Search results for: small molecule

Authors: Bunindro Nameirakpam, Sonia Sougrapakam, Shannon B. Olsson, Rajashekar Yallappa

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Natural sources for new pesticidal compounds hold promise in view of their eco-friendly nature, selectivity and mammalian safety. Despite a large number of plants that show insecticidal activity and diversity of natural chemistry with inherent eco-friendly nature, newer classes of insecticides have eluded discovery. Artemisia vulgaris, known as Mugwort, is a universal herb used for folk medicine and religious purposes throughout the ancient world. In India, the essential oils of Artemisia vulgaris are used for its insecticidal, anti parasiticidal and antimicrobial properties. Traditionally, the dried leaves of Artemisia vulgaris are used to repel insects as well as rats in and around the granaries in the North-East India. Artemisia vulgaris collected during November from different ecological sites were studied for the bio-pesticidal utility against the stored grain pests. The insecticidal activities were found in the crude extracts of n-hexane and methanol from the samples collected in Sikkim and Manipur respectively. Using silica gel column chromatography protocol, we have isolated one novel bioactive molecule from the aerial parts of Artemisia vulgaris L based on various physical-chemical and spectroscopic techniques (IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and mass). The novel bioactive molecule is highly toxic and very low concentration (4.35 µg/l) is needed to control the stored product insects. In additional experiment results clearly showed the involvement of sodium pumps inhibition in the insecticidal action of purified compound in the Sitophilus oryzae. The knockdown activity of the purified compound is concomitant with the in vivo inhibition of Na+/ K+- ATPase. Further, our study showed insignificant differences in the seed germination of control and the treated grains. The lack of adverse effect of the novel bioactive molecule on the seed germination is highly desirable for seed/grain protectant and showing the potential to be developed as possible natural fumigants for the control of stored grain pests. The novel bioactive molecule is selective insecticide with a high margin of safety to mammals and showed promise as novel biopesticide candidate for grain protection. It is believed that Bio-pesticides can serve as the most important pest management tools as far as global safety is concerned.

Keywords: Indian traditional plant, Artemisia vulgaris, bio-pesticides, Na+/ K+- ATPase, seed germination

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Authors: Md. Jahoor Alam

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Recent studies suggest that Glucose controls several lifesaving pathways. Glucose molecule is reported to be responsible for the production of ROS (reactive oxygen species). In the present work, a p53-MDM2-Glucose model is developed in order to study spatiotemporal properties of the p53 pathway. The systematic model is mathematically described. The model is numerically simulated using high computational facility. It is observed that the variation in glucose concentration level triggers the system at different states, namely, oscillation death (stabilized), sustain and damped oscillations which correspond to various cellular states. The transition of these states induced by glucose is phase transition-like behaviour. Further, the amplitude of p53 dynamics with the variation of glucose concentration level follows power law behaviour, As(k) ~ kϒ, where, ϒ is a constant. Further Stochastic approach is needed for understanding of realistic behaviour of the model. The present model predicts the variation of p53 states under the influence of glucose molecule which is also supported by experimental facts reported by various research articles.

Keywords: oscillation, temporal behavior, p53, glucose

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Authors: Rabiya, Ramkrishna Sen

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The textile industry releases huge volume of effluent containing reactive dyes in the nearby water bodies. These effluents are significant source of water pollution since most of the dyes are toxic in nature. Moreover, it scavenges the dissolved oxygen essential to the aquatic species. Therefore, it is necessary to treat the dye effluent before it is discharged in the nearby water bodies. The present study focuses on removing the basic dye methylene blue from simulated wastewater using biopolymer. The biopolymer was partially purified from the culture of Bacillus licheniformis by ultrafiltration. Based on the elution profile of the biopolymer from ion exchange column, it was found to be a negatively charged molecule. Its net anionic nature allows the biopolymer to adsorb positively charged molecule, methylene blue. The major factors which influence the removal of dye by the biopolymer such as incubation time, pH, initial dye concentration were evaluated. The methylene blue uptake by the biopolymer is more (14.84 mg/g) near neutral pH than in acidic pH (12.05mg/g) of the water. At low pH, the lower dissociation of the dye molecule as well as the low negative charge available on the biopolymer reduces the interaction between the biopolymer and dye. The optimum incubation time for maximum removal of dye was found to be 60 min. The entire study was done with 25 mL of dye solution in 100 mL flask at 25 °C with an amount of 11g/L of biopolymer. To study the adsorption isotherm, the dye concentration was varied in the range of 25mg/L to 205mg/L. The dye uptake by the biopolymer against the equilibrium concentration was plotted. The plot indicates that the adsorption of dye by biopolymer follows the Freundlich adsorption isotherm (R-square 0.99). Hence, these studies indicate the potential use of biopolymer for the removal of basic dye from textile wastewater in an ecofriendly and sustainable way.

Keywords: biopolymer, methylene blue dye, textile industry, wastewater

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Authors: Lucas Viani, Benedetta Mennucci, Soo Young Park, Johannes Gierschner

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Organic semiconductors have attracted the attention of the scientific community in the past decades due to their unique physicochemical properties, allowing new designs and alternative device fabrication methods. Until today, organic electronic devices are largely based on conjugated polymers mainly due to their easy processability. In the recent years, due to moderate ET and CT efficiencies and the ill-defined nature of polymeric systems the focus has been shifting to small conjugated molecules with well-defined chemical structure, easier control of intermolecular packing, and enhanced CT and ET properties. It has led to the synthesis of new small molecules, followed by the growth of their crystalline structure and ultimately by the device preparation. This workflow is commonly followed without a clear knowledge of the ET and CT properties related mainly to the macroscopic systems, which may lead to financial and time losses, since not all materials will deliver the properties and efficiencies demanded by the current standards. In this work, we present a theoretical workflow designed to predict the key properties of ET of these new materials prior synthesis, thus speeding up the discovery of new promising materials. It is based on quantum mechanical, hybrid, and classical methodologies, starting from a single molecule structure, finishing with the prediction of its packing structure, and prediction of properties of interest such as static and averaged excitonic couplings, and exciton diffusion length.

Keywords: organic semiconductor, organic crystals, energy transport, excitonic couplings

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Authors: Milan Paudel, Fook Fah Yap, Anil K. Bastola

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The difficulties in riding small wheel bicycles and their lesser stability have been perceived for a long time. Although small wheel bicycles are designed using the similar approach and guidelines that have worked well for big wheel bicycles, the performance of the big wheelers and the smaller wheelers are markedly different. Since both the big wheelers and small wheelers have same fundamental geometry, most blame the small wheel for this discrepancy in the performance. This paper reviews existing guidelines for bicycle design, especially the front steering geometry for the bicycle, and provides a systematic and quantitative analysis of different wheel sized bicycles. A validated mathematical model has been used as a tool to assess the dynamic performance of the bicycles in term of their self-stability. The results obtained were found to corroborate the subjective perception of cyclists for small wheel bicycles. The current approach for small wheel bicycle design requires higher speed to be self-stable. However, it was found that increasing the headtube angle and selecting a proper trail could improve the dynamic performance of small wheel bicycles. A range of parameters for front steering geometry has been identified for small wheel bicycles that have comparable stability as big wheel bicycles. Interestingly, most of the identified geometries are found to be beyond the ISO recommended range and seem to counter the current approach of small wheel bicycle design. Therefore, it was successfully shown that the guidelines for big wheelers do not translate directly to small wheelers, but careful selection of the front geometry could make small wheel bicycles as stable as big wheel bicycles.

Keywords: big wheel bicycle, design approach, ISO requirements, small wheel bicycle, stability and performance

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Authors: Vimuckthi Charika Wickramaratne, Prasansha Kumari

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Sport tourism refers to travel which involves either observing or participating in a sporting event apart from their usual environment. Sport tourism in a fast growing sector of the Sri Lankan travelling industry since Cricket are more popular sport game in the country. This study intends to analyze the impact of these popular sport events for creating and developing small scale business in the country. Primary data gathered from 100 small entrepreneurs around Keththarama Cricket Ground in Sri Lanka. Collected data analyzed using descriptive research methods. The study revealed that local and international visitors for cricket games had impacted on small scale business activities such as retail, handicraft, transport, vehicle parking, small restaurant, hotels, foods and beverage industry. In addition, it was identified that these type of small business are sessional income generating activities for the short period.

Keywords: sport tourism, small scale business, cricket, entrepreneurs

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Authors: Priyanka Sharma, Rajeshwar Nath Srivastava

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Hydrogen has a high level of efficacy in suppressing tumour growth. The role of hydrogen in cancer treatment is unclear. This groundbreaking research will focus on the most effective therapeutic approach for osteosarcoma. Recent data reveals that hydrogen, a naturally occurring gaseous chemical, can protect cells from death. However, little is known about the signalling pathways that regulate cardiac cell death and individual apoptosis signalling by H2 and its downstream targets. According to certain research, the anti-tumor effect of H2 released by magnesium-based biomaterials is mediated by the P53-mediated lysosome-mitochondria apoptosis signalling pathway, bolstering the biomaterial's therapeutic potential as a localised anti-tumor treatment. The role of the H2 molecule in the signalling of apoptotic, autophagic, necroptotic, and pyroptotic cell death in Osteosarcoma is discussed in this paper. Potential Hydrogen-based therapy techniques will broaden the treatment horizon for Osteosarcoma.

Keywords: osteosarcoma, metastasis, hhydrogen, therapeutic

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Authors: Khodijah Ismail, Elfindri

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Tourism development have many environmental, economically and sociocultural benefits. Small islands have a lot of potential for marine tourism development. But, stereotype gender issues still dominate the social and cultural life of rural communities that have an impact on the gap in benefits of local development. The purpose of this study is to found development strategy concept of marine tourism in small islands gender-based. This study found in the marine tourism development of small islands not involved women, from planning to monitor marine tourism development in small islands. It's affects to the low of socio-economic of women in the coastal village and small islands. This condition is not advantage for sustainable development of marine tourism in small islands. Therefore, strengthening of livelihood assets by gender based through the marine tourism development in small islands is very important to attention, that women can contributed to household welfare, bargaining positioned in social culture was better and increase broad access to local government development policies. To realize it requires the full support of the government and relevant stakeholders through gender empowerment and strengthening of accessibility, connectivity, regulation, and design institution.

Keywords: gender inequality, marine tourism, development, tourism management

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Authors: Drissi Mokhtaria, Chouaih Abdelkader, Fodil Hamzaoui

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Our work is about a comparison of experimental and theoretical results of the electron charge density distribution and the electrostatic potential around the M-Nitrophenol Molecule (m-NPH) kwon for its interesting physical characteristics. The molecular experimental results have been obtained from a high-resolution X-ray diffraction study. Theoretical investigations were performed under the Gaussian program using the Density Functional Theory at B3LYP level of theory at 6-31G*. The multipolar model of Hansen and Coppens was used for the experimental electron charge density distribution around the molecule, while we used the DFT methods for the theoretical calculations. The electron charge density obtained in both methods allowed us to find out the different molecular properties such us the electrostatic potential and the dipole moment which were finally subject to a comparison leading to an outcome of a good matching results obtained in both methods.

Keywords: electron charge density, m-nitrophenol, nonlinear optical compound, electrostatic potential, optimized geometric

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Authors: Yoonah Lee, Richard Kyung

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With technological advances in the computational biomedical field, the ability to measure neurotransmitters’ chemical imbalances that affect depression and anxiety has been established. By comparing the thermodynamics stability of amino acid supplements, such as glutamine, tyrosine, phe-nylalanine, and methionine, this research analyzes mood-regulating neurotransmitters, amino acid supplements, and antipsychotic substances (ie. Reserpine molecule and CRF complexes) in relation to depression and anxiety and suggests alternative complexes that are low in energy to act as more efficient treatments for mood disorders. To determine a molecule’s thermodynamic stability, this research examines the molecular energy using Avogadro, a software for building virtual molecules and calculating optimized geometry using GAFF (General Amber Force Field) and UFF (Universal Force Field). The molecules, built using Avogadro, is analyzed using their theoretical values and atomic properties.

Keywords: amino acids, anxiety, depression, neurotransmitters

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Authors: Sagheer A. Onaizi

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The adsorption of anionic biosurfactant (surfactin) and anionic synthetic surfactant (sodium dodecylbenzenesulphonate, abbreviated as SDOBS) from phosphate buffer containing high concentrations of co- and counter-ions to the air-buffer interface has been investigated. The self-assembly of the two surfactants at the interface has been monitored through dynamic surface tension measurements. The equilibrium surface pressure-surfactant concentration data in the premicellar region were regressed using Gibbs adsorption equation. The predicted surface saturations for SDOBS and surfactin are and, respectively. The occupied area per an SDOBS molecule at the interface saturation condition is while that occupied by a surfactin molecule is. The surface saturations reported in this work for both surfactants are in a very good agreement with those obtained using expensive techniques such as neutron reflectometry, suggesting that the surface tension measurements coupled with appropriate theoretical analysis could provide useful information comparable to those obtained using highly sophisticated techniques.

Keywords: adsorption, air-liquid interface, biosurfactant, surface tension

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Authors: Itiola Kehinde Adeniran

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The study examined the effect of employees’ training on the performance of small scale enterprises in Oyo State. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 150 respondents through purposive sampling method. Linear regression was used with the aid of statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20 to analyze the data collected in order to examine the effect of independent variable, employees’ training on dependent variable, performance (profit) of small scale enterprises. The result revealed that employees’ training has a significant effect on the performance of small scale enterprises. It was concluded that predictor variable namely (training) is 55.5% variance of enterprises performance (profitability). Therefore, the paper recommended that all small scale enterprises in Nigeria should embrace manpower training and development in order to improve employees’ performance leading to organizational profitability.

Keywords: training, employee performance, small scale enterprise, organizational profitability

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Authors: Anyapak Prapannetivuth

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The purpose of this research is to investigate the marketing mix that is perceived to be important for the small sized hotels in Pattaya. Unlike previous studies, this research provides insights through a review of the marketing activities performed by the small sized hotels. Nine owners and marketing manager of small sized hotels and resorts, all local Chonburi people, were selected for an in-depth interview. A snowball sampling process was employed. The research suggests that seven marketing mixes (e.g. Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence and Process) were commonly used by these hotels, however, three types – People, price and physical evidence were considered most important by the owners.

Keywords: marketing mix, marketing tools, small sized hotels, pattaya

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Authors: Ewa Rak

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This paper utilises literature studies and author’s research conducted in small enterprises using survey. The purpose of the study is to identify conditions of employee development in small enterprises. More specifically, it will be barriers to employee development, needs for development expressed by interested employees themselves and the attitude of the company to employee development. Moreover, the enterprises participation in funding and initiating development activities will be presented. Paper presents the results of comparative studies conducted with employees of small enterprises in Poland and Finland in 2015-2016.

Keywords: employee development, Finland, human resources development, Poland, small enterprises

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Authors: Messai Amel, Badis Zakaria, Benali-Cherif Nourredine, Dominique Luneaub

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We are interested in molecular polymetallic species having high spin and nuclearities in relation to the field of so call single-molecule magnets (SMMs). The goal is to find a way to synthesis metal clusters which may have application in magnetism and nano sciences. With this purpose, we decided to investigate the coordination chemistry of the Schiff base. Along this way we were able to create cubane-like complexes and elaborate new Single Molecule-Magnets. The idea was to use Schiff base ligands and different metals to generate high nuclear complexes. Complexation of Shiff base with copper (II) has been investigated. Tetra nuclear complex with a cubane like core have been synthesized with (Sciff base), with the same base and cobalt (II) we obtain an other single magnetic complex completely different. In this presentation, we report the synthesis, crystal structure and magnetic properties of the tetranuclear compound (Cu4 L4), and the tetranuclear compound. (Co4L4)

Keywords: cluster-assembled materials, magnetic compounds, Sciff base, cupper, cobalt

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Authors: Abdullah Karaman, Kursad Sayin

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In this research, which information technologies are used in small hotel businesses, and the information technologies-performance perception of the managers are pointed out. During the research, the questionnaire was prepared and the small scale hotel managers were interviewed face to face and they filled out the questionnaire and the answers acquired were evaluated. As the result of the research, it was obtained that the managers do not care much about the information technologies usage in practice even though they accepted that the information technologies are important in terms of performance.

Keywords: information technologies, managers, performance, small hotels

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Authors: Jeena Gupta

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In the today’s world of pharmaceutical products, one should not forget the healing properties of inexpensive food materials especially spices. They are known to possess hidden pharmaceutical ingredients, imparting them the qualities of being anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic. Further aberrant epigenetic regulatory mechanisms like DNA methylation, histone modifications or altered microRNA expression patterns, which regulates gene expression without changing DNA sequence, contribute significantly in the development of various diseases. Changing lifestyles and diets exert their effect by influencing these epigenetic mechanisms which are thus the target of dietary phytochemicals. Bioactive components of plants have been in use since ages but their potential to reverse epigenetic alterations and prevention against diseases is yet to be explored. Spices being rich repositories of many bioactive constituents are responsible for providing them unique aroma and taste. Some spices like curcuma and garlic have been well evaluated for their epigenetic regulatory potential, but for others, it is largely unknown. We have evaluated the biological activity of phyto-active components of Fennel, Cardamom and Fenugreek by in silico molecular modeling, in vitro and in vivo studies. Ligand-based similarity studies were conducted to identify structurally similar compounds to understand their biological phenomenon. The database searching has been done by using Fenchone from fennel, Sabinene from cardamom and protodioscin from fenugreek as a query molecule in the different small molecule databases. Moreover, the results of the database searching exhibited that these compounds are having potential binding with the different targets found in the Protein Data Bank. Further in addition to being epigenetic modifiers, in vitro study had demonstrated the antimicrobial, antifungal, antioxidant and cytotoxicity protective effects of Fenchone, Sabinene and Protodioscin. To best of our knowledge, such type of studies facilitate the target fishing as well as making the roadmap in drug design and discovery process for identification of novel therapeutics.

Keywords: epigenetics, spices, phytochemicals, fenchone

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Authors: Jer-Yuh Liu, Je-Chiuan Ye, Jin-Ming Hwang

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Protein kinase C alpha (PKCα) is a key signaling molecule in human cancer development. As a therapeutic strategy, targeting PKCα is difficult because the molecule is ubiquitously expressed in non-malignant cells. PKCα is regulated by the cooperative interaction of the transcription factors myeloid zinc finger 1 (MZF-1) and Ets-like protein-1 (Elk-1) in human cancer cells. By conducting tissue array analysis, herein, we determined the protein expression of MZF-1/Elk-1/PKCα in various cancers. The data show that the expression of MZF-1/Elk-1 is correlated with that of PKCα in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but not in bladder and lung cancers. In addition, the PKCα down-regulation by shRNA Elk-1 was only observed in the HCC SK-Hep-1 cells. Blocking the interaction between MZF-1 and Elk-1 through the transfection of their binding domain MZF-160–72 decreased PKCα expression. This step ultimately depressed the epithelial-mesenchymal transition potential of the HCC cells. These findings could be used to develop an alternative therapeutic strategy for patients with the PKCα-derived HCC.

Keywords: protein kinase C alpha, myeloid zinc finger 1, ets-like protein-1, hepatocellular carcinoma

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Authors: Jyoti Sahu, Vinay A. Juvekar

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Electrolytes are often used to bring about salting-in and salting-out of organic molecules and polymers (e.g. polyethylene glycols/proteins) from the aqueous solutions. For quantification of these phenomena, a thermodynamic model which can accurately predict activity coefficient of electrolyte as a function of temperature is needed. The thermodynamics models available in the literature contain a large number of empirical parameters. These parameters are estimated using lower/upper critical solution temperature of the solution in the electrolyte/organic molecule at different temperatures. Since the number of parameters is large, inaccuracy can bethe creep in during their estimation, which can affect the reliability of prediction beyond the range in which these parameters are estimated. Cloud point of solution is related to its free energy through temperature and composition derivative. Hence, the Cloud point measurement can be used for accurate estimation of the temperature and composition dependence of parameters in the model for free energy. Hence, if we use a two pronged procedure in which we first use cloud point of solution to estimate some of the parameters of the thermodynamic model and determine the rest using osmotic coefficient data, we gain on two counts. First, since the parameters, estimated in each of the two steps, are fewer, we achieve higher accuracy of estimation. The second and more important gain is that the resulting model parameters are more sensitive to temperature. This is crucial when we wish to use the model outside temperatures window within which the parameter estimation is sought. The focus of the present work is to prove this proposition. We have used electrolyte (NaCl/Na2CO3)-water-organic molecule (Iso-propanol/ethanol) as the model system. The model of Robinson-Stokes-Glukauf is modified by incorporating the temperature dependent Flory-Huggins interaction parameters. The Helmholtz free energy expression contains, in addition to electrostatic and translational entropic contributions, three Flory-Huggins pairwise interaction contributions viz., and (w-water, p-polymer, s-salt). These parameters depend both on temperature and concentrations. The concentration dependence is expressed in the form of a quadratic expression involving the volume fractions of the interacting species. The temperature dependence is expressed in the form .To obtain the temperature-dependent interaction parameters for organic molecule-water and electrolyte-water systems, Critical solution temperature of electrolyte -water-organic molecules is measured using cloud point measuring apparatus The temperature and composition dependent interaction parameters for electrolyte-water-organic molecule are estimated through measurement of cloud point of solution. The model is used to estimate critical solution temperature (CST) of electrolyte water-organic molecules solution. We have experimentally determined the critical solution temperature of different compositions of electrolyte-water-organic molecule solution and compared the results with the estimates based on our model. The two sets of values show good agreement. On the other hand when only osmotic coefficients are used for estimation of the free energy model, CST predicted using the resulting model show poor agreement with the experiments. Thus, the importance of the CST data in the estimation of parameters of the thermodynamic model is confirmed through this work.

Keywords: concentrated electrolytes, Debye-Hückel theory, interaction parameters, Robinson-Stokes-Glueckauf model, Flory-Huggins model, critical solution temperature

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Authors: Shokofeh Ebrtahimi

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Let G be the chemical graph of a molecule. The matrix D = [dij ] is called the detour matrix of G, if dij is the length of longest path between atoms i and j. The sum of all entries above the main diagonal of D is called the detour index of G.Chemical graph theory is the topology branch of mathematical chemistry which applies graph theory to mathematical modelling of chemical phenomena.[1] The pioneers of the chemical graph theory are Alexandru Balaban, Ante Graovac, Ivan Gutman, Haruo Hosoya, Milan Randić and Nenad TrinajstićLet G be the chemical graph of a molecule. The matrix D = [dij ] is called the detour matrix of G, if dij is the length of longest path between atoms i and j. The sum of all entries above the main diagonal of D is called the detour index of G. In this paper, a new program for computing the detour index of molecular graphs of nanotubes by heptagons is determineded. Some Conjectures about detour index of Molecular graphs of nanotubes is included.

Keywords: chemical graph, detour matrix, Detour index, carbon nanotube

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Authors: Theresa Robinson Harris

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Small businesses are important to the United States economy, yet the majority struggle to remain relevant and close before their fifth year. This qualitative study explored small business failure by comparing the experiences of small-business owners to understand their involvement with leadership during the early stages of the business, and the impact of this on the firms’ ability to survive. Participants’ experiences from two groups were compared to glean an understanding of the leadership process, how leadership differs between the groups, and to see what themes or constructs emerged that could help to explain the high failure rate. Leadership was perceived to be important when envisioning a path for the future and when providing a platform for employees to succeed. Those who embraced leadership as a skillset were more likely to get through the challenges of the early developmental years while those ignoring the importance of leadership were more likely to close prematurely. These findings suggest a disconnect with regards to the understanding, role, and benefits of leadership in small organizations, particularly young organizations in the early stages of development.

Keywords: leadership, small business, entrepreneurship, success, failure

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Authors: Seungwon Han, Sung young Yoo, Tae Wan Kim

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The objective of this study was to measure the changes in the photochemical response in the leaves of red pepper (Capsium annuum L.) after foliar fertilization of amino acid and small peptides derived from the waste egg. As a nitrogen fertilizer, waste eggs were incubated over one 1week and then degraded as amino acids and small peptides. The smaller peptides less than 20 kDa were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). MALDI-TOF-MS as a rapid analysis method was to show the molecular mass of degraded egg protein. The sequences of peptides were identified as follows; γ-Glu- Cys-γ-Glu-Cys-γ-Glu-Cys)-Ser and γ-Glu-Cys-γ-Glu-Cys-γ-Glu- Cys)-Gly. It was clearly illuminated that the parameters related to quantum yields for PSI electron transport (ΦRE1O, ΨRE1O, δRE1O) and RC/ABS have increased tendency by small peptide application. On the other hand, phenomenological energy fluxes (ABSO/CSM, TRO/CSM, ET2O/CSM, RE1O/CSM, DIO/CSM) have considerably fluctuated with foliar fertilization of small peptides. In conclusion, the small peptides can enhance the photochemical activities from photosystem II to photosystem I. This study was financially supported by RDA Agenda Project PJ 016196012022.

Keywords: electron transport, foliar fertilization, small peptide, waste egg

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Authors: Janusz K. Grabara, Bartłomiej Okwiet, Sebastian Kot

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The purpose of the article is presentation and analysis of the aspect of job security in small and medium-size enterprises in Poland with reference to other EU countries. We show the theoretical aspects of the risk with reference to managing small and medium enterprises, next risk management in small and medium enterprises in Poland, which were subjected to a detailed analysis. We show in detail the risk associated with the operation of the mentioned above companies, as well as analyses its levels on various stages and for different kinds of conducted activity.

Keywords: job safety, SME, work risk, risk management

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Authors: Ferid Hammami

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The molecular geometries of the possible conformations of pyruvic acid-water complexes (PA-(H₂O)ₙ = 1- 4) have been fully optimized at DFT/B3LYP/6-311G ++ (d, p) levels of calculation. Among several optimized molecular clusters, the most stable molecular arrangements obtained when one, two, three, and four water molecules are hydrogen-bonded to a central pyruvic acid molecule are presented in this paper. Apposite topological and geometrical parameters are considered as primary indicators of H-bond strength. Atoms in molecules (AIM) analysis shows that pyruvic acid can form a ring structure with water, and the molecular structures are stabilized by both strong O-H...O and C-H...O hydrogen bonds. In large clusters, classical O-H...O hydrogen bonds still exist between water molecules, and a cage-like structure is built around some parts of the central molecule of pyruvic acid. The electrostatic potential energy map (MEP) and the HOMO-LUMO molecular orbital (highest occupied molecular orbital-lowest unoccupied molecular orbital) analysis has been performed for all considered complexes.

Keywords: pyruvic acid, PA-water complex, hydrogen bonding, DFT, AIM, MEP, HOMO-LUMO

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Authors: Salman Abdulrasaq

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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has been considered as indices for economic development in a country economy. The development of entrepreneurship skills is therefore necessary. This study, seeks to examine the impact of Entrepreneurship on the Growth of Small Businesses Kwara State, Nigeria. The data used were primarily obtained from the questionnaire administered to the randomly selected areas in the state. Regression statistical tool was employed with aid of SPSS to test the validity of the hypothesis formulated in the study. The study therefore concludes that; the qualities of entrepreneur have impact the growth of Small Businesses s in the selected areas of the state. In view of this, the study recommends that; entrepreneurship development would serve as a tool for the growth of small business enterprises.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, growth, development, Nigeria

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Authors: M. B. Neace, Xin GAo

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Small entrepreneurs are ubiquitous. Regardless of location their success depends on several behavioral characteristics and several market conditions. In this concept paper, we extend this paradigm to include elements from the science of chaos. Our observations, research findings, literature search and intuition lead us to the proposition that all entrepreneurs seek increasing returns, as did the many small entrepreneurs we have interviewed over the years. There will be a few whose initial perturbations may create tsunami-like waves of increasing returns over time resulting in very large market consequences–the butterfly impact. When small entrepreneurs perturb the market-place and their initial efforts take root a series of phase-space transitions begin to occur. They sustain the stream of increasing returns by scaling up. Chaos theory contributes to our understanding of this phenomenon. Sustaining and nourishing increasing returns of small entrepreneurs as complex adaptive systems requires scaling. In this paper we focus on the most critical element of the small entrepreneur scaling process–the mindset of the owner-operator.

Keywords: entrepreneur, increasing returns, scaling, chaos

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Authors: Riki H. Patel, Arpan Desia, Trushit Upadhayay

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The demand of compact antenna is ever increasing since the inception of wireless communication devices. In the age of wireless communication, requirement of miniaturized antennas is quite high. It is quite often that antenna dimensions are decided based on application based requirement compared to practical antenna constraints. The tradeoff in efficiency and other antenna parameters against to antenna size is always a debatable issue. The article presents detailed review of fundamentals of electrically small antennas and its potential applications. In addition, constraints and challenges of electrically small antennas are also presented in the article.

Keywords: bandwidth, communication, electrically small antenna, communication engineering

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Authors: Seokyoon Moon, Yun-Ho Ahn, Heejoong Kim, Sujin Hong, Yunseok Lee, Youngjune Park

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Gas hydrate is a non-stoichiometric crystalline compound consisting of host water-framework and low molecular weight guest molecules. Small gaseous molecules such as CH₄, CO₂, and N₂ can be captured in the host water framework lattices of the gas hydrate with specific temperature and pressure conditions. The three well-known crystal structures of structure I (sI), structure II (sII), and structure H (sH) are determined by the size and shape of guest molecules. In this study, we measured the phase equilibria of binary (2,2-dimethyl-1-propanol + CO₂, CH₄, N₂) hydrates to explore their fundamental thermodynamic characteristics. We identified the structure of the binary gas hydrate by employing synchrotron high-resolution powder diffraction (HRPD), and the guest distributions in the lattice of gas hydrate were investigated via dispersive Raman and ¹³C solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies. The end-to-end distance of 2,2-dimethyl-1-propanol was calculated to be 7.76 Å, which seems difficult to be enclathrated in large cages of sI or sII. However, due to the flexibility of the host water framework, binary hydrates of sI or sII types can be formed with the help of small gas molecule. Also, the synchrotron HRPD patterns revealed that the binary hydrate structure highly depends on the type of help gases; a cubic Fd3m sII hydrate was formed with CH₄ or N₂, and a cubic Pm3n sI hydrate was formed with CO₂. Interestingly, dispersive Raman and ¹³C NMR spectra showed that the unique tuning phenomenon occurred in binary (2,2-dimethyl-1-propanol + CO₂) hydrate. By optimizing the composition of NPA, we can achieve both thermodynamic stability and high CO₂ storage capacity for the practical application to CO₂ capture.

Keywords: clathrate, gas hydrate, neopentyl alcohol, CO₂, tuning phenomenon

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Authors: Leyla Sattarzadeh, Shahin Fathi Molk Kian, Maghsoud Peeri, Mohammadali Azarbaijani, Hasan Matin Homaee

Abstract:

Inflammation by various mechanisms may cause atherosclerosis. Systemic circulating inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP), pro-inflammatory cytokines such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), vascular inflammatory markers as adhesion molecules like Intracellular Adhesion Molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 (VCAM-1) are the predictors of cardiovascular diseases. Regarding the conflicting results about the effect of different patterns of resistance exercise training on these inflammatory markers, present study aimed to examine the effect of different patterns of eight week resistance exercise training on CRP, IL-6, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 levels in healthy untrained women. 56 healthy volunteered untrained female university students (aged: 21 ± 3 yr., Body Mass Index: 21.5 ± 3.5 kg/m²) were selected purposefully and divided into four groups. At the end of training protocol and after subject drop during the protocol, upper body exercise training (n=11), lower body (n=12) and whole body resistance exercise training group (n=11) completed the eight weeks of training period although the control group (n=7) did anything. Blood samples gathered pre and post-experimental period and CRP, IL-6, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 levels were evaluated using special laboratory kits, then the difference of pre and post values of each indices analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (α < 0.05). The results of one way ANOVA for difference of pre and post values of CRP, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 showed no significant changes due to the exercise training, but there were significant differences between groups about IL-6. Tukey post- hoc test indicated that there is significant difference between the differences of pre and post values of IL-6 between lower body exercise training group and control group, and eight weeks of lower body exercise training lead to significant changes in IL-6 values. There were no changes in anthropometric indices. The findings show that the different patterns of upper, lower and whole body exercise training by involving the different amounts of muscles altered the IL-6 values in lower body exercise training group probably because of engaging the bigger amount of muscles, but showed any significant changes about CRP, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 probably due to intensity and duration of exercise or the lower levels of these markers at baseline of healthy people.

Keywords: resistance training, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, intracellular adhesion molecule-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Awais Naeem, Osama Shakeel, Faizan Ullah, Abdul Wahid Anwer

Abstract:

Introduction: To study the clinic-pathological factors, diagnostic factors and survival of extra-pulmonary small cell carcinoma. Methodology: From 1995 to 2017 all patients with a diagnosis of extra-pulmonary small cell carcinoma were included in the study. Demographic variables and clinic-pathological factors were collected. Management of disease was recorded. Short and long term oncological outcomes were recorded. All data was entered and analyzed in SPSS version 21. Results: A total of 14 patients were included in the study. Median age was 53.42 +/- 16.1 years. There were 5 male and 9 female patients. Most common presentation was dysphagia in 16 patient among esophageal small cell carcinoma and while other patient had pain in abdomen. Mean duration of symptoms was 4.23+/-2.91 months .Most common site is esophagus (n=6) followed by gall bladder(n=3). Almost all of the patients received chemo-radiotherapy. Majority of the patient presented with extensive disease. Five patients (35.7%) died during the follow up period, two (14.3%) were alive and rest of the patients were lost to follow up. Mean follow up period was 22.92 months and median follow up was 15 months. Conclusion: Extra-pulmonary small cell carcinoma is rare and needs to be managed aggressively. All patients should be treated with both systemic and local therapies.

Keywords: small cell carcinoma of esophagus, extrapulmonary small cell carcinoma, small cell carcinoma of gall bladder, small cell carcinoma of rectum, small cell carcinoma of stomach

Procedia PDF Downloads 155