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Herein, we present a mild and efficient metal-free arylation of α-fluoro-α-nitroacetamides employing diaryliodonium salts. A broad range of diaryliodonium salts and α-fluoro-α-nitroacetamides containing sensitive functional groups was successfully employed in this protocol to yield the arylated products in good yields. The synthetic value of this novel protocol was further highlighted by extending the α-arylation to α-cyano-α-fluoroacetamides.

Image based target used in augmented reality application is not the same as traditional fiducial markers, data markers code and QR-codes in detection and tracking. The available features from the image detected and tracked are naturally found in the image itself. Image target commonly used in recognizing and augmented hard copy media and product for marketing campaigns, gaming, and visualizing products in the environment where the product was targeted to be used. HOwever, for mobile-based augmented reality application, image features detection and tracking still expose many challenges. This paper aims to review previous and current keypoint detection and tracking techniques for image target and address several issues face in mobile based augmented reality application. Most traditional interest-point detection and description methods are handcrafted. These methods focus on interest points in a generic setting and lack provision to adapt toward a specific dataset. Learning-based approaches can be a new solution to real-time application such mobile-based application. This project continuity work from our previous work done for mobile-based augmented reality coloring application [1].

Islam merupakan satu agama yang menitikberatkan kesihatan manusia termasuklah sistem pencernaan manusia. Najis (tinja) manusia yang dibincangkan dalam kajian ini merupakan hasil buangan manusia yang menjadi salah satu kaedah untuk melihat sudut kesihatan manusia. Objektif penyelidikan ini ialah untuk mengkaji fizikokimia dan ciri-ciri najis serta kegunaannya daripada perspektif sains dan sudut pandangan Islam terutamanya mengenai diet yang diamalkan oleh Rasulullah SAW. Kajian ini dijalankan dengan menggunakan ulasan literatur secara deskriptif. Kajian mendapati bahawa sistem pencernaan merupakan satu sistem yang rumit. Tinja terdiri daripada 75% air dan 25% bahan pepejal serta ciri-ciri tinja seperti bentuk, warna dan bau memberi kesan kepada kesihatan manusia. Daripada sudut Islam warna, bau dan rasa tinja merupakan perkara asas yang dititikberatkan semasa proses pembersihan najis terutamanya bagi memulakan sesuatu ibadah. Selain itu, diet, senaman, umur dan jantina merupakan faktor-faktor yang membezakan jenis tinja bagi setiap individu. Malah, kajian ini juga merungkai beberapa alternatif yang kini diguna pakai bagi mengurus najis-najis manusia dalam menjamin kesihatan dan pemeliharaan alam sekitar. Kajian ini kemudiannya mengupas diet makanan-makanan sunnah yang terdapat di dalam Al-Quran dan hadis yang terbukti kaya dengan serat dan sihat untuk manusia terutamanya bagi sistem pencernaan manusia. Oleh itu, najis (tinja) manusia daripada sudut sains mampu menggambarkan kesihatan seseorang dan amalan diet makanan-makanan sunnah sangat baik dalam memelihara sistem pencernaan manusia.

The global agenda of sustainable development (SD) will get a major boost from the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in developing countries. This requires effective planning and understanding of the SDGs at the national level and developing sound SDG indicators that account for country priorities. Currently, there is no formal SDG indicator set in India, but the process for it is underway. This paper has attempted to propose a unique technique for identifying the most representative indicator set for SD measurement in India based on the SDGs. Considering the needs and preferences of the country, a three‐stage process is proposed to develop the priority indicator set. The application of the approach has been presented for SDG 7, which relates to energy. This is supported with a background on India's SD progress. The proposed technique is simple yet effective, and can be easily replicated by other developing countries.

(1) To correlate the findings of high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scans with operative findings in chronic otitis media (attico antral disease). (2) To assess the role of HRCT in chronic otitis media (attico antral disease). This prospective observational study undertaken at a tertiary level teaching hospital included 50 patients of chronic otitis media (attico antral disease) who underwent pre-operative HRCT scanning and the findings were compared with the operative findings and correlation between the two was assessed with appropriate statistical methods. HRCT findings correlated well for the status of malleus and incus, facial nerve canal, lateral semicircular canal, and sinus plate but were less accurate for stapes and tegmen plate. As for disease extent and prediction of cholesteatoma the degree of correlation was site dependent being greater in mastoid air cell system and epitympanum and lesser in mesotympanum and hypotympanum. HRCT despite of its value in management of chronic otitis media has its drawbacks and limitations. CT’s accuracy of prediction in some aspects of the disease varies with the site of pathology and this point must always be kept in mind by the operating surgeon. We suggest that each health care centre should establish their own correlative indices for HRCT temporal bone imaging in COM. HRCT cannot be entirely relied upon in management of chronic otitis media patients. However against the backdrop of improved radiological skills in interpreting temporal bone ct images, improved CT machines and importantly the growing concern over medicolegal issues, the role of pre operative CT scan in COM is much more than what was thought previously. Undoubtedly, it is a very useful ‘aid’ to management BUT a well-trained, experienced and alert surgeon is the key for an accurate diagnosis and successful management of chronic otitis media (attico-antral disease).

Carbon fiber yarns (CFY) are promising as a new type of flexible building blocks for the construction of flexible architectures for the energy storage applications. The main hurdle with CFY is how to make them high energy and power capable by using economically and environmentally viable materials. Here, we report reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and Prussian blue (PB) coated CFY, derived from a facile electrochemical process at room temperature for supercapacitor electrodes. The PB coated CFY and rGO coated CFY electrodes exhibit the excellent gravimetric capacitance of 339 F/g and 160.2 F/g, respectively, in aqueous KCl electrolyte in three-electrode cell configuration. When we coupled these electrodes inside the flexible plastic tube and separated by the electrolyte wet filter paper in order to construct flexible architecture, the resulting device delivers excellent specific energy of 52.1 Wh/kg and 26.5 Wh/kg with offering specific power of 3100 W/kg and 14400 W/kg respectively, under a wide operating potential of 1.8 V with excellent rate capability. The device shows high tolerance towards bending, and retained its efficiency to the capacitance after being bent at an angle of 360° for 200 bending cycles.

This paper presents a modified exponential type estimation strategy for the current population mean in the presence of random non-response situations in two-occasion successive sampling under two-p...

Gender has always been a favourite topic of researchers to dig down. Considerable research works have focused the role of gender in the domain of consumer behaviour, but there is much more to explore in the area of experiential marketing as it is relatively a new concept in this field. The article discusses an examination of the differences in the ways men and women perceive sense, feel, think, act and relate experiences while using social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Purpose of the study is to examine the gender differences within the context of five experiences of experiential marketing. Through convenience sampling, 250 set of questionnaires were distributed to the university students, out of which 226 were found usable. T-test was applied for the analysis of data using SPSS software version 21. Shopping habits of women are considered to be highly influenced by social media. But results of the study indicate that men relate the experience provided by the sites with them more than the women do. Marketers can use the findings in tailoring their sites to enhance the customer experience.

High cost, scarcity, and detrimental environmental effect of the noble-metal based catalysts have prompted the seek of less expensive, more benign, and earth abundant substitutes for energy conversion and storage. Here, we demonstrate a novel multifunctional electrocatalyst constructed by pyrolysis of the complex of polyaniline (PANI) and metal organic framework [Co-based MOF; zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-67)]. The resultant PANI/ZIF-67 complex unveiled excellent electrocatalytic activities towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline medium. It was found that the catalytic activities of the PANI/ZIF-67 complex towards ORR, OER and HER could be tuned by simple changing the weight ratio of PANI to the MOF. Further, we tested the material as an air electrode for a primary zinc-air battery, demonstrating an open-circuit potential of 1.42 V and a peak power density of ~ 45 mW cm−2 - both are superior to those of its counterpart of the Pt/C air-electrode. The excellent multifunctional catalytic activities of the PANI/ZIF-67 are mainly attributed to the synergistic combination of cobalt nanoparticles, Co3O4, and nitrogen doped carbon from the PANI/ZIF-67 complex after pyrolysis.

The development of clean hydrogen-based energy technologies depends upon the rational design and synthesis of efficient and earth-abundant electrocatalysts. Despite great efforts, exploring cheap and unique design nanostructured materials for efficient electrocatalysis remains a big challenge. Here, we synthesize a porous co-doped carbon decorated with Co3O4 nanoparticles from pyrolysis of a camphor sulfonic acid and metal–organic framework hybrid. The uniformly self-decorated Co3O4 nanoparticles on N, S co-doped carbon layers (denoted as Co3O4/NSC) offer fast ion/electron transport and thus make the material an excellent oxygen evolution electrocatalyst. The resulting Co3O4/NSC shows an onset potential of 1.41 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (vs. RHE) and delivers an anodic current density of 10 mA cm−2 at 1.49 V vs. RHE, demonstrating fast kinetics for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with a small Tafel slope of 70 mV dec−1, making it superior to many state-of-the-art cobalt oxide-based catalysts recently reported in the literature.

Antimitotic colchicine possesses low therapeutic index due to high toxicity effects in non-target cell. However, diverse colchicine analogs have been derivatized as intentions for toxicity reduction and structure-activity relationship (SAR) studying. Hybrid system of colchicine structure with nontoxic biofunctional compounds modified further affords a new entity in chemical structure with enhanced activity and selectivity. Moreover, nanocarrier formulation strategies have been used for colchicine delivery. This review paper focuses on colchicine nanoformulation, chemical synthesis of colchicine prodrugs and codrugs with different linkers, highlights linker chemical nature and biological activity of synthesized compounds. Additionally, classification of colchicine prodrugs based on type of conjugates is discussed, as biopolymers prodrugs, fluorescent prodrug, metal complexes prodrug, metal-labile prodrug and bioconjugate prodrug. Finally, we briefly summarized the biological importance of colchicine nanoformulation, colchicine prodrugs and codrugs.

A series of three lanthanide metal–organic frameworks (Ln–MOFs) consisting of a planar functionalized dicarboxylic acid was synthesized. The Ln–MOFs, with the composition [Ln3(PDC)3Cl3(H2O)]n [Ln = La (1), Nd (2) or Pr (3), PDCH2 = pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid], were characterized employing spectral, time resolved fluorescence, magnetic, single crystal X-ray and PXRD analysis. X-ray crystallography confirms that the structure of the Ln–MOFs is constructed by trinuclear (Ln3) units and the deprotonated PDC2− ligand, which is simplified into a 3-c, uninodal net having the vab topology with the 10^3-point symbol. The variable temperature magnetic susceptibility data indicate that there are antiferromagnetic interactions between LnIII⋯LnIII ions in 2 and 3 with Curie constants of 5.917 (2) and 5.231 (3) cm3 K mol−1, Weiss constants −60.71 (2) and −48.43 (3) K, and zJ′ values −0.98 (2) and −0.31 (3) cm−1. The 3D polymers 1–3 are characterized as being highly selective, sensitive and discriminative dual chemosensors for picric acid (PA) and the arsenite (AsO33−) ion in aqueous medium. The sensing pathways were investigated by spectral titrations, time decay and DFT (B3LYP/def2–SVP) studies. The lowest detection limit has been discovered for the La analogue towards the sensing of both PA and AsO33− {or As(III)} ions with ∼0.22 and ∼1.46 ppb, respectively. Such MOFs exhibiting bifunctional sensing behaviour for an explosive (PA) as well as toxic ion, As(III), in the aqueous phase are disclosed as the first lanthanide 3D polymers with the lowest detection limit known so far for the said analytes.

A general potentiodynamic strategy, for the first time, was proposed to incorporate red phosphorus (P) and sulfur (S) nanodots on reduced graphene oxide sheets (rGO) on a carbon fabric support. Uniformly embedded nanodots on rGO sheets were visualized using transmission electron microscopy. The as-prepared metal-free and binder-free electrodes can serve for both supercapacitors and the hydrogen evolution reaction. In particular, P nanodot incorporated rGO demonstrates a high specific capacitance of 334.2 F g−1, of which 99.2% is retained after 10 000 repeated charge/discharge cycles. Furthermore, this material delivers a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of −0.44 V versus RHE for the hydrogen evolution reaction in acidic medium.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the leading causes of death in Malaysia. However, the prevalence of CAD in males is higher than in females and mortality rates are also different between the two genders. This suggest that risk factors associated with mortality between males and females are different, so we compared the clinical characteristics and outcome between male and female STEMI patients. OBJECTIVES: To identify the risk factors associated with mortality for each gender and compare differences, if any, among ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis. SETTINGS: Hospitals across Malaysia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analyzed data on all STEMI patients in the National Cardiovascular Database-Acute coronary syndrome (NCVD-ACS) registry for the years 2006 to 2013 (8 years). We collected demographic and risk factor data (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking status, dyslipidaemia and family history of CAD). Significant variables from the univariate analysis were further analysed by a multivariate logistic analysis to identify risk factors and compare by gender. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Differential risk factors for each gender. RESULTS: For the 19 484 patients included in the analysis, the mortality rate over the 8 years was significantly higher in females (15.4%) than males (7.5%) (P

The serious growing concern of climate change has pushed the adoption of a sustainable transportation system. In this regard, electric vehicles are the utmost feasible solution. However, the commercialization of on-road electric vehicles faces multiple challenges such as an adequate number of charging stations availability, charging time and range anxiety. To overcome the issues of charging time and range anxiety, the energy storage system plays a vital role. Thus, in this paper, the various technological advancement of energy storage system for electric vehicle application has been covered which includes the support for the superiority of the Li-ion batteries in terms of various parameters. The various aspect such as expected futurist development in EV battery technology, capacity demand, battery sizing and life cycle of Li-ion batteries are well explained. Further, the details of the Battery management system with working and operation have been explained under the cell balancing, consistency, charging/discharging control, state of charge, state of health, and improved life span. Next in the drift, the advancement in the battery thermal management system is covered. Moreover, the manuscript has covered the detailed significance of the alternative energy storage systems followed by the comparative analysis which reveals their challenges, application and limitations. In last the role of the energy storage system for sustainable development is explained.

The seed kernels of Sesamum indicum L. (family: Pedaliaceae) were extracted with ethanol and yield of components determined by Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). The free radical scavenging activities of ethanolic extract against1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) were determined by UV spectrophotometer at 517 nm. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of numerous bioactive compounds including steroids, phenolic, terpenoids, fatty acids and different types of ester compounds. The ethanolic extract was purified and analyzed by GC MS.The prevailing compounds found in ethanolic extract were Carvacrol (0.04%),Sesamol (0.11%), 4-Allyl-2-methoxy-phenol(0.04%),Palmitic acid (1.08%), cis-9-Hexadecenal (85.40%), Lineoleoyl chloride (0.52%), Palmitic acid β-monoglyceride (0.40%), Dihydro-aplotaxene (0.61%), Oleoyl chloride (1.11%), (+)-Sesamin (4.73%), 1,3-Benzodioxole, 5-[4-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yloxy)tetrahydro-1 H,3 H-furo [3,4-c]furan-1-yl], [1 S-(1,3,4,6α.), (2.01%)], 6-Nitrocholest-5-en-3-yl acetate (0.22%), Ergost-5-en-3β-ol (2.35%) and 24-Propylidenecholesterol (0.16%). The presence ofsaturated and unsaturated fatty acids in ethanolicextract justifies the use of this plant to treat many ailments in folk and traditional medicine. Ethanolic extract have shown significant antioxidant activity(IC50120.38±2.8 µg/ml). The presence of phenolic (Sesamol), lignin (Sesamin) compounds and unsaturated fatty acids are reported as possible contributor for antioxidantactivity of seed extract.

Hazardous characteristics of the on-road vehicle-based emission rising an alarming situation for the urban communities. In this line, emission-free electric vehicles ensure a significant reduction in air pollution and improve ecological nature. However, the large-scale commercialization of electric vehicles is facing substantial addition in the electric demand which affects the stability of the distribution networks. Thus, in this paper, a comprehensive framework to optimally place the solar-powered charging stations in a distribution network with improved voltage profile, minimum power loss and reduced cost is proposed. The proposed methodology consists of a stochastic approach to predict the expected EV load demand at the charging stations, and a Feed-forward neural network to evaluate the expected solar power from the associated PV plant. Further, the impact of EV load demand on the distribution network, in terms of per unit voltage profile, voltage stability index, average voltage deviation index and power loss, is explored. Later, a computational methodology i.e. improved chicken swarm optimization is used to optimally place the charging stations in IEEE 33 bus system. The results are compared with the Jaya algorithm and teaching-learning-based optimization; the comparative study shows the dominance of the improved chicken swarm optimization.

In order to invent a porcine gelatine detection device using microbial resources, bacterial enzymes with a preference towards porcine gelatine and their candidate genes were evaluated. Five (n = 5) bacterial strains isolated from hot spring water and wet clay, Malaysia were screened for their gelatinase activity. The gelatinase enzyme was extracted and purified using ammonium sulphate precipitation prior to performing gelatinase assay on porcine, bovine and fish gelatine medium substrates. The G2 strain or Enterobacter aerogenes (Strain EA1) was selected for whole genome sequenced after showing a consistent trend of preference towards porcine gelatine. The gelatinase candidate gene gelEA1_9 was cloned and expressed. Based on one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with POST-HOC Duncan test (α = 0.05), the final product of gelEA1_9 was identified as a novel gelatinase. This gelatinase presented no significant difference in activity towards porcine gelatine. Hence, the present study demonstrated an enzyme-substrate interaction for porcine gelatine identification.