Sharif Digital Repository

Polymer supported reagents have found many applications in recent years. Scientists in research laboratories of agrochemical and pharmaceutical industries now routinely utilize these compounds to prepare ensembles of small organic molecules for screening. This review is aimed to highlight some of the most important applications of these promising materials in organic synthesis. Furthermore, an extensive listing of polymeric reagents that were recently used in organic synthesis is included. © Springer-Verlag 2007  

Cognitive functions such as working memory require integrated activity among different brain regions. Notably, entorhinal cortex (EC) activity is associated with the successful working memory task. Olfactory bulb (OB) oscillations are known as rhythms that modulate rhythmic activity in widespread brain regions during cognitive tasks. Since the OB is structurally connected to the EC, we hypothesized that OB could modulate EC activity during working memory performance. Herein, we explored OB–EC functional connectivity during spatial working memory performance by simultaneous recording local field potentials when rats performed a Y-maze task. Our results showed that the coherence of delta,... 

qPCR is still the gold standard for gene expression quantification. However, its accuracy is highly dependent on the normalization procedure. The conventional method involves using the geometric mean of multiple study-specific reference genes (RGs) expression for cross-sample normalization. While research on selecting stably expressed RGs is extensive, scant literature exists regarding the optimal approach for aggregating multiple RGs into a unified RG. In this paper, we introduce a family of scale-invariant functions as an alternative to the geometric mean aggregation. Our candidate method (weighted geometric mean minimizing standard deviation) demonstrated significantly better results... 

The novel N2O2 unsymmetrical tetradentate Schiff bases complexes are used as catalysts for the selective aerobic oxidation of cyclohexene. In general, conversion percentages decrease with increasing ΔEp and decreasing Eredox 0′. Catalytic activity increases with decrease of the number of electron-donating groups and the catalytic selectivity varies according to the types of substituents in the ligands. The catalytic system described here is an inexpensive method for selective oxidation of olefins, with advantages of high activity, selectivity, re-usability and short reaction times. Analysing GC and redox potential results shows a moderate correlation between selectivity and activity. © 2004... 

An easy and ecofriendly method for designing double-network (DN) hydrogels based on chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with high mechanical performance is described. When covalent bonds in the networks are used as crosslinking agents in the achievement of a higher mechanical strength, the irreversible deformation of these hydrogels after a large force is applied is still one of the most important obstacles. To overcome this problem, we used physical crosslinking for both networks. The mechanical strength, surface morphology, and cytotoxicity of the films were studied by tensile testing, scanning electron microscopy analysis, and an MTT assay. The synthesized chitosan–PVA DN hydrogels... 

A series of superabsorbent composites were synthesized through graft copolymerization of acrylic acid (AA) onto carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) in the presence of celite powder using N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as a cross-linking agent and ammonium persulphate (APS) as an initiator. The chemical structure and thermal properties of the composite hydrogels were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and TGA methods, respectively. Morphology of the samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In free-state, the swelling conditions and hence the related data are not real, because in all their applications the swelling particles of superabsorbent must absorb aqueous solutions while... 

Biological oxidation of ferrous sulfate by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans has proved to be a significant step in the bioleaching of sulfide minerals and the treatment of acid mine drainage. The same bioreaction also has beneficial applications in the desulphurization of coal and removal of hydrogen sulfide from gaseous effluents. In this research, the effects of some process variables such as pH, temperature, elemental sulfur, amount of initial ferrous and magnesium ions on oxidation of ferrous sulfate by a native A. ferrooxidans, which was isolated from a chalcopyrite concentrate, were investigated. All experiments carried out in shake flasks at 33 °C that was obtained as optimum... 

The use of super-swelling polymers is steadily increasing and the applications in industry are continuing to grow. With the authorization of the superabsorbents in food packaging by the Food and Drug Administration recently, demand may soon take off in the market. However, the increase in prices of petroleum products in recent years may be a drawback for these acrylic-based materials. Thus, there is now a need to develop natural-based super-swelling hydrogels which are more economical and environment friendly. In addition, the super-swelling gels are promising novel functions in the biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. This review is aimed to highlight research and trends in protein-... 

In the current investigation, four novel donoracceptor type organic dyes including (DPA-Ba, DPA-Hy, DPA-Rh, DPA-Cy), are proposed and their photophysical and electrochemical properties as well as dye-sensitized solar cell performance are systematically investigated. Among these dyes diphenylamine is utilized as an-electron donor while barbituric acid, hydantoin, rhodanine-n-acetic acid and cyano acetic acid, are proposed as anchoring groups as dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The synthesized dyes are characterized using FT-IR, NMR, mass spectrometry, absorbance and electrochemical measurements. The photophysical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties of the solar cells based on... 

PEGylated MoS2 nanoflower (MoS2-NF) and nanosheet (MoS2-NS) are synthesized through a one-pot hydrothermal method as photo absorbing agent (PAA). It is found that employing different thiol precursors result in distinct morphologies. The products are structurally, chemically, and morphologically characterized. Electron microscopy demonstrates the formation of sheet and flower morphologies of MoS2. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and thermal gravimetric (TGA) analysis confirm the PEGylation of MoS2 nanostructures. Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirm the formation of 1T/2H structure of both samples. MoS2-NS demonstrates higher NIR absorption than MoS2-NF with a mass... 

A new plasmonic Ag hybridized CuWO4/WO3 heterostructure was successfully synthesized via a ligand-assisted sol gel method. The as-prepared plasmonic nanohybrid was thoroughly characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-visible spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) spectrometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area analysis and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Moreover, the photocatalytic activity was evaluated by photo-degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation. The results indicate that the as-prepared plasmonic Ag-CuWO4/WO3 nanohybrid (compared to pure... 

There has been a multitude of techniques proposed for identifying vulnerabilities in software. Forcing a program into a vulnerable state has become increasingly unscalable, given the size of the programs and the number of possible execution states. At the same time, techniques that are looking for vulnerability signatures are marred with weak and incomplete signatures. This is not to say that such techniques have failed to identify previously unknown vulnerabilities in the code. However, they have inherent weaknesses, which result in identifying vulnerabilities that are limited in type and complexity. We propose a novel technique to extract succinct vulnerability-relevant statements... 

In this study, a novel hybrid hydrogel based on chitosan, acrylic acid and amine-functionalized nanosilica was prepared and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscopy. This hydrogel nanocomposite was used for removal of Co2+, Cu2+, Pb2+ and Zn2+ ions from aqueous solution. The metal ion adsorption was measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The adsorption behavior showed that the presence of modified nanosilica enhanced the porosity of the hydrogel network and affected its adsorption capacity in response to different parameters such as nanosilica content, metal ion concentration, adsorbent content,... 

Synthesis of novel natural-based superabsorbents with improved properties is of prime importance in many applications. In this article we report an efficient synthesis of new polysaccharide-based superabsorbent hybrid composing carrageenan, acrylic acid, sodium acrylate, and 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate through homogenous solution polymerization process. Infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were carried out to confirm the chemical structure of the hydrogel. Moreover, morphology of the samples was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). To deeper studies on the structure-property relation in SAP hydrogels, three hydrogels with different acrylic acid/2-hydroxyethyl... 

Carbazole is an alternant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of three fused rings with a large, aromatic system, containing nitrogen atom showing extensive electron delocalization. In this work, carbazole applied as π-conjugated bridge to construct electron donor–π–electron acceptor (D–π–A) organic dyes, where barbutiric acid and thiazolidine-2,4-dione as electron acceptor. The effects of these three acceptors and length of alkyl on the performance of the DSSCs were investigated systematically along with their photophysical and photo electrochemical properties. These series of organic dyes include (B-CH, B-C B, DT-CB, DB-CB). Our investigation indicate among dyes containing butyl as...