This proof-of-concept study demonstrated the potential of attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy for the structural characterization of natural products when only very small quantities of the target compound are available. Four known compounds (6-gingerol, 6-shogaol, 8-gingerol and 10-gingerol) were isolated from ginger (Zingiber officinale) rhizome using semi-preparative high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A portion of each fraction was evaporated on the ATR plate and spectra collected using a standard FTIR instrument. The minimum amount required to detect some spectral features appeared to be around 50 ng for the gingerols, and around 25 ng for 6-shogaol. Various peaks are assigned and interpreted to demonstrate the range of structural information that can be obtained. Evaporated ATR-FTIR spectroscopy could be an inexpensive and rapid method to aid structural elucidation of natural compounds, even when collected from a single semi-preparative HPLC run.

The Ganga is a river and a representation of morality and purity for the people of India. From a geographical perspective, it is also India's main river. A significant part of Patna's population used ganga water for a variety of uses, including domestic, agricultural and industrial. This study aims to evaluate the Ganga River's water quality for different Ghats of Patna urban area from Digha to Gai Ghat. Samples of water were taken from 15 distinct Ghats. The biological, chemical, and physical characteristics of water have significantly changed as a result of heavy municipal waste discharge and anthropogenic activities in the river. All of the Ghats were classified as unfit for drinking purposes, and it was suggested that water be made available only after thorough treatment. People's habitual usage of Ganga water for various purposes raises the potential of human health hazards.

Trigeneration provides an effective means of power, heat, and cold production on-site. A proper design and well-managed operation of such unit can bring in substantial savings in consumed primary energy as well as in the amount of greenhouse gases released to the atmosphere, compared to a separate production of all three media. The studied sub-MW sized trigeneration unit comprises an internal combustion engine combined with an absorption chiller and heat management system, delivering all three media to a nearby industrial facility. A mathematical model is developed based on available design and process data, allowing for profit function setup and subsequent sensitivity analysis of economic parameters. Lowered efficiency of summer operation is analyzed, and a suitable solution is proposed, with estimated total investment cost of 114,000 € and anticipated simple payback period less than 2 years. This study is supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency under contract nos. APVV-18-0134 and APVV-19-0170, and by the Slovak Scientific Agency, grant no. VEGA 1/0511/21.

This study aims to minimize the "makespan" objective function in a Flow-Shop environment, considering two crucial temporal constraints: "Waiting time" and "Release date." Given the NP-hardness of this scheduling problem, we employed an enhanced metaheuristic called Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to find the optimal solution. Through a series of experiments conducted on a specific set of benchmark instances, we evaluated the performance of our approach by comparing the obtained results against the lower bound (LB). This comparison showcased the effectiveness of our proposed method in addressing this complex scheduling problem.

Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) can be conjugated with acridine orange to create a hybrid nanomaterial with unique properties, such as the magnetic characteristics of magnetite and the fluorescence of acridine orange, making them useful for a variety of applications, including cell imaging, drug delivery, and magnetic separation. In this context, we aimed to provide a biological evaluation of this type of NPs using in vitro co-culture models of human skin, lung and intestine. Fe₃O₄ NPs were obtained by the co-precipitation method from Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ (1:2 molar ratio). The concentration of acridine orange in an aqueous NH₄OH solution was 0.00025%. The product was washed several times with ultrapure water, redispersed, and centrifuged thrice at 6000 × g for 10 minutes. Each supernatant was collected, obtaining three different suspensions of NPs. We developed one model of skin barrier using a co-culture of human keratinocytes (HaCaT cell line) and dermal fibroblasts (CCD-1070Sk cell line), one model of pulmonary barrier made of A549 epithelial cells and MRC-5 fibroblasts, and one model of intestinal barrier composed of human Caco-2 enterocytes and HT-29-MTX mucus-producing intestinal cells. Our results showed that none of the NP suspensions influenced the cell viability of the co-culture systems, suggesting their good biocompatibility on short-term exposure (24 hours) according to the cytotoxicity assays performed. In addition, we observed a specific apical-basal cell polarization in the co-culture systems, being maintained after one-day exposure to the three suspensions of NPs. To sum up, Fe₃O₄ NPs conjugated with acridine orange could be promising hybrid nanomaterial with good biocompatibility and special properties for future applications in biomedicine.

The literature data flourishes with molybdenum and vanadium compounds prepared by reactions of vanadium with different aroyl-hydrazones. Coordination complexes of molybdenum and vanadium, prepared from simple hydrazones, specifically acyl-hydrazones, are few in number. Having it in mind, the aim of this work was the preparation of molybdenum and vanadium complexes prepared by reactions with hydrazones, derivatives of acetic acid hydrazide, with general formula [MoO₂(L)(D)] or [VO₂(HL)], where D=solvent, L^2-, HL^-= deprotonated form of ligands. Furthermore, many obtained transition metal complexes containing aroyl-hydrazone-based ligands showed good activity and were classified as efficient catalytic systems, especially in oxidation reactions. The presented research considers oxidation of terpenes (limonene and linalool), which due to their diverse structures, represent an interesting source for diverse chemical transformations. Corresponding oxides and diols, as desired oxidation products, are value-added bio-renewable-based compounds, have versatile applications in many industries. On the other hand, electrical/dielectric properties of transition metal coordination complexes are still a new research area, being very limited to Cu/Zn systems. For that reason, the aim of the electrical characterization of the prepared vanadium complexes was to examine their (di)electric properties using the in situ method of impedance spectroscopy (IS) in a wide frequency and temperature range and to study how possible structural changes affect the electrical conductivity.

Food additives are natural or synthetic substances which are added to foods to improve the technological or sensory functions of a food product. Consumers should possess a better understanding of the application, functions, and safety aspects of the numerous food additives available. This study aimed to evaluate the attitude of Sri Lankan consumers towards food additives and to have a clear idea of their knowledge regarding food additives. A survey was conducted online, with a total of 504 respondents participating. The data collected from questionnaires were analyzed and interpreted using the Chi-square test of association at a significance level of 0.05. According to the results, only 16.70% of the selected respondents believed that the addition of food additives is essential while the majority rejected the application of additives. More than 46.00% of the respondents were ready to pay more for foods without additives while 76.79% of respondents had the attitude that food additives cause diseases and are unsafe. Approximately 40.00% of the respondents of all the groups believed food additives cause cancers and it was prominent in the 30-39 age group. Moreover, a greater proportion (19.60%) of respondents believed that food colorings are the most-unhealthy food additives followed by taste enhancers (15.10%). A significant correlation was found between the educational level and attitudes toward checking food labels, using food additives and being ready to pay more for foods without additives. Age, gender and level of education didn’t show any significant relationship between the attitude towards the use of Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG), food colorings as well as food regulation, but the majority of the respondents rejected the use of MSG. The respondents had the attitude of checking food labels for additives, and it was distinct among the secondary (83.09%) and higher educated (79.93%) respondents. Therefore, the findings indicated a prevailing negative attitude among consumers towards food additives, underscoring the critical need for effective dissemination of accurate knowledge regarding food additives.

Spinel ferrites have been widely studied owing to their structural, optical, dielectric, and magnetic properties leading to numerous applications. CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles have been synthesized directly via the sol-gel method with glycine as a fuel. The Rietveld refinement of the X-ray diffraction patterns revealed the formation of a single cubic structure with a space group, no secondary phase was observed. The lattice parameter and the average crystallite size of powders produced from the standard and alkaline solutions were 8.36/8.38 Å, and 511/1060 Å, respectively. The characteristic vibrations modes of the spinel structure have been revealed by Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. CoFe₂O₄ powders were tested for Fenton catalysis, and their performance was investigated for dye degradation.

Background: Adipokine is a huge family of cytokines which are cell-signaling proteins secreted by adipose tissue released by White Adipose Tissue (WAT) and Adipolin (FAM132A/CTRP12 gene) is the newest member added to the adipokine family. This research marks the first attempt to estimate and compare the Gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and serum levels of Adipolin in Healthy subjects and periodontitis patients, with and without type-2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: The study population consisted of 10 patients each with healthy subjects and periodontitis with and without T2DM. GCF and serum samples were collected from each patient before non-surgical periodontal therapy. All the samples underwent Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay( ELISA ) test with an antibody specific to adipolin.

Results: The mean GCF and serum adipolin levels were high in group I and III compared to group II and IV. Comparison of adipolin levels between the groups showed no statistically significant difference either in GCF( P=0.68) or serum ( P=0.85). The comparison between GCF and serum adipolin levels in group IV showed statistically significant difference (P<0.031) The mean values showed a decrease in Adipolin values as the disease rate progresses.

Conclusion- As the GCF and serum concentration of Adipolin shows a gradual positive relation with the disease severity, within the limitations of the current study, it can be postulated Adipolin could be possible an anti-inflammatory biomarker of periodontal disease.

Food processing industry generates great volume of economically valuable waste. The protein rich press cake produced during the screw press extraction of tropical almond (Terminalia catappa) is also a potential ingredient in numerous food items. This study aimed to utilize tropical almond press cake (TAPC) to produce a gluten free flour as an alternative for whole wheat flour having the concern on zero waste concept of circular economy. The TAPC was dried at 60^oC and pulverized in to a flour using micro-pulverizer. The proximate composition, gluten content and elemental composition was analyzed by AOAC 2005 method, wet gluten test and ICP-MS respectively. Further, Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) structure, bioactive compounds and antioxidant capacity of the flour were evaluated. According to the proximate data, the flour showed high protein content (41.94±1.22) with 6.80±1.01, 6.99±0.78, 8.66±0.89, 5.71±1.48 and 28.90±0.79 g/100 g of moisture, ash, crude fat, crude fiber and carbohydrate respectively. The TAPC flour showed 335.52±1.87 kcal/100 g of calorific value and zero gluten content. Further, the flour showed high K (189.25) and Ca (618.75) content with 70.62, 43.52,12.30 mg/100 g of Na, Fe and Zn respectively. The irregular shaped unevenly distributed starch molecules were visible in SEM image of the flour and their surfaces were not smooth. The total phenolic (136.83 mg GAE/100 g) and flavonoid content (188.63 mg QE/100 g) of the TAPC flour were significantly higher compared to the tropical almond nut (64.31 mg GAE/100 g and 133.8 mg QE/100 g). Moreover, TAPC flour showed high antioxidant activity with an IC₅₀ of 37.86±3.44 mg/ml for DPPH, 8.24±1.23 mg/ml for ABTS, and a reducing power of 402.50±0.33 mM Trolox eq/100 g in FRAP assays. Hence, the TAPC flour could be a high protein, gluten free natural flour with potential nutritional and antioxidant properties to be used as an alternative for wheat flour in food products.