two prominent QTLs, QTL1 and QTL2 for resistance against YVMV disease. These QTLs were placed between the marker intervals of NBS-LRR72-Path02 and NBS-LRR06- NBS-LRR65 on linkage group 02 and linkage group 04 respectively. The LOD values of QTL1 and QTL2 were 5.7 and 6.8 which accounted for 19% and 27% of the total phenotypic variation, respectively. The findings of this study provide two linked markers which can be used as efficient diagnostic tools to distinguish between YVMV resistant and susceptible Okra cultivars/genotypes. Lines identified as highly resistant against YVMV infection can be used as donor lines for this trait. This will be instrumental in accelerating the trait improvement program in Okra and will substantially reduce the yield losses due to this viral disease.

Keywords: Okra, yellow vein mosaic virus, resistant, linkage map, QTLs

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Authors: Sukhee Park, Gaab Soo Kim

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Purpose: We aimed to evaluate the adequacy of second-generation laryngeal mask airway use during prolonged abdominal surgery in respect of ventilation, oxygenation, postoperative pulmonary complications (PPC), and postoperative non-pulmonary complications on living donor kidney transplant (LDKT) surgery. Methods: In total, 257 recipients who underwent LDKT using either laryngeal mask airway-ProSeal (LMA-P) or endotracheal tube (ETT) were retrospectively analyzed. Arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2 and ratio of arterial partial pressure of oxygen to fractional inspired oxygen (PFR) during surgery were compared between two groups. In addition, PPC including pulmonary aspiration and postoperative non-pulmonary complications including nausea, vomiting, hoarseness, vocal cord palsy, delirium, and atrial fibrillation were also compared. Results: PaCO2 and PFR during surgery were not significantly different between the two groups. PPC was also not significantly different between the two groups. Interestingly, the incidence of delirium was significantly lower in the LMA-P group than the ETT group (3.0% vs. 10.3%, P = 0.029). Conclusions: During prolonged abdominal surgery such as LDKT, second-generation laryngeal mask airway offers adequate ventilation and oxygenation and can be considered a suitable alternative to ETT.

Keywords: laryngeal mask airway, prolonged abdominal surgery, kidney transplantation, postoperative pulmonary complication

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Authors: Thomas Yeboah

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In recent times, micro-finance programmes targeting women have become the central means of donor poverty alleviation strategies. In view of the renewed focus on post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) poverty reduction strategies, there is the likelihood that funding might increase in the next coming decades to support different initiatives by donor agencies. In this paper, we critically examine the role of microfinance in shaping gender relations and empowerment outcomes of women. It is widely argued that providing and reaching out to women with credit methodologies serves as a means of increasing women’s bargaining power and challenging existing gender subordination thereby releasing them from power structures which dominate their lives. This paper cautions this view and instead show that the mainstream argument surrounding microfinance and gender empowerment is much complex than what the popular rhetoric preaches. Drawing on empirical cases on microfinance literature, we argue that lack of systematic strategy to incorporate men and the wider socio-cultural dynamics within which women’s lives are embedded radically constraints the empowerment potential of microcredit programmes and in some context may lead to unintended consequences for women.

Keywords: microfinance, empowerment, women, men, gender relations

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Authors: Natalia Buderatskaya, Igor Ilyin, Julia Gontar, Sergey Lavrynenko, Olga Parnitskaya, Ekaterina Ilyina, Eduard Kapustin, Yana Lakhno

Abstract:

Introduction: It is known that cryopreservation of oocytes has peculiar features due to the complex structure of the oocyte. One of the most important features is that mature oocytes contain meiotic division spindle which is very sensitive even to the slightest variation in temperature. Thus, the main objective of this study is to analyse the resulting euploid embryos obtained from thawed oocytes in comparison with the data of preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) in fresh embryo cycles. Material and Methods: The study was conducted at 'Medical Centre IGR' from January to July 2016. Data were analysed for 908 donor oocytes obtained in 67 cycles of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), of which 693 oocytes were used in the 51 'fresh' cycles (group A), and 215 oocytes - 16 ART programs with vitrification female gametes (group B). The average age of donors in the groups match 27.3±2.9 and 27.8±6.6 years. Stimulation of superovulation was conducted the standard way. Vitrification was performed in 1-2 hours after transvaginal puncture and thawing of oocytes were carried out in accordance with the standard protocol of Cryotech (Japan). Manipulation ICSI was performed 4-5 hours after transvaginal follicle puncture for fresh oocytes, or after defrosting - for vitrified female gametes. For the PGS, an embryonic biopsy was done on the third or on the fifth day after fertilization. Diagnostic procedures were performed using fluorescence in situ hybridization with the study of such chromosomes as 13, 16, 18, 21, 22, X, Y. Only morphologically quality blastocysts were used for the transfer, the estimation of which corresponded to the Gardner criteria. The statistical hypotheses were done using the criteria t, x^2 at a significance levels p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001. Results: The mean number of mature oocytes per cycle in group A was 13.58±6.65 and in group B - 13.44±6.68 oocytes for patient. The survival of oocytes after thawing totaled 95.3% (n=205), which indicates a highly effective quality of performed vitrification. The proportion of zygotes in the group A corresponded to 91.1%(n=631), in the group B – 80.5%(n=165), which shows statistically significant difference between the groups (p<0.001) and explained by non-viable oocytes elimination after vitrification. This is confirmed by the fact that on the fifth day of embryos development a statistically significant difference in the number of blastocysts was absent (p>0.05), and constituted respectively 61.6%(n=389) and 63.0%(n=104) in the groups. For the PGS performing 250 embryos analyzed in the group A and 72 embryos - in the group B. The results showed that euploidy in the studied chromosomes were 40.0%(n=100) embryos in the group A and 41.7% (n=30) - in the group B, which shows no statistical significant difference (p>0.05). The indicators of clinical pregnancies in the groups amounted to 64.7% (22 pregnancies per 34 embryo transfers) and 61.5% (8 pregnancies per 13 embryo transfers) respectively, and also had no significant difference between the groups (p>0.05). Conclusions: The results showed that the vitrification does not affect the resulting euploid embryos in assisted reproductive technologies and are not reflected in their morphological characteristics in ART programs.

Keywords: euploid embryos, preimplantation genetic screening, thawing oocytes, vitrification

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Authors: Soraya Abtouche, Zeyneb Ghoualem, Syrine Daoudi, Lina Ouldmohamed, Xavier Assfeld

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This work reports density functional theory calculations of the optimized geometries, molecular reactivity, energy gap,and thermodynamic properties of the free base (H2P) and their Zn (II) metallated (ZnP), bearing one, two, or three carboxylic acid groups using the hybrid functional B3LYP, Cam-B3lYP, wb97xd with 6-31G(d,p) basis sets. When donating groups are attached to the molecular dye, the bond lengths are slightly decreased, which is important for the easy transfer of an electron from donating to the accepting group. For all dyes, the highest occupied molecular orbital/lowest occupied molecular orbital analysis results in positive outcomes upon electron injection to the semiconductor and subsequent dye regeneration by the electrolyte. The ionization potential increases with increasing conjugation; therefore, the compound dye attached to one carboxylic acid group has the highest ionization potential. The results show higher efficiencies of those sensitized with ZnP. These results have been explained, taking into account the electronic character of the metal ion, which acts as a mediator in the injection step, and, on the other hand, considering the number of anchoring groups to which it binds to the surface of TiO2.

Keywords: DSSC, porphyrin, TD-DFT, electronic properties, donor-acceptor groups

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Authors: Li Bixia, Ren Shouwen, Fu Yanfeng, Tu Feng, Xiaoming Fang, Xueming Wang

Abstract:

The utilization of dietary crude fiber in different breed pigs is not the same. Su-shan pigs are a new breed formed by crossing Taihu pigs and Yorkshire pigs. In order to understand the resistance of Su-shan pigs to dietary crude fiber, 150 Su-shan pigs with 60 kg of average body weight and similar body conditions were allocated to three groups randomly, and there are 50 pigs in each group. The percentages of dietary crude fiber were 8.35%, 9.10%, and 11.39%, respectively. At the end of the experiment, 15 pigs randomly selected from each group were slaughtered. The results showed as follows: average daily gain of the 9.10% group was higher than that of the 8.35% group and the 11.39% group; there was a significant difference between the 9.10% group and the 8.35% group (p < 0.05. Levels of urea nitrogen, total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein in the 9.10% group were significantly higher than those in the 8.35% group and the 11.39% group (p < 0.05). Ratios of meat to fat in the 9.10% group and the 11.39% group were significantly higher than that in the 8.35% group (p < 0.05). Lean percentage of 9.10% group was higher than that of 8.35% group and 11.39% group, but there was no significant difference in three groups (p > 0.05). The weight of small intestine and large intestine in the 11.39% group was higher than that in the 8.35% group, and the 9.10% group and the difference reached a significant level (p < 0.05). In conclusion, increasing dietary crude fiber properly could reduce fat percentage, and improve the ratio of meat to fat of finishing Su-shan pigs. The digestion and metabolism of dietary crude fiber promoted the development of stomach and intestine of finishing Su-shan pig.

Keywords: Su-shan pigs, dietary crude fiber, growth performance, serum biochemical indexes

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