An efficient charge separation and photocurrent generation in the carbon dot-zinc oxide nanoparticle composite.

The development of light harvesting systems based on heterostructures for efficient conversion of solar energy to renewable energy is an emerging area of research. Here, we have designed heterostructures by using carbon dots (C-dots) and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NP) to develop an efficient light harvesting system. Interestingly, the conduction band and the valence band positions of ZnO NP are lower than the LUMO and HOMO positions of C-dots in this type II heterostructure of C dot-ZnO NP, which causes efficient charge separation and photocurrent generation.

Fluorescent, Magnetic Multifunctional Carbon Dots for Selective Separation, Identification, and Eradication of Drug-Resistant Superbugs.

The emergence of drug-resistant superbugs remains a major burden to society. As the mortality rate caused by sepsis due to superbugs is more than 40%, accurate identification of blood infections during the early stage will have a huge significance in the clinical setting. Here, we report the synthesis of red/blue fluorescent carbon dot (CD)-attached magnetic nanoparticle-based multicolor multifunctional CD-based nanosystems, which can be used for selective separation and identification of superbugs from infected blood samples.

Soldiers' load carriage performance in high mountains: a physiological study.

Background: The present study was designed to evaluate load carriage performance at extremely high altitudes with different loads and walking speeds in terms of physiological evaluation. The degree of maximum oxygen consumption changes at high altitudes was also examined.

Methods: Twelve Indian Army soldiers were acclimatized at altitudes of 3,505 m and 4,300 m.

Development of a SERS Probe for Selective Detection of Healthy Prostate and Malignant Prostate Cancer Cells Using Zn.

Even in the 21st century, prostate cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer-related death for men. Since a normal prostate gland has a high Zn content and there are huge differences in Zn content between healthy and malignant prostate cancer cells, mobile zinc can be used as a biomarker for prostate cancer prediction. A highly efficient surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) probe using a p-(imidazole)azo)benzenethiol attached gold nanoparticle as a Raman reporter, which has the capability to identify prostate cancer cells based on Zn sensing, has been designed.

Recent progress on the development of anisotropic gold nanoparticles: Design strategies and growth mechanism.

This review summarizes recent advances on design strategies for shape-controlled anisotropic gold nanoparticles. Detailed chemical mechanism has been discussed to understand the anisotropic growth. The effect of various chemical parameters and surface facets for the formation of different shaped anisotropic nanoparticles have been addressed.

On-line Ammonia Sensor and Invisible Security Ink by Fluorescent Zwitterionic Spirocyclic Meisenheimer Complex.

Ammonia is not only a highly important gas for civilization but also contribute significantly for climate change and human health hazard. Highly sensitive ammonia sensor has been developed from a fluorescent zwitterionic spirocyclic Meisenheimer complex. Moreover, formation of this Meisenheimer complex can also be utilized for selective as well as naked eye instant detection of nitro aromatic explosive picric acid.

Site dilution in SrRuO: effects on structural and magnetic properties.

We have investigated the effect of site dilution with substitution of nonmagnetic element in SrRu Ti O (x  ⩽  0.7). The nature of ferromagnetic state in SrRuO is believed to be of itinerant type with transition temperature [Formula: see text] K.

Biotin Decorated Gold Nanoparticles for Targeted Delivery of a Smart-Linked Anticancer Active Copper Complex: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies.

The synthesis and anticancer activity of a copper(II) diacetyl-bis(N4-methylthiosemicarbazone) complex and its nanoconjugates are reported. The copper(II) complex is connected to a carboxylic acid group through a cleavable disulfide link to enable smart delivery. The copper complex is tethered to highly water-soluble 20 nm gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), stabilized by amine terminated lipoic acid-polyethylene glycol (PEG).

Nanoarchitecture Based SERS for Biomolecular Fingerprinting and Label-Free Disease Markers Diagnosis.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) fingerprinting is highly promising for identifying disease markers from complex mixtures of clinical sample, which has the capability to take medical diagnoses to the next level. Although vibrational frequency in Raman spectra is unique for each biomolecule, which can be used as fingerprint identification, it has not been considered to be used routinely for biosensing due to the fact that the Raman signal is very weak. Contemporary SERS has been demonstrated to be an excellent analytical tool for practical label-free sensing applications due its ability to enhance Raman signals by factors of up to 10-10 orders of magnitude.

Three-dimensional (3D) plasmonic hot spots for label-free sensing and effective photothermal killing of multiple drug resistant superbugs.

Drug resistant superbug infection is one of the foremost threats to human health. Plasmonic nanoparticles can be used for ultrasensitive bio-imaging and photothermal killing by amplification of electromagnetic fields at nanoscale "hot spots". One of the main challenges to plasmonic imaging and photothermal killing is design of a plasmonic substrate with a large number of "hot spots".

Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt Leaf Extract Exhibits Antileishmanial Effect Through Pro-inflammatory Response: An In Vitro Study.

The conventional drugs used for the treatment of human visceral leishmaniasis have concerns about the toxicity and most importantly parasite resistance. To overcome these troubles, more efforts are made for the development of innovative therapeutic agents having effective antileishmanial activity and simultaneously stimulate adaptive immune system of host cells. Hence, search for new leishmanicidal from the natural origin like plants has shown its effectiveness for the treatment of this tropical disease.

Synthesis of amino ester-embedded benzimidazoles: a one-pot sequential protocol under metal-free neutral conditions.

A one-pot three-component protocol has been developed for the synthesis of amino ester-embedded benzimidazoles under metal-free neutral conditions. Sequentially, the methodology involves coupling of an amino ester with 1-fluoro-2-nitrobenzene, reduction of the coupled nitroarene by sodium dithionite, and cyclization of the corresponding diamine with an aldehyde.

A chimeric human APOBEC3A protein with a three amino acid insertion confers differential HIV-1 and adeno-associated virus restriction.

Old World monkey (OWM) and hominid APOBEC3Aproteins exhibit differential restriction activities against lentiviruses and DNA viruses. Human APOBEC3A(hA3A)has weak restriction activity against HIV-1Δvifbut is efficiently restricted by an artificially generated chimeric from mandrills (mndA3A/G). We show that a chimeric hA3Acontaining the "WVS" insertion (hA3A[(27)WVS(29)]) conferred potent HIV-1restriction activity.

Inhibition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis dihydrodipicolinate synthase by alpha-ketopimelic acid and its other structural analogues.

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis dihydrodipicolinate synthase (Mtb-dapA) is an essential gene. Mtb-DapA catalyzes the aldol condensation between pyruvate and L-aspartate-beta-semialdehyde (ASA) to yield dihydrodipicolinate. In this work we tested the inhibitory effects of structural analogues of pyruvate on recombinant Mtb-DapA (Mtb-rDapA) using a coupled assay with recombinant dihydrodipicolinate reductase (Mtb-rDapB).

Finite-size effect on evolution of Griffiths phase in manganite nanoparticles.

The finite-size effect on the evolution of the Griffiths phase (GP) is studied using nanoparticles of half-doped manganite Pr0.5Sr0.5MnO3 with different average particle sizes but with similar structural parameters.

Designing a multicolor long range nanoscopic ruler for the imaging of heterogeneous tumor cells.

Tumor heterogeneity is one of the biggest challenges in cancer treatment and diagnosis. A multicolor optical ruler is essential to address the heterogeneous tumor cell complexity. Driven by this need, the current article reports the design of a multicolor long range nanoscopic ruler for screening tumor heterogeneity by accurately identifying epithelial cells and cancer stem cells (CSCs) simultaneously.

A Novel Technique of Synthesis of Highly Fluorescent Carbon Nanoparticles from Broth Constituent and In-vivo Bioimaging of C. elegans.

Here we have demonstrated a novel single step technique of synthesis of highly fluorescent carbon nanoparticles (CNPs) from broth constituent and in vivo bioimaging of Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) with the synthesized CNPs has been presented. The synthesized CNPs has been characterized by the UV-visible (UV-Vis) absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman studies.

Development of Multifunctional Fluorescent-Magnetic Nanoprobes for Selective Capturing and Multicolor Imaging of Heterogeneous Circulating Tumor Cells.

Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are highly heterogeneous in nature due to epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is the major obstacle for CTC analysis via "liquid biopsy". This article reports the development of a new class of multifunctional fluorescent-magnetic multicolor nanoprobes for targeted capturing and accurate identification of heterogeneous CTC. A facile design approach for the synthesis and characterization of bioconjugated multifunctonal nanoprobes that exhibit excellent magnetic properties and emit very bright and photostable multicolor fluorescence at red, green, and blue under 380 nm excitation is reported.

Multimodal Nonlinear Optical Imaging of Live Cells Using Plasmon-Coupled DNA-Mediated Gold Nanoprism Assembly.

Multiphoton excitation microscopy techniques are the emerging nonlinear optical (NLO) imaging methods to watch the biological world due its ability to penetrate deep into living tissues. Driven by the need to develop multimodal NLO imaging probe, current article reports the design of DNA-mediated gold nanoprisms assembly based optical antennas to enhance multiphoton imaging capability in biological II window. Reported experimental data show a unique way to enhance second harmonic generation (SHG) and two-photon fluorescence (TPF) properties by several orders of magnitudes via plasmon coupled organization into gold nanoprism assembly structures.

Computational studies on the reactivity of alkyl halides over (Al2O3)n nanoclusters: an approach towards room temperature dehydrohalogenation.

The role of alumina nanoclusters as a catalyst on the reactivity of alkyl halides has been explored. The thermochemical data obtained from Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations and the analyses of the transition structures reveal that, between the two competing reactions, elimination (via E2) versus dissociative addition (via SN2), elimination is the kinetically controlled one and thus at room temperature, olefin is the major product. The results are in excellent agreement with the recent experimental observation where more than 97% of ethylene is formed at room temperature with the reaction of ethyl fluoride over an alumina surface, although the dissociative addition product is being thermodynamically more stable.

Detection and characterization of zoonotic dermatophytes from dogs and cats in and around Kolkata.

Aim: The ringworms of pet dogs, cats, and stray animals (dogs, cats, and other animals) could be a potential source of zoonotic infections causing a serious public health problem in the busy city Kolkata. The pet owners are more susceptible to get this infection from their pets, because of the close contact with them as dermatophytosis is very much prevalent in those pets. So, this study was aimed to check the prevalence of dermatophytosis in dogs, cats, and in pet owners.

Metagenomic exploration of the bacterial community structure at Paradip Port, Odisha, India.

This is a pioneering report on the metagenomic exploration of the bacterial diversity from a busy sea port in Paradip, Odisha, India. In our study, high-throughput sequencing of community 16S rRNA gene amplicon was performed using 454 GS Junior platform. Metagenome contain 34,121 sequences with 16,677,333 bp and 56.

Bacterial diversity assessment of pristine mangrove microbial community from Dhulibhashani, Sundarbans using 16S rRNA gene tag sequencing.

The global knowledge of microbial diversity and function in Sundarbans ecosystem is still scarce, despite global advancement in understanding the microbial diversity. In the present study, we have analyzed the diversity and distribution of bacteria in the tropical mangrove sediments of Sundarbans using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Metagenome is comprised of 1,53,926 sequences with 108.

Synthesis of multi-functionalized benzofurans through the condensation of ninhydrin and phenols using SSA as a recyclable heterogeneous acid catalyst.

A simple and efficient one-pot methodology has been developed for the synthesis of biologically important multi-functionalized 3-(2[Formula: see text]-hydroxyaryl)-2-(2[Formula: see text]-carboxyphenyl)benzofurans using silica sulfuric acid (SSA) as a heterogeneous acid catalyst in DMF medium. The significant advantages of this methodology are the use of SSA as a recyclable solid acid catalyst, operational simplicity, easy availability of the starting materials, and good yield of the products with high atom-economy.